Daniel 10: 7-11 “Precious”

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.

One more thought I want to record from this passage. It arises from thoughts written down by Matthew Henry some 200 years ago. Notice when the angel appears and speaks to the trembling Daniel, what is the first thing he says? “Daniel, you who are highly favored…” That is the same thing Gabriel said back in 9:23 and it will be repeated for the third time in 10:19. Considering this word translated here, “highly favored,” I noted regarding 9:23, “That gets translated many ways: greatly loved, of great value, very precious, etc. As usual in ancient languages, it is a picture word, so it is hard to pin down with a single word in English. In their usual effort to express that word’s picture, the Amplified Bible stretches it out to “for you are highly regarded and greatly beloved.”

In the NT, when Gabriel appears to Mary, he says the same thing to her: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). There in Luke, it is expressed in Greek and means something like, “One who is the object of grace.”

Back in Hebrew, the word is used many times in the Old Testament, in many different ways, but always expressing something of great value or greatly loved. For instance, in Ezra 8:27, it is expressed “precious as gold.” I like that. “Precious” is in my mind perhaps the best single word we can use in English to express its meaning. The idea as “lovely” is expressed in the Song of Solomon 4:7, where one describes the other as “altogether lovely.” Ezekiel’s wife was called “the delight of his eyes.” When the Lord spoke to Moses in Exodus 33, He told him, “You have found grace in My eyes and I know you by name” vv.12&17).

Basically, the angel(s) are telling Daniel, “You are precious.” What an amazingly gracious, encouraging thing to say to someone! I am still just floored by seeing this quality in angels. I probably keep repeating myself, but, once again, I’m realizing that angels are actually like us – they are intelligent, thinking, observing, communicating beings, except that they are pure and holy and absolutely sinless. When they stand next to us and watch what we do, hear what we say and probably even what we think, how can they not be utterly repulsed? How can they not be completely disgusted to see how we abuse God’s grace and act more like demons than anything?

Yet they appear and say, “You are precious.” Someone may inject here, “But this is Daniel. He is an exceptional believer. That’s why he’s ‘precious.’” Don’t let your heart run that direction. In the presence of God and His angels, that is like comparing two piles of cow manure. We are all children of Adam with desperately wicked hearts. “Comparing ourselves with ourselves, we become unwise.” No. Remember Jesus is the model. All of us fall short of His glory and need grace from God to be saved. Remember, the angels see us through their (sinless) eyes – not ours.

…And yet they greet us and tell us we’re precious! Hmmmm. Somehow, in my mind, it is one thing to talk about God’s grace. Somehow I’ve come to understand or in some way actually accept that God is gracious to us, in Christ, but to see that same grace coming from angels is another thing. Somehow, I think to myself, “Of course God loves us. He’s our Creator,” but then what about angels?   Why should they love us?

Wouldn’t we rather expect them to act like the elder brother? Why should they be anything less than disgusted at us prodigals, watching how we’ve hurt the Father and abused His love and kindness? But they aren’t. In fact, what did Jesus say? “…there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). What is happening here? Is it not that angels are gracious, just like God, just like Jesus. They are gracious.

How that should challenge you and me! I not only have a God and Savior who sees this sinner through the eyes of grace – but I am also right now at this minute surrounded by other intelligent beings, just like me, who see me and know me, and yet they too see me through the eyes of grace! And how do I see the people around me, the people next to me? Do I see them through eyes of grace? No wonder Jesus said that to love God and love people fulfills all the commands! In that alone we join not only Him, but His angels as well!

How much do you and I communicate to other people that they are “precious?” Maybe we’re sincerely trying, but what about when they’re failing? What about when we see them sinning and abusing God’s grace? Do our words still communicate to them, “You are precious!” Angels’ do.

I hope it’s true that I am deeply convicted by all of this. I want to love everyone, yet I fear too often my love and grace easily changes to criticism in my heart, if not in my words, when someone isn’t all they should be. God forgive me. Your angels never stop loving me. Why should I ever stop loving these other sinners like me?

My mother often says to us her family, “You are precious to me.” I need to take a cue from her and from God’s angels and do a better job communicating that to others. Can I not suggest we all need to do better? If our lost world only sees us Christians as critical and judgmental, is it any wonder “our witness” doesn’t seem to be doing any good? Shouldn’t Jesus’ church be the one place people can turn to find love and grace? Well, I can’t change the rest of the world, but I can pray, “God change me.” God help us all be more like Jesus…and more like His angels and go out into our worlds today to say to people in a thousand different ways, “You are precious.”