Word of Salvation – Vol. 50 No.21 – June 2005
Do Not Fear the Seeming Success of Evil…
for its Apparent Success is Part of its Inevitable Downfall
Sermon by Rev J De Hoog on Daniel 8 (part 2)
Scripture Reading: Romans 1:18-32
Suggested Hymns: BoW 18:1,5,8; 14; 489
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The vision in this Chapter comes to Daniel to give him some knowledge of the future. We studied this chapter last time, and we saw that it points to at least three specific futures.
Remember the circumstances. Daniel receives this vision in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, the king of Babylon. The year is 548 BC. The angel Gabriel tells him in verse 26 that the vision concerns the distant future. We saw last time three of these distant futures to which this vision points. The first was the terrible time of persecution and destruction and sacrilege that Jerusalem experienced about 380 years later during the reign of Antiochus in 169-164 BC. The second specific future that Daniel 8 points to was even more terrible. It was the total destruction of Jerusalem and the death of a million of her inhabitants in 70 AD. The third specific future that Daniel 8 points us to is yet to come, and it will be even more terrible yet. It will be the very end of time when the final Antichrist will arise to set himself up against God and to destroy God’s people.
Last time we saw that the general overall message of Daniel 8 is this: Do not be deceived, and do not worry. Do not be deceived: These massive anti-God, Antichrist powers that you see dominating world history have utterly no power of their own; they are all nothing in God’s eyes. And do not worry: God will always continue to rule and he will finally defeat these powers through Jesus Christ and the victory he has already won.
Now in applying this overall message of Daniel 8 to our lives today, it is important to understand something of the way God deals with evil. I have summarised this principle in the title of this sermon: ‘Do not fear the seeming success of evil, for its apparent success is part of its inevitable downfall.’ Understanding this principle and putting it into practice will really help us in living faithful lives today.
When you contemplate the massive anti-God, Antichrist powers that dominate world history and that threaten us today, do not be deceived, and do not worry. ‘Do not fear the seeming success of evil, for its apparent success is part of its inevitable downfall.’
[Pause]
Idi Amin died recently. On 16 August 2003 he breathed his last, aged 77. Amin was dictator of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. How many people died during his despotic regime will never be known accurately, but estimates of those who were tortured to death or executed have been put at 500,000.
Idi Amin was a soldier who worked his way up the ranks to finally become the commander of the Ugandan armed forces in the 1960s. At one stage he was the heavyweight-boxing champion of Uganda. His early army career already contains several unresolved issues of corruption and misuse of power. Amin seized power in Uganda in 1971, while the Prime Minister Milton Obote was out of the country at the 1971 Commonwealth conference. Amin began to deal ruthlessly with all opposition.
His regime soon gained an unsavoury reputation. The foreign minister disappeared and turned up mutilated in the Nile. His successor fled. One of Amin’s four wives was murdered. The Chief Justice of Uganda was murdered. By 1973 the International Commission of Jurists had accused Amin of arbitrary arrests, murder and torture. Several plots against his life failed, and army revolts were put down.
Amin’s actions became increasingly bizarre. He awarded himself many medals, including the Victoria Cross. He ordered several purges of government ministers and the army. He began to persecute the church, and many clergy were deported. When the Anglican archbishop Janani Luwum was murdered, world opinion became so strong that Idi Amin’s regime was doomed. He invaded Tanzania in 1978, but the war was ill-fated and it was not long before Kampala was occupied by Tanzanian troops. In October 1979 Amin fled to Libya with two of his wives. He eventually found his way to Saudi Arabia, where he died just recently. He is said to have fathered 50 children.
Evil always tends to throw off all restraint. Idi Amin’s brutal career is only one example of the pattern that we see in Daniel Chapter 8. Think about how the various kingdoms are portrayed. In verse 4, we see the ram with the two horns, which represents the Medes and the Persians. ‘I watched the ram as he charged towards the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against him, and none could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.’
In verses 5-8 we see the goat, which represents Greece. It comes from the west and skims across the whole earth without even touching the ground and in a powerful rage knocks the ram flat. But eventually the goat is cut off as well.
Then in verse 9 we see the little horn, representing Antiochus, which starts small but grows to the south and the east and towards the Beautiful Land. He grows powerful and strong, but eventually he is broken as well.
Here is the recurring pattern. The ram, the goat, the little horn – they each appear, act aggressively, become powerful and at the height of their power they fall.
Did you notice the strong sense of aggressive, thrusting horizontal movement in these portraits? Each kingdom moves in all directions – east, south, west, north – these direction words are repeated again and again. There is conquering and bloodshed and expansion and violence happening horizontally, in all directions.
