Daniel: The Rehearsal for the End (#10) - May 27, 2020

okay so we're getting back into Daniel and Daniel of course was a Jew and he received these prophetic visions and revelations as a Jew among other Jewish people who were exiles in the land of Babylon and when you consider the history of the Jewish people whether it was their years of oppression down in Egypt where they spent four and a half centuries most of which they were enslaved to the Egyptians or you consider all the difficulties they encountered even in their own homeland and during Daniels time it was in the immediate aftermath of the Babylonian invasion and deporting all those Jewish people out of the Land of Israel to live as exiles and prisoners in the land of Babylon but even as they began to return to their homeland under Persian rule that was not the end of the struggles the Jewish people would face we're going to see tonight they would face another very difficult time having been regathered in their homeland several hundred years later and then we know that in the year 70 AD they would face another critical time as the Romans would wipe out the city of Jerusalem and bring it to utter ruin and devastate the Jewish people and scattered them where as a people they ceased to exist for almost 2,000 years and then as we all are familiar in the last century they suffered the horrible excruciating agony of the Holocaust when millions of their race were wiped out from both Stalin and Hitler so all of that to say the Bible makes it clear that in the final days in the end times the Jewish people will suffer yet again as difficult as it is for me to even say that we have every reason to believe it's true from what the Word of God teaches us and in our study tonight what we're going to do is we're going to get a glimpse of a Gentile leader in history who at the time of Daniel had not been born yet lived yet had not exactas atrocities upon the Jewish people but he would as it was revealed to Daniel through this mysterious vision that we're going to read about in the 8th chapter and what I want to call tonight's message is rehearsal for the end rehearsal for the end I want you to open to the 8th chapter of the Book of Daniel now as you're turning to the 8th chapter of the Book of Daniel one of the things that you'll remember about the vision that Daniel got in the previous chapter with these different creatures and most notable to him was the fourth creature with the ten horns on its head and from among the 10 there there arose an eleventh I want to take a moment to just talk about the significance of horns the horns that are on an animal that are that are used by God to appear on the heads of these creatures that God uses to reveal a prophetic plan to Daniel and we're going to not only saw it in the seventh chapter but we're going to focus on these horns again in the eighth chapter so before we actually get into reading the eighth chapter I want us to take a moment to talk about the significance of horns because the horns on the head of an animal symbolize the strength of the animal the brute force that animal has in fact in the law of Moses in the book of Exodus there were laws that prescribed to the people what was to happen if an ox were to Gore its owner or if someone's ox was to Gore with its horns a neighbor and either to significantly injure or to kill the neighbor but the the penalty for both the ox and for the owner of the ox had to do with what the Ox did with those powerful horns and causing damage to someone else so it goes all the way back to the pages of Exodus but these horns on an animal symbolize an animal's ability to protect itself and the horns symbolize the ability of an animal to tax something that it has in its path there were other uses though for horns for instance whenever you read in the Old Testament about a trumpet sounding it's typically a a ram's horn that had been sawed off the head of a ram and of course the the tip was sawed off and forming an embouchure like you would in playing a brass instrument someone would would create a sound buzzing sound and the tip of that ram's horn horn which was called a shofar and the sounding of that trumpet was a battle call for conquering and in Joshua chapter 6 in verse 4 the Bible says seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams horns there it is they shall go before the art but the seventh day you shall march around the city this is the city of Jericho seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets and he's already told us there that those trumpets were ram's horns so the sounding of those trumpets after the marching around the walls of Jericho was the ultimate sound of conquest when God would deliver the victory in the walls would come tumbling down also you you may remember the prophet Samuel when he was going to anoint the future king of Israel he went to Bethlehem to the house of a man named Jesse and he finally got through the parade of all of Jesse's sons and said is are these the only boys you have no I've got David David came out of the back field and it says in 1st Samuel 1613 that Samuel took the Horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward so there you see that the oil which was symbolic of the holy spirit was contained in a horn a ram's horn that had been sealed and the prophet takes this horn like a container of oil pours it over the head of David and anoints him to be the head of Israel which would materialize years later but you still see this idea of the sounding of these ram's horn trumpets that brought the walls down the