On Earth As It Is In Heaven
Notes
Transcript
On Earth As It Is In Heaven
Daniel 10:1-11:1 sermon notes
I. Intro: More Than Meets the Eye
I grew up in the 80s and 90s and watched a lot of TV as a kid. It’s amazing
how TV theme songs stick with you. One cartoon I don’t think I watched very
much, but the theme song stuck with me anyway, was Transformers. In my
head, I can still hear the singer with a synthesized attempt to imagine what a
robot voice should sound like singing, “Robots in disguise”! But the first
words of the song identify the Transformers as “more than meets the eye.” For
the cartoon, what you see with your eye might be a yellow sports car, but in
fact it’s an “Autobot,” an alien shapeshifter that can transform to look like a
vehicle.
That phrase, “more than meets the eye,” didn’t originate with the children’s
show about aliens disguising themselves as cars and trucks. Apparently, the
phrase first came into popular English usage sometime in the 1800s. It’s often
used to correct someone’s misunderstanding of a situation. When we make
judgments based on only what we’ve seen with our eyes or heard with our
ears, without knowing a particular context, we can be quite wrong about our
conclusions.
It’s a helpful phrase for thinking theologically about life, don’t you think? We
worship a God who is fundamentally invisible. We serve a Lord who has
called us to live by faith and not by sight. We trust a God who has indicated in
Scripture that he is working all things according to the counsel of his will, and
who has promised that he is working all things together for the eternal good of
his people. But when life is hard, when we are suffering, it is easy for us to
look, with our eyeballs, and draw conclusions, wrong conclusions, about what
is really going on. Paradoxically, it’s those times when remembering that
there is “more than meets the eye” is so crucial.
After the apostle Paul described some of his own suffering in pursuing faithful
ministry to proclaim the gospel and extend the message of God’s grace to as
many people as he could, he writes these powerful words in 2 Corinthians
4:16-18: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our
inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction
is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we
look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.” Why
doesn’t Paul lose heart when facing suffering? Because he knows there’s more
than meets the eye going on. Seven verses after these words, he writes, “for
we walk by faith, not by sight.” Paul sees, with his eyeballs, his outer self
wasting away, being destroyed by what he suffers, but he believes what he
cannot see with his eyeballs. What does he believe? That his inner self is
being renewed every day. That’s something that is happening to him, even
when he doesn’t feel it, and even though he cannot see evidence of it all the
time. That’s what he believes God is doing right then and there, while he’s
suffering.
But he also believes the glorious promise of verse 17. God is using his
affliction to create something that Paul will experience in the resurrection, in
the New Creation. The affliction that he feels, the affliction that he sees, the
suffering that he experiences is producing glory that will be experienced later,
after the resurrection. Do you believe that that is what God is doing with your
suffering? I hope you do. But notice what we’re supposed to do in verse 18,
and Paul says that he does this; we are supposed to look at invisible things,
look at things you can’t see! What impossible nonsense is this? It is the very
definition of faith. Hebrews 11:1—“Now faith is the assurance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Every example given in
Hebrews 11 of faithful men and women is an example of someone who knew
God had promised something to them, they believed it, and then they acted in
light of that belief. They lived by faith, and not by sight.
This morning we are looking at Daniel chapter 10. The prophet Daniel
receives his final visionary experience, and his record of this experience spans
chapters 10-12. This visionary experience includes a conversation between
Daniel and an unnamed angel, and this angel reveals some unseen things,
things that Daniel had no knowledge about, and would’ve had no knowledge
about if this angel hadn’t told him. What the angel tells Daniel pulls the
curtain back to reveal a mysterious and puzzling glimpse into conflict in
heaven, which seems to reflect conflicts happening on earth or that will
happen on earth. One of the great lessons we learn from this chapter is that
when we see conflicts and warfare on earth, there is more than meets the eye
going on, and it’s not God alone who is acting behind the scenes. We must
restrain ourselves from getting too carried away and going beyond what the
text says, however. Chapter 10 is only introductory, only preliminary to the
actual message God seeks to communicate to Daniel, and through Daniel to
God’s people throughout the ages.
But before we consider the details of chapter 10, since chapters 10-12 are a
single visionary experience, essentially, we can summarize the primary
message of this final vision for us. The message of Daniel 10-12 can be
summarized like this: God rules over the details of the future, even as that
future consists of “wars and rumors of wars,” great tribulation for God’s
people, and the increase of wickedness, all leading, however, to the grand
climax of God’s judgment and the salvation of the remnant in the
resurrection of the dead. With that summary, you can see that this vision
both fits in with the rest of what we’ve already learned from the book of
Daniel and also goes beyond it, driving us to the final culmination of all of
history. But first, let’s consider the vision of great conflict, as Daniel describes
it in Daniel 10:1-3.
