Light up the Darkness until Dawn
[Daniel 8]
Are you familiar with the phrase, “It’s always darkest before dawn?” Figuratively speaking, the phrase is used to encourage someone who may be going through a difficult time in their lives. The meaning behind the saying is captured by a devotional writer who observed, “Circumstances have on occasion brought me close to despair, then made a turn toward the positive. And often a situation seems at its worst just before we start to see things improve.” -Heather Adams
The glorious light of Christ that has come, that will come again, and that until then, shines in the heart of every believer, will guide us in the darkness until dawn (Luke 1:78-79). Evil will not have the final word. This is what the book of Daniel teaches us. God’s ultimate triumph over all things evil is our basis for shining His light until the day dawns.
1. Receiving a vision to see as we ought to see
To light up the darkness, we must receive vision from God to see as we ought to see. In Daniel chapter 7, in the first year of Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, Daniel received the vision of the four beasts, which represented the rise and fall of four kingdoms that oppressed God’s people. Two of those kingdoms, the Medo-Persian and the Greek empires are highlighted in Daniel’s vision in chapter 8. “In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last” (Daniel 8:1-3).
We see here that Daniel received the vision in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. So, when Daniel received the vision, the Babylonian empire was still in power. In addition, in the third year of Belshazzar’s reign, which was around 550BC, Cyrus, the Persian King defeated the Medes and formed the Medo-Persian empire. In the vision, Daniel was in Susa, a royal city that would later become the center of political power in Persia. No doubt the expansion of the Medo-Persian empire, which would later conquer the Babylonians, would have made the exiled Israelites nervous. What would happen to the Israelites in Babylon if the Babylonian Kingdom was conquered by the Medo-Persians? Uncertainty makes us all nervous at times. Like Daniel, in uncertain times, we need a vision that will settle our hearts and remind us that God is still in control.
What was the vision that Daniel saw? In verse 3, Daniel writes that he raised his eyes and saw a Ram with two high horns, one which was higher than the other. According to the explanation Daniel was later given by the angel Gabriel, (Daniel 8:20-22) this Ram with the two horns represents the Medo- Persian empire which was made up of two people groups. Furthermore, Daniel explains in verse 4 that he "saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.” (Daniel 8:4). We know from other historical sources that the Ram, representing the Medo-Persian Empire, expanded to the west, the north, and the south. The empire appeared unstoppable; that is until Alexander the Great came on the scene.
In uncertain times, once more, Daniel was reminded of the sovereignty of God. In response to Neb’s vision in chapter two, Daniel declared: “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;” (Daniel 2:21). According to verses 21, the angel Gabriel would explain to Daniel that the vision of the goat with the conspicuous horn between his eyes, (v.5) represented the Greek empire under Alexander the Great. In the vision that Daniel received in chapter 7, the Greek empire was described as a leopard with four wings. In the vision of chapter eight, the goat charges from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground.
These descriptions of the Greek empire speak of the speed by which they conquered the world. Alexander’s military conquests were accomplished by the time he was 30 years old. He and his armies seemed unstoppable. But according to verse 8, the great horn of the goat that became great was broken. This prophesy, given some two hundred years before it came to pass, predicts the demise of Alexander the Great. At the height of Alexander's greatness, he died at the age of 32 of typhoid fever.
There will be times in our lives, and maybe you’re going through it right now, when you will feel trapped and that the forces against you seem unstoppable. You’re praying, but things seem to go from bad to worse. That’s what it was like for Daniel and his people in their day. There will be times when things will get so dark that you will be tempted to lose all hope. But in times like these, you must not doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light. You must get a vision of God and hold onto it so that the darkness will not overtake you. You must look up and see the light of God or you will be swallowed up by the darkness of this world.
In verse 13, Daniel heard a conversation in the spiritual realm between two angelic beings. One of the holy ones said to the other one speaking: “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” (Daniel 8:13). No doubt the questions that Daniel heard the angelic being asking, he was also asking in his own heart. Daniel didn’t turn a deaf ear to what was being revealed to him by God. Rather, Daniel tuned in. These incredible prophesies of Daniel, which attest to the inerrancy of scripture, were recorded and preserved by God, along with the rest of scriptures, so that we can live our lives based on the truth and promises of God’s word, not our fickle feelings or imaginations.
