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[0:00] Daniel chapter 8.

[0:15] And so again, we started this last week. We've looked at a couple of things.! First, we looked at the setting, the setting of Daniel's vision. This is his second vision that he had in these two chapters.

[0:30] Chapter 7 is the first vision. The chapter 8 that we're in right now, his second vision. So we looked at the setting of it, and we basically considered two things that pertain to the setting.

[0:44] The when of it and the where of it. And this is just a bit of review, so you don't have to worry about the notes yet. You took all these down last week, alright? Right? If you were here. And so anyway, we looked at the when of it.

[0:58] The Bible says in the third year of King Belshazzar. Of course, King Belshazzar. Belshazzar was the king of Babylon. The last king of Babylon.

[1:09] And so this is the setting, the when of it. That would be approximately two years after Daniel's first vision. So we looked at chapter 7, his first vision. Now two years have gone by, transpired here in chapter 8.

[1:24] And he is having his second vision. If you're a date keeper, it happened in 553 B.C. So that's, you know, you just mark that on your calendar.

[1:35] You can go back, you know, if you keep a log of that. That's ridiculous. Of course, you don't do that. Alright, so the when of it. And then we talked about the where of it. He said in Shushan.

[1:46] Shushan, in the province of Elam. By the river Ulai. Or, yeah, Ulai. That's probably how it's pronounced. Alright, we don't know where any of those places are.

[1:58] We could go and maybe get a biblical map. An Old Testament map. And find those places. But, you know, the question, again, is whether or not he was actually there when he had the vision.

[2:10] Or the vision took him there. So, this was a place in his vision. And I really think that's probably the case. Daniel did say, I saw in the vision that he was in these places.

[2:25] He saw, he said, I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai. Alright, so it's probably something that took place in the vision. I mentioned that some 200 miles away from Babylon.

[2:38] And so, you know, the chapter says after he had the vision, he got up and went about the king's business. So, you know, I don't think he traveled 200 miles and then got up and went about the king's business.

[2:51] So, this place where he was in his vision, it was in his vision and he wasn't actually there. Shushan, I mentioned, remember last week, is in the Persian territory.

[3:03] So, it was not even a city within the empire of Babylon. And the vision concerns a near future coming of the Persian empire, ultimately the Medo-Persian empire.

[3:21] The coming of that empire to a place of dominance in the world. So, the vision is about that. It's not only about that. That's really basically where it begins and goes from there. And so, this was the setting, the when and the where.

[3:35] And then we looked at the substance. Or, we started to look at it, got through most of it. The substance of Daniel's second vision. That is what he saw in the vision.

[3:47] And we spent some time explaining what each of these things represented. Daniel, first of all, saw a ram. Remember? And I said it was a ram with two unequal horns.

[4:00] That's basically how it's described in verse 3. Let me read that to you again. Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram, which had two horns.

[4:12] Of course, ram has two horns. We can picture a ram with those two kind of horns that curl around there. So, he saw a ram with two horns. But this was a little different. He said, and the two horns were high, meaning powerful.

[4:27] Because remember, a horn in the Bible represents authority, power, a kingdom or king. And so, the horns were high, meaning they were very powerful.

[4:41] But one, he said, was higher than the other. And the higher one came up last. So, when he first saw the vision of the ram, it only had one normal-sized horn.

[4:54] And then another one was there, and it got bigger and bigger and higher and higher and so forth. So, the ram itself, remember, represents what kingdom? The Persian kingdom or Medo-Persian empire.

[5:09] And in terms of power, the nation of Medo-Persian, was the initial power in this alliance between these two nations, Medo-Persian and Persian.

[5:24] So, they were the initial power. The second horn represents the nation of Persia. And its dominance over the alliance came last.

[5:37] That's why Daniel, in his vision, saw that one of the horns was higher than the other, and the higher one came last. And we know this is true about the Medo-Persian empire.

[5:51] We know it because it was historical. It's historically true. But, remember, Daniel saw it years before it happened. Now, in terms of the Medo-Persian empire, not too many years ahead.

[6:04] Because, remember, Belshazzar is king when Daniel has this vision. He's the last king of the Babylonian empire. So, it'll be a matter of years, a few years, before the Medo-Persian empire will come on the scene as the world power of that day.

[6:21] But still, Daniel sees this before it happens. All right. Then Daniel saw a goat. A goat with one notable horn is how it is described in the vision.

