Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Daniel 12: 1-3

¹"At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. ² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. ³ And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Who here has read or seen J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings? In the trilogy we see a battle between the mighty forces of darkness and light. There are evil dark forces at work in everyone’s life. We see the influence of the evil ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron on Sméagol; it ruins his life. Frodo Baggins battles with the temptation of the ring. He puts up a good fight but eventually falls to the temptation of the evil ring and claims it for himself. The ring is taken from Frodo when Gollum bites off his finger then falls into the fire while celebrating. The evil ring is destroyed in the fire and the Dark Lord Sauron parishes. With Sauron gone the forces of darkness are defeated by Aragorn’s forces. The forces of light win.

We too live in a time where two mighty opposites are in an epic battle. We live with the forces of good and evil in our lives. Satan represents the kingdom of darkness, the dark forces. Jesus represents the kingdom of light, the light forces. The dark forces of Satan are at work all day every day trying to sabotage the Kingdom of God. He tempts and tricks you and me. Ephesians 6 verse 12 says; "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." We are like Frodo Baggins, we put up a good fight but sometimes we aren’t as strong and faithful as we could be and we fall. Notice I said we fall. I didn’t say Satan made us fall. We are responsible for our sin. We may be tempted by Satan but we are the ones that sin. We cannot blame it on anyone else including Satan. Turn to page 940 in your pew bible, Romans chapter 3 verses 10-18. This passage makes it very clear who we are and who is responsible for sin. "as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." ¹³ "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." ¹⁴ "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." ¹⁵ "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery, ¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known." ¹⁸ "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

We have become worthless; we are beaten down by the battle. Our text says And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. I would say we are in a time of trouble.

Are we alone in this battle? Are we left to the will and whim of the dark forces? NO! Our text assures us by saying "At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people." We are talking about the archangel Michael. It says He has charge of your people. Let me expand the meaning of "has charge of" with several other translations. Guarding, protecting, fighting for, and taking charge of God’s people. I must caution those with the King James Version, some can take it as meaning that Michael actually stands in for us which he does not. No, instead the great prince Michael fights for and with us against the dark forces of Satan. We are assured victory; it says "your people will be delivered." How will the people, you and me, be delivered?

The great prince Michael may stand up for us. He fights for us. He guards us. He protects us. He even takes charge of us, but as I said earlier the great prince Michael can’t stand in for us. There is only one that can stand in for us in this epic battle between the forces of darkness and light. That is the greater prince, the prince of peace. In His battle for God’s people, Jesus was more than militant – He was your substitute. He not only stood up for you; He stood in for you! He was wounded for your transgressions; He was bruised for your iniquities. He was made sin for you. He suffered the curse of sin for you.

In the epic battle between the forces of darkness and light, when Jesus was on the cross, Satan was just like Gollum when he got the ring. He began to celebrate thinking he won. When Jesus cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me" Satan knew he truly bruised Jesus’ heal. He thought civil war had broken out in the camp of his adversary. He thought God’s house was divided against itself. He declared victory by covering the earth in darkness during Jesus crucifixion. Satan and Gollum have the same fate. Satan forgot about what was to come next in the prophesy. Jesus was about to crush his head when He rose from the dead. Jesus was about to get the best of Satan in this epic confrontation. You know the saying, "you may have won the battle but you didn’t win the war." Satan may have thought he won the battle when Jesus died on the cross. But Jesus won the war when He rose from the grave. Jesus claims victory in His epic conflict with the prince of darkness. Jesus delivered the whole human race through His battle wounds. Jesus delivered you from the bondage of Satan.

Draw strength for your battle from the greater prince’s victory through prayer and the Word. Read of the epic battle that is over. Read about the forces of light’s victory over the forces of darkness. Find confidence in the Word that the grip Satan had on you is destroyed. Read about how the prince of darkness was defeated. Satan is defeated; the forces of darkness cannot win. The greater Prince won the battle and the war. The forces of light win!

Amen.