Like Daniel, when you respond to the light that God gives you, he will give you more light. Some say, I don’t read the bible because it’s too hard to understand. To this, Adrian Rogers said: “The way to understand the parts of the bible you don’t understand is to obey the parts you do understand. Understand?”
2. Reflecting on the vision to think as we ought to think
In addition to receiving a vision from God to see as he ought to see, Daniel reflected on the vision to think and feel as he ought to think and feel. Concerning the vision of the transgression that makes desolate and the giving over of the sanctuary (v.13), Daniel was later given more clarity from the Angel Gabriel. Daniel received greater understanding because he sought to understand. After being given the vision of the ram and the goat, we read in verse 5: “As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west…” (Daniel 8:5). The word "considering" here means that Daniel was thinking carefully and prayerfully about what was just revealed to him by God.
Daniel didn’t pray for understanding and God didn’t send Gabriel to his aid just to satisfy Daniel’s intellectual curiosity. Daniel sought God for understanding because first and foremost he wanted to be on mission for God. There are many Christians today who love to study bible prophesy related to the end times. In fact, the most well attended bible conferences are prophecy conferences about the end times. But the least attended meeting in Christian churches across the country? Corporate prayer meetings.
If we are understanding bible prophecy about the end times the way we ought to—if it’s leading us to think and feel the way we ought to think and feel, the prayer meeting would be the most well attended meeting. As we will see in chapter 9, the vision that Daniel saw of the end times kept him on his knees (Daniel 9:1-3). O how we need a Holy Spirit renewed vision from God rooted in the word of God that causes us to tremble—that drives us to our knees because of the reality of the darkness of this world, the judgment to come, and the power of the gospel to save.
3. Responding to the vision to act as we ought to act
Daniel not only received vision to see as he ought to see and reflected on the vision to think as he ought to think, he also responded to the vision to act as he ought to act. After the angel Gabriel came to Daniel to enlightened him, we read beginning in verse 18: “And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up.” The Angel Gabriel was not only sent to make Daniel understand the vision. After Daniel fell to the ground, Gabriel had to touch him to stand him back up. In other words, Daniel not only needed supernatural assistance to understand the vision, he needed further help to deal with the weight of it, and so do we.
After standing Daniel back up, the angel Gabriel says, “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end” (Daniel 8:19). Daniel is referring to the cruel reign of Antiochus, which by God’s decree would come to an end. The promise of the vision is that God is sovereign over evil. This not only means that evil will come to an end, but that God is so big that he can take the evil of this world and weave it into our lives to accomplish His purpose without ordaining the sin.
Knowing that God is sovereign over evil will not exempt us from the pain and suffering that comes from living in a fallen world, but it can enable us to rise above it and shine in the darkness. Notice Daniel’s final words about this vision: “And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it” (Daniel 8:27). Daniel’s response is a little different than the average Christian after attending a prophesy conference (which I’m not against by the way).
The vision caused Daniel to be bed ridden. Remember in verse 18, when Gabriel began to speak about the vision, Daniel fell into a coma-like state. After Gabriel gave him more details, again he was overcome, but this time he lay sick in bed for some days. Although Daniel did not understand and was overcome by the magnitude of the evil yet to come, he would eventually regain his strength, get up, and go back to attending to the king’s business. Where did that strength come from?
The divine grace which lifted Daniel up, was obviously not that all his "why" questions were answered. The vision answered the “who was ultimately in charge" question. Knowing that God was in control and that His redemptive purpose would be accomplished strengthened Daniel to rise up and get busy doing the king’s business for the glory of the King of kings.
In the movie Legend, Doctor Neville, played by Will Smith, tells a story about the singer Bob Marley. While talking to a woman about the singer, Neville says, “Bob Marley believed that you could cure racism and hate…literally cure it by injecting music and love into people’s lives. When Bob Marley was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. He survived. Two days later, he walked out onto that stage at the peace rally and sang. Afterwards when asked why he still performed, he said, 'The people who are trying to make this world worse…are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.'" Although Bob Marley wasn’t a believer, he was onto something. The answer wasn’t in his music, but it is found in the love of Jesus.
In these dark days, let us keep our eyes on the cross of Jesus where love triumphed over evil. Let us daily receive fresh vision from God in His word and by His Spirit to see as we ought to see, reflect on the vision to think as we ought to think, and respond to the vision to act as we ought to act while we wait in hope. Although darkness may rule the night, the sun will rise again. Light up the darkness until dawn.
