Daniel 12:8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
Knowing God is Better than Knowing the Future
Would you like to know the future? At first blush, you may think you would like to know, but the more you think about it, the more your tendency would be to say, “No, I don’t care to know.” Would you understand the future if you did know it? So much has happened and changed in the last forty years that even if we could vividly see the future, I’m not sure how much of it we would comprehend.
Take a common scenario. Two friends are in a restaurant. One person pulls out a smartphone, and the other one says, “Stop looking at your phone. Pay attention to me.” Well, what significance would the phrase “stop looking at your phone” have had thirty or forty years ago? In the past you didn’t look at a phone; you dialed it or talked on it. Would you comprehend the future if you knew it?
Those who want to know the future read Daniel because God gave Daniel prophecies of what would come. Yet, even Daniel did not understand all of the things God gave to him. In Daniel 12:8, Daniel says, “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?”
Now Daniel did comprehend some, but not all. None of us ever does. In Daniel 10:18, Daniel tells of the messenger that had come to him. He says, “Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me.” Daniel 11:2 says, “And now will I shew thee the truth.” Then the messenger gave Daniel all these prophecies.
Daniel admitted he did not completely understand or comprehend all that God had said. The important truth here is that knowing God is better than knowing the future. We don’t always know the future, but we can know God. With God we can say, “God, you know the future, and You comprehend the future. You take care of it.”
The two things that make us fearful of the future are that we can’t comprehend it and we can’t control it. All our fears are wrapped up in the future. Whatever the worry, whether it is five minutes or five years from now, it is the future which you cannot comprehend, do not know, and could not control even if you did know. But God can.
We don’t know the future, and the more we did know, the more we would feel compelled to control it in some way. Though you cannot comprehend the future or control it, God comprehends and controls it. Knowing God is better than knowing the future.