Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: Daniel Chapter 10
**Reformation Covenant Church | Pastor Dennis Tuuri**

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Today’s sermon text is Daniel chapter 10. Because it’s been several weeks since we were in Daniel, we’ll do an overview and then we’ll zoom in on this section—the 10th section of Daniel, chapters 10 to 12—and then we’ll zoom in on chapter 10 and then on a specific verse as we move through this.

As you’re turning, you can use the handouts. There are lots of them still in the foyer. If you use the handout and follow along with the text there, you’ll see the chunks I’ve broken this into. There are other ways, of course, to distribute this text and to look at it, but I chose this way because of its simplicity, and you can read along with how I’ll be dealing with it in a few minutes.

I might just mention that the progression of what we’ll be doing for the next few weeks is this. Today we’ll look at chapter 10 and do an overview of it and focus in on verse 12 primarily.

Next week, we’ll return to chapter 10 and we’ll look at the sections of how Daniel is raised up in a sequence of touching and words as we consider the benevolence ministry of Love Inc. Then two weeks from today, we’ll look at chapter 11 and specifically focus on the sins of Israel in the context of chapter 11 as we have our anti-abortion day of the Lord on January 26th.

In preparation for that, if you know specific pastors in the greater Portland area that are condoning abortion, I would like to get those names from you. When we pray imprecatorily in two weeks, we’ll focus on pastors of churches in the local area that support or at least condone abortions, as we pray against them.

So that’ll be the sequence by which we start to work through this material. And then on the 30th, I’ll be in Sacramento preaching again, and Elder Wilson will be preaching here.

One other thing I might just mention: in terms of this week, next week, and the following week, the alms offerings will be directed towards specific ministries. The CRA is talking about what is the best way to funnel resources toward reformed or good churches in the affected areas from the tsunami a week or two weeks ago. The benevolence offering today will be directed toward relief efforts funneled through the CRA, going to good ministries in those areas helping the victims of the tsunami. So if you put money in the benevolence boxes today, it will be given to ministries in that area.

Next week, the benevolence or alms offerings will be dedicated for the purposes of Love Inc. Lord’s day. Also next week, the Sunday school class—the adult Sunday school class—will be cancelled, and here in the sanctuary we’ll have a presentation from Zack Armstrong and another board member of Love Inc. on that benevolence ministry that we’re putting a lot of effort and time and hope into. So next week’s offering, benevolence offering, will be for Love Inc. specifically.

I haven’t talked to the deacons about this, but we usually, I think, on anti-abortion day of the Lord, the offering on that day is dedicated to the work of the PRCs in the area, reaching out to women who are being tempted to abort their babies.

So today we go back to Daniel for three weeks and we move into the last section, which is chapters 10 to 12. This is one complete section, although it’s too long to read all of it. We will deal with it, breaking it up a little, but understand that this is just the first of three major sections—chapter 10.

So chapter 10 will be the sermon text we’ll read now. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. I might just mention that if you have the handout, I won’t be dealing with all the structure of it that I’ve laid out for you there. But I would exhort you to take these handouts home again and to use them in family devotion or personal devotion time. You’ll see that in today’s sermon, I’m really going to stress that you do that afresh.

So as we start this new year, I want to encourage and exhort you to set your hearts to study God’s word, and this handout is one way to help you to do that.

All right, Daniel chapter 10. Actually moving through the first verse of chapter 11:

> In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar. The message was true, but the appointed time was long, and he understood the message and had understanding of the vision. In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
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> Now, on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is the Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.
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> And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. For the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore, I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me. For my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength. Yet I heard the sound of his words, and while I heard the sound of his words, I was in a deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground.
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> Suddenly a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. And he said to me, “Oh Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright for I have now been sent to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling.
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> And then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision refers to many days yet to come.”
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> When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. And suddenly, one having the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him who stood before me, “My Lord, because of the vision, my sorrows have overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength. For how can this servant of my Lord talk with you, my Lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me.”
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> Then again, the one having the likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me. And he said, “Oh man, greatly beloved, fear not. Peace be to you. Be strong. Yes, be strong.” So when he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
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> Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must turn to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth. No one upholds me against these except Michael, your prince. Also, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I even I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.”

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. We pray now that you would speak to us by the power of your Spirit. Bring the word of the Lord Jesus Christ to bear to us. Father, may we be attentive. Help us not to be distracted. Help us to be diligent to apply our minds to what you are teaching us here, the way that Daniel set his heart to understand your word.

And help us, Lord God, in this to recognize that we must be humble to you. Help us to set our hearts to be humble before you, recognizing that apart from you, this word cannot be understood. Bless us now then, Lord God, by your grace and Spirit. Touch us by your word. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

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Well, I hope you have shared to some degree the delight I have had working our way through this book of Daniel. Hopefully this book is getting clearer and clearer to you. It can be at first reading a difficult book—complex and difficult to understand—and there are certainly complexities to it. But from another perspective, it’s quite plain and simple. At least remember the basic flow of the structure here and what God is doing in it.

We’ve chosen to look at a tenfold outline for this book. On your outline today, this is kind of where we start. This is really one last section. So we just read chapter 10. After chapter 10, the message is then spoken to Daniel that he’s being prepared for by 10. And then there’s a wrap-up at the end of 12. So we’ve got 10 sections.

For the first nine sections, the chapter breaks are very good. This last one is pretty good too, except it really ought to be one long chapter, 10 through 12. So really, from one perspective, as we try to meditate on the book of Daniel and remember its lessons to us, one easy way to do that is to review the Ten Commandments and to see the sections of Daniel’s book relating to these Ten Commandments.

It was a little easier with the first six, wasn’t it? The last four sections are a little tougher to see connections. It’s easiest of all, of course, at the very center when we get to the fourth chapter of Nebuchadnezzar and we see his enthronement and we recognize that the fourth commandment—the Sabbath day—is the day of the enthronement of God’s rulers. That’s pretty easy to see that connection.

