A NEW LOOK AT OLD PROPHECIES

I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.  – John 5:43

Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. – Matthew 24:15-16

But when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. – Mark 13:14

"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. "Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. "Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.  – Luke 21:20-24

 

Picture this scene:  Jews in Jerusalem are excited about renewed hopes that their beloved temple will be rebuilt.  A powerful world ruler has expressed support for the idea of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem to its former grandeur, and some Jews are taking this also to mean the rebuilding of the temple.  But just as hopes begin to rise, it becomes clear that the city is to be rebuilt and renamed in honor of the ruler’s own family and a shrine erected to his own god.  What’s more, edicts are issued forbidding certain traditional Jewish practices. Outraged Jews gather around a leader who promises to vanquish the ruler’s armies and rebuild the temple.  With the aid of a popular spiritual leader, he gains great support from most Jews, who begin to refer to him as their Messiah.  A three-year war ensues and the armies of the world ruler finally prevail. He orders the pagan shrine to be erected on the temple mount, and all Jews are banished from Jerusalem.

Does this sound like some end-time novel or book on biblical prophecy you have read?  Actually, this all occurred from A.D. 132-135!

Forty-seven years after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrian acceded to the throne of Rome.  He was a versatile, ambitious man who sought to restore the grandeur of the ancient cities of the Roman Empire.  He rebuilt the Pantheon in Rome, built temples to Venus and Roma.  In Megara he built at temple to Apollo, and in Athens, one to Zeus.  So when, during tours of Egypt and Syria, Hadrian gave orders to rebuild the great city of Jerusalem, some optimistic Jews might have hoped it would include rebuilding their temple, as well.  That was never Hadrian’s plan.  His plan was a new city named Aelia Capitolina, and the shrine was to be devoted to the chief of the Roman gods – Jupiter.

Outraged Jews rallied around an audacious, charismatic leader named Simon ben Kosiba, whom they renamed Bar Kochba (also spelled Bar Kochva), “Son of the Star,” a reference to Numbers 24:17, a Messianic prophecy.  Bar Kochba also referred to himself as N’si Yisrael, Prince of Israel (see Ezekiel 34:24).  Jewish Christians did not support the rebuilding of the temple, and they rejected this revival messiah.  Bar Kochba gathered a large army and received the enthusiastic support of popular Rabbi Akiva, who encouraged the rebellion on religious grounds. 

For a time the rebels prevailed, and it looked like the dream of a rebuilt temple would come true.  Bar Kochba took Jerusalem and erected an altar on the temple mount.  He also began rebuilding the city wall.  Coins were minted in honor of Bar Kochba and the liberation of Jerusalem.  But eventually the Romans committed a total of  twelve legions to Judea, overwhelming the defenders in Jerusalem and capturing Rabbi Akiba.  The rabbi was tortured to death in a most heinous manner.  The remaining Jewish army took refuge in a mountain fortress called Bethar.  When the Roman army, after a year of fighting, finally overran the stronghold, Bar Kochba along with all the Jewish defenders in the fortress, was killed. 

It is estimated that 580,000 Jews were killed during the war, which lasted (According to historian Emil Schürer) three and a half years.  Fifty fortified towns and 985 villages were destroyed.  Historian Ivor J. Davidson describes the aftermath of Bar Kochba’s rebellion:

Jerusalem was rebuilt as a Hellenistic Roman colony and was renamed Aelia Caplitolina, after the family name of the emperor, Hadrian, Publius Aelius Hadrianus, and the god Jupiter, whose temple stood on the Capitoline in Rome; a shrine to Jupiter was dedicated on the site of the former temple.  The city was to be an entirely Gentile place into which, officially, no Jew was permitted to enter.  (See Matt. 24:15-16, Mark 13:14, and Luke 21:24)  The Roman territory of Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina – it was now formally (for the first time, in fact) “Palestine,” named for the Philistines, not the Jews.  Hadrian ordered fierce reprisals against the inhabitants of Judea, destroying hundreds of settlements and slaughtering very large numbers of people – the worst atrocities ever committed against the Jews in the Roman world.

The Jewish Talmud renamed Bar Kochba, Bar Koziba, “Son of the Liar” or “Son of the Deceiver.” 

