Luccas Rodor: Happy Sabbath, church family. It's such a privilege and a joy to have you all here with us. And thank you also to you--we welcome you who are watching from around the world here to our Granite Bay Seventh Day Adventist Church in Rocklin, California--Granite Bay, California. And in association with Amazing Facts International Ministries, we'd like to welcome you. It is so good to have you here with us, and today we have a great study.
But before we invite our choristers to come in, I want to make you know, I want to tell you that we have a great offer for you today, and the name of the offer is "Cosmic Conflict." And if you'd like to receive this offer, it's Offer 809. You could send a text to "SH018," to the number 40544, and you would get a digital download. If you want it to be mailed to you and you live in North America or the U.S. territories, you could send--you could call 866-788-3966, and then you could have this great, free offer, "Cosmic Conflict: The Origin of Evil," and that's a great study for you to have with your family or with your friends.
Now, today we have a great study. Pastor Doug will be teaching for us, but before we get there, I'd like to invite our choristers to come out and praise the Lord with us.
♪ On a hill far away ♪
♪ Stood an old rugged cross ♪
♪ The emblem of suffering and shame ♪
♪ And I love that old cross ♪
♪ Where the dearest and best ♪
♪ For a world of lost sinners was slain ♪
♪ So I'll cherish the old rugged cross ♪
♪ Till my trophies at last I lay down ♪
♪ I will cling to the old rugged cross ♪
♪ And exchange it some day for a crown ♪
♪ O that old rugged cross ♪
♪ So despised by the world ♪
♪ Has a wondrous attraction for me ♪
♪ For the dear Lamb of God ♪
♪ Left His glory above ♪
♪ To bear it to dark Calvary ♪
♪ So I'll cherish the old rugged cross ♪
♪ Till my trophies at last I lay down ♪
♪ I will cling to the old rugged cross ♪
♪ And exchange it some day for a crown ♪
♪ To the old rugged cross ♪
♪ I will ever be true ♪
♪ Its shame and reproach gladly bear ♪
♪ Then he'll call me some day ♪
♪ To my home far away ♪
♪ Where his glory forever I'll share ♪
♪ So I'll cherish the old rugged cross ♪
♪ Till my trophies at last I lay down ♪
♪ I will cling to the old rugged cross ♪
♪ And exchange it someday for a crown ♪
Male: Thank you.
Luccas: We have a great study today. The name of the study is "From Battle to Victory," and isn't that our anthem, "From Battle to Victory"? Pastor Doug will be teaching for us today, but before we get there, I'd like to say a word of prayer. Dear Father God, we thank You, and we praise Your holy name for being with us, for bringing us to church, Father, be that here at the Granite Bay Church or anywhere around this world, we are here gathered together, at least in spirit, to worship and to learn more about You, Father. As we begin, I'd like to ask for Your Holy Spirit to guide and use Pastor Doug as he opens the precious truths that we find in this amazing book of Daniel. Please be with us now, I ask You in Jesus' name, amen.
Doug Batchelor: Thank you, Pastor Luccas and our musicians, and welcome everybody. So good to see you here. You may have noticed that Karen and I've been gone for two weeks. Some of you maybe didn't notice, and that'll hurt our feelings. But if you're interested--and one of our members, Katrina, who is from Melbourne, Australia--her son, Jaimes, was just singing up front, and she was also with us at least for part of the trip. We're going to give you a little Sabbath School mission report. Is that okay? Tell you--you wonder what in the world your pastors are doing, and so we thought we'd share.
Now, I don't have any kind of sophisticated technology, but you're going to see some pictures on the screen here, and I'll just let the studio know and, kind of, snap my fingers or pull my ears, stomp my foot, and they can move. Okay, we're going up to the big screen--we were in Australia. This is, like, my fourth or fifth trip there doing mission, different kind of mission projects and preaching, and you see I've got a circle around Southern Australia. We were in the districts of Victoria and South Australia and the cities of Melbourne and Adelaide, two of the larger cities, and Melbourne is soon going to pass Sydney as the largest city in Australia. It's growing very quickly, and we can go to the next picture.
You may know that, in recent months from September through January, Australia suffered in some of the most devastating fires in its history. I've heard conflicting numbers, but a minimum of 25 million acres. Now, that is four times bigger than the terrible fires we had two years ago, where we had about half a million acres that was lost in property damage. And then that was followed almost immediately--next picture--by catastrophic floods. And I looked at the news yesterday, and now Southern Australia is having another heat wave, and they're afraid they're going to have fire problems again. So they've been going back and forth with it.
Not only that--next picture--this is all happening in the midst of the coronavirus issues, and there have been some cases of coronavirus in Australia--not many, but the big problem is they do so much trade with the Orient, and the airports--you'd be shocked--in China are shut down, and it's affecting products coming in. It's affecting tourism. Twenty-five percent of the tourism in Australia are Chinese tourists, and so, economically--I think this is a picture of the Sydney Airport--economically, they're being hit. Now, all of this is happening--actually, it played out well for our meetings because it's a very secular country in Australia--not a very religious country, but, boy, at our meetings, they really responded.
