NOTES for Dan 10:10-21
Old Testament prophetic texts about the end of the world are not always clear or easy to understand. The prophets use numbers that do not answer the question “When?” and tell us almost nothing about what will happen or how. Judging by today's text, what the prophet Daniel saw left him terrified and bewildered. The words spoken to him by the Messenger testified to difficult times filled with suffering. In the Gospel, describing how people would experience the time between the first and second coming, the Lord said, “...people will faint with fear.” Yet, amid fear and terror, as we watch the agony of defeated evil, which in dying crushes everything in its path, the Lord restores our human countenance by saying, “Do not be afraid; peace be with you.”