DANIEL'S VISION OF A GREAT WAR

Daniel 10:1-21
Key Verse: 10:12

     "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.'"

     Daniel is a man of faith. Daniel loved God more than anything else
in the world. He remained faithful to God by keeping his identity as a
believer in the Jehovah God Almighty and as a Jew. Daniel also did his
best to keep himself holy before the holy God Almighty: When he was
given the privilege to eat royal food and study in the royal academy
of the Babylonian Empire--he resolved not to eat royal food and wine
in order not to defile himself.  This resolution came when he wanted to
keep pure before the holy God Almighty. Daniel remained faithful to God
to the end, even before the possibility of being thrown into the den
of lions and lionesses (6:10).  When we study Daniel's life of faith
we discover that Daniel was most of all a man of prayer. In chapter 9,
we learn that Daniel was a man of prayer: He prayed to God for God's
mercy when he realized, through the study of the book of Jeremiah,
that his people would be liberated from the captivity of the Babylonian
Empire. In chapter 10, we see that Daniel prayed to God, fasting for 3
weeks. Why did he pray? Let's study why he prayed instead of celebrating
the liberation. In this chapter we learn that prayer is an intensive
spiritual battle between the saints and the Devil.

I.  Daniel's three weeks' fasting prayer (1-12)

First, a message of a great war. It was in the third year of Cyrus, king
of Persia. Chronologically, it had been three years since the people
of Israel had been liberated from the Babylonian captivity. It was when
Nehemiah and Ezra went to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and
the Temple. But the work of restoration did not go smoothly. Daniel heard
that many enemies were discouraging and hindering the rebuilding of the
Jerusalem wall and the Temple. At the news Daniel was greatly distressed
and his heart was overburdened. Until that time, Daniel was a man of
political influence. But he did not depend on it. Daniel came to God in
prayer to help his people complete the task of rebuilding the Jerusalem
wall and the Temple. Humanly speaking, the situation which Daniel was in
was too discouraging for Daniel to pray. Daniel could not pray. Daniel
knew well how his people Israel had been so broken and despaired and
dispirited. What was worse, the surrounding enemies who were out to
hinder the task of rebuilding the Temple and the wall were strong and
clever. To Israel, liberation from captivity was good, but the task of
rebuilding the Jerusalem wall and the Temple, and settling down there,
overcoming threats of enemies, was too hard to cope with. But Daniel
did not give up on the task. He came to God in prayer for help.

     While he was praying a revelation was given to Daniel. It was a
message concerning a great war. To Daniel, it was a totally unexpected
message. The content of the message was that there would be "a great
war" between the holy saints and the Devil. Daniel was stunned when
he understood the meaning of the great war through a vision. Look at
verse 2.  "At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks." Humanly
speaking, he was an unfortunate person. He lived as a POW throughout
his lifetime and all his lifetime he prayed for the liberation of his
people from Babylonian captivity. But liberation was one thing and
obtaining true freedom from captivity to rebuild the Jerusalem wall
and the Temple was quite another.  They had to leave Babylon, where
they could enjoy life security even as captives. They had to go back to
desolate Israel and, with their bare hands, rebuild the Temple and the
wall of Jerusalem. If the restoration of the Temple and the wall could
be done with their human effort, smoothly without any hindrances, how
happy they might have been! But there would be persistent hindrances,
threats from enemies. Moreover, there would be the Devil's attack on his
broken people. Allied forces of antichrists under the command of the
Devil would be so severe that it would look like a great war. Without
winning victories over the enemies and the Devil's scheme, they could
not obtain God's blessing of liberation. Even though Daniel was a great
man of faith, he was greatly alarmed by the vision of a great war.
So he mourned for three weeks, not eating. Daniel's greatness lies in
the fact that he prayed, and his prayer was like a fierce battle.

Second, the angel came to help Daniel. What happened when Daniel
prayed? He found himself standing on the bank of the great Tigris river
(4).  When he prayed, he was brought up to the spiritual realm. Daniel
looked up and there before him was a man dressed in linen, with a belt
of finest gold around his waist. 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
(6). When we carefully observe verse 6, the man who came to Daniel was
not God himself, but an angel. Daniel was fighting the spiritual battle
in prayer for 21 days. He was exhausted, while the Devil's power was
getting stronger. So God sent his angel to help him. There were several
people with Daniel. They only heard a loud crashing sound. But they
did not see the angel. Daniel was the only one who saw the angel in a
vision. However, the vision was so overwhelming that the men with him
fled and hid themselves. So Daniel was left alone, gazing at this great
vision; but Daniel had no strength left and his face turned deathly pale
and he was helpless. Daniel heard him speaking and as he listened to him,
Daniel fell into a deep sleep, his face to the ground. A hand touched
him and set him, trembling, on his hands and knees. The man said,
"Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I
am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to
you." When he said this Daniel stood up trembling. The angel saw that
Daniel was trembling. So the angel said, "Do not be afraid, Daniel.
Since the first day 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." (12) This verse indicates that Daniel's prayer
to resolve not to eat the royal food not to defile himself was heard,
and God helped him not to defile himself with royal food. This time also
God heard his fasting prayer and sent his angel to help him.

