Daniel 10 (Con't)

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Good morning, Mr. Smith, will you open us up with a word of prayer? I will, let's pray.
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Holy Father, we love you. We thank you for the state that you blessed us with. We thank you for the health and strength to be here.
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And the desire to have that desire for work that you've given it to us.
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We thank you for it. We pray that you be with our brother now as he is preparing to work. We pray that our hearts are prepared.
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And you would use this time to strengthen us in our faith and our walk with you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
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Amen. Daniel, chapter 10.
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I'm going to read 10 through the end of the chapter. We did 1 through 9 last week.
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It said, Then behold, a hand touched me, set me trembling on my hands and knees. And he said to me,
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O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am 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. And then he said to me, Do not be afraid,
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Daniel, for the first day that you set your heart to understanding this and 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.
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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 I have come to give you an understanding of what will be of your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to days yet in the future.
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And when he had spoken these words to me, according to these words, I had turned my face toward the ground, became speechless.
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And behold, one who resembled a human being was touching my lips, and then
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I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me, O Lord, as a result of this vision, anguish has come upon me, and I have retained no strength, for how can such a servant of my
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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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Then this one with a human appearance touched me again, strengthened me, and he said,
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O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Take courage and be courageous.
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Now as soon as he had spoken to me, I received my strength and said, My Lord, speak, for you have strengthened me.
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Then he said, Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return and fight against the prince of Persia, so I am going forth.
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Behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth.
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Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince.
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And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and protection to him.
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So last week we tried to come to some form of agreement of who this man is that came and spoke to Daniel.
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I believe it was the pre -incarnate Christ. If you disagree with me, I'm fine with that, like I said last week.
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It's difficult to not attribute it to the pre -incarnate Christ because of the parallel passage in Revelation where the images of this person is the same.
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And for those of you that weren't here last week, I know the immediate response is, you know, why did this pre -incarnate
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Christ, quote, need help fighting the principalities of Persia for these 21 days?
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And we had made the conclusion that God uses his angels to carry out his purposes.
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He certainly could speak the word, but he doesn't always do that, whether it was using angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah or whether it was angels coming to minister to him after he had been tempted by the devil himself or after being in the
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Garden of Gethsemane, praying three times to remove the cup from him, and God said, I'm not going to do it. He didn't send angels to minister to him.
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So I don't have a problem with that. It doesn't diminish Christ's power.
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It's just him using his created beings for his purposes and for ministering to him.
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It even says in the Psalms that God uses his ministering spirits for his own glory and for his own good.
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So that brings us to verse 10, where it says, And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
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Once again, we have a parallel passage to the same thing that happens to John the Revelator in Revelation.
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Remember, when Jesus, the glorified God -man, appears to John in the book of Revelation, he falls on his face.
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And what does Jesus have to do? He reaches down and he touches John, strengthening him again, because John falls flat on his face, and he's terrified.
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And he reaches down and he touches him. The same thing happens here. He said, he touched me, he set me trembling on my hands and knees, and he said,
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O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.
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This is the pre -incarnate Son of God. Do you see how he addresses Daniel?
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Man of high esteem. Obviously, reading through the book of Daniel, I can countless times read through it once a week, because when you're studying a smaller book, you need to keep the context in your mind.
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And every time I get to that, I go, how could God address me? Loser.
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Loser. Loser. Yeah, I mean, I wonder. If he came and he was to stand before me and I fell on my face, which
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I would, I mean, everybody in this room, if Jesus was to walk in this room, we'd be face down on the tile, and he would reach down.
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Or he would call you a man of mild fear. Yeah, he might. He might. He said, you tried to be
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Christlike, starting with your beard. Yeah. No, I mean, would he say, you remedial disciple?
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Would he say... Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Yeah, I know I'll hear that on that day, but I'm not sure
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I hear that in this life. That I know he would say. Thank you.
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I'm glad you're back. You're right. That's probably what he would say.
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No doubt. I agree. And the reason being, how many times did he say that to his own disciples that walked with him, that they saw him heal all the sicknesses, cast out demons, feed the 5 ,000.