In your service,
Pastor Marco
Are you familiar with the phrase, “It’s always darkest before dawn?” Figuratively speaking, the phrase is used to encourage someone who may be going through a difficult time in their lives. The meaning behind the saying is captured by a devotional writer who observed, “Circumstances have on occasion brought me close to despair, then made a turn toward the positive. And often a situation seems at its worst just before we start to see things improve.” -Heather Adams
The glorious light of Christ that has come, that will come again, and that until then, shines in the heart of every believer, will guide us in the darkness until dawn (Luke 1:78-79). Evil will not have the final word. This is what the book of Daniel teaches us. God’s ultimate triumph over all things evil is our basis for shining His light until the day dawns.
1. Receiving a vision to see as we ought to see
To light up the darkness, we must receive vision from God to see as we ought to see. In Daniel chapter 7, in the first year of Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, Daniel received the vision of the four beasts, which represented the rise and fall of four kingdoms that oppressed God’s people. Two of those kingdoms, the Medo-Persian and the Greek empires are highlighted in Daniel’s vision in chapter 8. “In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last” (Daniel 8:1-3).
We see here that Daniel received the vision in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. So, when Daniel received the vision, the Babylonian empire was still in power. In addition, in the third year of Belshazzar’s reign, which was around 550BC, Cyrus, the Persian King defeated the Medes and formed the Medo-Persian empire. In the vision, Daniel was in Susa, a royal city that would later become the center of political power in Persia. No doubt the expansion of the Medo-Persian empire, which would later conquer the Babylonians, would have made the exiled Israelites nervous. What would happen to the Israelites in Babylon if the Babylonian Kingdom was conquered by the Medo-Persians? Uncertainty makes us all nervous at times. Like Daniel, in uncertain times, we need a vision that will settle our hearts and remind us that God is still in control.
What was the vision that Daniel saw? In verse 3, Daniel writes that he raised his eyes and saw a Ram with two high horns, one which was higher than the other. According to the explanation Daniel was later given by the angel Gabriel, (Daniel 8:20-22) this Ram with the two horns represents the Medo- Persian empire which was made up of two people groups. Furthermore, Daniel explains in verse 4 that he "saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.” (Daniel 8:4). We know from other historical sources that the Ram, representing the Medo-Persian Empire, expanded to the west, the north, and the south. The empire appeared unstoppable; that is until Alexander the Great came on the scene.
In uncertain times, once more, Daniel was reminded of the sovereignty of God. In response to Neb’s vision in chapter two, Daniel declared: “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;” (Daniel 2:21). According to verses 21, the angel Gabriel would explain to Daniel that the vision of the goat with the conspicuous horn between his eyes, (v.5) represented the Greek empire under Alexander the Great. In the vision that Daniel received in chapter 7, the Greek empire was described as a leopard with four wings. In the vision of chapter eight, the goat charges from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground.
These descriptions of the Greek empire speak of the speed by which they conquered the world. Alexander’s military conquests were accomplished by the time he was 30 years old. He and his armies seemed unstoppable. But according to verse 8, the great horn of the goat that became great was broken. This prophesy, given some two hundred years before it came to pass, predicts the demise of Alexander the Great. At the height of Alexander's greatness, he died at the age of 32 of typhoid fever.
There will be times in our lives, and maybe you’re going through it right now, when you will feel trapped and that the forces against you seem unstoppable. You’re praying, but things seem to go from bad to worse. That’s what it was like for Daniel and his people in their day. There will be times when things will get so dark that you will be tempted to lose all hope. But in times like these, you must not doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light. You must get a vision of God and hold onto it so that the darkness will not overtake you. You must look up and see the light of God or you will be swallowed up by the darkness of this world.
In verse 13, Daniel heard a conversation in the spiritual realm between two angelic beings. One of the holy ones said to the other one speaking: “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” (Daniel 8:13). No doubt the questions that Daniel heard the angelic being asking, he was also asking in his own heart. Daniel didn’t turn a deaf ear to what was being revealed to him by God. Rather, Daniel tuned in. These incredible prophesies of Daniel, which attest to the inerrancy of scripture, were recorded and preserved by God, along with the rest of scriptures, so that we can live our lives based on the truth and promises of God’s word, not our fickle feelings or imaginations.
