Daniel 9:21 “Seeing”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²¹and while I [was] one speaking in prayer, and the man Gabriel, who I had seen in a vision in the former, flying swiftly, one touching me according to the time of the evening sacrifice.

Now begins a part of this chapter I have looked forward to studying – Daniel’s interaction with angels. In this case, he is particularly interacting with Gabriel, who had appeared to him back in chapter 8. He will deal a lot with angels now clear to the end of the book. As I noted back in chapter 7, I believe we can learn a great deal from Daniel on exactly this point. What I mean is that, although we normally are not allowed to actually see angels, yet Daniel would teach us that they are all about us and intimately involved in our lives. My point would be that you and I can see them, although it is a seeing of faith. If by faith we believe what we find written in God’s Word, then we do in fact “see” the spiritual world that is swirling all around us. People who do not acknowledge God’s Word may think this world is all there is, but that is not only delusional, it is also eternally consequential.

In one very serious example, I Peter 5:8 informs us that “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” You and I can “see” him by faith, by believing God’s Word and taking it seriously, while the rest of the world blunders on in a literally fatal delusion, completely unaware of an enemy who would not only love to kill them but literally drag them down to hell. It is true. That truth ought to shake the human race to their bones, but it will not without faith. Interestingly, I once had a fellow I worked with sidle over to me and confide, “I was at a friend’s house, and there was a Bible laying open, and I saw a verse that says the devil is like roaming around devouring people. Is that true?” I answered him simply, “Yes” and he was obviously moved by it all.  A year or so later, he had become a saved man. Good for him. He believed God’s Word, took it seriously, and started being wise! That is what I am talking about – that young man “saw” the devil by faith.

Yes, we are living in a world literally swirling in an ocean of spiritual beings usually not visible to the human eye. They are all around us and they are impacting our lives constantly both for good and for evil. To deny their existence or simply to ignore their presence is, again, of eternal consequence. I believe studying Daniel and learning from him, you and I can be much more aware of angels’ existence and their presence and make us wiser as we live, in a sense, in their world. The more we “see” that, the better job we’ll do of remembering the real battle is “not against flesh and blood” but rather against “the spiritual forces of darkness in this world” (Eph. 6:12).  

The book of Hebrews asks, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (1:14). If we step back and think our way through the Bible, we’ll realize we’re told a LOT about angels, that they are VERY involved in people’s affairs. Understanding Job 38:7 to refer to angels, they were there even as the Lord created our universe. The serpent who tempted Adam and Eve was, of course, Satan himself – an angel, and after they sinned the Lord placed cherubim at the gate of Eden “to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). If you think through your Bible, you’ll realize there are a LOT of references to angels and their impacts on human lives – both for good and for evil. The New Testament opens with the angels announcing Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, they were there to comfort Jesus after His temptation in the wilderness, He was constantly confronting demons, an angel rolled the stone away, angels were there in the tomb, an angel asked the disciples, “Why do stand here looking up…?”, an angel walked Peter out of prison, and the book of Revelation is literally filled with them.

Here we are in Daniel 9, and Gabriel himself actually appears to Daniel and speaks to him. Note this is the same Gabriel who will some 500 years later speak to Zechariah and to Mary. When Zechariah doubts his announcement of John the Baptist’s birth, he tells him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God!” (Luke 1:19). How it must have impressed Zechariah to realize he was speaking to the very angel Daniel had known! Isn’t it interesting too to realize that Gabriel hadn’t “aged”? Those 500 years had passed and the same Gabriel was still speaking for God. Now, let us all realize that another 2,000 years have passed and he is still Gabriel, he is still serving God, and he is just as real and active in God’s plans as he was back then. He is, at this very moment, present somewhere between heaven and earth, faithfully doing the Lord’s bidding.

Notice too that, in order to get to Daniel, Gabriel had “flown swiftly.” The Hebrew that is translated “flew swiftly” is actually a bit obscure to us. There is quite a lot of scholarly debate about exactly what the words mean, but then all conclude it is “difficult.” I suspect it was simply a Hebrew idiom, a collection of words which actually make no sense at all, yet everyone knew what he meant. It’s like our phrase, someone “kicked the bucket.” Can you imagine someone 2,000 years from now finding that written and trying to figure out what it meant. We all know, but, again, the words themselves make no sense. It’s just an idiom and every language has them.

