Daniel 8:1 - 9:23

Daniel — Steve Gregg

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Daniel 8:1 - 9:23

DanielSteve Gregg

In this session, Steve Gregg delves into Daniel 8:1-9:23 and discusses the last vision, which follows on from the four empires featured in Chapters 2 and 7. The vision talks about the Persian Empire that is on the horizon and how suddenly a male goat appears from the west. The goat comes with notable horns and eyes and takes on the ram with two horns. Steve also relates this vision to the events surrounding the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, who profaned the Jewish Temple and caused a reactive movement among the pious Jews that led to the sacrifice being ceased for a period of six years.

Transcript

Turning now to Daniel 8. In the last vision, in Chapter 7 and also in Chapter 2, four empires were featured and the two middle ones were the Mediae Persian Empire and the Grecian Empire. The first of the four was Babylon, conquered by Mediae Persia. That later conquered by Alexander the Great and the Grecian Empire.

Eventually that was conquered by the Romans. But interesting history happened between the Babylonian Empire and the Roman Empire. And it is that segment of history that is predicted in the visions given in Chapter 8 of Daniel.

We're going to have two animals. There's going to be a ram and there's going to be a he-goat that are the focus of the early part of this vision. And they will actually correspond to the bear and the leopard of the previous chapter and to the chest of silver and the belly of bronze of Chapter 2. They are the second and third of the four kingdoms we've already had occasion to look at twice previously.

And the Babylonian Empire is not really mentioned here in this vision, probably because at the time that Daniel had the vision, the Babylonian Empire was, you know, the end was in view. Basically the Persian Empire was the next thing on the horizon. This vision was given in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar.

And Belshazzar actually reigned for 14 years and therefore this was just about a decade before the fall of Babylon. Apparently Babylon's doom was sealed sufficiently that there's no need to even bring up Babylon in this vision. Just look at the next one, which is the Persian.

But the greater focus is going to be not on the Persian or the Grecian Empire per se. We're going to be looking at briefly the existence and the conquests of Alexander the Great, but he's going to be passed over rather quickly. And his four generals and their successors are going to be the focus because that is really what affected the Jews more.

We are now in our first Hebrew chapter as opposed to the Aramaic chapters that have dominated the earlier part of the book. I mean chapter one was a Hebrew chapter, but then the next six up through chapter seven were written in Aramaic. And it would appear that the subject matter of those six chapters was of international interest.

The pagan nations, we had the four kingdoms in chapter two and the four kingdoms in chapter seven, and the chapters in between had to do with pagan kings and so forth. And those were written in the more diplomatic international language of Aramaic. But the portions that have to do more directly with the Jews are written in Hebrew.

And this is the first of the chapters since chapter one that is written in Hebrew. And it is really, although it talks about the Persian and the Greek Empire, it only does so in order to get quickly to the subject of how the Jews' fate will be adversely affected for a season before the Roman Empire comes by the successors of Alexander the Great. That is during the continuing reign of the Grecian Empire after Alexander's death and prior to the coming of the Roman Empire, there was this season that was very troublesome for the Jews, especially under one particular king named Antiochus Epiphanes or Antiochus the fourth.

Now, he is so significant that he fairly dominates this chapter, but he's also going to dominate in some respects a later vision in chapter 11, which goes into even more detail into him. He was a very important enemy of the Jews in the second century before the time of Christ. And so much is said about him and so much of it accurate in detail that it is the focus on Antiochus Epiphanes in these chapters 8 and 11 especially, which has led skeptics to say this book must have been written in the second century BC, certainly after the time that Antiochus had appeared.

Or else how could the writer know so much about him? And of course, the traditional view is he knew about him the same way that Isaiah knew about Cyrus 200 years before he conquered Babylon. And that would be by prophetic insight. But this passage goes far beyond the time that Daniel lives in to look at a time four centuries or three centuries later, three and a half centuries later.

And it begins, chapter 8 begins, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, to me Daniel, after the one that appeared to me the first time. Now, the first one he had was actually a dream. And here he has a vision.

