The following audio is from Shiloh Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. More information about Shiloh Presbyterian Church is available at shilopc.org. As you turn your Bibles, we have another long passage, wonderful passage in the Book of Daniel as we continue our series through that book. We're in chapter 8, page 745, if you're using the Pew Bible. Daniel 8. This is God's Word. Once again, let's worship the Lord by listening carefully and paying good attention to this, His Word. Daniel 8. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision, and when I saw, I was in Susa, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai Canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other. And the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground, and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with the two horns which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him, and there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great, toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great even to the host of heaven, and some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the prince of the host, and the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, How long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to the trampled underfoot? And he said to me, for two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state. When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Uli, and it called, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end. And when he had spoken to me I fell into a deep sleep, with my face to the ground, but he touched me and made me stand up. He said, Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. and at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise, his power shall be great, but not by his own power, and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many, and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes, and he shall be broken. but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now. And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it." Amen. Thus far the reading of God's Word. Let's pray and ask His blessing upon us. O Lord, for us to have any understanding, it must come by Your grace to us, the work of Your Spirit in our hearts and our minds, granting us, O Lord, to receive Your Word. So do that good work, Lord God. Bless us, guide us into truth, teach us marvelous things about the great God that You are, and would You seal Your truth upon our hearts? that we might more deeply trust You and treasure You and worship You and serve You in greater faithfulness, O Lord God, indeed by the power of Your Spirit. Hear us, O Lord, for we ask for this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, as I was thinking about the transition from Chapter 7 to Chapter 8 in this book, it reminded me of the classic film The Wizard of Oz. and dating myself, some of us are well familiar. I wonder how many of us, whether because we're old enough to remember or otherwise familiar with that, that familiar scene with Dorothy and Scarecrow and Tin Man as they're walking through the dark forest and they speculate about what kind of animals they might see out there. You might remember Scarecrow, given his own physical composition, I suppose. He wonders if they're animals that eat straw. To which Tin Man replies, some, he says, but mostly lions and tigers and bears. And soon they're all chanting, they're reciting together that iconic line, lions and tigers and bears, with Dorothy crying out, oh my. In chapter seven, it was Daniel who saw not a lion and a tiger and a bear, but a lion and a bear and a leopard. And then he saw that fourth terrifying, dreadful beast representing those four great kingdoms which would arise and fall. Of course, I agree with Pastor Hulse, picturing ultimately all of the kingdoms of this world. It's interesting, isn't it, that for this week's vision, the next chapter, there's a shift to what are normally Domestic, straw-eating animals. Scarecrow wouldn't be happy about that, would he? But indeed, scary domestic animals. Oh my, indeed, what could this possibly mean? We see that like chapter seven, this was a vision which took place in the days of Belshazzar. Last week, it was the first year. Another vision, two years Later, the third year of his reign, this vision is not so large in scope. We're not seeing all four of the kingdoms, but we're focusing more narrowly into a particular period of history. We're considering the ram representing Medo-Persia, Cyrus, and then the goat of Greece, even Alexander. And then we see the little horn, this one who inherits just one part of the Greek empire. These are all, without a doubt, powerful, destructive, evil, but of course, as a goat is no match for a lion, how much more is it the case that their power, their kingdoms, is nothing in comparison with the power, the kingdom of the one whose kingdom endures forever. But that truth does not mean that things will be easygoing for God's people. Note that even though all three of these