Daniel 10:1-11:1 - Concern, Comfort, & Conflicts to Come (Part 3)

Introduction

In this last section of Daniel, we have the culmination of all the other prophecies of Daniel concerning the people of God.

So far in Daniel 10, we’ve seen that God is in control, that He hears our prayers, and that He gives us strength.

In Daniel 10:10-14 we saw that God gave Daniel the strength to stand.

In verses 15-17 we’ll see that God also gave Daniel the strength to speak, and in 10:18-11:1 the strength to see.

[CONTEXT] When Daniel was a young man, God’s people had been carried off to Babylon. Daniel spent the rest of his life serving the kingdoms of Babylon and Medo-Persia although his heart always belonged to the Promised Land.

God promised that after His people were broken of their idol worship, they would one day return to their land. That promise was kept when God stirred the heart of the Persian King Cyrus to send God’s people back. Daniel rejoice to watch them go and was elated to hear of the rebuilding of the city, its wall, and especially its temple.

But then word came to Daniel that rebuilding had been stopped. That set Daniel to praying, but for three weeks he didn’t hear anything. For three weeks, no food, no hygiene, just prayer and no answer.

The answer finally comes, however, in the awesome presence of a heavenly figure, a presence that leaves Daniel overwhelmed and facedown in the dirt.

But then Daniel is touched and strengthened to stand.

His prayers had been heard all along!

He will have understanding of what happening with God’s people both now and into the future!

There is more going on than Daniel knew.

There is a spiritual war raging, and Daniel’s prayers have played a part in it.

Daniel is about to be let in on God’s future plans for His people.

When we come to v. 15, Daniel is once again overwhelmed.

Daniel 10:15–17 NASB95

When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. And behold, one who resembled a human being was touching my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me, “O my lord, as a result of the vision anguish has come upon me, and I have retained no strength. “For how can such a servant of my lord talk with such as my lord? As for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me.”

Major Ideas

#1: Notice that Daniel is strengthened to speak (Daniel 10:15-17)

[EXP] The awesome presence of this heavenly warrior, the reality of the spiritual warfare going on behind the scene, the fact that Daniel’s prayer have been heard, the news that he is going to be given insight into the life of God’s people in the latter days—all this overwhelms Daniel again.

He turns his eyes to the ground.

He has no words; he is speechless.

[APP] There are two things we should catch already…

One, God’s people have a future.

Two, before the holy presence of God—even if just reflected from one of His angels—we’d be speechless.

Daniel was worried about the remnant restoring Jerusalem. Their work had stopped.

Had the purpose of God failed?

Had the promises of God not come true?

Is this the end for the people of God?

No. This is a hard time but they still have a future. We know this because this heavenly figure has come to tell Daniel about God’s people “in the latter days… to the days yet future,” (14).

We may go through hard times, but as God’s people through Christ, we always have a future.

During this whole encounter with the heavenly figure, Daniel has said nothing.

In v. 9, Daniel hears the heavenly figure, but Daniel says nothing.

In v. 11, the heavenly figure speaks to Daniel, but Daniel doesn’t speak.

In vv. 12-14, the heavenly figure continues to speak to Daniel, but Daniel still doesn’t speak.

And then in v. 15, Daniel is speechless.

If could just catch a glimpse of the glory of God even if only reflected in one of his angels, we’d be the same way—speechless.

[EXP] In his speechless condition, Daniel is again touched, this time on the lips by another heavenly figure, this one resembling a man. In Daniel 8:15, Gabriel was described as looking like a man, so maybe this was Gabriel or some other angelic being. We can’t be sure.

He touched Daniel’s lips, and Daniel’s tongue was loosed. He was enabled to speak, and notice what Daniel said, “…anguish has come upon me, and I have retained no strength,” (v. 16).

In other words, Daniel said, “This is all too much for me.”

[APP] You ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like it was all too much for you?

Sometimes in a hard time the Lord calls us to carry a heavy load, and it can feel like its too much.

It can be so heavy that we feel breathless, even speechless.

[ILLUS] One time Stan asked me to come help him move the heaviest table on earth. Guessing by the weight of it, his Dad had built this table out of pure cement and somehow made it look and feel like wood.

We had to go up some stairs to get in the house, and no the way up as I carried that heavy load, Stan would keep asking, “You OK?”

I replied with a squeek, “yEp.”

I could barely say anything!

And if the table had been any heavier, I wouldn’t have been able to say anything at all.

[APP] There are things that we are called to carry in life that are so heavy we are left speechless.

Maybe we are called to carry grief.

Maybe we are called to carry responsibility.

These things are not physically heavy, of course, but they are emotionally, relationally, and spiritually heavier than anything physical.

Daniel was carrying the weight of his people, and then he was shown just how heavy that weight was when he was shown the spiritual warfare surrounding God’s people.

He was so overwhelmed by that weight that he became speechless, but the Lord strengthened him to speak, and when he spoke, he spoke of his weakness. He said, “…there remains no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me,” (v. 17).

When things are so heavy, so overwhelming that we feel like we have no strength, that we have no breath, no words, we can draw strength from the Lord Jesus and then tell Him how weak we are.

There’s no shame in admitting that we are weighed down and overwhelmed; there’s no shame in admitting that we’re hurting, that we’re scared, that we don’t know what to do next.

The Lord delights to be our strength when we are weak, to give us words in prayer when we can’t find the words ourselves.

As the choir sang this morning, “His strength is perfect when our strength is gone.”

