Daniel 10:1-11:1, The Invisible War

“…there is an invisible world that is just as real as the visible world. There’s an invisible world. There’s a world that you can’t see and that I can’t see that’s just as real as the visible world. There’s a system. There are angelic beings. There’s a world that is real as touching your skin, kissing your child good night, cutting a steak, watching a sunset that’s very, very real.” (Chip Ingram, livingontheedge.com)

^10:1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. ² At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. ³ I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. 

⁴ On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, ⁵ I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. ⁶ His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. ⁷ I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. ⁸ So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. ⁹ Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground.

¹⁰ A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. ¹¹ He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. ¹² Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. ¹³ But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. ¹⁴ Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

¹⁵ While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. ¹⁶ Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, “I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I feel very weak. ¹⁷ How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.” ¹⁸ Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. ¹⁹ “Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.”

When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength.” ²⁰ So he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; ²¹ but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince. ^11: 1 And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him.)

Daniel, we may suppose, has been concerned about the return of some of his people to Israel and the resistance they have received there to the building of the temple. He has been in mourning, fasting and prayer about this for three weeks when “a man dressed in linen” appears to him and knocks him for a loop. None of his companions sees the man but sensing a divine presence they flee and hide themselves. Who is this “man”? It is either an angel or the pre-incarnate Jesus, the angel of Yahweh. His description parallels that of Jesus in his appearance to the apostle John in Revelation 1, so it seems possible that this is an appearance of God, the angel of Yahweh. Daniel’s response to him is the same as the apostle John’s, falling at his feet as though dead (Revelation 1:17).

The angel of Yahweh strengthens Daniel and explains that he has been sent to Daniel to answer his prayer but was delayed three weeks because of conflict with the “prince of the Persian kingdom,” an angelic being who has been given charge over the kingdom of Persia (Deuteronomy 32:8). The angel of Yahweh had been detained there with this angel and received help from “Michael, one of the chief princes,” to overcome this being’s “resistance.”

As the Expositor’s Bible Commentary notes:

The powers of evil apparently are able to hinder the delivery of the answers to requests God is minded to answer. God’s response was immediate, but “the prince of the Persian kingdom”—apparently the satanic agent assigned to the Persian realm—vigorously opposed the actual delivery of the answer…While God can override the united resistance of all the forces of hell, he accords to demons certain limited powers of obstruction and rebellion like those he allows human beings.

Perhaps the “prince of the Persian kingdom” was seeking to influence Persia and her king to shut down the Israelites who had returned to Israel. In any case, the angel of Yahweh and Michael engaged in conflict with him and defeated that action. And now the angel of Yahweh was going to show Daniel the future for Israel, the near future and the distant future, what he calls the “Book of Truth.” Then he was going to return to consolidate his efforts against the “prince of Persia” and then engage with the “prince of Greece,” the nation that would overthrow the Persian empire.

Paul tells us that we don’t wrestle with humans (flesh and blood) but with various levels or ranks of fallen angels (Ephesians 6:10-18). We fight in his strength with His armor, which is the salvation He has provided us in Christ.