Daniel: The Way of the Warrior(19-Mar-2006)

(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Daniel M7 The Way of the Warrior

Do you remember the first movies you saw as a kid?

One of my favorites movie as a child was Star Wars…

The battle between Jedi Warrior, Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, the clash between light versus darkness...

Star Wars resonated with so many people not just because (to paraphrase Sid Ganis president of the motion picture Academy) it involved what was considered then special state of art technology, but involved state of the heart story telling.

Whether we consider ourselves religious or not, “believers” or not at deep intuitive, heart level that we sense live in midst of some kind a clash of darkness and light, good and evil.

Epics like the Stars Wars or the Lord of Rings appeal so deeply to so many, because they myths reflect at some level the “true myth,” the clash of good of evil that the sacred book, the Holy Scriptures describes.

Today as we look at the book of Daniel, we’re going to explore what it means to live as a warrior cosmic, spiritual battle…

If you have your Bibles please turn to Daniel 8…
Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat
1 In the third year of King Belshazzar's reign (about 548 or 547 b.c), I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. 3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns (these represents the Medo-Persian Empire vs. 20), standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later (a reference to the fact at first the Medes were in ascendancy, but later it was Persia). 4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great (The Medo-Persian Empire defeated Babylon).
5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. 7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power (who is the goat? The goat is Kingdom of Greece which defeats the Kingdom of Babylon). 8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off (who large horn of Greece broken off? Alexander the Great), and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.
9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land (What is the beautiful land? Israel. The prophet Jeremiah and Ezekiel calls Israel the beautiful land). 10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. 11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down. 12 Because of rebellion, the LORD's people [a] and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground (prophet Torah, God’s law was burned in the middle of the 2nd century BC).
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, "How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the LORD's people?"

In Daniel’s vision he sees this horn in vs. 10 which starts small but then grows until it reaches heaven and then throws some of the starry host to the ground and tramples upon them.

So, this horn apparently is ascending to heaven and oppressing the armies of heaven.

Vss. 11 The horn takes away the daily sacrifice and the place of the sanctuary was brought low…

In Daniel 11 vs. 31 we have another illusion this anti-God, horn figure. We read that he will desecrates the temple… and abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination that cause desolation…

It’s interesting that battle in chapter 8 seems to be taking place in some spiritual realm, as the horn fights against the Prince of the heavenly host and causes the sanctuary to be desecrated, but later in chapter 8 and chapter 11 and it seems like this battle is actually played out on earth…

We know that during reign of the Antiochus Ephipanes IV who reigned during the mid-2nd century B.C. that the forbade the people of God to make sacrifices to God, committed a great abomination by setting up an altar to Zeus in the temple of the living and sacrificing a pig on the altar which would have been an unspeakable offense to Jewish people…

We also know that as result the Jews under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus began to revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes the IV and a few years later Judas Maccabeaus rededicated of temple (December 165 B.C.) to the living God is the reason why Jewish people today observe Hanukkah.

So it seems in Daniel 8 there is a spiritual cosmic battle being played out as the horn rises to heaven and attacks God’s people, AND at the same time this battle is played out on earth as Antiochus Epiphanes IV rises and seeks to destroy God’s people on earth…

In Daniel 10 we read of great war that takes places in heaven… the demon of the Persian Kingdom battling against the arch angel Michael.

In Revelation 12 we read also of great battle in heaven between a woman clothed in the sun, who and pregnant and cries out in pain… and an enormous red dragon trying to destroy her child and the woman fled into the dessert.

As world class expert on Revelation points out our own Darrell Johnson, this great dragon is Satan, this vision in Revelation points back to the spiritual battle going on during the time when Mary was giving birth to Christ. Satan was attempting to destroy boy and his fury ended up moving the King Herod to kill thousands and thousands of baby boys in that region…

The Bible clearly teaches that are transcendent forces of evil and good that clash at a cosmic, that mysterious and powerfully affect what goes on here on earth.

If you’re new to the Bible you might expect the Bible to assert something like that…

But of course many secular people reject that.

Secular people tend to believe that evil in our world is caused by DNA or social conditioning. I was with a Fortunate 500 corporate executive not long ago and she was talking about some of the ethical problems in her company. Why do you think people act like that in your company, I asked? She said it’s bad DNA.

Others say evils results from people, bad social conditioning, not loving social environment.

Andrew Delbanco is a secular, liberal professor at the NYC’s Columbia University, who wrote a book called The Death of Satan. In that book Delbanco argues… that if you don’t make some kind of appeal to the transcendent evil you won’t have the psychological capacity to deal with evil on a wider scale…

Professor Delbanco is a descendent of Eastern European Jews and some of his ancestors died on the Holocaust. ..

