Daniel 10: 12-14 “Choice”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²And he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, because from the first day which you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I have come in [response to] your words. ¹³And the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood against me twenty-one days and behold, Michael, one of the princes of the first ones, came to help me and I remained there with the kings of Persia. ¹⁴And I have come to cause you to understand what will happen to your people in the latter of the days because yet the vision to days.

Just some more random observations: Another thing we have in common with angels is choice. Cows give milk because that is what they were created to do. Dogs wag their tails and lions roar. Why? Because that is what they were created to do. Why do angels serve God? It is because they have chosen to. Like people, they were created perfect, but somehow back in the beginning they had to make a choice. Ezekiel tells us of Satan, “You were the model of perfection…you were appointed as a guardian cherub…you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you…your heart became proud…so I threw you to the earth…” (28:12-17). We take from Revelation 12:4,9 that he took one third of the angels with him.

What is significant here is that one third of the angels chose to follow Satan and become demons, but two thirds of them chose to stay faithful to God. The ones who chose to stay are now called “holy angels” in many places throughout the Bible, and from this (and a lot of other references), the traditional understanding of Christians has been that the good angels are “confirmed in holiness,” while the bad ones are “confirmed in evil.” In other words, they made their choice and now the dye is set.

One interesting observation is that, in Isaiah 14:14, Satan in his pride said, “I will make myself like the Most High.” On the other hand, the name Michael means “Who is like God?” Satan aspires to be like God, Michael just throws up his hands and says, “Nope. Ain’t happenin,” and spends his eternity serving and worshiping the Lord. In the human realm, there are what the book of Proverbs calls “fools.” Those are people who (like Satan) can’t accept that they aren’t God and “despise wisdom and instruction.” Then there are the “wise.” Those are the people who “fear” God, which comes down to they’ve figured out He runs the universe and they’ve decided to be happy about it. Everyone else falls into the category of “simple ones.” The name itself comes from the idea of a door swinging on its hinges. They haven’t decided yet which way to go, so they tend to just follow whoever seems to have the loudest voice. Michael settled it in his heart. It’s up to you and me to make sure we’ve settled it in ours. Mi-cha-el? Who [is] like God?

Once again, I’m amazed how much we have in common with angels. If we’re going to be found in the category of the “wise,” we need to learn from our angel friends. Do you want to be confirmed in holiness? In other words, do you wish you were free of sin? Do you wish the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (love of pleasures, possessions, and applause) held no sway over you and that your only desire was to do right, to please God, and to walk with Him? Yes or no? It is your choice. The angels already made theirs. What is yours?

Pardon me if I run on too long here, but these questions run far deeper than first meets the eye. Once again, why do cows moo? Because that’s what they were created to do. Why do angels and people do right? Because that’s what they’ve made the choice to do. It is an amazing expression of God’s infinite grace that He has given to you and me (and angels) the freedom of choice. We first see it in the Bible with Adam and Eve. God did not create angels or people to just do right like a cow mooing. It is an enormous dignity that the Lord granted to us to let us choose. The down-side of this freedom is its eternal consequences – heaven or hell forever – but still it is our choice. In heaven forever, there will not be one single angel or person who is there against their will.

As you and I live our lives and although we can’t see them (usually), we are surrounded by angels who’ve made their choice to serve God and now they are forever “confirmed in holiness.” They do no wrong because they have no desire to do wrong, but again, not stupidly like a cow, but because there was a time when they decided that’s who they wanted to be. For you and me, even after we come to know the Lord, we, like the Apostle Paul (Romans 7), still have this awful sin nature always pulling us toward evil. Like a fish who can’t resist the worm, we again and again find ourselves with Satan’s hooks in our mouths.

However, if you’re a born-again Christian, you, like Paul, hate it. You long to be free. When the Lord finally calls you home, He won’t have to ask which you choose, yes? You’ve already made your choice, right? If the Lord was to appear to you right now and ask, “Do you want Me to confirm you in holiness? Would you like to never even desire evil again?” you couldn’t say, “Yes!” fast enough, right? So, when He does confirm you in holiness, then for all eternity, you won’t be doing right stupidly like a cow, but because that was your choice – just like your angel friends! God granted to us both the dignity of choice and, in His amazing wisdom, as it turns out, that will be our dignity for all eternity – it was our choice.

I wish I could speak more to this matter of dignity and choice, as it relates to how we treat others. I know people today want to make a big deal about a woman’s “right to choose,” but of course that is a massive lie. The fact is, the woman already made her choice. What she is now dealing with are the consequences of the choice she made. No one on earth has the right to decide for that baby whether it wants to live or die. To steal that dignity of choice from any human (even as an embryo) is precisely what we call murder. So that mirage of “choice” is not what we’re talking about.

However, do you and I grant to others the same freedom of choice that God does? We’re not prone to, and I think that is largely because we’re so keenly aware that choices have consequences. Just like with Adam and Eve, to give a human being the freedom of choice, by definition, grants them the freedom to choose badly and suffer for it – but, do you see, that is their choice? Of course, what we humans don’t see is that when we choose what we will do or believe, we are automatically choosing the consequences as well. You and I see the consequences coming and wish we could somehow make people choose well, but we can’t. We can’t make them. That is a dignity that God granted to them and, at some point, you and I just have to step back and let the Lord deal with people’s hearts. Sometimes sadly, it is their choice. How this all impacts parenting is enormous, but far too big a subject to delve into here.

Back to our text, for both us and the angels, God gives us the dignity of choice. It is worthwhile, I think, to note that, for them, it was a “one and done” deal. They were created perfect and already in heaven. They made their choice there and I suspect that is why it was “one and done.” As for us, ever since since Adam, we are born sinners, blind to even the spiritual world swirling around us. God grants us the choice as well. He says to us as He did through Joshua, “Choose you this day whom you will serve…” (24:15), and through Paul, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

For us, that choice, in itself is “one and done.” “He who believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47). For we who believe, He can say of us that we are “sanctified (made holy) once and for all by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:10,14). To be born-again, is itself a “one and done” decision. However, in God’s eternal wisdom, He allows us to retain these awful sin natures as long as we live in this fallen world. Unlike the angels, we somehow are allowed to glorify God as we spend a lifetime fighting that awful sin nature, and, having started as lost sinners, yet passionately desiring to have what the angels have: Confirmed holiness.

Out of all God’s creation, we and angels have in common this dignity that He granted us, to love Him, to serve Him, to do right before Him – because we want to. It is our choice…or not. Here is this angel speaking to Daniel, and, although as an angel, this one is confirmed in holiness, yet he is here speaking graciously to this other created being named Daniel – a man who also has made his choice, yet is still struggling to live that out. I don’t know about you, but I find that massively encouraging – to realize how much we have in common with angels, that though we are totally different creatures in God’s universe, yet we share this dignity – that we love Him because we want to. Like you, I wish today He would just confirm me in holiness and free me from my sinful self – so I could be like an angel. However, I have to accept that this is His wisdom, to leave me to struggle and somehow uniquely glorify Him in it.

Someday the struggle will be over, but I’ve already made my choice. So I struggle on, love Him through the battle, and look forward to that day when “this corruptible will take on incorruption!”

We will…someday. As Juba said to Maximus, “We will…but not yet.”