I can’t wait. So without delay, please read Daniel 10:4-12 very carefully. How is Daniel’s riverbank encounter described in verses 4-6?
“It sounds like a man too painfully bright to look at and painfully loud to listen to.”
Who saw the vision? “Daniel only, not those with him”
The original Hebrew is extremely emphatic: “I saw, I, Daniel, I alone.” Why did the others flee and hide themselves?
“terror overwhelmed them –so maybe they heard or saw something, or maybe they just felt a presence.”
How did Daniel react to the sight according to verses 8-9? “I think he fainted.”
Please look up the following segments and record their descriptions:
Ezekiel 1:25-28 – “like a man but like glowing metal and fire with an aura”
Revelation 1:12-16 – “white head and hair, fiery eyes, feet like hot bronze, a voice like rushing waters, sword coming out of mouth, and face glowing like the sun”
✩ Couldn’t Daniel have first seen a vision of the Divine, collapsed into a deep sleep, and then been stirred by the touch of a second and lesser being – an angel – in verse 10?
Couldn’t the angel have been introducing himself to the scene at this point? Offer your thoughts and certainly feel welcome to take a different view.
“It makes sense to me. Jesus preincarnate sees that he is more than Daniel can bear, so he calls in Gabriel.”
Have you ever thought about how you’d react if Jesus suddenly appeared to you while you were praying? I have! How do you picture your reaction?
“I have imagined scenarios, but it never occurred to me that He might be in full glory. If He were, like John and Daniel, I would probably at least nearly faint. If He instead looked more human, I think I would be shocked, startled, excited, and a little scared. For some reason, I picture myself clinging to His feet and ankles first because I so desperately want to hug Him, but also to bow to His majesty.” 
Dearest Rachel –
Given your speculation as to how you’d react in His presence (or would that be to His sudden appearance in particular?), now you have me wondering how you’re reacting to Him now. Was the moment as you expected it, and what has happened since the moment stretched into eternity? Is there a difference, or have you been brought to your feet and come to the point where this is “just how things are” in heaven? We humans seem to be able to acclimatize ourselves to so much – and heaven is supposed to be a place of perfect delight – so I wonder if His “painfully bright” appearance and “painfully loud” voice is something we would adapt to over time.
Then again, it seems inappropriate that we should be able to “get used to” His presence, that we should lose that sense of awe and wonder that a world where He is obviously there (in a way that, despite His stated omnipresence, we somehow can’t sense down here). Familiarity breeds contempt, or so the saying goes, and the very idea that we would become so familiar with His visible and auditory attributes so as to accept them as normal seems to border on, if not contempt, at least potential indifference… which strikes me as utterly anathema to our heavenly existence.
But that’s the problem with having only an earthly perspective; I have no idea what it is you’re seeing and experiencing, and you’re not given leave to explain it to me (or anyone else) down here, so we’re left to make our own guesses. Some sound more reasonable than others, but undoubtedly, most of them are so far off the mark as to likely leave those of you who know better laughing at our wild conjectures. Would that you – or one of the many of our brothers and sisters you are there with – could come down and explain it better to us.
But then again, as He said Himself once, “if [we] will not listen to Moses and the prophets, [we] will not listen even if someone rises from the dead,” isn’t that right? With that in mind, I suppose all I can do is to ask that you just keep an eye on me, honey, so I don’t stray too far from the path. And as always, wish me luck, as I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 