II.
The Vision of Great Conflict (Dan. 10:1-3)
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.
The date was 536 BC. Daniel describes receiving “a word,” which he then
describes as “true” and as “a great conflict,” or great warfare. Note also that
he claims to understand what he saw. And what he saw grieved him terribly,
so that he went into an extended period of fasting. For three weeks, he refused
to eat the fine food and drink the fine wine he would’ve been accustomed to
eating as a respected royal official in the Persian court, and he went without
wearing deodorant for 21 days. Where we have the word “weeks” in our
English Bibles, the Hebrew has the phrase “weeks of days,” making sure that
Hebrew readers would shift away from thinking about “weeks of years” as in
the previous paragraph in Daniel 9:24-27.
Now, my understanding of what we just read is that Daniel has had a vision at
the beginning of this three-week period. But he does not describe what he
saw. Typically, as in chapters 7 and 8 especially, Daniel would describe the
contents of his vision, exactly what he saw and what he heard, and then he
would recount how an angel explained to him what it meant. I think Daniel is
doing something different this time. Rather than describe the vision, he simply
says that he understood the gist of it all, it upset him deeply, and he went into
a purposeful three-week period of fasting. What happens next, I believe, is a
separate vision, a vision at the conclusion of the three-week period of fasting,
in which he sees a great vision of a great “man,” who comes to reveal, in more
detail, the meaning of what Daniel had seen in the first vision. This visionary
encounter with this “man” extends all the way through chapter 12, but we’re
going to break it up in pieces. Look at verses 4-14.
III. The Great Vision of a Great “Man” (Dan. 10:4-14)
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.”
So, Daniel has come to the end of his period of fasting, on the twenty-fourth
day of the first month. The vision he had seen and whatever he had truly
understood from it had disturbed him significantly. The reason for Daniel’s
fasting and grieving must be linked to whatever he saw in the vision. Then,
Daniel is hit with an additional visionary experience. He is out by the Tigris
River with a company of men who recognize something bizarre is happening
to Daniel, and they run off! But Daniel describes what he sees this time.
Verses 5-6 give several details of the appearance of “a man clothed in linen.”
Many have speculated that this is the angel Gabriel, but, since Gabriel
featured in Daniel’s earlier visionary experiences, and he never described him
with any of these fantastic details, it seems unlikely to me that this is Gabriel
again. Others have noticed that some of these details are reflected in the way
John describes the risen Jesus when he appears to him in a vision at the
beginning of the book of Revelation. I remain unconvinced that this is a socalled “Christophany” or a so-called “pre-incarnate” appearance of the Son of
God. There are key differences in the way Jesus is described in Revelation 1
that suggests his superiority to this figure in Daniel.
I’ll point to the one key example that seems to be overlooked by most folks,
and if you want to know more of what I think about that vision in Revelation
1, you can go online and find the sermon I preached Easter 2020. Daniel
describes this “man” as having “a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his
waist.” In Revelation 1, John describes Jesus as having “a golden sash around
his chest.” In Daniel’s vision, the figure had gold around the waist; in John’s,
the gold is across the chest. The difference may be an intentional movement to
show that the one in John’s vision has a higher rank than the one in Daniel’s
vision. In any case, we’ll find more reasons to doubt that Daniel saw Jesus on
this occasion as we press on through the passage.
The figure is impressive, intimidating, and terrifying, certainly not quite like
other angels we encounter in the Bible. This figure has most in common with
the “living creatures” Ezekiel saw in his visions, the ones depicted as carrying
God’s throne-chariot. In Ezekiel 10, these “living creatures” are identified as
cherubim, but Ezekiel also saw another angelic creature, described as simply
“a man clothed in linen,” similar to how Daniel describes the figure he sees.
Interestingly, the book of Ezekiel never uses the word “angel,” and Daniel
only uses the word “angel” twice in his book, once quoting King
Nebuchadnezzar referring to the one who rescued Daniel’s three friends from
the fiery furnace in chapter 3, and then Daniel tells King Cyrus that God had
sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths in chapter 6. So, this figure in chapter
10 remains mysterious. For simplicity’s sake, I will refer to him as an angel.
