Main Street Church Sermon (17.37 - )

We're still in Daniel. Duh, surprise. But interestingly enough, the tone of today's passage, and we're looking into chapter 10, kind of matches what we've experienced already this morning. It's a little on the downer side, it's very sobering. It's not like last week.

Last week we were looking at the end of chapter 9 and we looked at this unbelievable prophecy about the end times that people have been scratching their heads about and wondering for millennia, literally. This is what we looked at last week. Big. It's the biggest splash in all of Daniel, is what we looked at last week.

So today is going to be kind of a letdown, regardless. But it's a letdown in a couple of ways.

So I wanted to start off by setting our mood. And we're already almost there. Setting the mood for what Daniel is thinking and what he's experiencing as we come into what he's doing today. And setting the mood, and a picture came in my mind, and then it dawned on me, it was a picture, this picture right here, which is a cover on an LP. Uh that that I think we had or maybe I think we do, yeah.

But there was a, this is a man who's in great grief. And this is really supposed to be a picture of Daniel in great grief. or people like Daniel, who were hauled away by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon out of Israel in 586. and were hauled off to Babylon, into captivity. And this is the grief.

So this is kind of a grief and a prayerful mournfulness. But this came from an LP from an album by a group called Lamb. And it's these two guys right here. And in 1972, they formed this two-man group. They're Messianic Jews.

They believe Jesus is the Messiah. And they also preserve their Jewish background. And they kind of blended those together. And pretty much, Set the standard for contemporary messianic worship music without question. Just without question.

And these two guys are Rick Levi Coghill, he calls himself, and Joel Chernoff. Joel Chernoff is still around doing a lot of things in the worship industry right now. But they wrote this song that this picture is meant to portray and it really captures The heart and thinking of Daniel, as well as so many of the captives who were led out. And they wrote a song called By the Rivers of Babylon. And it's straight out of Psalm 137.

And if you've never read this, It's just an extremely moving thing.

Now, you know, the Psalms, a lot of Psalms are written by David circa 1000 BC. Clearly, this wasn't written by him because this was written about the Babylonian captivia, which is circa 600 to 500 BC.

So it was written after that. Let me just show you what the front end of it is, and I'll explain it a little bit. It sets the tone. By the rivers of Babylon, and by the way, the rivers plural are the Tigris and Euphrates river, right? That's in Mesopotamia.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. These are the captives who have been taken out of Israel and transplanted to Mesopotamia. We sat by those rivers and we wept, remembering Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps, which is a way of saying we hung up our instruments, knowing we'd never need them any more. Why is there a reason to sing?

anymore.

So we took our harps. and we hung them up on the willow trees. For there our captors demanded of us songs. And our tormentors, jubilation, saying, sing for us one of the songs of Zion. Sing us a happy song.

All those happy songs you guys sing of Zion. But how How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? How can we? And and if I forget you, Jerusalem, May my right hand forget its skill.

Now, many think the right hand losing its skill is a euphemism for holding a sword, but I think in this case, since we're talking about music, It's the ability to play the lyre in the harps. It says, you know, if I forget Jerusalem, may my hand forget... How to play the harp again. It's just remorseful. Read the rest of it.

That's just an intro to it.

Now I wanted to play you the song, but I found there's copyright problems.

So, I can't play you the song.

However, I can play you a substitute. And it's a song written by Dorothy. What? Yeah. This one right here.

And uh Eight. You wrote it for a class, didn't you? It was my fun. It was your final in a music composition class. And at the time, Dorothy and I were involved with another couple in a singing group that almost went professional and actually gave up our jobs, our day jobs, to do music.

And thank God we didn't. But uh but I want to play you this song instead. Dorothy wrote this and our foursome. Quartet, which was extremely busy. I mean, really, really busy.

We're working our day jobs and we're working a lot of other weekends and retreats and stuff. This is one of the few a cappella songs that we sang. But it's I I tend to think it's inspired not only by by Lamb, the group we just looked at, but just Psalm 137. The mournfulness. The lament.

How can you ask me to sing songs of joy? when everything's gone bad.

So just give a listen to this. Bye. No. What is of that? Help me long We lay down and wept for sight.

We honour hops upon the willows day. Glad song.

Song fell from my lips. No more for their The rock have just demanded song. But how could we sing? We sing of Zion, O Lord, remember us. Oh Lord, restore to us Cherus the land, Cherusal by the waters of Berlin.

We long for thee, O Zion, our songs of joy. Have been turned to sand. How can we sing in this foreign land? How can we see in this foreign land? There's more to that song.

There's a happy half of that song. But uh That captures the mood that Daniel's in today. That's a captive. and by seeing a vision of the future for his people, for Israel, that's deeply shaken him to the core and undone him. You're going to see a man today who's in the midst of traumatic news of the future.

And so that's who we're seeing today. That's who we're going to join.

Well, I told you a while ago that the last half of Daniel is nothing but visions. The front half of Daniel is a narrative. Remember his friends in the fiery furnace. Remember Daniel the Lion's Den. It's a narrative, it's a historical narrative.

But then when you get to the last third, last half of the book, it's four visions, four visions that he got. During those narratives, that he's stuck in his hip pocket, didn't say anything in the front half narratives, but now at the end of Daniel, he says, Well, you know, while this was going on, I had this vision. And so now we have these four visions at the end of Daniel, where he finally comes clean and tells us about what he's seen and tries to explain them to us.

So today, in all of these, we spin the wheel of visions and we come with vision number four. It's the last one. But this last vision... Is pretty unique. I mean, not only last week's vision, which is just profound.

But this one is just occupies a lot of the pages of Daniel. It starts in chapter 10, where we'll be today, but then it continues into chapter 11 and then continues into chapter 12. And that's the last chapter of Daniel.

