Text: Daniel 8:1-27, Title: A Vision of Suffering, Date/Place: NRBC, 4/11/10, AM
A. Opening illustration: talk about Obama’s presidential election as a chastisement from God upon a sleepy lethargic church in America deep in self-centeredness and failure in the kingdom agenda
B. Background to passage: It is two years after the last vision, still in the reign of Belshazzer. Daniel has another dream/vision. This time he is in the Citadel of the capital of Persia 250 miles from Babylon. In the vision he is standing by the river and he sees a ram with two horns, one bigger than the other, which represents the Medo-Persians (like the bear in the previous vision). Then he sees a goat that overtakes the ram, this is representing the Greek Empire under the one horn, Alexander the Great; represented by a leopard in the last chapter. Then he sees the death of Alexander, and the four-way split of his empire. Then we see the little horn (Antiochus IV Epiphanes) that is given power to oppress the people of God for 3+ years and commit great atrocities and blasphemies against them and against God. This is a really accurate nearly 400 years in advance prophecy! This causes great fear and alarm for Daniel, mainly because he doesn’t understand why God is allowing these atrocities to occur upon the heads of His people.
C. Main thought: So from the text we will draw some conclusions about the suffering of God’s people.
A. Sometimes Suffering b/c Sin (v. 12)
1. This verse gives us an understanding of the reasoning behind this particular season of suffering. Daniel knows that after 70 years God will release the captives from Babylon to go back to Israel, rebuild the temple and the walls and gates. Remember that they were in Babylon those years because they had forsaken the Lord, His commands, and His covenants for far too long. Anyway, after their return and repentance, Phariseeism was born in order to avoid this tragedy again. But about 300 years after their return, they were right back where they were before Babylon. So in this instance, according to v. 12, the Israelites are oppressed, killed, blasphemed because of their own transgression (rebellion and guilt associated with it) or sin.
2. Job 1:8, John 9:2-3, 1 Cor 11:30, 2 Cor 1:8-9,
3. Illustration: When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery, tell about Scott’s old pastor Gary, whose first reaction to family troubles was to look into his life and repent from anything that might be bringing chastisement,
4. I am not saying that all suffering is a result of sin, but some is. If you are a believer, it is chastisement, and the Lord chastens those that He loves. If you are an unbeliever, it is punishment, a manifestation of God’s wrath upon you. Sometimes it is severe, sometimes it is light, but sometimes it is because of sin. Many of us never ask the question when things go wrong, whether or not, we are in need of correction. Some do only when they have pity parties, and want people to feel sorry for them, because the are not getting a fair shake. God refuses to leave us in our sin. He refuses to let us stray as His sheep without the rod of correction. Regardless of sufferings origins or purpose, the believer can handle them with endurance and grace, no matter how severe. Christians still possess the greatest “life” even in suffering. Read some of Brother Yun’s torture and his meditations. In Christ, you can suffer well. And this will be the greatest testimony to Christ’s sufficiency and grace in the hour of need. And you can even repent while you suffer well. That brings me to my last point of application, repentance leads to deliverance. Maybe not just in the time that you like, although your soul will be free from guilt immediately. If your suffering is due to a sin that you have been hiding, or one that you didn’t know about, repentance is the key. This is the proper action to take with any sin. So, when you suffer, ask God to reveal to you things that you need to repent from.
B. Sometimes Wicked Prosper (v. 12)
1. This verse also says something very strange, in all of these things “he prospered.” Many times evil people get what’s coming to them, but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it looks like that they are really doing well even with their unrighteous, unethical behavior. And in this text, you have one who will not only commit terrible injustices, but they are against Israel, God’s chosen people. This is the problem of evil. How can a good, sovereign God allow atrocities like that in the world, give some examples. So some say, either He isn’t able to help or He isn’t good. Two problems with that: just because He doesn’t help, doesn’t mean that He can’t; and just because we can’t think of a good reason for something, doesn’t mean there is not one. That is pretty arrogant for us to think that way, as if God was under obligation to always rescue us. This issue has been raised in the bible continuously and in our own culture too.
