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Daniel 8

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11/3/1991
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Daniel 8
Daniel 8
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27 Daniel - 1991

Daniel is a book of history as well as prophecy, and it contains one of the most awesome and detailed predictions in the entire Bible. Skip Heitzig examines the backbone of Bible prophecy.

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Daniel 8

There was once a Bible teacher who was teaching a series on prophecy. His name is Donald Campbell out of Dallas. And he was teaching one evening, and that evening, a retired US Army Colonel who was interested in prophecy came up to him afterwards and they had a conversation. And in one of Don Campbell's books, he describes what happened with this retired Army Colonel.

He said, having been retired from the army for only a short time, he said that the last thing he did while he was in the military was to participate in a mock staging of World War III. Joining other officers from the Pentagon, he left Washington, DC, and went to a remote underground retreat established to carry on the affairs of government in the event of a nuclear attack.

There, these military men staged the final conflict between the nations. They projected that it would begin with a nuclear exchange between Israel and the Arab nations. The great superpowers, the USA and Russia, would next be drawn in, and finally, the European nations would join the conflict. The ensuing worldwide nuclear warfare would result in the loss of 55 million lives in the USA alone.

So shaken at the prospect was this Christian Army officer that he resigned his commission, and he now spends his time trying to reach people, especially children, with the Gospel before the end comes.

Prophecy should give to us, as we study it, an impetus for living. I know many people accuse those of us who study prophecy as looking so much to the future that we forget the present. Well, if you really study prophecy, it will not do that. It gets you firmly grounded in the present, but you have an eye on what's ahead.

And Jesus said, everyone who has the hope that he will soon return will keep himself pure even as he is pure. Prophecy does something for you. It keeps your life pure, on your toes, because you know Jesus could come at any moment. Also, in seeing all of the promises that God spoke prophetically that have come true, it helps you to draw the ultimate conclusion that all of the promises in the Bible are true and God means what he says.

There are those people who hedge a little bit. I've met Christians who are very doubtful, very shaky when it comes to the word of God. They're very double-minded. Oh, I know the Bible says this, but how can I trust God? Study prophecy. Devote some time to studying the fulfillment of prophecy, especially messianic prophecy, and your conclusion will be, hey, God means what he says, and he keeps his word.

And so I love studying the Book of Daniel because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and my faith is increased as I see the fulfillment of God throughout history. Now, as we go through Daniel, we are looking back, usually, and when Daniel wrote it, he was looking forward. He had no idea. Now imagine for some of us going through Daniel, it's confusing, and we're looking backwards.

Think how confusing it was for Daniel who had no idea how these things were going to come to pass. We're looking back after the fulfillment has occurred. Daniel's looking to the future, and many times when he received these visions and processes, we've already seen, he got sick. He fainted. He got upset internally and he had to take it before the Lord.

In Daniel Chapter 8, we come to a new section of the Book of Daniel. What happens is that it reverts back now in verse one of chapter 8 to the Hebrew language. In the manuscripts of Daniel, chapter 1 of Daniel is written in Hebrew. And up to chapter 2, verse 3, it's all written in Hebrew. From chapter 1:1 to verse 3 of chapter 2 is Hebrew.

But then in verse 4 of chapter 2, there's a switch. And from chapter 2, verse 4 all the way to the end of chapter 7, the book of Daniel is written in Aramaic or Chaldean, the language of the Babylonians. And now it goes back to the Hebrew language from chapter 8, verse 1 to the end of the book.

Chapter 1 is in Hebrew because it describes the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity of the children of Israel. It's dealing principally with the nation of Israel. Then there's a switch to the Chaldean or Babylonian language because in view are world Gentile powers. So when we come to chapter 8, verse 1 and the language goes back to Hebrew in it's original-- though for us, it's all English, thank God-- it should be a tip off to us that the nation of Israel is once again in view. And indeed, it is.

In fact, the nation of Israel seems to principally be the focus of prophecy in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is simply, among other things, a Jewish book of history. God creates the heavens and the earth, God puts man on the earth, they populate the earth, and in Genesis chapter 10, we have a table of nations where we see the three sons of Adam-- or of Noah populate or repopulate the earth once again.

But then after spreading out wide, the focus narrows down to one individual and his descendants, Abraham. And God promises Abraham a land, and he gives the same promise to Abraham's descendants through Isaac, not Ishmael, and then Jacob, and then the 12 tribes, and so on and so forth. And so we have this narrow focus on Abraham.

