Daniel 8

Turn with me in your Bible to Daniel chapter 8, wonderful hymn of assurance, and that's

Daniel 8 · chapter mention

actually where the book of Daniel is going to get to in chapter 12, is the promise of

resurrection.

We won't see that explicitly in today's passage, but that's the hope that the book is leading

up to.

Daniel chapter 8, page 745 in a pew Bible.

Daniel 8 · chapter mention

We'll read the whole chapter together.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward

the east, and toward the glorious land.

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.

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, 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.

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?

And he said to me, For 2,300 evenings and mornings.

Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.

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.

And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called Gabriel,

Make this man understand the vision.

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.

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.

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.

As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia,

and the goat is the king of Greece.

And the great horn between his eyes is the first king.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How do you deal with disappointment?

Last Saturday I was talking with a few guys at the men's breakfast.

We were talking about how we can encourage one another,

and build each other up,

and we were talking about why do we need encouragement as Christians.

And it struck me as we were talking that,

especially the longer you live on this earth,

the more that we face disappointment.

Now, disappointment can take a variety of forms.

Sometimes it involves losing loved ones,

or ending relationships.

Sometimes it involves remaining in a relationship,

a marriage, or a friendship, or a family relationship,

but knowing that right now it's not what you hoped it would be,

and it doesn't seem to be getting fixed soon.

Maybe you feel like your career path has hit a dead end.

You're stuck in a job you don't like with a boss who doesn't like you.

Maybe you've seen the inside of ugly church conflicts,

or moral failures of church leadership.

Maybe you're disillusioned with our national political scene,

and the way our culture seems to be trending.

How do we deal with disappointment without losing hope,

and without latching on to false hopes?

Because false hopes only increase our sense of despair

when they don't come to pass.

I think this is one of the questions that our passage today is addressing.

And what we'll see in this passage is that God is shaping his people's expectations

for the future,

preparing them to face some very trying and difficult circumstances,

but at the same time reassuring them

that he's still on the throne,

and he's going to triumph in the end.

Now, we've been going through the book of Daniel.

We've finished chapters 2 through 7.

If you remember, that's the central section of the book

that was written in Aramaic,

the international trade language of the Persian Empire.

That section had a broader view.

It was sort of addressed to the whole world,

introducing the world to the one true God

who rescues, reveals, and rules.

But at the beginning of chapter 8,

the language shifts back to Hebrew.

The local language of Judah and Jerusalem.

And the focus of the rest of the book

shifts to the particular concerns

of the exiled people of God at the time.

They were asking questions like these.

Will God bring us back home

to the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Will God provide for the rebuilding of his house,

the temple in Jerusalem, his city?

Will our nation exiled and scattered because of sin

be gathered together under God once again?

And the answer that God gives in these chapters,

chapters 8 through 12,

is on the one hand very hopeful,

and on the other hand very sobering.

On the one hand, he says,

yes, I will bring you home,

just as I promised in Jeremiah 29.

Yes, the temple and the city will be rebuilt.

Verse 11 through 14 of this chapter

only makes sense if there is a temple in Jerusalem.

And yes, I will gather you together

as my people once again.

On the other hand,

the answer God gives here is very sobering.

The world will continue to be dominated

by beastly empires

and arrogant rulers who do not acknowledge God.

Some of these rulers will specifically

persecute God's people

and profane God's temple.

Even after you get back home,

you will face great suffering

and prolonged opposition.

The road ahead is not going to be smooth or easy.

This is what Daniel is saying,

what God's saying to his people

through this vision of Daniel.

He's giving them a hopeful message,

but he's also giving them a very sobering

and realistic picture of the future.

Now, if you think back to the beginning of Daniel,

the people of Israel had just been taken into exile.

They were brought away from their land,

put in the middle of enemy territory.

And many of them in that kind of situation

could have been tempted to despair

and just give up hope

and just decide to abandon their identity

as the people of the one true God.

