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We're going to cover Daniel 8 this morning and let's go to the Lord in prayer before we get started, Father, we just thank you so much for this time together. And God, I thank you again for what you're doing in the earth in these days, Lord, in these last of last days with a. A final harvest, so to speak. God, of taking your word to the ends of the earth and back. Lord, as we are continuing to study the book of Daniel, you have written thousands of years in advance of what the end times will be like, of what the Antichrist kingdom will look like, of what the Gentile powers will look like that come to an end when you, Jesus, as the stone cut without hands, as we studied in Daniel 2, comes back and destroys that final Gentile kingdom. And Lord, when you will finally fulfill what the angel promised to Mary, that her son would sit on the throne of David. And Jesus, we thank you that that time is coming nearer and nearer every single day. And God, we thank you that we live in this generation that gets to see through a glass dimly what every prophet in the Old Testament wrote about. And we are so thankful for that. And Lord, whether it happens in our lifetime or not, God, we pray that we would finish strong and stay on truth until our last breath when you take us home. So God, teach us everything out of Daniel 8 this morning, and we thank you for this time together, Father, in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen. Okay, so Daniel 8 is. Daniel gets another vision that is kind of similar to chapter seven when we studied last time with the four beasts, but he gets a vision of the ram and the he goat and, and thankfully there's an angel at the end of the chapter that describes and explains the vision that he had, so we don't have to guess at what he's talking about, which is amazing. It's. It's amazing how most of the Bible will explain to you exactly what it means if you just keep reading. And a lot of people will read a weird prophecy or a vision or something, and then they just stop and they don't keep going. And the Lord will connect it somehow somewhere in scripture most of the time. But in a book like Daniel, it is so important that you lean on the Holy Spirit for understanding of the entire book. And from First John 2, 27, 28, when you have the anointing that dwells within you of the Holy Ghost and you are leaning on the Holy Spirit to teach you everything, you literally cannot, you can then stand before him, not ashamed. When Jesus comes back, whether we meet him in the air, in the Rapture, or we just go home naturally to meet him, then you can stand before him unashamed. And that's the goal for all of us as Christians, is to finish, finish strong, finish well, finish to the end. You know, press as hard as you can to make it to the very end. And as, as we're studying Daniel, it is the only book in the Old Testament that really lays out all of the Gentile kingdoms, from Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon all the way to the Antichrist in the very end. And it's, it's the only Old Testament book that focuses on the Gentile powers. And that's pretty incredible. So God takes. Goes out of his way through Daniel, this young man who's the. The only beloved prophet in the Old Testament to write about Gentile history. And it's pretty neat. So in 332 BC, Alexander the Great, who's going to be a, a main subject of chapter eight here, he conquered Jerusalem. And the priest actually showed him references to himself in the book of Daniel, likely out of chapter eight here that we're reading today. And as a result, the city was spared. And Josephus writes about that in the early church age. But from 1899 and 1917, excavations took place of Nebuchadnezzar's palace and that surrounding Babylonian city. And so we studied this back in chapter five with the handwriting on the wall. And that banquet hall from that chapter turned out to be about 173ft by 56ft in size. And it was all rebuilt by Saddam Hussein before, before he went to go meet the Lord. Hopefully he came to know him beforehand. But in chapters one through six, they're mainly historical chapters with some visions. And then chapters 7 through 12 are prophetic chapters with a lot of history or some history, I should say. So we've gone all the way through chapter seven. We're taking chapter eight today, the Ram and the he goat. And just remember, these chapters are not in chronological order. So one through four are. And then it goes seven, eight, and then back to five. And chapter eight today is in the third year of Belshazzar, which is Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. So if you remember the vision of the four beasts last time in chapter seven, that occurs in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's grandson's reign. So this is now a couple years later, just as a reference point, which was around 554 BC. So think of it, you know, roughly, roughly 552 years before Jesus was born and roughly 584 years or so before his ministry started, just in broad terms, so to speak. Okay, in Daniel you have all these groupings of 70. And this is important because there were three sieges of Nebuchadnezzar on Jerusalem. The