God Wins

HBI - God’s People will be hated and persecuted, times are going to get hard in the spiritual war but it is all temporary. In the end God wins and His children will have new life.

Intro

We continue on with the theme that in spirit of present appearances our God is in control. In the end The end has been written, he wins. There is hope for faithfulness in the midst of a fallen and hostile world. One of the things that we tend to fall into the habit of doing is to try and figure when Exactly when Jesus is coming back again. these are the promises that we arre going through after all, Times are going to be hard, but do not fear for Jesus is coming back again. I find it kind of amusing that people try and predict the day Jesus is coming back when for centuries people have been saying “it is soon, The messiah is coming soon.” When Jesus Himself said that none knows the day or the hour when This is going to happen.

Terry Muck tells of the time when he debated Harold Camping of Family Radio. Harold Camping had been teaching the bible faithfully every night for 30 years and had built up a faithful following. He offered Biblical teaching on may important theological and practical issues. He tended to be a little dogmatic on certain issues and was an advocate for reformed theology. Thus when he published a book in the 90’s claiming to be able to unseal the apocalyptic teaching about the time of the return of Christ, it generated great furor in churches not used to such speculation. He came to the conclusion through His studies that Jesus was going to return again in Sept 1994. This was starting to have a dramatic effect on people lives. Some people where even persuaded that what Harold published was truth and they made some changes in their lives. One person Terry knows maxed out all his credit cards thinking that it didn't matter because Jesus is coming back in a month and he wont have to pay his bills anyways. Another man was having marital problems and his wife took the kids and left him. Terry asked the man if he had made any efforts to talk to his wife and he responded with, “it doesn't matter, Jesus is coming back in a month and all my problems will dissapear.

These are just a few examples of people that believed Harold and made bad life choices only to have to face the consequences. Many people have tried to interpret the dates and times that we see in Eschatology, they have tried to figure out the kings and kingdoms but in the end the end, as important as that might be the main point hat we need to know is a bit of a broader stroke. what we are going to go through today is - God’s People will be hated and persecuted, times are going to get hard in the spiritual war but it is all temporary. In the end God wins and His children will have new life.

Do we know when Jesus is coming back? no we do not. What do we do with the fact that persecution is coming our way? how does this affect the way we share the gospel? How can we stand firm and be faithful in the midst of all this?

the ram - 8:1-4

A few things to point out. This is where the book of Daniel goes from Aramaic back to Hebrew. There are many theories as to why it is this way but we just do not know. The second is that the two beasts we read about here are the final two beasts of Daniel 7. So the themes we see in 7 are repeated here as well. A third thing to point out, is that this next vision happened 2 years later.

Daniel 8:1–2 (CSB) 1 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me earlier. 2 I saw the vision, and as I watched, I was in the fortress city of Susa, in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision that I was beside the Ulai Canal.

the location that Daniel is in has even been up for debate. It says that Daniel received this vision along a canal near a Persian city called Susa. Again not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Some people say He was there on a diplomatic mission, which is entirely probable. Others say He was in the capitol city and was transported there in His vision. I would tend to agree with the latter based on the wording.

The ram that He saw had 2 horns, the long one came up last of all. There is significance behind the imagery of the horn. It is not random chance that God chose that is the imagery in end times Prophecy. What the horn represents is Pride and honor and power, whether that be Godly or ungodly. This is why the use of the horn here, it is in reference to Kings and kingdoms. Powerful people who would be full of pride but against the Lord God.

it charged to the west, the north and the south with such power that no one could stand against it. Daniel 8:4 “4 I saw the ram charging to the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stand against him, and there was no rescue from his power. He did whatever he wanted and became great.”

the goat

next we have the imagery of a goat. It comes with such great and surprising speed that it comes without ever touching the ground. It has one massive horn between it’s eyes, think Unicorn.

Daniel 8:5 (CSB) 5 As I was observing, a male goat appeared, coming from the west across the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground. The goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.

The ram was very powerful, so powerful no one could stand against but the goat came with such speed and fury the ram was cast down . Such arrogance came from the goat and He became powerful, but it did not last. The large horn was broken and replace with 4 different horns. One of the 4 new horns grows a smaller horn that is slow to form. but it grew high, as high as the heavenly armies.

Daniel 8:11 (CSB)11 It acted arrogantly even against the Prince of the heavenly army; it revoked his regular sacrifice and overthrew the place of his sanctuary.

It has some measure of success against the heavenly army and blasphemes the temple of God and does damage to the people of God for a while. How long must this last though?

Daniel 8:14 (CSB) 14 He said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be restored.”

