July 9 Daniel 8: Vision of the Ram, Goat, and little Horn--Part I SHAGGY GOATS COME AND GO. GREATNESS BELONGS TO OUR GOD. I am so glad that each vision is not completely unrelated, or we might succumb to information overload and be tempted to quit. Even if we don’t absorb every detail, we are still learning of volumes about God’s character and His word. In Daniel chapter eight, God showed Daniel a vision that explained more about two of the near future kingdoms for Daniel and his people (the second and third world empires to come). Verses 1-2: This chapter contains an account of a vision seen by Daniel 2 years after the last vision in chapter 7, in the third year of reign of Belshazzar. Daniel let us know that he was in the citadel of Susa, in the province of Elam, beside the Ulai canal, about 250 miles east of Babylon. I. Verses 3-4 A Ram: The ram had two horns; standing in front of the canal; one of the horns was longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last. The ram was butting westward, northward, and southward. No other beast could stand before him, nor could anyone be rescued from his power. He did whatever he pleased and magnified himself. Verses 15-19: The Interpretation of Ram: Voice of a man between the banks called out giving Gabriel, an order to give Daniel an understanding of the vision A. Verse 20-The ram with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. (This is the chest & arms of silver in chapter 2, and the bear in chapter 7.) B. The two horns, the younger one longer than the first: though Medes and Persia combined to beat the Babylonians, Persia was the younger kingdom, under Cyrus it became the dominant one in 550BC. II. Verses 5—8: The shaggy goat: goat with a big horn between his eyes came from the West, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. The goat charged the ram furiously and trampled on him. The goat then became very great. But at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off and in its place; four prominent horns grew up going in all directions. A. Verses 21-22: The Interpretation of Shaggy Goat: The shaggy goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn between his eyes is the first king. If you remember from Daniel’s dream of the terrible and frightening beast, horns in these dreams have represented future kings. The horns on the shaggy goat changed during the vision. At first the goat had big horn. After that horn broke off, four other horns grew in its place. That means that the one powerful king would be replaced by four of his generals that divided the empire into four kingdoms. When the goat came to trample the ram it came floating over the ground, showing the speed in which the goat came. The one great king of Greece whose army was known for how fast they moved in and conquered other nations, was Alexander the Great (son of Phillip II of Macedonia). He and his army of 35,000 men began their assault on the empire of the Medes and the Persians in 334 BC. It took Alexander only a few years to conquer all of the vast Medo-Persian Empire (1.5 million square miles). He claimed he was a god and required the provinces to worship him. At the height of his power, he contracted a terrible fever and died in Babylon- at the age of 32 in June of 323 BC. When Alexander died, there was a problem deciding who would be the next king. The generals from his army decided to divide up the Greek empire and each one rule a portion of it. (Daniel 8:22) Here are the names of the four generals (the 4 horns that arose), Ptolemy 1, Seleucus, Lysimachus and Cassander.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 16:54:48 +0000
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