We've been--next picture. "Amazing Facts" has been on TV all over the country. We're in 99% of the market of Australian television right now, meaning 99% of the country can reach it. Right now we're on Channel 9. It's called G-E-M, and so when we advertise, we actually had people call into the theaters to register, and Amazing Facts has an office in Australia. It's in the Gold Coast near Brisbane, and there's Katrina at the door. She was there with us in Melbourne, and so they registered, and they overbooked. So many people wanted to book to come, that they actually had to add sessions to the programs there. They're very well attended, and we were very thankful.
This is actually the first Sabbath meeting we had in Adelaide. They brought all the churches together at a center there, and they had about 1,300 people, I think, came to the program, which more people in California live in the whole country of Australia, so you got a lot, but it's almost as big as the U.S., the lower U.S., so their churches are small and many. They're scattered, but they had a great turnout.
This is the conference president of Southern Australia, David Butcher, great guy doing the interview with Karen and I, and the people came out faithfully, night after night. Yeah, you can keep going, Marcia. That'll work fine. Then we had evangelistic programs that began and met every evening, and because of the attendance, we ended up having to do two presentations every night. I haven't done that in years, you know? Do the "Mark of the Beast" one, back-to-back, or whatever it is you do. The folks, we meet them in the lobby.
This is--the local production crew streamed it. They produced it for TV, so they've got copies of it. We'll get some of those for our office. Just took a picture with the media crew, but not only were they streaming the programs, but they had translators. You see the four translators there? They were translating every broadcast of the evangelistic programs, and I think it was Swahili. It's an African tongue, and they were doing it in Polish, in Samoan, in Romanian, as well as in English, so five languages. It was going out simultaneously, and people were there. It's all the translators in their booths, listening online. And so, night after night, the people came, and we were worried. Once you get to Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, but they kept filling the venue. We kept doing to two venues or two presentations.
That's just a picture of us with some of the media crew and the volunteers that helped with the program. Also, while we were there, we did some presentations where we just shared with the pastors in the conference. We got a picture with the pastors there and the conference staff. And that's Karen and I. We did some radio interviews. They've got a radio program, reaches all of Adelaide. Faith FM did an interview with them, and that's Nick, the director of the station, and his wife, and then we went up to Melbourne, and right after getting to Melbourne, they said, "Now, can you talk to the school?" It wasn't in the schedule. "They're having a week of prayer. Can you do one of the sessions?" So we had 400 young people came out and were very well behaved as we did a Gospel presentation, invited those who had not, to accept the Lord. And in the school there, most of the kids are not from Adventist homes. It's like a mission school.
Then we did a program, a Wednesday night program, of all things, in another venue, led out by an elder there. He's very evangelistic, Johnny Wong, and his team of youth, and then we went to a concert hall for the weekend meetings. This was over 1,000 attended there. This was Friday, Sabbath. We told folks we'd meet them after the program and shake hands and take pictures and sign books. They gave out a lot of literature, and you could see this is a panoramic picture. It shows everyone just wrapped out. Karen and I are in the far right corner. Just, folks are lined up, and they've been watching the TV programs. And I think I've got a few pictures here I just snapped of some of the folks.
These are people who came to the Lord through "Amazing Facts" programs, a Catholic couple--I don't remember their names. I met so many people. But when they say, "We came to the Lord through you," I'd say, "Let me get your picture." And I'm not showing you all of them.
Next one. This lady was a flight attendant with Emirates Air in Dubai. She started watching our programs there on satellite, I think, and then went to the website, and she's come to the Lord and joined the church. Can't remember her name. This is Danny. He has a business in Ballarat, outside of Melbourne. Came to the Lord from "Amazing Facts" programs, and they went to Israel with us two years ago. So we got a picture together--we have the same barber. And this is a lady named Susan, from China, and her daughter--and came to the Lord, just watching the websites and reading the material and was baptized subsequently. Far left in that picture is Charmaine. She's with our Amazing Facts Oceania office.
And, next picture, this is a doctor who flew from New Zealand for our meetings in Melbourne and came back to the Lord. He was raised an Adventist and drifted away, came back to Lord, Stan, and that's his fiancee. She studied her way in, was baptized. Venus is her name. And many others, I don't have time to show you all, but it was so--I just wanted you to see some samples of pictures. There's another, a Chinese couple. This, I thought, was neat. They showed me they had read the "Caveman" book. I'd never seen this version. It's in Chinese. It's Mandarin, and it's in English and Mandarin. So they use it to teach English over there. They're using our testimony, but I said, "That's great, whatever works." And so Karen and I took a selfie with one--I think it was one of the afternoon programs in the hall there. And now we're back in Adelaide. This is from Mount Lofty. You know, Adelaide is fairly flat, but a beautiful view overlooking the city.
