JAMES



Daniel – Part II

Lesson 4

Understanding Of The Time Of The End

Daniel’s Vision Of The Nations

We live in such unstable times and such an unstable world. Kay knows there are so many people that are so afraid of the future. What is going to happen as we look at the nations in turmoil, as we hear of the wars and mass killings, the dictators that are tormenting people, mutilating people and putting them to death? Add to that the earthquakes, plagues, famines, disease and flues that threaten us and your heart may be full of terror. Kay wants us to know that if we know God then for us to feel that way is not in character with who God is and what God has for us. God wants us to know and understand that He holds the future in His hands. He knows; He’s the Alpha and Omega; He’s the beginning and the end and everything in between. He knows everything that is going to pass. He has plan and He’s working on a plan for the ages.

Revelation 21:6 6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

Kay wants us to see three things as we look at Daniel chapter 8. Three surety’s that we can have in these times that seem to the world so unstable. We have the surety of God’s Word. When God speaks and He says something we can know this: IT WILL COME TO PASS. It is absolute, pure, unadulterated truth. There is no human being on the face of this earth that can alter God’s word or destroy God’s word. There have been people down through the ages that have tried to get rid of the Word of God. There are critics that have sat with all their D’s behind them, PhD, and DD etc. They look at God’s Word and they tear it down and explain it away or call it a tale, you cannot trust the Word of God. People that speak like that are speaking from the source of the evil one. They are of their father the devil. He is a liar, deceiver, he abides not in the truth and he is a murderer; he was a murderer from the beginning.

John 8:44 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

We need to know when we hold up the Word of God we have a sure word of prophesy that we do well to take heed to. It is a light that shines in dark places. It illuminates the instability of the world and brings us back to stability.

The second surety is God loves Israel with and everlasting love because it is a covenant love. He made a covenant with them. A covenant is a solemn, binding agreement. That covenant holds God to His Word and to His promise. If He made a covenant with Israel and He says “I’ve loved you with an everlasting love and with loving kindness I’ve drawn you to myself” then when He turns to the church He says the same thing. He says the same thing to us because He’s entered into a new covenant with us. He’s entered into the new covenant of grace, the new covenant that was in His blood when He broke bread and took the cup and indicated this is the blood of the new covenant.

Jeremiah 31:3 3 “The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.

Galatians 3:29 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

1 Corinthians 11:23-25 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

This covenant assures is of God’s everlasting love. What God promises, He will perform. If He says He loves you then once we come to know Him and He brings us to Himself, He has us in His hand and no one can take us out of His hand.

John 10:28 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

The third surety is the surety of God’s righteous indignation against sin. This is something we don’t like to hear about. We like the first two and we don’t like the third. But the third is this: God, because He is righteous, His holiness and righteousness demands judgment upon sin. That’s why we have the cross, that’s why Jesus who knew no sin was made to be sin for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

He also, because we belong to Him, chastens. If we be without chastening then we are illegitimate children – God is really not our Father.

Hebrews 12:6-8 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

He loves Israel with an everlasting love and He loves us. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that’s the Abrahamic Covenant and He made a covenant with us and that is the New Covenant. He promised the New Covenant with Israel also. He loves us; He is going to perform His Word.

Jeremiah 1:12 12 “Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it."

He watches over His Word to perform it. In all of this, because we are His, judgment must always begin at the house of God.

Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Kay quotes Ephesians 2:8-9 in Spanish. She did this to make a point. Daniel chapter 1 is written in Hebrew. Daniel chapter 2 is in Aramaic and in Daniel chapter 8 he slips back into Hebrew. He does this because his audience changes. In Daniel 8-12 we are going to see God’s righteous indignation against His people. We are going to see history lay out, God’s righteous indignation against His people, Israel. But, we know there’s surety of God’s love. God is about to chasten His people. God is chastening His people during the book of Daniel and it’s not going to quit. It continues. God is showing them in Daniel 8 -12 things pertain to specifically to Israel, what is going to happen in the future in regard to Israel. He is going to tell them before hand. Remember what Amos says – God does nothing in secret, He tells His prophets before hand. He does this because we are His people and He wants us to know what is going to come to pass.

Amos 3:7 7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets.