This angelic vision knocks Daniel to the ground. He had been fasting from his
normal rich diet, so he may have been physically weakened anyway, but we
should also remember that Daniel is in his 80s at this point. He’s
overwhelmed and, in verse 9, he faints. But, in verse 10, the angel begins to
speak to him in his booming, echoing voice, and he touches him, restoring
him to consciousness and getting him up on his hands and knees. He’s gentle
with old Daniel, but he tells him to stand on his feet to receive this message.
He reminds him, as Gabriel had said in chapter 9, that Daniel is “greatly
loved” or “treasured” by God, and he wants him to pay attention and
understand what he has been sent to say to him.
At the end of verse 12, we learn that Daniel had been praying, and this angel
has arrived in response to Daniel’s praying. Thus, as with Daniel’s prayer of
chapter 9, God has sent an angel to give him an answer. However, in verse 13,
we learn that the angel was delayed in bringing this response. Whereas
Gabriel had taken about three minutes to arrive from heaven to Daniel, it took
this angel three weeks to arrive. He had left when Daniel had begun his threeweek fast, but he would not arrive until Daniel had completed the fast.
In verse 13, we are introduced to “the prince of the kingdom of Persia,” or
“the ruler of the kingdom of Persia.” So, God dispatched this angel with a
message for Daniel as soon as Daniel started praying and fasting, after having
received a vision from the Lord. As the angel was traveling from heaven to
earth, a ruler associated with the Persian Empire blocked his path and engaged
him so as to prevent him from delivering his message.
What kind of engagement occurs between these two angelic beings is not
described, and we need to be careful about some of the imaginative, fictional
accounts that are sometimes presented, with animalistic descriptions of the
ruler of Persia, clashing fiery swords, and blasts of lasers, something more
akin to what I watched in those Transformers cartoons in the 80s. As boring
as it might sound to us entertainment-saturated Americans, the phrase
translated “withstood” usually simply refers to someone stepping in front of
someone to have a conversation or a debate. The context presses this phrase to
imply a conflict of some type, but we should be careful about our speculation
of what this might’ve looked or sounded like.
Nevertheless, the ruler of Persia successfully holds up the angel from
delivering his message to Daniel until Michael, described here as “one of the
chief princes,” described later in chapter 12:1 as “the great prince who has
charge of your people,” and referred to in the New Testament as “the
archangel.” He came to help this angel, to provide support, to give an
advantage to this unnamed angel over the prince of Persia. But the last phrase
of verse 13 provides another mystery. The biggest question is where “there”
is. The ESV says, “for I was left there with the kings of Persia.” The KJV is
better here: “and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” The kings of
Persia seems to refer to the human kings of Persia, whereas the prince or ruler
of Persia that we’ve been talking about, the one who prevented the angel from
delivering his message, was a heavenly being of some kind. So, it seems that
Michael arrives on the heavenly battlefront, relieves the angel and stops the
heavenly ruler of Persia from preventing the angel to get to Daniel, and then
the angel comes to earth to deliver his message to Daniel, but, before he gets
to Daniel he makes a pitstop to check in on the kings of Persia. Who are the
kings of Persia?
Well, we know from verse 1 that Cyrus is king of Persia. Note the singular. In
verse 13, the angel speaks of kings, plural. There are two options that I think
are possible for understanding this phrase. Historically, in this very year, the
third year of Cyrus’s reign over the Persian Empire after they had conquered
the Babylonian Empire, there is evidence that Cyrus named his son,
Cambyses, as vice-regent, similar to what we saw with Belshazzar of Babylon
serving as vice-regent to his father Nabonidus. Thus, historically, this was the
first year of the Persian Empire where two kings were reigning at once.
Cambyses is not mentioned in the Bible at all. The other option is to recognize
that this angel has been sent not simply on an errand of delivering a message
to Daniel. Rather, in addition to delivering this message to Daniel, this angel
has a role to play with the earthly kings of Persia, from Cyrus down through
Artaxerxes at least. We might see this as a kind of heavenly espionage.
Yahweh, the God of Israel, has sent this anonymous angel as a covert
operative, a spy, to influence the kings of Persia “behind enemy lines,” so to
speak. It is this angel’s influence that leads to Cyrus’s continued policies that
favored the Jewish people; it is this angel’s influence that continues positive
Persian policies toward the Jewish people down through King Artaxerxes. I
personally think this is the point of that phrase here in verse 13.
