Daniel 21: The Second Vision, Part 3

Good morning, and welcome to Family Worship with the church body of Eastern Hills to those of you in the room and to those of you online. I’d like to take a second and say thanks to those who serve on our Safety & Security Ministry. They are the first faces people meet when they arrive on campus on Sundays, and they are prepared if there is some emergency that happens either in the building or outside. We appreciate those of you who serve on this important ministry!

If you’re visiting with us today, we would like to know that you’re here this morning, and so we’d ask you to take a moment during service and fill out a welcome card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. We want to be able to thank you for your visit, and find out if you have any questions or if you need any prayer. You can get the card back to us in one of two ways: you can drop it in the offering boxes by the doors as you leave at the close of service; or better yet, you can bring it down to me when service is over, because I would love to meet you and give you a small gift to say thanks for your visit this morning. If you’re joining us online today, we’d also like to be able to thank you for choosing to spend time with Eastern Hills. You can let us know about your visit by going to the “I’m New” page on our website and filling out the communication card at the bottom.

I just have one thing to mention before we get into our study this morning.

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Opening

We’re in our final week of considering the second and final prophetic vision that Daniel received from the Lord while the Babylonian empire still stood. We’ve seen the meaning of the ram and the goat, and where we left off last week, the great horn of the goat that had destroyed the ram had broken off, and four horns took its place, rising from that nation, but without its power. The goat represented the Greek empire, and its great horn stood for Alexander the Great, and through his leadership, the Greeks defeated the Medo-Persian empire a mere five years after Alexander ascended to the throne at the age of only 20. However, Alexander died suddenly in 323 BC at the age of 32, and following much dispute and conflict, it wasn’t until 305 BC that the Greek empire settled into a grouping of four dynasties: the Ptolemaic, the Lysimachian, the Antipatrid, and the Seleucid. And while they together ruled the area that the Greek empire held, none of these dynasties was a strong as they had been when they were under one banner with Alexander.

Last week, we saw that God doesn’t always work in the way that expect, and He doesn’t always work in the timing that we expect, but that He is always at work. For this week, we will again consider the vision, the interpretation, and the history that we have the blessing of looking back on, but which Daniel was looking forward into, and thus was unable to know the specifics that we now do.

So please open your Bibles or your Bible apps to Daniel chapter 8, and please stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God as we read our focal passages, verses 9-14 and verses 23-27:

Daniel 8:9–14 CSB

9 From one of them a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. 10 It grew as high as the heavenly army, made some of the army and some of the stars fall to the earth, and trampled them. 11 It acted arrogantly even against the Prince of the heavenly army; it revoked his regular sacrifice and overthrew the place of his sanctuary. 12 In the rebellion, the army was given up, together with the regular sacrifice. The horn threw truth to the ground and was successful in what it did. 13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the speaker, “How long will the events of this vision last—the regular sacrifice, the rebellion that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and of the army to be trampled?” 14 He said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be restored.”

Daniel 8:23–27 CSB

23 Near the end of their kingdoms, when the rebels have reached the full measure of their sin, a ruthless king, skilled in intrigue, will come to the throne. 24 His power will be great, but it will not be his own. He will cause outrageous destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the powerful along with the holy people. 25 He will cause deceit to prosper through his cunning and by his influence, and in his own mind he will exalt himself. He will destroy many in a time of peace; he will even stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be broken—not by human hands. 26 The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true. Now you are to seal up the vision because it refers to many days in the future.” 27 I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was greatly disturbed by the vision and could not understand it.

PRAYER (Worship 4 Life Camp this week)

We have arrived at the culmination of Daniel’s second vision. You remember that in our first message on this chapter, we looked at verses 17 through 19:

Daniel 8:17–19 CSB

17 So he approached where I was standing; when he came near, I was terrified and fell facedown. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision refers to the time of the end.” 18 While he was speaking to me, I fell into a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me, made me stand up, 19 and said, “I am here to tell you what will happen at the conclusion of the time of wrath, because it refers to the appointed time of the end.

I chose for us to consider this passage at the first because it helped us set the context for what Daniel was seeing, and also our context for interpreting this vision. It is largely because of the phrase “time of the end” that people struggle interpreting Daniel’s second vision. The reason for this is that we have a tendency to decide what a phrase means the moment that we hear it because of our New Testament “filter” that we use to interpret the Bible. To say that something refers to “the time of the end” immediately calls to our minds the book of Revelation and the end of the world recorded there.

