Daniel 10:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Daniel 10:10

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‘And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent.’ Now these words might just suggest an angel, but the description in verses 5 and 6 is so powerful, that we cannot doubt that it is the Lord. Christ speaks often in the Gospels of his being sent by the Father into the world, and the same language is used here, even before he was born. In this case he has been sent to an individual man, Daniel, but because he comes with this prophecy which will be recorded in Scripture he is sent also to all God’s people. Why did he need to come, and why could this revelation not be given through an angel, or directly to the prophet? These things are exceedingly mysterious, but it seems that in some way his coming brings about the fulfilment of the prophecy about to be related, and without his coming some important battle could not be won. We have in these verses a unique insight into the goings on in the spiritual realm which are normally hidden from us, and the battles which are fought on behalf of the saints.Daniel has been flat on his face on the ground at the sight of the man clothed in linen, and now he is strengthened, first by a touch, and then further by a word from the one before him. He is strengthened because he cannot receive the revelation in this weakened state, and it is to receive revelation that this vision has been given to him. ‘And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.’ Such is the effect upon godly Daniel of having this appearance in this glorious form of the eternal Son of the living God. The Lord knows perfectly what is the cause of Daniel’s weakness and fear, and he knows how to strengthen him with a touch, and with a word of encouragement accompanied by power.

Application

He is ‘a man greatly beloved’. What could be more calculated to give strength to the flagging spirits of the saints on earth, than to know that they are greatly loved in heaven. If Daniel is loved then his sins have been taken away forever, for God can only love those who are justified by faith, who are counted as righteous in his sight. To the humble believer, this may seem astonishing, but it is true and it is important that he believes it. The saint on earth has a very lowly view of himself. He is for the most part obscure, unimportant, unknown, uncelebrated among men, and he is well aware of it. So to think of himself as greatly loved in heaven is shocking. How can heaven have such a different view? But this is what Scripture consistently teaches. The reason the saints are obscure on earth is that fallen mankind sets no value on them. What is it to him that they have faith in God, that they keep his commandments, that they have been transformed by him. They do not recognise this transformation or the work of God in the heart. But heaven knows how precious each saint is, and Daniel was greatly loved in heaven by the triune God. Heaven admires the opposite values to those that are admired by the world. It loves meekness, and gentleness, and humility, and poverty of spirit and a hungering after righteousness. The knowledge that he was loved made up for all Daniel’s trials and all the battles fought during his long life. That compensated for the hostility of his enemies, the sorrows and miseries of this life, the battles he had fought in prayer, the loss of outward strength through the aging process and decay of the body. By faith we learn to see ourselves and our fellow believers in a very different light to that in which the world sees us. We know this is not pride or an elevated view of ourselves; it is the truth about us that God has revealed. No one who has sincerely repented of sin and trusted in Christ, and who takes advantage of this love will be disappointed. In Daniel’s case this was revealed to him personally; for the majority of God’s people, these things are revealed in the promises which we claim by faith.

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Daniel 10:10 Commentary and Bible Study