So once again, we come to Daniel, in our study of that amazing book. And we are in Daniel chapter eight, as we have just read a few minutes ago, a few remarks to prepare our hearts for the word this morning. As I think about it, having lived in a country that has been largely sympathetic to Christianity, it's hard for us to realize the seething and growing hatred people have towards those who love and worship Christ. Our world today can be likened to the wickedness that was upon the face of the earth during the days of Noah, that resulted in God's judgment through the worldwide flood. You may recall that in Genesis six, five, we read "That the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Certainly, that is an apt description of much of what we see, in our world today, even in our country. The militant unbelief in our country validated by the gross immorality, and the sheer insanity of our culture is certain proof that Satan is alive and well. And that he has launched a full-scale attack on the kingdom of God. The Bible, the Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His true church, all of these things are mocked and ridiculed. And it's just a matter of time that they will be outlawed. After all, what fellowship does light have with darkness. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you." But I fear today we underestimate the level of hatred. In fact, just try sharing the gospel with people and see the reaction. And if you're going to be honest with the gospel, you have to begin with the bad news that all that we are, and all that we do is fundamentally offensive to a holy God. That you are born with a sin nature, and you will perish in your sins, unless you place your faith in the living Christ, who paid the penalty for them. Try telling that to people and watch the reaction. Were it not for the freedoms embedded in the Constitution and frankly, more importantly, the mercy of a sovereign God, I fear that we would all be put to death. This has been what has happened over the course of many years of history. And today, we see government officials that do everything they can to legislate what God loathes and criminalize that which God loves. And of course, this has happened down through the millennia of time, and Satan will continue to do everything he can to thwart the purposes of God. But ultimately, I might add to no avail, because in the end, because our God reigns, the kingdom will come.

Now, what we have here in Daniel eight, is an illustration of Satan's wrath being poured out upon God's covenant people Israel in that day, especially under the past rule of Antiochus Epiphanes, which, as you will see, I believe foreshadows an even greater persecution in the future, for Israel and for all who love Christ, under the rule of antichrist. Israel's only hope, the hope of all Gentiles, is ultimately in Christ alone. And we can be thankful that in him we are more than conquerors; "hupernika," we are super conquerors in Christ. He alone is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Now, this is a bit technical, I want to try to make it as simple as possible. Let me tell you what, in summary, what the chapter says; give you an overview, we'll look at it a little bit more in detail and then summarize it.

This vision paints in very broad strokes, the future history of the Medo-Persian and the Grecian Empire. The second and third empires, in Daniel's history of quote "the times of the Gentiles." But with much greater detail, he describes the exceedingly wicked ruler and Antiochus Epiphanes who served as one of the kings of the Syrian division of Alexander's great empire after Alexander the Great died. And however, the prophecy, I believe, goes beyond the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes and foreshadows a future leader that will persecute Israel even more greatly referring to the Antichrist, the final world leader. Now once more as we look at this vision, we see that the Spirit of God uses animals to symbolize these kingdoms. You will recall in chapter two; a bear was used to symbolize the Medo-Persian Empire and the leopard to symbolize Greece. Now in Chapter eight you have a two horned ram symbolizing Medo-Persia, and a one horned male goat symbolizing Greece. However, the one horn on the male goat, as we're going to see, is suddenly broken off and replaced by four conspicuous horns, which symbolizes the four kingdoms of the Diadochi it was called, which means successors, the four rival generals that emerged after Alexander died. And these generals fought for control of his kingdom. And in this vision, we're also going to see that a little horn appears and grows from among those other four horns. A horn that grows to be exceedingly great and that symbolizes Antiochus Epiphanes, the eighth king of the Syrian dynasty of the Seleucid Empire, who came out of one of the four kingdoms of Alexander's successors. He is like the little horn of the fourth kingdom, which was Rome in Daniel seven, he's like him, the one that brought such great persecution upon Israel. However, the one horned male goat that we're going to see here, in Daniel eight is not Rome, nor is the little horn in chapter eight, a reference to the antichrist that will defeat be defeated an the Messiah’s kingdom will come and replace that as we see in Daniel seven. You got to be careful, just because something is similar, doesn't mean that it's identical. A mistake that many Bible expositors I fear make. So bottom line, unlike Daniel's vision recorded in Daniel seven that summarizes the times of the Gentiles in the coming of the messianic kingdom that will replace the Gentile kingdoms when Christ returns, the vision here in chapter eight finds its primary fulfillment in the Medo-Persian and Grecian empires. However, when the angel Gabriel interprets the vision to Daniel, his explanation seems to go beyond Antiochus, to a future world ruler, of which he is merely the type of a greater antitype, the greater antitype being the ultimate King that will oppose Israel in the last days, namely the Antichrist. So as we look at the text, first of all, the first verses here we see the historical setting.

