“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.” Daniel 12:4
There has been a greater development of knowledge within the past one hundred years than at any other time in the history of mankind. Most of the inventions which are so common today were unknown a century ago. Not many realize that these are the beginning of the blessings to come in the long-promised kingdom of Messiah.
The invention of printing using movable type by Johann Gutenberg in 1454 A.D. has allowed us to accumulate a store of knowledge over the years as never before. As a result, the world has become flooded with literature in every language and on every subject.
The increase of knowledge, including a knowledge of God’s word, has followed along with “going here and there.” This tells us we are living in the period referred to as the “time of the end.” This time includes the closing of the Gospel age and the dawning of the Millennial age which will finally end the long period of sin and death.
In God’s due time, men’s minds were opened to the possibilities of some inventions, which then inspired more complicated inventions. In the nineteenth century men realized they could use steam to power machines. Later, electrical power and gasoline began to be used. Automobiles replaced horses for personal transportation. Now electronics and nuclear power have opened up newer and faster means of communication and transportation than ever before thought possible.
Think of the knowledge that went into planning and building the space shuttles—and the advent of men walking on the moon! It is amazing that these inventions have developed within a comparatively short space of time. For centuries mankind was unable to travel any faster than on horseback and the majority of people rarely traveled even fifty miles from where they were born.
The first locomotive was built less than two hundred years ago; now we have many forms of transportation. The automobile is the most common and widespread means of transportation and is the best example of “going here and there” described in Daniel 12:4 and Nahum 2:4.
NASA Mars exploration robot
There has been a greater increase of knowledge in the last hundred years than at any other time.