Daniel 10:20,21 “Seriously”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁰And he said, “Do you know to what I have come to you? And now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia and I [am] going and Behold! the Prince of Greece [is] one coming, ²¹but I will tell to you what is written in the book of Truth and not one strengthens himself with me on these [things] except Michael your (pl.) prince.

More from these verses: Consider for a minute the angel’s statement to Daniel, “But I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth.” Note he starts with “but.” In Hebrew, the word used is actually a strong adversative. He is saying he has to return to fight against the demonic prince of Persia, then another one will arise over Greece. Demons, demons everywhere! You’d think such news would be fearful – “BUT,” he says, “I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth.”

Is this not one of the wonders of God’s Word – the He can tell us what appears to be (and may actually be) bad news, yet for us believers, that gives us peace, not fear! It gives us peace because prophecy assures us He is in control. And because we love Him and trust Him, as long as He is in control, we live in peace. “The good man will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, confident in the Lord” (Ps. 112:7). All things really will “work together for good!”

Beyond that, first of all, I want to praise God that there even is a Book of Truth.  Truth. What is true. What is truly true! Francis Schaeffer wrote his book, “How Then Shall We Live?” The whole point of the book is the importance of what he calls “absolute truth.” Especially in this world of swirling lies and seemingly endless deceptions, social engineering, political spinning, and all the rest, people need absolute truth. There must be somewhere a person can go to get true truth! Schaeffer shows that, because it alone is that absolute truth, the Bible was the cornerstone for the very rise of Western Culture. We have enjoyed about five or six centuries of unprecedented prosperity and scientific advance, but Schaeffer demonstrates that was only possible because we all had the Bible as our common source of truth. Clear back in the 1970’s, he saw Western Culture casting aside the Bible and warned our world would then devolve into chaos. As late as the 1950’s, the Supreme Court still acknowledged openly that our entire system of government is based on the Bible. We cast that away and look where we are today – right where Schaeffer said we’d be!

I am so thankful there is true truth. As Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!” Jn. 8:32). Truth is a wonderful thing. It has been my lifelong observation that, as long as you tell the truth, life can be simple. When you’re dealing in truth, everything fits together. Everything makes sense. When it doesn’t make sense, you need only dig in and, one way or another, you’ll eventually figure out what’s missing. Truth really does set us free.

On the other hand, as soon as you start lying or believing lies, your whole world gets complicated. Things don’t fit together. Things don’t make sense. If you lie to someone at work, you’d better remember who you lied to about what. When they come back around and you tell them the opposite, you’ll have an ugly situation before you! I’d rather not be cynical here, but that is one thing that tells me we are all being massively lied to in this world – because nothing makes sense. All day every day, you click on the news and nothing makes sense. The government is lying. Big business is lying. Hollywood is lying. Scientists are lying. And what is the outcome? Chaos and confusion for common people like us.

For me, it is a glorious freedom every morning to sit down with my Bible and study true truth! The Bible tells me the truth, I tell the truth, my wife tells the truth – and as far as that goes, life is very simple. Beyond that…yikes! And look again what we see in this passage – even an angel knows there is a Book of Truth.

I also want to note here there is a book in heaven. A book. I realize it’s possible there isn’t a “book” as we would know it, that the Lord may just be using terms we understand. However, how many times in the Bible are we told of books in heaven? Jesus has a “Book of Life.” At the Great White Throne, it says, “And the books were opened…” (Rev. 20:12). Also, in Rev. 5:1 we read, “And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.” I personally see nothing in these texts to tell me they mean anything except “books.” If words mean anything, then a book is a book. The Lord never says they were “like a book.” He says, “Book.”