If you don’t in some kind of transcend evil how do you explain the genocide of 6 million Jews? The Nazi had bad DNA or are you going say the Nazi’s didn’t get tendering loving fare (TLC) and milk and cookies when they were kids… and they were “acting out” to get attention?

Or where they influence by a force of evil in some spiritual realm?


(Optional: May or may not use this piece: In article in the New Yorker by foreign affairs correspond Mark Danner, he describes the persecution of the church in a certain part of the world. He writes about girl being raped multiple times by soliders on a cruise and then as she lay on that boat she was quietly singing these strange Christian hymns of praise… and then a solider shot her in the chest, with blood flower from her chest, she continued to sing, but more though more weakly and then the soldiers a fear seemed to sweep over them and they unsheathed their machetes and had hacked through he neck and the singing stopped. That really happened.)

Sometimes secular people will argue the Christian approach to evil to simplistic. “Oh the devil made me do it.” “Yeah right!” But, the secular view is actually more simplistic that Christian view. Because the Christian view would say that evil can be the result of our DNA and genetic inheritance, our social environment, choice, AND spiritual forces of evil…

Paul in the part of Bible referred as newer testament, in Ephesians 6 says we are in a battle not against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms….

So if we are in this spiritual battle how do we live our lives?

Paul in Ephesians 6 says we are to put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes.

He says Ephesians 6:14 we are to put on belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness…

Truth in this context refers to person’s sincerity and integrity and righteousness, a person refers to being inwardly pure…

In Daniel, we see the mighty warrior is a person of total integrity… He’s blameless not in the sense of absolute perfection, but in the sense that you can’t find fault with him.

When Daniel’s colleagues are envious of his success and want to smear him, they dig but can’t find fault with him…

In Daniel 9, we see him praying for cleansing for himself and his people. So when know does “fall” he seeks to be inwardly cleansed by God.

We tend to think that a warrior, particularly in the ancient context as someone who could throw a spear like fast ball with great accuracy and speed, or wield a sword with tremendous skill, or we think of a solider deft at firing a machine gun or able to precisely manipulate a computer guided a missile.

But if want to warriors for the God in a spiritual battle, like Daniel, we will seek be spiritual clean…

In interesting the mysterious battles the Hebrew soldiers fought in the Old Testament era that physical prowess was important what was far more important was the soldiers would be spiritual clean. In the New Testament, where the sole emphasis in as battle are concerned, is the spiritual battle, inward purity is everything.

In Plato’s republic, Socrates is asked through a winding dialogue is it ever advantageous to do what is evil as opposed to what is good?

Say you had the ring of Giges and could turn invisible and you knew you could get away with stealing a priceless diamond, would it some times be in your advantage to do evil?

Plato, through the mouth of Socrates says no, it’s never advantageous to do evil, because when you do evil you destroy your soul and it’s never in your advantage your own soul.

Sin is vandalizes our soul.

Sin weakens the spiritual warrior.

Purity free the Warrior… the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32 says I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.

The Spiritual warrior is inwardly pure.

The spiritual warrior also prays.

In Ephesians 6:18 we are called to pray in the spirit on all occasion, with all kinds of prayers and requests.

In Daniel 3, we see that King Nebuchadnezzar asks the wise men of Babylon to interpret the dreams and no one can. So Daniel steps forwards and asks for time to interpret them and he prays and calls upon his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to pray.

In Daniel 6, we see that Daniel’s colleagues envious of his success conspire against him by having the King pass a law that no one can to pray to anyone or anything for the next 30 days except the King with penalty that if anyone does pray her or she will be thrown into the Lion’s den…

In the later part of Daniel as he receives this apocalyptic visions about things that will come we see in Daniel 9 and 10 that Daniel passionately seeks God in prayer.

It’s a mystery how this happens, but prayers can change the world.

In Daniel 10 as Daniel prays the angel comes in response to provides support in the spiritual battle against evil.

In Exodus, the Israelites are in battle against the Amalekites and Moses lifts his hands in a symbol of pray and as his hands are lifted a symbol of his appealing to God, Israel has the upper hand, but as his hands grow tired and weary the Amalekites gain the advantage. As Moses arms grow weary, Aaron and Hur hold his hands and the Israelties prevail.
In a mysterious way it seems as though pray can influence the onslaught of evil.

I remember an article in Newsweek magazine "Late one night in upstate New York, a journalist decided to take a shortcut home, up a steep, unlit path. Then she heard steps behind her, faster than her own. An instant later the man was upon her, tightening her new striped scarf around her neck…. At home, her mother woke from a deep sleep, seized with fear that something terrible was about to happen to her eldest daughter. The mother immediately knelt down beside her bed and prayed. Back on the stony path, the man suddenly ceased his assault. He cocked his head, almost beast-like, the woman recalls, and fled down the hill…"

There’s a young mom, in our community who has 3 young kids, and this mother wants to be used as an instrument of God. She knows mothering is a very ministry, but her that and more her kids and her family… and she senses that God has been calling her into the ministry of prayer. There are time prompted to pray for people through a sense or a dream and later she discovers that it was at exact time someone needed prayer.

