Daniel 10

We're still in the apocalyptic section of Daniel. So Daniel is recording all the visions he had during his ministry of seventy, eighty odd years, a section of prophecy. And so we're still in this, and we're working our way through. This is after Daniel's prayer, after this beautiful prayer that he prayed and outlined just God's grace even in the old testament. And so it's sort of in this context of prayer that we find this next chapter.

So we move on to chapter 10. And chapter 10 sees the start of one giant long vision for Daniel. It just flows over to Daniel chapter 11, and then it flows over to Daniel chapter 12. So this is one big chunk of prophecy that Daniel is seeing. We've already noted that in the vision of chapter seven.

Remember chapter seven, we saw the four kingdoms, the four beasts that rose out of the ocean. And then each subsequent vision, chapter eight and chapter nine, brings a sharper focus on one kingdom, and that is the last kingdom. That is the kingdom of God. It zooms in. It puts a microscope on this final kingdom of God.

In the last part of chapter nine, the story zoomed in on the final days of the fourth kingdom, and the anticipation remember of the anointed one, the 70 sevens. The time when before this anointed one would come to put an end to sin, to bring about everlasting righteousness. And so we come to chapter 10, and we see that in the third year of Cyrus, which is about two years after what happened in chapter nine, Daniel receives another revelation. We don't know what sort of revelation, whether it was from scriptures like he had in Daniel chapter nine where he read Jeremiah and he saw that there would be seventy years of exile before they would be able to return. It was either something like that or it was another vision.

But the bible says in those opening verses that it was something concerning a great war, a revelation about a great war. And this revelation, the opening verses say, had a profound deep impact on Daniel. He was wiped out for three weeks, completely sick, physically ill, mourning for three weeks. What he saw was amazing. It was terrifying.

And so he doesn't eat any delicious food. He doesn't drink wine. He doesn't use lotions. Now lotions in those days were used to keep yourself healthy, and so in him sort of abstaining from this, we get the indication that he was neglecting his body as a traditional sign of mourning. The same with not eating good food.

It was in mourning for what he had seen. And Daniel mourns for three weeks, the bible says, about this revelation he had about the future of Israel. We don't know what he saw initially that disturbed him so much. But during this time, during this time of absolute terrifying mourning for what he saw, he sees he receives another vision. The bible says in verse four, on the twenty fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris.

Daniel saw this. He looks up, and before him, he sees a man dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz or his body was like chrysolite. His face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. Daniel saw something that was completely otherworldly.

The person he saw was supernatural. His eyes flamed like fire. His muscular arms were like bronze, gleaming. His face shone with the intensity of lightning. And when he spoke, it was as if a thousand voices were speaking simultaneously.

Can you get the picture? Can you imagine this thing that he saw? Who was this person? Was it another angel? Was it another creature like he saw in the previous visions?

The winged lion, the leopard with the four wings or the ravenous bear. Some have suggested that Daniel just saw another angel again. He had seen them before, and this was just another one. An impressive angel, mind you, but an angel nonetheless. But we see Daniel communicating with other angels before and in other situations, but none were so awe inspiring as the one that he saw that day.

Daniel probably couldn't grasp what he was seeing. But I believe that Daniel saw here the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Daniel saw here Jesus before he took on humanity. And I will explain to you why. What we see here in his description here of Jesus is very similar to what we see in the last book of the bible in Revelation. And remember, Revelation is also apocalyptic literature.

So these are two very same genres in the bible. Turn with me quickly in your bible to chapter one of Revelation. Chapter one of Revelation, and we're going to read from verse 12. The apostle John on Patmos falls into a trance, and he receives this huge revelation. And in context, Jesus appears to him and begins to talk with him and instructs him to write these things to the churches, the seven churches.

Verse 12, it says, I, John, turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like the son of man. Dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was the sound of rushing waters.

In his right hand, he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. This is Jesus. This is obviously Jesus who John sees here and describes. Daniel sees someone with a golden sash around his waist, bronze arms and legs, eyes of fire, face of lightning.

