God’s Sovereign Plan | Daniel 8
Notes
Transcript
Ok I want to go ahead and dismiss the little kiddos to go up stairs with Ms. Shelby. After I preach we’ll bring our kids church kids back down to sing with us our last few songs. As they’re heading upstairs, would you go ahead and grab your Bibles and head on over to Daniel 8.
Who in here likes to invest or play in the stock market? Anyone willing to admit it? OR maybe the cattle or commodities market? I know know, some people think it’s just glorified gambling, but I disagree. I used to actively play in the stock market when I had more time on my hands. I enjoyed studying a company and listening to the news and then based off of what I learned and what the charts indicated I’d by options. It was never big money, and I had certain rules. I was always out on a trade at 50%. So if you don’t know what I’m talking about if I invested $100 then I sold that option when I either made or lost $50. This was my attempt at creating some “disposable” income—whatever that is.
But here’s the deal, if I knew with absolute certainty, beyond a shadow of a doubt how each of those trade was going to work out, do you think I would’ve still played will small amounts of money? IF I told you that a certain stock would go up 10x in the next 30 days and it was a guaranteed lock do you think you’d invest just a little or dump everything you had in it? If we knew with absolute certainty how it was going to pan out then don’t you think you’d adjust how you invested, shoot, how you lived, so that you could capture the most amount of value?
The book of Daniel shows us that. No, it can’t help you pad your portfolio, but it shows us that in the midst of a world where things seem like they’re out of control, evil wins, and the godless succeed that ultimately it is God who is sovereignly orchestrating history for his redemptive purposes. And, as I heard one pastor say this week, “if you know how it ends, then you can reverse engineer how to live now.”
As I’ve studied this text this week and thought about you I can’t help but get out of my mind how kind God is to bring us to this particular chapter on this particular day. I think this is going to have some surprising hope for us as we work through this.
Now Daniel 8 really builds on Daniel 7, so if you missed last week then I’d encourage you to go back and read Daniel 7 at some point. But this book is all interconnected, so this also has ties to Daniel 2 and especially Daniel 11. As a matter of fact, just looking ahead briefly I’ll probably tied Daniel 11 and Daniel 12 together into one sermon. But for today, we’re going to study Daniel 8 and in it what we’re called to see and do is this: Go about the King’s business trusting in His sovereign plan. That’s our main point for today and the main point of this passage.
These two chapters, Daniel 7 & 8 are really important, not just to understanding the book as a whole, but also to understanding the entirety of Scripture. One thing I saw this week said that the book of Revelation is almost entirely built off of these two chapters. Ladies that are going through our women’s Bible study on Tuesday nights I’m curious if that’s been your observation? So these two chapters really do point us forward all the way to the end of the Bible, so we’ll look pretty far ahead some this morning as well.
Daniel 8 looks forward beyond us, and obviously it looks forward beyond Daniel. In order to understand this chapter we have to have a grasp of history. So because of these things today’s sermon will have a heavier teaching perspective to it than normal I think. So I hope you brought your thinking caps and notepads, because there’ll be a test afterwards. You just thought you were on Spring Break.
I kid about the test part. But to get us started, before we read our text I want to go ahead and show you the structure of this passage, because I’m not going to read it or preach it just start to finish. There’s a little hopping around. In my sermon prep I do this every week for a passage. I do this every week on every text and I call this the exegetical outline, which is just a fancy way for saying the outline of the text so that we can understand what the text says. It gives our brains a helpful way of grasping what God is communicating. Now just so you know, this is my exegetical outline. Some scholars can identify the breakdown differently than I do. Mine’s close to a couple guys, so I don’t think I’m way off base here. So Here’s what Daniel 8 looks like:
Daniel 8:1-4 Ram Vision
Daniel 8:5-12 Goat Vision
Daniel 8:13-17 Response of Angels
Daniel 8:18-20 Ram Vision Interpreted
Daniel 8:21-26 Goat Vision Interpreted
Daniel 8:27 Response Daniel
Now with that being said, don’t worry, I’m not going to give us 6 points. I think we can boil it down to 2 points of practical application between the visions and the response. (Mark on screen)
In both these visions and their interpretation here’s what we’re called to do:
Trust God has a sovereign plan.
