Michael, the Question That Stands Up

The heaven that opened for John stays shut for Daniel. He stands on the bank of the Tigris, an old man who can barely keep his feet, and above him there is only sky. For three weeks he has mourned: the choice bread left untouched, no meat and no wine, no oil on his skin. He has set his heart on understanding what God intends for His people. On the 24th day he looks up. A man stands there, clothed in linen. His body gleams like a precious stone, his face flashes like lightning, his eyes are torches of fire, and his voice sounds like the roar of a crowd. The men with Daniel see nothing, yet they are so frightened that they run off and hide. Daniel is left alone. The color drains from his face, his strength is gone, and at the sound of that voice he falls forward into a deep sleep.

Then a hand touches him. It sets him, trembling, on his knees and the palms of his hands, and a voice calls him by name: Daniel, man greatly loved. The Hebrew says ish chamudot, man of desirable things, with the word of the tenth commandment, the word for what your hand wants to pull toward itself. It is also the word for the bread Daniel left untouched, the desirable. He denied himself what was desirable, and now he hears that he is the desirable one. I have been sent to you, says the messenger, and the longing in that word comes along from the One who sent him. Above the shut heaven, Someone is longing for him. Stand where you stand, says the voice, and Daniel gets up, trembling.

The messenger also says why he has come. Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. When Daniel first left his bread untouched, the answer was already on its way. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood against me for 21 days. Daniel noticed none of it; he saw no angels and heard no weapons, only the river and his own hunger. Then help came. Look, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. Anyone who has ever prayed for weeks against a heaven that stayed shut knows that riverbank. God had heard Daniel on the first day, and His answer fought its way to the river.

That is how Michael enters the story, as reinforcement. Against the prince of Persia, and soon the prince of Greece, no one stands with me except Michael, your prince. The Hebrew says "your" in the plural, the prince of the whole people. The nations have their powers. For the people He loves, God has appointed a prince of the highest rank, with orders to fight for them. And that prince carries a question for a name. Mi-cha-El, who is like God? The question of this whole book is here the name of a warrior, and the answer is built into it: no one, not even the great prince himself. Gabriel had already told Daniel that he was greatly loved (Dan 9:21–23), and his name is not a question but a confession, "my hero is God." Michael asks who is like God; Gabriel says Who his hero is. Both carry His name inside their own.

At the end of his message the messenger looks far ahead. At that time Michael will arise, the great prince who stands firm for the children of your people. It will be a time of distress such as has not been since there was a nation. And at that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written in the book. One verb runs through these chapters, to stand. Daniel had to stand where he stood, the prince of Persia stood against the messenger, and when the heaviest hour history has ever known arrives, Michael stands up and keeps standing. Whoever escapes is found, written down, in a book that does not belong to Michael. Moses already called it, before God, "Your book that You have written" (Exod 32:32). God writes the names. The prince guards what He wrote.

In Jude, Michael stands against the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, whom God Himself had buried in Moab in a place no one knows (Deut 34:6). Michael did not dare bring a slanderous judgment against him. He said only: the Lord rebuke you. The only word the Bible records from his mouth is an appeal to his Lord. The great prince of heaven wins by calling in Another.

Once more he stands up, at the end of the Bible, now in heaven itself. War broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels waged war against the dragon, and the dragon waged war, with his angels, and he was not strong enough, and their place was found no longer in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent, who is called devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. The dragon has many names; the angel facing him has one, and it is about God.

A loud voice in heaven says what has happened. Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accused them day and night before our God. Before the throne a voice had never stopped listing what was wrong with God's people on earth, and that voice will be put out of heaven. Heaven calls those people "our brothers": not patriarchs and prophets, but believers on earth who live by the blood of the Lamb, whatever nation they come from. You too are accused, day and night. But the day is coming when your accuser will be banished from heaven; then there will be no place for him before the throne, and he will never accuse you again. They conquered him, it will sound, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Michael will throw the accuser out. The accusation had already fallen. The Lamb had carried it. Everything the accuser brought before the throne at night was true, and all of it had already been answered, with blood. Rejoice, then, you heavens, and you who dwell in them.

Daniel saw nothing of those wars. He received a hand, a second touch when his breath failed, and words he never lost again: do not be afraid, man greatly loved, peace be with you, be strong, yes, be strong. The last word spoken to him carries Michael's verb. Go your way till the end, Daniel; you will rest, and you will stand up (Dan 12:13). Whoever stands in the book stands up. By the Tigris an old man lies on his knees, with his name in God's book, and behind the heaven that seemed shut, princes have fought over an answer God gave on the first day. The name heaven carries into battle is a question, and whoever asks it, over a river or in a night full of accusations, is already singing along with the heaven that rejoices. Who is like God, who hears on the very first day, who writes the names Himself and carries the accusation Himself? The prince who stands up knows the answer. He carries it in his name.

A note on the source text. Daniel by the Tigris, three weeks of mourning, "choice bread," the man in linen: Daniel 10:1–9; "man greatly loved": 10:11, 19 (cf. 9:23); "from the first day [...] your words were heard": 10:12; the prince of Persia, 21 days, "Michael, one of the chief princes": 10:13; the second touch and "be strong": 10:16–19; "Michael, your prince": 10:20–21; to stand (amad): 10:11, 13; 11:1; 12:1, 13; "at that time Michael will arise, the great prince," "written in the book": 12:1; "you will rest, and you will stand up": 12:13. To desire (chamad): Exodus 20:17; Psalm 19:10. "Your book that You have written": Exodus 32:32. The grave of Moses: Deuteronomy 34:5–6. Michael and the devil, "the Lord rebuke you": Jude 9–10; the formula: Zechariah 3:1–4. An archangel without a name: 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Gabriel, "you are greatly loved": Daniel 8:16; 9:21–23; Luke 1:19, 26. The war in heaven, the accuser thrown down, "by the blood of the Lamb," "rejoice, then, you heavens": Revelation 12:7–12. The divine Name rendered as YHWH.