Nevertheless, the larger point is that this angel has come to provide Daniel
with unique understanding of “what is to happen to your people in the latter
days.” Indeed, as we’ll see when we come to chapter 12, the angel’s
explanation points all the way to the resurrection of the dead. However, the
bulk of what we’re going to read about in chapter 11 has to do with the
historical outworking of earthly conflicts within the Greek Empire that results
in significant suffering and difficulty for the Jewish people. Thus, though this
vision will push Daniel’s and our attention to the farthest fulfillment of God’s
promises, the majority of information provided has to do with plotting the
more immediate future, stretching over the next few hundred years after
Daniel is gone. We shouldn’t assume that “in the latter days” refers only to the
very final season of human history.
Now, even this introduction from the angel is too much for old Daniel to
handle. So, he finds himself on the ground again, and the angel gently, kindly
strengthens him. We read more about this strengthening angel from verse 15
into verse 1 of chapter 11. There’s an unfortunate chapter break here.
IV.
The Strengthening Angel (Dan. 10:15-11:1)
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
15
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.
“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm
and strengthen him.
1
Verse 16 could be introducing another angelic figure into the picture, but I
think this is the same one we’ve been reading about. This time he touches
Daniel’s lips, which seems to enable Daniel to find his words. Daniel
complains of his weakness, and he struggles to breathe. The angel touches him
again and seems to infuse Daniel with renewed physical strength. He reminds
Daniel of his value to God, and instructs him not to be afraid. Curiously,
where the ESV has, “Be strong and of good courage,” the Hebrew has
literally, “Be strong and be strong!” The touch, the word of encouragement
about Daniel’s value, and the command to be strong does the trick! Daniel is
strengthened!
Then, the angel asks what seems to be a silly question at this point in the
conversation: “Do you know why I have come to you?” I think this is a
rhetorical question; maybe it’s like saying, “Are you ready to listen now? Are
you ready to hear what I have to say?” But before he tells him—the
anticipation is killing us!—before he tells him, he says, “But now I will return
to fight against the prince of Persia.” This message was so important that the
archangel Michael was willing to step in to relieve this angel from his conflict
with the heavenly ruler of Persia, but once the message is delivered, it’s back
to the battlefront for this angel. And then he adds an intriguing announcement:
“and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.” Does “when I go
out” mean, “when I leave you, Daniel, after delivering this message?” Or does
it mean, “when I leave, having finished fighting against the prince of Persia”?
I think probably the second option is intended, but I can’t be sure. And where
will the prince of Greece come, and what will he do? The angel doesn’t say.
The message this angel has to report is “inscribed in the book of truth,”
apparently referring to God’s decree for the developments of human history,
most of which God has not, does not, and will not reveal to anyone on earth.
Then, the angel mentions again, almost as though he’s expressing praise or
gratitude, that the only one who is helping him in the heavenly battlefront is
Michael, whom he here calls “your prince,” by which he doesn’t mean
“Daniel’s prince” or “Daniel’s guardian angel.” The “your” is plural; Michael
is the heavenly ruler of the Jewish people. We’ll expand on this in just a
moment.
But the final verse of the section is actually verse 1 of chapter 11. The angel
seems to refer to the past, the first year of Darius the Mede, which is probably
the same man as Cyrus the Persian. Thus, the angel refers to something that
began happening two years ago, but what he says is ambiguous. He says, two
years ago “I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.” But who is the “him”
this angel stood up to strengthen? It could be either Darius the Mede or
Michael the archangel. Some students of Scripture have opted for Michael
because they can’t understand why or how it would be that this angel
would’ve strengthened, enabled the pagan, Persian king. That’s what the ruler
of Persia would’ve been doing, right?! However, if the suggestion that this
angel is working as a kind of covert operative—he’s a spy really on the side of
the Jewish people—then it makes sense that he’d be somehow influencing
Persian public policy in such a way that it benefits the Jewish people, even as
the heavenly ruler of Persia would want Persia to oppose God and his people.
That then leads us to a larger discussion of these heavenly rulers and their
relationship to earthly kingdoms.
V. Heavenly Rulers, Earthly Kingdoms
Prince of Persia, Prince of Greece, Prince of Israel—what are we seeing here?
We want to avoid speculating too much, and we want to focus on what the
text does, in fact, say. The angel and Michael, the prince of Israel, fight
against the Prince of Persia. This seems to be a piece of the background for
Paul’s use of the terms “principalities and powers” or “rulers and authorities
in the heavenly places.” Eliana asked me last week, “What are you doing,
Daddy?” And I said, “Writing a sermon.” And she said, “What’s it about?”
