Daniel in Exile Part 10

and is stunning. Details are practically identical, which means we're dealing with an appearance of the pre -incarnate

Jesus Christ in glory. And you'll note it's similar to, you know, what we were talking about, you know, with the transfiguration today in our gospel text.

And so this appearance is something that's fearful. Now what's funny is that there are some commentators who will quibble about this.

They'll say, yeah, it has this being, this man has the same appearance as the resurrected and glorified

Christ from the book of Revelation, but it can't possibly be Jesus, okay?

And they will give multitudinous reasons. Number one, we shouldn't expect Jesus to show up in the

Old Testament. Are you kidding me? Jesus shows up all over the Old Testament. And on top of that, they'll sit there and say, well, this

Jesus seems a little bit weak. And the reason why they say that is because you'll see here in just a minute that this appearance of Jesus, he's ended up fighting the entire armies of hell practically by himself, and he needs a wee bit of assistance from Michael the archangel, right?

And well, why would Jesus need the help of Michael the archangel? I would note that Jesus, after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he was attended to by whom?

The angels, right? And I think back to that story of Jonathan and his armor bearer, okay?

You guys remember that story? Jonathan, he was the only guy in town with a sword, and he decided he was going to take on the entire

Philistine garrison, but he was waiting for a sign from God. He didn't want to act presumptuously, and he told his armor bearer what he intended to do.

He was going to go in and attack the Philistine garrison, and his armor bearer said,

I'm with you, heart and soul, man. Let's do this, right? And it's a great story, but you'll note that there's kind of biblical precedence in the types and shadows for Christ to be the one waging the war and for him to have an assistant that is persistent in all of this.

But this also tells us something about how God operates. You'll note that we Lutherans, we make a big to -do about the doctrine known as the means of grace.

Means of grace, right? Well, when it comes to the means of grace, we note that God, if he wants to, can just snap his fingers, exert his power, and blammo, things will happen.

This is absolutely true. We do not begrudge God that right if he wanted to do that. But he, in his wisdom, has chosen to work through means.

You'll note that when we go to the book of Genesis, I'll kind of point this out.

In Genesis chapter 1, God creates through the means of the spoken word, okay?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, let there be light. And then there was light.

God said the light was good. God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day. Darkness he called night.

There was evening. There was morning the first day. God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate waters from the waters.

And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under from the expanse from the waters that were above.

So note God said. And then we learn in the book of John something interesting about that same concept then.

In the gospel of John chapter 1, hang on a second here, I'm doing a Greek search, and I really should be looking in English because we need that.

And I don't want words. I want verses. And I want John 1. There we go. So listen to these words, okay, which is the

New Testament's version of Genesis 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was

God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made dia, through him.

And without him was not anything made that was made. So we know then that the second person of the

Trinity is the one in Genesis who said, let there be light.

You see, you could choose one, two, or three. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But Genesis 1, sorry, not

Genesis 1, John 1 clearly explains to us that it was the word, the second person of the

Trinity, the one who was with God and is God, that all things were made dia, through him.

So you'll note that God, from the very beginning of this creation, he doesn't act, if I can put it this way, immediately, very often.

He always, well, works through means. So you think of Jesus, you know, when he's on the earth.

One of the things that Jesus was capable of doing was healing somebody with a word, and he does.

And he does so with his word. And then sometimes Jesus does this really, really awkward thing.

You know, a blind person is brought to him, and Jesus says, hang on a second here. Right? And he spits in the dirt, and he makes mud and puts it on the mud on the person's eyes.

And you sit there and going, that's yuck. Why? Why? Why? Why? Okay. And, you know,

I would note that since we're not given a specific reason, we can sit there and say, well, you know, spit doesn't normally have that impact.

It doesn't normally heal people who are blind. But Jesus's spit does.

So Jesus chose to heal somebody through the means of spit and mud.

Okay? And so you kind of get the idea here. And then you think about baptism. What is baptism?

A washing of water with the word. Ah, what is the

Lord's Supper? Bread and wine, in, with, and under. The body and blood of Christ in, with, and under bread and wine.

Right? So God chooses to work through means. And we can see a little bit of this theology already in play, because Jesus, you know, even though he is the one directly fighting against the hordes of the devil, he also gets help.

And there is actual victory. And the victory is through the means of him actually waging battle. And so you have to kind of sort this all out and sit there going, why is he doing this?