first, second and third siege. Daniel was taken in the first siege. Now that first siege started the servitude of the nation, which was a 70 year period that went from the first siege all the way until Persia conquered Babylon. And the decree of Cyrus was, was put forth to go and rebuild the temple. Then there was a second siege. Then the third siege was another 70 year period that went all the way to the decree of Artaxerxes in Nehemiah chapter two. And that starts, that starts the 70 weeks of Daniel. So three different 70s in the book of Daniel, the servitude of the nation, the desolations of Jerusalem, and then there's 70 weeks of years at that point. So 77 year periods or 490 years that will chronicle and culminate all of Jewish history until the second coming of Jesus. From that point on, that decree is in Nehemiah chapter two, to go rebuild the wall and the in Jerusalem. And that is what the clock, the prophetic clock starts from that day to Jesus riding in on the donkey. In the new. In the Gospels it was exactly 173, 880 days according to Daniel chapter nine. And that's to the day when Jesus wrote in. Then there's this period of time that you and I live in the gap, so to speak, of the church age. And after the church age is complete, when according to Romans, the Gentiles, the fullness of the Gentiles become in, we will be raptured out of here. The church will be who's alive then? And that will then start after that when the Antichrist affirms a covenant with Israel. We'll start this final seven year period of Gentile history of ruling over the earth, which is what Daniel's been chronicling. And at the end of that, Jesus comes back. And According to Daniel 2 and all over the Bible, frankly, the stone cut without hands will come back in Revelation 19, destroy the antichrist kingdom and set up a kingdom that will never, never not exist again. And so Jesus will rule not just for the thousand year millennial reign, but forever. At that point, just the thousand years is a specific period of time. Okay, in verse one here, in the third year of the reign of the king of Belshazzar. So again That's Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. A vision appeared unto me, even unto me, Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. And so Belshazzar is the Babylonian king, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, not to be confused with Daniel's Babylonian name of Belteshazzar. So different name in verse two. And I saw in a vision, and it came to pass when I saw that I was at Shusan, at the palace, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in a vision I was by the river of Ulai. Okay, so Daniel, remember, he's a captive in Babylon at the palace, and yet in this vision, he's taken all the way further east to the southwest area of modern day Iran, which may be the prophetic subject of Jeremiah 49. So Elam, ancient Elam in the Bible, if you look at Iran on a map, there's a mountain range. And south of that mountain range, from that mountain range to the Persian Gulf is what you would consider Elam in the Bible. It happens to be where the current Iranian nuclear reactor sits in Bushar, which Jeremiah 49 has a prophetic judgment against the leadership of Elam, where God's hand strikes the sword of their might. And the inhabitants of that land have to be scattered all over the earth until for some reason, because of this judgment by God on the leadership. So you could kind of connect the dots. How? It's likely. It's very likely. It could be something to do with that nuclear reactor because, you know, you could imagine if there was a meltdown or a strike on that nuclear plant, the inhabitants of Elam literally would be scattered all over the earth and have to flee. And then in that prophecy, God talks about how afterwards he will set his throne there and it'll be a place of. Of righteousness yet again. Now, the Shushan palace in Elam, it'd be just west of the mountains. So here's a. Oh, I've got a picture on the next slide here. But Susa is 230 miles east of Babylon and 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf. Just as a reference, Susa was the capital of the Elamites in ancient times. Later, it became the main residence of Persian kings. It was the palace established by Darius the First, later and later expanded by artists by Xerxes. This was also the home to Esther, if you remember Esther from Esther and Mordecai and Haman. In that whole event In Esther Chapter 1, you can find that all they all reference Shushan. It was A city of nehemiah in verse 1 of Nehemiah, chapter 1. The code of Hammurabi was found there in 1901. Hammurabi was an ancient Babylonian king. The Code of Hammurabi was just a book of what you could consider laws or codes that he wrote for his kingdom to abide by. It's kind of a. For whatever reason, in law, it's a famous book, but the laws and the codes he wrote in it dealt with family and commercial matters and property and things like that, which some of the things he took are directly from the Old Testament out of the Bible. Like the eye for an eye. That's real famous for being in that Code of Hammurabi. Okay, this is a pin of where Shusha is. So you can kind of get an idea on the southwestern