creatures are defeated, it's interesting that Daniel ends up sick for days. We can refer to this as Daniel's sickening vision this evening. But it's a vision which, again, so powerfully speaks to the greatness of Daniel's God, the true Our message this evening is this, Daniel's sickening ram, goat, and little horn vision reminds us that the Lord reigns as King. Daniel's vision reminds us that the Lord continues to reign as King, you note that we see the chapter structured where the content of the vision is in verses 3 through 14, and then it's verses 15 through 27, which give us the interpretation of the vision. But we're going to approach the text, bounce around a little bit, approach it more topically, just considering three things which we learn, again, about the Lord our King. We learn this evening, once again, that He is the sovereign King. Secondly, He's the faithful King. And thirdly, that He is the victorious King. Sovereign, faithful, victorious. So, let's jump into it then. Note first, the sovereignty of the king. This is not a new theme. Obviously, we've been seeing that this is, in some ways, the great message of the book of Daniel. It's a message which we need to hear again and again. And I suppose one reason why we so desperately need to be reminded of that message is because, again, we're reminded that history will be filled with those who act as though, and indeed it will seem as though, they are the ones who are sovereign. Recall that when Nebuchadnezzar finally was humbled and acknowledged the greatness that the King of Heaven rules, Remember his description of God and his sovereignty. He confessed in chapter four, verse 35, that all the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing and that God is one who does as he pleases and no one can stop him. No one can say to him, what are you doing? Well, it's interesting that in this vision, we note that that seems to be true of earthly sovereigns, earthly kings. Look at what we learn about this ram. Look at the description of verse four. We see how Daniel saw him. He's charging in every direction and he's charging, it seems, as if he's completely unstoppable. No beast could stand before him, it says. No one could rescue from his power. We read that he did as he pleased. He did whatever he pleased. It was like, I'm God. And it says that he became great. As I said, this all-powerful ram was the empire of the Medes and the Persian, the Medo-Persian empire. Two horns for that very reason. It combined the Medes and the Persians, as the verse 20 interpretation tells us. There was a higher horn that represented the stronger. That higher horn represented the Persian part of the kingdom. It was the great Persian ruler. It was Osiris the Great who conquered the Medes and united the kingdom. And after doing so, he's the one who conquered the Babylonians. And the empire became great. To quote one writer, he established the greatest power the world had ever known. Under later rulers, the Persian Empire eventually extended from Egypt and Thrace to the borders of India. So this ram became great. Great indeed. But what became of him? Isn't it amazing what we see? That this all-powerful, unstoppable ram of verse 4 suddenly is shown to have no power in verse 7. No power to stand before the goat. It's interesting, I was thinking about this, how that word goat has taken on a whole new meaning, hasn't it, in our modern culture and language? When we think of the goat, we think about who is the greatest in sports, right? Was it Bill Brady in football, or was it Michael Jordan in basketball, or Leo Messi in soccer? Apparently, we have LL Cool J to thank for the fact that by his year 2000 album, The Goat, that that's what we think of when we think about The Goat. It was also apparently the legacy of Muhammad Ali, whose self-proclaimed nickname was he was the greatest, right? Well, the goat of Daniel's vision, it wasn't Muhammad Ali. It wasn't any of those other guys. It was Alexander the Great. Ultimately, it was Greece. Verse 20 tells us that. It was Greece. But that conspicuous horn that we read about, that first king, that was Alexander. Alexander the Great. I don't know whether or not he should be considered the greatest of all time, the GOAT, when it comes to military strategists, but clearly he was brilliant. And here, 400 years before he comes on the scene, we see this amazing description, or hundreds of years anyway, with which he would manage to conquer the entire known world Remarkably, he would do so by age 32. He flew, and indeed, that's the description we see in verse 5. It says he came from the West, across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. Without touching the ground, he would come fast. Fast and furious, inflicting powerful vengeance. Look what we're told, that the goat ran at the ram, verse 6, in his powerful wrath. Enraged against him, it says in verse 7, he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. So, as that Medo-Persian empire was so great, Alexander quickly brought it completely to an end and powerfully, powerfully