Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Daniel 8 | Date: April 28, 2019 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction

We turn, if you will, to Daniel chapter 8, but before we begin, a few remarks. Generally, number one, someone has stolen my fan that is up here. And if whoever you are would find that by next Sunday and return it to its rightful place, we will not assign purgatory. We’ll let bygones be bygones. Secondly, on a more serious note, I wanted to say thank you to Ian and the music team for all the work they’ve done for us the last couple of weeks. They do so continually, of course. But then Palm Sunday with the hymn sing that we have that was just so excellent. And then Easter Sunday morning with the extra music. And they go to a lot of work to all of that for us and that at holiday times. And they deserve our thanks and appreciation. They are a blessing to us. We appreciate you guys and all you do for us.

And then third, I wanted to mention also something about the Sunday school hour. I’ve appreciated your interest in that, just to give you a little heads up on what’s coming. We’ve got another few months to go with that, but what we’ll be looking at is coming up, just to give you a look forward, we’ll be looking next time at religious relativism, the idea that religious truth is individually determined. True for you is true for you, but not necessarily for someone else. We’ll look at that and see how it works. Then we’re also going to—we’re going to leave then the idea of relativism and take up a corresponding idea that’s prevalent in our society, a little bit ironic maybe, but what is increasingly called scientism, not science, but scientism and secularism, the idea that the only thing that is true is what you can prove in a test tube. And we’re going to take a couple of weeks with that and see how that works.

And then having done that, we’ll look at the issue of creation and evolution for a few weeks on that. And then having established our identity as men and women made in the image of God, we’ll take up the questions of gender and sexuality that are so prominent in our culture today, like homosexuality. Many of you have asked that we spend some time on that, so we will. We’ll spend a few weeks on that question, exploring all that the Bible has to say about it. We’ll take up related questions like sexual orientation, sexual identity, questions like “I was born that way,” and various contemporary things that you hear often today, and we’ll try to take up a good many of those. And then the question of transgender and so on, we’ll try to explore a good many of those kinds of questions. So all of that is what is to come in the Sunday school hour.

The Vision Of The Ram And The Goat

Daniel chapter 8, we’re continuing our studies through this book, and I’d like to take the time again to read the entire chapter.

“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 capital, 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 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 to cross 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 two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him with 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 came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Out of one of them came a little horn, that is out of one of those four horns came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land, the land of Palestine, Israel. It grew great even to the host of heavens. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw 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 twenty-three hundred 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.’

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. And 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 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. And then I arose and went about the king’s business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, again, we come to this passage from your word so important, yet in so many ways strange to our ears. We pray that you will give us understanding of it, and through it, a greater appreciation for the greatness of our God and for his purpose that one day will be consummated in the Lord Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.

We saw last time that here in chapter 8 we are focusing in on two of the kingdoms, two of the four that were pointed out in Daniel’s vision in chapter 7. Two are represented in apocalyptic imagery by a ram and a goat. A ram with two horns, one higher than the other. This is the Medo-Persian Empire. The one horn higher than the other is the dominance of Persia in the Medo-Persian Empire. It came later, but it was the more dominant force. So we have the ram with the two horns and all of its rage and its success militarily over so much territory.

But then coming from the west, that is, from Greece, came this male goat, full of rage against the ram, to destroy it. This goat from Greece had a conspicuous horn, a single horn between his eyes, and that, he tells us, is the first king. And so that, as we saw last time, is Alexander the Great in the marvelous militarily—marvelous, although brutal and evil—success that he had not only over Medo-Persia and its entire empire, but over a great deal more as well. We see that in verse 8, he became strong and exceedingly great. But then when he was strong, the great horn was broken. That is, Alexander the Great dies.

And in the place of this great horn come four other horns. And this, we saw with these four conspicuous horns, are the four prominent divisions of the Greek Empire after Alexander. There were squabbles among his generals and there were actually more than four, but there were four prominent ones. And the most important of the four, we saw, was the King of the North, the Kingdom of the North, and that is in Syria. Antioch is the capital. And the Kingdom of the South, Egypt, with its capital in Alexandria, the Ptolemaic Empire, and the dynasties in both. And these two, then, Syria and Egypt, become the focus in here, and then in particular, we’ll see it in detail in chapter 11.