Without looking up from my computer, I raised my eyebrows and said simply,
“Naughty angels.” So, for the rest of the week, she would ask me, “Daddy, are
you going to talk about the naughty angels today?” Today’s finally the day we
get to talk about the “naughty angels,” and this sermon shall forevermore be
known in my house at least as “the naughty angels sermon.” But there’s a
larger background that may be important for us to consider at this point.
As the Lord revealed a judgment song to Moses, he recounted some of the
story of his dealings with humanity. In Deuteronomy 32:8-9, we read these
words:
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 Yahweh’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
What event is the Lord referring to here? When did Yahweh divide mankind,
literally the “sons of Adam”? Genesis 11. In response to rebellious humanity
constructing “a city and a tower with its top in the heavens,” in order to “make
a name for” themselves and to prevent them from being “dispersed over the
face of the whole earth,” as God had intended them to be, the Lord came
down and, in judgment, caused them to suddenly speak in different languages,
and Genesis 11:8 summarizes, “So Yahweh dispersed them from there over
the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.” Now, Moses, as he
wrote down the story, had already spoken of this event in Genesis 10:5, in the
midst of a lengthy genealogy often referred to as the “Table of Nations,”
where we read, “From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each
with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.” And then in 10:32 we
read, “These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies,
in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the
flood.” The word translated “spread” in these two verses in Genesis 10 is the
same exact word as is translated “divided” in Deuteronomy 32:8.
Back in Deuteronomy 32:8, the song describes this event in positive terms as
Yahweh giving “the nations their inheritance,” and that was when “he fixed
the borders of the peoples.” The apostle Paul also spoke of this event, it
seems, in Acts 17:26, where he said to the men of Athens, “And he made from
one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having
determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” Now,
from Paul’s words it seems that this is to be applied universally, to all nations
throughout history. We might wonder, then, why borders change or nations
conquer other nations. Does that reflect nations changing and rebelling against
this original allotment? Or are we to recognize God’s involvement in those
changes as well, according to a set plan that God established beforehand? The
prophet Isaiah answers this question, as he announces judgment against the
nation of Assyria, in response to the king of Assyria pridefully taking credit
for his own conquests; Yahweh says, in Isaiah 10:13:
By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I remove the boundaries of peoples,
and plunder their treasures;
like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
And, of course, that fits in with what we’ve seen on display throughout the
book of Daniel: Yahweh sets up kings and kingdoms and brings them down.
So, Deuteronomy 32:8 explains the significance of the dividing of humanity
following the “Tower of Babel” incident as being the occasion when the Lord
planned out definitively the movements of all nations throughout history. But
there is an additional detail that impinges on our understanding of this.
Deuteronomy 32:8 says that “he fixed the borders of the peoples according to
the number of the sons of God.” That’s what the ESV says. But the NIV, the
NASB, the KJV, and the NKJV, all say “according to the number of the sons
of Israel.” A few other versions have “sons of God” here, so that Bible
translations today are quite divided on this verse, and all of the modern
versions will supply a footnote to indicate the possibility of the other reading.
The “sons of God” is not the same thing as the “sons of Israel.”
The consensus of scholars has moved pretty definitively toward believing that
“sons of God” is the correct, original, Spirit-inspired phrase used here, as
reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient translations of
Deuteronomy. And the “sons of God” is a reference to angelic beings, as seen
in Job chapters 1-2, for example, and most folks see this as the background for
understanding Daniel chapter 10. Essentially, what Deuteronomy 32:8
suggests is that, after the “Tower of Babel” incident, as an act of judgment
against rebellious humanity, Yahweh divided the nations geographically and
linguistically on earth—both the handful of nations that would develop from
the people living then as well as all that would develop through the course of
history—and he further assigned them to be under the dominion of heavenly
rulers. Since this was an act of judgment against rebellious humanity, it is
likely that we are intended to understand these “sons of God” as also in
rebellion against God. These are “the rulers and authorities” Paul describes as
“the cosmic powers over this present darkness” and “the spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly places” in Ephesians 6:12. The chief “ruler” is the only
one whose name has been revealed to us: Satan.
