When Your Eyes See the Invisible

Daniel 10

Man is bound by time and space. God is not. He is timeless and existed before there was time or space. When He created matter He created space or He would have nowhere to put it. And He didn’t know WHEN to put it if He didn’t create time. But He exists outside of time and space. We do not. We are captives of the natural world. We have no capacity to get out of the natural world. We can’t leave. If then we are to see and interact with the divine world of the supernatural, it is going to have to come to us, because we cannot go to it. God must invade space and time, for we can’t leave. And that’s exactly what happens in this chapter: heaven comes to earth in a shocking, startling series of glorious visions. In fact, in this chapter, Daniel is visited from heaven by some incredible beings who give him the last of his great prophetic revelations.

In chapter 9 he began to pray, and fast, and confess his sin, and to ask God to fulfill the promise that the Jews in captivity could return to their land. And Cyrus took the throne, commencing the reign of the Persian Empire, and he said the Jews could go back.

But you know what happened? As we come to chapter 10, what’s the first statement? “In the third year of Cyrus.” Where are we now? Two years later. And guess what? Two years later, a very disheartening and a very discouraging reality is revealed. The people didn’t go back. They were comfortable. They were paganized. They were enmeshed in the society in which they lived. They were prosperous. They were absorbed. They were too involved to care about the Promised Land, too involved to care about the rebuilding of Jerusalem, too involved to care about restoring the temple. Only a few went back, and they weren’t able to accomplish much of anything in Israel, because the vast majority had stayed in Babylon. All of Daniel’s great anticipation had not been fulfilled. He was now approximately 85 years old.

You say, “Why didn’t he go back?” Possibly because he was too old. But I think it was because he was too disappointed. In other words, I think that he saw himself as having the responsibility to motivate the remaining Jews to go back. He had a passion to see his sinful people forsake Babylon and return to their country. And so what he does is what he always does in a crisis? He prays. And as chapter 10 opens, that’s exactly what we find him doing again.

V. 1          When we have to tell somebody something they won’t believe, we say, “Now I want you to know that this is the honest-to-goodness truth.” And that’s essentially what we have right here.

What he sees is a great invisible warfare of the usually unseen spirit world in the air. Heaven comes to Earth in this vision.

Mourning toward heaven

V. 2          And yet for 3 weeks heaven is silent. The sky is like brass; no response. And Daniel’s not used to that kind of treatment, because back in chapter 9 he prayed, and the angel came. And you know what the angel said? He got there before he was done praying – remember that? – on the same day, and he says, “When you began to prepare to pray, God dispatched the answer.” So Daniel was used to relatively fast service; certainly not twenty-one days without any answer. But that was the case.

V. 3          You say, “I didn’t know they had aftershave in those days.” Well, they didn’t. And that’s not what he’s talking about. They used to use a fragrant oil on their bodies, and they applied it to their skin for several reasons. One was to protect the skin from the strength of the sun, another was to keep the skin soft, and another was to add a fragrance to the body, because they did not have all of the deodorants and whatever else that we have today; and so they would anoint themselves.

And it became a symbol of joy. When you went out and wanted to enjoy a social scene, and mingle among people, you put on that oil. It was a sign of social interaction. It was a symbol and a sign of joy. And so he eats nothing and he puts nothing on himself. Now keep in mind that for an 85-year-old man, a twenty-one-day fast is serious. That kind of heart attitude gets a response from God.

Manifestation of heaven

Verse 4            The river mentioned is the Tigris.

Verses 5-6       Now that’s a pretty shocking thing to see. I mean you’ve been praying and fasting for three weeks, and you’re standing out there in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden a creature like this appears in the form of a man. This is a heavenly visitor. It’s taken three weeks, but he’s gotten an answer. This is God Himself – in the form of the preincarnate, uncreated, second member of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is an OT appearance of Christ. It’s what we call a Christophany.

Revelation 1:12-15

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw … one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. ¹⁴ His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; ¹⁵ And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

See a parallel there? It’s “the Alpha and the Omega.” It’s Christ!

