Daniel 8-11 - The God Who Hears Prayers
Main Idea: Bring your fears & hurts to the God who will make all things right.
God values you.
Because He values you, you don’t have to fear empty hardships.
Because He values you, you can experience peace in struggles.
Because He values you, you can value His Words to you.
God hears you.
God is the Lord of all, so be humble when you talk to Him.
God is glorious, so be worshipful when you talk to Him.
God is sovereign over what worries and harms you.
God is eternal, so He’s not rushed by our schedules.
God is holy, so He’ll judge all evil.
God is good, so He will restore & redeem all of your life.
DETAILED EXPLANATION OF CHAPTERS 8, 10, & 11
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
I'll turn it over to Daniel 10. Daniel 10. We are in a study of Daniel 7-12, and I've affectionately entitled this Apocalypse in July.
And looking at these portions of scripture in which the Lord reveals to one of the Old Testament prophets, Daniel, what he thinks about world history, about the response of the people of God within world history unfolding, and what the point of it
all is. And as I mentioned last week, the point of Daniel 7-12 is pointing to Jesus.
And if you come to either the Book of Daniel or you come to the Book of Revelation, and you're expecting to find today's headlines within the Book of Revelation as far as like, all right, is Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, or Roy van Duzen?
Which one of these might be the great beast or the antichrist? You're just gonna be sadly mistaken. The point of scripture, it all points to Jesus.
Who's the person that all scripture points to? Jesus. And so even today, we are going to be looking at that.
I gotta tell you guys, this is probably the most ambitious portion of scripture that I have ever tried to look at today's sermon, Daniel 8-11. And it's for this particular reason.
Daniel 8 and Daniel 11 deal a lot with prophecy that has already been fulfilled. Daniel 8 and Daniel 11. Specifically, the kingdoms of Medo-Persia and the kingdom of Greeks.
On your sermon handout, I've actually included a link to the site gotquestions.org, which is a valuable resource from Dallas Theological Seminary, which is a faithful Bible-believing seminary, actually that one of my Bible College professors went to
and got his doctorate from Dr. Gary Spath back in the day.
And they walked through especially Daniel 11 and show how scripture was incredibly faithful and how it prophesied what would happen with these world nations and specifically how it would affect the nation of Israel.
And so we're gonna talk just a little bit about that today. But the main thing that we're gonna be looking at is chapter 10.
Now, I know I say on this slide, Daniel 8-11, really, it's 8, 10, and 11 because these are the portions that are dealing the most with Medo-Persia and Greece.
Because none of you guys came to church this morning going, I really hope that I learn more about the Medo-Persian Empire.
We're going to be drawing the attention, especially to chapter 10, where we can realize from chapters 8 and 11, God's word is faithful. He is always true to fulfill everything that he has said.
But chapter 10 really speaks to our heart, whether we are Daniel in the 6th century BC, or whether you are Daryl or Barb in the 21st century AD. Timeless truths from the word of God.
And so I hope that this will be an encouragement to you this morning. The title of the message today is, The God Who Hears Prayers. The God Who Hears Prayers.
One of my daughter, Evelyn's, adorable and occasionally frustrating traits is that she hates spiders. How many of you are in that same boat? You hate spiders.
Okay. You're right there with Evelyn. There's a couple spiders that make some recurring webs on our like front porch.
So as we exit our house, there's a couple spider webs that are right there and it doesn't matter how many times I destroy the web, it comes right back. And she will want to play outside.
She wants to get in the car to be able to go to church or to Chick-fil-A or to whatever. Also, hearing a two and a half year old ask you, Dayid, go Chick-fil-A? Is absolute kryptonite.
How am I supposed to say no when she's a Stadidorm? Anyway, that's neither here nor there. So she'll want to go outside, but as soon as she gets onto the porch, she'll see the spiderwebs and she'll just totally freeze up.
So, you know, there's kind of the freeze or flight. She freezes, and she will remain completely stationary until I like grab her hand or pick her up and personally lead her down the non-cobweb covered stairs.