This is one case where I will appeal to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, where it is clearly stated that he “flew.” Accepting that as true, it is interesting to note that angels are not gods – they, like us, can only be in one place at a time. God is omnipresent, but angels, being finite, created beings themselves are just like us – they can only be in one place at a time and, in order to get somewhere else, they have to travel, and that travel takes time. Gabriel was obviously dispatched by the Lord to answer Daniel’s prayer, yet he didn’t just suddenly mystically teleport from heaven to earth. He had to fly. Obviously, angels can fly very fast, as he will tell Daniel “As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given…” (v.23), yet he did have to travel.

If I could belabor this point for a moment, it is interesting to me to note that, in a sense, angels really are our brothers. What I mean is that they are also created beings, and, like us, they are intelligent, morally responsible beings who once had to decide if they’d serve the Lord or not, and, even now, move around, speak, even get curious (I Peter 1:12). They are not raccoons. They are intelligent, thinking, speaking beings. They just live in the spirit world which we normally can’t physically “see.” It is interesting too that Daniel calls him “the man Gabriel.” Back in 8:15, he described him as “one who looked like a man.” Obviously from the book of Ezekiel we know that the cherubim are pretty bizarre looking creatures, but I wonder if it isn’t possible that at least some angels actually do look like people? In other words, maybe Gabriel really does look like a man? It could be that he just appeared that way to speak to Daniel, but then, why would he have to? Why would he have to change form? Just a thought, but won’t it be interesting to get to heaven and not only get to speak to angels, but what if many of them actually look like us?

Then notice too that the first time Gabriel appeared to him, Daniel says, “I was terrified and fell prostrate…” (8:17). This time, he simply says, “Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me…” Daniel recognizes Gabriel. In a sense now, they’re old friends. This is what I mean about realizing they really are our brothers. Once you meet one, you actually know him and have a personal relationship, just like we do with other people. How cool is that?

I suppose this would be good place to inject an observation of mine. I often hear it stated emphatically that all angels in the Bible are men. Zech. 5:9 says, “Then I looked up – and there before me were two women with the wind in their wings!” The most obvious understanding of the verse would be that the two “women” are angels. As usual, there has to be raging debate among “scholars” whether that is the case or not, however, the fact that they debate the issue at all means they can’t conclusively prove the women are not angels. Once again, I would appeal to the old saying, “If the plain sense makes good sense, why make any other sense?” It is true that is the only reference in the Bible which would suggest angels can be women, but, on the other hand, I would observe that the ancient world was without question male-dominated. Perhaps the angels most often appeared as men just as a matter of cultural sensitivity? In other words, in that world, maybe they basically had to appear as men in order to command the respect of their hearers?

I don’t think it is irrelevant to note that God’s final creation in this world was a woman. Like all good artists, I would suggest He saved “the best for last.” After creating an entire universe, He gathered up everything that is beauty and invested it all into this one final creation – a woman. I would add to that the observation that, from the very beginning, the prophecy was that it would be “the Seed of the woman” who would crush the head of the serpent. Without Eve, there would have been no Seth. Without Sarah, there would have been no Isaac, and without Mary, there would have been no Jesus (humanly speaking, of course)! I personally believe that one of the great honors that the Lord placed upon women is that, in a sense, it is inevitably through women that He saves the world! To think all of that, then I think it inappropriate to insist that He would not make angels in the form of women or that He could never allow angels to appear is women. That’s my two cents anyway.

Lastly, I just want to observe that Daniel describes the time of Gabriel’s appearing as “about the time of the evening sacrifice.” Daniel has been in Babylon for something like 70 years. It’s been about 50 years since Nebuchadnezzar completely destroyed Jerusalem and burned the temple. Nearly since Daniel’s childhood there has been no evening sacrifice. Yet, here he is, still counting time that way. Isn’t that just like our Daniel? Rock solid. Always doing the right thing at the right time! And he does it whether anyone else around him even cares. Just that little thought moves my heart to say, “Lord, make me like Daniel! That’s who I want to be – a rock, solid man who lives for Your world, not ours!”

Wow. So much to learn. So much to ponder on and try to absorb.

Lord, help Your people all over America and the world to be Daniels. Help us to see by faith the spirit world that is swirling around us and to order our lives accordingly. May we, like Daniel, be found to truly be in this world “servants of the Most High God!” Daniel was. Gabriel always has been and still is. Let us be too!