Memory Text: Hebrews 8:1-2 KJV “1 ¶ Now of the things which we have spoken [this is] the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.”

Sunday, September 3 Even to the Prince of the Host
What specific things does the little horn power do? Daniel 8:9-12 NKJV “9 And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious [Land]. 10 And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down [some] of the host and [some] of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. 11 He even exalted [himself] as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily [sacrifices] were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. 12 Because of transgression, an army was given over [to the horn] to oppose the daily [sacrifices]; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did [all this] and prospered.”
Daniel 8:9 SDA Bible Commentary Toward the south. Egypt was long an unofficial protectorate of Rome. Her fate was already in Rome’s hands in 168 B.C. when Antiochus Epiphanes, who was seeking to make war on the Ptolemies, was ordered out of the country. Egypt, still under the administration of its Ptolemaic rulers, was a pawn of Roman Eastern policy for many years before it became, in 30 B.C., a Roman province. Toward the east. The Seleucid Empire lost its westernmost lands to Rome as early as 190 B.C., and finally became the Roman province of Syria in 65 B.C. or shortly thereafter. Pleasant land. Heb. ṣebi, “ornament,” “decoration,” “glory.” Either Jerusalem or the land of Palestine is here referred to. Ṣebi is translated “glorious” in ch. 11:16, 41. However, there the Hebrew has the word for “land,” whereas here “land” is understood. Palestine was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 63 B.C.
Daniel 8:10 SDA Bible Commentary The “host” and “stars” obviously represent “the mighty and the holy people” (v. 24). Stamped upon them. This has reference to the fury with which Rome has persecuted the people of God so often throughout the centuries. In the days of the tyrants Nero, Decius, and Diocletian in pagan times, and again in papal times, Rome has never hesitated to deal harshly with those whom she chooses to condemn.
Daniel 8:11 SDA Bible Commentary the term “daily”—“continual”—refers to the continual priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1) and to the true worship of Christ in the gospel age; that the taking away of the “daily” represents the substitution by the papacy of compulsory unity in a visible church in place of the voluntary unity of all believers in Christ, of the authority of a visible head—the pope—in place of that of Christ, the invisible head of the church, of a priestly hierarchy in place of direct access to Christ by all believers, of a system of salvation by works ordained by the church in place of salvation by faith in Christ, and, most particularly, of the confessional and the sacrifice of the mass in place of the mediatorial work of Christ as our great high priest in the courts of heaven; and that this system quite completely diverted men’s attention from Christ and thus deprived them of the benefits of His ministry.
Daniel 8:12 SDA Bible Commentary Interpreted as “host,” or “army,” the prediction may refer to the multitudes that fell under the influence of this power. Cast down the truth. The papacy loaded the truth with tradition and obscured it by superstition.

Monday, September 4 The Sanctuary
Daniel 8:10-12 NRSV “10 It grew as high as the host of heaven. It threw down to the earth some of the host and some of the stars, and trampled on them. 11 Even against the prince of the host it acted arrogantly; it took the regular burnt offering away from him and overthrew the place of his sanctuary. 12 Because of wickedness, the host was given over to it together with the regular burnt offering; it cast truth to the ground, and kept prospering in what it did.”

Tuesday, September 5 The Attack
At the time of Rome’s attack, where was Christ and what was He doing? Romans 8:34 Holman “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.”
Hebrews 7:24-27 Holman “24 But because He remains forever, He holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. 26 For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do––first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all when He offered Himself.”
Hebrews 8:1-5 God’s Word to the Nations “1 ¶ The main point we want to make is this: We do have this kind of chief priest. This chief priest has received the highest position, the throne of majesty in heaven. 2 He serves as priest of the holy place and of the true tent set up by the Lord and not by any human. 3 Every chief priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, this chief priest had to offer something. 4 If he were on earth, he would not even be a priest. On earth other priests offer gifts by following the instructions that Moses gave. 5 They serve at a place that is a pattern, a shadow, of what is in heaven. When Moses was about to make the tent, God warned him, "Be sure to make everything based on the plan I showed you on the mountain."”
Hebrews 9:11-14 God’s Word “11 But Christ came as a chief priest of the good things that are now here. Christ went through a better, more perfect tent that was not made by human hands and that is not part of this created world. 12 He used his own blood, not the blood of goats and bulls, for the sacrifice. He went into the most holy place and offered this sacrifice once and for all to free us forever. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of cows sprinkled on unclean people made their bodies holy and clean. 14 The blood of Christ, who had no defect, does even more. Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to God and cleansed our consciences from the useless things we had done. Now we can serve the living God.”
Hebrews 9:24 God’s Word “Christ didn’t go into a holy place made by human hands. He didn’t go into a model of the real thing. Instead, he went into heaven to appear in God’s presence on our behalf.”

