He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
He revealeth the deep and secret things - (Job 12:22, "He discovereth deep things out of darkness"). So spiritually (1 Corinthians 2:10; Ephesians 1:17-18).
He knoweth what is in the darkness - (Psalms 139:11-12, "If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee;" Hebrews 4:13.).
The light dwelleth with him - (James 1:17, "the Father of lights;" 1 John 1:5). Apocalypse, or "revelation," signifies a divine, prophecy a human activity. Compare 1 Corinthians 14:6, where the two are distinguished. The prophet is connected with the outer world, addressing to the congregation the words with which the Spirit of God supplies him; he speaks in the Spirit, but the apocalyptic seer is in the Spirit in his whole person (Revelation 1:10, "I was in the Spirit;" Revelation 4:2). The form of the apocalyptic revelation (the very term meaning that the vail that hides the invisible world is taken off) is subjectively either the dream, or, higher, the vision. The interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream was a preparatory education to Daniel himself. By gradual steps, each revelation preparing him for the succeeding one, God fitted him for disclosures becoming more and more special. In Daniel 2:1-49 and Daniel 4:1-37 he is but an interpreter of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams; then he has a dream himself, but it is only a vision in a dream of the night (Daniel 7:1-2); then follows a vision in a waking state (Daniel 8:1-3, "I saw in a vision"); lastly, in the two final revelations (Daniel 9:1-27; Daniel 10:1-21; Daniel 11:1-45; Daniel 12:1-13) the ecstatic state is no longer needed. The progression in the form answers to the progression in the contents of his prophecy: at first general outlines, and these afterward filled up with minute chronological and historical details, such as are not found in the Revelation of John, though, as became the New Testament, the form of revelation is the highest-namely, clear waking visions (Auberg).