Man, I'm so glad that God can take a frail instrument, touch his mouth and let him speak. I see insight into my own inadequacy and your inadequacy and how God can come at our point of greatest weakness while we lie on the ground as dead men with a mouthful of dirt and He can lift us on our feet and strengthen us to be used for His glory. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Ever read a passage of Scripture over and over again but still have a hard time figuring out what it was saying? Well, today John MacArthur will look at one of those challenging sections of God's Word. It's a portion of Daniel which, at first reading or even second or third, can be a bit hard to grasp. This passage concerns the future of Israel. Then that's the title of John's study. You know, the prophecies of Daniel don't only concern Israel's future, they are also crucial for understanding your future and the future of the entire world. So make sure you know what they mean and what they reveal about the hope that's yours if you're a Christian.
With the message now, here's John. We're going to see six points as we flow through this chapter. Mourning 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, 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.
Now that leads to a third point, what I call mastery by heaven, verse 7. And I, Daniel, alone saw the appearance. And he says, the men that were with me saw not the vision. But watch this, a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves. Now I don't know who these people are.
It doesn't tell us whether they're unbelieving Jews or a bunch of pagans. I don't know who they were. But what amazes me is they never even saw the vision but they knew something was going on and they got out of there. And they began quaking.
They started to shake and they fled to hide. It's a very understandable reaction in the face of the majestic holiness of God. See whenever the holy confronts the unholy, it is an utterly devastating experience. Even though they didn't know what was going on when absolute holiness came on the scene, they were blown away.
And Daniel was left alone and he entered a severe trauma. They couldn't even handle what he could handle and he couldn't handle much of the presence of God. Verse 8, therefore I was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength. He says, I lost all my strength, my comeliness.
That means his appearance, his healthy look, his face, his color turned to a death-like pallor, a grotesque wrenching of his face. Pure panic set in, absolute panic. He was so afraid that his strength was sapped in the presence of God.
I retained no strength. Verse 9, yet heard I the voice of his words. Like the roaring of a sea, I'm sure, he heard him saying something. And when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground. He faded. He utterly lost consciousness.
The Hebrew rendering is, and my face stayed toward the ground. This is an 85-year-old prophet, flat out with a mouth full of dirt, his nose against the ground, has no strength, his friends have flown and he hears the muffled roar of the voice of the Son of God. He was shattered.
He was like a dead man. He had seen the glory of God and heaven had mastered him in just that. So from the morning toward heaven, we see the manifestation of heaven, the mastery by heaven. Fourthly, the messenger from heaven. Now all of a sudden here comes a messenger and behold, a hand touched me. See, it's not a vision.
It's really there. A hand touched me. And angels can take on the form of man.
They have that prerogative. And it set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. Literally the Hebrew says, the angel shook me on my knees and my hands, or you could translate it, the angel set me on my knees and my hands trembling. The angel reaches down now and touches Daniel and Daniel comes back out of his deadness to a point of consciousness and he's able to get up on his hands and knees. And he is there in a trembling, unsteady condition, tiring back and forth, trying to regain enough strength to stand up.
You know, as I began to think about this, I began to look at my own life. Do I have such awe of the presence of God? I rush in and out of His presence without a thought for His majesty. I come to worship Him and when I should be having such great, overwhelming thoughts that literally drain my strength, I'm indifferent or thinking about the world or some other enterprise that has nothing to do with Him. So this 85-year-old prophet of God, weakened by 21 days without anything to eat, with a mouth full of dirt, gets up on his hands and knees and he shakes all over. Verse 11, he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved.
I love that. You know, God doesn't make personal appearances to everybody. This was a special man. There are those in the Bible. David is called a man after God's own heart. Abraham is called a friend of God. John was called the disciple whom Jesus loved. Mary, it says, found favor with God.
There are those people who by their special delight in God and by their consistent obedience in a very real way become greatly beloved. The angel tells him, you're greatly beloved. I think he told him that just take the fear out. This is going to be a good thing, Daniel, not a bad thing.
