Theological Commentary: Click Here
As we look
at Daniel 10, I’m going to leave the obvious content behind. Instead, I want to focus on the set-up to
this passage. Daniel tells us the
time. The time correlates to the third
year of Darius the Persian king. This is
late in Daniel’s ministry. We hear that
Daniel is praying and fasting. In fact,
we get the impression that he is doing some very serious praying and
fasting. He’s been restricting himself
for a good bit of time.
The question
that we should ask is why. Some research
into history tells us why. This is the
year that Darius allows the first wave of exiles to return to Jerusalem to
rebuild the city. Daniel is praying and
fasting because his fellow Hebrew people are returning home, facing opposition,
and reclaiming the promise that God has given to them.
In this we
can truly understand the vision. Daniel
sees a man who is powerful and dressed like a priest. It is neat to think that at the time that the
Hebrew have returned to reinstituted the worship of the Lord that Daniel gets a
vision of a powerful priest. It is at
this time that we also hear about the spiritual warfare taking place across the
nations. It is no surprise that as God’s
people head home that the spiritual warfare across the nations begins again,
either.
What do we
have going on in this passage? Daniel,
in his wisdom, knows that the people carrying on the spiritual torch need to be
prayed over and protected. He knows that the enemies of God will not be happy
as God’s people return home. He is in
touch with God and God’s ways enough to see beyond the joy of the moment of
return and see the bigger picture that will come.
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