But again, we are now in that section of chapters where it's not Nebuchadnezzar's dreams that concern us, but Daniel himself is receiving revelations. And that's the visions of this latter half of the book are the ones that Daniel had. This one was not a dream apparently, but a vision.

What's the difference between a dream and a vision? You're asleep when you dream. That's as far as I know, the only difference. If you describe a dream in the Bible, a prophetic dream, or you describe a vision, the description sounds just the same.

The difference seems to be a man's asleep when he's dreaming and not necessarily asleep when he has a vision. So I saw in the vision. And it so happened while I was looking that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam.

And I saw in the vision that I was at the river Ulai. Now, Shushan is the city that the Greeks call Susa. And it was one of the capitals of the Persian Empire.

Daniel was not necessarily really there. He said in the dream or in the vision, he was there. He pictured himself there.

Now, since this is going to be one of the capitals of the Persian Empire, that might be why the vision places him there because the vision begins with the assumption of the Persian period, although it had not yet arrived in Daniel's time in the third year of King Belshazzar. And it says, Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns. And the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.

We will find that this is identified unambiguously for us later as the Mediate Persian Empire. We're actually told that the ram is the Mediate Persian Empire when an explanation is given further on down. It's in verse 20.

The ram, which you saw, having the two horns, they're the kings of the Medes and Persia. So, the two horns are Medea and Persia. One horn was higher, but came up second.

One grew first, and the second one grew up taller. And that's because Persia was less ancient. The Medes were more ancient than the Persians.

So, the Persians came up later, but the Persians became more prominent. And so, although we talk about the Mediate Persian Empire, we can also almost refer to it as the Persian Empire. The first conqueror of that empire who conquered Babylon was a Persian Cyrus.

So, the two horns represent the Medes and the Persians. The bigger horn is the Persians. It came up later than the Medes.

The Medes were more ancient. I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no beast could withstand him, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand. But he did according to his will, and became great.

So, just as Nebuchadnezzar had done before, so Cyrus at a later date is now, he's the new kid on the block who's got all the power, and he's conquering every place. The references to westward, northward, and southward, this is the direction Persia pushed. They didn't go eastward so much.

They conquered the Babylonian Empire to the west. Remember, Isaiah refers to Cyrus as a bird of prey from the east coming, and he comes westward, and northward, and southward. The westward lands that he conquered were Babylon, Syria, and Asia Minor.

Of course, Babylon most significantly, but also the dominions under Babylon, Syria, and Asia Minor. Syria is in the Middle East. Northward, he conquered Armenia and the area of the Caspian Sea, and southward, of course, he conquered Egypt and Ethiopia.

So, these three directions, the Persian Empire pressed and conquered. And as I was considering, suddenly, a male goat came from the west. Now, Greece is from the west of Persia, so he's coming from another region.

Now, certainly, if this prophecy was given, or this vision was given in the third year of King Belshazzar, as it says, this was long before this he-goat ever existed on the scene. And that he would come from the west and have the career he does is one of the remarkable features of Daniel's prophecy, of the great detail of the future that he foresaw. This male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground.

Remember, this is the, in the previous chapter, he was the leopard with four wings. The four wings speaks of the speed of his conquest. Here, his speed is so great that he's practically flying, he doesn't even touch the ground, a reference to the rapidity of his rise and his conquest.

And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. Now, we're told in verse 21, which we'll jump forward to in just a moment to get this insight, verse 21 says, The male goat is the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king, which was, of course, Alexander, the conqueror who conquered the Persian Empire. So, we're not left to question the identity of these two creatures, we're actually told.

What's interesting, though, is that Daniel could be told explicitly that the Persian Empire would be conquered by the Greek Empire, which didn't happen until, you know, the late 4th century, that is the 300s, 330-something, which is, what, like two centuries after Daniel's time. In Daniel's time, the Grecian lands were not formidable. Persia was, but even to predict that the Persians would be the next empire after Babylon would require prophetic insight.

But we have this he-goat, this male goat, and he's conquering everything, and the notable horn is Alexander the Great. Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I'd seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. And I saw him confronting the ram.

