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Preface
Today we are doing a special joint service between Clark Fork and Bonners Ferry.
So, I want to welcome all those who are watching our live-stream, but especially the Clark Fork church.
I’m sure Shanon’s special music was delightful.
If Everett and Casey are there, I’m looking to you two to keep an eye on your family for me.
The Bonners Ferry and Clark Fork churches have been tied together by sharing the same pastor for many years now.
Today we’re experimenting with a joint worship service.
Maybe sometime in the future we’ll do a joint service where I’m in Clark Fork and live-streaming back to the Bonners Ferry.
It’s been a few weeks since I shared the message taken from Daniel 7, and since Clark Fork is joining us and they haven’t heard that message, I’ll make sure to catch you all up so no one will miss out.
Introduction
The Nuremberg trials were the first and best known trials of the International Military Tribunal.
The Tribunal was organized by the Allies after World War II to deal with the worst actors in the war.
They tried 24 military and political leaders from Germany including Wilhelm Frick who co-authored the Nuremberg Laws that were enacted on September 15, 1935.
Among other things, the Nuremberg Laws established a race-based society where non Arians were not allowed to hold citizenship, marry Arians, bear children with Arians, or employ an Arian.
The laws started with the Jews, but quickly expanded to include Blacks and Gypsies.
People impacted by these laws went out of business or were fired from teaching and government jobs.
For a while they could leave the country under certain circumstances, but would be charged a 90% tax on everything they owned.
Before long the Nuremberg laws restricted their movement, and country eventually established concentration camps to house and then to kill these displaced people.
The atrocities of the German government under Adolph Hitler were crimes that demanded an answer.
A trial is meant to bring justice.
The facts must be heard.
The evidence examined.
And then a verdict must be made—guilty or innocent.
Guilt doesn’t necessarily mean death, though in the case of Germany, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt both supported a motion to just kill the top 50,000 german military officers and be done with it.
But justice demands that guilt be met with reasonable judgment, not just wholesale murder of the guilty.
And so, many the 24 german leaders that were tried in Nuremberg were sentenced to death, but some were given life-sentences in prison, and three were acquitted.
This issue of justice in earth’s history is an important focus of the prophecies of Daniel.
There’s a character that appears in both Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 that would do some really bad things.
How would justice be brought in response to the heinous actions of this little horn?
Little Horn in Daniel 7
Let’s do a quick review of the little horn of Daniel 7.
We’re told that the little horn would come during the time after the breakup of the Roman empire into ten waring tribes.
It would destroy three of the other tribes or nations of western Europe that it came up amongst (Daniel 7:8, 24)
It would speak great, haughty words — blasphemy against the Most High God (Daniel 7:8, 25; Revelation 13:5)
It would make war with and kill the people of God (Daniel 7:21)
It would make an effort to change God’s law and God’s time (Daniel 7:24)
Daniel 7:26 says that in the end, this power would be subject to judgment and its dominion would be taken away, and it will ultimately be destroyed and consumed.
The hopeful message of Daniel 7 is that judgment is coming, and the result will be favorable to God’s people.
God says,
Daniel 8 continues this look at the little horn, and adds a new element that clarifies how God will bring justice.
The vision of the Ram and Goat
There is soooo much in Daniel 8 that we won’t be able to do an exhaustive study in the time we have this morning.
Instead, we’re going to focus on the big picture—the themes—and see what God is telling us for today.
Right at the beginning Daniel places us in time, “in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar.”
This is roughly two years after the vision of Daniel 7, and shortly before the overthrow of the Babylonian empire by the Medes and Persians.
Which is probably why this dream leaves out Babylon from the historical timeline.
Daniel 8:2–4 (NKJV)
I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision that I was by the River Ulai.
Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.
I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him; nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great.
Daniel 8:20 says, “As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.”
Notice that this part of the vision parallels the medo-persian empire described as the chest of silver in Daniel 2 and the bear raised up on one side in Daniel 7. But Daniel 8 adds an important element: direction.
The Medes and Persians came from the east and conquered to the west and north and south.
This will be important as a contrast soon.
One of the more important things to grasp from Daniel 8 is the connection to the Sanctuary.
In the previous vision Daniel was shown beasts—lion, bear, leapard, etc—but in this vision we see clean animals that could have been used in the sanctuary service.
And not just any animals, but a goat and a ram, both of which would only have been used during one special ceremony each year.
We’ll come back to that later.
When you’re studying apocalyptic prophecy there are lots of clues that point to the Sanctuary.
Let’s keep reading:
Daniel 8:5–8 (NKJV)
And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power.
And I saw him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns.
There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand.
Therefore the male goat grew very great; but when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven.
This new power is also no mystery.
Daniel 8:21 says, “And the goat is the king of Greece.
And the great horn between his eyes is the first king.”
Just like with the ram, the goat adds details to the story from Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. In this vision the king, or notable horn, died and his kingdom was given to his four generals, described as four horns.
Each general took a portion of the Greek empire—one took the northern part, another the southern, another the western, and the fourth, a guy named Seleucus, took the eastern portion.
There’s an important phrase in this passage: “the four winds of heaven.”
Whenever the Bible uses that phrase its talking about direction and power.
The word “wind” in Hebrew is the same word translated as spirit, and the word itself implies force or power.
The Bible consistently uses the number four with the word wind to deal with movement and direction.
In Jeremiah 49:36 God says that he will bring the “four winds from the four quarters of heaven” on them and scatter them around the earth.
In Matthew 24:31 Jesus talks about his angels gathering His people from “the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other.”
And in Revelation 7:1 four angels are posted as guards at the four corners of the earth to hold back the four winds of the earth so that judgment isn’t brought until the sealing of God’s people.
The Little Horn
The four winds of heaven are like the four directions on a map, and are related to territorial and military expansion.
This is an important point because of what happens next:
Daniel 8:9–12 (NKJV)
And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land.
And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them.
He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.
Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground.
He did all this and prospered.
With each beast this vision has been concerned with direction.
The Persians came from the east conquering to the west.
The Greeks came from the west conquering to the east.
Keep in mind that Daniel, the writer of this vision, is a Jew.
He thinks about the world from the perspective of Jerusalem.
And not only that, but apocalyptic prophecy, and this vision in particular, is often concerned with what’s happening at the sanctuary, which had an earthly replica in the temple of Jerusalem.
So when we read about directions in this vision, think about it as east ofJerusalem, or north of Jerusalem or west of Jerusalem.
So now a horn that grew “exceedingly great” moves from the west to the south and east.
Popular interpretations for Daniel 8 point to a Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes, who ruled over the Seleucid subdivision of the Greek empire a less than 200 years before Christ.
Admittedly, Antiochus Epiphanes was a bad guy, but he doesn’t fit the fulfillment of this prophecy.
The Bible says in Daniel 8:9 “out of one of them cam a little horn.”
Everyone assumes that the “one of them” is one of the horns or divisions of the Greek empire.
But the thing is, direction is super important here, as it has been for the first two kingdoms mentioned in Daniel 8:
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