Notice verse one, "In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously. I looked in the vision and while I was looking, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I looked in the vision, and I myself was beside the Ulai Canal." Or it could be translated "river." Interesting enough, the Hebrew word "ram" springs from the same root as Elam. You're going to see some of the significance here in a moment. Now bear in mind, this is the second vision God gave to Daniel. At this point Daniel was the same age as I am today, 69 years old. I'm sure he didn't look as young as I do, but that was his age. This occurred in 551 BC, 12 years before Belshazzar's feast, you will recall in Daniel five, where he saw the handwriting on the wall, handwriting pertaining to God's judgment upon him and the Babylonian Empire. Now Susa was a city about 230 miles east of Babylon, and about 120 miles north of the Persian Gulf, that several years later became the one of the Royal cities of the middle Persian Empire. This was the place by the way, where the famous code of Hammurabi was found. The Babylonian law code that dates all the way back to 1772 BCE, that was the Babylonian law written by King Hammurabi of Babylon. By the way, it's still on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris. And I might also add that later on, this was the same Palace region where Esther served as queen. And later it was also the place where Nehemiah was the cup bearer of Artaxerxes the First. So that's a little bit of the background.

So that's the setting now to the vision, verse three, "Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram, which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with the longer wind coming up last, I saw the ram, budding westward, northward and southward and no other beasts could stand before him, nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified himself." Now, first of all, you're going to see that I'm going to go back and forth between what these verses say and Gabriel's interpretation of them in verses 15 through 27. So we have an interpretation here of what we just read in verse 20, "The ram which you saw with the two horns, represents the kings of Media and Persia." So this speaks of the dual monarchy of Medo-Persia, symbolized by the silver arms; the two arms of the image in Daniel 2:32. And the two sided bear that we read about in Daniel seven. Under Cyrus we know that Persia eventually became the dominant of the two empires, and they superseded the Median side of this dual monarchy. And it's also interesting to note that the Persian rulers bore the head of a ram a jeweled ram's head whenever they stood in front of their army, according to the fourth century historian Arminius or Salinas. Likewise, Kyle says, quote, "In the Bundehesh," which was a Persian religious book, "In the Bundehesh, the guardian spirit of the Persian kingdom appears under the form of a ram with clean feet and sharp pointed horns. And the Persian King when he stood at the head of the army bore instead of the diadem, the head of a ram." Now m,ind you the Spirit of God is revealing this to Daniel long before it happened. And here a ram symbolizes as we see, the Medo-Persian Empire, and later on the Grecian Empire is going to be symbolized by a male goat. My friend, Dr. Walvoord, said this, "Not only are both the ram and the goat mentioned in the Old Testament as symbols of power, but different lands were assigned to the signs of the zodiac, according to astronomical geography, geography. In this view Persia is thought of as under the zodiacal sign of Aries, the ram. And Greece as sharing with Syria, the principal territory of the Seleucid monarchy, the zodiacal sign of Capricorn, the goat. The word Capricorn is derived from the Latin capri, a goat, and cornu, a horn." End quote. Can't you see the hand of Satan through all of these things? Now notice in verse three "The two horns were long but one was longer than the other with a longer one coming up last." And then he says, "I saw the ram butting westward, northward and southward and no other beasts could stand before him nor was there anyone to rescue from his power. But he did as he pleased and magnified himself. Now folks this is amazing prophecy, absolutely astounding to predict what we know historically happened. The primary military conquests of Cyrus and his successors advanced in three different directions westward to Babylonia to Syria to the Asia Minor, northward to Armenia and all the way up into the Caspian Sea region, and then southward into Egypt and Ethiopia. This is exactly what God predicted.

