Prayer and Reality

Series on Daniel

III. The Consummation

C. Apocalypse of History, Text: Daniel 10-11:1

Title: Prayer and Reality

Introduction

Daniel 8-12 looks at the consummation of history beginning with the abomination in the holiest from a time after Daniel but still in the Old Testament. So it commences with the story of Antiochus then brings us up to the Messiah and the anointing of the holiest in New Testament times. There remains a review  of history in chaps 11 and 12, but chapter 10 is a parenthesis setting the scene for the final revelations. It is important because these are incredible revelations and we, like Daniel, need to see that the real history is going on behind the scenes in a spiritual world which has its own set of laws and everything which happens here is a reflection of what is hidden. This is the same as the visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah when the curtain is pulled aside and they see the heavenly reality behind the events of history. Here the curtain is pulled aside and Daniel sees the apocalypse or revealing of the true forces that govern history. This is an apocalypse of history and thus brings us face to face with the role of prayer in reality. Daniel chooses to pray and we are able to see it as an important element not only in his life but in the life of God’s people. Once a minister praised a little sign we used to have on our pulpit, “Prayer changes things.” All the Arminian free-willers cheered because they thought God couldn’t change anything without our approval and all the Calvinists who thought that God most frequently changes things without our prayers jeered. They were both wrong. God changes things through our prayers. Consider here a favored choice, a fanatical cause, a fierce conflict: prayer.

I A Favored Choice

According to Ezra, chapter 1, the Lord had stirred up the heart of Cyrus king of Persia, in the first year of his reign, to send the Jewish people back to Jerusalem to rebuild. Though this had been prophesied by Jeremiah, it was nevertheless a divine response to the prayers of Daniel as chapter 9 indicates. Now, as we are told in verse 1 we are in the third year of Cyrus and Daniel is still in Babylon. Why? Because what was needed most was someone who was in a strategic position who would pray for the kingdom of God and its work. No doubt Daniel would have liked to have returned to his own country but he had a greater burden. He knew only a comparatively small number of people had returned and  that there was much opposition on site to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. His attitude and God’s approval are clearly seen in the narrative in verses 1-19, In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, 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. 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. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He 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.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. 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 detained 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.” While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, “I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I feel very weak. How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.” 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.” Daniel had made a favored choice and was highly esteemed and held dear in heaven. It is not a choice that would be raved about by men. There would be no cheers, no acclamation, no applause from men, but it is the applause of heaven that matters. There are things we all seek, and would be better off for not seeking. In his commentary on Daniel Sinclair Ferguson tells about his student days. He attended a church where the pastor had been there for forty years and where multitudes of men and women have gone forth to the ends of the earth to serve. The minister once wrote that when he had been there only 18 months he met a woman in her eighties who had been a widow for 17 years. For many years she had successfully taught a class of over 100 girls, and many became missionaries. Now she was frail and no longer able, and she said God gave me this burden, “You have served me well, but this is the task of your life, reserved for you. You have something to pray for in Aberdeen.” It was her prayers that brought this minister a man she described in her prayer as a little bit out of the usual and the successes which followed. We have a lot to learn when we prize personalities, programs, numbers and visible activity above prayer.

II A Fanatical Cause

Daniel was a fanatic about prayer. Remember chapter 6 when Darius threw him into a den of lions because he refused to stop praying at regular times towards Jerusalem? By anybody’s definition the man was a fanatic. He loved the Lord and the city of God more than life itself. Here in this chapter we have read that he didn’t eat and he didn’t bathe, and the sight of what was revealed in the vision left him weak and breathless. Daniel was overwhelmed and exhausted. look what happens to this man who is devoted to prayer. And then the messenger of God touches him and he is strengthened. It is the same Spirit that came into Ezekiel and sent him to his people, and the Spirit that touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal of fire and sent him to prophesy. It is the Lord who touched the mouth of Jeremiah and put His words in the prophet’s mouth. All of these men were weak and faced an impossible mission, but they were strengthened from above. Now Daniel is enabled to received the extraordinary visions that set forth the future for his people. They are the visions of the ages.Clearly this is a man who will die in the effort of prayer if necessary. What does this say about our feeble attempts at prayer, and our languid labors for the kingdom of God?