Wednesday, September 6 The Daily, Part 1
What part of the early sanctuary service does each text discuss?
Exodus 25:30 NRSV “And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me always.”
Exodus 25:30 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The “shewbread,” or “bread of the Presence,” consisted of 12 loaves, or cakes, which were replaced each Sabbath. The loaves that were removed, being considered holy, were eaten by the priests in the “holy place” (Lev. 24:5–9). These 12 loaves constituted a perpetual thank offering to God from the 12 tribes, for the blessings of life they received from Him daily. In a higher sense, this bread pointed to the spiritual bread, Jesus Christ.
Exodus 27:20 NRSV “You shall further command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, so that a lamp may be set up to burn regularly.”
Exodus 27:20 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Pure oil olive. This was prepared from unripe fruit “beaten,” or pounded in a mortar rather than crushed in a mill. As a result, it was clear and colorless and burned brightly, with little smoke. To burn always. The seven lamps were never all extinguished at one time, but burned continuously day and night except when the tabernacle was in transit from one campsite to another. The lamps were tended morning and evening.
Exodus 30:8 NRSV “and when Aaron sets up the lamps in the evening, he shall offer it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations.”
Exodus 30:8 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Incense was to be offered twice daily, at the hours of morning and evening prayer (Ex. 30:7, 8). The altar of incense represented continual intercession in the same way that the altar of burnt offering represented continual atonement.
Leviticus 6:13 NRSV “A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar; it shall not go out.”
Leviticus 6:13 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY God Himself kindled this fire. The Jews affirm that it burned continuously until the Babylonian captivity. Some even claim that it never went out until the final destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. To keep this fire burning required an ample supply of wood. This was gathered by the priests, who once a year invited the people to assist.

Thursday, September 7 The Daily, Part 2
Hebrews 9:1-14 MKJV
“1 ¶ Then truly the first [tabernacle] had also ordinances of divine service and an earthly sanctuary. 2 For the first tabernacle was prepared, in which [was] both the lampstand, and the table, and the setting out of the loaves, which is called holy. 3 And after the second veil [was] a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 4 having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid all around with gold, in which [was] the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 And over it were the cherubs of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat (about which we cannot now speak piece by piece. 6 Now when these things were ordained in this way, the priests always went into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service [of God].
7 But once [in] the year into the second the high priest [goes] alone, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people) 8 ¶ the Holy Spirit signifying [by] this [that] the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 For it [was] a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him who did the service perfect as regards the conscience, 10 [which stood] only in meats and drinks, and different kinds of washings and fleshly ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. 11 But when Christ had become a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building 12 nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by [His] own blood [He] entered once for all into the [Holy of] Holies, having obtained eternal redemption [for us]. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ (who through [the] eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished spot to God) purge your conscience from dead works to serve [the] living God?”
Daniel 8:14 KJV “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

Yes, a very important focus: Jesus' gospel work in the heavenly sanctuary and false alternatives being practised by professing Christians on earth today - most notably Roman Catholicism.

I have only one problem with this week's study: our church has held sequentially two totally different interpretations of a little word in Dan 8:11, "the daily". For those of you who don't know about the original or earlier understanding, it was/is paganism as practised by both phases of the little horn of that chapter, especially the religious attitude toward the God of heaven that Rome had and has.

