We come to what will be Daniel’s final vision. It begins in chapter ten and continues into eleven and twelve.
Chapter ten begins with Daniel toiling and struggling. In the prior chapter we saw the intensity of his prayer life. It continues.
Daniel dates his vision to the third year of Cyrus, so it was over seventy years after his deportation from Jerusalem. He was an old man, at least eighty-five years of age.
The date is important, since it enables us to deduce something that Daniel does not explicitly mention: this vision occurred two years after some of the Jews were allowed by an edict of Cyrus to return to Jerusalem and begin the task of rebuilding the temple (Ezra 1:1). Daniel had not gone back with the pilgrims – possibly due to age or infirmity, or because he was still an important figure in the administration of Babylon. (Lennox)
It was the first month of the Jewish year, the month Nisan, just past the time of Passover, when he and his nation ought to have been joyfully celebrating their marvelous deliverance by God from slavery. Passover celebrations started on the fourteenth day of the month, and normally took one week. Presumably Daniel had celebrated the Passover, yet such was the depth of his sorrow that he extended the period of his mourning for three times that length.
Daniel finds himself on the bank of the River Tigris, and he describes it as the revelation of a great conflict.
He has fasted for three weeks. Have you ever fasted? It is, at times, because we want God to know how serious we are.
Before we dig into chapters 10 – 12, I have an observation.
There is a cost of close involvement with God and His Word. Think of Moses at the Burning Bush or Jerimiah.
Are we willing to bear the cost, or simply be “students of prophecy” tinkering with numbers?
Can we allow the Bible to be the dominate book of our lives?