ANGELS AMONG US
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Introduction
Introduction
-25 or so years ago author Frank Peretti came out with the books This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness. The story follows a Christian preacher and a newspaper reporter as they unearth a New Age plot to take over the local community and eventually the entire world. Nearly every page of the book describes sulfur-breathing, black-winged, slobbering demons battling with tall, handsome, angelic warriors on a level of reality that is way beyond the senses. However, Christian believers and New Age demon-worshippers are able to influence these unseen clashes between good and evil by the power of prayer.
-The books describe how the physical world and the spiritual world interact. The books are great read. I don’t know how accurate everything might be in the books, but they bring to our attention the reality that the invisible world of the spirit and visible world of the spiritual are closely knit together and they affect one another in the ways that God allows and ordains. So much of what we see that goes on in world is merely the storefront for something even more sinister and devious that goes on in the spiritual world. We as Christians need to understand that the battles that we face are not just on earth, but they are also raging in higher heavenly places as well.
-The Bible gives only very brief glimpses of such battles—but we want to look at one such battle and use it as a reminder that such things are as much reality as what we see/hear/taste/smell/touch.
1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision.
2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks.
3 I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.
4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris)
5 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.
6 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.
7 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.
8 So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength.
9 Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground.
10 And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
11 And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.
12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.
13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia,
14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”
15 When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute.
16 And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength.
17 How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”
18 Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me.
19 And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
20 Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.
21 But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.
-Daniel starts to tell us about another vision that he was given, and this vision is recorded for us throughout the rest of the book. Chapter 10 is sort of the introduction to the vision, but it then extends through chapters 11 and 12.
-Daniel is a prophet who is treasured by God. Living faithfully in the middle of pagan empires is not an easy task, but Daniel serves God with great devotion. We also notice in the book that Daniel is a man devoted to prayer. Because of these things, God gives him visions of what the future holds for Israel for him to then pass along to the people to prepare them.
-In this chapter we find Daniel anguishing in prayer and fasting because he was troubled about what was happening to his people. The Medo-Persian empire had taken over and had allowed the Israelites to begin returning home with the intent of rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. However, on a more local level, the Jews had faced a lot of opposition in the rebuilding process and (for the most part) the work slowed to a halt. Daniel mourned that there was so much opposing and frustrating the work of God’s people.
-Like before God dispatches an angel to tell Daniel the answer to the prayer Daniel lifted up and to give more information about what would happen to the future of Israel. But something happened to the angel which, in a sense, also gives us an answer on why God’s people in Jerusalem were facing so much opposition. Here is probably one of the most clear pictures about what goes on behind the scenes of the world. It reads like a Frank Peretti book, but this is the inspired Word of God.
-The unnamed angel (whom some speculate is Gabriel again) is something to behold. The description of his appearance is awe-inspiring, and in many ways reminiscent of how Christ is described in Revelation 1. But the angel is merely a reflection of the glory of God whom he serves. Daniel is the only one to see the angel with his eyes. Daniel was not alone in the room, but the others didn’t see the angel. They just had a weird sense of something being off and they ran away. Once the others left, Daniel was saw overwhelmed by the experience that he about passed out. But the angel touched him to give him strength so he could hear the message.
-The angel explains that from the first moment that Daniel prayed to God to seek understanding why the things were happening to the Jews as they were, God sent this angel forth to give the vision. But the angel ran into a bit of a problem. The angel was opposed by the Prince of the kingdom of Persia for 21 days and prevented the angel from completing his mission. Now remember, in v. 2 Daniel said he had been mourning and fasting and praying for 21 days. God immediately sent out the answer, but spiritual forces prevented the angel from delivering the answer.
-I want that to sink in for a moment. There was this battle going on behind the scenes that prevented the answer to prayer. The invisible was affecting what was going on in the visible. We need to take to heart Paul’s exhortations:
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
-So there was this other spiritual being called the Prince of Persia. It would appear that in the days before Christ that each nation had this spiritual being in charge of the spiritual aspects of that nation, and they were all in rebellion against God. We might want to call it a patron angel (or demon as the case may be). And you look at v. 21 and Michael is called “your prince” or the prince of the people of Israel. So, Michael may have been the one put in charge by God for the spiritual world of Israel. This quite possibly might give us an explanation for:
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
-This might also explain why Michael is called an archangel in the book of Jude and why he fights for Israel in
7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,
-But this demon, this Prince, was able to oppose God’s angel and prevent him from carrying out his task. It wasn’t until Michael came to help this angel that he was able to break through and visit Daniel and give God’s vision to him. Now, this might also be an explanation why Israel was having such a hard time rebuilding the city and temple, and you also think of the book of Nehemiah and all the opposition he went through to rebuild the wall. Yes, there were these human elements—these other governors and whatnot that opposed Israel. But behind the scenes there were these spiritual forces of darkness that were working against them. This is mind-blowing stuff.
-But if you are like me, you begin to wonder why God would allow this all to play out. Why didn’t God help the angel by just punching the Prince of Persia in the nose or however things work in the spiritual realm? You think of the book of Job. There God clearly had complete control and was setting limits to how far Satan could go in his dastardly deeds. God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God, and yet throughout the earth there are these continuous battles going on between angels and demons. What’s the deal?
-I like how one author explained it. He wrote:
While God can, of course, override the united resistance of all the forces of hell if he chooses to do so, he accords to demons certain limited powers of obstruction and rebellion somewhat like those he allows humans. In both cases the exercise of free will in opposition to the Lord of heaven is permitted by Him when He sees fit. But as Job indicates, the malignity of Satan is never allowed to go beyond the due limit set by God.
-So, this angel says he’s got to give the vision to Daniel quickly because he has to return to the battlefield to help Michael fight against the Prince of Persia. And then, so nonchalantly, he mentions that they’ll then have to do battle against the Prince of Greece, which is the next empire that would come but not for several more years. The Prince of Greece would be the demonic power that would be behind the rise of Alexander the Great’s empire, but that’s in the future. How does the angel know this? Because it is written in something called the book of truth, which appears to be God’s book that tells about everything that is going to happen in history. In the next two chapters the angel will tell Daniel some of the things that are in that book that pertain to what will happen
-This is all just a bit overwhelming, but this is the reality. Things going on in your life might be, and probably are, the result of spiritual battles going on. And we can participate in those battles through prayer and putting on the armor of God and taking on the mind of Christ.
-But before I close I just want to mention something real quick. First, while the topic of angels are interesting we have to be careful not to go to one of two extremes. One extreme is to ignore angels and demons because they do exert some sort of influence in our lives. The other extreme is to become so obsessed with them that we start to give them attention that belongs to God alone. We need to take a sober look at angels and demons and be careful not to go beyond Scripture. Author Stephen Miller gives us some facts that we can count on:
(1) angels are real; (2) there are good and evil angels; (3) angels can influence the affairs of human beings. Particularly this passage teaches that angels inspire human governments and their leaders…(4) There is an invisible, spiritual warfare being waged that involves angels and believers. … This warfare is an ongoing struggle (cf. v. 20). (5) God’s angels act on behalf of the saints.
-I’ll add: just need to know that angels are God’s servants; we do not worship, pray or glorify them—we go to God, & let Him dispatch His angels as He sees fit.