In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks. Sermons
1. Its subject-matter is afflictive. "The conflict is great. It covers a time of great calamities (see the Hebrew). 2. The prophecy was to be unusually intelligible. And he understood the word, and understanding was there to him in the vision." Some haze of mystery there might be, but not the thick darkness which had enrobed preceding revelations. 3. It would certainly be true. "A word was revealed to Daniel... and true the word." The prophecy of ch. 11. is the most minute of Scripture; and hence men have been tempted to disbelieve in it as prophecy, and to regard it as prophecy written after the event, lien might have disregarded it before fulfilment; hence Daniel gives this assurance. We now here concern ourselves with Daniel's vision of the Christ. I. THE SCENE OF THE VISION On the Tigris. The first migration to Jerusalem had taken place. Daniel's advanced age made it, perhaps, impossible that he should have joined in it. He may have been on the Tigris: 1. Either on an embassage. 2. Or retired from all official life. II. THE TIME OF THE VISION. 1. Two years after the first migration back from captivity (ver. 1). 2. A time of sorrow. Mourning was usually for seven days: Daniel mourned for three times seven. Fasting, etc. Why? Realize the circumstances. The temple was indeed rising; but neighbouring peoples were exerting all their influence with the Persian king to frustrate the work. Therefore anxiety and fear. Daniel's affliction would be in proportion as success seemed certain. Good men grieve over slow progress of the Divine kingdom, and the fierceness of the opposition. 3. Time of the Passover. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month came the vision. We infer that Daniel had consecrated the first three weeks of the new year to devotion. This included the Passover week - a time of unusual solemnity - when he would be in earnest sympathy with his nation. III. THE VISION. That this was none other than the vision of Christ the Lord appears: 1. From the after-developments of the scene. 2. From a comparison with the vision of Christ in the Apocalypse. (Revelation 1.) Compare the two descriptions of clothing - the girdle, the countenance, the eyes, the feet, the voice. Daniel adds, "His body also was like the beryl." John adds, "His head and his hairs were white," etc. In drawing out the description into detail, note: the clothing was of the finest, purest - the garb of priests, prophets, saints, and angels; the uncovered portions of the body shone with gemlike splendour; all the symbols suggest light-splendour; the girdle of fine gold; the arms and feet "like the eye of polished brass," the part that catches the blaze of sunlight and throws it back; the face as lightning, and the eyes as fire; the voice majestic. All this may be spiritually expanded. IV. THE EFFECT OF THE VISION. 1. On the companions of the seer. (Ver. 7.) Compare effect on Paul's companions on the way to Damascus, of the vision of the same Christ. 2. On the seer. (Vers. 8, 9.) He swooned; but the mighty voice came rolling into his ear, as the roar of ocean breaks into the caves upon the shore. Here we have a picture of the inability of man to stand before the unveiled revelations of God (comp. Revelation 1:17). V. THE RESTORING OF CHRIST THE LORD. Christ: 1. Sets man erect in the presence of Divine revelations. (Ver. 11.) No need of cringing. We ourselves are made. in the image of God, and have affinity with the Divine. 2. He does so gradually. Daniel was first flat on his face; then on all fours; then half-raised and trembling; and finally stood upright on his feet. In this, see how man is gradually led up to all the light which God has to give. In heaven the unveiling may be gradual (vers. 9, 10, 11). 3. Sympathetically. "Behold, a hand touched me" (vers. 10, 16-19). 4. Assures man that his devout aspirations are recognized beyond the sky. Daniel's was the attitude of a devout truth-seeker. He "had set his heart to understand," and "to chasten himself before his God." We should have more uniformity of Scripture interpretation, were the interpreter always of this spirit. 5. And of the sure answer to his prayers. (Ver. 12.) As soon as prayer was offered, it was heard, and secret agencies were evoked for its answer; but there were many obstacles to be overcome. The later part of the chapter shows this. So may it ever be, before our prayers can be answered, long lines and combinations of secondary causes may have to he set in operation, and formidable hostilities subdued. Patience in waiting for, as well as faith in expecting, the answer, are both necessary in the matter of prayer. - R.
