20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part Four.

 

Thoughts for the prayer warrior

 

20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part Four.

 

Daniel 9:20.

“Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, 

 

“While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin.” Notice Daniel says, “my sin.” Daniel confessed that he was a sinner.

 

It is interesting that there is no place in the Bible which mentions any sin that Daniel committed. In fact, when his enemies were trying to find some wrongdoing in his life, they could find nothing, and we may be sure that they left no stone unturned.

Now I have often made the statement that no one has ever been saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. And I have suggested that if anybody knew of someone in the Old Testament who was saved by keeping the Ten Commandments to let me know about it.

Then I found a man in the Old Testament who did not sin. It is Daniel. One cannot find a recorded sin which Daniel committed. But, what about this verse where Daniel says, “I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin.”

If Daniel had never sinned but said that he was confessing his sin, then he would be lying to say he was confessing sin if, in fact, he had never sinned!

So, Daniel is a sinner, any way you take it, for the Bible is correct when it says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. So, Daniel was a sinner, and I can still say that no one was ever saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. Daniel was casting himself and his people upon the mercy of God.

“Presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God” which would be Jerusalem and the Kingdom of God that will be there (see Isaiah 2:1–2).

 

Daniel 9:21

“Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.” 

 

“The man Gabriel” Gabriel was an angel and apparently appeared in human form. The time of his appearance was at the hour of the evening sacrifice at Jerusalem, which would be approximately three o’clock in the afternoon.

 

PROPHECY OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS

 

Now here is the prophecy delivered by Gabriel which makes this chapter of such great importance in the study of eschatology.

 

The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy

Daniel 9:22-23.

^“And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 

²³ At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore, consider the matter, and understand the vision:”

 

Notice that Daniel gets an immediate answer to his prayer. By the time Daniel finished his prayer, the angel Gabriel was there. Someone said, “It took Gabriel three minutes to get from heaven to earth.” Of course, if Daniel had his eyes closed while he was praying, it may be that Gabriel was standing on one foot and then on the other for two minutes, waiting for Daniel to get finished. The Lord God has promised, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” Isaiah 65:24.

Note that Daniel was “greatly beloved” in heaven. That is wonderful. The believer in Jesus Christ is seen by God as being in Christ.

According to Ephesians 1:6 we are accepted in the Beloved, so the believer is loved in heaven because he is in Christ.

 

THE PRAYER OF DANIEL

 

This prayer of Daniel is a conclusion of a life of prayer. Daniel asked for a prayer meeting to learn the dream of Nebuchadnezzar at the beginning of the book, and he has been a man of prayer all the way through. The prayer in this chapter gives the pattern of his prayer life and acquaints us with the conditions of prayer. Here are some of the basic elements in the prescription of prayer.

Purposeful Planning. Prayer was no haphazard matter with Daniel. He wrote, “And I set my face upon the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” verse 3. Prayer was not just a repeat of idle words or the putting together of pretty phrases with flowery grammar.

The Lord Jesus said, “But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” Matthew 6:7. Such is not real prayer.

A.   Painful Performance. Daniel prayed with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. This was not done for outward show but to reveal the sincerity of his heart. One does not see many prayer meetings like that today.

B.   Perfect Plainness. Daniel was candid and straightforward in his confession. He got right down to business with God.

C.   Powerful Petition. Daniel received an answer while he was speaking and praying. The angel Gabriel appeared to him to give him some explanation. This man got answers to his prayers. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” 1 John 5:14.

D.   Personal and Private. Daniel did not call a public prayer meeting; he prayed privately. This prayer of his is of three minutes’ duration. Our Lord often prayed privately. His prayer which is recorded in John 17 is also three minutes long. There are many of us who want to call a public prayer meeting when we ought to spend more time in private prayer.

E.   Plenary (full) Penetration. Prayer is the only force that has penetrated outer space to the throne of God. Sir Isaac Newton said that he could take up a telescope and look at the nearest star, but he could put down the telescope, get down on his knees and penetrate the outer heavens to the very throne of God.

F.    Prayer for Daniel was a real exercise of soul in spiritual travail. Such prayer is hard work. It requires effort and endurance and suffering.

 

 

20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part Three.

 

Thoughts for the prayer warrior

 

20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part Three.

 

Daniel 9:8-14.

“O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 

⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 

¹⁰ We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 

¹¹ Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore, the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 

¹² And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

¹³ “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.” 

 

Up to this point have you noticed how Daniel contrasted God’s goodness with Israel’s sin? He compared His righteousness with their “confusion of face” which was their shame. They were scattered because of their trespass against God. They deserved the punishment they had received. God was righteous in sending them into captivity. God was right; they were wrong.

