The Prophecy of Daniel 10

Two weeks ago when I was here, I gave a sermon that was based on an article that I wrote for World News and Prophecy and being the good news. And I've been continuing that theme in another article that I've written and other thinking and research. And I want to continue that in a little different theme today. The sermon was, What Will the Next President Face? And if you will recall, I imagine that a prophet or a man of God goes into the Oval Office on January 21st after the new president is sworn in and sets down to explain a few things about the world and prophecy and God's plan of history to the next president. And so I'm going to continue that theme, not so much in just setting down in the Oval Office today, but just a thought that I have and centering on one particular section of the Bible today that has caught my attention and my thoughts in recent days.

There was an article that was in the Financial Times newspaper yesterday on the editorial page. The title of the article was, The World Confronts a Choice Between Chaos and Order. The world confronts a choice between chaos and order. And it was one of those articles that the writer goes off from a particular massive national intelligence report that was produced that tried to project the next 20 years or so in the world and what the world will look like by 2025 with the changes that are taking place globally and with nations financially and all the various matters of the world's scene. And it caught my attention because I've been thinking about that. But it also sparked a thought because I'm not sure that anybody, no matter how intelligent they are, can project 25 or so years out into the future and try to figure out what the world will be like based on our world today. And if you stop and think about it, just look at this recent presidential election. In late August, the conventions, both nominees, were nominated. And the issues they were talking about in late August were one thing. But by the time we got to the election here in November, so much had changed that it was really the economy that had dominated everything and basically finalized the victory that the Democrats had because it turned on the economy. But things happened so quickly. I mean, we had, how much were we paying for gas in late August? $4 a gallon. And how much are we paying today? Just to illustrate how quickly things are changing in the economy and the world and politics and matters that I don't know that anyone can project so far out. And it's always a reminder to me that when we in God's Church seek to understand our present world and the world to come, it's better to keep ourselves rooted in the Bible and the principles of God's Word and not try to get too far beyond that. Certainly, we want to be conversant with politics and history and the current events and what's happening in our world. But ultimately, the barometers and the outline is in the Bible and there are certain things that we need to always keep in mind. My attention has gone to Daniel 10. I'd like for you to turn over to the 10th chapter of Daniel. I know we've already been there once since the Feast of Tabernacles, but Daniel is such a rich book that I don't think it hurts us to go there again. This is a chapter that I know I haven't myself focused on, so I haven't preached on it so much in recent years just to focus on this one chapter. But as I did, it kind of gelled into a sermon here this morning in the 10th chapter of Daniel. I'd like to take us through these 21 verses and draw some lessons and point out some things to us from this particular episode and experience in the life of Daniel. As we understand the flow of the book and the story, we have to realize that a number of years have gone by since Daniel stood in that lion's den and stood up to Nebuchadnezzar. In fact, when we come to chapter 10 of Daniel, we have a whole new government. We have a whole new management in Babylon.

There's been a takeover. It wasn't a friendly merger either. Persia has come on the scene. The Babylonian Empire no longer exists. In Daniel 10, verse 1, it says, In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar.

So we have the Persians now in charge. History tells us they came in. And of course, you'll read back in chapter 5, I believe, where in one night Babylon fell. The Persians kind of tunneled under the gates of Babylon and diverted the river and took over when they were feasting. And that's a famous episode from the Bible and from history. And the Persian Empire, which Daniel God had given him the knowledge that would succeed Babylon, had already taken place. And we see Daniel is still here. It's interesting. He said, A message was revealed to Daniel and the message was true. The appointed time was long.

And he was in a particular place, verse 4 tells us, On the 24th day of the first month, I was by the side of the great river that is the Tigris. And so somewhere within the kingdom, probably at another government palace or building complex, Daniel was spending some time. On the 24th day of the first month, if you do your math, you understand that that's 10 days after Passover. Remember, Passover is on the 14th day of the first month.

So this is beyond the period of Unleavened Bread, and it is in that spring season of the year. But Daniel has still found a position in the government of the king of Persia, which is an interesting lesson because when someone usually comes in, certainly, Gentile kingdoms like this and history and even today, governments change. We're going through a governmental change in America, and we see new faces.

Maybe we'll see the secretary of defense, Robert Gates, be the holdover and remain as secretary of defense in the Obama administration. We can hope that, just on a personal side. But normally, you see a whole new team come in. One company comes in, takes over another company, management teams change. In this case, Daniel is still in upper management at the core of Persia, which is a very interesting lesson for us, no matter what we do in our jobs and how we relate.

It's a very important principle to understand, I think, when you know Daniel's life. You know that Daniel is a man of God, and he put God first. But he was also an intelligent man on top of his spiritual base, and he was competent. He was competent. And you see that as you go through the story of Daniel. You see that he knew how to stand before a ruler, a king.

He knew how to deal with a, let's say, how shall we put Nebuchadnezzar, a rather violent, fluctuating personality. He could be up one day, down the next, kind of like some of our households. And Daniel knew how to deal with it. He could, you know, he could, in a sense, massage the violent temperaments of Nebuchadnezzar and know how to work with it on one day.

And if Nebuchadnezzar was up the next, he could then know how to work that, work with it, not necessarily work to any selfish advantage. But he had competence that enabled him to be kept over. Anytime somebody can transcend one change of ownership, of management in a company or in a situation and continue doing their job, their given job, their responsibilities, you have to understand that sometimes there's more than politics. Yes, sometimes there is politics.

But it's not always who you know. You know, sometimes, let's face it, in our world today, you can get a job by who you know. But in time, you will keep that job because of what you know.

If the company is successful and if there's anybody worth their salt observing and running things. Daniel got his job not because of who he knew. He was an outsider. He got his job because of what he knew as God gave him that.

Daniel never forgot where he got his base. But he also had the competence and the intelligence and the ability to work within that system. And he had competence that enabled him to survive the change from the Babylonians to the Persians. And that we will see brought out again in this particular episode of his life. He is seeking to know something in the whole plan of God.

Now, it goes on in verse 1. It says, The message was true, but the appointed time was long. Remember, we're coming off of chapter 9 where this very long 70 weeks prophecy was determined and given to him. And he had that. And that's a whole other subject. That is the major prophecy of the Bible in one sense.

And Daniel is still puzzled, wanting to understand certain aspects of it, just as we are today, to be honest with you. I've studied the 70 weeks prophecy up and down, sideways, inside and out. And I still have questions about it. I think anybody that I've studied still has questions about it. But that's another subject.

What's important is us to always recognize what Daniel had—what was his modus of work? What was his approach? So he understood the message, and he had an understanding of the vision. In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat, or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. What we see here described is a period of extended fasting, semi-fasting.

I don't know that he was three weeks completely without food and drink in that sense. I don't think that's what this is describing. He didn't eat meat, no delicate, pleasant, big food. He probably was on a subsistence diet. He may have gone a day or so fasting, and then broke that fast with a very simple meal and some liquid. And then, a day or two later, maybe he fasted another period of time. I think that's what is being described here, and some of the commentators bring that out, which is really describing a three-week period that Daniel set aside through prayer and fasting and just not focusing on the next great big meal and the next Thanksgiving dinner, but focusing on God through prayer.

He probably went about his other duties. I don't think he was praying every hour of every day. He had other responsibilities and other things that he did. But he had set aside a period of time to seek deeper understanding in his relationship with God. Now, what was going on here, just to set this aside, recognized Daniel was in the area of Babylon, modern-day Iraq, but by this time in the story of the Jews who had been transported to Babylon, some of them had gone back.

The story of Ezra and Nehemiah begins to come into play during Daniel's lifetime. You go back and you read the book of Ezra, and you realize that that covers the time when some Jews went back to begin to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem.

So this was going on, and this was what in part was on Daniel's mind. The fate of this colony of over 40,000 probably Jews who had returned to Jerusalem and were an outpost now trying to rebuild in some way, and they had difficulties. You go back to the book of Ezra, particularly in chapter 4, you'll find that there were agents that had been hired to disrupt their work as they were rebuilding the temple back there. The work had actually ceased. In Ezra 4, you find that that work rebuilding the temple had come to an end or a closure for a period of time.

Not only, I don't know if they had ran out of money, but they ran out of will at that point because of the opposition. This was during the Persian period. And so that was also on his mind, the fate of the colony, the people, and what he understood to be the work and the will of God at that particular time as he was planning and working on this and going about it. Now, going on in verse 5, verse 4, On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the river, that is, the tigers, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man, clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz.

His body was like barrel, which is a stone, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude. Now, this is a description of an angel, and it's one of the most elaborate descriptions you will find in the Bible of an angel. You'll find many, many other references in the Bible to an angel, but in this particular case, this is the first or probably the most elaborate description that you will find in the Bible of this appearance of this particular angel, and it's quite dramatic. And Daniel lifts his eyes and sees this after three weeks, and sees this image and this person.

Verse 7, it says, I, Daniel, alone, saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. He was the only one that saw it, of his companions at that particular time. But they knew that something, they were hearing something, or something dramatic was taking place. Perhaps there were, I don't know who knows, there were other things that were not told about, maybe lightning or thunderings or something, but a great terror. Maybe it was just a sense that there was something happening that caused them to hide themselves. And therefore, verse 8 says, I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me, for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength.

Now, it's important to note, Daniel's physical strength waned at this point, and his mental agility probably had been somewhat weakened as well through the time of fasting. But now, in the presence of this great vision, he didn't have his own strength. Perhaps he was fighting his own terror, his own nervousness. What is it that's taking place? And with all the other images and revelations that he had had and all that he had been involved with, this was still something that was dramatic and got his attention.

He didn't say, oh, another one of these cinema of color surround sound episodes. I've had these before. He didn't lose that wonder and awe as to what was taking place with and around him, and so he lost his strength. Not so much his composure in that sense, but he recognized that he was in the presence of something pretty big. And I heard the sound of his words in verse 9, and while I heard the sound of his words, I was in a deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground.

And so he's now beginning to deal with what it is that he is confronted with. In verse 10, it says, And so Daniel is given this greeting as a man who was greatly beloved, highly esteemed by God, to be given this angelic messenger right here in this particular situation before him. He says in verse 12, From the first day, which was 21 days earlier, by this time you might imagine Daniel singing, God, what took you so long? Why did I have to go through this for three weeks?

And isn't that a typical reaction that any of us might have in seeking an answer to prayer? God, what took you so long? If you knew that I'd set my heart to understand, if you knew that I was humbled, and you heard my words, then why this period of time later?

Sometimes we may be even praying longer than three weeks. Maybe we're praying three months or six months. Or maybe we give up after three days. What's the scenario with us when we pray for something? Keep in mind, Daniel was at a point where he wanted understanding, and he had set himself to seek it and to get an answer.

How many of you have ever been to that point in your life? You don't have to raise your hand. But how many times have you been at a point where you really do need an answer, and you really do go fervently to God in prayer? This is not your quick, two-minute prayer on the way out the door. This is not just five minutes on your knees in your private place, and then you wonder, I've covered everything.

You've come to a point where you lock yourself in, but you go privately into your bedroom or whatever, and you know when you kneel down, you need something. You need to make contact. You need strength. There's confusion. There's discouragement. There's something facing you, and you know you've got to have something. How long do you stay with it? Three minutes? Three days? Three weeks?

Three months? Three years? How long? This is a three-week situation with Daniel, but the principle for you and I to remember is that there is something to fervency, persistence, and staying with it that is important to learn. Because what we find here when we go on in this particular episode is we find that something marvelous and unique happens when we really do go to God in an earnest manner in prayer.

Let's read on and just understand something here. Verse 12 tells us that from the first day when we heard your prayer, God said, take the answer, or God was determined to answer, however this works in God's realm. But verse 13 tells us, Now what this tells us is that the kingdom of Persia, which you go back to verse 1, they had a king named Cyrus. And history books will tell you that Cyrus was the king of Persia.

But verse 13 tells us that there is another power behind the king. There's another dimension of power at that level. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me. And this is an angel talking. This is a spiritual realm. This is another dimension altogether.

We're learning that there is more than the political heads of state, kings, emperors, presidents, or whatever, that rule over vast governments and empires. We're learning that there are angelic forces behind certain kingdoms. And this specific reference here to the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, the servant of God, for 21 days. Some type of a battle. I don't know how they fight in the spirit realm. Now you can get into all the fantasy episodes of Dungeons and Dragons and Star Wars. I have to stop right there and confess my ignorance. I see the ads for all of this stuff on computer animated games, and I just pass on them. I'm just not interested in them. Maybe I should be. When I buy a computer, I don't buy it for graphics. I don't care what games it will run. I just want it to do what I need to do, which is email and word processing and those things and surf the web. But I know that they have to have real fast processor speeds, Mitch Moss tells me, to run all these elaborate games and worlds that are within these computer games. So you can fantasize and imagine in that sense, but I don't think it even begins to come up near understanding what it is that is described here when it says, The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood a mighty angel of God for three weeks in some type of a titanic battle. We get these images in these elaborate scenes that we concoct in fantasy world, but I think that you might recall the Bible study I gave a couple of years ago going to Berlin and seeing this altar of the Temple of Zeus that is on display there in the Pergamon Museum, which is the seat of Satan that Revelation 2 talks about, and was an actual throne or an altar in the ancient city of Pergamos. And the depiction on that throne or on those images are of the Titans battling before the world was. This was the ancient world's vision and idea to describe how the world came into being. And there are these fantastic images and serpents and all that are battling in these images. And there's a story there. I think that may come a little bit closer to us to understand the struggle and the battles that do go on in the spirit world. And that was one human attempt to visualize what is something we see here. Moving on, Michael, one of the chief princes, a righteous angel, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come. Now, one thing we should learn from this. This is obviously a peek behind the scenes, behind the curtain of how the world really does run, and what is behind the physical manifestations of our world, that there is a spiritual dimension, that a great deal of activity, a great deal of opposition, and work is going on there as well. But, important for you and me is to understand the what is unleashed at times when we pray.

When you pray, that is good, and that is the response from God. When we do pray, and keep in mind what we're told, you hold your place here, and quickly go back to James 5.

James 5, where it talks about the prayer of a righteous man. In verse 16, James 5, in verse 16, you know this verse, it says, Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It goes on to talk about Elijah and his effective, fervent prayer. But that last sentence of verse 16 of James 5 tells us that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

That's you and I. That's not just Daniel, that's any of us. When we do pray, things happen. God answers prayer. And God will move heaven and earth at times in ways that we don't understand and know, but God will do that. And that's the expectation we should have when we go boldly before God's throne of grace for our needs. And to talk to him in the same spirit and attitude, with the same conviction and determination and commitment that Daniel made here in this particular episode. Because when we do, things happen. And it may take a period of time.

Forget the three-week window here and don't think that that's telling us how much time or whatever. It can be shorter, it can be longer. It depends. I'm not here to say that this is the recipe. The recipe is in the conviction. The recipe is in the determination. And to understand that things happen. That Daniel here set his mind to get an answer from God, and God determined to answer, and he did answer. But we're also told something else here about the spirit world. And that is, the demonic world, spirit world, can hinder our prayers. It can hinder the answer to the prayers. Not that it will completely keep it from happening, but there are powers of evil that apparently have the capacity to bring about hindrances and delays. Even the delivery of answers to the prayers of the believers whose request it is in God's mind to answer. This is part of what we should learn from this episode here. God's response was immediate, so far as his intention was concerned, but the prince of the power of Persia prevented it.

A satanic agent assigned to the sponsorship and the control of the Persian world, the Persian realm, put up a determined opposition to the actual delivery of this divine answer. This is not without precedent. You look at the book of Job, chapter 1, and you will see, remember in the story of Job, that Job has this audience with God.

And in the case of one individual, Satan is allowed to interfere. Only so far. If you remember the story of Job, he couldn't take his life. He took quite a bit, but he was not allowed to take his life. So that tells us that God allows certain activity within Satan's realm of power.

Remember, we're told in Corinthians that he is the God of this world, the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2. There is a power, and there is a control there, but God does not allow that to go beyond our limit. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, again, hold your place here in Daniel 10. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 10.

We're told how far this can go. Verse 13.

Keep in mind what we learn from the story in Job and what we can see here in Daniel. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, Paul says, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man.

So the trials, the temptations, the problems of our life are not any more common than what everyone else has. But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with a temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

So God has his limits that he allows Satan, in Satan's world, to interfere, to hinder, to even delay God's answer in the lives of his servants. This is what we should understand as we look at this. It may not seem fair. Some might question God's omnipotence. No, God is omnipotent. You have to put all of this into the perspective of God and his purpose and his plan. But there's no temptation in this particular way. And so when you go back here to Daniel 10, you understand that this was a hindrance, but it is teaching us something about prayer.

This is more than just prophecy. You study prophecy to understand a lot of things, but when you really study prophecy, you get more spiritual knowledge for how you and I live our lives and how we relate to God and how we relate to each other, then you really get about when is it all going to happen or who's going to be this particular arch figure of prophecy or whatever. I don't know if I can say that too much to my audiences, because look, it's not coming to all perfect knowledge about prophecy and charts and figures and all of this stuff.

Prophecy is far deeper than that. And as you study prophecy, you understand that you're looking at individuals that are relating to God to understand, yes, the times and the future, but also how to relate to God, which is in the end far more important. And here is a principle of prayer that really brings us into, I guess, a bit of an understanding at times is that at times there is a delayed response and we have to understand it and accept it. But you and I have to remain undiscouraged. We have to be continually persistent. That's what Jesus taught His disciples in Luke chapter 18.

Yeah, Luke chapter 18. Let's go there. Luke the 18th chapter. Beginning in verse 1, this is one of Christ's parables and it's a parable about prayer. Luke 18.1, Then He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. And that says it all. How often do we pray and lose heart? Because we think God doesn't answer. We think we're not getting through. We think whatever we think and we lose heart. And this is a parable of the persistent widow with an unjust judge who didn't fear God or man. And it teaches, as you read through here, that verse 5 says, by continual coming, we ultimately get an answer.

God does hear His elect who cry out day and night in verse 7, and He bears long with them. Our prayers have to be in the sense that we pray and we don't give up. There may be a number of factors that hinder us when we pray, not knowing why things may be delayed as part of it, but our responsibility and the teaching is to keep on praying.

You know, it might be, what if Daniel had given up praying on the 20th day? What if he'd stopped praying on the 20th day and he said, Let's go roast a turkey. Let's have some prime rib. Crack a bottle of good California wine. Forget this. Forget this. What if he'd done that? Would he then have had that appearance of this angel before him? It's a question to consider.

It may be that he had to go on even that long. If Daniel had been discouraged, like so many of us do, then he might not have received the words of chapter 11, which is really what chapter 10 leads up to. He gets into chapter 11, this very long prophecy, detailed prophecy of actually the Greek Empire to come. But had he given up, would he have received that? When we give up, when we get discouraged, when we let circumstances distract us, and we think God isn't hearing or we think that it's just a useless effort, after three minutes or three days or three weeks, are we then playing the part that prevents God from giving the answer?

That's a question for us to consider because it is important that we pray without losing heart and to be persistent in prayer. And even for a period of time, you may set yourself. Take a weekend. We love our three-day holidays in America, and we have several of them built into the calendar every year.

We go here and there and we do our thing for a long three-day weekend or four-day weekend coming up for some Thanksgiving weekend. How many times do we set aside a period of time just in the manner that Daniel did to seek God, rather than to seek our own pleasure, our and our, purposes or means?

We may not have the luxury of three weeks. Maybe we might have the luxury of three days where it's not that we spend our time for three solid days on our knees.

But in the sense of what Daniel did, we forego our certain pleasures and take part of that time to fast. You wouldn't even fast for that whole period of time. But you would set aside a period of time and you would say in your mind and before God, this day, this two-day period, even this week, as you go about your work or whatever, but my time is going to, extra time, is going to be focused in my seeking understanding.

And you do that through prayer, through study, through reflection, through discussion with your mate, your friend, your minister, a book that speaks to you or whatever it might be. And you set aside a period of time to come to deeper understanding. That's what Daniel did and that is the important principle for us to learn and to keep in mind. Now, let's go back here to the story and verse 15.

Then when he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. And suddenly, one having the likeness of the sons of men, so evidently another figure comes in, touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him who stood before me, my Lord, because of the vision, my sorrows have overwhelmed me and I have retained no strength. For how can this servant of my Lord talk with you, my Lord, as for me no strength remains in me now, nor is my breath left in me? Then again, the one having the likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me. And he said, O man, greatly beloved, fear not, peace be to you, be strong, yes, be strong. So when he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me. So Daniel was completely prostrate, mentally drained, physically exhausted, no strength, no will. We all know how that impacts our ability to sometimes even think and mentally rise to whatever challenges before us. We just assumed crash on the couch, sleep for 12 hours or 24, vegetate, just go out and sometimes, especially if it's a warm sunny day and it's quiet enough, you just kind of sprawl in the backyard or on the back porch or the patio or whatever and soak in a few rays and you have no mental strength, no physical strength, and you just need to recharge. This is kind of where Daniel was and he was completely without strength. Overcome by the power of the moment, what had happened, what he was viewing, what he was caught up in, it was really something bigger and grander than himself. He was weakened and he was humbled, but he was ready at that point to be strengthened by God. That's the point. This is when he came to the point where he was ready then to be strengthened by God and really to jump over the next few verses, again, to go into chapter 11 and then receive the words of this very, very long prophecy, which is another several sermons were we to go through all of that. Again, Daniel was ready to then be strengthened in a unique way spiritually to be able to receive this understanding, to receive the answer to his prayer. And the point, again, for us is to recognize that we have to come in our minds through a period of time that we may set aside or through an experience where we recognize we don't have the strength and that our great wisdom or the way we would do it, charge in, take charge, clean house, speak our mind, tell somebody off. How do you deal with a vexing, intractable situation? What's your reaction? We all have our clear reactions and how we think it should be done. Will that always produce the desired result? Will there be healing? Will there be reconciliation? Will there be peace? Because we've set our mind. Great! You've written that letter. You've told that person exactly what you think. You shot that email off, right off. You wrote that letter 10 pages.

Got it off your chest. Made you feel better. Sent it in the mail. But did it bring peace? You barged in to the principal's office, to the manager's office, to the counselor's office, to your neighbor next door.

You gave them a piece of your mind and you feel better, but do you have peace? Do you have reconciliation? Conflict resolution? We like to talk about it.

Not always. Not always. When we act at our own strength, sometimes we can get good results, sometimes we may not. We have to make sure that when we do act, we're acting on the strength of God.

Daniel came to a point where he kind of surveyed his wisdom, his store of knowledge.

Keep in mind, he had certain understanding. Go back to verse 1. He had certain understanding of the message and of the vision, but he was still mourning, seeking answers, seeking understanding, praying to God.

Look, you can have the degree MBA, Bachelor of Arts, Science. You can have the experience. You can have read all of Stephen Covey's books, all of the books on management, all of the histories.