Now, as Daniel just describes this, he says in verse four, no other beasts were basically able to stand against the Medo-Persian horns. So obviously, there's some other unnamed animals that he's seeing here, symbolic of their powers. And we know that historically, this ram was without equal in that day. History reveals how Cyrus marched virtually unopposed across northern Mesopotamia, to Asia Minor, and there he conquered, everything, including the wealthly Croesus, you remember that story. And then he headed on to Babylon without hardly any effort. We read about this, by the way, in Isaiah chapter 45, the first four verses, and here you see how God even uses the wicked to accomplish his purposes. There we read, "Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed, who might have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and make the rough places smooth, they will shatter the doors of bronze, and cut through their iron bars, I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel, My chosen one, I have called you by your name, I have given you a title of honor, Though you have not known Me."

So verse four, "no other beasts could stand before him, nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified himself." So what we see is that a sovereign God orchestrates all of these things. And by divine design, the Medo-Persian Empire became the undisputed, dominant Gentile empire of its day. Until Alexander the Great came along. That's what he sees next in verse five. "While I was observing behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came up to the rim that had the two horns which I had seen standing in front of the canal and rushed at him in his mighty wrath." Now, if we look at the interpretation in verse 21, we see what Gabriel describes. "The shaggy goat, he says, represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king." And we know this to be Alexander the Great. Once again, astounding accuracy of what would happen some 300 years after Daniel's vision. Beloved, only a sovereign omnipotent, omniscient God could accomplish this. Indeed as Daniel records in verse five, "a male goat," by the way, a male goat is greater in strength and in agility than a ram sheep. The "male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground." And we know historically that Alexander began his conquest in the west and he moved to the east with uncanny speed. And this is even symbolized by the phrase over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. You will recall in chapter seven in verse six, he was represented by the four wings of a leopard, indicating that speed once again. Verse five, "and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes." Now, normally, a male goat is going to have two horns. But this one is unique; here he has one very large, very conspicuous, or it could even be translated prominent horn, and to be sure this is Alexander the Great, who was a military genius, educated, by the way, by Aristotle. He was born in 356. He was the son of Philip of Macedon, who was a great warrior and a statesman, who ruled Macedon for three decades. You may recall he lost his right eye in a battle due to an arrow. But eventually he was assassinated, resulting in his son Alexander, succeeding him as king in 336 BC; Alexander was 20 years old. Alexander knew that his father hated the Persians. In fact, all of the Greeks hated them since the days of Cyrus. He also knew that his father was preparing to invade them so fueled with seething hatred for an oppressive enemy. He set out to accomplish his father's wishes a year and a half after he had taken the throne. And he began his conquest in 334 BC.

Verse six, "He came up to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal and rushed at him in his mighty wrath." Could be translated his powerful fury or his infuriating strength, he was empowered by the feelings of intense anger. The Greeks hated these people. And so it was time for revenge. So they attacked them. Verse seven, "I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns and the Ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power. Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly." Indeed, we know historically with around 40,000 men, he annihilated the Persians taking all of Asia Minor, even northern Syria. He conquered the island fortress of Tyre, went on to Egypt and Mesopotamia, all the way to modern Afghanistan, all the way to the borders of India. Maybe you've seen on some of the old movies, the great victory that he had over King Porus with the war elephants. The Battle of Jhelum in 326 BCE, and he carved out an empire of 1.5 million square miles. And he did that in 10 years. That's astounding. So indeed, the male goat magnified himself exceedingly.