Right? And you'll note that in order to save us, did Jesus do it in his glory and power?

No. He legitimately muted his glory and power, and he comes to us weak as a servant.

And so God has destroyed the works of Satan and delivered us from the dominion of darkness, not by Jesus in his glory, but by Jesus in his humble state.

Right? So there's something of that going on here. And so as we're looking through this section of Daniel chapter 10, when we consider the details of Christ in this particular vision, some of these details are hinting at the work that Christ will do on the cross.

So one of the things you're going to note here is that this vision is a mystery. And the purpose of mysteries is to make you sit there and work out what the mystery is all about.

And a mystery that is revealed is still a mystery. All right? Because you still have to kind of think on it.

So there's Daniel. His ratings appearance has gone kaput. Hear the sound of the words.

He fell on his face in deep sleep with his face to the ground. And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.

This is similar to what Christ did with Peter and James and John. Right? When the voice of the Father speaks, this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased. Listen to him. Blam! On their face. Right? And then

Jesus lifts him up, you know, and gives him the message of peace.

So he said to me, O Daniel, man greatly loved. Understand the words

I speak to you. Stand upright, for now I have been sent to you. Hmm.

Christ is also sent from the Father. Right? Okay. So when he had spoken this word to me,

I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your

God, your words have been heard and I have come because of your words.

Now note, Daniel prayed regarding those words how long ago?

Three weeks ago. Okay? So this is, pointing this out, we spent a lot of time talking about prayer last week, but it's important for us to recognize this.

That God hears our prayers and even if we are unaware of what his answer is, we need to have confidence and continue to persevere in patience and in faith and even continue to pray until we are made aware of what the answer from heaven is.

In this particular case, Daniel waited for three weeks. Sometimes we wait longer than that.

You know, I think about the fact because God has chosen to work through means. I remember, you know, one of the things

I like to nerd out about is the American Civil War. Okay? Yeah, like that Ken Burns documentary was just fantastic.

I watch it at least once a year and it's still one of my favorites. I remember reading Shelby Foote's books on the

Civil War and each book is a thousand plus pages long.

I mean, this is quite a tome and I just love the Shelby Foote book. But one of the things that struck me is that because the

Civil War ended the way it did and because the Civil War is being fought over such a large swath of the

American territories, that the last battle that was fought in the

American Civil War was weeks after that the war had been, the war had ended.

And that battle, if they had just gotten the news to those soldiers a day in advance, there would be guys who wouldn't have died in that battle, right?

If you think about it. So you'll note by God choosing to work through means in order to bring the answer to our prayers, we ought to be patient.

So think of it this way. So there you are, you're struggling in your job, right?

You know, you have a boss who's a meanie poopy head and things are not going well and you're praying to God, please

God, get me another job, right? Well, God has set out to answer your prayer and he's going to get you another job.

But here's the issue. The job he has that he thinks would be perfect for you requires somebody to actually start a business.

And they're just in the process of raising the money right now and it's going to be a few weeks before they're up and running. And God had already intended to answer your prayer by helping you get that particular job.

But, you know, it's going to take a few months for things to get up and running. So there you are struggling, struggling, struggling.

Are you there God? Have you heard me? Hello, right? And of course God said, listen, I answered your prayer a long time ago.

The answer is actually quite simple. All we need to do is grow this guy in his business so he's ready to take you on as an employee.

Well, when is that going to happen? When it's good and ready, right? You pray for daily bread, right?

Well, I've seen how that works. Those of you who are new to Kongsvinger, some of these farmers out here, they plant sugar beets, others plant wheat, and others plant corn and stuff like this.

And you know what happens? As soon as all the snow goes away and the flood is gone, then they're ready to plant.

They put that wheat in the ground and it happens just like this. But then the waiting game begins.

And the waiting game requires you to wait for the wheat to grow and then for the wheat to become golden rather than green.

And then for the wheat to be the right dried out, you know, the humidity so they can run it through their combine and then harvest it.

And then finally they send it over to the grain elevator. And then from the grain elevator, they can send it to a place that'll make it into bread.

So you pray for daily bread, right? Only do it on one knee out here.

That's right. Otherwise you get too much water, right? But the point is, is that when you pray for daily bread, there's a whole process that God goes through in order to answer that prayer.

One of the things we talk about in the means of grace when I'm teaching my catechumen, when I'm teaching the youth, is

I ask them the question, how many people does it take to be able to make bananas available for you at Hugo's?