Now since Jesus is the commander-in-chief of all of the invisible angelic army, and since He has all authority, it is fitting that He should appear in this particular place because of the nature of this prophecy. This prophecy is going to show you the angelic conflict and warfare that stretched from Daniel’s time until the great angelic battle of Revelation 12 where Michael and the holy angels defeat the demons and their forces. And that invisible war has gone on since the fall of the angels around the time of the creation of man. And so at a time when Daniel is going to see the tremendous angelic warfare, it is fitting that he have a vision of the commander-in-chief.

Now this vision must have been the source of sweet hope for the old prophet. His heart had been so heavy. And all of a sudden God arrived on the scene to give him a first-hand visit.

Mastery by heaven

Any time heaven invades earth like this, we will be mastered by that invasion. We will be overawed. And that’s what happened to Daniel.

Verse 7    Now I don’t know who these people are; it doesn’t tell us whether they’re unbelieving Jews or a bunch of pagans. But what amazes me is they never even saw the vision, but they knew something was going on, and they got out of there. And they began quaking. They started to shake. And they fled to hide. From what? From something they couldn’t see. But believe me, wherever you have the presence of God, there is the power of His presence that is more than sinners can bear. It’s a very understandable reaction in the face of the majestic holiness of God.

You remember, even a good man like Job, when he saw God, said, “I have heard of You with the hearing of mine ear, but now I have seen Thee with mine eye, and I abhor myself in dust and ashes.” You remember Isaiah who was a good and godly man, but when he saw God, he said, “I am a man of unclean lips.” He fell to the ground. And I think of Habakkuk who, when he saw God, began to shake and quiver and tremble. I think of Peter when he saw the power of Jesus displayed, he said, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.” He wanted Jesus away.

You read it in Revelation chapter 6 when God shows Himself in glory, they scream and cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them, to hide them, from His face. You see, whenever the holy confronts the unholy it is an utterly devastating experience. Even though they didn’t know what was going on, when absolute holiness came on the scene they were blown away.

And Daniel was left alone, and he entered a severe trauma. They couldn’t even handle what he could handle, and he couldn’t handle much of the presence of God.

Verse 8    He was zapped. You know, that’s exactly what happened to John the apostle in Revelation 1 when he had his vision. He said, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as” – what? – “dead.” To stand in the presence of the living God is to be in a position of absolute panic, because all of a sudden you’re exposed, overwhelmed with your sinfulness.

Verse 9    This is an 85-year-old prophet, laid flat out, with a mouthful of dirt – his nose against the ground, with no strength to rise. His friends have flown, and he hears the muffled roar of the voice of the Son of God. He was shattered. He was like a dead man. He had seen the glory of God, and heaven had mastered him in just that moment.

I believe this is the last that he ever saw the glorious, uncreated Christ, who then disappeared. And then God brought some angels who began to minister to Daniel. By the way, it’s not strange, is it? God often travels with a few angels. Read Genesis 18. That’s the way He came to Abram.

The messenger from heaven

v. 10        The angel reaches down now and touches Daniel, and Daniel comes back out of his deadness to a point of consciousness, and he’s able to get up on his hands and knees. And he is there in a trembling, unsteady condition, tottering back-and-forth, trying to regain enough strength to stand up.

“Do I have such awe of the presence of God?” I rush in and out of His presence without a thought for His majesty. I come to worship Him; and when I should be having such great overwhelming thoughts that literally drain my strength, I’m indifferent, or thinking about the world or something else that has nothing to do with Him.

So this 85-year-old prophet of God, weakened by twenty-one days without anything to eat, with a mouthful of dirt, gets up on his hands and knees, and he shakes all over.

Verse 11  “a man greatly beloved.” I love that. We can be as close to God as we want. David is called a man after God’s own heart. Abraham is called a friend of God. John was called the disciple whom Jesus loved. Mary, it says, found favor with God. There are those people who, by their special delight in God, and by their consistent obedience, in a very real way become greatly beloved.

v. 11         “This is going to be a good thing, Daniel, not a bad thing. You don’t need to fear judgment, you’re greatly beloved.”

Daniel gets up, and now he’s tottering all over the place, trying to stand up. He’s seen God, you see, in the glory of Christ.