In chapters 8 through 12, we get now the focus of Israel in relationship to other nations. And in chapter 8 is the second vision that Daniel receives. The first one was last week where he saw four beasts arise out of the earth, four different kingdoms. Tonight, he has another vision. But his vision centers on two nations-- the nation of Medo-Persia and the nation of Greece-- in relationship to Israel.

And so we revert back once again to the Hebrew language. Now by the way, this chapter occurs chronologically between chapters 4 and chapter 5, right before the fall of the kingdom, before Belshazzar has his drunken orgy, so that when Daniel comes in to the court of the king and sees the handwriting on the wall and interprets it, he has firmly in mind the vision which we are about to read.

"And so it is in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me-- to me, Daniel-- after s one that appeared to me the first time. I saw in the vision and it so happened while I was looking that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai."

I should forewarn you as you get into this chapter because to some, it has been confusing, and that is that in prophecy, you sometimes have a dual fulfillment, or you have the prophet looking at a couple of events, though there's a gap between them of maybe thousands of years, and the prophets see it as one event.

You've got to keep that in mind in the Old Testament or you can get confused. The New Testament unravels it for you. But the best way to describe the way prophets saw is to look at the mountains. If you, from here, on a sunny day look east, the mountains look monoplane. They look like they're just flat and vertical, don't they? Especially if the sun is hitting it just right, it looks like there's just one sheer cliff.

The closer you move to them-- in fact, if you climb up through them, you see that the mountains are divided and there's a whole chain of peaks. And the mountains that look flat, you see as you get up to it, are all sorts of peaks, and valleys, and you can't see them from this distance. In fact, you cannot see the valleys that are between the Sandia Peaks from here. You have to get up to it and check it out.

So it was with the prophets. The prophets would look through history and they would see the mountain peaks of events. They would see the first coming of Jesus. They would see the second coming of Jesus. They'd see the Kingdom Age. They did not get a close enough view to see the valleys that existed between those key events.

And so they often saw the first and second coming of Christ simultaneously. An example of that is Isaiah chapter 61, where it says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has set me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to those who are captives, the opening of prison doors, the opening of the eyes of the blind, deliverance to the oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God."

You say, so what? The "so what" is explained in Luke's Gospel, chapter 4. Jesus goes into the synagogue in Nazareth and they just happened to be reading Isaiah. And it just happens to be Isaiah chapter 61. And so they said, Jesus, listen, you were from Nazareth. You're visiting now. Come and share a few words. So he opens up Isaiah 61 where the scroll is to be read and he reads it.

And He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." And he reads it all. And He says, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," and he closes the scroll. And he says, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

They knew what he was saying. He was claiming fulfillment, that He was Israel's messiah. And they thought, well, of all the low-down things that He could say. Let's take Him out and stone Him. We see who He's claiming to be. He's claiming to be the Messiah. How can He say those scriptures are fulfilled in Him, that He's the anointed one?

But He didn't finish the scripture. He said, "to proclaim the acceptable year of our God," but he didn't say, "and the day of vengeance of our God." And He did that for a very strategic reason. He knew what he was doing. The day of vengeance of our God will happen in the future during the Tribulation Period, when the earth is judged by God for a period of seven years.

But that hasn't happened yet. And so far, there's been almost a 2,000-year gap in the one word "and." "And the day of vengeance of our God." There's a gap. There's a valley. Jesus closed the scroll after one part and He left the rest because it's not fulfilled yet. When the prophet wrote that, he saw the mountain peaks. He saw the coming of Christ. He saw a kingdom set up and the day of vengeance that preceded that. He didn't see the valley of the church that has existed for almost 2,000 years.

I'll give you another example. In the book of Malachi, the last book of the Bible, there is a prediction of the forerunner of the Messiah I'll read it to you. It says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the Earth with a curse."

Now for that reason, Jews have since, on Passover, left one chair vacant and a door open in case Elijah would come in because they expect that before the Messiah comes, Elijah will come first, and he'll turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers.

When John the Baptist came on the scene, he partially fulfilled that scripture, but not totally. And it sounds kind of confusing, but follow along with me. When John the Baptist was predicted that he would be born to his father, Zacharias, in the temple, the angel came to him and said, "He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children," and so forth.

He'll come in Elijah-like power. Later on, in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11 Jesus said, "Among those born of women, there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist. And if you can receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come." Then later on, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John saw an interesting sight. Jesus was transfigured before them, and who shows up?