Perhaps they could have thought,

we've just blown it.

God's given us over to our enemies.

He's done with us.

He's going to wipe us out.

But if you look at what God says to them

at the beginning of the exile,

in passages like Jeremiah 29

or even the first four chapters of Daniel,

it's a message of encouragement.

And God says, I'm right here with you.

God gives Daniel and his friends wisdom

and understanding and favor,

even with the king of Babylon.

God says, yes, you've been exiled because of your sin,

but don't despair.

Don't think that everything's just going downhill from here.

Don't think that there's no hope,

that it's no good trying anymore at all.

I'm with you.

There's hope in the midst of your exile.

But here in chapter eight,

the time of their exile was coming to an end.

And within only a few years,

large numbers of Israelites

would be heading back to Jerusalem

and beginning to resettle the land

and rebuild the city of Jerusalem

and eventually rebuild the temple.

And in that situation,

many of them could have been vulnerable

to embrace false hopes

or unrealistic expectations

that the future would now be easy and smooth.

And so God's preparing his people

for the reality that

it's going to be more complicated than that.

There's a bumpy road ahead.

And there's a long road ahead.

So this brings us to the vision of chapter eight.

Now, this is the third

of four major prophetic visions

in the book of Daniel.

I've included a bulletin insert

to help you see a little bit

about how some of these visions fit together.

So on this side,

you can see the visions of chapter two

and chapter seven, right?

At the beginning and the end of the Aramaic section,

they correspond to each other.

They both have four successive kingdoms

followed by the everlasting kingdom of God.

I've listed two of the most common ways

that scholars have connected

the four kingdoms of Daniel's visions

to historical empires.

Honestly, you can make a good case

for either one.

We can talk later if you're interested

in putting those together.

But then the visions of chapter eight

and chapter 11 in this Hebrew section

focus more narrowly on the trials of God's people

under a particularly hostile ruler

who appears in chapter eight as the little horn.

And we'll get to that.

But they focus specifically

on the Persian and Greek periods.

Now what I want to do today

is walk through Daniel's vision in chapter eight

and its interpretation.

Thank you, Evan.

And just walk through Daniel's vision in chapter eight

and then consider some implications for us today.

All right, so let's go through this.

Verse two, start at the beginning of the chapter.

Verse two, Daniel sees himself in Susa, the citadel.

Susa was 220 miles east of Babylon.

It had been conquered by the Medes

and it would become one of the four capital cities

of the Persian empire under Cyrus.

So it's a fitting location for Daniel's vision

which begins with the empire of the Medes and Persians

represented by the ram.

According to verse 20.

And then later on the kingdom of Greece

which arises later.

Now Daniel wasn't necessarily physically in Susa

but that's where he saw himself in the vision.

Is this city that would become central

in the Persian empire.

And Daniel sees two animals.

A ram and then a goat.

And both would have been recognized symbols of power.

Powerful animals representing powerful rulers

in the ancient near east.

Verse three and four.

The ram has two horns.

Representing Media and Persia.

Now the Medes arose first

in what is now northwestern Iran.

They became prominent after the fall of the Assyrian empire

in 612 BC.

But the Persians were stronger

even though they came later.

Cyrus the Persian who was also of Median descent

defeated the Median king

and united the Medes and Persians

in a single empire in 550 BC.

That's the picture of two horns.

One horn comes up later.

The second horn is the stronger.

And the Persian empire dominated the near east

for 200 years.

So verse four.

See that picture.

The ram charging west, north, south.

Seemingly unconquerable.

He did as he pleased.

He became great.

But then in verse five.

The goat.

Behold.

A male goat came from the west.

Now verse 21.

I'm sort of working with Daniel's vision

and the interpretation.

We're going through both at the same time.

So verse 21.

You see that.

The goat is the king of Greece.

Verse five.

Describes the goat's rapid descent to power.

Coming from the west across the face of the earth

without touching the ground.