side of Iran. Then you have Iraq and Syria and Jordan and Damascus there in Lebanon, you can see all that. And then little bitty Israel tucked up against the Mediterranean there. That's kind of where it is on the map. If you Google and you go to the Shush Castle or Susa Castle, that's it. So that castle in that picture right there is likely the castle where Esther had. That whole event, the whole book of Esther pretty much took place at that castle. And that's likely that same location, which is just fascinating. But it's there in. In modern day Iran or Persia in the Bible. I don't recommend going to visit it maybe, maybe when the Lord comes back, but there is great revival going on there. Okay. In verse three, then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns. And the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. In verse four, I saw the ram pushing westward, northward and southward, so that no beast might stand before him. Neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand. But he did according to his will and became great. Okay, so notice that the ram did not press eastward, which is so interesting that even this kingdom had limitations, so to speak. The ram with clean feet and sharp pointed horns was the guardian spirit of. Of the Persian kingdom. That was a. A false deity that they worshiped. The Persian king at the head of. At the head of his army wore the head of a ram instead of a crown whenever they would go out to war and things. Which was interesting in the zodiac. Very evil. Do not look at your horoscope. It's fortune telling. It's necromancy. It's all the witchcraft that the Old Testament Forbids the stars are placed there to glorify God, not to tell you your future. Just FYI, Aries is the Ram and was the sign for Persia. So they worshiped that constellation and that ram and the stars, so to speak. Xerxes was the last great ruler of the Persian Empire and he was the king. During the days of Esther, he made an attack against Europe which started at Greece. He had an army of about 300,000 men and traveled with their families. The Greeks defeated the Persians at, in that famous battle in Thermopylae. At the same time, 300 of the Persian ships were destroyed by a storm at Salimis. And the battle was the basis of the movie 300, if you've ever seen that movie. But the Greeks drew the Persians into this very narrow ravine where one Greek the hit. The historical saying was one Greek could take on 10 or more Persians. That was why they drew them into that ravine. So it was kind of one on one battles at that point. But that, that actually happened in verse five. And as I was considering, behold, and he goat came from the west. Okay, so the ram is Persia. And we'll see in a little bit why the two horns. Remember, Persia was the combination of the mead and the Persian Empire. So that's why the two horns of the ram, one was up higher than the other, but they combined to con. To. To produce the Persian Empire. The he goat now is the, the kingdom of Greece and Alexander the Great, okay, a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth and touched not the ground. And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. So the, the horn here, the notable horn is Alexander the Great and he touched not the ground. It's a reference to the swiftness in which Alexander conquered the world. And we talked about this a little bit in chapter seven. At the age of 20, he assumed the helm from his father, Philip II of Macedon. And in 334bc he invaded the Persian Empire. So this is, just think about this. This is roughly 220, 230 years after Daniel gets the vision. Okay, so a lot of time goes by before this happens, but in 334 BC, he invaded the Persian Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted about 10 years. So he came from the west to attack the Persians. And following his conquest of Asia Minor, or what we would call modern day Turkey, it's where the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation, they went around those seven cities in modern day Turkey or Asia Minor. From Ephesus, all the Way down to Laodicea. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of these. These battles, including those that Isis and Guagamela, and they, they fought a ton. And this he goats. So at the age of 30, so about 10 years there, his empire stretched from the Mediterranean to the Hindu Kush, or which we. We would call today the northern border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. So east of Persia, he died at the age of 32 in June of 323 BC. So Alexander died very young. And a lot of historians say he died of malaria. Some others say he was natural causes. Some historians say he was even poisoned. But he died very young. And on his deathbed he was asked who should get the kingdom. And his response was, give it to the strong. So he had these four generals below him. And when he said that, that started the war between these four generals, these four kingdoms to gain power of his empire. But he was a ruthless tyrant, but an extremely intelligent military leader. And he's the he goat here in the book of Daniel that Daniel sees and prophesies about. So if you remember in chapter seven, when the leopard with the four