Gooding, David: 7 - The Man above the River of History

Now, this evening I have to forewarn you by way of disappointment that there is to be no refreshment, neither biscuits nor tea, at the end of this session. And for that gloomy state of affairs, you must be prepared to blame me entirely, because on Friday night last I gave it out, responding to the request of a friend, I said I would be willing, if I could, to answer questions that were submitted to me at the end of this session publicly. And therefore, the organizers of these meetings, in order to facilitate that, decided that they would now cut down your rations this evening, Dulcie. Perhaps they had in mind it would help you to concentrate on the matters in hand if you were not busy trying to balance a cup of tea and a biscuit at the same time. However it is, I did request that those questions should be written down and handed in, so that I might give a considered answer to them. And if you have such questions written down but not yet handed in, perhaps you would care, as we sing the hymn in the interval between the two parts of the study, to come forward and lay those questions upon the desk here in front of me, so that I shall have some time while you are thinking to consider them and thus give you a considered reply. On the other hand, if you have decided that really, no, you don't have any questions, and even if you did, I'm not the man to ask them of, perhaps you are wise, and if there are no questions giving- given in Dorsey, then afterwards we shall not have any answers. That seems to me a logical decision to take. I regret that in that case you will not only get no answers, but no biscuits or tea either. And you may tell your friends what a great sacrifice you made on this evening of our study. Now tonight we come to the last major vision of the book of Daniel. It occupies, as we have noticed on previous occasions, the final three chapters, chapters ten, eleven, and twelve of the, uh, prophecy of Daniel, those three, uh, chapters comprising one single vision. So we come to those last three chapters, the last vision, though not, of course, to our last study. God willing, there will be another study here tomorrow evening at the hour of eight o'clock, when we have to consider the chapters that hitherto we have passed over, namely chapters three and five. And then we should be thinking about the topic of life's ultimate value. But tonight, the last vision of the book, chapters ten, eleven, and twelve. and as is appropriate, we shall discover that this final vision deals with the time of the end. Perhaps then our first concern tonight will be to pause a moment over the technical terms of the vision, and to notice that the phrase, the time of the end, is a technical phrase, and not to be confused with other similar sounding phrases. For instance, the time of the end is not to be confused with the phrase the end of times. In chapter eleven verse thirteen you will meet that latter phrase. The king of the north, it says, shall return and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and he shall come on at the end of the times, even of years, with a great army and with much substance. A glance at the context will show you immediately that that phrase, the end of the times, is not talking about the final end time, just before the coming of the Lord Jesus in power and glory. It means at the end of this particular epoch in history, at the end of the times, even of the years. Later verses are to tell us quite explicitly that the end time, the time of the end, has not yet come. So let's compare that phrase in eleven thirteen, the end of times, with a very different, significantly different phrase in verse thirty five uh of this chapter eleven. And some of them that be wise shall fall to refine them and to purify and to make them white, even to, now here we have it, even to the time of the end. That is not just the end of a epoch, that is the end of time before the coming in power and great glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The time of the end then, and I take it that in chapter twelve verse six when Daniel makes his inquiry about these things, the better translation is that which is suggested by some scholars, verse six: And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was above the waters of the river, how long shall be the end of these wonders? How long shall the end of these wonders be? That is, Daniel is there likewise inquiring about the time of the end, that short period that shall close history before the coming of Christ, the end of these wonders, as he calls them. And the reply is given him in verse seven: And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swear by him that liveth forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half. And when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. That is to say, the time of the end, the end of these wonders will not be a point, it will be a period. It shall last for what is here described as a time, times, and a half. It will be a period of unparalleled, uh, uh, suffering for the people of Daniel. But when they have made, that is the enemy have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, and those three and a half times are concluded, then all these things shall be finished. So this vision is going to talk to us, amongst other things, about the time of the end. But it will spend most of the v- v- passage that it has to put before us explaining to Daniel how you would get, so to speak, from his position in history right through until the time of the end. What should be the course of events between the period at which he stood and the time of the end? With that little study then, uh, o- o- of the vocabulary, the time of the end, let us notice how the very position of this vision in the book underlines that fact that here we're going to be concerned with the time of the end. You'd like to take in hand your sheet of notes and look at page two of those notes. You'll find that there is an enlarged table of contents there. It is in two columns. The last vision is down at the bottom of the right hand column, chapters ten to twelve. and the summary of its cha- that those chapters would read, the king exalts himself above every god and regards no god. Daniel is given to know the contents of the writing of truth that spell the end of that willful king. He is told that there will be a series of apparent ends leading up to the time of the end, and then eventually to the end itself. Now look over to the left hand column, if you will, and the last item in the left hand column, which is chapter five. That is the story of Belshazzar, Prince Regent of Babylon, how after his banquet, very soon after his banquet, he met his end as he was executed by the incoming troops of the Medo-Persians. With the personal end of Belshazzar, there came the end of the Babylonian Empire. So the first columns are finished with the end of Babylon. The second column is going to finish with the end of all Gentile imperial systems, the end itself, and the dawning of the Messianic Kingdom. And now, some further few matters of vocabulary and of symbolism. If we turn to Daniel chapter ten at this point, we shall notice where Daniel was when he received his vision. Verse four of chapter ten. In the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river which is Hiddekel, I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with pure gold of Uphaz. And we notice from Daniel's wording that this was not a dream given him in the night. This was a vision given him in the middle of the day. He was actually standing by the banks of the great river Hittakul, that is the river Tigris. When in the middle of the day, or was it late afternoon, he doesn't tell us, or evening, as he was standing there on the bank, this great figure appeared to him in a vision. He was then standing by the side of the great river of which is Hiddekel, that is Tigris. But now let us notice that in passages like this and in many other prophets, rivers are used not only for their geogra- graphical and material sense, they are also used symbolically. If you care to turn to an example of that in the prophecy by Isaiah and chapter eight, Isaiah chapter uh eight, And we begin to read there in verse five, and this is God talking to Isaiah. And the Lord spake unto me yet again, saying, for as much as this people has refused the waters of Shiloh, better known to us as the waters of Siloam, I suspect, that go softly and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son. Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth upon them the waters of the river, that is the river Euphrates, and many as strong as many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory. So the river Euphrates, the other big river of the Assyrian Empire, along with the Tigris, is now used metaphorically of the king of Assyria and his gigantic forces, his armed forces. Just like you could use the Thames, if you wanted to, as a symbol of Britain, or the Rhine as a symbol of Germany. And what a vivid metaphor it makes here in Isaiah, doesn't it? God says, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river strong of many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory, and he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks, and he shall sweep onward into Judah. He shall overflow and pass through. He shall reach even to the Mech, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel. And so now the great river, the Euphrates, is not only used as a symbol, so to speak, an emblem of the power of Assyria, but it is used as a vivid metaphor to picture to your mind the oncoming of the vast hosts of the Assyrian army, and having conquered all the other nations, they now flow like an overflowing tempest into the land of Judah, and the waters begin to rise, and so they've risen up right to the neck and nearly drowned the people of Judea. Not a little river, but the river of the army of the Assyrians. And oh, what a mess was left behind when the river subsided and got back into its channel and went back home. Now that method we shall meet ourselves tonight in the revelation, I'm sorry, in the Da- in Daniel chapter eleven once more. Just let's look at that. Chapter eleven, verse ten, And here the man above the river has been explaining to Daniel the goings to and for of the armies of the northern kings, that is the Seleucids, and the responses of the southern kings, that is the Ptolemies. And he says at one stage, verse ten, and his sons shall walk and shall assemble a multitude of great forces which shall come on and overflow and pass through. Once more, that vivid metaphor of the armies of a great imperial power sweeping through the land of Palestine, with all the inevitable destruction that it would leave in its wake. That observation of the use of a river, both as an emblem of an imperial power and as a metaphor for the effect of its armies, is worth, uh, observing. We shall need it later on in our study. Now, the particular prophecy that we face this evening is a very, very long prophecy, and one of the most difficult in all the book of Daniel, perhaps the most difficult in all Holy Scripture. We shall certainly not be able to study it in detail, but I have listed for you on the very last sheet of your sheet of notes, a suggestion that I would like you, if you care, to work out in your own study. I suggest if we want to see the overall purpose of this final vision, we do well to notice that it is divided into four great movements, great movements of kings and armies. So the first great movement is in chapter eleven verses five to nineteen. It starts at the end of the years, says chapter eleven verse six, and after much toing and froing over the subsequent years and generations, this movement comes to its peak when at the end of the times, eleven thirteen, the king of the north sets out to invade Egypt with a vast army. None can withstand him. He stands in the glorious land, and in his hand is destruction, say verses fifteen to sixteen. And it will look as if it may turn out to be the time of the end. For you now have many of the features of the time of the end. A wicked, evil, ambitious king, his army standing in the very holy land, destruction in his heart and destruction in his hand. Will this turn out to be the time of the end? When the perfidious Gentile emperor decides to attack the city of Jerusalem, invades the very temple of God, and places himself in the temple of God, claiming divine. Could this be the time? It shall look as if it might be. And indeed, some in Israel will think the time has come for the vision of the Messianic kingdom to be established, and they will take steps to try to establish the vision. So says the chapter eleven o- o- of the book, and uh, in verse fourteen: and in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south. Also the children of the violent among thy people shall lift themselves up to establish division, but they shall fall. And the fact is it will turn out, says God, not to be the time of the end. In spite of great success, the king of the north is attempt- eventually turned back and goes home, there, according to verses eighteen and nineteen, he falls. So though it looked as if it were going to be the time of the end, and some thought it would be the time of the end, it would turn out not to be the time of the end. The second great movement starts in verse uh twenty and, and proceeds to verse twenty eight. It is another account of the toings and froings of the two great imperial powers, the Seleucids to the north and the Ptolemies to the south. And it looks as if they are going to, um, overflow, verse twenty six: and these armies shall overflow, and many shall fall down slain. And as for those these kings, their hearts will be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table, but it shall not prosper. Why won't it prosper? For yet the end shall be at the appointed time. Instead of it being the end at this period in history, the kings concerned shall turn around and go home, and the whole thing will fizzle out. It won't be the end. Similarly, in the third period, only this third period will be much darker than anything that's happened before. It begins in verse twenty nine and goes to verse thirty five. And here is a detailed prophecy, such as we were studying the other evening, what Antiochus Epiphanes would do when he came to the Seleucid throne, and how he would actually, uh, come into Jerusalem city, how he would enter the temple, how he would set up in the very temple of God in Jerusalem the abomination of desolation. He would actually do that. And it would look to many at the onset of these things as if this surely was the time of the end. I mean, the abomination of desolation set up. That surely must be the time of the end. But no, it shall not be, says the man who stands above the river. Do you see, he says in verse thirty five, and although many shall fall, and even some of them that be wise shall fall, to refine them and to purify and to make them white, even to the time of the end, yet it is yet, the vision is yet still waiting to be fulfilled, that is. The vision is yet for the time appointed. This will not be the time of the end. Now, finally, the fourth section that runs from verse thirty six onward tells you that, of course, the time of the end will eventually come, and when it comes, the time of the end will gather up like a gigantic wave, elements that have been there present in all the other waves of history as they have mounted up and broken on the shores of Palestine. It will contain all of them and add to them some of its own. It shall prove to be the time of the end. And with that, we face a very gloomy topic indeed. So perhaps we ought to read for ourselves the comforting words of the men of the river from chapter twelve verse one. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time, thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, there stood other two, the one on the brink of the river on this side, and the other on the brink of the river on that side. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was above the waters of the river, how long shall the end of these wonders be? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven and swore by him that liveth forever, that it shall be for a time, times and a half. And when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the issue of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for thy words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but they that be wise shall understand. And from the time that the continual burnt offering shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and shall stand in thy lot at the end of the days. May the Lord in his grace reward our attempt to work at his word and presently talk to us therefrom. But meanwhile, let's fill ourselves with rest and sing a hymn. I sometimes think it must have been a very moving, if not emotional experience for Daniel, when as an elderly man he stood one day on the banks of the River Tigris. The River Tigris was not an inland waterway like Eulai was, the palace, uh, uh, uh, uh, at Eulai standing there near an inland waterway. It was the mighty Tigris, one of the two rivers that formed the backbone of the great empires of Babylon in the past, and then of Assyria, and then Babylon again, and that flowed through the territory of the Medo-Persians when they took it over. The great river Tigris, emblem, as we have said earlier, of those great imperial powers, like the Thames is for Britain and the Rhine is for Germany. I remember the emotions that filled my own heart when years ago I stood for the first time in nineteen fifty eight on the banks of the River Rhine. And as I stood there for the first time and watched that mighty and majestic river flow by, I recall in my mind's eye the doodlebugs that used to float past my bedroom, and the sound of the V one s and the V two s and the shattering experience it was, and the air raid sirens and the deluge of bombs, of which you know more in Coventry here than we did in East Anglia. And I said to myself, is this the Rhine? So this is the country where those bombers came from, so to desolate Britain. Perhaps it was in such mood that Daniel himself, now as I say, an elderly man towards the end of his life, stood on the banks of that river Tigris. I wonder what he was. For the water had flowed under the bridges, hasn't it? Since Daniel had first come to this part of the world. I wonder did he reflect of the days when the armies of Nebuchadnezzar came like, came like a flood and surrounded Jerusalem. And to the great heartbreaking of Jerusalemites, took the city, took the temple, ravished the golden vessels, and swept away Daniel and the multitude other- of others, like a river sweeps away the flotsam and jetsam of life, and brought them all to Babylon. Years ago now, and perhaps the elderly Daniel, like all elderly men do, you know, thought back about the past and recalled those early days when he was first given the chance in the university, and then that splendid occasion. Oh, how it comes back in life. Have you found it so, my brother? You haven't, but then you're not very old. You will you. Uh, that first occasion in the university, you know, what a challenge that that has been, and he relives it now, perhaps, as he stands by the riverbank. Oh, praise God, that God gave him the power to stand that day with the rest of them, you know, a Bednico and company. And what a, what a heart in the mouth experience that was, and how marvelously God had stood by them and vindicated them, and it had made them, so to speak, their stand as undergraduates in the early days of their university career. And how God had honored them after that with not only in his exams, but in his career until he had risen. Ah, yes, there were some heart-stopping moments after that, of course. Fancy being asked to come in and interpret the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, which meant telling his majesty to his face he was going to be cut down. He needed a lot of courage to do that, but he'd done that too. And then there was the extraordinary occasion when, as a last resort, both shatter had called him in to interpret the writing, and he had to tell the king that that very night the king would be slain. Like things do in a dream, perhaps, the experience of life came floating up, no particular order. He could almost smell now the breath of the lions. While that wasn't very odorous, I tell you it's horrible to be so near their whiskers, a- a- as he was thrown down the lion's den and spent a trembling night among them. It was all past now, gone. Gone like life goes, gone so quickly. Gone now, and he was an elderly man. I wonder what he was thinking. A lot of waters had gone under the bridges, as we say, and now he stood by the banks of the great river and watched the waters flowing, flowing, flowing on beyond until they went over the horizon and were lost. I wonder, did he think? And what will the future hold? He must have been saying to himself, I shan't be here much longer to see it anyway. And perhaps it was in somewhat of a pessimistic mood he stood, because not so long ago he had been given a vision about the timetable for the restoring of Jerusalem. All the long years of his brilliant career in between civil services had not dimmed his love for Jerusalem. Loyal to the Gentile empires though he had been in every stroke of the pen. His heart still burned all his long years, and in his daily prayers he had made mention of Jerusalem, opening his windows to where Jerusalem was geographically, and prayed to the God of heaven that in his mercies he would restore Jerusalem. Seventy years, Daniel had been told by Jeremiah the prophet it would be, and God would restore Jerusalem. And Jeremiah had painted it in such marvelous colors that I suspect Daniel as a young man, as a middle-aged man, was hoping he would manage to survive if he ate all his fruit grains and health foods. He would survive, perhaps. How many years have I got that would make it seventy years? Well, I shall then be 18. Now, what shall I be? Well, you never know, some people do live nowadays to that age. Will he see it? The great time of the restoration. Oh, what marvelous joy that he should be there to see it. Then, as the years went by, he began to have his doubts, didn't he? Not on the point of his own age merely, but because he watched the sinfulness and the worldliness of his fellow Israelites that lived around