So from here on out in Daniel, we're looking at one vision. one vision. And this is what has profoundly changed Daniel. And today we're only going to have a chance to look at chapter 10. And we'll have to save the other two chapters.

For a while. Yeah. So let's take a look and see what Daniel's going through. It starts off like this in Daniel 10, verse 1. In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, A word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Beltashazzar, but the word was true, and it was a great conflict.

And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision.

So this is actually an introduction to what you're going to read next. This is like when you start off, this is like when you have a very complex essay or paper you're going to read. There's like a front end that has kind of a summary of what it's all about. This is a summary of what's to come. Daniel sees a vision.

The division is about a great conflict, and in Hebrew it's a massive word, a big conflict. big conflict. And he understands the word and he understands what it means. And this is why what's going to follow in the next verses are so traumatic to him. And he's going to tell us that.

So this is the summary at the beginning of the entire thing. That's the opening to this to these three chapters.

So he says In those days oh, by the way, let me go back and point out something really quick. The third year of Cyrus.

So, you know, everything was dated basically by years of a king. They didn't have a Gregorian calendar. They did, but everyone used different calendars by the king.

So Cyrus was the guy who was in charge when the Babylonian kingdom was taken over. right, when it was just sudden, poof, overnight. Literally overnight, the Babylonian kingdom comes to an end and the Persians... come in and take over everything. The date of that was, we're pretty sure when that happened, was 539 BC, 539.

This is how many years after 539? Three years after that.

So you go backwards. 536 BC? Following the math yet?

So this is likely 536 BC. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586. 586 BC. This is likely 536 BC.

So we are now. Data point. Fifty years. after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Israel's only going to be in captivity to the Persians for 70 years.

So we have about two decades left in the captivity. That's where we are. That's how you can get your data point. By the way, too, this thing right here, third year of Cyrus, is the last calendar reference we have to Daniel being alive.

So people ask, when did Daniel die? We don't know. How long did he live? All we know is he lived to the third year of Cyrus.

So that would be 50 years out of the destruction of a temple. He was taken captive probably a little before or after the destruction of the temple, maybe by a handful of years. It says he was a youth when he showed up in the Babylonian kingdom. Youth, what's that mean? I don't know.

8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. I don't know. So if you want to have a date for how old Daniel is right here, it's 50 years since the temple destruction. Plus the youth word, let's say 10 years, so maybe 60.

So he's somewhere in his late 50s, mid-60s. He's an old man. But this is as old as we have references that he existed to the third year of Cyrus. After that we don't know. Don't know.

Okay, just wanted to point that out.

Okay, verse 2.

So in those days, this is still part of the intro. In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks.

Now I circle three weeks because that'll be important in a second. And I know we're doing a lot of math this morning. 586 to 539 minus 3, 53650.

Okay, I know that's hard. But how many days is three weeks? Remember that.

Okay.

So he was mourning for 21 days, for three weeks. Weeks morning. I ate no delicacies, no meat, or wine. And by the way, he is the operational CEO of all of Persia, the largest superpower in the world. And he's in charge of the place.

I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks. For the full three weeks. He was in Morning.

Okay, so something about this vision causes him to mourn. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, that is the Tigris, I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, A man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold from hupaz around his waist. His body was like. barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words, the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. This would cause me to fall down dead.

However, this is a striking resemblance to some descriptions of the returning Jesus. Anyway, we'll just leave that on the table.

So, this guy shows up while he's outside at the river. And I, Daniel, alone, saw the vision. For the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. They took off.

So I was left alone and saw this great vision. No strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed and I retained no strength. My radiant appearance. I was really bummed out.

So I retained no strength. It's amazing how much it drained him of strength. But now, if you'd seen something like that while you were outside, on broad daylight. you would probably have no strength left either. I've only had one time in my life where I was so scared my knees buckled.

Have you ever had that experience? I mean, I thought that was just in novels you read about it, but I actually, my knees gave up. I was so fearful. It was after I almost died in a small plane crash. And when uh I realized we hadn't died.

I'll tell you the story some other time. By the way, when I realized we hadn't died, I opened the door on the right side of the plane. and then tried to get out of the plane as fast as possible. and in getting out, my knees wouldn't work anymore. Because I was sure we were dead men.

And then I realized it's not just in novels. This happens in real life.

So I retained no strength. Then I heard the sound of his words. And as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. He passed out. He's out cold on the ground.

And then something happens. And this is the theme for this morning. A touch happens. What? Verse 10.

And behold, a hand touched me. And set me trembling on my hands and knees.

So now he's not passed out on the ground. At least he's up on his hands and knees. because someone touched him. And he said to me, Oh Daniel, man greatly loved, Understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright for now. I have been sent to you.

Oh, okay. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up, but trembling. His knees sort of worked. enough to stand up and to hear this message that's coming. 12.

So he said to me, Fear not, Daniel, For from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard. And I have come because of your words.

So Daniel puts up a prayer in his humility and says, God, I need understanding. And this fella basically says, from the moment you were there asking, We heard you. We heard you. Was it really a delay? The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.

What? What? This is if you're a Bible student, this is where you stand back. And you scratch your head and say, What? First of all, there's a lot of things to digest right here.

First of all, The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me. It's like some kind of. Authority and power of Persia, which remember, this is the superpower of the world. He whoever that is, opposed him, withstood him, pushed back. It's like there's some kind of wrestling match going on and he pushed back against me He withstood me.

How long? Three weeks.

So Daniel was in mourning for three weeks. Why?

Well, because at the beginning of those three weeks, he was starting to understand this vision, which he'll talk about in a second. But he didn't hear a reply from heaven for three weeks. And it caused them to be more and more Sad. and mournful.