anointing of oil that was poured from a ram's horn symbolizing the coronation of the future king of Israel and then the horn symbolizes life and strength in Psalm 75 and verse 10 God says all the horns of the wicked I will also cut off but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted so what God is saying there is that the life and strength of the wicked I will break off like breaking horns off of an animal's head but the but the the life and the strength of the righteous which are the horns I will preserve and I will cause to be exalted so the horns symbolize in Scripture authority and leadership and military strength and conquest and even on a personal level personal strength and then these horns appear in the Book of Daniel as we've seen where the horns symbolize all of those things military strength protective power the power to attack one's enemies and the horns specifically symbolise human leaders who serve over countries and kingdoms so now I want us to to get into the Book of Daniel now before we look at the eighth chapter I just want to remind everyone that when we had gotten up to the sixth chapter the Persian Empire had already conquered Babylon and then when we got to Chapter seven we went back in time chronologically it's like there was a zigzag back to the time before Babylon had been conquered so for instance in chapter 7 and verse 1 Daniel said in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed so we believe that if this was in the first year of Belshazzar then that happen fourteen years before that party in the palace when the handwriting appeared on the wall and the Persians which were just outside the protective walls of the capital city of Babylon if you've followed the study you know what I'm talking about then when we get to where we are tonight in chapter 8 and verse 1 Daniel says in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me so in chapter 7 he said it was in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar in chapter 8 it was the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar which means this was 12 years before the fall of Babylon to the medo-persians 12 years before 539 when the handwriting was on the wall that night in the party and the palace so all I'm trying to do is to put it all in perspective to say we're going back in time to in this case 12 years before the fall of Babylon so Babylon is the superpower daniel is serving to King Belshazzar at this time whom we've already studied before now one thing that's very interesting to realize about the Book of Daniel is that in chapters 2 through through 7 the focus that God gave Daniel in this book was on the successive reign of Gentile nations and God's plan and you know we've talked about how even the Roman Empire had two fulfillments in the prophecy that was given to both Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel the original Roman Empire and a revived Roman Empire which covers the gamut of all Gentile power from Daniels day until the time that Christ returns right so we understand that the focus was on Gentile power well a lot of people don't know is that chapters 2 through 7 were written in the Aramaic language and the Aramaic language was considered the secular or universal language of most of the nations in that part of the world at that time and that makes Daniel very unique among the Old Testament books because those of you who are familiar with the Old Testament writings know that the Old Testament was written in the language of the Jewish people which was the Hebrew language so isn't it interesting how from chapters 2 through 7 Daniel Rice in Aramaic which was a language the Gentiles would understand so he intended with God's leadership for Gentiles to read what he recorded as having happened in those chapters but what happens in chapter 8 is we pivot to God's plan for the Jewish people specifically so in the first seven chapters the focus is on Gentile kingdoms but in Chapter eight the focus goes back to the Jewish people and the language goes back from Aramaic to Hebrew in Daniel chapter eight and it remains in Hebrew the language of the Jews until the conclusion of the book so I thought I would bring out that little bit of information so in the seventh chapter Daniel had a dream while on his bed most likely he was asleep but in this vision we're reading about tonight in the eighth chapter he is awake and we're gonna pick up in verse number two where he says I saw in this vision and it so happened while I was looking that I was in Shushan and I've inserted there the word Susa because that's really the most appropriate translation and pronunciation of that word Susa the citadel which is in the province of Elam and I saw in the vision that I was by the river who lie so what what does this mean for us well just so you can connect connect a few more of the dots this city in which he sees himself Susa as the King James or knew came James called it Shushan but it's really Susa this would eventually be the capital city of the Persian Empire now remember Persia had not yet come to full strength Babylon was the reigning power of the day when Daniel was receiving this vision so in this vision Daniel sees himself in Susa now scholars don't believe he was actually in Susa they believed that the holy spirit gave him an out-of-body experience in which he saw himself in what would become the future capital city of the Persian Empire what's interesting about Susa is if you are familiar with the story of Esther who became the queen of Persia her the palace of Persia was in Susa and when