Daniel 10.1-Daniel Received Revelation From God During the Third Year of Cyrus the Persian Regarding a Great War
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday February 4, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 10:1-Daniel Received Revelation from God During the Third Year of Cyrus King of Persia Regarding a Great War
Lesson # 296
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 10:1.
Daniel 10:1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision. (NASB95)
“A message was revealed to Daniel” is a reference to the prophecy recorded in Daniel 11:2-12:13, which contains revelation regarding God’s prophetic program for the nation of Israel.
“And the message was true” is epexegetical meaning that it is introducing a statement which specifically defines the nature and content of the message.
“And one of great conflict” is emphatic meaning that it is introducing a statement which advances upon and intensifies the previous epexegetical statement that the prophetic message which was revealed to Daniel was truth, i.e. revelation of God’s will for Israel during the Times of the Gentiles.
This war will be great in the sense that it will be remarkable in magnitude, degree and intensity as well as continuing for a long period of time.
“But he understood the message” is incorrectly translated but rather should be rendered “because he understood this message” since the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “but” is a marker of cause.
This means that it is introducing a statement which expresses the reason why Daniel tells the reader that the prophetic message he received was concerning a great war.
He is saying that this prophetic message was truth and concerning a great war “because” he understood this message, yes he possessed understanding concerning this revelation.
“The vision” is the noun mǎr∙ʾě(h) (מַרְאֶה) (mar-eh), which means “revelation, vision” referring to a revelation from God which is communicated to Daniel in verbal content.
It does not mean “vision” (NET, NASB95, ESV, NRSV, NIV, TNIV) since if Daniel meant vision here, he would have employed ḥā∙zôn rather than mǎr∙ʾě(h) since the former refers to extrasensory audiovisual experiences, which are revelatory in character.
Furthermore, there is nothing in Daniel chapter 10-12, which would indicate that Daniel received a vision from God which is interpreted for him.
Daniel does not communicate any audiovisual experiences being communicated to him as was the case in chapter eight.
Rather, an unidentified elect angel communicates to him verbally this prophetic message, which is revelation from God with regards to the future of the nation of Israel during the Times of the Gentiles.
Daniel 10:1 During Cyrus’s third year, king over Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel who was called by his name Belteshazzar. Specifically this message was truth and concerning a great conflict because he understood this message, yes he possessed understanding concerning this revelation. (My translation)
Daniel 10:1 marks a transition from the account of the revelation Daniel received during the first year of Darius the Mede’s reign as king over the Babylonians to the account of the revelation he received during the third year of Cyrus the Persian.
The former appears in Daniel chapter nine.
This would indicate that Daniel received this revelation from God through an elect angel in 536 B.C. since this was the third year of the reign of Cyrus king of Persia.
“Persia” refers to a nation which corresponds to the modern state of Iran.
They were actually a vast collection of states and kingdoms reaching from the shores of Asia Minor in the west to the Indus River Valley in the east.
It reached northward to southern Russia and in the south included Egypt and the regions bordering the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
In Daniel 11:2-12:13, in 536 B.C. Daniel receives his fourth and final prophetic revelation, which concerns itself with the future of the nation of Israel during the Times of the Gentiles.
This was the year that the Jewish exiles in Babylon were returning from Babylon and had begun rebuilding the temple, thus, Israel’s captivity in Babylon had come to an end when Daniel received this revelation from God.
He was approximately eighty-four years of age at this time.
Daniel tells the reader that he received a message, which he describes as “truth” which refers to truth in an objective sense as revelation of God’s will in relation to Israel, which is concerning the future of Israel from Daniel’s perspective in the sixth century B.C.
The prophecy recorded in Daniel 11:2-12:13 is truth in the sense that it is prophetic revelation from God regarding His prophetic program for the nation of Israel.
This revelation makes clear that Israel will be at war or engaged in armed conflicts until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, which terminates the seventy weeks.
The revelation that is presented to the reader in Daniel 11-12 concerns itself with war up to the end of the seventy weeks which culminates in the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
These last two chapters in the book of Daniel reveal that there will be great conflict in the future for Israel during the Times of the Gentiles extending up to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
Daniel was able to tell the reader that this prophetic revelation from God was concerning a great war because this was clear to him from the message which was communicated to him by the unidentified elect angel.
Therefore, Daniel understood from this revelation which appears in chapters 11 and 12 that Israel would have no peace but would constantly be at war until the seventy weeks had come to an end.
We must note that chapter ten does not contain the revelatory message regarding a great war that Daniel is speaking of here in Daniel 10:1.
The events recorded in this chapter pertain to Daniel’s circumstances when he received the vision as well as the circumstances of the elect angel who came to communicate this revelation to him.
In Daniel 10:21, the angel clearly tells Daniel that he will tell him what is inscribed in the Word of truth in heaven and then, in Daniel 11:2, he begins to communicate the revelation concerning the great war.
However, though the angel conflict is mentioned by the angel in Daniel 10:13 and 21, the revelation of the great war referred to in Daniel 10:1 is not communicated to Daniel until Daniel 11:2.
Interestingly, Daniel mentions his Babylonian name, Belteshazzar, which would appear to indicate that he was not returning with the Jewish exiles but was remaining in Babylon because he was serving in that city under Darius the Mede as ruler over the satraps in the Babylonian kingdom (cf. Daniel 6).
Also, Daniel could have mentioned his Babylonian name to remind the reader that he who was writing was the same Daniel mentioned earlier in the book that bears his name.
In 539 B.C. Cyrus overthrew Babylon and established the Medo-Persian Empire. This was Cyrus’ first year in control of Babylon.
His policy was to restore displaced peoples to their lands, which included the Jews.
He issued a decree in 538 B.C. that permitted Jews to return to Jerusalem if they wanted to (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4).
Fifty thousand Jewish exiles returned and began to rebuild the temple, which was an answer to Daniel’s prayer (Daniel 9:4-19).
The temple was completed in 515 B.C. (Ezra 6:15).
Seventy years had elapsed from the first deportation of Jews in 605 B.C. to the rebuilt foundation of the temple in 536 B.C.
This fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy as well (Jeremiah 25:11-12).
Critics of the Bible pounce on this statement in Daniel 10:1 and claim the Bible is in error because of the statement in Daniel 1:21.
However, this is not in error since a comparison of these two statements simply reveal that Daniel lived beyond the first year of Cyrus.
The point of the statement in Daniel 1:21 is to emphasize that Daniel’s life spanned the entire period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire as well as the early years of the Persian control of Babylon.
The statement in Daniel 1:21 does not imply that Daniel did not continue after the first year of Cyrus, which Daniel 10:1 says he did.