Moses and Elijah, and they speak about the Kingdom Age. And afterwards, they're coming down Mount Hermon. One of the disciples says, "Master, why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come?" And Jesus said, "Elijah will come and he will restore all things." But then he said, "But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not know him and did whatever they wanted to."

And the scripture right after that says, "They understood him to mean John the Baptist." Well, what does that mean? Jesus said, it's him if you can receive it, and they did whatever they wanted to to him, yet Elijah will still come. It means that John the Baptist fulfilled the scripture of Malachi partially. He came in Elijah-like power, had an Elijah-like ministry, and was the forerunner of the Messiah.

Yet, before Jesus Christ comes to set up the Messianic Kingdom, Elijah will come as his forerunner. And I believe he's written about in Revelation, chapter 11, one of the two witnesses who has the same kind of miraculous power, performs the same signs that Elijah did in the Old Testament. And so you see in the scripture this dual kind of fulfillment.

You need to keep that a little bit in mind as we go through these scriptures tonight because there is also a dual fulfillment in these predictions. Well, he has a vision. He has this dream by the Lord. And he was looking and he said, "I was in Shushan, the citadel." It's about 350 miles to the east of where he was living in Babylon, which is in the province of Elam.

"And I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai." Elam and Shushan was in the District of Babylon. Babylon was in control of it. And this must have confused Daniel. He's thinking, what am I doing here? I'm 350 miles east in this palace. What does this all mean?

What he didn't know until this dream was unraveled that in the next kingdom to come, after the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians, that Shushan would become the headquarters for the Medes and the Persians, and it would be established by the Ulai River, which is a little irrigation ditch that runs out of one of the rivers there.

It became the home for Esther. It was the home of Nehemiah, as he was a cup-bearer there. But at this point, he just saw the future.

"And I lifted my eyes and I saw there standing beside the river was a ram, which had two horns and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. And I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no beast could withstand him, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand. But he did according to his will and became great.

"And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came up from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground, and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. And I saw him confronting the ram. He was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns.

"There was no power in the ram to withstand him. But he cast him down to the ground and trampled him, and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore, the male goat grew very great. But when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in the place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land."

Now about this point, Daniel was thinking, what have I eaten for dinner? Why do I get all these visions? And were it not for an interpretation given to him from heaven, he'd be lost. If we go back to verse 3, he first sees a ram that has two horns. They grew and one was higher than the other. Let's just skip ahead and look at verse 20. We get the interpretation by the angel Gabriel.

The ram which you saw having two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. So we don't have to guess what they are. The angel already tells us what they are. The two horns are two kings. Horn in the Bible speaks of authority. The two horns are the two kings of Media and Persia. Notice in verse 3, they were both high. One was higher than the other and the higher one came up last.

The Medo-Persian Empire was a coalition of two countries, Media, which had the greatest land mass and was the strongest country at first, and then a coalition with Persia under Cyrus. Media was the strongest in the coalition at first, but eventually, because Cyrus was a genius leader, it grew up to be a stronger part in this coalition.

And so there's two horns, and it already tells us what they are-- the kings of Media and Persia. Now think back to a couple other visions. Nebuchadnezzar had one. What did he see? A head of gold, and then he saw a chest and two arms of silver. A coalition of two kingdoms brought into one. That was also to be the Medes and the Persians.

Last week, we saw a chapter or a vision that Daniel had of four beasts, and he saw a bear tipped over on one side a little bit out of balance, which speaks of the imbalance of power in the Medo-Persian Empire. Here, he sees a ram with two horns, but it's basically the same thing. By the way, the national emblem for the Medes and the Persians was a ram.

They believed the ram to be their spiritual guardian. It was one of the gods they worshipped. On the coins was a head of a ram with two horns. On the back side of the coin was a recumbent ram, resting and feeding out in the pastures. When the kings of Media and Persia amassed their armies, they wore a golden head of a ram with two horns marked with jewels.

It was on all of their banners. It was on the reliefs of their palaces. It was the national emblem of the Medo-Persian Empire. In verse 4, I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward. That's exactly what happened. When the Medo-Persian Empire took over Babylon, they kept going westward. They took over Asia Minor. They took over Syria. Then they moved north and took over the nations surrounding the Caspian Sea.

Then they moved southward. They took over Ethiopia, Egypt, and Israel. And so it was a prediction of the kind of kingdom that they would have.

"And so that no beast could withstand him, nor was there any who could deliver from his hand, but he did according to all of his will and he became great. As I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground, and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes."