Esther became the queen that's where she became a resident in the city of Susa which is the same city in which Daniel sees himself in this vision of chapter 8 not only that but if you've ever studied the book of Nehemiah Nehemiah was also a Jew during the time of exile Nehemiah was a cup bearer to the king of that time and the the King was the king of Persia and the palace was in Susa so there are two other Old Testament characters who have a connection to this Persian capital city of Susa queen esther and nehemiah so you know one of the things that that i hear a lot about is people saying keep connecting dots for us keep connecting dots so so that's what i was trying to do is to connect a few more dots just because daniel now sees himself being in this city of Susa okay so what happens in this vision that he has it's a daydream you might say given by God through the Holy Spirit verse number 3 he says I lifted my eyes and saw and there standing beside this river in Susa was a ram the ram had two horns those symbols of power and the the two horns were high but one horn 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 he became great verse 5 Daniel says and as I was considering he's thinking what in the world is this RAM it says 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 there's that horn the symbol of power and authority verse six says the goat came to the RAM that had the two horns which I had seen standing beside the river and ran at him with furious power and I saw him confronting the RAM so if you're following the Swift moving goat whose feet don't even touch the ground confronts the RAM and he was moved with rage against the RAM attacked the RAM and broke those two horns and the horns are the symbol of the Rams power so now there was no power in the RAM to withstand him but he cast him down to the ground and the goat trampled the RAM and there was no one that could deliver the RAM from his hand so here we have another vision and an artist has depicted it this way if you'll notice on the screen there that there's Daniel and he is transported in this vision he's having to the city of Susa and there's a river there and he sees this RAM and he sees a goat with us strong central horn protruding and that goat is swiftly coming from the west towards the east to attack the the RAM and so what I want us to do is I want us to talk for a moment about the RAM and the goat and you can take it down now the Persian symbol of the RAM the Persians acknowledge the RAM as their guardian spirit it's sharp pointed horns were a symbol of protection for them so they put a lot a lot of confidence and they even had a lot of pride in the symbol of of a ram and interestingly historians tell us that the kings of Persia instead of wearing a crown when they would lead their armies into battle they would actually dawn a goat's head our Rams head rather with horns on it so this this idea of the RAM and its horns a symbol of protective power the Persians put a lot of trust in that imagery and the king of Persia would wear this Rams head on his on his head going into battle so isn't that interesting that God used the RAM in this vision to depict Persia and then there is a scholar who's whose commentary I've relied on heavily not only in this study but when I preached through Daniel the other time I preached through it in my previous church dr. John Walvoord he was the he's in heaven now but he was the president of Dallas Theological Seminary in one of the foremost New Testament scholar scholars and Bible scholars on all Bible prophecy in his commentary on the Book of Daniel he actually quotes from another scholar named qu Mont but I want you to listen to what he says about astronomy and the zodiac as that pertains to this Ram and this goat which will understand later symbolizes Persia and Greece he says here this is on page 182 of his Daniel commentary different lands were assigned to the signs of the zodiac according to their astronomical geography in this view Persia is thought of as under the zodiacal some people say zodiacal but I like to say zodiacal sign of Aries so Persia is thought to be geographically situated under the astronomical distribution of Aries which was a ram and Greece shares with Syria the principal territory of another Kingdom called the Salukis Kingdom the zodiacal sign of Capricorn the goat if you missed all of that all that he's bringing out here is that even in the zode the two nations that are symbolized in this dream this day dream or vision God gave to Daniel Ram and goat the zodiac signs for those nations in their geography our Ram and goat respectively Persia and Greece I don't know that just fascinates me and I thought you would appreciate hearing that so why don't want you to look at is last week's graphic that we showed you was this chapter to dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of the warrior and then Daniel's dream in Chapter 7 of the lion the bear the leopard and the beast and how whether it was the dream of the warrior or the four beasts they represented those four successive Gentile kingdoms now notice on this graphic what I have circled are just the medo-persian Empire and the Greek Empire and the reason that I have those circled is because when we're talking about the RAM of the goat we're only talking about these two kingdoms tonight so we're not introducing two additional kingdoms you know to add two to the four now we've got six to keep up with no God has given Daniel the vision of a ram and a goat and these to symbolize the medo-persian Empire and the Greek