When we get to the fifth chapter of Daniel—Belshazzar, and notice that name is brought up again in today’s text—you know, he’s got to listen to his mom in order to figure out what’s going on there in Belshazzar’s time. That very easily lines up with the fifth commandment: honor your parents.

And when Daniel is plotted against and his murder is sought by the Persian court, that’s pretty easy to line up with the sixth commandment: not to kill.

Now, it’s only easy to line up if we know the Ten Commandments. But by this point in your lives, if you’re 10 or above, that attend this church, you ought to have memorized at least the basic flow. And if you haven’t, I would suggest that is a big task for you as you move into the new year—to memorize these basic flows of God’s word and these Ten Commandments. We’ve suggested ways to do that.

It’s pretty easy, particularly at the middle and at the beginning. Chapter one of Daniel starts with this combat, right? The question was: who is the God? We saw that the definite article is placed there. The God is being stressed in chapter one. So the first commandment—”Know no other gods before me”—is pretty clearly alluded to there.

The second section lines up with the second commandment: don’t have any idols, right? For no idol bow thy knee. We’re to worship through God’s intermediary, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. We see his descent, his incarnation coming in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2. So we see the intermediary being alluded to there—the proper one, as opposed to idols.

Chapter three is the worship service that Nebuchadnezzar sets up that he commands people to worship him—basically a statue of him. The third commandment says not to have an empty witness to him in the context of our lives. Not to take God’s name vainly, not to attend idolatrous worship services, among other things. Of course, God’s Daniel’s three mighty men—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—avoid that worship service. So it lines up with the third commandment.

It’s pretty easy to step through the Ten Commandments, at least through the first six chapters, and see it. Now, these last four sections—just take your Bibles and look at Daniel chapter 7. This will show you something here that makes it real easy to remember that these are really four sections, and it interestingly the way it lines up.

Daniel chapter 7 begins with the time indicator: “In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon.” See that? And in Daniel chapter 7, those four beast creatures come up out of the sea. The saints of God spread into the earth, so to speak, the gentile nations and start to work to convert them.

Remember, the first four chapters by the way of Daniel form a nice unit: the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar. The same way, the first four commandments form a unit—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And at the end, if you don’t sin against them, you get to Sabbath day enthronement and rest. So the first four commandments and the first four chapters of Daniel: what’s Daniel doing? Well, it seems like the structure is given because remember, they’ve been delivered again from Egypt. They’re in the wilderness. They’re going to go back into the promised land. Just as Moses and the people of God had the Ten Commandments given to him—the 10 words, that is—so Daniel repeats them here in his situation.

Chapter 7: these four beasts coming up, and what begins to happen in chapter 7 is we begin to have allusions to this little horn that is really going to be, we think, properly identified as we go through this into chapter 11 next week as the Herods.

So it’s an apostate Judaizers—or Jewish people, that is—within the church. Adultery is the seventh commandment, and God’s people are seen as an adulterous people in a relationship of the empire. It’s not the four beasts that are supposed to be looking horrible to us. It’s that last little horn that comes up—the Herods—in the context of the Roman Empire.

But notice that chapter 7 begins in the first year of Belshazzar’s reign. And then look at chapter 8: “In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar.” We remember chapter 8’s this vision of a ram and a goat. Same basic history alluded to, kind of focusing in on Greece, some as we’ll see we continue to do here as we move toward the end of the book. But it’s the same kind of four things going on, but the real focus are on these two—the ram and the goat. These are sacrificial animals, so there’s a sacrificial component here.

The indictment of God’s people begins to ratchet up. It’s their failure to be praying for these nations that God is raising up—these empires that turn them bad—and that begins to be more and more apparent in chapter 8.

So: first year of Belshazzar, third year of Belshazzar. Now look at chapter nine: “In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus.”

Chapter nine really had no vision. It was that long prayer. It showed us that Daniel wrote out a formal prayer. Have you done that this year yet? Have you written out a prayer to God—a formal prayer—when you think it through and structure it? We don’t think that way. But this is what a godly man does as we look through the book of Daniel.

We don’t want to forget Daniel in the midst of all of this. We want to look at him, as we have, as a reformer of his day. How he serves the empire but with a commitment to Jesus Christ, to Yahweh, you know. He’ll do a lot of things for love of God and the empire he’s raised up, but he won’t forsake his love of God by serving the empire illicitly or illegally in a way that would break God’s word.

He goes to Babylon. He takes the job and becomes a bureaucrat for Nebuchadnezzar and later for Cyrus, and he witnesses to God’s truth in that position. So Daniel’s a picture to us of a godly man. Ultimately, he’s a type of Christ, of course, but he’s also a type of Christians, right?

Daniel in chapter nine showed us that great men—reforming men and women—are men and women of prayer, specific formal prayer, in some cases written-out prayer. He knew. He had studied the book, studied the scriptures. Chapter 9 says he knew the time was coming for the decree to be given to rebuild Jerusalem, and it hadn’t happened. He knew that the way God works is in response to prayer. He didn’t rely on the promises—knew they were coming—but the promises urged him to action.

This is the great message of Lord’s day worship. You hear tremendous promises, but these promises always have a mandatory response that’s called forth from you. You don’t earn your way to the promises—they’re given to you in Christ. You’re united with Christ through your baptism, through your participation in the sacraments of grace. And that’s gospel. It’s always a great thing—promises. But your response is important.

We don’t want to leave that out. We don’t want to fall into the ditch of all promise and no response. We’ve fallen into the ditch too many years in reformed churches of saying the promise is contingent on your response. It’s not. The promise is the promise, but it does call forth a response from you. And the proper response is a renewed commitment to prayer. That’s what Daniel said. It’s a prayer of confession of sin.

We talked about the details of that, but it’s in the first year of Cyrus. And then, as you were listening to chapter 10, turn to chapter 10, verse one. What is this? “Oh, it’s the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia.” So that’s the last time marker given to us, and this whole next three chapters are all in the context of that time marker.

So what do we have? We’ve got six stories, pretty easy to remember, linked to the Ten Commandments. And then we’ve got: first year of Belshazzar, third year of Belshazzar, first year of Cyrus, third year of Cyrus. See, very nicely structured—an easy way to remember the basic flow.

