Untitled Sermon (25)

Scripture Introduction:

Let me tell you I really struggled with how best to preach this passage. That’s why you had Daniel 10 listed in your bulletin for the past two-three weeks. Today, Lord willing, I venture forward.

This passage is a bit strange because it kind of peels back a layer and gives us a little glimpse into the unseen spirit world. It’s one of the few places in Scripture where we have something like this—and so that makes it difficult.

But the key, I think, to understanding this passage—and for me being able to preach this passage is to look at the historical situation which Daniel faced.

Have you ever been really excited about something, like joy through the roof, and then reality didn’t meet your expectations? When good news turns into a dud it can be painful...

If so, you’ve felt how Daniel is feeling in this passage. King Cyrus came in and let Daniel and his people go back to their land and rebuild…but when they got there…things weren’t as they had envisioned. Celebration turned into hard work.

Have you ever felt like you were the only one who cared about something? Then you’ve felt like what Daniel felt here. We can read about this in Haggai. The people came back to the land, they were supposed to rebuild the city, supposed to rebuild the temple, but they rebuilt their own houses instead. They cared about themselves and not the community of God. Nobody else seems to care about the things of God! Ever said that? Well, that’s what was happening with Daniel.

Have you ever got discouraged by all the worldliness around you, all the opposition to the goodness of God? It’s just flat discouraging. You see the wreckage all around, you see people you love—even people in your own family—getting hurt, hurting others, harming themselves, the brokenness just feels like more than you can bear. Well, that’s what Daniel is feeling here. It’s not only that his own people have gotten complacent—there is a reason for that complacency, the nations surrounding them made it absolutely miserable for them.

So, as we meet Daniel here in Daniel 10, it’s one of those moments when he was really low for quite a season, then they get great news, he’s on a mountain top....and then crash. This is the crash. Listen in,

Daniel 10:1–9 ESV

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. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Sermon Introduction:

You know there is something really telling about what happens in this passage. And I think it’s partially why I missed it for a couple of weeks.

Let me explain. There are so many questions over this text. For one, there is debate about the identity of these angelic visitors. Is it a pre-incarnate Christ? Is it Gabriel? Is it another angel?

And then we open up another can of worms when we talk about this prince of the kingdom of Persia. And there are some theological questions here too…as we’ll see in a bit there’s an implication here that an angel—a messenger sent from God to give comfort to Daniel—was stopped for three weeks. What in the world? How is this possible? Does this even happen still today? And so we have all these questions about spiritual warfare rumbling around this passage?

And so I’m trying to navigate through all of these. How do I answer these? I don’t really know for sure how to answer some of these…so how do I preach this? And I’m kind of concerned too because I know that we have propensity sometimes to just get really weird when it comes to things like this. We can develop some strange beliefs out of just a couple of rather obscure texts…and so I don’t want to see us do that…but I also want to preach the text as it is...

But then I realized what I was missing in the text. The deep pain of Daniel. And that’s somewhat ironic…I’m not even sure if ironic is the right word…but it’s deeply something…that this is so often what we do as we relate to others, to the world around us, to our own souls.

We argue about difficult and obscure passages and miss the hurt. Our hurt. The hurt of others. Etc. If I can have a riveting discussion about whether or not there are territorial spirits…then I can trick myself into thinking I’ve done some deep Bible study. I’ve really plumbed the depths of this text, really mined it, really gotten at the core. But in reality I’m running from what the living God aims to do here…what he aims to do with my heart…how he aims to get at the deep stuff, those deep hurts, those wounds, my own sin, things that I may not want to face…

But there is something really beautiful happening in this passage…God doesn’t miss it. God doesn’t botch the care of Daniel. He enters into all the brokenness and fear and everything.

Again, here is what is happening for Daniel. He’s standing on the banks of a great river. Do you see him there? You ever stood on the bank of a fast flowing river…I remember when the Mississippi was getting out of its banks when I lived in Hannibal. It was a thing to behold.

Moving things swiftly down…wrecking some things in its way…an unstoppable force really. And Daniel feels this emotionally…rivers sweep things away…where is this thing even going? Will it ever end?

In the first few verses we can really see Daniel’s pain, his depression. He’s refusing all luxury…which little side note this is why I said that his refusing the king’s food in the first chapter was only a temporary thing…the implication here is that he has, without compromise, been very much enjoying some of the luxury of Babylon. But here he can’t. He can’t enjoy things.

The future is what is at stake for Daniel. What will happen to my people? What will happen to me? What do all of these visions mean—I know what they mean—but what do they mean?!?!? Where is this river taking us?

And then Daniel looks up and he sees an angelic being. Takes his eyes away from the mighty river. This is even more powerful. Glaring holiness. Mighty. Awesome.

Again, debate here about the identity. But let’s make it simple. We know that whoever this is—it is a messenger from God. His touch, is representative of God’s touch. In that regard His identity doesn’t matter.