Before we extend the application of what we’re seeing in these verses, it’s
important to see the rest of the story in Deuteronomy 32:8-9. Verse 9
introduces a contrast; whereas Yahweh assigned the nations to these fallen
spiritual rulers, he chose Israel as his own “allotted heritage.” He didn’t
delegate the rule of Israel to a fallen spiritual ruler, to an angelic power, not
even to Michael, originally. And, going back to the Genesis story, we see this
development in history right after Genesis 11. In Genesis 12, the Lord appears
to Abram, in a land not far from Babel, and commands him to leave his pagan
life behind, and offers him promises beyond his wildest imagination. Yahweh
chose Abraham’s family, promised to multiply them, promised to fashion his
descendants into a nation, and promised to work through that nation to bring
blessing and salvation to all the other rebellious nations of the world. So,
instead of abandoning humanity completely, as we deserved for him to do, he
chose one sinful, idolatrous, rebellious man, and chose to bless him and his
family and to transform them into something they were not and could not be
on their own: a holy nation.
What we see unfold in the vision of Daniel 10, the information we hear from
this angel about conflict among these angelic rulers, suggests that the conflicts
in heaven are reflected and even shape the conflicts we see unfolding on the
earth. When we hear of wars and rumors of wars, we can be sure that there is
more than meets the eye going on. So, with this background in mind, what
more can we say about what we see in Daniel 10? And then we’ll close with
some considerations about spiritual warfare as Paul lays it out for us.
The prince or ruler of Persia refers to a heavenly being in rebellion against
God who works in some way to influence the culture and policies of the
Persian Empire that causes the Persian people on earth to remain in their
darkness and rebellion against God. Surely, this “ruler” utilizes deception and
idolatry, but also greed, corruption, and a thirst for violence. All of these
sinful aspects of human nature are stoked and inflamed among people by this
evil heavenly ruler. Likewise, the prince or ruler of Greece refers to a
heavenly being in rebellion against God who works in some way to influence
the culture and policies of Greece to cause the Greeks on earth to remain in
their darkness and rebellion against God. But, more than this, it seems likely
that the heavenly ruler of Greece may, at times, enter into conflict with the
heavenly rulers of other nations.
So, for example, when the angel talking with Daniel says that he is going to
leave and then the ruler of Greece will come, I wonder if we can recognize the
heavenly, spiritual reason for the decline of the Persian Empire, after the days
of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, especially, is because the angel who
had been secretly influencing him to execute policies in support of the Jewish
people had to leave his post and began directly attacking the evil heavenly
ruler of Persia? Not long after that, we come to the Persian king known as
Xerxes or Ahasuerus in our Bibles, the king who marries Esther, who
ultimately rescues the Jewish people from genocide. But, at about the same
time, or shortly thereafter, the little nation of Greece began hammering at the
Persian Empire, making Xerxes obsessed with conquering them, so much so
that he seems to have gone insane toward the end of his life, because the
Greeks just kept winning. Could we be seeing, on the stage of earthly history
and military strategy, a reflection of the evil heavenly ruler of Greece gaining
an advantage over the evil heavenly ruler of Persia? Or, in light of Jesus
calling into question whether Satan would so divide his forces in conflict
against each other, perhaps we could view it more as reassignments and the
deployment of evil agents in different locations? Nevertheless, Satan and the
forces of evil are achieving their nefarious purposes wherever there is warfare
and violence on earth, whether internally in civil wars or internationally.
Unfortunately, these realities in Daniel 10 and Deuteronomy 32 have been
twisted into a bizarre concept of spiritual warfare that has no basis in the Bible
whatsoever, sometimes referred to as “Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare.”
From Daniel 10 especially, the notion has arisen that there are “territorial
spirits” that must be engaged by Christians—addressed by name, rebuked, and
driven out of a particular region—before effective ministry can be achieved.
Proponents of this kind of spiritual warfare have developed what I call “prayer
mantras,” where certain phrases or certain kinds of speaking in tongues are
utilized to attempt to bind the spirits or bind Satan. I hope you can see from
just reading Daniel 10 that none of that is here. Daniel had absolutely no
knowledge of these heavenly rulers before this angel told him about them.
Daniel didn’t pray against them, and Daniel’s prayer didn’t affect anything
going on up there in the conflict in heaven. The so-called “success” reported
in connection with purveyors of these false, unbiblical ideas is sometimes
another form of deception from the great Deceiver himself. Other times,
where there is genuine healing, genuine salvation, genuine freedom to sinners
and sufferers in particular places following some of these spiritual warfare
tactics, we should attribute it solely to the mercy of God, and we shouldn’t
necessarily assume that the methods used are biblical or God-honoring.