Well, so now this guy's explaining. Look, from the minute you asked, we're on top of it. But you know what? I got kind of involved with this authority person figure prints in Persia and I I just couldn't get away. You know, like when you call someone and say, I left you a message, why did you do something?

Well, you know, I couldn't get away. Why?

Well, I was wrestling with the authority of Persia. What? This hints at so many things that are said in scriptures about the fact that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood. There are authorities and principalities and powers in the spiritual world that we just have not got a clue about. And we're getting a glimpse into it right here, a glimpse into it.

So in a way in which there's a spiritual prince authority, That's hidden in charge of what's going on in Persia, influencing what's going on there. Then somehow this guy, maybe we'll call him an angel, probably, is somehow engaged in a powerful way in this wrestling match against that. authority in Persia. And so I couldn't get away. It took me three weeks to get here.

Sorry you've been mourning for three weeks.

So it also brings up a wonderful thing about the fact that heaven's responsive to your prayers. But sometimes the forces of evil get in the way of the timing in the responses. But it's not like God doesn't hear you. Twenty-one days.

So who comes to help? Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. One of the few names of angels that we know is Michael. Gabriel, we know about, he shows up in Daniel and again in the New Testament with Mary and with the father John the Baptist. Gabriel shows up.

Michael shows up here in another place. Michael shows up as a power, right? A power, an angelic power. The only other angel we have a name for, there's only three we know. Lucifer, Satan.

Do you know any others? Ariel? I don't know, is it? Yeah, could be. We can debate this, but it's it's interesting That a power like this has spiritual power and pushback against powers of evil.

They're not they're not voluminously named. You would think that there would be kind of like a who's who description of these angelic beings in the Old Testament.

Well the who's who basically for us is Michael and Gabriel.

So here's Michael. He's come to help. He wherever he was, he came to help. Ugh. It was 21 days, so that's the three weeks that that Daniel was in mourning.

He goes on, For I was left there with the kings of Persia. And came to make you understand what's to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.

So again, like we looked at last week. This is charting out the future of Israel in what's being said. And then a touch happens again. This time to his lips. Could he not stand before, but he couldn't speak.

So when he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground, And I was mute.

So he's standing, but he basically does this. and doesn't know what to say. He's without words. He can't speak. He can't speak.

Now, I've never experienced that personally in my life. I've always been able to talk. In almost any circumstance, except. Except One time in this building right across the parking lot over here, City Hall, We were confronting the city council one time about a serious problem we had with the city. And uh and I I picked the short straw and had to speak to the city council.

And I got so emotionally Tied up, waiting for my time to speak to the city council, that suddenly my mouth grew so dry. You know that experience?

So dry, you feel like your tongue is sticking to the top of your mouth. And so when it came the time for me, they announced for me to get up and address the city council. I could not speak.

So, as I walked from my seat up to the, I actually sat right there at the table in front of the city council. nicely confrontational way. I sat down in my steps from my seat to that seat in front. I prayed, God, you have to give me lips because I cannot speak. I just can't.

I can't do it. The mechanics of my mouth wouldn't work. I had lots of things I wanted to say, but the mechanics of my mouth wouldn't work. That's where Daniel is right here. He looks down and his mouth doesn't work.

Now why would he need a mouth? All you want to do is listen to what this guy has to say, right?

Well, you might have some questions.

So we continue on. And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man, this looks like a human being, touched my lips. touched my lips. And then I opened my mouth, and spoke. And I said to him who stood before me, O my lord, by reason of the vision Pains have come upon me.

Pains have come upon me. and I retain no strength. How can my Lord's servant talk with my Lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me. He's just devastated.

No strength. No breath. Can't speak until just now. And then another touch happens in the story, this one that's a strengthening touch. Verse 18.

Again, Again, one having the appearance of a man. touched me and strengthened me. And he said, O man greatly loved Twice he's mentioned that this time. I find that very encouraging. O man greatly loved, fear not.

Peace be with you. Be strong. and of good courage. And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me. And then he said, Do you know why I have come to you?

Just kind of a rhetorical question actually. But before it's answered he says this But now I'll return to fight against the Prince of Persia.

So it was a fight, it was a wrestling match going on against the Prince of Persia. And we're not talking about Cyrus. We're not talking about Cyrus. Cyrus, the third year of Cyrus, Cyrus has already been influenced by God to allow. the Israelites who were in captivity to go back and to rebuild the temple.

It doesn't seem like the fight is with the king of Persia, Cyrus. but some other great authority, some Prince of Persia. And that's why we look at this as being a spiritual realm of a wrestling match going on.

So whoever this guy is. She says, Do you know where I came to? And oh, by the way, pretty soon. I gotta go back to the fight. I have to go back to the fight in Persia.

What? And when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.

Well, now you're Bible students, and we've looked at some of the previous visions that Daniel has had. And it talks very explicitly about the fact that the Babylonians will succumb to the Persians, the Medo-Persians, the Medo-Persians will succumb to Alexander the Great and the Greeks. Ready for a math test? Alexander think three hundred BC. 300 BC, that's Alexander the Great.

They they boy, they ran over the entire world. But this is five thirty six B C 536 to 300 is 236, yeah, it's a couple centuries.

So it's interesting because whoever this guy is, he says, you know, I've brought this vision to you, we'll discuss the vision in just a second, I brought this vision to you, but hey, I got to head back to the, I have to head back to this thing that's going on, and when I go out, guess what? Alexander the Great's going to be coming. This guy's Gonna be doing heavy stuff like two to three centuries from now. Yeah. That tells us he's a created spiritual being by God.

Probably an angel. But we never think about the fact, especially when we're talking about geopolitical events. Alexander the Great, probably one of the most renowned and up-and-coming young commanders of any empire that's ever existed. Alexander the Great. Who completely steamrolled the entire world, completely took over the Medo-Persian world.

