From the Darkness to the Dawn

The were surrounded. The fortress that was supposed to be unbreakable was crumbling. as the gate shook with every blow. The walls were slick with rain and blood, as the enemy forces came in like a flood.

They were outnumbered. Exhausted. Beaten down by the violent darkness of the long night. Their hope hung by a thread, ready to snap.

At first, they thought the defenses would hold, But now they knew it was only a matter of minutes, and so they braced for the end. But then: one of them remembered a promise. Words spoken days ago, almost forgotten. “Look to my coming at first light. On the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East.” So he looked. And at first, nothing. Only clouds and cold and the piercing scream of steel. But then… light. The faint glow of sunrise splitting the ridge. And on that ridge, a rider. Behind him, a great army. And with the dawn, the tide turned in a moment. The enemy broke, And the dawn poured through the valley like fire.

The promise had held. The help had come. The darkness had never stood a chance.

Because when all seemed lost, when hope was barely a whisper, the promise still held. The turning point wasn’t their courage. It was his coming. Because the promise was never about what they could do, but about what he would do. When it comes to Christian allegory, The battle of Helms Deep in the Lord of the Rings is one of my favorites. In fact, we just finished reading of that battle as a family. And the reason I love it so much is because it captures something deep in the Christian imagination: Yes, the night may be long. The odds may be impossible. But the dawn is already set.

That’s the picture we find in Daniel 12:1-3. The darkness will come. The world will shake. But for those whose names are written in the book, there is deliverance. There is resurrection. And there is a glory that will shine like the stars forever. And that same pattern: distress, deliverance, and destiny is exactly what God reveals in Daniel 12. But it’s not just a pattern to admire. It’s a promise to believe and a path we’re called to walk from the darkness into the dawn.

But do that, we must trust in 3 things.

To pass from darkness to dawn, we must trust in:

1. God’s Providence in Distress
2. God’s Promise of Deliverance
3. God’s Plan for our Destiny

1. God’s Providence in Distress

¹ “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.

Daniel 12:1 ESV

This chapter opens with THE crisis of criseses. This is not just another hard season. This is the worst tribulation in Israel’s history… and that’s saying something. Daniel has already seen his nation defeated by Babylon, He’s already lived through exile. He’s seen Persia take over. But this will be worse… far worse. More violent. More dangerous. More Deadly.

The Bible gives this time a name. Jeremiah 30:7 calls it “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” Jesus calls it “great tribulation” in Matthew 24:21. And Revelation 12 describes it as a moment when Satan, cast from heaven, floods the earth in rage as he desperately tries to destroy Israel.

This is Satan’s last push. His final attempt to wipe out the people of the covenant. To stop the return of the King. But even here, in the center of the worst chaos imaginable, God is not absent.

That’s why before the conflict is even mentioned, Verse 1 says: “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people.” It doesn’t say Gabriel will speak. It doesn’t say Israel will rally. It says Michael will arise.

And this isn’t just any angel… This is Michael, THE archangel of God, who serves Israel’s appointed guardian. And so before the conflict begins, he is stationed, Positioned. Assigned by God to shield the remnant through worst distress the world has ever seen.

Notice that he doesn’t prevent it. This trouble is coming at the exact moment God planned for it on His divine calendar. And standing next to God’s people is the warrior Michael, the archangel of heaven.

This reminds us that God’s providence doesn’t always mean painless escape. It means preserving grace in the fire. The same God Who shut the mouths of lions and stood in the furnace, still sends unseen legions of angels to accomplish His purpose, even in Israel’s darkest hour.

And for Daniel’s original readers, this would have been staggering. To know that when the covenant feels broken… When the land is overrun… When evil seems unstoppable… That God has told us to look for His coming at the first light! For Dawn is coming in the East! And He revealed this not days before, but millenniums before!

Daniel 12:1 is not just an isolated vision. It’s the crescendo of everything God has been showing Daniel since chapter 2 with Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. From the very beginning, God has been drawing the arc of human history toward this final collision… where the final form of the fourth beast takes form and the little horn rises shouting boastful things against Yahweh God, makes war against the saints, and desecrates everything that is holy.

That same pattern appears again in Daniel 7: Beasts rising from the sea. Nations devouring one another. Until a final figure emerges, full of arrogance and violence. who prevails against God’s people for a time… until the court sits in judgment and the kingdom is handed to the Son of Man.

And then again in Daniel 9, we gaze deeper into God’s prophetic timeline. First, there were 69 weeks of years that led up to the Messiah’s death. But then the final week of years which will soon be resumed. This final week has several names in the Bible, It’s called Jacob’s Trouble in Jeremiah 30:7. Deuteronomy 4:30 calls it “Tribulation in the Latter Days.” Zephaniah calls it the Day of the Lord’s Anger (Zephaniah 2:2-3), and “The refining of fire” (Zechariah 13:9 Isaiah calls it the Indignation (Isaiah 26:20-21; 34:1-2). Joel calls it the Day of Darkness and Gloom (Joel 2:1-2). Amos calls it the Day of Woe (Amos 5:18-20).

