On This Day

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. Daniel 10:13

On this day forty years ago, I stood on a ship thousands of miles away and heard the news from Beirut, Lebanon of the loss of 241 of my fellow servicemen. Later we would learn that 58 French paratroopers had perished in the same way - a truck bomb and a suicide bomber. We didn't know at the time, but it was the opening of a war that continues to this day around Israel. What we did know was that we were due in Beirut next. Military service had suddenly become much more serious.

How does this tie in with our verse for today? Some of you will know already that Michael, we will learn later in the same chapter, is the prince of Daniel's people, Israel. We see already in the verse that this prince of the kingdom of Persia is the one who prevents a messenger coming to Daniel for 21 days. This is one of those verses in the Bible that tell us of a larger conflict going on in the unseen realm. This knowledge helps us to understand why nations and peoples act the way they do at times in history. It is not an easy concept to grasp and quite a bit frightening in its implications. This is one of those things that shakes the foundations of all that we think humans can and do control in this world. Scary.

All the more reason, I believe, to go closer to the One who is called Almighty. How do such unworthy sinners as ourselves do that? By the way He gave to us, His Son Jesus the Christ.

Bucky