wings was. Ran so swiftly, his feet didn't touch the ground. That was Alexander the Great here, the he goat, the feet don't touch the ground because of again the swiftness by which he conquered the world. It was very fast. And he came to the ram in verse six here, that had two horns which I'd seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. So this is Alexander going and fighting the Persian Empire. And I saw him come close under the ram, and he was moved with color against him, and smote the ram and break his two horns. And there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him. And. And there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he goat waxed very great, and he was strong. The great horn was broken. So Alexander the Great finally dies, and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. So the four generals that take over, or try to take over. It's connected to Daniel 7, verse 6, where he says, the Lord says, after this I beheld, and lo, another, like a leopard, which had upon it back its four wings of a foul. The beast had also four heads, and dominion was given to it, meaning the four heads being the four generals, the wings of a foul, reference to the swiftness of it not touching the ground. From verse five that we just read, and Those four heads being the four generals. And these are the four generals. So Cassandra, Lysimachus, Seleucus and Ptolemy. So when they divided the kingdom, Cassandra took Macedonia and Greece, Lysimachus took Tyre, thrice, Brytha and most of Asia Minor. Seleucus took Syria and the lands to the east, all the way to India, and Ptolemy took the south, so Egypt, Cyrene, Arabia and parts of Asia Minor. Now, the battle between these four kingdoms, it lasted a long time. And it began what. It begins what many refer to in the Bible as the silent years. So a lot of people believe the Bible doesn't cover the period of time from Alexander's death to the beginning of Jesus's birth and his ministry. And they refer to those, or they'll call those the silent years. So if you hear that phrase ever in, in Bible speak, that's what they're talking about. Those years are detailed actually in advance in Daniel chapter 11. God prophesies them to great detail, those four generals fighting. And then he goes, he shifts to prophesy about the Antichrist again. It's amazing how many times these chapters, God will talk about these Gentile kingdoms and shift focus just suddenly in one verse to go all the way to the tribulation about the Antichrist, the last Gentile kingdom on the earth. And out of one of them came forth a little horn. So here he is, he's doing it again. So the notable horn was Alexander, the little horn being the Antichrist, which waxed exceeding great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. Now that would be Israel or Jerusalem, the pleasant land in the Bible, the Holy Land, the Promised Land, the Levant. Those are all terms of, of Israel. So this little horn comes up. Now that's also a reference Back to Daniel 7, verse 8. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things. We talked about in chapter seven how the Antichrist comes up. He puts three of the ten kings down and the other seven consolidate power to him. And that's what Daniel seven, eight is talking about. And everywhere in the Bible that you see talking about the Antichrist, he's always running his mouth against Jesus, constantly. He constantly speaks against the most high God and tries to, to discredit his word. And you see that in a typology right now with Yuval, Noah, Harari, and the World Economic Forum. And this guy that they consider the false prophet or their prophet, I should say every time he speaks, he brings in the God of Jacob into the conversation and has to, has to belittle him and attack the God of the Bible. And it's just incredible how this guy runs his mouth and he's a Jew, he's a homosexual Jew, but he's a Jewish man that just has nothing good to say about the Lord. But it's fascinating when you listen to what he says. He never says that the God, the Bible is not real. In fact, he very much describes him as being real, but what they're doing to counter him. And you know, he said he'll say things like, you know, in the Old Testament, when men were against God, God would send a famine or a drought. And you know, today we're against the God of the Bible. And. But we make our own reign by cloud seeding and all these other things. We don't have to worry about his judgment anymore. And he's in for a rude awakening if he doesn't, if he doesn't come to know the Lord soon. But you see that reference in Daniel 7, 8. So in Daniel 8, 10, here, the little horn, it waxed great even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them. Now, some people, if you go out and search this up in the, and look at different teachings on Daniel 8, some people view these verses as talking about Antiochus IV. To me, they have a dual reference, and I could be wrong, but they have a dual reference to the Antichrist. Because the little horn from Daniel 7 and also that verse right there, chapter or verse 10, about the little horn going against some of the other angels, the host of heaven, and taking them down to the ground. Now, Antiochus