John saw Christ in post-resurrection glory. Daniel saw Christ in pre-incarnation glory. Jesus Christ was not created when he was born.
He existed eternally. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Here's a question for you as we get started. Why should Israel's future concern you? Well, simply put, Israel is ground zero for the greatest events the world will ever know, events that concern each one of us. That's John MacArthur's focus today as he continues his study titled The Future of Israel.
Stay here for more of this compelling study. Last week, John focused on the ninth chapter of Daniel and examined, among other things, the well-known prophecy about 70 weeks. John will review chapter nine briefly in today's message and that will set the context for what's ahead in his study. So follow along now.
Here is John MacArthur. Now in this book of Daniel, there are four great prophetic revelations. This is the last of them and it stretches from chapter 10 through chapter 11 and chapter 12. This final great vision fills up and finishes the book. Chapter 10 introduces the vision. Chapter 11 gives the prophecy.
And chapter 12 adds an epilogue. So we've come now to the end of the things to come that are given to the prophet Daniel. Now the prophecy that we'll be dealing with in chapters 10 through 12 sweeps over the same period of time as the prophecy did in chapter 8. It stretches from Daniel's day until the great Tribulation and the return of Christ.
It stretches throughout all of the remainder of human history until Christ comes again. However, the prophecy in chapters 10, 11 and 12 gives greater detail about the Tribulation than any other prophecy. In the previous chapter, chapter 9 of the book of Daniel, Daniel was reading in Jeremiah and Daniel was very much aware that Jeremiah had prophesied that the captivity of Israel would only last 70 years. And you remember now, Daniel is a prophet in Babylon.
He is with the captives who have been taken away from their land and their land has been destroyed. But Jeremiah said it would only last 70 years and so as Daniel was reading Jeremiah's prophecy in chapter 9, he came across those two prophecies where Jeremiah says it will only be 70 years and he knew that it had been nearly 70 years since he had been taken captive and so he began to realize that the time must be coming for it all to end. And so in chapter 9 he began to pray and he began to fast and he began to confess his sin and he began to ask God to fulfill the promise that the 70 years would fill up the chastisement and the people could return to their land. That was his prayer in chapter 9. You remember at the end of the chapter, God gives him a tremendous prophecy in answer to that prayer. Now that prayer in chapter 9 and the subsequent answer by God occurred in the first year of Cyrus the king, the first year of the king of the Medo-Persian Empire. You'll remember that in that first year, according to Ezra chapter 1 all the way through Ezra chapter 3, Cyrus made a decree and he said, all of the people of Israel can now return home. You can all go back.
Daniel's prayer was answered directly in the very year in which he prayed that prayer. But you know what happened? As we come to chapter 10, what's the first statement?
In the third year of Cyrus, where are we now? Two years later. And you know what? Two years later, a very disheartening and a very discouraging reality has occurred.
You want to know what it is? The people didn't go back. They were comfortable. They were sufficiently paganized. They were enmeshed in the society in which they lived. They were prosperous. They were absorbed.
They were too involved to care about the promised land, too involved to care about the rebuilding of Jerusalem, too involved to care about restoring the temple. You say, didn't any go back? A few. Ezra tells us, just 42,000 went back. You say, well, that sounds like a lot.
Not really. They had flourished in Babylon. There were myriads more than that. That was only a drop in the bucket. Just 42,000 went back. So you see, all of Daniel's great anticipation had not been fulfilled.
The great dream of his heart was that 70 years after he was taken captive, the whole nation would go back and they'd rebuild the temple and they'd rebuild the city and they'd rebuild the wall and they'd reconstitute their nation and their worship and everything would be the way it used to be. But it wasn't so. A small number went back and they couldn't pull off anything. They couldn't establish the nation. They couldn't establish the monarchy. They couldn't rebuild the city.
They couldn't even get the sanctuary going. At that same time in the first year of Darius, a third monumental thing happened. Daniel retired and he was one of the presidents of the empire. He had been a president through the Babylonian period and now even into the Medo-Persian period, he kept this place of tremendous power. And in this particular situation, it was time for him to retire. He was approximately 85 years old. And so he left the presidency, according to chapter 1 verse 21.
He was only in the government until the first year of Cyrus. You say, why didn't he go back? I mean, if the 42,000 went back and it was that big of a deal to him, why didn't he go back? I'll tell you why I think he didn't go back. And it isn't why the commentators say. They say he didn't go back because he was too old.