He's sort of rapid, rapidly moving.

And he's marked by a conspicuous or prominent horn

between his eyes.

Which verse 21 identifies as the first king of Greece.

Now if you've studied your ancient history,

it's pretty obvious that this is talking about

Alexander the Great.

336 BC.

He became the ruler of Greece.

For the next 12 years, he expanded his empire

from Greece into North Africa,

through the Middle East,

and all the way to Western India.

He was undefeated in battle.

He is seen as one of the greatest military generals

who ever lived.

Verse six to seven says,

he destroyed the ram and stomped on him.

He took over the former Median Persian empire.

He was not only great like the ram,

but verse eight, exceedingly great.

But then, same thing happens to him that happened to the ram.

When he was strong, the great horn was broken.

Alexander the Great fell ill and died suddenly

at the age of only 32 while he was in Babylon.

After his death, his kingdom was divided

between four of his military generals.

They fought over it for a while,

and then eventually it sort of settled into four pieces.

Verse 22 refers to those.

And those four kingdoms endured for 150 years.

And Daniel's vision in chapter 11 focuses in more detail

on two of those four kingdoms,

which he calls the king of the north

and the king of the south,

who were the Seleucids in Mesopotamia

and the Ptolemies in Egypt,

who were right next to the promised land

and had the most impact on that.

So, now, before we go on,

and before you get lost

in all those ancient history details,

let me make two brief observations so far.

First, this is an unstable picture.

Kingdoms rise up, they seem invincible,

they last for a long time,

and then they fall just as quickly as they arose.

Second, this is a very scary vision.

Beastly empires,

arrogant rulers,

dominating the world through violence and intimidation,

seeking to make themselves great,

one after another.

And if you notice,

there's no divine intervention in this vision.

There's no word of guidance from heaven.

There's no comforting word of assurance,

at least not yet.

And then in verse 9 to 12,

the scariest part of it all.

Out of one of them came a little horn.

Daniel spends more time describing this little horn

in verse 9 through 14 and 23 through 25

than either the ram or the goat.

Now, if you remember,

in chapter 7,

there was also a little horn.

So, turn back a page.

Chapter 7, verse 8,

Daniel sees a terrifying beast

with ten horns.

And then verse 8,

I considered the horns,

and behold,

there came up among them another horn,

a little one,

before which three of the first horns

were plucked up by the roots.

And behold,

in this horn

were eyes like the eyes of a man

and a mouth

speaking great things.

And then verse 25

of chapter 7

goes on to describe

the work of this little horn,

this ruler.

And it says,

he shall speak words

against the Most High.

Chapter 7, verse 25,

and shall wear out

the saints of the Most High

and shall think to change

the times and the law

and they shall be given

into his hand

for a time times

and half a time.

So this little horn,

as an arrogant guy,

but he's not just

an arrogant ruler,

there's plenty of those,

he specifically attacks

God

and God's people

and God's law.

And for a time,

he succeeds

in doing so.

Now turn ahead

to chapter 8.

This little horn

appears again.

And again,

he's characterized

by extreme arrogance.

Verse 9, 10, 11,

and 25

talk about

he grew exceedingly great.

Verse 10,

it grew great

even to the host of heaven.

He's sort of challenging

the angels of God.

Verse 11,

he became great

even as great

as the prince of the host.

That is God himself.

Verse 25 says,

he shall even rise up

against the prince of princes.

Isaiah 14

had used similar language

when Isaiah was describing

the king of Babylon.

Isaiah said this,

Isaiah said,

you said in your heart,

I will ascend to heaven.

Above the stars of God,

I will set my throne on high.

I will ascend above

the heights of the clouds.

I will make myself

like the most high.

Then of course,

Isaiah says,

but God's going to bring you down.

And so this little horn

is described

in a very similar way,

rising up against God

and in his arrogance

attacking the people of God,

the worship of God

and the truth of God.