Mischief in heaven

v. 12        Daniel may have wondered: “Where have you been for three weeks? How far is it from up there to down here? Did you come to Babylon and couldn’t find me? Where have you been? Last time you came the same hour before I was done with the prayer.”

verse 13   The ruling kingdom of that time was Persia. Persia had a prince – but that prince was not a man, that prince was a demon being. His job was to so control and order the affairs of Persia as to work against the people and the plans of God.

Satan has an incredibly clever organization. He has set up a network of demons that are behind all of the activities of human history. There was a demon assigned to Persia. Verse 20 says there’s a demon to be assigned to Greece. The Bible says that all the gods of the nations are demons, principalities, powers of the air. Throughout all of human history, Satan’s network of demons have been behind the scenes, endeavoring to do all they can to foil the plan of God.

It’s bigger than Russia, Iran, China, and the United States. Behind that is an incredibly sophisticated, supernatural network of beings called demons, who are doing everything they can to thwart the plan of God. And when Persia passed away, and Greece became the third great world empire, according to verse 20, there’d be another demon assigned to be the power in Greece, and he would have under him a whole plethora of demons to carry out his bidding.

That’s why Paul says, “We wrestle not with flesh and blood.” There are demon forces attached to the United States of America, to pull us down and destroy the plan of God. And I’m sure there have been holy angels in the past who’ve been defending us. I don’t know whether they’re still defending us or not.

And so God had to send Michael who is a super angel. He is called the archangel, which means the first angel.

But look what it says in verse 13. Even after the struggle, he says, “I remained there with the kings of Persia.” He kept his place of dominant influence. In other words, this angel overthrew the demon prince, and stayed in Persia. Perhaps more would happen later in Iran? Apparently, God has assigned holy angels to nations to carry out His purposes. And this warfare goes on all the time. Now think about that in terms of America. I wonder what’s really going on right now.

Might from heaven

v. 14        “I’m going to give you a vision, not just for now, not just for the seventy years; I’m going to give you a vision that’ll stretch for many days.” And he did mean that; clear to the end of the tribulation this vision goes. “I’m going to give you a vision that’ll tell you what’s going to happen to your people in the latter days, from Daniel to the Antichrist. And the issue here is your people; not the Gentiles, but Israel.” You wait till you see what happens in chapter 11 when he unfolds the vision.

v. 15        He’s never heard anything like this in his life. He never knew anything about angelic warfare, not like this. And he’s lost his speech, and he falls down all over again. He’s flooded with a renewed state of weakness. His mouth is slammed shut; he can’t even speak.

V. 16        You can’t have a prophet who can’t speak, right? Makes it very difficult. So he touched his lips.

V. 17        He can’t even catch his breath. “I’m an old 85-year-old guy.”

V. 18        These angels have the power to put strength right back into a body. When he was confronted with the living God, he was utterly devastated, and needed a miracle. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care how good you think you are. When you stand someday to face the living God, except you be protected by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in Him, you’ll be devastated by His very presence.

In the last 3 verses he says “Daniel, you’re going to get a whole lot more than you ever asked for, friend. You spent twenty-one days saying, ‘Lord, well what’s going to happen to my people? Are they going back?’ And you fasted, and the extent of your desire was to know this picture of right now. I want you to know, you’re going to get a visitation from heaven that’s going to expand you clear beyond this period till the end of the age.”

He prayed for the people, and their return, and their revival. But God let him in on facts that were far beyond his purview. He found out that demons and angels are carrying on warfare in space. He found out about supernatural battles. He found out what it was to stand in the presence of Christ. He found out about the supreme power of the holy angels, especially Michael. He had met the commander-in-chief of the forces.

I see here the grace of God, who can take a frail, weak, trembling man, touch his mouth, and make him speak for God. I’ll tell you, that’s one that hits me. I see my own inadequacy, and how God can come at our point of greatest weakness, while we lie on the ground as dead men with a mouthful of dirt; and He can lift us on our feet and strengthen us to be used for His glory. It’s a message of heaven coming to earth and infusing power into men, that they may speak for God. What a glorious thing.

That’s only the introduction. Next time, we’ll get the vision.