And that’s just a small sampling from the Old Testament… In the New Testament: Jesus calls the second half of it The Great Tribulation in Matthew 24:21. The Apostle Paul refers to it as a day of “sudden destruction” (1 Thessalonians 5:3” And in Revelation, the apostle John calls it: “The Hour of Trial.” (3:10) “The Wrath of the Lamb.” (6:16) “The Great Day of His Wrath.” (6:17)

The point is church, this is not some obscure day that we know little about. It’s all over the pages of our Bibles. And this is because, as Jesus tells us, it’s a time of trouble unlike anything the world has ever seen or will see!

So we need to get this… And because we need to get this, it’s why we camped out so long in Daniel chapter 9, and it’s why I’ve spent so long studying this to be sure that this week still lies in the future… And this is from a guy who doesn’t even believe it’s a future we will face as the church…

So why does it matter? It matters because our job is to shine as light in the midst the darkness, and point to the one and only deliverer from the darkness. But to do that, we need to know what time it is, so we can stand firm in the darkness, and point to the Deliverer who will arrive at the dawn.

To pass from darkness to dawn, we must trust in:

2. God’s Promise of Deliverance

The second half of verse 1 reads:

¹ But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.

Daniel 12:1 ESV

So there’s 3 things we need to look at in this verse.

What is the book is.

First, who are the people? The angel says “your people,” speaking to Daniel. That’s not vague. That’s not symbolic. It means Israel. The Jewish people who are the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it’s in full keeping with God’s covenantal promises.

Now, I don’t have time to go back and preach the 3 intro sermons we did on the book of Daniel, But just to remind you, That covenant included a land, a people, and promise of blessing. which includes a promise of deliverance and restoration into Christ’s eternal kingdom.

²⁴ I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. ²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:24-26 ESV

Now I know we evangelical Christians love to point to this verse as a reference to the nature of the New Birth… And certainly that’s included, But if you read Ezekiel 36 in it’s proper context, or even just those few verses, it clearly has to do with national Israel… Yes, God certainly does that for us, but He’s going to do it for them… ALL OF THEM!

³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:34 ESV

¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Zechariah 12:10 ESV

And how will this come about you might ask? We are reading about in our passage this morning... The great tribulation… Jacob’s trouble… God’s planned time of distress for them.

See, right now, most Jewish people are living in rejection of their Messiah. As Paul tells us in Romans 11, they’ve been placed under a time of partial hardening.

²⁵ Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;

Romans 11:25-26 ESV

Yes, they’ve been grafted out in their unbelief… but it’s only temporary . But it’s not permanent… it’s not final… In fact, it’s all a part of God’s redemptive plan. which was revealed long before Paul wrote Romans chapter 11.

¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Zechariah 12:10 ESV

Make no mistake. God is not done with Israel anymore than He’s done with any of His promises. And as Daniel tells us, The great tribulation is His way of grafting Israel back into the covenant of blessing, which we also will partake it.

So those are the people, but how will they be delivered?

Again, the second half of verse 2 says: “Your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.”

That tells us something critical. This deliverance is not automatic. It’s not national through and through. It’s personal. It’s redemptive. And it comes through judgment.

In Revelation chapter 12, we read of that judgment, and it’s done through the hand of the future and final antichrist. He doesn’t just oppose Israel. He hates her. Because Satan hates her. And this man is Satan’s puppet.

In that chapter, Satan is cast from heaven in fury and makes war on the woman which is clearly a symbol for Israel. She gave birth to the Messiah. So now, the dragon tries to destroy her and all her descendants… Why? Because if there are no descendants of Abraham there is no “All Israel” to be saved. There is no covenant promises that can be fulfilled, which would make God a liar and a loser in the battle between heaven and hell.

So Satan, through the antichrist wages war against the saints, Just like Daniel 7 said he would. But he’s not victorious… because as verse 1 told us, Israel has a guardian angel, who is the archangel of heaven who protects her.

In Revelation 12, we find that God makes a way of escape for the woman. She flees into the wilderness, and Scripture says “she has a place prepared by God” where she is nourished for 1,260 days… which is the exact length of the second half of the tribulation.

Now does it make sense why Jesus warned Israel of this day saying:

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, ¹⁸ and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. ¹⁹ And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! ²⁰ Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. ²² And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Matthew 24:15-22 ESV

Jesus is warning the Jewish people of this day to flee, because if they stay, they will die. And a lot of them will die. Which is why the prophet Zechariah says:

⁸ In the whole land, declares the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. ⁹ And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”

Zechariah 13:8-9 ESV

Do you see that… 2/3rds perish, but 1/3 survive. …And how do they survive? Not by accident. Not by their own strength. Not because they hid well enough. They survive because God preserves and protects them.

¹⁵ The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. ¹⁶ But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.

Revelation 12:15-16 ESV

OK, so this is definitely apocalyptic language, But that doesn’t mean it’s cryptic and impossible to comprehend. Because for now, since I’m not preaching Revelation 12, the simplified version is Antichrist and his armies chase after Israel, God supernatural protects them and swallows his armies up in the earth, Similar to how He did with Korah’s rebellion.

