Deeper Reflection
Daniel had an encounter with God through a vision of “a certain man dressed in linen” (vv.4-5a). This man was “beyond description”⁴³ (v.6 – note “like” in Daniel’s description). This man was certainly a heavenly being, but “more radiant than Gabriel [Dan 8:16; 9:21] and greater than Michael [Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1].” ⁴⁴ What Daniel’s eyes saw was a blazing appearance of “lightning”, “flaming torches” and “gleam of polished bronze”; what his ears heard was “the sound of words like the sound of a tumult” (v.6). In Scripture, “angelic messengers themselves reflect the image of the glorious God whom they serve, so to look on the angel is tantamount to viewing God Himself”⁴⁵ . This man’s awesome appearance conveyed God’s holiness and glory, ⁴⁶ and that greatly overwhelmed Daniel: “My strength left me, my face grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak” (v.8, NLT).One morning in 1997, as I was preparing a one-hour lesson on the “Doctrine of God”, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a strong sense of God’s infinite greatness and majesty, “How could I put the infinitely great God into a one-hour lesson of theology!” I described that theological encounter in these words: “Even when we have exhaustively studied all about God that He has revealed in His Word, and have prayerfully meditated on Him in the greatest possible depths, and are utterly overwhelmed by the revelations of His Spirit in speechless awe and worship, we have only arrived at but our inadequate best in knowing the Infinite God, and our worship of the Glorious One is but still in poverty!”

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⁴³ Joyce G. Baldwin, 180 ⁴⁴ Joyce G. Baldwin, 178 ⁴⁵ Iain M. Duguid, 181 ⁴⁶ Iain M. Duguid, 181