If The World Were Ending... Daniel 8

If you knew your house was going to burn down at the end of the week, would you vacuum and dust today?

If you knew you were going to die next Friday, what would you do today?

We’re going to look at all of Daniel 8 this morning and ponder this question. It’s one that, in a sense, confronted Daniel.

Once again, we’re going to have a vision—and so it’s going to be a little confusing and it’s going to leave us asking questions (just like Daniel had) about what all of this means.

Daniel 8 ESV

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.

We can ask another question, now as it confronted Daniel. He knows from the prophet Jeremiah, and from his own understanding with the Lord, that his people will return to the land. Things will be restored. It will be an absolutely amazing thing that happens...

And the people will be told to rebuild the temple. Start over from scratch. But do you realize what’s happening for Daniel here in this vision?

Listen to 8:24 again. Daniel 8:24

Daniel 8:24 ESV

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.

All of the rebuilding that is done…it’s going to get tore down again. Just like a child building this beautiful tower with Lego bricks and his younger sibling comes and tears it down…over and over and over again.

If you know that it’s all going to get destroyed again…do you even bother rebuilding it?

This isn’t a question confined to ancient history. We’re asking similar questions in our day.

Why would I bring a child into this chaotic and uncertain world?

Why should I budget when it’s all going to go to bills anyways?

Why would I pour so much time and energy into college students, when they’ll just leave in a year or two anyways?

Why build relationships if I know my job is going to carry me away a year from now?

There is a frustration, a cynicism, a futility, that seems to have woven its way into our collective thought. It was there before COVID, I think—but it just implanted itself into our way of thinking during that time.

If we’re being honest most of us feel pretty helpless these days. We’re frustrated because it feels like no matter what we do it bursts into flames within a moment.

Technology plays a role in this way of thinking too. I devote myself to learning a technology and by the time I’ve mastered it the thing is obsolete. My Myspace page is lit!

And this way of thinking also can make us feel defeated in our walk with Christ. I’m always a sinner, always going to be a sinner, not ever going to really get mastery over this stuff…why fight today, when I’ll be instantly sanctified later on. Is it worth the battle? Is it worth the fight?

Daniel in chapter 8 is having a similar experience, really. They are in exile. So much uncertainty. Why bother planting in Babylon if we’re going back to Jerusalem? But as we are going to see in this text…the question gets even more difficult...

Why build when it’s all broken anyways? Why make beautiful things in the world if it’s all going to be blown up anyways?

Let’s keep that question in our pocket and look at the text in Daniel 8. First we see that Daniel places this event in actual history. He tells his location and gives us a year—though, we’ve kind of lost when that year would be for sure…somewhere between 550-539BC…it’s toward the end of the Babylonian empire.

And so Daniel sees this ram that’s just tearing it up. In verse 4, he’s unstoppable. So—he’s Cooper Kupp. Or Eric Dickerson??

But then all of a sudden this male goat comes out of the west and he’s got this strange horn between his eyes…and he levels this ram…has no power against him, just tramples him down.

Then the goat rises in power…cause he’s the GOAT…but then his great horn is broken and it turns into four other horns…and out of that comes this little horn…which ends up being great! And it throws down the stars even…and in the minds of some it even rivals God....

And this little horn impacts religion in the area…takes away burnt offerings, overthrows the sanctuary…how long is this thing going to happen the angels wonder…2300 evenings and mornings....then the sanctuary restored.

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Now, we’re in verse 15…Daniel is baffled by all this. And he seeks understanding and this voice like a man, tells the angel Gabriel to explain it to Daniel…and man, we get some really explicit details. Thankful for that. He totally identifies who these people are...

The ram is Media and Persia. (That’s where he’s at right now)...

And the goat is the king of Greece…Alexander the Great? (That’s 356-323BC). So Daniel is seeing something that’s going to happen about 200 years later...

Then four kingdoms are going to arise out of this nation…which is exactly what happened when Alexander died and they divided the Greek Empire into four kingdoms.

One of these four horns was Syria…and out of that dynasty did in fact emerge one named Antiochus Epiphanes. He came to power in 175 BC…The name literally means “The Illustrious God”…Sinclair Ferguson gives us a good summary of his reign and how it intersects with Daniel here...

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 21: Daniel The Little Horn

Power hungry, Antiochus sought to expand his dominion to include Palestine. This brought him into conflict with the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. In Jerusalem he replaced the high priest with a man of his own choosing. He then invaded Egypt, and while there a rumor of his death circulated among the Jews (much to their joy). Efforts were made to reinstate the genuine high priest. Antiochus accused the people of rebellion, savagely attacked and sacked Jerusalem, and executed tens of thousands of its inhabitants—forty thousand apparently dying within the space of three days—while others were taken captive. He entered the holy of holies in the temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar of burnt offering, defiled the temple precincts, took the sacred furniture, and established a traitor, Menelaus, as high priest.

It was even worse in 168 when 20,000 soldiers were massacred as they were gathered to worship…the temple was left without activity and a statue of Zeus was placed there in its place. By 167 Jewish practices were banned.

