“Dan. 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (chief: or, first)
Often and again, we hear in our sermons of the Prince of Persia. Basically, this is commonly taken to mean the devil, Satan that was resisting the answer to the prayer of Daniel based on the above passage of scripture.
But I have always ask myself this question, how come an angel or person sent by God to deliver a message have his mission thwarted by a demon or Satan? Who is stronger here? Paul could speak to a damsel with the spirit of divination and she becomes silent in Acts. 16:16-18. He could cause blindness for a season to Elymas the sorcerer who was trying to turn away the heart of Sergius Paulus from hearing the Goodnews that Paul was delivering.Acts.13:7-11.
How come this angel sent to deliver this message to Daniel was so weak that the prince of Persia could stop him for twenty one Days until help will come from Angel Michael. Who is Angel Michael in the Bible?
Is this prince of Persia a territorial spirit as we have commonly been taught and have come to believe?
Now just as we have the Prince of Persia, we also have the prince of Gracia.
Dan. 10:20 Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. (KJV)
So if we can understand who is a prince and who the prince of Grecia is, we can be able to understand who the prince of Persia really is.
To start with, who is a Prince in the Bible? Are they demons, territorial powers or people? Let us take a look at some scriptures
Gen. 46:20 And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. (priest: or, prince)
Exo. 2:14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. (The Hebrew word here means, a prince, a man,)
Nub. 7:11 And the LORD said unto Moses, They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the dedicating of the altar.
Nub. 7:18 On the second day Nethaneel the son of Zuar, prince of Issachar, did offer.
Evidently, all usage of the word above, speaks of a people who are leaders, so prince simply stands for leadership and officiating priests as in the case of the Book of Numbers. They are not demons or devils.
Who are the princes’ that killed Jesus?
1 Cor.2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Princes. The Greek word arcwn archon, ar’-khone = a first (in rank or power):–chief (ruler), magistrate, prince, ruler, a ruler. From Sarar=to ruler..Hence you have Ceasar. Tsar or Czar. And this is commonly rendered PRINCE in the Book of Daniel.
World= aion, an age; Not the globe, but simply an order or age with specific events and God’s dealings. So here we are dealing with the rulers of an age and not the globe or universe
Luke.23: 34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
Who are ‘them’ that needs forgiveness as prayed by Jesus.
Jon.7:45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?
46 The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.
47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?
48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?.
So here we can see clearly that the bunch of the Chief priests and Pharisees are been referred to as the rulers or princes of the age in question.
Who crucified Jesus?
“Dan. 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.”
1 Cor.2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Jon.19: 12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar
13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
Again, through these scriptures we can see that the prince of the age in which Jesus was crucified were the Chief Priest and the Pharisees. The Prince of the world, or age of the law, who were the custodian of the law were the Chief Priest and the Pharisees. The world Prince equal RULERS as can be seen from the Amplified translation
“1 Cor 2:8 None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this, for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory”. AMP
In fact the Message Translation brings it out more clearly.
1 Cor 2: 8 The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross.
So those who killed Jesus, were simply, the prince, same as the Rulers, the expert of our days, those who were ruling and working with the law then. Not demons or the prince of demons Beelzebub or Satan. But a people’s group, Pharisees.
Peter lend his voice to this as the people were amazed by the miracle of the impotent man by the gate, when he said..
Acts 3: 13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 “and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. The prince here means the author of life, which is Jesus
So, again we state that the prince that crucified Jesus were the Pharisees and religious leaders of that day.
But you may ask, what about Eph. 2:2, is that not demons in people and yet it’s called Prince?
Eph.2: 1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
But let us simply get the best explanation to that in the message translation.
Eph 2: 1-2. ” It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. 2 You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience”.
So you see, It’s all about unbelief and rebellion to the truth of God’s word. It can be termed satanic, because that is the characteristics of those who denied the truth. This is why Jesus said to Peter “get thee behind me Satan”.Math.16:23, as Peter will refuse Jesus from going to the cross. He was not only denying the truth of who Jesus was and his purpose of coming, but also forsaking the truth that was revealed to him by the Father earlier on of Christ being the son of God. The action therefore was satanic.
So what do we mean, “the But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days..” Dan.10: 13
It will out of place to maintain that either a good or evil ANGEL is meant here as the Prince of Persia. The Prince of the kingdom of Persia was no other person other than King Cyrus. He was the Prince or ruler of the Persian kingdom.
Look at it.
Ezr 1:8 Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.
Here we can see that Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah, was the Chaldean name of him who was originally called Zerubbabel: Just like the Three Hebrew boys name were changed in Babylon. He was meant to administer the province on their return from exile by King Cyrus. Sheshbazzar, means , ‘signifies joy in affliction’, indicating the prospect of his release while the later Zerubbabel, ‘a stranger in Babylon’., depicting their time in captivity.
Cyrus alone was definitely the prince of Persia, and God had destined him to be the deliverer of his people. Therefore, ‘the prince of the kingdom of Persia’ equals ‘the ruler of the kingdom of Persia’ and that was King Cyrus.
The three Princes’ in the picture
“Dan.10: 10 And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.
11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
19 And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.
20 Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
21 But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.”
Let us quickly identify the prince of Grecia and the prince of Daniel’s people before proceeding to deal with the question of what the fight was all about and who was fighting who to deliver the message God sent to Daniel.
From the above passage, we know who is talking and that is Angel Gabriel=”I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God” (Lk.1:19).
Meaning, he is among the ministers in the court of God..the courtier we called watchers, came to deliver the message to Daniel.
When the fate of Ahab was to be decided as to him being removed as a king in Israel in 1 kings 22, we have a similar incidence when one of the Courtiers simply identified as ‘A SPIRIT’, came forth from the presence of God to become a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab’s prophet in other for him to be slain at the war front.
“I kings.22: 21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee…”
Similarly, Angel Gabriel is here being seen playing a similar role though differently this time; here it was to cause Cyrus to do the bidding of God.
Dan.10: 20 and 21. Mentioned the Prince of Persia and Grecia, and the Michael , the people of Daniel’s prince. We already know the Prince of Persia is King Cyrus,
Now, this verse opens with “Knowest thou wherefore I come” in other words, did you know why I have come to you? You are highly favoured of God, that he hath sent me unto you to give you farther satisfaction; whereas I was engaged elsewhere on a most important mission, and I must speedily return to accomplish it, viz, and this is to fight with the king of Persia, then the Prince of Grecia shall come.
So who is this Prince of Grecia that will come? He is simply Alexander the Great, who came and overthrown the kingdom of Persia.
Get this right, it was all the vision of the kingdoms right from Babylon down to Rome, the image that Daniel saw progressing to an end. But each of the kings being used to further the appearing of the kingdom of God, the stone cut without hands.
And who was Michael the prince,? This is Jesus Christ. The name Michael means ‘who is like God’, and Christ is like God. (Heb.1:3.).
He was the protecting power and covering of the people of Israel. See it here.
Dan.12: 1 “ And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book”
So Michael, Jesus was the guardian angel of the Jewish people, that is Daniel’s people.. “Michael your prince.” Dan.10:22.
All that truly fear, love, and obey the Lord while in exile, who did not contaminate themselves with idols of other nations, they are the ones said to having their names “written in the Book of life”.
So what was the fight that Angel Gabriel was going for with the Prince of Persia?
(c) 2015 – Dr. David O. Ogaga