Daniel 10: 7-11 “Grace”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, and the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell on them and they fled in hiding themselves. ⁸And I was left alone and I saw the vision the great the this and no strength remained in me and my glory was turned to corruption and I kept no strength. ⁹And I heard the sound of His words and as I [was] hearing the sound of His words, and I was one being dropped into deep sleep upon my face and my face earthward. ¹⁰And behold! A hand touched me and set me trembling on my knees and the palms of my hands, ¹¹and he said to me, “Daniel, man greatly valued, understand in the words which I [am] speaking to you and stand on your place, because now I am sent to you,” And in his speaking with me the word the this, I stood up trembling.

There is so much more to observe in these verses! Here are some more thoughts, not necessarily in any order. In v.8, I’ve translated the Hebrew to say, “And I was left alone and I saw the vision the great the this and no strength remained in me and my glory was turned to corruption and I kept no strength.” Notice the “my glory was turned to corruption.” The phrase is a bit tricky to translate as the Hebrew words have a very wide range of meaning. The old KJV translated it, “All my comeliness became corruption,” while the NIV translates it “my face turned deathly pale.”

I’m not at all persuaded that Daniel is referring to his appearance, as in “my face turned deathly pale.” I say that for at least two reasons. First of all, Daniel can’t see his face. Why would that particularly strike him? As he records the ways this vision profoundly affected him, I doubt “his appearance” would even come to his mind. The second reason is his age. Remember he’s somewhere around 90 years old. I’m sorry, but that is one of the effects of aging – to turn deathly pale! With young people and all their naturally vivacious color, when they’re sick or deeply frightened, there may be a very pronounced change in their countenance. They really can turn “deathly pale,” but I’m not so sure that’s true of us old folks. I seriously doubt there’s enough difference to even notice – and since Daniel probably wasn’t carrying around a mirror, again I doubt that his appearance was of any concern at all to him.

What would concern him about himself? As we noted earlier, this vision carries our Daniel into the presence of Jesus Himself and the pure holiness of heaven and angels. Frankly, I think the old KJV translators got it right: “All my comeliness became corruption.” Daniel would not be struck by the condition of his face, but rather of his soul! What he’s saying is that everything which perhaps had appeared to him noteworthy suddenly turns to ashes. Let’s stop and acknowledge that he was in fact a model believer. He was, by our standards, a truly faithful man. Although he clearly was not swallowed up by his pride, he had to be aware of his life and how it compared with others around him.

Suddenly he is in the presence of not a bunch of other (worse) sinners, but rather pure holiness. Whatever even he himself might have considered “comeliness” would be reduced to “corruption.” As Isaiah said, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). As Paul says, “Comparing themselves with themselves, they become unwise” (II Cor. 10:12). Even the very best of the best of us are still fallen sinners, desperately in need of grace. Only when Jesus “makes our lowly bodies like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21) will we be able to stand unashamed in the presence of pure holiness. Until then, let Daniel remind us, we never come to God on the basis of what we perceive to be “our merits.” We can come boldly to Him, but we come “to obtain mercy and find grace to help…” (Heb. 4:16). Even if we could be as godly as Daniel, we still come to God on the basis of Jesus’ merits, not ours!

And what grace we see even here in these verses! While Daniel is crushed by the awareness of his own sinfulness, what does the angel tell him? The angel calls to him, “Daniel, you who are highly favored…!” This appellation will get repeated again in v. 19. I’ve noted before how the Babylonians tried to rename him Belshazzar, but even angels call him by his name Daniel! I’ve also noted how important it was for the angel to simply “touch” him. Touch itself can be an expression of grace and affection. I still marvel at the angels themselves. As we’re told in Hebrews 1:14, angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” They are pure and holy. They surely can see how sinful we are, how we rebel against God and resist Him, how we fail constantly. I suggested before, I wonder if, to them, we even stink! Yet, what they show us is pure grace. “You who are highly favored…!”

Although we would rarely “see” angels, let us be reminded by this passage, they are always there, and they are very specifically and very deliberately expressions of God’s grace toward us. They are, like us, created beings with names, intelligent beings who think and observe, and who, as servants of the Most High God, are constantly trying to help us, strengthen us, protect us, and help us along the path of grace. Daniel would remind us, though we realize what failures we are, to focus not on ourselves and despair, but rather to embrace the Lord’s grace and accept that even His angels are actively seeking to help us live for Him.

