Posted by Chris on August 5, 2007 under Sermons
Daniel 8: Four Scenes
- The Ram with Two Horns
- The Goat with One Horn
- Four Horns Plus One More
- A Little Help from the Angel
Where Is Daniel?
- Daniel’s location in time and space within his vision (8:1-2) gives us the starting point in understanding the directions and movements of the Ram and Goat.
- When: Third year of Belshazzar (546 B.C.). Seven years before Persian takeover
- Where: Susa facing the Ulai (in the vision). He is in Persia
The Ram – Persian Empire
- Two Horns = Medes and Persians
- Charges from east and goes west, north, and south. These directions are relative to Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire.
- This follows the expansion of the Persian Empire and includes its conquest of Babylon
The He-Goat
- One Horn = Alexander the Great. He moves without touching the ground shows the rapid progress of Alexander’s campaign.
- Battle of Gaugamela – 331 B.C. Alexander conquered Darius III and claimed the Persian Empire for the Greek Empire
- Attacks from the west – Macedon is west relative to Susa.
Four Horns
- Wars of Succession (323-301 B.C.) – Alexander did not have a stable heir. His generals engage in wars for the next 22 years (and beyond) and divide up the Greek Empire
- Alexander’s Generals:
- Ptolemy [Egypt, Palestine]
- Seleucus [Babylon]
- Antigonus [Syria, Turkey] – Seleucus eventually acquires Antigonus’ territory
- Cassander [Macedonia, Greece]
- Lysimachus [Thrace, Bythinia]
- The four horns represent the four major divisions following the Battle of Issus in 301 BC – Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus in Syria/Babylon/Persia, Cassander in Macedonia, and Lysimachus in Thrace/Bythinia
The “Fifth” Horn
- Antiochus IV Epiphanes is the Fifth Horn that grows up toward the south, west, and the beautiful land.
- His movement toward the south involves his attempt to invade Egypt in 168 BC. His efforts are thwarted and on his return through Jerusalem he occupies Jerusalem with a vengeance. (See below)
- Ruled Seleucid Empire (175-164 BC)
- Epiphanes = “God Manifested”
- Hellenized Jerusalem
Culture Wars
- 168 BC – Antiochus invades Egypt
- 167 BC – Invades Jerusalem
- Rebuilt Temple as fortress
- Erected statue of Zeus (that looked a lot like Antiochus himself!)
- Forbade Jewish religion
- Abomination of Desolation – He sacrificed a pig on the altar to desecrate the temple. This is an event that lives in the Jewish mindset from this point to the time of Jesus and beyond. The vital connection for relationship and forgiveness between God and his people is violated and seemingly broken by Antiochus.
Faith Crisis
- How can a ruler like Antiochus invade God’s turf?
- How can the worship that represents relationship be set aside?
- Are God and his order for creation reliable?
How Long Will the Desecration Last?
- 2,300 evening and mornings = two daily sacrifices in temple
- 2300/2 = 1150/30 (days in the lunar month) = 38.3/12 = 3.19 years
- 3 years and 70 days
- The temple was invaded in fall 167 (idol of Zeus was set up on Chislev 15, 168) and the temple was restored on Chislev 25, 164 BC. All of this is fairly close to 3 years and 70 days.
Posted by Chris on under Sermons
Read Acts 1:1-14.
- A new hope and new wave of energy electrifies the 120 believers in Jerusalem. They thought Jesus was dead. They lost heart. But now he is with them.
- A resurrected Messiah is unstoppable, so Peter speaks for everyone when he asks if this is the time for action.
- Jesus reminds Peter that that is God’s call. Everything Jesus had been about was submitting himself to God: “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” So even now Jesus is going to ask his disciples to do what they seemed unable to do on the night he was betrayed – PRAY!
Jesus’ advice might be annoying or confusing to action-oriented Americans who live in an instant society. Our cultural wisdom urges us that … the early bird gets the worm, and we need to strike while the iron is hot, and opportunity only knocks once because time is of the essence and time is money, and we need to give 110% because we can’t just stand there, we’ve got to do something, so we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps with the sweat of our own brow just to get-r-done.
Jesus’ advice is probably more frustrating to us than it was to Peter. There’s work to be done – kingdom business – and sitting around praying is something we can do on our own time.
What if Peter and the 120 had had the attitude we sometimes have? What if they had watched Jesus ascend to heaven and then say to themselves – “Well, Jesus gives good advice but he doesn’t really know what its like in the streets of Jerusalem. There’s a lot of work to be done and only a 120 of us.” What if they had got anxious instead of got down on their knees? I wonder if they had done that would there even be a chapter 2 and the day of Pentecost.
God’s power is at work within us. We don’t channel the power or command the power. We cannot bottle it or manage it to serve us. Even Jesus didn’t do that. His power works among us and our response is to be faithful and follow.
We understand that this power works among us to accomplish God’s mission. Reading the text, our first work should always be prayer – not a perfunctory opening prayer, but the humble recognition that the mission and evangelism is God’s power at work among us and not a do-it-yourself job on our part.
Prayer is vital and it might help us to be more active and devoted to prayer, but our cultural viewpoints may make it so that we have …
- We have a hard time believing that prayer actually gets anything done.
- We want things that we can chart and measure and plan.
- We want to meet needs and fix problems. We believe prayer is good for the soul, but little else.