Only Daniel sees this vision, but others feel the impact. And look at what is happening here. All of Daniel’s questions just kind of melt. His pondering by the riverside…what are we going to do with life, what will happen, where will this great Babylonian—or Persian—or Grecian—or whatever this little horn is—where will all of these kingdoms sweep us?

All of these questions just melt. And we see Daniel’s soul just open up. I was left alone....

I think you’re supposed to feel that. Alone. Laid bare. No hiding behind community…no, prayer that’s saying…well, I’m really praying about these other guys…just Daniel.

And no strength was left in me. That word means power…ability to exert…to make something happened. When Daniel says, “no strength was left in me” this isn’t him saying, “I just couldn’t open the pickle jar”. This is Daniel saying, I can’t even get myself out of bed. I can’t lift my head. I have absolutely nothing left in me.

He wore it on his face. His radiant appearance fearfully changed…and then he heard the sound of his words…and he fell on his face in a deep sleep with my face to the ground.

He’s undone. Have you ever been there? Maybe it was the death of a loved one. Some deep loss in your life. Maybe it was at a time when you’re like Daniel and looking at this mighty river and its just a bunch of swirling confusion…the messenger of God speaks…and you just kind of collapse into it. That’s what is happening here to Daniel...

Now watch this…watch what happens. Notice how this messenger of God, how God, handles Daniel. Listen to what happens…Daniel 10:10-14

Daniel 10:10–14 ESV

And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 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. 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. 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, 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.”

Daniel is low, broken, grieving, just shut down…And part of this that we are supposed to see and feel is that three weeks. Why aren’t you listening? Why haven’t you heard me? Why isn’t anything changing? Do you care, God? Three weeks…no food really…just grief to eat…and it seems to Daniel like he is receiving silence from heaven. No reprieve. Do you even love me, God?

He comes face to face with this “man” and it breaks him. He just collapses. And now this hand touches him…lifts him up…hear the tender words.

O, Daniel. Greatly loved. Stand up. No more time in the dust. I’ve been sent to you. I have a word for you.

And now listen to this…this is one of those really strange places in Daniel...

From the very moment you started praying, as soon as you started crying out, I heard and I started coming to you…okay…that’s not strange…but this is...

The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for 21 days....

What? You’ve got this angelic being saying, I was coming to you, I would have answered your plea—given you encouragement on day 1—but I was held up for three weeks by this demon who resides over the kingdom of Persia.

Now we can imagine what’s happening here. That this demonic force is working to turn the heart of Cyrus. To make things worse for Daniel and his people. And so this angelic being has to fight him. But it’s really weird. And I think we could take this and run with it and come up with some really weird things.

I don’t think Daniel is telling us this story to have us do really weird things, or develop strange beliefs, or even to laser our focus on the angelic realm. Rather, I think what Daniel is doing here…I think why God is communicating this to Daniel…is to say, “there are so many things going on that you simply do not understand.”

You think your three weeks of mourning and unanswered prayer had to do with whether or not you were loved…nope…it had to do with angelic warfare. It had to do with spiritual warfare.

And as I think about this, I take all of my own grief, all of my own frustrations, my own sermons from Haggai…and I say, there is so much more going on.

Let me just show you what I mean by that really quickly. The message of Haggai is “consider your ways”. The people are rebuilding their own lives and neglecting the things of God. They have wrong priorities but they are using a mangled up theology to defend it. They are doing some math from Jeremiah and saying, “ah, we aren’t supposed to rebuild quite yet…so, we’re going to align our houses with gold.”

I’ve been reading a book recently called The Great Dechurching. Unbelivable statistics. So many people having left the church. And do you know what the top causes are? It’s getting busy with other stuff or moving to a new community and not getting established into a local church.

Many of the dechurched haven’t really change their beliefs, but what has changed is their belonging and their behavior.

Something else that plays out in these statistics is that we now consider someone a regular attender if it’s twice per month. I’ve spoken with many other pastors who talk about having the A-crowd, B-crowd, and C-crowd. We know that it’s more and more rare to see the same folks week in and week out.

So many factors involved here. Disunity around politics, just an unraveling within our society, and honestly it puts many of us in a place like Daniel. Feeling kind of alone, looking at a raging river, and wondering where its all going to take us.

Now, why am I saying this? Because that message to Daniel is important. There is far more going on than we realize. We can conclude certain things about people—assume that because they aren’t regularly attending they don’t care about the Word…they are building their own houses...or we could listen and realize that there is a spiritual battle taking place, there are so many things we just simply do not know. So many unseen things taking place.

We need to be careful, then, of making faulty conclusions. Assuming that we know the whole story, when we really don’t. This is especially deadly when we attempt to interpret what God is doing this way, or what God is communicating. Oh, he hasn’t answered my prayer, oh things aren’t working out the way that I’d hope, oh I don’t have understanding here…well, God must not care. God must be angry with me. God must have forsaken me.

No, there is so much more going on here. The story continues in Daniel.

