Sun.’s Devo - The Rise of Evil

Read: Daniel 8:1-27; 1 John 2:1-17; Psalm 120:1-7; Proverbs 28:25-26 God transported Daniel to the fortress of Susa, the Persian capital. He was shown a ram with two horns which represented the Persians and the Medes. The Persians were the longer horn led by Cyrus, and the Medes were the shorter horn led by Darius. Cyrus was much more powerful. *** Then Alexander, from Greece came to power and expanded his territory in all directions. He overcame the Medes and the Persians, but in the prime of his rule, he got a fever and died. Antiochus Epiphanes came from the Greeks and over took the kingdoms to the south and east which included Jerusalem. He wanted to replace Jehovah’s worship in Jerusalem with the worship of Zeus Olympius. The warfare in heaven was great, but Michael and his army could’t prevail against him and was restrained from stopping him. The daily sacrifice was stopped in the Temple and evil prevailed. *** Daniel overheard two of the angels talking. One asked how long this would be allowed to continue and he answered 2,300 days. This was the exact time to the day until Christ appeared on the scene. *** When Daniel came to his senses he was overcome. *** John wrote that once we mature in Christ, we don’t have to sin. And, if we do, we have a lawyer in heaven, Jesus, who advocates for our sins and the sins of the world. *** If we know God, we will obey his commandments. That is how we show we love him. We also show God we love him by loving our fellow believers. *** John warns us not to love this world because what we can’t see is more important than what we see. But, we are moving into the time when the intangible is going to become tangible. We are are going to lay our hands on sick and see them immediately recover and do all the things Jesus did and more! *** Lord, I thank you that you are so much better than silver and gold. You are the essence of who we are because You are in us. We look forward to the times when our faith will be made sight.