I don't believe that. I think he didn't go back because he was too disappointed. In other words, I think that he saw himself as having the responsibility to motivate the remaining Jews to go back. So he couldn't leave because he wasn't satisfied. He had a passion to see his sinful people forsake Babylon and return to their country.
Surely he would have longed to go himself back to the land he loved, but he was utterly unselfish and he was far too burdened for his needy people to worry about his own desires. And so what he does is what he always does. What does Daniel always do in the midst of a crisis? Pray.
Always. And as chapter 10 opens, that's exactly what we find him doing again. He stays to deal with his people and here he faces the dilemma of their indifference in his usual way through prayer. And again, the vision that comes in chapter 11, the revelation that comes in chapter 11 is in divine response to this prayer. Verse 1, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing or a word, better translated, a word was revealed unto Daniel whose name is called Belteshazzar. Just so you know, it's the same Daniel. That's the name the Babylonians gave him when he first came. That's a Babylonian name connected with their gods, their deities. They were trying to brainwash Daniel and one of the ways they tried to do that was by giving him a name of one of the Babylonian deities. And just to let you know that it's the same Daniel, we're given again that Babylonian name.
Even though you're now into the third year of Cyrus and the Medo-Persian Empire, it's the very same Daniel. And the thing was true, or the word was true that was given to him, but the time appointed was long and he understood the word and had understanding of the vision. Now that basically is an overview of what's going to happen in the following verses. Daniel received a revelation. The revelation was true.
He understood very well the revelation. That's what that's telling us. Notice the phrase in verse 1, and the time appointed was long. Now that is a phrase given in the King James. If you have a New American Standard, it probably says something like this, and it involves a great warfare, or it involves a great conflict, or something like that. And the reason you have a discrepancy there is that it is a very difficult Hebrew phrase with some very obscure words. And the best rendering, the very best rendering I believe is to read it, just forget what it says in the KJV and read it this way, whose name was called Belteshazzar and the word was true and involved a great warfare. It involved a great warfare. I think that fits the context. I think it best fits the Hebrew phrase sabah gadol which is used here, and I think that's the essence of what is being said and I think they've rendered it properly in the New American Standard. Now you find there the word for conflict or the word for warfare.
That's obviously there. And that word is used to speak of an army. It is used to speak of the host of angels. And sometimes it is used to speak of an actual warfare. So you have armies of men, armies of angels, and actual warfare, all three referred to by that same word. And I believe that the context best argues for the use of warfare or conflict as you will see as we move through the tenth chapter. You'll see how the context points to the use of the word conflict. So Daniel is saying, look, this revelation is true and it involves a great warfare or conflict. And as you shall see, it is indeed a great warfare and conflict. In fact, before you're done with this prophecy, you're going to see warfare all the way from the demons in space to men on earth and everywhere in between. Now, we're going to look at several points.
They're going to move pretty fast, so hang on to your Bible. We're going to see six points as we flow through this chapter, morning toward heaven, manifestation of heaven, mastery by heaven, messenger from heaven, mischief in heaven, and message from heaven. All of these elements tell us that heaven is come to earth. First of all, morning toward heaven. Morning in the sense of weeping toward heaven, verse 2. In those days I, Daniel, and that's a phrase he uses five times, that I, Daniel, so that you know that this is truly his testimony, was mourning three...and literally it says in the Hebrew, three weeks of days to distinguish from the weeks of years in chapter 9.
For three weeks I was mourning. Now when was this? In the third year of Cyrus.
But we know more than that. We know what day it was. Look at verse 4, in the four and twentieth day of the first month. The twenty-fourth of the first month would be the twenty-fourth of Nisan. Now he began if he was mourning on the twenty-fourth of Nisan and that's the day he received the angelic visitation. And if he'd been mourning for three weeks, twenty-one days, he started then on the third of Nisan, right?
Three from twenty-four equals twenty-one. It's a lot simpler than the seventy weeks, isn't it? So he'd been mourning since the third of Nisan. What is particularly interesting about that is that Passover always falls on the fourteenth of Nisan. So he is mourning all through the Passover time and the seven days of Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was a very special season, a season of some celebration, a season of some activity. But all through that most important season of the Jewish calendar, Daniel is wrapped in mourning, praying, fasting to the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on Nisan 21 and three days after that.
