The Vision Completed (Daniel 8:20-27) | Adult Sunday School

All I have is Christ. Hallelujah.

Jesus is my life. Hallelujah. All I have is

Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

Power to fight temptation. The world and the devil's lies.

Jesus Christ has risen from the grave. Purpose in all our suffering.

And joy that will never die. Jesus Christ has risen from the grave.

When I save your reigns.

You are our hope. You are our joy. You are our overcoming king.

So we sing hallelujah. Jesus is alive.

Risen from death, ascended on high. Glorious by the father's side.

So we sing hallelujah. Jesus is alive.

Jesus victorious in the heavens exalted.

Jesus give us eyes to see your glory.

Jesus victorious in the heavens exalted.

Jesus give us eyes to see your glory.

You are our hope. You are our joy. You are our overcoming king.

So we sing hallelujah. Jesus is alive.

Risen from death, ascended on high. Glorious by the father's side.

So we sing hallelujah. Jesus is alive.

Hallelujah. Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive.

Good morning. Am I on? Well, a minute early.

Good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School.

We're still in the book of Daniel, page 1153. You all know what that is, right?

Daniel chapter 8. When we get to it, we will read from 15 to the end of the chapter.

Let's open in prayer. Lord, you are the great God of the universe.

And it is to you we look for instruction, for correction, for reproof, and for building into our lives those things which will make us more profitable for you.

As we study your book this morning, the book of Daniel, Father, we pray for your illumination, for your encouragement, for your change in our lives.

This is a book that has a lot of controversy, but it is scripture. And we love it and we trust it.

So this morning, bring us illumination as we have said. And might we honor you in all that we do this day.

And might you give us a lesson through this book this morning that will bring us greater awe of our great

God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, Daniel chapter 8.

It's always my temptation to just read the whole chapter, but we can get enough context from 15 to the end of the chapter.

Verse 15. We're going to be looking at Gabriel's interpretation of the vision.

I think he probably was fairly authoritative. What dumb adjectives.

And it came about, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, that I sought to understand it. And behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man.

And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Uli. And he called out and said, Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision.

So he came near to where I was standing. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me,

Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end. Now, while he was talking with me,

I sank into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand upright. And he said, behold,

I'm 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.

The ram, which you saw with the two horns, represents the kings of Media and Persia.

And the shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece. And the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

And the broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms, which will arise from his nation, although not with his power.

And in the latter period of their rule, when the transgressors have run their course, a king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue.

And his power will be mighty, but not by his own power. And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will.

He will destroy mighty men and the holy people. And through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence.

And he will magnify himself in his heart. And he will destroy many while they are at ease.

He will even oppose the prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency. And the vision of the evenings and the mornings, which has been told, is true.

But keep the vision secret, for it pertains to many days in the future. Then I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days.

Then I got up again and carried on the king's business. But I was astounded at the vision, and there was none to explain it."

So last week, or last, I guess it was two weeks ago, I was truant last week. They didn't send out any truant officers.

It was really exhilarating. Last week we looked at, we finished up with verse 19, where Gabriel lets

Daniel know that he's going to explain some of these things. What will occur at the final indignation.

We looked at the three times of indignation. The indignation that he's talking about here, the latest one, which continues against Israel for God's disfavor upon their disobedience to him, to the time of the tribulation and the

Antichrist. And then we looked at the different views of the fact that some of Daniel has been fulfilled.

Some of Daniel 8 has been fulfilled. Some of it was fulfilled fairly quickly.

Some of it was fulfilled 350 years later. And some of it will be filled in the end. And that was based upon the dual fulfillment of prophecy.

Then we looked at the view that this, we finally discussed that this view was the passage, this passage was prophecy historically fulfilled, but intentionally typical of similar events and personages at the end of the age, at the end of time.

And how many of you know what that end of the age time guy is, what his name is?

His name is Billy Antichrist. You didn't know his first name?