He was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him, and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hands. So, Alexander was so powerful that although the ram, in the days of Cyrus, had been unbeatable and irresistible, unstoppable, well, the Persian Empire had become weak by this time, and now Alexander's day had come, and no one could stop him at this particular time.

Therefore, the male goat grew very great, but when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven, that is, toward the four compass points, and out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. And it grew up to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices, and he cast truth down to the ground, and he did all this and prospered. Now, the first horn, the notable horn, which is Alexander the Great, was broken off. That's the death of Alexander.

Alexander died very young. Some say he drank himself to death, some say he died of venereal disease, some say he essentially had lost the will to live because he had conquered the whole world, and he was only 33 years old, and there was no more worlds to conquer, there were no more challenges. He was obsessed with conquest, and he had already conquered, I think, everything, even to India, I think.

He really had done marvelous things in conquering the world as a young man, but then he died in the middle of his years. His sons did not succeed him. In fact, they were assassinated, and his four generals divided up his empire.

Now, the story of how this happened we will forego in detail, but the fact is that men who had served under Alexander became kings of different parts of Alexander's empire. They vied with one another. Obviously, they all wanted to be the next Alexander, but when they were unable to really succeed that way, they came to a division of the land into different regions, and therefore, the Grecian empire was divided into four ways among these four generals.

Their names are Cassander, who ruled over Macedonia, and Antigonus, or maybe it's Antigonus, it's A-N-T-I-G-O-N-U-S, Antigonus, he ruled over Asia Minor, Seleucus, who originally served under one of the others named Ptolemy, eventually ruled in Syria, and then Ptolemy, spelled with a silent P, P-T-O-L-E-M-Y, Ptolemy reigned in Egypt. Now, Cassander and Antigonus, because they reigned in Macedonia and Asia Minor, did not have dealings with the Jews directly, and therefore, they soon are not in the picture and are not really very important to the present concerns, not that they weren't important in their own day, but they aren't important to the Jews. But Seleucus, who ruled in Syria to the north of Israel, and Ptolemy, who ruled in Egypt to the south of Israel, often they and their successors fought against each other, and of course, Israel was in between them.

So, not only did they have to go through Israel to attack each other, they also, for strategic purposes, wanted to control Israel. And for the first hundred years approximately, after the death of Alexander, Israel was controlled, or Palestine as it was called, was controlled by the Ptolemies. The kings in Egypt, after the general Ptolemy, his successors were called Ptolemy II, Ptolemy III, Ptolemy IV, Ptolemy V, and so forth.

All the kings succeeding Ptolemy in Egypt after this time were named Ptolemy. Now, in the north, in Syria, the kings after Seleucus were either called Seleucus or Antiochus. For example, Seleucus I was followed by Antiochus I. He was followed by Seleucus II, and then there was Antiochus II, and so forth.

So, there were a series of kings in Syria and a series of kings in Egypt during a lengthy period of time where there was conflict over, well, as far as the Jews were concerned, over their land. And, well, for about a hundred years after Alexander's death, the Jews had relative peace and tranquility because Ptolemy ruled over them. Obviously, two or three generations later, there were wars between Ptolemy and Seleucus, or his successors, of course, and these wars had very harsh effects on the Jews.

In particular, there was one that rose out of Seleucus who was called Antiochus IV, and he is the one that is called Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes was simply a nickname he gave to himself. It means the glorious one or the illustrious one.

Antiochus, the radiant one. His enemies kind of made a play on words on that. They called him Antiochus Epimenes, which means Antiochus the madman.

Epimenes and Epiphanes sound a little similar. He called himself Antiochus, the radiant one, the glorious one, the illustrious one. His enemies called him Antiochus the madman.

He was a tyrant, and he really gave trouble to the Jews. We'll have more to say about him in Chapter 11, some very specifics about how he rose to power and what made him angry and so forth will come up in Chapter 11. But suffice it to say at this point that he was a very monstrous tyrant, even as Adolf Hitler was in the eyes of the Jews.

Most significantly, Antiochus Epiphanes outlawed the worship of Yahweh and the keeping of the law of Moses in Israel in his time. And made it a death penalty for someone to own the Torah or for someone to circumcise their children or to observe the Sabbath. In other words, any of the things that were distinctive of Judaism and that the Jews of good conscience could not forego became occasions for capital punishment.