She has her fear, and she wants me to make it all right. And today, we're going to be looking at the truths of Daniel 8, 10, and 11, and the challenge from these chapters to bring your fears and hurts to the God who will make all things right.
Bring your fears and hurts to the God who will make all things right. Okay, I'm going to give you a very brief explanation of these three chapters of scripture. God shows Daniel some things that are going to take place.
He doesn't show him, if you will, just like the National Geographic or History Channel. I don't know how many of you grew up with the view finders that you could cycle through the little pictures. My in-laws have one of those.
He's not showing him that. It's a spiritual take on it. So you get incredibly weird looking animals and beasts.
And Daniel gets freaked out by all of it because he doesn't understand what's going on.
So then he asks some angels that as God is showing him this spiritual vision of what is to take place, he asks the angels for clarity, and they explain what's going on.
It's very helpful as you're reading through it because you also get to go, oh, okay, well, thank you, God, for explaining that. That way I don't have to come up with crazy or weird reasons for why this exists on my own. Here's what God told Daniel.
So after the Babylonian Empire, so Daniel and all of his people in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, they were destroyed by Babylon. Daniel was probably taken about 602 BC.
The final destruction of Jerusalem happened in 586 BC. So now Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, they have gone a long time without their nation. God had still some plans for Israel.
He hadn't totally, if you will, thrown them away. He had brought them into a time of, if you will, time out for 70 years. And we'll look at that next week in Daniel 9.
But as God was doing that, he wanted Daniel to know Babylon's not the end of the story. And there's going to be more nations that conquer your country. But I don't want you to be caught off guard by it.
And I don't want you to be scared that God has somehow forgotten or failed to love his people. After Babylon, there would be Medo-Persia. Can you guys say Medo-Persia?
Okay, it's modern day kind of Iraq, Iran, the same general area as Babylon would be in. So Medo-Persia would destroy Babylon. And we read about that in Daniel 5 with Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Jerusalem.
His grandson was on the temporary throne of Babylon when Medo-Persia conquered Babylon. Then Medo-Persia was conquered by the Greek Empire, which was overseen by Alexander the Great.
I've always, as I've looked at world history, thought it was a little unfair that it was called the Greek Empire when Alexander the Great was a Macedonian.
But nevertheless, it was the Greek Empire and its soldiers that conquered much of the known world. Alexander the Great spearheaded that, but then he died and four of his generals split the Greek Empire amongst them.
The two that are the most important for us to know are the General Ptolemy and the General Seleucus. The fighting between those two sub-kingdoms, so the Seleucid Empire was where Syria and Damascus is today.
And you have the Empire of the Ptolemies in the south centered in Egypt. And because one was in Syria, one was in Egypt, they didn't get along. They fought with each other over the course of decades.
And what is right in between Syria and Egypt? It's Israel. And so time and time again, Israel would be overrun, conquered by a new, if you will, kind of mini-empire.
And so they would go through all of that fighting.
This would reach kind of a pinnacle at one point when you had a man named Antiochus Epiphanes, who had such a hatred for the Jewish people and for their religion, that he went into the rebuilt temple that, you know, Ezra and Nehemiah and all of those
Old Testament prophets said was so important. He went into that temple. He set up an idol to be worshiped in there. And he even sacrificed a pig on the altar.
Okay, you guys know this. Jews, Muslims do not mess with pigs, pork, bacon, any of that. And so this was a deeply offensive and evil action.
In fact, it was so evil that Daniel and the Lord frame what will happen one day with the Antichrist and the, if you will, epitome of human evil combined in religion and government and finance altogether. He patterns what Antiochus did.
He says, this is very much like what will happen one day. Jesus in Matthew 24 talks about this same thing that we're going to call the abomination of desolation. Okay, everyone, just say that real quick.
Abomination of desolation. Okay, there's no quiz. Don't have to worry about that.
But as I'm trying to let you guys know, hey, here's some of what's happening. Jesus says, like what happened with Antiochus, it's going to happen again. And it's actually going to be much, much worse.
So all of this is what God is revealing to Daniel. Daniel's, justifiably, very freaked out as you read chapter 8 and chapter 10 and chapter 11. He's like, I had no joy.
