Daniel
Chapter 10
Cyrus is now the king. He is of Persia. The Persians are now ruling over the land.
Cyrus conquered many lands. His kingdom covers more land than any of the others.
This is the third year of his rule over the land which also includes the area where Daniel is.
Daniel has been praying. He is on a part fast—-he has been eating only vegetables and fruit and drinks water. He has not been eating any fancy foods, meat, or wine.
For 3 weeks he has been praying. On April 23 of that year, Daniel was standing beside the Tigris River. He saw a man—–not a human man—but a special heavenly man.
The man was dressed in while cloth made of linen. His belt was made of gold.
He looked like a shinning, sparkling gem stone.
From his face came flashes like lightning.
His eyes were like torches of flame.
His arms and feet were like shinning bronze.
His voice was like the noise of many people speaking.
Daniel was the only one to see anything. But the men with him felt fear and they ran away.
Daniel was there alone. He was so afraid —-when the “man” spoke—-Daniel
fainted with his face to the ground.
The “man” touched him and lifted him up. He said, “Daniel, you are much loved by God. Listen carefully what I tell you. Stand up. I have been sent to tell you things.
Daniel stood up but he was still shaking.
The “man” said “Do not be afraid. Since the first day you prayed (3 weeks ago) to understand the visions you have seen and you humbled yourself before God (by fasting and prayer) your prayer was heard in heaven.”
“But for 21 days (the 3 weeks) the spirit prince over Persia has been standing and blocking me from getting here.
I called for help. Michael (one of the archangels) came to help me. I left. Michael stayed to fight with the spirit prince over Persia.”
“Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future. This vision is about things to come in the future.”
***********
Notice: God heard Daniel’s prayer on the first day he prayed. God sent a “man” angel to bring the answer. This angel met another spirit angel an evil fallen angel who was over the land of Persia. This fallen evil angel did not want the angel coming to Daniel to get through to bring the message.
They fought/ struggled/wrestled in the air. This was a very powerful evil angel to be able to push against one of God’s holy angels. This fallen evil angel had been given charge of the air/heavens over Persia. He was there to tempt the people of Persia — to sin — worship idols — do wrong — go against the God of heaven.
Fallen angels demons tempt people to do wrong. In places where people are willing to sin and do wrong it makes the demons over that place even stronger.
Demons fallen angels can be anywhere in the atmosphere. They are there to tempt people to do wrong. Some fallen angels are stronger than others. Some have been given a certain place to stay and work. Their job is to make all kinds of evil happen.
So when this angel was sent to Daniel he went through the sky/air to get to Daniel but this fallen angel over Persia tried to stop him.
The angel coming to Daniel called to heaven for help and Michael came to help him.
We know from reading in other places in the Bible that Michael is one of the highest angels. He is the angel that is sent to fight against Satan and the fallen angels. He is very powerful.
The angel with Daniel touched him. Daniel tried to talk but he was so afraid. He told the angel that the vision he saw made him so afraid. He said that now he was afraid to be with this angel and he could hardly breathe.
The angel touched Daniel again and told him not to be afraid. Daniel felt a little stronger. The angel told him that he was deeply loved by God. That he should be at peace and be strong.
The angel said that soon he would have to go back and help fight against the spirit prince of Persia (so this is a very powerful fallen angel) he also said that he would have to help fight against the spirit prince over Greece.
He said that no others could help him with these spirits princes except Michael.
He told Daniel that Michael was the spirit angel to watch over Daniel‘s people the Jews, Israel. So Michael was watching over Daniel, too.
This angel said that he has been standing with Michael watching over Daniel since the first year that Darius the Mede was the king. Daniel was like “a special representative” of the Jewish people.
The angel said he would tell Daniel what was written in the “Book of Truth” .
*****
We can understand from read this chapter that God hears our prayers as soon as we pray them.
In this chapter we see one reason the prayer did not get answered right away.
This may not be the reason some of our prayers are not answered, but we do see that there are demons/ fallen angels in the atmosphere that try to make trouble.
People always want to know why their prayers are not answered. I do not think any one can give the perfect answer to that.
There are many reasons:
We need to ask believing and have faith.
It needs to be in God’s will.
It needs to be God’s will for us. It may not be good for us.
It needs to be the right time to send the answer.
If we are asking for something that depends on another person’s will to choose we must wait for that person to choose, for God to send things to them that will help them change their mind.
There are probably other reasons.
And it may be evil spirits are blocking the answer.
The Bible tells us to ask to pray to expect an answer to have faith. So we need to do that and leave the answer with God.