Okay? And you know, you can see the kids when I ask them the question. Some of them sit there and go, okay.

And somebody will blur out. Well, it at least takes about 10 people. I go, 10?

10? Only 10? Only 10 people to bring you bananas? All right. Let's see.

Well, somebody else, they can tell by the way I give the answer that it maybe might be more than 10. They'll go, okay, 20?

All right. And then somebody will sit there and go, it takes a million.

That's probably closer. Okay. Because if you think about the details that go into bringing bananas and make them available to you at a buck, 10, you know, a pound over at Hugo's, you got the people who had to, number one, create the banana plantations.

And we're going to talk about all that went into that, including making the tools necessary to put the banana plantation together, the trucks that work there.

So you've got to talk about if they're driving Fords or Chevys or whatever, we're talking about the truck plants that put the trucks together.

And how many people does it take to put a truck together? A lot, right? Because you've got all your different sources that have to come together to put the trucks together.

Then you've got to hire the banana workers and the banana workers do the thing with the bananas. And then the way to do it, they put them on a banana boat or put them on a banana plane.

Nowadays you can fly stuff around from the banana republic, of course. And then how much, how many people are involved in putting an airplane together or putting a, you know, a large banana boat together?

How many people does that take, right? And then you've got all the people who are in charge of like putting together the radar systems and the air traffic control people.

And then you've got the people who run the runways. And so you've got all that logistic, those people involved in.

Then when the, when you've got to go through customs, then you've got the people who put them onto trucks and the trucks take them to distribution centers and the distribution centers, then send them out to your local

Hugos, right? How many people are we up to at this point? About a million, right?

And you're going to note here, these are the means by which God feeds you.

So when you pray for daily bread, which might include bananas, you're going to note here, you and I do not have the logistical capabilities of bringing bananas and really taking care of our daily bread.

God does. And so you'll note sometimes answers to prayer are super -de -duper complicated and God has got all the details working out.

And so sometimes we just need to be patient and continue to trust because we learn from Daniel here that God hears our prayer from day one.

And God answered his prayer three weeks before he was even made aware of the answer to his prayer.

And not only that, God, the Father, chose to send Jesus Christ, the Son, to specifically answer this particular prayer.

Don't expect that part, but you get the idea here. So he says,

Fear not, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your

God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the king of Persia withstood me twenty -one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.

Now, Michael is the archangel that we know of, and there may be more.

We don't know how this all works, but that's the best that we know about it. And what's really interesting is that there is an actual feast day in the church here,

Michael and All Saints. Michael, really this is about spiritual warfare.

And this is one of the only texts, and I mean this, where we even get even a hint that there just might be a whole lot more going on in the unseen realm than we could have possibly ever imagined.

Because what does Scripture say? Do we battle against flesh and blood? No, we don't.

So, you know, you'll note then that the devil is constantly launching attacks against the church.

So, this is a good place to kind of plug this in here. Ephesians chapter 6 says, finally, be strong in the

Lord and the strength of whose might? His, not yours.

Okay, I have seen pastors burn out, and I mean burn out quickly, because they somehow think that they have to pastor

Christ's church in their own strength. That can't possibly be done.

If you're going to try to pastor Christ's flock in your own strength, you are going to run out of steam and run out of it quickly.

No human being has the strength necessary to do this job. You must labor with the strength and the might of Christ, not your own, which means you humbly pray for His strength.

You pray for His might. You pray that He gives you the strength and the power to persevere. If you think that you can do that on your own, as if somehow that's your part, you are gravely mistaken.

In fact, you can't, not only can you not be a pastor on your own strength, you can't be a Christian on your own strength.

Have you ever been through those periods of time in your life where it just feels like every time a big problem comes up, as soon as it's solved, another one is right there?

Okay, I remember when I was, you know, growing up, I loved to body surf when

I was in high school. This is like one of my favorite things. Summertime comes, we're down at Huntington Beach, we're down at Newport, and those are the public beaches that we would go to.

And from time to time, you would get a storm off of, you know, off the coast of Mexico that would send up these just huge breakers.

And it was loads of fun. But here's the thing, is that when a set comes in, it's like one wave after another, after another, after another.

And I remember one time, I was kind of foolish enough to try to get on to an eight to 10 foot wave, just because I was being stupid.

