When did God intend Daniel's prophecies to be understood?
God intended Daniel's prophecies to be understood at the time of the end. The words were closed and sealed until then, so Daniel himself did not understand them; comprehension began in the late 1800s and increases as the end approaches.
Les explains that Daniel wrote end-time prophecy hundreds of years before it happened, but he heard and did not understand what he was writing. When Daniel asked what the end of these things would be, the Lord told him to go his way because the words were closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Les points out that it was not until the late 1800s, around the turn of the century, that men began to get a comprehension of prophecy; before that there was no clear-cut teaching of how these things would unfold. That matches what God told Daniel—it was not for men to understand until we got close to the end time. Les notes that now it is much easier to understand, and he says the book of Revelation has become as simple as ABC because we are so close to the end. He gives the example of the two witnesses in Revelation chapter 10 whose dead bodies would be seen by all the world; when he was a kid, people asked how that could be, but with current events and news, it is not a question anymore.
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
More Questions
Why were Daniel's prophetic words closed up and sealed until the end time?
God told Daniel to go his way because the prophetic words were closed up and sealed until the time of the end; these things were not for men to understand until they got close to the end time.