I mean, really made a mark so that Greek and the Greek language. was was ensconced about across the entire earth, which was Fortunate. for the first century. Because when the first century came along and the Word of God came along, It was translated into Greek and guess what? Almost everyone in the civilized world could speak Greek.

because they're Alexander degree. Universal language. And guess what? Because of the Romans who came after the Greeks, the Romans who were so good in their engineering of infrastructure, they built roads that last to this very day. I've walked on some of them.

And because of that, in the first century, universal language and unimpeded travel on paved roads, the gospel moved like wildfire.

So don't tell me God is not in control. of Alexander the Great. and all the Roman Caesars. Because he laid a foundation for the gospel to be all around the world. Fascinating.

But I'll tell you what's inscribed in the book of truth. Before I go. Before I go. Let me tell you what's in the book of truth.

Now, that's an interesting phrase, the book of truth. The Book of Truth It's kind of an enigma to us what he's talking about. But what he's really talking about is there's truth, that truth is the way things are. Truth is the way things are. Um Trained as a scientist, scientists always look at the created world.

Of course, they won't call it the created world, they'll call it nature. But they'll look at the created world and they'll say, look, we can dispute about what we think we're seeing, but we all believe in the fact that there's just one reality about this created world. There's only one reality, and we're all kind of poking in the dark trying to figure out what that reality is. But there's only one reality, and we call that truth. There's one truth about the way things are.

People in the hard sciences think that way naturally, and they understand that many times we are handicapped in trying to understand the true nature of the way things are. But when we get there, there will be kind of a ring of truth to it, and the scientists who check each other will say, Yeah, I think you got it. I think you got it. I think that's right. That's the way things really are.

Because our senses can only see so little. That by putting your senses together, putting together logic, we have to infer the way things really are. But there is no doubt. And in the hard sciences, there's a general accept that there's only one way. things are.

So, when you look at this, he's saying the book of truth. He's saying the one way and the way things really are. Not only is it just what it is existentially right now, But it's in a book, it's been written, and that's the way it is, and that's the way it'll always be. It's an idea of indelible ink. Indelibly.

That's the way things are.

So when he's talking about prophecies about the future. You apply that thinking to that, he's saying, look, The way things are And the way things have been preordained that they are in the book where they've been written in indelible ink, these are things will actually happen. We're not guessing. They're already written in the book of the way things are. That's how he's saying that.

I'll let you know what's inscribed there. By the way. There's another book that's referenced in the Bible. from the Old Testament to the new. Uh about names being written.

in the Lamb's Book of Life. which was inscribed before the beginning of the universe. And we're talking about those of us who've given our lives to Jesus. And by faith, follow the Creator and His Son who made everything. Did you know that that is so?

that is so known ahead of time by God that he wrote your name in the book of life. before the creation of the universe. Indelible ink, cannot be changed. It's the way it is. Yeah.

Wow. He says, You know, in this battle, there's none who contends by my side. Except these. Except Michael. Your prints.

So evidently guys to help in this spiritual battle are in short supply. None else have come to help me. Here I am in Persia, wrestling away in Persia. kind of wrestling down this superpower to make sure that it stays within the bounds of what God intends for it. No one else has come to help me except Michael.

Your Prince Daniel, he's your prince. What? Your prince? Michael is a spiritual angelic authority. that exists for the nation of Israel.

What? What? That's what it says. Your prince, Daniel, your prince. Not the Persian prince, your prince is Michael.

Now, if you read much about Israeli history in the modern era, There's a lot of occasions for you to say, You know, that shouldn't have happened. Boy, weren't they lucky. But in fact of the matter, I believe it's God enforcing his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm a great fan historically of reading about the Six-Day War that happened in 1967. I visited Israel three years after that.

and saw machine gun bullet holes across the sides of buildings. I saw anti-tank wired missile wires laying all over a battlefield. I mean, I saw buildings still completely destroyed. Yeah. And yet, in that six-day war, No one gave them a hope of a chance.

No one. I mean, we're talking about nearly the entire Arabic world. decided it was time to finally snuff out these guys in Israel. And in six days, Israel completely swamped them. You're gonna say, Glenn?

It's just the beginning. I mean, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, the nation should not have, even before that in 1948, should not have been reconstituted into a nation. I know no other case where there was an ethnic group of people who had a nation who were then dispersed and sent all over the place because of military conquest, and then.

and then millennia later reconstituted back in their original land? Are you kidding me? Miracles on miracles on miracles. I I think, this is just my opinion, I think Michael's behind a lot of that. by command from God himself.

And I think there's more going on. We have to be very careful when we talk about Israel. It's turned into a. uh a political hot potato today, which it should never really be. And we could discuss that an awful lot.

But it is sobering when you read about the promises that God makes to Israel in the Old Testament. and how he decides he's going to stand by them, and how it has worked out in practice, in reality, and in truth in our modern era. It kind of makes you. Take a deep breath and say, you know, we need to watch Israel and we need to respect because these are the people who are the apple of God's eye.

Now on the flip side of that, I'll just to be balanced on this. The last time I visited Israel, I was highly impressed about the fact that Israel today is almost nearly totally. Holy secular. Almost, almost atheistic, well atheistic secular. almost all of Israel.

And it made me wonder How can someone call themselves a Jew, people of God? and completely disregard their God. How long does God put up with that?

So there's a there's a A ticking moment coming where that's going to be judged, I think.

So we just need to be realistic about this. Jesus himself in the first century before he was killed When he was asked about the building of the temple, the wonderful stones that are in it, if you go to Israel, go to Jerusalem, visit it, you'll see some stones that make up the wall around the temple, and you will not believe how big they are. And how can you move something that heavy? But they mark remarked about that to Jesus and and Jesus says, well, you know, Pretty soon here, not one of these stones is going to be left on another. I mean, it's an amazing claim for one thing.