[6:37] One prominent horn. A goat with one horn, which is rather interesting. It's going to become more interesting as he continues to see this goat.

[6:47] But first he sees this goat with a notable horn. Verse 5 says, it came from the west. All right. So, here's this, I guess, this goat with one horn.

[6:58] And it's trotting along. And in his vision, he knows he's coming from the west. And he says, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground.

[7:09] So, here's coming from the west, over the surface of the whole earth, without even touching the ground. And he says, and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

[7:22] All right. So, the goat represents the Greek Empire. The Greek Empire, which would come next after the Medo-Persian Empire. The first of the European Empires.

[7:35] All right. The Babylonian Empire. The Medo-Persian Empire. Those are all Eastern Empires. The Greek Empire is the first of the European Empires.

[7:46] It came from the west. From the west. Its conquest of the whole world was very swift. Remember, we talked about this.

[7:57] Very swift. How do we know that? Well, we know it historically. But we know it from the prophetic vision in terms of how Daniel saw this goat.

[8:10] It came without touching the ground. And so, it's a suggestion that it came very rapidly, very fast. It's notable horn represented who?

[8:22] Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great. Now, you're not going to look in chapter 8 and find Alexander the Great there. But we know historically that he's the one.

[8:37] Alexander the Great. Alexander was only 20 years old when he became king of the Greek Empire, inheriting it from his father, Philip of Macedon, who was a great conqueror himself.

[8:52] A great, great king. So, Alexander the Great was very young. And we also know that at the end of 12 years, 12 years of his reign, he had conquered the entire world.

[9:04] 12 years is a very short time to conquer the entire world. And as a matter of fact, it only took him three years to conquer the Medo-Persian Empire.

[9:14] Just three years to do that. And really with that, the entire Near East. Just three years. So, that hence the, you know, he came without touching the ground.

[9:28] And I mentioned that you can compare the goat with the notable horn with the leopard in chapter 7 with the four heads that had wings.

[9:39] And the wings signify how rapidly this kingdom came to power and conquered the entire world. So, there's the comparison. All right. Then, Daniel saw a goat with four notable horns.

[9:53] All right. First, the ram. It has two horns. One very high. And then the other one is high too. But it gets higher. And it came last. Then we have the goat with one high horn.

[10:07] Very notable horn. That's Alexander the Great. And now he sees that same goat. But it has four horns. Four horns. Four notable horns. That means very powerful kings.

[10:19] Verse 8 says, But when he, the goat, became strong, the large horn was broken. The large horn is Alexander the Great. So, that means he was taken out of the way. Alexander the Great was dead or died at the age of 32.

[10:36] Very young. And in the place of it, this one notable horn, four notable horns came up toward the four winds of the heaven.

[10:48] That means the entire world. North, east, north, south, east, and west. All right. So, this would be the four kings who eventually ruled the Greek empire after Alexander's death.

[11:02] That's what this is prophesying. And we know it to be true from history. All right. So, then, that is a little review. Gets us up to speed.

[11:13] And so, now we're ready for the fourth thing Daniel saw. And now you're ready to fill in the blanks in your notes if you want to. The fourth thing he saw was a little horn.

[11:24] A little horn. Now, it's on the goat. All right. So, this little horn is on the goat. Had four horns.

[11:35] And now he sees a little horn. So, this would be a fifth horn. But eventually, I mean, you see this as it's rising up.

[11:45] All right. So, now, here's where the vision begins to narrow. Becomes quite narrow. Where it begins to zero in on the people of Israel.

[11:58] Remember, as I explained last week. That's why Daniel wrote this chapter in Hebrew. The language of Hebrew rather than Aramaic. Hebrew is the language of his people.

[12:11] God's people. The Hebrews. The Israelites. Aramaic at the time was the language of the Gentiles. The Gentiles. So, Daniel's first vision. Chapter 7.

[12:24] Pertained to the Gentile world. The entire world. And so, he wrote in the language of the Gentiles. Aramaic. But, Daniel's second vision.

[12:35] Here in chapter 8. Ultimately pertains to the Jewish people. The Israelites. And so, he wrote in the language of the Jews.

[12:46] In fact, it's going to be in Hebrew all the way to the. From here all the way to the end of the book. End of the book of Daniel. All right. So, we talked about that last week.

