But I Was Appalled
This is the manuscript of the Daniel 8 sermon I preached on March 1, 2026 at Trinity West Seattle as part of our Thriving in Babylon sermon series through the book of Daniel.
You can watch it here or read the manuscript I preached from below.
DEAR READER: This sermon was darker and more somber in tone due to the miscarriage my wife experienced while I was writing this sermon. It is not my best exegesis, yet it is very faithful to the text. I am posting this because it is a beautiful and honest sermon written in the midst of deep pain and heartache. I hope it ministers to you as it ministered to me while writing and delivering it.
SERMON INTRO
Where God is at work, so is the enemy. When we read apocalyptic literature in the Bible, we must remember that there is more going on than meets the eye. There are historical elements of what we read in Daniel 7-12, but first and foremost there is a spiritual war going on that we can never lose sight of.
With his tumultuous life in Babylon in chapters 1-6 as context…you know…exile, slavery, dream interpreter, in a foreign school, friends thrown in a furnace, a crazy king, an evil king, political attacks, then lions…he is having these wild visions in chapters 7-12…He’s had quite a life.
Last week we saw kingdoms rising and falling through violence, but Christ’s kingdom is eternal. This week in Daniel 8 we see some of those same nations depicted again as beasts. But the visions reveal a dark future for the people of God. Destruction of the saints, the people of God. We have moved from violence alone toward violence along with deception and domination. Darkness.
After seeing the vision, the spiritual depiction of earthly endeavors, Daniel asks for understanding. He gets an explanation, a picture of a future with more pain. More darkness. But he doesn't really gain understanding. He is living in Ephesians 6:12.
Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
When darkness is at play, spiritual forces are at work. This is not a diminishing of the darkness we might experience, but rather an expansion of what is truly going on. Maybe you too have experienced darkness. I have…in ways I could not have previously comprehended.
So what do we do in the face of darkness? Well what does Daniel do?
Daniel 8:27
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.
Notice something…He is not unaffected by the darkness. He isn’t okay right away. It even states he did not understand. He is correctly appalled. Yet…he takes a step. That’s faith.
Faith is trust with a response. He trusts that the God who has been at work his entire life is still at work, and he rises and goes about his daily work for the king of Babylon…his oppressor. A simple, yet profound response to the darkness he sees in both the present and on the horizon.
We must do the same. But before we get to that…lets dig into the text a bit.
THE VISION AND HISTORY
The vision is verses 1-14, and the remainder of the chapter (15-27) is the explanation. Sort of two major chunks bridged by Daniel asking for understanding and some divine messengers interpreting.
First half. Second half. The second half can help us study the first a little better. I am going to use the second half to explain and summarize the whole vision in those first 14 verses.
Daniel is given the answer to what the vision is by Gabriel, a messenger of God.
Daniel 8:20–24
[20] As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. [21] And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. [22] 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. [23] 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. [24] 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.
We have a little more context when we dig into the history of that time as well. But please remember, this is apocalyptic literature. Like Joel said last week, these coming details aren’t the point, but they do help us understand. Also remember, what is in the past to us was in the future to Daniel. We have a little more context.
Remember, Daniel is in Susa overlooking the Ulai canal…
The ram is the Medo-Persian Empire. The goat is the Greek Empire. The goat’s great horn is a great king. History reveals to us this was Alexander the Great. He SWIFTLY “without touching the ground” defeated the Medo-Persian empire.
From that great horn, comes four smaller ones. Alexander the Great’s empire split into four smaller kingdoms after he died. This is the same empire as the four headed leopard from last week.
A king came forth from one of those four kingdoms. That’s the little horn. Historically this king was Antiochus IV Ephiphanes from the Seleucid kingdom. He did evil things. Even brought darkness to the glorious land…the land of the people of God. The vision concludes with the horrible things he did, which we will get to later.
That’s the first half of the text today. Remember, the point is not to remember the details as much as it is important to remember the why (which we will get to soon).
We basically have a vision that moves from violent kingdoms down to an evil king. This vision narrows in scope compared to last week.
Apocalyptic literature is fun, right? :) I mean Daniel this week and last week is basically watching an R-rated Zootopia or Lion King. Zootopia 3: The Kingdom War. When you ask God to show YOU the future…buckle up.