And the straw that broke the camel's back was that Antiochus set up an altar to Zeus in the Jewish temple and sacrificed a pig there. Now a pig was an unclean animal, you couldn't even bring one into the temple, much less offer it to Zeus in the temple of Yahweh. And that caused there to be a cessation of the sacrifices.

The Jews stopped offering sacrifices at the temple there because it was defiled. They would not use the altar there anymore until they could cleanse the temple. But that would require getting rid of Antiochus and the Syrians that he ruled who were occupying them.

And there was a revolt, which we'll read more about also in chapter 11. But the revolt was sometimes called the Maccabean Revolt. I'll tell you more detail about that when we get to chapter 11.

But through that revolt the Jews were able to overthrow the forces of Antiochus in their land, drive out the Syrian forces, and rededicate the temple three years after it had been defiled. This is a great cause of celebration to the Jews. And of course the defiling of the temple by Antiochus is a great sacrilege and therefore he's considered to be a very, very, very evil man.

He not only killed the Jews, slaughtered the faithful Jews, and outlawed their religion, but he also defiled their temple. He did things worse, in other words, than Hitler did. Although he didn't kill quite as many, obviously, as Hitler did.

But in significance the things he did were like another Adolf Hitler and that's pretty much how the Jews remember him. But the Maccabean Revolt restored liberty to Israel from the Syrian rule, from Antiochus, and restored the use of the temple. And when the Jews celebrate Hanukkah, which although it's maybe not the most important feast of the Jews, it's probably the one that we're most aware of in this country because it falls around the same time as Christmas.

But they are remembering the restoration of the temple in the days of the Maccabeans and the recovery of the temple from Antiochus' profanities. Now having said that we can see exactly what is being discussed here. Because it says, it says the large horn in verse 8 was broken, its place came up four notable ones, that's his four generals.

Then in verse 9, out of one of them, that is out of Seleucus, out of the Seleucid dynasty, came a little horn. And that's going to be Antiochus' epiphany, Antiochus IV. Which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.

And now the south would be Egypt, he made wars with Egypt, with the Ptolemies of his period. And toward the east, which is Parthia, is where he also waged war. And also the glorious land which would be Palestine or Israel, these are the regions that he was at war with.

And it grew up, that is the horn, Antiochus' epiphany, grew up to the host of heaven. And it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them. This is of course not referring to literal stars.

What he trampled was people. In reaction to his oppressive laws against Judaism, there were godly Jews who opposed him. Or simply ignored his laws.

They went ahead and practiced circumcision and Sabbath keeping and so forth, even though he killed them for it. These were called the Hasidim. They were a reactive movement of pious Jews who were going to keep their faith even if it killed them.

And it did, he killed them. And these are the stars that got trampled by him. In Daniel chapter 12 and verse 3 it says, Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

So in Daniel stars shining are like those who turn people to righteousness, people who are godly people. So also these stars that Antiochus cast down to the ground and trampled is a reference to his persecution of the Hasidim. By the way, the Pharisee movement apparently grew eventually out of the Hasidim movement.

A movement that would start out very faithful to God, became very institutionalized and legalistic and hypocritical and so forth. That's the way denominations usually go. And that's what happened to them.

Now it says in verse 11, He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host. Now the prince of the host is probably a reference to God. Although it seems like a rather lowly title for God, a prince.

But the word prince in Hebrew means a ruler. So the ruler of the hosts, the host here could be the host of God's armies, which could be the angels, or it could even be the Hebrew armies. Or it could mean the stars or whatever.

The title, the meaning of the title is not the most important thing to mention or to decipher. But this is apparently a reference to God. Because it says at the end of this verse, the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

That's the temple and his would be a reference back to God. God's the one whose sanctuary is trampled, the prince of the host. So basically Antiochus didn't just oppose Jewish people, he opposed their God.

He didn't just take advantage of their weakness and oppress them. He picked a fight with their God, the prince of the host. And he defiled and cast down his sanctuary so that the daily sacrifice was taken away.

