Sunday Sermon | Daniel: A Tale of Two Kingdoms | Ram and Goat

Daniel chapter 8 explores how Christians can maintain their faith in an increasingly antagonistic culture. This powerful message unpacks Daniel's apocalyptic vision that accurately predicted the rise and fall of ancient empires centuries before they occurred. Learn how the Medo-Persian Empire, Alexander the Great's Greece, and the tyrannical Antiochus Epiphanes IV were all foretold with remarkable precision around 550 BC. Discover why these fulfilled prophecies matter for your faith today and how they validate the divine inspiration of Scripture. Unlike failed modern prophecies, Daniel's visions came true exactly as predicted, confirming God's sovereign control over history. This message reveals the spiritual warfare behind cultural and political movements, showing how Satan continues to work through human pride to attack God's people and truth.
Most importantly, understand the contrast between worldly kingdoms built on power and force versus God's kingdom that advances through humility, sacrifice, and love. Suppose you're feeling pressured to compromise your beliefs, struggling to understand suffering, or wondering how to live faithfully in a hostile environment. In that case, this biblical teaching provides practical guidance for standing firm like Daniel. Learn to trust God's sovereignty, embrace His counter-cultural values, and find hope that the same God who orchestrated ancient history is writing your story for His glory.

Transcript

All right, good morning, church family. I know we've been bragging on vacation Bible school, but let me just continue that because I really want you to pause and consider. Right.

Like 260 volunteers, as your pastor, I am overwhelmed at the church's ability to step up and serve to preach the gospel. We get the entire community's kids, right, 700 kids come here on campus and they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, okay? And 68 of them gave their heart and their life to Jesus as Savior. That means, hear me, I could get all 700 to raise their hand, right? You say, who doesn't want to go to hell?

All right, you don't want to go to hell, just raise your hand, pray this prayer, you'll be good. Listen, we present the gospel, we follow up, have one on one conversations, find out, have you already been baptized? Do you want to have this conversation with your parent? All of that detail, right? Because we want to do it right.

We want to honor the Lord with the gospel. But church, family, you guys were incredible this week. And not only that, if you pause and consider the generosity of our church, the fact that just six months in, if we're even six months in, five months in, into our legacy program, we're at 56% of giving and in the middle of the summer on our regular annual budget, we're more than $280,000 ahead of our annual budget right now. I just want to pause and say praise God for your faithfulness and generosity that he allows us to participate in his kingdom work. God is moving in incredible ways.

These baptismal waters, they stir like every week up here and we praise God for that. Okay, turn with me in your Bibles to Daniel chapter eight. Daniel, chapter eight. As we continue our walkthrough our summer sermon series, Walking through the book of Daniel, we're to the tricky part of the book of Daniel that started last week because we get into apologetic, sorry, apocalyptic literature. The second half of the Book of Daniel, it's important that you remember that Daniel, it is writing in the 550 B.C.

okay? And what we're going to see is he's going to be writing towards history that unfolds leading to the coming of Jesus Christ. Okay, hold your spot in Daniel chapter eight. I'm going to read like the first half of it and then hold your spot there because then I'm going to refer to the other sections.

Now imagine with me that you are selling everything you own because you are convinced that the world ends next Tuesday.

Now, some have done exactly that. History is filled with people who are so sure that they know the exact time and date of Jesus return, that they wrote books, held rallies and convinced thousands about that final moment that is coming, only to have that date come and go. In 1844, it was William Miller, who was the founder of the Millerites, who failed three times that year, predicting that Christ would return. In 1914, it was Charles Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witness, he also date predicted didn't happen. In 1988, it was Edgar Wisenet selling 4 1/2 million copies of 88 Reasons for why the Rapture Will Occur in 1988.

Some of you might remember that 4 1/2 million copies that swept through the United States. More recently, it's been harold camping in 1994 and then again in May of 2011 and then again in October of 2011. And each time people were left confused, disappointed and embarrassed. Not because Jesus failed to return, but because they followed a false prophet. Someone who doesn't know how to read their Bible and does not speak for God.

But this morning we will see that Daniel really does speak for God. For God gave him visions and dreams that unfolded history three to 400 years into the future. That would be like someone from 1725 before the United States, back when we were 13 colonies. Someone from then predicting that Trump would be president and would bomb Iran over the weekend. Only God stands outside of time and can predict and unfold history.