When you remember that first year, third year, first year, third year, man, we just have to see in that the repeated statement we’ve seen in the book of Daniel: that what it’s really talking about is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ ushering in this new creation. Daniel’s a picture of his death and resurrection. We’ll look at that a little more next week. But Daniel falls down—a series of resurrection, so to speak. We saw it in chapter six, in a sealed tomb. A death and resurrection: first day, you start right. Third day, the Lord God raises you up.

You see, so this book is pretty easy to get a basic grasp of, as you think about it. The six stories, and then the four beasts coming up, and then they become sacrificial things—ram and goat. Then there’s a big prayer, and then there’s a big long section next week that can be quite confusing, but we’ll look at that as really being fairly organized as well. We’ll take away, hopefully today and next week, a little of your trepidation about chapter 11, which is the big long discussion: king of the north, king of the south, back and forth, back and forth. What’s that all about? We’ll talk about that today.

So that’s an overview of the book of Daniel—getting us back in sync.

I think it’s real important—real important—that when we finish up here in a few weeks, you’ve got a sense of this book. One of my great hopes and desires—and this is why I’ve gone to all this work of providing these handouts for you, four or five, six pages sometimes—is so that you’ll collect these, that you’ll understand this book, and you’ll talk about it to your children. You’ll see that at the core, I think, of Daniel chapter 10 is the setting of our hearts to understand the word of God and to understand its application to us. But you can’t get there if you don’t start by at least understanding what’s being said.

Now, one other point I want to make as we begin to get in this: this is mature Daniel, okay? You know, we saw young Daniel—18 at the beginning of the book. Now, we see old Daniel—80, some say 90, I don’t know. He’s an old man by the time of these last couple of chapters. So it’s mature Christians who engage in that kind of formalized prayer before God and who engage in a deliberate seeking out of understanding of God, and also seeking, setting his heart to humble himself before God. This is mature Christianity we see here in Daniel. Not that the other wasn’t, but this is kind of a guy in his old age.

It’s interesting. You read Matthew Henry and his great book on prayer, which I’ve recommended several times in this pulpit. A mature work of Matthew Henry, one of the last things he did, you see. So it’s important for us to look even more carefully at Daniel in these concluding chapters as kind of a model for us, as he models Jesus to us. He models also how we should see ourselves in relationship to Christ.

So this is kind of an overview of the 10th unit—an overview, rather, of the whole book, setting this 10th unit in context. Now we want to focus in a little bit. We got the big picture like one of those spy satellites. We’re going to focus in on the city now, right? We focus in a little more.

On your outlines, I’ve given you a little overview of the 10th unit. Really, it’s again the chapter breaks are pretty good. It begins with this kind of introductory stuff that we just read in chapter 10. Then there’s a specific group of details given about history—the history leading up to the coming of Christ. Then there’s a conclusion at the end where there’s another time reference, and it talks about the coming of Michael, and it seems then (and when we get to chapter 12 we’ll look at this) that Michael may well be the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what it seems—the best identification. As we look at chapter 12 in the context of the death of Herod at the end of 11, then comes Michael to stand and to rule. So Michael appears to be the overarching power and force—Yahweh governing the angels, as we’ll see in today’s text—and then Jesus Christ.

So we have the death and resurrection of Daniel in chapter 10, and then an allusion to the death and resurrection of Israel and the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in chapter 12, talking about the events of AD 70 and the events leading up to it. In the middle of that, we’ve got all these details about history.

Jim Jordan has come up with a threefold way to look at this middle section, and I think it’s good. He refers to the three sections: first, dealing primarily with what he calls the triumphant king. Now, the reason he doesn’t identify him as Antiochus Epiphanes or Antiochus III—which is the actual ruler of Syria that’s probably being alluded to here, surely—is that for Daniel and his friends, they didn’t know about Antiochus yet. When they’re being told about a king of the north, all they know is up there in the north somewhere there’s going to be a king. They also have been told it’s going to come out of Alexander’s rule, so it’s going to be Greek—north Greek Syria, that’s going to be up there. Well, we can identify this king as Antiochus III.

Verses 2 to 20 of chapter 11 are about his coming forth. At the middle of chapter 11 is Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus III, he kind of shows good favor to Jerusalem. All this history, all biblical history, is church-centered—it’s ecclesiastical, it’s Israel-centric. It focuses on the history of Israel. It doesn’t talk about what’s going on in China or India or lots of places. But what it talks about is what’s going on in the direct vicinity of the beautiful land—Israel—and to God’s people. That’s the way we should think of history as well.

In any event, there’s a description, first in 11, of the rise and coming to power of Antiochus III, who was actually good to God’s people. But then Antiochus IV, who we know as Epiphanes, is a real bad guy. In the middle of 11, we have that being portrayed.

But as we’ve said before, and we’ll get into this in more detail next week: the real bad guy of the middle of 11 is not Antiochus Epiphanes, who does indeed put pig in the temple and puts up a flag of another false god. But the real bad people are the ones who make the deal with him—the Jewish priest first, the brother of the priest Jason, brother of the legitimate priest. And then, after him, other priests that are not legitimate priests at all.

So we get to the ridiculous relationship, the ridiculous story of all these different priests being ruling for a year as high priests in the gospels. Well, that wasn’t the way God set it up. It’s because of all this intrigue and abomination—these horrible things that go on from the Jews. The focus is not ultimately on Antiochus Epiphanes. He’s fairly normal in terms of a pagan king. But the focus is on the wickedness of Israel.

Then the third section of chapter 11—what we’ll see (we’ll make an identification that the focal point there is the coming of this Edomite king, Herod). The third section of chapter 11 will be Herod. It’s interesting that in chapter 11, in that third section only, the word for God is not the normal word, Elohim. It’s Eloah, which is the Edomite name for God that’s used primarily. Most of the references are in Job. There are a few other references, but it’s the Edomite name for God.