This is of course the pagan sacrifice that he offered, brought an end temporarily to the sacrificial system and its practice until later. That's what this is describing. And by the way, all commentators I think agree with this.

This is not one of the things that dispensationalists would disagree with. But historic Christiana and dispensationalists, everyone agrees. This is too hard to misidentify.

The time frame, the wording is exact. It's very clearly talking about the activities of Antiochus Epiphanes. And because of the transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices and he cast truth down to the ground.

And he did all this and prospered. Casting truth down to the ground probably is a reference again to him trampling down on the faithful Jews who are seeking to uphold their practices that the word of God, the law of God had commanded. That's the truth that he was trampling and casting down to the ground.

Verse 13, Then I heard a holy one speak him, and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, How long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of the desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the hosts to be trampled underfoot? Now this seems to be asking how long will the sacrificial system be interrupted by Antiochus Epiphanes? And the answer to that in real terms was about almost exactly three years. In history. But the answer he gets is 2,300 days.

Then the sanctuary shall be cleansed. So Antiochus defiles it, the sacrificial system is suspended, but then it's cleansed by the Maccabeans and it's resumed. The length of time is said to be 2,300 days.

If taken literally, that many days is like six years and six months or something similar to that. Six years, five months or something. Some commentators, I know I found John MacArthur, for example, in his commentary said that this is the length of time that the Jews were persecuted by Antiochus.

That may be true. He actually gave some dates and said this is the exact number of days. Not many commentators have followed him on this, but if he's right, that's a very exact fulfillment.

He actually mentioned the day of the month and the year and so forth that Antiochus began to cause problems for them. But I'm not 100% sure that we have an easily nailed down moment when their problems began. There must be some particular event when he trampled through there.

He did attack the Ptolemies in Egypt on one occasion and was stopped in Egypt by the Roman Navy that stopped him and made him go home without conquering Egypt. He was very furious and he returned back through Palestine and he did a lot of damage there and killed people and things like that. That might be the point that the date is being considered to begin with.

But the actual cessation of sacrifice was not six years and something. It was just three years. Now, many commentators seeking to make this three years instead of the six have pointed out that the word days in this particular passage is not the word yamim, which is the normal word for days in Hebrew, but it actually says in the Hebrew, there will be 2,300 evenings, mornings.

There's not an and and there's not evenings and mornings, just evenings, mornings. It's translated days here, but if it was literally translated, it would be 2,300 evenings, mornings. Well, what in the world is an evenings, morning? Well, many commentators suggest that this is referring not to the number of days, but the number of daily sacrifices that were interrupted, that were missed.

Now, the Jews had a morning daily sacrifice, continual burnt offering, and an evening one. So there'd be an evening sacrifice and a morning sacrifice every day. And 2,300 of those would be half as many days then, because there's two sacrifices per day.

That would make it 1,150 days. And that comes to three years and 70 days total. Now, I can't tell you whether it's the exact number of days, but three years, 70 days is mighty close to three years.

And there may be facts, if it were known, that we could confirm that that's the exact number of time. But I've heard other figures given that are more closely to three years. But three years and 70 days is still pretty close, and I'm not sure really what to do with this.

So some commentators want to make it 2,300 days and identify it with the whole period of time that the Jews were persecuted by Antiochus. Others make it just the season from the defiling of the temple to the time that the Maccabean revolt, after its success in driving Antiochus' epiphanies out, rededicated the temple. And that'd be more like three years.

And that'd be 2,300 evenings, mornings. That is, 2,300 sacrifices were omitted in half as many days, because there were two per day normally. A little confusing, obviously.

And this is one of the verses that commentators really speculate, or disagree about. Verse 15, Now it happened when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, and was seeking the meaning, that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice beside the banks of the Uli River, who called and said, Gabriel... Now this is the first mention in the Bible of Gabriel by name.

And he's mentioned only three other times by name. He'll be mentioned again in Daniel, and he's also mentioned in Luke, as the angel that comes to announce to Mary. And I believe, I think he's also in Matthew 1, he's the angel who comes to Joseph also, and tells about Mary's pregnancy.

