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All scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation.
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How many of you have served in the military?
How many of you have actually been in a battle?
Warfare is the backdrop of our passage this morning – except that in this battle it appeared that the good guys were losing – and that it was a battle to which there would be no end.
This is again, apocalyptic literature – the strange highly-symbolic visions which are meant to provide a sense of hope for God’s people in a desperate situation.
Remember, this is the sixth century BC and the Jewish people were living in exile in Babylon. AND they were definitely feeling like their lives were totally out of control -- as though God had deserted them and they were in an unwinnable battle.
In the midst of this Daniel has several visions – including the one recorded here in chapter 8.
Verse 1 – "During the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, saw another vision, following the one that had already appeared to me. This time I was at the fortress of Susa, in the province of Elam, standing beside the Ulai River. As I looked up, I saw in front of me a ram with two long horns standing beside the river. One of the horns was longer than the other, even though it had begun to grow later than the shorter one. The ram butted everything out of its way to the west, to the north, and to the south, and no one could stand against it or help its victims. It did as it pleased and became very great."
I don’t want to get into a lot of detail here but verse 20 tells us that "The two-horned ram represents the kings of Media and Persia."
Then, verse 5, "While I was watching, suddenly a male goat appeared from the west, crossing the land so swiftly that it didn’t even touch the ground. This goat, which had one very large horn between its eyes, headed toward the two-horned ram that I had seen standing beside the river. The goat charged furiously at the ram and struck it, breaking off both its horns. Now the ram was helpless, and the goat knocked it down and trampled it. There was no one who could rescue the ram from the goat’s power.
"The goat became very powerful. But at the height of its power, its large horn was broken off. In the large horn’s place grew four prominent horns pointing in the four directions of the earth. 9 From one of the prominent horns came a small horn whose power grew very great. It extended toward the south and the east and toward the glorious land of Israel."
This, according to vs. 21, is the Greek empire.
"The shaggy male goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes represents the first king of the Greek Empire. The four prominent horns that replaced the one large horn show that the Greek Empire will break into four sections with four kings, none of them as great as the first."
Now, if you remember what you learned in your Western History class all of this fits in perfectly with what actually happened in the second century BC. Alexander the Great in a very surprising burst of power dominated from Italy to India. But he suddenly died in 323 BC and the Greek Empire was carved up by Alexander’s generals – the Diadochi.
The Diadochi appears to be the four prominent horns of verses 8 and 22.
The horn that grew to be dominant over the others was perhaps Antiochus IV – who would fit well in with verse 23 – "a fierce king, a master of intrigue..."
He is the one who ordered the halt to Jewish Temple sacrifices in 167 BC and who set up an object associated with the god Zeus in the Temple – and then
sacrificed a pig to it – which is what the Jews called the “abomination that causes desolation.”
This is a blow to the “hosts of heavens” or the army of God.
Verse 10 – "His power reached to the heavens where it attacked the heavenly armies, throwing some of the heavenly beings and stars to the ground and trampling them. He even challenged the Commander of heaven’s armies by canceling the daily sacrifices offered to him and by destroying his Temple. 12But the army of heaven was restrained from destroying him for this sin. As a result, sacrilege was committed against the Temple ceremonies, and truth was overthrown. The horn succeeded in everything it did."
Verse 25 – "He will even take on the Prince of princes in battle..."
The prince of princes is God himself.
Now, you remember that this is the situation that gave rise to the Maccabean revolt (and the holiday still celebrated as Hanukkah). For the Jews rose up and defeated Antiochus in a miraculous way.
Thus the end of verse 25 – "...but he will be broken, though not by human power." ...or more literally "not by a human hand..."
This is a reference to divine intervention. God’s power.
God is going to break the back of the oppressors. God is the one who will empower the Jews to once again become a force to be reckoned with.
Interestingly, this vision is sealed for awhile – verse 26 – “This vision about the twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings is true. But none of these things will happen for a long time, so do not tell anyone about them yet.”
The 2,300 evenings and mornings is symbolic for something – of which we are unsure.
But the point seems to be that there will be a definite end to the suffering of that time.
Now, if you’re kind of scratching your head and trying to figure out the point of all of this – well, I just took you thru a major chunk of history and a confusing section of scripture – debated endlessly – and we did so in just a seven minutes. I gave you the whirlwind tour.
But don’t feel alone if you find all of this confusing. In someways it is intended to be confusing – to get you scratching your heads and saying to yourself – what is it that he’s talking about and what’s the point of it all anyway?
Even Daniel – at the end of verse 27 says -- "I was greatly troubled by the vision and could not UNDERSTAND IT.
