OPINION —
We’ve seen some amazing things in Daniel:
- a king who becomes animal-like and then later has his humanity restored,
- three young men are thrown into a furnace so hot it killed those who threw them in — but the young men survive,
- Daniel spends the night in a den of lions and lives to pray about it,
- A mysterious hand appears and writes on a wall,
- Daniel consistently telling us history ahead of his time.
These incidents provide us with windows through which we get glimpses of the world beyond ours. After all, these things don’t “naturally” occur in our world — so they point us to the reality of a world beyond this one.
These glimpses (and the larger truths they embody) are made known to us by God revealing them through His word. We can’t see into this world through telescopes or microscopes. Neither are we able to discover its existence through scientific experimentation or statistical studies. The world beyond is not subject to the laws of this world. In fact, it often defies them. That being the case, speaking of miracles, angels, or spiritual powers sounds strange and unacceptable to many. But to those anchored in God’s word, we know they are just as real as the world we live in even though they are perceived through faith rather than sight.
While much of the book of Daniel is history revealed ahead of it happening, Daniel 10 is something different altogether. It is the preface to the predictive material in chapter 11-12, but it also one of those rare sections of Scripture where the curtain is pulled back and we get exposed to some spiritual truths that can cause our heads to spin.
The setting is the third year of the Persian king Cyrus. Daniel receives a revelation from God about a “great war” or “conflict” (ESV). This vision absolutely floors him and sends Daniel into mourning and fasting for three weeks (v. 2). Later, as he is standing on the banks of the Tigris River, a being appears to him to “explain to your people what will happen in the future” (v. 14).
But before the angel gets into that though, he tells 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” (v. 11). He then adds in v. 13:
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 detained there with the king of Persia.
Who is this prince of the Persian kingdom resisting the angel for three weeks? Before we answer this, it’s worth noting that we also hear about the “prince of Greece” (v. 20), as well as more about Michael, who is called “your prince” in reference to Daniel (v. 21).
Some answers next week in part two!
Find more of Green’s writings at his website: a-taste-of-grace-with-bruce-green.com.