Fortunately, again, we have the interpretation. Look over at verse 21. "And the male goat," Gabriel says, "is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king." The national emblem of Greece was a goat. In fact, the ancient capital of Macedonia was the city of Agea, which means goat. It was goat town, goat city.

And the Aegean Sea means the city or the sea of the goat. It was on their emblems. It was on their banner. And there's a horn that grows up, and the angel said it was the first king that would arise out of the kingdom. And he came to the ram, verse 6, and it had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power.

The country he's speaking of is Greece. The first real king was Alexander the Great, and he moved swiftly. With an army of less than 30,000 men, took over the Medo-Persian Empire. Alexander the Great was the son of a man named Philip of Macedon, who succeeded in bringing the country of Macedonia into an established kind of an empire, but he was murdered when Alexander the Great was 19.

Alexander-- by the way, when Alexander was growing up, he was really a bookworm. He was not a warrior. His dad was a fighting man. Alexander the Great was kind of an inside kid. He liked to read a lot of books. And his dad was worried about little Alex. He thought, you know, Alexander, unless he gets the right kind of tutor, will never grow up to be much.

And so Philip of Macedon decided to get Alexander, his son, a tutor, by the name of Aristotle, who taught Alexander in the finer things of life and the philosophies of life, but later on, because his father was murdered, Alexander took up the torch of revenge, supposing that the Medes and the Persians murdered his father.

At 19 years of age, he became King over the Greco-Macedonian Empire. And he left home when he was 19 and he never returned again. And in 10 years, he took over the known world.

His mother worshipped a serpent goddess. And after Philip of Macedon died, Alexander's mom took him aside and tried to convince Alexander that Philip was not his real father, but that he was uniquely born by the serpent goddess, and that he himself was a god, and he started believing it. He liked that doctrine. I'm a God. That means people will worship me? Hm. That's good.

When he did that, people rebelled, dropped out of his army, but he still took his 30,000 men and went on the move, believing he was a god to be worshipped. And he swiftly took over, charging the ram and taking over the kingdom that was from him. It says he trampled him down, verse 7, and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand.

Therefore, the male goat grew and became very great, and the large horn was broken. And in its place, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven. Now we discussed a little bit last week what this means. In the vision of the four horns, now we have four horns growing out of this goat. We know that the nation is Greece. We know that Alexander is the first king, but now there's four horns. What does this mean?

It speaks about the kingdom when it was divided. When Alexander the Great died-- and by the way, he died at 32 years old, right before his 33rd birthday-- he sat in Babylon weeping because there was no more worlds to conquer. When he was dying, they said, who will take over the kingdom? His reply, give it to the strong.

They didn't know what that meant. He kicked the bucket, and they had a long dispute over who would take over the kingdom, and they decided to divided between his four generals. So Cassander took over Macedonian Greece. His other general, Lysimachus, took over Asia Minor and Thrace. He had two more generals-- Ptolemy, who took over Egypt, part of Israel, and Seleucus.

Keep that name in mind-- Seleucus-- because the rest of this chapter centers around a horn that comes up out of one of these generals, Seleucus, and he persecutes the Jewish nation. That's why he's centered here in prophecy. Seleucus takes over Syria, and another part of Asia Minor, almost all the way to India.

And these kings established kingdoms. And there is a succession of kings, and oftentimes they fought one another as history went on. But let's look at verse 9. This is really the focus of this chapter.

Out of one of them, out of one of these four rulers, came a little horn, or one of authority, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land, which we know from the scripture is the nation of Israel. In the succession of kingdoms, let's focus now completely upon this one man, Seleucus.

Seleucus is one of the four generals of Alexander the Great. He takes over Syria. He established his kingdom and he wants to spread Greek culture and Greek wisdom throughout the world in his domain. He has a series of sons, and there's a lot of murderous events, and different ones take the throne. But the eighth in line of the Seleucid kings is a man by the name of Antiochus the fourth, the brother of Cleopatra.

Antiochus the fourth murders his brother, who is the rightful heir to the throne, and he proclaims that he is the throne. He also gives himself an interesting name. He says that his new name is Theos Antiochus, Theos Epiphanies, which means literally, I am god in the flesh, or I am god made manifest-- Epiphanes.

He persecutes many people around about him, especially the Jewish nation. His popular name was Antiochus Epiphanes. The Jews called him Antiochus Epimanes, which means Antiochus the mad man, because of some of the atrocities that he performed. And it grew up to the host of heaven, verse 10, and it cast some of the host and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them.

He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host, and by him, the daily sacrifices were taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. Because of the transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices and cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and he prospered.

