If you were to receive a prophetic message from God about the future, that would feel like a mountaintop experience. But Daniel in the Old Testament, when he received a prophetic message?
Well, he had a very different experience. And today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg examines Daniel's response to his vision. and an angelic encounter. Mm-hmm. Daniel chapter 10, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia.
A word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Beltashazzar. And the word was true. and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks.
I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks. On the 24th 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 Ufas or Ofer, a various translation, around his waist. His body was like beryl, 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 like the sound of a multitude.
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.
So I was left alone and saw this great vision and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and 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. a kind of trance obviously, with my face to the ground. And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
And he said to me, O Daniel, Man, greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up, trembling. Then 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. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. But Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.
for I was left there with the kings of Persia. and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision is for days yet to come. When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute. And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke.
I said to him who stood before me, O my Lord, by reason of the vision, 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. Again, one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. And he said, 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.
Then he said, Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the Prince of Persia, and when I go out, behold, the Prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth. There is none who contends by my side. against these.
Except Michael, your prince. And as for me, in the first year of Darius, the Mede, I stood up. to confirm and strengthen him. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Good. A brief prayer. Father, as we delve into this material, we pray that the Spirit of God will be our teacher. Save us from going down rabbit trails that lead nowhere. Help us not to miss the big idea.
and help us then in turn to live in light of its truth. As we seek to return to the challenges and privileges and opportunities of the week that lies ahead. And we pray in Christ's name. How melted?
Well, I've been helped by a brief note in the ESV study Bible. Because it helps us get the big idea that is contained throughout the chapter and indeed in this final section. They put it as follows, that the closing section 10, 11, and 12 reminds us. that the conflicts on earth reflect conflicts in the heavens, and that these conflicts will continue until the end. when God will ultimately triumph.
Now, I'll just give that to you again, although you can find it with a study Bible. The conflicts on earth. of which there are many. reflect the conflicts in the heavens. And these conflicts will continue until the end of time.
When God will eventually and ultimately triumph. In light of that, I want to draw your attention to the chapter and gather our thinking under three straightforward headings. First of all, in verses 4 to 9, we have the record of what we might refer to as a devastating or a terrifying, if you like, vision, a devastating vision. Daniel, we're told in verse 3, has completed three weeks. of morning and fasting and depriving himself of the anointing.
which was both a practic which had a practical benefit in the dry and dusty desert regions of Judah. as well as, and perhaps more importantly, having in it an expression of joy and gladness. You remember in the prophets it says that He took my mourning and He gave me for my mourning the ashes of mourning, the oil of joy and gladness, and so on. And so Daniel has taken it upon himself voluntarily and purposefully. To identify with the news that he has received from the people of God who had now gone back to Jerusalem.
news that was immediately turning sour. Because although they had had the anticipated joy of going back to Jerusalem after all this time, they had not been there very long before they encountered opposition, and that opposition led eventually to the ending of the project at least for quite a while. And so, given the struggles that were being faced by his fellow Israelites. uh who had gone back there. It was only right for him to seek in his absence from them to identify with their circumstances.
And the people of God had found themselves now in an even more bizarre predicament. They had said in their exile, recorded in the song of Psalm 137, you know, we hanged our harps on the willow trees because we concluded, how could you possibly sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? And now they have gone back to what is their own land, only to discover that they're finding it precious difficult to sing that same song back in their own territory. And therefore, it would surely be inappropriate for Daniel to be absent from that and simply to be seeking to relax and to take it easy. to move, if you like, as we said this morning, into his kind of retirement phase and say, you know, I've done my part, I've fulfilled my obligations, I don't see why I should be destabilized by these circumstances.