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I mean, even when Jesus comes pimping across the water, you know, they're terrified.
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He gets in the boat, and what does he say? Oh, you little thing. Or he stands up, you know, he's down there sleeping in the bow of the boat.
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It's being thrown around, and imagine that. Here it is, this boat. It says it was being tossed in a tempest.
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And what's Jesus doing? He's down there sleeping on a pillow, and they go down there and wake him up.
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We're all going to die. And he says, oh, no. And he gets up, and he just, oh, you little thing.
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Oh, you little thing. Thanks, Mike. Glad you're back. But he tells
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Daniel, man of high esteem. Why was Daniel a man of high esteem? Anybody? Certainly.
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By the way, what have we seen from the beginning of the book about Daniel?
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This man prays. He prays. He doesn't lean. You know, it says do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge
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God and he will direct your paths. This is Daniel. Anytime something came up, what did
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Daniel do? He was praying. When he needed answers to save the wise men's guild, including himself, not only did he intercede for him and his three friends, he interceded for the whole guild, the deceptive guilders, you know, the whole thing, the conjurers, the snake handlers, all that.
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And what did he do? He prayed. And he had no doubt that God was going to answer his prayers. So here it is now, and we're fixing to get into it.
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He's been praying for 21 days. He's dirty. He stinks.
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Remember what he did last week? He's been fasting. He fasted for 21 days. This time frame that takes place is in the time of the
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Passover. He should be enjoying himself. It should be a time of feasting. And what is he doing?
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He's mourning. He's mourning and praying. And I do believe that he's continually mourning and praying because, like you said last week,
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Mauricio, I agree with you, that he is still seeing in the future this restoration is not going to be complete.
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He's still looking ahead going there's still more destruction coming on my people.
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And as he gets this vision, that's exactly what he hears. Remember, this is the longest vision of the book.
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It takes us from 10 all the way to the end of chapter 12, the end of the book. And he said he stood up and he said,
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I've been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.
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Daniel never stops being fearful. He never stops being fearful because he's in the presence of the pre -incarnate
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Son of God. That's why I said once before, these people that say they've seen Jesus, had him come in his room, play a saxophone at the end of the bed, and all this other nonsense is absolutely baloney.
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When people come in contact with the glorified or the pre -incarnate Son of God, in his pre -incarnate form, every one of them fell on their face, even including
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Abraham, when he came to tell him he was coming to destroy the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, do not be afraid,
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Daniel, for the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and humbling yourself before God your words were heard.
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So, remember we said that Daniel had been praying for 21 days. When did the messenger leave to bring him the answer?
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What's that? Start of his prayer. Immediately, when he started praying and humbling himself.
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How should we understand humbling yourself? Anybody have any Old Testament understanding of what it means to humble oneself?
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Certainly, the clothing. But most importantly, it means to humble oneself.
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It has to do with fasting. Humble oneself means to fasting and praying, basically debasing themselves before God.
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That's why they didn't put ointment on. He was stanky. He was nasty. Because he was just showing a concern and debasement of himself to get an answer from God.
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Now, it is often said by false teachers that this manipulates
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God. Does fasting manipulate God? No.
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Does prayer manipulate God? No. What does prayer do? It puts us in the mindset of what
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God... Instead of making God do what we want Him to do, it puts us in the right understanding that God's going to do what's best for us.
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However that looks. Whether that's... We've been through difficult times.
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And you pray. Just because we pray doesn't mean that God didn't answer our prayers. He just did it in a way that...
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That at times we don't agree with. I'm just going to be honest. Bad as that hates to say it.
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And that doesn't diminish my faith even though you said I'm a man of no faith. Oh, you said little, didn't you?
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Little faith. It doesn't mean that we in any way diminish our faithfulness to God or God's faithfulness to His people.
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But there are times when God answers a prayer because He answers every prayer. I said this early on, even in Daniel 9, that we often think that because God doesn't answer it the way that we want,
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God's not hearing me or He doesn't answer my prayer. God answers our prayer, but He's answering according to His will.