Okay, I did not have a surfboard, this is not advised, if you don't know what you're doing, and clearly I didn't. And I was brung through the washing machine, okay?

And the thing is, is that when a 10 foot wave crashes, and it crashes on you, it throws you right to the seafloor, and you are pinned there by the water that is still cascading down from the top of that wave.

And then when it finally lets you go, you have no idea where the surface is.

You're kind of just washed around, and you can legitimately go the wrong direction. And so this happened to me, and I kid you not,

I got pinned by this huge wave. I'm down there holding my breath, holding my breath, holding my breath. Now I'm in a panic.

Please, I need to get back up. And then when it let me go, I went the wrong way, and I hit my head on the seafloor.

And then I came, finally said, okay, well, if this is down, then up is this way. And I went up, and as soon as I got up, another one, whoosh, just like that.

I mean, I had like a second to grab another breath, and then it was, I was down at the bottom, and it was the spin cycle all over again.

Okay, I was needing rescuing on that. I'll never forget it. The panic that I felt, it was horrifying.

But it seemed like an eternity, but clearly I survived the ordeal. Have you ever been in your life when it feels like that?

Okay, you just got hit by the devil in the world and just got slammed, and then no sooner does that thing pass, blam, you get hit again.

And then when you come up for air, blam, you get hit again, right? This is how the devil operates.

This is how the devil operates. We're going to learn in the next chapter of Daniel that one of the things the devil does, and does very well, is, how shall we put this kindly?

He wears the saints out. That's part of the plan.

So, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand.

I always point this out. Anybody who's been in the NAR, when they see that word, that is an unfamiliar word to them.

Because in the NAR, it's all about taking territory, right? You have to learn the names of the demons so that you can cast down the dominion of darkness and take

Satan and cast him to the ground in Kenny Copeland style, right? And declare against the principalities and the powers and stuff like this.

That's not what we're called to do. We're supposed to stand. And you stand what?

Against the schemes of the devil. And by the way, the devil is really good at these.

He's got an entire cookbook that he's been working on for thousands of years. And I assure you, he's already come up with the next recipe for you, right?

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness.

Colossians describes it as the dominion of darkness. And a dominion means that there's like a hierarchy, all right?

So you'll know this is kind of alluded here. We do not wrestle against flesh, blood, against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

That's who you're really fighting. And have any of you met any of them? No, not a one.

And if you have, you'd remember it, okay? But you get a glimpse then here with Christ talking about how the prince of the kingdom of Persia, this is going to be one of those powers and authorities that is working against the salvation that Christ is bringing, right?

And Christ fights him head on, mano a mano. And he was able to withstand him for 21 days.

But Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me where I was there with the kings of Persia.

And I came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days.

And that is a fascinating phrase, actually, in the days that are later, right?

This is coming, okay? For the vision is for days yet to come.

When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground, and I was mute.

And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke.

I said to him who stood before me, oh my Lord, by reason of the vision, pains have come upon me.

Yeah, this sounds a lot like, sounds a lot like, I want to say

Isaiah. Let me go back to Isaiah real quick. Watch this. Isn't that interesting? He had his mouth touched by Christ.

So in Isaiah chapter 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw Adonai. I saw the

Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the

Seraphim. I've talked about this before, always worth noting. Seraphim, these are serpentine creatures with wings.

What do you call a serpentine creature with wings? You call it a dragon. That's what it's called, and these ones are not trainable.

So above him stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet.

With two he flew. And one called to another and said,

Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Yahweh Sabaoth. The whole earth is full of his glory.

The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said, I'm blissing out in the glory, dude. No, sorry. No, that's not what he said.

Woe is me. I'm lost. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

My eyes have seen the King Yahweh of armies. Then one of the

Seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

He touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.

Your guilt is taken away. Your sin atoned for. So notice again here,

Daniel hears the voice of Christ who appears to him in a glorious form, almost perfectly paralleling his future appearance to the

Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. Daniel hears these words, and he turned his face towards the ground and was totally mute.

And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. That's a common theme here.

Huh. And then I opened my mouth and I spoke.

Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise, the scripture says.

You'll note that in bringing cross -references in like this, it adds deeper meaning to it.

Look at the way the scriptures can work together. I said to him who stood before me, Oh my

Lord, by reason of the vision, pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength. How can my

Lord's servant talk with my Lord? For now no strength remains in me. No breath is left in me.

And again, one having the appearance of a man touched me, and he strengthened me.