Herod was, of course, an Edomite. The Edomites came forth from Esau. So we really sort of have an Esauian Edomite—a horrible person who comes along, the Herods as a group. I identify him as Herod the baby killer here because we know that when Jesus was born, he engages in the slaughter of the innocents, killing off children, babies from (what, two or younger or something?), which we associate with this time of year in terms of the church calendar. It’s a useful association with anti-abortion day of the Lord coming up.

In any event, in two weeks we’ll talk more about 11. But that’s kind of the basic flow. So it’s not hard either. Introductory section, then wars between north and south, then Antiochus Epiphanes who comes along at the time of the great apostasy from the Jews, and then another great apostasy to come in the immediate connection with the coming of Christ—Herod the Great.

So these things fall out in a fairly easy to understand way.

One other thing I’ve got here on your notes, and I’ll go over it very quickly now (but I’ll have a handout, if not next week, the week after, probably the week after): one of the things we’ll look at in two weeks is how chapter 11 sort of is a recapitulation of several phases of Israelite history.

Chapter 11: one of the ways you first start thinking about this is to remember that as this is given out, as Daniel writes this stuff, what would you think if you’re a Jew in Jerusalem hearing about the warfare between the kings of the north and the kings of the south? Well, you’ve been through that before—the captivity of Israel, before their sin that Ezekiel records for us, that caused God to abandon them and to send them into exile. This is what you lived through after you had the United Kingdom of David and Solomon. You know that after Solomon, the kingdom was split in two, and you had king of the north and king of the south, and there was warfare between the two. It was a problem.

So there’s a sense in which you’d automatically start thinking in terms of Israelite history. God seems to move in these patterns of history. What we see here is sort of a recapitulation of several historic periods of time. We’ll talk more about that next week, but I’ve got a few notes alluding to it on your outline today, and that’s why I wanted to mention it.

The “triumphant king” is post-Alexander. There’s a kind of a new Egyptian captivity because the first king is the king of the south that has dominance over Israel, and the king of the south is the king of Greek Egypt. So we have kind of an Egyptian captivity, and then the king of the north will deliver Israel from the hands of the king of the south. So there’s like a new exodus, a new deliverance going on there. That’s kind of how this thing will flow out in chapter 11. We’ll look at it in more detail in two weeks.

I say a new divided kingdom, but much worse, because what’s going to happen in 11 is that Syria (Greek Syria) and Greek Egypt (two portions of what was left over after Alexander the Great) are going to war back and forth over the Holy Land. We’ve talked about that before, but it’s really quite devastating what’s going to happen.

Also, I mentioned in the notes that in the emergence of Antiochus Epiphanes, we also see the emergence of the Roman Republic. Here is where the abomination that makes desolate is alluded to again. We’ll talk about that again, but I’ll set you up for it by now, right?

Beginning in 7, first year of Belshazzar, the little horn that speaks great things. In 8, that becomes intensified. In 9, Daniel’s told in response to his prayer that this abomination that makes desolation is going to go on. Then in 11, it’s specified again. All of that will lead us up to a renewed consideration in two weeks of the apostasy of the church.

That’s why I’m asking for names of pastors to pray imprecatorily against in our worship service in two weeks. God’s judgment is against first and foremost the church. Judgment begins at the house of God. Our problems are not usually—almost never—the world around us. It’s the church and apostates within the church. That’s what we want to focus on in two weeks, and that’ll be the proper focus, looking at chapter 11: Hellenizing Jews, Jason, Menelaus, Onias—the proper Zadokite priest. We’ve talked about these things before, but they’re there for you.

All right. So that’s kind of an overview of the entire section. Now we want to focus in just on this opening of the three sections of 10 to 12—on chapter 10 itself. For this, we’ll use the handout and the way I’ve oriented the text for you. I think it’s interesting the way we have again here, as we had earlier in this book of Daniel, a connection between Cyrus and Darius.

What we said, and I’m very confident about this assertion, is that Cyrus and Darius are the same person. We saw in chapter 6 he was referred to as Darius the Mede, but also Cyrus—same guy. So it can get confusing because there were later Cyruses and later Dariuses. These were kind of like throne names. But in here, in the immediate context, it’s Cyrus, the ruler of Persia, who is Darius.

You know, why is Daniel struggling so much in this opening section? Why is he distressed? Why does he need to be strengthened? Well, what happens is that Cyrus takes over after Babylon is conquered (end of chapter 5, beginning of chapter 6), and Cyrus issues the decree—you have to have this in your mind to understand Daniel—that the temple will be rebuilt.

Cyrus then goes away from Babylon and leaves it in control of his son Cambyses (C-A-M-B-Y-S-E-S). Cambyses, son of Cyrus. Cambyses is influenced by some of those same ones that were killed when they brought up the scheme against Daniel in chapter six—same type of guys. Cambyses puts temporary halt to the building project. Now it’s started up again by Cyrus. But in the third year of Cyrus, by then the building project in Jerusalem is suffering problems. It’s come to a stop—a temporary stop.

This seems to be the contemporary event that causes Daniel to go down and out, to go into deep, deconstructive, death-and-resurrection, sort of, sleep. Three weeks taking upon himself death and mourning—it seems to be in relationship to the stoppage of the building project at Jerusalem. So, you know, he knew it was going to happen, but it stopped. What’s going on? He goes about trying to find out what’s going on in that way.

So at the beginning, we have a reference to Cyrus. Same guy is referred to as Darius at the end. Not only that, but we actually find out in verse one that this same angel—probably Gabriel—stood up to confirm and strengthen Darius the Mede in his first year. So this is in the third year of Cyrus/Darius the Mede. But the angel says that the reason Darius was strong enough to issue the decree and then to try to push for it was because he was strengthened by this angel—by Gabriel.

So we’ve got, you know, Cyrus and Daniel and now Darius being need to strengthen, Cyrus—Daniel being need to be strengthened in the opening—and it connects up the unit for us.

A couple of other points about this first section: Daniel is referred to as Belteshazzar. You have to ask why. Belteshazzar is the Babylonian name that Nebuchadnezzar rather gave him. Well, what we’ll see (and we’ll look at this more next week) is that at the center of this text, as Daniel goes down, it’s just like what happened to Belshazzar in chapter 5.