Empire so what I want to do is I want to update our graphic with a new graphic tonight and you'll see it as Daniel 8 in that bottom tier you have the RAM and you have the goat and the RAM symbolizes the medo-persian Empire and the goat symbolizes the Greek Empire so do you see how these just fit perfectly under two kingdoms that have already been revealed through these through this additional vision given to Daniel so we're talking about medo Persia and Greece tonight so there's a sense in which this could be simplified from what we've looked at in after to in Chapter seven where we had to take in four kingdoms God gives us a vision that only deals with two of them that we'll focus on tonight now as this vision played out we're gonna fast forward a little bit to where daniel says please help me I need an interpretation and the angel Gabriel actually provides an interpretation so I'm going to fast forward to verse 20 where the angel says the RAM which you saw having the two horns they are the kings of media and Persia that's why the RAM had the two horns because those two horns symbolize the combined kingdom of media and Persia then the angel goes on to say the male goat that attacked the RAM is the kingdom of Greece and the large horn that is between the goat's eyes is the first king verse 22 as for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation but not with its power so what I want us to do is to stop there the reason I fast forward fast forwarded to what Gabriel told Daniel is just so you'll know that when I'm telling you that the RAM is medo-persia and the goat is greased I'm telling you that based on the interp interpretive authority of the angel Gabriel and we'll talk more about him next week now I want us to just look back at at verse 3 where Daniel says he saw this ram which had two horns and two horns were high but one was higher than the other these two horns represent media and Persia but eventually as you know Persia dominated media and the kingdom ceased to be called medo-persia and was just called Persia that's why on this Ram with these two horns one horn was taller and overshadowed and eventually became the dominant horn and the kingdom simply as as Persia so that's the that's the significance of verse number three now look back in verse number four that Ram which was known eventually as just Persia was pushing westward northward and southward now just so you know the history of this was fulfilled in the military conquests of Persia Persia extended its reach Northerly in a southerly direction and also westwardly but its conquest to the east weren't as significant as in those other three directions so here is God giving Daniel this vision of this Ram that is moving north and south and west which symbolizes the advances that the kingdom of Persia would make before they were ever even completed and then in verse number five he says as I was considering suddenly a male goat came from the West across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground and that goat had a notable horn between his eyes what I want to do is to explain that since Gabriel has told us that the goat that advances from the West is the kingdom of Greece then the horn between its eyes must be a symbol for the leader who advanced the armies representing Greece and that leader was the the military Conqueror called Alexander the Great he is one of the most notable figures in history and I would say that although he was entirely secular and he was even blasphemous and required people to worship Him God used him which is a proof that God can use anybody God used Alexander the Great perhaps as much as he used any other person to prepare the world at large for the coming of Jesus which would happen over three centuries after the time of Alexander the right so here we have Alexander the Great who is this long horn on the head of this goat and the idea of the goats feet not even touching the ground is symbolic of how swiftly Alexander mobilized his forces with only 35,000 troops he was able to conquer all parts of the known world at that time he is that goat that moves swiftly whose feet hardly touched the ground because he moves with such rapid advances as though he's flying through midair rather than actually walking in verse number seven Daniel says this goat was moved with rage against the RAM which means Greece attacked Persia Gabriel has given us that interpretation and broke those two horns so media and Persia the Persian Kingdom broken and the RAM was powerless to withstand the goat and the goat trampled the RAM and this trampling of the RAM by the goat which means the conquering of Persia by Greece was actually fulfilled in history when Alexander the Great ultimately seized Susa the capital city where Daniel and this vision sees himself standing and watching this play out and it was this happened in the year 324 BC so if you want to just think about the time lapse Daniel is seeing this vision where he's in that same capital city of Susa having it depicted through these images God gives him of this Swift moving goat with a long horn attacking the RAM with two horns medo-persia and trampling it into dust that was fulfilled when Alexander the rates the great seized the capital city of Persia which was called Susa what was the time difference Daniel saw this vision in 551 BC Alexander the Great fulfilled it in 324 BC and this prophecy was given 227 years before it was fulfilled which is fascinating to me and Daniel saw it all played out through these two animals a goat attacking a ram now here's where it gets really