“Now I (Gabriel) am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.” (Daniel 10:14)
This verse is vital to understand Daniel 11 and 12 because it tells us that God is concerned with His people, both then and now.
“While he was speaking to me, … the one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. … ‘How can someone like me, your servant, talk to you, my lord? My strength is gone, and I can hardly breathe.’ Then the one who looked like a man touched me again, and I felt my strength returning.” (Daniel 10:15-18)
One of the tests of a true prophet is extreme weakness, or supernatural strength while in vision.
“ ‘Don’t be afraid, for you are deeply loved by God. … Take heart and be strong!’ As he spoke these words, I suddenly felt stronger and said, ‘Now you may speak, my lord, for you have strengthened me.’ He replied, ‘Do you know why I have come? Soon I must return to fight against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia, and then against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece. But before I do that, I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (There is no one to help me against these spirit princes except Michael, your prince.)’ ” (Daniel 10:19-21)
This prophecy, Daniel 11 and 12, as with all the other prophecies of the Bible, is concerned with those who believe and trust in God.
One Bible commentator, E. G. White, wrote, “In the annals of human history, the growth of nations, the rise and fall of empires, appear as if dependent on the will and prowess of man; the shaping of events seems, to a great degree, to be determined by man’s power or ambition. But in the Bible the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, above, behind, and through all the play and counter-play of human interest and power and passions, the agencies of the All-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will.”
Here is seen a wonderful connection between heaven and Earth. The things revealed to Daniel are complemented in the book of Revelation. These two books should be carefully studied together.
Twice Daniel inquired, “How long shall it be to the end of time?”
“And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end (after 1798). Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” (Daniel 12:8-10)
“Michael, your prince” is the One who was/is the champion on God’s side in the great controversy. And He will save His people.
Ian Cotton is the retired pastor of the Creston Seventh-day Adventist Church.