Oh, that was revealed to me in a dream. I suppose

I should give context. We don't do that here. This is online. If somebody just breaks into this, they're going to go, we're out of here.

And I wouldn't blame them. So now Gabriel is going to further explain.

And I should point out at the beginning, when we get through this full explanation, it's not going to be a complete linear step -by -step exposition of every single thing that's going to happen between 583

B .C. and the end of the world. It's a general overview of the end times.

It is my opinion, this is my opinion, that if God were to reveal to any one of us just the extent of our sin, it would break us.

It would absolutely just break us, destroy us. He doesn't need to reveal everything.

He does it in the steps that He has that are perfect for our lives. And it's the same with prophecy.

He arranges it so that it is revealed as needed, step -by -step, throughout time.

And different people have been tasked with giving that revelation, and God knows exactly what

He's doing. And so the information we have in Daniel is just what we need, just exactly what we need.

So starting with verse 20, Gabriel tells Daniel who the ram was.

So we guessed right back in the earlier part of the chapter. You might want to know, but I read the end of the chapter.

He says, So contrary to the liberal interpretation of this section, the angel assures

Daniel that the ram with two horns represented Medo -Persia as one empire, not two succeeding ones.

They assumed that the empire of Persia was separate from the Medes. This is not supported by Scripture nor by history.

Also, it is noteworthy to see that the plural kings of Medo -Persia refers to no king in particular, and therefore it is speaking of the kingdoms, the countries themselves, and their time in history, their time period in history.

And so thus a section, as I said, of which those kings occupied history. So he says, that ram represents the kings of Medo -Persia.

Then in verse 21, he says, Who was the first king?

Alexander. Leaving nothing to question, Gabriel explains to Daniel that the second animal in the vision, the goat, represents the kingdom of Greece.

Again, not one king. The large horn being the first king, whom we know to be Alexander. Here again, at the main part of this verse, no specific king is named in the

Hebrew. The Hebrew is Melech Yavan, which translates king of Java or king of Javan, which was the

Hebrew transliteration of the word Ionian, which is their word for the

Greeks. It was the kingdom of the Greeks, and that was what the Hebrew translation would have referenced at this ancient period.

It was the Ionian Greeks. Any questions? Comments before I plunge into verse 22?

Verse 22, Now, if I were a liberal critic,

I would be struggling with this. This is so accurate, so specific, that, and if I don't believe in prophetic utterance, then

I'm going to look at this book as a history. But what does that do to the book? It makes it a lie.

Because Daniel said the implication, actually the overt implication, is that this is a prophetic book.

And if it isn't a prophetic book, then it doesn't belong in the Bible because it's not true. But it is true, and it does belong in the

Bible. And this prediction is remarkable. The shaggy goat, now he says, the broken horn in verse 22, and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms, amazing, which will arise from his nation, though not with his power.

So Alexander took his kingdom, excuse me, Alexander lost his kingdom quickly after he had extended his empire far to the east.

Four generals in a period of about 22 years following his death ascended to power, but none of them had the hold on the entire empire that Alexander did.

As a matter of fact, it broke up into four sections, which we looked at earlier. We had multiple maps.

Where's my clicker in case there's a map coming up? None of these kings ruled their kingdoms with the power that Alexander had.

If you throw it on the ground, maybe it'll work better. Okay, there we go. We'll get to that in a minute.

So he had a massive empire. It was broken up into the four kingdoms within about 22 years of his death, and we looked at the different kingdoms that they were.

But then Gabriel says this. He says, In the latter period of their rule, these four kingdoms, when the transgressors have run their course, a king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue.

So the phrase, in the latter period of their rule, is the same basic phrase that's in verse 19.

Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation. The latter period is the same, time of the end, and refers to the close of the period of rule of the successors of Alexander just prior to the general rise of Rome.