[12:57] And also, as I explained last week. This prophetic vision of Daniel. Was meant to be a warning. A warning to God's people.

[13:10] A warning of a coming time of crisis. Which would take the form of intense national persecution. And we talked about this last week.

[13:22] So, I guess I'm still reviewing a little bit here. So, this is a warning. A warning. For God's people. Intense persecution. Is coming.

[13:32] Which, incredibly. This warning, incredibly. Would. Was for a time. That would not take place. For another 383 years.

[13:44] All right. So, here. Here's this vision. That Daniel's been given. And he writes it down. For God's people to read. And it's for them. But it's not for any of the people living in Daniel's day.

[13:56] Okay. Because the fulfillment of the prophetic vision. Will not come for 383 years. And so, we might be thinking. Well, why did God give the prophetic vision.

[14:06] So far out in advance. You know. Have you ever wondered. Wondered that. Well, I really don't have an answer for that. Particularly. But may I remind you. That Daniel's vision in chapter 7.

[14:18] That we've already studied. Pertained to the coming. Of the Antichrist. To his ultimate destruction. And judgment. And to the coming.

[14:30] Of the eternal kingdom. Of our Lord and Savior. His millennial reign. And then even on beyond that. For a kingdom that will never end. And how far in advance.

[14:40] Was that prophetic vision? Well. You know. We can kind of do the math. Daniel had the vision. In 550 BC. And it's now.

[14:51] Now the year. 2016. A.D. So. That's what. 2,566. Years. And counting.

[15:01] Because it hasn't been fulfilled yet. The Antichrist hasn't come yet. All right. All right. So. That's a long way in advance. Isn't it? Just what God does.

[15:12] All right. So. Let's look at this little horn. And. We can learn. Several things. And. Instead of reading.

[15:23] This portion of the text. We'll just kind of read it along the way. Learn several things. From the passage here. About this. Little horn. I've really already. Identified him.

[15:34] But. The first thing is. His identity. His identity. What it says about his identity. Verse 9. The first part of it says. And.

[15:45] Out of one of them. Came a little horn. Out of one of them. Came a little horn. What does that mean? Well. The little horn.

[15:56] Came out of one of the. Four notable horns. That Daniel first saw. That this. This. Goat had. Or ram.

[16:07] Four notable horns. This. Little horn. Came out of. One of them. Now. Again. Remember. What I mentioned last week. After.

[16:18] Alexander the great. Died. The young age of 32. The. Empire. Should. Really should have. Gone. Or been passed on.

[16:29] To one of his sons. I had two sons. Alexander the. Fourth. And. Heracles. Heracles.

[16:39] Heracles. Heracles. Heracles was his second son. Should have passed on to his sons. Well. They were murdered. All right. Two sons were murdered. The empire. Then. Went through.

[16:50] Several years. Of chaos. And internal battles. You know. To gain control. And so forth. Kind of. Civil wars of a sense. and eventually the Greek Empire was divided among four of Alexander's former military leaders.

[17:10] All right. I mentioned that last week and I'm going to name them for you. You can see it there. I have it for you and even nice little pointers to their particular areas of rule within the Greek Empire.

[17:23] Cassander ruled Macedon. You can kind of see on the map what area that would be. Thessaly and Greece, relatively small area there. Lysimachus, Lysimachus or Lysimachus, rule of Thrace, western Bithynia, lesser Phrygia, Mycenae and Lydia.

[17:46] And you can see that particular area there on your map. That would be, you know, what we would call today Turkey and Asia Minor and so forth. Ptolemy ruled Egypt, Cyrene and Cyprus.

[18:03] And you see that area there, north part of Africa and part of Arabia. And then the larger part of it, the green part of it, Seleucus.

[18:16] Seleucus ruled Syria, Babylonia, Macedonia and others, other places. All right. Now, just a note here and you can jot this down if you want to.

[18:27] But just something to note. Two of those kings, Cassander and Lysimachus, they don't have any place in scripture.

[18:40] They're completely excluded from any biblical, prophetical focus at all. They're not mentioned there at all. But Ptolemy and Seleucus become the king of the south and the king of the north, respectively, in the prophecies that we're going to study when we get to Daniel chapter 11.

[19:00] So they figure in very prominently in biblical prophecy. Those two kingdoms of those two people. All right. So now out of which of the four kingdoms did this little horn come?