But notice that in the case of Antiochus there is also aggressive vertical movement. Antiochus not only grows horizontally, on the earth, he also grows vertically, into heaven. Antiochus is the little horn that started small but grew. Verse 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. It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host; it took away the daily sacrifice from him, and the place of his sanctuary was brought low. Because of rebellion, the host of the saints and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.’
What does all this mean? Verses 13-14 help us understand. Verse 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, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host that will be trampled underfoot? He said to me, ~It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated’.’
Now I mentioned last time that in the time of Antiochus, the Jerusalem temple was closed down and used for pagan religion from December 167 to December 164 BC, for a period of three years and ten days. The 2,300 evenings and mornings in verse 14 are probably the 2,300 occasions when an evening and morning whole burnt offering was not sacrificed – that is, for 1,150 days. That’s just over three years, approximately the period of the closing down of the Jerusalem temple.
Now according to this vision in Daniel 8, when Antiochus moves in this way against the temple in Jerusalem, he is doing much more than simply closing down a building and attacking a city. The temple and the city of Jerusalem have a transcendent significance way beyond what Antiochus is willing to acknowledge.
From God’s perspective, listen to what Antiochus, the little horn, is doing when he closes down the temple for those three and a bit years. Verse 10: ‘It grew until it reached the host of heaven, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host; it took away the daily sacrifice from him, and the place of his sanctuary was brought low.’
When little Antiochus places a statue of Zeus in the holy of holies, when he murders 40,000 people of Israel on a single Sabbath day, when he sacrifices a pig and then the next year sacrifices human beings on the altar of God’s temple, Antiochus is doing more than just attacking a building and a people. He is attacking heaven. He is attacking God himself. He is overstepping himself, and he is doomed.
True evil always works this way. Evil always oversteps itself, and so comes under the judgment of God. As aggressive horizontal movement is successful, as an empire grows horizontally, it always begins to grow vertically as well. It always wants to become God, or to replace God. So it was for Babylon, so it was for Persia, so it was for Greece, so it was for Rome. For example, as the Roman Empire grew to conquer the known world, her emperors began to make claims to deity. Emperor worship was becoming a huge issue just as the New Testament was being written. To say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, was directly contrary to what was politically correct, which was to say, ‘Caesar is Lord.’
So it has always been with evil regimes. It is not a fluke that Idi Amin, towards the end of his regime, attacked the church and deported the clergy and murdered the Anglican archbishop. It is not a mystery that Hitler’s regime persecuted and killed many faithful Christians as well as Jews. It is not accidental that the harsh Communist regimes of Russia and China made true Christian religion illegal. It is not by chance that Christians living in evil pagan regimes today are under persecution. This is always the way it goes.
But do not be deceived, and do not fear. When evil begins to make vertical claims, when it begins to make claims about being God or replacing God, or as verse 11 puts it, when ‘it set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host’, when its horizontal success leads it to attempt vertical heavenly dominance, then it oversteps itself, and then it comes under God’s judgment.
Why does this happen? Why does true evil always throw off all restraint and overstep itself and so come under God’s judgment? It happens because God gives people over to their evil. As evil people reject God and reject God and reject God, finally God gives them over, and all restraint is gone.
Listen to Romans 1:18 ff. ‘The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness – For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened’
Vs 24: ‘Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another’
Verse 26: ‘Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts’
Verse 28: ‘Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.’
God gives them over. Here is the most dreadful and fearsome thing that can happen to any human being. When God gives them over, all restraint is gone, and they do what ought not to be done.
Why does God allow this to happen? Why does God give them over? It is so that their rebellion can reach its full measure; it is so that their sins and transgressions can be filled up, so that God’s judgment might fall, so that God’s righteousness and perfect justice might be fully revealed.
Gabriel explains this to Daniel in the case of Antiochus, the little horn. See verse 23: ‘In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise.’ This stern-faced king, this master of intrigue, is Antiochus. Notice that he arises when rebels have become completely wicked. Literally, he arises ‘when transgressors, or transgressions, have reached their fullness.’ God waits for the measure of sin to be filled up, and then his judgment falls.
This idea of the measure of sins being filled up is found in other places in Scripture. In Genesis 15:16, Abraham is promised that his descendants will return to the Promised Land, but not yet, ‘for the sins of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.’ When the sin of the Amorites has reached its full measure, then God’s wrath will be poured out, and then Abraham’s descendants will be able to enter the land and take possession of it. Then God-‘s judgment will fall on the Amorites through the people of Israel. Then God’s holiness and justice will be perfectly revealed.
Let’s review the steps we have taken today.
