‘And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, that it will be for a time, times and a half. And when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the hand of the holy people, all these things will be finished.'
For the man clothed in linen compare Daniel 11:5-6; Daniel 11:13. He was a mighty angel, but not almighty (Daniel 11:13). Yet his authority was such that he could swear in the name of the Everlasting One how long it would be. It would be for ‘a time, times and a half'. The phrase is similar to the one in Daniel 7:25 but not the same (the one was in Aramaic, this is in Hebrew). Its significance is that it is not a complete period. It is not ‘seven times' but a broken period of ‘a number of times plus a half'. Here was no equivalent of the divinely perfect seven times, denoting a divinely perfect period, but a foreshortened period indicating that it ended before God's final purposes were complete. The one acting in this period has no control over it. And yet its length was fixed by God who determined the length of ‘a time'.
This foreshortened period will end ‘when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people'. God will not be specific. But He will assure His people that the time is limited. The breaking in pieces of the power of the holy people will cease in the end. And then will be accomplished all the promises of Daniel 9:24, and then will follow the resurrection.
It is possible that this has reference to the final part of the seventieth seven in Daniel 9:27. When the Temple has been destroyed (the sacrifices have ceased) there will be a period of desolation and persecution for God's people which will continue until the consummation (it has now lasted for nearly two thousand years). His people will be as pilgrims in the world, ever subjected to desolation and persecution. If we consider that he is speaking of the world of his day, which to us is the Middle Eastern world, it is that world which above all has persecuted and desolated the people of God.
The raising of both hands indicated that all was in the hands of God (compare Exodus 17:11-12), although some have seen it as indicating the intensity of the oath. Normally for an oath one hand would be held up to heaven.
Compare here the one who calls for the end of time in Revelation 10:5-6. There it was indicating the finishing of the mystery of God, in other words that which only God had known, but had by then been revealed, the mystery of the seven seals. Here it is signifying another mystery, now revealed, that of the finish of what has happened to God's holy people.
‘When they have made an end of breaking in pieces the hand of the holy people, all these things will be finished.' The ominous message here is that the holy people are to be subjected to attempts to break them in pieces, to utterly destroy them. It spoke of persecution and suffering which would attempt to break their ‘hand', to break their resistance to sin, to tempt to faithlessness, to destroy their faith in God. But it will eventually come to an end in God's timing. Yet it brings out how important God's people are to Him. For this is mentioned because all is in consideration of their welfare. ‘The holy people' are, of course, the true people of God, those who truly believe. In Daniel's time they represented those among the Jews who were truly responsive from their hearts to God. They would continue on as the people of the Messiah (the Apostles and those who truly believed in the Messiah), ‘the elect race, the holy nation' of 1 Peter 2:9, in other words the true believing church of Jesus the Messiah.