Now, this is a picture--you're wondering where Pastor Ross is. I got this, this week. Pastor Ross has been in India, training the Amazing Facts workers there that are--and this is our team in India. You may remember from our church here, also the Hoover family. There's Ryan and Audrey and Sophie with Pastor Ross, and Lazarus and Karin and their families and Pastor Elisha Rowe. He trains pastors over there, and we're translating the "Amazing Facts" programs into Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English, and they're being broadcast all over India in those languages.
So that's just some of what's happening. Thank you for letting your pastors play hooky from the local congregation. This is what we're doing when we're gone, and we just thought you need to know what's been going on. So that's our little mission report. Hope it wasn't too long.
But we have a very exciting lesson today. I thought I could drop in the mission report today because our lesson is 21 verses. Chapter 10 is a comparatively short chapter in the book of Daniel. We're on lesson 11, but it's covering chapter 10 of Daniel, but what we're doing in chapter 10 is you're now delving into the longest prophecy in Daniel, the most intricate and the longest prophecy in the Bible. It is a prophecy that has the largest number of time periods in it.
When we begin to study chapter 10, realize, there are no chapters in the Bible. You're really beginning the prophecy that goes from chapter 10, 11, and 12, of Daniel. It is all one prophecy. And so it kind of covers in greater detail than any other earlier prophecy in Daniel, the events that would relate to God's people from the time of Daniel to the second coming of Jesus, when Michael stands up, the great time of trouble. The Resurrection is how this book ends. And so, with that, let's go ahead, and we're going to get into our study and start reading in Daniel chapter 10.
We have a memory verse, memory verses from Daniel 10, verse 19, if you want to find that in the chapter, Daniel 10:19, and it's in the New King James Version. Are you ready? "O man greatly beloved, fear not. Peace be to you. Be strong, yes, be strong." How many times does God tell his people, "Peace, be strong"? This is what he told Joshua. Now we're going to dive right in. Daniel chapter 10, verse 1: "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, whose name is called Belteshazzar. The message was true, but the appointed time was long, and he understood the message--" now, you can underline there, where it says, "the time was long." That comes up again later in this same chapter. "And he understood the message, and had understanding of the vision."
Now, what just happens in chapter 9, of Daniel? There you've got the prophecy that talks about the first coming of Jesus, but it talks about Jerusalem being rebuilt and the wall again in troublous times. So Daniel understands that God's people are going to meet with a resistance, and you'll also notice it says--when does this happen? It says, "In the third year of Cyrus."
What does it say about Cyrus in chapter 1 of Daniel? Remember the chapter 1 where Daniel doesn't eat the Babylonian food, and he's healthy, and it says, because he's healthy, he lives until--sounds like it says he lives until the first year of Cyrus, and here it says the third year Cyrus. Actually, chapter 1 isn't saying "he lived until." A lot of people assume that. He served probably in an official capacity into the first year of Cyrus, or it may mean that, when Cyrus became king, he let Daniel retire at that point, who is 90 now. You remember he served through Darius, who was before Cyrus? He was a Median king. He's actually the uncle of Cyrus, and that's the lions' den experience, maybe after the lions' den and--or after Darius retired or died, and Cyrus took over. Daniel was more in retirement and--but he's still--now it's the third year of Cyrus, he's still alive.
You know, we don't know exactly how long Daniel lived. He could've lived to 100, we don't know. There's one tradition you read in Daniel chapter 8, that he has a vision by the river of--I think it's Ulai in Shushan. Now, we know where the ruins of Shushan are now. It's by another river even further east of the Tigris. It was a place where the Persian kings often ruled. It was a beautiful area in the foothills, not the plains so much, desert, and a little more fertile. There's a grave there called "The Grave of Daniel the Prophet," to this very day, and there are priests that always guard it. And there is one legend that, when Daniel died, that Cyrus also diverted the river Ulai, buried a golden sarcophagus of Daniel, and then redirected the river to run over it so no one would ever disturb his remains. I read that--don't even remember where I read it, but I read that years ago in one of the history books.
And then they've got this other tomb. You know, they've got--they had the tomb of Jonah in Nineveh, but it was blown up a couple of years ago by ISIS when they were blowing up all these. It's very sad. They had the--yeah, they say it's where Jonah was buried. Now, we don't know that, it could've been a legend. You know, when you go around Israel, they'll show you 20 places where Jesus was born. Every church says, "We've got the place, and this is where Jesus did this and this," so, you know, it is true he lived in that area. It could be one of the true ancient marks where Daniel's grave is, but we don't know how long he lived.
Now, it might be he was vacationing there because it tells us that he's by the river, but he's not by Shushan now, and if you look on an old Google map or you go to Google Earth, it'll call it "Susa." It's not spelled as "Shushan" anymore, but you can see the ruins of where those ancient cities of the Persian kings were, where they would sometimes spend their summers. And so, he's continued until now, the third year of Cyrus, and says in verse 2, "I was mourning three full weeks." Now, why is Daniel mourning?
