Faith Under Fire

Our God reigns.  No matter how much evil seems to be in control of our times.  It’s simply not true.  Our God reigns.  He is sovereign over the affairs of man. That has been the theme of the book of Daniel throughout every chapter we’ve looked at so far.  In chapter one, when King Nebuchadnezzar sought to obliterate all practices of the Jews by forcing Daniel and his friends to eat the king’s food – Daniel refused to compromise and God gave Daniel, and his friends favor with the King.  In chapter two, when Nebuchadnezzar commanded that all the wise men of Babylon, including Daniel, be killed for failing to interpret his dream – God gave Daniel the courage and compassion to mediate on behalf of the wise men, and God gave Daniel the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.  Not only were the wise men saved, but Daniel was promoted.  God was in control.  In chapter three, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow to the King’s idol, and were thrown into the fiery furnace, God was with them in the fire.  And when Nebuchadnezzar saw this, he praised their God, and decreed that no one should speak anything against Yahweh.  Then in chapter four, when Nebuchadnezzar was at the height of his power and influence over Babylon and the nations, God humbled Nebuchadnezzar, turning him into a grass eating beast, then restored his mind and position, resulting in Nebuchadnezzar coming to a place where he himself finally gave praise to Daniel’s God.  In fact, under ever evil ruler of Babylon, God was with Daniel.  God protected Daniel and God used Daniel to bring praise to God.  So, over the course of this book, we’ve learned that our God is always in control even when it seems like He may be absent from the affairs of men.  We’ve learned that evil may have its day.  But evil never has the final word.  For no man or kingdom is greater than our God.

These may be two of the most profound truths we have learned from the life of Daniel. And because of this, Daniel serves as an example to us of how to live by faith when your faith is under fire. So as we come to Daniel 8, today, Daniel once again shows us how to live by faith in the face of evil. Daniel is going to shows us how we can live by faith when evil overwhelms us, appalls us, or leaves us puzzled in our understanding.

Think about the times in which we live: We live in a time where our faith is being assaulted on all sides. We live in a time where evil is called good and good called evil.  We live in a time where there is growing hostility toward our faith, toward our practices and even toward our God. So, as we come once again to the story of Daniel, in response to another horrific vision, Daniel shows us how to live by faith in the face of evil. So, if you’ve found Daniel 8, let’s jump into the next vision God brought to Daniel, and see what it takes to have a faith that stands firm in the face of evil.

The Rise of the Ram and the Goat In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me.  In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great. Daniel 8:1-4

Now, if you were with us last week, you’re going to notice some similarities between this dream and the vision Daniel received of the four beasts in chapter 7. Here, Daniel sees a ram charging its way, westward, northward and southward. According to Gabriel’s interpretation of this vision in verses 19-22, The ram is the Media and Persian Empire that was about to expand its realm to include Babylonia, Syria, and Asia Minor in the West, to Armenia and the area of the Capsian Sea in the north, and into Africa in the south. Now, I want you to note something about this particular vision: It comes to Daniel approximately three years prior to that fateful night of “the writing on the wall,” when Belshazzar was weighed and found wanting, and his life was taken and the kingdom fell to the Medes and Persians. In other words, God gave Daniel insider information about the demise of this arrogant and evil ruler.  He knew the days were numbered for Belshazzar and the all-powerful kingdom of Babylon. He knew that although evil was having its day, God would have the final word. So next, we read:

As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power. The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.  Daniel 8:5-8

Again, the second beast represented a rapidly expanding empire: The goat is the kingdom of Greece. And the “prominent horn” is a clear reference to Alexander the Great. The vision describes the totality and speed of his expansive conquest prior to his death at the age of thirty-three. This mirrors what we learned from Daniel’s previous vision.  After Alexander’s death, the kingdom was divided among four rulers. In fact, as we look at Gabriel’s interpretation of Daniel’s vision in this chapter, Gabriel reveals to us all the specifics of what would actually take place in history: He said: “I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end.  The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes is the first king. The four horns that replaced the one that was broken off represent four kingdoms that will emerge from his nation but will not have the same power. Daniel 8:19-22

So, the question you may be asking here is this: Why does God repeat the dream of Daniel 7, here in Daniel 8… but this time with the images of a ram and a goat? Listen to Professor Iain Duguid’s explanation. He says:“The message of the vision was thus good news to generations of saints who suffer at the hands of earthly kingdoms. These empires that to the human eyes looked so powerful, that seemed to have no weaknesses, were merely sheep and goats whose destiny lay in the hands of the divine shepherd. They weren’t even the cosmically frightening monsters of Daniel 7, but only overgrown domestic animals. Like any good shepherd, the Lord is easily able to judge mere sheep and goats who step out of line and put them in their place.”