Just how does all this fit into biblical prophecy?  That’s a bigger subject that I will try to tackle at this point.  But facts are facts, and many of the facts regarding the Bar Kochba Rebellion of A.D.  132-135 look very similar to prophecies Jesus pronounced shortly before going to the cross for our sins.  It is amazing to me that so few Bible commentators and theologians give any attention to this crucial event.  They focus exclusively on A.D. 70 and the destruction of the temple as the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies, yet that event, terrible as it was, was only the beginning of sorrows for Judea and Jerusalem.

The Bar Kochba revolt, also known as The Third Jewish War, was a definitive turning point in redemptive history.  Jewish Christians, who did not support the revolt, were no longer welcome among the mainstream Jews.  Hostilities solidified.  “The times of the Gentiles” officially began, by Roman decree, and Jerusalem was “trodden down by the Gentiles.” 

What comes next?

WHY THIS WASTE?

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."   (Matthew 26:6-13)

 I have noticed during my nearly 37 years in the ministry, that when a denomination or Christian organization departs from the central message of the Bible – the redemption of lost souls through faith in the Person and atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ – they inevitably turn to social concerns and “humanitarian” efforts.  Whole bureaucracies within the denomination are formed for such endeavors as “world relief” and “human rights advocacy”. 

 This shift in ministry emphasis in America began in 19^th-century and led to the coining of the term “Social Gospel”.  Seeing the misery very evident around them, Christians sought to relieve the effects of poverty and disease while maintaining their primary evangelistic mission.  Protestant denominations who held firmly to the Bible and its message of personal salvation believed that only spiritual regeneration through faith in Christ could make a lasting difference in society as a whole.  These used social relief efforts as a means of sharing the gospel.  Hospitals, clinics, schools, and rescue missions were formed with the intention of saving lost souls by means of their physical needs.  The problem is that if churches and Christian missions do not constantly renew their commitment to their Scriptural mission, the “felt needs,” the earthly ills, become the primary focus, and the evangelical mission is lost.

No denomination is immune to this phenomenon.  The pastor and seminary professor who holds the title “The Father of the Social Gospel in America” was Baptist pastor Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918).  His books included, Christianizing the Social Order and A Theology for the Social Gospel.  Baptists who held firm to the gospel of personal salvation would eventually separate from the liberal groups and form their own fellowships.  The same trends were played out – and are still being played out – among Methodists, Presbyterians, Reformed churches, Lutherans, and other denominations. 

 Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that Christians must never be callous to suffering and need.  Our willingness to do what we can to help others is a demonstration of our faith in Christ (James 2:14-17) and our love of God (1 John 3:17).  A mission agency with whom I had the privilege of serving for twenty years operates a hospital in Bangladesh.  The ministry of that hospital has resulted in scores of conversions to Christ and the founding of a local church.  Reports from that field always put the emphasis on the spiritual results, not how many patients were seen.  When a devastating tsunami hit Bangladesh in 2004, that mission set up an emergency relief fund and called for volunteers to help administer food and other material needs and to help rebuild the thousands of homes that were destroyed.  God’s people responded, homes were rebuilt, and every penny of the money donated went directly to the relief needs – not to administrative costs!  That mission, and others like it,  have kept their focus on the biblical gospel while responding to immediate needs as they arose – all without forming a new department of “world relief”!

 When that faithful lady in the home of Simon the Leper (!) poured that fragrant oil on the head of our Savior, Jesus’ own disciples protested: “Why this waste?”  They still didn’t believe or understand the real mission of our Lord.  “For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body,” Jesus said, “she did it for My burial.”  She understood that Jesus had to die for our sins, be buried, and rise again that we might have eternal life and a new heart.  That is the gospel.

 Should we not pour out our most precious resources to spread the fragrance of Christ’s gospel of eternal life to a lost world?  Waste?  How many millions of Christian dollars are poured into political action committees and social activist activities?  How much fragrant oil is being wasted on social bandages, while spiritual lepers are eaten away by sin and pass into an eternity in hell?

 

 

A Birthday Fast

I was reading again in the Diary of David Brainerd, and I found this entry for April 20, 1743:

Set apart this day for fasting and prayer, to bow my soul before God for the bestowment of divine grace; especially that all my spiritual afflictions, and inward distresses, might be sanctified to my soul.  And endeavored also to remember the goodness of God to me the year past, this day being my birthday.  Having obtained help of God, I have hitherto lived, and am now arrived at the age of twenty-five years.  My soul was pained to think of my barrenness and deadness; that I have lived so little to the glory of the eternal God.  I spent the day in the woods alone, and there poured out my complaint to God.  O that God would enable me to live to his glory for the future!
 

