March 19, 2023 – Gabriel's Interpretation

Lesson Printed Text: Daniel 8:19-26 KJV

Keep in Mind the Key Verse: Daniel 8:26 (KJV) -
"And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days."

(Pop-up references come from The New Living Translation courtesy of Faithlife Reftagger)

What shall we learn from this lesson:

Chapter 8 of the Book of Daniel, in a broad sense, can be seen as having two parts. The first part is a description of a vision Daniel had. The second part is the interpretation of that vision by Gabriel, the angel. It is the interpretation segment that mostly concerns our lesson for today.

His vision came before the downfall of Babylon, before the downfall of Medo-Persia, and before the rise and fall of the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great. What Daniel saw in his vision was a prophecy of future events and is a testament of the fact that God knows and controls the future. He is sovereign and His power is indisputable.

The question could arise, "Do we have visions of future events in our personal life?" In most cases, our answer would probably be "no". But on the other hand, the Bible tells us what will happen to us in the future in return for our behavior.

Many of us, if not most of us, have at one time or another experienced an incident in our life—a special incident—that was so far out of the realm of coincidental possibility that we concluded that it was a message from God.

One of the memorable songs in the movie "The Color Purple" is: "Maybe God Is Tryin' To Tell You Somethin'." Daniel's visions were centered around messages from God. The Lord was telling him something but it took an angel to reveal the true message.

That special incident that we spoke of could be our form of a vision if it was in truth God trying to tell us something. That incident could appear to be a warning or it could be an encouragement. Can you think of such an incident that occurred in your life?

Future events are under God's control whether or not we happen to believe it. What we believe does not stop God from being God. What Daniel saw in his vision came from God. It is a testament that we should understand that God knows what the future holds.

In his vision, Daniel saw a ram with two horns, representing the kings of Media and Persia. Together their forces were joined and Babylon was defeated by their combination. One of the horns of the ram became longer than the other meaning that Persia became the dominant one of the two. The history books confirm the interpretation of Daniel's vision by Gabriel.

From the history books:

Toward the end of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the Persians became a powerful force and under Cyrus II Media was conquered in 549 b.c. and was combined with the empire of the Persians to form Medo-Persia.

The combined strength of the Persians and the Medes led to the conquest of Babylon in 539 b.c., This combination empire extended its territory to over much of the Middle East until the beginning of the conquest of Alexander the Great of Greece in 334-333 b.c.

Then Alexander defeated the Medo-Persians in 331 b.c.

Daniel saw a male goat in his vision (Daniel 8:5) that represents the king of Greece according to Gabriel. It had a large horn between his eyes representing the first king of the Greek empire (Daniel 8:21) that we know was Alexander the Great.

In his vision, this goat (Alexander) was charging furiously at the ram (Medo-Persia) and was so fast that his feet never touched the ground. This means that the conquests of Alexander the Great were swiftly done. The charging goat hit the ram with such great force that both his horns were broken off and the ram was defeated.

But then, later, at its most powerful point, the large horn of the goat broke off. This represented Alexander the Great's death at an early age (history reports his death was at the age of 32).

Four prominent horns replaced the one large horn of the Goat. This means that Alexander the Great's empire—the Greek empire—was split into 4 prominent kingdoms after Alexander died (Daniel 8:22).

In the vision, from one of 4 prominent horns grew a small horn (the little horn)—a fierce king—whose power became very great (Daniel 8:23). He will cause a shocking amount of destruction and succeed in everything he does ... destroying powerful leaders and devastating the holy people (Daniel 8:24).

In Daniel 8:25 NLT we find these words, "He will be a master of deception and will become arrogant; he will destroy many without warning. He will even take on the Prince of princes in battle, but he will be broken, though not by human power."

This description matches that of Antiochus IV. This Grecian king gave himself the title "Epiphanes" which means "God Manifest" or "Illustrious God". Quite often we will see his name incorporating this word: Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

By desolating the Temple and Jewish worship in every way he could think of, he tried to destroy Judaism and unify his kingdom under the cult of Hellenistic culture. He erected a statue of the false god Zeus in the sanctuary. The Jews referred to it as an Abomination.

History tells us that he forbade daily sacrifices, Sabbath worship, and he had sacred Scriptures burned. Under his rule, if you were caught with Scripture in your possession, the punishment was death. As a result, some Jews adopted Greek ways.

Antiochus died in 164 b.c.. He died but not by human hands as foretold (Daniel 8:25 NIV). Some sources say he was struck down with an incurrable bowel disease and was infested with worms. While he was in excruciating pain it took 7 days for him to die.

