Daniel 10:10 - Meaning and Application

Here much is done to prepare Daniel to bear what Christ has to say to him. He is still frightened and only slowly coming back to himself, yet he is answered and upheld with kind, comforting words. We are shown how Daniel is brought back little by little, and we should notice each step.

Daniel is in deep distress and has a hard time shaking it off. The hand that touched him first set him on his knees and on the palms of his hands (Daniel 10:10). Strength and comfort usually come little by little to people who have been long brought low and troubled. They are helped up a little at first, and then more. We should not look down on small beginnings of mercy, but thank God for them.

Later he is helped up, yet he still stands trembling (Daniel 10:11), afraid of falling again. Before God gives strength and power to his people, he often makes them feel their weakness. Habakkuk says, “I trembled within myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble” (Habakkuk 3:16). Even when Daniel later had enough strength to stand steadily, he still set his face toward the ground and became silent (Daniel 10:15). He was overwhelmed, full of wonder and fear, and did not know what to say.

At last he recovered enough not only to stand, but also to speak. When he opened his mouth (Daniel 10:16), he first explained why he had stayed silent so long. He truly did not dare speak, and could not speak. In deep humility he calls the angel “my lord,” even though angels, in their own humility, call themselves fellow servants of the prophets (Revelation 22:9). He says his sorrows have rushed over him because the sight of the angel’s purity and brightness reminded him of his own sinful, sorrowful state.

This is a reminder that fallen human beings have reason to be ashamed when they see the glory of the holy angels who have kept their integrity. Daniel says his sorrows overwhelmed him, and he had no strength left to resist them or even lift himself up. Again, like one nearly fainting from fear, he says that no strength remained in him to receive these displays of God’s glory and these revelations of God’s will, and that he had no breath left in him (Daniel 10:17). He was so overcome that he could hardly draw one breath after another. This shows how good it is for us that God puts the treasure of revelation in earthen vessels, using men like ourselves to speak to us, not angels. If Daniel could not bear it, how could we? Israel felt the same fear at Mount Sinai when they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will hear. But do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19).

Daniel uses this to excuse his silence, which otherwise might have been blameworthy. He asks, “How can the servant of my lord talk with my lord?” (Daniel 10:17). Whenever we come near to God, we should feel the great distance between ourselves and the holy angels, and the even greater distance between ourselves and the holy God. We should admit that we cannot arrange our words as we would like, because our understanding is dark. How can people who are dust and ashes speak properly to the Lord of glory?

The blessed angel, sent by Christ to speak with Daniel, gave him every encouragement and comfort he could. It seems this was not the glorious person Daniel saw in the earlier vision (Daniel 10:5, 10:6). That was Christ, but this was likely the angel Gabriel, whom Christ had already sent to instruct Daniel (Daniel 8:16). The earlier glorious appearance, like God’s appearance to Abraham (Acts 7:2), gave authority and drew attention to the angel’s message. Christ himself comforted John when he fell at his feet as though dead (Revelation 1:17), but here he did it through the angel. Daniel saw him in a glory far less than the vision before him, for he had “the likeness of a man” (Daniel 10:16, 10:18). When this angel had appeared before (Daniel 9:21), Daniel was not thrown into such disorder, so he is now sent to him again.

The angel first helped Daniel with his hand. He touched him and set him on his hands and knees (Daniel 10:10), or else he would still have lain flat on the ground. He touched his lips (Daniel 10:16), or else he would have stayed silent. He touched him again (Daniel 10:18) and put strength into him, or else he would still have been shaking and unsteady. God’s power, working with his word of grace, is what truly fixes what is wrong in us. One touch from heaven can bring us to our knees, set us on our feet, open our lips, and strengthen us. It is God who works in us both to will and to do what is good.

The angel also assured Daniel of God’s great favor toward him. He says, “You are greatly loved” (Daniel 10:11), and again, “O man greatly loved” (Daniel 10:19). Nothing is more likely to revive a discouraged believer than being assured of God’s love. Those are truly blessed whom God loves, and it is comfort enough to know that.

He also calmed Daniel’s fears and encouraged his hope with kind, comforting words. He said, “Fear not, Daniel” (Daniel 10:12), and again, “O man greatly loved, fear not; peace be with you; be strong, yes, be strong” (Daniel 10:19). Never did any gentle mother quiet a frightened child more lovingly than the angel quieted Daniel here. Those who are loved by God have no reason to fear evil. Peace is theirs, and God himself speaks peace to them. They should then speak peace to themselves, and that peace, the joy of the Lord, will be their strength. Will God use his great power against us, or take advantage of us because his terror has overwhelmed us? No, he will put strength into us (Job 23:6). He did that for Daniel here. When the brightness of the vision had left him with no strength of his own, Daniel says, “When he spoke to me, I was strengthened” (Daniel 10:19). God’s word brings life, strength, and courage to his people. If he says, “Be strong,” power goes along with the word.

Now that Daniel has felt the power of God’s strengthening word and grace, he is ready for anything. He can say, “My lord, speak, and I can hear it, bear it, and do it, because you have strengthened me.” God gives strength to those who have none, as Isaiah 40:29 says. We cannot keep fellowship with God unless he gives us strength, and when he does, we must use it well and say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.” If God enables us to do his will, then we can stand ready for whatever he commands. “Give what you command, and then command what you will.”

