Daniel 12:2

The angel, as it appears to me, speaks here of the deliverance of the people brought back from among the nations. "Many of them," and so on; it is only a question of the people of Daniel. No doubt judgments will fall on the nations. But the angel is speaking of those God is most directly occupied with, as the object of His thoughts — and that means only the people of Daniel. Remember Daniel 10:14: "Now I have come to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days." "Many of those who sleep" means a multitude of Jews in general, but not all. They will appear on the scene.

Deliverance will come not only for the Jews in the Holy Land, who have seen all the conflicts between Antichrist and the king of the north. It will come for many that sleep as well — that is, many who had not yet come forward. They had been apart from the troubles of their nation, in total obscurity, as it were sleeping in the dust of the earth. … The passage has no direct reference to a bodily resurrection. That resurrection simply supplies a figure for the national revival of Israel. Israel is described as sleeping in the dust, to express how deep their degradation is.

This is not a general resurrection — and no other passage of Scripture speaks of one. If it were, the words would not be "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth." However many the "many" are, they cannot be all the dead. It is not the first resurrection either, for some awake "to shame and everlasting contempt." And it is not the resurrection of judgment, because others awake "to everlasting life."

The Old Testament keeps using the figure of "awaking" in a moral sense (see Isaiah 51:17, Isaiah 52:1, and so on). The New Testament uses it in a striking way too. The apostle, for example, writes to the Ephesians, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:14). No one could doubt the figurative sense there. Second, the prophet Ezekiel uses the figure of resurrection clearly to mean a national revival. We say "clearly" because Ezekiel's own application of his vision shows beyond question what he meant (see Ezekiel 37:1-14).

It is a figurative resurrection of the people, buried as a nation among the nations. In this revival it is said of those who rise, "some to shame and everlasting contempt." This is what will happen to the Jews. Of those brought out from among the nations, some will enjoy eternal life. Others will face shame and everlasting contempt; Isaiah 66:24.

Eternal life is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament: "life forevermore" (Psalm 133:3) and "everlasting life" (Daniel 12:2). Both times Messiah's day, which is "the last time," is in view. Daniel 12 speaks of a national resurrection for Israel, and of how they will rise up from among the dust of the nations. But in John's account we have people in view one by one, and the resurrection is not figurative but living and real.