And then Jesus went on, and we talked about last week about, he says, because here's the deal. Bye. The Jews here didn't recognize the day of their visitation. They didn't realize when the Messiah, the Mashiach had actually come and visited Jerusalem. And because of that, because he came to his house and was denied His house got taken down later.

And that was done by the people of the Prince who is to come. We read that last week in Denmark. the Romans. You know, there's none who contends by my side against these except Michael. Your prince.

And we jump into chapter 11. He's continuing the discussion. And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mead, I stood up to confirm and to strengthen him. By the way, there's some confusion about Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. Darius the meat and Cyrus the Persian.

Uh during the time of the Medo-Persian Empire, the Medo Persian Empire. These two guys seem both be at about the same time. It looks like Darius the Mede, which is half of the ethnic group of the Medo-Persians. Darius the Mede was kind of an underking, an underprince, a super general that reported to Cyrus.

So when you talk about power and authority, when Babylon is taken down, sometimes it says Darius the Mede took him down, sometimes it says Cyrus. That's not a typo. That's the fact that we have two kingdoms joined, the Medes and the Persians, who took over the Babylonian kingdom.

So in this case, he says, back when the actual taking down of the Babylonians went down, and Darius was the under guy to Cyrus. As for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

So whoever this guy is, He's actively working with. with rulers and authorities in Persia. not against the strongholds. Uh that that's a fascinating thing. W when you talk about geopolitics, this just makes your head scramble.

I was working with him. back when that happened. And now, this is where you should hear the drum roll.

Now... I'll show you The truth. But not this week. You can read. I left off in chapter eleven.

If you want to see the whole thing, read 11 and 12, okay? Read 11 and 12.

Well, we're going to have to leave it right there. But I thought it was fascinating to look over Daniel's shoulder as he's coming on this. this whole thing with the beings that talk to him, how he's just totally wasted and mourning. I mean, all this. The human side of Daniel fascinated me as this whole chapter is just there as a build-up to the prophecy.

The whole cha- all of chapter 10 is to focus on Daniel's emotional struggles. In coming on this news that caused him to mourn for three weeks as he's waiting to hear from God. Because This guy got hung up in the battles with Persia. It's fascinating.

So I want to look at Daniel a second because it it's very human. It's very human. He says, when no strength was left in me. And you notice I emphasize this a couple times. Touch.

It's fascinating.

In this chapter, when we're talking about how downtrodden that Daniel is, how disturbed and mournful he is about what he knows and understands about the future for his people, as he's seeing that. He's crushed. And he's touched.

So I wanted to just focus on touch for a second. Because I think God is in the business. of coming to you at your lowest place. and touching you. and touching.

I I read a I read a psychological study about a decade back about how retail people can have a better, more more welcoming impact on customers. And they did a touch study and found out that even the smallest inconsequential touch. made the experience Delightful. and memorable. And so what they quoted actually, they had in this study, They deliberately had they deliberately had cash register people at a grocery store.

And uh And that's back when you're doing this kind of thing and you're moving stuff past like that. That's the old, but they were doing this. And so then at the end of the transaction, after removing all these cans and you're putting all these stuff in here, and then the payment process happens, they train some of these cashiers to say, now when you take the cash or you use a car or something like that, Just make sure that your finger touches part of their hand or part of another finger. I mean, just a tiny bit, just in passing. in passing.

And then they did surveys of the people who'd come through that grocery store. And said, so what do you remember about the grocery store, the layout? What do you remember about the cashier? Every single case where there was just a little. They remembered the cashier and they gave them a higher rating than if they hadn't Touch.

Touch for us is such a human thing, right? I mean it It's one thing to have a Zoom call or a telephone call with someone or pass some texts. But when they're in your presence and they can touch, then you know they're near. There's something magic. about this.

And so in the case with Daniel, who's so downtrodden, who's so depressed, who's so mournful. Every time he goes into these funks in just chapter 10, A touch happens. And it's a wonderful way. It's a wonderful way to reassure you that God sees you and He knows you and He has come near. Near enough to touch.

So I just wanted to look at that, because I think it's a wonderful way to cap this off.

So we're talking about touch through all this. The first touch, if you recall, was a touch that allowed him to stand. And so I started thinking about other passages where Touch happened and it caused someone to stand.

So these are just ones that came to my mind. The Holy Spirit brought up other places in the Bible where a touch costs someone to stand. And the first thing I thought about was Peter's mother-in-law. I'm gonna check this out, Matthew 8:14. She was sick, and when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.

And he touched her hand. And the fever left her. He touched her hand, and she rose, began to serve him.

Now he could have just stood outside the house. And what Shazam, you're healed. And she'd pop up and go, Good job, Jesus. Let's have dinner, right? He could have done that.

But instead he comes right in and he touches her hand. And her fee relieves. That's totally An extra. in the whole healing process. I'm near.

I'm right here. Yeah. And it caused her to stand. Another one.

Now, this leper, you're probably thinking this already. Matthew 8:2, this happened before that. Behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, so he was down. saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand.

and touched it. And a hush fell over the crowd, I will add to this to the narrative. Why?

Well, because lepers are ceremonially unclean. You touch a leper when they're unclean. You are now unclean. I mean, it was such a big deal. That lepers, when they went out in the public square, If you didn't know they were a leper, which could happen, what they had to do instead was they had to honk their horn all the time.

The lepers had to constantly say, unclean, unclean. There's a way of saying, stay back, stay back, stay back, stay back, unclean. And that's the way that they could keep people from being unintentionally unclean. It was a big deal. And so everywhere the lepers went, where they're screaming unclean, the crowds would part, they'd move away, they'd make space.