IV came to power in 175 BC. Antiochus invaded Egypt. He defeated, he defeated Ptolemy, and that's in verse nine up above. But he was recalled from Egypt by Rome. So he was a leader for Rome. And he made Jerusalem this buffer state. And we talk about this summit around Christmas time every year when we talk about why there was such tension in Jerusalem between Rome and the Parthian Empire and why Herod and others in Jerusalem, the leaders were just nervous all the time because Jerusalem was this little buffer state between these two world empires trying to fight each other. But he plundered and desecrated the temple. He set up an idol in the Holy of Holies as a typology or a foreshadowing of what the Antichrist will do. He called himself Epiphan. Epic Epiphanes, I think, is how you say that, meaning the illustrious one. The Jews renamed him to actually mean the madman, because he was a madman. And he. He does all this wicked stuff in the land we'll look at in a little bit. But the little horn here in Daniel 8, it fights against angels and casts some of them to the ground and stomps on them. So that's, in my opinion, that's why I think the Lord is referencing the Antichrist here, the host of heaven. From Revelation 12. You see that the stars. The stars of heaven or the host, things like that, references. You see that referencing angels a lot in the Bible. Job 38, 7, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. What he's talking about is that the angels were created before verse one of the Bible because they shouted for joy when God created the earth in Genesis 1:1. So you can find that throughout the Scripture. Look at Revelation 12 here, 7 through 9. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. So this is during the Tribulation. And the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not. Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. And the great dragon that Satan was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, and he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. So in the Tribulation, there's this spiritual warfare going on that's very real and very physical. We use that term as a church today, meaning. But you know, when you say there's spiritual warfare, like it doesn't. You can't feel it or touch it. This is very real. The other side in heaven is much more physical than even the world that we live in right now. We just don't have access to it yet, but we will. But that spirit, that what we call spiritual warfare from Michael and his angels fighting against Satan and his angels, cascades down to the earth. And that's when all these supernatural things are happening on the earth. And it is a. It is a time of trouble. From Jesus's words in Matthew 24, that is unlike any other time on the earth. Okay? In verse 11. So the little horn, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host. And by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. Now, the prince of the host would obviously be Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the captain of the Lord's Host, as we said in. In Joshua. And an host was given him in verse 12, against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression. And it cast down the truth to the ground. And it practiced and prospered. So Satan always attacks the truth. Satan's. His attack is against the war of God, the word of God, constantly against the truth. He always wants to attack truth in your life. And he will twist it just enough to get you to believe a truth that's 90% there, but with a 10% lie in it. And he does that constantly. Okay, Antiochus, he sent letters to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah directing them to do the following. So they were to follow foreign customs in the land. They were to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, profane the sabbaths and the feasts, defile the sanctuary and the priests to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols. He had them do all of this in Jerusalem and in Israel to sacrifice swine and unclean animals on the altars of God. So he went in and desecrated the altar of God in the holy of Holies and to leave their sons uncircumcised. So basically, everything God was telling them to do, he told them to do the opposite. And he demanded it by law. And if they didn't obey it, then they were murdered. They were killed. At that point, the penalty was death. So this was no joke in Israel at this time. Okay, in verse 13, then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto the certain saint which spake, how long shall the vision be concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgressions of. Of desolation. Now that's a. That's a technical term in the Bible, the transgression of desolations or the abomination of desolations. And we're going to study that a lot in Daniel 9, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot. Now, Jesus talks about this in Matthew 24:15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. Stand in the holy place. Who readeth, let him understand. So Jesus wants you to understand Bible prophecy. He. He's commanding it, actually. But the abomination of desolation is an event at the midpoint of the tribulation when the Antichrist goes in to the holy of holies, declares himself to be God, and takes away the daily sacrifice after the temple is rebuilt. We know from three places in the New Testament, actually four, counting Daniel, Daniel nine. But that a temple will be standing during the beginning of the Tribulation and the Jews will be making sacrifices there. The Antichrist will then come in and declare those sacrifices null and void and that he alone is God and the whole world has to worship him. And that happens exactly at the midpoint of the seven year tribulation. Okay, in verse 14. And he said unto me unto 2,300 days. Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Now 2, 300 days. This is an interesting window of time as it really doesn't show up anywhere else in the Bible. And so there's a lot of speculation about is this going back to the when Antiochus desecrated the temple or is it looking ahead in the Antichrist tribulation days when he or it will desecrate the temple. That verse though is where seventh day Adventism grew out of. They believed that the sanctuary to be the earth and they believed it would be cleansed at Jesus's second coming. And through their interpretation from this one single Bible verse, they decided 2300 days really meant years. And that Jesus's second coming at the end of the Tribulation would be in 1843. That was the, the target they had out there. Clearly they had a wrong view of eschatology because here we are 180 plus years later and Jesus has not returned, at least not that we've noticed. And, and I think it'll be pretty evident when he comes back. I don't think we'll have to guess about that. But if the 2300 days are taken as literal 24 hour days as it's always good just to take God at what he says, this period would be roughly 6.389 years. So remember the Bible, God always uses 360 day years. So this, this would actually fit the time of Antiochus defiling the sanctuary in about 170 BC to the restoring of the temple by Judas Maccabeus, the Maccabees. The Maccabees result revolt in 164 BC. That was about a six year period. So it does actually fit that window. God may be prophesying about that in the, the Maccabean revolt if you don't know much about it. The Jewish priest, Jewish Maccabees, he was known as the hammer and he drove out the foreign armies of the Roman Empire at which time the temple was cleansed. Excuse me. And rededicated. And that cleansing is what is celebrated today in the feast of Lights or what you and I would know as Hanukkah. And there's a reference to that in John 10, verse 22, just so you know. Okay, but the tribulation is broken down into two halves of 1260 days from the abomination of desolation to the second coming of Christ in Revelation 19 is exactly 1260. So that 2300 day period, it could be a reference also to how long it may take to cleanse or perhaps rebuild the temple into the millennial temple detailed in Ezekiel 40, 49. A lot of times Bible prophecy too has a dual reference or a dual meaning or dual fulfillment. So I'm not saying this is true. It's just. It's interesting to think about. But it could take an additional 1040 days from Jesus's return for that work to be completed. We don't know. Does he tear down the temple desecrated by the Antichrist, or is it cleansed and expanded in some way? We really don't know. The Bible doesn't declare how that happens. But we do know in the millennium the sacrifices will take place. And the millennial temple is described in great detail in Ezekiel 40 through 49. And it gives. Excuse me, sorry. It gives a lot of details in those nine chapters of the size of the temple. And we're not sure. There's not a lot of detail in the temple that the Antichrist desecrates. And so will Jesus cleanse that temple that's desecrated? Will he tear it down and rebuild his temple for the millennium? We're just not sure. So but it's interesting to think about. Okay, in Daniel 8, 15 here. And it came to pass when I, even I, Daniel, had seen the vision and sought for the meaning. Then behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Uli, which called and said, gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. So Gabriel's commission then to go to Daniel. So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was afraid and fell upon my face. But he said unto me, understand, O Son of man, for the time of the end shall be the vision. Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in deep sleep on my face toward the ground. But he touched me and set me upright. And he said, behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for the time appointed the end shall be. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. So he's giving the interpretation now to close the chapter. And the rough goat is the king of Grisha and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king, or Alexander the Great. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of that nation, but not in his power. So note that the four kingdoms will stand up out of Greece, but not in Alexander's power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full. Now this is where he shifts God shifts completely to close out the chapter with the Anti A prophecy of the Antichrist. A king of a fierce countenance in understanding dark sentences shall stand up. So this clearly shifts focus here. The Antichrist will be immersed in dark occultic black magic, witchcraft, satanic rituals, etc. And in his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. Now, in Revelation 13:7, the Antichrist it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. So who gives him the power? The dragon from Revelation 12:9. And who allows the power to be given? Jesus, because he's in control in verse 25 here. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand. So he rises to power through a false peace, and stands up against the prince of princes, which is Jesus from Psalms 2. And he shall be broken without hand, in other words, supernaturally, by the word of God. And that's exactly what happens when Jesus comes back in Revelation 19 and Zechariah 14. He just destroys them with the word of his mouth. And the vision of the evening in the morning, which was told is true, wherefore shut up the vision, for it shall be for many days. And I Daniel, fainted and was sick. Certain days afterward I rose up and did the king's business, and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it. So Daniel saw the Antichrist and all his power destroyed by Jesus. And all of his power. He was given the privilege to see through the years of the tribulation, and it was so disturbing to him that he was physically ill for days. Now that that's heavy. He was sick for days after seeing this. These are very strong visions given to this incredible young man. And Daniel 8 foreshadows a lot about The Antichrist, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand. That's in second Thessalonians 2:8 through 9. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders. He shall magnify himself in his heart according to 2nd Thessalonians 2, 4. By peace he'll destroy many. That's the rider on the white horse that brings a false covenant of peace to the earth. In Revelation 6 he shall stand up against the prince of princes. And that's in Revelation 13, Zechariah 14, Revelation 19, etc. He wants to make war with Jesus Christ himself, which is unbelievable. But the Old Testament has a lot of titles about the Antichrist. He's the adversary, the Assyrian, he's belle el and Nahum, the bloody and deceitful man, he's the branch and the terrible ones in Isaiah 25, 5 the crooked serpent, the cruel one, the destroyer of the gentiles, in Jeremiah 4, 7, the enemy in Psalms 55, the evil man, the head over many countries in Psalms 110, the head of the northern army in Joel 2, he's the idol shepherd, in Zechariah 11, the king of princes in Hosea 8, the king of Babylon. In Isaiah 14, the little horn, the man of the earth, the merchant with balances of deceit. In Hosea 12, the mighty man, he's the nail. In Isaiah 22, verse 25, the prince that shall come in Daniel 9, the prince of Tyre, the profane and wicked prince of Israel, the proud man, the rod of God's anger, the seed of the serpent going all the way back to Genesis 3, verse 15, the son of the morning in Isaiah 14, the spoiler destroyer, the vile person, the violent man, the wicked one, the willful king. In Daniel 11 in the New Testament, he's the Antichrist, the beast, the false prophet, the father of the lie, the lawless one, the man of sin. One come in his own name. Remember Jesus talked about that in John 5, the Prince of darkness, the son of perdition, the star. In Revelation 8, the unclean spirit, the vine of the earth. All of these God talks about the Antichrist a ton. He describes the final world dictator's characteristics throughout the entire Bible. As this religious leader, he's going to have a one world religion. He organizes the earth under the mark and how you have to have it to buy, sell or trade. He's A military leader. He makes wars all over the earth and conquers most of it. He's a financier putting in the mark in this new system of trade. He's a political leader. He's a very, obviously a very convincing speaker because he gets most of the world to bow to him. He's highly intelligent. He has dark occultic practices, and he will be wounded in Zechariah 11:17. Remember, he suffers that head wound and his right eye is darkened and his right hand or arm is, as the Bible says, clean dried up. Which may be why the mark is given in the head or the forehead. The forehead or the right hand as paying homage to him in some way. So Daniel 8. You know, the, the Bible talks a lot about this time that you and I are, are just barreling ahead into. And our, our mission, our goal right now, and what the Lord wants of each of us is to stay strong in the word of God. Do not let the fiery darts of the enemy take you out. Don't retreat back into old ways or a sinful lifestyle and not finish well in the end of it. God wants each one of us to finish well. Daniel stood strong as he was captive in a wicked empire that was completely against his God. And you and I have the same mission. We've got to stay strong in a wicked empire of this world that is under the sway of Satan right now. And we're blessed. We are blessed greatly right now in the United States. We live in a nation that does not imprison you for carrying a Bible or it right now. You're not being hunted