And today we will read exactly that in Daniel chapter eight. Read with me. We're going to go through verse 14. In the third year of the reign of Belteshara the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one that had appeared to me previously. I looked in the vision, and while I was looking, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam.

And I looked in the vision and I myself was beside the Ulai canal. Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now, the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other. And with the longer one coming up last, I saw the ram butting westward, northward, southward. And no other beast could stand before him, nor was there anyone to rescue from his power.

But he did as he pleased and magnified himself. While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came up to the ram that had two horns which I had seen standing in front of the canal. And he rushed at him in his might.

I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him. And then he struck the ram and shattered the two horns. And the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him. And there was none to rescue the ram from his power.

And then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken. And in its place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Now, out of one of them came a fourth, a rather little horn, which grew exceedingly great towards the south, towards the east and towards the beautiful land. It grew up to the host of heaven.

And caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth. And it trampled them down. It even magnified itself to be equal with the commander of the host. And it removed the regular sacrifice from him. And the place of his sanctuary was thrown down.

And on account of transgression, the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice. And it will fling truth to the ground and will perform its will and prosperity. Then I heard a holy one speaking. And another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, how long would the vision about the regular sacrifice apply while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled? He said to me, for 2,300 evenings and mornings.

Then the holy place will be properly restored. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we have come to your word. We have gathered to sing your praises. Father, we invite.

We plead that your Holy Spirit would teach us this morning, would instruct us about the magnificence of your word. And then, Father, that you would help apply that to our lives. Father, I know all across this room that we are filled with fear and uncertainty about the future. Father. Things that we cannot see and things that we do not know.

But this word lifts our eyes to the God who writes the future, who not only understand it, he predicts it. God, you are completely in control. Father, help us to walk out of our fear, even in the midst of uncertainty, with the confidence that you are a God who rules and reigns. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.

All right, so the year is 553 BC. Again, recall that Daniel has gone back in time to when Belshazzar of Babylon is ruling and reigning. We already know that Daniel is going to outlive Babylon, but we've gone back and he's reminding us that during that time when he was in Babylon, he began to have apocalyptic night visions and dreams. Now, put yourself in Daniel's shoes, okay? He's been exiled from his homeland almost his entire life in a hostile kingdom.

He desires to go home, but not only that. He desires for the exile of all of his people to be over. And he desires for Israel to go back to her glory days, back to when David was king and Israel prospered and ruled that area. But instead of a promise of Israel's glorious return, Daniel has been receiving night visions about kingdoms of this world. A succession of four corrupt beasts that come out of the sea who bring destructive evil one after the other, full of sin, pride.

Daniel is given hope, right? Yes, there will be a succession of four evil kingdoms. Daniel is given hope that God's kingdom is coming, but it's in the very distant future. Very distant future. There is much to detail before we get to that.

Recall. At the very beginning of Babylon's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a giant statue and the four kingdoms. And the first kingdom was defined as Babylon, as Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold. Well now in this vision here, we are going to get more details. But now about the second and third kingdom that follow.

Okay. Daniel looks up and he sees a ram. A ram with two horns. The beast from the sea is now seen through the lens of a domesticated animal, a male sheep. Verse 4.

I saw the ram butting westward. That means he starts in the east and he begins to move westward, northward and southward. And no other beast could stand before him, nor was there anyone to rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and he magnified himself. Now look down in your text to verse 20, because in verse 20, the Bible specifically names that the ram is the Medo Persian Empire.

That's what verse 20 says. It says by the way I'm going to interpret it for you, an angel comes and interprets. And in verse 20, the ram is the Medo Persian empire coming from the east and conquering all in its path. And this includes Babylon. You see, Babylon's time has come and gone.

The ram has uneven horns, okay? Because even though Persia started out the smaller empire, when Cyrus the Great makes the treaty with Media, the Persian empire is going to grow stronger and be a larger portion. So you can see it starts in the east and it moves across to the west, lasting for 200 years after conquering Babylon in 539 BC and in Daniel's night vision, the ram stands there after it has conquered. And it stands there in all of his pride and himself and says, there is no one as great as me. And then suddenly, out of the east, sorry, out of the west, Daniel sees a goat with a single large horn flying in from the west.

And he's running so fast that his feet aren't even touching the ground. And the goat crashes into the ram, shattering the two horns. And then he picks him up and body slams him. And after that, he stomps on him like Hulk Hogan.

Now, I referred to Hulk Hogan this weekend, to my oldest son, I said, that guy kind of looks like Hulk Hogan. You know what he said? Who's Hulk Hogan?

