Conversing with Messengers (Daniel 10:7-17 ) | Adult Sunday School

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Let's open in prayer. Father, thank you this morning for your word again, for our opportunity to study it and to understand it by the grace of your

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Holy Spirit. We pray, Lord, as we look into your word this morning, you would instruct us, correct us, rebuke us as necessary, but give us, as you have promised, the tools to be those kinds of people who will be working in this world to glorify the

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Lord Jesus Christ every day. We thank you for what you're doing in this church today and every day. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So we're in Daniel again, page something, 11, yeah, 1156 and seven.

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And I neglected, there we go. We left off with chapter 10, verse six. We'll pick up there.

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Let's open, let's read Daniel chapter 10 up to about verse 18,

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I think is where I want to go today. Yeah, Daniel chapter 10. In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel who was named

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Belteshazzar, and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision.

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In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did

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I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed. And on the 24th day of the first month, while I was by the bank of the great river, that is the

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Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold, with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz.

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His body also was like barrel, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.

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Now I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision. Nevertheless, a great dread fell on them and they ran away to hide themselves.

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So I was left alone and saw this great vision, yet no strength was left in me for my natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength.

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But I heard the sound of his words, and as soon as I heard the sound of his words, I fell into a deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground.

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

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And he said to me, O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I'm about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.

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And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your

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God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days, and behold,

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Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now, I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future.

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And when he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless.

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And behold, one who resembled a human being was touching my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me,

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O my Lord, as a result of the vision, anguish has come upon me, and I have retained no strength.

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For how can such a servant of my Lord talk with such as my Lord? As for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me."

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So this contact with this being left

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Daniel just stunned and stymied and speechless on several occasions, and he had to be strengthened.

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He had to be helped, if you will. And the angel was faithful to do that.

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God wanted Daniel to understand this. God sent this messenger in response to his beginning prayer three weeks before, and that's what it explains here, that this is why he was sent, to help him to understand past things and future things.

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Daniel had been concerned about some of the visions he'd had earlier, visions or meetings, depending on how you look at that, and also what was to come.

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And so God was faithful in this case to give Daniel instruction. Now last week,

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I mentioned a series of kings, and there was some confusion.

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I kind of want to revisit that a little bit. We'll look at Ezra again. And when

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I mentioned one of the kings, one of the questions was, which Ahasuerus was this?

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Where's Waldo? Something like that. So Ezra says in chapter 4, this refers to the time when the

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Israelites had returned to Jerusalem, and they were rebuilding the temple, rebuilding the city, and they were under different kings.

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Some kings, one king lasted eight months, some kings lasted several years, some kings lasted many years.

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And it is not uncommon, remember we've talked about this before, it was not uncommon, especially in ancient times, for kings to simply take the name of another king and incorporate it into their title.

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So Ezra says in chapter 4, now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of exile were building a temple to the

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Lord God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of father's households and said to them, let us build with you, for we like you seek your

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God, and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Eshardon, king of Assyria, who brought us up here.

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But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the father's households of Israel said to them, you have nothing in common with us in building a house to our

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God, but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.

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Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and frightened them from building. These were people that were trying to insinuate themselves into the

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Jews, the Israelites, building program and undo it. They were trying to stop them.

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Ezra chapter four, verses 11 through 24, this is the copy of the letter they sent to him speaking of this king, to King Artaxerxes, your servants, to King Artaxerxes, your servants, the men in the region beyond the river, and now let it be known to the king that the

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Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem. They are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city.

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Notice the words that they use, that they're rebuilding the beautiful and sacred city which had the temple of the

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Lord God, but they're building that evil and rebellious city, rebellious and evil city, and are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.

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Now let it be known to the king that if the city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, custom or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings.

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Now because we are in the service of the palace and it is not fitting for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore we have sent and informed the king, we're the good guys, they're saying, so that a search may be made in the record books of your fathers and you will discover in the record books and learn that the city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces and that when they have incited a revolt in past days, therefore that city was laid waste.

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We inform the king that if the city is rebuilt and the walls finished, as a result you will have no possession in the province beyond the river.