In chapter 5, there was a phrase that could be interpreted or translated that his colors changed, his visage changed. That’s the same phrase that refers to Daniel here as well. So there’s a connection again, as there was in chapter 5, between Belteshazzar and Belshazzar. Daniel takes upon himself the same death-like visage that Belshazzar had done earlier.

Also, we wonder why, but we’re told here that there are three whole weeks, and then in section two it says it’s the twenty-fourth day of the first month. I know this is a little more than probably you’d want to think about, but it sort of sets us up, as it’s done before, for the first couple of days of the month when he’s not fasting, and then three whole weeks—emphasis on “whole”—and then the twenty-fourth day at the end of that time.

So a little time, long time of three sections, concluding time. Remember we talked about the 70 weeks at the end of chapter 9, and it was the same way: a block of seven weeks, 62 weeks, one week. So that basic idea comes to us as we ask why God gave us this detail on the twenty-fourth day of the first month.

Another very important thing that we don’t catch, but if you’re reading this in Jerusalem, you catch it immediately: Daniel does not eat pleasant food, and he does not drink wine. He doesn’t celebrate. But there’s a specific allusion going on here: he doesn’t celebrate, and it is the feast that was to be engaged in on the first month in this very same period of time. Daniel misses Passover. Daniel misses Passover deliberately.

By the way, this is the verse that we know that Daniel normally drinks wine and eats good food. So chapter 1 isn’t that he’s vegetarian or something. We know he eats great food and drinks wine and all that stuff, but he doesn’t do it for three whole weeks again—three weeks resonate with death and resurrection. What we’re put in mind of is that he’s taken upon himself death by missing Passover.

If you didn’t—you know, if you didn’t kill the lamb and eat it—you were destroyed by the angel of death. So Daniel is here in a position of needing the resurrection of God, taking upon himself ritual death both by the fasting but also by the specific period of time for which he fasts.

So the beginning and end of this chapter 10 have these references to the setting of this: Daniel’s fasting and praying for three whole weeks.

Moving in then in the B sections, we have a vision of a man or an angel given to us in verses 4 to 6. Then at the end, in the matching up B section I’ve given to you, is a reference to Michael the prince. As I said, when we get to chapter 12 in a few weeks, we’ll see that Michael stands up in the context of Herod’s downfall. It would appear that this is the beginning of the reign of Jesus Christ throughout these chapters 10, 11, and 12.

“Standing up” is a phrase that’s used over and over. What we’ll see in chapter 11 in two weeks is that when these kings stand up, they’re standing up to rule. It doesn’t just mean they stood up—it means that they took a position of ruling, you see. They’re up and active as kings now.

What we’ll see is that the standing up of Michael is essentially the resurrection and ascension of Christ—the coming of the kingdom of Christ. He receives the kingdom from the Ancient of Days, from God the Father, and this has been alluded to already as well.

So the whole thing ends, not with the end of time, I don’t think, but with the establishment of the messianic kingdom in AD 70 specifically. This standing is part of that. Also, the whole point of this vision: the last thing that happens in chapter 12 is Daniel is told to stand.

So remember we have Jesus enthroned (Ancient of Days) and we have one like the Son of Man receiving the kingdom. We saw that earlier in this book. At the end of the last section, Jesus is standing—he’s ruling—and Daniel is standing—he’s ruling under Jesus, or the church is, through Daniel representationally.

So the book is kind of about “the last man standing”—and the last man standing is Daniel in the church. Chapters 10 to 12 move Daniel to victory. It moves him to standing victoriously.

So what we have in the B section is a vision of a man. I’ve given you a little bit of detail here. There’s a river involved. Again, God is on the other side of the Tigris. He’s outside of the land still. But the description here is interesting. It seems to be a description of the high priest.

The high priest was dressed in linen. The high priest was girded with a multicolored belt. Here it becomes gold, but it’s like the high priest girded with a multicolored belt or gold here. Body like beryl (turquoise blue), and the high priest had a blue robe he was to wear. His face like the appearance of lightning—the high priest had a flower on his head that was gold, and the specific words that are used as a shining forth from his forehead.

So here, the face of this man, Gabriel the angel, has the appearance of lightning. His eyes like torches of fire. His arms and his feet like burnished bronze—that would be the normal color of human skin of people in this area of the world. The high priest’s arms and feet were not covered, so he would be—this is really sort of a picture of a high priest.

Ultimately, the fulfillment of this man is the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t him here, but that’s what he looks like, you see. He’s the measure. We see a very much a similar description given in the book of Revelation. He’s the measure for all of us—Jesus. When he comes to the churches, he gives us his values, his gifts, who he is. He transforms us by his word. That kind of is shown here in the B sections where we have Michael, the prince (Jesus alluded to at the end), and the high priest that Gabriel the angel looks like in the corresponding section.

We have the death and resurrection of Daniel at either side of this. We’ll look at these in detail—more detail—next week on the progression of his being raised up. That takes us—the way I’ve structured the passage—to the very middle: the angelic warfare, humility, and victory in verses 12 to 14.

So again, it’s kind of a complicated passage, but it has a reference, a time reference, and a ruler reference at the beginning and the end. It has a picture of what ultimately Jesus is like and a reference to Michael, whom we think is Jesus. Death and resurrection on either side, and at the middle, this description of angelic warfare in the verse we want to focus in on.

So we read in verse 12:

> Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

I’ve structured it in such a way as to, you know, we kind of look at Daniel and then we focus in on this 10th word, and then we focus in on chapter 10. I’ve kind of brought us now to a focal point—right at the middle—this angelic warfare and then the reason given why the angel comes to strengthen Daniel, to make him victorious and to stand.

Why does that come about? So that’s what I want to focus in on now: the very middle of this chapter 10.

On your outline now, we zoom in further on the D section—verses 12 to 14. What I’ve done here is to help us remember what this title of this publication from Moscow is all about. The Bible tells us certain things that we’re to believe. There’s a credenda—a creed that’s given to us to believe and profess. And then the Bible calls for a response—an agenda of what we’re supposed to do.