You don't need to fear judgment, you're greatly beloved. And he gives him two orders. Understand what I say and stand up. In other words, get up, Daniel, so you're going to get the message clear.
We want you to understand. Now get on your feet, come to full attention, get your mind alert and get this message. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling.
Daniel gets up and now he's tottering all over the place trying to stand up. He's seen God, you see, in the glory of the uncreated Christ. Now comes the angel's message. First he has to clear up a detail. Point five, mischief in heaven.
This is fascinating. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel. Oh, would that have taken the pressure off, huh? Don't be afraid, Daniel, you have nothing to fear. For from the first day that you did set your heart to understand and to chasten yourself before your God. And he means by that to fast. You chasten yourself in the fasting. And when you really wanted to understand why the people weren't going back and what the plan was, and you fasted to understand and you prayed to God, I want you to know, Daniel, from the first day your words were heard. And I am come because of those words.
Daniel, don't think God isn't interested. Don't think twenty-one days passed. From the first day you were heard, well where have you been for three weeks?
How far is it from up there to down here? Did you come to Babylon and couldn't find me? Where have you been? Last time you came the same day before I was done with the prayer. Look at verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, one and twenty days. What? A holy angel from the presence of God got hung up in space.
By who? The prince of the kingdom of Persia. And you were hassled by that creature?
Yes. And lo, Michael, Michael is super angel, hero angel, champion angel, one of the chief princes came to help me. And I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now listen, people, after a word of consolation in verse 12 saying your prayer was heard, there's a word of explanation about some mischief going on in heaven.
What is this? Look at verse 13, the prince of the kingdom of Persia. The ruling kingdom of that time was Persia. Persia had a prince, listen, but that prince was not a man. That prince was a demon being. His job was to sow control and order the affairs of Persia as to work against the people and the plans of God.
Now mark it, people, it is an incredible insight. This prince had some very close relationship to Persia. He must have been more than mortal or he couldn't have resisted the coming of a holy angel and wouldn't have had a battle with Michael. He must have been evil because he was trying to stop God from carrying out his plan. And he must have desired there be no future for Israel in redemptive history or he wouldn't have been trying to thwart the plan. And further, verse 20 indicates that he had a continuing relation with the kingdom of Persia, because the angel says, when I'm done with you, Daniel, I got to go back and fight this guy some more.
Now listen to this. Satan has an incredibly clever organization. He has set up a network of demons that are behind all of the activities of human history. There was a demon assigned to Persia. Verse 20 says there's a demon to be assigned to Greece. The Bible says that all the gods of the nations are demons.
And I believe without question throughout all of human history, Satan's network of demons have been behind the scenes endeavoring to do all they can to foil the plan of God. And so God had to send Michael who was super-angel. He's mentioned three times in Daniel, two times in the New Testament, five times in all in the Bible. He is called the archangel which means the first angel. His name means one who is of God. And by the way, in Revelation 12, if you want to read about the most wonderful battle of all, Michael and his hosts in Revelation 12 in the Great Tribulation once and for all destroy all the demonic forces and they win the final battle.
But look what it says in verse 13. Even after the struggle, he says, I remained there with the kings of Persia. He kept his place of dominant influence. In other words, this angel overthrew the prince and kept a good influence in Persia.
The demon lost and so he remained in his place of influence for God with the kings of Persia. And that tells us another thing. Apparently God has assigned holy angels to nations to carry out His purposes. And this warfare goes on all the time.
Now think about that in terms of America. I wonder what's really going on right now. So we see the mourning, the manifestation, the mastery, the messenger, the mischief, and finally the might from heaven.
I'm going to go through this very fast. The angel having dealt with that says, now listen, I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days. For yet the vision is for many days. I'm going to give you a vision, not just for now, not just for the 70 years. I'm going to give you a vision that will stretch for many days.
And he did mean that. Clear to the end of the Tribulation, this vision goes. I'm going to give you a vision that will tell you what's going to happen to your people in the latter days, from Daniel to the Antichrist.