Well, as we all know, pride comes before a fall. In verse eight, we see "But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken." We know that history records how he claimed to be a god, and he provoked many of his Macedonian leaders to rebel. In doing so, they were frustrated with him because he merged some of the Persians with the Greek elements of his army, he married some of the Persian women and so forth. Historians Green and Renault say this quote, "His mind full of new projects, Alexander built a fleet to explore the coasts of Arabia and Africa. He sailed up the Tigris to Opus, the ancient Assyrian city where Cyrus the Persian had defeated the Babylonians in 539. They went on to say that Alexander entered Babylon for the last time in the spring of 323, worn out by wounds, hardship, and overdrinking. He fell ill of a fever. Soon he could neither move nor speak. He was propped up and each officer and soldier filed past, He acknowledged each man with his eyes or a slight movement of his head. Within two days Alexander died, and he was not yet 33 years old." So the large horn was broken.

Verse eight, the and it says, "And in its place there came up for conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven." We find the interpretation in verse 22, "the broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms, which will arise from his nation, although not with his power." And indeed, these four generals did not have the same intellect, the same power as Alexander. You must remember that Alexander's empire, though it was vast, it was not united politically, governmentally, as an empire. So soon after his death, the generals began to fight amongst each other over who's going to be in charge and over what area. And we know that four dominant generals emerged Antigones of Babylon and North Syria, Ptolemy, the first solder of Egypt, Cassander of Macedonias and Lysimacus of Thrace and Bithynia. I might also add that you see the same divisions described in Daniel 11 and verse four.

But notice a fascinating development here in verse nine. "Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land," referring to the land of Palestine, the land of Israel. Now a little historical background here, General Antigones lost Babylon and Syria to Seleucus the First of Nicator, the first of the kings of the north, listed in chapter 11 of Daniel. And then a little over 100 years later, and the Seleucid dynasty came forth a small horn, as Daniel says, by the name of Antiochus, the Fourth Epiphanes. He was the eighth king of this dynasty. He ruled from 175 to 164 BC. He is described in Daniel 11:21 as the quote, "despicable person." How would you like to have that title, the despicable person? I think I've been called that as well. One of the most vicious persecutors of Israel, but it's it's interesting, by the way, Epiphanes, translated means the "illustrious one." And because the Jews hated him so much, they called him Epimanes, which means madman.

Verse 10, "It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the hosts and some of the stars to fall to the earth and it trampled them down." Now we know that stars can at times refer to angels in Scripture, but in other places, it is used to describe spiritual leaders. We see this in Daniel 12 and verse three. And we see now the interpretation that Daniel gives. And here in this interpretation, you're going to begin to see the elements of a dual prophecy, describing not only the events and the person of Antiochus Epiphanes, but also the future antichrist. Verse 23, "'The later period of the rule when the transgressors have run their course, a king will arise insolent and skilled in intrigue. His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people.'" Indeed, we know in verse 10, he will trample them down. So let's go back to verse 11. It is the small horn now that emerges and grew large it says "it even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host," mostly likely a reference to God himself, and "it removed the regular sacrifice from Him." "Regular sacrifice" can be translated, "the continual ceremonial sacrifices," the observances of the Jews in the temple. So he "removed the regular sacrifice from him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down."