Prayer helps us advance in the spiritual battle, Both Individual and group prayer.

Ephesians 6 calls us to take up the breast plate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, word of God…

A number of commentators have pointed out that all the stuff on the amour is for the front of the solider… meaning they are meant to go forward…

In the Old Testament, the people of God were involved in a literal war, the image of war in the New Testament part is used as metaphor for the spiritual battle.

Interesting that John the Baptist and of his contemporary and many were expecting the Messiah to come and overthrow the Romans.

John the Baptist was expecting the Messiah to come with an ax to cut down the trees that were not good bearing fruit and be thrown into the fire, with a winnowing fork in hand and clear the threshing floor of the chaff with fire…

When he heard of Jesus ministry of healing, casting out demons, and preaching, John wasn’t sure if he Jesus the Messiah or not… so John asks his disciples to ask Jesus was he the Messiah or should we expect someone else?

Jesus Warrior of God does not come as Messiah who uses physical, but spiritual force, as Martin King Jr. would soul force…

Daniel was a spiritual warrior, soul force…

Daniel as spiritual warrior turned people toward many people living God, including King Nechadnezzar and King Darius.

Daniel 12:2 we read “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”

Being a spiritual involves turning others to righteousness…and it’s also a great joy…

My wife said, when I was hired as an editor at Newsweek, Japan I thought I though I’d very fulfilled, I had wanted to journalist and I was in a dream job. The best thing was being able to tell something a cocktail party, I am an editor at Newsweek! Even though, I magazine had thousands and thousands of readers, I didn’t sense deeply helping anyone…

Now, I don’t have a prestigious job, I work as volunteer, but I seeing a few people turning closer to God, I feel I am a difference…

As spiritual you may a prestigious job, Daniel did, my wife did before then she married me… but a whether power position or not you can as a spiritual warrior if you invite God to use as an instrument of righteousness…

Become a spiritual warrior involves being a person or righteousness, being a person of prayer, and turning others toward righteousness.

Many people think that becoming a Christians means we move toward comfort and ease and safety… there is a very real sense in which God is our refuge…

If you are follower of Christ, many still considering, but if you have it may well be time to pray you’ll be weapon, to wreak havoc in darkness… to become dangerous in the best sense…

Though Daniel is…80 something as he has this vision, he’s dangerous, in the best sense of word, he may not be as fast in the 40 yard dash as he was when he was 20, he can’t bench press what he could at 25, but he’s dangerous as a spiritual force…

A pastor in Los Angeles that I trained with named Erwin McManus says one my son Aaron went to a youth camp. He was just a little guy, and I was kind of glad because it was a church camp. I figured he wasn't going to hear all those ghost stories, because ghost stories can really cause a kid to have nightmares. But unfortunately, since it was a Christian camp and they didn't tell ghost stories, because we don't believe in ghosts, they told demon and Satan stories instead. And so when Aaron got home, he was terrified.
"Dad, don't turn off the light!" he said before going to bed. "No, Daddy, could you stay here with me? Daddy, I'm afraid. They told all these stories about demons."
And I wanted to say, "They're not real."
He goes, "Daddy, Daddy, would you pray for me that I would be safe?" I could feel it. I could feel warm-blanket Christianity beginning to wrap around him, a life of safety, safety, safety.
I said, "Aaron, I will not pray for you to be safe. I will pray that God will make you dangerous, so dangerous that demons will flee when you enter the room."
And he goes, "All right. But pray I would be really, really dangerous, Daddy."
Is it time where you stop asking God to give you a safe, comfortable life, and make you a dangerous warrior of Jesus Christ?

Living under a Beastly Empire (12-Mar-2006)

(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Living Under a Beastly Empire

BIG Idea: Even Under Beastly Empires God is in Control and if we stand with God we will be victorious and our lives will have meaning.

Daniel M 6 Living Under Beastly Empires (KSS Hocklyn—check the word count)

What was biggest surprise at last Sunday night’s Oscars? In the opinion of many, it was that Crash, the edgy, film about urban racism, produced by Canadians won the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year.

The odds makers had listed Brokeback Mountain as the odds on favorite to win best picture.

Do you remember when, Pope John Paul II died? Las Vegas bookies were listing what the odds were for a various cardinal being selected as the next Pope.

Monday Night Football is a popular show largely because it’s a quality show, but also in part because many who lost their bets on Sunday games, are trying make up their losses on the Monday night game.