All right, so for you younger pups, maybe John Cena or the rock, okay? The goat picks up the ram and body slams him. Now, we are told in verse 21, look down, because again, the text interprets and tells us the goat is the kingdom of Greece. And that single horn, verse 21 says, is the first king of Greece, Alexander the Great, who conquered all the known world by the age of 33 and sadly said, there are no worlds left to conquer. Alexander inherited the Macedon kingdom from his father at the age of 20, and he desired to avenge the past invasions that Persia did to Greece.

And he moved east, Capturing Babylon in 331 B.C. and the male goat with the single horn does what the ram just did. Now, the goat stands there in all of his pride and he says, there is no one like me. But suddenly that giant single horn just breaks off. No outside forces.

It just breaks off and crumbles. You see, young Alexander, in all of his strength and pride, contracted either typhoid fever or malaria at the age of 33 and was no more.

After the single bighorn is broken off, four smaller horns kind of grow up in its place, signifying the four kingdoms that Greece will be divided into. Because Alexander had no successor. And so the four generals divide the kingdom. This is talked about in verse 22, how that will be divided into four kingdoms. Now, I want to pause here, because we are Talking about roughly 330 B.C.

more than 200 years into the future, that Daniel is able to look and talk about the movement of kings and kingdoms. That would be like someone in 1825 before the Civil war being able to predict that Elon Musk would be sending up rockets into space and then being able to land them again.

Now, all of history, that entire movement of the Persians and then the Greeks coming in, all of that has been now to actually set up this next movement, the events that are about to take place, because God's people become the central figure for what's about to take place. Now I'm going to give you a little bit of a history lesson about the little horn. So in verses 9 through 14, a little horn. After Greece divides into four kingdoms, there is a little horn that pops up. And the angel gives us an interpretation in verses 23 through 26 about what that little horn is going to do.

And in verses 9 through 14, here is where it talks about the doing away with the sacrifices in the temple and really what is commonly called the abomination of desolation. Okay, so here's the short history lesson that Daniel unfolds here. But what we know actually took place in history. So initially, Israel fell underneath the Ptolemy's empire out of Egypt. Okay, Again, the four generals.

And so Ptolemies was one of the generals. So out of Egypt, they had Israel. And so for more than 100 years, the Ptolemies were very conducive to the Jewish people. So the Persian empire that came through, they allowed the Jews to go back to Jerusalem, to leave the exile and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. And now underneath the ptolemies, the for 100 years, they are very peaceful and stable.

And for the most part, they left the Jewish people alone. They allowed them to practice religious freedom and to worship Yahweh. Their entire life surrounded the temple activity right there in Jerusalem. But you see from the map right there, what's unique about it is the border between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies is right where Israel is. So you can imagine what it means to be right on the border between these two kingdoms, because in 198 BC, the Seleucid Empire comes down and begins to attack the Ptolemies.

And in the process, they capture Jerusalem. Now, I want to pause for a second, and I want to ask you an Important question. Why did God put His people right here in the middle of all these warring kingdoms?

Why are God's people right smack dab in the middle of all movement of history? Why didn't he take them, right? If he was promising them a land of milk and honey, why didn't he take them off to like a deserted island of paradise, right? Hey, you guys, come on a trip. Let's just go down here and let's get off by ourselves when we can just have a happy old time and we don't have to mess with anyone else.

That's not what God does, is it? His people are right in the middle of all the action. And this is for you, Christian. Because his sons and daughters are called to be light. Salt of the earth, light of the world, light into darkness.

So that as you walk through trials and temptations and difficulties, you and I are called to shine our light. So please hear me, hear me over and over and over again, Christian, okay? Because I know that some of you right now are walking through trials. You're walking through suffering, you're walking through hurt, and you are growing weary. And you're asking, how long, O Lord, and why?

What are you doing? Hear me. The Lord is faithful. He sees you and he will sustain you. And he will cause all of that difficulty to be part of your testimony because he is writing the story of your life, all for his glory.

All right? So when the Seleucid Empire comes down in 198Bc takes over Jerusalem, they are not like the Ptolemies. They are much more stringent on what's called Hellenization. Hellenization is the fact that you need to conform to Greek culture. Very important.

You must become Greek. And so the Seleucids insisted that the Jewish people start to become Greek, Hellenized. And how do you do that? Well, you put pressure on them, right? You say your entire economy is based on it.