He eventually died and their armies were overthrown by Judas Maccabeus. He fell in 164. People smarter than me have done the math on Antiochus’ reign over the Jews and it comes out at the 2300 days—6 1/3 years.

It’s pretty evident from history that all of this in Daniel 8 is talking about Antiochus Epiphanes. That was the understanding of the early church as well.

And so we come back to our question. Knowing all of this…knowing the difficulties that are coming upon them…knowing that some things that are rebuilt are going to be destroyed…knowing about all of the unrest, the destruction of Persia, then the overthrow of Persia, then the death of the goat (Alexander the Great)…and the rise of the little horn…and the horrible trouble he would cause...why bother?

Why build?

If you know your house is going to burn down, why bother vacuuming today?

C.S. Lewis confronted a similar question in 1939 when England was in the thick of World War II. He gave a lecture to a group of students and asked this question…why should you pursue learning in war-time?

What’s the point of taking a science class, or learning to read poetry, or writing paper’s, when Hitler is threatening world domination?

What Lewis did in answering this was take the question back a few steps further. He said this,

“The war creates no absolutely new situation; it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been live on the edge of a precipice.”

He noted that at every moment we creatures are either advancing toward hell or heaven. With such things bearing upon us—how could we EVER do something like read a poem, play a gave of UNO, laugh with children at VBS, or any of these things?

But we do. We always do. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s actually a retention of the image of God within us…we were created to rule and reign in the Garden…the appetite for these things…even while war and eternity rages…is an appetite placed there by God.

What he said to a group of students is that if your calling is to be a student in peace time, that calling doesn’t necessarily change in the war. You are called to be who you are regardless of the season in which you find yourself. You are who God made you to be. Whether Hitler is invading Poland, and bombs are flying overhead, or its a time of relative peace—you are still to be about King Jesus’ business. That overarching call doesn’t change.

Lewis’ answer then was exactly what we see from Daniel.

Notice Daniel’s response. Daniel 8:27

Daniel 8:27 ESV

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.

First, note that he’s devastated and he tells us this. We can connect that with last week and drink in the realism of the Bible. He doesn’t deny the suffering and difficulty. He doesn’t mute his pain or anything of the sort...

But we also see that he “went about the king’s business.” I think it’s absolutely important for us to understand this. How we answer this question will have a great impact on the kind of life that we live.

Lewis said it this way,

“There are always plenty of rivals to our work. We are always falling in love or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work.”

There, then, is a real temptation to never being faithful in doing “the King’s business” because you’re always waiting for the right moment to obedience.

Daniel didn’t have a complete grasp on the future. He just had a big picture outlook—similar to what we have. We know that Jesus wins…we just aren’t exactly sure how. The little horn is defeated…but how…it’s one thing to read about a situation, to see a vision of something even, and then to actually live in it.

That’s why Daniel get’s up, even with partial understanding, and goes about the king’s business. Again, I turn to C.S. Lewis,

“Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ‘as to the Lord.’ It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.”

I’m going to read that last sentence again. “The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.”

I think there is a real temptation in these days to sacrifice faithfulness today because of a fear of what might happen tomorrow. If the world is ending Friday, maybe if I compromise on Monday—then it will keep that from happening.

But we are called to be like Daniel here. To be faithful in every moment. To be about the king’s business. What is the King’s business?

Well we can see three big things in the gospel of John. First in John 6:29

John 6:29 ESV

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

The first part of the King’s business is to trust in Jesus. This is the good news of the gospel. That God saves sinners. We’ve made allegiance with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We’re rebels. The posture of our heart is bent away from God.

But God graciously sent His Son to change all of this. We rebel, we made shipwreck, God sent His Son—who perfectly fulfilled the law, who loved perfectly. He died as our substitute…the first order of business is to trust Jesus Christ. Have a relationship with Him. Be united to Him. That changes everything.

I’m a sinner. I need Jesus.

The second and third things are really found in one section in the gospel of John. John 13:34 & John 13:35

John 13:34 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Certainly, this isn’t a new commandment like nobody has ever heard it before. No even Romans like Marcus Arelius were teaching things like this. Love one another isn’t uniquely Christian.

But you know what is?

Just as I have loved you....

That God Himself would come to earth, would wash feet, would give his life for rebels like Peter who would betray Him--

And then to give us the Holy Spirit to actually be able to fulfill these things. He models this, he empowers this, he engergizes our hearts to actually accomplish this. What is the King’s business—to love one another just like Jesus did.

And this leads to what we see in John 13:35.

John 13:35 ESV

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is what Francis Schaeffer called the final apologetic. To love one another like love has never been seen before. It’s something the world is sorely missing. Sacrificial love. A love that’s going to put my rights, my desires, even my very life…up on the shelf…and stoop and serve and love. Just like Jesus.

That, friends, is the king’s business. If the world is ending tomorrow…what do we do today?

We trust Jesus and we love like Jesus. That is going about the King’s business.

What if this became the singular aim of every Christian everywhere?