Last thought for whatever it’s worth, beginning in v.10, I think the “hand that touched me” and the voice speaking to him is now an angel and not the Jesus of vv.5,6. Someone may object, “But it doesn’t say that.” The last voice Daniel was hearing was that of the Jesus vision. If we read, “and he said,” that surely refers back to Jesus. My answer would be, if we were writing in English, then, yes, that would be important to us to clearly distinguish between the words Jesus spoke to Daniel and then the shift to that of an angel. However, what we’re reading is not originally written in English but rather in Hebrew and this sort of thing happens all through the Bible, where the dialogue often shifts from one speaker to another with no notation that has happened.

As I have often noted, English is a very technical language. We love to line up all the facts, clearly present them in order, and make our case with what we think is all our very tight logic. Hebrew was none of that. It was a picture language, much more suited to verbal story-telling than to any idea at all of “presenting facts.” With Hebrew, it’s like “you had to be there.” To really understand, you have to let yourself get drawn into the story, listen to what the speaker is trying to relate to you, and then, for us modern American English speakers, lay aside our iron-clad determination to get “all the facts.” As they say, “It just ain’t there.”  In this passage, I am suggesting the shift occurs with the words, “A hand touched me…,” leading to “he said.” Who said? In Hebrew I’m suggesting it would be the person whose hand just touched him. One of them would probably say, “Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?” We might say, “Not to us!,” to which they might respond, “Why do you have to be told every little fact? Don’t you have a brain?”

So, anyway, let’s let Daniel remind us again that all of our hope is in Jesus, that God is very real, that His angels are very real, and that, though we are sinners and too often miserable failures, we have been swallowed up by grace! Then let us, like Daniel, live that grace ourselves.

 

Daniel 10: 7-11 “Careful What We Wish For!”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses: 

⁷And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, and the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell on them and they fled in hiding themselves. ⁸And I was left alone and I saw the vision the great the this and no strength remained in me and my glory was turned to corruption and I kept no strength. ⁹And I heard the sound of His words and as I [was] hearing the sound of His words, and I was one being dropped into deep sleep upon my face and my face earthward. ¹⁰And behold! A hand touched me and set me trembling on my knees and the palms of my hands, ¹¹and he said to me, “Daniel, man greatly valued, understand in the words which I [am] speaking to you and stand on your place, because now I am sent to you,” And in his speaking with me the word the this, I stood up trembling.

These verses are so full of practical jewels, it’s hard to zero in on any one of them! I think I’ll just dive in. No particular order – just the things I think I see and learn from the passage. First of all, and for whatever it’s worth – it’s interesting how Daniel records the response of the men who were with him. They didn’t see the vision, yet we’re told, “Such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves.” The same thing happened to Saul of Tarsus when he met Jesus. We’re told, “The men traveling with Saul stood speechless; they heard the sound, but did not see anyone” (Acts 9:7).

In a sense, in both cases, the other men are witnesses. Someone could say of both Daniel and Saul, “Nothing really happened. They just made up their stories of these incredible visions.” Yet, how would anyone explain away these other men’s responses? Even though they didn’t hear or see the visions, in both cases they would all testify that “something happened.” I would bet, if you could ask them about it, they would all assert that whatever it was, it was something other-worldly, something supernatural.

You and I believe our Bibles, so we don’t need to be convinced the visions were true, yet, in both cases the Lord saw fit to confirm His truth with some witnesses.

That makes me wonder how often the same thing happens to us, whether we know it or not. What I mean is that, everywhere we go as believers, the Lord is doing His amazing supernatural work through us. I wonder how often someone else senses that supernatural presence, even if we were totally unaware of their reaction? I think we’ve all experienced that ourselves – where someone said something or did something and we just knew in our hearts it was way bigger than simply what we saw or heard. For those around us, could that be something the Lord is using to melt another person’s heart, to in some way “crack their armor,” to create even a tiny opening for grace to shine into their hearts?

He says He draws us with “the cords of His love.” Would that not be the effect both of these visions had on those around our friends? In the case before us, they knew Daniel and we can be sure they knew of his faith and his excellent character. Now add to that this “supernatural” experience and how do you suppose it affected them? Could it not have moved them to think seriously about this God of Daniel? May the Lord do the same in the hearts of people around us who need to know Him – in our case, even if we often don’t even realize just how much our Lord is up to.