I was totally scared. I had no peace left within me. That's Daniel's response to all of this.
If you knew America is going to be overrun for the next like three centuries, I don't know that you would have a lot of, oh God, you're just so great. You're so good.
But what God tells Daniel in the middle of all of this is what you and I need today.
That is, we have prayers, as we have fears and hurts that we experience in our life, just as Israel would go through during centuries of hardship, we can realize that there is a God who knows the end of the story, who knows the end of your story, and
he is working all things for your ultimate good and for his glory. So we want to hear what does God have to comfort us with. Let's pray, and then we'll look at chapter 10. God, thank you for being with us today.
Thank you that we're two or three are gathered to identify as your people, to accomplish your will. You are right there. And so Lord, I pray that today you'd be glorified in your church.
Lord, I pray that you would help me to say only what you would have me to say. Lord, if there's someone here today that does not know Jesus as their Savior, God, I ask that today would be the day that they choose to accept you.
We love you, Lord, and pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, if you have your Bibles, go to Daniel chapter 10.
I'm going to start in verse number 7. So Daniel, he sees this vision of a man, and you can read even in Revelation, Jesus is described with these same types of things. He's dressed in linen with a belt of gold around his waist.
His body was like a barrel. It's a particular type of precious stone. His face was like the brilliance of lightning.
His eyes like flaming torches. His arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze. And the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.
So Daniel sees this incredible person, and he freaks out. He says, only I, Daniel, saw the vision. The men who were with me did not see it, but a great terror fell on them.
They ran and hid. I was left alone looking at this great vision. No strength was left in me.
My face grew deathly pale, and I was powerless. I heard the words he said, and when I heard them, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. Suddenly a hand touched me and sent me shaking on my hands and knees.
He said to me, Daniel, you are a man treasured by God. Understand the words that I'm saying to you. Stand on your feet, for I have now been sent to you.
After he said this to me, I stood trembling. Don't be afraid, Daniel, he said to me, for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I've come because of your prayers.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me after I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
Now I have come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the last days, for the vision refers to those days. I want to stop real quick and give just one explanation.
Scripture talks about Satan, primarily, as the god of this world, as how Paul describes him in his letter to the Corinthians. Paul would describe him in the letter to the Ephesians as the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air.
When Satan oversees our world, the world systems that we have, he doesn't do it alone. He does it with other demonic beings. None of these are a rival to God.
They all have to answer to him. They cannot do anything apart from his express limited permission. You can look at the book of Job in Scripture and see that in detail in Job 1 and 2.
Here, you have an angel that's coming to converse with Daniel, but he is engaged in angelic battle for 21 days. There could be so much speculation on this, so I'll just say this. Realize that when you pray, there is more going on than just you.
And if Daniel, an Old Testament prophet, treasured and loved by God, had to wait 21 days for an answer, then certainly you and I can expect that we would have to maybe wait in some moments of our life for an answer to happen. God is always working.
He's never tired. He's never late. But it can often feel like that when we're expecting, you know, a microwave answer to prayer or a Burger King, have it your way approach to our prayers.
So that's all I have to say on that end. There is more happening in the spiritual realm, the angelic realm, than any of us ever get to see this side of eternity. But know that God is working on your behalf, and in the end, the Lord wins.
And if you are on the Lord's side, you're on the winning side. Verse number 15. While he was saying these words to me, I turned my face toward the ground, and he was speechless.
Suddenly, one with human likeness touched my lips. I opened my mouth and said to the one standing in front of me, My Lord, because of the vision, anguish overwhelms me, and I am powerless.
How can someone like me, your servant, speak with someone like you, my Lord? Now, I have no strength and there is no breath in me. He says, I'm too freaked out.
You're an angel. I'm a human. I'm too scared to talk to you.
Verse 18, then the one with a human appearance touched me again and strengthened me. He said, don't be afraid. You who are treasured by God, peace to you.
Be very strong. As he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. He said, do you know why I've come to you?
I must return at once to fight against the Prince of Persia, and when I leave, the Prince of Greece will come. However, I will tell you what is recorded in the Book of Truth. What was recorded in the Book of Truth?