Well, we read there in Daniel 9:25, that, even after Cyrus, in his first year, gave them permission to go home, they were going to meet with opposition. And what did the enemies say? Remember? When they started to build the temple--look in Ezra chapter 1--sorry, Ezra chapter 4, verse 1. Ezra 4, verse 1, "Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel, the heads of the fathers' houses, and said to them, 'Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do, and we've sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought you here.' Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers' house of Israel said to them, 'You may do nothing with us to build this house to our God, but we will build it alone.'"
Now, why did they tell the Samaritans that? First of all, the Samaritans, they--yeah, they prayed to Jehovah, but they also prayed to idols. They mixed the religion. You remember when they, these Assyrians, were put up in Northern Israel by the king? Lions were attacking them. They said, "Why are these lions attacking us?" They said, "Well, we don't know the ways of the God of the land" that used to live in--the people used to live in Northern Israel. So the king of Assyria sent some priests down to teach them some of the ways of Israel. Well, they sacrifice on Mount Gerizim, but they also sacrificed to idols, but they believed the five books of Moses. They sort of commingled the two religions. So they said, "Oh, great, you're building a temple to Jehovah? Let us join you." And they said, "No, this is not a good idea. We will be unequally yoked together because you will bring in your corrupting influence into our religion. We are trying to get back to God. We've just come out of being punished by God for our unfaithfulness. We're not going to start compromising now to make friends with you."
Now, that took courage because they knew that would upset them, and it did. And from that day, until the time of Christ, the Jews and the Samaritans, the people from Samaria, up north, the quasi-Assyrians that also believed a little bit about Jehovah, they were at odds with each other for hundreds of years. This is where it all happened. But notice what happened then. It said, "We will build our house." Verse 4, "The people of the land then tried to discourage the people of Judah, and they troubled them in building, and they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purposes all the days of Cyrus. They were sending letters to King Cyrus, King of Persia, even until the reign of Darius." This is the second Darius, I think his name was Cambyses, of Persia. And so they are now trying to build the wall in troublous times. Cyrus is being tempted to rethink his giving permission and support for the rebuilding of the temple, and this is why a spiritual battle rages in chapter 10.
Daniel realizes Cyrus is reconsidering his support because he's getting reports that the Jews are rebuilding to rebel. So Daniel sets his heart to pray, and he's mourning, and he mourns for 3 weeks, 21 days, and you can read in Psalm 42, verse 9, says, "I will say unto my God, 'Why has Thou forgotten me? I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy.'" And you can read in Daniel 10, verse 13, he says, "The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 1 and 20 days."
How long was Daniel praying? Three weeks. How long was there this spiritual battle between the prince of the kingdom of Persia and the Lord? Twenty-one days. So Daniel is praying on earth about a spiritual battle that is raging over God's people.
Do the prayers of God's people affect kingdoms? They do. Can we offer just brief flippant prayers, or is Daniel engaging in fasting and prayer? And he's not fasting and praying a day or two. He's fasting and praying three weeks. Now, he's an old man. He doesn't do a complete no-food fast. It says, "He ate no pleasant thing," and I think I might be getting ahead of that. You go to verse 3. "I ate no pleasant food or meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled."
Now, doesn't Jesus say, "When you're fasting, comb your hair," assuming you have some, "anoint yourself, wash your face, don't go around trying to look like you're fasting." Some of the Jews took the statement of Daniel here, where he says he didn't anoint himself, and that was their reason for looking as disheveled and unkept as possible while they were fasting. When it says, "He didn't anoint himself," Daniel's not saying that he tried to look as slovenly as he could. He's just saying, "I humbled myself." Sometimes they wear sackcloth and ashes when they were fasting and praying--no fancy clothes. They're wanting to humble themselves before God. He's eating just the bare necessities to give him human strength because he's old. And--but he's really seeking after God during this time.
Nehemiah 1:4, just a similar time of prayer and fasting, Nehemiah says, "So when I heard these words, I sat down, and I wept," when he hears about the walls of Jerusalem broken down, "and I mourned for many days, and I was fasting." Here's Nehemiah fasting for many days that the walls would be rebuilt. When Daniel's fasting, the temple will be rebuilt, and the people will be supported by the king. Nehemiah's doing the same thing.
Did God answer Daniel's prayer? He does--you know how the story ends. Does he answer Nehemiah's prayer? Does Nehemiah get sent to rebuild the walls, and do they get rebuilt? Yeah. So does the Lord answer prayer in fasting? He does. And he said, "I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant that I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sin of," so part of his repentance and fasting is confession of sin, "of the children of Israel which they have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned." It was corporately.
You know in Daniel chapter 9, he says, "While I was confessing my sin and the sin of my people," fasting and praying. In Isaiah, when he sees the Lord, he says, "Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." His sin, the sin of the people. You know, in the Lord's Prayer, it never says, "I, me, my, mine." It says, "us." So as God's church, we should care about each other's relationship with the Lord, not just our own.