And the issue here is your people, not the Gentiles, but Israel. You wait until you see what happens in chapter 11 when he unfolds the vision. Well, here's Daniel standing there just tottering around. And after he gets that information, verse 15, when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground and became dumb. And some commentators feel that the Hebrew means he fell down all over again. He hit the dirt again. He's never heard anything like this in his life.
He never knew anything about angelic warfare, not like this. And he's lost his speech and he falls down all over again. He's flooded with a renewed state of weakness and he lies prostrate on the ground.
His mouth is slammed shut. He can't even speak. Verse 16, here comes another one, and behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men, another one who appeared in human form, touched my lips. You can't have a prophet who can't speak, right?
It makes it very difficult. So he touched his lips and then I opened my mouth and I spoke and said unto him who stood before me, O my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me and I have lost my strength. The angel touches his lips and gives him the power to speak and he says, Donai, not Donai. Donai is deity. Donai means respect.
Oh, I respect you, sir. He says, my pains, the word sorrow means my writhings or my twistings, my trembling are turned upon me. In other words, I'm a wreck. I don't have any strength. And then verse 17 he says, How can the servant of this my Lord talk with this, my Lord? How in the world can you give me any revelation? I'm a basket case. For as for me straightway there remain no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me came and catch his breath.
Oh, you say, this is really hard on an old 85-year-old guy. Verse 18, Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man and he strengthened me. That's a miracle. All of a sudden these angels have the power to put strength right back into a body. And he said, O man, greatly beloved, fear not, peace be unto thee. Be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak for thou hast strengthened me.
Got his thing together. Daniel was given strength by that angel. That's, to me, an incredible scene to imagine what it would be to stand before the living God.
And there's Daniel. I don't know if a better man lived in his day than that man, but when he was confronted with the living God, he was utterly devastated. I don't care who you are.
I don't care how good you think you are. When you stand some day to face the living God, except you be protected by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in Him, you'll be devastated infinitely beyond this by His very presence. Well, he said, I feel strong now. I'm ready to hear the message. And what a message it must be for all this activity.
Then there's a P.S. in verse 20. Then he said, Do you know why I came unto thee? Do you know why I'm here?
Now that's a kind of a rhetorical question. Daniel's answer would be, Well, no, I guess I don't. What the angel's implying is this. Daniel, you're going to get a whole lot more than you ever asked for, friend. You spent 21 days saying, Lord, what's going to happen to my people?
Are they going back? And you fasted and the extent of your desire was to know this picture of right now, I want you to know you're going to get a visitation from heaven that's going to expand you clear beyond this period till the end of the age. He prayed for the people and their return and their revival. But God let him in on facts that were far beyond his purview. He found out that demons and angels are carrying on warfare in space. He found out about supernatural battles. He found out what it was to stand in the presence of the uncreated Christ. He found out about the supreme power of the holy angels, especially Michael.
He had met the commander-in-chief of the forces. And now when you go back to that thing in verse 1, it kind of makes sense where it says, In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a word was revealed to Daniel whose name was called Beldahjazar and the word was true and involved a great conflict. Listen, sometimes, you know, we...I just think of this so often, we doddle around with petty things. Boy, you know, I tell you, it gets sometimes so disgusting. We piddle around with petty little things while God is trying to let us have glimpses of monumental eternal truth. You know, some Christians, they don't really ever get into their own study of the Bible.
They piddle around with churchianity. Never, ever plumb the depths. The angels said, You're going to get a lot more than you asked for, Daniel. And by the way, verse 20, And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia and when I'm gone forth, lo, the saints of Greece shall come.
In other words, I've got to give you this message quick because I've got to get back to the battle. I'm fighting the Persians on the behalf of Israel. He's fighting Israel and I've got to make sure I'm there to do my work.
Is that an insight? God actually carries out His will through the angelic conflict. Credible. And this angel says, I've got to hurry and get my message so I can get back to the war. And when I'm done with this Persian deal, Greece is going to come along and I've got to fight that one too. P.S. But I'll show you that which is noted in the Scripture of truth. I'm going to give you the revelation before I go. And it's true. And there's none that holds with me in these things but Michael, your prince.