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And our wills often are not in tune with His will or His secret decree.
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And at times when those come in conflict, there's tension. And I'll be honest, it's hard to live in that tension sometimes.
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It's difficult. And Daniel is learning that. Daniel has had a vision that shows that his people are going to be not just taken off into captivity again.
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He said utter desolation in the last chapter. And as we get to the end of this vision, he sees the same thing.
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And Daniel, he leaves on a good note, go your own way,
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Daniel. You're going to enter into what your inheritance is, but your people are going to be wiped out because of their disobedience.
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So once again, he says humbling yourself before God. He said, I have come in response to your words.
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Now, we don't know exactly what he was praying. We don't. We know this, it had to do with his people, and it had to do with wanting to understand more of the vision, whether it was the previous ones that he has had over the last 65 years probably, or is it him wanting to understand more of what is about to take place.
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Now, here's where it gets into some stuff that may open up some more conversation.
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He says in verse 13, But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days.
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All right, well, right off rip, who is the prince of Persia? What's that?
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Cyrus. In this context. Okay. If I write on that, it won't.
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I was fixing to grab that sharpie. That would never have got off them. You say
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Cyrus? O ye of large faith? Sure. Anyone else?
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You said Satan? Anyone else?
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Anybody? All right, well, I guess we'll have to figure out which one of these it is. Or if it's any of them.
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First of all, what would be the reason, anybody just from the plain reading of the text, why wouldn't it be
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Cyrus? Correct.
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First of all, this messenger is leaving the heavens, wherever that is.
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And obviously there's a place of traveling. Okay, now we can get into all that, and that's difficult. But he is in, quote, the third heavens.
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This messenger is coming at neck break speed, and he is in the air fighting with the prince of Persia.
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So that means it can't be this guy, because he's not a spiritual being.
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And not only is it that, but as you get into the chapter and verse breaks are not inspired.
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But that's why I read into chapter 11, because it's still this messenger speaking.
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He says, but in the first year of Darius the Medi, I arose to be an encouragement and protection for him. So this very person that's fighting
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Prince of Persia was actually protecting this individual here. Okay?
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How would we understand it to be safe? I'm not disagreeing yet, or even if I'm going to.
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Because throughout the Bible it uses the prince, prince of air, and things like that, that refers to safe, or the demons, and the witch, and the spirit.
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Okay. Even Jesus, I think that's where it uses the prince of the air. Yeah, he is the prince of the power of the air.
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And we can probably go to that in a few minutes. In the Ephesians, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.
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And I think, actually, when you get to the end down here in the
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Septuagint, where it says the forces, except for against the forces, except for Michael the prince, if I remember correctly in the
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Septuagint, it actually uses the Greek word for principalities there. So there is a connection of the spiritual battle that's going on that's not just flesh and blood.
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Now, when we see the things going on, and even in our political time with kings and kingdoms, is it real maneuvering of armies and governments and empires fighting against one another?
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Certainly. Certainly. You've got to remember, but there's still a force behind that force. Are you raising your hand?
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Okay. A force behind that force. Now, I think this is an agent of Satan.
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I don't think it's specifically Satan himself, but I'll agree with you. It's someone sent by him.
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You believe it's Satan? I'm fine. Okay. I just, my opinion, and how I come to my conclusion, is it is the prince.
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But then as you go on, there are other he's fighting against. So it's a group.
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Now, were they harnessed and sent by Satan? Yes. There's actually, when you get to the, in the
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Ephesians 6 passage, where we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness and the air, there's a word in there that's kosmos koroteron, and it is actually a harness.
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That's the Greek word, kosmos, meaning the order of this powers of darkness.
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And who is that? As you said, the principalities of the air, the prince of darkness is
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Satan. But he can't be everywhere all the time. But he certainly can send his agents to do so.
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And that's what I believe has happened here. Why was he, the prince of Persia, fighting or coming to fight against God's people?
