God’s Word for You

Daniel 12:4 seal up the scroll

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, January 31, 2026

4 But you, Daniel, keep the words secret and seal up the scroll until the time of the end. Many will so quickly go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.”

The two halves of this verse, which is the end of the prophecy by the Angel that began in chapter 10, tell us that all of this was not only about a time later on in the future for Daniel, but for us as well. What we have been told is not just about the time of the Maccabees, a couple of centuries in the future for the Prophet, but also about the Antichrist, the great enemy of the church until the end of time.

The command to “keep the words secret” and “seal up the scroll” are stating almost the same thing. The Angel does not mean that these last parts of the book of Daniel (or the whole book, for that matter) should not be included in Scripture, but that it should be kept safe and secure. “Seal up the scroll” is the same thing that was said to the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah, the method of making a secure copy of a document is explained this way: “Take these deeds, the sealed deed of purchase and the unsealed copy, and put them in a clay jar so that they will be preserved a long time” (Jeremiah 32:14). The sealed copy of a document was set inside a kind of clay envelope. A person could read the unsealed copy, but if they tried to make changes to it, the sealed copy could be brought out and compared, with severe penalties if someone had indeed made changes. If “book” in the verse means a scroll (both clay tablets and scrolls were in use in Daniel’s time) then it could simply be more of what we would think of as a seal on the scroll to keep it from being opened unless the seal was broken. By sealing it up, Daniel is commanded to keep it safe until the last days, for then, as Gerhard says, “the outcome, the best interpreter of the prophecy, will explain it.” This is the same thing that the Lord said to Jeremiah: “In later days you will understand it fully” (Jeremiah 23:20).

In the second part of the verse, we have two possible descriptions of the future taking place. I have a preferred view and I will present it second along with my reasons for thinking that it is best.

1, First, and least likely, this half-verse could be a prophetic snapshot of the advances of mankind just before the end of all things. That is, transportation will become very rapid, and there will be incredible advances in human knowledge in philology, literature, poetics, medicine, science, architecture, engineering, aeronautics, genetics, explosives, communications, and in many other areas. It sounds very much like the moment we live in today, with many advances happening too quickly for people to keep up.

However, this doesn’t fit the pattern of prophecy anywhere else in the Bible; it would proclaim neither law nor gospel, and would be the most empty way of ending a prophecy that could be imagined.

2, The intensified (piel) verb meaning “go back and forth” could be a way of describing diligent study, showing the eyes going back and forth across the text, examining every part of it, every word, every syllable, and so on, in order to increase the knowledge of Scripture. Or, it could equally be people going back and forth throughout the world, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, to increase the knowledge of Scripture.

This must be the correct interpretation. It puts a lot of weight on the use of the piel verb form, but in no way does it contradict anything in Scripture and it proclaims the gospel since it shows the study of Scripture in the future. In fact, it fulfills Matthew 28:19-20. It is a warning about the increase of unbelief in the world, and therefore one of the reasons for the sealing of the document in the first half of the verse. This warning is a companion to the First Commandment warnings in Ezekiel: “You people are saying, ‘Let us become like the nations, like the clans in other countries, by worshiping wood and stone’” (Ezekiel 20:32). So while the study of God’s word increases, those who so diligently search the Scriptures will be surrounded by people, very many people, who truly don’t know what they are searching for. All they seem to be thinking is that they won’t look inside of God’s word. But they will learn only when it is too late.

These things also remind us that the Bible clearly teaches that there will indeed be an end to the world, to the universe, and to our existence here. Man was not created for this world, but to come to faith in this world before he steps into the next. For Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31). His Apostle says: “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7), and again, “The heavens and earth which now exist are reserved for fire on the Day of Judgment” (2 Peter 3:7).

Study the Scriptures. “Even angels long to look carefully into these things” (1 Peter 1:12). To be certain: a mother or grandmother who sets an example of reading her Bible every day may have a lasting impact on her family after she is long gone, and they remember that what was important to such a woman should be important to them, too. And “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” day by day (Colossians 3:16).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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