This man, Antiochus Epiphanes, had a passion for anti-Semitism. He hated the Jews, and this is why he is given, in the book of Daniel, center stage of prophecy because Antiochus Epiphanes is a type of another persecutor of the Jews who desecrates the temple the same way Antiochus does, who claims himself to be God and to be worshiped the same as Antiochus, who will come in the future, called the Antichrist-- popularly called that by New Testament believers.

And so because he's the type of what's to come and some of these processes go beyond Antiochus, he is given so much room here because he persecuted the Jewish nation. What do I mean persecuted the Jewish nation? Well, he came against Israel several times, and in one incident, he massacred 80,000 Jews. He took 40,000 of them captive.

He decreed that it was a capital offense to have a copy of the scripture. It was a capital offense to circumcise children. It was a capital offense to celebrate Passover or any Jewish feast. He tried to obliterate Judaism from off the face of the earth. But by the way, he did that because he wanted to establish Greek culture in all of the world.

Almost every nation this madman went into, he succeeded in pushing away their religion, pushing away their culture, and establishing Greek culture, except for one group of people-- the Jews. They were loyal to their God. They were loyal to the scriptures. And though he had a minimal impact, Antiochus Epiphanes did not succeed in overthrowing Judaism.

He went so far as to set up, in the temple of Jerusalem, an image of Jupiter or Zeus, the chief of the gods of the Greeks. And he took a swine and killed the swine, which is abominable meat to the Jewish people, as you know. It's very un-kosher. And he sacrificed it on the altar of sacrifice in the outer court, spread its juices over all of the holy vessels of the temple, and that became known by the Jews as the Abomination of Desolation.

He made desolate the temple. The Jews had to scatter and leave. There was no more worship of God. There was pagan worship. They dare not tread on the courts any longer.

There were some women and some men who defied him, and let me tell you their story. Josephus records a woman who was very bold and audacious. And she took her children-- actually, two women took their two newborn sons and had them circumcised on the eighth day, according to Jewish law.

When Antiochus found out that they defied his decree, Antiochus took and killed each of the babies, tied it to a rope, and tied the rope around each woman's neck. And they paraded their dead babies around the streets of Jerusalem, with a crowd scorning them and laughing at them. And then he took them to a high pinnacle overlooking the Kidron Valley and pushed them off to their death with their dead baby hanging from their neck.

Now you can see why they call them Antiochus the madman. There's another story Josephus tells us of a woman who had seven sons, and she defied Antiochus. And they kept the feast, and they read the scriptures, and they found out about what she was doing, went into her village, and they prepared a flat iron heated up to red hot and flayed-- burned-- each of her sons, one at a time, alive. And then killed her.

The guy was crazy. He had delight in persecuting the Jews. Some of the atrocities of Antiochus Epiphanes seem to be relived in Adolf Hitler and the death camps-- Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and the like during World War II. He was absolutely a madman.

And he sets up in Jerusalem, as we read about in verse 11 and 12, this new sanctuary to Zeus. The sanctuary was cast down because of transgression. An army was given to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices. And he cast truth down to the ground, and he did all this and he prospered. Now what happened is something very interesting.

He went into a little village-- and by the way, every little village in Judah and Israel was to have its own separate altar of worship to the Greek gods. He went into a Hasmonean village called Modine, outside of Jerusalem, and he walked in and he commanded the people to bow down and give homage to this altar. And he took one old man out of the crowd and he said, I command you to eat some of the swines flesh as an example to the rest of your fellow villagemen.

The man refused, and one of Antiochus' officers killed the man. When that happened, a guy by the name of Mattathias, a Hasmonean priest, stepped in and killed Antiochus' man and started a revolt called the Maccabean Revolt. It continued for a number of years. His sons took it over. The most notable son was Judas Maccabeus. You probably heard his name, or Judas the Hammer.

And he succeeded in bringing a revolt against Antiochus and the Seleucid Empire, and he succeeded in crushing their attack against the Jews and rededicating the temple in Jerusalem. And when they finally took over Jerusalem and they set up the sacrifices in the temple, there was one thing that was missing, and that was oil for the lamp stand.

Do I have it behind me now? Ah. Behind me is a seven branch candlestick. In the Holy of Holies of the temple, the thing was between four to six feet tall, solid gold. And there was oil that was kept in the temple so that those lamps could be burning every single day. But there was a cruse of oil enough for only one day of lighting.

But as the story goes, God miraculously let one day's supply of oil last eight days, and so they commemorated that as Hanukiah, or Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, because God allowed the lights to be burning for eight days instead of one. So it's called Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication, December 25, around there in the Jewish calendar.

