Participants: Ty Gibson & James Rafferty
Series Code: DBOTB
Program Code: DBOTB000009B
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00:01 Welcome back friends, as we
00:03 continue our study of Daniel 00:04 Chapter 8 James, we have now 00:06 come to verses is 13 and 14. 00:07 It is very fascinating here. 00:09 We have a conversation that occurs between two angels. 00:13 The conversation has for it's subject the power of the 00:18 little horn and the things the little horn has 00:20 been doing against the people of God. 00:23 And against the mediatorial Ministry of Jesus Christ in 00:27 the new covenant, so in verse 13, Daniel says, 00:31 "I heard a Holy One speaking, and another Holy One said" 00:35 "to that certain one who was speaking, how long will the" 00:40 "vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the" 00:44 "transgression of desolation, the giving of both the" 00:47 "sanctuary and the host be trampled underfoot. " 00:49 Now we need to understand the content of the question. 00:53 The question is regarding how long the little horn power 00:58 will be allowed, or able to could continue it's work, 01:01 of persecuting God's people, defaming the character of God, 01:05 casting the truth of the new covenant to the ground, 01:07 and defiling the sanctuary Ministry of Christ. 01:11 How long the angel is asking, will this terrible state 01:15 of affairs be allowed to continue. 01:17 Then in verse 14, another angel answers this one, 01:21 and he gives a time prophecy. 01:23 "And he said to me, for 2300 days, then shall the 01:28 sanctuary be cleansed. " 01:30 Now the subject again is the work of the little horn and 01:34 what it is doing. 01:35 One of the things the little horn has done is cast 01:38 sanctuary to the ground. 01:39 Has defamed the sanctuary ministry of Christ and 01:42 interposed between the people and the mediatorial 01:45 Ministry of Jesus. 01:47 So the question is, How long will this go on? 01:49 The answer to the question is 2300 days will pass then 01:55 the state of affairs will be rectified, the sanctuary 01:59 will be cleansed, the little horn will at that point, 02:04 not be able to continue on in it's work. 02:07 It is really interesting Ty, because there is a lot of 02:10 confusion here in Daniel's mind. 02:13 He is struggling to understand this. 02:14 It says in verse 15, "that it 02:16 "came to pass and I, even I" 02:18 "Daniel had seen the vision" 02:19 "and sought for the meaning," 02:21 "then, behold there stood before me the appearance of a" 02:23 " man. And I heard a man's voice," 02:24 "between the rivers Ulai, which called, and said," 02:27 "Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. " 02:30 "So he came near and stood: and when he came, I was" 02:33 "afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me," 02:37 "Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end" 02:42 "shall the vision be. " 02:45 "Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep" 02:49 "on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and" 02:52 "set me upright. " 02:54 "And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall" 02:56 "and be in the last end of the indignation: for at that" 02:59 "time appointed the end shall be. " 03:00 What you have here, as you have a vision Ty, extending 03:04 from Daniel's time, Media Persia, all the way down to 03:08 the very end up time. 03:09 So this angel that comes to make him understand, Gabriel 03:13 comes to make him understand is going to begin with Media 03:16 Persia and then he is going to take him all the way down 03:19 to the end of time. 03:21 That is why you begin in verse 20, with the ram which 03:24 thou saw a Media Persia, verse 21, but rough goat being 03:27 the Kings of Grecia, and one being broken verse 22, 03:31 stood up in its place, four nations will come out of 03:34 this nation and four Kings will arise, four general's 03:38 will take over after Alexander the great died. 03:41 They stand but they don't have the same power he had. 03:44 And verse 23 goes into the latter end of the kingdom. 03:47 The interpretation is going from Media Persia all the way 03:50 down past Greece and past pagan Rome, all the way down to the 03:53 very end of time. 03:55 Now the fact that the angel indicates to Daniel that the 03:59 vision he just received extents the very end of time, 04:04 that is a direct contextual proof that the 2300 days is 04:09 not literal days. 04:11 If from the time we are speaking of here, 04:14 we were to count 2300 literal days, 04:16 we wouldn't come to the end of time. 04:18 The fact that this prophecy extends, as angel says, 04:22 to the very end of time implements for us a principle of 04:26 Bible prophecy interpretation and that is that the 2300 04:30 days are to be interpreted as 2300 years. 