Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You're In Battle | The Writings | Daniel 10

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Did you know that you're at war right now? There is a war being fought all around you at every moment. What should you do amid a spiritual battle? Keith looks to Daniel's vision in Daniel 10 to find answers. Find hope from today's episode. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Daniel 10

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Daniel's chapters 10, 11, and 12 fit tightly together. Today, we're just focusing on Daniel 10. It serves as an introduction to a vision that comes tomorrow in chapter 11. Before we dive into chapter 10, I just want to go back for a second and see if you noticed a change that took place between the first and second half. of Daniel. In the first half of the book of Daniel, the kings were having dreams, and they were asking

Daniel to interpret their dreams for them. In the second half of Daniel, he is the one having the dreams that require interpretation. All right, here we are, verse one. In the third year of Cyrus, King of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel. Its message was true, and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. So the setting for this vision, Daniel is going to have is that it's the third year of Cyrus King of Persia. So this vision is happening after Cyrus has allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and restore and rebuild the temple. Verse 2. At that time, I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food, no meat, no wine touched my lips, and I use no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. So Daniel is fasting.

He's trying to spiritually prepare himself to receive this vision that God had for him. He knew that he needed to be focused on God and not distracted in any way. Beginning in verse 4, he has the vision, or at least starts to. It says, then on the 24th day of the first month, he looked up and saw a man dressed in linen with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like crystallite. His face was like lightning. His eyes were like flaming torches.

his arms and his legs were like the gleam of burnished bronze and his voice like the sound of a multitude. When this happens, Daniel is standing on the bank of the Great River, the Tigris, and there are other people standing around him. Although Daniel alone saw the vision, the others were overwhelmed with terror and fled and hid. Daniel was also greatly distressed by what he saw. His strength vanished, his face turned deathly pale,

and he was helpless. We're not told who this. this man dressed in linen was, but he appears to be an angelic figure. So when Daniel sees this majestic figure, he falls into this deep sleep. He's face down on the ground. A hand touches him, and he gets up on his hands and knees. The angel's message to Daniel was that he was highly esteemed by God. He was a man that God looked to, one to whom God was about to give a special revelation. The messenger, this angel, continues telling Daniel, that, since the first day he had set his mind to gain understanding and to humble himself before God,

his prayer had been heard by God. So at the beginning of the three weeks, the messenger sets out to respond to Daniel's prayers, but there had been a delay in getting to him, and that delay had been caused by the Prince of the Persian Kingdom who had resisted God's messenger for 21 days. The Prince of the Persian Kingdom is a reference to an angelic or supernatural being, who represented the Persian kingdom before God. Because he was detained from coming, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help him, and he takes up the battle and allows the messenger

to explain to Daniel what's going to happen to the people in the future. So the Bible tells us, both in the Old and the New Testament, that there are spiritual beings, there are angels all around us. We can't see them, at least not most of the time. Some of those angelic beings are on God's team, and some are demonic beings that have rebelled against God. So the Bible tells us there's this great spiritual battle that's happening both on a personal level, but also in Daniel 10 on a national level. So how should we think about this spiritual battle that is raging all around us?

I think it's easy to get scared. So I just want to close with an Old Testament story about spiritual. beings that I hope gives you confidence in the middle of the spiritual battle that we're all in. This story comes from the book of Second Kings. The king of Aram was at war with Israel. He was frustrated because the prophet Elisha knew his troop movements. And so Elisha would go tell the Israelite king and the Israeli army where they should be on guard, where the king of Aram was going to attack them. So when the king of Aram hears what Elish is doing, he sends all his troops to capture the prophet. In the middle of the night, Aram's troops surround the city that Elisha is staying in.

So when Elisha and his servant get up in the morning, they find themselves encircled by Aram's army. Elisha's servant was scared to death, and I understand why. The enemy was overwhelming and closing in on them. So Elisha prayed that God might open his servant's eyes so that he could see the real state of things. In answer to his prayer, the servant looked and he saw the hills around Elisha full of horses and chariots of fire. See, behind Elisha, the man of God, stood angelic forces which had assembled to protect him and to do battle on his behalf. There are other stories in the Old Testament where we get glimpses of God's spiritual forces who are behind not only godly individuals, but also God's people as a whole. God was on the side of his people, and he battled on their behalf through supernatural

angels. See, behind Israel and her armies lie the armies of God. Now that should give you and I great confidence. Yes, we are in a spiritual battle. Yes, we can feel like we are overwhelmed. But by faith, we can know that God's angelic beings are fighting that spiritual battle on our behalf. We are We don't fight alone. The armies of God are with you. Amen.