Many human beings seem to have this incurable bent to want to predict the future whether it’s the Oscars, the next Pope, some Sporting event, the stock market, the real estate market, the weather…

Some people approach Daniel 7-12 with a passion to be able to predict the future of the world…. Or they look this revelation, with it “apocalyptic” images of beasts that symbolize… uh… er… who knows what and they say forget it… I’m stopping at Daniel 6 at Daniel and Lions…that I understand…

Both approaches of wanting to predict future events with real precision from certain Bible passages or avoiding the symbolic/prophetic revelations of the Bible are both not the way to go…

For while the prophetic parts of the Bible do give us images of the future they are not intended to encourage us to make specific predictions about the stock market or about how specific government unfold, but they are intended to help live in a crazy, chaotic world.

We see this in Daniel 7:

1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
2 Daniel said: "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
Daniel’s vision begins with him seeing fours winds of heaven churning up a great sea…

Last summer my wife on I were on a sailboat making our way toward the Georgia Strait with intention to sail to Vancouver Island, winds were wiping across the straight, creating what looked liked 6-8 foot swells… Our skipper and coach said, I’ve never experience water here this rough, we’re going to have to turn around and head back to False Creek…

There’s something about being about wind about a restless sea as it whipped by the wind that feels mysterious and dangerous.

The sea in this ancient Babylonian culture would have especically symbolized danger and chaos…

In the famous Babylonian account of creation the Enuma Elish the “god” Marduk battles with Tiamat, a huge, bloated female dragon that personifies the seas. Marduk destroys the Tiamat and from her body makes the earth and from her water the seas, but the seas continues to threaten creation…

Now the point of the myth is not to say this is how it actually happened, but to say that in ancient Babylonian culture, the sea would have represented mysterious danger…

So, this vision of the four winds churning up the sea would have been very troubling for Daniel…

Then vision gets more horrifying…
3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
4 "The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it.
A lion emerges with the wings of an eagle…

What does this animal symbolize? (powerpoint)

In vs. 17 were told that four great beasts represent four kingdoms that arise from the earth.

This first beast seems to represent Babylon… a Kingdom that is as fierce as a lion and as swift as an eagle…

The prophet Jeremiah chapters in 4 and 50 describes the Kingdom of Babylon as both lion and eagle…

Daniel is receiving this vision in the first year of Belshazzar’s reign, the last King of Babylon and so this is an image about the Kingdom he is living in now, the following images will concern the future….
Notice vs. 5 "And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, 'Get up and eat your fill of flesh!'
The second beast is a bear…

3 summers ago, my wife and I were hiking in Waterton National Park on the Alberta/Montana border and a big grizzly passed right by us…

Bears are nice to look from your car, but they frightening when they pass you on the trail…

The second Kingdom may represent the Medo-Persian Empire, a fierce Empire which follows Babylon…

What do the three ribs in the bear’s mouth between its teeth symbolize? The fact Medo-Persia loved Tony Romas AND forgot to use dental floss? No. Perhaps, the 3 principle of conquests of the hybrid Kingdom Medo-Persia: Lydia (modern day Turkey), Babylon, and Egypt.
6 "After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.
The third beast… is a leopard…. On its back it had four wings like that of a bird….

What do you think when you think of a leopard?

This image of the leopard may refer to the Kingdom that would follow the Medo-Persian Empire… The Kingdom of Greece which, under Alexander the Great, which could strike with great speed…

7 "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
The fourth beast had large iron teeth and crushed everything in it’s path—what many scholars believe is the Kingdom the follows Greece, the Roman Empire… with its brutal as “iron teeth… (or if you interpret as Medo-Persia two empires, then the bear could be Empires of the Medes, the leopard Persia, and this fourth beast could be Greece.)

These prophetic revelations given to Daniel concern things that will happen in the future…

But, Biblical prophecy often speaks of something that will have an initial fulfillment in the near future… but also have a later greater fulfillment.

For example in Daniel in 7 and Daniel 8 we read about a prophecy of a horn. The prophecy about little boastful horn is clearly referring to a figure hostile toward God. This hostile figure forbids God’s people to sacrifice and desecrate worship and commit what called in Daniel 11 as abomination that causes desolation. Many scholars believe these prophecies refer to the reign of Antiochus Ephipanes IV 175 to 164 B.C. who forbids the people of God to make sacrifices to God, commits a great abomination by setting up an altar to Zeus in the temple of the living and sacrifices a pig on the altar which would have been an unspeakable offense to Jewish people… AND Bible scholars believe that about the horn hostile to God will also have a later greater fulfillment in an anti-Christ figure or spirit.

Another example of prophecy having a nearer fulfillment and a later greater fulfillment would be Isaiah 7:14. In Isaiah 7:14 we have the prophecy that a virgin shall conceive and shall be called Immanuel—which means God with us. The prophecy refers to a young woman in Isaiah’s world, perhaps Isaiah’s 2nd wife a young woman who would conceive… (a virgin can simply mean young woman in addition to a woman who has never had sex).

