"Many shall run to and fro,
and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4).

 

This verse is very commonly
applied as if present day transportation, cars, fast trains, jet aircraft, and
outer space rocket ships were the answer to running "to and fro." The
great emphasis upon education all over the world and corresponding technological
advances are esteemed as fulfilling the last part of the verse, "knowledge
shall be increased." The two seem to go together as evident signs of
"the last days."

 

While fully agreeing that we are
living in the closing moments of the day of grace, we are not at all persuaded
that the Spirit of Christ in Daniel was signifying any such thoughts as the
above about running "to and fro" or "knowledge [being]
increased."

           

The Lord told Jeremiah,
"Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem" (Jer. 5:1). Again
in Amos 8:12 we read, "they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the
Lord, and shall not find it." Now these examples suggest not so much a
hurrying and scurrying of human activity but rather give us the thought of a
diligent investigation:Jeremiah was to run "to and fro" or simply to
diligently search Jerusalem to see "if there be any that executeth
judgment, that seeketh the truth." Through Amos, God was speaking of the
days when "I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:and they shall wander
from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro
[diligently investigate] to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find
it" (Amos 8:11, 12). But the angel who was speaking to Daniel said,
"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the
time of the end:many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased" (Dan. 12:4).

 

Amos was told of the hopeless
condition when God’s sore displeasure was yet upon Israel. Then even by running
to and fro or diligently searching the Scriptures, the meaning would be beyond
their grasp because of the God-sent famine of such knowledge. The book was then
sealed to their understanding. But in Daniel the book was to be sealed
"even to the time of the end." When that end time arrives, which is
yet future for Israel, they "shall diligently investigate" (per
footnote JND trans.) and "knowledge shall be increased." This
increase of knowledge has to do with the righteous of that coming day entering,
at last, into the true meaning of the Scriptures. Running "to and
fro" therefore is referring simply to making a diligent search of the
Scriptures which at the "time of the end" will be rewarded by an
increase in knowledge of the word of the Lord. We are persuaded that it has no
application at all to present day discoveries through research or higher
learning any more than running "to and fro" pertains to our speedy
travel and communications.

           

The present infatuation with
man’s mental powers and learning is alluded to by the Apostle Paul when he
wrote, "This know, that in the last days difficult times shall be there;
for men shall be … always learning, and never able to come to [the] knowledge
of [the] truth" (2 Tim. 3:1,7 JND). God speaks thus of "the last
days" in which we now live. Perhaps facts are accumulated and volumes of
research are compiled, but all these efforts do not bring men one bit closer to
"the truth" of our Lord Jesus Christ nor increase what our God calls
true "knowledge."

 

We are in the last days to be
sure. It becomes us all the more to rightly divide the word of truth, avoiding
such fanciful interpretations of Scripture as we have examined. Job was the
Lord’s, but he was still rebuked for "[darkening] counsel by words without
knowledge" (Job 38:2). Let us heed the admonition.