Sunday, November 11, 2007

Michael, prince of Israel

Our sermon today, was on Daniel 10, and it's about a Man in white linen who comes to answer Daniel's prayer but is resisted by the prince of Persia for 21 days. Michael, who is the prince of Israel, comes to help the Man in white linen and the Man comes to Daniel to give him a message.
In this text, there is a reference to the "prince of Persia" who is a demon, assigned to the king of Persia to lead him astray. We are given an example of Satan's cunning, his overpowering desire to seize anyone he can. He sends demons to each power and position of authority and tempts them, pollutes them. But, we also see reference to a prince of Israel, Michael, an angel. (Michael is also mentioned in Revelation, he is leading the attacks against the dragon.) Michael was assigned by GOD to Israel and he works to protect Israel from the evil princes.

I think that it's really neat that Satan works in this way, but GOD counters it in much the same way. Satan assigns a demon to each person to act in his stead in leading us astray, but GOD, GOD gives each of us an angel, an angel to help keep us on the right track, and to help us realize when we haven't been on the right track, to help us realize when we've done wrong, ut to help us right it as well.

I think it's neat, we really do have guardian angels.