[19:13] That's the question. Well, scholars agree, most of them. I mean, you always have some who don't agree, you know. But the majority of them agree that the little horn or king represents the eighth ruler of the Seleucid Greek Empire.

[19:33] The eighth ruler in that empire. His name? Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

[19:44] Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled from 175 to 163 BC. Relatively short period of time. Now, he's called a little horn for two reasons.

[19:58] First of all, historic. He's called a little horn historically to define that his beginnings were little.

[20:09] They were small, or I guess really the best would be insignificant. Primarily insignificant. So he's called a little horn.

[20:19] His older brother, Seleucus IV, was the rightful heir to the throne after his father was murdered.

[20:31] His father Antiochus III. Now, Seleucus did rule for a short period of time after his father was murdered. But Seleucus was also murdered by an Assyrian, Assyrian, actually they called him the Assyrian treasurer.

[20:50] I'm not sure exactly what that means. But someone high up in the kingdom, in the nation of Syria. And a usurper. And he took the throne. For a brief time because Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus III, brother to Seleucus III, or IV.

[21:10] He, through conniving and bribery and murder and all kinds of intrigue and flattery, he overthrew this Syrian usurper and then seated himself on the throne of the Seleucid Empire.

[21:28] His father's throne. All right. So, he's a little horn in that he started very little. And you probably would not have guessed that he would have ever come to the throne of the Seleucid Greek Empire.

[21:46] You would never imagine it. So, the word little speaks to that. But also prophetically. To distinguish from the little horn in chapter 7.

[21:58] Because we had a little horn in chapter 7 too, if you remember. Same words, at least in the English. Little horn. But the words for little horn in chapter 7, chapter 7 and 8, are not, they're not synonymous.

[22:17] They're not equivalent in meaning. The Aramaic word for little horn in chapter 7, actually in verse 8, can be translated a horn, a little horn.

[22:30] All right. That's just a literal translation of the word in the Aramaic. A horn, a little horn. All right. So, it's just a little horn. The Hebrew word for little horn in chapter 8, verse 9, can be translated a horn less than little.

[22:47] That's why I entitled this chapter the little, little horn. Not the little big horn. Okay, Oscar. The little, little horn.

[22:59] So, he's a horn less than little. All right. So, you have a horn, a little horn, and then a horn less than little. Less than little.

[23:09] All right. So, the little horn in chapter 7, remember, is a specific reference to the Antichrist. To the Antichrist, who will one day come out of the old Roman Empire at the end of this age.

[23:26] And so, we studied that when we looked at chapter 7. The little horn in chapter 8 is a specific reference to a king. We know his name. But for Daniel, a king that will one day come out of the Seleucid Greek Empire a couple centuries before Christ.

[23:45] Less than two centuries before Christ. So, a specific man is coming, and he's a little, little horn. Okay, in terms of making a distinction between this little horn and the little horn that is the Antichrist.

[24:01] All right. Now, I would say that Daniel's, then Daniel's prophetic vision in chapter 8 is not specifically of the Antichrist. All right.

[24:11] It's not specifically of the Antichrist, though I would say that he is presented here as a type of the Antichrist. And some of what is said about this little, little horn will be true of the little horn.

[24:28] The Antichrist will one day come. All right. But it's not a reference to the Antichrist. So, we don't need to make any comparisons there other than just to see him as a type of the Antichrist.

[24:41] But rather, it is, of course, we're talking about a cruel and wicked dictator by the name of Antichrist, the fourth Epiphanes, the ruler of the Seleucid Empire.

[24:56] All right. So, that leads us to the second thing about this coming Greek ruler. His locality. His locality. Verse 9, latter part of verse 9, this little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.

[25:17] That's how it's translated in the New King James. Other versions use the beautiful land, and the word does mean that, beautiful land. All right.

[25:28] So, first of all, his rule extended in three directions. Toward the south, that would be toward Egypt. And the Seleucid Empire ultimately went all the way down to Egypt and bordered Egypt.

[25:45] Toward the east, that would be Armenia, Media, Persia, as you kind of move from, you know, from east to west of the empire.

[25:56] Where Armenia, then Media, Persia, Parthia, and another place called Bactria, not Bacteria, but Bactria. That would be almost to India.

[26:10] And, or just kind of to it, just above it. And then the third direction is, and this is where it's a little bit strange, the glorious land. The glorious land, that would be Palestine, or the Holy Land.

