Sat.’s Devo - Daniel’s Vision of the Future

Read: Daniel 8:1-27; 1 John 2:1-17; Psalm 120:1-7; Proverbs 28:25-26
Daniel had another vision of what would happen in the future. In the vision he was in Shushan, the Persian capital. Years later, Esther would be the queen here. He saw a ram which had two horns, one more powerful than the other. These horns represented Media and Persia with Persia being the most powerful. A goat came and killed the ram and broke both of its horns. This goat was Greece who took over the world power from the Medes and Persians. Alexander the Great was its leader who died of a fever. Greece had four other leaders until Antiochus became leader. He was the great Anti-christ of the time. He slaughtered a pig in the temple (vs. 13) desecrating the sanctuary in his attempt to replace God with Zeus. A mosque was erected on the temple mount and many of God’s people were led to worship Greek gods and succumbed to idolatry. We don’t know if Daniel knew what all this meant but he knew it was important enough to write down for us.
John believed that we can live a redeemed life without sin. Jesus did and he is in us giving us the same grace that he had when he walked the earth. It doesn’t mean that we won’t be tempted or slip and fall, but it does mean that we can live above sin. The way to live a life without sin is to choose love every time. He addresses three stages of Christians: children, young men and fathers. Children are new believers or immature believers. He reminds them that their sins have been forgiven and they cannot continue to live in the past. He reminds the young men - the followers of Christ, the they have the Word in them to overcome the evil one. And he reminds the fathers, the mentors and mature leaders in the faith that they have been created in Christ since the creation of the earth.
Lord, help us to walk in your grace.