The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 says that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son who will be called Immanuel, has a later greater fulfillment through Mary… a literal virgin who conceived supernaturally through the Holy Spirit….

If a rich aunt says, I’m going to help you become an artist. That may mean that she’s going to pay your tuition at Emily Carr this spring, but perhaps in 5 years she’s going set you up so you can study with some of finest art teachers in Paris. The word, I will help you become artist, may a fulfillment in the near future, but also a later greater fulfillment.

Why do I say this?

Because the revelations of the beast of Daniel 7 refer not only to things that will unfold in Daniel’s near future… they have later greater implications as the history of the world unfolds…

Daniel as he is given these revelations about the future is told by the messenger of God that he is receiving visions concerning the End Times…

We’re living in the end times. I can say without any fear of contradiction because
According to the writers of the New Testament the “End times” refer to the period of time between Christ’s first coming and second coming. We’re living in these “end times” and according to Daniel’s revelation these end times will be marked by Beastly Empires and evil…

We ought to work hard toward for social justice, particularly for the poor and hold governments accountable, but the prophecy is telling us is that there will always be evil empires that ill oppress until the coming of the second coming of the Christ, also known as the Ancient of Days….

Part of the reason, people and in Daniel’s day and we get these revelations is to help us understand that even in the midst of great chaos and evil God is still in control.

Can you imagine living in Daniel’s day and being a Hebrew child of 10 and being depressed that your country had lost in war to Babylon… and then as some time as an adult you read… in Daniel 1:1-2 we read how in the third year of King Jehoiakim, the LORD delivered him into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon.

And you then you keep reading in Daniel how God raise up Kings and sets them down and how God foretold through the prophets the very things you are now experiencing!

You read in the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah that because your people had been sinning through violence, injustice, oppressing the poor your people would be taken over by Babylon and be in exile for 70 years… and sure enough about 70 years after the exile, as senior citizen of 80 you find yourself waking back to Jerusalem…

That experience would likely convince you that even in times of chaos and violence of our world, God is working out his purposes in the world. Or the very least, there is a God!

These words are given to us to show us that there will be chaos and evil of our world, but God is in control and working out his purposes.

As Darrell Johnson has said things are not as they seem!

Daniel shows that God us has the power to raise up rulers and depose of them.
Who could have envisioned some of the tyrants of the world coming to justice in their heyday? But with benefit of hindsight, we how these ancient Kingdom in accordanc with God’s word were brought low. In more relatively recent times we’ve seen Saddam Hussein was caught in little square hide out underground, Romania Ceaceseau taken down by the very people he oppressed, we see Hitler ending his life in his bunker.
In vss. 9 ff we read of the Ancient of Days and one coming with the clouds of heaven, a symbol of power and authority.
9 "As I looked,
"thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
10 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.
11 "Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.
13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and women and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
The revelation tells us of King whose Kingdom will be greater than all other kingdoms, one who worshipped by countless people of every language… this prophecy points us to the Messiah, the Christ…

As is case with many prophecies there is an initial fulfillment prophecy in first coming of Jesus Christ, we who worship the Ancient of Days are part of the fulfillment of this prophecy, but as Scripture points out, there will a later greater fulfillment where the Ancient Days of comes not as suffering servant, but as a reigning conquering King…

What are implications for Daniel and us?

Though the visions are frightening and somewhat bizarre—we can know that even in chaos and hardship God is in control.

Things are not only as they seem.

When I was watching, the Olympic women’s figures figure skating final on TV I was watching it on video, as I had a commitment during the time it was broadcast… and I hoping that Shizuka Arakawa would win the gold. I’m originally from Japan and Japan hadn’t one any medals… and I was watching her skate, it wasn’t a perfect routine, as NBC commentators pointed out she made some mistakes, but I had great peace, I knew things would go well… I knew she would win… (I had heard from my wife she won).

We experience many ups and downs, much chaos in the world and in our lives…

There’s something about knowing that in the end God wins, that doesn’t totally feel free anxiety, but can give real perspective and peace…

We know in the end the Ancient of Days, Christ wins, good wins….

If we are with Christ, we will share in that victory….

Knowing how things will end gives us peace…

Knowing how things will end will also give a peace about something else…

Daniel has experienced all kinds of injustices and discrimination… he’s been the object of envy. He’s been falsely accusation by colleagues as being disloyal to the King. He ends being thrown into a pit of hungry lions because of this… but he does not need not exact vengeance because knows God’s in control…

At end of the book Daniel 12:2 describes the final destiny of human beings: we read how multitudes who sleep in the dust of earth will wake, some will rise to everlasting life and some everlasting shame and contempt…. Daniels knows God is God and the future is in God’s hand and that there will a day of reckoning, a day of judgment…

Bible teaches we don’t need to take vengeance in this life because God will avenge wrongs either in this life or the next…

If there is no God, no judgment, we would feel compelled to avenge our wrongs….