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Then the king sent an answer to Rahim the commander, to Shimshi the scribe, and to the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and the rest of the provinces beyond the river.

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Peace and now the document which you sent to us has been translated and read before me.

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A decree has been issued by me and a search has been made and it has been discovered that the city has risen up against the kings in past days, that rebellion and revolt have been prepared in it, that mighty kings have ruled over Jerusalem governing all the provinces beyond the river and the tribute, custom and toll were paid to them, so now issue a decree to make these men stop work so that the city may not be rebuilt until the decree is issued by me.

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Beware of being negligent in carrying out this matter. Why should damage increase to the detriment of the kings?

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Then as soon as the copy of Artaxerxes document was read before Rahim and Shimshi the scribe and his colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem and the

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Jews stopped them by force of arms. Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

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So there are two king timelines that you can ascribe to this period of time.

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The first one would be that, what do we have here, yeah,

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I guess I don't need this big enough, that the Artaxerxes they're referring to is in Ezra and Nehemiah's time in Palestine.

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The second one is that some of the kings had taken name, Cambyses had taken his

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Bible name as Ahasuerus, which is very similar to Ahasuerus, which is also related to the term

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Artaxerxes, which means commander or ruler. So it really doesn't matter which one is correct.

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The fact is that as the Jews went to build the temple of Jerusalem and they went to build the city, they were stopped.

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They were stopped by unscrupulous men who wanted to see them fail.

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They wanted to see them controlled and unable to worship their God. So that's the

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Persian king timeline B and then we're back to Persian king timeline A. It was either, so this would have been

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Cambyses II and that's who I believe this is referring to in this section here where Daniel is concerned about what's going on in Jerusalem, concerned.

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Remember we talked about some of his discomfort was about his vision, about seeing how his people were going to be persecuted well into the future.

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Some of it was about what was going on in Jerusalem at this time when they were supposed to be rebuilding the city and they had been stopped.

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There are those who believe that in Ezra chapter, let me see, we need to get back to Ezra real quick.

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So then we're looking at Ahasuerus, which could have been

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Cambyses, then Gautamo or the Pseudo -Smyrdas who was, I think he reigned, yeah, six months.

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He reigned six months and then the Darius they're talking about here would be the Darius from 522 to 486.

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The fact is it was one of those or it was the kings in this second suggested timeline.

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It could have been Cambyses who is being talked about in this section of Ezra and in chapter six of Ezra.

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But the point is the Jews were stymied in their building of the temple. The important point is that they started rebuilding

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Jerusalem, they started rebuilding the temple and they were stopped. And it was done by unscrupulous men who did not want the continuation of the building.

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And Daniel is discomforted, I guess, by that.

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That is the concern that Daniel has, that his people are going to not be allowed to continue the building program that Cyrus had told them to take up.

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Hopefully that helps a little. It's just that there's, when we're looking 2 ,500 years into the past and we try to come up with timelines of kings, sometimes we don't have a wealth of information to come up with those timelines.

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But the point of this section is that Daniel was concerned that the temple and the city work was being stopped.

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And that was one of the things that was unnerving him, that was causing his mourning, the three weeks fasting.

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He was praying about understanding the visions previous, understanding what was coming and possibly mourning because the building project in Jerusalem had ceased.

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And this was of a concern to him. So this would have been the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia.

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And that was, as you can see, that's this guy up here. And Ezra 1, 3, and then

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Cambyses is, the Bible references Ezra 4 and 6. If indeed it's a timeline where Cambyses is also called

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Artaxerxes. If it's not, then it's the previous timeline.

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And that previous timeline would put that in Esther's time. And that would mean that what

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Daniel was saying here was, or excuse me, what Ezra was saying in his book was, we went to Jerusalem, we began the building project, and we were shut down almost immediately.

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And look, it even continued clear into our time period around the time of Esther. He's still trying to stop us.

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It could have been that. But either way, from my perspective at least, what's important is the

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Jews were stymied in their building project by unscrupulous men. And that's what Daniel is reporting here.