To me, this makes perfect sense. Once again, I think we share far more with angels than we realize. They are thinking, rational created beings who are finite like you and me. They can only be in one place at one time and they cannot be omniscient, like God. That means they actually have to learn like us. Remember Peter tells us they’re curious, that they “long to look into these things” (I Pet. 1:12). All of that said, why wouldn’t there be “books?” If heaven is a place of learning, why wouldn’t knowledge be preserved in books that angels or you or I could “check out” of a heavenly library and dig into? Of course, that would be wonderful news for us bibliophiles! What if part of heaven will be the glorious pleasure of curling up with a really good book and enjoying reading – and knowing I’ve got literally forever!

Finally, we note that Michael’s name appears again here. Notice, the angel calls him “your prince.” In Hebrew, the “your” is plural. That is because he isn’t just Daniel’s angel. In 12:1, we’re told, “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people will arise…” Michael is specifically the angel (and called an archangel in Jude 9) who guards the people of Israel. Once again, I’m reminded how the nation of Israel today has what they call their “Iron Dome,” which is some kind of missile defense system. However, we can see by faith that the real “Iron Dome” over their people is none other than Michael, the archangel.

So, we know from the Bible that there is a good prince of Israel. We also learn there is an evil prince of Persia (Iran) and we read of the evil prince of Greece. I personally do not doubt that every nation on earth has an angel specifically assigned by God to protect them and an evil angel assigned by Satan to destroy them. Then, what determines which side is “winning?” I suspect it is the people themselves. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Where there is a love of God and the prayers of His people, His angel is strengthened to push back the evil and give them a measure of Jesus’ love and joy and peace.

Where there is no regard or love for God, the people are sitting ducks to suffer endlessly under the lying, stealing, murder and chaos that comes from Satan’s rule. Probably the only reason those nations even go on existing is because God has an angel assigned to protect them, although that protection is (because of their godlessness) provided only because the Lord still loves the people. Even though they’re godless, He will only let the devil go so far. The people certainly don’t deserve it, but still His grace provides a measure of protection. As Matthew wrote, “He makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good” (5:45) and we learn in Psalm 145, “The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made…The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing” (vv.9,15,16).

So then, each of us believers need to realize we are a soldier on the front line of the cosmic spiritual battle for the peace and prosperity of our nation. To whatever extent we truly try to live godly lives and lift up our people and our nation in prayer, we are at least one small part of seeing evil pushed back. And, of course, what were we supposed to learn from the feeding of the 5,000? Even when all we have is “five loaves and two fishes,” what do we do? We bring them to Jesus. In the hands of Jesus, even our feeble prayers and broken efforts to live godly can be blessed to feed thousands!

I would go on to suggest that this angelic/demonic presence extends into every place of authority and into each individual life. The Bible doesn’t tell us much on this subject, but, on the personal level, we have Jesus’ words, “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:10,11). From this passage, believers have long understood that there really are guardian angels. That makes sense to me. Satan would no doubt assign a demon specifically to destroy you and me, so why wouldn’t the Lord make sure we each had an angel to protect us?

I also suggest the battle extends into every place of authority, but this is totally an observation on my own part. What I see in our world is that, every time someone is placed in any position of authority, they immediately possess significant power to make people’s lives better or miserable. How often do we see a family’s peace and happiness depending on the father? Mothers of course also play a massively important role in the happiness of their families, but is it not generally true, where the father is a godly man, you see smiling happy children? Then, sadly, we all know the alternative. Where a boss is a truly godly man, you can expect to see an entire office, or even corporation, of basically happy people. Then there is the alternative.

I have never really understood why the angel says to Daniel, “No one supports me against them, except Michael your prince.” I still don’t understand that. My mind wanders in a million different directions, but nothing adds up for me. Either I just don’t have the maturity (yet) to understand it, or it is bound up in that great spiritual warfare of which we can only see in parts. Perhaps if I live long enough to come back and study through Daniel again, then it will make sense.

For now, Daniel 10 has certainly taught us enough to open our eyes and move us to be more like him. May we, by faith, see the battle raging around us, our families, and our world. And may we take our own faith more seriously, when we see we really are soldiers.  Our lives matter.