Trust God has a sovereign plan.
Let’s start by looking at the vision of the ram. Let’s read Daniel 8:1-4
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.
Here we are just a couple years after his dream in Daniel 7 and Daniel is transported via vision to Susa the citadel. This would eventually become the capital of the Persian Empire and in the first part of this vision he sees this ram with two horns. Now we see down in Daniel 8:20 who this ram is:
As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.
The first horn that Daniel sees come up on the ram is the Median Empire. Remember back in Daniel 6, that Daniel served Darius the Mede. Historically speaking though, the Median Empire didn’t last too long and was overtaken by the Persian Empire—the second horn that came up and surpassed the first.
These two empires continue to conquer and expand, but these two empires are important not just for their role in world history, but for the sovereign plan of God. Remember, the Israelites had been given over to the Babylonian Empire back in Daniel 1. This exile was God’s way of executing justice for the continued rebellion of God’s people, but even though they were exiled God promised to bring His people back to Israel. Guess what Cyrus the King of Persia allowed the Israelites to do? To go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple! But Daniel’s vision doesn’t just stop there. In fact, Daniel 8:20 sums up about 200 years of history and then moves on to the 2nd part of the vision. Let’s pick up and read Daniel 8:5-8
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.
Ok there’s this powerful ram that no one can stop and then all of the sudden out of nowhere comes this unicorn goat. No, this isn’t a prophecy about Lebron and MJ or Brady & Mahomes. This goat has this “conspicuous” horn. What does conspicuous mean? It was obvious. It stuck out. This horn was fast, yet at the peak of his power it was broken.
Now here’s the thing about horns in Daniel 7-8. Hopefully you’ve caught this by now but they represent power and people or kingdoms. Horns or antlers are strong, but can be easily broken. That’s whats happened to the unicorn goat. But God in his mercy reveals to us who this unicorn is. Daniel 8:21
And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king.
Do you know who the first king of Greece was? It was Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was one of the greatest leaders of all time. He and Greece quickly become a dominant kingdom. He overthrows the Medes and Persians and continues to expand his kingdom, yet at the young age of 32 guess what happens? He gets a severe fever and dies.
While his reign may have been short Alexander the Greats impact actually has lasted to today. One of the things he did as he conquered was he sought to establish his language as the primary language which was, you guessed it, Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament. Then he also set up centers for education which would influence worldviews and understanding.
So now we have God bringing his people back home and giving the known world a primary universal language & education so that people can communicate with one another. It all sounds good, but Alexander the Great dies in 323 BC. He had two sons who were both killed, so the kingdom that he had amassed was divided between his four generals—the four conspicuous horns. They were guys named Cassander who ruled over Macedon and Greece, Lysimachus over Thrace and Asia Minor, Seleucus over Syria and Babylon, and Ptolemy over Egypt.
Now out of the Seleucids came this inconspicuous horn. He has an astronomic rise to power and conquers lands toward the south, east and “the glorious land” referring to Israel. Here’s where things get strange. Let’s pick up in Daniel 8:9-12
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.
Verses 10-11 have some things that we’re just not entirely sure what they mean in them. He great great to the host of heaven and he threw down some of the host of heaven and the stars? What does Daniel mean by this? What’s clear is this, the little horn, as Joyce Baldwin says, “in reaching for the stars is claiming equality with God.” This horn stops the burnt offering and he throws truth to the ground. He obviously hated God and was against him. Who could this be? Daniel 8:22-25 continues to describe the abomination of this little horn.
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.
He has a bold face, in other words he’s arrogant. He is wise because he understand riddles. He brings destruction and destroys mighty men and people who are the saints. He’s cunning and even makes deceit prosper. Who could this be?
This little horn eventually becomes known as a man named Antiochus IV or Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes means “God Manifest” or “The Illustrious God.” He obviously is of bold face. So who is Antiochus Epiphanes?