If you go to God and make excuses for your sin, if you say to Him, “Lord, you know that I am weak and I was in this and that circumstance,” you are blaming your sin upon God. You are saying that God made a mistake, He should have taken those things into consideration. He has been too hard on you!

You and I are getting exactly what we deserve. And we need to go to God in confession of our sin. In our day I hear folk implying that God may be wrong in what He is doing. God is not wrong; we are the ones who are wrong.

Daniel’s attitude is the proper attitude that each of us should take as we approach our God in prayer. God will not utterly forsake us, but He certainly is not going to move on our behalf until you and I get to the place where we can claim the mercy of God and stop making excuses for ourselves.

 

Daniel 9:15-18.

“And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 

¹⁷ Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 

¹⁸ O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.” 

This is Daniel’s petition and plea. He recalls how God led Israel out of Egypt. God did it because of His righteousness, not because of theirs. He found the explanation for their deliverance in Himself, not in the people. “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them” Exodus 2:24–25.

The only thing that made an appeal to God from the people was their groaning. In other words, God saw their misery, and He remembered His mercy. Now Daniel asks God to repeat Himself by delivering them again because of His righteousness. God is righteous when He extends His mercy to us, because Jesus Christ has fully paid all the penalty for our sin.

“To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” Romans 3:26.

Now notice Daniel’s emotional plea:

 

Daniel 9:19.

“O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

 

This is the climactic plea of Daniel. He asks God to hear and answer because of who He is and what He has promised. No good thing rests upon Israel. Daniel does not plead because he is Daniel. Rather, he associates himself with his people and says, “We have sinned,” including himself, you see. God’s name is at stake, and Daniel is deeply concerned about the name of God and the glory of God. This is the basis for his plea.

Now we shall see that while Daniel was praying, an answer was on its way.

 

          End of part three, part four will follow.

20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part Two.

 

Thoughts for the prayer warrior

 

20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part Two.

 

Bible Reading: Daniel 9.

 

Daniel 9:3-4.

^“Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 

⁴ And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments.”

 

“To seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting.” We are told that the Lord Jesus fasted, but fasting was never given to the people of God as a service. It was something that one could do over and above what was required. It is mentioned that in the early church there were many who fasted. Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth: “In weariness and painfulness, in watching’s often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting’s often, in cold and nakedness” 2 Corinthians 11:27.

Daniel demonstrated a purposeful persistence in prayer. Even Jacob in his prayer cried, “… I will not let thee go, except You bless me” Genesis 32:26.

This prayer of Daniel is very personal. It concerns him and his people, which is evident by the repeated use of the first-person pronouns, I, we, and ours. They appear forty–one times in this prayer. You may remember that we pointed out how Nebuchadnezzar used the personal pronoun in chapter 4.

What is the difference? For Nebuchadnezzar it was a mark of pride, a mark of being lifted. The contrast of Daniel’s use of the personal pronoun is striking. It denotes humility, confession, and “confusion of faces” in contrast to Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and self-exaltation.

Daniel is down on his face before God. He recognizes the attributes of God. First, we see that he rests upon his personal relationship to God. He calls Him, “My God,” appealing to God in a very personal way. Before he makes his confession, he dwells on the greatness of God. “Dreadful God” or “Awesome God,” means worthy of reverence. One cannot trifle with God.

Daniel acknowledges that God keeps the covenant and mercy to them that love Him. He not only makes promises, but He keeps them. He is absolute and, therefore, He is faithful. He is also a God of mercy:

It was by His mercy that the nation Israel had been preserved.

It is by His mercy that you and I have been brought to this present moment.

It is by His mercy that He saves us. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” Lamentations 3:22.

God is gracious, but God also expects us to mean business, and God expects to be obeyed.

Now notice Daniel’s confession of sin:

 

Daniel 9:5-6.

“We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 

⁶ Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.” 

 

“We have sinned.” Daniel identifies himself with his people back there in the land of Israel when they rebelled against God, which resulted in their captivity. He is precise in his confession. He labels each sin: iniquity, wickedness, rebellion, disobedience, and refusal to hear God’s prophets. He writes them all down. He does not leave any out.

I believe that our confession of sin requires exactly that. It is not enough to go to God and say, “I have sinned.” Confession means to tell God exactly what we have done. I feel that confession of sins should be that detailed. Spell it out to God. Maybe we do not like to do that because it is an ugly thing. But spell it out to Him; He already knows how ugly it is. We need to come to Him in frank, open confession.

Daniel 9:7.

“O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.”

 

“All Israel, that are near, and that are far off.” The people of Israel were scattered, but there were no lost tribes, it is a misleading term to call them that. Some of the tribes were near Daniel there in Babylon and others were far off, but he knew where they were. He did not say they were lost. But they were scattered “in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.”

 

          End of part two, part three will follow.

