Daniel 11:1-2

Also I in the first year of Darius.

The Vision by the Hiddekel

The prophet here tells of a long and devout season of fasting and prayer to which ha had given himself. It lasted “three full weeks.” At the end of this time, he was by the side of the great river Hiddekel, now known as the Tigris, far away from the scenes of court life. Lifting up his eyes, he was greeted with an overpowering vision. Before him stood a being in man’s form, clothed in linen and girded with gold. His body was like the beryl--like the bluish-green, prismatic light, His face was as the appearance of lightning, insufferably bright. His ayes were as burning flame. His arms and his feet were like burnished brass, and the voice of his words had the volume and majesty of the shoutings of a multitude. Compare the vision in Revelation, ch. 1. Daniel was completely overwhelmed by the suddenness and transcendent glory of the vision. This shows how merciful it is in God to veil over the spiritual world from our fleshly sight. Were he to lift that veil, it would be impossible for flesh and blood to sustain itself under the “weight of glory.” The object of this vision was to reveal to Daniel a still fuller account of the fortunes of his people “in the latter days”; that is, in the mysterious future, extending down to the end of this present world. To this revelation the whole remaining portion of this book is devoted. It was in answer to Daniel’s anxieties concerning the Jewish people that this glorious apparition came. It is ever true that the histories of this world always have a background of spiritual agencies. Scripture everywhere represents the angels as largely participating in the divine government of the world, and in the whole ongoing of earthly affairs. Among the active unseen potencies there are both good and bad, often in conflict with each other. We are wont to speak in a spiritualizing way of a struggle between the good and evil principles in man, but Holy Scripture teaches us to regard the matter as a substantial reality. The glorious angel who appeared to Daniel had a struggle of three weeks with the evil angel at the head of the Persian monarchy, and only by Michael’s help overcame him, and gained superior influence over the Persian king. After that he was to encounter the prince-angel of Grecia, in which no great success, even with Michael’s help, was to be gained. The angel then proceeds (in Daniel 11:2) to state the course of things in its outward manifestations. .. But with all the tribulations thus to come upon the prophet’s people in those evil times, God was to be at the helm, neither suffering them to be overwhelmed, nor allowing their afflictions to be without profit. For their sins, apostasies, and infidelities the hand of judgment was to be lifted up against them. When God lets the wicked have their way, it is that he may destroy them utterly; but when he chastises his people, it is to purify and redeem them. Nor are God’s chosen ones alone in their conflicts with the ills and trials of time. The Eternal Father makes angels his ministers to the heirs of salvation. (Joseph A. Seiss, D. D.)