Macedonia fell in 168 B .C., and the slow Roman progression in this part of the world worked its destruction from then until the subjugation of Egypt in 30

B .C., so a period of 130 plus years. This is most certainly referring to Antiochus Epiphanes who arose by craft and intrigue in the latter portion of the four -division kingdom rule, that four -king rule that Gabriel talked about.

He actually ruled between 175 B .C. and 164 B .C. Now, an interesting phrase here.

The phrase, When the transgressors have run their course, this has also been translated, have reached their full measure.

When the transgressions or transgressors have reached their full measure. And it refers to the idea that God would intervene here since their actions had reached the point where he could not permit them to go further.

Note that the word for transgressors has been translated both as a participle and a noun.

Either way, it meets the criteria for this interpretation. This idea appears in other places in Scripture as well.

The idea of reaching the full measure of evil or something that God had to put a stop to.

Remember what the flood of Noah was all about. It was about men had gotten to a point where God said this has got to end.

So he took eight and he ended it. Genesis 15, 16. Then in the fourth generation they will return here for the iniquity of the

Amorite, in this particular case, is not yet complete. So God allows iniquity to proceed to a certain place and then he puts a stop to it.

Matthew 23, 32. Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers, Jesus said to the naysayers of his day.

1 Thessalonians 2, 16. Paul says that they were hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them to the utmost.

Make no mistake. God will only allow evil to continue so far and then he will put an utter stop to it.

And that is one of the things that we can have hope in. The transgressors here spoken of are most likely, and when

I was first studying this, I thought it was the Gentiles. I didn't know any better. Then as I dug into it, it's pretty clearly that he's talking about the

Jewish apostates who began to adopt Greek customs and traditions. One priest named Jason, through devious means, used the priesthood to introduce

Greek customs to the Israelite temple. This is what I have up here. In chapter 5 of book 12,

Josephus says, Jim, you can have as long a subtitle as you want for your book.

I don't think you're going to beat that. About this time, Josephus says,

For Simon had these three sons, to each of which the priesthood came, as we have already informed the reader.

This, Jesus, changed his name to Jason. But Ananias was called

Menelius. Now, as the former high priest, Jesus raised a sedition against Menelius, who was ordained after him.

The multitude were divided between them both, and the sons of Tobias took the part of Menelius, but the greater part of the people assisted

Jason. So these are Jews, Hebrews, fighting one against another about a temple priest. This is not unheard of, but really strange for the

Jewish people to be engaged in a tug of war over who gets to be the high priest. Let's see, and retired.

And the sons of Tobias were distressed and retired to Antiochus, that's Antiochus Epiphanes, and informed him that they were desirous to leave the laws of their country, to leave the laws of their country.

And the Jewish way of living, according to them, and to follow the king's laws, and the Grecian way of living.

Wherefore, they desired his permission to build them a gymnasium at Jerusalem, and when he had given them leave, they also hid the circumcision of their genitals, and even when they were naked, they might appear to the

Greeks. That, even when they were, they might appear to be Greeks. Accordingly, they left off all the customs that belonged to their own country, and imitated the practices of the other nations.

This was an abomination, in terms of what God had called his people to, at the time.

So, similarly, we have this in Maccabees, 2 Maccabees 4, 7 through 16.

It says, But after the death of Seleucus, that's one of the main kings, when Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Ananias, labored underhand to be high priest, promising unto the king by intercession 303 square talents of silver, and of another revenue 80 talents.

So, he's going to buy the high priesthood. He's going to cross people's palms with silver, and buy the high priesthood.

That's how far it had degenerated. It was an office of purchase, not an office of succession, ordained by God.

Besides this, he promised to assign another 150 more, if he might have license to set up a place for exercise, the gym, the gymnasium.

And for the training up of youth, in the fashions of the heathen, and to write them of Jerusalem, by the name of Antiochus. Which, when the king had granted, and he had gotten into his hand, the rule he forthwith brought his own nation to Greekish fashion.