DARKNESS AT WORK
I want to hop into the affects and characteristics of darkness we see in the events of the vision. We can know it by its fruit. I also want you to think about how this looks for us today. Darkness still has the same effect, but we also have hope on this side of the cross. Let’s begin with the broader areas and work our way toward the more personal stuff.
Darkness dominates
Darkness destroy
Darkness deceives
Darkness deters
Darkness distresses
1. Darkness dominates
Twenty four times in the book of Daniel the Hebrew word “gadol” is mentioned. It is translated in our text as “great.” There is a sense in which darkness is great. We don’t mean good, but rather we mean a sort of terrifying dominance.
A good pop culture reference for this is actually Voldemort, the main villain from the Harry Potter series. When Harry is getting ready for Hogwarts, he runs into Olivander, the wandmaker, says this of Voldemort, “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things. Yes…Terrible, but great.”
Look at some of the verses…
4 I saw the ram charging…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.
8 Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken…
9 Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great …
10 It grew great, even to the host of heaven…
11 It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host…
21 And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king.
25 …and in his own mind he shall become great...
Greatness here is referring to violent power, pride, and domination.
No humility AT ALL.
We experience this too with corporations or governments or leaders. The utter domination they have over markets, or cities, states, or people groups…it can be terrifying. Oftentimes all we can do is sit by and watch, just as Daniel does. The reason these moments are so unsettling to us…we are forced to look at depravity that still exists and our powerlessness in the face of dominating darkness.
We can tell darkness by its fruit. Let's take a look at some of that fruit. look at the evil king the vision ends with, the little horn, in more detail. Antiochius Ephiphanes. I am going to pair the vision of the little horn and its explanation by Gabriel in order to be more succinct.
2. Darkness destroys
In the vision it says this of the evil king…
And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them...the place of his sanctuary was overthrown…a host will be given over to it…
Destruction of people, places…a place of worship…
Walk through each bold part. [this is all referring to the little horn, evil king, A4E]
Daniel 8:23–25
[23] 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. [24] 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. [25] 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.
It is clear that a fruit of darkness is destruction. Destruction of lives, nations, property, peoples…even God’s people. Death of all things he held dear. This is the future Daniel gets to look forward too…
3. Darkness deceives
Daniel 8:12
[12] 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.
[Walk through each bold part.] Darkness thrives, prospers in the place of no truth…Darkness dominates not just through physical means, but also through words and language.
Daniel 8:23–25
[23] 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. [24] 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. [25] 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.
We can point out darkness wherever we see deception. Deception is a fruit of darkness. Satan is the Father of lies, deception is his greatest tool. But the wild part here is that even those in the position of domination and power are deceived. “In his own mind he shall become great.” He has no idea that what he is doing is wrong. He thought of himself equal to God.
Have you seen this?
Deception is so destructive and dark. Deception literally distorts reality. It is helpful to think about a less nefarious example to portray the effects of deception or being deceived.
When we are told lies, darkness reveals itself. We have an example of this in our own country. In 1787 the United States Constitutional Convention wrote the Three-Fifths Compromise. It was decided that only 3 out of 5 enslaved people could be counted for the purposes of taxes and voting. Those enslaved at the time were African Americans. Native Americans would not be represented at all.
The lie that people were property of other people, that some people were “gods” over the lives of other people, was now codified into law. A culturally accepted lie was now baked into the legal system of our country. Less than 80 years later 620-750 thousand US citizens died in a war against their neighbors because of those lies.
Darkness deceives and destroys. It seeps in and corrupts. Distorts reality. Daniel saw that was the future for his own people. Not only were they going to be dominated and destroyed, but those that were left had to live under the power of deception. How can he hold all of this?
There is another fruit of darkness we need to examine.
4. Darkness deters
Daniel 8:11–14
[11] 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. [12] 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. [13] Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For 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 be trampled underfoot?” [14] And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”
Remember, the Israelites were given over to Babylon as judgement for disobedience and unfaithfulness. In these verses the evil king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, becomes so great he attacks God through deterring and debasing the sanctuary.
So not only is darkness dominating, destroying, and deceiving…it actively works to deter the people of God from worshipping God. For years, under oppressive rule, the Hebrew people were prevented from their palace of respite and sanctuary. 2300 evenings and mornings. The forces of darkness worked to block their communion with Yahweh.
Is there something preventing you from worship?