asserted his power. We read in verse 8 that the kingdom of the goat became exceedingly great. So the ram was great, the ram comes to an end. Suddenly the goat becomes exceedingly great. But what happens next? Alas, look what we see. But when he was strong, the great horn was broken. It's amazing. Alexander the Great conquers the world by age 32. But you know what else happened at age 32? He died that same year abruptly. It's interesting, the cause of his death is debated. It seems the most popular opinion is that he probably or perhaps died of malaria, and that's something that fascinates me as one who has a bit of experience with malaria. But to think that this great, great king conquering the world and apparently goes into an area where he's exposed to a disease, he has no immunity down by the Euphrates River where the swamps are. You know, the mosquitoes are breeding and so to think that he could, a figure so great, could be bitten by a little mosquito injecting some parasites in the blood and they multiply in the blood and how quickly that's what leads to his demise. But it illustrates our point. It wasn't Cyrus the Great, it wasn't the Medes and the Persians, it wasn't Alexander the Great, not Greece, not Alexander. None of these, in the end, are shown to be the Great One, the true sovereign king. No, the Great One is the Lord, the God of Israel. He's the Great One. Ian Duggan writes, these empires that to human eyes looked so powerful, they seemed to have no weaknesses or chinks in their armor, were actually merely sheep and goats, domestic animals, sheep and goats, he writes, whose destiny lay in the hands of the divine shepherd, the Lord himself. And again, that truth is only further illustrated, but as I already mentioned, the fact, to think about it, that these details, these events were proclaimed, prophesied hundreds of years before they took place. Daniel received this vision during the reign of Belshazzar, 6th century BC. We'll consider Antiochus in a minute, but Antiochus was 2nd century, so this was some 400 years later. Daniel was given to see these things which would happen in 400 years. These kings, though exceedingly great in their day, they would come and they would go. In the end, they would be brief and passing. They would simply be footnotes on the pages of history. And it's the Lord, the Lord who writes the script. History is His story. He writes of their rise and of their fall. In the end, They are exactly as Nebuchadnezzar described of all of the inhabitants of the earth. They are regarded as nothing, nothing in comparison with the Lord, who is the truly sovereign King, the sovereign King, the sovereign King, but also the faithful King. That's our second point this evening. And we'll see that as we move and consider particularly this little horn little horn of 400 years into the future. But just consider how God's people, Daniel himself in his own day, as well as God's people 400 years into the future, and even you and I this evening, we need the reminder, we need the encouragement You need to remember, dear Christian, yes, your God is sovereign, and yes, your God is faithful, no doubt. God's people would go through periods where they would struggle truly to believe that. They'd be wrestling with the same question that the angel, the Holy One, poses in verse 13 when he asks, how long this great evil, how long will it last? We'll see that question again in chapter 12, verse 6. How long? That question which is posed in Daniel's visions probably reflects a question that's on his own mind and in his heart. How long? Maybe you're asking yourself that question in your own life. Maybe you're experiencing some great evil, some great trial, and you're asking, Lord, how long? How long will it continue like this? You know, we see all of the evil in the world around us. We see it coming against the church. The church is persecuted. The weak are oppressed. We live in a world filled with all kinds of injustice, corruption, theft, murder. Soon we'll be involved in another prayer walk. We think of the evil of abortion or other forms of genocide. Perhaps in our weak moments, we see all of the evil and we're tempted to think, where is God? Does God even care? Think of the disciples of Jesus when they were in the boat with Jesus, Lord, don't you care? Don't you care that we are perishing? Well, here again, we have this vision. All of these visions are so powerfully remind God's people that yes, the evil is there and yes, it will continue. Yes, it's great. But God is in control, and yes, He does care, and yes, He is faithful. Faithful to His people, faithful to the covenant promises that He has made. As we move to the little horn of Daniel's vision, yes, it speaks indeed to the great lifespan of evil. 400 years later, evil will continue. Great evil, Daniel. but God's faithfulness will continue. Who was this little horn? Well, after Alexander's death, abrupt death, the Greek empire fragmented into many, many kingdoms really, but there were four prominent ones. In fact, we see that even that detail, the