Most of us prefer a birthday feast, not a fast!  But it was quite consistent with the temperament and holy aspirations of David Brainerd to spend his birthday fasting.  The greatest birthday gift Brainerd could ever have hoped and prayed for was a closer walk with God.  Is that our greatest desire?  Is that our birthday wish when we blow out the candles?

Brainerd would live only four more years, but he would see at least 130 of his beloved Indians come to faith in Christ, and his diary would travel the globe and influence countless Christians for the service of the Lord.  Among those greatly moved by the life and writings of Brainerd were the missionary Henry Martyn and the godly Scottish pastor, Robert Murray M'Cheyne.

Brainerd has also had a profound effect on my life, especially in times of deepest distress.  I am greatly comforted to know that the godly David Brainerd suffered spiritual struggles much like mine, and that God brought him through and used him greatly. 

Lord, renew my resolve to serve You with single-hearted devotion.  Amen.

THE WAY OF CAIN: THE ROOT OF VIOLENCE NEVER ADDRESSED

            The first man born into this world was a murderer.  His mother, Eve, had higher hopes for him: she thought that Cain might be the promised savior who would crush the serpent’s, Satan’s, head.  Instead he manifested a violent, jealous, and vindictive nature that drove him to murder his brother, Abel.

            Of Cain’s direct descendants, one stands out as more evil than Cain himself.  His name was Lamech, and he prided himself in his murderous ways:

Lamech said to his wives,

"Adah and Zillah,
Listen to my voice,
You wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech,
For I have killed a man for wounding me;
And a boy for striking me;
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
(Genesis 4:23-24)

            In the New Testament book of Jude, we read that there are people who have chosen the way of Cain:

Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain . . .”  (Jude 1:11)

             As Charles R. Erdman pointed out, Adam’s sin was disobedience to God, but Cain’s and Lamech’s sins were “utter disregard and defiance of God.”  It has been noted that often what parents excuse in moderation, their children indulge in in excess. 

            The root of violence in our world is sin.  That’s the reality that is never acknowledged, and therefore is never addressed.  It is a hypocritical society that decries violence in schools and yet forbids students to carry a Bible to school, that stops students from praying over their lunch, or mentioning God in a valedictory speech.  When a society pursues the way of Cain, disregard for God and His Word, God will give that society over to its desires and it will suffer the natural consequences.  (See Romans 1:18-32)

            There is, thankfully, another way!  Adam and Eve had another son, Seth.  Of the line of Seth we read:

To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD. (Genesis 4:26, emphasis added.)

The one who stands out in the line of Seth is a man named Enoch.

Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24)

            Twice in the space of just four verses, the Bible calls attention to what set Enoch apart: Enoch walked with God!  And the only way to walk with God is by faith in God’s Word, and that’s why the writer to the Hebrews states: 

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. (Hebrews 11:5, emphasis added.)

            Erdman noted that Enoch had the same inherited genes as the murderers Cain and Lamech, yet he walked with God by faith, and as a consequence, he was pleasing to God!

            God’s judgment at last came down upon that progressively wicked world, but He would preserve mankind and begin to form a special people of God through Enoch’s great-grandson, another man God calls “righteous” – Noah.

            The Beloved Disciple, John, urged Christians to shun the way of Cain, but to pursue genuine, biblical love:

For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother.  And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.  (1 John 3:11-12)

            As long as our secular society chooses to shut God and His Word out of public life, we can only expect more violent manifestations of the way of Cain.

DEPRESSION AND HOLINESS

There are plenty of preachers, Christian writers, and professors who are quick to say that depression and holiness are totally incompatible.  They look at depression as sin, or at least the result of personal sin.

 Well, every human malady is ultimately a result of what happened in Genesis 3.  We are fallen creatures.  Each genuine Christian has his or her share of faults that distort the perfect image of Christ that we show to the world.  But before we jump to the conclusion that a person who is suffering depression cannot possibly be also holy, we should consider the cases of some of the most conspicuously holy men in Church history.