And while it is possible that this vision refers to both a near fulfillment which would speak to the Hebrew people of Daniel’s day, as well as provides a framework for a distant fulfillment at the true end of time as we know it, I think it is wiser for us to keep the chronological context in the ancient past this morning, even as we see shadows of what is to come.

The Hebrew people of Daniel’s day were facing punishment for their apostasy, their turning away from following the Lord God. This time of punishment began with their first defeat by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, at which point he took Daniel and other teenage Hebrew boys into captivity.

And what we saw last week showed us that the relief from their punishment was still a long way off. It would not end with the fall of Babylon. It would also not end with the fall of the Persian Empire, or even the fall of the Greek Empire’s greatest king, Alexander.

In our focal passage today, we learn that eventually from the four kingdoms that came to be after the death of Alexander (represented by four horns in the vision), another horn, again a little horn (chapter 7) would rise from the one of the kingdoms:

Daniel 8:9–12 CSB

The terminology that we see in this passage lends itself to our interpreting this as an end times prophecy. The imagery of the horn growing as high as the heavenly army, or making some of the stars fall to the earth, makes us susceptible to overlooking what this prophecy meant for God’s people at the time. This was, ultimately, a message of hope—there would come a day when their punishment would be completed—but not until they had faced some terrible difficulties because of their sin… the “time of wrath” mentioned in verse 19.

This horn referenced in the passage would start small, but would grow to the south and east, including the “beautiful land,” a reference to Israel.

Ezekiel 20:6 CSB

6 On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

Commentators disagree a little on what it means that the little horn would grow as high as the heavenly army, but given the context and what we know from history, along with what it says in verse 24, we can make an educated guess that the heavenly army were the powerful in Israel, and the stars were the holy ones—the Hebrew “saints,” if you will.

So this one would be able to trample the powerful and the holy, and even act arrogantly against God himself: the “Prince” of the heavenly army, a word which can also mean commander. We know this is referring to God Himself because the little horn revoked the Prince’s regular sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary as an act of rebellion. The little horn would throw truth to the ground, successful in putting a stop to Hebrew worship of God, at least for a time.

The interpretation that Gabriel provided to Daniel helps us extensively in determining whether this prophecy has come to pass. Notice what he says:

Daniel 8:23–25 CSB

We see here that this little horn figure will arise near the end of the Greek Empire. Greece was finally conquered by Rome in 146 BC, over 400 years after this prophecy was given to Daniel. We should interpret the rebels to be Jews who live in violation of their law, and the time of wrath through the little horn must come at that point. So the little horn will be “ruthless,” and, “skilled in intrigue.” He will have great power that is not his own, and will cause great harm to the people of Israel, causing deceit to prosper by his own example, which in his mind is on par with God’s. He will stand against the Commander of commanders, God Himself.

There is one figure in Greek history who fits this description. In the year 175 BC, a ruler by the name of Antiochus the fourth arose from the Seleucid dynasty. Antiochus wasn’t even next in line for the throne. His older brother’s son was. But through bribes and flattery, he managed to usurp control of the dynasty. He started small, but grew in power.

As a result of ascending to the throne, he had near absolute power over Israel at the time. He referred to himself as Theos Antiochus Epiphanes, or Antiochus, the manifest god. His goal for his part of the Empire was absolute Hellenization of the people, or their death. Those who would not comply with his changes were simply killed.

In 169 BC, Antiochus forced the installation of a puppet high priest who would support his reformations in Israel. He then accused the Jews in Jerusalem of rebellion, and over the next three days as many as 40,000 were killed, with many more taken captive. Not only that, but he entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple, sacrificed a pig—an unclean animal—on the altar of burnt offering, and removed all of the sacred furnishings.

After an attempt to annex Egypt for himself in 167 BC was frustrated, Antiochus took his anger out on the Jews in Israel. 20,000 of his soldiers massacred Jewish men on the Sabbath and vandalized the temple. Thereafter, outward Jewish religious practice was declared illegal, as were circumcision, Sabbath observances, and feast days. He declared that the eating of unclean meat was required in his lands, and set up a statue of Zeus inside the temple itself, desecrating it and bringing a stop to all daily sacrifices. He stood against everything that God had instructed the Hebrews, and sought to do away with Judaism altogether. He wanted the only true faith—the worship of Yahweh—to be destroyed.

So now that we’ve covered most of the historical connection of this passage, you might be asking yourself, “So what? What does this stuff that happened over 2,200 years ago have to do with me?” Well, we can learn from it if we will listen, because even though Antiochus was not THE antichrist, he was certainly AN antichrist, or even a type of the antichrist, considering what John wrote in his first epistle:

1 John 2:18 CSB

18 Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour.