Like Daniel, when you respond to the light that God gives you, he will give you more light. Some say, I don’t read the bible because it’s too hard to understand. To this, Adrian Rogers said: “The way to understand the parts of the bible you don’t understand is to obey the parts you do understand. Understand?”
2. Reflecting on the vision to think as we ought to think
In addition to receiving a vision from God to see as he ought to see, Daniel reflected on the vision to think and feel as he ought to think and feel. Concerning the vision of the transgression that makes desolate and the giving over of the sanctuary (v.13), Daniel was later given more clarity from the Angel Gabriel. Daniel received greater understanding because he sought to understand. After being given the vision of the ram and the goat, we read in verse 5: “As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west…” (Daniel 8:5). The word "considering" here means that Daniel was thinking carefully and prayerfully about what was just revealed to him by God.
Daniel didn’t pray for understanding and God didn’t send Gabriel to his aid just to satisfy Daniel’s intellectual curiosity. Daniel sought God for understanding because first and foremost he wanted to be on mission for God. There are many Christians today who love to study bible prophesy related to the end times. In fact, the most well attended bible conferences are prophecy conferences about the end times. But the least attended meeting in Christian churches across the country? Corporate prayer meetings.
If we are understanding bible prophecy about the end times the way we ought to—if it’s leading us to think and feel the way we ought to think and feel, the prayer meeting would be the most well attended meeting. As we will see in chapter 9, the vision that Daniel saw of the end times kept him on his knees (Daniel 9:1-3). O how we need a Holy Spirit renewed vision from God rooted in the word of God that causes us to tremble—that drives us to our knees because of the reality of the darkness of this world, the judgment to come, and the power of the gospel to save.
3. Responding to the vision to act as we ought to act
Daniel not only received vision to see as he ought to see and reflected on the vision to think as he ought to think, he also responded to the vision to act as he ought to act. After the angel Gabriel came to Daniel to enlightened him, we read beginning in verse 18: “And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up.” The Angel Gabriel was not only sent to make Daniel understand the vision. After Daniel fell to the ground, Gabriel had to touch him to stand him back up. In other words, Daniel not only needed supernatural assistance to understand the vision, he needed further help to deal with the weight of it, and so do we.
After standing Daniel back up, the angel Gabriel says, “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end” (Daniel 8:19). Daniel is referring to the cruel reign of Antiochus, which by God’s decree would come to an end. The promise of the vision is that God is sovereign over evil. This not only means that evil will come to an end, but that God is so big that he can take the evil of this world and weave it into our lives to accomplish His purpose without ordaining the sin.
Knowing that God is sovereign over evil will not exempt us from the pain and suffering that comes from living in a fallen world, but it can enable us to rise above it and shine in the darkness. Notice Daniel’s final words about this vision: “And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it” (Daniel 8:27). Daniel’s response is a little different than the average Christian after attending a prophesy conference (which I’m not against by the way).
The vision caused Daniel to be bed ridden. Remember in verse 18, when Gabriel began to speak about the vision, Daniel fell into a coma-like state. After Gabriel gave him more details, again he was overcome, but this time he lay sick in bed for some days. Although Daniel did not understand and was overcome by the magnitude of the evil yet to come, he would eventually regain his strength, get up, and go back to attending to the king’s business. Where did that strength come from?
The divine grace which lifted Daniel up, was obviously not that all his "why" questions were answered. The vision answered the “who was ultimately in charge" question. Knowing that God was in control and that His redemptive purpose would be accomplished strengthened Daniel to rise up and get busy doing the king’s business for the glory of the King of kings.
In the movie Legend, Doctor Neville, played by Will Smith, tells a story about the singer Bob Marley. While talking to a woman about the singer, Neville says, “Bob Marley believed that you could cure racism and hate…literally cure it by injecting music and love into people’s lives. When Bob Marley was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. He survived. Two days later, he walked out onto that stage at the peace rally and sang. Afterwards when asked why he still performed, he said, 'The people who are trying to make this world worse…are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.'" Although Bob Marley wasn’t a believer, he was onto something. The answer wasn’t in his music, but it is found in the love of Jesus.
In these dark days, let us keep our eyes on the cross of Jesus where love triumphed over evil. Let us daily receive fresh vision from God in His word and by His Spirit to see as we ought to see, reflect on the vision to think as we ought to think, and respond to the vision to act as we ought to act while we wait in hope. Although darkness may rule the night, the sun will rise again. Light up the darkness until dawn.
In your service,
Pastor Marco