“Pulling Back the Veil” – FBC Morning Light (9/12/2024)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. I hope your week is going well and you're looking forward to the coming weekend. It's coming fast, isn't it? And here we are already nearing the middle of the month of September.

Daniel’s Prophecy and God’s Sovereign Knowledge of the Future

Well, today in our Bible reading we're in the book of Daniel to start with, Daniel chapters 10 through 12, then we go to 2 Chronicles 36 for a couple of verses, then to Ezra chapters 1 and 2, and then back to 1 Chronicles chapter 3.

Right, again, jumping around, but we're getting things laid out in chronological order for us, and that I think can be helpful to us. Well, as we read chapters 10 through 12 in the book of Daniel, one thing becomes very clear, and this is just a general conclusion that we can draw, especially from chapters 11 and 12, and that is that the omnipotent sovereign God, he knows in detail all that is to come.

He knows about the rise and the fall of nations, he knows about the machinations of war, and the plans of world leaders, and how they're going to execute those plans, and he knows how it all will end.

The Veil Pulled Back on Spiritual Warfare

Alright, so that becomes quite clear in chapters 11 and 12, but what's also interesting in this passage is, in chapter 10, verses 12 and following, the veil is pulled back for a moment, if you will. The veil that hides us from seeing, keeps us from seeing what's going on behind the scenes, and in this brief passage, the Lord gives us a very brief and tiny glimpse of what's going on in world affairs behind the scenes, what we can't see behind the evening news.

Well, let me explain. So Daniel has been praying, and he's wanting the Lord to understand the words that he has heard in prophecy, and in chapter 10, verse 12, Angel comes to Daniel and says, Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words.

But, and this is an angel speaking, but, he says, the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days. There is a prince of the kingdom of Persia, he's not talking about the guy who's sitting on a throne somewhere, he's talking about a spiritual prince of the kingdom of Persia.

He says, and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. So you see, there's this spiritual warfare going on that is happening behind the scenes, and this particular angel says, I needed the help of Michael, the archangel, to come and help me deal with the angelic forces, the demonic angelic forces, that were working with the princes of Persia.

He says, now I've come to make you understand what will happen, and so on and so forth. And he comes, lays out in the next several verses what's going to happen. And then when you come to chapter 11, verse 1, he goes on to say, Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I, even I, stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

Strengthen whom? Darius, the king of the Medes. He says, and now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all. By his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.

And he starts to lay into, here's what's coming with the kingdoms down the road, down in the future. And so what is incredible here is that the Lord gives us the opportunity to see that behind the machinations of war in our world, and behind the designs and the intentions of world leaders, there is a spiritual warfare going on that they're not even aware of.

They don't even know what's happening. They don't even know how they're being pawned and manipulated and used in the hands of, or under the power of and the leadership of, some spiritual being, some spiritual power that is using them.

But yet, yet, above it all is our God, our sovereign God, who will have his way, even with these evil forces that instigate and stir up forces on this earth to cause war, to cause mayhem, and do whatever they're going to do.

The Lord, our God, is over it all, sovereign over it all, and we can be confident of that. Well, let's be. Our Father and our God, we thank you for who you are, and we thank you for your power, your authority, and that none of the affairs of this world, events that are happening in our world, whether it's in Eastern Europe, or the Middle East, or Asia, or South America, none of this is of any surprise to you.

We thank you that we can be confident of your sovereignty, your omniscience, and your omnipotence. We thank you for the, in the spiritual warfare that's going on behind the scenes, that we know, ultimately, who wins.

Thank you for this, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday. I hope the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.