Jesus decides To violate that space, and come right in close to him. and heal him. Totally gratis. Doesn't have to do that. Could just go Shazam, you're clean.

Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be clean. and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. He touched him.

There's a great, I think I've mentioned this before, there's a great video series that I really fell in love with. Ah man, I can't remember the name of it now, but it was so old it was originally produced on videotapes. Those are those black squares that have Anyway, the videotape, they decided to dramatize the entire book of Matthew. And they decided as a discipline that they would never put any words in anyone's mouth in the narrative of the dramatic reenactment that was not written in the book of Matthew.

So it was word for word Matthew. Nothing extra, nothing added. you know, as opposed to the chosen today, where there is, there are words added. many of them very thoughtfully done, so I'm not battling that. But they decided we'll just take Matthew's text and we'll videoize it.

So in this scene right here, Right here. I so appreciated what they did at this scene right here. Because again, Jesus comes into this open area, everyone's pushing back, there's more than one leper that's there. I mean, the crowds are pushing away from this guy, and then suddenly he makes this call out to Jesus across this open area that people have backed out of so they don't get unintentionally unclean. And he makes his appeal to him and says, You know, I know you can make me clean.

Will you make me clean? Right? And there's this tension in this dramatic moment. And then and then Jesus with the apostles with this open space. starts to take steps slowly toward The guy.

Now, these are all director's interpretations, so we don't know if it's happened this way, but this is pretty good. Jesus deliberately closed the distance. And then they cut the cameras of people going, What, like, what's he doing? What's he doing? What's he doing?

You can't do this. This is wrong. You can't do this. You'll be like, you know, you can see people thinking, you're this is crazy, man. And Jesus slowly inches his way over to the leper.

The leper's looking at him like he's thinking, maybe I need to back away? I mean, should I stay here? I'm supposed to respect people so they don't get unclean. It's really a great tension moment and Jesus comes up close enough. where he finally just touches him, he says, I will be clean.

And there is a hush. that falls over the crab. And at that moment, they did something that I so deeply appreciate in this series. while he's touching the leper and the leper realizes he's clean. And everyone's silent because Jesus just broke every protocol in the book.

Then the leper starts laughing like a hyena. When he discovers what's happened, he just starts laughing with joy, just laughing with joy, almost uncontrollable. And Jesus, you know, he's kind of like, whoa, you know, you can slow down a little bit here. It's really kind of fun. And then, since Jesus has already touched him, then the leper decides in this hilarious, joyful laughter to embrace Jesus.

He comes up and he's just, whoa, bear hugs him, bear hugs him, and they're dancing around in the dirt in this open space. He's laughing. Then finally, Jesus starts laughing. They're laughing, hugging like this. People around start laughing, and then they get so animated in this laughter and this bear hug because of this healing.

They both fall on the ground, bear hugging. They fall on the ground and start rolling on the ground, laughing, just laughing. Dust is raising, and then finally they're exhausted and they let go of each other and they're both laying in the dirt and Jesus is just smiling at them. And the other man smiling back. It's such a great scene.

Such joy Such joy And it all started because Jesus came near. and touched.

Well, we saw in the middle of this too there was a touch to speak. in order to say something. This actually has famous precedence in the Old Testament. Jeremiah, the great prophet. The prophet of the captivity, he was alive at the time Daniel was alive.

He was in Jerusalem telling the people in Jerusalem, you've got to get your act together, or someone's going to come in and take over Israel. No, no. God would never abandon Jerusalem.

Well, you know, so that was Jeremiah's message: you got to get your act together. He's there when the Babylonians actually come in and take over the place. And instead of standing on the street corners and saying, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, he weeps. He weeps. For Jerusalem, for Israel.

So, Jeremiah, before he gets this great position, at the beginning of the book of Jeremiah, we're talking about how Jeremiah became a prophet.

So, God calls him in chapter 1. Chapter 1, and this is his response. And I said, Well, Lord God, behold, I don't know how to speak, I'm only a youth. I don't know how to speak. But the Lord said to me, Don't say I'm only a youth.

Don't say I'm only a youth. And I skip verse 8, you get to verse 9. Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Behold, I put my words in your mouth. a touch to create speech.

Now, some of you heard my story. This is very much like my story. I identify a lot with this because when I became a believer at the age of 15, Mm. I had a contract with God. about my conversion.

And in my contract, I said, Well God, you know. I I don't mind following you and giving my heart to you, but look, here's the deal. I am so painfully shy. That I've made myself physically ill on many occasions, throwing up ill. I failed tests because I was too shy to ask for a pencil to write on the paper.

Until the 45 minutes of the tests were over and I handed a blank page and the teacher said, what happened?

Well, I didn't have a pencil.

So This is true stories.

So when I gave my life to Jesus, I said, okay, but here's the deal. There is just no way in the world I'm going to talk to people. I mean, I just can't speak.

So, God, if your idea is to turn me into a missionary and send me to, I don't know, New Guinea or someplace like that. I mean, if that's your idea. This is just not going to work.

Okay? And I And I set that down and There you go. And the idea of standing up in front of people and speaking would have put me into a coma at the time.

Okay.

Which is why God does not tell you much about your future. Because you can't handle the truth. What's been written indelibly that's going to happen. You can't handle the truth. And then And so almost every time I get up and I speak in front of people or I individually, I go, man, this is not age 15.

So who did that? Me? Did I take training courses from Dale Carnegie about how to influence people and speak well? No. God touched my mouth, and he says, I'll give you my words.

Here we go. Wow. And by the way, He can do that with you even in a pinch. Remember in Acts and even in the Gospels, We're told that, you know, there may come a day when you stand up in front of Big toots, magistrates, kings. stuff like that and you need to give an account.

