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It is important to see what was at stake in Daniel’s burden. An awesome divine sovereignty was at work in a revelation that would establish the framework of all the future of redemptive history, comprehending the mystery of Christ’s twofold coming to Israel, and reaching at length to Michael’s final eviction of Satan (Dan 12:1 with 2Thes 2:7; Rev 12:7, 10). This great transition reveals the mystery of iniquity in the final man of sin and finishes the mystery of God (2Thes 2:3, 7-8; Rev 10:7). That’s how pivotal Daniel’s revelation is in the larger scheme of things. Therefore, if something of such scale and importance did not come to Daniel without a fight, the church should expect that its fulfillment will not be without a similar earnestness.
Though “heard from the first”, the answer to Daniel’s prayer ‘could not’ reach him apart from an angelic war that required the deepest engagement of spirit on Daniel’s part. It shall be so again, as the godly remnant (the ‘maskilim’; Dan 11:33; 12:3, 10), in absolute certainty of the time, are brought to a Daniel-like urgency of intercessory travail. It is important to recognize that the travail of the heavenly woman depicted in Rev 12, does not end with the
birth and ascension of the Messiah. On the contrary, ‘Zion’s travail’ is not complete short of the full reach of the covenant promise in the post-tribulational salvation of ‘all Israel’ (Isa 13:8-9; 26:16-18; 66:8; Jer 30:6-7; Dan 12:1; Mic 5:3). […]