He changed it to Greek fashion. And the royal privileges, granted a special favor to the Jews, by the means of John, the father of Epilemus, who went ambassador to Rome for amity and aid, he took away.

He took away everything this man had built up, and instituted the gymnasium, and the customs of Greeks.

And putting down the governments, which were according to the law, following the law of God, he brought up new customs against the law.

For he built gladly a place of exercise under the tower itself, and brought the chief young men under his subjection, and made them wear a hat.

Now they had a particular decoration hat, that would identify them with the

Grecians, with Greek. But now with such the height of Greek fashions, and increase of heathens manners, through the exceeding profaneness of Jason, that ungodly wretch, you have no problem knowing what the

Maccabees think of this man. And no high priest, that the priest had no courage to serve any more at the altar, but despising the temple, and neglecting the sacrifices, hastened to be partakers of the unlawful allowance in the place of exercise, after the game of discus called them forth.

Not setting by the honors of their fathers, but liking the glory of the Grecians best of all, by reason whereof sore calamity came upon them, for they had them to be their enemies and avengers, whose customs they followed so earnestly, and unto whom they desired to be like in all things.

So they tried to be like them. They tried to be like the Grecians. But just like any time, the people of God try to be like the world, the world will only let them in so far.

And that's a good thing. I think that's a good thing. But it's a stark reminder to us that we are to be not of the world, in the world, but not of it.

These people wanted to be of the world. And it was part of what fomented the Maccabean Revolt. So much of this vision that Daniel gives right now, or that Daniel is giving right now, that Gabriel is interpreting

I should say, is fulfilled in Antiochus, but it is clear that a great portion of it will be fulfilled by the coming

Antichrist. Insolent and skilled in intrigue, as the idea of a fierce countenance, and one who can understand riddles and dark, harsh, difficult sayings.

In chapter 5, verse 12, a corresponding Aramaic term is used, and it means something tainted, twisted, involved.

Something involved, riddles. So Antiochus would be fierce and capable of solving difficult problems in his kingdom.

Many expositors think this only refers to deception, but it can involve the idea of critical thought.

Since Daniel has already used this term for the idea of handling the difficult problems of the kingdom in chapter 5, it's not a stretch to assume that it may have some of the same meaning here.

Now Antiochus did not have this ability to any great degree, but the Antichrist will.

In Daniel chapter 11, verse 36, Daniel refers to the Antichrist. He says, Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods, and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.

2 Thessalonians 2 .9, that is, Paul says, The one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all powers, signs, and false wonders.

So he will come with power, signs, and false wonders. Revelation 13, 7 and 8, looking at the connection or the similarities between Antiochus and the

Antichrist, and yet the dissimilarities, if you will. Chapter 13, verse 7 and 8,

It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. Antiochus Epiphanes did that.

And authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation was given to him. Antiochus didn't do that.

All who dwell on earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world and the book of life of the

Lamb who has been slain. So there will be worship of the Antichrist unprecedented in world history.

And then finally, Revelation 17, 13. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.

All of these are going to be giving their power over to this end -time ruler. Now Daniel is only getting a partial picture of this.

And as Gabriel interprets it, we're going to see at the end of this chapter that Daniel still, he goes to bed and he goes,

I don't understand all of this, and there's no one to reveal it to me. And that's okay.

Has God ever done that in your life? He doesn't tell you everything that's going to happen? He doesn't?

Be grateful. Be grateful, really. But at any rate, at this particular point, Daniel is being given a pretty good general understanding of what's coming in the next 200 to 300, 400 years, and in the end times.

Verse 24, speaking again of Antiochus and the future king. Hope that doesn't distract you.

But for his time, Antiochus was quite powerful. There are several views about the source of his power,

God, Satan, Alexander the Great. The context seems to indicate that the power came from satanic origin because he used it to destroy

Israelites and to oppose God. That is what Satan chooses to do and does as much as he possibly can.