We’d be compelled to take the advice, get even… or as Ivan Trump, don’t get even, get everything…

Some of us here have been hurt, by partner, or maybe a boss or colleague like Daniel, maybe by a family member… and in many parts we know people have suffered because of evil tyrants…

The fact that God is control and God will bring people to justice… if not in this life or the life to come… free us from a spirit of vengeance and give us peace

And finally, if God is in control it means that our lives on earth are meaningful….


Daniel as an adolescent experiences his own country being defeated, he’s taken forcefully taken from his country, his family, away from temple he loves, never to return and lives of his days exiled in foreign country…

He best friends in Babylon…and are thrown into a fiery furnace because of their faith in the living God.

He rises to prominence in Babylon because of his excellent spirit, but when the King he’s closely connected to die, he’s discarded for prime years of his.

As older man Daniel is falsely accused by colleague as being disloyal to the King and is thrown into a pit of hungry lions.

As far as we know Daniel never marries, never has children…

But as we seen, his life was the Ancient of Days and his life matters… and so you will yours, and so will yours it echo on eternity if you are connected to God of Daniel, the God of Jesus Christ.


Daniel 7
Daniel's Dream of Four Beasts
1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
2 Daniel said: "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
4 "The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it.
5 "And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, 'Get up and eat your fill of flesh!'
6 "After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.
7 "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
8 "While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.
9 "As I looked,
"thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
10 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.
11 "Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12 (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)
13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
The Interpretation of the Dream
15 "I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. 16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the true meaning of all this.
"So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17 'The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. 18 But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.'
19 "Then I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws—the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. 20 I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
23 "He gave me this explanation: 'The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. [a]
26 " 'But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.'
28 "This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself."
Footnotes:
a. Daniel 7:25 Or for a year, two years and half a year

Walking among Lions(05-Mar-2006)

Walking among the Lions March 5, 2006

(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Did you see the TV ad during the Olympics which featured a plump, middle-aged couple in their living room watching Olympic pairs figure skating?

The husband’s hand is on his wife’s, they give each other a knowing look, and they end up going that night to a frozen lake for their own attempt at the pairs’ competition.

The man ends up skating backward, awkwardly (as if to day look at me I can go backwards!) and ends up crashing into an outdoor tin shed behind him. He shakes himself off and says, “I’m not hurt.” Just then a large sheet of ice he has dislodged from the roof of the shed slides off and destroys their car.

If you’ve watched people like Olympic medalists Shizuka Arakawa, Sasha Cohen, Plushenko land the double, triple, and quadruple jumps…

It’s so obvious, the announcers don’t need to say, don’t try at home…

To be able to land a double, triple, or quadruple jumps in figure skating takes more than luck, it takes a life rhythm to make room for disciplines necessary to become a great figure skating: the stretching, the muscle training, the coordination drills… diet and rest etc..

So, it is the spiritual life…

When we look at a person like Daniel in the book of the Bible that bears his name, we see an athlete for God… a person who’s able to face tremendous life threatening pressure with extraordinary, spiritual strength, and poise… Today as look at Daniel 6 we’re looking at the rhythm of life a person to become a spiritual athlete and what it looks to be a person of spiritual strength in the world…

If you have your Bibles please turn to Daniel 6…
Daniel 6
Daniel in the Den of Lions
1 It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, 2 with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. 3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God."

(So out of envy administrators proposed to the King that all the governors had agreed that a law be passed that stated that anyone who prayed to anyone but the King would be thrown into a lions den (this was a lie Daniel had not agreed to this),
10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. 12 So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: "Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lions' den?"
The king answered, "The decree stands—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed."
13 Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day." 14 When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.
15 Then the men went as a group to the king and said to him, "Remember, O king, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed."
16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!"
17 A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. 18 Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.
19 At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions' den. 20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"
21 Daniel answered, "O king, live forever! 22 My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king." (more literally they have done me no harm for I have done you no harm).
23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
In this famous, passage, we see how Daniel’s fellow government administrator’s are envious of Daniel’s success, so they urge the King to pass a law that they know will trap a person devoted to God, like Daniel… they pass a law that will not allow a person to pray for 30 days to God and if person does prayer, he or she will be thrown into the Lion’s Den. Daniel comes to know about law, but he continues to pray to God. He’s spied out, he’s caught, and he’s thrown into the Lion’s Den…

If we’re really familiar with this story, it’s possible for it to lose some of its edge…
so think about some you we admire they were willing to face death for something they believed in…

Remember Wang Wei Lin? In 1989, near Tiananmen Square in Beijing China, he stood up unarmed and alone to the tanks, in an effort to keep the troops from striking the demonstrators. When a tank he stood up against tried to go around him, he then moved to stand is front of the new trajectory the tank was taking… (show the photo).