In other words, this evil world that sometimes seems so overpowering and out of control is never beyond God’s control. The One who raises up such powerful and menacing realms, can just as quickly tear them down and assign them to pages in our history books. Evil never has the final word. For our God controls history! So, the next time the monsters of this world fill your nightmares or rob you of your peace – remember that the evil powers of our age are nothing more than big sheep in the God’s eyes. Evil may have its day, but at the end of the day, our God is greater! That’s the first truth that Daniel reveals to us from this dream.  When you trust that God is greater than the powers of this age, you can live by faith in the face of evil.

So far so good for Daniel, but then there arises an evil, that even Daniel could not handle.  And that’s what we see next as his vision reveals for us one of the most evil rulers to ever rise up on the stage of history: The Little Horn. Look at verses 9-12, where Daniel spells out for us…

The Significance of the Little Horn Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord; it took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord, and His sanctuary was thrown down. Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.  Daniel 8:9-12

Now as we get into this, I want to clarify something – the identity of the little horn. The little horn of this vision, is NOT the little horn of Daniel 7:8. That little horn in Daniel 7 is the antichrist who will come upon the stage of history at the end of time.  This little horn, however, is an evil predecessor, a type of antichrist. He is a historical figure, Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who came to power in 175 BC. Antiochus, whose nickname “epiphanies” means “god made manifest,” or “illustrious God” was the blasphemous title he gave to himself during his reign.  Antiochus was king of the Seleucid empire, one of the four kingdoms that emerged from Alexander the Great’s former territory. Initially, he was not first in line for the throne, but he seized it from his nephew through intrigue and then enlarged his kingdom through substantial military successes.

Now, if anyone personified evil it was him: Power hungry, Antiochus sought to expand his dominion to include Palestine. This brought him into conflict with the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. In Jerusalem he replaced the high priest with a man of his own choosing. He then invaded Egypt, and while there a rumor of his death circulated among the Jews.  As a result of this rumor, efforts were made to reinstate the real high priest. However, when Antiochus heard of this, he accused the people of rebellion, savagely attacked and sacked Jerusalem, executing tens of thousands of its inhabitants – forty thousand in the space of three days – while others were taken captive. He entered the holy of holies in the temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar, defiled the temple precincts, took the sacred furniture, and established a traitor, Menelaus, as high priest.

When we look at this text, Daniel actually describes three specific acts Antiochus implemented against God’s people: (1) he eliminated daily sacrifices, (2) he destroyed the temple, and (3) he eliminated the teaching of God’s truth.  Now, if that wasn’t bad enough, listen to how Gabriel describes Antiochus Epiphanes: “In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise. He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.”  Daniel 8:23-25 So, let’s look at some of these descriptions:

• He will become very strong, but not by his own power (24). In other words, there is power behind his reign. But it’s not his. He is a satanically empowered puppet.
• He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does (24). History tells us this. He was victorious in battle, achieved great power, and amassed tremendous wealth.
• He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people (24) As we’ve just heard, he executed tens of thousands of Jews.
• He will cause deceitto prosper, and he will consider himself superior (25)

Antiochus Epiphanes will be shrewd and deceptive, stopping at nothing to further his agenda. What was his agenda? His agenda was to Hellenize the Jews. In other words, he wanted to create one religion for all – by force if necessary. He could not tolerate what to him was the narrow-minded exclusivism of Judaism’s devotion to one God, to the rejection of all others. In fact, he shocked the Jews when he encouraged the peoples of the Mediterranean region to worship him as the Canaanite god, Baal – a nature god that had been decisively rejected by Israel as the idolatrous epitome of all that they stood against. Antiochus was trying to force them back to a compromise that centuries before had brought about their exile in Babylon in the first place.

    Now, interestingly enough, there were some Jews who accepted this compromise and welcomed it. They found Greek culture and lifestyle very attractive. It made far fewer moral demands than the law of Moses and allowed them to give free rein to their impulses and desires. It also opened up a whole new world of entertainment and sport and opened them up to the intellectual stimulation of the free exchange of ideas. It was not just ordinary people who welcomed this wave of Hellenization, but even some of their leaders led by no less than Jason the high priest, abandoned any sense that their Bible (the Old Testament) was a definitive revelation from God. The deceptive agenda of Hellenizing the Jews was working.

Think about what was happening? By pushing Hellenization, Antiochus was playing into the human desire for freedom. That concept of freedom is shared by many people today and IS their reason for abandoning God. People today say God is out to stifle them – their self-expression, their creativity, and their happiness. They want freedom from any authority and believe that secular society can give it to them. In fact, for many, this “Greek ideal” of life – the pursuit of the good (“the pursuit of happiness”), has become their overriding purpose for life. They have put great weight on human reasoning as the way to achieve this life. So then, just as there were many Jews who were deceived into embracing this way of thinking; in our world today, many Christian’s are buying into a Hellenized version of Christianity, where faith is now a private matter, where gathering for worship is passe, and the goal of being a Christian is to live a happy, comfortable and fulfilled life, where sacrifice and commitment to the way of the cross is no longer deemed necessary.  This was the agenda of Antiochus, to get Jews to throw off their God and become subject to His rule. And this same agenda of the evil one is obviously eroding the faith of Christians in our culture today.