Everything I already told you with Greece and Medo-Persia. What can we learn from this? In particular, from this interaction that Daniel has with these angelic beings.
First today, God values you. God values you. He deems you of great worth.
Why? Because you are created in His image. He made you to show the people around you what God is like.
He created you to be kind. He created you to be creative. He created you to be just and righteous in a world of wickedness.
He proved this by the fact that even though you and I have all fallen short of that mission, we have not imaged God, and instead we have shown everyone in our life what God is not like. We have shown selfishness. We have shown lies.
We have shown unkindness. We have shown evil in our thoughts and words and actions. But God didn't abandon us to pursue our own ends.
He pursued us in the person of Jesus Christ. And Christ died in our place, taking the punishment that we deserve for our evil that we have inflicted on others and ourselves in God's world.
Jesus took that punishment on himself and freely offers forgiveness and salvation to everyone that will repent, turn from their own way of living, turn from their sin, and turn in faith to accept Christ. God values you.
He values you so much, he gave his own life. I'm thankful he didn't stay dead, but though he was buried, he was buried in a borrowed tomb for three days, and then he rose again. And he is the everlasting Lord.
But he proves through his offer of forgiveness, he proved through his sacrifice on the cross, that he values you. He deems you of great worth because he created you and he died for you. What does this mean for us?
Because he values you, you don't have to fear empty hardships. Everything that the children of Israel were going to go through over the coming centuries, it was not pointless. We talked about that last week at length.
This was all meant to point towards the fact that Jesus would be born a few hundred years later, and he would be born in Israel. So Israel would make it back to the land.
He would be born in the Pax Romana, the time of Roman peace with Roman roads and even Roman punishments for civil crimes or governmental crimes so that Jesus would be crucified. He spoke and his words were recorded in Greek in that language.
And the Medo-Persian Empire was the one that brought Israel back to the land. So all of it was for a purpose, even though anyone living in any of the particular times up to then didn't know what the purpose was.
And in your life and mine, we do not go through empty hardships. God's not giving you anything just to punish you, just to give you a hard time.
Everything that He places into your life is so that you would be conformed to the image of Christ, that you'd look more and more like the image of God that you were created to be, and that all the glory would go to Christ as a result.
There's no pointless suffering with God. There's always a purpose and plan to redeem the evil that we encounter and that we perpetrate, so that His goodness and His brilliance will be seen in eternity. Job discovered this in his life.
He thought all of his hardships and the loss of his children and the loss of his wealth, he didn't know why it happened, but he didn't see behind the scenes that God was honoring Job and glorifying him, and that Job was glorifying the Lord, and that
Satan was shamed as a result. Joseph, in his hardships, he didn't understand why he was being sold into slavery by his brothers. He didn't know why he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife.
He didn't know why he had to end up in that jail cell, but the Lord had a plan to save much people alive, that God's purposes would be accomplished, and that after suffering comes glory.
And so in your life and mine, we follow in the footsteps of our Savior that went to the cross, but after the cross, there is the resurrection. Even as we sang today, when all I see is the cross, God, you see the empty tomb. What do we do with that?
Because He values us, there's no empty hardships. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, we are comforted by God so that we can extend that comfort to others. You are comforted to comfort others.
If you've gone through financial hardships or divorce or the loss of a child or a parent or battled a sin, one reason that God brought you through those moments is so that you could comfort and encourage others.
This does mean that you actually have to know other people within your life or within our local body of believers so that you can encourage them. You don't know what they are going through unless you actually take time to know them.
Secondly, because he values you, you can experience peace and struggles.
The entire point of the Book of Daniel to God's people in the empires of Babylon and Medo-Persia and Greece is that though the geopolitical circumstances around them were evil and did not carry hope, that God was still with them, caring for them and
leading them towards their ultimate redemption. When you're going through hard times today as a Christian, our natural reflex is to think God's angry with me. He doesn't like me. He's punishing me.
But my friend, nothing could be further from the truth. Your God loves you with incredible abandon. So much so that he gave his life so you could be reconciled forever to him.