And he said, Oh man, greatly loved, fear not. Peace be with you.

Be strong and of good courage. If this doesn't sound like Jesus, I don't know who does.

Right? This sounds exactly like Christ. And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened, and I said,

Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me. And then he said, Do you know why

I have come to you? And notice he doesn't expect an answer. Let me just keep going on.

Okay. But now I will return to fight against the Prince of Persia. And when I go out, behold, the

Prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth.

There is none who contends on my side against these except Michael, your prince.

Now, book of truth. This is not the same as the books that are opened on the day of judgment.

That's not what this is. And what this really hints at is this idea that the book of truth, it's as if God, because he can foresee and foreknew everything, has written down before the foundations of the earth exactly how the course of human history is going to go.

That's kind of the gist of this. But I will tell you what's inscribed in the book of truth. There is none who contends on my side except these, except Michael, your prince.

And then let me read this out. We're going to have to unpack this next week, because forgive me for doing this.

We're going to read Daniel 11, and I cannot begin to unpack this. It's best if we take it in one big glance first, and then, you know, like, by the way, do you guys know how you eat a

Paradiso burrito? One bite at a time, okay? So this is like a

Paradiso burrito. It's one of those big honking Paradiso burritos with steak in it. You know, I'm talking about really good stuff here.

But what we're going to do here is we're going to look at the burrito first in all of its glory, and then we are going to...

Are you hungry now, Jay? Sorry.

You guys are thinking, Paradiso, that sounds really good right now. Yeah. It's not bad.

As far as Mexican food goes, it's actually pretty good. So I would note this. As a Mexican food snob, it's still not as good as authentic Mexican from Southern California, just saying.

But it's good. It's really good. All right. So let's just take this in, and we'll look at this from the vista point, and then next week, we're going to dive into and pull this thing apart, okay?

Because when you consider the details here, all right, we're not only going to get a prophecy.

In this prophecy, we're going to see mentioned, not by name, but by deed,

Alexander the Great. We're also going to see mentioned, not by word, but by deed,

Cleopatra. Did you know Cleopatra is prophesied here in this text? And the details of this are stunning.

In fact, the details, since it's such an accurate prophetic word, there are liberal scholars today who dispute the authenticity of Daniel chapter 11 and argue that it had to be written later by editors who put it in there because the details are too good.

And since they deny that miracles can happen, if this actually predates any of these people, then it proves that God knows the future.

That's right. The only reason they think it's written on a later date is because they refuse to believe that God knows the future and can actually prophesy things to come.

Which is, by the way, the same reason why those same liberal scholars, if you were to ask them, okay, when is the

Gospel of Matthew written? It's got to be written in the late 70s, early 80s

AD. What? Why so late? Because Jesus prophesied the fall of Jerusalem, and if it were written before then, then prophecy is real, and then that would be a miracle.

And since miracles are not possible, there's no way that it could have been written before the events. They had to be written after.

Isn't that a fun game that you play? Okay, you'll know it. People make void the word of God by these games.

So they come up with this idea. Miracles are not possible. How do you know? Well, because of the laws of nature.

Okay, well, are the laws of nature like speeding laws? Yeah. So you can't break those laws?

No, you can't break them. How do you know that? Because I know. Right, yeah, and so you sit there and go, so wait, a miracle just happened.

Jesus rose from the dead. That's not possible. How do you know that's not possible? Because he broke the laws of nature.

You can't break them. Uh -huh. Okay, right. This is just stupid.

Okay, but they argue the same way without the Gomer Pyle voice, but that's how they argue.

Okay, shazam. Anyway, don't get me started.

Next thing I know, I'm going to be saying God bless America before the Indianapolis 500. Anyway, that's a weird reference.

Oh, he won't edit this out. It's going to be there to embarrass me in the years to come. All right, so first order of business.

Let's look at the burrito. Next week, we'll start biting into the burrito and pulling the details out.

Okay, so here, so this is from the book of truth. Christ is giving this information beforehand, and it was written down in the book of truth, which means that God knows how the course of nature goes.

And this is probably just one or two chapters from the book of truth, things that were coming, which were then in the future, but for us are in the past, which also then lends this idea.

Since God knows what's coming, the other chapters in the book of truth will relate to us, and we can say, ah, he got it right regarding this.

We can take a look at the book of Revelation, which gives us some of that book of truth stuff, what's coming, and we can trust it, right?