him. Some of them had made a booming success of their sojourn in Babylon, and they weren't concerned with going home. They were like a lot of many, uh, Jews in America at the moment that couldn't care tons about Israel. They've done very well, thank you very much, and don't want to go back anyway. And when Israel as a nation, in spite of the exile, had not really repented her per sins and were carrying on sinning as they had always done. And so worried was Daniel that he took the matter to the Lord in prayer and prayed, what shall happen now, Lord, about your promise to restore Jerusalem? Will it be restored? And the answer had come back, yes, it will be restored after seventy years. But because of Israel's continuance in transgression, this would not turn out to be the final restoration, only partially restored. In the future years of Israel's continuing breaking of the covenant would lead in the end to their rejection and murder of their own Messiah and Savior, and as a result of that, desolations were determined right out into the distant and undated future. I wonder with what kind of a melancholy in his heart did Daniel stand by the river and watch the waters go over the horizon beyond his vision. The feeling that he had contributed but little. The goal for which he had striven was still far beyond and not likely to be fulfilled and achieved soon. Now, in the wisdom of God, Daniel was going to be told as much as he could bear what would lie behind him and his age and the time of the end, thus before the Messiah would return in power and great glory to set up his messianic kingdom and to restore Jerusalem. He was not told everything. It must have been surely more than the human spirit could have borne to contemplate it. He was not told everything that should happen to his beloved Israel. Nothing was said of the persecutions under King John, or the Spanish inquisitions of the Auto's Darter. Nothing said of the pogroms in Russia or the gas chambers in Germany. A veil was drawn over that all. How would the aged Daniel have borne it if he could be shown that? What he was told was gloomy enough that nearly broke the thread of life in that elderly man's heart. What should happen as the waters went over the horizon? Why, the end of the Medo-Persian Empire would come. Foolish Persians, they would attempt to extend their empire into Europe and make attack upon Athens and Greece. And after some while, Alexander, in the name of Macedonia and Greece, would lead the return attack with his brilliant generalship and mighty forces, and smash the Medo-Persian Empire, and on its ruins build his own even greater empire. It would die early. And at his death at the age of thirty three, four of his generals would split his empire between them, and of those two would become famous, Seleucus in Antioch in the north of Israel, Ptolemy in the south in Egypt to the south of Israel. And then in the succeeding years, a pattern would recur, filled with that pylos that empires feed, not consent- content to sit at home and enjoy their prosperity. These two great powers, the Seleucids in the north and the Ptolemies in the south, would play their war game, each trying to outdo the other and take the other over on all kinds of foolish pretexts. From time to time, they would swell up like great rivers and come the one to attack the other. And when they did that, though they hadn't the immediate attention of attacking Jerusalem, because the path between the north and the south lay via the coastal road of Palestine, their great armies would sweep through from the north to the south like a vast overflowing flood of a river. And presently southern armies would sweep back like another gigantic river sweeping through, and leave devastation on every hand. You can picture them now, can't you? In those great periods of history that are outlined in chapter eleven, the Seleucid armies and the Ptolemies, seeing them on the day when they prepared for the march, and there they were. How romantic it was, wasn't it, to see them all, the great battalions, the king himself and emperor, all his bright ribbons and medals and glorious uniform and emblazoned shield and his embossed armor, and riding his proud charger of a horse, and his generals and his lieutenants with their war medals. Oh, what a thing it was. And the young captain strutting about, saying goodbye, and turning the head of every eighteen-year-old girl, uh, girl i- i- in the city, you know. It is so romantic, isn't it? What a terrible fascination war and conquest have had for mankind. It seems so romantic when it begins, seems so noble, seems so colorful. How impressive the tramp of a hundred thousand foot soldiers, tramping the plains of Palestine to get at the enemy, like the tramp of Hitler's battalions across the lowlands of Europe. But if it looked romantic when it started out, can you picture what it was when the flood had subsided and they'd gone home? All the wreck and the ruin and the debris, the pillaged farms, the ruined crops, the wounded bodies, the crazed minds, the cries of the widows and the stinking corpses of the babies. And you say to yourself, what is it all about? Some of you perhaps didn't even know who the Seleucids and the Ptolemies were, maybe. You're not interested. You say, what does it matter to us? Who won? Yes, that's the point, my friend. What does it matter to you who won? What does it matter to anybody who won? What a lamentable and largely lunatic world this has been. With all its pomp and glory ending in human disaster and heartbreak and ruined bodies and crazed minds and broken families and economies, uh, virtually destroyed. And pray, what has the sense of it all been? And all down the long years, not only the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, but the Romans, and the English, and the Germans, and the French under Napoleon, and the Cameroons, and the Yugoslavians, and the Russians. What does it all mean? Is there any sense in it? Is there any hope for our world? Will mankind ever get rid of this lunacy? Is there any discernible purpose in, in life? Is there any discernible purpose in history? You who search your history books and study the flow and the ebb and flow of human events down the centuries. Have you perceived any pattern in it, any hint of a purpose? Is it all going anywhere? Or is it going to end up in one gigantic atomic bomb or something? Nothing but the debris of a human civilization that had been blown out of existence. However, would Daniel feel when the veil was lifted for a little bit, and he was shown what lay between him and the fulfilling and achievement of his great hope, the restoration of Jerusalem, and the coming of Messiah. Is there any hope? It was to comfort Daniel and to give him not only information, but encouragement, that the man appeared to him above the river to explain this fearful phenomenon. And the explanation was given him right from the very start in terms of a great warfare. And talk is to be heard here as the man outlines the history of powers greater than human, of the Prince of Persia that has power enough to withstand the incarnate Son of God, of battles in the heavenly places, of demonic forces, of satanic attacks. And whereas in previous visions we have seen human empires under the guise of wild animals fighting it out between them. The distinctive thing of this vision is that you see not wild animals, there are humans down there, but aloft, and in the spiritual realm, there are mighty, not a gigantic spirit forces waging their