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This is where Cyrus does come into play. Was it to embolden or strengthen
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Cyrus in his fight against the Greek? Well, no, he doesn't fight against the
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Greeks. I say that you're right. It does strengthen him. But the reason being is, remember, the immediate, as soon as the decree comes for God's people to go back to the land, what's
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Satan's plan? He wants to stop. He wants to stop. Matter of fact, we could even go to Revelation.
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When you go to chapter 12 and 13, when Jesus is being born, that dragon is waiting for him there to be born.
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Well, was Satan actually there waiting for him to be born? Or did he use an agent waiting for him to be born to kill him?
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Herod. And where do we see when the deliverer of Israel was coming when they were in bondage?
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Was Satan waiting there for Moses? Or did he use someone? He used
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Herod. Yes. So that's how I understand this, to be an agent of Satan.
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And it says that he was withstanding for him for 21 days. So here they are. They're fighting in the air. And I know y 'all are more spiritual than me, more sanctified and all that, but I can't help it in my mind when
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I see this, is these two things just barrel -rolling in the clouds.
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I mean, that's just how my mind operates. It's probably wrong. But there were obviously some conflict in the air.
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Is that where lightning comes from? Huh? What'd you say? Lightning. And thunder.
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Yeah, but in my mind, I'm going, man, you got these two colossal things like transform, barrel -rolling in the sky, and they're knocking into planets and hitting stars.
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And I say, well, what happened? But in my mind, that's what's going on. Well, then it says, for 21 days this happened.
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21 days. But then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.
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How should we understand who this Michael is? Or Machael. Say it. How are we supposed to know
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Michael? What was that? What was the question? How should we understand who Michael is? He's an angel.
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He is an angel. He is an angel. He is actually the protector of God's people.
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We see that at the end of the book where he says, hey, I've sent him over to protect them. And what do we know about Michael?
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He's a warrior. Yes, sir. He certainly is. Matter of fact, when Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation, okay, when he is enthroned in heaven, what happens?
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According to Revelation chapter 12 and 13, there was a war in heaven.
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That's when the war took place. And it says that the dragon and his angels waged a war with Michael.
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And they were thrown down. And he took stars with them. And a third of the stars. When we get to Revelation, we'll get a better understanding of who those stars are.
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And are they fallen angels or are they talking about the people of God? But here it is.
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Michael is fighting against this prince of Persia. So, like, can I ask a quick question?
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When you say prince, you were saying that in other translations there was principalities?
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No. When you get down to the bottom here where it says against these forces, against Michael, the prince, that is the principalities, the forces.
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In the Greek, that's the principalities in the Septuagint. Principalities just meaning authorities and forces.
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I think most translations probably have forces there, and it might be in italics. Anybody?
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You get to chapter 10, verse 21. Principalities.
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Yeah, you go all the way down to the end. The principalities that were fighting against Michael is the forces of darkness.
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And we would agree that this is the forces of darkness, right? We would agree, right?
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Okay. All right. And the ones that are fighting against this messenger and who Michael comes to assist him is fighting against an evil force.
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And that evil force is trying to stop the restoration of God's people.
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Remember, as soon as they were sent back, immediately there was pushback. As soon as they got there,
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I think I said it a few weeks ago, go read 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, and as you get about halfway towards the end of that chapter, you're going to see that as soon as they got there, they immediately, as soon as the rubble got there with his group, a four -month journey from Babylon with all the things that he needed to rebuild the altar and restart the temple and lay its foundations and all of that, they immediately run into problems.
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And those problems continued on with the surrounding people. They even had rebuilt the wall before Nehemiah had come.
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The Sumerians came and burned it, okay? Then when Nehemiah comes some 85 years later,
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I guess, somewhere around that, he sees that, hey, man, he's heard that this place has been burned. And he says,
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I've got to go back. And he then gets funds to do that from Xerxes. And Xerxes, or art of Xerxes, he goes back, he rebuilds it, and as soon as he gets there, what happens?
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He runs into conflict. Well, who's behind that conflict? It's Satan and his agents that are doing that.
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Look, any time the people of God are wanting to grow the kingdom of God, even in the
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Old Testament, there is pushback from the principalities of darkness. Is that not what happens in our under the
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New Covenant? Look, do you think that Satan wants us out evangelizing?