     In this part we learn that prayer is not daydreaming or meditation
or making a tremendous imposition on God. It is a spiritual battle. Our
most potent weapon is not political conspiracy, but our prayer. God
heard Daniel's first prayer. God also heard Daniel's emergency prayer
for the safe rebuilding of the Temple and the wall of Jerusalem. God
sent his angel to help Daniel pray in his helplessness as a shepherd
for his people. God heard his prayer and sent the Archangel, Michael,
to help him and his people.

     We see the example of the spiritual battle in prayer in Jesus. Jesus
came to this world to save men from their sins. Jesus had to come to
the place where the first man Adam was defeated by the Devil so that he
could fight with the Devil and liberate mankind from slavery to sin. So,
before launching into the messianic ministry, he had to fight with the
Devil in the desert in a duel. Daniel fasted 21 days. But Jesus fasted
for 40 days, and Jesus was hungry. Then the Devil came to him and said,
"If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." (Mat 4:3)
It was a great temptation for Jesus, who had fasted for 40 days in the
scorching desert, surrounded by limestone. The circumstance compelled
Jesus to yield to the Devil's temptation to solve his hunger problem. But
Jesus fought back against the Devil's temptation. Jesus said, "Man does
not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God." (Mat 4:4) This is a universal truth of mankind. Seventy years ago,
communist leaders thought they would be happy if they had bread. Now
they have bread. So they should be happy. But they say that they feel
very miserable and tragic: They are tragic because they have no truth
of God. The Devil tempted Jesus to take an easy way, not the way of the
cross. Again the Devil tried to make Jesus stumble by making use of the
word of God. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down
from the top of the temple and land on the ground unharmed. And people
will recognize you as the Son of God."  (Mat 4:6) Jesus defeated the
Devil's temptations one by one with the word of Deuteronomy. The Devil
defeated the first man, Adam. But he could not defeat Jesus. However,
it was a great spiritual war for Jesus. When the great war was over,
Jesus was so dehydrated and exhausted that he was helpless. Matthew 4:11b
says, "Angels came and attended him." God wants us to win the spiritual
war between the holy saints and the Devil. Of course, we know that we
are helpless before the power of the Devil. But God helps us through
his angels.

II.  The angel of God came and helped Daniel (13-21)

First, the Devil detained the angel. (13,14) Daniel was a man of prayer.
He was distressed and overwhelmed by sorrow when he thought of his
people's human situation. This part tells us that he was distressed, not
because of his people's human situation, but because of the Devil. When
Daniel began to pray and became helpless, God sent his angel to strengthen
him. But his angel was detained 21 days by the Devil. Look at verse
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."

     This story is easy to understand when we think about the Gerasene
Demoniac. When a young man wanted to enjoy his limitless human freedom
and did not do his homework and indulged in sinful pleasure, 6,000 demons
went into him one by one and made him forget who he was. Finally this
young man began to cut himself with stones and lived among the tombs
like a monster. He could not help himself because of demon-possession.
Likewise, demons, the agents of the Devil, went into the Persian soldiers
and let them spread the battle line and blocked the angel Michael's way
when he was coming to Daniel to help him. When the Persian kingdom became
evil, crushing and destroying and killing people of the world, immediately
the Devil entered into her and made the empire the agent of the Devil.

     These days most people ignore the existence of spiritual beings such
as demons, the Devil or Satan. When they are tormented by demon-possession
they want to pacify themselves by means of drugs or psychological
counseling. We must know that technology is not everything. In other
words, material abundance is not everything. Men need peace of soul, for
men are composed of both soul and dust. So Paul said in Ephesians 6:12,
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." We struggle, not
because of our school study or human condition, but because of the powers
of this dark world and because of the spiritual forces of evil in the
spiritual world.  We think we are only living in the material world. But
in actuality we are living in both a material world and a spiritual
world. Everybody wants to be a good husband. Many young men want to be
holy saints like St. Augustine.  But by the hindrance or detention of
the Devil they cannot do as they had decided. How can we stop the Devil's
roaring around to devour us? When we have the word of God and unceasing
prayer. Especially when we have holy desire to live before the holy God,
demons, agents of the Devil, cannot approach us, because they are like
cockroaches who do not like the light or clean places.