So if you ever wonder, what's Hanukkah? Well, Jesus kept Hanukkah, by the way. It says in the Gospel of John that Jesus was in the temple for the Feast of Dedication and it was winter. The Feast is Hanukkah. And he was worshipping in the temple, thinking back to the days of Judas Maccabees. That's the background for this whole event here. Hope I didn't confuse you in this, but I told you last week we'd reinforce some of this information in the next few weeks.

In verse 13, "Then I heard a Holy One speaking, and another Holy One said to that certain one who was speaking, how long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? And he said to me, for 2,300 days, and then the sanctuary will be cleansed."

There's two ways to look at this. I still don't know which way to look at it, but I'll share what I've learned. The first way to look at it is that Antiochus started his atrocities September 6, 171 BC. If you count 2,300 days later, you get to the day when the temple was dedicated by Judas Maccabeus.

Another way to look at it is instead of 2,300 days, 1,150 days, because in the text it says, for 2,300 days, and in Hebrew it says, [speaking Hebrew]-- evening, morning. So there could be an evening and a morning 2,300 times, or 1,150 days. And you can get dating that corresponds with this, too.

In fact, December 15, 168 BC was when he began the abomination of desolation in the temple, and 1,150 days later, the temple was purified. There's a couple ways to look at it. God was giving to Daniel a timetable.

"Now what happened when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai who called and said, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. So he came near where I stood and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face.

"But he said to me, understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end. Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and I stood upright. And he said, look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation, for the appointed time the end shall be."

Now it gets a little bit confusing. And there are those who say that the end of time refers to the end of persecutions of the Jewish people. After Antiochus was defeated, it brought an end, but it only brought an end temporarily. The Jews have been persecuted throughout history. It wasn't the last time.

Moreover, that same phrase, "the latter time" or "the time of the end" is used in Chapter 12 of Daniel, and it clearly refers to the end of time when the Second Coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to the earth occurs. So it probably is, again, this dual fulfillment. Antiochus-- it was fulfilled in him, but he is a type of one who will come later.

Of course to Daniel, he was confused at this. He did a face plant. He just, in deep anguish probably, and seeing this vision and the angel, he just went down on his face. And the angel touched him and said, stand up. I'm going to let you understand what's going on here. The angel is Gabriel.

There are three angelic beings spoken of by name in scripture. Gabriel is one. He gives this announcement. He gives the announcement in Daniel chapter 9 of the events of Israel in the last days. He also gives the announcement to Zacharias that John the Baptist will be born. He appears to Joseph and Mary and says, you're going to have a son.

And Mary will be-- the spirit of God will overshadow her, and she'd be a virgin and have Jesus Christ by the miraculous virgin birth. It was Gabriel who did that.

Michael is also named in the scripture. He's seen a couple of places in Revelation, chapter 12. He seems to be this great warrior prince that fights in spiritual realms for the nation of Israel. And the third angelic being that is mentioned is Lucifer. "How are you fallen," Isaiah 14 says, "from Heaven, oh, Lucifer, son of the morning?" He's mentioned by name.

And I think it's important that you guys realize something. Lucifer is an angel. He's one of the three angels mentioned by name in the scripture. He's an angel. He's not the opposite of God. We have sometimes this mistaken notion that it's God and Satan in the ring and they're battling it out. Ooh, got a left blow, we got a right blow. Who's going to win? Excuse me. Satan is not the opposite of God.

He wants you to think he is. That gives him glory. He wants you to think he's more powerful than he is, and many Christians have been deceived in giving Satan more power than God has allowed him, and giving him more glory-- the kind of glory he wants, by the way-- he always said, I will be like God. And when Christians think he's the opposite of God, oh, the devil's behind every bush, and oh, the devil can possess this Christian and that Christian. He's got you half-licked.

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Oh, don't mistake me. Don't take it wrong. He is powerful. He walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Yes? Jesus told Peter, Peter, Satan has been asking for you lately. He wants to sift you like wheat. But I've prayed for you. And when you are restored, strengthen your brethren.

Satan is powerful. He walks around like a roaring lion. He wants to sift you like wheat, but he can't go one round with the champ. Now if you fight him on your own, you'll get beat up and bloodied. And he'd like you to step out of the arena of spiritual warfare and do it on your own. Instead of putting on His might, His strength, His shield, His sword, go out and shout at the devil and yell at him, and go into warfare all your own.