Now, I want to take you for a moment to Second Maccabees, where we can get some historical details about what happened during this time. First and Second Maccabees, written in the first century by unknown Jewish historians, part of the apocryphal books, they're not canonical books; they're not inspired, but we get a lot of history from them. So here's what we read. "Two years later, the king," referring to Antiochus, "sent the mission commander, the chief collector to the cities of Judah, and he came to Jerusalem with a strong force. He spoke to them deceitfully in peaceful terms, and they believed him. Then he attacked the city suddenly, in a great onslaught and destroyed many of the people in Israel. He plundered the city and set fire to it. Demolished its houses and its surrounding walls. And they took captive the women and children and seized the animals. Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people and abandon their particular customs. All the Gentiles conform to the command of the king and many Israelites delighted in his religion. They sacrificed to idols and profane to the Sabbath." He goes on to say, "The king sent letters by messenger to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, ordering them to follow customs foreign to their land, to prohibit burnt offering sacrifices and libations in the sanctuary; to profane the Sabbath and feast days; to desecrate the sanctuary and the sacred ministers; to build pagan altars and temples and shrines; to sacrifice swine and unclean animals; to leave their sons uncircumcised, and to defile themselves with every kind of impurity and abomination, so that they might forget the law and change all its ordinances. Whoever refused to act according to the command of the king, was put to death." We go on to read, "Many of the people, those who abandoned the law, joined them and committed evil in the land." We read how they, "drove Israel into hiding wherever places of refuge could be found. And then on the 15th, day of the month, Kislev in the year 145, the king erected the desolating abomination, upon the altar of burnt offerings. And in the surrounding cities of Judah, they built pagan altars. They also burned incense at the doors of houses, and in the streets, any scrolls of the law that they found were tore up and burned, whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant, and whoever observed the law was condemned to death by royal decree." So they use their power against Israel against those who were caught each month in the cities. On the 25th day of each month, they sacrificed on the pagan altar that was over the altar of burnt offerings. In keeping with the decree, they put to death, women who had their children circumcised, and they hung their babies from their necks, their families also, and those who had circumcised them were killed. Circumcision, of course, being a sign of the Mosaic Covenant. So Daniel sees the terrible future for his people Israel. Verse 12, " And on account of transgression, the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper." By the way, we must bear in mind that Satan knows that true worship is dependent upon the written law, dependent upon the Scriptures, the truth of the Word of God. So he will, as he has always done, do everything he can to eliminate first, the credibility of the word. And then secondly, the word itself.

Verse 13, "Then I heard a holy one speaking and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, 'How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply while the transgression causes horror so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?' He said to me, 'For 2300 evenings and mornings, then the holy place will be properly restored.'" Now we know that according to the creation count in Genesis one, that the formula "evening and morning" refers to a literal day. And while we can't be dogmatic about the precise dates that are mentioned here, according to First Maccabees four verses 52 through 59, we see how the Holy Place was properly restored on the 25th day of the ninth month of 164 BC. And if we work backward 2300 days from that day, we come to the fall of 170 BC. We get a sense of this in First Maccabees one beginning in verse 10. Let me read this to you. "They're sprang from these a sinful off shoot. Antiochus Epiphanes son of King Antiochus. Once a hostage at Rome, he became king in the 137th year of the kingdom of the Greeks. In those days there appeared in Israel transgressions of the law, who seduced many saying, 'Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles all around us since we are separated from them, many evils have come upon us.' So the proposal was agreeable. Some from among the people promptly went to the king and he authorized them to introduce the ordinances of the Gentiles. Thereupon, they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the Gentile custom. They disguised their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant. They allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to wrongdoing. When his kingdom seemed secure, Antiochus undertook to become king of the land of Egypt, and to rule over both kingdoms. He invaded Egypt with a strong force with chariots, elephants in calvary, and with a large fleet to make war on Ptolemy king of Egypt. Ptolemy was frightened that his presence and fled and many were wounded and fell dead. The fortified cities in the land of Egypt were captured and Antiochus plundered the land of Egypt. After Antiochus defeated Egypt, in the 143rd year, he returned and went up against Israel and Jerusalem with a strong force. He insolently entered the sanctuary, and took away the golden altar, the lamp stand for the light with all its utensils, the offering table, the cups and bowls, the golden sensors and the curtain, the cornices and the golden ornament on the facade of the temple. He stripped it all off, and he took away the silver and gold and the precious vessels. He also took all the hidden treasures he could find." Dr. Whitcomb said, quote, "We can see from this portion of the remarkably accurate historical document of First Maccabees that the beginning of the 2300 days of trampling of, quote, 'the host,' here in Daniel 8:13, as well as the holy place, could very easily have occurred in the fall of 170 BC. It was when the apostate Jews, quote, 'abandoned the holy covenant.' End quote, and received official authorization from Antiochus to, quote, 'observe the ordinances of the Gentiles,' end quote. It was then that this six year and four month period of horror began just as God prophesied."