warfare, going about their deadly and devilish desires. If you would account... But at the other side, we stand in contact with the spirit there. The man is not just body, it is not just physical. Man has a spiritual dimension, and therefore has contact with a world of spirit. And if we refuse to face that fact, that there is a spiritual dimension to mankind and to world affairs, we will, as Peter tells us, gradually see to the level of mere animal behavior. There is a spirit. And why was it that the Seleucids and the Ptolemies should so often come and destroy the land of Palestine? You say it's because it stood geographically in their way. There's one answer to the problem. But they weren't just pawns on the chessboard of international politics, were they? Because if that had been so, they could just have used, uh, Israel as a corridor and gone backwards and forwards, up and down with their armies. They didn't do that. From time to time, one or other of the emperors would cast his eye upon Jerusalem City, perched there up on the mountains of Judea, and think about that city and its temple, and greedy and ominous eyes would be turned in that direction. Why? Not because of the Ptolemies in the solution, but because of the demonic powers that motivated them, and whether they knew it or not, drove them on. That's if he stood for the fact that God has a purpose in history. There is a plan in history, a visible purpose in history. That purpose started with Abram, and God's calling out of Abram to be, to form a unique nation among the nations. Israel, that latecomer among the nations, distinct in the fact that she did not worship idols, officially at least, bear witness to the one true God, and bear witness to this, that the God of heaven did have a purpose in her. The very nation of Israel were to be the favored nation, bearing the role that one day they would bring in the coming Messiah and deliverer. And because of that very fact, the satanic majesty had set himself all the way down history, if possible, to destroy that people and to destroy their city and to destroy their testimony for the coming of Messiah. He did it in Egypt, didn't he, when he raised up against the nation, a genocidal Pharaoh who tried to attempt to wipe out the nation of Israel by casting every male baby born into the Nile until the s- the rising crocodile closed its fangs around it. Insane, of course. He did it in Abiliah's time when that daughter of Ahab in Omri's house woke up and slaughtered all the royal seed of Judah, and apart from God's good providence, would have destroyed the line of the coming Messiah. And God, in his mercy, saved the little Joash as a baby. He did it again, the band of the absurd Antiochus Epiphanes, didn't he? And when at last our blessed Lord came, he had the outrage to attack our blessed Lord himself, trying not now to conquer him by fears, but to overcome him by corruption, saying, I'll give you the whole kingdoms of the world and the power of them if you fall down and worship me. But young man, if you don't, do be aware that I have all the power that has been given to me under God's providence, and if you don't bow down and worship me, I shall make it uncomfortable for you. You have your choice. And skipping the centuries, we can watch it happen again, can't we? In the insanities of Hitler's gas chambers, can you explain it to me in any rational term? You have stood there, sure. Some of you have stood there in Auschwitz or somewhere, and seen the cages and trodden over the one-time gas chambers and pondered how did anybody get it into a human head to eliminate a whole nation as methodically as a firm of grocers tin sardines in a can? And it wasn't a pagan savage nation that did it either. It was a nation that led the world in its intellectual advance. Oh, don't blame it on mere mortals altogether, will you? There is a devil. And whatever power lusts and war games fill men's little minds, the devil uses them for the bigger purposes that he has in his own heart, to discredit past people and to destroy it, and to destroy the nation of Israel, and make the fulfillment of God's purpose impossible. So why should Daniel care? He wouldn't be there to see it. They might have had to see it at any rate, that's true. Where and beyond the Seleucids, there will come the time of the end, the apparent final triumph of his satanic majesty, as the leader of the Gentile, Gentile empire of the day would sit himself in the temple of God at Jerusalem, claim to be God, and claim to have proved scientifically that there is no God out there. Man is his own God. Why should Daniel worry? Be in heaven, wouldn't he? Oh come. Daniel was a Jew, wasn't he? If this was what was going to happen to his people, would his heart not merely be broken? Oh, let's come nearer home to Paul the Apostle. Oh, he says, you Gentiles, don't get uppish, will you? My heart breaks almost for my kinsmen that are Israelites according to the flesh. I could wish myself a curse from Christ for their sake if it would save them. Are they not to you, my brother, my sister, if enemies for the gospel's sake, beloved for the Father's sake? Aren't you concerned before God as to what will yet have to happen to that nation? And they say they deserved it because they murdered Jesus. Oh, careful, careful, careful. Who murdered Jesus? Caiaphas was implicated, and the Pharisees at Jerusalem, and the crowd at Jerusalem, there certainly they were responsible, and said, his blood be upon us and on our children. So there were multitudes and thousands of Jews throughout the Roman and Greek parts of the world in those days that never had heard of the crucifixion of Jesus until months and sometimes years had passed. You won't say they'll be responsible for it, will you? Let us be careful in our talk, lest we Christians add to the atmosphere in which Jews can get persecuted. I have a very good friend in Belfast. And many times, as he sat and talked with me and brought out his cuttings of some Jewish newspapers, where the writers say it's the Christians that encouraged the Holocaust by teaching their children in Sunday school that those are wicked Jews that crucified Jesus. You Christians are responsible for it, he would tell me. And I would say that Otto, I'm not blaming you for the murder of Jesus. You won't go, will you, Otto? And do you know who killed Jesus, Otto? No, who did it? I've said often, I did, Otto. What do you mean you did? Well, I did, Otto. You see, I'm a Christian, Otto, and I believe the reason why Jesus died was that God gave him as a sacrifice for sin, and the Son of God, he loved me and gave himself for me and bore my sins in his body, and it was my sin, my sin, Arthur, that killed Jesus. I would never dream of accusing you of being responsible for the murder of Messiah in any other sense than I too am responsible for the murder of Messiah. Can we sit by and rejoice in God's extravagant grace to us that he has forgiven us, what our sins did to Jesus, and care nothing of what Israel must yet face under the disciplines of God and the spite of the enemy. And anyway, my brothers, my sisters, the war isn't over yet. It may be true that we fight on a different battlefield from what Daniel fought on, but it's the same war, isn't it? We fight on a battlefield far more elevated, but we have to fight somewhere. For by risen with Christ and seated with Christ in heavenly places, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, mights, and dominions. And there is a war on still. And it's the same