So we're finding out what happens. They're telling you something about when it happens. It tells you where it happened, right? When did it happen? It says, "On the 24th day of the first month," he's getting ready to have this vision, 24th day of the first month. Now, he's fasting 21 days. That's how long he fasted. That has nothing to do with a calendar, okay? You just say, "I'm fasting three weeks." You don't know what the date is, do you, when I tell you that? But now he's saying, "On the 24th day of the first month," first month in the Jewish year.
When is he fasting? This is important. This vision comes during the Passover. When did Jesus die? During the Passover. So it's making a point of saying, "He's thinking about the great deliverance of God's people out of Egypt, and now he's looking at them, trying to get reborn as a nation. They're going through similar birth pains. They're trying to build. They've got the opposition of the Samaritans and the other nations around them. You remember, you read Nehemiah. It wasn't just Samaritans. It was the Arabians. It was the people of the East, the Samaritans. They're all opposing Jerusalem coming back, the Jews getting their land back.
Now, has history changed? Is Israel surrounded with countries that aren't very happy with that they're wanting to reclaim their land? So some things haven't changed. And when Joshua led them into the Promised Land, were there other nations there that were not very happy that they said, "You know, God gave that to Abraham, we're coming to take title again"? They weren't very happy. And is the devil happy when you want to take title to the Promised Land? No, you're going to meet with opposition.
So notice when it happened. Let's look at where it happened. He says, "I was by the side of the great river, that is, the Tigris." Now, I'm mentioning this because, if you look in Daniel 12, verse 5, I'm going to the last chapter in Daniel: "Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, there stood another two by this bank of the river and on that side of the bank of the river." For you to know what part of the river they're standing by in Daniel 12, you have to read what we read in Daniel 10. They're by the Tigris. Now, where is Babylon? Tigris or Euphrates? Euphrates. Tigris is another one of the ancient rivers, sometimes called the Hiddekel, and that, the word Tigris and Hiddekel, it means "dark or quickly moving," and this was a river back in those times that was moving very quickly.
Just a little side note, I don't know if any of you saw a YouTube that I posted on my site last night about the plagues? Did a couple of you see that? I'm just kind of giving them a potluck of different things that are happening in the world right now, but one of the things I mentioned is very interesting. Years ago, I was in Guam. I was doing some work in Micronesia, and I stopped in a doctor's office there just to visit the Adventist's clinic in Guam, and while I was waiting to meet with one of the doctors, I saw a "Newsweek" magazine. It's the international version of "Newsweek" magazine, and it was on the desk there, and it said, "When Rivers Run Dry," and it said the Euphrates River is drying up. Now, this is 15 years ago or more. Yeah, it's more than that, it's close to 25 years ago. And then two years ago, Fox and CNN ran a report that ISIS was shutting off the dams upstream and drying up the Euphrates River, and it showed pictures of the Euphrates River. It's just mud. You could run across it. And then I wondered, "Well, is that an isolated problem?"
Now, you know why I'm talking about this? You know what one of the plagues is that you read about? Now, I don't think that, that is the plague, but I still think it's very interesting that it does say in Revelation, "drying up the Euphrates River," and now because of the dams that are being built by Turkey--and they don't like Iraq--and Iran--and they don't like Iraq--and Syria, they all have tributaries that run into the Tigris and Euphrates. The Tigris and Euphrates are at their lowest levels in millennia, and in the Bible, it's called "The Mighty River"? Didn't we just read that? You can throw a rock across it now. You can walk across them, and it's because they've dammed it up, and they're pulling the water away for irrigation, and these rivers really are drying.
There's a crisis in Iraq right now, and it's a big sanitation problem because now everyone is throwing their garbage. They used to throw their garbage in the river. It ran out to the ocean. That was just their habit, and now it's just staying there, and people are getting sick, and they're having cholera problems, and so when you read about Daniel talking about this river, it was a different river back then. There were no dams, and it really ran. How many of you have been to Niagara Falls? Are you impressed by the falls? It's only half as powerful as it was before they dammed it up-river for power. Do you know, they've diverted half of the water? Wouldn't you like to have seen it before they dammed it? Can you imagine that? Now it's being diverted, about half of the water for hydroelectric, and so these rivers back then, even the Jordan used to run a lot more than it does today because so much irrigation and damming is going on upstream. So picture this as a significant river, and it ran pretty well. And so he has this vision by the Tigris River.
Now, you think, "How did Daniel get from Babylon, where he was serving, over to the Tigris?" There are places where the Tigris is only 22 miles. If you look at a map, it goes like that. Daniel may have had a vacation home there. He was one of the most powerful people in the kingdom, right? Prime Minister, and he's old. Maybe it was a good place to go for the season, but anyway, he's spending time in prayer, and he may have been there. It's only 22 miles away in places. And what happens? So he said when it happened, where it happened, what happens. Says, "I'm praying, and I lifted my eyes, and I looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with the gold of Uphaz. His body was like of beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and his feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude."
Now, does that sound familiar? What does that have echoes of? Revelation. Is this Gabriel? I think he's seeing a vision of Christ. This is the one that came to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. You look in Revelation 1, verse 13, and John said, "And in the midst," Revelation 1:13, "And in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man," who's that, "clothed with a garment down to the feet and a girdle about His chest, and a golden band, and His head was white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a fire, His voice like the sound of many waters."