Then we need to wade into the whole subject of how all of this affects Daniel. I think there is a part of all of us that would say, “I wish I could see angels. I wish I could see visions of heaven and what is going on in the spirit world around me.” Yet, as we’ve noted before, we’d better be careful what we wish for. Daniel has already recorded several visions in the first nine chapters and here we are in the tenth, and what has been his experience? Remember in 7:15 when he said, “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me,” then in v. 28, he concludes, “This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.”

Then in chapter 8, the first time Gabriel appears to him, he says, “As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate,” (v.17) then he concludes, “I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for several days…I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.” The next time Gabriel appears to him in chapter 9, he doesn’t record such an adverse reaction, but here we are in chapter 10 and he’s telling us, “And I was left alone and I saw the great vision, and no strength remained in me and my glory was turned to corruption and I retained no strength…And as he spoke with me this message, I stood up trembling” (vv. 8,11).

As we said, perhaps we’d better be careful what we wish for! Maybe we should all count it a blessing our God doesn’t allow us to see into the spirit world! As we grow in our knowledge of the Lord, we learn to thank Him not only for the gifts He gives but also for those He withholds. There is a grace in receiving, but also in withholding, and it would seem this is one.

And why is that? Hmmmm. How easily we forget that we’re sinners! Oh, yeah. Although I am born again, I am still a child of Adam and always will be until Jesus Himself “transforms our lowly bodies so that they be like His glorious body!” (Phil. 3:21). I know I quickly forget that my heart is “desperately wicked and deceitful above all things,” (Jer. 17:9) and that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). Even our friend Daniel, as godly as he seems to us, is still one of us – born rebels, prone to wander, broken images of the people God created us to be.

Although it can be variously translated, in v. 8 of our passage Daniel says, upon seeing the vision of the glorified Jesus, “all my comeliness became corruption,” or “all my glory became corruption.” It isn’t just simple fear that drives Daniel to the ground. It is the sudden realization of his horrific sinfulness. Can we imagine what it must really be like as sinners to suddenly be in the presence of pure holiness? It isn’t even close, but I’m reminded of times where I was working outside getting very hot, dirty, and sweaty, then having to step into an office full of well-dressed pretty secretaries, men in office attire, the smell of the ladies’ perfumes, and spotlessly clean furniture and carpets. When I was outside, I didn’t notice how disgusting I was, but suddenly I did and I felt so completely out of place. I was quite happy to get back out into my dirty, stinky world!

That must be about one millionth the horror we would feel to suddenly be in the presence of holy angels! I would suggest that’s just another one of the Lord’s graces to us – not allowing us to really comprehend who we are. He probably allows us just enough of a sense of our sin to keep us humble (if we’ll let Him), but hides most of it, lest we be driven to despair. Thank God for Jesus! As the song says, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus…” “By His will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ…” (Heb. 10:10).

The day will come for all of us, either through our death or the Coming of Jesus, when “this robe of flesh we’ll drop and rise, to gain the everlasting prize.” It will be that day when “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed…Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 15:51,57). However, until then, it is a mercy of God that He doesn’t allow us to see the full enormity of this awful sinfulness, and He Himself chooses to see us through the blood of His Son – as “dearly loved children.”

Perhaps Daniel’s example would teach us to be thankful for what we don’t see with our eyes -- that our Father “knows our frame, that we are but dust,” and in mercy instead makes us live by faith and not sight! I believe Daniel does teach us to in fact “see” the spirit world, but then to be content that we must, in this world, see it by faith.

Let us then go forward in faith and see what else Daniel does teach us about that spirit world swirling around us, yet out of our sight!

 

Daniel 10: 7-11 “Personal”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, and the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell on them and they fled in hiding themselves. ⁸And I was left alone and I saw the vision the great the this and no strength remained in me and my glory was turned to corruption and I kept no strength. ⁹And I heard the sound of His words and as I [was] hearing the sound of His words, and I was one being dropped into deep sleep upon my face and my face earthward. ¹⁰And behold! A hand touched me and set me trembling on my knees and the palms of my hands, ¹¹and he said to me, “Daniel, man greatly valued, understand in the words which I [am] speaking to you and stand on your place, because now I am sent to you,” And in his speaking with me the word the this, I stood up trembling.