04:35 And that is the only way we can see that the prophecy 04:38 would, in fact, extend to the end of time. 04:41 It is the day for a year principal and we find it in the 04:44 Old Testament, in the New Testament confirmed by Christ. 04:47 We will study more on that we get to Daniel 9. 04:49 But you are right, that prophecy is not understood by 04:53 Daniel at first, he is confused about this. 04:55 That is one of the reasons I think Gabriel comes. 04:59 Because what makes it clear in his mind is this final 05:02 interpretation, these final verses that talk about this 05:07 dark power that rises up, dark sentences that rises up 05:11 at the end of time and seeks to destroy the holy and the 05:16 mighty people, and that it says magnifies himself, 05:19 in verse 25, "in his heart, and by peace shall destroy" 05:22 "many: he shall stand up also against Prince of princes;" 05:25 "but he shall be broken without hand. " 05:27 Yes this is a powerful prophecy James. 05:29 It is a very clear indication 05:33 of how the gospel saves human 05:35 beings and how it is that God 05:38 conquers evil and His enemies. 05:41 We notice here the prophecies that the little horn is 05:44 identified as a power that uses cunning, and deceit, 05:47 and persecution, or force and coercion. 05:50 But it is very, very beautiful that when Daniel is told 05:54 by the angel, that the little horn power will eventually 05:58 be overcome and conquered by God, it says he will be 06:02 conquered, or broken without hands, the King James 06:05 version says, or as the new King James version renders it, 06:09 that he will be broken without human means. 06:11 What does it mean by, without human means? 06:13 Well the human means are the principles, the methods that 06:19 are being used by the little horn. 06:22 Deceit and force primarily. 06:24 God will conquer this little horn power without the use 06:28 of deceit, without the use of force. 06:30 God uses the power of truth to draw people to Himself 06:35 and bring people to the worship of the one 06:37 and only true God. 06:38 God uses the power of His love manifested in Christ, 06:42 as Jesus died on the cross to reveal to us that God 06:46 literally loves every member of the human family more 06:50 than His own life, now that is power. 06:52 That is a power that is not anything like what we see 06:56 in the little horn as it uses force, manipulation, deceit, 07:01 in order to further it's ends. 07:03 So this is beautiful, God is going to win the great 07:06 controversy, but not by the same principles and methods 07:09 that His enemies have used. 07:12 You see this Ty so clearly not only here in Daniel 8, 07:16 but we also see in Daniel 2. 07:18 You have the same basic phrase in Daniel Chapter 2 when 07:21 the interpretation is given of this stone. 07:24 It is cut out of the mountain it says, without hand. 07:27 This stone of course represents Jesus Christ. 07:31 Jesus Christ is the stone. 07:33 Jesus Christ is the rock and when He comes again, 07:36 He comes again to destroy, or consume all of these 07:39 kingdoms and it says in verse 45, "for as much as thou" 07:42 "saw that the stone was cut out without hands. " 07:45 Same idea, broken without hands, broken cut out and hits 07:51 the image and breaks it to pieces. 07:52 The stone, in the New Testament, is Christ. 07:55 He is the rock, He is the stone. 07:57 So again it is talking about His kingdom, 07:59 and Jesus Christ, of course has come to bring down the 08:02 kingdom of darkness, dark sentences, 08:04 the power of darkness to establish the truth, 08:07 but not by force of arms. 08:08 His disciples said, 08:10 Master should we fight with the sword? 08:12 He said I can call a legion of Angels right now. 08:14 Well why don't you? 08:16 Because those that kill with the sword will 08:18 be killed with the sword. 08:19 Christ came to usher in that kingdom that is based on 08:22 the principal of love. 08:23 Amen, Amen! Jesus was none other than God in the human 08:29 flesh, and if it were in His heart to do so, He could 08:35 have used force, but rather He submitted willingly to 08:40 be led as a lamb to the slaughter. 