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Faithful Living in Dark Times

Faithful Living in Dark Times
July 10, 2016

Scripture: Daniel 11:2-12:3

I. You live faithfully in your trials by believing.

A. The vision of Daniel 11 was given when Daniel and the Jews were discouraged. It is a view of the flow of history from the late 6th century BC until the end of time. It begins like chapter 8 did with a summary in verses 2 and 3 of the Persian and Greek kingdoms. After Alexander the Great dies, his kingdom is broken up into pieces according to vs. 4. Two of the four kingdoms that came from Alexander’s empire were the kingdom of the Ptolemies, based in Egypt, south of Israel, and the kingdom of the Seleucids in Babylon and Syria, north of Israel. Daniel and the Jews needed to learn that trials and wars were an expected part of life. They also needed to believe the message of the entire book of Daniel: in spite of all appearances God is in control.

II. You live faithfully in your trials by resisting.

A. Beginning in vs. 21 and for the next 15 verses we read about a single Seleucid king, a king of the north. This king’s name was Antiochus IV. Antiochus (vs. 27) had a heart bent on doing evil. One way that his evil heart expressed itself was found in vs. 28: his heart was set against the holy covenant. Verse 31 says that Antiochus will take away the regular burnt offering from the Jews. How did God want the Jewish people to respond to Antiochus’ violations of their temple and God’s laws? God wanted the Jews to resist. We see in vs. 32 that Antiochus will seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. Their resistance would be costly. Some Jews would be martyred for their faithfulness to God. Others would suffer persecution.

III. You live faithfully in your trials by teaching others.

A. This is the meaning of the beginning of vs. 33: “And the wise among the people shall make many understand.” We Christians are all teachers. We are to teach all those around us – both the Christians and the non-Christians. We need to remind our fellow Christians that God is in control no matter how difficult life becomes. And we need to teach other Christians that our minds and our hearts are to be shaped by ultimate realities rather than by simply present realities. Obviously, we are to teach non-Christians about Jesus, but we forget that one of the main ways we teach about Jesus is by how we live. As Christians we are claiming that Jesus has made us born again. Non-Christians are reading us to see if this is true.

IV. You live faithfully in your trials by praying.

A. In verses 36-45 we learn more about that evil ruler from the north Antiochus. How are we to respond to antichrists like him? How can we live faithfully to God in the midst of such evil? We get a hint in Daniel 12:1. Deliverance is coming for God’s people. Victory is coming. Michael is one of the angels described in Daniel 10:13. He fought in spiritual battle with the cherubim against demons in Persia. Daniel’s prayers won the victory over evil by sending both the cherubim and Michael to fight. So what do we need to do when we encounter great evil? Pray.

Application:
We live faithfully in dark times by doing four things: believe, resist, teach and pray.

Sources:
The prophecy of Daniel
Commentaries on Daniel by Iain Duguid and Tremper Longman III