Or you can stand behind Jesus Christ and let him do the fighting for you. It's like one girl said, every time Satan rings the doorbell, I say, Jesus, would you get that? It's what I like to do. I don't talk to him. I don't shout at him. I don't say, we're going to have a devil bashing-- I don't give him the credit. He's not worth it. I'd rather do all my talking to God.

God, handle him. Lord, rebuke him. Work on him. Protect me from him. That's how Jesus taught us to live. He said, when you pray, say, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, literally, for Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.

Lord, deliver us from the evil one and stand behind God. You know, there's a beautiful picture of this in the New Testament. Jesus says, I am the shepherd, and I give my life for the sheep. I am the door to the sheep fold, and nobody goes in or goes out, except by me. What he was speaking of was a practice of shepherds in Israel.

When they would take their flocks out and they would feed in the countryside, they would build up this temporary shelter with rocks or a fence, with wood and with rocks. And it would surround the sheep, and there was an opening with no swinging door. It was just an opening. The sheep would get in and the Shepherd would lay down at night in front of that opening with his staff and his club.

He became the door, so that if a wolf tried to get those sheep, that shepherd would get out the club and just smack him over the snout. So that the wolf had to cross the body of the shepherd to get to the sheep. I like that analogy. I am the door of the sheep fold. That means that Satan has to get through Jesus to get to me and to you.

And there are times, like Job, when God will allow Satan a leash, and he will allow him to have power in your life, but it's limited. It's meted out by measure. He knows what your strength is. He knows how much you can handle. And though you might say, it's spiritual warfare, God can allow that to happen to strengthen you. And so you must stand in His power and His strength, not your own.

Oh, he's powerful, but don't give him more credit than is due him. He's a created being. And one day, he will have his demise. He'll be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone and be tormented day and night. A lot of times, people picture hell as this little imp with horns going mwahaha, tormenting people. It's not what hell's going to be like. Satan will be the chief victim of hell.

It was created for the devil and for his angels. So you keep that in mind when you're waging warfare against the enemy next time.

Refers to the time of the end. Verse 20 and 21, we read. Look at verse 22. It's, For the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. He shall destroy fearfully and shall prosper and thrive, and he shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people.

If you have a modern version of the Bible, you notice that after verse 22, the wording, just the way it is laid out on your page, is different, isn't it? It looks like a poem that is being written. That's because there is a change. It reverts now to Hebrew parallelism, denoting a change of subject. And so we have the future in view. Antiochus Epiphanes was a foreshadow of a man called the Antichrist.

Now there are some people who say, the abomination of desolation happened in history. It's past. It won't occur. There won't be a tribulation. There won't be this guy who sets up his image in the temple. That's hogwash. It happened in the past. We read about it here. But Jesus, though this did happen in the past, spoke about the abomination of desolation as a future event in Matthew 24.

"When you see the abomination of desolation as spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, you who are in Judea, flee to the mountains." He spoke of it as yet being future. It hasn't yet been fulfilled, which leads me to believe that this is a foreshadowing of an even greater event. And so we look at this event.

"His power," verse 24, "shall be mighty, but not by his own power." What does Revelation 13 say? That the dragon gave the beast his authority. And he shall destroy fearfully and shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people. Listen, Israel has been persecuted in the past, but the Jewish nation will be persecuted again in the future.

And it's by the power of Satan. That's why I strongly believe that though all prejudice is wrong and sinful, anti-Semitism began in the heart of Satan, because Israel is the object of God's love, the apple of His eye. "He who touches you," God said, "touches the apple of my eye." God has a plan for the nation of Israel. He brought forth the scripture. He brought forth the Messiah.

And God has a future plan for the nation of Israel, and she continues to be persecuted. Does that mean Israel is flawless? No. She makes a lot of mistakes. But God still has a plan for her. Regardless of her sins, regardless of her mistakes, there is an unconditional covenant that God made to their dad, Abraham, about their land. And God continues, I believe, to bring those things into view, even in these days.

Through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his hand and he shall magnify himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the prince of princes and he shall be broken without human hand. What does Paul say in the book of 2 Thessalonians? He sets up an image in the temple, proclaims that he himself is God, and demands people worship him as God.

And the visions of the evenings and the mornings-- [SPEAKING HEBREW], evening and morning, which was told as true. Therefore, seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future. Look at Daniel's response. "And I, Daniel, fainted." Now keep in mind, as confusing as this has been for you and I tonight, imagine how confusing it was for Daniel who only saw the vision of the future.

