Angels vs. Demons

     Miracles can be delayed by war in the heavens. 

     While Daniel serves in the kingdom, now called Persia, for three weeks he has avoided choice food, and he used no lotions at all. Imagine that, ladies. 

     He was standing on the bank of the Tigris River when he saw a "man wearing a belt of gold, his body like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, arms and legs like gleaming bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude." 

     The men with him didn't see the vision, but in terror they hid themselves. 

     A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, 'consider carefully...for I have been sent to you.' - Daniel 10:10-11 

     The angel had just been freed from 21 days of struggle with the prince of Persia. This delayed his mission to Daniel, now weak and can hardly breathe. 

     He said, 'Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth.' 

     In chapters 11 and 12, the angel describes in great detail the devilment that will occur over the next 500-plus years. Historians have identified the trouble makers, names like Antiochus, Ptolemy, Seleucus and, of course, Alexander the Great. 

     A "contemptible person" turned out to be Antiochus IV Epiphanes, ruling in 175-164 B.C., a Greek who despised the Jews, although some sided with him. He placed an "abomination" on the temple altar, prefiguring another abomination to happen in the last days. Judas Maccabeus led a resistance that wore down Antiochus. 

     After all this, Daniel is told to go your way, because the words are sealed up until the time of the end. - Daniel 12:9. Full understanding would come only at the end of the tribulation. 

Tomorrow: If God can...