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No. Of course he doesn't. And he'll do whatever he can with his coerce to see that we don't, whether it's creating fear, persecution, create fear with loss of job, whatever.
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He'll do whatever it takes. I mean, fortunately, we're in a country right now where we're not going to be hauled off and put to death.
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That could come at some day, but that's not where we're at. Most of it is not being accepted by the culture.
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That's really not persecution. It's a type, but it's really not persecution like it is in every other place in the world where militants come in, enslave the children, rape the women, and kill all the men.
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We don't have to worry about that here. He said, 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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So now we see there is a group that they're fighting against.
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Now, I've come to give you an understanding of what will take place about the people in latter days and for the future pertains to days yet in the future.
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Now, immediately, the question is, this thing of understanding of what's going to take place is, what is the latter days?
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Okay, let's say. Hang on. You said in the time of Christ? Right?
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Okay. Lifetime of Christ? Anybody else?
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Maybe the New Testament, the new covenant. Okay, what else?
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What did you say? That is the future. Okay, future. How close, though? The age to come,
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I don't care. Is it after Daniel's life?
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Okay. How in the future? He will be dead. There you go. After Daniel's, which that would be after Daniel's death, too, by the way.
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Okay. Yeah, long time after Daniel's death. All right. Specifically, and maybe next week we'll start getting into it has to deal specifically, beginning with the time immediately after Daniel's death.
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And it will extend, okay? It will extend to the death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, and the destruction of Jerusalem, okay?
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Now, as we get towards the end, some people think it's just dealing with the Greek Empire. I can make my argument that I believe it's dealing with the
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Roman Empire as well, because remember, if that's
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Alexander the Great calling, I'll call him back. There was four kingdoms.
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Remember, Daniel never deviates from this motif, ever.
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Daniel never goes off the pathway of these four kingdoms, which arise in the lifetime of God's people, which are then ultimately the destruction of the
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Old Covenant. And why is there destruction of the Old Covenant? Because Messiah's kingdom has come.
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And that is what Daniel is fixing to get more information on. That's why, as we continue to read on, when you get towards the end, this is the first time the
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Greek Empire is ever even mentioned. Remember, the other time it's mentioned, it's mentioned
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Bronze, you know, the colossus, and then the next time it's mentioned, why is that always
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Greece mentioned? You may remember in Chapter 8, 7 and 8, the air -propelled shaggy goat flying across the globe with a big old unicorn.
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Remember, that horn falls, the horns pop up, okay? So this is the first time specifically that the
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Greek Empire is mentioned specifically. So he says, this is going to happen, it's pertaining to the latter days, and this future pertains to days yet future.
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Certainly, in the future. It will begin with the rise of the
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Persian Empire, which Daniel is in. It will then go from the Persian Empire to some of its issues that happens, and we'll get into that in Chapter 11.
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And then it goes into the rise of the Greek Empire, which actually becomes a real pain in the posterior for the people of God.
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A real pain. Like so much of a pain that there is an attempt to wipe
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God's people off the land of Jerusalem and all the surrounding areas, what we would say today
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Palestine, but it was not quite Palestine then, just the land of Israel. So he says in verse 15,
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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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Once again, he is terrified. And behold, one who resembled a human being was touching my lips.
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Then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me, O my
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Lord, as a result of the vision, anguish has come upon me. Why did he have anguish on him?
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What did he see in this vision? What continually does he see in these visions that brings him consternation?
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His people being slaughtered. Yep, his people being slaughtered. He said, and anguish has come upon me.
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I have retained no strength. For how can such a servant of my
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Lord talk with such as my Lord? For as for me, there remains just no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me.
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Once again, he is overwhelmed with grief. He is overwhelmed with this vision of what's going to take place.
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And Daniel feels like life is leaving him. And here's what happens.