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Actually, that's what Ezra was reporting, Brian. Yes, yes.

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They kept, they received opposition all the way through, all the way through till the final stone was put in and the artifacts were brought to the temple.

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They received opposition every day. And the interesting thing, or the important thing to note about that is that God's people will always be opposed.

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Whether it's physically opposed, spiritually opposed, we're going to see some spiritual opposition in this chapter that's very interesting.

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But the Jews were stymied from their work on the temple, which was commanded by King Cyrus, actually commanded by God through King Cyrus.

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And so what I'm getting at though is that Ezra reports this later on and it could be that Cambyses is the

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Artaxerxes they're talking about because he took that name, Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, or it's later on in Ezra's time.

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Either way, the Jews were opposed at every step in rebuilding the temple.

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And that's what's important to this section of Daniel because Daniel is simply showing that one of the things that the visions he's been receiving is going to show that Israel will receive opposition all down through time, all the way until the

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Antichrist and until the Millennial Kingdom is established. Significant opposition. They are very much hated, very much opposed, except for today, right?

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They're very well loved today and yeah, it's not happening today. So I can send people if they want these two different timelines, but these are fairly well, there's quite a debate that scholars have had whether Artaxerxes is

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Cambyses or whether it's Esther's king, 160 years later, something like that.

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Yeah, 140 years later. Either way, the opposition is what is at point here, that the opposition to everything the

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Jews wanted to do was brought by, in some cases kings, but in most cases by the people in that area, in the area of Jerusalem who hated the

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Jews, especially the Samaritans. Any questions about that? Is that, well, writing to kings and getting kings to stop them, issuing decrees and actually, if you remember now,

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I didn't do a careful study of Nehemiah, but they actually armed themselves and had people guarding the wall while they built because, so that tells me indirectly that the opposition had taken up the nature of armed conflict.

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So these opposers were serious about stopping the Jews from rebuilding

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Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. And so the nature of the opposition would have been kingly decrees and local armed conflict, which were tied together because these people would have had the sanction of king, the king

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Artaxerxes. We have a letter from him telling you to stop. You need to stop. And if you don't stop, we're going to make you stop.

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So that's the kind of opposition. They would have been facing armed conflict. Okay, moving along to,

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I think we ended up at chapter 10, verse 6 last week. I wanted to,

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I had a picture of, there's the chronology of Ezra if anybody needs it.

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So the great river, we talked about the great river being the Tigris in this particular case. And there's

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Tarshish where the gold came from. This is kind of a decent, I thought, now we can't know what the guy looked like, what the angel, the messenger looked like.

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So, and I don't want to be building some science fiction doctrine on it, but this is a fair representation

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I think. Topaz, which is probably

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Beryl, looks like gold, looks like a gold jewel. And so that's it. He talked about, he says that his body was like Beryl, and his face had the appearance of lightning.

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His eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like a tumult.

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Now here we find out, so Daniel isn't panicked, but he's frightened.

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And who wouldn't be frightened of such an unbelievably majestic angelic being?

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And so when people talk about their modern -day encounters with angelic beings, and they just talk to them like they're some old buddy,

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I have what I, it's like when Joseph Smith talked about coming into the presence of the three personages of the

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Trinity. No he didn't. Nobody could stand in the presence of God the

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Father. I always called that the Mormon flat -nose theory, because he would have been on his face instantly.

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He could not have looked on Yahweh. And Daniel is looking on this being that isn't even

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Yahweh, but is so terrifying that verse 7 says, Now I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision.

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Nevertheless, a great dread fell on them, and they ran away to hide themselves. So you're with a group of guys who are otherwise pretty well faithful friends, who you know are, they're woodsmen, and they've got a bit of courage.

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And then this appearance happens, and they run away screaming, and you stay.

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That took, to me, it took a lot of courage for Daniel to stay and listen to this being. For some reason,

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Daniel's companions could not see this being, so it was either a vision, or if an actual appearance, the eyes of his companions were kept from seeing it.

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Later in verse 10, and in verse 16, this being actually touches Daniel, so this mitigates it against it being a vision, and it more likely points to an actual encounter.