Struggles are a part of being outside of Eden, outside of God's perfect world. And everyone, Christian or not, experiences those struggles. But as a child of God, you can take comfort in Jesus' words, in this world you will have trouble.
But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Today, choose to pray, to trust, to worship through your struggle.
Choose to ask the Lord, what do you want me to do in this trial? God is much more concerned about who you are, who you're becoming, than simply changing your life to where you have zero struggles.
And then lastly, here on this point, because he values you, you can value his words to you. If God loves you, and he does, if you're breathing today, God loves you.
When he talks to you, he is speaking words of love and words to guide you in the right path. If some random person on the street started yelling at me, I love you, I think you're so smart, you're so handsome.
If someone random on the street started yelling that, I'm booking it out of there. That person does not know me, that's a weirdo, that's a strange person. Stranger danger is so right.
Now, if Samantha tells me, I love you, I think you're so smart, you're so handsome, I'm actually going to value that because I know that she does love me. The words that she says have value.
So if God values you, if he loves you, then you should listen to what he has to tell you within his word. Would you choose to spend time in the Word of God this week? Would you set aside time to hear from your holy God that loves you?
Second point for today, not only does God value you, but God hears you. Just as God heard Daniel, he said, from the very first day that you humbled your heart to pursue the Lord, your prayers have been heard.
For every one of us that have turned in faith to Jesus, from that first moment of crying out in our hearts, God, I know that I'm a sinner. I believe that you came and died in my place. Come into my heart and save me and help me to live for you.
From that moment of that first call of salvation, God hears his children. Because God hears us, this does mean two things that we even see in Daniel's life. Number one, God is the Lord of all, so be humble when you talk to him.
God is our Father, the one who loves us most. He is also the creator of the universe, the judge of all that exists, the indescribable and incomparable God of gods, and the redeemer of mankind. He deserves our respect.
He deserves our trust. He's not beholden to give us everything that we demand of him. He's not our genie.
He is God, and we are not. So we must have humility and respect when we come to him. Maybe one practical thing for this, have respect for the nature and name of God.
Don't ascribe actions to God that he hasn't said that he's done, such as, oh, God started this natural disaster to attack people from the political party that I don't like. God didn't say he did that, so don't say that God did that.
Don't use God's name as a filler or a swear word, saying just, oh my God, as an exclamation, or using the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names, as a curse word. Don't do that.
We, in the free environment afforded to us in 21st century America, we often forget the third commandment. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.
God's the Lord of all, so be humble when you talk to him. Respect him for who he is. And then secondly, God is glorious, so be worshipful when you talk to him.
You can look at Isaiah 6 as Isaiah enters into the presence of God, and he sees the glory of Yahweh and his train, his cloak filling the temple, and the angels surrounding him crying out, holy, holy, holy.
As we see that God, he is glorious, and so we ought to worship him. Our hearts ought to be drawn to say, he is worthy of my obedience. He is worthy of my adoration and my admiration.
We can see this even in Revelation 4 and 5, with all of those redeemed from all of the ages surrounding the throne of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.
As they say, he is worthy of all honor and power and glory, for he has created all things, and by and for him they were created. We ought to have a worshipful response to our God. He hears us.
Let's worship him when we talk to him. Spend time praising God when you pray to him. Spend time singing to God.
Spend time telling other people about God. The king of all ought to be adored and worshiped by his people. Maybe just a small little practical note.
When it's time to sing at church, sing. We're not just passing time. We are bringing a sacrifice of praise to the God who died for us.
So participate in that praise. And then lastly for today, not only does God value us and God hears us, but God is sovereign over what worries and harms us.
The point of this passage for Daniel and the Israelites who first received it was that they could experience calm, comfort, and assurance that no matter how bad the world situation was, God was still in control.
There's three things that we can note from God's sovereignty over what worries and harms us. Number one, God's eternal, so he's not rushed by our schedules.
Just because something's not happening immediately for you and I, it doesn't mean that God's not in control or that he doesn't deeply care about your situation.