end of verse eight, there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. And so Alexander's four generals became four kings and they were all great. speaks to the greatness even of the Greek empire, even the influence, those words, the four winds of heaven, perhaps, speak to the way in which that Greek culture spread and had such an amazing influence, a lasting influence. But what do we see? We see that Daniel's vision focuses in on just one kingdom, one general who becomes one king, King Seleucus, From him comes the Seleucids, the Seleucid kingdom. And from them comes that little horn, Antiochus IV, Antiochus IV. We see in verse nine that he grew exceedingly great toward the south, that is towards Egypt, toward the east, that is Persia. But why is it that he's so significant? Why is he so important to God's to the prophecy here. It's because of what was located in the midst of these kingdoms, a kingdom which by worldly standards probably wasn't regarded as so significant, but this was God's people. Notice that Israel, this is Israel, and they're still referred to as the glorious land. Glorious, insignificant to the world, but to the Lord, this is still, this is the land of my promise. This is the land of my people. This is glorious. Yes, evil will continue for a long time, but I will be faithful to my covenant promises. In 400 years, there will be great evil, but you can be sure that the land will still be regarded glorious. Indeed, during that 400 years between Belshazzar and Antiochus, there are many things which would happen which would attest to God's faithfulness to His people. We know that the people, they would return to the land, and they would rebuild the temple. The Lord would do all this in faithfulness to His promises. He would remain faithful. And by the way, God's faithfulness here is shown not only in contrast with the wicked nations, you can be sure that God, the covenant God, the righteous, the holy, He's shown to be righteous in contrast with the wicked nations, but He's also shown to be faithful, righteous, and holy in contrast with His own people, the covenant people. Look at verse 12. In the middle of the verse, don't miss those important words. Why is it that such evil will again come upon the glorious land? Why would Antiochus come against Israel? Because sadly, the covenant people would again rebel because of transgression. And note down in verse 23, when would Antiochus rise up? It says, when the transgressors have reached their limits. Israel would again become ripe for judgment, sadly. The cycle of rebellion followed by judgment would continue. And the awfulness of the sin of the people is reflected by the awfulness of what would happen to the covenant nation. Verse 10 tells us, this little horn grew great, grew great, even to the stars, or sorry, even to the host of heaven. We're told in some of the hosts and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. What is going on here? These are some of the... This is some of the language that makes a preacher say, I don't want to preach Daniel. It's not always easy to interpret. Some suggest that this is symbolic language, simply language that describes what happened to the saints on earth who were put to death by Antiochus. The high priest himself was assassinated. Thousands of Jews slaughtered. But others say that this is actually referring to heavenly beings, that this is speaking to the involvement in this battle of the heavenly spiritual forces. Ian Duggan writes, quote, this is a visionary way of describing the cosmic struggle. We'll see more of this in chapter 10, but he writes, it is as if the curtain is drawn back and behind Antiochus, we see the ominous power of the spiritual forces of darkness arrayed against our God. Note the language of verse 11. It became great, even as great as the prince of the host. Some see this language, the prince of the host, as referring to God himself. The Lord indeed is the Lord of the heavenly hosts. And given what we see in verse 25, perhaps that's the correct interpretation. See that near the end of verse 25. It says, and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes. Without a doubt, this Antiochus, he was great. He exalted himself. He sought to be as God. He even gave himself the name Epiphanes, which means God manifest. Now, others see the verse 11, Prince of the Host, as a reference to the high priest there, Onias, the high priest who was murdered. I suppose that is possible. Clearly, when Antiochus came, he focused his attack on Israel's worship. We know that he put a stop to the temple sacrifices. That's what we see going on in this text. An end to the temple sacrifices, as well as Sabbath observance, circumcision, it was all forbidden. He defiled the temple. In the Lord's temple, he even commanded the sacrifices of unclean animals. Even a pig was sacrificed on the Lord's holy altar. He even set up shrines and altars to pagan deities, Greek gods. Right in the Holy of Holies, he placed an object for the worship of Zeus. And so it was awful, horrendous, so awful that no