Daniel 10 is merely the prelude to the actual message, the revelation of some
of the details of earthly conflicts to come after Daniel’s day. We’ll look at the
first part of that next Sunday. But, to conclude, I want to consider briefly
biblical spiritual warfare, looking at the famous passage in Ephesians 6. I will
not repeat the devotional reflections I offered in detail in one of our videos last
year; you can go on our website or our YouTube page and review that if
you’re interested. Instead, let us consider Paul’s reminder that we are indeed
wrestling the rulers, whether we know it or not.
VI. Conclusion: Wrestling the Rulers
In Ephesians 6:10-11, Paul begins to conclude this grand letter with a call for
Christians to, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
11
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the
schemes of the devil.” The chief enemy we are to stand against is the devil.
That’s no surprise. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “we are not ignorant of
his designs.” He intends to deceive, to tempt, to afflict, and to kill God’s
people, and he prowls around with his threats like a lion roaring to intimidate
its prey, as Peter describes him.
But in Ephesians 6:12, Paul introduces these other evil beings, apparently
under the oversight of the devil: “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.” Our suffering in this world is often perpetrated by human beings,
flesh and blood, so it’s easy to get distracted and think that people are our real
enemies. We think we’re engaged in a wrestling match with people, like
human governors or presidents with whom we disagree strongly, whom we
often blame for the misery of our nation. And, indeed, they will be held
accountable to the one who granted them the authority in the first place: the
Lord himself!
But Paul here reminds us yet again that there is more than meets the eye! Our
true wrestle is with these invisible rulers. How are we wrestling with them if
they are in heaven? Well, we are to combat their influence in this world,
because the way they are waging their war against us is by influencing people
on earth, both people in high places, governing officials motivated by greed or
lust or prejudice, and people out on the streets, out in the business world, out
in the culture. So, appreciate the confusion Paul is addressing; it’s easy to treat
people as our enemy, to think that if we could just get a different elected
official in place, if we could somehow eliminate the wicked person who is
causing us such grief, then all would be well, and then we invest our energies
and our resources in bringing that about, all the while forgetting that there are
these “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” who are ensuring that
our culture and the people who make our culture will continue sowing bad
seeds to produce bad crops all around us.
So, how does Paul call us to engage in this wrestling? Paradoxically, he tells
us to stand still! Do what the Jewish leaders during the time of the Greek
Empire refused to do—resist the sway of the culture! Refuse to compromise!
Stand firm on the gospel, and refuse to let anyone divert your attention away
from serving the true king, Jesus! To embrace and wear and utilize “the whole
armor of God” is to receive the gifts of God’s grace in salvation, to trust the
finished work of the Messiah, and to live by faith in all the promises of God
that flow from that wonderfully finished work. Preach the gospel to yourself
every day, and then preach to everyone else around! Start with your spouse
and your kids. If they’re already Christians, they still need to hear the gospel
again and again and again! They need to be reminded of what Jesus has done.
The most important thing we need to know about spiritual warfare, when it
comes to these “rulers and authorities,” these “spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places,” is that the war has already been decisively won. In
Colossians 2:13-14, Paul explains how God has accomplished our salvation,
how it is that the righteous judge can extend forgiveness of sins to guilty
sinners; in verse 14, he explains that God did this “by canceling the record of
debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it
to the cross.” Jesus’s death paid the debt of our sin completely, so that the
account with my name on it has a zero balance and has been stamped “paid in
full”! Actually, it’s even better than that; my account actually has a positive
balance equating to a status of “righteous,” but Paul’s not focusing on that
here in Colossians 2.
Instead, in verse 15, he elaborates what impact Jesus’s death on the cross had
on these heavenly rulers. “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them
to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” What does it mean to disarm
someone? It means to take away their weapons! Now, there’s one weapon in
particular that Paul is focused on here, and it’s the only weapon that Satan and
his forces have that can actually do eternal damage to human beings. It’s that
record of debt he mentioned in verse 14. Satan and his forces could and would
bring that record of debt, the list of charges against us guilty criminals, into
God’s courtroom, and insist that God, in his justice, must condemn us to
eternal punishment, because that is what we owe, that is what we deserve, that
is what we have earned. But now that the record has been erased, the enemies’
“big gun,” if you will, their “ultimate secret weapon,” has been taken away
from them. Sure, they can still deceive and tempt and afflict us, but only under
the gracious limitations of God. They can even kill us, but even that cannot
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In all that the devil
and his forces might do to us in this life, even if they kill us, we are massively
winning; “super-conquering” is a good rendering of Paul’s word in Romans
8:37, and we experience the victory through him who loved us, the Messiah
who died for us.