war, even if it's different battles. Oh, you've surely found it, my good friend. You cannot work for God at any rate, whether you work in Sunday school or whatever it be, but what you'll find presently, it isn't a pleasant little hobby to be done when you have time to do it. You'll find sooner or later it is a war, and I'm telling you now, in that war you will get hurt. And you will get hurt, to your surprise, from all kinds of unexpected. In fact, I warn you now that sometimes your very burden in Christ will seem so cranky, so difficult, so irrational, so unreasonable, you'll think the very devil had got into them. Well, perhaps he hasn't got into them, but he could have suggested a thought or two into their heads. Oh, how sad it has been to see in some countries where I've traveled, vigorous testimonies for Christ blown to smithereens. Why? Because the believers fell out, and they didn't care when they fell out, whether the assembly prospered or whether it was destroyed. They stood by and saw it blown up to smithereens. And then thought they'd won. What's a war, my brothers, my sisters, and you doubtless have found it so, and heard see out of proportion things that happen to God's people, and the unexpected wounds and oppositions from many sources. And I suspect that Daniel heard of these things. They surely increased his gloom. The text says that he fainted as a man that was nearly dead. And I suspect one of the elements in that courageous man's near collapse was the feeling that after he had done all his life, all he could, things were going to the bad, and there would come the final apparent triumph of the enemy. And perhaps he felt that after all what I thought was my great success with God, how little had I accomplished. Oh, my brother, my sister, when you come towards life's end and you look back over the river, like Daniel had to look back, you think of all the waters that have passed under the bridges. And you remember your early youthful intentions. You were going to live for the Lord, weren't you? You were going to devote your life, all of it, to him. You remember the wonderful encouragements God gave you, the advances you made, and yes, surely your life has been made up of many and many of victories. It's gone quickly, hasn't it? And you fall from time to time to thinking, how little I have done, how little I have contributed. How should, uh, we comfort ourselves? Well, make sure you keep at it in life, my brother, my sister, so that when you come to the end, you've no regrets. And you can't say, well, I wasted that on stupid things. But how should we comfort ourselves? Ah, listen. Listen rather to how God comforted Daniel as he stood there. He said, as I stood there watching the river and the waters go by, I saw, and suddenly there was a man above the river. He was not in it, he was above it. And it was none other than the precedent, the pre-incarnate Son of God, come to reveal himself to Daniel. Oh, praise God, my brother, my sister, as you begin to sense in your heart as you sit there, the wonder of it, your affinity with Daniel. For you know him who promised before he left his a- his eleven apostles, he said, I will not leave you orphans. I come to you. And Judas Olagog said to the Lord Jesus, but how is it, Lord? I don't get this bit, he said. How will you manifest yourself to us and, and not to the world? And yet he does, doesn't he? We don't see visions like Daniel saw. But in this circumstance and that, maybe reading the word and pondering it like the two on the road to Emmaus did. Maybe grieving at a tomb like Mary Magdalene was. Maybe upon the in the midst of hard and apparently frustrating and fruitless toil like the men in the boat of Galilee. Presently, the Lord Jesus comes to you. You know it in your spirit, don't you? And you say, like John did as he nudged Peter, Peter, do you know what that is? That's the Lord, Peter. And it's manifest to you in the breaking of bread, maybe. Or in the going is rough and the wind is howling and the waves are high and you seem to be getting nowhere fast, perhaps going back, it comes to you walking on the water. He who stood above the river. And you see him coming, don't you? And as he draws near, in your spirit you sense him, and in that moment you invite him into your boat. And in that very moment, as you sense the very Lord of eternity come to you in time, and coming into your little boat of your life and work with God, and is in you, he is you. Why, in that very moment you sense the boat is at the land, it is at the harbor whither you would go. And life is not a frustration and an a disaster at its end. For it is written that then he called, then he justified, and then he justified, then he glorified. Oh, wonderful thing, as we sur- survey the course of life, however much lies beyond us before the blessed Lord Jesus comes, all the wonder of his coming to us. Now, bringing with eternity into my little bit of time. And Daniel saw him, standing, as I say, not, not in a boat on the river, being carried along the river like all of us are. Saw him standing above the river, in eternity, of course, and yet come down to meet Daniel entirely. How blessed him. Tonight, my brother, my sister, as you kneel by your bedside or your prayer stool, how blessed are you in this life before it ends, and however long it has yet to follow in the world, you may know the eternity coming right to you in the person of the Lord Jesus, and you taken up into eternity, part of the great eternal purposes of God. So he came to Daniel, and how did he comfort him? First, by telling him what the future was going to be. And this is a warning. Daniel, why Write did it God down for your your people people's say, sake. they're In not their on anxiety to believe in the coming of Messiah, in the course of history, some of them will make mistakes. As world patterns develop, they shall repeat themselves from time to time. Situations will arise in which it will look as if they're standing at the end of the age, but it won't actually be. Write it down, Daniel. That people may be comforted and steadied in their thoughts, keeping alive the hope of the coming of Messiah, but not being taken in by necessary, by interpretations of prophecy that aren't necessarily true. You should be told about ten years ago that the corporate taxes in Israel had a number plate that said ten six six, This was a sign of the end, you know, and that the end was coming in nineteen eighty eight, I think it was due. Didn't come, at least that nobody noticed it if it did. That is curious, isn't it? Instead of increasing people's hope, increasing their expect- their their trust in prophecy, it in the end undercuts that trust. And the Lord is careful to warn Daniel and through Daniel his people. Observe the signs of the times, see the pattern of sin working itself out. Watch how the waves mount up and then break on the shore of time. And this wave, is that the last one? Well, it might be, who knows? For them, it mightn't be. But we still believe there's going to be a time of the end, do we not? And then how did he comfort him? By warning him that there would come a time at the end of the age when evil would appear to triumph completely. Then, as the man about the river stood about the river, it became evident that he could see beyond time. He could see beyond the end. And even now, as he talked to Daniel, he could see in his mind's eye the moment that would come when he would speak the word, and all that were in the grave should hear his voice and come