And Daniel is willing to face death for his conviction that he must seek the living God through prayer…

The passage in vs. 3 in the New International Version tells us that Daniel distinguishes himself among administrators and satraps.

The passage literally reads there was an excellent spirit was in Daniel….

How does He become this way?

As is the case with an Olympic figure skater, this just doesn’t happen.

As there is a rythum or a structure that helps a person prepare their mind and body so that an able athlete, so there is a rhythm or structure of life that prepares Daniel to become a spiritual athlete, able to live with extraordinary inner strength…

What was that rhythm of Daniel?

The text gives us a clue.

In verse. 10 we read that Daniel prays 3 times a day toward Jerusalem, where the temple of God had stood, and in praying toward God’s temple is saying I depending on the living God…

Daniel has a life rythum, where 3x a day, he seeks to consciously in the presence of the living, expressing his dependence on God and the life of God…





When we become who structure our lives so we spend time conscious of the presence living God: in prayer, mediation, the Word, nature, with people, music and the places where we are uniquely meeting God… we become people who bear the life and are able to live in a new kind of way in the world.

One of the ways we know that we are bearing the life of God in our souls, is that we become who reflects God’s heart and character…

And when we become people who reflect God’s heart and a character, like Daniel we will end up experiencing clashes with the character and values of the world.

When I was working with a multi-national corporation in Japan, some times I would meet who would want to purse a business degree (an MBA) in North America and wanted me to help them apply.

But, I’d typically remind them it was a bit of a risk doing a degree…in North America.

If you are a Japanese person and you go to North America chances are some of your values will change… you might develop with a different view of women’s role, you might come to different perspective of the importance of career, vs. family, you come back different view of the value of the individual vs. the value of the group and if your going to back to traditional Japanese company, those kinds new values could mean you clash with your company’s corporate culture… you may experience opposition…

Once you really begin to receive the life of God into your being, spiritually speaking it’s like spending time in an foreign country and you if sink some of your roots there and you start hold values that can clash with the culture of your origin, you may experience oppostionn…

For Daniel, structuring his life in such in a place where he could receive the life God through prayer, meant he became a person of distinctive character and was promoted but he also generated hostile opposition.

And some of his colleagues wanted Daniel “done in” by being thrown into a den of lions.

Most of us here will not face starving lions, because our faith in God, but if we are receiving the life and character of God, we will face opposition.

What might this look like? Let me some possible “based on real cases.”

Let’s say in a dating relationship and you’re sleeping with your partner, as you come to know God more fully, you realize that God’s intent is for sexual intercourse between two people who are committed in the covenant of marriage, and you pull back until you’re married… it will generate opposition…

Or let’s say you are married and come to know God personally and you realize part of way you show your dependence on God is that you tithe on your income… it tax season and your partner of sees you’ve given been 10% of your income away, that might generate opposition.

Or let’s say you’re part of a corporate culture, where telling lies to cover for a colleague or for company is as present as the air you breath, as you spend in this other spiritual country, you come believe there must be congruence between what’s on the inside and what’s on the outside, but that generates opposition.

Now if you’re find you’re being opposed and persecuted all the time, it may mean that you’re just obnoxious.

If you find that you’re never opposed, that there’s never a clash, it may you’re not as yet been in a way that makes you truly distinct…

OR you’re not in the world, you’re existing in kind of a bubble…

Daniel is in the world, but he’s receiving the life of God, allowing God to transform him, and he becomes truly distinct so experiences opposition…

The satraps and administrator’s despise his being different and envy his success and they offer make a proposal to the King that appeals to the King’s vanity… they urge the King to pass a law that says, anyone who prays to anyone or anything will be thrown into the Lion’s den…

Daniel ends up praying toward Jerusalem 3x a day as was his habit.

He’s not grandstanding as he prays, but apparently envious people are spying on him and he’s caught praying and King Darius is caught because he cannot change an edict that he has ratified with his signet ring.

So King Darius doesn’t want to do, but he’s forced by law to have Daniel is thrown into a den with Lion’s that apparently haven’t been fed for some time.

In the novel, The Life of Pi the main character in the story is a boy named Pi from India who’s dad owned a zoo in India.

One day when Pi was a young boy, Pi’s dad wanted to show him just how dangerous a tiger could be… so before the zoo opened dad led Pi’s had to the cage of their 550 pound Bengal tiger…who had not been fed in 3 days.

Pi’s dad then had a goat put in a cage next to the tiger’s cage. Only Bars and trapdoor separated the two. Immediately, the tiger began paw through the bars and woof. The goat started to jump--with click click of the goats hooves against the cement floor. Pi says the goat jumped to amazing heights. Pi had no idea a goat could jump so high.