Verse 10,

some of the host

and some of the stars

it threw to the ground

and trampled on them.

And verse 12 says,

and a host

will be given over to it

together with

the regular burnt offering.

Now,

these verses

are a bit tricky

to understand.

Okay,

because usually

the word host,

the word host

just means an army.

Okay,

it doesn't mean,

it's not a hospitality word here.

Right?

It means an army.

And so it's usually referring

to either the stars in the sky

or the angels of heaven.

But here,

it seems to actually be referring

to God's people on earth.

There's a connection,

and we'll see this

in a bit again,

but there's a deep connection

between God's people on earth

and God's armies in heaven.

And Daniel shows us

that they're connected together

even in how they're described.

it's not that

it's not that this guy

actually conquers angels,

but that he's attacking

God's people

who are being protected

and who are linked

to the armies of heaven.

Okay?

Verse 11,

so he's attacking the people,

the host of God.

Then,

verse 11,

he attacks the worship of God.

The regular burnt offering

was taken away

and the place of his sanctuary

was overthrown.

In other words,

he takes over

the temple of God

in Jerusalem

where burnt offerings

were offered

every morning and evening.

That was a sign

of total devotion to God.

That was the people

coming before God

every day and saying,

God,

we are seeking

your kingdom first.

We love you.

You are the one

and only true God.

And he takes it away.

He banishes the worship of God.

Verse 12 says,

it will throw truth

to the ground.

He attacks the people of God,

the worship of God,

and the truth of God.

And verse 12 says,

this little horn

will act and prosper.

Now,

if the ram is Median Persia,

if the goat is Greece,

then who fits the description

of the little horn?

Now,

there are a lot of things

that scholars disagree about

when you look

at the book of Daniel

and read different commentaries.

But everyone pretty much agrees

on this one.

Everyone pretty much agrees

the little horn

of chapter 8

is primarily referring

to a man named

Antiochus IV.

He was the Seleucid ruler

who reigned over Syria

and Palestine

and Egypt

from about 175

to 164 BC.

He is also known

as Antiochus Epiphanes,

which is the Greek word

for manifest

or displayed.

On his coins,

there was an impression

of his head

with a star on his head

and the words,

King Antiochus,

God manifest,

bearer of victory.

Now,

why does Daniel's vision

focus so much

on this one guy?

Right?

This vision spans

400 years

and yet he focuses

much of his vision

on this one man,

this little horn.

And the answer is,

the reason why,

is Antiochus

was not just one

among many arrogant

and proud rulers.

He,

specifically,

more than anyone else,

in this 400 year period,

he attempted to wipe out

the people of God,

the worship of God,

and the truth of God.

So what did Antiochus do

just a little bit?

169 BC,

Antiochus invaded Jerusalem.

He needed some cash

for his military campaigns.

So he took

the valuable vessels

from the temple of God.

And then he went back home.

You think,

well,

that's pretty bad,

but Nebuchadnezzar did it too.

But then two years later,

it gets much worse.

167 BC,

he came back

determined

to wipe out

the monotheistic faith,

biblical faith,

of the Jews,

and

determined to make Jerusalem

into a pagan Greek city.

He plundered

and burned Jerusalem,

killed thousands

of Jews,

invaded the temple,

halted the daily sacrifices,

dedicated the temple

to the Greek god Zeus,

offered a pig

on the altar,

burned copies

of the scriptures,

executed people

found in possession

of them,

outlawed circumcision,

put to death mothers

who had circumcised

their sons,

compelled Jews

to offer sacrifice

to idols,

and eat unclean meat

on pain of death.

If you ever read

the books of

1st and 2nd Maccabees,

they're in what we call

the Apocrypha,

they describe these events

in more detail.

It was the most

intense persecution

that God's people

had faced,

perhaps ever

in their history,

and certainly

since the exile

to Babylon.

Many caved

into the pressure

to deny their faith,

many others

were killed

or fled,

and in the middle

of it,

it seemed

that God

did nothing

to stop it.