The first that comes to my mind is the godly David Brainerd (1718-1747).   Brainerd was a pioneer missionary to the North American Indians, and was known for his intense devotion to Christ and his long, early morning seasons of prayer.  Brainerd suffered from what was then called “consumption,” which took his life at age 29.  Brainerd also suffered from depression.  His diaries, edited at Brainerd’s request and published by Jonathan Edwards, reveal frequent bouts with depression during which he felt himself an unworthy servant of Christ.  We might theorize that his physical disease predisposed him to a depressed mental state, but the history of the Brainerd family reveals a similar temperament through generations.  Though Brainerd did not live to marry and have children, a relative some generations later commented that a “dark cloud” seems to hover over the Brainerd family.  Yet David Brainerd’s Journal is a devotional classic that has inspired generations of missionaries on both sides of the Atlantic!

 Upon my return from missionary work in Italy, I got into a discussion of David Brainerd with a very godly seminary professor I had studied under.  “Tom,” he said, “my students today say that David Brainerd was wrong in not taking better care of his health.  What do you think?”  I answered, “I’m not worried about there being too many David Brainerds in the ministry!”

 Another conspicuously godly missionary who suffered from bouts of depression was Henry Martyn (1781-1812), who translated the New Testament into Hindustani, Arabic, and Persian before his untimely death.  He lived long enough, however, to present the Persian New Testament to the shah of Iran in the palace.  The shah was so impressed that he ordered that a passage from the book be read in his court every morning!  One historian wrote that there was “no more heroic figure in 400 years of English history than Henry Martyn.”  And who inspired Henry Martyn to pursue such holy devotion to the cause of Christ?  Martyn’s biographer writes:  ". . . in the autumn of 1802 he read the life of David Brainerd and found his hero.  He who would know Martyn must ask what manner of man was that Brainerd who called out his depths of admiration."  (Henry Martyn, Constance E. Padwick)

Brainerd’s influence also reached the heart of the godly Robert Murray M’Cheyne, of who it is written, “To know him was the best interpretation of many texts” (The Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Andrew A. Bonar).  M’Cheyne’s journal entry for June 27, 1834, reads, “Life of David Brainerd.  Most wonderful man!  What conflicts, what depressions, desertions, strength, advancement, victories, within thy torn bosom!  I cannot express what I feel when I think of thee.  Tonight, more set upon missionary enterprise than ever.”  Henry Martyn also had his impact on M’Cheyne:  “November 12 (1834).  Reading H. Martyn’s Memoirs.  Would I could imitate him, giving up father, mother, country, house, health, life, all for Christ.  And yet, what hinders?  Lord, purify me, and give me strength to dedicate myself, my all to thee!”

The last example I would like to offer (though the examples could go on and on, and include even the great preacher Charles Spurgeon) is the poet and hymn writer William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) (1731-1800).   Cowper’s episodes with depression were by far the worst of any discussed here.  More than once he had to be hospitalized because of his emotional condition.  Cowper was a good friend of John Newton, the former slave ship captain who gave us the beloved hymn Amazing Grace.  Newton and Cowper collaborated on the volume of hymns titled, Olney Hymns.  One of Cowper’s hymns in that collection reveals his deep longing for the heavenly peace that he knew only God’s Holy Spirit could supply:

O for a closer walk with God,

            A calm and heavenly frame,
            A light to shine upon the road
            That leads me to the Lamb.

 

Return, O holy Dove,

            Return, Sweet messenger of rest;
            I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,
            And drove Thee from my breast.

 

The dearest idol I have known,

            Whate’er that idol be,
            Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
            And worship only Thee.

 

So shall my walk be close with God,

            Calm and serene my frame;
            So purer light shall mark the road
            That leads me to the Lamb.

 

Cowper also wrote There Is A Fountain, that speaks of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, as the Apostle John promised in 1 John 1:7, 9.

 Cowper’s case reminds us that it is not unusual for highly creative, artistic people to suffer severe depression.  The cause or causes of chronic depression are still largely a mystery.  From a biblical perspective, we know it is one consequence of our fallen condition, and we know that God’s Word and God’s Spirit can bring relief.  But we must never conclude that because someone suffers periodic bouts of depression, they are not holy.  Brainerd, Martyn, and Cowper, among many others, contradict that conclusion!

 Note:  A helpful book on this subject is Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cures, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

DEALING WITH EVIL

            The hearts of all decent people, not only in America but around the world, ache along with the parents, family members, classmates and friends of those precious children and others slain in Newton, Connecticut.  Our sadness is mixed with a sense of outrage that these senseless mass murders continue and nothing seems to be able to abate them.  Instead, they are increasing in frequency.