It has always been Satan's plan to destroy the Messiah, and the destruction of Israel and Israelites, in his mind, could accomplish that.

So Satan is always looking to compromise, to stop the coming of the

Messiah, the coming of Messiah. The Antichrist, of course, will sweep away everyone in front of him, and for some time, he will do that until the

Lord Jesus Christ returns and destroys him utterly. So Antiochus attacked Jerusalem and burned major parts of it.

He tore down buildings and the city walls. It was, let's go back to that chapter right there.

He rolled into Jerusalem and to demonstrate, it was a couple of things to remember.

One of his trips into Jerusalem, he had just lost a major battle with a Roman general, and he was mad, and he basically took it out on the citizens of Jerusalem.

He threw a kingly tantrum. I don't know how else to word it, and he took it out on Jerusalem, but he took it out by burning the city and killing people, multitudes of people.

In 1 Maccabees 1, again, as I read 1 Maccabees, it's a good history, but it's not

Scripture. Keep that in mind. It's not sanctioned by the Holy Spirit to communicate

God's will to us, but it is a good history book. It's accurate history.

1 Maccabees 1, 29 -31. And after two years fully expired, the king sent his chief collector of tribute into the cities of Judah, who came into Jerusalem with a great multitude.

So he comes in with a big army, big group, and he spake peaceable words unto them. I'm here to help you.

We're from the government, and we're here to help you. Rodney Reagan wasn't a prophet, but nevertheless.

And he spake peaceable words to them, but all was deceit. For when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city and smote it very sore and destroyed much people of Israel.

And then verse 31, And when he had taken the spoils of the city, he set it on fire and pulled down the houses and walls thereof of every side.

So he didn't just conquer the city or take over the city. He didn't just take the spoils, but he set it on fire.

And then the rest of it's there. I can send that to you. I'm not going to read the whole thing today. There's a lot of information there. But basically the

Maccabees recorded it was a massacre. He killed children. He killed women. He stole things.

He desecrated things. He heaped just terrible ruin on the city of Jerusalem.

So the last verse there in 2 Maccabees 5, 23, 26. And so he slew all of them that were gone to the celebrating of the

Sabbath and running through the city with weapons slew great multitudes. So he waited until they were doing some of their celebrations so that there would be a great gathering of people.

And he descended upon them with his army and he killed them. This was a great slaughter in Jerusalem at the time. Both the

Septuagint and a few other translations do not have the phrase, but not by his own power.

Assuming that it is a gloss from verse 22. But the Hebrew and almost all other versions do have it.

And it is most certainly to be included here. He did not operate under his own power.

It was satanic in origin. It is my belief that it was satanic in origin. The Antichrist will be

Satan's world ruler as stated in Revelation 13 too. Just as God permitted Satan to test Job.

He permitted Satan to test Job. He allowed Satan to energize this wicked king in the

Maccabean period. And it was predicted 350 years before it happened. That's remarkable. Antiochus was prosperous and very destructive as mentioned.

The Antichrist will be massively superior in both of these ways. In both of these kinds of things.

He will prosper and he will be destructive in an unprecedented way.

Any comments or questions about verse 24? 25.

And through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence.

And he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency.

I'm not sure we should ever... No, let me rephrase that. Biblically speaking, theologically speaking.

Understanding scripture and applying it in our lives. We should never be at ease. Never be at ease.

We should always be busy about studying, understanding and applying scripture to our lives.

So many of these were lost because of their indignation. God was angry with them because they had abandoned him.

It's hard to communicate just how horrifying it would have been to the faithful Jews of the time that the building of a

Greek gymnasium right outside the temple and then having Jewish youth participate in those kinds of activities would have been.

It was a horrifying time for them. So Antiochus Epiphanes used deception to accomplish his plans.

Earlier I mentioned that he would disguise himself and mingle with the people to find out what they were doing. Remember he would disguise himself and go out and play in their parties and some people didn't like him because he was just a bad musician.