I was sick for days because he saw the atrocities that would occur to his own people. And afterwards, I arose and went about the king's business and I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it. Daniel took prophecy seriously and so should you and I. He didn't go, you know, great vision, Gabriel, but I've got something I got to get to, and just that's neat, but forget about it.

Daniel took it to heart. And I believe that you and I, living in this generation, should take prophecy to heart. You and I are faced with perils unmatched by any other generation. No other generation has had to face runaway nuclear proliferation. No other generation has had to face this huge gap in leadership that we see all over the world. And the world is waiting for someone to take the reins.

Problems in the economy, problems in pollution, problems in the population explosion. There is an unparalleled crunch of problems in our generation. And as we see these things lining up in the scripture, as we see the day of the Lord coming soon, we ought to be servants about their master's business, waiting and watching. Not saying, oh, I've got plenty of time. My Lord delays His coming. Jesus said, that was a wicked servant.

But we should be on the ball thinking, Lord, what do You have me to do in these last days? And take the word of God seriously. So I was astonished, but no one else around me understood it. Next week, it gets very interesting. I hope we can cover the whole chapter next week. I think we will.

It could be in our generation. Who knows. Right now, there could be a man in waiting. As the former premier of Belgium said, we are waiting for a man to bring the nations of the world together. Be he a man or a demon, we will follow him. Jesus said, I have come in my Father's name and you did not receive me. But another will come in his own name. Him, you will receive.

And this man will come on the scene. He'll exalt himself after a plan of peace. He'll command the daily sacrifices, in the soon-to-be-rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, to be stopped. He will proclaim that he, himself, is the king and the Lord. And the nation of Israel will once again be persecuted in an unparalleled fashion.

And the Bible says, in the book of Zacharias-- I just got to read it. Got two minutes left. Something that you see I believe happening before our very eyes in this generation, the burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, behold.

I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. And when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem, and it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples. All who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all the nations of the earth are gathered against it.

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst, for I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken. The house is rifled. The women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle.

And in that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west making a large valley. And then it speaks of the glory. And in that day shall be living water, shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, half of them toward the western sea.

And both summer and winter shall occur. The Lord shall be king over all the earth, and in that day, it shall be the Lord is one and his name is one. There's something about standing on the Mount of Olives, remembering that it was there Jesus left and went into heaven. And his disciples were looking up, and an angel said, men of Israel, why do you stand looking up into heaven? The same Jesus who left you will come again in like manner.

Jesus left physically. He left in the clouds. He left from the Mount of Olives. He is coming back with his feet touching the Mount of Olives. He's coming back in the clouds of glory. And he's coming back visibly, and every eye will see him. And so we are seeing the scenario of which that army colonel saw, that perhaps a war will be inaugurated in the Middle East between the Arab forces and Israel.

There are peace conferences, and we ought to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The Bible tells us that. It's the only city that we're told specifically to pray for in that manner. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love thee. If I forget you, oh, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.

We're told to pray for the Middle East. But frankly, to be honest with you, just from after living in Israel, after being there many times, speaking to many people who live in that part of the world, I don't see long-lasting peace in that region for a while. Toward the time of the end, things will get worse and worse. There will be a time of peace. The Antichrist will give it to those nations. It will be very short-lived.

But the long-lasting peace in the City of Peace, Jerusalem, will come when the Prince of Peace rules. And in that day, when he sets up his kingdom, there will be peace not only in the Middle East, but in the world at large. There can be peace in your heart immediately. You don't have to wait for the kingdom age. In fact, if you wait, it'll be too late.

The King can establish His throne in your heart tonight. And if you don't know the peace of God that passes understanding, tonight is your night of salvation. Surrender your life to the lordship of the Messiah of Israel, Yeshua, Jesus. He will come in, change you, give you purpose, give you His peace, and you will have that promise of the future kingdom that will live and ignite you and others around you.

Additional Messages in this Series

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8/25/1991
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Daniel 1
Daniel 1
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9/1/1991
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Daniel 2
Daniel 2
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9/22/1991
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Daniel 3
Daniel 3
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9/29/1991
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Daniel 4
Daniel 4
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10/6/1991
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Daniel 5
Daniel 5
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10/20/1991
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Daniel 6
Daniel 6
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10/27/1991
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Daniel 7
Daniel 7
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11/10/1991
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Daniel 9
Daniel 9
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11/17/1991
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Daniel 10
Daniel 10
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11/24/1991
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Daniel 11-12
Daniel 11-12
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There are 10 additional messages in this series.
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