If you don't do these things, you're not going to be able to hold any positions of power. You're going to be ostracized. Your business isn't going to to work. They're going to put lots of pressure on you to conform. So the Seleucid Empire begins to do that and follow the Greek gods.

Now Antiochus Epiphanes IV comes along. He is the next. He's the next king. He actually kind of swindled the kingdom from the throne from his nephew, but he comes along and he wants to be then next Alexander the Great. Now, the truth of the matter Is he was a madman.

He was very arrogant and he was very, very depraved. His name is Antiochus. He gave himself the name Epiphanes because it means appearance of glory. He wanted to call himself God. Now, he started out small, like I said.

He swindled the throne. The throne wasn't rightfully his, it was his nephew. But he swindled the throne from his nephew and became a tyrant. Now, at the time in Jerusalem, the highest position in Jerusalem was the high priest. And there was a high priest named Onias, okay?

And Onias is the high priest and he has a brother named Joshua who is much more of a Hellenist, okay? They're a divided family. Remember, Hellenist means leaning towards Greek culture. In fact, Joshua was such a Hellenist that he renamed himself Jason, okay? He said that's a much more Greek name.

And so you can imagine a divided family. Now, I'm telling you this because Onias is the head high priest. But Jason gets the idea, going to go to Antiochus, and I'm going to bribe him so that he will make me the high priest, so that he would depose my brother and I could become the high priest. And what he's offering Antiochus is I will make Jerusalem much more Greek. We will transform the culture.

So that's what he does. He goes to Antiochus Epiphanes iv. He bribes him and he's like, sure. So he removes Onias from being high priest, and now Jason is the high priest there in Jerusalem. And Jason begins to massively move the Jewish culture towards Hellenization.

One of the major things that he did is he built a gymnasium right across a stone's throw away from the temple. A gymnasium, a Greek gymnasium, right across from the temple. Now, you may initially think, well, that's not a big deal. I'm sure they played lots of basketball and had good pickup games in Greek culture. The gymnasium had athletic games, but oddly enough, all the athletic games were played nude.

Okay? That's shocking, isn't it?

The sexualization and that movement in culture. By the way, there is nothing new under the sun, okay? And so Jason puts this gymnasium right across from the temple, okay? Three years later, Jason has a servant named Menelaus. And he got the idea that if Jason could drive, could bribe Antiochus Epiphanes, okay, maybe he could bribe Antiochus Epiphanes and he could become the high priest and he could just promise more money, more taxes and tribute, and that he will move things even further towards Hellenization so that's exactly what he does.

And Menelias becomes the high priest. Well, at that point, Onias, the original high priest, after his brother stole the high priest, he was kind of like, I guess it stayed in the family. But after that, he rose up in defiance and started. Started trying to politically rise up. And Menonias kills him right there on the spot.

Now, I tell you all of this because this is the end of the line of Aaron, priest for high priest in Jerusalem, Okay? I want you to see the complete fall of the culture. There is no longer a high priest from Aaron's line from this point forward. Now, a short time later, Antiochus Epiphanius IV is going down to Egypt to war with the Ptolemies. He had taken over that portion where Israel was, but he wanted to go further and he wanted to take more land.

As he goes down there, he is met by a Roman messenger. And here's Antiochus. He has his army, okay, all of them with him. And he's just met in the field by a single Roman messenger that says, the Ptolemies have made an alliance with Rome. If you attack them, you are now at war with Rome.

And the messenger demands a response from him. And Antiochus is like, well, I need to go talk to my generals about this. And the messenger takes his sword and draws a circle around Antiochus and says, if you don't give me that answer before you come out of that circle, you are at war with Rome. This is where the saying drawing a line in the sand comes from. Well, Antiochus has to back down.

Rome is a growing power, and he doesn't want any of that smoke. So he is embarrassed that he has, with his entire army right behind him, he has to say, fine, we retreat. We're not going to attack the Ptolemies. Now, if you've just gone through something kind of that embarrassing, let's say you had a really bad day at work. Some of you might come home and kick the dog.

Okay, maybe not you, maybe your neighbor, right, might come home and kick the dog. Well, who is right there after this incredibly embarrassing scene with the Ptolemies in Rome, Jerusalem. So Antiochus Epiphanes takes his massive army and he goes to Jerusalem. The Jews are still an obstinate people. They're easy to blame because you could say they didn't adopt Jewish Greek culture.

