“God is dead.” Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote. That quote is often misunderstood. The statement was not intended as atheist gloating, but rather it was concerned musing over what it means when have by-and-large rejected formal religion. And so some of his thoughts are things that Christians would agree with. We too look out with concern at a society that has cut off its Christian roots. There is a lot of distress in this world, and so many people don’t have the consolation that could be theirs in the Christian Church.
Nietzsche himself suffered a lot of distress. His father was actually a Lutheran pastor, but he was only four years old when his father died. As a boy he studied Christian theology, but by the time he was 20 he declared that he no longer had any faith. So when he wrote that God is dead, what he really meant was that his faith in God was dead, and that society’s faith in God is dead. But with all of his writings and insights that made him famous, he didn’t have any peace. He died at the age of 55 in the year 1900 after eleven years of mental illness. It’s a sad end, and some people have turned his statement around, “God is dead, thus says Nietzsche. Nietzsche is dead, thus says God.”
Nietzsche is certainly not the only smart person in the history of this world to think that he doesn’t need God. Ever since the fall into sin people have been thinking that they know better. But true wisdom, true insight, is that which comes from God. It learns from him. It sees the world in the light of his word. And it longs for the day of our Lord’s appearing and the glory of the resurrection. You don’t have to be hailed by the world as a genius philosopher to shine with resurrection insight.
The book of the Prophet Daniel can be divided into two halves. The first half is the history of God working through Daniel as he served foreign kings in exile. That’s where you find those great accounts of the three men and the fiery furnace and Daniel and the lion’s den. The second half of Daniel’s book is very different. Here are the visions of Daniel. They come from different times during Daniel’s life and contain some very strange things. Daniel himself says that he didn’t understand. And yet he was told that the wise will understand. Today we’ll consider a portion of that message to Daniel, and you will be wise, because it is God who makes you wise as he teaches you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In Daniel’s vision there was an angel messenger speaking to him. After telling him about many troubling things in chapter 11, the message in chapter 12 brings some more warning, but also some much-needed hope. He said,
Then at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands over your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress that has not happened from the first time that there was a nation until that time.
At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2Many who are sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, to everlasting contempt. 3Those who have insight will shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who bring many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.
This isn’t the first time in Daniel’s visions that the Archangel Michael is mentioned. Michael is called “one of the chief officers.” Here he’s called a great prince. He’s one of only two angels whose name is recorded in Scripture. The other is the messenger Gabriel, who also appears in this book. He spoke to Daniel in his visions in chapters 8 and 9.
So Michael will arise, but also there will be a time of distress, something never seen before. This kind of prophesy is mysterious because of course we’d like to know more. When will these things happen? How long will they last? How will we know that Michael has arisen? What kind of distress are we talking about?
Daniel’s vision does not answer every question. That’s not by accident. It’s by design. Understand God’s purpose. Daniel’s vision here is not a roadmap. It’s a warning and a promise. Should we expect peace and prosperity and endless beneficial progress in this world? Will we create an earthly Utopia? Was not Nietzsche right to be concerned about what it means that God is dead to so many people? Might that have played a part in the two World Wars that came just a few decades after his death?
The purpose of Daniel’s prophecy is not to give us a “You are here” marker on the timeline from Daniel until Judgment Day. It’s to tell that this world is coming to an end.
And in all this distress, God is our mighty deliverer. He delivers us by the strength of his angels, who are fearsome warriors. In places and in ways that we don’t see, that we are completely unaware of, God’s angels are fighting for us. Are there times when you feel like you are alone, like you are forgotten, like you are unimportant? That is not at all true in the eyes of God. Over your soul God’s angels are locked in battle with Satan and all his demons.
Yet you should not fear what the outcome will be. God has already determined its end. “Your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.” Daniel’s people were the people of Israel, but Paul explains in Romans that even from the beginning the true Israel is the Israel of faith. You might not have a single drop of Abraham’s blood in your veins, but if you share in Abraham’s faith, the faith that trusts in God’ promise of a Savior, then you too are truly a son of Abraham. Your name is written in the book.
Here’s another mystery. Where is this book? I’d like to see it. Could I maybe just make sure my name is there? How do I know? And so since I can’t see the book, I start to run in my head through all the things that might give me assurance that my name is really there. I go to church every Sunday. That must count for something. I’ve given to people in need. I’ve never committed any crimes. In my heart I want to be a good and God-pleasing person. Can I look at those kinds of things and say that my name must be in God’s book of life?
But the trouble with looking at those kinds of things is that I actually have sinned greatly against God. I’m in church every Sunday because I have to be. I’ve looked down on people who needed my help. There have been countless times in my life where what I want is infinitely more important to me than what God wants. And when that is my thinking then I might as well join Nietzsche in saying, “God is dead,” even though it is not really God who is dead, but in declaring him dead to me I am the one careening towards death.
I can’t find any confidence that my name is in that book of life by looking at my life. And so instead I need to look somewhere else. I need to look to the One who is my life, the One who gave his own name to me when I was baptized. Jesus is the one who died and rose for you. He’s the one who promises that in him you have eternal life, and that no one can snatch you out of his hands. Why did God reveal these things to Daniel? It wasn’t to make you wonder what you can do to earn salvation. You can’t, any more than you can take a pen and write your own name in God’s book. No, your salvation is in his hands. He knows your name. It’s written in Jesus’ blood.
The day is coming and it will be a day of deliverance and a day of judgment. Many who are sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, and they will all go to one of two ends. Instead of simply saying they’ll go to heaven or to hell, Daniel says that some will go to everlasting life, and some to shame, to everlasting contempt.
Judgment Day will not be a good day for everyone. Sin brought shame into the world and on that day their shame will be multiplied. As they have shown contempt for God and for his Holy Word, so they will be shown contempt. And it will be everlasting.
But for the others, there will be everlasting life. How can this be? Life for those who are dead? Life for sinners, whose wicked deeds nailed the Son of God to a cross, whose rebellious hearts pointed a finger at him and laughed and said, “Look, God is dead!”? It’s because by that very cross that same God tore their sins away. He bore your sins all the way to hell and he came back from the dead to give you forgiveness and life. He delivers that to you in the proclamation of his Word, and it’s what you eat and drink in his Holy Supper. That bread and wine is the body and blood of him who came back triumphant from death and hell.
And so his triumph is yours. His life is yours. His righteousness is yours. His insight and wisdom are yours. What glory he promises us. You’ll shine like the brightness of the sky, like the stars forever and ever. This is what God has promised to you. This is why Jesus died on the cross. So that you would share in his glory, so that you would be with him in glory forever.
And so let us then live this life pursuing the wisdom that comes from God. That’s the insight Daniel speaks of. The philosophies of this world are empty and lead to death, but the Gospel gives life. It gives peace in all the distress of this world. And let us pursue righteousness, the righteousness that is ours from Jesus. He lives to make you holy. He lives to give you the victory. He lives forever and ever. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson