40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Daniel 10:1-21 (Episode 522)

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

Chad and Daniel walk through chapter 10, where Daniel receives a vision so overwhelming that it leaves him shaken, speechless, and physically weak. They focus on the identity of the "man" Daniel sees, the spiritual conflict behind the vision, and how this chapter sets up the detailed historical unfolding in Daniel 11. Have a listen. More from 1517: ·       Support the work at 1517 ·       1517 on Youtube ·       1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts ·       1517 Events Schedule ·       1517 Academy - Free Theological Education New Books from 1517 Publishing: ·       The Turk at the Door by Adam Francisco ·       Luther and the Lion: A Narnian Catechism by Samuel Schuldheisz ·       By Water and the Word by Brian Thomas ·       Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith More from the hosts: ·       Daniel Emery Price ·       Chad Bird Follow 1517:  Instagram X/Twitter Facebook

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Sign up for some academies and read some articles, watch some videos, do all that stuff. And have you ever signed up for the mailing list? I mean, Chad, I know you're signed up for the mailing list.

You might not go to the website every day, but you'll get like a newsletter that will tell you all the new things every week that are on the website. So then you can be like, oh, I'm interested in reading that or I want to watch that. sign up for the mailing list, man. It doesn't cost you anything. It's an email you might actually open. How about that? Wouldn't you like one of those? Sign up and get that. Chad, we have finished Daniel chapter 9. We had a goal of getting through that. We got to hear about, you know, the 70 weeks, and we got to hear about a strong covenant being made. We got to hear about abominations and and all of this stuff uh leading up into chapter 10 where we're going to surprise get a terrifying vision all right i mean just i mean that's up for now for something brand new

right yeah and this uh i mean daniel certainly is going to be terrified uh the impact of this particular, this particular appearance of a man as, uh, as it's entitled here, we'll talk more about who this is in a minute. I mean, this is not literally knocks Daniel down. He's like face in the dirt. And then he barely gets up to kind of his hands and knees. He's shaken all over. And then finally he stands up and even when he stands up, he's quivering all over. So man, this, this is quite the vision that, that he has. And that's even before any of the words are given to him the words of the vision, which is going to take us into chapter 11. So this is chapter 10 is like this appearance of a quote man and what he says, how he touches and comforts and strengthens

Daniel. And then all this is basically just preface to the vision itself. The vision is going to be spelled out in astonishing detail in chapter 11. And I think we'll probably get there, maybe get a few verses of chapter 11 in this episode we'll see but yeah chapter 10 is kind of this is a is well i would argue it's a christophany uh just to let the cat out of the bag before we get there so this is appearance of christ and his initial words uh to daniel what he what he's going to kind of direct him toward what he says this is going to be about and then after this long preface of chapter 10 then in 11 and then flowing into chapter 12 which is actually the last chapter in Daniel, then you're going to get the actual breakdown of the history

which is coming, the history which will primarily concern what's going to happen with the end of the Persian control of that part of the world and the beginning of the Greek and the Seleucid control of the Holy Land. So anyway, that's where we're going with chapter 11. But first, we've got to get to chapter 10, where this man appears. I've always thought that when it talks about Daniel here being terrified or other instances of Scripture where people get into near the presence of God kind of things, and it uses similar language, that you can—and I'm sure we will spend some time talking about what exactly that means. But terrified seems like the word you use because there is no word to describe what exactly this would be like, whether you're talking about English, Greek, Hebrew. The vocabulary is lacking.

What exactly word you would use to adequately describe this experience? Pretty much. Pretty much. Yeah, I was curious even with regard to the Hebrew here, because you have a couple of words that are translated as trembling, but they're different words in Hebrew. So it's kind of like you're just searching for, let me get my thesaurus out here. Let me come up with some more words for trembling and use those here. And one of the words, I'm not sure which verse it's in, verse 16, he talks about the vision pains that have come upon me. That's a word that's used for labor pains.

And so, yeah, it's like they're using all these synonymous terms to describe something which is really inexplicable when you're actually experiencing this, which makes me think, I pray the Lord spares me from anything like this happening. Well, like, you know, I think about when, you know, Jesus is being arrested and he says, you know, he says, I am, and the guys go like falling backwards. John's gospel, yeah. Yeah, and then if you were to ask one of those guys, and it says that they fell down like they're dead or whatever, you know, this happens a lot in Scripture. And if you ask them, like, now, and, like, in perfect detail, describe me, what was that like? Those words don't exist. I mean, I don't know what that was like, but what are they going to say? Well, you know, the words you would use to describe what happens when God says, I am, and you go, like, falling down flat on your back, here's exactly what it's like.

There, of course, there's nothing. We have not invented such a word because. That's right. Because such words are incapable of communicating what it's like. Yeah. Some things, as we often say, well, you just had to be there. Right. Yeah.

I can, I can sort of describe it, but you really just had to be there to fully understand exactly what happened to us when God spoke or God appeared. Yeah. So that's what's going to happen to Daniel in this, in this chapter. Okay, so we'll kind of set the stage here with the opening verse. This is the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia. So this is basically two years after what happened in chapter 9. So this is 536, about 536, 535 BC. So in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. That's hearkening all the way back to chapter one, where Daniel is given this Babylonian name. And the word was true, and it was a great conflict, or you could also translate that it was a great war. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision.

So that's kind of a preamble to everything that's going to follow here, kind of sets the situation. We're a couple years into the reign of Cyrus. Keep in mind that you have the Babylonians, you have the Babylonian exile. Babylonians are the big dog in the block here. They brought all the Israelites, or most of the Israelites, to Babylon for this exile. Well, then the 70 years ends, and the Persians under Cyrus, they come in. Cyrus issues this famous edict in which he allows the Israelites to go back. You have some of the Jewish population that returns then to Jerusalem. But keep in mind, because this is going to come up in a minute, keep in mind that things weren't going great for those returnees when they got back. They faced a lot of opposition from the people who had been living there the entire time that they were in exile. We read about that, studied that when we were covering Ezra, whatever that was, a couple years ago.

So kind of keep that historical context in mind. But this is going to be a vision, a word about a great conflict. We'll hear more about that in chapter 11. And Daniel, we're told, understood it and grasped the meaning of the vision. Verse 2. In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris,

I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man. Now listen to the way this man is described. a man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold from ufaz around his waist nobody really knows where that is by the way so think of fine gold a belt of fine gold from ufaz wherever that's at around his waist his body was like barrel that's b-e-r-y-l which is a precious stone precious gemstone his face like the appearance of lightning his eyes like flaming torches his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude so quite the quite the description so first of all um this is this is interesting because

Daniel says that he had been mourning for three weeks. And because of that, he was basically fasting. So no delicacies, whatever that might've been. Certainly no fine foods, no desserts. He didn't have any meat, no wine. So I'm thinking here kind of a bread and water kind of diet, real simple diet. And he didn't anoint himself for three weeks. Now that might seem like unusual to us, like, okay, we're not going around anointing ourselves. But most people who lived in this climate, this culture, I mean, anointing yourself with olive oil was just almost as ordinary to them as taking a daily shower is to us, more or less. So why was he mourning? Well, that's why I was wanting you to keep in mind the historical context here, because Cyrus issued the edict

in the first year of his reign. This is now the third year of his reign. So the Israelites have been allowed to return to the promised land and to build. They were given the ability to rebuild the temple, but things fell apart really quickly. They rebuilt the altar and started offering sacrifices. But as soon as they started to rebuild the temple itself, then they had opposition from the Samaritans, other people living in those areas, and everything was shut down. So even though they'd been allowed to return, things were not going great back in Jerusalem. And no doubt Daniel heard about this. And for that reason, he was in mourning.

He was grieving, didn't eat anything but simplistic food. And this is happening on the 24th day, well, for three weeks. And then on the 24th day of the first month, that's when he has this vision. And so what seems to be going on is that this is the month of Passover, and Daniel just basically fasted his way through it, even though Passover was supposed to be a time of great celebration of God's redemption of his people from Egypt. So on what should have been a month of rejoicing, Daniel instead is mourning and grieving because of the situation of his people back in Jerusalem. This is how this goes, right? Like, if you've been displaced from a place for a long time, it just doesn't, like, sit there and wait for you to come back, you know. People will be like, oh, is this place empty?

Let me go set up camp here, you know. And then you got a real problem on your hands. That has not ceased to be the case. Yeah, yeah, for sure. They got back to a place that had been not, you know, sitting vacant for 70 years, but people moved in. Uh, they took over the control of the land and they claim that they've been worshiping the God of Israel the entire time. And so there was great opposition right away for, for the Israelites. So that's kind of, you know, what's going on with Daniel. That's what's going on with his people

back in Jerusalem. So what about this vision? Uh, verse five says that while he was, uh, standing by the great river, the Tigris, then he looks up and he sees this guy. And that's why the chapter, at least in the ESV, is entitled, Daniel's Terrifying Vision of a Man. Well, that's how he's, at least at the beginning, that's how he's described. He's a man. And if you were to scan the rest of the chapter, verse 16 calls him one in the likeness of the children of man. And verse 18 calls him one having the appearance of a man. Now, if you were to go elsewhere in Daniel, back in chapter 7, you hear about the one who is like a son of man. And then if you go elsewhere, like to Ezekiel, to his opening vision, you see the Merkava, the chariot, the glorious chariot

with the wheels within wheels and all of that going on. And who is enthroned on this chariot? Well, one having the appearance of a man. It's amazing to me how often God appears in the Old testament in human form having the appearance of a man or as as a man you have this all over the book of genesis of course you have this happening in exodus you have this happening in uh in judges when he appears to the parents of samson and we've discussed this as many times before but all of these together are uh the son of god who's appearing in this human form so human when he appears to Abraham in Genesis 18, along with two angels, that he sits down and has a meal. He's not like giving the appearance of eating. He's actually eating this meal that Abraham

prepares. All these are just a beautiful preparation for the incarnation where you have God taking on our humanity, our flesh and blood. But all of these Old Testament occurrences of God appearing as a man are a thorough preparation for the incarnation. You know, the tigress is mentioned here, and it doesn't say this, but I'll just have fun. Why do I get the distinct impression that Daniel looks up and this man is walking on this water? Yeah. Yeah. What does this river have to do with anything if not this, right?

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, Daniel's on the bank of the great river and he looks up and what's, who is this? If you're on the bank of a great river and you look up, what are you looking at? Yeah, yeah. It's either that or he appears just kind of like when Jacob was right beside the river and this guy jumps in the middle of the night, right? Wrestles him. Yeah. Either way, Christ is certainly associated with rivers in more than one place in the Bible.

Now, for those who might be relatively new to the podcast, even those who aren't, they might be asking, okay, well, how do we know that this is not an angel, right? I mean, that's a legitimate question. How do we know this is not an angel? Because, I mean, earlier in Daniel, we hear about Gabriel, who appears in human form to Daniel. So how do we know this isn't Gabriel? We know it's not Michael because Michael is going to be mentioned by name later in the chapter. So there's a clear distinction between this figure and Michael. So how do we know this isn't Gabriel?

Well, we know because the way he is described, the clothing he's wearing, the appearance of his eyes, arms, legs, the sound of his words. this is basically exactly how christ himself is described in the opening scene of revelation so you heard me read those verses just i'm just going to read you uh three or four verses this is from revelation chapter one john is speaking here i turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning i saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man. Okay. Daniel sees a man. John sees a son of man. But listen to this. This is John again. The son of man is clothed with a long robe with a golden sash around his chest. The hair of his head was white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like

burnished bronze refined in a furnace. His voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars and from his mouth came forth a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength now that is not exactly word for word what daniel saw but there's enough striking similarities between these two where you're like oh there's it's pretty clear who this is they're dressed the same their eyes and face arms and legs are described as the same. One says that the voice was like the sound of a multitude. One says the voice was like the sound of rushing waters, similar simile that's being used there. So every indication is, in fact, this is the Son of God. Well, let me put it this way. So if you told

me they did a story about how you'd met this guy, I said, what was this guy like? And then you gave Daniel's description. Like, wow, that's pretty wild. And then, I don't know, later on, I'm talking to Eric, and he tells me that he met a guy. And I say, what was this guy like? And then he gave me the Revelation description. I would, without a doubt, say, I think you and Chad met the same guy. I've heard of this guy, actually. Just recently, I heard about him. I think Chad awesome at him yeah we described him very similarly not exactly but uh close enough to where any reasonable person would say oh you obviously saw the same the same person yeah so that's who this is which is a really cool thing uh i think it's a i don't know for me i find it

so encouraging that you have all these appearances of christ in the old testament yeah because it means that he's always coming to his people from the very beginning. He was there in Genesis chapter 3, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. He was there appearing to Hagar. He was there wrestling with Jacob. He was appearing to Moses in the burning bush. He was appearing to the parents of Samson. He appeared to Jeremiah, to Samuel. Over and over you have him appearing in the Old Testament to speak, to act, to exhort, to do all those things that he does. So here he is appearing to Daniel and what happened when he appeared. Well, verse seven says that Daniel wasn't, he wasn't alone. There was evidently some guys with him, but they had different reactions

because he says, I, Daniel alone saw the vision for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them and they fled to hide themselves, which probably was not funny at the time but reading about it seems kind of humorous it's like they didn't see anything just got a feeling huh yeah whatever whatever happened to them they uh it scared them enough to where basically they just took off you know whether they felt something or sent something or heard something they heard that voice that multitude maybe they just heard it and they were like no that's i'm out of this i'm out yeah i always wondered like you know in movies when when they you know it comes time to depict the voice of god and it's always just like you know

this like low you know they have like chad bird doing the voice of god or something you know and it's like you know abraham abraham and you're just like why don't you just like get a bunch of different voices and then let's say the same thing and layer them up because that's what it seems like oh yeah that's what it seems like the description is usually in scripture so like because that would be different so you need like all different kinds of voices and then just like like, you know, layer them on top of each other. And then you'd be like, yeah, I know God's talking now. Oh yeah. Yeah. I like that. I hadn't really thought about that. Yeah. The sound of his words, like the sound of a multitude. Yeah. Like you got a whole crowd of voices that are saying the same

thing. I like that. Yeah. Maybe that's what they heard. That might be enough that you might be like, all right, that's it. I don't know where that came from. I don't, I don't see anything, but I'm, I'm out of here. Yeah, definitely. Definitely would have me running to, to hide behind whatever I could hide behind. So that's what these guys did with Daniel. As far as Daniel goes, verse 8 says, I was left alone, saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. The ESV has my radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I saw and I retained no strength, which one commentator says, I became a sorry figure of a man. There's any radiance that Daniel had was gone. I picture him very pale, shaking all over,

looking like he's just about to die. He has no strength. I heard the sound of his words. And as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. It's like basically face planted as soon as he heard these words and passed out and not that it's important but just like if you're trying you know when you read the bible you try to picture i mean you're getting descriptions here so that you can try your best to kind of get a picture of something in your head just remember that daniel is real old at this point like so there is an old man that's seeing this yeah i picture an 80 year old who falls flat on his face that's that's what's going on here? And passes out more or less. Yeah. He's like running away as a young man's game.

I'm just going to have to see this thing through. Yeah. Too old to run. So I'm just going to fall flat in my face. So verse 10 now, what happens as he's flat in his face? He says, behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. So he's moved up, you know, you picture him flat in his face. He's prone on the ground. And now he manages as we, you know, if we happen to fall flat in our face, that's what we do first, right? We get up, we don't like spring up. We get in our hands and our knees. So this hand, which is just a beautiful image, I picture you like Christ on the transfiguration touching his disciples. So here he walks up and this isn't the only time. I think one, two, I think three different times he touches him. He's

going to touch his lips. Yeah, he's going to touch his lips in verse 16. He's going to touch him again in verse 18. It's a real picture of compassion. He comes up, you know, like shake him, he touches him. And then now he's on his hands and knees trembling. Which is also like a super Jesus move. Oh, totally Jesus move, yeah. Yeah, this is what Jesus does. I mean, so there's, not to jump ahead, but there's a couple of things here. Like all of this like touching, like this touching is like, as you said, this is an act of comfort, right? So, I'm not here to hurt you, right? And then you have, later on in verse 12,

as Daniel can't stop trembling, even though he's been touched, and you're going to see in verse 11, he's going to tell him, you know, hey, you don't have to be afraid. But then he's going to actually say it, and he's going to use, like, the most common thing that ever comes out of the mouth of Jesus and just say, fear not, which is totally what... So, Jesus laying his hand on you and saying, if someone lays their hand on you and says, fear not, this is a Jesus move. Yeah. Yeah. Which is a, oh, it's such a comforting picture. Jesus, he's all about touching you in order to say, don't be afraid. I'm not here to strike you. I'm here just to give you comfort and encouragement. So this hand touched him, set him trembling on his hands and

knees. And then he spoke. Verse 11, he said to me, and this is, this sounds like Jesus too. Oh, Daniel, a man greatly loved. Wow. Yeah, man. If Jesus ever appeared to me and said, Oh, Chad, a man greatly loved. I could just like, just stop there. You don't need to say anything else. That's all I needed to hear. Oh, Daniel, a man greatly loved. Understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright. For now I have been sent to you. Well, there's so much Jesus all over this the touching the uh calling him a man greatly loved saying that he's been sent to you that's john's gospel that's the messenger of the lord all over the old testament sent to to his people uh then he continues and when he had spoken this word to me i stood up trembling

So he can't stop shaking, and understandably so. He goes on, he says, 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. from the right from the get-go when you position your heart to to understand when you humbled yourself before your god then the words that you spoke they entered into heaven into god's ears he heard them and i have come because of your words so the words go to heaven god the father says all right go to daniel this one who's greatly loved and tell him what i give you what i give you to say. Yeah, and you could say like, okay, well, this could be an angel because God could have heard these words and then sent an angel. Sure, that could be the case. But what it seems like

to me is that I've been around for that day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, and I heard those words, and that's why I'm here. Angels don't hear words when you pray, just so you know. And again, it doesn't explicitly say, like, I heard your words and I came, but this is the impression I get, is that you've spoken to God, I've heard it, that's why I'm here.

Yeah, my ears are divine ears that hear these words. That takes us through the end of verse 12. Now, verse 13 gets, not that the rest of it hasn't been interesting, but this gets interesting in a new sort of way. So he says, I've come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days. But Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.

For I was left there with the kings of Persia 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. So to kind of start with the end there, Christ has come. Because he's going to help Daniel understand not what's happening now, but what's going to happen in what's called here the latter days or the days yet to come. Really, most of what is going to be communicated in chapter 11 is going to be for two centuries after the time of Daniel. So it's what's especially what's going to happen when Persian control ceases. Alexander the Great shows up. Alexander dies. His kingdom is split between his four generals. And then the focus of chapter 11 is going to be upon especially what's going to happen between the Ptolemies of Egypt. and then the Seleucids of, well, the area of both Israel as well as Syria, that whole part of the vast Hellenistic empire.

So that's what's going to be the focus of Sebastian chapter 11. So that's the latter days or the days which are yet to come. So what's going on here at the beginning? Jesus says, Son of God says, The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days, But Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me. So this falls within what you might term spiritual warfare, where the prince of the kingdom of Persia is a dark, malevolent force who is fighting against the son of God. and then for 21 days, it says, which stood me for 21 days. And then you have Michael showing up, who's called here one of the chief princes. Of course, we're typically calling him the archangel,

but he calls him here one of the chief princes who comes and fights alongside the son of God in this battle, the spiritual battle that's taking place. This is a, I mean, you do have both hints of this as well as explicit statements of this elsewhere in the scriptures. But this is one of the unique places where we're told that what's happening you might say on the ground the kind of warfare that takes place between nations is paralleled by what's happening above the ground the kind of celestial or spiritual warfare that takes place where in this case the prince of the kingdom of persia would be one of the one of the demons who is especially active in persia who is withstanding the work of god doing whatever he can do to undermine the advance

of god's plan of salvation what god is doing for his people and he's trying to withstand the son of god and then both the son of god and michael they battle against him and so what's happening on the ground is parallel by what's happening in in the heavens you got warfare going on below you got warfare going on above as well yeah which is you know uh an interesting thing i think that maybe one thing you could uh inaccurately uh conclude from this is that these are like these battles are like man i mean so was was god did god really need michael's help or else maybe this was going to go a different way you know or something like that um uh and uh that's that is not the case. And we can say that confidently from the rest of Scripture, where yes, while it

is true that there's all this warfare going on in the spiritual realm, that at any moment, God can just end it. The war goes on because He allows it to. yes yeah absolutely same thing i mean you have this happening for instance i'm just trying to find the reference here as uh as you were talking uh but you see the same thing happening at the very end of this is just joshua chapter six where no later on anyway it's where the commander of the lord of host appears to joshua and well who is that well it's the same same one who appears to to moses in the burning bush so you have the the commander the lord of host uh who is the son of god here he's the same commander the lord's host the son of god but he's not alone he has the

heavenly armies with him and the kind of military language that we're used to doesn't fit perfectly doesn't fit at all with the kind of military language we're used to with just the earthly realm because there the outcome of the battles is uncertain whereas in heaven the outcome of the the battle is always certain christ is always always going to win just like he always wins in revelation as well yeah sometimes and sometimes he wins by losing and sometimes he wins by losing this is how this is how it goes okay so um we're at verse 15 when he had spoken to me according to these words i turned my face toward the ground and was mute so i had nothing nothing to say uh probably shocked by what was what was communicated to him so he's he's he's been