The angel also assured Daniel that his fasting and prayers had come before God as a memorial, as the angel told Cornelius in Acts 10:4. Fear is natural for fallen people when an unusual messenger comes from heaven, because they expect bad news. But Daniel should not fear, because his three weeks of humbling himself and praying had sent special messengers to heaven, and he may expect peace in return. From the first day he set his heart to understand God’s word, which should guide our prayers, and to humble himself before his God, his words were heard, just as in Daniel 9:23. As God’s word brings light when it enters the hearts of the upright, so the first offering of prayer is pleasing to God (Psalm 119:130). From the moment we turn toward God in duty, he is ready to meet us with mercy. God is truly ready to hear prayer. “I said, I will confess, and you forgave.”

The angel then told Daniel that he had come on purpose to reveal the future state of the church, showing that God had accepted his prayers for it. “Do you know why I have come to you?” The meaning is, if Daniel knew the purpose of this visit, he would not be so shaken by it. If we understood God’s ways with us, and the way his providence and grace work, we would be more at peace with them. “I have come because of your words,” meaning, “I have come to give you a gracious answer to your prayers.” When God’s praying people call on him, he answers, “Here I am” (Isaiah 58:9). Prayer has great power, and in its time it has brought many remarkable things down from heaven.

Why had the angel come to Daniel? He says in Daniel 10:14, “I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days.” Daniel was always eager to search into hidden things, so this would greatly satisfy him. He had always cared deeply for the church, and its welfare was close to his heart. Knowing what would happen would help him pray better for it while he lived. He was already grieving the troubles his people faced then, but the angel tells him of greater troubles still ahead, so he will not stumble over the present ones. If he is tired now, when only running with foot soldiers, how will he contend with horses? It would calm us in present troubles to remember that greater ones may still lie ahead, and we should be prepared for them.

Daniel must also learn what will happen to his people in the latter days of the church, after prophecy stopped and the time drew near for the Messiah to appear. The vision is for many days. The main things shown in this vision would happen in the days of Antiochus, almost 300 years later. What the angel is told to reveal is not his own thoughts, guesses, or moral reflections, even though he is an angel. It is what he has received from the Lord. This is like the revelation of Jesus Christ that the angel gave to John to be passed on to the churches (Revelation 1:1). So here the angel says, “I will show you what is written in the scriptures of truth,” meaning what is fixed in God’s settled purpose and foreknowledge. God’s decree is like something written down. It stands firm and cannot be changed. “What I have written, I have written.”

There are scriptures of God’s revealed will, like public letters sent out to the world. There are also scriptures of his secret will, like closed records kept among his treasures, the book of his decrees. Both are scriptures of truth. Nothing can be added to them or taken from them. The secret things do not belong to us. Only now and then, a few lines are copied from the book of God’s counsel and given to the prophets for the church’s good, as here to Daniel. But the things revealed, the words of this law, belong to us and to our children. We should study what is written in these scriptures of truth, because they concern our lasting peace.

The angel also gives Daniel a broad view of the enemies of the church and its protectors, so Daniel can expect trouble but also safety and final victory. The kings of the earth are, and will be, enemies of the church, because they set themselves against the Lord and his Anointed (Psalm 2:2). The angel says he was coming with a gracious answer to Daniel’s prayers, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed him for twenty-one days, the same three weeks Daniel had been fasting and praying. Cambyses, the king of Persia, had been busy causing trouble for the Jews and doing them harm, and the angel had been working against him all that time. That is why he had to delay his visit to Daniel, since angels can be in only one place at a time. Or, as Dr. Lightfoot says, this new king of Persia, by blocking the temple work, also delayed the good news the angel would otherwise have brought.

The kings and kingdoms of the world were sometimes helpful to the church, but more often they harmed it. “When I leave the kings of Persia,” that is, when their power is brought low because of their unkindness to the Jews, “the prince of Greece will come” (Daniel 10:20). The Grecian kingdom was favorable to the Jews at first, just as Persia had been, but later it too would become troublesome. That is the condition of the church in this world, it escapes one enemy only to meet another. The old serpent is like a many-headed monster, because when one storm passes, another soon rises.

God of heaven is, and always will be, the church’s protector. Under him, the angels of heaven serve as its helpers and guardians.

Gabriel, one of God’s angels, was busy serving the church. He kept up the defense for twenty-one days against the prince of Persia, and he stayed with the kings of Persia, like a trusted court officer or ambassador, to care for the Jews’ interests there (Daniel 10:13). Even though the kings of Persia did much against the Jews, with God allowing it, it is likely that far worse harm would have come if God had not checked it through the work of angels. Haman’s evil plot is a clear example of how close they came to ruin.

After delivering his message to Daniel, Gabriel said he would return to fight against the prince of Persia. He would keep opposing him until that proud kingdom was humbled and brought down (Daniel 10:20), even though he knew another harmful empire, Greece, would rise in its place.

Michael, “our prince,” is the great protector of the church and the defender of its right but troubled cause. He is called “one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13). Some think this means a created angel, a highest-ranking archangel, like the one mentioned in (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and (Jude 1:9). Others think Michael the archangel is Christ himself, the angel of the covenant and Lord over the angels, the one Daniel saw in vision (Daniel 10:5).

He said, “He came to help me” (Daniel 10:13), and also, “there is no one who stands with me in these things except Michael” (Daniel 10:21). Christ is the church’s prince, not the angels, because angels are not the rulers of the world to come (Hebrews 2:5). He directs the affairs of the church and makes sure it receives good. He is also said to work with the angels, because he is the one who makes them useful to those who will inherit salvation. If he were not on the church’s side, its case would be hopeless. But, as David said, and as the church can say too, “The Lord stands by me among those who help me” (Psalm 118:7), and “The Lord is with those who uphold my soul” (Psalm 54:4).