[26:26] All right. Palestine, in fact, there's another place, and I meant to put it down, and now I can't even remember where it is. It's one of the other prophets, maybe Jeremiah, who mentions Palestine in those terms, the glorious land.

[26:39] And Palestine is called that because of its significance to God's plan for that region of the world. And we know that region of the world, very significant.

[26:50] Palestine. Still today. But specifically, Palestine, of course, is where God's chosen people live. The land that was given to them.

[27:01] And, even more significant, out of Palestine, the Redeemer, the Christ, will one day come.

[27:12] Well, for us today, he has come. It's a very significant part of the world. And it's the glorious land. And that's how God looks at and views it.

[27:24] I mean, it is God's prophetic vision given to Daniel. So this is how God describes the land, a glorious land. It's Palestine. Also, the glorious land, or Palestine, is listed last because of its significance to the purpose of this vision.

[27:42] The purpose of this prophetic vision. The little horns rule over Palestine, Antiochus Epiphanes rule over Palestine, will have dire consequences for God's people.

[27:55] That's the purpose of this vision. And so the focus of the vision has now zeroed in at it. Zeroed in on a tiny, very tiny, relatively tiny portion of the world.

[28:11] Remember, Daniel's first vision, chapter 7, moved really from the narrow view, Babylon, to a very, very wide view, the entire world.

[28:22] From Babylon all the way to the eternal kingdom of God. That's Daniel, chapter 7. But Daniel's second vision here in chapter 8 began with a somewhat wide view.

[28:35] The Medo-Persian Empire moved a little bit wider in the Greek, with the Greek Empire. But it ends very narrow. Palestine.

[28:47] Specifically, the land of God's people, Israel. And it is a land that is under, or will one day be, in Daniel's vision, under the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus, the fourth epiphanies.

[29:04] Alright, so. His identity, his locality. Third, his cruelty. What it says here about his cruelty. Verse 10, And it, that's the little horn, grew up, or grew great, what it means, grew great to the host of heaven.

[29:25] And it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them. And I remember this is a vision. That's why we call this apocalyptic literature.

[29:37] Literature. It's strange. You know, what do all these things mean? The host of heaven, the stars, you know, and pulling them down, and so forth.

[29:49] Well, the host of heaven and the stars are not references to angels. At least not here. When there are places in scripture where the host of heaven does specifically refer to angels.

[30:05] God's angelic army. But in this case, it's not angels. It's, it's the saints. It's God's people. Verse 24 interprets that as the holy people or the saints.

[30:19] So it's not angels. We're talking about God's people. All right. So he's pulling down, casting down some of the host of God's people. You can go over to chapter 12 of Daniel and a couple of verses there.

[30:31] Verse 2 and 3. The saints are there referred to as the shining ones. Like stars. And the brightness of the heavens and, and the stars.

[30:45] So, so this, this is, you know, the host of heaven and the stars represent God's people. All right. So Antiochus then will, this was, this is the prophecy, will cruelly, very cruelly, persecute the saints of God, God's people, Israel.

[31:06] And, and we know that he did, but this is Daniel's vision that almost 400 years from when God gave him the vision, this ruler will persecute God's people.

[31:18] The history of this is found, by the way, in the apocryphal book. You know, there are books that are not part of the Bible. They're, they're part of the apocrypha, the apocryphal books.

[31:29] They are books, uh, that were written, but they were not, uh, deemed inspired, so they're not part of the canon, the canon of scripture. Uh, and some of them are just weird and crazy, and it's obvious why they're not part of scripture.

[31:42] Uh, some, uh, uh, you know, go by the names of saints that, uh, we know in, in, in the Bible, some of the apostles and some Old Testament characters, uh, but it's obvious that they, uh, you know, stole those names to give their writings credibility.

[31:58] But there are a couple of historical books, the Maccabees, and you probably have heard of them, first and second Maccabees, and, uh, they are, by and large, considered historically reliable, all right?

[32:10] So they're not inspired, but they're historically reliable, and so according to first and second Maccabees, Antiochus' persecution of Israel lasted for seven years, from 170 to 163 BC, and, uh, during that time, he assassinated the high priest, Onias the third, that's how, really how it all began, uh, the assassination of the high priest.