Antiochus was the brother of Seleucus IV. His nephew was supposed to be the heir to the throne, but through bribery and flattery Antiochus stole it from him. He made notable conquests in the south, the east, and even took Israel away from the Ptolemaic rule. In order to finance his military conquest Antiochus was constantly raising funds. Jerusalem became an important part of that Menelaus, who was the highest bidder for the high priesthood, is said to have handed over temple treasures and 1800 talents.
In 169 BC Jason, who was Menelaus’ rival for the priesthood, attacked Jerusalem while Antiochus Epiphanes was out on conquest. He temporarily succeeded until Antiochus heard of the revolt, so Antiochus responded by looting the temple and carrying out a horrific blood bath in the process. (All this info comes from BST Daniel Commentary)
Antiochus then left to go and invade Egypt but when he got there a Roman general confronted him and told him that he could continue his invasion of Egypt if he wanted to face Rome. Otherwise to go home. So Antiochus returned back to Jerusalem offended and angry. What happened next is exactly what Daniel saw in his vision.
Antiochus is histories first Hitler. Antiochus “forced a paganization program, meant to corrupt and decimate every aspect of Israel’s faith and practice.” He burned the temple scrolls and outlawed them—he threw down truth. Anyone who was found with them throughout the country of Israel was punished by death. He killed the High Priest and set up an altar to Zeus in the temple on which he sacrificed a pig on the temple altar. So now in the place where God was worshipped a pagan god is worshipped with the sacrifice of unclean animals. Antiochus was the epitome of being anti-God. He saw himself as god, seen by what he called himself, and hated anything that opposed him.
But God also showed Daniel that this little horn would be broken and not by a human hand. In other words, he wouldn’t die in battle. Antiochus did indeed by the hand of God. In 2 Macc. 9:5-7 we see what happened. Now before I read this I want to make a little caveat here. The Maccabees are great history books and not great Bible books. They are included in the Catholic Apocrypha for a number of reasons, but the short answer is because the Catholic church needed to fill the intertestamental gap—the timeframe between the New and Old Testaments. So they actually do provide some helpful historic information, but they are not Holy Scriptures. Great history, poor Bible. With that being said let’s see what happened to Antiochus.
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— and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions. 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.
Ok. Incredible, right? God told Daniel exactly what was going to happen over the next several centuries, but why? Why does God reveal all of this to Daniel? What is it that God is showing Daniel and the original readers of this text and us?
I think there are several reasons. First, in apocalyptic literature God uses all sorts of strange imagery that evokes an emotion. I’ve used this illustration before, but it’s one that’s a little foreign to me. Art is not something that I truly appreciate as others do. Good art draws out emotion and that’s what God is doing in using this imagery with Daniel. He’s stirring something within him that’ll evoke a response, but what’s amazing about this passage is that it doesn’t just evoke a response from Daniel but it also evokes a response from the angels. Now we’ll look at this more in our next point.
The second reason God shows this to Daniel and us is to remind him that He is actively working in the midst of a seemingly broken and forsaken world. Even with knowing that God has foretold what would happen its difficult enough to trust that He is accomplishing his purposes. God in his mercy shows this to Daniel and the subsequent Jewish people that while everything seems to be falling apart and nothing makes any sense that He is still sovereignly moving history towards it’s climax in Christ.
Knowing then that God is going to not just allow this to happen, but also to redeem these horrors changes everything. Knowing that the barbarity of what awaits is going to do one of two things. IT’ll either cause you to flee, or enable you to endure and Rom. 5:2 tells us that endurance produces character and character produces hope. So then knowing that God is sovereignly working his plan for the redemption of the world enables us to endure with hope. While things may and do seem awful, we know that’s not the end.
The other part of this though is that God is showing he is actively in control of history. If that’s true and we know what the character of God is like—He is holy, he is just. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He is merciful and gracious. He is forgiving. He is love. He is redeems what He allows. If we know that to be his character and him to be in control of history then church, we can have faith no matter how tragic, no matter how hard, no matter how awful things get, the sovereign God has a plan and his plan is always good because he is always good. It may not feel that way or look that way, but history itself declares it.