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Even so, the word here used is the word for vision, Daniel's companions were terrified, and they ran away.

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And I don't know if they ran away screaming. I add that in. I added that in. I added that in, and Scripture doesn't say that, but it was cooler to say it that way.

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And that's kind of what happens in the beginnings of changing doctrine, of building false doctrines. You start saying things that are interesting and that are fun.

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So strike that. Can you strike that from the, good, it's gone. They ran away.

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Scripture says they ran away. They were frightened. This is similar to the situation when Paul was struck down from the horse on his way to Damascus in Acts chapter 9.

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Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if any found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

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As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,

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Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said,

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I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told what you must do. The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.

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So that would have been terrifying too. This is a similar encounter, but this is an encounter with a second person of the

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Trinity. So the men ran away. Daniel stayed, but he is frightened, and we'll see to what degree he was.

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So verse 8 says, so I was left alone and saw this great vision, yet no strength was left in me, for any natural color turned to a deathly power, and I retained no strength.

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One time one of my younger brothers actually walked up to a black bear in the woods, and we don't know what happened visually, but we went up to where the tracks were.

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And what was interesting about that was it was like they went, the bear freaked out and Ed freaked out.

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And so this is kind of, kind of, I mean Daniel didn't run away, but he sees this bearing and this being, and he has no strength left, and his natural color turns to a deathly power, and he retained no strength.

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He went white. He went pale, if you will. So the purpose

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Yahweh had was for Daniel to see this appearance alone, and so the men were driven away.

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It is very possible that he was accompanied by pious Jews, but it is just as likely in his position as a government official that he was in the company of pagan

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Babylonians. We don't know. We don't know who was with him. It should be noted that the word for vision does not emanate from a root, does emanate, excuse me, from a root which simply means a mirror, a looking, a looking glass or an appearance.

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In fact, one translation renders this, so I was left alone and saw this great appearance.

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The power of this appearance left Daniel very weak, with the blood draining from his extremities, leaving him with a deathly power, as the word says.

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A lack of strength is mentioned twice, undergirding the terrifying nature of the experience. Not terrifying in the sense of running in fear like the other men did, but of recognizing one's inability and dependency.

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So interestingly, the word for strength comes from the Hebrew word which means a small lizard of unknown species.

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Lizards were thought to be very hardy or very strong because of their ability to survive in the difficult desert conditions of the area.

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So it came to mean great strength. So you can see how idioms form, and we have plenty of those as well.

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And you have to actually look back to the root of the idiom. I talked to you about rule of thumb, that idiom rule of thumb.

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We've talked about that and where that comes from and how bad it is. So Daniel lost all of his strength.

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He lost his ability to flee. I think he lost his ability. God wanted him there. God wanted him present to hear this.

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So the other men ran, Daniel stayed. But I heard the sound of his words, verse 9 says, and as soon as I heard the sound of his words,

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I fell into a deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground. That's a nice way of saying I passed out. Has anybody here ever passed out?

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It's okay to raise your hand. I did once. I ripped a finger off and passed out, yeah. Even in this condition of fear and incapacity,

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Daniel could still hear words, and when those words came forth, they caused him to faint. Once the messenger began to speak, it created an even greater emotional disturbance in Daniel, and so he fell in a faint to the ground.

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He fell face first, so it must, I assume, this is my assumption, that the angelic being protected him from being harmed.

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Because when you pass out, you just fall, you just go down. And if there's things around you, you hit them.

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And Daniel didn't. So I take that to mean that the angelic messenger protected him as he went down.

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Because it does seem to refer to an unconscious state. It is apparent at this point that Daniel, a man of God and accustomed somewhat to visions, was overcome by this encounter.

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It would appear also that the sound of the angel's voice was at least somewhat terrifying, very frightening.

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I actually did an internet search of what a tumult would sound like, and I couldn't come up with anything. Just noise, sound of many voices, maybe the sound of rushing river water, or something loud that you can hear words, but it's accompanied by a great deal of noise, and you could understand what was being said.