They didn't go all the way. They're still resisting. And so he lays siege and attacks Jerusalem. In the process, he kills 80,000 people or slaves. He, like, kills 40,000 and enslaves 40,000.

He tears down houses and begins to build military fortresses. He goes in and plunders the temple. He outlaws Sabbath observance and festival observance. He even outlaws circumcision. If your child was caught circumcised, they would take the child and the mother and throw them off the temple.

Okay? They began to practice this new form of torture called crucifixion. And on top of all of that, Antiochus Epiphanius IV enters into the temple, tears down Yahweh's altar and reconstructs an altar to Zeus and then sacrifices a pig right there in the temple. And for about three to three and a half years, okay, a period of time from 167 to 164 BC he has control of the temple. A period of 3200 morning and evenings.

If you're looking at verse 14 now, this leads to what's known as the Maccabean Revolt. Okay? There was a small town Jewish priest named Mattathias who refused to sacrifice the pig on the altar as soldiers came up against him and wanted him to. And then after he refused, a younger priest said, fine, I'll do it. And as he stepped up to do it, Mattathias pulls out a sword, kills that priest, and then turns around and kills all the soldiers with him and the revolt.

And he has five sons. And this is the beginning in all of history of what is known as guerrilla warfare. Okay? Up until that point, you know how you did battle? Everyone stood in front of the other and showed themselves and then said, all right, I think we're better than them, and fought each other.

Well, they're the first that are like, you know what? We're not going to win that way. Why don't we hide in the hills and in the trees and just have sneak attacks at night? And that's what they do. And Judas, the third son, is known as the hammer.

That's what Maccabees means. And so it takes about three and a half years, but they rise up in revolt and they actually push back. The Greeks regain the temple and then they reconsecrate the temple. The celebration of that temple reconsecration is known as Hanukkah. Okay?

You've probably heard of it. Now, I've given you a lot of details. A giant history lesson. You may be think, wow, what a great history lesson. I'm glad I came to church today.

So what? So what? All right, let's make a few application points. All right? We've got about 10 minutes, we're good to go.

First, what you need to know and understand, right, if you're at home reading your Bible in Daniel chapter eight, what you need to know and understand is God wrote and preserved predicted history. That God through Daniel predicted three and 400 years of unfolding history. Now, you can either believe that or your other option is to attack the Bible. And many people do. They say there is no way that Daniel wrote that.

Okay? They say that had to be written after the fact, around 160 B.C. after all of those events. That's when all of that was written down. Because there's no way that Daniel could have known the future and predicted three to four hundred years of unfolding history.

And that is true. There's no way Daniel could have known that. But God could. Now, what's amazing about the Book of Daniel is that every chapter of Daniel was found. There were portions that were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

And the Dead Sea Scrolls are dated between 10150 BC and what that proves, because they were found in caves amongst a community that had already incorporated Daniel along with all the other scripture. And it had copies and it had circulated. What that means is that there's no way. It is absolutely impossible to have a late dating of Daniel because the Dead Sea Scrolls prove. No, it was written before then because it was circulated and because it was being used.

So now you're back to, well, then I guess God gave it to Daniel and predicted the future.

Now how incredible is that to know that your Bible, God predicted and unfolded three to four hundred years worth of history right there with detail. We're going to get to more detail in chapter 11. So what do we do with that? Well, God, if you believe that about this Word, then you must believe that God is revealing himself through His Word. And you should base your entire life off of this book.

Okay, so the first thing is the truthfulness of God's Word. But secondly, besides the apologetic predictive element, what does God expect us to understand about this account? You see, it's one thing for us to understand from a historical perspective, but I want to invite you, I want us to look, I want you to see that the text is demanding that you and I read this account from a spiritual perspective, from a spiritual warfare perspective. Look at your text. Listen to verses 23 and 24 again about the little horn.

Okay? Antiochus Epiphanes, that little horn. A king will arise insolent and skilled in intrigue. His power will be mighty, but not by his own power. He will destroy Mighty men and the holy place.

See, the scripture is inviting you to understand that destructive forces are behind the little horn, that Satan himself. You see, we see the political maneuvering and the social influences that cause a country like Germany to elect Hitler. But this text teaches us to understand that there is spiritual warfare all around us, that the God of this world is at work, wreaking havoc, looking for those that he can empower to do his bidding. And he would love for you to only think in earthly terms, never seeing the spiritual reality that is behind his lies and deceptions. Now look again at verse 10 and 11.