Now you might hear all of this and go Matt that’s cool but that all happened in the past. Where is God now? I mentioned this at the beginning, but one pastor I heard this week said the book of Revelation is practically built off of this and Paul even mentions in some of his writing a lawless one who works by the activity of Satan. Antiochus is actually the first Antichrist. Both have great power, both destroy, both prosper for a brief time, both persecute the saints, both deceive, both are arrogant, both blaspheme, and both are killed by God. 2 Thess. 2:4-10 & Revelation 13 speak of what this Antichrist will be like. Things will get worse for the saints truth will be oppressed and thrown down, deception will reign, and God will be belittled, but don’t fret. Daniel 8 looks forward past 500 years to the coming of Christ to he return of Christ and preaches the same message. Trust God has a sovereign plan.
That then leads us to the second half of this passage. Trusting God doesn’t mean we just go about our day as if nothing is different. No, now we know the end—God is orchestrating history for his sovereign purposes. So now we live accordingly. How do we do that? Point 2
Go about the King’s business.
Go about the King’s business.
So God gives Daniel this vision, but it’s clear that Daniel isn’t the only one who sees the vision. Angels see it and they respond. Look with me back to Daniel 8:13-14
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.”
How long is the question they ask. Then Daniel seeks to understand it and God in his kindness sends the angel Gabriel to explain it to him. Let’s pick up In Daniel 8:15-17
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.”
Gabriel then interprets the vision for Daniel reassuring him that this will not be something he sees or experiences, but it is “for the time of the end.” Then look at how Daniel responds to what he’s seen and heard. Daniel 8:27
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.
So how do we go about the King’s business? If one of the purposes of these visions is to evoke a response, how do the angels and how does Daniel respond to it? There’s 3 things ways that we see them respond. First, they grieve the brokenness of the world. The angels back in verses 13-14 see what Daniel sees and ask, how long? How long with the worship of God cease? How long will the suppression of truth happen? How long will the oppression of the saints occur? How long will God’s name be blasphemed? The question echoes the psalter in which we see different psalmists ask the same question. They want to know how long will they have to endure the sufferings, the death, the brokenness of the world.
Daniel doesn’t ask how long, he just is overwhelmed and lays sick for days. He’s appalled by what he sees. The brokenness of the world causes him to literally be sick to his stomach. The opposition of His God keeps him in bed because of how ghastly this is. The brokenness of this world and the disdain of the Most High God causes Daniel and the angels to grieve. Church, I wonder what our disposition towards the brokenness of this world is? We grieve death. Our hearts break for the loss of loved ones. But death and the other injustices of this world, the oppression and blaspheming of God is all because of sin. When sin entered the world so did death, so did brokenness.
I want to be really, really, really clear here—unexpected death of people is not a result of their sin, but it is evidence of the brokenness in our world that does exist because of sin. It reminds us that things aren’t how they are supposed to be. Because that’s true our hearts should cry out how long? How long Lord will you tarry? How long will you let sin reign? And our actions should say that we hate sin. We don’t want to have anything to do with it because it brings death. Death to relationship. Death to families. Death to holiness. Death to peace. We go about the King’s business by first grieving the brokenness of this world.
Second, while the world is broken, God tells the angels and Daniel that this won’t last forever. 2300 evenings and mornings and then the sanctuary shall be restored. What does 2300 mean? There’s a couple different views. First, some see morning and evening and recall Genesis 1 were God creates and there was morning and evening day 1. So they see it as a literal 2300 days. If you do the math that’s a little over 6 years. Onias III was the high priest that Antiochus Epiphanes murdered in the year 171/170 BC. Approximately 6-7 years later in 164 BC the temple was rededicated. So it very well could be a literal six years.
Others see evening and morning and recall that the temple sacrifice was offered in the evening and morning. So then it would be a total of 2300 sacrifices—in other words, take 2300 and divide it by 2. 1150 days or approximately 3 years.
