Bible Lessons

From: Messages of God's Love: 1936

Daniel 10

Chapter 9:24-27: From the month Nisan in B. C. 455 when Artaxerxes Longimanus, son of Xerxes, authorized the rebuilding of Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 2:1¹And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. (Nehemiah 2:1)) to the time of the Lord’s crucifixion—the same month in A.D. 29—there were exactly 69 weeks of yeas (69 x 7=483). Nisan and Abib are two names, one Babylonian, the other Hebrew, for the first month of the religious year of Israel, when the passover lamb was killed. The seventieth week has not yet begun, the clock of prophetic time, it is said, having been stopped upon the rejection by the, Jews of their Messiah. Between the sixty ninth and seventieth weeks is the present interval of the gospel of the grace of God. When that ends, and the end must now be very near, the “clock” will be started again.

Chapter 10: Daniel was now, we may suppose, about ninety years of age, for he had been in Babylon from B.C. 606 and the third year of Cyrus as the sole ruler of the empire would he B.C. 534. The prophet was again mourning, no doubt because of the state of his people and the city of Jerusalem, since that was his grief in chapter 9; and as before, his mourning was accompanied by fasting.

The Hiddekel is now called the Tigris; it is the second great river of the East. There he saw a “certain man”, the description of whom suggests none other than the Lord of glory; the sight affected the prophet as, long afterward, the apostle John in Revelation 1:12-18¹²And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; ¹³And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. ¹⁴His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; ¹⁵And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. ¹⁶And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. ¹⁷And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: ¹⁸I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:12‑18), who fell at His feet as dead. Daniel, however, only tells us that he heard the “voice of His words”, for the communications that follow were made to him through angels.

An angelic hand touched him; he was raised from his prostrate position and bidden to stand, while the angel addressed him as “greatly beloved”, and told him to “fear not”, Thus strengthened and calmed, made to understand what God was pleased to make known to him, Daniel learned the great revelations comprised in chapters 10, 11, and 12. These include an unveiling of the unseen world in which are wicked spirits, the instruments of Satan, and a detailed outline of Gentile history such as is found nowhere else in the Scriptures.

An encouraging word to other feeble, tried saints beside Daniel, is given in verse 12: “From the first day..., thy words were heard.” The heartfelt prayer of a child of God surely reaches His ear. (1 Peter 3:12¹²For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. (1 Peter 3:12)). There was, however, a hindrance which God permitted; the “prince of the kingdom of Persia”—a Satanic angel influencing unseen the affairs of the country where Daniel lived—withstood the angel of God for 21 days, the whole of the time since the prophet began his fast (verse 9). Satan cannot thwart die purpose of God, and that his hindering is allowed gives occasion for the blessing of the praying saint who is directed to continue in prayer (Colossians 4:2²Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; (Colossians 4:2)).