But now in chapter 8, he focuses in on not just the two kingdoms, but the one, the Greek kingdom, and these four successors of Alexander and the four kingdoms that follow that. And then the focus becomes more narrow still to one horn, a little horn, that rises up out of one of those four horns. And as it turns out, it is a king that comes later in the dynasty in the Syrian empire, the Seleucid dynasty. His name is Antiochus.

The Little Horn: Antiochus IV Epiphanes

We find it beginning in verse 9, this little horn rising up from one of the four. Keep in mind, by the way, that we have the kingdom of the north, Syria, kingdom of the south, Egypt, and these two kings for a long time during this Hellenistic age are squabbling with one another and of course what they’re fighting over is territory. That makes it very difficult for the Israelites because they’re right in between. And so there’s a lot of fighting that’s going on between, and the possession of Israel belongs to one and then to the other and again to the other over time.

But we have in verses 9 and following this little horn who becomes the focus now of the chapter. He’s rising up from one of these four horns and this is Antiochus IV as we saw last time. He named himself Epiphanes, “manifest,” as in God manifest or God appearing. He’s a humble guy. Verse 9 introduces him to us. We find more about him in verses 23 and following. He is the most notable king of the entire period. He is also the most sinister figure in the entire Hellenistic age. He is the most notorious opponent of Israel, the arch-enemy of Israel throughout this entire period, perhaps in their entire history.

We’ll see more of that in some details in chapter 11. Antiochus was the eighth ruler of the Seleucid Kingdom. If you like dates, he ruled around, I think it was 175 to 164 BC. 175 to 164 BC. He was a military conqueror. He was great, he was powerful, says he went south and east and to the glorious land—south all the way to Egypt, nearly conquered Ptolemy himself on his own turf in Egypt. He was a tyrant king, a fearsome, wicked enemy, brutal enemy of the Jewish people. And verse 23 describes him as a king of bold face, one who understands riddles.

You might not know exactly what that means. Did you get the general idea? It’s probably not good. Compare the translations. The New International Version translates that, “a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue.” Or the New American Standard, “he was insolent and skilled in intrigue.” Or the King James Version, “a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences.” Well, the idea then is he’s fierce, he’s violent, he’s brilliant, but in an evil kind of way, and he’s a master deceiver.

Verse 24 tells us that his power shall be great. The greatest king of this entire period, but notice it says, “his power shall be great, but not by his own power.” That is, for all of the strength and might that he had militarily, it was not something that he accomplished merely on his own. It was a derived power from Alexander the Great, still living off the spoils of Alexander’s accomplishments.

Well, Antiochus had an ambition, as did Alexander himself, and that was to make the entire realm a Greek realm. This was the Hellenization policy: spread the Greek religion, spread the Greek language, Greek culture to the entire area. This, by the way, is what played out in a very important way when we come to the New Testament and the Greek world. This is what brought it about, told us here in prophecy in Daniel chapter 8.

Keep in mind that this is a prophecy of things to come. Daniel, living in the 6th century BC—we’ll say for round numbers around 550 BC—and these events now come to take place as I said under Antiochus, which is around, the big event was 168 BC, so roughly 400 years ahead of time now, Daniel is prophesying these events. And as I say, his ambition was to make, to unify all of the peoples of his kingdom and make it a Greek world. Well, that became a terrible point of conflict with the Jews.

There is that focus in verse 9, and it comes to the glorious land. He can set up a statue of himself in Jerusalem in the temple, but that doesn’t mean the faithful Jews are going to bow. It doesn’t mean they’re going to worship him. He can institute the athletic events in which participation is in the nude, and the faithful Jews are not going to go along with that either. And it became a very serious point of conflict with this imposition of pagan religion and cultural paganism as well into the Jewish world, and the Jews then resisted against it and it became a terrible conflict between the two.