Keep that in mind musicians. He also, as his selected name indicates, began to insist that he was a god.

Epiphanes, Theos Antiochus Epiphanes. God, Epiphanes, manifest.

That's what he was calling himself. Struck coins with that on it. He believed his own press releases.

He also, he began to insist he was a god. The Jews let their guard down and his cronies, not his cronies, his officials got into the city.

He caused them to let their guard down. Then he plundered it and destroyed much of it. Many were killed. One commentator noted that this could be called, if you wanted to give a phrase to it, this could be called treacherous wisdom.

He had treacherous wisdom. He had wisdom, but it was vile, wicked wisdom.

There is a wisdom that Satan has, but it's a treacherous wisdom. It's a wisdom used to destroy.

Antiochus used it in emergencies, but also as a method of ruling. Governments will always appeal to safety or necessity to implement their controls.

This is nothing new today. When Solomon said there's nothing new under the sun, guess what he meant?

That there's nothing new under the sun. Antiochus was peaceful.

You need us to protect you for your safety, and then he plundered the city. Antiochus attempted to make his subject believe he came in peace, and then he destroyed many.

I read that in 1 Maccabees 1, 29 through 32. It is in Daniel, especially this chapter, where we begin to see, we begin to see in the progressive revelation

God has for us, the remarkable similarities between Antiochus' epiphanies and the incoming

Antichrist. And thus, the interpretation of Daniel chapter 8 as being complete in history, but with future implications, arises.

So, looking at that, Daniel 7, 8. While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them.

Let's get a... A little horn came up among them. And three of the first horns were pulled down by the druids before it.

And behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts. Daniel 7, 11.

Then I kept looking, because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.

Daniel 7, 21 through 26. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them, until the

Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One. And the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise, and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.

He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated, and destroyed forever.

And then Daniel 9, 27. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to the sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

And then I have just a tremendous amount of scripture here that I could go through, but I'm going to give you scripture references, and I'll go through them slowly.

I'll try not to talk too fast. Daniel 11, 36 through 45. And we will get to Daniel 11 in this lifetime, assuming the

Lord doesn't come before. Daniel 11, 36 through 45. Daniel 12, 11.

When the regular sacrifice is abolished, 1290 days. Matthew 24, 5.

Remember this. This is an important interjection that the Lord Jesus Christ...

Well, he doesn't interject anything. It was obviously an appropriate thing to say at the time, but he said, Many will come in my name, saying,

I am the Christ, and will mislead many. We need to remember that. In the end times, many...

Well, people have been doing that forever, from time immemorial. But there will be convincing ones coming in the end times.

Mark 13, 21 and 22. Again, behold,

I am the Christ. Don't go there. Or there he is. Don't go there. Don't believe him,

Jesus says. Luke 21, 8. Again, don't be misled.

2 Thessalonians 2, 3 through 12. This is one of the definitive

New Testament passages. I'm going to read it. Let no one in any way deceive you. For it will not come, the end, unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so -called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being

God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know it restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. He who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming.

That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

Scripture is sufficient. There's no program you can involve yourself in.

There's no list of 23 things you can put on your refrigerator that will protect you from this deception.

Scripture is sufficient. It is those who abandon Scripture who will fall prey to this.

Make no mistake. Okay, some more verses. 1 John 2 .18, 1

John 2 .22. This is not homework, by the way. This is just in case you want to see some of the connections.

1 John 4 .3, And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of Antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming, and it is now already in the world.

2 John 1 .7, Revelation 13,

Revelation 13. I'm looking at 1 through 10 here. And then

Revelation 19 .20, Revelation 20 .10. So beyond this, the little horn would also oppose the prince of princes.

Most certainly, he attempted to supplant God. Remember, he tried to make the Jews worship him.

He tried to overturn their temple worship so that they would look to him. And in 1

Maccabees, we see that they wanted to be, what did they say, Antiochans. They wanted to be Antiochans.