08:42 As we see Jesus exalted on the cross before us in willing 08:46 self-sacrificing love, praying Father forgive them for 08:51 they know not what they do. 08:52 We are encountering a whole different kind of power then 08:57 that which we see exercised by human political systems 09:01 and religious systems. 09:02 We are encountering the power of the grace of God to melt 09:07 the human heart, to soften the human heart, 09:10 and to draw us to Him in voluntary worship rather 09:14 than forced worship. 09:16 We are also encountering a whole different mediation. 09:18 We are encountering a mediation 09:21 of priesthood that is not 09:22 requiring you to confess 09:23 your sins and go do some 09:25 penance, but a priesthood that 09:26 is saying Father forgive them 09:28 for they don't know what they're doing that is soliciting 09:32 forgiveness even in our sins, even in our transgressions, 09:35 even in our wickedness God is pursuing us and drawing us 09:39 to come to Him for grace, this unmerited favor. 09:43 That is why the new covenant is so vital. 09:45 That is why this power needs to be exposed and understood 09:49 because it is a power that is based upon works. 09:52 It is based on a human system. 09:54 It is based upon what we need to do to merit God's favor, 09:58 or to be meritorious in His sight in order to earn, 10:01 to some degree, salvation. 10:03 But we can't earn salvation in any way. 10:06 Salvation is a free gift from God, given to us unmerited 10:10 favor, given to us as we see Him as the complete truth 10:14 and sacrifice for sins. 10:16 Now James, as Daniel 8 closes 10:18 Daniel says that he was 10:21 literally sick for days. 10:22 That's incredible isn't it? 10:24 He is sick because he wants 10:26 to understand what God has just revealed to him. 10:28 But Daniel is thinking in the more immediate context of 10:33 the captivity of Israel. 10:34 So that is why he is struggling right here, because 10:38 according to Jeremiah Israel is captive for 70 years. 10:41 According to this vision he has just been given, 10:44 it is 2300 days. 10:46 The 2300 days taken literally doesn't fit with the 70 10:49 years, that is just a few years. 10:51 He still, in this vision, he is still under Belshazzar 10:54 and it doesn't connect in his mind. 10:57 It is making him sick because he only has one other 10:59 alternative, Daniel knows the 11:00 day for a year principle. 11:02 He recognizes that, as the angel 11:04 says, this is going to concern 11:06 your people in the latter days. 11:08 He is starting to think, you mean the temple is not 11:10 going to be built for 2300 years? 11:12 How does this all come together? 11:15 It literally makes him sick. 11:17 And James that leaves us then with the vital connection 11:20 between Daniel Chapter 8 and Daniel Chapter 9. 11:23 We don't have time to conclude Chapter 9, 11:27 but we know this much, that Daniel closes Chapter 8 by 11:32 telling us that he is very interested in having greater 11:36 understanding regarding the time period that has been 11:40 outlined in Chapter 8, the 2300 day prophecy. 11:43 Yes, so what we are going to see here is that Daniel 11:45 seeks for greater understanding, 11:47 in fact here's an interesting point. 11:49 We don't have time to get in Chapter 9, 11:51 but what is interesting is that in the transition from 11:54 Chapter 8 to Chapter 9 we have that change of rulership. 11:58 We go from Belshazzar to Darius. 11:59 It was in the first-year Darius when Daniel began to 12:02 pray that the decree went forth were he wasn't supposed 12:05 to pray to anyone for 30 days. 12:07 That is interesting! It is very serious. 12:09 Daniel realizes something significant is going to be 12:11 revealed to me and that is why Satan is seeking to 12:14 stop me from understanding this. 12:15 Friends, there are times in our lives when there are 12:18 significant developments that are going to take place. 12:21 Satan wants to stop, or hinder us in our spiritual 12:23 growth, and he will do everything he can to sever 12:26 our connection with God through prayer 12:28 and through faith in Him. 12:29 We need to pray through the darkness. 12:31 We need to pray through the attacks of the enemy. 12:34 We need to persevere, following Daniel's example because 12:38 dear friends, God is eager to hear and to answer our 12:42 prayers and to bless us above all that we could ever 12:46 possibly ask or think through our Lord Jesus Christ. |
Revised 2022-11-14