At one point, while Antiochus was battling down in Egypt, a rumor arose. I think I mentioned this quickly in passing last Sunday or last time. A rumor went about in Israel that Antiochus had been killed. He hadn’t been, but the rumor was that he had been killed down in Egypt. Well, now it’s a free-for-all in Israel, and so some of these competing priests who had bought off the priesthood from Antiochus and obtained their office through bribery and paying off Antiochus, they can fight with each other now to get back what each thinks is rightfully theirs and so on. Meanwhile, Antiochus shows back up and he sees what’s going on. He is not very happy, and there’s severe persecution that comes among the Jews at that time.

I’ll get into some of it here this morning. Keep in mind I’m going to be crunching a lot of history here through these years. Daniel’s prophecy tells us ahead of time something of the kind of tyrant and something of the brutal tyranny that he would exercise over the Jews in Israel. For instance, verse 10, this horn 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. Well, there’s some question here. What does he mean by “some of the stars” and “the prince of the host”? “He grew great to the host of heaven.” Probably a reference to Israel itself, the people of Israel, maybe the leadership in Israel, but it is at least some reference to Israel in some cryptic language here, and he grew great even to the armies of Israel. And some of them he took, and it’s like taking their greatest leaders and throwing them to the ground.

Verse 11, “it became great, even as great as the prince of the host,” or the commander of the host, the commander of the army. Probably a reference to God. He became as great as God. Well, of course not exactly, but that is how it seemed both to him and to those under his tyrannic and brutal rule. He was a godlike kind of figure except in an evil kind of sense. And it says he, in verse 11, he removed the regular sacrifices from him. The place of his sanctuary was thrown down.

That in brief tells us, again, 400 years ahead of time, of the policy that Antiochus imposed in Israel in defiance of Israel’s God and of their religion, outlawing all of the religion of Israel, making it illegal to participate in any aspect of the Jewish religion and the Mosaic law. Verse 12 repeats the notion, but it says, “he will throw truth to the ground.” Utter opposition to the law of God. In fact, he outlawed the Jewish religion.

Verse 24 tells us, “he shall cause fearful destruction.” If you have the New International Version there, it’s translated, “he shall cause astounding devastation.” Or if you have the New American Standard, “he will destroy to an extraordinary degree.” Again, you get the sense of it, whichever translation you’re working with, that this will be a brutal kind of reign in Jerusalem. And then verses 24 and 25 tell us that all of this will happen with seemingly unchecked success. “He shall cause fearful destruction and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. Notice that, he’ll destroy the people who are the saints. But 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.”

So we have here depicted in prophecy that he will come, he will be a blasphemous tyrant, he will impose persecution against the Jews, he’ll do it by lies and deceit—he was a cunning, crafty kind of a guy. He expected the Jews to worship him and he outlawed the worship of God entirely. Well, that’s a disturbing vision all by itself. If that’s all you know already, it’s disturbing and we see that on Daniel’s part at the end of the chapter. “I was overcome and lay sick for some days.” If you think of just this, even just briefly, the outlawing of the law of God, throwing truth to the ground, destroying the sanctuary—read between the lines and you see a lot of suffering going on.

Historical Fulfillment In The Maccabean Period

Now, as a matter of fact, after all of this comes to pass in the second century, we have a record of it in the books of Maccabees, 1st and 2nd Maccabees. As you know, these are not part of the canon. They are included in the Roman Catholic canon. There are plenty of good reasons not to. We don’t need to get into that. However, the books of Maccabees do provide for some very important history of this time period and historians are very much dependent on these records to give us a sense of what happened during those days.

In 1st Maccabees chapter 1, we have chronicled for us the harsh treatment of the Jews that came at this time, and it was a fulfillment of Daniel’s 6th century prophecy here in chapter 8. And what we find in 1 Maccabees chapter 1 is that Antiochus comes in, he ransacks the temple, he takes the golden altar, he takes other of the golden vessels as booty, he was boastful, he was arrogant, he carries on a murderous campaign throughout the city, giving his soldiers complete freedom, slaughtering people at will, raping at will, pillaging, taking all that they want as their own, and then returning back to Antioch, leaving Israel in a horrible state of mourning. 1st Maccabees tells us, and I’ll read a couple of sections from it for you this morning:

“Israel mourned deeply in every community. Rulers and elders groaned. Young women and young men became faint. The beauty of the women faded. Every bridegroom took up the lament. She who sat in the bridal chamber was mourning. Even the land trembled for its inhabitants and all the house of Jacob was clothed with shame.”