Since this is the case, we can see a pattern regarding the evil that we face in the world. Full disclosure: much of my outline comes from Sinclair Ferguson’s commentary on Daniel. As I read it, I was moved to worship, and so I wanted to share those things with you as well.

1: Evil always opposes the work & people of God.

In verses 11 and 12, we see three ways that the little horn would oppose the people of God and their worship of God: he would revoke regular sacrifice to the Lord, overthrow the Lord’s sanctuary, and throw truth to the ground. And while these three things were prophesied here regarding Antiochus IV, these are also three areas of our spiritual lives that Satan would like to exploit our weakness in.

First, the area of sacrifice. For the Jews, the area of sacrifice was a part of the daily discipline of observing the Mosaic covenant. The constant need for sacrifice illustrated their unworthiness before God, the price that had to be paid for their sin, and their willingness to walk in obedience to God’s commands. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Antiochus would want to eradicate such practices in order to elevate himself to the status of God. If he was going to oppose God, he was going to have to oppose God’s people as they worshiped Him.

While for the Christian this system of sacrificing animals is no longer necessary for our holiness, the idea of sacrifice is still central to our relationship with God. It is through Christ’s perfect sacrifice that the old sacrificial system was completed, and it is only through His blood that we have forgiveness of our sins and the opportunity to enter into full fellowship with God. If we lose sight of that fact, we will find ourselves trapped in guilt, struggling to find hope, or trying to earn or somehow deserve our salvation.

We also need to remember that the idea of sacrifice continues to be a principle that is important for guiding our lives every day. We no longer have to perform sacrifices in order to wash away our sin, but our lifestyles should be what the author of Hebrews called a “sacrifice of praise:”

Hebrews 13:15 CSB

15 Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

In fact, and a very real way, our whole lives are called to be lives of sacrifice as we take up our cross and follow Jesus:

Matthew 16:24–25 CSB

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.

And Paul called us to offer our bodies as a “living sacrifice” as our true worship to the Lord:

Romans 12:1 CSB

1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

Certainly this is something that Satan does not want. If we were to live our lives wholly sacrificed to the Lord, it would change how we prioritize our relationships with God and others, how we spend our time and money, how we deal with temptation and sin, how we share the gospel, how we talk, how we act, how we vote, how we parent—it would impact every aspect of our lives. In fact, it should impact every aspect of our lives. If Satan cannot condemn us to hell, then the best that he can do is to get us to take our eyes off of the cross as our model of what it means to be a living sacrifice, what it means to give our lives for the glory of God, so that we would be weak, ineffective, uncaring, unsharing Christians.

The second part — the overthrow of the Lord’s sanctuary — is related to the idea of us living our lives as a sacrifice to God. This is because the temple of the living God is no longer a building constructed by the hands of men. That is the temple that Antiochus wanted to overthrow. But Satan would seek to overthrow the church of Christ, the living fellowship of God’s holy people, because we are God’s temple, God’s building, as Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 CSB

16 Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.

Sinclair Ferguson said it this way (not on screen):

“At times [Satan attempts to destroy the church] by means of persecution; at other times his devices are more subtle. He may try to introduce false teaching in the pulpit, lethargic worship in the pew, or simply discord and dissension in the fellowship. How easily Satan is able to blind many Christians to the necessity of maintaining the peace and unity of the local Christian fellowship. Sometimes he appears as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). Under the guise of a right principle, someone will cause disharmony in the church. Their concern will be stated as “truth” or “righteousness,” but despite appearances the real motivation will be “self.” This dissension will be rooted in pride, or lust for power and personal influence, or refusal to submit to the principles of Scripture. The peace of Christ will not be allowed to rule despite the biblical prescription (Col 3:15).”

—Sinclair Ferguson, The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 21: Daniel

Finally, Antiochus sought to throw truth to the ground. He went out of his way to force the Jews to declare that what was evil was good, and what was good, evil.

Isaiah 5:20 CSB

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Satan would love for the church to fall into doctrinal error, and so we must be on our guard against false teachings that would threaten the fellowship of the church and our biblical fidelity. Paul warned the elders of the church of Ephesus that “savage wolves” would come in among them after his departure, so they were to “be on the alert.” (Acts 20:28–31)

So church, we must know the Scriptures so that we can both refute error and know the truth. We must stand on the Scriptures so that we will not be unstable. And because evil will always oppose the work and people of God, we must cling to the instruction that Paul gave near the end of 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 CSB

13 Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. 14 Do everything in love.