What we just read, Daniel said, "His voice was like the sound of a multitude," saying, "This is powerful voice." And Daniel chapter 7 describes a similar divine character. Now, Daniel talked to angels all the time, like you and I are talking, but this personage must have been more important than an angel because Daniel falls on his face and can't get up. He's seen the glory of God. This is the one that made Isaiah fall down and say, "Woe is me." Look in Ezekiel 1:26, "And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone. On the likeness of a throne, it was like the likeness of the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist upward I saw, as it was, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within, and the appearance was from His waist downwards, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness, the glory, all around it. It was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord."
So this is another. He's seen the glory of God in this vision. Now it tells us not only where it happened, when it happened, what happened, it says with who it happened. Is Daniel alone, or does he have some attendants with him when he has this vision? "And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves." They left poor Daniel and ran for it. You know, they saw--they knew he was a prophet, and he went into vision. His face began to shine, and if from the look of his eyes and his behavior, they knew he was going off in the vision, they were so overwhelmed with the holiness of the spot, they fled.
Now, does that happen to anyone else in the Bible where they see a vision of God, and they become afraid? They're not having the vision, but the person they're with is having the vision. Who knows where that is? Paul--let's read it, Acts chapter 22, verse 9, Paul says, "And they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of Him who spoke to me." And then you read Daniel goes on to say in verse 8, "Therefore I was left alone." But he's not alone, is he? God's with him. "And when I saw this great vision, and there was no strength remained in me, for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength."
You know, often, when Ellen White was in vision, she became faint, and then she was supernaturally strengthened, and she did not breathe, and you read on here, you'll see the Daniel says, "There was no breath in me. I was left alone, for my vigor was turned to frailty. I retain no strength, yet I heard the sound of his words, and while I heard the sound of his words, I was in a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground." He was face down on the ground before the glory of God.
So you can see that, in Revelation, Daniel chapter 10, Joshua chapter 5, this glorious being appears to them before he makes his revelation. And now Daniel is, as you would say, "touched by an angel." Go to Daniel 10:10, "Suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me to tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. And he said, 'O Daniel, man greatly Beloved--" Now, is this the first time he said that? Chapter 9, he's praying, and God comes and says, "You are greatly beloved."
Let me give you something to think about. Is that only Daniel? When Jesus was baptized--and I'll maybe repeat this at the baptism today, this afternoon in Folsom if any of you are there--what did the voice say from heaven? "This is--" What's the rest of it? "In who I am well pleased." "My beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased." Was Jesus baptized for His sins? Or is He partly baptized as an example for you and I? When we are baptized, and all our sins are washed away, how does God look upon us? Greatly beloved. And if we are spending time in prayer for God's people and if we're walking with the Lord like Daniel, you are greatly beloved. If you've been washed from your sins, He looks upon you as greatly beloved. He's highly pleased with you.
I'll never forget doing a meeting in Santa Rosa, years before, and one of the members, a young lady that was helping support the meetings--I was doing this subject--she broke down and started crying, and I talked to her later and said, "Are you all right?" She said, "Yeah." She's collecting herself, trying not to cry when she's talking to me. She said, "I've been a member of the church all my life, but I always thought God was mad at me." Says, "This is the first time I realized that God could be pleased with me." He wants us to know He's washed away our sins. God doesn't want to be mad at you all the time, any more than you want to be mad at your kids all the time. How many of you had a father you felt like he was always mad at you? I did. And then I heard one of my kids say that to me once. I thought, "Ooh." "Dad, it seems like you're always mad." I said, "Oh, no. I don't want to be like my dad."
God wants us--He wants to be pleased with us. And so he says, "'You are greatly beloved. From the beginning of your prayer, I listened.' So I stood trembling." I'm in verse 12. "He said, 'Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, to humble yourself before God, your words--'" What are his words? "Your prayers were heard." When did his prayer get heard? After 21 days? First day.
So when you start to pray, does God listen? Do you have His undivided attention? "Because of your words but--" Now, when that happens, he says, "God heard your prayer," this is really shocking to some people, "but," verse 13, "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days."
Who is the prince of the kingdom of Persia? You think--well, isn't that Cyrus? Didn't we just see Cyrus was king? You know, I believe he's talking about the devil. The word there, "prince," he's not talking about King Cyrus. He's talking about the ruler or a principality who was seeking to manipulate.
Now, you see this through the Bible. When you look--for instance, how many of you know some of these great Scriptures that talk about the devil? For instance, you look in Isaiah 14:12, where it says, "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning." How does that prophecy begin? Says, "Take up this prophecy against the king of Babylon." But then, Isaiah is being shown the power that was manipulating the king of Babylon. It's the devil, right? Lucifer. And then Ezekiel, you read in 28, in Ezekiel 28, when he talks about "You are the anointed cherub," in verse 14 of Ezekiel 28. "You're the anointed cherub who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the burning, fiery stones." Who's he talking about? So Lucifer.