There's a link here. And so I believe Daniel sees Jesus Christ before Jesus became obedient to death as a human, before he became a human. Daniel couldn't have known who he was speaking to, but Daniel saw Jesus. So we see here a rare glimpse of who Jesus was before he came to earth. And we see Jesus, how he will be when we meet him next.

It's an amazing image. Philippians two talks about who Jesus what happened behind the scenes before Jesus became or when Jesus became a human. Philippians two verse six reads, Jesus who being in the very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage. Rather, He made Himself as nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as man, He humbled Himself by becoming even obedient to death.

Even death on a cross. Daniel witnesses Jesus. Now let's have a look at Daniel's reaction and what he experienced in this encounter. Only Daniel could see Christ. He had his whole entourage flee.

They couldn't see anything. They were just aware that something was there, and they were terrified. They fled. That reminds me so much of the story of Saul and Damascus. Right?

When Saul saw Jesus for the first time, the people with him heard something but they were terrified. They were overcome. But it was only Saul who later becomes Paul who saw him. Verse seven, I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision. Those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves.

So I was left alone gazing at this great vision. I had no strength left. My face turned deathly pale, and I was helpless. We serve a powerful king. We serve a powerful master.

He doesn't need our faith. He doesn't need our faith to make Him who He is. He is who He is. Sometimes we have to remember that the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is in fact God with the same glory, the same holiness as God the Father. Daniel experiences something of being in the presence of God, and it reminds us that Jesus needs to be feared and revered as much as He is our saviour and our friend.

We are to revere Him as God as much as we revere Him and love Him for being our friend. Today we can meet with Jesus. We can meet with God and not be overcome with God's glory and holiness. Daniel saw Jesus and he was struck down. It says all his strength left him. Now Brian spoke about the nausea that he feels now in his treatment.

Imagine that times a million. Imagine just feeling you cannot move because of this awesome presence before you. Daniel's experience of being in the presence of God wipes him out. But we stand on the other side of what Jesus has done for us. We sung that the veil has been torn for us.

And we have access to God because we are covered in the blood of Jesus. We are covered in His righteousness. So when God approaches us, when He comes near us, and we invite Him into our worship services every week, when He comes to us, we are not blown away. We are not turned deathly pale and have our strength flee us. We are covered in Jesus' blood, and so when God sees us, He sees His Son.

He sees His Son over you and me. And so we are not wiped down, we are not destroyed. We are being shielded from being annihilated by God's perfect holiness. So we have this unbelievable privilege of coming into the presence of God without being consumed by His holiness and His all consuming majesty. But Daniel didn't have Jesus yet.

Daniel wasn't covered by this righteousness, by the uprightness of Jesus. And so when he merely glimpsed at the astounding greatness of God, he got hammered. He got hammered. And so Daniel, he just becomes acutely aware of his humanity, of his brokenness, of his imperfection before God. Today's church, I believe, has fallen into a real danger of seeing Jesus as our buddy, as seeing Jesus as our pal.

And we have to remember that it's always a pendulum because us as human beings, we always tend to focus one or the other. We can't keep things in tension perfectly. And so there have been times in church history where Jesus has been seen as this transcendent, far off, holy majestic God, but there's no intimate relationship with Him. And at the other hand, where I believe we are erring now is by seeing that Jesus is just like our pal, and we can just go and have a beer with Him on a Friday night. And we can just, you know, talk to Him and relate to Him like any other person.

And both, you know, both of those extremes, there's a truth to both of them. But at the moment, the church is struggling and Jesus has become our buddy. But when we see passages of scripture like this, we just get a glimpse of the glorified Jesus, not the humbled Jesus of Galilee. And so it's great. It refreshes us.

It renews our thinking. Pastor and author, Mike Driscoll, I don't know if you've heard or read of him. He's sort of the up and coming yuppie reformed big preacher in America at the moment. Mike Driscoll, from a church called Mars Hill in Seattle. He writes that churches today and many Christians recast Jesus, and this is quoting him, as a limp wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in his hair who drank decaf and made pity zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes.