When Jesus was approaching the cross, he told his disciples in John 12:31,
“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast
out.” Indeed. Michael the archangel had the honor of tossing the chief ruler,
Satan, out of the heavenly courtroom, as depicted in Revelation 12. Now, ever
since the enthronement of the true king, Jesus, the dragon and his minions are
newly limited in their ability to harm God’s people. Oh, the dragon is enraged
by his defeat, and he is on this earth now making war against God’s people,
and will continue to do so until his final judgment comes. This final judgment
was announced in Isaiah 24:21-22:
21
On that day Yahweh will punish the host of heaven, in heaven,
and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22
They will be gathered together
as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days they will be punished.
It is Revelation 20 alone in Scripture that tells us that the time of their
confinement will be one thousand years. The vision of Revelation 20 focuses
on Satan alone, but Isaiah 24 indicates that all these evil rulers and authorities
will be bound and imprisoned. The rebellious kings of the earth will have been
slain when Jesus returned, and then Jesus will reign for a thousand years with
his people on this broken, untransformed earth, while Satan and his forces and
his followers remain imprisoned in Hades, the abyss, the bottomless pit. Then,
after the thousand years, Satan and his forces will be released to mount one
final attack against God’s resurrected people, I suppose to demonstrate that
their rebellion and their refusal to repent is just that hardened, that even a
thousand years of incarceration doesn’t soften their anti-God resolve. And we
read these words in Revelation 20:9-10: “And they marched up over the broad
plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city,
but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who
had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast
and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever
and ever.”
To repeat the common analogy from World War II, D-day for Christians
happened two thousand years ago, when Jesus died on the cross, paying for
the sins of his people, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven to take his
rightful place at the right hand of God as true king, true ruler, Lord of all. We
await the day of his return, analogous to V-Day; although, when Jesus returns,
there will be no surrender of the enemies. Now, today, we are living in the
midst of the mop-up operations. Sometimes we talk about spiritual warfare as
though we are on the losing side; we are not!
Here’s what I think is most confusing about Paul’s instructions about spiritual
warfare in Ephesians 6. He starts by telling us that we are not wrestling
against human beings and reminding us that our real enemies are these cosmic
powers. But, the on-the-ground practical problem is that we don’t actually
engage these rulers and authorities directly. Much confusion has come right
here, where manuals have been produced on proper procedure for casting out
demons. I wonder if you noticed that this is actually the first time in this
sermon that I’ve used the word “demon.” I don’t think these “rulers and
authorities” are the same thing that we see as “demons” in the Gospels and the
book of Acts. It remains an important fact for me that, in all the letters of the
New Testament, we have no instruction whatsoever for how to or whether to
engage directly with demons. These rulers and authorities could be called
“demonic,” by which we might just mean “evil,” but they are higher-level
beings than demons.
Nevertheless, Paul indicates that our “wrestle,” our “struggle” is indeed
against them. By this, I think Paul simply means to remind us that we
shouldn’t demonize human beings, no matter how sinister, no matter how
harmful, no matter how wicked they are. We should recognize that there are
spiritual forces that have influenced their human wickedness. Paul’s “battle
plan” in Ephesians 6 is a resistance strategy, not an offensive playbook.
Daniel certainly didn’t do anything about the prince of Persia or the prince of
Greece. He didn’t pray against them or pray for the angels. The Lord wants us
to know about this warfare raging in the heavenly places, but he doesn’t
expect us to do anything about it. Knowing this helps us have a proper
perspective on the events of history and the movements of nations. God is
executing his plan; how he dispatches his angelic ministers and what conflicts
they experience along the way should not be our concern.
Rather, we are called to live by faith, believing that God has won the decisive
victory over all our enemies, believing the promises in Scripture about the
future consummation of that victory, and believing that God is working all
things according to the counsel of his will, including the warfare in heaven
and on earth. We are not to live by sight, to simply make judgments or
decisions based only on what our eyeballs perceive. And we shouldn’t expect
to see more than God has already revealed in the Scriptures. Daniel wasn’t
expecting to find out anything about the heavenly landscape, and we don’t
find him asking for more. What he sees and hears in this vision is
overwhelming for him. We need to be satisfied with what God has granted to
us, confident in the sufficiency of Scripture, that he really has already revealed
to us all the information we will ever need from him to live a godly life,
shining as lights in the world, in the midst of a crooked and twisted
generation.