How does that prophecy begin by Ezekiel? "Take up these words against the king of Tyre." Tyre was a Phoenician capital. Isaiah is talking to the king of Babylon, but then he's showing the power of manipulating Babylon. Ezekiel is talking about the king of Tyre, but then he shows the power behind the king of Tyre. When you read in Revelation 12, it says the dragon tried to devour the woman, the baby, as soon as it was born. Who is that dragon? It was the devil working through Rome. Herod tried to kill Jesus as a baby. And so you'll often see--and you get to Revelation 17--this woman and this dragon are working together to manipulate the kings, right? Those seven kings.
And so you'll often see Satan's got his--you know, you read in Ephesians 6, there's principalities and powers. Satan's got his different demons assigned to different rulers, and they're trying to manipulate earthly events, and angels are fighting on behalf of God's people in those events. Do God's angels always win? Not if God's people are not praying.
Now, this is going to--some people are going to struggle with this: Not everything that happens is God's will. Why do you pray in the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done," if God's will is always done? God's will is not always done. So He tells us to pray that His will is done, and things will not happen if we don't pray, that otherwise would happen if we do pray. Angels are waiting to answer prayers for us that we never pray, and sometimes the angels lose battles because we don't pray very much. Have you ever thought of that? I mean, Daniel is wrestling in prayer, and finally Michael comes to answer the prayer.
Now we got to get into this important part. Who is Michael? Michael is Christ. I'm not saying that Jesus is an angel, and I know there are people watching, and they're thinking, "Oh, there is some cult out there. They think Jesus is an angel." No, we think Jesus is the uncreated Son of God. He is everlasting. He is God the Son, but one of His titles is "Michael." "Michael" means, "Who is as God," and just in case you think this is some particular belief, Melanchthon, who was the right-hand man of Martin Luther, he insisted that Michael is Christ, called in the New Testament, "the archangel, the prince of angels, the head of all principalities and powers." He is none other than Christ, the Son of God, an uncreated angel who is one, or first, or the chief of the princes, superior to angels in nature.
According to John Wesley, "Michael" is commonly supposed to mean "Christ." "I remain to counter the work and the designs against the people of God." It said Michael has come to fight against the devil, who is countering the work of God. Matthew Henry commentary was also in E.G. White's library. "Michael is," he says, "our Christ." When Michael appears to Joshua as the commander of God's army, He says, "Take your shoes off," [inaudible], and Joshua worships. You don't worship angels. The Bible says the Lord Himself, 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the archangel," the Lord, voice of the archangel. That's Christ.
You read in Jude verse 9, Michael comes to contend with the devil over the body of Moses. He comes to resurrect. Jesus is the resurrection of life. Jesus did not send an angel to resurrect His best friend, Moses. He came. His name, the way Jesus often appears prior to His incarnation, sometimes called "Christophanies" in the Old Testament, is "Who is as God," Michael. "Archangel" means "greatest messenger." That's all that means. Doesn't mean He's got wings, and He's a cherub. He's never called the cherubim or seraphim. Michael is this majestic name of Christ prior to His incarnation.
In Revelation, you get the two principal powers. The dragon and his angels are fighting with Michael and his angels. Who is the leader of the good angels? It's Jesus. So, finally, this battle is so severe that Christ Himself, not Gabriel, Christ Himself comes to contend with the devil because of the prayers of Daniel, and through God, the Spirit impressed Cyrus to follow through and deliver God's people and support God's people in their freedom.
So I think this is a very encouraging point. You can read in the book "Prophets and Kings," "For three weeks Gabriel wrestled with the powers of darkness, seeking to counteract the influences in the work and the mind of Cyrus," and "All that heaven could do on behalf of the people of God was done. The victory was finally gained. The forces of the enemy were held in check in the days of Cyrus, and all the days of his son Cambyses." And it's because finally Christ came to help. That's why Gabriel says, "Michael came to help me."
And so then you finally read on--and go with me to Daniel chapter 10. Just want to make sure we get through the 21st verse. We've got, like, a minute here to go. He said he was strengthened, and he said, "Michael came to help me, but I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth. No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince."
Who is our prince? In Daniel chapter 12, Michael is called "the great prince that stands for the children of thy people," and when He stands up, the time of trouble comes, and all intercession ceases.
Now, the interesting thing is--look in verse--and I'll end with this--verse 20. Gabriel says, "Do you know why I've come to you? Now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come." When he goes forth, meaning, "When I cease to contend with the prince of Persia, the prince of Greece--" now, this is 200 years later it's going to happen. His name was Alexander the Great, and this is introducing what you're going to run into now in chapter 11 of Daniel, and this is an amazing chapter, chapter 11, chapter 12 of Daniel. So this really was the introduction to the vision and tells you about the forces that are going on spiritually.