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This one with the human appearance touched me again. And he strengthened me, just like happened to John the
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Revelator. It's just amazing the parallels from Revelation in the first few chapters and then on through the book of Daniel in the
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Old Testament. Just to let you know, in the Greek New Testament, in Revelation alone, in the
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Nestle -Allen 28, Greek New Testament, over 800 quotations and allusions from Revelation just in the
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Old Testament alone. So when we get to Revelation, if we don't understand the use of the
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Old Testament in the New, we're not going to understand that book. Over 800.
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I think I counted 404 verses in the New American Standard 1995 edition and then over 800 allusions.
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So that means there's two allusions per verse in the book of Revelation. Over 800 quotations and allusions from the
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Old Testament. So if you don't understand your Old Testament, Revelation's going to be a riddle. And it's not a riddle.
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It's not a puzzle. Just like Daniel's not a puzzle. Are there puzzling pieces about it? Oh, yeah.
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There's some stuff that makes you go, oh, really? Yeah. So he says here, he had no strength, and this one touched him, strengthened him again, and he said,
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O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Take courage and be courageous.
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Where have we heard that before? What did God tell Joshua before he went to take the conquest of the land?
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I mean, yes, he multiple times in that first chapter. I mean,
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I think it was maybe six times. Be strong, be courageous. Be strong, be courageous. Be strong, be courageous.
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Be strong, be courageous. And that's what he's telling Daniel. Daniel had already been strong and courageous, but what is he telling him to do at some 80 -something years old?
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Continue to be strong and be courageous. He says, now as soon as he spoke to me,
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I received strength. My Lord, speak, for you have strengthened me. He said, basically, now that you have given me strength, now that you have given me the ability to hear what you have to say and given me strength to comprehend it,
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I want you to speak the truth to me. And he said, do you understand why
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I came to you? That's what he doesn't do right there. Does he give Daniel an opportunity to respond?
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He just goes right on into his next statement. Hey, do you know why I came to you? But I shall not return to fight against the prince of Persia.
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He doesn't even give Daniel an opportunity to respond. He says, but I have come to fight against the prince of Persia, so I'm going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.
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So what do we know about the powers of darkness behind Persia?
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There's going to be powers of darkness behind what? Greece. Greece. And what's
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God going to have to do to protect his people from those powers of darkness?
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He's going to have to send his agent, Michael, or someone to protect them. And when we get to the
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Greek empire, the Greeks are rough. The Greeks are rough, very, on God's people.
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And to a certain degree, we can say rightfully so. God did use the Greek empire to sift out the false, to sift out the compromisers, to sift out those who at that particular time, the
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Hellenization of the Jews was anathema at that time. He says, do you understand?
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I'm sorry. The prince of Persia, so I'm going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come to you.
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However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Does anybody's translation say book or scroll of truth?
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Scripture. Scripture. What did you say? Book. Anybody else?
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No? This is the scroll of truth. It's actually a scroll. They didn't have books in the time of Daniel.
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Codexes didn't even come along, even used by the people of God, until after the coming of the
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New Testament. What's that? I was going to say the Gutenberg books. No, the codexes started right after the
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New Testament. The New Testament, as the New Testament was being written, the church got away from using scroll, unless it was the
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Old Testament scroll, but they started using codex, meaning book, things that were put together. That's interesting that how that, and we don't have time to get into that, but that was the distinction between the church and Judaism, is they began to use codex and stack together instead of rolls, making a distinction of what they preferred to use.
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He is fixing to give him the scroll of truth. My understanding of this is this is the scroll in which he is going to give him days to come concerning God's people, because he's already said that.
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It's going to be leading up to the death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, destruction of Jerusalem.
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That scroll that he is getting, as he gets to the end of this scroll of truth, he asks for more information concerning the scroll.
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Does anybody remember what the pre -incarnate Son of God tells him? Seal it up.
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Where do we see the scroll of truth being opened up? Revelation. Who's able to open that scroll?
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No one. No one worthy. And he begins to cry, and he falls down, and the
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Lamb has to touch him and raise him up, and the only one worthy to open that scroll of truth was
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Christ. And as that scroll is opened, those seven seals are opened, and those seven seals are the judgment that's coming on the nation of Israel.
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That's why it's going to deal immediately with Daniel, right after Daniel's death.