And we're told Don't sweat it. Do a little prayer and the Holy Spirit will give you the right words to say. Just like this. I'll put my words into your mouth. and you'll speak for me.

So it c it you know This is not just a gym effect, this will work with you too. God is very intent on the world understanding the gospel. and if he can speak it through you, You are not a used car salesman for the gospel. You don't have to make it persuasive and glossy and chromed. All you have to do is say, God, speak through me and you will.

There was another time when someone touched the lips. and speech game. This one even more famous. Isaiah. Isaiah Shh first.

chapter 6, verse 5. Again, this is the beginning of Isaiah's career as a prophet, so he's got the same problems. But this time he finds himself in the presence of God. And I said, woe is me, for I'm lost. I'm a man of unclean lips, unclean lips.

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen a king, the Lord of hosts. He's sure he's going to die in his next breath. You don't see God's presence and stay alive. And on top of that, there's no way in the world that these unclean lips are going to speak the holy things of God because they're unclean lips.

And by the way, it's like genetic. I live with a bunch of people who have unclean lips. None of us is a good spokesman for you. We all have unclean lips. What are you doing calling me?

This is what Isaiah is wrestling with. Verse 6, and then one of the seraphim, that's an angel, flew to me. having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken from the tongs from an altar. An altar is where sacrifices were made, by the way. To atone for sin, by the way.

Yeah. There's a lot here. And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for.

And with that knowledge that his sin has been atoned for. Isaiah became one of the most pronounced spokesmen for God in the entire Bible. 66 chapters of incredible depth. Isaiah's words? No, God's words.

spoken through Isaiah. Spoken through Isaiah. Touches our lips. He can touch yours. And then a touch to strengthen.

We saw that at the end. Here's some good examples. I just love this. Remember when Elijah the prophet is there? Bad Ahab and Jezebel?

Jezebel's name is Ahab. Infamous to this very day for the creep that she was. She controlled her husband Ahab. It was just a horrible thing. And Elijah, Elijah had actually taken some very dramatic actions against all the priests of Baal, Baal, that served Jezebel and Ahab.

I mean, Killed him. Killed him. Had him killed. Killed him. It was it was in your face of Jezebel.

who's the matriarchal Demon. Of the northern kingdom at the time.

So this happens. That's under his belt.

So here's what happens.

So Ahab told Jezebel. All that Elijah had done you know, the destruction of all those false priest. and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. With the sword. And then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, now get your creep factor up.

This is creepy. You need to hear like Corella Deville's voice when you read the next thing here. It's uh a Disney movie.

Okay.

So may the gods do to me, and more also if I do not make your life as the life. of one of them by this time tomorrow.

So you killed all my priests. May God may God kill me if I don't kill you because of that. Cruella Deville. That's that's her.

So, for sure.

So Elijah was afraid. After doing an amazing thing on Mount Carmel, just a breath before this, right? Fire came down of heaven, consumed this water-soaked wood and sacrifices which should not lit up. Fire, woof, from heaven. And then the priests of Baal are all just freaked out by this, and Elijah takes them down the river and kills them all with a sword.

I mean, it's like, whoa, whoa!

So, verse 3. Then he was afraid. And he arose and he ran for his life. He ran for his life and came to Beersheva, which is very far in the south. Carmel's up by Haifa today, up in the north.

Beershevah is down the desert in the south. He runs the entire length of today's Israel from top to bottom, goes down to Beersheva, which belongs to Judah. And then he left his servant, the guy who would serve him, in Beersheva. He left his servant there. And the next, he wanders.

He himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and it's very, very desert-like down in Beereshaba. Very desert-like. went in the wilderness, came and he sat down under a broom tree, and he asked that he might die, saying, It's enough. It enough.

Now, O Lord, take away my life. for I'm no better than my fathers. And he lay down and slept under the broom tree, and behold. An angel touched him, Hello. An angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

And he looked. And behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank. And then he lay down again.

Well Go to 1 Kings 19. It's just wonderful. One last... portion of it. The angel of the Lord came again, Jesus after he's sleeping.

And a second time. A second time. touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

So he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. That's down near Mount Sinai.

So Twice. Twice, a touch of an angel wakes him up, a touch of an angel feeds him. Touch of an angel. Gives them strength.

Now, you know, the angel just could have stood over him and shouted. Hey Elijah, you're a loser. Wake up. Good things are going to happen now. What are you doing running from Jezebel?

She's just Jezebel. Who, by the way, has a very bad end later in this schemes. Chia. Falls out a window and is eaten by dogs. But you can read that for yourself.

But I'm just trying to get you to read 1 Kings. It's just an astonishing book. Um But he is fed and his strength is returned. For forty day stint.

Now that's that's food. That's real food.

So one more example. And you're going to think this is an odd pick. This guy seems to embody for me The ability to stand again, the ability to speak again. and to be strengthened again. He was in one of the few one of the few sword battles during the time of Jesus.

One of you guys who was hit by a sword in the time of Jesus. And uh And I'm convinced. Since he was He was not a soldier. I'm convinced that once he got struck by the sword, he was going to die. I'm convinced, and this is speculative, that it kind of It kind of drove him to the ground and he lost his strength because he's in this pitched sword battle and he doesn't even have a sword, I think.

And he's been hit by a sword. And I'm pretty sure he thinks he's gonna die. He doesn't want to stand. He doesn't know how to speed. doesn't have strength in himself.

I mean If you're in a if you're in a battle... and someone hits you first with a deadly blow, wouldn't you think death is next? I think that's what was in the case for this guy. And this guy's name is Malchus. Uh no, no.