He believes that we are starting to lose the inspiring, fear inducing glory of Jesus Christ that should drive us into the mission field, drive us into the mission field of our workplace, of our friendship circles, of our church worship. He says, many postmodern churches focus exclusively on Christ's humble incarnation, again I'm quoting him, in culture, which is to hang out with sinful people, particularly the poor and the marginalised. But in this mindset, he says, being a Christian means being a nice person who loves people no matter what their lives are like by trying to identify with their cultural experiences and perspectives in a non judgmental empathetic way. He says, whatever is lacking, however, is the understanding that when we see Jesus next, He will not appear as a humble, marginalised Galilean peasant. Rather, we will see the exalted, tattooed, king of kings coming with blazing fire in His eyes and a sword launching from His mouth, with which to make war upon the unrepentant.

This is who we will see next. He says, until the day of Jesus' coming, we are not merely to relate to people but we are also commanded to tell them to repent from their sin, to bend their knee to the king before they are grapes crushed under His feet in the winepress of His fury. He doesn't mince his words, does he? He doesn't sugarcoat anything. Yes, he says Jesus is humbled.

Yes, Jesus hung out with prostitutes and sinners and tax collectors when he was the perfect holy Son of God. But at the same time, the time is coming when He is coming back to establish His kingdom. And we saw that the Son of Man comes before the ancient of days and he's declared and he is given authority and power. How desperate how desperate are you to preach this to your friends who will stand before this king? How desperate are you in sharing with your brother, with your sister this, the gospel?

Are we too comfortable watching the silent approach of Jesus Christ return inching closer every day, meanwhile forgetting that Christ is coming with a sword to wage war against Satan and all those who live as enemies towards Him. Mark Driscoll doesn't mince his words because he shouldn't. If the righteous man, Daniel, the man who went vego for Jesus, you know, did not eat meat, did not drink good wine for all his life because he wouldn't take food from the king's table. If this righteous man, Daniel, could hardly remain alive in the presence of Jesus, how about those who consciously stand against Jesus at the last day, who shake their fist at Him and say, I will do things my own way. What chance do they have?

We serve a majestic God. We serve a majestic Lord full of power and full of glory and majesty. And then Jesus begins to speak. He sees this and he's just absolutely blown away. And then Jesus has a special message to deliver to Daniel.

Verse 12. Then he continued, do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I was contained there with the king of Persia.

Now, I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future for the vision concerns a time yet to come. Daniel here experiences a glimpse of the spiritual realm. It's as if there's a crack in the door and he can just pierce through it and see what's happening behind the scenes. What's happening in the spiritual, not in the earthly side of things. He looks through this crack, and he sees that there is a spiritual war going on.

For us as Christians, we have to be aware that there is a spiritual side. It's a funny thing to say, but there is a spiritual side to this life. And there's a spiritual war that is being waged even today. We shouldn't be unaware of it. As Reformers, we we tend to shy away from that sort of thing.

We don't wanna get too charismatic. We don't wanna, you know, be like those people. But many of us on the side of not being aware, not thinking about those sort of things. And scripture talks about the fact that Christians, some Christians are given the gift, the spiritual gift of being able to discern spirits, being able to discern what is happening in the spiritual realm. And so Daniel 10, this passage gives us a valuable insight into the power and the effect of dark forces.

Let's have a look. The first thing we see in Daniel 10 is that they resist God's plans. Behind the scene, God is resisting Satan's attacks. And so they stand in direct opposition to what God's purposes are in that Greece was beginning to gain power. Greece was beginning to gain power but God had directed that.

It says here though that the prince of Persia resisted Jesus Christ. Now, is that a human prince or not? The fact is Jesus comes to Daniel in the spiritual. Jesus comes to Daniel in a vision. Jesus could have appeared anytime in any place, but he was resisted.

Was it a spiritual or a physical prince of Persia? Well, the thing is the prince of Persia was Daniel's king. So Daniel's king was fighting Jesus or something else is going on here. I believe that the prince of Persia here, and this is what the church's interpretation, Christian's interpretations have been for many, many hundreds of years is that is Satan. And Jesus is fighting against Satan, Satan who was who had his territory, Satan who had domain and dominion and power over a certain area who was trying to resist God, resist God's plan.