O Man greatly beloved. Daniel is the servant of God seen in the haunts of the wicked world. No place is essentially unfit for the child of God. It is not of necessity in seclusion from the world that the saintly character is formed; holiness may exist, and the most perfect man be brought out in haunts which are peculiarly the dwellings of Satan. But there are certain safeguards and tendencies which are necessary to such a position. All the circumstances connected with Daniel's position, character, and writings, tend to give him an important and prominent position in the history of the Church of God. He is a highly interesting type of the position which the servant of God may lawfully occupy in the midst of scenes of dazzling temptation. We must simply go out of the world, if we are to avoid its temptations and allurements. Daniel's safeguards concerned his food. He prepared himself by thoroughly mastering the learning of the people amongst whom he sojourned. He preserved most rigidly his habits of attention to the hours of devotion ordered by the Jewish church. He entered the world with a resolute determination to speak the truth before God conscientiously. With these four weapons every one who enters or lives in the world must war against it and protect himself.(E. Munro.) II. THE PEACE WISHED UNTO DANIEL. It is that which St. Paul speaks about. (Romans 5:1; Romans 4:25) If you don't feel that you have the peace, trust God, and he will give you consciousness of it. III. THE THREEFOLD CHARGE. Fear not. Why should you fear? Your Sins are washed away. Christ's righteousness is yours. Be strong. In thy testimony before men. In faith, giving glory to God. Believe, Faith is to be exercised in temporal matters. (J. Duncan Craig, D.D.) I. The text glitters with A CHOICE TITLE. Daniel is said to be a "man greatly beloved," or as some read it, "a man of desires" — a desirable man towards God, whom God desired to commune with, in whose society the Lord delighted. He was a "man greatly beloved." Now the great love of God to Daniel is very conspicuously seen in his character. I shall not describe his character as the reason why God loved him, far from it, but I shall mention his character as being the effect of God's great love to him. God loved him greatly, and therefore he made him this and that. The first token of the Lord's great love to Daniel which we shall consider was this, God gave him early piety. No one can ever over-estimate the great privilege of being brought to God in childhood or youth. If it were only to be saved from the injury which a course of sin brings upon the mind, if it.were only to escape from the regrets for the past which will arise even when the conscience is in after days purged from sin, if it were only to have saved those precious hours of the early morning of life and to have used them in the Master's cause, if it were only for those three reasons, and they are but part of a great cluster, they are something for which eternally to bless the Special love of God. "O man, greatly beloved, when thou wast a child the Lord delighted in thee." But, secondly, the great love of God to Daniel appeared in his early and thorough nonconformity to the world. Everything was done that could be done to make the young Hebrew forget the God of his fathers. His very name was changed as well as those of the three right worthy companions of his captivity. Everywhere around them they saw idolatry, lust, and crime. There was nothing when they went abroad or when they stayed at home but what would suggest to them the abominations of the heathen. It is always safest if you are at war with a deadly enemy to have a very high wall between you and him. There will be no fault in its being too high if he aims at destroying you. Any division which we establish between us and sin, will never be too broad or too deep. Gentle manners are a fit robe for firm principles. We read, therefore, that Daniel "requested of the prince of the eunuchs, that he might not defile himself." If you are not at the outset thorough for God, I fear you never will be. Christians ought to grow in grace, but I am sorry to say that with many of them they go from weakness to weakness, and all I fear because there is not a sound beginning. Every builder will tell you the necessity of having the foundation laid well. Daniel was a man greatly beloved, because even early he was distinguished for his nonconformity to the world. In after life we find another sweet result of God's love, in his courageous trust in God. He was a man greatly beloved to be such a lion as he was in the midst of all his foes. Coupled with this as another evidence of God's love to him, was his wonderful endurance of prosperity. A further instance of God's great love to him comes out in his firmness under trial. Let me add, that here we ought not to forget that God's grace and love shone conspicuously in making Daniel a man of such continuous devotion. Every day witnessed his constant regularity in prayer. I think that I have shown you that the outward signs of God's love to Daniel were such as many of us have enjoyed in a measure and may enjoy still more, for there are some here who were saved in youth, some who early began to be decided for God, some who have been brave for Christ, and have not denied the faith, who have sustained prosperity, and have endured trial too, and who have by grace been taught to plead with God. Perhaps they will not recognize themselves, but we may be able to recognize them, and call them men greatly beloved. In one word, there was one crowning token of God's love to Daniel, and that is the perfect consistency of his life all through. It is a special mark of a man greatly beloved, when he is consistent from the beginning to the end through the grace of God. II. I must hasten in the second place, to notice that Daniel became the subject of a COMMON INFIRMITY. He was full of fear on one occasion, and therefore, an angel said to him, "Fear not." I am glad of this, because it teaches us that even the best of men may be subject to very great fears. He was nothing in himself, and owed all his greatness to the grace of God. Those fears on the part of Daniel were not the result of personal trial just then, they came to him indeed, when he had been highly honoured by revelations from God; but his fears sprang from a sight of his Lord, and from a sense of his own unworthiness. You may be a man greatly beloved, and, therefore you may have a clearer sight of the Lord Jesus than other men have; and for that very reason you may feel a greater shame and confusion of face whenever you think of yourself. Recollect how Daniel says concerning himself, "There remained no strength in