No? When they came to arrest Jesus in the garden, Remember that? This was the fever-pitched sword battle. Peter pulls out his sword and whacks it down on top of Malchus. Shwing!

Just like that. Shwing! And Peter is better at catching fish than he is wielding a sword. Shwing! And by the placement of where the hit is and stuff like that, what he does is he scrapes off the guy's ear.

And by the placement of which side it's on, we can tell that Peter is just really quite inept with the sword. It's even on the wrong side of his head. I mean, if, okay, if you're going to take off someone's ear with your right hand, you'll take off their left ear. He took off his radio. It's like I don't know.

There.

Okay.

So the the ear comes off, it's detached. is detached. And I'm pretty sure Malchus, who's just some kind of civil servant of the priest, He just came to monitor the progress that night, and now he's he's victim of the sword.

So one of them, Luke is very kind. It was Peter, we know from another passage.

So one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cut off his right ear. Wow, but Jesus said. No more of this. And he touched his ear. And he healed him.

So this I think is exactly what we're talking about when we talk about A touch. Because think about this for a second. Malchus We know Malchus' name. Many times we think we only know the names of certain people in the New Testament because they might have possibly, this is speculative, but they might have possibly come to Jesus, been followers of Jesus, and had been incorporated in the early young church. And so when this would be read aloud, when Luke's gospel would be read aloud, or they'd preach it, they'd say, Well, who is the guy who did that?

Well, his name is Malchus. And in some places, Malchus might have been in the assembly of the believers, and people would have said, you mean... Him? Yeah, we think there was name recognition about why he's named. But think about this.

He's a servant of the high priest, right? Which means he went just to see how the arrest went down. And he was supposed to come back and make a report back to the high priest.

So just to make sure, did the Jesus guy get arrested? Did everything go as we thought? And my thanks to a theologian I heard years ago talk about this, because it's just stuck in my head. Can you imagine what that conversation, and this is all speculative, I'm making this part up, but can you imagine what that conversation was like when he came back to the high priest? And he made his report.

And the high priest says something like, So how'd it go? Did you get him? Yeah, we got him. Right? We got him.

Yeah, and so how did it go? Did they fight?

Well, a a little bit. And uh Well, so. Did someone get killed? Did Jesus... get run through.

I mean what happened?

Some of those stupid disciples, a fisherman from the north, one of those?

Well, no, none of them.

Well someone did someone did Shed blood? Like who? And oh, by the way Is that blood on your toga? I'm making all this up.

Well, Well, what happened?

Well, one of those steps. Stupid fisherman. pulled out his sword, trying to defend Jesus, and he wasn't successful. But uh but yeah, he he hit someone.

Okay, he hit me. He hit me. And well, there you go. But that's all that happened. That was all the violence.

Everything was fine after that.

So that's all we're gonna talk about.

Well, wait a second. You're not bleeding. You're not missing an arm. I don't see blood gushing out of your gut. I mean What do you mean what do you mean he hit you?

Well He locked my ear off. Wait, take your hand off. It's still on your head. Yeah. Wh what do you mean you locked your ear off?

Well he picked it up And he stuck it back on. Can you imagine this?

Now we're making this conversation up, but it had to be something close to this. Right? You mean what happened?

Well, he picked it up, and he touched me And it stayed on. I'd love to do a skid about this because the whole scene. The whole scene just bloads my mind. But that touch That touch That Malchus experienced that Funch. I think it had the most profound effect on his life, probably more than almost anyone else in the Bible.

That touch. That touch, I think, changed the entire course of Malchus' life. That touch. Because it says in that passage, it says it quite quite deliberately. It says He touched his ear and Heal them.

The touch of Jesus has an extraordinary power in our lives. It did with Malchus, I believe. It does with many of us. It's frustrating in this life we live now where we're physically, Jesus isn't here, but he is spiritually living within each one of us, Christ in you, the hope of glory. I mean, that's a for a real thing.

And when Paul talks about the body of Christ, that's us jointly together. The ability for God to touch has been restored through the body of Christ. That's you and me. The ability to touch, to come near and to know that God's near. has been restored to unity.

And that's why I make it a point anytime I get a chance is just to do very mild touch. the people. You know Touch the side of a hand. Tap on the shoulder, just an anything. or when someone is deeply and profoundly distressed like Daniel was.

like Daniel was. is to if God lets me and they allow me to give him a hug and say, God's near. He's hugging you. Come to him. Ask for his touch.

Because he's near. He's inside you. Three times in Daniel's Three weeks. of mourning. He's touched.

Bye God. I would never have expected that in this passage. But that's what he does.

Well, it's pretty. Father, thank you for preserving this text for us. My heart It's so encouraged to walk alongside Daniel in these days. And God, my heart is so encouraged that in the moments where I'm deepest in despair, in the deepest pit possible. that the length of your arm is long enough to touch.

and to pull us out of that pit. and to feel it touching him. There is no pit that's deep enough that your arm is not longer still. And so, I pray for those of us amongst us here who maybe are watching.

now and maybe later. who feel themselves in an unreachable place. I pray that you would reassure them that they're not unreachable, that you see see well into the depths of their hearts and the sense of mourning and loss that's going on. and that, Lord, that you would somehow Somehow. render your touch to them to reassure them.

that God is near. He's not far. God is near. And God, I pray that those of us who call ourselves followers and believers in Jesus who are, because of that, members of the larger body of Christ. I pray you'd make us sensitive to opportunities to do that very thing.

for touch that communicate so much more. Than just words can for touch that says, I'm near, God's near. I understand what you're going through.

So Father, I pray you would use this in powerful ways to touch a world that's deeply, deeply troubled and deeply mournful. And God, that you would because of that. communicate the nearness of your love to them.

So thank you for this passage. I'm encouraged by it now. Jesus name. Female