Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.” (Daniel 10:12-13 NLT)
Observation
I am both boggled of mind and blessed of heart by today’s reading—specifically the reading from Daniel 11 and 12. Upon first reading, the language of this prophetic passage is complex and confusing, kings from the north doing battle with kings from the south (and vice versa) with no obvious identification of anyone in particular along the way. Any good Bible commentary, however, makes clear the ways in which much of this prophetic word was quite specifically fulfilled from the time of King Cyrus of Persia (whose reign began around 535 BC) through the conflicts between Jewish patriots and the Seleucids (ending around 161 BC). Even as a guy with no mind for retaining historical dates and sequences, the fulfillment of the specific prophecies detailed here is beyond remarkable. (Click here to find a good summary of the fulfillment of these prophecies.) The gears begin to shift near the end of chapter 11, and the prophecy seems to begin to address end-time events that, I’m sure, will someday be as clearly fulfilled as were the prophecies given previously.
Beyond the astonishing fulfillment of prophecy is the fascinating description of unseen spiritual authorities in Daniel 10:12-13 and 10:20-11:1. The angel who appears to Daniel (fascinating enough in and of himself) speaks of “the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia” and “the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece” (10:20). Further, he describes how “for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked [his] way” (10:13) and describes almost a tag-team match where he was relieved in his battle by “Michael,” identified in the text as Daniel’s own “spirit prince.” Are you kiddin’ me?
I say that not to dismiss the reality of warfare in the spiritual realm but to emphasize it—to suggest that we *have* dismissed a genuine and highly significant portion of our existence. In our scientific, rationalistic, secular-logic-driven worldview, if you can’t put it under a microscope or duplicate it in a laboratory, it must not exist. "Such warfare," we say to ourselves, "might make for a good Saturday morning cartoon—hey, maybe even a full-length feature film if there's money to be made—but none of this actually has anything to do with day-to-day reality." The Scriptures matter-of-factly declare otherwise, revealing a world of spiritual authorities—authorities with territorial and/or personal assignments. Wow!
I’m out of space—my word count is excessive already. But what are you going to do with that? What am I going to do with that? How would I actually live differently if I genuinely believed what the Bible plainly reveals—not *only* the spiritual reality of “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6 NIV) but also (yeah, I know we can quote it, but do we believe it) the spiritual reality of “rulers…authorities…powers of this dark world…spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV). Would we pray more tenaciously? Live more confidently (knowing that His Spirit lives in us)? Believe more expectantly?
Daniel invites us again to consider the realities of our broken world—challenges greater than “just” education or medicine or modern psychology or economic renewal can address. Daniel affirms the reality of a spiritual realm—one that beckons submission and allegiance to Jesus Christ, the only One who has overcome all darkness for all time.
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