His Story | Daniel 8:1-27

July 24, 2016 Speaker: Christopher Rich Series: GOD and the End of the World | Daniel Part Two

Topic: Old Testament Passage: Daniel 8:1–27

Christopher Rich – July 24, 2016

GOD and the End of the World - The Book of Daniel Pt. 2

Wk2: His Story | 8:1-27

Introduction

Good Morning! This week we are continuing the second part of our series in the book of Daniel. GOD and the End of the World. While this second part is filled with grotesque visions of the kingdoms of man warring against each other and ultimately God, we see a God who is in charge of world affairs and personally engages with His people. As you process world history or current events, how do you react and respond? What do these times reveal about your character and your hope is? Where do you go for rest or clarity when you’re unsettled? Last week Nate looked deeply at chapter 7 where Daniel had a vision from God of 4 beasts representing the four empires back in Daniel 2 Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, and Rome. The kingdoms of the world are beastly in their rebellion from God, and will seek wear out the saints of the most High. However, God will judge, and His kingdom will be established. Last week was the fly over of the remainder of human history. This week Daniel receives a vision that is much more focused and clear.

PART I | Verse 1-4; 15-20 | Ram Reigns

Daniel 8:1-4 | In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. 2 And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. 3 I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. 4 I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.

It is two years after the vision/dream of chapter 7. The time of Nebuchadnezzar has come to an end and we are in the term of King Belshazzar who we know from chapter 5 is not a great ruler. Daniel’s role and influence has been diminished from what it was earlier in his career. God is giving him a vision of what is to come. Daniel, while serving in Babylon appears now to be in Susa a key capitol of Persia. The message is clear, the center of the current kingdom, in this case Babylon, is not the final trajectory of History. A nation will rise up and over take Babylon. It will start in Persia in the east, but will go north, south, and west. No beast (no created kingdom) could stop its progress and purposes. It’s coming victory is inevitable.

15 When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man.16 And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision." 17 So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, "Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end." 18 And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. 19 He said, "Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. 20 As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.

There is an aspect of history we are called to understand. This is right and good. God is giving instructions for Gabriel to provide clarity to Daniel that is purposeful. God purses Daniel with his messenger and lets him know "This vision is for the time of the end." There are a few ends he’s talking about. Remember Israel, God’s people have been in Babylonian exile for 50-60 years and God hand promised this period would be 70 years. Only with Belshazzar things are even worse than with Nebuchadnezzar. God is reiterating His promise that Babylon will come to an end and he’s going to do it through another earthly kingdom rising up. You are concerned with the direction of Babylon and Israel’s exile, don’t worry the Medes and Persians are coming! While Daniel is scared and low to the ground, and eventually in a catatonic trance God’s messenger reaches out lifts him up and reminds him as bad as things are he is not at the end of His story. So get up, this indignity will eventually come to an end. God is just. Babylon will end and the Medes and Persians will rise and over take them. This must have helped Daniel be clear and bold in chapter 5.

PART II | Verse 5-8; 21-22 | Goat the Great

5 As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 6 He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. 7 I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. 8 Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. 21 And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. 22 As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power.

The Goat and conspicuous horn is a reference to Alexander the Great and the Greeks who conquered all of the Medo Persian empire in roughly 3 years. Spanning parts of three continents his kingdom grew quickly "without touching the ground." It was big, powerful, wrathful, and quickly victorious. When earthly kingdoms collide it is like two animals in the wild. The stronger and fiercer will prevail. There is no negotiation or peace treaty, just overwhelming force of one trampling over the other. In one battle the Greek army overwhelmed a Persian army of 110k with 35k of their own troops, with 20k Persians being mowed down with a few hundred Greek casualties. Kingdoms that rise quickly always last a long time right? This is going to last forever! Not exactly. Alexander with next to nothing left to accomplish died at the young age of 33. Following his death the kingdom didn’t grow stronger or larger it became divided as four different generals took control of different parts of the kingdom. But neither of them rose to be as powerful as they previously were united. Ok the Great Goat is going down. Greece won’t last we get this. So things for God’s people are going to get better right? All that we’ve seen to this point is prologue to the detailed vision that is to come.

PART III | Verse 9-14; 23-27 | Little (Big) Horn

9 Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. 10 It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. 11 It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. 12 And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. 13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?" 14 And he said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state."

There is a singular image in the chapter distinguished from the rest. While the ram and the goat go head to head this is a worldly conflict between two beasts. The image of the little horn has a big role in this vision because of the nature of what it opposes. The little horn’s primary conflict is not with the kingdoms of this world but with the people and kingdom of God. He is waging a holy war against the God of the universe. So before you start inserting your favorite current geopolitical villain, know there is great historical agreement on who this figure is. This horn came out of the divided Greek kingdoms and it is widely attributed to be Antiochus Epiphanes (literally The Illustrious God) His coins with his image read Theos Epiphanes (God made Manifest) and he gave himself the title. From a worldly historical perspective he wasn’t even that successful, his kingdom was not as noteworthy terms of great battles one or territory covered or great works accomplished. Daniel is being shown history not from man’s perspective of greatest power, size, and achievement but rather is being shown God’s perspective of greatest sin and injustice visited on His people and greatest blasphemy against His name. God takes both of these seriously.

