When Will These Things End?

You know something about a Christian believer who died in November 1992. But what you know about him is largely based on fiction, and not on fact. The fiction you probably know about is based on the writing of Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond series. The quartermaster (named “Q” by Fleming) provided the fictional James Bond with all sorts of intriguing inventions for spy craft.

But as often occurs, truth is stranger than fiction. “Q” is based on the real-life person named Charles Fraser-Smith.¹ Smith was a Christian missionary in Morocco who took his family home to Britain when World War II threatened his missionary work. One Sunday, as he reported on his mission field, he included illustrations of bricolage (the French word for “do-it-yourself” projects). In the congregation that morning were officers from the British Ministry of Supply. After the service, they met with Fraser-Smith to offer him one of the strangest jobs on earth: devising inventions that could be used by spies and resistance fighters. Charles Fraser-Smith took the job, and his record of ingenious, creative devices is almost beyond belief. As a believer, he was troubled by the way he was portrayed by Ian Fleming. And so he produced his own memoirs, including his clear, Christian testimony.

On one occasion, Fraser-Smith was confronted with the need to place alarms within precision Swiss watches. He greatly appreciated the work of the Swiss in producing precision lenses for his miniature telescopes. These had been a great asset in gathering intelligence behind enemy lines. So Fraser-Smith invited two Swiss watch specialists to dinner and described the need to them: spies (often in the throes of exhaustion) needed precision Swiss watches fitted with two alarms to awaken them from slumber. As he sat at dinner with the specialists that evening, he was delighted to see they began to make sketches on napkins and to say, “Leave it with us for a couple of days.” He did so, and they produced precision watches with alarms to awaken the slumbering.²

Throughout the Book of Daniel, we have seen a precision greater than that of Swiss watches. As we have marveled over this precision, we have seen the practical applications that awakened us and sometimes alarmed us. Like Paul’s admonition, “It is high time to awaken from sleep” (Romans 13:11), the Book of Daniel has often startled us to wakefulness and watchfulness. Our text today, Daniel 12:5-7, is no exception. Here we learn to watch and wait for the Sovereign Lord who will fulfill His promises and accomplish His purposes.

Overview

As we learned in a previous message, Daniel 11:45-12:3 portrays a sweeping panorama of future events: a coming battle of cosmic proportions, a time of trouble the like of which the world has never seen, the demise of the Antichrist, the description of the everlasting destinies of human beings and the urgent need to shine the Gospel light in this present darkness. In Daniel 12:7 we learn that this will not be an eternal struggle. No indeed, our text promises us, “all these things shall be finished.”

This confident certainty arises from the theme of the Book of Daniel: “…to the intent that the living may know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the bcertain promise of Daniel 12:7. Just think of it: one Member of the Trinity raises both of His hands to make an oath by another Member of the Trinity; He swore an oath “by Him that lives forever.”