forth, some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation. He sees the end from the beginning. All Father, uh, carries up. He sees you not merely as you are now, you know, he sees you as you shall be. He can already see the glory that will be yours at the coming of the Savior. And our Lord is not pessimistic. Ah. Faithfully, he told Daniel that there would come a time eventually of unparalleled suffering. It is known technically as the Great Tribulation, and our Lord said it is going to be a time of unparalleled tribulation. And listening to his word, many believers have found their hearts filled with fear. They shouldn't, should they? Because whatever our blessed Lord speaks of it or his apostles speak of it, then do they add the comforting word. The man above the river said to Daniel, and thy people shall be delivered, everyone that is written in the book. And the blessed Lord Jesus, talking at that time, said, except those days have been shortened, there should no flesh have been saved. But immediately he added, that those days had been shortened for the elect saved. Always listen to the blessed Lord Jesus. He doesn't, uh, didn't, uh, underweight the time of trouble, but he buttresses his people's hearts with his assurance. And especially when those of the church doesn't sit at Philadelphia, because you have kept the word of my patience, I too will keep you from the hour of trial. That isn't to say, my brothers, my sister, that no believer will ever perish under persecution. Dear me, no. We couldn't travel in Spain, in Russia, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, and forget that millions of your fellow believers have perished. Oh, what an honor. Who shall have the, who has the power of deciding whether I perish or survive at any time in history? Is it the beast, and is it the serpent? Oh no, thank God. Listen, listen to the man above the river encouraging Daniel. He says, your people will be persecuted. But then he lifted up his two hands to heaven and swore an oath. It will only be for so long. And when they have made an end of breaking in power the strength of the holy, holy people, then this time shall finish. It shall not last one second more than he permits. It will not last longer than it takes to accomplish the purpose of God. And why should God allow it? Because God yet has to purify his people, Israel, bring them to the point where they are prepared to confess they are unbelievers. Like once he took the proud Saul who thought he was a believer and wasn't, and had to bring him to the point where he banged his knees prostrate on the ground and admitted that he was not a believer. Learn what it is to believe in the Lord Jesus. So says that same Paul, God will have to bring Jews to the very ground, shutting them up into unbelief until they're brought to confess that in spite of their proud boast that they have believed in the one true God in the only sense that matters, they're not believers, and they will not be until they come to believe in Jesus Christ, God's son, as their Lord and personal redeemer. Then Then. the man above the river comforted Daniel. He said, you know, even in the darkest times there will be those who strive to turn many to righteousness. And Daniel, whatever their earthly lot turns out to be, they shall shine as the very stars in the firmament. And finally, go your way, Daniel, he said, for you shall stand in your lot at the end of the day. And nothing more was said, and nothing more was told. And if you ask, what will that lot be? Where exactly will it be placed? And what will it consist of? I cannot tell you, but there is a lot, and it's got Daniel's name on it. The image is borrowed from the idea that when Joshua led the people of Israel into the land, each man got his inheritance, didn't he? When he came to the end of the journey and into the land, eventually each man got an inheritance with his name on it. Ah, love it. Go your way, Daniel, he said. There is marked out for you a lot, your name on it, and you shall stand in your lot at the end of the day. And the vision has gone on since. And the vision was given particularly and specially for the people of Daniel, that is the Jew of a coming age. But we can't go without applying it to ourselves, can we? Oh, my brother, my sister, in the battle of life, in the battle of the Lord, may the man above the river come to you, maybe with very night, and comfort you. With this time for eternity, and as time passes you by, the very eternal and unchanging Christ is with you and in you. And when he may allow you to suffer, be assured of this, that God is faithful. He will not allow you to suffer anything beyond what you are able to bear. But deal with the trial, make the way of escape. And why would he let you suffer? So to give you glory when Christ comes, that's the ticket on the price of a seat in glory. But he has in mind by our very suffering, so Satan doesn't mean it so, to purify us and increase our holiness, that we might be the more like him when he comes. Or carry on, you Sunday school teacher, won't you? It's a battle sometimes when the children are fractious and the heat is intense, and it doesn't seem they're listening, and nobody takes notice of what you do, and there's a question of piling on and just carrying on. Ah, but my brother, if you turn one to righteousness, all of it will mean you shall shine as the very stars of heaven. You will, you will. And one of these days you'll be walking through the courts of heaven and you'll round the pillar in the celestial city, won't you? And there's somebody from, uh, Coventry or Timbuktu, perhaps two or three, and they say, you indeed told you. Have I told you before? You say, yes, you've told me ten thousand times before. How about they say this is eternity and we've got time to tell you again? Oh, they say as they put their heavenly arms around you, it was you that first pointed me to Christ, who will never get over it, you know, for the whole of eternity. They'll tell you every time they meet you, and you will shine as the very stars in the heavenly world. And I can tell you this. Are you redeemed by Christ? Are you really a believer? Then start rejoicing because your name is written in the book. You say to me, but I could cast out demons. You can, Mars. Uh, uh, and I can do miracles. I say that's extraordinary. But do listen to the Lord Jesus, my brother. In those things don't rejoice, he says, that demons are subject to you in the name of, uh, uh, of Christ. In this rejoice rather, that your name is written in heaven. I give you permission to rejoice. Don't let anybody see if you're ashamed, but we'll rejoice about it now. To think that your name is then registered in the citizen lists of heaven already, and never will be. Lock it up. But I think I see it, and I can't tell you where in that great eternity it would be. But if you are a blood-bought child of God, there's a lot marked out for you, yours, with your unique name on it, and you shall stand in your lot at the end of the days and throughout eternity. To that end, may the risen Lord bless us all and in kindness of his will this evening, so we pray. Blessed Lord Jesus, we thank thee that the witness of countless generations of thy people have validated the promise that from time to time, as it pleases thy wisdom, thou dost come to us and reveal thyself to us. We thank thee for thy word. Thou hast not treated us as slaves, for a slave knows not what his lord doeth, but thou hast made known to us things to come, that we