The interpretation expressed in this week's lesson replaced that original understanding roundabout just before the 1st World War. Unfortunately resorting to the words of the English translations we use doesn't reveal the meaning of the Hebrew wording which was displaced by use of the Greek translation of the OT in producing our Bibles. The Hebrew supports our church's original interpretation much better than our current understanding.

My concern here is both reliably to sustain our interpretation of Dan 8:14 and point out probable problems with the methods our literature uses to do so.

As an introduction to this matter, please read the commentary on this week's lesson by Elder Bob Wieland here http://tinyurl.com/z874m which he wrote at the request of Spectrum magazine, and the detail of which he obtained from a studypaper written for the Andrews Seminary Old Testament Dept.

I'm so late in the week mentioning this because I had computer troubles earlier.

Colin

Thanks for helping us clarify this point.

It occurs to me that even viewing the "daily" as meaning "exalting self-confident paganism" still tends to the same result as the "new" view - the little horn takes away the system of salvation (if you want to call it a system) Christ established when He was here on earth (looking to Jesus directly instead of through a priest).

To me it seems that the little horn takes the place of God by ordaining that the Old Testament system of sacrifice continue even though God said it was to cease and continued to force that view on the world through the time periods you've mentioned.

Sorry about your computer troubles - been there and probably will be again.

Thanks Colin, and welcome.

Dr. Richard Davidson has done some work on the term "daily" as has Roy Gane. Excellent stuff. See ATS meeting in Philadelphia `95.


oG

Thanks, both of you, for your positive responses. Yes, Prof Davidson has contacted me with the details of the doctoral student who dealt with both views of the daily...

The new view, James, does fit with the old view as an understanding of Rome's history, but this text has a time scale for it, and putting the new view with this text disrupts the time period. Must go, but 2300 years ending in 1844 has problems with the new view of this text...when was the daily "taken" from Christ by Rome?...

We should at least consider that the sanctuary referred to in Dan 8:11 could be the Real Sanctuary of God, not some inferior Earthly copy.

Quote:

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NLT Dan 8:11
11. He even challenged the Commander of heaven's armies by canceling the daily sacrifices offered to him and by destroying his Temple.

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The Last War on Earth will be the war for control of the planet between the forces of Good and the forces of Evil. God's Sanctuary, wherever it is, will be attacked, overrun, and destroyed by Satan's forces. That doesn't mean God lost the war, just that his Sanctuary was destroyed during the war. After the war, it will be rebuilt.

Yes, God's system of salvation is attacked by Christians themselves, and truth is cast to the ground....God's church buildings shall be destroyed by God's enemies here. Is that the meaning of Dan 8:11, or of v.13c???...

The sanctuary of Dan 8:11 is "miqdosh" in the hebrew while the sanctuary of Dan 8:13,14 is "qodesh": "miqdosh" (hope the spelling is right) is both a fortified city, citadel or castle and possibly also (in Bible usage) a pagan temple - it isn't used to refer to God's house. "Qodesh" is used to refer to God's "holy place" and temple. This points to Dan 8:11 as not dealing with God's temple or salvation truth but the tussle between the two phases of Rome.

The Masoretic hebrew (most Bibles translate the Greek instead) of Dan 8:11 reads: Even to the prince of the host he exalted himself, and from him the daily was taken away....That suggests the old view of the daily is correct, it appears, since pagan Rome crucified our Lord and Rome's paganism was taken over by papal Rome and Christianised while Rome changed from capital of the empire - Constantinople took over - to capital of the church.

That change in Rome surely cannot constitute the daily being taken symbolically from Christ by Roman Catholicism (the new view) since that gives Dan 8's 2300 days a Christian era starting point (how long the vision of the daily? - & the daily is only mentioned as taken away) instead of Dan 9's starting point of the Persian empire, which is where Dan 8's vision starts. Is the daily about Rome interfering with the Gospel truth and practices or the pagan attitude toward God shared ever increasingly by all the kingdoms listed in Dan 8's vision?

1844 is unsettled by the new view of the daily isn't it?