In December 167 BC Antiochus Epiphanes set up the altar to Zeus and sacrificed the pig in the temple. In December 164 Judas Maccabeus rededicated the temple—approximately 3 years later.
Some see 2300 to be an indefinite period of time until the ultimate temple is restored. This is apocalyptic literature and it’s not literal—there wasn’t an actual unicorn goat, so since the imagery isn’t literal neither should the numbers be.
What’s the right answer? I don’t know. At this point in history it seems likely that one of the first two is pretty dang accurate. But the point of all of it is this: this brokenness won’t last forever. The Son of Man will return riding on the clouds and Revelation shows us that when he does He will make all things new. So, we go about the King’s business grieving the brokenness of this world, remembering that it won’t last forever, but Daniel doesn’t just throw up his hands and go, I don’t get it. This doesn’t make sense. I’m out. Daniel presses in.
Church the third way we go about the King’s business is by pressing into His Word even when it’s hard and doesn’t seem to make sense. Daniel sought to understand these strange things and what does God do? In his kindness he sends Gabriel. Little linguistic nerdiness for you here. These little horns in this chapter are described as great—which is the Hebrew word gabar. God sends one named gabar’iel—Gabriel. Great one of God. Can you imagine if all the sudden you had the great angel Gabriel standing beside you to help you understand God’s word? Like how helpful! Any Bible question you got you can just turn and go, Gabriel, what in the world is Paul talking about here? Why is this written like that? Wouldn’t that be cool!?
Church we have something much greater. Jesus promised to send the paraclete—the one who comes alongside—when he ascended to heaven. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit from the Father to us to help us! John 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The Scriptures can be hard to understand—look even after Gabriel explained this to Daniel he “did not understand it”—but that doesn’t mean we give up. It doesn’t mean that they’re any less true. It means that we press in to the Scriptures and with the Holy Spirit’s help we can understand. So let me ask you this, do you read the Scriptures? Do you have a daily Bible reading plan? We say we love Jesus and he is our hope, but we disregard his word by only looking at it on Sunday. If you’re not used to studying this book I know that it can be difficult, but I want to encourage that when you take time to meditate on it not only does the Spirit help, but more importantly, you get know him. So press into His Word.
Finally, the last way we go about the King’s business is to live in faithful obedience. Daniel, once he regained his strength, got up and went to work. He didn’t wallow in uncertainty. He knew that God was sovereignly working history for His redemptive purposes and even though it was terrifying at some points, He could see God was still in control. So Daniel got up and sought the good of the king he lived under. This vision occurs before Daniel 6 so Daniel has yet to be thrown in the lion’s den. He lived faithfully by praying and trusting the Lord. He lived faithfully by doing his job really well. Better than everyone else. He sought the flourishing of his king and the kingdom that he was exiled to all because he trusted in God’s sovereign plan.
You see, the good news of Daniel 8, really the good news of the entire Scriptures is that God saw the brokenness of this world and didn’t reject it. He saw his crown jewel of his creation—you and me, humanity—reject it’s creator. Yet he didn’t forsake us. He would’ve been right to leave us to our own devices and things to work themselves to their natural conclusion. Yet, at just the right time, he came redeem us. Sin was the problem and he came to pay the price for it. He moved history towards it’s climax in Jesus—the God-man who would live a perfect life, fully in surrender to the Father, and then his own people crucified him. He was rejected and despised, so that we didn’t have to be. And now through faith in his atoning sacrifice our sin can be dealt with. We’re given the Holy Spirit who enables and empowers us to walk by faith, seeing the brokenness around us and rejoicing in the hope of that awaits us. Sin has been paid for, and the day is coming when it will be dealt with. The Son of Man came as a redeemer, now history is moving towards its conclusion when the Son of Man comes as a judge. How will you stand before him? Will you argue your way in saying that all you’ve done is enough? Or will you fall on your face, like Daniel who had just heard the word and seen an angel, and say, thank you Jesus for the blood that covers me? In his kindness God has given you today to respond. Will you go about your business living for you? Or will you maximize the value of your life knowing the end is certain and go about the King’s business trusting in His sovereign plan?