Whatever it is that makes you full of knowledge, an expert, and the experience to go with it, to round it off, to give it balance.

And that can take us a long way. Daniel had all the book learning. He had years of experience. He even had many episodes where God had used him directly and revealed knowledge to him.

And he came to this point in his life where he had to survey all of it and realize he was pretty weak.

And he got to the point then where he could be strengthened. He had to be strengthened in this way.

Remember there was an episode in Paul's life, 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul went to God three times for an affliction that he had.

And God didn't heal him of whatever it was. And in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10, we won't turn there. I'll just refer to it.

Paul said that God told him, my strength is sufficient for you.

Paul had to get to a point in his life where he was weakened, probably physically, and he recognized after he had gone to God three times, and God's answer was, you're going to be weak in this area so that you can rely on me.

And when you come to realize that, you'll be stronger than you ever would be were I to heal you or to give you something else.

That's where Daniel was. He was at a point now where he became strengthened because he had now essentially realized he'd come to the end of his experience, his knowledge.

There were no more books to read. There were no more seminars to go to. No more retreats to attend. He had to rely on God.

And then he said in verse 20, do you know why I've come to you? The angel said. And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia.

When I've gone forth, indeed, the prince of Greece will come. For this angel, the fight wasn't over. He had to go back and contend with the prince of Persia who was waiting for him right up around the bend.

And with the prince of Greece will come. So he's going to be joined by another powerful demonic spirit.

But I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth. No one upholds me against these except Michael, your prince.

So he's going to have some help from Michael, one of the archangels.

And so this is a fascinating episode. It comes down to this point where we're told about the princes of Persia and Greece.

If you will, understand those. And this is just a little bit of speculation, I suppose. I'm not trying to set this as teaching or official teaching or doctrine.

But here's the prince of Persia, here's the prince of Greece. You've got the east and you have the west. The east is the prince of Persia.

And those eastern realms. Greece represents, in one sense, the west.

Or we get into Chapter 11 and you have these two figures called the King of the South and the King of the North.

And when you understand, again, the whole history and story there, you recognize that King of the South is going to come out of the area represented by the, in a general sense, by the prince of Persia, not out of, I'm not saying Iran today necessarily, but out of that area of that part of the world.

And the King of the North, we understand, is representing the west or that power out of the King of the North.

Greece is a European state, European power. So here you have these clashes of the prince of Persia and Greece, in this sense, contending with the servant of God, the angels of God.

And these kingdoms that even historically clash, Persian Greece clash themselves.

And so you get a view of a, of really, this is the real world politics that empires and world kingdoms, global powers, do have an altar counterpart.

And the spirit world of these powerful spirit beings.

Ephesians chapter 6 tells us, talks to us about the fact of these great dominions that are ruled over by Satan and his powers.

And that is, that's a fascinating subject to get into. I probably ought to give a sermon on that one of these days just to describe a few things about that from the Bible and from history. But when we look at this, one last point I draw from this, and this is as we try to understand our times and our world today, and talking about this particular article that spurred my thought to this chapter.

Any group, any nation, any intelligence gathering agency that tries to look 20, 25 years out into the future and project what the world is going to look like, you've got to understand that not just from what is on the ground in our real world today, but you've also got to understand the spiritual dimension that the Bible provides and the prophecies of the Bible and the broad outline of God's plan and purpose to be able to weigh all of those factors. And that would be a whole other subject in itself to go into. But to understand that, you've got to have the attitude that Daniel had when he went into it with the humility and seeking God, being persistent in seeking that prayer, and then coming to the point where you realize that your wisdom and your knowledge is not enough, that it takes the strength of God. And that's not just about prophecy, that's about the details of our life and the needs that we take to God as well. So let's keep that in mind as we enjoy our turkey today and reflect over the next few days on the greatness of God's blessings upon us as a people and as a nation when we have our own National Day of Thanksgiving.