Oh, what a word of comfort. And he says, I'll tell you something. Between me and Michael, we can handle it. It's all I need is Michael. It's all I'm up there battling.
If I get in trouble, I get hung up for 20 days. Michael fires out and it settles it. And then he calls him, Michael, your prince. The prince of the people of God. Oh, he must be an incredible creature. You think there's anything in this chapter worth preaching? I hope. You know what I see in this chapter?
Let me run this by a fast, in about 30 seconds. Listen. I see insight into God, His holiness, His majesty and His glory. I see insight into the role of Jesus Christ. I see insight into the angels and demons and their warfare. I see insight into the heart and life of a man without equal, Daniel, a man of prayer. I see insight into the stuff that is the core of intercessory prayer, a broken heart, a selfless heart. I see insight into the first response to any crisis again which is prayer. I see insight into the condescension of God that God should come to man, shocks me.
Why does He bother? I see insight into the grace of God who can take a frail, weak, trembling man, touch his mouth and make him speak for God. I tell you, that's one that hits me. Man, I'm so glad that God can take a frail instrument, touch his mouth and let him speak. I see insight into my own inadequacy and your inadequacy and how God can come at our point of greatest weakness while we lie on the ground as dead men with a mouth full of dirt and He can lift us on our feet and strengthen us to be used for His glory. It's a message of condescension. It's a message of heaven coming to earth and infusing power into men that they may speak for God.
What a glorious thing. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, helping you understand Daniel's vision of the future of Israel. That's the title of John's current study here on Grace to You, The Future of Israel.
John, whether we're talking about the end times or any other biblical topic, it's always a joy to hear how God uses our teaching to create a deeper love for Christ and for biblical truth in His people. And you have a couple of letters along those lines, so take a minute and share these with our listeners. This is one of my favorite times to look at these letters and realize that the Word of God is doing what God promised it would do. It's changing lives.
Here's a first letter from Evelyn. She writes, I've been listening to your broadcast for about three years now. I've listened to over a thousand sermons on the Grace to You sermon app.
Wow. Your ministry has enriched my life so much. Each morning I begin my day with prayer. Then I read the devotionals drawing near and strength for today.
And you can read those too, by the way, online. And she goes on, while I'm getting ready for work, I listen to the daily Grace to You broadcast. When that's done, I click on Grace Stream until I leave for work. I am currently working my way through the big white book, Biblical Doctrine. I have learned so much from the books you have written, and I'm a proud owner of the MacArthur Study Bible. My walk with the Lord has become richer and more intimate. I share your material with others and always recommend Grace to You to people who desire to learn more about our dear Christ Jesus. She signs her name, Evelyn.
We need to give her a PhD or something. That is amazing. Great letter.
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His Word is life. And I thank the Lord of Hosts for Grace to You. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Ed.
And by the way, thanks to all our staff who especially work on the website of everything. Blessed people. People are connecting with our ministry in so many ways, and we're grateful for every opportunity we have to proclaim the truth, whether it's through radio, television, apps, Grace Stream, wherever it is. And you need to know that when you support Grace to You, you bring biblical truth to people of all ages in all places of the world, really, using a variety of media in order to cast as wide a net as possible for the purpose of reaching the people with the Word of God. You're a part of that.
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You can mail your tax-deductible gift to Grace to You, post office box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. You can also make a one-time donation or set up a convenient recurring donation when you go to our website, gty.org. When you visit gty.org, make sure you take advantage of the thousands of free Bible study resources, tools that are designed to help you understand and apply the Bible to your life. At the website, you'll find blog articles, daily devotionals, and more than 3,600 of John's sermons, all free to download in audio format. You can also read those sermons in transcript format, and if you're not sure what to do first, a great option is Grace Stream. That's a continuous broadcast of John's teaching. It goes through the entire New Testament from Matthew chapter 1 all the way to Revelation chapter 22.
It just plays continually and then starts over again when it's finished. You can dive in today and start listening. Our web address one more time, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for listening today, and be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next installment of John's look at the future of Israel. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
