Intro: Remember as we look at Daniel eight we have already established that Heaven rules. God is in control. Because God is in control we can trust Him and live pure and holy lives that honor Him. God has the answers to all our questions if we will look and ask. The book of Daniel answers many questions not so we can satisfy our curiosity but so we can strengthen our faith or trust on God. God gives us grace to face any pressure, person or problem. Many of the pressures and problems we face are designed by God to get us to look up to Him so that Jesus will be lifted up among men.
If God offered to show you the next 200 years of our nation’s history would you say yes? Think it over, you would see the end of your kids, grandkids and probably the end of this great nation.
During his 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy often closed his speeches with the story of Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives.
One day in 1789, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought."
Rather than fearing what is to come, we are to be faithful till Christ returns. Instead of fearing the dark, we're to be lights as we watch and wait. (Harry Heitz)
God sent Gabriel to Daniel to give Him the broad sweep of Gentile history as it applies to His people Israel. Daniel 2:5- Daniel 7 was written in Aramaic the language of the Babylonians. Beginning here in Daniel eight we have a shift from the Babylonian language back to Hebrew of the Israelites. God is getting ready to show how He will uniquely deal with His people and at the same time pave the way for the Messiah the savior of the world Jesus. As Daniel was receiving this vision from God with the interpretation through Gabriel Daniel 8:16 he was left drained and exhausted Daniel 8:27.
If we come to the Bible with an indifferent attitude or we ignore it all together in our day to day life we will not understand Daniels heavy involvement.
I’m not so sure we wouldn’t be sick if God gave us the next hundred years of the United States future. As we open up Daniel 8:1 – 2 we will discover something of great importance that appears to have no significance. Daniel speaks of a town Susa or Shushan that if Daniel was writing in the 2nd century before Jesus would not need to give details. In the 6th century BC it was important to tell about this city because it was not significant at the time. As unimportant as it was we find out from Nehemiah that it became the capital of the Medes and Persians and from Esther it was where King Xerxes palace was located.
I. Progression of the kings
A) The Ram by the Canal – (Daniel 8:3-4)
1) His character
Two horns one longer than the other represents the Media-Persian Empire. In history the Medes came together first as and were eventually overcome by Cyrus the Great as He defeated His grandfather the king of the Medes. The Larger horn represented Cyrus and the Persians absorbing the Median Empire.
2) His conquest
Daniels vision was clear Persia conquered historically Daniel 8:4 to the west, north and south. They expanded west to Macedonia, north past the Caspian Sea, & south through Egypt. As Cyrus the great lead his armies to battle it wasn’t with the traditional diadem or crown it was with the Rams head. The ram of 8 and the bear of Daniels prophecies show the power of this empire. It was under Cyrus the great that some of the Hebrew captives were allowed to go back to the Holy Land and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. (Ezra, Nehemiah)
3) His collapse
The Media-Persian Empire collapsed after Alexander defeats Darius III at Issus represented here in Daniel 8:5-7
B) The he-goat (Daniel 8:5-8)
1) His identity
The Grecian empire followed the Medo-Persian. The first Greek colony was established by an oracle that sent a goat for a guide to build a city. The goat came to the region of Greece and in gratitude for the goat’s leading them in the right direction, they called the city Agae, meaning “The Goat city.” The name of the sea upon whose shores the city was built was called the Aegean Sea, or the “Goat Sea.”
Daniel 8:21 tells us that the goat is “Greece.” Verse 21 also tells us that the single horn is the first king of Greece.
The horn is called a conspicuous horn. This is of course Alexander the great. While he was growing up his mother told him he was a descendant of Achilles and Hercules. What a way to motivate a world conqueror!
2) His ability
8:5 paints an amazing picture of the goats ability as directed by the conspicuous horn. He came from the west across the entire earth without his feet touching the ground. It is a picture of speed and agility that points to the way Greece demolished its enemies under Alexander the Great.
8:6 tells of the savage fury Alexander attacked Medio-Persia with.