The main point is, God will supernaturally preserve them. So that’s the how. But we still have to look at what the book is.

As we already saw, not every Israelite will survive the Great Tribulation… and that fits with what Daniel says here, when he says: “everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.”

When Daniel mentions, “The book,” it’s not a census of who’s still breathing. It’s not a list of those lucky enough to make it out alive. It’s the book of the redeemed. The elect. The remnant. The ones God calls His own.

This is the same book Paul refers to in Philippians 4:3 when he says, “whose names are in the book of life.”

It’s the same book mentioned in Revelation 20, when all are judged according to what is written, and only those found in the book are saved from the second death.

And you DO NOT get in this book by being Jewish, or by being good, or by being religious, or by being smart enough to hide when the trouble hits. You get in because God wrote it there before the foundations of the earth.

⁸ and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Revelation 13:8 ESV

Similarly,

⁸ The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

Revelation 17:8 ESV

So when Daniel hears that those written in the book will be delivered, he’s hearing the same gospel truth that we proclaim today: Only those who belong to the Deliverer will be delivered. Because your good works? Won’t cut it. Your religious activity? Won’t cut it. Even your ethnicity, Jewish or not, won’t cut it. Only one thing matters. Your name in the book.

Now, we don’t understand all the mystery of that. But we do know this: no one ends up in that book by accident. And no one gets left out who comes to Christ in faith. NO NOT ONE!

¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:13 ESV

³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 6:37 ESV

So what does all this mean? It means distress is coming for Israel but her deliverance is guaranteed. And when it comes, it comes with at the dawn with resurrection glory!

To pass from darkness to dawn, we must trust in:

3. God’s Plan for our Destiny

² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Daniel 12:2 ESV

This is one of the clearest resurrection verses in the Old Testament. And notice: it doesn’t say “all.” It says “many.”

Because it’s not describing the resurrection of all people across all time. It’s specifically describing those in Israel who have died, In other words, this is not a single, general resurrection. It’s the first resurrection that we read about in Revelation 20.

⁶ Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:6 ESV

That’s what this resurrection leads to… Not just spiritual renewal… Not sitting on clouds in heaven playing harps… Actual, physical, bodily, resurrection! And it’s NOT just resurrection of our bodies as is… It’s more like a caterpillar into a butterfly!

³ And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Daniel 12:3 ESV

That word wise doesn’t mean clever or academically brilliant. It means those who live with insight. Those who fear the Lord and walk in His ways. Those who understand and trust in God’s redemptive plan They will shine. Not like nightlights, but like the sun in full strength!

Do you see what this is saying? Do you have any idea of what kind of radiance we are talking about? We are talking about the SHEKINAH GLORY of God Himself! That’s what Daniel is talking about!

And I didn’t realize this… Sadly I didn’t… But the Bible talks about rewards for God’s people all of the time. Places in His kingdom, Crowns, Rewards, But all of that is language pointing to our ultimate reward! Which is to rise from the dust of the ground, and reflect the glory of God for all of eternity! And the degree to which we serve Him faithfully now, by being wise and turning others to righteousness, IS THE DEGREE TO WHICH WE WILL SHINE!

That is both overwhelming and amazing!

In Revelation it tells us how the twenty-four elders fall before the seat of God’s throne and cast their crowns before Him… And I’ve always heard Christians say: “That’s what we are going to do as well.” We’ll be rewarded, but realize only Christ is worthy, and so we’ll throw our crowns back… And I thought… “So why care about rewards I don’t get to keep?”

But don’t you see it now? The crowns are, I believe, the Shekinah glory we will radiant and reflect back unto God in worship and praise! And WE’LL KEEP DOING THAT FOR ALL OF ETERNITY! It’s not a once and done thing! But for forever thing! For “those who are wise shall SHINE LIKE THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE SKY ABOVE AND LIKE THE STARS FOREVER AND EVER!”

The same glory that would have killed Moses if not for God hiding Him in the cleft of the Rock, The same glory that filled Solomon’s temple so thick the priests couldn’t even stand to minister, The same glory that blinded Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, That’s the glory we will bathe in for all of eternity!

And until then, Our task is to trust God in the darkness believing His promise that the dawn will arise. it’s to live like what we are! LIGHTS in the midst of a DARK world, knowing that one day soon, we will be fully radiant what we are in Christ.

Because if you noticed, There are two resurrections mentioned here…. One to life and glory… and another to eternal death and darkness.

And for now, our job isn’t just to wait idly by for the dawn, but to be wise and turn many to righteousness. By boldly declaring the glorious truth that the dawn is coming! And when it does, we will rise because He has risen! For Christ entered into our darkness, He absorbed it in full on the cross, and because He did, by God’s grace through faith in Him, We know that the dawn will come and we will shine like the stars forever and ever before Him.

So the question is: Which resurrection lies in store for you? The resurrection of the righteous into everlasting life? Or the resurrection of the unrighteous into everlasting death?

And if it’s the resurrection of life, There’s only fitting response. Which is to live our lives, singing:

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, To His feet thy tribute bring; Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, Evermore His praises sing: Alleluia, alleluia! Praise the everlasting King.

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.