There is much debate over what the meaning is behind theses numbers. it could mean 2300 days which would be around 6 years. The context of the passage speaks of sacrifices being suspended by this Antichrist. Sacrifices that where offered in the morning and the evening. So following that context it could mean 1150 morning sacrifices and 1150 evening sacrifices totaling 2300. Either definition works for what this means. but when the time has ended the temple will be reconsecrated. Whether it is 3 or 6 years the point is, it is going to be temporary.

the meaning

Now we go to the meaning of the passage. There is a lot of information here. Again the vision terrified Daniel. This vision is in reference to the end times it says. Daniel 8:19

Daniel 8:19 (CSB) 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.

The Ram represents the Medo Persion empire and the Goat the king of Greece. there will be 4 kingdoms that arise out of that empire but without it’s strength.

The final two beasts of chapter 7 are seen here pictured by a ram and a goat. The ram symbolizing the medo persian empire. The Persian empire was more powerful (the bigger horn) and soon swallowed the mede empire. and the goat the Greek empire, mainly Alexander the Great. His dominion over the Persian empire was unprecedented but He died suddenly and His empire was divided up amongst his four generals.

So far this is all a matter of history and has been recorded to have happened already. God’s side is going to take some blows during this time. It was not a good time for them. But then this says it is in reference to the time of the end so How can that be? How this next part is fulfilled, maybe even all of it is a matter of history. One thing we need to realize is that throughout the prophecies of the Bible there are pictures of things to come. Like Jesus being the true and better Adam. We read in Romans that as we inherited sin and death from Adam, it looked forward to Jesus who would cause all those who believe in Him to inherit life. David also typified, or was a type of Messiah, pointing to something greater that was to come. Who where in themselves fulfillment to some prophecy but it ultimately pictured a much greater and perfect thing that was to come later.

look for things like this throughout the Bible, it is quite interesting when you get into it. We look into the small horn, who was slow to grow but attained great power and would do many evil things. This did happen as a matter of history. Most theologians agree that this referring to a king that arose out of the split Greek empire after Alexander the Great. You may have heard of a king named Antiouchus IV Epiphaneas. You can read much about Him in a book from the Apocrypha called Maccabees. Not part of the Canon of scripture but has historical records. Daniel 8:23 “ 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.”

This verse describes him as a wicked and stern faced king. He ordered the cessation of the temple sacrifices. He profaned the temple by placing an object devoted to the Greek god Zuess on the alter, to which he sacrificed a pig, which was abhorrent to the Jewish people. This was far more then an affront to the Jewish people but was an attack against the Lord God. He took a stand against the prince of princes, God.

Daniel 8:25 (CSB)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.

He was deposed by the Maccaben freedom fighters, who won by the strength of God. Antiochus was a type of Antichrist. We need to remember that though he fulfilled this prophecy in part, he looks forward to a time when a much worse king, and Antichrist is going to come. The prophecy is yet to be truly fulfilled and what happened way back then looks forward to a time when it is going to be so much worse for the people of God.

This where the number of days given comes in. How long must this last? We cannot be dogmatic about the number of days here. We need to remember that sometimes in the word of God numbers can be highly symbolic. I believe that the number of days points to the fact that this will not last forever. We must stand faithfully through these hard times because we know that it is temporary. He will be broken

So What

We know that Jesus is coming back, but in the mean time things are going to get a little rough for us. You must turn your life to Jesus for there will come a time where you will have to bow before Him. All this again is to give you one last chance to tun to Him. To strip all things away until you have nothing left but to choose. It will get bad for the people of God but we will see when we go through the book of Revelation in a few months that it is going to get bad for anyone that does not know God as well. It may be bad for the people of God at this time but when the Judgement of God rains down on the earth during the last days I would not want to be one that does not know God.

God’s People will be hated and persecuted, times are going to get hard

We are promised that as people hated and killed Jesus so they will hate and persecute us. We must be willing to take up our cross and follow Jesus with our whole lives. Daniel 8:24 “ 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.”

But we need to remember that we need not fear the world that can kill our bodies but rather we must fear the Lord who has power over our very souls. This life is temporary, what happens here is not as important is where we go for eternity. With this in mind we can remain faithful in the midst of a hostile world for we haev a God that loves us enough that He gave us a chance to be with Him.

We fight a spiritual war and must stand firm in the word of God.

This war we fight is not a physical one it is a spiritual one. We read again and again that we fight not with words of anger or physical blows but we win by getting on our knees in prayer and preaching the gospel. Therefore we must stand firm on the word of God. I refuse to compromise on the word of God. I care not if I offend people, or if people hate me. My goal is not to please people but to love them and to share the message of the whole gospel with them. This spiritual war will be won as we stand firm on the word of God and trust in the strength of God.

22-05-29

And lastly through all the numbers that we are going to go through, we must remember that the main point behind it is no the numbers themselves. We will try to figure out what some of them mean but the main point is that persecution and evil is temporary. Evil will be given temporary control over the earth but in the end God wins. What God calls us to do is live in the present sharing the message of the gospel in love while waiting with hope for the future when we are promised we will be with Him.