The identity of the Guiding, Signifying Angel is a powerful clue to the interpretation of the Book as the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the end of the Jewish people and city.

Throughout the book of Revelation we see an Angel of the Lord guiding, teaching and exercising authority among the angels. This Guiding Angel is none other than Daniel the prophet. A study of the relevant passages from Daniel and Revelation along with an in depth look at some significant words will show this to be true.

In the first verse of the book of Revelation, we are introduced to this Angel who is to “signify” the revelation to John:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

In 21:17 we see that this Angel is a man: “… according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.” In the last chapter we learn more about his identity:

8 And 1 John saw these things, and heard [them]. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 9 Then saith he unto me, See [thou do it] not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. (Revelation 22:8-9)

This Angel is a “fellowservant” and “of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book.” Who qualifies amongst the prophets of the Bible for this role? Let us look at some of the characteristics of this Angel. This Angel is sometimes called a “strong” or “mighty” angel: 5:2; 10:1, 5, 8-11; 18:1, 21. Other references show his power and authority amongst the other angels: 7:2; 8:3-5, 13; 11:1; 14:6-7, 15; 17:1, 7, 15; 19:5-10, 17; 20:1-3; 21:9, 10, 17; 22:1, 6, 8-10, 16.

Is it possible that this “Angel” could be Daniel? Let us study the word ‘angel’ as it is used in the book of Daniel in Hebrew, (Aramaic)[1]. Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon gives the following definition, (abbreviated): mal’âk, 1. (a) messenger … (b) a prophet, as in Isaiah 42:19; 44:26; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16; Haggai 1:13; the herald of the advent Malachi 3:1; (c) priest Malachi 2:7 … (d) Job 33:23 a messenger from God acting as an interpreter and declaring what is right….

(2)angel, as messenger of God … in theophanies Genesis 19:1, 15; … praising Him Psalm 103:20 …; charged with care of the pious Psalm 91:11 …; excellent, wise, powerful …; destroying by the judgment of Yahweh 2 Samuel 24:16-17=1 Chronicles 21:12-30; 2 Kings 19:35=Isaiah 37:36;=2 Chronicles 32:21.[2]

Thus it is clear that the word translated ‘Angel‘ could be used appropriately of Daniel, for he was an excellent, wise and powerful prophet, messenger, and interpreter. Daniel was a figure towering over most all of the personalities of history or literature. This Daniel was a man whose faith stood the test in the face of a conquering king when he refused to eat defiled food and when he refused to worship an idol. His faith was so strong that he could ask God to reveal secrets of wisdom, even so far as telling the king what he had dreamed and the interpretation thereof, even though the interpretation was not favorable to the king. This Daniel read the handwriting on the wall. He prayed three times a day, facing Jerusalem. He worshipped and blessed the Name of God in the most severe tests. He was vouchsafed the privilege to see the majestic sweep of more than 490 years of world history including the end of the nation of Israel.

This Daniel served with honor, dignity and great success under at least four kings, even in spite of the overthrow and change of governments from one nation to another. His wisdom and moral merit were proverbial, (Ezek. 14:14). Even as a youth he was found ten times better than all the other wise men of the kingdom, (Dan. 1:20; 5:11, 12, 14; 9:2; 10:1). Truly, Daniel was a very strong, courageous and talented leader while living on earth.

However, the supreme irony of the book of Daniel is that in his final vision, this wisest and best of men did not understand. Although an angel had been dispatched several times to cause Daniel to understand the previous visions, (8:16-17; 9:22; 10:12, 14; 11:33), this time, he was not to understand until after his death:

And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. …. But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. (Daniel 12:8-10, 13)

These things were to be hidden, even from Daniel, until “the time of the end“. The wicked would never understand, but at that appointed time, the wise would understand, and this surely included Daniel. The phrases “end of these things“, “time of the end“, “the end“, “the end of the days“, all represent the time of the predicted destruction of the nation, the city and the sanctuary 490 years plus a “time, times and dividing of times” (Daniel 9:24-27). For Daniel, “the end of the age” for Israel would have seemed like the end of the whole world, for he could not conceive of the world going on without the nation of Israel.