One way to look at this middle text is that way. It tells us some beautiful, wonderful things—words of promise to us, things to believe, the gospel. It also calls for a response from us as we consider Daniel and his proper response to who God is and what God has done for him.

The first of the two segments I want to talk about, in terms of the gospel (the credenda part), is this angelic warfare. This is the Frank Peretti sort of stuff that I’ve promised for a few weeks or months now. This is it.

What we find out here is that Daniel begins to pray, and it takes three full weeks for God’s answer to his prayer. This angel, who looks like a man—by the way, why does he look like a man? I think it’s to make this association with Jesus for us, that I talked about earlier, to give us that understanding. But we know it’s an angel.

So what’s happening here is that, you know, we normally think we pray, God either says yes, no, or not now, or whatever. Well, God isn’t really saying “not now.” He sort of is. But he’s saying, “Yeah, I’ll give you more understanding.” But then it takes three weeks for this angel to get through, fighting with somebody or something, to get through to Daniel.

What we find here is (and this is what we found before in chapter 9) that our prayers set in motion angelic beings and forces. Our prayers have an effect on the world. Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9 was answered because he was praying. It has an effect. We’ll make this point again in a few minutes, but Cornelius in the New Testament—his actions and his prayers have an effect, and it changes the world. God works through Peter to come to Cornelius and change the world. You see, because of Cornelius’s alms and prayers, Daniel’s prayers are heard. An angelic messenger is sent to give him the truth of it.

But the angelic messenger has trouble with another angel. When we read in verse 13: “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia.” The word “prince” isn’t really the word here. “Commander” would be a better way to translate it. It seems here that what’s going on is angelic warfare between the angel who is the overlord (the angelic power over Persia) and the angelic power over the whole period of time (represented by Gabriel).

So there is this Persian angel who oversees Persia, contending with Gabriel to keep him from going to Daniel. There’s angelic warfare going on in relationship to the prayers of God’s saints.

In fact, of course, as we said earlier, we found out that it was angelic strengthening of Cyrus that enabled the decree and him to persist in the building project—rebuilding Jerusalem. So the lives of angels and men intertwine.

Now, that’s true in the New Testament too. It’s an angel that comes to Cornelius to tell him that his prayers have been heard, okay?

God, however, now, instead of the angel giving him more specifics to Cornelius, sends a man—Peter. There is this transition from the old covenant, the old world, to the new world. We read it in Psalm 8: God has created man a little lower than the angels. But now he has exalted man to rule over all the world in the New Testament. That’s the point of Hebrews: that Jesus is greater than the angels.

Jesus becoming incarnate moves man—we graduate, think of it that way. Galatians says that in the Old Covenant, we’re students. We’re tutored. We could have done a little better job two weeks ago with the tsunami if we would have remembered that sometimes the animals tutor us.

You know, after the flood, they get out of the ark. Well, where’s the water? What plants can we eat and not eat? Well, one way you develop that stuff is by looking at the animals. How do we figure out drugs? Looking at the plants—the effects of the plants. So you can follow an animal to water. If you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you find the deer path, you can let the deer be your tutor, and you may be able to just travel on that path. Eventually, you’ll get water. If you eat the plants he eats—more likely, I mean, not 100% one-for-one equivalency (as Dr. Wilson will be sure to tell us that we don’t want to treat people like dogs)—but there is somewhat of an equivalency, you see. They’re not going to eat poisonous stuff.

In this tsunami, no animals, as I understand it, no land animals were killed. Even elephants that were chained up broke their chains and went for the high ground before that wave hit. All the animals took off. You see, they knew. How did they know? We don’t know. We will one day. One day we’ll understand how these animals do that. We’ll follow them with science, and we’ll be able to evacuate places much quicker than we can now.

So, you know, this is the way the old world was. The Bible says man was tutored by animals. He’s also tutored by angels. He was put below the angels, and it takes angelic help to strengthen Cyrus and Daniel. This is the way the Bible speaks of it.

We don’t know for sure, but when Satan tempts Adam and Eve in the garden, maybe he’s supposed to be there asking him questions. That’s what a tutor does. That’s what Socrates did, right? Socratic exchange, teaching people through dialogue. But in the midst of that dialogue, even if it was proper, he sins, of course. Satan falls. We don’t know for sure about that, but that’s the idea: man is made a little lower than the angels.

But in Jesus Christ, when he ascends, and then when the fullness of that ascension is worked out in AD 70, man is brought into the throne room of God. Paul, in preparation for this, tells the Corinthians, “We’re going to judge angels. We’re now placed over angels.”

So the great good news here is: number one, the angelic world is on your side, and number two, you have even more power, more throne room rights to God, than going through intermediately to angels. This is good news that’s given to us here.

Now, there’s some bad news too, because what it says is that some of these angels don’t get with the program. You know, that evil angel who was causing problems, getting Cambyses to stand up and stop the rebuilding—the commander of Persia, the angel overlord over Persia. He’s kind of a dark angel. He’s not doing a good job.

Gabriel says that it took Michael to come in to help him to actually defeat this angelic overlord of Persia. As we said, it appears here that Michael is the archangel. He’s the angel of Israel. This will be made clear later in the chapter (or in the section, rather).

Israel has dominance over the empires. The angelic overlord of Israel—the Archangel Michael—the Archangel assists Gabriel in his battle against this twisted angel over Persia. Angelic warfare! But we have the best and most powerful warrior—Jesus Christ.

In order to win the war, if we’re right in identifying Michael as Jesus, even if we’re not, ultimately the one who’s commanding Michael to do what he’s going to do is Jesus Christ. So Jesus wins the battle for us in this angelic warfare, and that is good and great news to us.

So the first part is: the angels are on our side, and they’re subject to Jesus Christ and his power.

Secondly, the presence of the angel to us is this wonderful message: “Fear not.” We’ve talked about this many times in this pulpit, over and over again. What does Jesus say after the resurrection? “Fear not. Don’t be afraid. I know you’re afraid. Don’t be afraid.” This is the repeated message. This is what Jesus mostly says in his resurrection appearances—urging men not to be fearful.