standing up he's been trembling uh now he he looks toward the ground uh shuts his lips nothing to say so verse 16 says behold one in the likeness of the children of man so this same one we've been talking about touch my lips oh so he was mute but now he gets his lips touched just like isaiah had his lips touched with the coal from the altar, just like when the word of the Lord appeared to Jeremiah in chapter one, he touched his lips to put his words into Jeremiah's mouth. So Daniel's has his lips touched. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, oh my Lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me. And this is the birth pangs kind of word that I was mentioning earlier in the episode. By reason of the vision, these birth

pangs have come upon me and I retain no strength. How can my Lord servant talk with my Lord? For now, no strength remains in me and no breath is left in me. So he can talk now. He's just saying, I'm so weak, I can barely talk. I can't handle any of this because weakness has left me because of this vision of you appearing to me. Yeah. Yeah, this is like you imagine you ever had someone like, I don't know, maybe you're a runner, Chad, but if you like go play a sport or something

and you're like completely out of breath and then like someone's talking to you and you're like, and you can talk, but you can't talk, you know? Right. You're like, hold on, I can't, I can't catch my breath. I can get some words out, but like I can't have a conversation right now. You got to give me a second to catch my breath

and I can talk, then I can talk to you. Uh, so, uh, verse 18 says, again, one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. So three different times in this chapter, the son of God comes to Daniel. He touches him or he touches his lips or he touches him again. And each time he strengthens him and he speaks to him. So you got touch and speech, which of course you find happening in the gospels as well. Jesus really just touches, he comes up and he touches, and then he speaks, makes that physical contact, says his words. Yeah, what I like too is that Daniel, again, being an old man, I'm sure he's like, listen, whatever you need from me, I'm probably like a bad candidate for this,

like whatever it is. It doesn't really, I mean, I can't even speak. Instead of simply, you could just say like you know the man touched him and and said no you got this you know which is which is maybe what we would do no man you got it uh you can do it you got some strength left in you old man you can do this yeah you got it man uh no instead it says you have this like right here where no he gets touched and strengthened me it's so that it grants that like oh yeah i mean of course you can't uh so i'm gonna give there's a supplying what is needed right yeah yeah yeah which is uh this is what god does right he gives us that which we lack in this case he gives the strength that daniel doesn't have in himself and he goes on to to repeat himself from earlier he

says oh man greatly greatly loved fear not peace be with you be strong and of good courage whole string of uh great kind of christ words you're loved don't be afraid peace be with you there's that resurrection greeting peace be with you and then from joshua be strong and of good courage and as he spoke to me i was strengthened there you go the word does its work right yeah as he spoke to me i was strengthened and said let my lord speak for now you have strengthened me Man, Daniel's not under any illusions about how this works, right? Yeah. Yeah. He knows exactly the way this works. With God's words comes the strength that we lack within ourselves. And then to wrap it up, verse 20 and 21. Then he said, do you know why I've

come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia. So he's going to continue this battle. He's going to fight against the prince of Persia. They referred to a few verses earlier. And when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come, but I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth. There was none who contends by my side against these, except Michael, your prince. So he asked this rhetorical question. Do you know why I've come to you? Doesn't really give an answer, but then he says, I'm going to go back. So I'm going to, I got to, I've got to fight against the prince of Persia. I've got to fight against these malevolent forces. But the Prince of Persia isn't the only one that is on the radar because the Prince of

Greece is going to come. So you can picture these various places, Persia, Greece, Babylon, associated with these malevolent forces, these demonic forces who are doing the bidding of evil in order to put out, to put forward their own will, their own motives, their own plan. so you got the prince of persia right now but the prince of greece is coming these malevolent forces associated with a hellenistic empire but verse 21 i love how he ends he says i'm going to tell you what's inscribed in the book of truth so none of this has happened yet yeah i mean this this is this is looking toward the future but it's as certain as if it's already been written imagine like someone sitting down and they're writing a book about what's going to happen

and choose the year 50, 100 years from now. They're like describing it in pretty significant detail. It's already written, ink on the page. That's the way this is communicated here. So it's in the book of truth, this truthful book. It's already written here. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. And then he ends by referring back to Michael, your prince,

because Michael's associated with the people of Israel. Yeah, God reaches up and pulls a history book about the future off the shelf. right yeah just uh uh it's it's great it's a great comfort because you know when we're confused about what's going on we can always say well god god knows it's written in his book of truth uh both about my life and the life of my nation and the life of the world it's it's all there he knows what's happening ahead of time yeah all right that's it that's it we're out of time uh we got we got more coming uh in the next in the next chapter and uh we will get into that next week.

Chad, I'll see you then. All right, see you then.