Fortunately for us, there is a truth that is generally true about evil: It tends to overstep itself, which is our second point:

2: Evil has a tendency to overstep itself.

Have any of you ever played the board game Risk? Likely you know what I’m talking about, even if you haven’t played the game, because Risk has been around for over 60 years. It’s the game of global domination: each player starts with a set number of armies and countries, attacking and defending by the rolling of dice, each attempting to wipe out the others and to take over the world. The problem with Risk when you first learn to play it is that it’s so easy to want to do every possible attack that you can do on every turn. However, doing so will stretch your forces too thin: if all you have on every country is a single, solitary army, you’re a sitting duck. The key to victory in Risk is to make sure that you do just enough each turn to get a card while your work toward controlling a continent, so that you can grow your forces more quickly and amass enough to both conquer and defend another continent. If that didn’t make any sense to you, sorry.

We’ve already seen this fact of evil’s tendency to overstep multiple times in the book of Daniel: Nebuchadnezzar’s vision in chapter 4. Belshazzar’s revelry in the face of his defeat in chapter 5. The wise men who attempted to kill Daniel in chapter 6. The little horn that spoke arrogantly in Daniel’s first vision in chapter 7. Daniel’s vision here in chapter 8 reflects that same truth.

Verse 23 speaks of the fact that Antiochus’s rule would begin “when the rebels have reached the full measure of their sin.” There comes a time when God’s patience with our iniquity is over, and his judgment must fall. Israel sinned, and was taken into captivity in Babylon. Babylon was ungodly, and so the combined Medes and Persians conquered them. The Medo-Persian Empire was also ungodly, and they were overthrown by Greece. “The kingdom that is built on principles that are contrary to the kingdom of God will always be toppled by another similar kingdom.” (Sinclair Ferguson, Daniel) (If this is true, what does that say for America?)

History tells us that Antiochus IV overstepped himself as well. His treatment of the Jews was so harsh that his tax revenue went down. Antiochus was forced to travel to Persia to attempt to secure additional funds to pay his soldiers and grease the political skids through bribes. Not only that, but a band of Hebrew warriors led by Judas Maccabeus rose up in revolt against Antiochus’s policies in 166 BC. The Maccabean revolt was extremely successful, defeating Antiochus’s armies in his absence, and purifying the temple in 164 BC.

But the most incredible overstepping of evil in the Scriptures occurred not in the Old Testament, but in the New. At the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, Satan must have felt that evil had been victorious. The hour of the dominion of darkness had come:

Luke 22:53 CSB

53 Every day while I was with you in the temple, you never laid a hand on me. But this is your hour—and the dominion of darkness.”

Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, was hung on the cross, taking the punishment that we deserve for our sin on Himself. Through the death which presumed to destroy Christ, evil snatched defeat from what it believed was the jaws of victory! For though Jesus died, through His death He was able to “destroy the one holding the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who are held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15) Through Jesus’s death, He destroyed the power of sin. And through His resurrection, Jesus destroyed the sting of death! The devil is already defeated. He’s fighting a losing war.

And if we believe the Gospel — that Jesus took our place in the death that we deserve because of our sin, that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures — and if we trust in that sacrifice to save us, and surrender to Jesus as Lord then we will be saved, forgiven our sins, and guaranteed eternal life with God. Believe the Gospel this morning right where you are, trusting in Jesus for your salvation. There’s no better time!

But we don’t tend to look at our own sin in this light—as something that deserves death. We don’t see sin as it is: as a transgression, our own overstepping of the boundaries that God has lovingly set up for us. Instead, we try to figure out how much we can get away with without facing real punishment. But that’s never a wise approach. When we’re focused on the line, we’re not focused on God. Not only that, but we also tend to have a wrong perspective on other people’s blessing or punishment.

Sometimes, it seems that the wicked prosper. We’re not the only people to have that struggle. The psalmist Asaph did as well. He “nearly went astray,” because he “envied the arrogant.” (Ps. 73:3) He went on for several verses about how easy the wicked had it, and felt hopeless. But notice what happened in his heart and mind as he considered this truth:

Psalm 73:16–18 CSB

16 When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless 17 until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny. 18 Indeed, you put them in slippery places; you make them fall into ruin.

This brings us to our last point: God is going to call all evil to account.

3: God will call all evil to account.

You might want to argue with me on this point, because from our perspective, sometimes the wicked really do prosper. Sometimes, they get away with things that they should be punished for. Sometimes, the government actually protects things that it should never protect, such as abortion. What about those times? How is God calling that evil to account? How can I say that this is true from this passage?

