Daniel's Visions

In addition to being a neat book about how normal guys stand up for God and God helps them through hardship, Daniel has a lot of prophecy about the end times. Today there was a lot about horns battling each other, and strange beasts - I don't know about you, but I find that impossible to understand. So did Daniel. But there was one passage that spoke in plain English.

"...There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge."

I've always wondered if you go straight to heaven when you die, and here it sounds like we just sleep in the dust until the End, then we all are judged together. Not necessarily of course, but wouldn't it be neat to suddenly wake up to everlasting life?

I also thought about Daniel - he's just some smart kid who was brought to Babylon as a captive, and God gave him this vision instead of anybody else. You think about the other people who have seen great visions - Isaiah, who volunteered; and John, who was the disciple that Jesus loved! But Daniel sure didn't ask for these visions - in fact he didn't like them too much. It's neat to see who God can choose to do his work. Daniel wasn't anything better than the other guys he with with, but God gave him wisdom beyond all the other wise men and showed him these visions about things that would happen thousands of years later.