            As expected, gun control advocates scream for “action” to control gun ownership, as though the guns were what motivated that troubled young man to do what he did.  While we in America tend to compare this tragedy with previous ones in our own country, notably Columbine, we should not forget the mass murder of young people on the Norwegian island of Utoya by convicted mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.  Before going on his shooting spree on the island, Breivik set off a large bomb in central Oslo.  Altogether, Breivik killed at least 91 of his countrymen, many of them young people.  (The Observer, Saturday, 23 July 2011) Yet Norway, along with most of Western Europe has strict gun registration and control laws, which include the prohibition of high-capacity ammunition clips, the kind Breivik used.  Breivik shopped the world for his arsenal.  In a 1,500-page manifesto written the day of the massacre, Breivik wrote: “e-Bay is your friend.”

            No, the problem lies not in the weapons, but in the killers themselves, and more precisely, in what drives them to such atrocities.  Now at this point our secular world will turn to psychology, psychiatry, and sociology for answers, and wishfully, for solutions.  But those disciplines, useful as they may be within their limits, have failed to discover the real source of the problem – evil.  Indeed, it is not fashionable in our post-modern (or is it post-post-modern?) era even to acknowledge the existence of evil, or sin.

            The Bible has the answer, but it’s not a popular one:

 

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  (Romans 5:12) 

 

            That “one man” was our first father, Adam.  Genesis 5:3 informs us that although Adam was created in the “image of God” (Genesis 1:26, 27), his children were born “in his own image,” a distortion of the character of God, twisted by sin!

            So we are all by nature sinners, capable of horrible acts that we dare not imagine.  But, wait a second!  We may all be sinners, but we are not all mass murderers, child killers!  True, but left in our natural state, apart from the grace of God, we are vulnerable to the manipulation of Satanic forces.  Paul describes that condition in his instructions to his young protégé Timothy:

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.  (2 Timothy 2:24-26 Emphasis added)

            Those who have not received the grace of God in the gift of His Son, are vulnerable to the devil’s influence and manipulation.  And those who pursue the occult invite further demonic control.  Jesus told us that the devil was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), and he moves people to murderous acts.

            Thankfully, God has given us a cure for both our inherent sin and the influence and control of Satan.  Paul continues in Romans 5 –

For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.  (Romans 5:17)

            Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind.  His grace is the cure for evil.  And as for Satan, the devil, the enemy of God and man, the Apostle John sounds his judgment:

 The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.  (1 John 3:8)

            The solution to the problem of evil is a personal relationship with God through faith in His Son as Lord and Savior.  Everything else is a bandage on a deadly spiritual cancer.  

          

 

How Badly Do I Really Want to Know?

I have noticed lately that many professing Christians, even some pastors, have given up trying to understand some of the more difficult passages of Scripture.  There are many reasons for this, more than we can deal with in this article, but one question we should all ask ourselves if we claim to believe that the Bible is the Word of God: How badly do I really want to understand God's Word?

Daniel received some visions and prophecies from God that were difficult even for him to understand.  Chapters 9-11 are among those passages that many preachers these days gloss over with generalizations, if they treat them at all.  But notice Daniel's attitude toward understanding the Word:

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession . . ."  (Daniel 9:3-4a)

In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.  (Daniel10:2-3)

To Daniel, as it was to Job (Job 23:12), the Word of God was more precious than food or sleep!  Daniel knew that the only true interpreter of Holy Scripture was (and is) God Himself!  He knew that through earnest prayer and confession, God would grant him understanding.  Since Daniel was a prophet receiving special revelation, God sent an angel to explain the vision and prophecy.  Believers today have a constant divine companion and Comforter to guide us in our understanding of Scripture -- the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20, 27)

While the Holy Spirit moved upon Daniel to give us inspired Scripture (2 Peter 1:21), every believer has that same Holy Spirit to illuminate and give us understanding of those Scriptures.  Again, the question is, How badly do I really want to understand?

Daniel's determination paid off!  God sent His angel who had to fight off demonic forces to get the message through to His choice servant. 

And he said to me, "O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling. Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come."  (Daniel 10:11-14) 

Let's not shy away from deep passages of Scripture; let's seek the guidance of God's Holy Spirit for understanding.  Let's also study the whole Bible more diligently because the best commentary on Scripture is Scripture.  Remember, we have one thing that even Daniel did not have:  a complete Bible!   

So "Be diligent to show yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."  (2 Timothy 2:15 NASB)