And yet all of this three weeks, heaven is silent. Verse 3, I ate no pleasant bread. And by the way, that little phrase means bread of delight or food of delight. In other words, he didn't eat the delicacies, the really good stuff, the really special stuff, the fancy food. That was one form of fasting, by the way. Fasting in the Bible was not always eating nothing. Very often it was restraining from delicacies and fancy foods and just eating the staple stuff to keep alive. It was refraining from the banquets and the festivals and the times of special indulgence in food. But beyond that, he not only ate no bread of delight, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth. And that's sort of like meat and potatoes. I mean, I didn't even eat the routine stuff, wine and meat.
Neither the delicacies nor the normal things. Neither did I anoint myself at all. You say, I didn't know they had aftershave in those days. Well, they didn't.
And that's not what he's talking about. They used to use a fragrant oil on their bodies and they applied it to their skin for several reasons. One was to protect the skin from the strength of the sun. Another was to keep the skin soft. And another was to add a fragrance to the body because they did not have all of the deodorants and whatever else that we have today and so they would anoint themselves. And so he eats nothing and he puts nothing on himself. Now keep in mind, people, that for an 85-year-old man, a 21-day fast is relatively significant. Now why was he doing this?
I mean, the guy seems to be sort of overplaying the role. You got the decree of Cyrus two years ago, 42,600 people went back. Here you are two years later and for 21 days you don't eat and you weep and you mourn all this time. What is the problem? And the problem is simple. They didn't go back.
Only a small remnant went back and the ones that went back were totally unsuccessful. And in his selflessness he longs for his people and their place. So we see mourning toward heaven.
Now let me tell you something. That kind of hard attitude and that kind of spirit gets a response from God. And that's what we find in the second point, manifestation of heaven. Verse 4, this is incredible. Manifestation of heaven.
All of a sudden, here comes heaven. And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, that's Nisan 24, as I was by the side of the great river which is Hiddekel. And by the way, Hiddekel is an old form for the word digliyah which is the current modern Arabic name for the Tigris River. It comes from Hiddekeliah which is the ancient name used by the Babylonians and Hiddekel simply means the Tigris. There were two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, and the Tigris would be 60 plus miles east and he was way out there by the Tigris. Verse 5, then I lifted up mine eyes and looked and behold...and that's an exclamation term...a certain man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with the fine gold of Uphaz. His body also was like the barrel and his face like the appearance of lightning and his eyes like lamps of fire and his arms and his feet in color like to polished bronze and the voice of his words like the voice of many waters. Now that's a pretty shocking thing to see. This, friends, is a heavenly visitor.
It's taken three weeks but he's gotten a visitor. And some suggest this is Gabriel and some suggest it's Michael and some suggest it's some other unnamed angel of equal rank, but the vision is best seen not as any angel at all...now watch this...but as God Himself. And I'm convinced that this is none other than God. Listen, in the form of the pre-incarnate uncreated second member of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a pre-incarnation appearance of Christ. It's what we call a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. You say, well why do you parallel this with Christ?
Look at Revelation chapter 1...Revelation chapter 1, verse 12. John says, "'And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Being turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. In the midst of the seven lampstands was one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment to the foot, girded about the breast with golden girdle. His head and his hair were a white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. And his feet burned like fine bronze, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.'" See a parallel there? Almost identical except for the addition of the hair. Almost an exact parallel. And who is the one who appears to John in Revelation 1? It's I am the Alpha and the Omega.
Who is that? Christ. You have almost an identical description here. John saw Christ in post-resurrection glory. Daniel saw Christ in pre-incarnation glory. Jesus Christ was not created when He was born.
He existed eternally. And so we see exact parallels in these descriptions. Now, since Christ is the Commander-in-Chief of all of the invisible angelic army and since He has all authority, it is fitting that He should appear in this particular place because of the nature of this prophecy. This prophecy is going to show you the angelic conflict and warfare that stretched from Daniel's time until finally the angelic battle of Revelation 12 where Michael and the holy angels defeat the demons and their forces. But all of this period in between now and the Tribulation, in between Daniel and the Tribulation is a period of angelic warfare also that has gone on since the fall of the angels behind or before even the creation of man. And so at a time when Daniel is going to see the tremendous angelic warfare, it is fitting that he have a vision of the Commander-in-Chief. And I believe that's exactly what God gave him.