God tells us what will happen. In Daniel 1 He’s letting us know how this Jewish boy gets to Babylon because God has given His people into the hands of Babylonians because they disobeyed. God has not forsaken them. When we get to Daniel 9 how God is preparing them for the future. In Daniel 2 Nebuchadnezzar, a gentile has a dream and Daniel records that account of this gentile history in Aramaic which is the common market language of the day. Daniel writes 2-7 in the Aramaic language which is kind of like the universal language. If we were in a Spanish speaking country then it would be like putting it in Spanish. But if we were a small colony of English speakers in a Spanish speaking country then when we walked into our colony we’d revert to our own language because we are among our own and it pertains to us and we don’t have to talk to the outside world. In Daniel 2-7 He’s talking to the outside world and He wants us to know and understand His overriding plan for history from the point of Babylon – from the head of the statue all the way down to the crushing of the feet of the statue and the setting up of the kingdom of God. He lets the whole world know this.

Now in Daniel 8 the focus zeros in on how nations are going to affect and affect adversely His people. He is showing them the surety of His righteous indignation against His people and He’s going to talk to them in their own language – Hebrew. Kay wants us to see the beauty of the Book, the beauty, magnificence, the awe-inspiring reverential fear and trust that ought to come into our heart when we open this Book. We know this Book is not like any other book on the face of the earth. These are the very words of God. God spoke them. This is the light that shines in a dark place, the sure word of prophecy that we pay attention to and take heed to because it keeps us from stumbling.

2 Peter 1:19; John 16:1 19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

1 These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.

As we open up to chapter 8 verse 1 it says:

Daniel 8:1 1 In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously.

We know between Daniel chapters 6 and 7 there is a division because up until that time we are recording what Nebuchadnezzar sees. It chapter 7 we start with the visions Daniel has. From Daniel 7 and the vision that he has to Daniel 8 with another vision that he has subsequent to first vision he moves from Aramaic to Hebrew and he’s giving us the details of when this happens. The details are very important because he’s telling us when he gets this vision. He is getting this vision in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar.

Daniel 7:1 1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed ; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.

So we have the image of the four beasts coming out of the sea in the first year Belshazzar the king of Babylon. We have the ram and the goat in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. Kay is going to give us the history. According to the Babylonian Chronicle (the Babylonian’s kept good records) Nabonidus began his reign in 556 B.C. Nabonidus is the father of Belshazzar. His son, Belshazzar, three years later in 553 B.C. he becomes co-regent with his father Nabonidus. Nabonidus is outside of Babylon and he is residing in Tema. (Kay has a map open of the region). In Daniel 7 the year is 553 B.C. It is the first year of the reign of Belshazzar when he becomes co-regent with his father Nabonidus.

Chapter 8 is 551 B.C. Mark this in your Bible (or observation worksheets). This happens twelve years before Daniel chapter 5. In chapter 5 we have the demise of Belshazzar. Remember Belshazzar is having a party and remember the handwriting on the wall and he was slain.

Daniel 5:30-31 30 That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. 31 So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.

Watch what it says ‘Belshazzar the Chaldean was slain; Darius the Mede received the kingdom. It says Darius received the kingdom, it doesn’t say Darius killed him; it says Darius is a Mede and received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two. Daniel 8 is the defeat of Belshazzar when the Medes and Persians take over and conquer Babylon. But Daniel 8 is written 12 years before this which makes it awesome if you stop to think. Susa and the Suzerain palace and all of this stuff really wasn’t what it is when he sees it here. Kay will explain in a minute.

The ministry of tourism gave Kay a gift of the chronicles of Cyrus - Cyrus Cuneiform Chronicle. It’s the first declaration of human rights. It’s by Cyrus the Great in Babylon in 539 B.C. They unearthed it and began to read it and it’s written in Aramaic. Kay reads the beginning of the Chronicle: “. . .When I conquered Babylonia without a battle I was welcomed by its people. My great army entered peaceably.” Kay asks how they entered – they diverted the Euphrates and they just went in there, to the palace, and killed the king and they had it. Kay reads more: “My army, great army, entered peacefully and I did not allow any harm to come to the land Babylonia and its people. Babylonian’s respectful manor and their places of worship touched me deeply and I ordered that all should be free to worship their god without harm. I ordered that no ones home be destroyed and no ones property would be looted.” It goes on and tells other things that he did.