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You know, the rest of the Persian Empire is going to the Greeks. But as that scroll of truth is opened up to its fullness, for the rejection of the
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Messiah, there will be desolations upon desolations until it's utterly left desolate.
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And that's what it said. I don't want to get into the abomination of desolation. We might get into that next week. He says,
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So here it is. The only person that's come to help the pre -incarnate Son of God, protect God's people, is
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Michael the archangel. And then he says, Why did the pre -incarnate
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Son of God have to be a protection to Cyrus the Great, Darius the Mede?
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Okay, in broad, that's truth. Specifically.
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The restoration of the kingdom, yes. Because remember, now that 70 years is over, Remember, Cyrus, if you read
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Ezra and you read Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, even though Cyrus was a pagan, okay, he was prophesied in Isaiah 44 and 45 that he would be the anointed one.
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The word is Messiah. That's what he would be. Not Messiah as in Christ, but he would be an illustration of the deliverer of God's people that would bring them out of captivity, release them and let them go back.
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He would help them build their, get their city put back together. Remember, in chapter 44 of Isaiah, it is specifically said
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Cyrus will be the one to rebuild not just the temple, the city, the surrounding, its wall, all of that.
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So, Cyrus and his decree, which you can read in Ezra chapter 1, go home and read that.
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He says, God has told me to do this. So we often think that God doesn't reach out to pagan kings for his purposes.
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He knew that he was being used by God. So if he was going to be used by God, who had to protect
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Cyrus from these agents? God did.
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God had to protect him. And as he is doing these things,
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God had to protect the Persian Empire so that he could get his and his purposes, get his people back into the land, get the temple rebuilt, the altar going, sacrifices, reinstitute, rededicate the temple and to begin the restoration process of rebuilding the kingdom.
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And that is exactly what happened. Now, we're going to run into some major hiccups along the way.
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As soon as we know anything about Ezra, what's one of the first things that happens when they get back to the city?
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What do the priests do? They marry pagan wives. Marry pagan wives.
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So here it is, God being merciful and gracious, sending them back after chastising them for 70 years.
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And what's the first thing they do? They go, mmm, them boabites are hot. Man, them
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Ammonite chicks, whoo, man, they're good looking. I'll take two of them. And that's what they did.
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And then Ezra has to come back. And he tells, what's that? Make them give them back.
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Yeah. Man, that's a tough passage. I mean, he's in either chapter 10 or chapter 11.
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I can't remember. He sends them back with their children and all. Ezra says, this is from the
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Lord. Now, look, this isn't saying that divorce is okay. This is a one -off thing.
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He said, you have intermarried the holy seed with corrupt seed, and you have done what God has told you not to do, and you now need to send them back.
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And the specific word that's used there is not the same as marriage. It's almost as if it's just dwelling with them.
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That's the word that's actually used. But tough days, tough days for God's people.
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And as we get into next week, a lot of historical detail next week.
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So if I overwhelm you with dates and times and people, as Miss Jackie says,
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Mike, slow down. You speak too fast. Tell me to slow down, because next week is very detailed.
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Yes, sir. The next two weeks may be very detailed. I was going to say, I think it's also important for us to know that what he's teaching us throughout the weeks, it's also on the website.
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I had to go in there just to kind of start from scratch. Oh, start over? Yeah, because it does build in a way.
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That's why I taught it chronologically, so that these visions build upon one another.
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And some of those, if you don't understand when that vision came, okay, and how the other one builds on it, then you're not understanding how progressive revelation – and I know anything's progressive should be held in – saying progressive should be held with suspect.
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But it is progressive revelation. God progressively was giving Daniel revelation of what was to come to pass.
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But as we get to the end of the book, he gives him, in detail, what's going to take place dealing with his people, with God's people, and what's going to happen to the holy place, and it absolutely crushes him.
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It crushes him. All right, Mike, you'll close us? Father God, thank you for this time of study.
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I pray that it was profitable. I pray now that as we go to this time of worship, that you will still our minds, that you'll open them to us, and work the image of your son.