[TS] We’ve seen that Daniel was strengthened to stand, strengthened to speak, and…

#2: Notice that Daniel was strengthened to see (Daniel 10:18-11:1)

Daniel 10:18–11:1 NASB95

Then this one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me. He said, “O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you; take courage and be courageous!” Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, “May my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” Then he said, “Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. “However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince. “In the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him.

[EXP] After Daniel spoke of his weakness in v. 17, the heavenly figure with the human appearance touched him again, giving Daniel strength once again.

This is the third time Daniel has been strengthened by a touch from Heaven.

Daniel 10:10 NASB95

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

Daniel 10:16 NASB95

And behold, one who resembled a human being was touching my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me, “O my lord, as a result of the vision anguish has come upon me, and I have retained no strength.

Daniel 10:18 NASB95

Then this one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me.

[APP] We are such frail creatures that we need the Lord’s strengthening touch continuously reapplied.

[ILLUS] Renee’ Spitz was an Austrian-American psychoanalyst best known for his study of malnutrition and death in hospitalized infants who had been deprived of emotional and physical contact.

In a South American orphanage, Spitz observed 97 infants and toddlers who weren’t held, cuddled, and talked to the way a mother would. Because of a lack of funds there wasn’t enough staff to care for these children, ages 3 months to 3 years old.

The children were changed, fed, and bathed, but that was all the staff had time for.

After three months many of the children showed signs of abnormality. Loss of appetite. Sleeplessness. Many of the children lay with a vacant expression in their eyes.

After five months serious deterioration set in. They lay whimpering, with troubled and twisted faces.

When finally picked up by a doctor or a nurse, many of the children would scream in terror.

Twenty-seven of the children died in the first year. Seven more died the second year. By the end of the study, Spitz recorded that only 21 children survived and most of them suffering serious psychological damage.

Here would be the question I have for Dr. Spitz, “If you saw these children hurting in this way, why didn’t you put down your clipboard and pick up a child? Why didn’t you nurture, cuddle, and talk to these children who desperately needed someone to nurture, cuddle, and talk to them? How could you stand by while those children were hurting for a loving touch?”

[APP] When God sees us hurting, He doesn’t just observe and record. He steps in to provide us the strengthening touch we need.

Without the strengthening touch of the Lord we will perish under the weight of the hard times we go through. We need the Lord to touch us, and in Jesus He has, and in the Spirit He continues to do so.

[EXP] Listen to the Lord’s message to Daniel in v. 19…

Daniel 10:19 NASB95

He said, “O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you; take courage and be courageous!” Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, “May my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”

Daniel in Babylon was highly esteemed in Heaven!

Therefore, he need not be afraid!

No hardship on earth could take away his security in Heaven.

He could be at peace!

No hardship on earth could rob him of the peace he had in Heaven.

He could take courage and be courageous!

For what could earthly man do to him (or to the people of God for that matter!) when he was highly esteemed by God in Heaven?

When Daniel heard this message he was strengthened and made ready to listen.

[APP] God’s Word—for that’s what this heavenly figure delivered to Daniel—God’s Word always gives us strength and makes us ready to hear more.

[EXP] The heavenly figure asked Daniel if he understood why he was there, and then he told Daniel that he wouldn’t be there long—he had to return to fight against the prince of Persia and soon the prince of Greece would come too.

God sent word to Daniel that after Babylon, Medo-Persia would come, and after Medo-Persia, Greece would come.

The prince of Persia and the prince of Greece refer to the spiritual forces of evil opposing God’s purposes and God’s people in those places.

But God had His heavenly army fending off these satanic attacks; the heavenly figure said that the archangel Michael—the prince of God’s people—had stood with him against the princes of Persia.

Daniel is allowed to see all this and will be allowed to see even more from the “writing of truth,” (v. 21). This is God’s book detailing God’s plans for the future.

For starters Daniel is allowed to see that in the first year of Darius the Mede (which I think is the same person as Cyrus the Persian)—that first year Darius-Cyrus being the year that he decreed Israel’s return to the Promised Land—in that year, this heavenly figure arose to be “an encouragement and a protection for him,” (11:1).

God somehow used this heavenly figure to encourage the heart of Darius-Cyrus toward sending God’s people back to the Promised Land, and then God protected him from repercussions.

Daniel was strengthened to see that in Daniel’s hard time, God had been at work the entire time!

As Daniel first knelt down to pray, God had already been working!

As Daniel waited for the answer that had been delayed, God was already working!

As Daniel worried and grieved, God was working!

God had been working out His purposes for His people the entire time, and He would continue to work out His purposes for His people on into the future!

Sure, spiritual forces of evil might be arrayed against the people of God, but God was at work!

And let’s be sure not to miss that Daniel was enabled to see how precious he was to God. Indeed, all the people of God are precious to Him.

In this passage God basically says to Daniel, “You’ve been worrying, but I’ve been working. Don’t you know how precious you are to me?”

[APP] Christian, do you know how precious you are to God? Why would He send Jesus to die in your place if were not precious to Him?

Do you know that God is working in your hard ship right now? In your struggle, in your hard time that has left your weak and breathless, God has been at work even before you first knelt in prayer.

You are precious to Him, Christian.

He is working.

[TS] …

Conclusion

Be touched by this word tonight weary Christian.

May it give you the strength to stand in the hardship, strength to speak to the Lord of your weakness, strength to see that you are precious to Him and that He is working.