In verses 13 and 14, we see:

Daniel 8:13–14 CSB

13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the speaker, “How long will the events of this vision last—the regular sacrifice, the rebellion that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and of the army to be trampled?” 14 He said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be restored.”

Daniel is allowed to hear the discussion between two angels, which was certainly for Daniel’s benefit, given that the second angel answers the question directly to Daniel. The meaning of the 2,300 mornings and evenings has two reasonable interpretations, depending on how you count them, when you say the 2,300 mornings and evenings begin, and what the ending is supposed to be.

Before we do that, we must make note of one more date. In late 164 BC, two important things happened. We already saw that the Maccabean revolt restored temple worship, which probably took place in November of that year. The Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah in remembrance of the restoration of temple worship. But shortly thereafter, as he was returning to Israel to attempt to regain control, Antiochus IV Epiphanes died suddenly. This is actually recorded in the apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees (note: I’m not saying this is Scripture. I’m using it for history):

2 Maccabees 9:5-7 (NRSV)

5 But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with an incurable and invisible blow. As soon as he stopped speaking he was seized with a pain in his bowels, for which there was no relief, and with sharp internal tortures— 6 and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions. 7 Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to drive even faster. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body.

2 Maccabees 9:28 (NRSV)

28 So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured the more intense suffering, such as he had inflicted on others, came to the end of his life by a most pitiable fate, among the mountains in a strange land.

Remember what our focal passage today said at the end of verse 25:

Daniel 8:25d (CSB)

25d Yet he will be broken—not by human hands.

So what are the two ways to reconcile the 2,300 mornings and evenings? First (and I’d say slightly more likely), if we were to assume that the combination of “morning and evening” refers to one day (such as in Genesis), then 2,300 days by the Hebrew calendar is not quite 6 ½ years. The beginning of Antiochus’s persecution of the Jews didn’t start immediately upon his ascension to the throne of the Seleucid dynasty in 175 BC. It started when he began his machinations to force Hellenization upon them, which was at some point in 170 BC. The restoration of the temple or the death of Antiochus could come as the ending point of this time frame, since we don’t have exact dates for those events, just years.

The other option is to see that the 2,300 mornings and evenings are referring to the morning and evening sacrifices at the temple, so each morning and each evening would count toward the total of 2,300, which would make the total amount of time a little over 3 years. Remember that Antiochus set up the statue of Zeus in the temple in 167 BC, which was the “rebellion that makes desolate” from verse 14. It was about three years from then that the temple was purified and temple practice restored under Judas Maccabeus in 164, and to Antiochus’s death.

The fact is that God called Antiochus’s evil to account. And ultimately, He will call all evil to account. Even those who seem to prosper in this life through their wickedness will stand before the great White throne of judgment.

Revelation 20:11–12 CSB

11 Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.

We may not get to see the accounting done in this life. But we can trust that our God knows the truth of every situation, that He is capable of using even the ungodly for His purposes in judgment, and that He will ultimately set everything right in his way and in his time.

Closing

One closing thought: Remember that I said that the purpose of this vision was to give the Hebrew people hope. But this hope was sorely delayed. 440 years would pass between the taking of the first captives by Nebuchadnezzar and the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This is why Daniel was told to “seal up the vision,” in verse 26:

Daniel 8:26b (CSB)

26b Now you are to seal up the vision because it refers to many days in the future.”

We usually think that this means that Daniel was to “hide” the vision, and that might be true as far as the King Belshazzar, and later King Darius were concerned. But he was also to preserve the vision for the Hebrew people of the future, because they would need to know how to interpret the signs, so that they could cling to hope.

What hope are you clinging to this morning? Is it hope in Christ, which you can confidently cling to because you know it is only through Jesus that we are saved? Or are you hoping in something else to get you through not only life, but eternity as well?

Salvation

Baptism

Church Membership

Prayer

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Catch up day on the narrative part, Reading Psalm 2 today… starting 1 Kings on Tuesday)

Pastor’s Study tonight

Prayer Meeting this week

Choir is NOT back on the 17th (as the Informer calendar showed). It’s back on the 24th.

Pray for the Claude & Eliza West and kids (Noah, Grace, and Eden) as they return this week to the work they’ve been called to. They would like for us to pray for them as serve, so they have some prayer cards out on the Get Connected table, and you can also sign up to receive their email updates.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

2 Corinthians 5:7–10 CSB

7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

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