Christ in the Old Testament

Daniel 10:5-6

I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. (NIV)

Today’s Reading: Daniel 10:1-14 and 1 John 4:7-21

Daniel saw a vision of a man in chapter 10. This man frightened Daniel so much that the people around him who couldn’t see the man were terrorized and hid themselves. Daniel must have made quite a scene.

This man gave Daniel a prophecy that is described in the final three chapters of Daniel. It concerns a lot of the same events that we have already covered in the book of Daniel just in much more detail.

We are going to take a look at this man today and not his prophecy. Many respected Biblical scholars believe that this man was Jesus who appeared to Daniel. Assuming they are correct, maybe we can learn about Jesus today through Daniel’s vision.

Daniel was the only person to see this vision. This man in his vision put Daniel to sleep probably so he would calm down. Daniel described the man having the following characteristics:

• dressed in linen
• wearing a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist
• his body was like topaz
• his face was like lightning
• his eyes were like flaming torches
• his arms and legs gleamed of burnished bronze
• his voice sounded like a multitude

This would appear to be Jesus because there are quite a few similarities to other visions of Jesus. The most obvious one we find in Revelation:

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev 1:12-16).

We know the man that John describes in this passage is Jesus because he calls himself “the First and the Last” and “the Living One” who was dead and is now alive. This can only be Jesus.

There are many similarities of the man in the visions of both Daniel and John:

Daniel describes a voice like the sound of a multitude and John describes a voice like rushing waters. These descriptions are describing the same voice. Crowd noise sound very similar to rushing water. Check out what John says he heard later in his Revelation:

“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder” (Rev 19:6).

Sounds like the voice of Jesus. But this time John was hearing the voices of all of God’s people worshiping Jesus. They were saying:

“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear” (Rev 19:6-8).

I find it interesting that Jesus’s voice sounds like the voices of his people in worship. I also find it interesting that his people will be given linen clothes to wear just like his. It’s just like we are told by John in his first letter that because we have the Holy Spirit, we live in Christ and he lives in us. And because of that, we are just like Jesus:

“ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus” (1 John 4:15-17).

So maybe it’s not all that surprising that our voices sound like Jesus when we worship him. The other similar aspect of these two visions of Jesus are his touch. We read in Daniel’s vision that Jesus touched Daniel twice:

“A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees” (Dan 10:10).

“Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak” (Dan 10:16).

We read in John’s Revelation that Jesus touched him as well:

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on meand said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last” (Rev 1:17).

I think this is just more evidence for me that the man in both of these visions is Jesus. Jesus was known for his touch. He touched almost everyone that he healed. It was his signature move. He touched Peter’s mother-in-law, Jairus’s daughter, a leper, a deaf and a mute, a blind man and the demon possessed. He grabbed Peter by the hand to save him from sinking in the sea, put Thomas’s hands in his so Thomas could feel his scars, washed the disciples feet and gathered children into his arms.

Jesus’s ministry was a ministry of touch. John says this physical touch is proof that Jesus was real and that he was in fact the Son of God:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1 John 1:1-2).

So to be touched by Jesus is to be touched by the hand of God. But even more than that, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us:

“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13).

Because we are in Christ, we should take the advice of Jesus that he gave to both Daniel and John – “Do not be afraid”. We have the touch of Jesus, we have the voice of Jesus and we have the love of Jesus. “There is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18).

Today’s Prayer: Thank you Jesus for your touch and for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Help me today to live without fear and to touch the lives of those around me as you would call me to do.