down for hate speech. If you post a Bible of hearse like our, our good friends up north in Canada, they're going to prison just for posting Bible verses up there. I don't think that can't happen here. At some point. We know at some point it will. Our prayer is that it happens after the rapture of the church when we're not here. But we do know at some point the United States will fall, biblically speaking, that all nations will come against Jerusalem at some point. But until that time, you and I have a mission from Jesus to occupy until he comes. And so we've got to, we've got to occupy and be about the Lord's business. And if you're here, if you don't know Jesus, it's very simple. If you're watching out there somewhere, if you come across this and we're gone for some reason, but you want to know how to be born again, it's the Same now as it was back in Abraham's day, as it will be in the tribulation time. It's the exact same way to get saved. By faith confessing of the Lord Jesus. And that God took your place. And you need a savior. And it's Romans 10:9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. It's that simple. You do that and then John, from John 3, you are born again instantaneously, forever to be with God, never separated from him ever again. Praise God for that. Lord, we just thank you so much for this time together. God, we thank you again for what you're doing over in Africa and through Favor International and for these young boys, God, that you gave them a home, a place to grow in your word, a place to get to know you. And God, we are so thankful that you have planted a root and a seed there that is growing and blooming and producing great fruit for your kingdom. And Lord, we just pray a mighty hedge of protection around them as those young men grow in stature and grow in age and as they continue to mature in your word and grow in your fa in the faith of their God in you. Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of all creation. Lord, we pray that you would guard them with a pillar of fire. And that Lord, if there is any assignment put on those boys or any of the missionaries that are over there in Africa or any Christians, God, we pray and plead the blood of Jesus over the doorframe of their lives and that you would cancel every assignment in the war room of Satan on your people in Africa right now. Lord, we saw this past week that another 700 Christians were slaughtered in Nigeria. And God, we pray just in the days of Cain and Abel, Lord, as you walked the earth looking for judgment, you declared their blood cries out to me from the earth. And God, we do pray that their blood cry out to you and that you stay the avenger right now, Lord, that you turn back that wickedness and those murderous destructive spirits that are ravaging your people over in Africa. We pray, Lord, that you would choke them out and bury them in the depth of the ocean, never to rise again. And Lord, let your spirit take hold and root in that continent and let great revival sweep across that land. And Lord, for these young men, God, we pray that you would anoint each one of them with the oil of gladness and joy unspeakable, and that they would carry your word with them everywhere they go. And Lord, we thank you. We thank you for the opportunity to pray for them. Lord, we thank you for the Book of Daniel. We are praying for your people in in Iran, Lord, as that underground church is prospering and growing. God, we pray that there would be a regime change, that, Lord, you would become the head of that nation just as you did in the days of Esther. Lord, in the days of Esther, a Persian king wanted to wipe out all of the Jews. And the Gallow that they set was the very place they were hung. And we are praying that in Iran right now as that Persian kingdom once again wants to wipe out all of the Jews. And we pray that you would intercede and that you would let great revival take hold in Iran. Lord, there are millions coming to know you through dreams and visions and they are desperate for the God of the universe to come into their nation. So hear their cries, God. And Lord, we pray that this nation in the US that we would be a nation that is a light to the world until the rapture of the church, whenever that is. God, let this nation be a place where people can come from all over the world to study your word, to find a church home, to find a land to prosper in, a land that we can raise our kids and grandkids in that is not collapsed from within. And Lord, we don't know when the rapture of the church is, but God, we are praying that you maintain this land until that time and that we would be a beacon of light for the world, that your word would go forth out of this nation once again instead of the world sending missionaries to the US And Lord, let this be a land that our children and grandchildren can grow up in and learn and know the ways of the Lord. And so God, we thank you again for this time together this morning and we pray that you'd be with us as we continue to study the Book of Daniel. Lord, thank you so much. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to pray over those boys. We love you and we just honor you this week, God, in Jesus's name, amen.