Why am I writing? Why is it important for me to unload – to work out, to write, to walk, to wail out to the Lord?
I realized it earlier: It’s because the stakes are high, and one wrong move in these heights has absolutely greater impact than before.
The small and big blinds used to be 5 and 10 pesos, but now they’re in the millions and billions. That’s what’s at stake.
Months ago I was complaining that the difficulty level of life increased when I turned 40. It felt that way, anyway. But here I am seeing it, writing about it from a different perspective, one that I’ve learned to accept – it’s not that the difficulty level increased; That’s just part of the reality. Look a little beyond and see that the reality is more that the stakes are higher.
Every word spoken leaving greater impact than ever before. Every action with further reaching implications, and greater reactions to match.
Self-assessment has me thinking, asking myself – have my words, have my actions, reactions, and lack of action left an impact leaning more to the good, or to the bad?
To that question, I’d give my generic answer: It could be better, it could be worse.
It could be better, it could be worse – but one thing is for sure: The stakes are higher, and it has me trusting in the Lord more. It definitely has me thanking Him more – both intentionally, and just naturally. Finally, it has me appreciating the flow we all have in Christ.
With all this being said, I write to pay homage to the Trustworthy One who remains when everything else falls apart.
I write to pay homage, and give thanks to the One who holds me together when everything around me has been torn apart – either by my own doing, or by the cruel nature of this reality.
I write – oh, do I write – to pay homage, give respect, praise, honor, glory, and thanks to the One who deserves it all – the One with whom I flow, and the One who flows with me, as He flows with all of us in the Body: Jesus Christ, Savior, Lord, Shepherd, Warrior, King. To God – To Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – be all glory now and forever. Amen.
Yesterday I thought I’d take a gander at Daniel 9-10, in an attempt to share a quick message to the faithful of our congregation who happen to be free during the middle of the week. I didn’t go as far as I wrote, due to my being late and due to the lack of time for a more extensive message – but what I did share was that, surely as Daniel cried out to the Lord (confessing the sin of Israel, acknowledging the consequences of their actions, and entreating Him for mercy), so we can run to the throne of grace at our own time of need…
20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God, 21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision. Daniel 9:20-23
And, just as Gabriel appeared and shared a word, so we realized (1) the word for us may already have been on its way as early as the beginning of our own prayer, and (2) it was not because of the length of our prayer, but according to the everlasting love of our Father towards us.
If I decided to proceed with sharing the rest of what I wrote about, I would simply say that any prophecy – whether those given in general or those that have been disclosed in detail – is as in any so-called ‘word of knowledge’, ‘word of wisdom’, ‘word of instruction’, or whatever we mere mortals have termed anything we associate as communication from the divine; That is, you’ll know if it’s the Truth if it’s from the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ (John 16:13-15).
In other words, any and all Word we receive, any lesson we claim is taught to us by the divine is righteous – when it all points to Christ. Whether it points to Christ organically, or even if we have to do some spinning of our own, the end result always has to be as the Holy Spirit moves – ALWAYS magnifying Jesus.
I suppose that’s a bit of a disclaimer that I would like to keep repeating as we go along with the reading of the book of Daniel (especially in these final 4 chapters just so full of prophecy)… but I am led to get back to the specific chapters from Daniel for this Sunday, just one more time for the details.
(cue Celine Dion) It’s all (more or less) coming back to me now. A majority of Daniel 9 was his prayer – again, of his confessing the sin of Israel, acknowledging the consequences of their actions, and his entreating God for mercy – but at the tail end, in the last verses we read specifically of how ‘the man‘ Gabriel appeared and gave ‘insight and understanding‘.
He proceeded to give him details, which seemed to describe the implications of what we in the New Covenant may very well recognize as Christ’s finished work. In other words, we recognize that the One who Gabriel mentioned was “to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place” (Daniel 9:24) is no less than Jesus Christ.
Gabriel continued by sharing what many folks agree was the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, an event which happened in 70AD. Now, I’m not about to go and mention if Gabriel was talking about only this event specifically, and/or if he was referring to future events… but I’ll stick to my guns here and say that it’s all for us to keep our eyes open, and, more importantly, to keep our eyes on Christ, and to keep our trust in our Savior.
Dismissive, much? No, I’m just moving along so we could jump right into John 9 and John 10, which I would rather be focusing on.
Now, let’s look at Daniel 10 and how it all points to Jesus Christ and His finished work.