[32:39] Then it led to the plundering of the temple, and all of its treasures, and gold, overlaid furniture, and candlesticks, and things like that. Led also to the slaughter of some 80,000 Jews in Jerusalem.

[32:58] Uh, Antiochus was coming back from Egypt, and kind of a, a, a, a defeating time for him, and he was mad, and he, he killed 80,000 Jews.

[33:10] And we're talking about men, women, boys, girls, infants, and this, this all comes to us from, uh, the Maccabees. And so it's an intense time of persecution, but even more than just those things I've mentioned.

[33:24] And so next, that leads us to his profanity. His profanity against God, against God. So his cruelty against God's people, but also his profanity.

[33:35] I'm not talking about words that he spoke, or, you know, profanity has, has other meanings, uh, and just, you know, saying naughty words. Uh, but he profaned God, uh, his profanity.

[33:49] Verse 11 says, 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.

[34:01] All right. So now then in verse 25, we'll get to that. I don't know when, uh, probably not next Wednesday, but in verse 25, this prince, I mean, who is this prince?

[34:15] This prince is called there, the prince of princes. Uh, it's a title that's only used for God. So we're talking about these exalting himself as high as God.

[34:30] This is what Antiochus Epiphanes did. The daily sacrifices is a reference, uh, I think generally to all sacrifices prescribed in God's law, all sacrifices that were continuous.

[34:44] And there were many of them, including the Passover and, and day of atonement and all those things. And, uh, effectively, uh, what he ended was all formal worship of Yahweh God.

[34:57] All that was outlawed by Antiochus. That would include the temple sacrifices, the dietary laws, the Sabbath laws, which were very important, uh, to God's people.

[35:09] Circumcision was outlawed, you know, and some, some would say, well, good. Uh, but anyway, uh, and the commemorative feasts and all those things, everything was made illegal, uh, by Antiochus.

[35:26] So this is an assault upon God because he had exalted himself, uh, to the position of God. And even worse than that, the temple was desecrated. That C, little C on your outline, the temple was desecrated.

[35:41] And, uh, the Bible says, and the place of his, that's God's sanctuary, was cast down. Not destroyed.

[35:53] Because it was never destroyed by Antiochus. It could not be used, would not be used by the Jews after he desecrated it, until this time of persecution was over and it would be rededicated, be cleansed and rededicated.

[36:09] So it was not destroyed. It was desecrated. And this is what Antiochus Epiphanes did. He erected a statue of the Greek God Zeus in the temple.

[36:19] I think specifically on the altar of God in the temple and offered sacrifice to it, sacrifice of swine. And we know, you know, that's an unclean animal.

[36:31] That would be the, the height of sacrilege, uh, to, to the Jewish people. Now it was called here in verse 13, the transgression of desolation.

[36:41] And, uh, later in chapter 11, verse 31, because we're going to get back to some of this, uh, in chapter 11, it's called the abomination of desolation. And many of us probably know it by that term.

[36:53] And then verse 12 says, because of transgression, which probably is referenced to Israel's transgression, I mean, all this is coming upon them because of their sin.

[37:04] All right. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn, to Antiochus Epiphanes, to oppose the daily sacrifices. And he cast truth down to the ground.

[37:16] That is quite an expression. Cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prosper. Now, Antiochus attempted, actually attempted to destroy the word of God, wipe it out, to destroy all copies of it.

[37:32] And, uh, he cast the truth down to the ground. We understand from, again, from the record, uh, in first Maccabees chapter one, specifically, understand that copies of the word, word of God were actually destroyed.

[37:47] First Maccabees, uh, one 56, the books of the law, which they found, that is Antiochus soldiers found, they tore to pieces and burned with fire.

[38:01] But also possession of God's word, those who had possession of it, and those who openly, overtly obeyed it, God's word were, that was all forbidden under penalty of death.

[38:17] First Maccabees one 57, where the book of the covenant was found in possession of anyone, or if anyone adhered to the law, the decree of the king condemned them to death.

[38:30] So this is, his, uh, attempt is to systematically destroy the word of God, completely remove the word of God from, from, from everyone, from everywhere. And, uh, some have tried that over the years, haven't they?

[38:44] And, uh, they have not succeeded. No one can do that. Someone has said that the one who tries to destroy the truth of God, will find that he has only destroyed himself.

[38:56] And, Antiochus Epiphanes found that out. We'll get to this later, but verse 25 says, through his cunning, through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule, and he shall exalt himself in his heart.