Daniel 10:15–17 ESV

When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute. 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. How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”

Daniel is still hurting. It’s kind of an unsettling message—things are going on that you don’t know about. You’re really not in control, Daniel. The amount of information you have is so small, Daniel.

At some moments this can be unsettling. Daniel is once again touched by this angelic being…and he is able finally to speak…but what comes out isn’t triumph…it’s even more despair.

I’m too weak. The vision is too scary. The future is too uncertain. Things are just too cloudy. Too difficult. Too high of a mountain to climb. I’m just going to shut down, I fear.

Now let’s pause for just a moment and ask a question…let’s say that you’ve got a Daniel in your life. What do you do here?

Let’s say you’re Clarence the angel here. You’ve given him some measure of comfort. You’ve spoken truth to Daniel. You’ve encouraged him. You’ve done all the things you’re supposed to do to get Daniel back up on his feet and get that despair out of there…and, you’ve been sent to fill in the blanks for Daniel…to give him some more information. Some more theology.

But Daniel is still a bit of a blubbering mess. He’s not lifted up. He’s not strengthened. It’s not working it seems...

What do you do? Do you give up? Do you say things louder this time? Do you get angry? Do you try a different tactic? Do you shake Daniel until he gets it, until he wakes up? What do you do?

Or lets ask a different question. You’re Daniel. The angel has given you a word, he’s given you comfort, he’s done all the things that ought to have worked…but it isn’t working. You’re still without strength. You’re still raw and hurting and struggling to find hope. You’re without breath, without a spirit it feels, and you’re just without strength.

I can’t even open my Bible. I can’t even pray it feels like. I certainly can’t share the gospel with other people. I’ve just got absolutely nothing.

How does God feel about you? I mean He’s tried to help, already…you’re just being a rascal. Get your act together. Respond to the Word. Shake the dust off. Get up, Daniel! Is He angry at you? Is He mad that the healing didn’t “work”?

Look at verse 18...

Again...

Oh, I love that word in verse 18. Again. God doesn’t give up on Daniel. He doesn’t give Daniel the last word, he pushes through his pain. He doesn’t let Daniel’s lack of strength stop him. Daniel’s hurt doesn’t get the last word. He doesn’t say, “Ah, Daniel. You despairing wretch…you faithless goober…I’m going to leave until you get it together and start believing better.”

Nope. Again...

Daniel 10:18–21 ESV

Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. 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.” 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. 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.

He touches Daniel. He strengthens Daniel. We need a touch and strength outside of our own. Once again he tells Daniel...

O man, greatly loved. Fear not. Have peace. Be strong and of good courage.

Here is what is happening here. God is speaking these words to the depth of Daniel’s soul. You know how you can hear a message with your ears but not your soul.

Even really powerful things… “I love you. I’m praying for you. You matter. We’re in this together.” Such meaningful words but they don’t land.

Well, grace happens in this passage and they land. God opens up Daniel, he’s laid bare. And God gets into that most tender of places and says to Daniel exactly what he needs to hear.

Daniel is now enlivened.

Can I tell you something here that is key for us to understand? Sometimes we need to be brought into a position to actually hear the Word. The pain can be too thick. We need a touch more than theology. We need to be strengthened before we hear a sermon.

Often, I think we take our own discouragement, our own assumptions, even our own undealt with pain, into a discussion with other people. And we don’t meet them where they are. We don’t see the pain and the brokenness underneath all of those words…and we just rebuke the surface…proclaim some of God’s word…and then further cast them aside when they don’t “receive God’s Word.”

But the reality might very well be that they need peace before proclamation. They need to see the Jesus in us, experience the Jesus in us, be touched and healed by the Jesus in us, before they hear the words of Jesus from our lips.

When Daniel is strengthened he then says,

“Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”

Now, Daniel can hear. This, friends, his how God treats the broken and the hurting.

And that’s my prayer for you today. That if you’re broken and hurting then you’ll hear the words that you need to hear in the depth of your soul.

The angel’s response after Daniel says that’s he’s ready will launch us into next week…He’s going to now give Daniel his answer…give him the vision…tell him whats going to happen to his people...

But he doesn’t do that until Daniel’s soul is cared for. So, what do we do with this?

Well, I think a big part of this message here is to say that there are things going on that we really don’t understand. But we can trust the Lord’s goodness, He is for us, He lifts us up.

And we can see the tender care here. So, if you need that tender care—receive it. If you’re strengthened then perhaps we respond to this passage by learning how to be the hands and feet of Jesus to hurting people.

But more than anything, I think we realize how much we don’t know. How there is so much more going on. How we don’t often know what to say, we don’t naturally have the words to touch the deep place, there are times when we might have to speak and speak and speak. And so, this is a call to prayer and humility. We see Daniel’s persistence as well in prayer…three weeks…he’s not giving up and he’s crying out to God until He answers.

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Lord, I don’t know what I’m doing. But you do. Your people need to hear a word that touches the depth of their being. Speak it, Lord. Speak, O Lord!