‘Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid 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 for your words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty one days. But lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. ” '
We may probably assume from this that Daniel had been contemplating his previous visions during the days of his fast, ‘setting his heart' to grasp and understand their significance, while at the same time humbling himself before God.
‘From the first day --- your words were heard.' God never fails to hear the prayer of the righteous when they humble themselves before Him, not in ostentatious humility, but in genuine lowliness of heart. Yet we are here reminded that there is often a definite period, sometimes short, sometimes considerable, between the praying of the prayer and the final answer coming through, not because God does not hear, but because of the way things are. To us the answer might seem simple, for we see only what is limited to our vision, but it must all work in with the purposes of God and the way that creation was created.
God had in fact sent the angel immediately on receiving the prayer, and it was because of that word that he had come. But there had been difficulties. An angel responsible in some way for watching over Persia had withstood him. He had seen that the message coming through to Daniel was not helpful to what he wanted for Persia and had tried to delay its receipt, possibly hoping to stop it altogether. If Daniel had not prayed on it may never have been received.
Prayer is a powerful and effective tool, but Jesus Himself warned us against its misuse. It is not to be a means of obtaining things for ourselves, but of extending and expanding the work of God and improving our spiritual lives. Indeed He told us that we do not need to ask for what we think we need, as our Father knows what we really need and will provide it (Matthew 6:8). The exception, the prayer for daily bread, is really a recognition that our bread comes from God, and is for a necessity which we cannot do without. Large numbers of modern prayers are totally selfish, miss the whole point of prayer, and ignore what Jesus said. He wanted us to have the wider vision. When Paul asked prayer for himself it was in order that the Kingly Rule of God might be extended and God's name glorified, not in order that he might be comfortable.
Jesus' concentration in His prayer was on the exaltation of God's name, the extending of His Kingly Rule, and the doing of His will on earth. We do well to make that the commencement of, and the major factor in, our praying, as Daniel clearly did.
‘Twenty and one days.' This covers the three week period during which Daniel was praying.
‘But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty one days. But lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia.' We learn from this that there are spiritual forces affecting the world situation that we know little about and comprehend even less. They are usually totally hidden from us and we are specifically warned against making too much of angels. They are God's instruments and heed His voice and not ours.
This suggests that as we would expect the spiritual forces that support ‘the wild beasts' depicted in Daniel work in a way that is contrary to the purposes of God. They are angels who follow Satan, egging man on in his sinful behaviour, while the true angels of God support the case of God's people behind the scenes. As we read of the latter, ‘Are they not all ministering spirits sent to sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?' (Hebrews 1:14).
But we must not read into these verses that every nation has its angel allocated by God, and that for the majority it is an evil angel. That is being far too simplistic. It is extremely unlikely that God has allocated the nations of the world to specific angels, of which most are evil. The point is rather that while nations are set to behave like wild beasts, especially powerful nations, that evil mastermind Satan will allocate those nations to one or more of his minions to stir up and encourage their behaviour.
In this case we are being told of one of Satan's minions who was allocated to ensure that Persia behaved as Satan wanted. It was because of such doings that Satan could say to Jesus that the nations could be His for the asking (Matthew 4:9). It was no idle boast. The nations, without realising it, were largely subservient to him as he exercised his power and control through his angels, because their minds and hearts were set in that direction, and the gods they worshipped were backed by ‘devils', that is these evil angels (1 Corinthians 10:20).
Such activities continued in Paul's day and continue today. ‘We do not wrestle against flesh and blood -- but against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places' (Ephesians 6:12). See also Revelation 12:7-11.
But they did not, and do not, have total control over these nations. God too was at work, changing the course of nations. And here we learn that this mighty angel who was speaking to Daniel, working on behalf of Persia, was helped by Michael, one of the chief princes among God's true angels, who assisted him and enabled him on behalf of Persia to somewhat counter the effects of the evil angel appointed by Satan as ‘the prince of Persia'. By this he assisted the kings of Persia, unknown to them, in the direction of the purposes of God, to some extent modifying the success of the evil ‘prince'. (The angel can hardly be God or he would not have been so limited in his ability).
We are not to think that God recognised the authority of the so-called ‘prince of Persia'. He was not appointed by God (except in so far as all rulers are appointed by God). What in the end determined the success of these angels was the attitudes of men. Angels could only influence nations ‘spiritually', men made the final decisions. Thus we have here a partial explanation of Cyrus' tolerance towards, and assistance of, God's people, the result of the work of the mighty angel assisted by Michael. But it was Cyrus under God's will who made the final decisions, responding to the influence of the good or evil angels.
As Paul told us, these evil angels work partly by blinding the eyes of men to the truth so that they do not see the glory of God revealed in creation, but rather turn to the worship of created things, sun, moon, stars, beasts, birds and creeping things (2 Corinthians 4:4 a with Romans 1:18-23).