Daniel 10-11

Hope in a hostile world

Part 10

"What is going on?"

A common question in the world today. What are we supposed to do when there appears to be opposition on all sides? When no-one cares about our message of great news?

Daniel was in a time when Israel had been allowed to return to Jerusalem, yet there were many challenges and much opposition to rebuilding their home. Many were asking the same question, including Daniel.

A Revelation

God always reveals the truth, but only when we are ready to receive it. God spends most of chapter 10 getting Daniel ready.

Truth makes you tremble

The revelation to Daniel was beyond his understanding. He could barely describe what he was seeing. The person he saw, either an angel or Christ Himself, brought terror to those with Daniel. Even Daniel was terrified to the point of collapse. God was about to reveal something far greater then Daniel had ever experienced.

A message of cosmic proportions

The activity between angels and demons in the chapter reveal that behind every worldly events there are cosmic, heavenly battles going on. The Persian empire was being driven by the machinations of demons. Such are the proportions of this that Daniel could not receive it easily.

Comfort in God's messenger

Daniel was comforted by the messenger. This troubling message is accompanied by God's strength and comfort. When we come to God with our questions, we need to recognise that often the answer is more than we can take. But we are prepared by the Spirit to hear it and be strong in the face of the messages from God.

The world at war

The message that Daniel heard was a long and unique, and very complex in it's details.

It spoke of the empires that would follow the Persians. Greece would follow, then be split up, and a long complex war would ensue. The message says that God's people would be caught in the crossfire of this large-scale war. They would even become targeted.

Why? Why would God's people suffer here? Because these wars are spiritual as well. They are driven by evil powers and so the damage they cause is focussed on God's people in order to break them away from His love.

A bleak outcome

For Daniel, this news would have been crushing. Things were going to get worse. The end of chapter 11 finally described the decimation of Jerusalem by Antiochus hundreds of years later.

But we see the bigger picture. We can see in the New Testament that Jesus would come and take control of all other powers at work in the world and beyond. That we, as God's people, would remain safe in the arms of our Father.

We will still remain a target, but God will provide a place of rest for us in the times when we are in the battlefield. Romans 8 sums this up so well for us.

The summary for us of this passage should be that God is sovereign over every single moment of history. We trust in a God who overcomes all other powers in the world.