You know, nobody's immune to this. Nobody's immune to this.

Most certainly, he attempted to supplant God. He was also to be broken without human agency.

Thus, no human being would put him to death. 1 Maccabees records that he died of grief.

Antiochus died of grief. While 2 Maccabees apparently fleshes that out with a fuller explanation of what occurred in the first book and explains that he had a bowel disease and a chariot accident, both of which contributed to his death.

I'm not sure how to take all of this. None of this is in Scripture. This is in history records.

But chapter 6, Antiochus Epiphanes dies in Persia. So while all of this is happening in Israel, this is in, by the way, this is in Josephus.

Antiochus is still trying to plunder Persia, but he is turned away in Elymaeus. In Elymaeus?

Elymaeus? It's a city. Messengers tell Antiochus how badly things were going back in Israel, and it scares him.

He believes he is dying from his anxiety, and he thinks that his poor fortune is because he went against Israel.

He gave his kingdom to Philip and died in 163 B .C. That's one historical reference about how

Antiochus died. Chapter 9, death of Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus Epiphanes hears about these events and sets out to make

Jerusalem a cemetery of Jews. That's what he said. He was going to make Jerusalem a cemetery of Jews.

Antiochus received a bowel disease, and he fell out of his chariot being horribly and mortally wounded. His body was infested with worms.

He couldn't endure his own stench. He declared Jerusalem free, the restoration of the temple, and even said that he would become a

Jewish evangelist. But he didn't get healed. He bequeathed the kingdom to his son, and he dies.

So those are the two major views recorded in antiquity of how he died. He died of grief, still trying to plunder

Persia, but he died of grief thinking that God had brought him to that, or he died of a bowel disease.

One thing we know for certain, he died. And then in 1

Matthew 6, 1 through 16, it goes through all of that, explains it.

And then in chapter 12, book 9, verse 1 of Josephus' Antiquities, and it's long, and if anybody would like it,

I would be glad to send it to you, but I'm not going to read through it this morning. I'd rather spend time in the scripture. But the history is interesting to read what the historians thought of at the time, how he was taken out, why he was taken out, what he thought about himself, what he thought about his removal from office.

But the important thing to remember is that the time of the iniquity was filled up, and God removed him.

And then last, and I'll leave you with this because science speaks, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, he died of an illness.

Well, Antiochus, it says, then mounted a campaign against the Parthians who were threatening the empire in the east, recovered the income from that area, forced

Artaxias of Armenia, who had defected, to recognize his suzerainty, or his kingdom, founded the city of Antioch on the

Persian Gulf, set out on an expedition to the Arabian coast, and at the end of 164 died of an illness at Tabai, or probably

Gabai, in Persis. Many believers saw his death as a punishment for his attempt to loot the shrine of Naniah in Elam.

So that would be a very contemporary, non -sacred view of what happened to Antiochus.

In any event, historically he died not by human hands, and that's what the scripture said. He died rather by disease or accident, or a combination of both.

The Antichrist will be also completely destroyed by Christ alone. He will be destroyed by Christ alone.

So that was a lot of, and all of those verses, we will be looking at many of them as we finish the book of Daniel, Lord willing.

But interestingly enough, the important part of this is that the scripture says that he would die not by human hands, and he did, and even secular history records that, despite themselves.

That's remarkable, and not remarkable because it's the word of God, and remarkable.

What does he mean? Well, as I was thinking it through, the word of God is remarkable. It just is. It's amazing.

These things were predicted hundreds of years before they happened. And the modern weather forecaster,

I don't know what quarters they're tossing, but they can't get the next day right. Okay, verse 26, and we're going to finish with this.

The vision, actually, we might make it to the end of the chapter if I hurry. The vision of the evenings and the mornings,

Gabriel says, which has been told, is true. But keep the vision secret, for it pertains to many days in the future.