And so, yeah, Jesus comes. What I think we see here is that we should be careful on the one hand to see a demon behind everything, but also that we shouldn't neglect this truth. That there is something like dark forces, that there is a resistance to God Himself. And that is not just human resistance. There's a resistance in the spiritual realm as well.

The amazing thing here and it comes out in our text is that where these forces are at their greatest, where these forces are at their strongest and sort of at their most powerful is where God's activity and the gospel of Jesus Christ is doing the most damage to Satan's plans. The gospel was growing through Daniel and in Daniel's reign. Daniel had, you know, led Nebuchadnezzar to faith. He had control over an entire nation, and he could promote the gospel amongst the people there. And so Satan saw this as a huge threat, and Satan attacked Jesus and what Jesus was doing there.

This is why, you know, missionaries, and Les and Lisa might be able to share more of this, missionaries in places like Asia or Africa, they witness demonic influence much more than sort of our suburban lifestyles now. It's because the gospel is advancing so rapidly that Satan needs to try and fight and resist and push back. The gospel is going at a 100 miles an hour, so there has to be resistance. The other thing, however, we see about the spiritual and spiritual warfare is that Jesus always wins. Yes.

He was resisted by this prince of Persia, the defender of Satan's armies, but Jesus wins. And that even though there may be resistance, God is too powerful. He will overcome. Look at how, you know, Jesus was able to drive out demons just with a word. Just by saying out or leave or go away.

Jesus is in control and He ultimately crushes Satan on the cross. We know that. Satan is a mortally wounded enemy and he is slowly bleeding to death. One Peter speaks about Satan as being a roaring lion looking to devour God's people. And a wounded lion is a very dangerous thing.

But he is also weak. And as the time approaches for Jesus' return, he will get more desperate. But Jesus has already won. And this is something that our charismatic brothers and sisters perhaps don't reflect on enough. Jesus has already won. The touch of Jesus.

The touch of Jesus is an amazing thing. This is what happens after Jesus reveals to Daniel what is about to happen. He shows them what has happened behind the scenes. That Jesus is fighting for His people Israel. In verse, I think it's verse 16.

I said to the one standing before me, I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I am helpless. How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe. Daniel saw this vision that absolutely wiped him out. He mourns for three weeks.

Three weeks goes by because Jesus has resisted. Remember, for twenty one days, which is three weeks, Jesus resisted. He can't get to Daniel quickly enough because he is fighting Satan's forces. But three weeks goes by and he comes to Daniel. And he says, well, this is what's been happening, Daniel, but I'm here to give you hope.

This amazing war that's going to happen will happen and is happening, but I will overcome. I will win. Daniel says, however, you know, how can I speak with you? I am completely overcome. I feel very weak.

Verse 18 says, and again, the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed, he said. Peace. Be strong now. Be strong.

When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, speak, my lord, since you have given me strength. Jesus touches Daniel and restores him with strength. It gives us a beautiful image, doesn't it? That even our majestic and our powerful king has a concern for His broken people. In our trials and in our struggles, whether that be against Satan himself, and we have to be aware that that is possible.

And whether that is against just our sinful broken nature, or whether that is against the world that is waging war against us. We have a saviour who is not only powerful and majestic by Himself, but touches us and restores us with their power. In our trials and in our struggles, we have the warrior Christ who fights on our behalf. There is nothing to fear. Paul said it best, if God is for us, who can be against us?

At the cross, Jesus Christ, the one with the bronze like muscles and a giant sword, conquered the enemy, Satan. He conquered the enemy of death. He promised us His presence in the Holy Spirit. His Spirit that restores us. His Spirit that is that touch to our souls.

He gives it to us. He gave it to us. And not just for a few days, not just for a few weeks, but forever. We're gonna ask God to this morning as we finish up for Jesus to touch us and to fill us and to give us strength for our struggles, for the assaults that we face. And we're gonna ask Jesus to be king over our lives again.