Just remember that in a hundred years, you will not care about God's delay, as you will be with him for a hundred billion, trillion years and all eternity to come. This life is just a vapor. It's a mist.
It's here for a moment, and then it's gone. So realize that God doesn't have to operate on your timetable or on mine. That's hard.
It's easy to say that. We have things that we would like to happen instantaneously.
We would love for every time that we ask for the salvation of a loved one, we'd love to get a phone call from them within the next minute going like, hey, I realize I'm a sinner. I need Jesus to save me. Would you pray with me?
Like we would love for that to happen. God's not beholding to that. That's our timetable.
That's not his. We would love to see instantaneous, total, miraculous healing of everything that we pray for. Every cancer diagnosis, every hospitalization, we would love for it all to be instantly gone.
But that's not what God has outlined for us. What he wants is for us to trust him and to realize that eternity is what we are headed for. We're not just here for the here and now.
So live your life recognizing God's sovereign, he's eternal, and so that means he doesn't have to do what I want on my timetable. Be willing to hear no from God or to experience years of him telling you, wait.
And if God is patient with you when you're impatiently waiting for answers, be patient with others. We can be so insistent on wanting others to adapt to our every whim at a moment's notice and that kind of instantaneous, I want it my way.
Living is totally counter to who our God is and how he treats you and I. Secondly, because God is sovereign, God is holy, so he will judge all evil. He is perfect.
That's what holy means. He's totally different, set apart from us. He's perfect in every way.
God is holy, so he will judge all evil. Does our sinful world, with murderers, abusers, greedy, immoral, selfish, and self-serving people grieve your soul? It grieves your heavenly father.
Know that whatever evil you despise in your life or in your world right now, your holy God will destroy evil forever. We love that. We're like, yes, God, judge all of those wicked people.
But when it comes right down to it, are you holding on to evil personally in your own life? Is your life filled with sexual immorality, idolatry, theft, greed, drunkenness, or verbal abuse?
Would you be described as short-tempered, rude, unkind, or selfish? Repent. Turn from your sin to the forgiveness and life-changing power of Jesus, and you will not be judged and condemned because of your sin.
God's going to judge all evil. And that punishment for evil either is what Jesus accomplished once and for all on the cross, and you accepting that, or you can try and pay it off. Trust me, turn to Jesus.
Accept his perfect and full payment for your sin. Repent of sin and follow the Lord. And then lastly, this sovereign God, he is good, and he will restore and redeem all of your life.
The tears that you currently cry, the losses that you've gone through, none of it is pointless or the end of the story. The truth is, is that God is making all things right.
And whatever you suffer in this life, God has promised to reward you in his kingdom.
Matthew 19, Jesus said, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields because of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life.
There is nothing that you have given up to follow Jesus. There is nothing that has been taken from you that the Lord will not reward you for. There's nothing that he won't restore and redeem and put back in eternity.
God has all of eternity to show his goodness and his kindness to you. So while we grieve now over the evil world that we're in, realize that day of restitution and redemption is coming.
That the story is not ended until all of eternity when God has blessed us through Christ Jesus. Revelation 21 tells us a little about this. I heard a loud voice from the throne.
Look, God's dwelling is with humanity and he will live with them. They will be his peoples and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He'll wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more. Grief, crying, and pain will be no more because the previous things have passed away.
Will you choose to live your life not for maximum comfort and finances in the here and now, but will you choose to live for the kingdom of God knowing that he will give you perfect comfort and peace for all eternity?
Today, we have a God who hears prayers. He values you, he hears you, and he is sovereign. He is in control over what harms and worries you.
So today, will you bring your fears and your hearts to the God who will make all things right?
If you don't know Jesus today, if you've never turned in faith to him, you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, I encourage you, get that settled today. This is the good God. This is the God worthy to be followed.
There is nothing else in your life that in any way, shape, or form is worthy of being followed. It's not worthy of your devotion, but this God is worthy of it. If you do know Jesus, are you coming to him in prayer?
Are you recognizing his incredible love for you? Are you calling on him? And are you recognizing, I'm living for his kingdom that will come when he makes all things right?
And are you choosing to love others and to share with them the gospel even today?
