The fourth and last vision God gave Daniel is recorded in chapters 10 to 12. The details of the vision are recorded in chapter 11. Chapter 10 is a kind of prelude to the vision and records the coming of a heavenly messenger to bring some information to Daniel. Chapter 10 is not an easy chapter to understand, but it is an important chapter. It brings us some fascinating information about angels and demons as they struggle to help or to hinder the work of God.
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision.
2 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. 3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
“A revelation was given to Daniel.” God permitted Daniel to look into the future and to see what lay ahead for the nations of the Eastern Mediterranean, especially for God’s people who would live in the land of Israel. God drew back the curtain that hid the future from Daniel’s eyes. Once again, as in earlier revelations, God permitted Daniel to see the more immediate, as well as the more remote, future.
Often in the Old Testament, God revealed things to people without giving them the interpretation of what they had seen. Egypt’s pharaoh, for example, had a dream in which he saw seven scrawny cows eat up seven fat cows, but he didn’t understand the meaning of his dream. Nor was Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar able to interpret the dreams he had. This is not the case with Daniel’s vision; God told him what it meant.
The vision God gave Daniel “concerned a great war.” God showed Daniel that a time of intense hardship would come upon the Jewish people in the centuries just ahead. And this conflict would grow even more intense in the difficult days preceding the end of the world.
The opening words of the chapter date the vision for us. God showed it to Daniel in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, several years after Cyrus had toppled the Babylonian Empire, freed the Jewish exiles, and authorized them to return home.
This raises the question “If Cyrus had freed the Jews, what was Daniel still doing in Babylon? Why wasn’t he at the side of those 45,000 returnees who were struggling to rebuild Jerusalem?” There may have been several reasons. For one, Daniel was a senior citizen, in his mid-80s. He may very well have thought he was too old for such a long trip, too old for the arduous work of rebuilding a war-torn country. A second reason may have been his government position. As one of three top officials in the Persian government, Daniel still had the opportunity to help his people, and God may have thought it best that he stay behind and work for the good of his fellow Jews who had returned home.
Daniel tells us what his frame of mind was when God sent him the vision. “At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks.” Picture the situation. Two years had elapsed since Cyrus had authorized the exiles to return and rebuild their city and temple. What had happened in those two years?
Armed with the royal decree and helped by subsidy from the royal treasury, the returning exiles enthusiastically had begun to reestablish Jewish life and worship in Jerusalem. The work went well at first. After seven months they had rebuilt Jehovah’s altar and laid the foundations of a new temple on the site of the first.
And then trouble began. Their Samaritan enemies opposed the building project and managed to bring it to a halt. At the time Cyrus was involved in some military campaigns, and his decree authorizing the temple rebuilding seems to have been misplaced or lost. For years little progress was made beyond the temple foundations (Ezra 4:4,5). The Jewish community was discouraged and disheartened.
You can imagine how Daniel, faithful servant of the Lord for many years, felt when this news reached him. To add to his grief, this was now the first month of the Jewish church year, the month when the returned exiles should have been celebrating the Passover. This was the most important festival of the Jews, and their temple still lay in ruins. Daniel must have wondered, “How many more years will elapse before my people will again be able to live in safety and before they will again have a temple where they can worship God as he commanded them?” No wonder Daniel had a heavy heart.
“I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips.” Daniel’s heart was heavy, and in earnest prayer over a three-week period, he laid the matter before the Lord. He asked the Lord to frustrate the evil plan and once again to warm the hearts of his people for his work and worship.
Daniel accompanied his prayer with fasting. As a top executive in the Persian government, Daniel could have requisitioned any food he wanted from the royal kitchen, but he had no stomach for it. Denying oneself food and drink (what Luther’s Catechism calls “fasting and bodily preparation”) does not by itself guarantee God’s blessing. But it can serve as evidence of an attitude of humility, which God has promised to bless.
“I used no lotions at all.” People who lived in the hot, dry Middle Eastern climate would apply oil to their skin, to protect against sun and wind. For Daniel to abstain from food and drink and lotions showed he was totally unconcerned about his personal comfort and appearance. He was, however, deeply concerned about the welfare of his fellow Jews in their desolate homeland a thousand miles away. God heard Daniel’s humble prayer.
4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, 5 I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. 6 His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
God answered Daniel’s prayer by sending a heavenly visitor to Daniel with a message. As Daniel was standing on the banks of the Tigris River, he looked up and saw a visitor whose unexpected appearance unnerved him. He saw a man in a linen robe with a belt of gold. His eyes flashed at Daniel like fiery torches; his arms and legs were like polished bronze. When he spoke it was like the roar of a crowd of people. These details picture a person who, though in the appearance of a man, was absolutely awesome. No wonder Daniel was frightened.
Who was Daniel’s visitor? Since Daniel did not identify him by name, any identification must remain tentative.
Some have thought Daniel’s visitor was an angel, perhaps the angel Gabriel, who had appeared to Daniel on two previous occasions to bring him a message from God (8:16; 9:21). Now to be sure, God often used his mighty angels as messengers, and the heavenly visitor who appeared to Daniel may have been a created angel. But if he were the angel Gabriel, one wonders why he was not named as he was each time he appeared to Daniel previously.
Another problem for those who identify Daniel’s visitor as an angel is that in 10:21–11:1, he is said to have supported the archangel Michael and protected him. Michael is an archangel, the highest rank of angels. Who alone can properly claim to protect this highest of angels except the Lord God himself?
When we read the awesome description of the one who appeared to Daniel in the form of a man, we notice a striking similarity between this description and the descriptions of a visitor who appeared in visions to the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:26-28) and to the apostle John (Revelation 1:13-15). The similarity is so striking that it can hardly be coincidental. Read the three passages. All three speak of the brilliant appearance of the individual and furnish many common details. The evidence that they speak of the same person is compelling.
Both Ezekiel and John identify the one whom they saw as the Son of God himself. John especially makes it clear that he saw the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. It appears likely that the visitor who appeared to Daniel in answer to his prayer was the Angel of the Lord. This is the name used frequently in the pages of the Old Testament to describe the second person of the triune God as he appeared to his Old Testament people in visible form. The appearance of this great Angel of the Lord often came at a time when his gracious plan for his people was under attack, as it was at the time of Daniel.
Those who hesitate to identify this person as the Lord himself point to a statement Daniel’s visitor made in the last verse of this chapter. There he told Daniel that in his struggle with “the prince of Persia” he was supported by the archangel Michael. Some commentators have asked, “Would the Son of God require support from one of his creatures?” In answer, it can be pointed out that although God does not need the help of his angels, he certainly saw fit to make use of their help on more than one occasion.