We’ve already learned from the book of Revelation that there will one day be a war in heaven between Michael and his angels and Satan and his angels. Other than that, there is only one other angelic battle that Scripture mentions, found in the tenth chapter of Daniel.[1]
Daniel tells us that he had been mourning for three weeks during the third year of the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, when an angel appeared to him by the Tigris River. The purpose of the angel’s visit was to impart understanding to him concerning Israel’s future, and we’ve already briefly studied what Daniel was told in a previous chapter about the Rapture and End Times. During their conversation, the unnamed angel said to Daniel:
Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia (Dan. 10:12-13, emphasis added).
Daniel learned that his prayer had been heard three weeks prior to his encounter with this angel, but that it had taken the angel three weeks to get to him. The reason for the angel’s delay was because “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” had withstood him. He was able to break through, however, when Michael, “one of the chief princes,” came to help him.
When the angel was about to depart from Daniel, he said to him,
I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince (Dan. 10:20-21).
Several interesting facts can be learned from this passage of Scripture. Again we see that God’s angels are not all-powerful, and that they can actually be involved in fighting wicked angels.
Second, we learn that some angels (such as Michael) are more powerful than others (such as the one who spoke with Daniel).
[1] Two possible objections answered: (1) Jude mentions a dispute between Michael and Satan about the body of Moses, but there is no mention of an actual battle. In fact, Jude tells us that Michael would “not dare pronounce against him [Satan] a railing judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you'” (Jude 1:9). (2) When Elisha and his servant were surrounded by a Syrian army in the city of Dothan, Elisha prayed for God to open his servant’s eyes (2 Kings 6:15-17). Consequently, his servant saw “horses and chariots of fire” which we assume were mounted and occupied by an army of angels in the spiritual realm. This is not, however, a definite indication that these angels had been or were about to be involved in a battle with demonic angels. Angels are used at times by God to execute His wrath against wicked human beings, an example being the slaughter of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers by one angel, recorded in 2 Kings 19:35.