In any case, he's not mentioned by name very often. And he's first seen here to Daniel, he's actually a man, an angel, standing by the banks of the Uli. And he is told to make this man, Daniel, understand the vision.

So he came near where I stood, and when he came, I was afraid and fell on my face. But he said to me, Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end. Now the time of the end of what? I've heard dispensationalists quote this phrase, time of the end, which actually occurs in other passages, like in chapter 12.

Instead of calling it the time of the end, they call it the end of time. But the phrase, time of the end, is not the same thing as the phrase, end of time. It's the time of the end of something.

It's, I would say, the time of the end of the Grecian dominance over Israel. But it's, obviously he means, because this is talking about something pretty far off in the future. And it was.

And it says, Now as he was speaking, by the way, he called Daniel, son of man, here. And obviously the speaker is an angel, Gabriel. And so he addresses Daniel as a human.

Human, that's what son of man means, human. Understand, human, earthling, mortal, that the vision refers to the time of the end. Now as he was speaking with me, I was in deep sleep.

So he fell on his face when he saw him and then apparently was in a sleep-like state, maybe a trance, with my face to the ground. But he touched me and stood me upright. And he said, Look, I'm making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation.

For at the appointed time, the end shall be. Now because of this reference to the end and the time of the end, dispensationalists tend to want to extend this prophecy to the end of the world too. And they recognize that Antiochus Epiphanes is definitely in this vision.

But they say Antiochus Epiphanes is a type and a shadow of another evil man who will be the Antichrist. So they've got the Antichrist is the little horn in the previous chapter. And then this little horn, who is Antiochus Epiphanes, becomes a type of the Antichrist also.

And so they get the Antichrist in lots of places. I would point out to you though that Daniel has nowhere yet mentioned an Antichrist at all. The word Antichrist means someone who is against Christ.

The little horn here is not against Christ because Christ has not been born yet in the career of Antiochus. He was against Judaism. And we could say by extension that's against Christ because Christ was going to come from the Jews.

And of course if you destroy the Jews you've destroyed Christ before his birth. But to refer to this little horn as a future Antichrist I think goes beyond what is suggested in the passage. I think it's just a reference to Antiochus.

And he says in verse 20, The ram which you saw having two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation but not with his power.

None of the four generals ruled the whole empire like he did. And in the latter time of their kingdom, now see here we go, it's the latter time of their kingdom, of the Grecian Empire. That's what the time of the end is referring to.

The end of the Grecian Empire. In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, that's Antiochus, having fierce features, who understand sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.

Now, not by his own power, some people think it refers to demonic power that he had. And it says, He shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people.

And that's what he did. Of course he destroyed or persecuted the holy people. Now notice it says he destroyed the holy people.

He didn't eradicate them, they didn't become extinct. But destruction of a people is here spoken of as an intensive persecution of them. Through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his hand, and he shall magnify himself in his heart.

He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the prince of princes, which apparently means God. But he shall be broken without human hand.

According to an account in 2 Maccabees, Antiochus died of a painful disease. So he didn't die by human hand, he died by the stroke of God. And the visions of the evenings and mornings, which is told, is true.

Therefore seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future. And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days. Afterward I arose, and went about the king's business.

I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it. Apparently even Daniel. Or maybe they didn't understand why he was so astonished.

He didn't tell it. Hard to say exactly his reaction and why. Hearing a description of it doesn't make you sick to your stomach.

But perhaps seeing it would have that effect. What kind of emotional effect it has on the man seeing the vision is hard to describe other than that he was sick for days and astonished. Now it's interesting in verse 26 that it says seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future.

That's going to be said also about his vision in chapters 10 and 11. It's to be sealed up also because it doesn't have immediate fulfillment. But it's interesting here the fulfillment of this vision was within well we have to say within three and a half centuries of Daniel's time.

And yet it was so far in the future that he had to seal it up. And as I pointed out before it's in contrast with Revelation chapter 22 and verse 10 where John is told don't seal the vision because the time is at hand. Yet many people tell us that the vision of Revelation was going to take place 2,000 years or more after the time of John.

