August 4, 2024
SERMON SERIES: STANDING STRONG IN AN UNSTABLE WORLD
Book of Daniel
SERMON # 7: HOPE IN THE MIDST OF PAIN AND PERPLEXITY
Daniel 8:1-27
Being a Christian will NOT exempt you from suffering and pain. Christians experience all kinds of suffering and pain: pain of persecution for believing in Jesus, pain of being excluded or mocked because of our faith in Jesus, pain of being left out because of following Jesus, pain of loneliness, pain of being misunderstood.
Surely, believers in Daniel’s time felt suffering, pain, and perplexity. They had been taken away from their land; their temple was destroyed; they lived in a place that thought little of the God of Israel.
In today’s chapter we see God give Daniel a vision of things to come; in the future, including future suffering God’s people would endure. The vision had some details that are absolutely remarkable in how they predicted with precision particular events 10 years, 200 hundred years and 400 hundred years before they took place---the accuracy is so stunning that some critical scholars refuse to believe Daniel could have written these words before they took place.
As Christians, we know that is not difficult for God to foretell future events----He knows all things past, present and future. And this vision was given to Daniel so that God’s people would be prepared for the future suffering they were to endure. THINGS WERE GOING TO GET VERY DIFFICULT FOR GOD’S PEOPLE! But God’s people could have HOPE IN THE MIDST OF PAIN AND SUFFERING, because God was still in control. He has placed a limit on the extent of the evil that he allowed to take place. God has promised to bring about a restoration. Life has its share of pain and suffering, but there is always HOPE IN THE MIDST OF PAIN AND PERPLEXITY. We can observe three movements from the text.
I. LIFE WILL HAVE ITS SHARE OF PAIN AND PERPLEXITY
A. Ram = Medo Persia – The Ram runs where he pleases (8:3-4; 20)
B. Goat = Greece – The Goat that wrecks the Ram (8:5-7; 21). Largest and most powerful nation on earth (Europe to India).
C. Big horn between eyes = 1st king (21a) Alexander the Great conquered much very rapidly, “without touching ground” verse 5. Alexander the Great divided his kingdom into 4 kingdoms with 4 generals.
D. Little Horn from Goat – The Horn that horrifies the Holy Ones – Antiochus Epiphanes IV (9-12: 24-25).
In this text we know that God’s people (the Jews and Believers) were going to endure INCREDIBLE SUFFERING AND PAIN. Knowing Jesus is better than anything’ but we will still suffer. Remember, in this life, we have suffering, pain, and seasons of perplexity.
II. WE CAN HAVE HOPE BECAUSE GOD LIMITS EVIL v. 13-14
A. 2,300 evenings and mornings = about 6 ½ years. From when high priest was killed to when Jews get temple back was about 6 ½ years.
B. Antiochus would be defeated, and as a result of God: “and he shall be broken—but by no human hand’ v. 25. Judas Maccabees led a revolt and delivered Israel and Antiochus died not long after in 164 B.C.
Ultimately God permitted this evil for His sovereign purposes, but it was limited by Him. He was still in control. We can HAVE HOPE because Evil is limited by God.
III. WE CAN HAVE HOPE BECAUSE GOD PROMISES A RESTORATION v. 14
A. At the end of the vision, note the hope of restoration in verse 14. In this context, it refers to the temple being restored. This points to Jesus.
B. God is a God who brings about restoration. Rev. 21:5, “I am making all things new.” Things went wrong in the beginning with sin. Relationship with God was broken and all of the world is experiencing the effects of sin. God has definitively in Jesus to bring about restoration in the GOSPEL.
Life will have its share of pain and perplexity, but there is always hope for those who know God.
Responsive Reading: Daniel 8:1-14
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