The Hostile Powers Fight One Another

For it is quite clear that they turn against each other as well the attacks they aim at people. With the same tireless strife they never stop promoting the quarrels and struggles they have taken up on behalf of certain peoples, out of a kind of inborn love of wickedness that is in them. We read this set out very clearly in the vision of Daniel the prophet, where the angel Gabriel speaks as follows: “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, to afflict yourself in the sight of your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me twenty-one days. And look, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the king of the Persians. But I have come to teach you what will happen to your people in the last days.” [a]

We cannot possibly doubt that this prince of the kingdom of the Persians was a hostile power that favored the nation of the Persians, an enemy of God’s people. It saw the good that would come when the archangel answered the question the prophet had prayed to the Lord about. So, to hinder that good, in its jealousy it set itself in the way, to keep the saving comfort of the angel from reaching Daniel too quickly and from strengthening the people of God, over whom the archangel Gabriel was set. And Gabriel said that even then, because of the fierceness of its attacks, he would not have been able to come to him if Michael the archangel had not come to help him. Michael met the prince of the kingdom of the Persians, joined battle with him, stepped in between and defended Gabriel from his attack, and so enabled him to come and instruct the prophet after twenty-one days. A little later it says: “And the angel said, Do you know why I have come to you? And now I will return to fight against the prince of the Persians. For when I went out, the prince of the Greeks was seen coming. But I will tell you what is written down in the Scriptures of truth, and no one is my helper in all these things except Michael your prince.” And again: “At that time Michael will rise up, the great prince, who stands for the children of your people.”

So in the same way we read that another was called the prince of the Greeks. Since he was the patron of the nation subject to him, he seems to have been opposed both to the nation of the Persians and to the people of Israel. From this we clearly see that the hostile powers stir up against each other the quarrels, conflicts and disputes of nations, which the nations carry on among themselves at their prompting. The powers either rejoice at their victories or are cast down by their defeats. And so they cannot live in harmony among themselves, since each of them is always struggling with restless jealousy on behalf of those he presides over, against the patron of some other nation.