What is this promise to Daniel “…thou shalt… stand in thy lot at the end of the days“? Let us study the word ‘lot’. The definition from Brown-Driver-Briggs, (abbreviated), gives: gôwral –1. A lot for dividing land, as Joshua did at Shiloh, (Josh. 18:4); 2. lot for assigning to service, duty or punishment … as priests to their courses, singers, musicians and porters to their duties by lot (1 Chron.); 3. a thing assigned, apportioned or allotted; also, (Daniel 12:13), of allotted portion, share in the Messianic consummation; more generally, one’s portion, lot, fortune; 4. portion, recompense, retribution, implying divine agency (ibid., p. 174).

Senses two, three and four seem to apply to our passage. Just as the priests, Levites, singers, etc., had an assigned duty at an appointed time for service, so Daniel was assigned a time and place for service in the inauguration of the Messianic kingdom of which he had been given the vision in 2:44-45; 7:13-14, 18, 27; 9:24-27 and chapter 12. He was granted that high honor, as his allotted portion, and a reward, or recompense, for his faithful service.

Indeed, Daniel was not the only one that would have the high privilege of participating in that promised kingdom:

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And 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. (Daniel 12:2-3).

If the book of Revelation is about the consummation and confirmation of the Messianic fulfillment of Daniel‘s visions, then we should expect Daniel to be there, doing his duty, receiving his recompense, and participating in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what we do see in the role of the Guiding Angel in the book of Revelation.

Why could not Daniel understand the vision in his lifetime? It concerned the destruction of the city and sanctuary, (Daniel 9:26-7), the defeat of the “chosen people” (11:15), the desolation of the “glorious land” (11:16), the successful exploits of the evil prince against the holy covenant, (11:28, 30). Even the holy place was to be desecrated and the daily sacrifice caused to cease, (11:31). Indeed, there was to be a time of trouble like never was since Israel was a nation, and indeed shall never be again upon this nation, (for this is the end of the nation), (12:1).

Daniel could not understand because the end of the fleshly nation was such a great mystery at this time that it was unthinkable even to Daniel. Even the wisest of men could not reason as to how the Most High God, the Covenant-keeping God who had made an everlasting promise to Abraham and his Seed, and Who had made an everlasting promise to David, and Who had said of Jerusalem: “I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there.” (2 Chronicles 6:6). Even after she had been sorely punished for her sins, Zechariah could say: “The Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem“, (Zech. 1:17; 2:12); and: “I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. (8:3)”.

Daniel‘s faith had been vindicated many times. He confidently believed that the Babylonian captivity would be for seventy years, for it was recorded in the Scriptures. He knew with all the assurance of faith that the nation would be restored after the captivity. Knowing the promises of God, His sworn covenants, His power and faithfulness, there was no way the nation, city, and Temple could be forever abolished. In the farthest reaches of the faith of one of the greatest men of faith, it was impossible because: “God cannot lie.” This was the mystery that had been hidden for ages:

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (Col. 1:26-27).[3]

Daniel did not yet know that Christ is “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end”. He did not yet see that the fleshly kingdom could be translated into a heavenly kingdom in Christ; that in the crucifixion, the old nation died, but in the resurrection the nation lived again with the eternal Life which God had ordained from the beginning.

Throughout the ages of time from the first covenant of God, Man reasoned that God would fulfill His covenant through the Flesh. It was never so. Before the foundations of the world, Christ, the Lamb, the Seed of the Woman, the Seed of Promise in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the coming King of the line of David, the eternal High Priest, this Christ was slain for sin. The mystery of Christ, hidden throughout those generations was the Holy Seed, the Faithful Remnant, the Root and the Offspring of David. It was not the fleshly DNA, but the Holy Word in the nation that was their hope of glory. “Christ in you.” [you plural], that is, in the nation, not just individuals. These things Daniel was privileged to see in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

The very name of the book of Revelation, Apocalupsis, in the Greek is the same word used by the Septuagint to translate ‘revelation’ and ‘revealer’ [of secrets] in Daniel 2:19, 22, 28-30, 47; and 10:1. In Daniel it translates forms of the Hebrew word gâlâh, ‘to uncover, remove, display, reveal, especially used of the ear by taking away the hair; used of the face by taking away a veil…PIEL (1)… (b) to uncover any one’s eyes… to open them, to shew to him things hidden from mortals….(2) … to reveal some hidden thing … a secret, … to make known God’s power and glory … to uncover a vail, which vailed over anything (BDB 162-3 and 1086).[4]

It is that great mystery, hidden even from Daniel for a time, which the New Testament reveals and of which the book of Revelation is the epitome. The book of Revelation shows the Great Revealer of Secrets at work again. And Daniel was in on it:

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)