What is so awesome is Isaiah the prophet prophesied about this about 170 years beforehand. He prophesied about how Cyrus would come to power and what he would do. This may is like a benefactor sends the people home because he values their places of worship and sends the Jews home to rebuild their temple.

Isaiah 44:28-45:7 28 "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' And of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.' "

1Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of king; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 2"I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. 3"I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 4"For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name ; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me. 5"I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; 6That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, 7The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

This is the Word of God and the Word of God lays out history before it happens. And we have that privilege so we do not need to be afraid of the future. We have the surety of God’s Word, we have the surety of His love, but we also have as a reminder the surety of God’s righteousness in dealing with sin. That righteousness in dealing with sin doesn’t cancel His love and it doesn’t cancel His promises for His Word.

Twelve years before Daniel 5 when they are destroyed we have Belshazzar coming to power.

Daniel 8:2 2 I looked in the vision, and while I was looking I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I looked in the vision and I myself was beside the Ulai Canal.

The citadel means the palace of Susa. He’s transported about 150 miles north of the present land of the Persian Golf. This is where what he is seeing is going to happen. It is the citadel of Susa, the king’s residence. Susa became the capital of the Persian Empire not Babylon. Cyrus made Susa his capital not the great city of Babylon. And when he makes this his capital, none of this has happened yet. So he’s layout out even the details about where this is. The Ulai Canal was build between two rivers – it didn’t exist at that time. Kay wants us to see the power of God’s Word. It becomes the canal between two rivers – Choaste & Coprates. The canal runs close to Susa. Esther lives in Susa. Nehemiah lives in Susa when he goes to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem under the Persian reign – not the Medes reign. All of this is so significant.

Susa is where the Code of Hummurabi was found. It was a pillar standing in the city so the people could know what their rights were. The remains of the palace that was begun by Darius the First is still there. Kay wants us to see that God is breathing His sure word of prophesy into Daniel and Daniel is writing about things that do not exist. It is so accurate that scholars do not believe it happened; that it could not have been written by Daniel, it must have been written later because it’s too accurate.

Daniel 8:3 3 Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last.

He’s standing at the canal that’s right by Susa. Pay attention to the details – one horn is longer than the other. There’s a purpose in the details.

Daniel 8:4 4 I saw the ram butting westward, northward, and southward, and no other beasts could stand before him nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified himself.

The ram is butting westward, northward and southward. In 550 B.C. Cyrus arose. He is a Persian. He had a dream to unit the Medes and the Persians together because Babylon was wearing out the Medes and the Persians. His dream was to unit the Medes and the Persians so they could stand against the Babylonians. In 539 B.C. Cyrus got two million men together – Medes and Persians. He is in Susa which is east of Babylon.

Westward would be Babylon; northward is the area of Turkey; southward is Egypt. This is what the Medes and the Persians are doing and it was written twelve years before it happened. After he’s conquered those three regions he goes further west to Macedonia (Greece). Macedonia is a group of city states all dominated individually by a ruler. They are not united. There’s a man by the name of Phillip of Macedonia who sees the threat of the Medes and the Persians. Now the Medes and the Persians are troubling them and they want to conquer them. This is where the battle of Thermopolis and the marathon runner come from. All this has to do with the Medo-Persian conflict with the Greeks. It begins to all put together and it’s all here in the Bible before it ever happens. Phillip of Macedonia got the Greek states to unite and is in the process of uniting them when he is murdered. His son, Alexander the Great, becomes the first king of Greece.

So we have the ram and now enters the goat with one long horn. Goats don’t have one horn, they have two. The goat hurls the ram to the ground.

Daniel 8:5-8 5 While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 6 He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath. 7 I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power. 8 Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.

Who is this – God tells us in verse 20 – He gives the interpretation.

Daniel 8:19-21 19 He said, "Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation, for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. 20 The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. 21 The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

The indignation is for Israel’s sin. The first king of Greece. He’s telling us all of this when Babylon is secure in all of its power. Isn’t that incredible. It will be twelve years before Babylon is taken out by Cyrus. And Darius receives the authority in that kingdom. God is telling us what will happen; He’s taking us beyond the Medes and the Persians over to the Grecian empire. He doing it in Hebrew.