1. True evil inevitably tends towards throwing off all restraint, towards overstepping itself, towards claiming to be God or replacing God.
2. Why does this happen? It happens because God gives them over to their sin, and so all restraint is gone.
3. Why does God allow this? So that the measure of rebellion and sin of those who oppose God might be completely filled up, and then God’s judgment falls in a completely just and perfect way.
Here is the message to remember tonight: ‘Do not fear the seeming success of evil, for its apparent success is part of its inevitable downfall.’ Evil will throw off all restraint, it will overstep itself, it will reach its full measure and then it will fall under the judgment of God. The seeming success of evil is part of its inevitable downfall. It has this seeming success, it throws off all restraint, and it comes to a climax of rebellion, so that God’s judgment might be just, and might be seen to be just. Do not be surprised when evil oversteps itself. It is simply heading towards its own inevitable downfall.
Can you see how understanding this dynamic is vitally important in our Christian lives today? Knowing that evil will inevitably overstep itself helps us to have a spirit of patience and perseverance in the face of trial, unrighteousness and persecution. It helps us to understand evil days. It helps us to wait patiently on the Lord’s perfect judgment and not seek vengeance ourselves.
This principle also helps us to understand the gracious ways in which God deals with his people. For God does not treat us in the same way.
Think about the difference. God is forbearing with the sin of his enemies, but that involves allowing their sin to reach an extreme form that brings necessary radical punishment. But God does not deal with his people that way. He chastises and disciplines and punishes his people without waiting for their sins to reach full measure. Why? He acts in this way towards his people so that they are drawn back to him and not finally forsaken.
You see this repeated again and again in the Old Testament. God punishes Israel in the wilderness, he sends plagues upon them in the Promised Land, he sends them into exile in Babylon. Why? Not to finally eradicate them, but to draw them back to himself. To give them an opportunity to repent and return to the Lord. He punishes them and disciplines them to save them. Their sin never reaches its full measure.
In the lives of God’s people, sin is always restrained. It is disciplined before it reaches its full measure. Why? Because the penalty for the sins of God’s people has already been paid. It was paid by our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it will never need to be paid again. ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ And so God graciously restrains sin in the lives of his people, so that his final destructive judgment might not come upon them.
If ever evil overstepped itself, it was in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In that greatest of all sins, it must have seemed for a moment that evil was victorious. Jesus died in the hour of the power of darkness. But Satan had overstepped himself. In seeking to destroy Christ, Satan provided the groundwork for his own destruction. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that Jesus died ‘so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.’
If ever evil overstepped itself, it was in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If ever evil destroyed itself, it was in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we see the principle we have been investigating in its most powerful expression. ‘Do not fear the seeming success of evil, for its apparent success is part of its inevitable downfall.’
However, people of God, do not become complacent. The theme of rebellion and sin reaching its full measure is also applied to the people of the covenant in the New Testament. In Matthew 23, Jesus is expressing his seven woes against the religious leaders of Israel, and towards the end of his sermon he says in verse 31: ‘So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!’
Verse 35: ‘And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.’
Why was Jerusalem destroyed in 70 AD, about forty years after the death of Christ? It was because the sins of Israel had reached their full measure, and only judgment was left. What was the issue? It was their final refusal to acknowledge Jesus Christ.
Paul speaks of this in 1 Thessalonians 2:14. He writes to the Thessalonians, ‘You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their efforts to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.’
Whose sin has reached its limit? The sin of Israel, the sin of God’s covenant people of the Old Testament. Why has it reached its limit? Because they oppose Jesus Christ, and because they stop other people from hearing about Jesus Christ. What is the result of their sin reaching its limit? ‘The wrath of God has come upon them at last.’
Brothers and sisters, do not become complacent. The principle of sin reaching its limit and coming under God’s judgment was turned upon Israel when she as a nation rejected Jesus Christ. It will be turned upon the institutional church if she rejects Jesus Christ.
When the church is under persecution for her faith, and is standing firm, the principles of Daniel 8 are a great comfort and encouragement to perseverance. Do not be deceived, and do not worry. Evil will have its day, yes it will run its course and reach its full measure. But the very success of evil contains the seeds of its own downfall. When you are persecuted for your faith, take heart and be patient.
But when the church is not under persecution, when she is safe and at peace, when she begins to take on the views of the world, when she begins to turn her back on God, then hear no longer the comfort of Daniel 8, rather, hear the warning of Daniel 8. The sins of a comfortable, complacent, unfaithful church can also reach their full measure, and then there will only be judgment left. Daniel 8 calls us to loyalty and perseverance under persecution, and it calls us to humble faithfulness and repentance in times of peace and safety.
Amen.