But he was told it was at hand and he should not seal the vision because it was so near. And yet we are told it was 2,000 years off. But Daniel's vision that was only 300 years off was way off in the future and he was told to seal up the prophecy it's not going to be fulfilled anytime soon.

So 300 years is not very soon. But some people want us to believe that 2,000 years is soon. And of course that's one of the reasons why preterists believe what they do about the book of Revelation.

They believe it talks about things that did happen shortly after it was written because of this kind of imagery. Now we don't have time to take the whole of Daniel 9. But the last four verses of Daniel 9 deserve a session all to themselves. The first 23 verses are largely a prayer that Daniel prays.

And I would like to read it and then we'll close this session after considering that because that will bring us right up to the threshold of the prophecy of the 70 weeks and then we can give an entire session next time to those four verses which you might say how can you spend an hour on those four verses? These four verses you can spend much more than an hour on. Much more. So we don't have to take the first 23 verses at the beginning of next session and leave very little time for the 70 weeks.

Let's go on into Daniel 9 now. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, so now for the first time we're in the Persian reign. It was the third year of Belshazzar, the last vision, which was at least a decade before this one.

And it says in the first year of Darius which is 539 BC when Daniel had been about 66 or 67 years in Babylon himself. 66 or 67 is quite near to 70. And he says in the year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of the lineage of the Medes, that's Darius the Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord given through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Now, of course, Daniel's living 66 or 67 years into the captivity and he's reading that it's going to last 70 years. That means it's nearby.

It's coming up soon. And notice he got it from Jeremiah. Despite the fact that God gave Daniel personal revelations that were very detailed even about numbers of days and things like that, he didn't learn about the 70 year duration of the captivity until he read the Bible.

In other words, even a man who receives direct revelations from God still has use for the Bible. God doesn't tell us everything by direct revelation. I do know people who, especially highly charismatic people who believe that God speaks to them quite frequently.

And some of them, not all of them, are looking to the Bible for information. I just get it from God. I get it from the Holy Spirit.

He reveals that to me. And they consider that reading the Bible, that's kind of boring compared to getting revelations directly from God. You may hear people like that sometimes say that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Misunderstanding Paul's use of that statement. Like reading the Bible, that's the letter, that's dead. Dead, dead letter.

We need fresh manna. We need fresh revelation from God all the time. Well, Daniel got that.

Daniel got revelations from God. But he still learned things from the Bible of his time that God did not reveal directly to him. Even if a person does hear from God through the Holy Spirit, that does not cancel out their need to learn from Scripture.

Obviously, Daniel respected Jeremiah and was reading his book, maybe devotionally, who knows. But as he was reading it, he learned from the books, not from a dream or a vision as he learned so many of the things he's told us. But from reading the book of Jeremiah, he learned that the captivity was to be 70 years.

And it says, Now, he's going to pray for God to fulfill this prophecy, which is interesting. He didn't just assume that since God predicted it, he'd sit back and watch it happen. He could have just sat back and said, Well, God, I see it's only a few years from now you're going to end this captivity.

Thank you, Lord. I'm looking forward to that and go his way. Instead, he's fasting.

He's wearing sackcloth and ashes. He's praying for what? For God to do what God said he was going to do. Obviously, he didn't feel that just because God predicted something that God was going to pull it off without any cooperation on the part of his people.

Now, I don't know how many other Jewish people may have been doing what Daniel was doing. But he was one who was going to be repenting for his own sins and the sins of the nation. Now, we don't know of any sins that Daniel ever committed.

They're not recorded. But he confesses his own sins and the sin of the nation. And he's praying that God will fulfill his promise to liberate the Jews from Babylon.

I prayed to the Lord, my God, and made confession and said, God keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments. We have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments.

Neither have we heeded your servants, the prophets. Now, Daniel probably had heeded the prophets, but he includes himself. He sees himself as part of the solidarity of his people.

Perhaps he's speaking as a representative of his people because he's not so sure that he's speaking for his people. He may be standing in for them, praying on their behalf, what they should be praying. Who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes and our fathers and all the people of the land.

Oh, Lord, righteousness belongs to you. But to us, shame of face. That means humiliation, as it is this day.