After all, I have fulfilled the calling of God and it's all taking place quite a long way away from me here. And so it is that he has done what he's done. I ate, he says, no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks. Incidentally, and in passing, apparently, his vegetable and water diet. uh which was uh a mark of his beginnings in chapter one.
and to which he restricted himself in the beginning, that clearly had not been his habitual diet. If it had been his habitual diet, then there would be no reason for him to say that I didn't have any wine and I only had vegetables. The fact that he's able to say this now, after 70 years, lets us know that this particular approach to life had something to do with the matters of great spiritual urgency, if you like, issues of crisis. And it is at the end of these three weeks we come to verse 4. that he remembers vividly when and where this vision came to him.
It was on the 24th day, fourth day of the first month. That's when. And he was standing on the bank of the great river. Normally that would have been the Euphrates, but here it is the Tigris. And in a way that when things happen that we will never be the same again as a result of them, we tend, all of us, to remember often the exact day, the exact time, and so on.
I had a similar occurrence happen to me just a couple of weeks ago when I checked into a hotel. And when they gave me my room number and I walked away, I said to myself, there is only one other time in my life when I have had this room number, only once. And you know why I know? I'm not going to tell you, but it was absolutely vivid for me because I know exactly when it was, I know exactly where it was, and I've never forgotten what room it was. And here it is, you've already guessed, it was my honeymoon.
And because you're a bright group. Here it is that Daniel says, This is what happened to me, and in verse 5, I just looked up. And behold, a man clothed in linen. I just looked up and there was a certain man that was there. That this was no routine encounter is clear then from the very vivid and comprehensive description that he gives of this figure.
Here he is, we are told, clothed in linen. which, as you will know, was the dress of priests. He's wearing a belt or a sash of fine gold that would be an indication of significance and majesty. and his body Was like in the NIV chrysalite, or here in the ESV beryl. which I understand to be a kind of flashing gemstone.
So this is no ordinary encounter with any ordinary kind of being. This is something quite dramatic. The linen we get and the sash we get, but now when it goes to his body being like beryl, Uh and his face like the appearance of lightning. That is dramatic. His eyes like flaming torches.
That is equally dramatic. and his arms and his legs like the gleam of burnished bronze. And his words Sound it out. like the murmuring that you hear from a crowd. or the echo of the roar of a crowd.
Now it's important that we get this so that we realize that this is a very, very, very incredible encounter. The individual doesn't show up wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It made me think when I wrote that line in my notes, it made me think of the country western singer's line: remember, blame it all on my roots. I showed up in boots and ruined your black tie affair.
Well, there is no sense in which that is happening here. This person is clothed in this particular way, he's identified in this particular way. And it's almost as if you read verses five and six. It's almost as if Daniel is seeking to grab everything he can by way of descriptive language. He almost exhausts descriptive language in order to make it clear to his readers that the encounter with this certain man was marked by all of this drama and by all of this significance.
In verse 7, he tells us that it was he alone who saw the vision. But the companions who were with him, who did not see the vision, nevertheless were swallowed up by a great sense of trembling which fell upon them, and they then fled to hide themselves. This further reinforces the nature of this encounter and with this certain individual. It probably will have made you think about the record of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, you remember, where he was the only one who encountered the risen Christ in this way. The others were amazed by it and struck by it, but did not share in the vision.
And so it is that Daniel has given this to us here in order that we might understand. That when he responds to this, he is responding to something quite incredible. Verse 8: I was left alone. And I saw this great vision, and as a result, no strength was left in me. His companions had fled in terror, but he tells us that he thought the whole encounter was really cool.
You notice that? And they all fled, and I said, This is really cool. No, he doesn't say that at all. Not for a New York minute does he say that. I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me, and my radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength.
And when I heard the sound of his words, as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to. the ground. Nothing casual about this encounter at all. There is nowhere we can go in the Bible. and find someone having an encounter with El Shaddai, El El Yonan Adonai.
who responds in a way that is marginal, that is flippant, that is carefree. Pretty soon We will begin to sing Christmas carols. And each of us has our favourite. And perhaps yours is while shepherds watch their flocks by night, all seated on the ground, An angel of the Lord came down and glory shone around. And what's the next line?