How could a pagan

idol worshiper

walk into

the holiest place

on earth

that God had said,

I will put my name here,

I will dwell here

with you,

this is my holy place,

how could he

walk in there,

abolish God's commandments,

set up worship

of idols,

and get away

with it?

Seeing a vision

like this

or experiencing

events like these

can provoke

many questions.

Now many of us

haven't experienced

that kind of

persecution

or opposition

to our faith

or trauma

in our lives.

One question

that comes

that might be

asked is why.

Some of the Psalms

ask this question,

Psalm 22,

my God,

my God,

why have you

forsaken me?

Why are you

so far

from the words

of my groaning?

I say to God,

my rock,

why have you

forgotten me?

Why do I go

mourning

because of the

oppression

of the enemy?

Sometimes that's

a question

that comes up.

Maybe you've

been through

trauma

of some kind.

Maybe you

can understand

what it's like

to be attacked

and persecuted

in some form

or other.

But the question

that's asked here

in verse 13

is how long,

which is also

a common question

in the Psalms.

Psalm 13,

how long,

O Lord?

Will you

forget me

forever?

How long

will you

hide your

face from me?

How long

must I

take counsel

in my soul

and have

sorrow in my

heart?

All the day,

how long

shall my

enemy be

exalted

over me?

O Lord,

Psalm 94,

O Lord,

how long

shall the

wicked triumph?

God,

in the midst

of torment

and injustice

and persecution

and mistreatment,

the God of the

Bible permits

his people to

ask such

questions.

And in fact,

by teaching us

to pray through

the Psalms,

God teaches us

to include

those questions

in our prayers

and to identify

with fellow believers

who cry out

in pain

and under

persecution,

to call out

to God

when his word

is twisted

and thrown

to the ground

and when his

people are

forcibly

prevented

from worshiping

and praying

together.

How long?

But the

striking thing

here is

look at who

asked this

question.

It's not

Daniel who

asked this

question.

It's not

a human

being who

asked this

question.

It is a

holy one.

That is a

heavenly being

who calls

out on behalf

of God's

suffering and

mistreated

people.

When the

people of God

are attacked,

when the

worship of God

is forcibly

stopped,

when the

truth of God

is thrown

to the ground,

heaven takes

notice,

and the

holy ones

cry out

on our

behalf,

how long?

If you

have ever

been or

will be

persecuted,

mistreated,

opposed,

for the

name of

Christ,

know that

you are

not alone.

Even if

you have

no human

companions,

the heavenly

host is

watching and

crying out to

God on

your behalf.

And in

verse 14,

the answer

comes,

how long?

For

2,300

evenings and

mornings.

Then the

sanctuary shall

be restored to

its rightful

state.

In other

words,

violent

hostility

against God's

word,

God's

people,

and God's

worship will

last for a

while,

but it

won't last

forever.

Antiochus took

over the

temple in

167 BC.

About three

years later,

in 164 BC,

he ended up

provoking a

violent revolt.

And Judas

Maccabeus retook

the city of

Jerusalem with

his army,

rededicated the

temple to

Yahweh, to

the God of

the Bible,

and restored

the worship

of God.

Now,

scholars go

back and

forth about

these 2,300

evenings and

mornings.

Is it 2,300

evening and

morning sacrifices

or 1,150

days?

Close to,

but not quite,

the amount of

time between

the stopping of

the sacrifices

in 167 and

the rededication

of the temple

in 164.

Is it 2,300

days?

Just about the

amount of

time between

the murder of

the legitimate

high priest in

171 to the

rededication of

the temple in

164.

But I think

it's not meant

to be an exact

number.

I think it's

best to see

2,300 evenings

and mornings as

a symbolic or

representative number

for a significant

but limited

period of time.

time.

Just as Daniel

talked about

time, times,

and half a

time in

chapter 7,

verse 25.