me, my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength." O if the Lord ever favours you with much love, and with nearness of access to himself, you must expect the other side of it — that is to say, you must feel your own nothingness, baseness, unworthiness — feel as if you were unfit to do anything for God's people, unit even to bear Christ's name, and yet all the while you may be a man greatly beloved, and may be eminently blessed. Perhaps, too, Daniel's great fears had been awakened by the disclosures that had been made to him of the history of the nations, and especially of his own people. He had a peculiar anxiety for his own people. Did you ever get into that state, and begin to look upon the world, and upon the country, and upon the church, and then fall into a fit of trembling? I do assure you it is wonderfully easy to put on the garb of Jeremy, the weeping prophet. Yes, Daniel had seen the history of the world for a long period to come, therefore he was full of fear. And are you full of fear too? Well, it is a part of the lot of men whom God greatly loves that they should bear the troubles of the times. I think too that Daniel's sorrow was occasioned partly by the repetition of those words to him: "The vision is true, but the time appointed is long." It seemed to come over and over to Daniel. "The time is long." I do not know any trouble that presses more heavily on my heart than that. It seems to be a dreadful long while since God has wrought a miracle — such a while since the church has had any great thing done in the midst of her. And if any here have been favoured to be beloved of God, I am sure this will weigh upon them, "How long, Lord, how long? Why tarriest thou?" III. The CONSOLATIONS which the angel brought to Daniel, and which, in proportion as we are greatly beloved and the subject of like fears, he brings to us. He said to him first, "Peace be unto thee." So he says to every one of the beloved here, — "Peace be unto thee. Why art thou fretting, worrying, tossed up and down in thy mind? Peace be unto thee." Let peace be thine first, because thou art "greatly beloved." Whatever is happening or not happening, thou art greatly beloved. So, be still, be calm, thou art beloved of heaven. And next, fear not, peace be unto thee, God is still ruling — he ruled the world before thou wast born, and accomplished all his will; he will rule it when thou art dead, and fulfil his own decrees. Why dost thou worry thyself? What use can thy fretting serve ? And whereas thou art disturbed about the length of time, — with what dost thou measure? With thine own age of seventy years, or with days and weeks — dost thou measure so ? Hast thou ever seen the measuring line of the Eternal, and dost thou know, that if this world were to last through millions of millions of years, yet it would be but a speck between the two eternities that should precede and follow? God's life is not made up of tickings of the clock! He can wait, he can wait. Then he adds "be strong," as if these fears of Daniel made him weak, and as if it was important that he should be strong. Now, if there is any importance in us at all, and there is not much, certainly anything that we can do in our present place will require of us all our strength. And since our fears decidedly weaken us for all practical purposes they should be shaken off. Hence the angel says twice, "Be strong, yea, be strong;" and, beloved, we ought to be strong in faith, for God deserves it. Fall before the Lord in earnest prayer, and ask him to take away thy fretfulness,and make thee, as thou art greatly beloved, to be strong. ( C. H. Spurgeon) I. DANIEL'S PECULIAR SITUATION.1. Exposed to great temptations. 2. Deprived of religious privileges. 3. Exposed to great sufferings for conscience sake. II. DANIEL'S EXALTED PIETY. Piety will ensure divine, if it does not receive human, approbation. How was Daniel's piety seen? 1. In his conscientious regard to the exercise of devotion. The man who is much with God in secret is likely to be an eminent witness for God in public. Principles produced and strengthened at a throne of grace give stability and firmness of character, that no external opposition can destroy. 2. In his unbending firmness. Decision of character is a great Christian excellence. 3. An unblemished reputation. What lamentable blots disfigure — we might almost say — disgrace the portraits of many, whose moral features are delineated by the faithful pencil of Divine revelation. But no prominent defects in Daniel's character require the aid of the veil of charity. See Daniel 6:4. III. HIS DISTINGUISHED HONOUR. His piety was no barrier to his preferment. 1. He was the special object of the divine care. As to his body, and as to his soul. 2. Daniel was an eminent witness for God. 3. He was remarkably useful; and 4. He was favoured with extraordinary revelations from the great Head of the Church. (J. R. Cooper.) People Belteshazzar, Cyrus, Daniel, Javan, MichaelPlaces Greece, Persia, Tigris River, UphazTopics Daniel, Entire, Full, Grief, Mourned, Mourning, Myself, WeeksOutline 1. Daniel, having humbled himself, sees a vision.10. Being troubled with fear, he is comforted by the angel. Dictionary of Bible Themes Daniel 10:1-2Library November 15. "Oh, Man of Desires" (Margin) (Dan. x. 11). "Oh, man of desires" (margin) (Dan. x. 11). This was the divine character given to Daniel of old. It is translated in our version, "O man, greatly beloved." But it literally means "O man of desires!" This is a necessary element in all spiritual forces. It is one of the secrets of effectual prayer, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them." The element of strong desire gives momentum to our purposes and prayers. Indifference is an unwholesome condition; indolence and … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth Daniel's Band Elucidations. Youthful Confessors The Difference Between Union and Rapture. What Rapture Is. The Blessing it is to the Soul. The Effects of It. How to Make Use of Christ as the Truth, when Error Prevaileth, and the Spirit of Error Carrieth Many Away. A Sight of the Crowned Christ Departed Saints Fellow Servants with those yet on Earth. The Doctrine of Satan. Annunciation to Zacharias of the Birth of John the Baptist. Of a Private Fast. A Treatise of the Fear of God; Jesus' Feet Anointed in the House of a Pharisee. Jesus Calls Four Fishermen to Follow Him. Links Daniel 10:2 NIVDaniel 10:2 NLT Daniel 10:2 ESV Daniel 10:2 NASB Daniel 10:2 KJV Daniel 10:2 Bible Apps Daniel 10:2 Parallel Daniel 10:2 Biblia Paralela Daniel 10:2 Chinese Bible Daniel 10:2 French Bible Daniel 10:2 German Bible Daniel 10:2 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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