20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part One.

 

Thoughts for the prayer warrior

 

20. The prayer of Daniel; prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Part One.

 

Bible Reading: Daniel 9.

 

This is another one of those remarkable chapters in Scripture. Dr. Philip Newell evaluates it, “The greatest chapter in the book and one of the greatest chapters of the entire Bible.” The double theme is prayer and prophecy. If one were to choose the ten greatest chapters of the Bible on the subject of prayer, this chapter would be included on any list.

If the ten most important chapters on prophecy were chosen, this chapter would again be included on any list. The first 21 verses give us the prayer of Daniel, and the final 6 verses give us the very important prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.

 

THE PRAYER OF DANIEL

 

This prayer of Daniel is actually a conclusion of a life of prayer. Daniel asked for a prayer meeting to learn the dream of Nebuchadnezzar at the beginning of the book, and he has been a man of prayer all the way through. The prayer in this chapter gives the pattern of his prayer life and acquaints us with the conditions of prayer. Here are some of the basic elements in the prescription of prayer.

Purposeful Planning. Prayer was no haphazard matter with Daniel. He wrote, “And I set my face upon the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” verse 3. Prayer was not just a repeat of idle words or the putting together of pretty phrases with flowery grammar.

The Lord Jesus said, “But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” Matthew 6:7. Such is not real prayer.

1.    Painful Performance. Daniel prayed with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. This was not done for outward show but to reveal the sincerity of his heart. One does not see many prayer meetings like that today.

2.    Perfect Plainness. Daniel was candid and straightforward in his confession. He got right down to business with God.

3.    Powerful Petition. Daniel received an answer while he was speaking and praying. The angel Gabriel appeared to him to give him some explanation. This man got answers to his prayers. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” 1 John 5:14.

4.    Personal and Private. Daniel did not call a public prayer meeting; he prayed privately. This prayer of his is of three minutes’ duration. Our Lord often prayed privately. His prayer which is recorded in John 17 is also three minutes long. There are many of us who want to call a public prayer meeting when we ought to spend more time in private prayer.

5.    Plenary (full) Penetration. Prayer is the only force that has penetrated outer space to the throne of God. Sir Isaac Newton said that he could take up a telescope and look at the nearest star, but he could put down the telescope, get down on his knees and penetrate the outer heavens to the very throne of God.

6.    Prayer for Daniel was a real exercise of soul in spiritual travail. Such prayer is hard work. It requires effort and endurance and suffering.

 

Daniel’s Prayer for the People

Daniel 9:1.

“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.”

 

“First year of Darius … of the seed of the Medes.” The two important questions are: Who was Darius and what was the date?

Darius the Mede may be identified as Cyaxares II of secular history (Daniel 5:31). “Darius” is more an official title, such as king, czar, or emperor, than an actual name. There has been some disagreement as to the exact date. Newell thinks it is 538 b.c.; Culber places it at 536 b.c. I think either date would fit into the background. This man conquered Babylon in 538 b.c.

Daniel 9:2.

“In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.”

 

This is in the first year of the reign of Darius. Daniel has now seen a new great world empire come into position, and he is wondering about the future and especially the future of his own people. So, Daniel turns to a study of the Word of God.

He reads the book of the prophet Jeremiah who said that Israel would be in captivity for seventy years. The date is about 537 b.c. in this chapter. Daniel is between eighty–five and ninety years of age. He had been captured back in 606 b.c. when he was about seventeen. That means that the seventy–year period is coming to a close. It is about the time that these people will be given the opportunity to return to their own land.

Daniel was concerned about his people. I think he was shaken by that “little horn” in chapter 8, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king of the Seleucid dynasty. He would abuse Daniel’s people, and he would desecrate the temple. All of this caused Daniel great concern.

We should notice that the determining factor which brought Daniel to this prayer was his study of the Word of God. The Word reveals the will of God. A study of God’s Word, followed by prayer, is the formula for determining God’s will.

These are the promises which Daniel read: “And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” Jeremiah 25:11. “For thus said the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place” Jeremiah 29:10).

Keep in mind that Daniel had been studying Jeremiah’s prophecy about these seventy years. When Gabriel used the expression, “seventy weeks” verse 24, he was extending the time of the seventy years. The Seventy Weeks will cover the entire time of the nation Israel in this time of testing before the Kingdom is established on earth.

Just reading Daniel’s prayer reveals how different prayer was in his day from what it is now. Notice first the conditions:

 

          End of part one, part two will follow.

 

 

10. A Prayer from Daniel.

 

Thoughts for the prayer warrior

 

10. A Prayer from Daniel.

 

Daniel 10:12-13. Part One.

“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. 

¹³ 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.”