The point is,

the persecution

is going to

last for a

while, not

just for a

day or two,

but it's

also not

going to

last forever.

And at the

end of this

frightening vision

in verse 14

and verse 26

and verse 25

and verse 26,

there's finally

a word of

comfort.

the sanctuary

shall be

restored.

Verse 14

and the end

of verse 25,

he shall be

broken.

This little

horn shall be

broken, but

by no human

hand.

Antiochus

died not

when Judas

Maccabeus took

Jerusalem, but

in the next

year.

He died in

163 B.C.

So here's the

point.

Arrogant nations

will eventually

collapse.

Those who

fight against

God's people

will finally

perish.

This was

true of

Antiochus in

the second

century B.C.,

perhaps the

greatest threat

that God's

people faced

over the

course of

several

centuries.

And

throughout

history,

it has

also been

true of

many other

arrogant

rulers who

have

targeted

God's

people,

who have

prohibited

God's

worship,

and who

have

suppressed

God's

word.

They have

prospered

for a

while,

but none

of them

has

lasted

forever.

None of

their

empires

have

lasted

forever.

They have

eventually

been

brought

down.

Now,

what do we

take away

from this

vision?

Well,

let's look

at Daniel's

response

himself in

verse 15

to 18

and verse

27.

First off,

Daniel's

confused.

Verse 15,

he says,

when I saw

the vision,

I sought

to understand

it.

And God

sends an

angel,

Gabriel,

first time

Gabriel appears

in the

Bible by

name,

but God

sends an

angel to

explain the

meaning of

the vision

to him.

But even

after Gabriel

explains it

in verse 27,

the end of

verse 27,

he says,

I still

didn't

understand it.

Now,

isn't that

interesting?

Even when

God himself

gives a

vision about

the future

to one of

his most

faithful and

intelligent and

humble servants,

even when

God sends

an angel

to explain

the vision

to him,

Daniel still

doesn't

fully

understand it.

You see,

the future

is always

going to be

somewhat

veiled

to us.

That's why

you should

be suspicious

of anyone

who claims

to understand

all the

prophecies

in the

Bible

with perfect

clarity

and has

detailed

predictions

of exactly

what's going

to happen

in the future

leading up

to the return

of Christ.

That's not

how we're

meant to

respond to

these visions.

Even as

they reveal

some things,

they also

keep some

things mysterious.

How,

when,

exactly what

it's going

to look

like.

So Daniel's

confused.

His understanding

is limited.

But second,

he's utterly

overwhelmed.

Verse 17.

He's

frightened

and fell

on my

face.

He fainted

with fear.

Verse 18.

I fell

into a deep

sleep with

my face

to the

ground.

He's

completely

overcome.

Verse 27.

Even

after it's

interpreted,

he was

sick in

bed for

many days.

And even

after he

got up

and went

back to

work,

he says,

I was

appalled

by this

vision.

You see,

God doesn't

usually pull

back the

curtain on

the future

as he did

with Daniel

because it

would be

too much

for us

to handle.

I mean,

it would be

too much

for most

of us

to handle

if God

just showed

us some

of our

own personal

future and

what our

life is going

to look like

one,

two,

three,

four,

five years

down the

line.

Most of

us wouldn't

be able

to handle

it.

And so

99.99%

of the time

God wisely

keeps it

concealed from

us and

gives it

to us

one moment

at a time.

But every

once in a

while,

God pulls

back the

curtain and

gives some

insight into

the future

to one of

his servants

because he

wants us to

know that

the future

is in his

hands just

as the past

and the

present are

in his

hands.

He wants

us to

know that

when everything

seems chaotic

and out of

control and

unfair and

overwhelming,

overwhelming,

when the

world seems

dominated by

arrogant

beasts,

when God's

people are

persecuted and

attacked,

and when there

doesn't seem to

be any divine

intervention

that you can

see.