Again, it's talking about the little horn. It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the hosts. By the way, the host are God's people and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth and to be. And it trampled them down. Okay, so God's people are going to be trampled down.

Look at verse 11. The little horn magnified itself to be equal with the commander of the host. So the commander of the host is God. Okay, you're good. You're trekking.

All right. So the little horn is going to say, I am equal with God. Now listen to this. Here's where I'm going. And it removed the regular sacrifices from him.

Who's the hymn? God. And the place of his sanctuary was thrown down. Who's the his sanctuary? Let me read that again.

The little horn magnified himself to be equal with God, and he removed the regular sacrifice from God. And the place of God's sanctuary was thrown down. Think about this. You see, the little horn declares himself to be equal with God and then spits in God's face, removing the regular sacrifice from God's sanctuary. So here's the question.

You mean to tell me that God predicted almost 400 years into the future? Yeah, he did.

Well, then why didn't he just stop it?

Why didn't he stop these events from happening? This is God's temple. And God sacrifices. And he allows Antiochus Epiphanes to walk in there under the power of Satan and sacrifice a pig right in God's temple.

So here's where I'm going to ask you to think deeply about God's character. Because obviously, if God could predict 400 years, he could have the ability to thwart those plans. It's very important you understand that these events are evil, that God did not do them, but he allowed them. So here's the question. Why?

Why would he allow this?

Because it is the wisdom of God that his kingdom would be birthed out of humility, weakness and foolishness. That it is the power of God to save with grace.

Daniel's been exiled in Babylon a long time. He's longing for home. He's longing for Israel to return to her former glory. But God's plans are not man's plans. God says, I'm not going back.

God is moving forward. God is moving forward so that his eternal kingdom will come, not to restore Israel to his former glory. So instead, Daniel receives warning of four beasts. God says, daniel, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. There's going to be waves of evil kingdoms that come, and it's going to get so bad that Satan's going to empower one of those kings to march right into Jerusalem, to kill thousands, to march right into the temple, to destroy God's altar, and then to sacrifice a pig to Zeus right there in God's temple.

And if you pause and you look at that scene, you would say, why would God allow this? It looks like Satan wins. Standing in God's temple, taunting God. And God's like, yeah, that is the way that I will birth my kingdom. Because while the world parades in pride, my kingdom will be birthed out of deep suffering.

While the world boasts in wisdom and strength, my kingdom will obtain victory through the death of my perfect son. Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. And these become the birth pains of the Messiah in his kingdom. Because the Messiah will enter into the ocean of man's sin in order to rescue him, that he must fight the waves of sin and the evil prince of this world who's hurling every fury that he can against him because he hates God. Beloved, I want you to contemplate the cost of salvation.

I want you to contemplate the humility of God to allow history to unfold this way. Look at verse 12. Verse 12 says, this must occur on account of God's people's sin. God says, my people are unfaithful. They cannot keep my law.

Their sin has led to this horrific scene, the humiliation. This scene is also meant to picture the coming of the end of the old Covenant. Because after so long, they still have a heart that cannot keep. See it here. That the old covenant is only a tutor, that there is a longing, a demanding for a better way.

And through this predicted darkness, God is saying, the true way is coming. A new covenant that is paid by the death of my son so that I may give you, so that I may Put my spirit within you. In the midst of the beastly kingdoms of the earth, my kingdom will be opposite. It will be one of mercy and humility and love. God says, I will take the lowly, the overlooked, the broken, and through them I will shame Satan.

The world cannot find God in its wisdom. So God in his mercy chose the foolishness of the cross to save those who believe. To the skeptic it is madness, to the proud it is weakness. But to the called, to the called, Christ and his kingdom are the very power, wisdom of God and friend. What we have seen in predictive history is the Gospel for you and me.

That God is moving kings and kingdoms, but is equally mindfully of you. This is God, humble enough to withstand the prideful, mocking the vilest sinners and patient in his judgment. Because he would rather be glorified by his mercy rather than his wrath. Will you pray with me, Heavenly Father, as we read and understand your word this morning?

There is no God like you.

You are incredibly humble and patient. You even allow the mocking and the arrogant boast of the enemy in your spaces. You allow yourself to look defeated so that you can conquer through grace and mercy and forgiveness.

Father, I pray that that message would reign true in each of our hearts as we've been saved and changed by the Gospel. There is no God like you. You are worthy of all praise. You are the one who is all powerful, all sufficient, the self sustaining one. And yet you choose to be glorified by your mercy.

We love you and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.