interesting in verse number eight it says therefore the male goat grew very great that's Alexander the Great and the Greek Empire but when he became strong which means just at the peak of his power that large horn that's Alexander the Great this would be be fulfilled over 200 years later remember Daniel is seeing this in a prophetic vision the large horn was broken and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven so do you see what Daniel is having revealed to him he is having the death of Alexander the Great depicted in this prophetic vision where Wendt wants this horn on this on this goat is at its strongest point it is broken off and when it is broken off for other horns come up in its place do you want to know when that was fulfilled it was the the death of Alexander the Great was in 323 BC he was at the peak of his power at the height of his Dominion and sadly at the peak when that horn was it strongest he died he was only 33 years of age when he died upon his death four of his generals we know actually led offshoots of the Greek Empire or the Greek kingdom remember and Daniel is seeing all of this in 551 BC as this this goat that attacks the RAM has its horn it's peak broken-off and for other horns come from the one those would be fulfilled in history as the four generals who served under Alexander the Great and each of them took a part of the Greek Kingdom and ruled over it and established their own dynasties and here's not to overwhelm you but here's a little depiction of those four generals the four offshoots of Alexander's Kingdom Cassander who got Macedonian Greece Lysimachus who got three sympathy Nia Seleucus who got Syria and the region's east of it and that's very important we're gonna see that in just a moment and then Ptolemy who who reigned over Egypt and parts of what we call Palestine so there you have it now why am i why am i sharing all of this with you and because God showed this to Daniel and Daniel did not even understand how all of this would play out but I'm fascinated by the fact that history validates this vision that was given to Daniel in a 550 years before Christ through the conquests of Alexander the Great who established the Greek Empire all over the known world and through these four generals who took over the Greek Empire by establishing their own geographical domains which were part of Alexander's Greek kingdom and establishing their own dynasties there and I just showed you who the four horns are that sprouted on the head of the goat after the large horn died you ready let's go on verse number nine now out of one of them out of one of those four out of one of those four horns came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south toward the east and toward the glorious land now I want us to stop there just to review remember we're not talking about all four of the kingdoms that were in the warrior image of chapter two or in the four beasts of Daniel seven in the dream he had we're talking specifically about the two kingdoms of medo Persia and Greece Greece under Alexander the Great conquered Persia and defeated it establishing Alexander's superiority and establishing the Greek Kingdom as the superpower of the world at that time then the big horn on the head of that goat was broken off at its peak Alexander died when he was only 33 years old and these four generals were symbolized by the four horns that sprouted after the Bighorn was broken off they were the successors to Alexander the Great though they led four distinct geographical areas and started four little sub kingdoms within the Greek kingdom now from one of those four horns which means from one of those dynasties established by one of his four generals and we know this to be the a little horn comes from one of those four it was the little horn that sprang from one of the four called Seleucus which was one of his generals and in history this was fulfilled by a character who is the eighth king in the Saluki dynasty so let's go back and think about it Alexander the Great is the leader of Greece he conquers all parts of the known world when he dies at a young age four of his generals divide the kingdom and established their own monarchies over the areas that they take one of those generals was named Seleucus he established the Saluki dynasty which became centered in what we now call Syria from that Saluki dynasty the eighth king in succession was someone who goes by the name of Antiochus the fourth Epiphanes Antiochus the fourth epiphanies he was the little horn that came out of one of the four now I can see where this would get so extremely complicated because in this goat that had just one horn the one horn broke off and four horns were sprouted in its place and now from one of those four horns another little horn sprouts off and what I want to do is to just give you a depiction an artistic rendering of what we're talking about you can see there is the goat and you see these where it says Alexander the Great that is where the large horn was broken off he's dead now then you have four of his generals who established little sub kingdoms of the Greek Kingdom and I listed their names before but you can see off of the the horn that says Seleucus you can see that little horn and that is Antiochus and he's the one that we want to spend our time talking about he was a saluted King and he represents an offshoot of the Greek kingdom let's talk about Antiochus he came to power in 175 BC and he ruled the salut Couture the Syrian Empire from that time in 175 until his death in 164 remembered BC years as time