Even before the cross, Daniel was told, “Don’t be fearful. I’ve conquered everything. Everything’s in control. It’s tough for three weeks, but we’re winning.” Okay? Don’t be afraid.

Our great gospel—we hear every Lord’s Day, every celebration of the resurrection—is “Fear not.” We need to hear it because we got lots of fears. We got fears of failure, fears of problems, and fears of death and ever-changing. Fears of their family, fears for their safety, fears for their physical well-being, their mental, emotional well-being. We’re fearful. We got all kinds of stuff to be worried about. A lot of that stuff is real. I’m not telling you it’s not real.

But God says to us every Lord’s day—the gospel, what you are to believe (credenda)—is that he has created a situation when he can tell you with truth, confidence, and assurance that you do not have to be fearful. You’re to put yourself at ease before him.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fear—the fear of death—Hebrews says, “Jesus has conquered death.” And now more than ever: if the angel said this to Daniel back then, the Lord Jesus tells us every Lord’s day, “Fear not. Rest. Be assured. Don’t be anxious for anything. But in everything, with prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. He’s going to change the future in relationship to what you’re like, your response to this.”

But the good and glorious news is “Fear not, beloved of the Lord Jesus.” Jesus Christ—because that’s the gospel, that these things are true.

But there’s also a response that’s indicated for us here. It’s quite simple, quite simple, and yet very profound, and I think very challenging for me and very challenging for you.

What is the word of Christ to us in terms of our agenda—the response we’re to make to this great truth? Well, what we read here is this angelic warfare and “Don’t be afraid.” But at the very center of the first section of D, what do we have? The reason why victory comes to Daniel—why the angel comes to strengthen him and get him to stand—there’s a reason here attached to it. This is our required response.

“From the first day”—from the first day you prayed? No. From the first day you cried out for help? No. “From the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I started coming.”

I think that identifies both things. Daniel set his heart to do two things. First, Daniel set his heart to understand the events of his day in relationship to the scriptures of God. As we read about in chapter 9, he set his heart to know the scriptures and their application to his particular situation. He also set his heart to humble himself before your God.

So we have a setting ourselves to attain understanding—intellectual knowledge—but immediately linked, and even more central maybe, is that center thing (the way I’ve put it out for you here): we must set our hearts to humble ourselves before God in order to understand the scriptures, and then to seek their understanding in relationship to our lives.

This is the twin charge I ask of you today. I say, do you understand? Yes, you believe the gospel—the good news. You hear that? Don’t be fearful. Praise God for the resurrected Jesus.

But to understand that the mature Christian response to that good news is for you to set your heart to understand the scriptures and their application to God. Know that understanding and knowledge only come in relationship to our seeing our need for God to reveal it to us—setting our hearts to be humble before God.

You say, “Well, I don’t know. I’m kind of humble. Maybe I’m a little prideful.” I’m not talking about what you are. I’m talking about what you set your heart to do. Humility is something that can be attained. It’s something that Daniel set himself to do.

Now, the way Daniel did it was to not eat pleasant food—to put off feasting for a period of time. That’s certainly proper at some periods of time. But the point is, Daniel engaged in specific actions to humble himself, to make himself humble before God, to demonstrate to himself in real material terms his need for God.

You see, he cuts himself off from that stuff. He goes through ritual death because he’s humbling himself, you see. Leviticus 16 says on the one required fast day you are to afflict your souls. It says Christians should afflict our souls on occasion, humbling ourselves. Not getting an attitude of humility, but working at external surroundings to put ourselves in a place where we are setting our minds to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

It is those who are humble under the hand of God that he’ll exalt in due time.

Now, God helped. God helped hundreds of thousands of people to humble themselves two weeks ago, right? I mean, if we’re going to get to victory through humbling, then we can see that one of the effects of the great natural disaster—so-called—two weeks ago is that the world should become humble.

I saw President Clinton on TV. Some of the best words that came out of this disaster were from him. He says, “This shows us that we’re not in control. We want to think we’re in control. We’re not in control.” Absolutely right. That’s the proper response.

The proper response is not to say, “Well, these guys were judged for this sin or that sin.” I don’t think that’s it. When the tower collapses, Jesus reminds people, “What about you? How will it be for you if you died today?” You see? And he reminds them that they’re not in control over how long they’re going to live. God demonstrates his overarching authority—our need for him—through disasters like what happened two weeks ago.

Now, we want to help those people. We want to minister mercy. We want to touch them, right? So give and give liberally to this relief effort. But understand that the greater purpose is that God is reminding us again of our powerlessness—that we be humble before him.

God says we’re to do this. I’d ask you: do you set your heart to humble yourself before God? And secondly, do you set your heart then, in that humbled position, to understand what God has said in his word?

This is where I, you know, I come back to where I started. I’ve worked hard, I think, over the last few months to provide you handouts, to work hard at looking at each of the structures of these chapters, to produce, you know, four or five or six pages of outlines every week. I’ve worked hard at it. Isaac’s worked hard at running this stuff off in a copy machine that jams these days. Freehole punch paper. We’re getting a new one tomorrow, Lord willing.

But you see, we’ve worked hard at doing this. We’ve prepared you. We’ve given it to you. What have you done with it? Is it at home? Is it in a binder? Did you look at it over the last few months as you knew we were going to look at 10 today? Did you look at Daniel 10 in preparation? Did you review your notes of the 10 sections? Did you work at all? Did you set your heart to understand the word today?

You see, this is what we’re supposed to do. Did you read the notes during family worship to your children? Then you look at them maybe Sunday afternoon to pick up the stuff you hadn’t gotten out of the text, you see. How hard have you set your mind to understand the scriptures?

Because if you don’t understand the scriptures, you’re not going to understand their significance to our times. Have you asked me questions? Have you taken advantage of the Q&A time after the sermon? We don’t do this just to kill time while the dinner’s being made. We do it to help you to set your heart to understand what’s said.