God wants us

to know he's

still on the

throne and

evil won't

triumph in the

end.

And he wants

us to know

that God

isn't surprised

by all that's

happening to

us.

He even

gave us a

heads up

beforehand that

it was going to

be difficult,

but he's bigger

than the trial

we're experiencing

and he's going

to bring us

through the

darkness into

the light

once again.

Most of us,

if we've lived

in this country,

haven't experienced

the kind of

persecution that

the Jewish

people did

under Antiochus

Epiphanes.

We're quite

far away from

that.

But whatever

the nature of

the opposition

or being

personally attacked

for no apparent

reason,

whatever the

suffering and

trials you may

be going through,

whatever the

things that are

disappointments

that threaten

to kill your

hope and lead

you to just

despair and

give up,

God wants to

say,

I'm with

you.

It's not

going to

last forever.

You know,

we can also

find comfort

in something

that Daniel

only saw

from a

distance.

Daniel saw

a holy one,

a heavenly

being calling

out on behalf

of God's

suffering and

mistreated

people.

But we see

in Jesus

Christ,

the true

God

manifest.

We see

the holy

God,

God,

who became

a human

being and

who entered

into our

pain and

suffering and

took upon

himself the

consequences of

our sin and

guilt and who

called out when

he hung on the

cross,

my God,

my God,

why have you

forsaken me?

And yet he

wasn't saying

that in defiant

rejection of God,

he was saying

that in humble

trust.

God,

because one of

the next words

he said is,

Father,

into your

hand,

I commit

my spirit.

Jesus faced

every one of

our worst

fears,

every one of

our greatest

disappointments,

every one of

the things that

threatened to

crush our

faith and

hope and

love once

and for

all,

and he came

up on the

other side.

he rose

again three

days later

and he

promises what

we just sang

about in that

great hymn,

Jesus lives

and so shall

I.

Jesus lives

and so shall

I for

eternity and

Jesus lives

and so shall

I today and

tomorrow and

this week and

through whatever

we have to

endure during

the time that

we're on this

earth.

on the night

before he was

crucified,

Jesus said to

his disciples,

the world is

going to hate

you because

they hated

me first.

If they

persecuted me,

they'll persecute

you too.

If they kept

my word,

they'll also

keep yours.

And then he

said, I've said

all these things

to you to

keep you from

falling away,

to keep you

from falling

into despair

when life

doesn't turn

out the way

you hoped,

when the

road is

longer and

bumpier and

harder than

you ever

imagined.

And to

keep you from

embracing a

false hope that

your life will

always be easy

and smooth,

that's not what

Jesus ever

promised.

But he said,

I've also said

these things to

you so that

you might have

peace.

In the world

you will have

trouble,

but take heart.

I have

overcome the

world.

Jesus gives

us a very

sobering and

realistic picture

of what to

expect,

but he also

gives us a

very hopeful

word.

Take heart.

I have

overcome the

world.

Let us

pray.

Amen.

Father, we

thank you for

this vision of

Daniel.

We thank you,

Lord, for the

courage that you

have given to

your people in

years and

centuries past,

those who have

stood firm and

who have endured

great trials and

who are that

great cloud of

witnesses that

Hebrews speaks

about that

surround us.

and even in

revelation,

call out to

you, how

long, O

Lord?

And yet,

Lord, we

thank you above

all for Jesus

Christ, the

author and

perfecter of our

faith, who for

the joy set

before him

endured the

cross, scorning

its shame, and

sat down at the

right hand of

God.

Lord, we pray

that we would

consider him who

endured such

hardship so that

we would not grow

weary and lose

heart.

Lord, we pray

that you would

make us a

people who are

hopeful, not

because we embrace

false hopes, not

because we live by

wishful thinking,

but a people who

have our hope

firmly rooted in

you, our

crucified and

risen Savior.

And Lord, that

you would give us

faith and courage

to live for you

day by day.

We thank you in

Jesus' name.

Amen.