Daniel 7:3 3 And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.

The sea is representative of the mass of mankind. Down through the Word of God the sea represents all these gentile nations.

Daniel 7:4 4 The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it.

The gates to the palaces in Babylon had winged lions on them. This first beast was like a winged lion so we know that it is Babylon. The lion is the king of the beasts on the earth the eagle is the king of the foul of the air. Doesn’t that describe what happened to Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4?

Daniel 4:29-37 20 Twelve months later he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. 30 "The king reflected and said, 'Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?'31 "While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, 32 and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.'33 "Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws. 34 "But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?'36 "At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. 37 "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride."

Daniel 7:5 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, 'Arise, devour much meat!'

He does not tell us who the bear is but he tells us in Daniel 8 who the bear is. The bear is synonymous with the ram. A lion is a princely thing; a bear is an awkward thing that lumbers around. The significance of the bear is that it is raised up on one side. The significance of the ram is that one horn is longer than the other; one is higher than the other. The ram is butting westward, northward, southward; the bear has three ribs in its mouth. Three directions, three like it has devoured three things – the ribs, the meat off the bones. We see the parallels as we go along. Babylon was a great kingdom; it was the head of gold. The silver, the second part of the statue is inferior to it. The bear is in a sense, inferior to the king of the beasts the lion. And yet the Medo-Persian Empire went farther. We can see how much they conquered.

Daniel 2:31-32 31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. 32 "The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,

Daniel 7:6 6 After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

The leopard had four wings on its back. It also has four heads and dominion was given to it. Kay wants us to understand the each time we read about dominion we see that it was given. It wasn’t taken, it was given by God. The leopard is equal to the goat with one horn. When the Medo-Persian king went out to battle he didn’t wear a crown he wore a rams head. The Greeks had as their symbol a goat. The signs of the Zodiac were attributed to the nations. They gave the Persian Empire the Ares, the ram. They gave to Greece the Capricorn which is Capri is the goat and cornu is the horn – the goat with the horn. It’s awesome.

It’s all here in this Book and we have the privilege and the responsibility of studying it and the surety that everything he says will come to pass. So everything we read in the old and new testaments is ours and it’s absolute truth.

There is one horn and it is broken.

Daniel 8:8 8 Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.

When Alexander the Great was thirteen years old his teacher was Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander that anyone that wasn’t a Greek was a barbarian. We see that in the scriptures ‘to the Greeks and the barbarians’. The Greeks were the upper class – Kay wants us to remember this. He was taught by Aristotle that all the barbarians were to serve the Greeks. So when he became king at the age of twenty one he got thirty five to fifty thousand men in his army and in ten years he conquered the whole Medo-Persian Empire. He left behind him twenty thousand miles of war and bloodshed. But as he went he brought along a common language to the people and the peoples he conquered called Koine Greek. The common Greek language becomes the language of the New Testament. It’s awesome to see how God used this man.

On 29 May he was at a party and he’d been drinking heavy and he didn’t feel well. One of his buddies said there’s another party down the road so they went down the road. At that party they hand him a chalice that is full of wine that is full strength. He gulped it down in one gulp. It is May 29 and the year is 323 B.C. He goes home and goes to bed with a fever. On June 5 he retires to his room, plays some games and things like that but he’s still not feeling well. On June 6 he takes off his ring and he hangs it to perticias (??). He dies on June 10. There is no named successor. For the next twenty years there is a vying for the kingdom between five generals. Can’t have five – how many do we need – only four. Why? Because the Word says so and the Word is never wrong. And all of a sudden one general is gone and four take his place.

Kay is telling us all this because as we get into Daniel 11 we are going to be excited with what we see.

Daniel 8:9 9 Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land.

One of them what? One of the four. We are seeing the rise of man by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus and Epiphanes was added. Epiphanies means he gave himself Theos Epiphanes; which meant god manifest. This what he was saying about himself; he was just like a god. He comes out of one of the four of the Grecian Empire. Is this the same as the little horn of Daniel 7?

Daniel 7:7-8 7 After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8 "While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.