Later in 1 Maccabees chapter 1, we find that two years later, Antiochus sends a tax collector to enforce a tax among the people. At first he speaks peaceably with them, but then it becomes obvious what his true designs are. He deceives them, and again we have him plundering the city, burning the city with fire, destroying the city, destroying the city walls, took women and children and livestock, all at will, and murdered residents throughout the city. It was a horrible time of slaughter.

And 2 Maccabees now tells us some of the details there. It tells us: “He commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly everyone they met and to kill those who went into their houses. Then there was a massacre of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of young girls and infants within the total of three days. 80,000 were destroyed, 40,000 of them in hand-to-hand fighting, and as many were sold into slavery as were killed.”

Horrible time, unimaginable kind of brutality, enforcing pagan religion, enforcing idolatry, and then just slaughtering the people at will, determined to exterminate the religion of the Jews. Now you’ll notice in verse 13 here, one expression comes up that we find again and again and then one more time in Daniel’s prophecies. In verse 13 it says, “the transgression that makes desolate.” How long will this transgression that makes desolate continue? Now that expression or a similar expression we come across again in chapter 9 in the 70 weeks prophecy. We come across it again in chapters 11 and 12, twice in that prophecy.

Probably referring, this transgression that makes desolate, probably referring to Antiochus when he erects this statue of himself and of Zeus in the Jerusalem temple and demands worship. Also sacrificing a pig on the altar. You couldn’t have picked a worse animal for the Jews. Sacrificing a pig on the altar. 1st Maccabees chapter 1 again says, and it even reflects the same language of Daniel chapter 8, “he erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering.” Also during this time he erected pagan altars around the towns of Israel. He destroyed all the copies of the scriptures that he could. He outlawed them entirely, forbade anyone to have a copy of it, outlawed Judaism, and on pain of death, forbade anyone to have a copy of the law or to observe any of the rites or the rituals or the ceremonies of Judaism. If any of the mothers would have their sons circumcised, he would hang the sons by their mother’s neck and then kill the mothers as well. It’s just unimaginable brutality during this period that is prophesied here.

Well, as you can imagine, with persecution like that, and with that kind of unchecked violence against the people, imposing a pagan religion on the people, you can imagine that many of the Jews—Daniel actually prophesies this in chapter 11 as well—many of the Jews decided that there’s just no sense resisting the paganizing pressures. We might as well just go along and live. But 1 Maccabees 1 concludes with a statement that many were faithful. Many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the Holy Covenant. And they did die. Very great wrath came upon Israel.

All of this is given to Daniel, not in the details that we see it now, looking back after the fact, but all of this is told to Daniel in this cryptic vision in chapter 8. And so, we are not surprised when we find the question in verses 13 and 14, “How long will this continue?” And the answer comes back, “2,300 mornings and evenings.” 2,300 mornings and evenings. Now that’s just a little bit over six years. It’s six plus years, a few months. And there is some question as exactly how to interpret this. Is it 2,300 evenings and mornings, 2,300 days? Or is it 2,300 morning and evening sacrifices, in which it would be half of the number of days? 1,150 days, three and a half years roughly. Either would correspond to something we find in Daniel’s prophecy of the 70th week in Daniel chapter 7.

And so on one reading of this, you would say this is prophetic of the roughly seven years of Antiochus’ rule in Israel from 171 down to 164 BC, or it is the last three and a half years, 167 to 164 BC. But clearly the reference point to the ending of it is 164, when finally we have the success of the Maccabean Revolt, and as we find in verse 24, “the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful place.” Marvelous campaign of guerrilla warfare by the faithful in Israel fighting against their Syrian overlords. It’s an amazing chapter of Jewish history. And finally, the unimaginable happened and Israel wins and wins their freedom against Syria. And the temple is rededicated and commemorated still today each year in Judaism with the Feast of Hanukkah.