It’s interesting to note Daniel’s words, when he tells us, “And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision.” He then says, “The men with me did not see the vision, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves.” Then he repeats, “So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision.”

Alone. That is an interesting word. Just to type it makes my heart cringe. I hate being alone. I can’t be “alone” for very long and I have to find some people to be with. Even if I don’t know them, it doesn’t matter – I just need to have people around me. Being “alone” just takes something out of me. I know other people are just the opposite, that being around people exhausts them and sooner or later, they just have to get alone, and that is what recharges them. Obviously both can be a strength and at the same time a weakness, so one isn’t necessarily better than the other, but it just is. I suppose everyone is one or the other – what are called extroverts and introverts.

Anyway – alone. What struck me as I’ve been thinking about these verses is noticing how God almost always speaks to people alone. There are just a few instances in the Bible where He actually spoke audibly to a group. He spoke to the Israelites from Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20 giving the Law, and He spoke to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration when He told them in Matthew 17, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” There may be other instances I’m forgetting, but even so, I think anyone who knows their Bible would agree with me – He almost always speaks to people as individuals. There are a number of instances where He might send angels to speak to a group, such as the shepherds at Jesus’ birth, but even with angels, they most often speak to people alone.

What can we take from that? What strikes me is how our God is a personal God. We can all say, it is a wonderful thing to be part of a church, part of a worship service or Bible study with other people (which I love), seeking the Lord together. However, if I am to have a real relationship with God, even corporate worship must be simply an expression of my personal relationship with Him. When He saves us, He saves us alone. It’s just Him and me. I can’t accept Jesus for someone else. That is a transaction that must take place in each of our hearts individually. Even if the Spirit works mightily and brings a number of people to salvation at the same time (as the 3,000 in one day in Acts 3), in every single case, that moment of salvation is totally individual, totally personal between the Lord and each person.

Is that not true of everything about our relationship with the Lord? While it is true He is our God (in a collective sense), yet is it not also true, in order for it to be real, He must be my God – in a totally personal, individual, private way – just between Him and me? That needs to be something going on all day every day in our hearts, yet I wonder if that isn’t why there must be regular times in our life when we deliberately, intentionally spend time with Him alone?

Back to our passage, Daniel tells us twice the vision was for him alone: “And I, Daniel, saw the vision alone…I was left alone...and a hand touched me…and he said to me…”

As I said at the beginning, it has been true my whole life, I hate being alone. I am so thankful the Lord gave me my beautiful wife. When the Lord said of Adam, “It is not good for the man to be alone – I will make for him a fitting helper…,” I could shout, “Amen!” Just to be with her, to have her next to me, to spend my life with her is the very, very best cure for my aloneness. I treasure my relationships with anyone and everyone I know, yet she is the crowning joy to satisfy my need for togetherness.

However, even saying that, and I’ve never really thought about this until seeing it in Daniel, yet it is still true I need my alone time with God. I suppose it’s my farmer genes, but the Lord has blessed me my whole life with waking up early. It’s been years since I had to set an alarm clock, as I go to bed knowing I’ll wake up some time between 4:30 and 6:00-ish. It’s been a blessing, because that is particularly when I’ve been able to find my alone time with God. That is when I do most of my studying and when I can enjoy some serious prayer time – before the hustle and bustle and frantic madness of American culture sweeps me away.

God dealt with Daniel alone. In the desert, He called Moses alone. “In the year that king Uzziah died…,” He called Isaiah alone. When He met Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, it notes in Acts 9, the men who were with him “…heard the sound but did not see anyone.” Even in Jesus’ case, when a voice spoke to Him from heaven, it is recorded, “The crowd that was there and heard it said it thundered…”(John 12:29). John was alone on the Isle of Patmos when Jesus gave him the book of Revelation.

How amazing is it that our God is a personal God? He’s not just our God. He is my God. And if they were but willing, He would be “my God” to each and every one of the supposed eight billion people on earth. All at the same time! All day, every day, I have 100% of His attention, His care, His love, His presence! He gives me His. What He wants most of all is for each of us personally to give Him ours!