But first, it’s important as always for us to establish context. If in Daniel 9, he prays and Gabriel appears, here in this chapter Daniel receives a vision while he is mourning and fasting: A glorious figure appears to him, speaking of a battle in the heavenlies between who the figure called the ‘prince of Persia’ and the ‘prince of Greece’. The chapter serves as a prelude of sorts for the final pair of chapters of what we now know as the book of Daniel.
With a little help from Grok AI, I learned that the ‘glorious figure‘ could be (1) the glorified, exalted Christ as described in Revelation 1:13-16, (2) who we call a Christophany – this is a pre-incarnate / pre-New Testament appearance of the Son of God, and/or (3) an angel delivering a message from the Lord. Looking at this now, I tend to lean towards the first two, as they depict our Savior in His glory prior to His incarnation, or after His resurrection and ascension. The point is, however we see this figure, we can truly say that He reflects God’s glory.
11 And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.Daniel 10:11-12
The man speaks to Daniel. Notice that we see the same points that we saw when Gabriel appeared to him – (1) that Daniel is greatly loved, and (2) that from the first instance of Daniel’s prayers, his words have been heard.
13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”
This figure continues by saying that he encountered trouble along the way, by way of the prince of Persia. With the help of Michael, ‘one of the chief princes‘, he eventually made his way to Daniel to speak to him. And with this being said, I’m back to thinking that this figure is an angel – for I don’t believe our Savior could be withstood. Anyway, let’s keep going.
15 When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute. 16 And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength. 17 How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”
18 Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. 19 And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
I’m reminded of a couple of things, coming from this exchange – First, in Exodus 33:18-20, Moses asked God if he could see His glory, and in the end he only saw God’s back because ‘no one can see (Him) and live‘. This tells me of the infinite nature of our Creator, and His absolute superiority over all Creation; It just follows that no finite creation could live, much less grasp His infinite glory. Here we read of how the figure, not necessarily God, spoke to Daniel, and though he did not die, he was rendered to the ground, and made silent.
‘one in the likeness of the children of man‘ then touched Daniel’s lips, which I assume enabled him to at least speak even in his state, and then this ‘one having the appearance of a man‘ touched him again, and I assume this strengthened him. Here, I am of our salvation. Look at it this way – by sin we were separated from God, and much so that the words of His messengers would render us powerless and speechless, and ‘no one can see (Him) and live‘.
9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers…Hebrews 2:9-11
Praise God, indeed, for Jesus Christ! Because through His suffering He founded our salvation; More importantly, He died so that we would be reconciled to God – and in His resurrection, so we were raised as sons and daughters, brought to glory – that is, we who once could not see God and live, we who could not stand the words of His messengers, could now call Him our Abba, Father, and could now RUN to His throne of grace!
20 Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. 21 But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.Daniel 10:13-21
All in all, friends, if I choose not to go verse by verse when I actually talk about these chapters, I will just condense all of it.
First, with a overview:
- Daniel 9 tells of his praying to God: Confessing his sin, acknowledging the consequences, and asking for mercy. Gabriel comes and responds to him.
- Daniel 10 tells of his mourning and fasting, when a man appears to deliver a message for the future; He is temporarily delayed, but by Michael’s help, he finally appears to Daniel.
Next, with lessons:
- The power of the Holy Spirit in us causes us to be like Daniel – humbled to the point that the only next step is to pray, not only for ourselves, but for our nation.
- We’re reminded of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, particularly of where Paul tells the church to pray without ceasing – why? Because here we read that even in the first words of our prayer, we are already heard, and word has already been sent to us; It’s just a matter of waiting.
- While we do wait, we continue to pray… but we would know when we get the response when it is preceded with the conviction of the Holy Spirit, particularly of our righteousness; just as Daniel was reminded, two times out of two, that he is ‘greatly loved‘.
- Indeed, in His presence there is fullness of joy. It’s a supernatural joy that we are able to celebrate, only by the finished work of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of our presence with the Most High in eternity, and His presence with us in this reality… And the cycle continues.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s our flowing, trusting God, and thanking God all over again – this time, from another perspective. We pray, and we enjoy His presence, and we continue to pray. Beautiful.
Look, I know I was supposed to ‘summarize’ this but I guess we only arrived at the actual summary here.
There appear to be more pressing things to write about, more time-sensitive things, which is why I’ll end this here. John 9 and John 10 to follow, very, very, very soon.
Until the next post – which may or may not be about those two chapters – God bless us all.
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