progresses the number decreases Daniel was seeing all of this symbolized the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes he was seeing all of it symbolized 376 years before it happened we have an awesome God who reveals the future to his prophets before those things come to pass so we look in verse number 10 this little horn who is Antiochus Epiphanes grew up to the hosts of heaven and it cast down some of the hosts some of the hosts 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 now that's God's sanctuary because of transgression and army was given over to the horns who opposed daily sacrifices and he cast truth down to the ground he did all of this and and prospered now let me tell you what this forget all the the Big Horn the four horns of the little horn we are talking about a character revealed to Daniel almost four hundred years before his time before he lived daniel is seeing this guy almost four centuries before he did what he was going to do I'm amazed by that but in this prophecy he is said by God to do some horrible things here's what we know happen Antiochus obviously was big-headed and pigheaded and as he was going down towards Egypt to advance he met resistance and his pride was hurt because he was unable to win the battle he was fighting down towards Egypt so as he was returning back to Syria his base of operation he was looking for some targets to aim his prideful vengeance against and going through the Holy Land which was referred to in verse number nine as the glorious land he decides to stop and spew his vengeful wrath against the Jews it was misdirected anger because his pride had been hurt from a military defeat down towards Egypt so he's coming back to the Holy Land remember Daniel is seeing this 376 years before it happened we've got the benefit of history and knowing exactly how this was fulfilled and what Antiochus decided to do was to dig his heels in the Holy Land and to extinguish all vestiges of Jewish religion of Jewish conviction and of Jewish culture and to convert the Jewish people into the Greek way of life into the Greek way of worship and into the Greek culture verse number 10 when when it says that that little horn grew up to the hosts of heaven and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them this has confused many scholars how could if this little horn that sprang up from one of the four horns of the offshoots of the Greek Empire how could he reach up to heaven and trample on the stars of heaven well some people have suggested that by trampling on the stars of heaven it's a figurative expression referring to his trampling on the Jewish people when he stopped and set up shop in the Holy Land namely in Jerusalem where he would commit atrocities against them how could the Jewish people be referred to as the stars on which he would trample as it's mentioned in verse 10 well if you'll remember when God was talking to Abraham about the people of whom he would be the father the nation he would father who would become the Jewish people in Genesis 15 and verse 5 God brought Abraham outside and said look now toward heaven and count the Stars if you are able to number them and God said to Abraham so shall your descendants be so there you have it God told Abraham look at the Stars those stars symbolize your offspring who be the Jewish people so when Daniel was seeing what we know Antiochus Epiphanes would eventually carry out from this vision it says he reached up to heaven and trampled on the Stars we believe he's trampling on the Jewish people who are Abraham's descendants who are as innumerable as the stars in heaven God told him fifteen you know something else Antiochus even had coins minted on which his image appeared as well as these Greek words Antiochus Thais epiphanies and that is translated from Greek Antiochus the Great God that's why he's called Antiochus Epiphanes because it's a title he gave to himself I would call that an act of blasphemy but do you want to know what else he did in addition to calling himself the Great God he placed an idol to Zeus who is the greatest God in the Greek system of gods he placed an idol of Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem that is an act of blasphemy in addition to a statue of zeus in the temple of jehovah Antiochus outlawed the observation of Jewish laws from the from the writings of Moses for instance he outlawed the observance of the Sabbath day by the Jewish people he made it against the law for Jewish families to circumcise their male children on the eighth day after birth he stopped the priest from offering the morning and evening sacrifices which were customary for the Jews there in their priestly service and in addition to this if all this weren't enough in an act of spiteful vengeance against the Jewish people and the worship of their God he altered pit offered pigs on the altar in the temple pigs being the ultimate image of what is unclean from the animal world and he slaughtered pigs on the altar of the temple I mean are you are you following what he did all of this is borne out by the record of history and the temple was defiled by everything that he did so in verse 13 Daniel says I heard a Holy One speaking and another Holy One said to that certain one who was speaking how long will this vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trim in other words how long is this going to last one angel said to another verse 14 says he said to me for 2300 days then the sanctuary shall be cleansed now there are a lot of different interpretations about what 2300 days means and