Now, Antiochus Epiphanes was not just a deceitful ruler who considered himself superior to all people.  His arrogance knew no bounds.  For the next description Gabriel gives us is this: He will “in his own mind… exalt himself” (25) He saw himself as a divine being.  And like Nebuchadnezzar and the others who followed him, Antiochus could not tolerate people who would not bow down to him. He was determined to break their spirit. This is how that played out: Not content with banning the daily sacrifices, Antiochus proceeded to ban the reading of the law of Moses and ordered that all copies of it should be collected and burned. He went further, banning even the observance of the law, on penalty of death. In particular, he outlawed circumcision, even going to the extent of murdering Jewish babies who had been circumcised.

He was the epitome of evil. He had no value for human life.  He even took his stand against God by rededicating the temple to the Greek God Zeus.

It’s no wonder that Daniel concludes his vision by saying, I, Daniel, was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding. Daniel 8:27 Daniel was overwhelmed by the evil he saw. It was so disgustingly and outrageously evil, that he couldn’t comprehend it. And like many of us today, he couldn’t understand why God would allow such an arrogant and selfish individual to mock Him and destroy His people. And yet, in the midst of his personal anguish over this blatant evil, Daniel dshows us here, How to live by faith in the face of evil.   

 You see, Daniel knew that he himself would never face these atrocities.  He knew this vision was for the future. But he was still deeply troubled and burdened for God’s people and for God’s glory. So, after a few days recovering from this vision, he tells us: Then I got up and went about the king’s business. There was no quit in Daniel. He did not hide his head in the sand or seek to escape the evil world in which he lived.  Nor did he let this vision derail him from his purposes. He returned to the duties to which God had called him.

It’s here that Daniel’s attitude illustrates an important biblical principle for us: In view of what the future holds, as we live in this present evil age, we are to be about the king’s business – We are to be about who God has called us to be and what God has called us to do as His subjects. We are to be His witnesses in our Jerusalem, in our Samaria, in our Judea and to the ends of the earth.  We are to continue worshiping, serving and obeying our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are to continue making disciples, and we are to continue living lives that bring God glory in all we say or do!

And one way Daniel reveals for us how we can continue to live by faith in the face of evil is by holding fast to very activities that the little horn sought to destroy.  So, as we conclude this morning, I invite you to look with me at verses 11 and 12, and see the very practices the evil one wanted to destroy:

First, He took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord The daily sacrifices were part of the liturgical discipline of the Mosaic Covenant. These animal sacrifices are no longer necessary for us as followers of Jesus, since Jesus’ sacrifice for us paid the debt of our sin, once for all. However, the purpose for these sacrifices reminded the Jews of their daily need for the forgiveness they needed to stay in fellowship with God.

Today, our adversary wants us to downplay or disregard the cross of Jesus altogether. Why?  If he can get us to forget the cross, he can keep us enslaved to guilt and shame. That’s why it is so important for us to remember daily that Jesus’ sacrifice took away our sins, once and for all and forever. For when we daily remember the sacrifice of Jesus for us, will we live in freedom and live to bring glory to God in everything we do. Living daily under the shadow of the cross is what helps us live by faith in the face of evil.

Secondly, He destroyed the temple Just as Antiochus sought to destroy the temple, Satan seeks to destroy the new temple of God, the living fellowship of God’s people.  One of the greatest gifts God gives us is the fellowship of God’s people.  The moment you put your trust in Christ, God spiritually connects you to the body of Christ.  You are no longer alone.  You are part of God’s new family, the Church. Yet, one of Satan’s most effective strategies is to get you to go it alone.  For he knows, if he can separate you from God’s people, he can separate you from God and destroy your faith. Don’t let him deceive you. There is power in the encouragement, love, prayers, support and service you give to others in His body, and there is strength for you in the encouragement, love, prayers, and support others give you when you are connected to HIs body.  For when you are living as part of His community of faith, God’s people will help you live by faith in the face of evil.

Finally, He eliminated the teaching and practice of the truth The evil one knows that if He can keep you from the truth, he can keep you from worshiping God. Jesus said, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23

The evil one knows that if he can keep you from the truth, he can keep you in bondage.  Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.

And Satan knows that if you learn the truth, you will find your way to a relationship with God. For as Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6 He knows if you learn to walk in the truth, his deceptive lies have no power over you, and you can live by faith in the face of evil.

You see, the evil one wants to destroy God’s people. That’s always been his agenda. It’s been his agenda in the past, it’s his agenda today.  If he can’t overwhelm you with evil, he will undermine your need of the cross.  If he can’t get you to throw of the sacrifice of Jesus, then he’ll try to get you to walk away from God’s people. And if that doesn’t work, he’ll try to convince you that you don’t need the truth.  Let’s not fall for his ploys!

Evil can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be.

Let’s keep Jesus the center of all we do

Let’s keep meeting together as the day approaches, and

Let’s be a people who hold to Christ’s teaching

For then, we won’t just stand firm in the face of evil, We’ll have a faith that thrives in the face of evil.