To the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, for which you have driven them because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you. Oh, Lord, to us belongs shame of face to our kings, our princes and our fathers because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him.

We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws, which he set before us and by his servants, the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed your law and has departed. So as not to obey your voice.

Therefore, the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us because we have sinned against him. That's, of course, the curse of Deuteronomy 28. And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us a great disaster.

For under the whole of heaven, such never has been done to Jerusalem. Note the hyperbole here because Jesus uses it, too. And he's anticipating the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 24 and verse 21.

He says, then shall be great tribulation as has never been done before and never will be done afterward. Also, Ezekiel used the same language in Ezekiel 5, 9 when he was talking about the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. And Daniel's talking about what Ezekiel was talking about, the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem because God has never done such a thing as this before.

Well, it's hyperbole. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us. Yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth.

Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which he does though we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord our God, you have made yourself out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made yourself a name as it is this day. We have sinned.

We have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all your righteousness, I pray, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people and his supplications and for the Lord's sake cause your face to shine on your sanctuary which is desolate. Oh my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by your name for we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds but because of your great mercies.

O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act.

Tell the word of God for your city and your people that are called by your name. I just want to point out to you what effective praying looks like. It's not, Lord, help me.

Help mine, help us. It's Lord, vindicate your name. It's your people.

It's your city. It's your promise. It's your reputation.

This is also how Moses prayed when God was going to wipe out Israel and make a new nation out of him. people and basically expressing concern for what is God's interest. That's what prayer is about.

Prayer is not about rubbing the magic lamp and getting the genie to do what we want to do. It's about urging God to do what is in, in fact, His best interest. Let me show you how the apostles prayed real quickly in Acts chapter 4, then we'll come back to this and take a few more verses, just a few.

In Acts 4, the apostles were threatened with great punishments if they continued to preach in the name of Jesus. And in Acts 4.23 it says, being let go, that is they were released from the Sanhedrin, from jail, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God.

Now check this prayer out. See how many times it's you and how never it's us. This is not about us.

It's about you. Lord, you, they say, are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant, David, have said, why did the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For truly against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.

Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal, that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. And this is all about God. It's all about you, God.

It's your servants. It's your Jesus. It's your word.

It's your signs. It's your hand. It's your promises.

It's your reputation. And so that's why prayers in the Bible sometimes got results that our prayers don't. We cry out to God basically with ourselves and our own interests in need, whereas prayers in the name of Jesus should be prayers that Jesus would pray, prayers like Daniel and the Apostles prayed, prayers that are about God vindicating his own name and his own interests.

And that's what we find in Daniel 9, 19, Oh, Lord, hear, oh, Lord, forgive, oh, Lord, listen and act. Do not delay for your own sake, my God, for your city, for your people, what you call by your name. Now verse 20.

Now, while I was speaking, praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, for the holy mountain of my God. Yes. While I was speaking in prayer, a man, Gabriel, the man Gabriel, whom I'd seen in the vision at the beginning, that's in the previous chapter, being caused to fly swiftly as a man, but he flies, reached me about the time of the evening offering.

And he informed me and talked with me and said, Oh, Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand at the beginning of your supplications. Since the commandment went out and I have come to tell you for you are greatly beloved, therefore consider the matter and understand the vision. And then he gives him this four verses of what's called the prophecy of the 70 weeks.

It is in some cases, the most remarkable prophecy in the Bible in that it, depending on how it's understood, many people think it predicts the very day of the crucifixion of Jesus. Essentially. Um, it does definitely talk about Jesus and it gives a timeframe from Daniel's own time to the time of Jesus and tells how long that will be.

Now of course, the value of that prophecy is clearly that no Messiah could come and claim to be Messiah who doesn't fall within that timeframe. And of course, history has shown that Jesus did. The understanding of that prophecy though, remarkably has been disputed, especially between dispensationalists on the one hand and historic Christian scholarship on the other.

And we will take next session to consider that, to look at it in detail. It's an obscure, rather confusing worded prophecy, but it can be made sense up and we'll have to take the time necessary to really make sense of it in our next session.