we're not going to delve into that is how it really gets really get hard to comprehend but I will tell you this the Jewish people resisted Antiochus Epiphanes they didn't take it lying down as they saw his acts of blasphemy his acts of desecration defiling the temple and because they resisted and they did not take it lying down he vented his wrath even more against these unruly subjects how dare you object to anything that I do and he persecuted them in horrific ways and eventually there was a priest by the name of judas maccabees and judas maccabees and his sons were eventually able to generate an uprising and to overthrow Antiochus and we know the exact date had happened it was December the 25th of 164 BC thank God for judas maccabees and his overthrow of this pig of a human being now if you've studied much of the New Testament are much writing about Scripture you have heard of the Jewish historian by the name of Josephus Josey is Josephus even made commentary about the life of Jesus Josephus published his work called the antiquities of the Jews around 93 AD so that's well after the time of Jesus but listen to what Josephus said about Antiochus Epiphanes in his work antiquities of the Jews he said indeed it so came to pass that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes according to Daniels vision and what he wrote years before so even the Jewish historian Josephus looked back at the history of what Antiochus Epiphanes did starting around 175 BC and Josephus said that Daniels vision foretold what would happen through Antiochus Epiphanes so that's what we've looked at tonight now I hope that you'll hang on with me because we're gonna come back next week and we're going to look at this a little bit more and talk about why we should care about Antiochus Epiphanes who was the little horn that sprang up from one of the four horns that sprang up after the main horn Alexander the Great was broken off at the height of his power when he was 33 years of age here's some closing thoughts Antiochus Epiphanes embodies the spirit of the Antichrist and how does he do that because he is an arrogant Gentile realer he is ruthless as the Antichrist will be he is anti-semitic he hates the Jews the way the Antichrist will hate the Jews he is blasphemous he is cruel and yes let there be no doubt any man that can do that is inspired by Satan himself but I want you to think about this as well Antiochus Epiphanes while embodying the spirit of Antichrist was not the Antichrist there are some Bible interpreters who believe that all the references to the Antichrist were fulfilled through Antiochus Epiphanes who died 164 years before Jesus and I'm going to show you next week why that could not be the case but when we study Scripture we see what is called typology therefore we believe that Antiochus Epiphanes is a type or a foreshadowing of the Antichrist who will come in the last days typology is a literary device in which a person or an event is foreshadowed by a person and event that precedes it so some people would say that Moses because he led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt was a type though he was a literal historic figure he foreshadowed another deliverer named Jesus who would lead all of us out of the bondage of sin so there is the type and there's the anti-type which is the fulfillment of the type all I'm saying to you is I believe that Antiochus Epiphanes who died 164 years before the time of Jesus he was a type of the Antichrist who has yet to dawn the scene of world history as far as we know and the last thought I want to give you tonight is this this prophecy vision that Daniel saw would have a dual fulfillment and this is a carryover from the type and the fulfillment of the type the prophecy would be fulfilled through Antiochus in 170 BC but also through the Antichrist at the end time so what I'm telling you is this prophecy of what this little horn springing from one of the four horns that resulted from the death of the first main horn what I'm telling you is this prophecy though it was fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes years after Daniel saw this vision it has a dual fulfillment that will not be fulfilled until the time of the Antichrist and next week what I want to do is I want to compare and contrast and tychicus epiphanies and the Antichrist of the last days and I sure hope you plan on tuning in father thank you for allowing us to study these things I get so excited by it I want to delve into it so much deeper than I ever have before because I just can't help but think we are living in the last days thank you for giving Daniel this vision of the Swift moving goat that attacked the RAM and the one horn Alexander the Great who after his death at the peak of his power was succeeded by his four generals who led four different kingdoms and how from one of those came a little horn called Antiochus Epiphanes who ruled over Syria and who prefigured the Antichrist as he was cruel and barbaric to your people and as he desecrated and defiled your temple until you raised up judas maccabees to overthrow him thank you for the courage of godly men like that and Lord give us the same courage that we may one day need to stand against our oppressors in Jesus name Amen

Channel: FirstBaptistAtlanta

Views: 4,845

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Dr. Anthony George, Anthony George, FBA, First Baptist Atlanta, First Baptist Church Atlanta, The Book of Daniel, Daniel

Id: G6uCIFSy-jE

Length: 51min 59sec (3119 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020