No, it is not because it comes out of the fourth beast not the third beast; out of the ten. But, as we look at this one that comes up out of the four we’ll see similarities to the one that comes up out of the ten.

The Beautiful Land is Israel. When Antiochus Epiphanies finishes conquering he turns his heart and mind towards Israel.

Daniel 8:10 10 It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down.

The word host, “saba” is used of three things: armies of angels, stars of heaven, and of the people of God.

Exodus 12:41 41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

He’s talking about the Jews. The host of heaven is referring to the holy people that belong to God. It’s going after the people of God. The stars are leaders among the holy people.

Daniel 12:3 3 Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

The host of heaven, in Daniel 8:10, is the Jewish people and the stars are their leaders and we can see that from comparing scripture with scripture. Because it doesn’t make sense to be the angles and it doesn’t make sense for it to be literal stars in heaven.

Daniel 8:11 11 It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down.

God Almighty is the Commander of the host. Antiochus Epiphanes begins his persecution of the Jews in 171 B.C. He sends his men into the Jewish temple and they go into the Holy of Holies. There’s no Arch of the Covenant there as it disappeared during the Babylonian captivity. They erect a statue of Zeus in the Holy of Holies. He removes the regular sacrifice.

Numbers 28:3-4 3 You shall say to them, 'This is the offering by fire which you shall offer to the LORD: two male lambs one year old without defect as a continual burnt offering every day. 4 'You shall offer the one lamb in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight;

The regular sacrifice is a lamb along with flour and oil. There are two regular sacrifices every day that he removes. He offers a pig on the altar – an unclean animal.

Daniel 8:12 12 And on account of transgression the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice; and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper.

Why does God allow this? It is because of the third surety – God’s righteousness has to be upheld. We have the surety of the judgment of God. We have the surety of God’s righteous indignation. Does this sound like the little horn of Daniel 7? Yes, he does but he is not. He comes out of a different beast, out of a different animal and out of a different situation. Four horns instead of ten and yet the similarities are there as a picture of what is to come.

Daniel 8:13-14 13 “Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, "How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled ?" 14 He said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be properly restored."

Antiochus Epiphanes began his persecution of the Jews in 171 B.C. and that persecution ended in 165 B.C. on December 25; 2,300 mornings and evenings later. We’ll hear the story of how it ended as we go on in our study of Daniel. It’s an exciting story recorded in the book of the Maccabees.

This is the vision and he wants the understanding. We’ve studied it and now we’ve linked it together in history and we’ve linked it in our language. We can understand because it’s in our language, the Bible’s language. God is taking the sureness of His Word, He is letting us know in detail, in all the detail that we need and not necessarily all the detail we want. The detail is in there. We know that we have the surety of God’s Word and he has let us know. We know we have the surety of His love – He will never leave me and never forsake me.

Hebrews 13:5 5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,"

We may fall and stumble but the Lord will pick us up because He that has begun a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is only right for Him that judgment begin at the house of God and that His righteous indignation must be expressed against sin. And this is what He wants Israel to know “My righteous indignation is going to be expressed against you but I want you to know that what is going to come to pass I’ve told you beforehand.”

Philippians 1:6 6 so that we confidently say, "THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?"

“Don’t be afraid because I’ve told you beforehand and I’ve also told you the end and the end is good”. The end is the stone that crushes the statue. The end is that He sets up a kingdom and the one that makes desolate in Daniel 7 is destroyed and anilated forever and He set up His Kingdom and the saints rule with Him.

Daniel 2:34-35 34 “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 35 "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 7:27 27 'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'

We can know the Book.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you. Thank you so much for your Word. Oh, Father, thank you. We love you. We love you and we want to sing your praises. For who has a God like our God? There is no other God. Every other god is a figment of mans imagination a creation of the devil, a liar, a deceiver. Oh Father, thank you for opening our eyes, for turning us from darkness to light; from the power of Satan to the kingdom of God. Thank you for granting us the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those that are sanctified. Thank you, Father for your Spirit that leads us and guides us into all truth. Thank you for your Spirit that enables to walk, Father, in a way pleasing to you and to overcome the desires of the flesh so that we do not have to be chastened as much by you Father because we are obedient servants, because we hunger and thirst after righteousness.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

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