Look with me at this vision for a moment. First of all, he was clothed in linen. Fine white linen is the garment of the priests. Frequently also in the Old Testament such as Ezekiel 9 and 10, heavenly visitors appear in fine white linen. In Mark 16, the angels that appear at the tomb of Christ are clothed in fine white linen. Again and again you see this associated with heaven, associated with those who represent God. And fine white linen is a symbol of God's holiness...holiness, the first and foremost attribute of God. Secondly, it says that his loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz.
We have no idea what Uphaz is. We don't know where that is or what it is, but the idea is that there is a belt that is overlaid with fine gold. I really believe that speaks of God's sovereignty...of His sovereignty. Beautiful, brilliant, shining gold, the richest, the wealthiest, the purest metal, the sovereignty of God. Then you have the barrel, a transparent flashing jewel.
That sometimes can be translated chrysolite. But the idea seems to be a transparent flashing jewel which would be reflective of God's glory. So you have the holiness of God, the sovereignty of God, the glory of God.
Gold is the gold of a sovereign, a king. And the brilliant transparent flashing diamond jewel speaks of glory. And then it says his face was like the appearance of lightning. And I believe this is power and omnipotence. Revelation says he has a face like the sun. The brilliant light that's manifest in his face speaks of his omnipotence and his power. And then it says his eyes are like lamps of fire, searching out, discovering reality. This is omniscience, penetrating knowledge.
He knows everything. His feet like polished bronze and that is to stamp out judgment...judgment, that attribute of God, the wrath of God. And when he speaks, his voice is like the roar of many waters. What did Daniel see? He saw God. He saw the holiness of God represented, the sovereignty of God, the glory of God, the power of God, the omniscience of God, the judgment of God. Now this vision must have been the source of sweet hope for the old prophet. His heart had been so heavy and all of a sudden God arrived on the scene to give him a first-hand visit.
You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, and his lesson today is from his current study of Daniel's prophecy titled The Future of Israel. You know, when we think of Jesus Christ, I imagine most people usually think of him in fairly typical human form, but the glimpse we caught in today's lesson of Christ in all his divine glory, it's that form, that glorified form, that one day every knee will bow, according to the book of Revelation. And we've never been closer to that day, have we, John?
No, of course not, because we're one day closer to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We get a glimpse of that glory in the Transfiguration, in the Gospels, when he was up on the mountain with the disciples. We get an even more wonderful glimpse of that in the first chapter of Revelation, where this incredible vision of the glorified Christ is presented to the Apostle John. And it really is that vision of Christ that launches the entire book of Revelation. So the book of Revelation begins with this amazing image of the glory of Christ.
And of course it ends with the entire world bowing the knee to Christ, and some willingly and some unwillingly. And I want to remind you that a couple of days ago, we mentioned the booklet, A Jet Tour Through Revelation. This is an incredible thing, I think, because most people feel like they can't quite understand the book of Revelation. And I'm convinced that not only can you understand it, you must understand it, and you will be blessed if you do.
And I've tried to pull it together in one prolonged view, kind of a high altitude view. And I've titled the booklet A Jet Tour Through Revelation. It'll take the mystery out of the book. It'll take you through it from the beginning to the end. And I promise you, you will understand the flow of that book. The panoramic view of the entire book of Revelation is breathtaking. And I think it'll be one of the greatest experiences you've ever had as a believer.
And also, once you understand that full panoramic view, then you can go back and look more closely at the details and you understand how everything fits together. This is a limited time offer, so ask for a free copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation when you contact us today. Thanks, John. Friend, to help you better grasp the life-changing truth found in the Bible's final book, truth that's intended for your blessing if you're a believer, request your free copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation when you get in touch with us today. Email your request to letters at gty.org. You can also ask for your free copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation online at gty.org or when you call our customer service line at 800-55-GRACE.
That number translates to 800-5547223. And when you get in touch, be sure to let us know how you're listening, whether by local radio or online or through the Grace to You Sermons app. Of course, we'd also love to hear how John's verse-by-verse teaching has encouraged you or helped you. Perhaps you've been encouraged by a recent broadcast or you've seen someone come to faith in Christ after listening to verse-by-verse preaching like you heard today. If you have a story like that, email your note to letters at gty.org or send a letter to Grace to You Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week here with us and join us again tomorrow to find out more of what Scripture says about the future of Israel and how that applies to your life. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