5. Darkness distresses
The final fruit of darkness is more personal…I don’t know if you noticed this on the first read through, but text does not reveal that Daniel is disturbed or distressed until after the vision is explained to him. He starts seeing the vision in 1-2, simply asks for help interpreting in 15. We see how he feels at the end in verse 27.
Daniel 8:27
[27] 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.
Put yourself in his shoes…he and the Hebrew people are currently in Babylon, under oppression. Hope is bleak. Yet MORE darkness is coming…They are in a very present darkness…with more darkness on the horizon.
He is overcome. Sick for DAYS. He is appalled.
He even asked for understanding, yet he’s still confused.
Have you ever experienced darkness like this? A darkness so thick you can feel its grime crawling on your skin. A weight you cannot lift.
I have. As I look at the world, I see all of these things we have mentioned today. I have seen the domination. I have seen the destruction. Deception abounds. Maybe it's even closer to home than people realize and you or those close to you have been harmed by the powers and rulers of our world. Our country…our city…
Have you ever experienced darkness like Daniel? Where you ask God for understanding and are left feeling distressed and disturbed…
You look in the face of darkness itself and are utterly overcome…apalled…sick. I have.
Just a 9 days ago my wife and I found out our baby girl died in the womb. Second miscarriage in 5 months. As my wife aptly put it, her womb became a tomb.
Like Daniel, I am overcome by the darkness of the present and the darkness of the future…without that baby girl. The darkness threatened… No…still threatens to overwhelm me.
So now what?
WHAT DO WE DO WITH DARKNESS
Daniel himself shows us the solution. Read v27 again.
Daniel 8:27
[27] 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.
But like how….? How is Daniel able to rise?
Faith.
Do not hear me say this lightly. I mean it.
Daniel shows us that
Faith isn’t denying the reality of darkness.
Faith sees the darkness for what it truly is and says, “Christ rose.”
For Daniel, he has faith in the God who sustained him through all of that stuff in the first 7 chapters. All of that evil, and has faith that God will continue to work in the darkness that is coming. He has faith in the one who gave him the vision in the first place. None of this is a surprise to God. So he rises and goes about the king’s business.
“Rise and go about the king’s business” is like the faith of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20 when he says, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”
This is Jesus when he says, “take this cup, but Your will be done.”
Fear is what if, faith is even if.
Daniel gives us a picture of what Jesus himself did in his final days. Jesus was overcome, beaten…nailed to a tree and thrown in the ground. A tomb.
Darkness gave Jesus its best shot, and he took it, and he rose. Jesus defeated the darkness.
There’s more…Jesus understands the darkness we experience.
He experienced the darkness himself. In verse 12 it boldly states that the evil king “will throw truth to the ground.”
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and Life…and HE was thrown to the ground. He experienced the darkness.
We are not alone in our experience of darkness. The God of the universe knows grief. He is acquainted with tears. He experienced death. The Truth was thrown to the ground and buried deep within it. He intimately knows what darkness feels like to us. What other king is like that?
I also want to remind you that when darkness is staring you right in the face…that it is okay to be overcome. It's okay to not be okay right away.
Daniel was overcome and lay sick for days before he rose. Even after he rose, he was still appalled. Honestly, sometimes all we can do is just wake up and go about our daily duties…and you know what? That’s faith. Faith in the God who was faithful and would continue to be faithful.
With Jesus himself, it looked for days like death got the better of him. But like with Daniel here, Jesus rose. Jesus defeated the ultimate darkness, so it no longer has dominion over those who are in Christ Jesus. Daniel 8:25 shares as much…
Daniel 8:25
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 evil king in the vision, the little horn, thought himself to be God. But the Prince of princes, Jesus himself said, “No.” Jesus overcame the darkness. The cross proves that God’s purposes cannot be stopped by darkness, and the empty tomb proves God will defeat darkness.
To all those out there…Jesus made it so that tombs do not end with death, but tombs are the wombs of eternal life. Jesus turned tombs into wombs.
Jesus. The True King. Defeated darkness. If you believe in him, darkness no longer gets the final word. Do not be overcome by fear. Fear is what if, faith is even if.
Rise and go about the King’s business.
So you ask how do we rise? Through faith in the One, Jesus, who rose.
Through faith in Jesus we rise and go about the King’s business.