2. Ps 37:8-10, Jer 12:1, Hab 1:1-4, Rom 8:35-39, 2 Cor 2:14-15,
3. Illustration: Antiochus sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Temple, then profaned the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and that on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as the inhabitants of the place requested...They also brought into the temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws. A man could not keep the Sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a Jew. At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way against the Jews: oblige them to partake of the sacrifices, and put to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended. Thus, two women who were arrested for having circumcised their children were publicly paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then thrown down from the top of the city wall. Others, who had assembled in nearby caves to observe the Sabbath in secret, were betrayed to Philip and all burned to death
4. We could almost stomach this kind of thing happening to unbelievers, or randomly through the earth, but not against His people! But it is clearly taught in scripture that God is over every decision, plan, government, etc. So take the advice of the Psalmist, and don’t fret over evil doers. The main reason that it is possible is because God is absolutely in charge, He allows, permits, and He strengthens us to endure. His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. Know that God IS in control regardless of appearances. And that there is a cosmic battle going on in the world, and in your life. Do as Brother Yun did and meditate upon the scriptures, with a deep determination not to deny Christ, give in to temptation, nor aid the enemy. And do all this knowing that the victory is sure! Even in death, Christ is manifest as life. Gotta love tombstones with epitaphs of scripture, looking forward to the revelation of Christ in His second coming.
A. Antiochus IV/Antichrist: type and shadow of the end of our era too
B. Daniel’s emotions: Daniel was burdened for the Kingdom and God’s people
C. Closing illustration: The Underground Church being crushed by N Korea, read article below
D. Recap
E. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
A U.S government report says North Korea is raising religious persecution to the same heights as ancient Rome.
While the Romans threw Christians to the lions for sport, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says North Korea's leaders settle for snap trials followed by firing squads or simply crushing the heads of underground church leaders under a steamroller.
In the same week U.S. President George W. Bush is touring Asia to call for increased political freedom, the independent U.S. government commission issued a report claiming North Korea is waging all-out war on religion and free thought.
The reports says there are only three formal churches in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, but they are primarily for show and are visited only by foreigners and the elderly. Everywhere else, the North Korean government is engaged in the forceful suppression of religious and intellectual life.
Relying on eyewitness accounts from 40 recent refugees who fled to South Korea via China, the commission says North Korea has created a reign of terror to crush any religious belief that might challenge the god-like authority of leader Kim Jong Il.
The mere possession of a Bible can bring a death sentence, while attending a secret underground church service can result in gruesome public executions.
One eyewitness told commission investigators he witnessed five Christian church leaders being executed by being run over by a steamroller in front of a crowd of spectators.
The underground church leaders were told, "If you abandon religion and serve only Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, you will not be killed," said the witness, a soldier in a local construction battalion.
"None of the five said a word. Some of the fellow parishioners [who were] assembled to watch the execution cried, screamed out or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steamroller."
In another case, a woman told of being forced to witness the 1997 firing squad execution of a young woman and her father near where the Seong Cheon River runs into the Tumin River.
The young woman had been washing clothes by the river when she accidentally dropped a Bible she had hidden in her laundry.
After three months of interrogation, she and her father were put on trial in a marketplace, condemned as traitors and executed on the spot in front of an assembled crowd of schoolchildren and their teachers.
A former policeman described how he was involved in the arrests of 11 church members. Two of them were tortured to death during interrogation, while the others were executed, he said.
In the early 20th century, religious life flourished in North Korea, the report says. Religious groups played an essential role in uniting Koreans opposed to Japanese colonial rule, but the churches were viewed as political competitors by Kim Il Sung's Korean Workers Party.
When North Korea's founder came to power after the Second World War, he labelled the churches "counterrevolutionary" and crushed them.
Ever since, North Korea has promoted a personality cult that has virtually deified Kim Il Sung and his son and successor, Kim Jong Il.
North Korean newspapers have carried stories claiming North Korean sailors have been saved at sea during terrible storms by simply gathering on storm-tossed decks to sing the praises of Kim Il Sung.
And the country's official histories claim that when Kim Jong Il was born on Mount Paektu, a sacred mountain on the border with China, a double rainbow appeared in the sky, along with a single bright star, to herald his birth.
"Having faith in God is an act of espionage," one North Korean refugee told the U.S. commission's investigators. "Kim Il Sung is a god in North Korea."
"The Kim dynasty is much more than an authoritarian government," the commission report says. "It also holds itself out as the ultimate source of power, virtue, spiritual wisdom and truth for the North Korean people. Heterodoxy and dissent are repressed, quickly and efficiently, with punishments meted out to successive generations of the dissident's family.
"This study provides compelling evidence of the systematic denigration of religious life in North Korea and of ongoing abuses of the freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief," the report adds.
The commission is a bipartisan government body that monitors religious practices overseas in relation to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The release of the U.S. report coincides with a UN General Assembly vote yesterday in which member states expressed "serious concern" over human rights violations in North Korea.
The General Assembly's social and humanitarian committee approved a resolution put forward by the European Union raising concerns over the use of torture, public executions and restrictions on freedom of thought and religion. The final vote was 84 to 22, with 62 countries abstaining. South Korea abstained and China voted against.