might live intelligently in our day and generation. But now, Lord, as we go with a thousand and one thoughts in our hearts of memories and hope. Form there, we do beseech thee, and once more fulfill thy promise and manifest thyself to us. That we might find comfort for the past and encouragement for the future, and new verve and new vigor and new inspiration and new energy and new confidence. That whatever not thou dost give us here, however long or short, there is a work for us each one to do, significant for eternity, and a lot and an inheritance awaiting for us there when the day comes and we see face to face. Thus may thy evening blessing be upon us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. It so happens that I have just one set of questions, and I may deal with them quite succinctly, and to the kind friend who offered them, perhaps also privately with him subsequently, but saying he made the effort to write them down, here are his questions. Daniel eight thirteen, the transgression that makes desolate. Daniel eleven thirty one, the abomination, uh, uh, that makes desolate. And so in Daniel twelve eleven, Matthew twenty four fifteen, and Mark thirteen four. Thirteen fourteen. And the question is, at what time shall this temple be built? The question presupposes that if the man of sin is going to sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, then there must be a temple there for him to sit in, you'll see. It cannot be any future temple built by the Lord, can it? And if the man of sin is going to sit in it, it will have to be before he is cast into the lake of fire at the second coming of Christ, so it must be before then. So that's my first answer to my friend's question. It will be before the second coming of Christ. Will it be some kind of a literal temple? Well, I imagine it might be. The question that will arri- arises in many people's minds is, is it going to be a temple in Jerusalem, a little temple in Jerusalem? For, uh, the only people in Jerusalem interested in building a temple, of course, would be the Orthodox Jews and perhaps the semi-liberal Jews, but not the completely liberal Jews, and certainly not the vast majority of the nation, who are virtually atheist. Eh, and Orthodox Jews, of course, would normally not be content to have a literal temple rebuilt, except on the temple site where they hold Abraham offered his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, and where Solomon built the temple, and all temples were subsequently built. And unless somehow they managed to get the Mosque of Omar and the Silver Exar Dome away, they shan't be able to build a temple on that site. And if they were to blow them up or something, it could start a third world war, couldn't it? So there you have a good problem. Is there some people say that they might be content with having a temple of a kind somewhere else in the city? All I would add to those various speculations, and they can be little more than speculations, can they? But it wouldn't necessarily demand a little temple, do you think it would? The temple stands for Israel's belief in God, their testimony to the world in God, and the Orthodox in Judaism still maintain their testimony to God. It is that testimony that will be at stake in the time of the final dictator. It is that testimony he shall try to destroy, as he claims universal and in the end divine honors, doing worse than the Romans did. It is true that the Romans in their day, uh, occasionally entered the temple at Jerusalem, and, uh, the Roman general sometimes took in the standards of their armies that had idolatrous images on the top of those standards, and some people have drawn a similarity between that and what others would do. I don't know of any Roman emperor that actually sat in a literal temple in Jerusalem, and as far as I'm aware, not even Antiochus literally sat in the temple of Jerusalem, but he did impose his worship in Jerusalem and ban the worship of the God of heaven. That, I think, is what the final dictator will certainly do. He will ban the worship of the Orthodox Jew in Jerusalem as its center. Uh, he will ban the worship of God everywhere through the world, of course, will he not? He will claim divine honors. And unless you, uh, in case you should think that is a fantastic kind of reading of the future, well then, ladies and gentlemen, you must be aware of what thinkers like, say, Sir Julian Huxley used to say, that now we cannot any longer believe in God, but we must have a religion. Because, you see, important as test tubes are and computers, you can't worship a test tube, not even if you tried, could you really? You can't bow down before a algebraic formula that gives you the, the secrets of electromagnetism. It kind of doesn't move you in the heart, does it? I mean, so, but where will the world get a kind of a heart from? To get the motivation to endure each other and work together before some foolish person presses the wrong button and destroys the earth. And says to Julian Huxley, the famous evolutionist, long ago, what we shall have to have is another religion. Of course, we can't go back to worshiping the God of the Bible. Okay, well, what would you worship then? What would the religion be about? It wouldn't be about worshiping crocodiles like some of the ancients did, would it? Or monkeys or something. What would be the highest thing you think we, we could possibly worship? Well, the highest thing known to man, of course, is, is man. And there's only one bigger thing than that, and that is the state and the person of its emperor. And just as the Romans tried to pacify the world and join the world together and quieten the warring factions and the endlessly different and diverse nationalities in their kingdom, and join them all together by instituting the worship of the emperor. So at the end time, in a world that's believed the lie and thinks it has been proved that there's no God out there. Many will bow down to the worship of the beast. It has been one of the chilling things in my experience to talk to university professors and academicians in Russia. Men who were devoted to academic truth. Ah, but under the pressure of Marxist governments and times, they too bowed the knee, pretended to believe it, took the mark of the system, and preached it to their students. And now they tell you they didn't really believe it, but they had to do it to keep their jobs. It will be for that same reason that multitudes of men and women will bow down and worship the beast. They'll do it to keep their jobs, because if they don't take the mark of the beast, they shall neither sell nor, uh, uh, buy or sell or eat bread, and therefore they'll cave in and worship the beast. The scenario that the Bible paints for this godless world in the future is certainly gloomy, but it is also highly credible. Well, it is in fact, of course, true, but as well it is uncomfortably credible. That is why God gives us prophecy, that we might look ahead to where modern movements are flowing, so that we in our own generation may be wise and may be able, for the Lord's sake, to join intelligently and effectively in the battle of truth against the dark satanic forces in business, in the home, in the schools, in the courts, in the universities, wherever else men and women work and think. And now I wish I could be brought you with a cup of tea, but I won't dwell on that. You'll say, uh, you have been very, very patient, and you'll get an extra reward for being denied your tea and biscuits on this warm exactly.