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As soon as Daniel heard the angel speak, he fainted. The word translated as deep sleep actually means to stun or to stupefy.

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No matter the personal holiness of an individual, Daniel's holiness, coming into contact with unmarred holiness is unnerving.

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And it just renders me silly and speechless about these modern contacts with angels.

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This is what would have happened if this actually happened today. They'd have gone down like a sack of potatoes and maybe never recovered because Daniel was holy and they're not.

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So Walvoord explains it this way in his commentary. He says, Daniel's experience illustrates the difficulty that mortal and sinful creatures, even a prophet like Daniel, have when encountering the glory of God or even one of his heavenly messengers in relation to which the holiest of people come short.

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We come short. There's a day we won't, but we come short in practical, physical holiness.

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Any questions about that through verse 9? Verse 10, then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.

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Another indication that this was not a vision, but rather an actual corporal being that Daniel experienced is the fact that a hand reached out and touched him and he was able to get to his hands and knees, although he was still trembling.

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The word for trembling comes from a word which means to waver, to waver back and forth, like you're going to flop over again if you're not careful.

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So he would have been swaying back and forth trying to maintain his balance. This was a, sometimes it's good to add these details because this was a very real happening in the life of a prophet of God.

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He encountered an incredible, an incredible angelic messenger and it was all he could do to sustain himself in that encounter, and actually he doesn't.

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God sustains him. Verse 11. Now these must have been welcome words because he's not panicking, but he's shaken.

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And the angel says this, O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words

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I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me,

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I stood up trembling. So now he gets to his feet. He's able to stand up and have a conversation. So this is either the same angel or another, or as some have surmised, if the first being that appeared was a theophany, then this would have been a messenger angel and not the

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Lord Jesus Christ. This angel begins to speak and it's, I personally believe it's the same angel. It's the same one and he just described him in a different way.

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The angel begins to speak to Daniel and Daniel records these words unlike verse nine where we simply know that the angel was speaking.

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The phrase man of high esteem is the same as the expression used in chapter nine, verse 23. The angel measures

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Daniel and counsels him to stand all the way up and seeing how as the angel was sent to Daniel to speak to him,

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I was sent to speak with you. I need you to stand all the way up. So Daniel does. The angel did not want

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Daniel either lying down or kneeling while they conversed. He wanted to be face to face. He counseled

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Daniel to pay close attention for that is what the word understand means. It means to pay close attention, discern what

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I'm about to say. It is to separate mentally or to distinguish, to discern. At this point,

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Daniel stands all the way up, although he's still shaky, he's still wavering back and forth. He's still shaky. Verse 12.

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Then he said to me, do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your

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God, your words were heard and I have come in response to your words. So Daniel, his prayer, his fasting, his mourning was to understand primarily to understand what

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God had been revealing to him. So the angel directly stipulates to Daniel, you do not need to be afraid.

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You believe the angel, but it'd still be a little bit difficult. And that even as he first began to pray those weeks ago,

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God had sent an answer, but it was delayed as we will see in verse 13. The angel uses the same word for understand as he did in verse 11.

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He is encouraging Daniel to carefully discern what he's about to tell him, what he's about to be told. So Daniel's fasting, praying and humbling of himself was to hear from God and this angel is telling him now that now he will indeed hear from God.

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Daniel would like to understand what had been previously revealed to him as well as what was being revealed to him now. The angel tells

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Daniel that, quote, your words were heard, unquote. Do you know that when you pray, your words are heard?

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They are heard by God, by Jehovah, by Yahweh. Daniel had to be encouraged by this.

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Daniel would like to understand what had been previously revealed as well as what was being revealed. So the angel told him your words were heard, indicating that his prayer came to the ears of Yahweh.

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God was moved to respond to Daniel so that he immediately sent a messenger in response to Daniel's prayer three weeks ago.

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So I'm thinking the angel might have worked for UPS. No, actually there's a much more cogent explanation for his delay.

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The importance of this revelation apparently, it apparently required that God send a high -ranking emissary.

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We should make no more of this than that though. God responds to our prayers, and this is a clear indication of that fact.