Second, the angel of God came to help Daniel. (15-21) Daniel was a
great warrior of faith and a prayer servant. He feared no human being,
not even the mighty King Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar. But before the
intrigue of the Devil, he was totally helpless. He became sick until he
could not speak.  When the angel of God told him about the great war,
Daniel was still very weak and helpless, not to mention able to engage
in the battle against the forces of darkness of the world. So while
the angel was delivering the message to him, Daniel fell prostrate and
had trouble breathing (17). Then one who looked like a man touched his
lips and Daniel opened his mouth and began to speak. When Daniel fought
the spiritual battle and was exhausted, the angel of God came to help
him and touched him and healed him. Then he could speak. Before he was
helped by the angel, what he said was not encouraging, but something
desperate. He said, "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" (16b,17). Here we
understand one young man's agony. He thinks he is a better shepherd than
any other shepherd. The young man wants to be a missionary to somewhere,
even China. But when he is alone in his apartment he is filled with
human thinking and remorse. Then demons come into his heart one by one
and line by line and troop by troop until he can hardly breathe. His
problem is that he is a lip-service Christian with no commitment. He
must repent his love of the world and decide to love God.

     Once Paul had a plan to pioneer Asian countries because he knew that
the Devil's stomping noise was loudest in Asian countries. But one day,
when he was praying, he saw a vision of a man of Macedonia, standing and
begging him to come to Macedonia to help them (Ac 16:9). Without question
Paul followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit and came to Philippi,
the gateway city to European countries. But nobody offered him a motel
room to stay in. He went out to find a place where he could pray. By
the riverside, he found a prayer place. When he finished praying, Paul
was invited by a powerful woman, Lydia, who said, "Come and stay in my
house." When Paul prayed and engaged in spiritual struggle against the
Devil and was helpless, God sent his angel into the heart of Lydia to
mother Paul.

     What Daniel wanted was clear. He prayed that his people would be
liberated. He prayed that his people would go back to the holy city
Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and the wall. He prayed that his people
would study the Bible and repent of their sins and grow spiritually.
Daniel prayed that his people would be a priestly nation. As God hoped in
his people, Daniel also hoped that all peoples of all nations would say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God
of Jacob, to study the Bible from his people so that we may know God's
ways." (Is 2:3) But when the people of Israel lived in the Babylonian
Empire for 70 long years, they formulated a slave-mentality. There was
no hope for them to rebuild the Temple and the wall of Jerusalem, not to
mention become a priestly nation. It was very hard for Daniel to pray
for his broken people.  When he prayed, fasting for 3 weeks, he only
became sick and helpless. It was very hard for Daniel to pray, mainly
because demons and the Devil spread full-fledged battle lines to hinder
Daniel's prayer. To Daniel, prayer itself was a great spiritual war.

     We must pray for our national leaders to be prayer servants like
Daniel, and not to be like the agent of the Devil. We must fight the
spiritual war not against our uncles, but against the Devil in prayer.


STUDY QUESTIONS

1.  What is the time of the events in this chapter? Who was Cyrus and
   what had he done? (2 Ch 36:22,23) What was the chief concern of the
   Jews at this time?

2.  What did the revelation given Daniel concern? How could he understand
   its meaning?

3.  What did Daniel do in response to this revelation? Why? What does
   this reveal about him?

4.  Describe the man he met in his vision. Where did he meet him? (Compare
   with Revelation 1:12-16.) Why was Daniel the only one who saw the
   vision?

5.  How did the sight of this vision affect Daniel? What did the man
   do and say to encourage Daniel? (10:7-12) What can we learn from
   Daniel about how to fight the spiritual battle and be spiritual
   people? (Compare with Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11.)

6.  Who detained the angel who had come to help Daniel? (See 12:1 in
   order to understand this part better.) Who is Michael? Why had this
   man come to Daniel? (13,14)

7.  When did Daniel begin to speak? What did he say? (15-17) How did the
   man help him? (18,19) What can we learn here about spiritual warfare?

8.  Read verse 20. What did the man tell Daniel? (The prince of Persia
   and the prince of Greece represent spiritual powers.) What can we learn
   here about how to fight the spiritual battle? (Comp Ephesians 6:10-18)