So Gabriel names this vision. He names it, he relates it to the 2300 evening mornings from verse 14.

In order to bolster Daniel's confidence, if Daniel needed that, he tells Daniel that the vision is true.

It isn't because Daniel may have assumed that without this affirmation from Gabriel that the vision wasn't true, but it's an astounding and difficult vision for Daniel to absorb.

And so Gabriel does him this gracious favor. The vision is true, Daniel. It's true. But the phrase, keep the vision secret, would have been better stated, but preserve the vision.

The Hebrew word there is a word that means to contain or to preserve. And the idea was that Daniel, this is similar to the statement made in Daniel 7, 28 and 12, 9.

The statement was not intended to prompt Daniel to keep something secret, for God doesn't keep prophecy secret.

It sometimes has to have the events of history happen to give it the fuller understanding.

But it was to encourage him, probably, to write it down, so that it would be preserved for future generations in which some of it will be fulfilled.

Because Gabriel acknowledges that he's not going to understand everything. A great deal of this information came to pass 350 years later, but some of it is still shut up for many days in the future.

So a recap of the horns will remind us of the prophecies of these two distinct persons that some of this information is related to.

The little horn would come from Rome, the fourth kingdom, in chapter 7.

The little horn of chapter 8 would come from Greece. The little horn of chapter 7 would be an 11th horn, ruining up 3 of 10.

The little horn of chapter 8 would be a 5th horn, coming out of 1 of 4. And finally, the little horn of 7 would persecute

God's people for 42 months, or 3 1⁄2 years. The little horn of 8 would persecute God's people for 2300 evening mornings, or around 3 years.

Those are some of the similarities and differences. To close this chapter out, verse 27, and again,

I understand the concept that these are almost arbitrary closings and beginnings. But it is a good place to plant a peg right here for us to finish this chapter.

He says, Then I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days. Then I got up again and carried on the king's business.

But I was astonished at the vision, and there was none to explain it. So the prospect of such destruction to his people left

Daniel overcome. It's a word that means to be ended, to be sick for days. The fact that he had to get back up indicates that he was in bed.

He was distraught and sick. The fact that he had attended to the king's business when he got back up again indicates that he was in Susa the entire time, and was only transported away in the vision.

Upon recovering, he was still astounded. Still astounded. Are you not still astounded at God's word?

If that ever ends, something's wrong in your life. And that,

I think that's a definitive statement. Clearly, Gabriel did not intend for him to understand everything about the vision, or he would have explained it more thoroughly.

Daniel was left with a partial understanding and no one else to give him clarity on the rest of it. More than likely, he spent the rest of his life contemplating or wondering over this vision.

I would have. I would have just. But you'll notice that we don't have the third book of Daniel and the fourth book of Daniel where he just went off on.

Because he followed the prescribed procedure that God gave to him. Record this.

Record this. And he didn't make it about him. He made it about God. It is also noteworthy that Daniel did not...

Start over. Stick a rock in your mouth. It is also noteworthy that Daniel did not allow this to derail him from his responsibilities.

No matter how difficult and upsetting it was, he went back to work. Walvard in his commentary sums up chapter 8 very well.

So I'll finish with that. He says, As Christ himself indicated in Luke 21 -24,

The times of the Gentiles is characterized by the treading down of Jerusalem and the subjugation and persecution of the people of Israel.

The church will not fare well. Fare well in the clutches of the world. Don't expect it.

But when your work comes and you get back up out of bed, get back up and get back to work for Christ.

I'm not trying to come up with some strange takeaway, but that's something of what I came away from this book.

Daniel was devastated by what was coming. But he went back to work. Father, thank you that you never quit working on our behalf.

You have said that the Son is even now praying for us. And we know that in your word you do everything that is necessary to give us life and godliness in the

Lord Jesus Christ. As we study the book of Daniel, might it, we ask you, Lord, might it strengthen that kind of resolve to be about the business of giving you glory in everything that we do and say.