Now in verse 12, a reason is given for all of this, just briefly. “A host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression.” Evidently, this is God’s judgment on Israel. We find the expression in verse 19, this was a period of indignation and wrath. Not just the wrath of Antiochus, the wrath of God against Israel to punish Israel now for her generations of unfaithfulness. This was the covenant curse that was warned against Israel way back in Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 29 and 30. You violate the covenant, it’ll come back. And here that has come and God comes in judgment against the people of Israel.

Now, it’s important also to note, though, that God has imposed a time limit. God is still God over this, you know. 2,300 mornings and evenings, and that will be it. This will not go unchecked forever. In verse 23, “the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit,” will come to the climax of their time when they are given this free reign and God will cut them off.

What Does All Of This Have To Do With Us?

Now, I think that all of this—and I think we will find justification for this in the last section of chapter 11—I think that all of this, although historically important for its own sake in the second century BC, becomes for us a paradigm of what will happen in the future as well, when a coming Antiochus comes with rage as well. Verse 25 then tells us about the demise of Antiochus. It says, “he shall be broken, but by no human hand.” And that is not by human scheming, not by assassination, he’s not going to be killed in battle, not by human hand. God will see to it, but he’ll see to it otherwise.

Now we have a record in 1st Maccabees chapter 6 that Antiochus died in 164, shortly after this time, but it says that he died of grief after hearing of military defeats both down in what is modern-day Iran and in Jerusalem by Israel, that he was so overcome with it that he died of that. Well, I don’t know. But he dies of some kind of natural causes in 164.

So Daniel then has this troubling vision and Gabriel interprets it for him. We have the Medo-Persian Empire who will overthrow Babylon. Daniel lived to see that, we saw in chapter 5. Medo-Persia had a vastly powerful reign and over the generations of its rule marched over enormous amounts of territory. And then the male goat comes from the West, Greece, Alexander the Great, and in a mere three years, swallows up and destroys, and takes over not only all the territory of the Medo-Persian Empire, but more beyond that as well, and he becomes great.

But then he dies. The horn is broken and in its place come up these four other horns and the kingdom of Alexander the Great is divided up. And out of one of those horns, the Syrian horn, comes a particularly notable horn and that is Antiochus IV, Antiochus Epiphanes, who is the great terror of Israel. And in all of this, we have some four centuries in purview in Daniel’s prophecy, focusing on the climax and the unspeakable suffering that the Jews endured then.

Well, again, quickly, what does all of this have to do with us? The last time I pointed out, and I think it’s worth mentioning again just quickly, that it encourages us to see prophecy fulfilled so exactly. It’s an amazing thing to see a prophecy like this given, and then after the fact, after the fulfilling of it, to say this is just a marvelous thing that God could do that. Well, it’s marvelous if not—if you’re God. If God creates the heavens and the earth and rules over it all, then of course he can tell the future. But from our perspective, it’s a marvelous thing and it’s an encouragement to see prophecy fulfilled like that. And in turn, it gives us confidence in every prophecy that God has made that it will be fulfilled.

One of my favorite expressions reading through the prophets, you see it in Isaiah coming up now and then, that a prophecy will be made and then it’s sealed off with a little formula. “This will happen and this will happen, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” And “this will happen and this, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” And we’re given that kind of confidence, not only knowing who God is, but here also seeing in how some prophecies have already reached their fulfillment just as spoken.

We saw also last time that this is another reminder that God is the God who rules, that God is directing all things to serve his own purpose and all of this is in his hand accomplishing his own ends. I think a little bit more to the point here, though, with all of this brutal oppression of Israel, we’re reminded of something else and that is this alerts us to the reality of the continued opposition of evil. This alerts us to the reality of the continued opposition of evil against good and against the people of God.

