A GLORIOUS DESTINY
‘They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.’
The words of Daniel are like the words of our Lord beforehand; and now that so much more of the Book of Daniel is read in our Sunday lessons, I hope that it, like the Revelation of St. John, will begin to be better known and studied by people generally. Putting all other considerations aside, there is this great gain in studying the prophets, namely, that they are so great a help to understanding the words of Christ and the arguments of the Epistles. When once you have mastered Isaiah you come to understand St. Paul as you never understood him before. When once you are familiar with Daniel you are prepared to study the Revelation. And I may add, also, that when you are familiar with Daniel you understand what our Lord was building upon in many of his addresses and discourses to His Apostles and to the Jews. It is a very old remark, that it is when the fortunes of God’s people on earth are at the worst, that He sends them the brightest lights of prophecy from heaven. Christ Himself was born just when the Jewish kingdom was on the wane.
I. Turn to the particular promise which is contained in our text.—‘They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament’—this is the first part; ‘they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever’—this is the second. The wise here does not mean the learned, it means those who ‘know the Lord,’ and act upon that knowledge. All through the Old Testament the word ‘fools’ is applied to those who are so foolish as to be wicked; the word ‘wise’ to those who are wise enough not to be wicked, but to learn and obey the will of God. Remember that Daniel was one who, like St. Paul, had counted all things but dross that he might be blameless before his God. Think of this voice as coming forth from the den of lions. Think of it as being his meditation and his support when threatened with a dreadful death. And then ask yourselves whether, if we kept this glorious future in mind as we ought, we should not act very differently from what we do in our temptation. Let us think of the foolishness we are guilty of when we are afraid to do right because of the opposition or the ridicule of men. Think of the certainty of Daniel’s words coming true—words taken up again and enforced by our Lord. There is a brightness to come when they who have chosen the shady side in this life for Christ’s sake shall shine as the sun; and when ‘shame and everlasting contempt’ shall be ‘the promotion of fools’—of them, that is, who have been so foolish as to value ‘the praise of men more than the praise of God.’
II. Look next to the second half of our text—‘They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.’ There is a practical turn about this which is very remarkable. The first half of the promise is a promise to the good. The second half is a special promise, over and above, to those who help others to be good as well. Or, as the two stand side by side, and are so very similar, may it not be meant to hint to us that the wise and they that turn many to righteousness are one and the same—in other words, that those who are good cannot but turn others to goodness too; so that the reward here promised belongs to those who have extended the Kingdom of God and the knowledge of Christ? For my own part, I cannot but think that this is what is meant, and that the great lesson which we ought to learn is the essential connection between being good and doing good, especially in the sense of leading others to be good also. I cannot help thinking that here once more we have an anticipation of our Lord’s own teaching when He tells His disciples that they are as a city set on a hill; that they are to let their light shine before men; and that a Christian who does not do so is as a candle placed under a bushel—in a word, that every Christian is bound in his measure to be a missionary as well, and to be extending his Master’s kingdom as well as serving in it for himself. My brethren, remember that these words were written by an exile in a heathen land, that those few who were its first readers were exiles too, and dwellers among those who knew not God. To them Daniel wrote that those who turned many to righteousness should shine as the stars. How much more will not our Master expect that each of us in our own way shall be careful to let our light so shine before men that they may glorify our Father in Heaven?
Illustration
‘As Daniel wrote, “They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,” so our Lord says (St. Matthew 13:43), “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” The very word “shame,” too, which Daniel uses comes up again in the Lord’s own prophecies of the judgment, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of Him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in His glory.” The “Son of Man” again you see, so as to link the fuller prophecy of Christ with the earlier one of Daniel which the Lord is applying and expounding.’