- We equate prayer with a ritual in worship. Certainly it is right to pray in worship, and our prayers in worship are not meaningless, but all of worship is prayer. And prayer is worship.
- Our values are upside down – we believe that prayer is the seasoning for the main course. In reality, prayer is the root, stem and leaves – our effort is just a blossom.
- Prayer keeps us from apathy and anxiety
- Sometimes we accept that things are the way they are – – And the way they have always been.
- Sometimes we worry about things they may or may not ever happen.
- Both ends of this spectrum – apathy and anxiety are due to an overemphasis on US. If it’s all up to us, things probably won’t change much. If it’s all up to us, then we aren’t doing enough or we aren’t good enough or we are going to do it all wrong.
- But when we stop and pray we get centered on the power that is at work among us. We wait for God to work and then we simply have to be faithful and follow.
- Prayer keeps us from arrogance
- So you can see how prayer keeps us from arrogance. When we are arrogant, we put more faith in our own ability than in the ability of God.
- We will spend months planning programs and budgets; we will spend thousands on new ideas, but we are skeptical or unconvinced of the value of a whole night in prayer. Why?
- It runs against our “do-it-yourself” grain. Our individualism has made us less dependent on God.
- Sometimes we go ahead of God. We continuously invent another program, another plan. We toil and labor and sweat, and like those apostles who worked and worked to cast out a measly little demon from a poor suffering child. Once they surrendered the effort to Jesus the demon was cast out and when they wanted to know why he could when they couldn’t he told them “That this kind only comes out with prayer.” (Mark 9:14-29) Let’s not think that prayer isn’t important.
Be Still and Know That I Am God
About eight years ago I attended an evangelism conference with an elder and fellow minister of the church I served in Texas. It was a good conference. We were inspired. We left the conference in Ft. Worth buzzing and enthusiastic about all that we could do back home. We were driving along I-45 talking and brainstorming about plans and about halfway home near Fairfield, Texas the van started losing power. I couldn’t understand it. And then I caught sight of the gas gauge. [In 26 years of driving, I have run out of gas twice. And the first time it was the car’s fault. The gas gauge lied to me.] But this time I was so caught up in plans and programs to do the work of the church I forgot something as simple as getting fuel.
The loss of power in our American-built van sort of made all of stop and re-focus. What were we skipping over in all of our high and mighty ideas? Who were we outrunning? We ran out of gas, but God has power that never quits. There was only one thing that we needed to do – and it wasn’t finding gasoline. As the world rushed on beside us at 70 mph, we sat and prayed. All of our talk about plans and programs and busy-ness were put aside. In a van with no gas on I-45 near Fairfield, TX we humbled ourselves before God in prayer. We prayed for the lost. We prayed for the church. We prayed for wisdom and patience and we prayed for power – all in God’s own time.
There were so many interesting things that happened in the months that followed. Things we never would have imagined. Things that we certainly would not have been prepared for if we hadn’t prayed. And things we probably wouldn’t have chosen if we hadn’t prayed.
You and I may not be here today if those 120 folk in Jerusalem had decided to strike out on their own and do their own work instead of pray and wait for God’s work in them. But thank God they did and can you believe what happened next? Sure you can, for here we are today.
So let’s get busy – let’s get busy praying. And we may just be amazed at what happens next.
Posted by David on August 2, 2007 under Bulletin Articles
In scripture, people often see what they look for. For example, when today we talk of the creation in Genesis 1 or the flood which begins in Genesis 6, our conversation may immediately turn to evolution. Our following discussion likely focuses on some conflict or perceived conflict between science and religion.
While that focus is relevant to faith in God now and His work today, is evolution the writer’s point in Genesis? Since science and religion as we know it today did not exist when the writer wrote Genesis, is it possible that we miss his point if we focus only on evolution considerations? Since evolution was an unknown to the writer of Genesis 1 and 6, is it possible the writer’s point had nothing to do with evolution? If so, what was his point? Would it benefit today’s Christian to know his point?
Consider this perspective. Once there was only good, good defined by God (Genesis 1:31). Humanity knew only good, and had a unique relationship with God. Once there was only evil (Genesis 6:5, 6). Humanity knew only evil and had no relationship with God. When humanity knew only good, there was blessing and joy. When humanity knew only evil, there was destruction and death.
Though the patient God was grieved, experiencing the full agony of that grief, He did not give up on reconciliation with humanity. God persisted. He found and revealed Himself to Abraham. He formed a nation through Abraham and gave them opportunity to be His people (Exodus 19:3-6). Through that nation He sent His son, Jesus, to be our guide to Him (John 14:6). In His son’s sacrificial death and resurrection, He gave us a Lord and the Christ (Acts 2:36). In him we can be righteous before God (Romans 3:21-26). Jesus Christ can teach humanity the worthwhile life to live [again] (Ephesians 4:1-5:14). Through Jesus Christ we have a hope of more than just the physical (1 Corinthians 15:12-19); we live for eternal values.
God does not give up on people! He never was an angry God who impatiently sought to punish people. He sought human redemption when nothing in human behavior indicated people were worthy of His concern! Impatience is a human trait, not a divine trait.
Could it be that the author of Genesis wanted people to see that there is joy and blessing in God’s goodness while there are consequences and death in evil? Could it be that the writer affirmed that God’s ways are filled with life and blessing, and godless life is selfish and destructive?
In scripture, do you see what you are looking for, or what God wants you to see?