In one sense, Antiochus is a notorious—the most notorious outstanding figure in Israel’s history—a brutal opponent of the people of Israel. On another level, Antiochus is not just an individual, a single instance of this, but he is just one sampling of the serpent’s opposition against the woman and against her seed. This is the story of the entire age since Genesis chapter 3. In fact, we will see Jesus picking up this prophecy in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24. And he refers to this event, this desolation, this desecrating sacrilege that comes into the temple, and refers to it as something yet future to him. It’s happened back in the second century and yet it’s going to happen, and he refers it, I think, to the events of AD 70 when Titus and the Roman armies come and sack Jerusalem then.

And I think both in turn are prospective of a final Antiochus who will come in the opposition of God’s people. We’re warned of that again and again in the writings of Paul and of John. 2 Thessalonians 2 speaks of this man of lawlessness who will come. Revelation 13 speaks of the beast out of the sea coming against the people of God and wreaking havoc. And all of that is this pattern of prophecy coming, of this opposition of evil against the people of God. And in fact, even those that we mentioned, they, in the broad sweep of things, are but high points in a broad continuing opposition of evil against the people of God.

I think we’ll take some time to see this in detail another time soon. John picks this up in an interesting way and says, in fact, there are many antichrists already among us. This is sampling in a notorious, evil, brutal, exceptionally brutal kind of way. But in another sense, this is the course of the age, the opposition of the serpent against the seed of the woman.

And then finally, all of this in its final outcome reminds us that evil will not in the end succeed. Evil in the end will not succeed. The question is asked exactly in verses 13 and 14, “How long will this continue?” And the answer comes back, in essence, “Not forever, Daniel.” These people will not always have their way. God has put a time limit on them.

If you’ve read Revelation much at all, it’s going to ring a bell with what you’ve read in Revelation chapter six, where we have the saints under the altar. Those have been martyred for their faith. Those have been persecuted because of their testimony for Christ. And they are praying in this temple of heaven, “How long, O Lord? How long, O righteous Lord, before you judge and avenge our blood?” Of course, that comes with an answer at the end of the book of Revelation with the return of Christ.

And it seems here that in Daniel chapter 8, in large purpose, this chapter is given to us to warn us of continued opposition and to assure us that in the end it will not finally win. In fact, I think there’s another echo of this in the Olivet Discourse when Jesus says, “If those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.” Continued suffering, it is the mark of the age, perhaps an outbreak of intense evil and maybe in a broadening scope at the end of the age. But yet, it won’t go forever unchecked.

And it won’t go forever unchecked, and we know that because King Jesus has already come and he’s established his rule. He’s died on behalf of sinners and he’s wrested away from Satan his rights to the kingdom. And he now rules over all. Now it’s the inaugurated aspect of the kingdom and it’s still being contested, it’s still being rebelled against, but that won’t go on forever. But at one point, finally, our Lord will return and then the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and forever.

There is a hint of all of that here, although the details are filled out for us not until the New Testament, but that this man, this Antiochus, and the coming Antiochus will be destroyed at the return of Jesus Christ. In fact, in 2 Thessalonians 2, we read it in graphic terms: “Let no one deceive you in any way for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he’s taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring it to nothing by the appearance of his coming.”

In a very real way, Jesus will return and this great opponent will be, well, to use Paul’s words, blown away. Those, he tells us in 2 Thessalonians 1, those who trouble the people of God, at that time then will themselves be troubled by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it’s worth pointing out, I think, in verse 27, Daniel’s response to all of this: “And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. And then I rose and went about the king’s business. But I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.” Two things here I think we should observe. One, Daniel was horrified. He was overwhelmed at the sight of what is to come. This is not something to take glibly, but a horrible time of suffering is coming for his people. But then also, Daniel got back to work. Daniel got up, went about the king’s business. When opposition comes, I’ll deal with it then. Until then, I’ll establish a pattern of faithfulness now to be ready in ways as we wait for the deliverer to come. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, it’s a sobering thing to see such a brutal and awful period of history. We’re grateful for those who are faithful. We pray that you will make us faithful in our own settings as well. The Lord help us to look with great anticipation each day for the climactic arrival of the kingdom of God. How we long to see our Lord Jesus come in glory and to have his kingship acknowledged before all of the world. Hasten that day we ask. In his name we pray, amen.