He now tells him about the host upon whom the last end of the indignation still rests after the Sanctuary is cleansed. This indignation is the Lord's staff in the hands of the wicked to chastise his people. It wast put into the hands of the Assyrian and has been inherited by each of his successors, which have in turn been sent "against an hypocritical nation, to take the prey and to take the spoil and to tread them down like the mire of the streets." Is. 10.
The last end of the indignation is evidently the bitter persecutions, and the severe and searching trial of God's people, after the Sanctuary is cleansed, and before the indignation is made to cease in the destruction of the little Horn, the fruit and the successor of the Assyrian, Daniel 8:25; Isaiah 10:12, 25. 3. The Sanctuary must be cleansed before the resurrection, for the Lord has provided a comforting message for His people, telling them that it is done. "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare (margin, appointed time) is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins," Isaiah 11:1,2 see Isaiah 40:1,2.
Jerusalem and the Lord's people are here spoken of, as the Sanctuary and host are in Daniel 8. His people, when Jerusalem's appointed time is accomplished, are affected and are to be comforted by telling them that her iniquity is pardoned. This must be New Jerusalem, for there was never any time set for pardoning the iniquity of Old Jerusalem, which must have had iniquity of some kind and from some source, else she could not be pardoned of it.
The fact that the Lord has commanded to comfort His people by telling them that Jerusalem's iniquity is pardoned, is proof positive that she had iniquity, and that it will be removed before His people are delivered and enter her with songs and everlasting joy.