doubt the faithful Israelite was asking, how could this happen? Where is God? Is God faithful to his people, to his covenant promises? we know the answer. And we know that as awful as all of it was, this was nothing but the Lord setting the stage for what would be His great victory over the awfulness, over sin. The last point, indeed, about our God, not only is He sovereign, not only is He faithful, but He is the conquering King, look again at the end of verse 25. It says of Antiochus that he shall even rise up against the prince of princes, but what does it say next? It says, and really probably that should be but. He will rise up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken. He shall be broken, but by no human hand. We don't regard the books of Maccabees as sacred Scripture, but they probably do record for us accurate history. And 2 Maccabees records the death of Antiochus, and we're told that it takes place relatively soon after the events of Daniel 8, after a military defeat in Persia. We read that he was struck and he was struck with an incurable and invisible blow that he fell from his chariot, that his body was afflicted with worms and with rotting flesh. This was to be always seen as a great manifestation of the power of God. And this evening, as we think about Antiochus, the great evil of Antiochus, we do well to think about the great purpose and plan of God to overcome evil, even the worst imaginable evil, and to gain his victory over evil by means of the evil. God would allow this great evil, but he would conquer evil even through that. Some believe that this little horn image beyond Antiochus really points to the Antichrist, and that certainly may be true. Scripture teaches, after all, that there are Antichrists throughout history that lead up to the final Antichrist. But even the appearance of that last Antichrist, the great man of lawlessness we read about in 2 Thessalonians 2, even the appearance of that one will set the stage for the Lord's great victory, the victory of Christ. We read later, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8, that Jesus will kill him with the breath of His mouth and bring Him to nothing, bring Him to nothing by the appearance of His coming. We do well this evening, brothers and sisters, as we think about this great evil, not to end our Lord's Day focusing on Antiochus or on Antichrist. We do well this evening to conclude our Lord's Day thinking deeply about Christ. Christ himself. What is Antiochus? Well, I suppose we could say, negatively, he teaches us about the Savior. We can compare, we can contrast. Antiochus is, for us, the polar opposite of what Jesus is. Antiochus. Epiphanies. Manifestation of God. What a joke. Jesus is the true manifestation of God. It's interesting, that description of Antiochus in verse 23, one who it seems understood riddles, he was clever, it seems he was given to understand hidden meanings. We're told in verse 25 that we see a description of him as being one who was cunning and deceitful. Well, Jesus was wise. Jesus was wise with godly wisdom, and Jesus was given the true understanding into the wonderful mysteries of the kingdom of God, things that were hidden to Daniel but have been more fully revealed to you and me. Praise God, because Jesus brings the truth. Jesus was not deceitful. Jesus spoke. Jesus lived the truth of God. Antiochus is described as one who is bold-faced in his defiance of God. I suppose Jesus also could be described as bold-faced but not in defiance against, bold-faced in his unwavering commitment to, his determination not to defy his God, but to surrender himself wholly to his God and to obey him. Jesus is the Isaiah 50, verse seven, servant of the Lord who, we're told, set his face like a flint in his suffering obedience. The true unstoppable one was not Cyrus or Alexander conquering the world. It was Jesus, unstoppable in His resolve to go to the cross. We might think of it this way, you know, Antiochus, he was successful in putting an end to the sacrifices for a time, but he could not, he would not, no world ruler ever would be able to stop the Savior from going and offering that perfect sacrifice for our salvation. I was thinking about this and it reminded me of Jesus during his earthly ministry, how he was confronted by another king, a small king, a governor. Remember Herod, Jesus heard in Luke 13, verse 31, he was told, get away from here, Jesus. Herod wants to kill you. Do you remember what Jesus said? Go tell that fox. Here's what you can tell him. Behold, I will cast out demons. I will perform my cures today and tomorrow. And the third day, I will finish my work. I am unstoppable. I will finish my work. I will be victorious. Jesus would be victorious in his death and resurrection. Antiochus mounted an attack on God's people. Jesus came to save God's people, to save us from our sins. Antiochus committed such horrendous, abominable acts of evil. Jesus is the one who is supremely, perfectly pure, righteous, but he was so in his willingness to become the supreme victim of the worst imaginable evil. The worst act of wicked rebellion ever committed, the supreme attack on God, was when they mounted an attack on Him who was God, the God-man, the Messiah. And the covenant people, they played their part in it. Indeed, so did you, and so did I. That's why we sing about the Savior. Ah, holy Jesus. Ah, holy Jesus. Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee. T'was I, Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, I, it was, denied thee. I crucified thee. There's the supreme act of evil. We need not look out in the wicked world. We see it in our own hearts. There we were playing our part, denying the Savior. We were playing our part as it were when the Son of God was delivered into the hands of wicked men who nailed Him to a cross and crucified Him. But isn't it marvelous that therein was revealed the wonderful plan of God, the wisdom of God. Antiochus was not the wise one. God in His wisdom reveals His great salvation, overcomes evil through the worst evil, and so it's the Lord, the God of Israel, who is indeed your sovereign King, your faithful King, your victorious King, the one who in Christ has conquered even sin and death for you. That doesn't mean life will be easy, right? We're not skipping down the yellow brick road onto the emerald city, right? Life is hard. There will be great evil, Daniel was promised. And that's what we're promised. Through many tribulations, many tribulations, we must enter into the kingdom of God. The evil will be great. The evil will be great, and we don't know everything about it. We certainly don't know how long it will last. It's interesting, isn't it, that this Daniel is the revealer of mysteries. He was given all of this wonderful knowledge, but he wasn't made to know everything. He wasn't giving, in the one hand, make him understand, and yet it ends with him saying, I don't understand what's going on. He had to seal up the vision. It was for future things. Maybe that's part of what sickened him, made him sick, confronted with all of this great evil and not given to understand. But it's interesting the way it ends. Didn't understand everything, sick, but called by God, called by God to trust him, pull himself together, take a few sick days, Daniel, but get back to work, goes back to be about his business of attending to the affairs of the king. And so it is with you and with me. We don't know everything. I'm not sure what we're supposed to know about the meaning of verse 14. What is the 2,400 or 2,300 mornings and evenings? There are some suggest, oh, this is a perfect, exact, precise description of the time between the death of the high priest, Onias, and the time when the temple was then cleansed and rededicated under Judas Maccabeus. Perhaps so, perhaps so. But it's also true that sometimes we're given numbers that we don't know. Ian Duggan makes the point that sometimes a number which might point to the fact that God has a precise timetable, but we're not sure exactly what it refers to, we're to trust the Lord. He knows, and He has a precise timetable. He knows how all these things are going to play out and take place. You and I don't know how long, do we? The great event for which we long, we don't know how long. When will it happen? We say, how long? Come, Lord Jesus, come. We don't know when our Savior will return from heaven in glory, but He is coming again. One day He will come, and we will see Him, and we can know that all of the evil will be no more, all of the, every evil, sickness, sorrow, mourning, all sighing will flee away. He will bring an end to all of the sin and all of the misery of the sin-cursed world. So in that hope, we press on, we press on. We're called, I suppose, to be like Daniel, pull yourself together, Be about the King's business as it were, get back to work, trusting the Lord, He'll give you strength, He'll sustain you, trust His promises, look to Him, serve Him in all faithfulness because He is your sovereign, He is your faithful, He is your victorious King. May God give us the grace to do just that. Let's pray together. Indeed, do that good work in us, O Lord, God of Israel, we bless you this night, that you, the God of Daniel, the one who is king over all of history, king of kings, the great one, the unstoppable one, the glorious one, that you are our gracious Lord and our Savior, we bless You and we pray, Lord God, that You would strengthen us by Your Word, O Father. Fill us with Your Word, even the Word that we've received this day. We're thankful, O Lord, that that Word is in us, and we pray that You would fill us with it all the more. Cause us, we pray, to hide it in our hearts, that we might not sin against Thee, strengthen our faith, increase our love. O Lord, cause us to go from this place with even greater conviction that the gospel is true and a greater longing for Your kingdoms that will one day come in all of its glory. Father, help us, we pray, to walk then in a manner worthy of that blessed hope. in all of our lives, and in all that we say and do, be glorified, O Lord. We ask for this, in Jesus' name, amen.