 

Here a veil is lifted briefly, and it reveals a heavenly warfare going on. It reveals there is a great deal more about this universe in which we live than meets the eye. There is a great deal more to it than we know. Very little is revealed to us, and we should not try to know more than is revealed about the unseen world.

This reveals that in the world which is unseen by us there is a conflict going on, a conflict of the ages between good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan. It reveals that there are satanic forces and heavenly forces.

“From the first day … your words were heard, and I am come for your words.” The angel is saying that Daniel’s prayer was heard immediately, and he was sent as a messenger with an answer. But on the way his pathway was blocked; he could not get through to Daniel. This is an amazing statement!

This throws some light on what Paul said to the Ephesian believers:

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” Ephesians 6:11–12.

Again, here are the degrees of rank in the forces of Satan. Their power may explain the reason your prayer and my prayer have not yet been answered. Prayer is fighting a spiritual battle always. Paul made it clear that prayer was a spiritual battle for him. “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me” Romans 15:30.

“Strive together” is the Greek word sunagoµnizom—from this root we get our English word “agonize.” You and I are to agonize in prayer. Real prayer is agonizing. It is getting through the barriers to release spiritual power. It is not done by trying to entertain the Lord with flowery language or by trying to be very profound and theological. We are fighting a spiritual battle!

 

Daniel 10:12-13. Part Two.

“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. 

¹³ 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.”

 

Again, the angel said to Daniel, “When you began to pray, God sent me to answer your prayer, but I could not get through to you because on the way the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty–one days.” Who is he?

No earthly or human prince could do such a thing. This evidently was an envoy of Satan, one of the demons. We know that God has His angels organized, and apparently Satan also has his demons organized like an army. There are the generals and the colonels, the lieutenants and second lieutenants, sergeants and corporals, and so on.

Apparently, this angel was outranked by the satanic angel who was the prince of the kingdom of Persia, and so he could not get through and had to send back for reinforcements. In fact, Michael, the archangel, had to come to open the way for him.

Why would the way be blocked? Daniel is going to be given information about the kingdom of Persia and about the kingdom of Greece—we will see that when we get to the next chapter.

Satan did not want that kind of information to get out. It was secret information that he did not want released to mankind. But God wanted the information to be gotten through to Daniel.

“Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” Apparently, there was a conflict going on involving the kings of Persia (remember that Daniel was in Persia), and there needed to be some heavenly forces to help. This was about the time that Daniel had the experience of being put in the lion’s den. You see, the Lord was active on Daniel’s behalf without his knowing anything about it.

We need to recognize as believers that we are in a spiritual warfare. It is amazing how many times the Devil short circuits our prayer life. One of the reasons that public prayer and prayer meetings are so dead is because those who go there say some little prayers without realizing that there is a battle going on. There is a war that must be fought and won.

Paul mentions this again in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

The Christian life is a bigger undertaking than any of us ever dreamed it to be. You and I need to recognize how much we need the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how much we need the presence of Christ. We need to be more conscious of the fact that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare.

 

Daniel 10:12-13. Part Three.

“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. 

¹³ 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.”

 

This text introduces the believer to the order of angels, both good and bad angels, fallen and unfallen. We will see something about the kingdom of Satan, which is about us today. Apparently, angels exercise a free will, since some of them by their own decision followed Satan in his rebellion against God.

Some of these belong to the order of demons to which regular reference is made in the Gospels. The angels are in different orders, ranks, and positions and have various powers and abilities.

 

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him” Colossians 1:16.

This makes a separation in God’s creation, not only of that which is in heaven and that which is in earth, but that which is visible and that which is invisible. There is a great realm today that is invisible.

We are told that God created thrones:

Which would be the archangels like Michael and Gabriel and other special messengers.

There are dominions, which would be the cherubim and seraphim.

There are principalities, which would be the generals.

And powers would be the privates such as serve as guardian angels (Hebrews 1:4).

Some angels in the rank of principalities, that is, the generals, fell away to join with Satan. Notice what is said about “principalities”: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” Ephesians 6:12.

Satan also has his angels organized according to rank. Just as one army is set over against another army, there are generals on both sides:

Satan’s “principalities,” or generals, seem to have the oversight of nations.

His “powers” are the privates of his army who are demons who seek to possess human beings.

The “rulers of the darkness of this world” are demons who have charge of Satan’s worldly business.

Then there is “spiritual wickedness” in the heavenlies, which are the demons who have charge of religion. You may not realize it, but Satan’s department of religion is the largest department of all. He is in the business of religion. Many folk think Satan is against religion. No indeed, he is promoting religion, not Christ, but religion.

These two groups move in the arena of this universe in which we live, good and evil. Those on the Lord’s side, and those of their father the Devil. They are engaged in ceaseless warfare to capture the souls of men.