I want to remind those who are watching, two things: We have a book. If you have questions about Michael the archangel, just go to the Amazing Facts website, and you can download for free the book, "Who is Michael the Archangel?" And we also have a free offer that talks about this "Cosmic Conflict" between Christ and Satan. It's a DVD you'll really enjoy, and simply, it's offer number 809, and you can text "SH018" to 40544. You can download and watch this online, yes, or you can request to order one. Again, it's 866-788-3966 is the phone number. God bless you, friends, and we'll look forward to studying His Word with you again next week.
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Male: I met my ex-wife, and her family were real big into drugs, and it started out with them wanting me to go to the doctor to help get them drugs. And, you know, I'm noticing they're going to the doctor. They're coming back with, like, 60 pills, and they're selling these pills for, like, a thousand bucks, and I'm thinking, "Wow, this is a lot of money I'm giving these people, so I'm just going to start selling it myself." The problem with that was that we had all this money, but we was absolutely miserable, and she would go out and sleep with other guys to get drugs, and that ended my marriage.
But during this time, I have to get a job to build back up to where I was at to open my shop again, so I get a job at Food City, and when I get this job at Food City, there's my wife now, Rebecca. She's a cashier there. And when I walk in, she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life. I was, like, "Man, I could never have a girl like that. Wow, she's so beautiful." But as I'm working with her, she's actually kind of mean to me, and she's saying, "I don't want anything to do with you," "Get away from me," stuff like that.
But, you know, I just keep being nice to her and keep trying to give her my phone number, and it's around Christmas Eve. We'd just been dating for a little while and moved in together. My ex-wife shows up with my three children that I had by her, and she's like, "Here's your kids. Here's their birth certificates. Here's their Social Security cards, I'm done." And we're starting a family. We have--I already have three kids.
During this time, we spent the next year watching nothing but "Amazing Facts" on YouTube. I didn't even know they even had a website at this time. I just knew that this little guy on YouTube was super smart, was teaching Bible, and I wanted to follow him. I wanted to be a Christian. I gave my life to God now because of these truths that I'm learning from Doug Batchelor.
Just because Doug taught it didn't make me real sure about going to this church. I really didn't want anything to do with it, but I called the guy up and I'm telling him--and I'm not very nice about it, actually. I'm telling him, "Look, we was thinking about coming to your church," and he's really nice, and he's like, "Well, you're more than welcome to. We'd like to have you come." And I'm like, "Well, hold on. I'm going to lay down some ground rules. I'm telling you," I said, "Look here, I'm covered in tattoos, and I'm a tattoo artist." And he don't say, "Well, you know, wow, I didn't know all that. Don't come to my church." He says, "You're more than welcome. We would love to have you. Please come."
He asked me what I want to do, and I said, "Well, I want to preach." I said, "I have all these truths. I have all this knowledge stuff I'd never known before, stuff if I'd have had when I was younger, that would've been life-changing to me." I said, "I got to share this with the world." I said, "I want to preach, I want to teach." He gives me the book, says, "Study that."
Well, now that I'm a Bible worker, I'm able to go and reach people that most of the normal churches wouldn't even bother to even speak to. I'm able to go out and reach the people who have lived the life that I've lived. I'm able to let them know that "I am like you. I've been there, I've done that. I want to show you what my life is like now. I want to teach you this Bible. I want to show you what Jesus can do for you. It's not too late."
Doug: Flying sounds really exotic when you're young. As you get older, if you do any commercial flight, it can lose its luster. The longest commercial flight in the world goes from Auckland, New Zealand, to Dubai, over 17 hours, 8,800 miles. That's a long flight, especially if you're stuck in the middle seat. Spend a lot of time looking at your watch, waiting for the plane to land.
But scientists have now found there are some birds that can fly much longer than anything a man has made. Matter of fact, for years, they've known that the Great Frigatebirds can stay on the wing for several weeks. We always thought that was impressive until recently when scientists in Sweden did an experiment with the common swift. They have these very lightweight micro transmitters. They put them on 13 swift birds and let them go. They discovered that three of those swifts did not land even one time in 10 months, 10 months of nonstop flying.
So someone might naturally be wondering, "How do the swifts manage to sleep, especially if they're flying nonstop for 10 months?" Everybody needs to rest. Well, we're not exactly sure, but through studying these swifts with the electronic transmitters, it seems just before sundown, they fly up to an elevation of about two miles, and then they begin to glide slowly down, taking cat naps. Birds taking a cat nap. Evidently, that's what they do.
You might be wondering, "How do they eat without landing?" You see, the swift has an almost perfect aerodynamic design. In fact, some aircraft designers have looked at the shape of the swift and use their design to pattern jet fighters because the swift is able to turn and maneuver so precisely in the air. So, generally, right after sunrise and just before sundown, the birds go on a feast, and they're able to grab the bugs right out of the air, having a great birdie bug buffet.
Perhaps before you've wished you could have that unending energy like these birds, to be able to fly nonstop without getting bored or tired. You know, the Bible says that those that put their trust in God will never feel that kind of fatigue. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31, "They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint." So, friends, if you need an energy boost, surrender to Jesus, and He'll help you mount up with wings like a bird.