One of the most disappointing things I heard in the last 5 years was two different young men come to me and say, you know, I didn’t understand. I can’t understand your sermon, so I’m moving on. I’m going to someplace where I can understand. That’s sad to me.

I’m sure that some of these sermons are not easy to understand. I’m sure that some of the fault for that lies with me. I’m sure of it, of course, yeah. But I’m also sure that they didn’t take advantage of every opportunity to set their heart to understand, because I never saw—I don’t remember either of these young men asking me once a question, either in Q&A time or during the week about the sermon.

Now, you know, I’ll take my full responsibility for being tough to understand, covered a lot of material, and being a little too didactic in these sermons. But you see, you know, beloved, I tell you, and I tell myself: we have to set our minds to understand the word of God. If we’re not humble, we won’t do it.

If you’re not setting your mind to understand the word of God, it’s probably because you didn’t first set your mind to humble yourself before God.

How can you set your mind? Well, in the sermons, you get a good night’s sleep. When you come in the door of the church, you say, “Lord God, help me to be attentive. I know I drifted last week. I might have fallen asleep. I was distracted. Lord God, I put aside all that stuff. Now I want to hear Jesus speak to me today through the sermon of the liturgy.”

Did you do that, you see? That’s setting your heart to understand the scriptures and their application to our day.

You see, when you sat down, did you try to focus your eyes? Job said he made a covenant with his eyes that he wouldn’t look at a maiden. That is one way to set our hearts to understand the word of God: when we come into the service, to make a covenant with our eyes not to be distracted—to this, that, or the other thing—as the word is being preached. Because where our eyes go, our heart tends to follow that way, you see.

Have you gotten a good night’s sleep? Have you prayed as you come into the assembly? Do you understand the significance that Paul said, you know, you received what we said not as the word of men, but as it really is—the word of God. You know, the preaching of God’s word is the word of Jesus Christ. That’s what Paul said. I didn’t say it.

When my preaching is in conformity to the word of God, it is the word of Jesus to us today. If Jesus himself were here speaking to you, maybe, you know, we’d be more—I’m sure we’d be more attentive. Yet Jesus says that he has chosen to work through the foolish things of the world—goofballs like me—to speak his word to you.

Do you have that sense of priority to that word preached?

Children, on your outlines, I’ve told you that God normally speaks to you through the sermon—yes, Jesus is speaking to you—but the way he normally speaks to you is through your mom and dad. Do you set your hearts to understand what mom and dad are giving you by way of instruction? That’s the clear implication of this text.

When you do that, God’s angels and Spirit empower you to be victorious. Children, do you set your hearts to humility? Humility is the victory. Do you set your hearts to humble yourselves before the representation of God in your life—your parents?

If you don’t, then by the time you get to church, I don’t care how attentive you are, the Lord God will not speak to you. Knowledge and understanding in the scriptures are ethically linked. If we don’t have an ethical submission to God and his authorities, then we’re not going to get to an understanding of the word.

God says that, you know, great things are coming. For them to get here requires us, in the power of the Spirit, to be humble before God and to set our minds to understand the scriptures.

So pleased this morning—have a few more kids in my Sunday school class. Praise God! I was so happy that this morning they were there because I knew I was going to crank again on getting your kids to Sunday school class. This is where they can learn the word of God.

A lot of these lessons, you know, are being put up on the Internet. You could use that. I’m experimenting with some voice recorders for some of the Sunday school classes. You can actually listen to them if you miss on the Internet. We’re working toward that. There’s lots of neat stuff out there. But the Sunday school program is a way to set your heart—for you and your children—to understand the scriptures and their relevance to our time.

Books, Bible study books. You spend time—not just reading the scriptures. That’s good. I mean, you can’t set your heart to understand what you never bring yourself in contact with. But Daniel, you see, it required time for him to do this, right? He had to set aside some time. He had to make it a priority.

I’m saying that the word of life—which is what the scriptures are called within themselves—the word of life should have a priority for us in this coming year. We’re to set our hearts and minds to understand what they say, their significance to us. The way to do that is to set our hearts and minds to be humble before God.

This is what the scriptures say over and over again will happen. Isaiah 58:

> Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and he will say, “Here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness…”

So this is from Isaiah 58. God answers when the specific way our humbling ourselves before God and trying to understand things is related then to our benevolent actions, okay?

One way you have to humble yourself before God is to show benevolence to others. So if you step up today and help with this offering for the tsunami victims, or if you step up next week and help Love Inc. get established in Oregon City to minister in the name of Christ through all the churches working together, or if you step up in two weeks to contribute to the PRC and to extend those benevolent actions—God says that’s part of humbling yourself before him and understanding things.

When you call, he will answer them, just as he answered here. I’d mentioned Cornelius earlier. It wasn’t just Cornelius’s prayers that went up before God, and then the angel comes in response, and Peter is sent, and Cornelius becomes part of the inscriptured word. No, it was his prayers and his alms of Cornelius that went up as incense of the sacrifice before God that prompted then God to send his two messengers—an angel and Peter.

So there’s a direct relationship of what we’re saying today to the next few weeks and to today’s special offering as well. One of the ways we set our hearts to be humble before God is by recognizing that we are here by the grace of God, and we should minister in that grace. Freely we’ve received, freely give.

This is humbling ourselves before God and assuring us that even before we ask, the New Testament blessings in Isaiah—even before we ask, God is sending the answer to that prayer. That’s what we want. We want to go to prayer meetings and hear not just prayer requests. We want to hear how God answered those prayers.

Well, we get there by being mature like Daniel—setting himself as an image before us. A man of prayer in chapter 9, a man of seeking God humbly and seeking to understand the things of God in chapter 10. The answer then to those aspects of Christian maturity is that God then reveals his answers to our prayers.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for Daniel. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that ultimately Jesus himself is the one that we’re calling on. We’re not humble, and we’re not steadfast in seeking your word. Jesus is that. We pray that Jesus would grant us, Lord God, today, in the context of this worship service, the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, making us like our Savior, like Daniel who was like our Savior.

Make us, Lord God, people who are renewed in setting our hearts to be humble before you and setting our hearts to understand what you tell us. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.