With sudden ease the trapdoor slid open. Pi saw, a blur of blood, turned his head toward his mom, he heard bleating, clicking of the hooves, then silence…

Daniel as an old man, is facing starving lions because of his faith…

Our spiritual heritage is one of followers of Christ where countless times have faced death for their faith….

We have many, many of illustrations of courageous from church history… let me pick one…

Stephen Neil, in his book the History of Christians Missions describes how in the 1600s Christians were being persecuted. He describes how at one time 70 were crucified upside down at on the beach Yado… as the water lapped up onto the beach as the tide came in… these people: fathers and mothers, teenager kids… were drowned to death…

How do people become that courageous?

How do we become like that?

When lives where are filled the presence of God, when immersed in his reality, we come to believe that are certain things more important that life on earth…

As David he spent time in the presence of God affirmed, thy loving kindness is better than life…

As we receive the life of God, we come to know that the purpose of life of earth isn’t just life on earth… we come to realize that God’s love, God’s purposes, God’s glory are more important than even our life on earth…

Many people think that courage is the absence of fear… Scott Peck, psychiatrist and author of the Road Less Traveled says a person who claims to have no fear shouldn’t brag, it’s just evidence of brain damage…

Courage isn’t the absence fear, it’s the presence of a greater love that helps walk through our fear…

When we love deeply we can act in the midst of fear… When a mother loves a child, she can and will defend the child—even when it puts her at great risk…

When we immerse our self in the presence of God we grow to love God and his purposes, more our lives on earth… we find we have sometime to die and when you have something to die for, you really have something to live for…

One of my classmates in the Arrow Leadership program, from El Salvador says… God is looking for women and men who will die up front, so they can really live… he looking to lead people where place only dead women and men can go…

When we are willing to live and die for a cause greater than us we are truly free…

Daniel so immersed our in God, that he realized honoring God was more important that life itself…

So Daniel ends up praying to God though it means he is thrown into a den of starving lions and he is, but God rescues Daniel! God sends his angel to close the mouths of the lions.

God did not deliver Daniel from the Lion’s den, Daniel, but delivered him in it…

If you were here 2 weeks ago, we talked about how God did not deliver Shadrach, Mesech, Abednego, from the fiery furnace but in it…

Here we see how does not deliver Daniel from the Lion’s but in and how meets in this place of danger through the angel of God…

After I spoke on Shadrach, Meshech and Abendnego in fiery furnace, here two weeks ago people came up afterwards and said, where was Daniel? I said, I don’t know, I just work here. Noone knows, he may have been on diplomatic assigment or something. But wherever had been I bet at he though wistfully about he could he wished have been there… he liked wished had had the experience as a young man being in furnace, but not being burned or even particularly warm, of meeting God in the furnace…

Now at 80 something years old, he meets God powerfully in the Lion’s den…

There’s something about being in the furnace, about being in Lion’s that gives us an opportunity to meet God in a deeper way….

No one in their right mind would choose jump into furnace or a lion’s den, but if it comes our way, it may just be that the worst experience becomes the best, because we meet God there.

The text tells us that the King the morning after he was thrown in the lion’s comes to see if Daniel’s God has rescued him. He was reluctant to have Daniel thrown into the lion’s den and now in the morning the King personally comes to see if Daniel’s ok, God has rescued him… When he Daniels voice, the lions have not me, for I have not harmed you, the Kind is overjoyed… He orders Daniel be lifted from the den an those who falsely accused Daniel thrown into to lions there were gobbled up and then King commands others to praise God…

We see in this closing scene that the King…loves Daniel and is drawn to God through him…

Earlier in the text we see Daniel is different, through prayer he enters in this “foreign country with different values” and he’s opposed, but here we also see he’s deeply loved…

When we expose ourselves to the presence of God and allow him to transform us, to make us like God in our integrity, courage, and love, we find that we are opposed; we’ll also find that we are loved and respected. We’ll find we are different, we’ll also find that we joy of group of people, may stable one in your family or your neighborhood, one who is loved and respected…

My grandfather, a corporate ceo, was not religious and hostile toward Christianity.
But he had employee, who he interestingly called a true Christian, whom he deeply respected… and it was through this true Christian in part my grandfather drawn in his senior years to Christ.

The King Darius, respects and loves Daniel and through Daniel is drawn to the living God. When we are athletes for God, some people love us because God in us and be drawn closer to God through us.

How do we become an athlete for God?

William Wilberforce a great political leader who helped abolish the slave trade in England, said there is no short cut to holiness. No short cut to becoming whole so let begin.

We begin and continue like Daniel by structuring our lives to spend time receiving God’s life…. In prayer, the word, where experience God’s life and place we receive God’s life is by receiving the life of Jesus through the Lord’s supper.

On the night before Jesus went to the cross, he was with some of his best friends… he took bread and break…