Comeliness Turned to Corruption – Dan 10

One of the biggest battles we face is a battle with pride. Pride causes us and others so many problems. It is such a pervasive problem that we usually don’t even realise how much we act out of pride. Yet, we have no reason to be prideful. Especially when we compare ourselves to the glory of God.

In Daniel 10, we read of Daniel seeing a vision and then receiving a heavenly messenger. The glory of the messenger caused those that were with him to tremble (“great quaking”) and hide. Daniel said that “there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned into corruption…” (v.8). He fell on his face to the ground and only came up when the messenger touched him.

Look at that phrase, “my comeliness was turned into corruption.” All of us have things about us that we consider to be comely. These are things about our personality, our appearance, or our abilities that we deem worthy of honour and praise. These are things for which we pridefully want respect.

Yet, in the presence of one from heaven, all feelings of comeliness fled from Daniel and all he felt was corruption. Those things that he previously liked about himself and felt made him special now seemed totally wasted, utterly corrupt, and things that would be his destruction.

The amazing thing is that the heavenly messenger touched him, set him up on his knees, spoke to him with words of love and courage (v.10-12). He was told to not be afraid and to be strong (v.19).

I wonder when the last time our comeliness was turned into corruption? Do we spend enough time in the presence of God to see our sin, to see our pride, to be humbled and to get an accurate view of ourselves? When we are humbled, then we are in a position to receive God’s grace, God’s love, and God’s strength. We need all of this from God, but it takes a whole lot of humility before we will realise it.

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