As his illness grew worse, he tried to bargain with God to let the Jews worship freely. Finally, before his death, he submitted to God and wrote letters of apology for challenging God's power.

The antichrist—that will be in existence near the second coming of Christ and at the end times—will have some of the same characteristics as those of Antiochus including putting himself on a level with God.

Paul called the antichrist the "man of sin" as recorded in 2Thessalonians 2:3 KJV. In many of the other Bible versions, he is referred to as the "man of lawlessness". His characteristic behavior can be summarized in 2Thessalonians 2:4 NLT:

"He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God."

Like Antiochus, the antichrist will die not by human hands. He will die at the hand of Jesus:

"Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming."
2Thessalonians 2:4 NLT

Conclusions
The study of Daniel's visions about the defeat of human kingdoms leads to one conclusion: God will defeat the kingdoms of man and replace them with the kingdom of God.

From the rule of the Babylonians, all the way through the Christian governments of today, there is some comfort in knowing God will ultimately be victorious, for His rule is eternal and will never end.

God has revealed to us that the existence of the Antichrist is a sign that the end times is close. We need to know what the Antichrist will be like so that we can avoid him and his tricks. We do not want to miss his arrival like those who missed the arrival of Jesus Christ.


The Bible lesson link (at the beginning of the lesson) is for the King James Version. You may also wish to read the New Living Translation Bible Version of Daniel 8:19-26 NLT

Keep in Mind the Key Verse: Daniel 8:26 (NLT) -“This vision about the 2,300 evenings and mornings is true. But none of these things will happen for a long time, so keep this vision a secret.”

March 26, 2023 – The Lord's Supper

Lesson Printed Text: Luke 22:14-30 KJV

Keep in Mind the Key Verse: Luke 22:26 (KJV) -
"But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve."

(Pop-up references come from The New Living Translation courtesy of Faithlife Reftagger)

What shall we learn from this lesson:

All of us that were brought up in a Christian church know about and have participated in what is called Holy communion. It is a sacred time in which we remember and focus on the sacrifice Jesus made for us by dying on the cross so that our sins would be forgiven.

Part of communion is a sacred ceremony called the Lord's Supper. It commemorates the last supper that Jesus ate with his disciples before he was betrayed, arrested, and then killed on the cross.

Knowing what would happen to Him, Jesus blessed some bread and wine that He and His disciples would share during this last supper.

Just as He was breaking off pieces of bread to give to the disciples to eat, symbolically, the bread represented His body that would be broken for them (meaning His physical His body would be tortured).

We can see some similarities between the night of the original Passover and the crucifixion of Jesus.

On the evening of the Israelites' deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the Hebrew families—the Israelites—were told to slaughter a lamb without blemish, roast and eat it. The lambs' blood was then applied on the doorposts of their houses as a sign that Israelites live in those homes.

During the night, the death angel came to kill all the firstborns but the Israelites' homes were passed over and their lives were saved because of the blood of the lamb.

From that day on, the Israelites celebrated "Passover" every year because the the death angel killed the first born of the Egyptians and this caused Pharaoh to release the Israelites from bondage which had lasted 400 years.

The wine represented the blood of Jesus that would be shed as a sacrifice for the sins of humankind. Thus, a new covenant was established which is commemorated by what we refer to as the Last Supper.

With the new covenant, our sins are forgiven by the grace of God through the sacrificial blood of Christ . The Lord's supper was also the Passover meal that year and was held during the Passover period.

Symbolically, Jesus was like the passover lamb who was killed in order that His blood would be used to save others; the ones who were protected by the lamb's blood on the doorposts of their house.

The Bible refers to Jesus as "the Lamb" in numerous verses. One notable example is

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29 NASB):

When we participate in communion services again it is hoped that we will better understand its complete meaning and importance.

The Bible lesson link (at the beginning of the lesson) is for the King James Version. You may also wish to read the New Living Translation Bible Version of Luke 22:14-30 NLT

Keep in Mind the Key Verse: Luke 22:26 (NLT) - "But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.”

For access to all chapters of the King James Version Bible in audio and visual formats, visit the Audio-Bible.com web site.

For other versions (NIV, New Living Translation, etc.) of the Bible in audio and visual formats, visit the World Wide Study Bible page of Christian Classics Eternal Library site. Also visit the New Living Translation web site.

Some information on this page may be referenced from the NLT Study Bible, the Standard Lesson Commentary, Precepts for Living, Commentary by David Guzik, and gotquestions.org. Frederick L. Marsh is the commentary author of the information contained in this page. He is the author of the book: "The Book of the Holy Spirit: Joyful living." The opinions expressed on this page are his alone.