Good. As for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them.

And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.

Then a mighty king shall arise who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills.

And as soon as he is arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven,

Alexander the Great. Okay. But not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.

Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority.

After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement.

That is Cleopatra. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up and her attendants and he who fathered her and he who supported her in those times.

And from a branch from her roots, one shall arise in his place.

He shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the north, and he shall deal with them and shall prevail.

He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, and for some years he shall refrain from attacking the king of the north.

Then the latter shall come into the realm of the king of the south, but shall return to his own land.

His son shall wage war and assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress.

It's clear as mud, right? You notice we're kind of in the weeds at the moment. We need a map to kind of figure out how to line this all up.

Then the king of the south, moved with rage, shall come out and fight against the king of the north, and he shall raise a great multitude, but it shall be given into his hand.

And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, and he shall not prevail.

For the king of the north shall again raise a multitude greater than the first, and after some years he shall come on with a great army and abundant supplies.

In those times many shall rise against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail.

One has to wonder if we're not talking about the Maccabean War at this point. Then the king of the north shall come and throw up siege works and take a well -fortified city, and the forces of the south shall not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no strength to stand.

But he who comes against him shall do as he wills, and none shall stand before him, and he shall stand in this in the glorious land with destruction in his hand.

He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them.

He shall give them the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom, but it shall not stand or be to his advantage.

Afterwards he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall capture many of them, but a commander shall put an end to his insolence.

Indeed he shall turn his insolence back upon him, then he shall turn his face back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall and shall not be found.

Then shall arise in his place one who shall send an exacter of tribute for the glory of the kingdom, but within a few days he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle.

In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given.

Now this character, okay, this character is a foreshadow of the man of lawlessness.

This is a foreshadow of the man of lawlessness, and in human history this is most notably the fellow who goes by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Antiochus Epiphanes, we'll talk about him, but he is a foreshadow of the man of lawlessness of the end of days.

He shall come without warning, obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Armies shall be utterly swept away before him and broken, even the prince of the covenant.

And from the time that an alliance is made with him, he shall act deceitfully. He shall become strong with a small people.

Without warning he shall come into the richest part of the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his father's fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods.

He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army.

And the king of the south shall wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for plots shall be devised against him, and even those who eat his food shall break him.

His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. And as for the two kings, their hearts shall be bent on doing evil.

They shall speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed.

And he shall return to his land with great wealth, but his heart shall be set against the holy covenant, and he shall work his will and return to his own land.

At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before, for ships of Katim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant.

He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering, and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.

He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their

God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder.

When they stumble they shall receive a little help, and many shall join themselves to them with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.

And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak astonishing things against the god of gods.

This sounds exactly like what Paul is talking about in 2 Thessalonians, right? Because it is. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished.

And there's that word again, okay? If you want to know how heaven describes the time that we are in, from the time of Satan's rebellion until the war is finally over, it is referred to in scripture as the indignation, okay?

We talk about the war we fought against the Nazis and against the Japanese as World War II, right?

Well, this war is always described in scripture as the indignation, okay? He shall prosper until the indignation is accomplished, for what is decreed shall be done.

He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all.

He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know, he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts.

He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him, he shall load with honor.

He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price. At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind with chariots and horsemen with many ships.

And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. He shall come into the glorious land.

The tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand. Edom and Moab and the main part of the

Ammonites, he shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold, of silver, and all precious things of Egypt and the

Libyans and the Kushites shall follow in his train. But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and to devote many to destruction.

And he shall pitch his calatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain.

Yet he shall come to his end with no none to help him."

Okay, that's part one. Okay, that's a big burrito, and there's no way

I'm going to be able to pull that apart in five minutes. I'm not even going to try. So next week, you'll have to tune in next week as we start to take our bites into this thing and try to figure out how do you make sense of this, right?

But once you begin to make sense of it, and you can start to pin certain people to certain historical figures, and you'll know one is still to come.

And that's the one, the man of lawlessness who exalts himself above every god.

You can kind of see then how this plays into eschatology. It's kind of fun if you think about it. There's the burrito.

It looks like a lot to eat, don't you think? So all I can say is bring some salsa next week and some chips and maybe a little guacamole.

That sounds good, and we'll see if we can't dive into this thing. All right, here's where we're going to end off, and Lord willing, we will see you next time.