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Daniel's desire was only to understand and glorify God for that reason. And for that reason, he received a response, even if it was a bit unnerving to him.

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Our prayer should be to understand. Prayer is mostly for changing us because God is sovereign.

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Prayer is mostly for us learning to accede, to submit to the will of God as revealed in Scripture.

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And that's what's going on with Daniel here, because God is going to reveal more things to him that in his flesh he would not like, that his people are going to be pummeled unmercifully for the next couple of millennia.

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The fact is God's answers are always the correct ones no matter what we may feel about them.

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And that is often the most difficult thing for us to accede to, that what

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God has said is perfect. It's required. It's necessary.

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It's even beautiful, even if the time we go through it for that prayer to be fully responded to and answered is difficult.

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What are you doing during that time? What are you changing in your life? What are you being, what are you receiving from God as correction for instruction so that you can be more profitable to him?

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That's what Daniel would have been about. So now we come to this verse about which so much science fiction has emanated, from which so much science fiction has emanated.

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And we're going to stick closely to the Word about what is happening here. So we're not going to have any

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Jurassic Park moments today. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty -one days.

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Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

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Now this takes quite a bit of unpacking. Knowing full well that the emissary or angel had come to Daniel, that had come to Daniel as a direct messenger from Yahweh, it is clear that the prince of the kingdom of Persia was an evil demonic force.

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Only that would have been what would have been resisting an angel from Yahweh. Although the word for withstanding does not necessarily mean an adversarial withstanding, clearly when taken in context with this demon holding the emissary up for twenty -one days and then later in verse 20 of this chapter noting that the angel will have to return to fight again against the same demonic prince, the adversarial nature becomes evident.

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From this verse and other verses scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments, we'll get to Michael, throughout the

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Old and New Testaments there are some other verses which give context to the identity of Michael.

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And so, Daniel chapter 10, okay, so he doesn't know what he's doing.

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Can you back me up to Michael? Give me Michael.

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Thank you. Primary to the

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Scriptures on the left there. I don't know what he looked like. Apparently David thought he knew what he looked like, or I mean

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Michelangelo thought he knew what he looked like. So from this verse and from other verses throughout

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Scripture, we get some idea of the identity of this angel. Daniel chapter 10 verse 21, however,

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I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth, yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince.

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Daniel 12. 1. Now at that time, Michael the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation with that time.

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And at that time, your people, everyone who was found written in the book, will be rescued. Zechariah 3, 1 and 2.

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Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him, which is what

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Satan means, accuser. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. Indeed, the Lord who has chosen

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Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Jude 1 .9.

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But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, the

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Lord rebuke you. Ephesians 6 .12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

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Revelation 12 .7. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon.

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The dragon and his angels waged war. First Peter 3 .22. Who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him?

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So every angelic messenger, power, archangel, whatever, is subject to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, Ryan. Oh, you almost bought the cow.

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Every agent, every angel is subject to the Lord Jesus Christ. Contextually, we know that there was a battle.

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We know that it took three weeks and that Michael had to come in and help this emissary overcome.

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That's all we're told. We need to leave it at that. Understanding now that Michael came to free this emissary so he could continue to Daniel, we now look at the phrase, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

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There are several different ways that this has been looked at. One translation would yield the idea that the words left there means that the angel was now unnecessary because the battle had been won by Michael.

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So being no longer needed, he proceeded on to Daniel. One scholar stated that it rendered the angel worth nothing more to do there, with nothing more to do there.

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The battle was done. The three -week battle was done. Now he could move on to bring the message to Daniel that God had sent him with, that Yahweh had sent him with.

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Another possibility is that the root of this particular word conveys the idea of being left in a position of preeminence, such as on the field of battle.

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Leon Wood explains it in his commentary. He said, this word sometimes carries the thought of being left in a position of preeminence, as on a field of battle, and it is best so taken here.

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After the struggle with the demon, Daniel's visitor remained preeminent as a victor.

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Then that he was thus left beside the kings of Persia means that he remained in a position of influence with the

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Persian ruler in place of Satan's representative. Apparently then, the struggle between the two had been over this position of influence.