Fear not. said he, for mighty dread had seized their troubled mind. Glad tidings of great joy I bring to thee and all mankind.
So this dramatic encounter with this angelic visitor, as we see throughout scripture, brings about this similar response.
Now the real question and the taxing question in this chapter has to do with who this figure actually is. Who is this person?
Some of you will have already decided. Others of you have not made up your minds. A bit like in the political realm. But we leave that for a while. Who is this person?
It's not difficult to take, for example, the book of Revelation, and you may just like to turn to it to see how it isn't difficult at all, Revelation chapter 1. Verse 12, then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, says John, and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. Oh, you say to yourself, well, it's obvious then, isn't it? It must be. Um A Christophany.
In other words, it must be an encounter with the pre-incarnate Christ. Because after all, if you read Revelation, and we've often said it's important to read your Bible backwards. Although in this case I'm not so sure. then it's not difficult at all to say, well, that's exactly who this must be. After all, if you noted carefully as we read it, three times Daniel refers to this individual as my Lord.
in verse 16, in verse 17, and in verse 19. And so I won desperately. To conclude for myself, that this is actually a Christophany. It makes it much easier for me. But against that, you have to consider what we're told also about this figure.
We're told not only that he was special in verses 4, 5, and 6. But also that he was sent in verse 11. And he said to me, O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.
Well I just That just makes me think, well, wait a minute, God does the sending, you know. That's one cause for pause. Then in verse 13, He is not only sent, but he is delayed. And uh he was delayed for twenty-one days. And then the only way that the delay is finally settled.
is that he gets help from this other angelic being. Namely, Michael.
So you see the dilemma. I mean, how are we going to have God? being helped. By an angel. He doesn't need help.
Ralph Davis puts it like this. There is something jarring. about the supposition of omnipotence receiving help.
So It is for you to decide. Many of my friends go to the Christophany, some of my other friends go elsewhere, and as I say, it seems to me that. It's fair to conclude That, what we have here is, as elsewhere in the Bible, an unnamed angelic figure. Incidentally, some people say he's not unnamed. This is clearly Gabriel, whom we've met already, and so on.
But rather, I take it that it is an unnamed angelic figure who conveys in himself something of the power and the glory of God in a manner that is quite frankly. terrifying.
So that it is not to diminish him in any way at all, but it is certainly to say it's possible for us, and irrespective of. Our conclusion regarding the identity of this figure It doesn't alter the information that is conveyed or the implications of what is conveyed.
So, first of all, in 4 to 9, you have this devastating vision. Then, in verse 10 and following, through to about verse 19, you have what I'm referring to as a clarifying message. At the end of verse 9, we have Daniel in something of a trance. I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. He was just wiped out.
You get the sense of a kind of psychological, emotional, cataclysmic impact as a result of this encounter, and it just lays him flat out. Verse 10 tells us that a hand touched him. And as a result of that, It set him trembling. on his hands and his knees.
So, if he is floored by the vision and he's face down in the dirt, The touch of the hand gets him up as far as his hands and knees. But as he finds himself in that posture, he trembles in that context. The voice then assures him that he is greatly loved. And here again, Daniel is reminded of the fact that God has made him the object of his affection.
So number one, I'm here to tell you that you are greatly loved. I am here also to tell you that your words. uh were heard. What were his words?
Well, his prayers. Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day And on the way through the verse, your words have been heard. And I have come. Because of your words.
So, if Daniel's going to say to himself, what the world is this character doing here, confronting me in this way and reducing me to a poor figure of a man?
Now here is the answer. I'm here, I've been dispatched. The prayers of Daniel have released angelic forces from heaven. That's what the Bible is saying. It's amazing.
It is. to the skeptic entirely unbelievable. It is only by faith that we would bow beneath its instruction. Your words have been heard. Because you see, James tells us that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Hello. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg with a message titled The Spiritual Forces of Evil. And we'll hear the conclusion of this message tomorrow. We hope you're growing in your faith as you study God's Word with us.
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