III A Fierce Contest

All this is true because it is a fierce contest in which Daniel is engaged. This is not an activity for chocolate soldiers, or celluloid heroes, or stuffed lions. What Daniel sees and hears in this chapter is enough to undo a mortal man because the curtains are pulled aside and he is allowed to see the terrible battle going on behind the scenes. This is a battle which is totally invisible to this world but nonetheless more real than anything you can see or hear.Paul gives us a glimpse of this in Ephesians 6:10-13, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. There are two forces, the servants of satan and the soldiers of salvation. We are not told the name of the angel speaking to Daniel but we read in verses 12 and 13 that he was assisted by the archangel Michael in a battle with the prince of Persia. This was not the human monarch but a fallen angel, a demonic ruler behind the scenes. In verses 10:20-11:1 we are told the first messenger will return from his mission to Daniel to resume that conflict and will be assisted by Michael whom he himself assisted in the first year of Darius the Mede a reference to the decree to send the Jews back to Jerusalem. So he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him.) The appearance of the first messenger in verses 5 and 6 closely resembles the appearances of God and Christ in Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 1. The description of John’s vision of Christ in Revelation is almost identical. It is likely that the first angel is the angel of the Lord or the pre-incarnate Son of God and the other angel who is named is Michael who is acknowledged here and elsewhere to be the protector of Israel. The point is that there are real demonic forces in history. These are the same forces Paul refers to in Ephesians 6. In Ephesians 6:18 note that Paul says “Pray always.” How can we possibly expect anything to happen when the real forces are spiritual and not physically in view. Paul tries to bring them to our attention even as does the Holy Spirit through Daniel. They are abundant. and these servants of satan and are opposed by the soldiers of salvation, the angels of God. They are aided by our prayers because God works through them. Though they are fighting behind the scenes their actions can terminate on us in history in periods of revelation and divine activity as in Acts.12:5-10, Peter therefore was kept in the prison: but prayer was made earnestly of the church unto God for him. And when Herod was about to bring him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and guards before the door kept the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shined in the cell: and he smote Peter on the side, and awoke him, saying, Rise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird yourself, and bind on your sandals. And he did so. And he saith unto him, Cast your garment about you, and follow me. And he went out, and followed; and he knew not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision. And when they were past the first and the second guard,they came unto the iron gate that leads into the city; which opened to them of its own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and immediately the angel departed from him. Now I could go on talking about angels because they are interesting and Billy Graham has done that in his book “Angels, God’s Secret Agents.” And Frank Peretti has written two recent totally fictional best sellers about the battle behind the scenes, “This Present Darkness,” and “Piercing the Darkness,” but the point is that the battle is real and i repeat what I said earlier, how can we expect to have anything change if we ignore the forces that are at work in history. The only weapon we have is prayer. Paul tells us it is a fierce conflict, one for which we must be spiritually armed which is why Jesus said to his disciples, watch and pray. He was fully aware of course of the spiritual battle behind the scenes and the disciples were ignoring it. In the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked them to pray he came and found them sleeping on the job. They were just like the servant of Elisha in II Kings 6 when the Arameans attacked Israel Elisha kept warning the king where they would be because God revealed it to him, and then the king of Aram sought to kill him with a strong force of horses and chariots. They surrounded the city where Elisha was and the next day the servant got up and saw them and said, “What shall we do,?” And Elisha said to the Lord, “Open his eyes,’ and the Lord opened his eyes and he saw the hills around full of horses and chariots of fire. Let us not be like that foolish servant, Our battles, like that battle, are won on our knees.