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Satan's emissary had held it, thus working to the detriment of God's program and people, and God's messenger to Daniel fought him for it.

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No doubt, as a part of his assigned mission in coming to Daniel, a struggle of 21 days and the help of Michael had been necessary to win the position.

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After it was won, the messenger had come on to meet Daniel, as here described. The word for kings is in the plural, likely because the place of influence won would continue with future kings of Persia, as well as belonging to Cyrus then ruling.

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A total period of fact in fact of more than two centuries until Greece would take over world leadership.

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So, he was left there in a position of victor, position of leadership, position of strength, and Satan's emissary had been dislodged.

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That's what we know, and from my perspective, that's all we need to take from this.

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God deemed it so important for Daniel to get this message, that when his emissary was held up, and in his sovereignty, do you think

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God went, uh -oh, what's going on down there? It was all in his plan.

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This is part of the revelation to Daniel, that God is so intent on answering his people's prayers that he will do whatever is necessary to answer them.

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So, he sent the prince of the Jews, Michael, one of their chief angels, to help.

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So, it is important here not to make more of this than the Holy Spirit has given. Clearly behind the scenes, unseen forces are battling one another.

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John Wolvern in his commentary gives a reasonable explanation and one that we should heed before we begin building dubious doctrines about angelology.

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He says this, the subject of the unseen struggle between the holy angels and the fallen angels is not fully revealed in the scriptures, but from rare glimpses we are afforded, as in this instance, it is plain that behind the political and social conditions of the world is angelic influence.

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Good on the part of the holy angels, evil on the part of the angels under satanic control. Ezekiel described the human ruler of Tyre, called the prince in Ezekiel 28, 1 -10, and the satanic king, who is the true power behind the throne, 28, 11 -19.

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The struggle experienced by this angel is the same struggle to which Paul refers to in Ephesians 6, verses 10 -18, and which, see, which you can read.

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Please note that there's nothing in this verse about the involvement of humans in angelic warfare. Daniel didn't do anything.

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He didn't take territory. He didn't pray for the deliverance of this angel. He didn't take up some sort of spiritual battle.

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This was all done by God Himself and by these two angelic beings, period. And in fact, it explicitly demonstrates that this type of behind -the -scenes spiritual warfare is conducted by angelic beings alone.

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The fact that there was a territorial angelic demon over Persia in no way, shape, or form suggests that humans should attempt to take control over territorial demons.

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Daniel couldn't even stand in the place of the angelic messenger he was sent. He couldn't even stand.

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He had to be strengthened by that very same messenger. That is not a stretch. It is an elastic morphing of Scripture into something that never even intimates that we should somehow do battle against these demonic forces in this way.

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There's nothing in Scripture that encourages that. People have built false spiritual warfare doctrines out of whole cloth over this single verse.

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One thing we should take away from this section, and especially from this verse, is this. If we have given ourselves to a particular period in prayer, then we should persist for that time.

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And I want to leave you with this. What if Daniel had stopped praying on day 20? He might never have received this incredible message.

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Now, you and I both know God is sovereign and that wouldn't have happened. But from our perspective, from our human perspective, if you've given yourself over to a period of time in prayer or in working for something in God's kingdom, see it through.

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Daniel saw it through and received from God this kind of a reward, a revealing of something that he was able to transmit to posterity for centuries later, from which comes the

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Millennial Kingdom doctrines. And with that, I guess I'll end there.

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Is there any questions or comments? So this just reminded me. It reminded me of some of the projects that I've started for God that I didn't see through.

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And to my shame, by God's grace, that's not going to happen anymore.

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I'm going to see the things that he's called me to do through. Let's close in prayer. Father, you have taken upon yourself to see everything through to the end of the ages when your son will receive the church and Israel as a reward for his great work on the cross.

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And so by that example, might we daily seek the grace and the strength of your

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Holy Spirit to see through to completion the things that you have given us to do. And we thank you for giving them to us so that we might glorify you, glorify your son, and glorify the