Antiochus was regularly defeated in battle. He tried to take over part of Egypt and the Roman’s knocked him back hard. In response he sent in thousands of troops back to Jerusalem and massacred thousands of people during a Sabbath worship service. I can’t win in the world so I’ll take on God! From the perspective of Israel, it appears during his period of persecution he was winning. He entered the holy of Holies, sacrificed a pig on the altar, put in a wicked high priest. In his wake there were no more daily sacrifices, nothing allowed that showed devotion to the God of the bible. A statue of Zeus was put up so Idolatry replaced worship. Hebrew scriptures were outlawed (truth was trampled) Human sacrifices were made, kids could now longer be trained to follow the God of the Bible and everyone was required to eat what was "unclean". This is much worse than what was experienced by God’s people during Daniel’s time. This is the future? How are we going to have hope when it even looks like God’s kingdom (and God Himself) is losing or failing? For a while it looks like evil is winning and living for yourself is profitable and prosperous while being faithful is foolish. We remember, regardless of current circumstances, God is in control of His Story.

But what this little horn is doing to God’s people sounds terrible! How long? How long will this last? How long will God’s people suffer persecution from this mad man?! Even angels in heaven are concerned. Daniel becomes privy to this conversation in heaven showing concern for the condition of the world. In it there is a definitive answer "2,300 evenings and mornings" The number of days could be over 6 or over 3 years. The point is never what the specific date is. It is what is going to be accomplished. Evil will not be eternal, it will not last forever. God will bring it to a definitive end and produce rightful restoration.

2 3 And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. 24 His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. 25 By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. 26 The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now." 27 And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.

The vision continues with more details about this wicked king. Characteristics of an Anti-Christ and nature of evil and sin is revealed. The description in here specific to a coming figure who will assault God’s people, but can in many ways describe the nature of sin in our own hearts as we transgress cross God given limits.

Understands sinister scheme. He has used what God has given him, his intellect and wisdom and used it to rebel against God. This is perverse misappropriation of who God made us to be. Our problem is not always one of understanding what is right, but desiring what is right. This man calls evil good and delights in what is against God. He is attracted to what God finds offensive. Evil is unrepentantly opposed to God and His kingdom. Evil is making yourself great in your own mind and denying the greatness of God.

"His power shall be great, but not by his own power." Evil desires independence from God but fails to recognize it cannot be autonomous from God. All that we have in our lives is from God and yet we can believe wrongly we do not need Him. No integrity, truth and being trust worthy matters. Evil denies what is true and lifts up what is false. Evil is self-centered and is never God glorifying. It is important to not merely focus on what is anti-Christ "out there" but to look how our own hearts can reflect the attitudes of this wicked king. At this time, we don’t need to worry about external forces persecuting the church; we need look at the anti-Christ tendencies in our own hearts. Let’s be clear some of us have lived as anti Christs in our own lives. Because of our sin we have a little Antiochus inside us who wants to war against God’s design of us and His desires for us. Without a work of the Holy Spirit to bring evil to a definitive end in our hearts, we can neglect having anything that looks like a regular relationship with God or his word. We will erect idols in our heart to pour our affections towards. We will fail to point our children to Jesus and we impose a diet of consumerism that is ultimately unclean. Unchecked sin, pride will spread, addictions will take hold, selfishness and pride leads to beastly conflicts that will destroy our marriages and families and relationships trampling the saints for days and have an impact for generations. Your conflict is not usually with other people it is with God. We will war against Him, desiring evil, and wonder why we look at the world question if God is really at work, if He cares for His people or if He is worthy to follow and worship.

There is much that could discourage anyone in this vision and it would be easy to fall into despair. I have a friend who is so concerned with the direction of the kingdom we’re apart of he has regularly said "let it burn to the ground. Then maybe people will get it." We are not capable of fixing ourselves or the world. Without hope it is easy for what is realistic to become fatalistic. We are in desperate need of good news. There is a great glimmer of good news nearly obscured in the descriptions of evil and persecution. The end of verse 25, the little horn will raise up against God…. and he shall be broken-but not by human hands. God wins! He will step in and intervene. Antiochus died and the temple was restored. All anti Christs will be destroyed and the world will be restored. Our hope is that our God is greater than the evil in the world and can even over power the evil in our hearts. So disciples in exile living in light our God who is king over all history are not in the business of burning kingdoms to the ground but participating in building a kingdom that will never end. The vision is for later. Seal it up. Know it is there, but don’t dwell on it.

Finally, Daniel has seen a vision of horrible persecution and evil succeeding. He is overwhelm and moved to grief over future generation of God’s people suffering. After a period of intense mourning he doesn’t move on, but he does move. He does the "king’s business" in this case Daniel is working for the most wicked king he’s encountered but he hasn’t forgotten there is a greater king he ultimately works for. He does his duty in the time, place and people he is called to knowing his present and the future of God’s people are in God’s hands, not his. He still wrestles with human suffering, persecution of the righteous, prevalence of evil and God’s sovereignty. As disciples we are to comfortable not always knowing "why" in real time but have hope in God’s will at the end of time. He has promised suffering will end, He will return. The cross looked like the wicked prospering and the evil of the world prevailing. The resurrection is where we see victory, evil is defeated and broken "by no human hand". We can still be appalled with evil in the world, not understand everything, but get to work on the ‘King’s Business’ of restoration as we Trust Jesus.

More in GOD and the End of the World | Daniel Part Two

August 7, 2016

Beginning of the End | Daniel 10:1-21

July 31, 2016

Our Prayers, His Promise | Daniel 9:1-27