Not everything God has to say is easy to understand. And sometimes he wants us to walk out of here – not necessarily inspired by worship or what we hear in the Bible but more confused than ever – and chewing on it -- pondering it -- living with the mystery.
Well, I’ve been living with these visions for awhile – and I have managed to come up with three applications – kind of soup starter for you.
These are three things that are a part of God’s message to us in these visions.
First of all, A SPIRITUAL BATTLE RAGES BEHIND OUR PROBLEMS.
At the time of Daniel’s vision it appeared to some that there was no battle at all – that the forces of evil had won and that the Hebrew people were just stuck in captivity in perpetuity.
But the vision makes it clear that there is more going on than meets the eye.
Kings rise and kings fall. They attack God’s people – and in doing so they are stabbing at the very heart of heaven.
Verse 10, talking about the shaggy goat – "His power reached to the heavens where it attacked the heavenly armies, throwing some of the heavenly beings and stars to the ground and trampling them."
There is a battle going on – and it’s not between George Bush and Saddam Huessein.
This isn’t a war between the radical Islamic extremists and the West.
This isn’t a war between two former lovers.
This isn’t a war between two neighbors who can’t agree on the fence line.
What we see is but a tip of the iceberg. There is a spiritual battle raging out there.
Ephesians 6:10f – A final word: Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms."
Secondly, I want you to notice that GOD IS DEFINITELY INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE, SO THERE WILL BE A DEFINITE WINNER.
When you are battle weary as occasionally we all become, it is easy to begin to wonder where God is in the midst of all of this nonsense that we’re going thru. After all, he said he would never leave nor forsake his people.
Well, if you’re there God, it would sure be nice to see that you’re doing something – that you’re more than a cosmic slacker – or the God of the Deists –
who just wound up the clock and is letting it go on its own.
Can you imagine being one of those Jewish exiles in Babylon?
"By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept..."
We’re supposedly your people and you are our God – where is the cavalry?
We need back-up!
Beam us out of here before it’s too late.
And all they heard in response was nothing.
Oh, a few prophets were still rambling and Daniel was having visions – but that didn’t change the situation.
God wasn’t doing anything. He seemed distant – uninvolved.
Now that, of course, is short-sighted – and self-centered.
It assumes that if the battle isn’t ragging right in front of you that it has stopped.
It assumes that if God isn’t personally showing you everything that he is doing that he must be doing nothing.
The turning point of the battle in the vision is verse 25 – "He will be a master of deception, defeating many by catching them off guard. Without warning he will destroy them. He will even take on the Prince of princes in battle, but he will be broken, though not by human power."
God is doing it!
The point is clear – God is involved in the struggle – and there wil be a definite winner.
Therefore, (#3) TAKE HEART, BECAUSE IF YOU’RE ON GOD’S SIDE, YOU’RE ON THE WINNING SIDE.
Sometimes you’re doing all the right things and nothing is happening or worse – the things that are happening all seem to be negative.
Have you ever gone out of the way to buy a meal for a beggar?
You meet this guy on the sidewalk and he wants money for lunch. So you offer to take him in to Jack-in-the-Box and buy him a hamburger, fries, and a Coke.
But once you get in there he starts angling for a Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger and a shake – $7 or $8 worth of food – and you’ve only got $5. A suddenly the guy, whose brain is half-fired anyway – starts crabbing about how cheap you are.
You’re just trying to help the man out and suddenly you’re the bad guy.
Now, it doesn’t usually work that way – but it has for me a couple of times. And I’m NOT just talking about hamburgers.
Sometimes I’m tempted to withdraw so I can graciously grow into a curmudgeonly old man.
You all know the feeling.
Sometimes doing the right thing – fighting the right battle -- can become disheartening.
I must be doing something wrong if it’s this hard.
But that’s not it at all.
Don’t lose heart.
Don’t give up.
If you’re on God’s side you’re on the winning side – no matter how unstable things look right now.
You know, in a sense we are at a great advantage over Daniel. Daniel’s visions were all BC – before Christ – he never saw how God entered into human history as an actual human being and how he died on the cross for us and how he rose from the dead victorious over the forces of sin and death.
We know this about this victory. We celebrate it every week – everyday!
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
We know this – but sometimes when the going gets rough – we begon to focus inwardly and concentrate so hard on solving our problems that we lose sight of what’s really happening out there in the big picture.
One of the things that I’ve learned in dealing with clinically depressed people over the years is that the depression is so overwhelming that sometimes no matter what you do for them they don’t see it.
You can be cleaning their home, taking care of their yard, even helping them pay their bills – and still they whine that no one cares about them and they’re all alone.
It’s irrational and inconsistent with reality. But that is depression.
Daniel 8 is written for the depressed, the battle-weary, and the short-sighted.
God is involved in the battle. And he is definitely in control.
