Rev. David Holwick O Book of Daniel, #9
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 20, 2008
Daniel 10:4-14
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I. An old prophet nears his end.
A. Charlton Heston passes on.
Lots of iconic roles: Moses in The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur.
Finally, Alzheimers set in.
Since I was practicing the Passover skit with the youth
group this week, I asked them if they liked how
Charlton Heston did Moses.
They looked at me with blank faces.
None of them had ever seen The Ten Commandments!
Made ME feel pretty old.
B. Daniel was old too.
1) The time reference would mean Daniel is now 90.
a) It would be the final vision in the book, time-wise.
b) He lived only a few more years.
2) Yet only now does he learn an important lesson in God's
mysterious ways.
a) Our struggles are more intricate than you think!
II. Daniel feels kind of low.
A. Putting it in the right order.
1) The chronology is a little confusing on which came first,
the vision or the mourning.
2) Most feel he mourned first, then had the vision.
a) The great vision of Daniel 9 had given a broad sweep
of the coming of the Messiah.
b) Some of it was happening already - Cyrus was letting
Jews go home to Jerusalem - but strong opposition
was threatening their survival.
c) Daniel was unsettled.
1> What did their immediate future hold?
2> Would God bring them this far, only to let them fail?
B. Why the long face?
1) Ezra and Nehemiah (even Daniel in chapter 9) mourned as
personal repentance for national sin.
2) The reason here is to prepare for intense prayer and
supplication (requests) to God.
Dan 10:12 gives a clear indication that this is his
motivation:
"...you set your mind to gain understanding and to
humble yourself before your God..."
a) Daniel is seeking God's face with all his might.
3) How many of you have had times of intense prayer like this?
a) I don't mean the "that truck is going to hit me
head-on" kind of prayer.
b) I mean the kind where you pray for a week or more,
intensely, about God's will for your life.
[I ask for raising of hands, and only got a smattering
in either service.]
C. Persistence gets an answer.
1) The delay in the answer is instructive, as we will see shortly.
2) But the answer came in the person of an angel.
III. What angels look like.
A. The experience was not just in his mind.
1) Those with Daniel fled from it, though they didn't perceive
it like he did.
2) Just like Paul's "Damascus Road" experience.
B. The angel's description is very detailed.
1) The only other description like this is in Rev. 1:13-16.
a) There, it is Jesus himself, in his glorified state.
b) Some think Jesus is the one in Daniel, too.
1> Scholars call this a preincarnate appearance.
2> It is not a slam-dunk, but possible.
2) Bright appearance suggests holiness and power.
a) Whether it is Jesus or an angel, it shows that God's
message is conveyed by messengers who reflect his
mighty character.
b) We have an awesome God!
C. When you pray to God, what do you visualize?
1) Chances are, your image of God is rather wimpy.
a) Your prayers probably are as well.
Christian writer Mike Yaconelli says it is because we want
a nonthreatening God.
Over the years, Jesus has been re-formatted into a cross
between Gandhi and Mr. Rogers.
Meek and mild with little zip.
He can help us with our small problems, but hopefully not
hassle us about our sins.
Yaconelli asks:
"How did we end up so comfortable with God?
How did our awe of God get reduced to a lukewarm
appreciation of God?
How did God become a pal instead of a heart-stopping
presence?
Why aren't we continually catching our breath and saying,
'This is no ordinary God!'?"
#24319
2) Reflect on God's power and majesty before asking him for
anything.
IV. The unseen obstacles.
A. Even a clear vision of God can exist with frustrated prayer.
1) Daniel's answer was delayed by a supernatural struggle.
2) The answer was delayed, but not stopped.
B. Nations can have angels, too.
1) Daniel seems to teach that just like individuals have
guardian angels (Hebrews 1:14), so can nations.
C. We don't know all that shapes us.
1) If you feel spiritually oppressed for no reason, there
may be a reason.
2) The apostle Paul says most of our real struggle is with
dark forces.
a) Christians call this "spiritual warfare."
b) These can be the times you grow the most.
V. The Force is with us.
A. If you feel overwhelmed, turn to God.
An email I got this week:
(I'll leave it anonymous, and you'll never be able to figure
out who it is because it describes half the church)
"Dear Pastor David,
I feel distraught, disgusted, defeated, and depressed.
4 D's! None of 'em good.
It's not just over one certain thing, it's a whole lot
of things.
It's almost as if there is a big weight on my shoulders
that I'd like to rid myself of, and cast upon the
Lord... but each day, I still feel it there.
I just can't ignore it.
It's an albatross.
I'm experiencing great weariness at work,
heartache and heaviness in the home,
and a stirring and relentless storm somewhere deep in
my soul."
What did he ask for? Prayer.
B. Albatrosses serve a purpose.
1) Happiness should not be our ultimate goal.
Eric Wilson is a professor of English at Wake Forest
University.
He studies a lot about psychology and he has a pet peeve:
Americans treat unhappiness as a disease.
If you feel kind of blue, take a pill. We order you!
Sadness has almost become a modern sin.
He knows that clinical depression is real and should be
treated, but there is a place for ordinary melancholy.
A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center shows
that almost 85 percent of Americans believe that they
are very happy or at least pretty happy.
It seems truly an age of almost perfect contentment, a
brave new world of persistent good fortune and joy
without trouble.
Wilson remarks:
Surely all this happiness can't be for real.
How can so many people be happy in the midst of all the
problems that beset our globe?...
To desire only happiness in a world undoubtedly tragic is
to become inauthentic, to settle for unrealistic
abstractions that ignore concrete situations.
Without the agitations of the soul, would all of our ...
heart-torn symphonies cease?"
#35325
2) Our goal is to see life as it is, and find God's vision.
a) Pray to him until you do.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
The title for this sermon is borrowed from Rev. Ray Stedman.
#24319 "The Unpredictability of Encountering a Holy God," by Steve Beard,
http://www.thunderstruck.org/archivevault/unpredictability.htm.
This essay first appeared in the book, POWER, HOLINESS AND
EVANGELISM: REDISCOVERING GOD'S PURITY, POWER, AND PASSION FOR
THE LOST (Destiny Image Publishers 1999).
#35325 "There's A Place For Melancholy," Scientific American Magazine,
May 2008, p. 106, referring to the book "Against Happiness: In
Praise of Melancholy" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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