We see some of the interpretation back in verse 25. Gabriel says, "'And through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence.'" Once again, bear in mind, the dual prophecy of not only Antiochus Epiphanes, then, but the Antichrist yet future. "'Through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; he will magnify himself in his heart and he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency.'" That is, he will be destroyed without human intervention. And we know that Antiochus Epiphanes died of a foul disease. We also know that he learned, on his deathbed while he was sick, that his armies had gone into the land of Judah, and had been routed by the Maccabean revolt. You remember Judas Maccabeus. And according to First Maccabee six, beginning in verse eight, we read this "When the king heard this news, he was astonished and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed, there he remained many days assailed by waves of grief, for he thought he was going to die. So he called in all his friends and said to them, quote, 'Sleep has departed from my eyes and my heart sinks from anxiety, I said to myself, into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now? Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule, but I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem. When I carried away all the vessels of silver and gold that were in it, for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me. And now I am dying in bitter grief in a foreign land.'" How sad the dying words of a wicked man who is now enduring the torments of solitary confinement, in an eternal hell.

So Gabriel closes his interpretation to Daniel, verse 26, "'The vision of the evenings in the mornings which has been told is true; but keep the vision secret," in other words, keep it sealed up, "for it pertains to many days in the future.' Then I, Daniel was exhausted and sick for days.'" The idea here is that when he begins to see the horrors that await his beloved Israel, it just took a toll on him emotionally. "'I was exhausted and sick for days. Then I got up again and carried on the king's business. But I was astounded at the vision, and there was none to explain it.'"

Now, as we wrap this up this morning, we need to back up, want you to notice the full context of the interpretation beginning in verse 15. And here, we will have a better understanding of what Daniel's vision says, I believe, about the future of the Antichrist. Verse 15, "'When I Daniel had seen the vision, I sought to understand it, and behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man. And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he called out and said, 'Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision.'" This was probably the voice of God; God calling Gabriel. Gabriel, by the way, is a term that means "Mighty One of God." I might also add that Gabriel was the one that announced to Zacharias and to Elizabeth that they were going to have a son whose name was John the Baptist. It was Gabriel as well that announced the birth of Christ, to Mary. And so this is who we have here, verse 17, "So he came near to me where I was standing." In other words, it would appear that, that he's seeing all this and he sees this angelic person that looks like a man, and he starts coming towards him. I'm trying to, you know, get a vision of this in my own mind what that might be like, the whole thing is just so overwhelming. "So he came here to where I was standing and when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face; but he said to me, 'Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end.' Now, while he was talking with me, I sank into a deep sleep." literally, he fainted. I think I would do its just, this is just overwhelming. You just can't handle it. "I sank into a deep sleep with my face to the ground, but he touched me and made me stand upright." So apparently, he sees the angel from a distance, comes towards him, scares him to death. He's overpowered by the manifestation of perfected holiness, which by the way, is always the response that you see of people in Scripture. Dear friends, anyone who has a cavalier attitude, when they say, oh, yeah, I talked with an angel or I talked with God, any person that talks that way, is a liar. Because this is the response that would happen.

Now notice the phrase at the end of verse 17, "'Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end.'" Also, in verse 19, we see the phrase used again, "'Behold, I'm going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation for it pertains to the appointed time of the end." Now, what did these phrases mean? Do they only refer to the last days of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes? I think not. I cannot see how his six years of persecuting Israel could be considered, quote, "the final period of the indignation pertaining to the appointed time of the end." I mean, what ended at that time at some level of persecution of Israel for just a moment, but I mean, he died 100 years before his kingdom came to an end. And when he died, Israel's persecution and suffering continued at the hands of Gentile domination. And there was certainly no outpouring of blessing upon Israel after the Seleucid Empire. So that just doesn't make sense to me that it's just referring to that time. Moreover, their suffering only increased because what followed the Seleucid reign? Rome. The iron legions of Rome. So surely Gabriel's reference to quote, "the final period of the indignation," (break in audio, not able to be transcribed)...That is exceedingly more significant than the final historical events at the close of Antiochus' reign. And most premillennial scholars agree that Gabriel's interpretation encompasses more than just those events, but sees this pointing to the wicked rule of one who is foreshadowed by Antiochus Epiphanes, namely the wicked rule of the Antichrist, the one whose future character and conduct can be seen in the details of verses 23 through 25 that describes not only Antiochus Epiphanes, but also the Antichrist.