From a prophetic standpoint, Xerxes was important as incurring the undying hatred of the Grecian people which forms the background of the conquest of Alexander the Great more than a century later. (John Walvord)
3) His superiority
Daniel 8:8 makes clear 200 years before it happens how Alexander would die. He died at the age of 33 as a victim of his own drunkenness and depression because there weren’t any more worlds to conquer.
He was wrong He had yet to conquer himself.
4) His significance
As Alexander was sweeping away the empires of the world he thought he was doing his own work. As we already said he thought all his accomplishments were the result of his own genius. As great as Alexander was he was simply a tool in the hand of God.
His concern for the problems involved with the many different languages of the Grecian Kingdom led to the establishment of Koine or common Greek. All the people he conquered were taught Greek language and culture. His concern for easy access to the kingdom led him to build roads that would carry missionaries across the world with the Gospel.
The four horns are important because it reveals the four generals that took over the Greek empire after Alexander’s death.
Cassander (Ca-Sander) – Macedonia & Greece.
Lysimachus (ly-sim’-a-chus) – Thrace, & parts of Asia Minor.
Ptolemy (Tol-emy) – Egypt & parts of Asia Minor.
Seleuces (Sel-eu-cis) – Syria, Israel & Mesopotamia.
These generals & their successors would battle for total control, but never rise to the level of power that Alexander had
Before we talk about the little horn lets talk about the picture given to us of the anti-Christ in the power of the Greek ruler.
II. Power of the anti-Christ
Alexander represents the power that the Anti-Christ will have. He also represents the genius and gross wicked nature this man will have. Like Alexander he will be prideful and self-focused.
III. Pure evil of the anti-Christ
We go back to Seleuceds and look at the Selucid empire. It is from this horn that the little horn grows. Daniel 8:9-14. The prophecy of the little horn has a dual fulfillment. It is first fulfilled in Antiochus the IV Epiphanes and ultimately in The Anti-Chirst.
His pride is revealed in His name, Antiochus God Manifest. He was violent, evil and mad. According to the book of Maccabees 5:11-14 the Jews were on the receiving end of His anger at being defeated “When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.”
He banned the reading or possession of scripture. He made it illegal to circumcise their children or observe their holy days. Antiochus sacrificed and boiled pigs or swine and poured it on the sacred items of the temple. He had soldiers stuff pork down the priests mouths.
He erected a statue of Zeus in the Holy of Holies. The Bible is correct in telling us it would 2300 mornings. It was exactly 2300 days from the beginning of Antiochus reign of terror until his death.
We have seen the leadership and power of Alexander that demonstrates the power of the coming antichrist. And the complete evil and wickedness of Antiochus who epitomizes the cruel nature of the AntiChrist. If you multiply the power and wickedness of both by 1000 you don’t even begin to come close to the coming world rulers nature.
Daniel 8:23-26 There is come a head turning man dramatic in appearance and striking in his appeal who will come when corruption is at an all time high!
If a man would come along with apparently real world solutions to the world economic and cultural/national problems the world would follow him.
Antiochus is a type of AntiChrist. He called Himself God manifest and so will the Anti-Christ.
What was Antiochus end? The Maccabean revolt happened. They cast the image of Jupiter or Zeus out of the temple it made him so angry he said he would make Jerusalem a common burial ground for the Jews. When he made this declaration he was struck with an incurable disease. His suffering was unbearable and the stench from his own body was so horrible that he couldn’t stand himself. He died in misery, a foolish man who thought he could resist God and get by with it.
What about you? Do you think you can resist God and get by with it?
One day King Jesus is going to come back and lay the smack down on the Anti-Christ and all who follow and worship him.
What does all this mean for us?
1) God wants us to live in faith not fear. His plan is to separate the wheat and the chaff and it often involves great suffering.
2) God wants us to boldly share the truth of Jesus and the coming of fulfilled prophecy. Offending people with the gospel will be the last concern we have when the Anti-Christ reveals himself.
3) God wants us to be available instead of anxious. God has created you for sharing the Gospel and sharing the good news through good deeds. Let your light so shine before men.