[39:10] He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the prince of princes that would be God, but, but he shall be broken without human means.

[39:23] Amen. Be broken. And, we'll not take the time to read it tonight, but, uh, you'll find something similar, if you remember, about Jehoiakim, king of Israel, of Judah, rather.

[39:35] He discovered that, and, uh, in Jeremiah chapter 36, verse 21, following, remember, the prophecy, or the, the, the scripture, actually.

[39:46] Jehoiakim didn't like the message, because it, it, uh, prophesied the coming of Babylon, and the, this, you know, the captivity of Babylon, and he didn't want to hear any of that.

[39:57] And so what did he do? He cut up the scripture and threw it in the fire. Uh, well, payday came for him. Not long after that, and he was destroyed. Uh, interesting, you can go back and read that yourself.

[40:10] And, uh, I guess we better end with this. One other thing, uh, I wanted to get to my last point. In fact, maybe I can just name it real quick. Uh, but first of all, Antiochus was so self-exalted above God.

[40:25] I mean, self-exalted. No one else exalted him there. That he did whatever he pleased. And that's the meaning behind this phrase. He did all this and prosper. Uh, he did whatever he wanted to, and never seemed to, to suffer for it.

[40:42] Uh, at least for a while. But again, payday, someday. It did come, eventually, for Antiochus Epiphany. So we're talking about the little horn, his identity, his locality, his cruelty, his profanity, his God.

[40:59] And let me just give you the last one, one more real quickly. Uh, his finality. And, uh, the scripture doesn't tell us here what happened to him, but we do know that his reign of terror upon, uh, God's people, Israel, had an end to it, had a limit to it.

[41:14] And, uh, and so, uh, first of all, what Daniel was privy to, he was privy to a conversation. It's kind of interesting how it's put. In verse 13, then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that certain one, that other holy one who was speaking, how long will the vision be?

[41:37] Concerning the daily sacrifices, and the transgression of desolation, and giving of both sanctuary, and the host to trampled underfoot. And he said to him, to me, for 2,300 days.

[41:54] All right, so here's a conversation between two, quote, holy ones. These would be angels. Angels, quite often, and you find a number of places, that they inquire about the things that are happening on the earth.

[42:06] They're interested in what's happening here. I mean, interested in a good way. And so they're talking to one another, you know, about this vision, what it's foretelling.

[42:18] And so one of them asks, how long? And it's interesting, the answer is given to Daniel. So he said to me, the one who gave the answer, and he gave the period of time, which was 2,300 days.

[42:38] 2,300 days. All right, so the question concerns the duration of the persecution, right? The duration of it. It began with the assassination of the high priest at the time, Onias III.

[42:55] And it ended with the rededication of the temple. As he says there in verse 14, the sanctuary shall be cleansed. And so the answer to the question, how long?

[43:06] Six years, four months. Or 2,300 days. You say, well, what does that mean? I don't have any idea. Other than, it's going to last that long.

[43:17] And we really don't need to read any more into it than that. Is there significance about it? Well, some speculated about that. But all we can say is, the answer is, six years and four months, 23, literally 2,300, that's the way they majored time, 2,300 mornings and evenings.

[43:38] That's how long it's going to last. So Daniel was privy to this, this bit of information. You know, it's again, in his vision, two angels talking, and this is how long it's going to last.

[43:50] And then it ends with what Daniel was promised. And it's a great promise. And it would be very encouraging to the people of Israel during the days when this persecution is taking place.

[44:03] The promise is, in the latter part of verse 14, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed. That's the promise. All right, so, the persecution, actually, historically, ended December 14, 164 B.C.

[44:22] December 14, 164 B.C. When Judas Maccabeus, that's why the, those two apocryphal books are named after, after him, after his family, actually.

[44:35] But primarily, he's the star, Judas Maccabeus. when he cleansed and rededicated the temples. Big, big day on the calendar, the, the, the Jewish calendar.

[44:48] And the Jews still celebrated today? What, what is it called? Anybody guess? Hanukkah.

[45:01] Hanukkah. When they celebrate, in fact, Hanukkah, the feast of Hanukkah, it means the feast of dedication. Feast of dedication, where the temple was cleansed of the defilement of Antiochus Epiphanes, and it was rededicated at that time.

[45:20] Very big deal for God's people, for Israel. Thank you.