The fourth century AD, Latin scholar and Bible translator, and theologian by the name of Jerome reported that the Jews of his day saw more than Antiochus in this prophecy, Jerome said, quote, "This is also our understanding concerning the Antichrist who shadow has thus been projected before." End quote. So I believe it is reasonable, let me put it that way, to assume that the appointed time of the end, for example, in verse 19, refers to the final God ordained defeat of the Gentile domination over Israel. When, as Jesus said in Luke 21:24, "the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." In other words, when Christ returns at the end of God's judgment of Daniel 70th week, the tribulation period, only then will the reign of the Antichrist and Gentile domination be over forever. Only then, will messianic blessing replace God's continuing indignation against Israel through Gentile oppression. Only then will Israel be able to experience the spiritual and the physical blessings that God promised them in the Abrahamic covenant. So when Gabriel tells Daniel in verse 17, "Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end." And when he says in verse 19, "Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation for it pertains to the appointed time of the end," it is reasonable to believe that this is pointing to the culmination of God's 70th week of judgment. We read about it, for example, in Daniel nine verse 24. "Seventy weeks had been decreed for your people in your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place." So, in my humble opinion, the oppression of antichrist is only a partial fulfillment of the prophetic vision. Whereas the final rule of the Antichrist, which I might add, was presented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel's first vision. That final rule fulfills every aspect of this vision, especially as it relates to those phrases. Verse 17, the vision pertains to the time of the end. And the final period of the indignation for it pertains to the appointed time of the end.

Dr. David Larsen, who you, some of you that were here years ago, may recall when he came to speak to us, puts this in perspective in his excellent book, "Jews and Gentiles in the Church." He says this, "At the halfway point in the seven years of tribulation, the smoldering and latent anti semitism of the world ruler bursts into a flame of fury, and a frenetic rage, according to Daniel 9:27, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation." Let me pause for a second, where have we heard that before? Dr. Larsen went on to say, "Something happens among the Jews in Israel in response to the testimony of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 and the great hatred that Antiochus Epiphanes had for the Jews. In the second century BC, there is a fore glimpse of the Antichrist's vicious aggression toward the Jews in the tribulation period. The world ruler will then turn his evil genius to the final solution to do what Hitler and all the anti Semites of history have been unsuccessful in doing. The little land of Israel and Jerusalem, become the objects of universal scorn and hostility." End quote.

But thankfully, dear friends, we know that because of God's faithfulness, because of his covenant promises, because of his infinite grace, he will indeed save all that he has promised to save, including a remnant of Israel, of ethnic Israel. We read about this, for example, in Romans 11, beginning in verse 25. Paul says "a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. This is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.'" Oh, dear Christian, I pray that these great prophetic truths will animate your heart to a more dedicated sense of worship and service, knowing that the Lord is going to come again. May he find each of us faithful at our post, and I hope that you will be overwhelmed as I am when I study these things, that once again, we serve a sovereign God who has ordained to the end from the beginning. He is an omnipotent, omniscient God, that in his providence, in the miracle of his divine providence, can orchestrate all of the events of history of everyone's life, to somehow accomplish all that he has promised. And then to think that we're a part of that by his grace. Folks, if that doesn't get you excited; I'm not a real emotional person, but believe me in my heart, this just, this thrills me. This is overwhelming to think; what God has promised, what he is doing, what he will do, and to think that he has saved us. That he is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our King. And so I pray that this will motivate you. May I challenge you to live in light of his glorious return and warn others that need to come to him and repentant faith. Make your life a life that manifests the love of Christ, that others will see him in you? Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for these eternal truths that are so overwhelming. Thank you for the promises that are ours in Christ. Thank you for your saving grace, and certainly for the power of your word, that your Spirit uses to sanctify us and conform us evermore into the likeness of your beloved Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And Lord, for those that do not know you as Savior, that know nothing of the intimate joy of communion (break in audio, not able to be transcribed).