Solomon said in Ecclesiastes
7, verse 14, in the day of prosperity, rejoice. But in the day of adversity,
consider. The wise men said when things
are going well, when you are prospering financially, when
the home is going well, The economy is fine and there is ostensive
peace throughout the land and there doesn't seem to be any
kind of imminent danger. Rejoice. Rejoice. That's a wonderful time to celebrate,
to have optimistic plans and goals and agendas in the day
of prosperity. And God has allowed the human
race to have that from time to time throughout history. Periods
of prosperity, periods of blessings, periods of optimism and hope
and agendas and goals and you march toward those goals with
a great deal of confidence because you are in a time of prosperity. But he said in the time of adversity
you need to consider. See adversity comes just like
prosperity comes. And Solomon said they actually
come hand over hand, that is a small period of prosperity,
then a period of adversity, hand over hand over hand in order
to keep us looking to Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So right now we are in a portion of the book of Daniel where Daniel
would say to you and me, by virtue of his great, great grandfather,
Solomon, you know, this is a time for us to consider. The vision
that's before Daniel is a vision that has Daniel considering a
lot of things. I don't know if you noticed that
at the end of the vision, Daniel was sick. He said, I was grieved
and I felt faint behind what I saw. And so for Daniel, he
was in a period of really considering. And in fact, if you read the
text carefully, Daniel labored to understand the vision. He
toiled to comprehend its meaning. and relevance and significance
for his time and for the people of God at large. He knew he was
the prophet of God. He knew he was the mouthpiece
of God. He also knew that he was the vehicle or prism by which
the revelation would come. And so he was seriously concerned
with understanding what he was seeing. because he wanted to
make sure that he conveyed the message faithfully and accurately
to God's people. Now, if you had a dream or a
vision that God gave you to give to his people, wouldn't you want
to tell that dream precisely the way it was? That's if you
had a dream. Now, we are looking into the
eighth chapter, and I want you to note that Daniel is not dreaming. Daniel is actually experiencing
a vision. He has received an interruption
by the Spirit of God and he has been made to see a vision. A vision that has to do with
his own time, the near distant future, the more remote distant
future and the far distant future applying to where we are today.
We've been dealing with the apocalyptic language of Daniel chapter 7
and now we're in chapter 8 and I shared with you a couple of
weeks ago that what Daniel is seeing is successive revelations
of historical events that would transpire and unfold both during
his time, the subsequent kingdoms of his day, as well as the times
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles, and they will also
have relevance and application to our day. So as we Seek to
unfold Daniel chapter eight. Please understand that we are
not merely dealing with prophetic language that pertains to the
end times as you would hear it so prominently suggested that
all that the book of Daniel is addressing is the latter end
of world events that would correspond with the end of the world as
we know it. No, the book of Daniel is a series
of visions that relate to Daniel's time, his predecessors' times,
his ancestors' times, the Lord Jesus, the apostles, the church
age from the time of the apostles, up through the Reformation, up
to our time right now, and who knows how long it will be before
the Lord Jesus Christ comes. Can you tell me? And I wouldn't
dare to tell you whether I know how soon it will be before the
Lord will come. Because for Daniel, the revelations
that he had concerning these particular visions were so impacting
on his life that I'm sure he felt like the Lord Jesus was
coming anytime soon. And yet it was almost 2,500 years
since Daniel had that vision. The vision is for us to understand
and to properly respond to what we come to know in the vision.
If you have your outline, you can look with me at the first
point as we make our way through this. Our first point is the vision
is an outflow from the dream that Daniel had in chapter seven,
verses one through seven. You noted that we looked into
Daniel chapter seven and eight in order to understand Daniel
chapter seven. In Daniel chapter 7 we saw that
Daniel had a vision of four beasts coming up out of the great sea,
isn't that right? Those four beasts we saw were a lion, a
bear, and a leopard, and a fourth beast that was indescribable.
They came up out of the sea. Now, I want to help those of
you who are not familiar with biblical terminology within the
framework of metaphor and hyperbole and symbolism, particularly in
the context of dreams. The language in the scripture
is not designed for you to rationally deduce from the text a literal
interpretation. It's symbolism, it's hyperbole,
it's language that does not correspond consistently with reality. For
instance, lions do not come up out of the sea. They're earth
creatures, they're land creatures, but in this metaphor they do.
The bear comes up out of the sea, the leopard comes out of
the sea, and this fourth beast, which intentionally is not described
in chapter 7 or chapter 8, but rather is more fully described
in Revelation chapter 13, comes up out of the sea too. We learned
that the sea represented the masses of the people, isn't that
right? The wicked are like the what? Troubled sea. Isaiah chapter
57 verse 21, which are tossed to and fro by the wind, which
kick up muck and mire and never have any what? Rest. The wicked
are like the troubled sea. And the metaphor of the sea has
to do with the topsy-turvy, unsound, foundationless nature of humanity
outside of Christ. The sea has to do with the instability
of political kingdoms, which come and go and come and go and
come and go. Are you hearing me? That's the
reason why these bees come up out of the sea is because they
will come and they will go. Kingdoms come and kingdoms go.
This is one of the comforting words of the book of Daniel. And that's this, while God's
people suffer tribulation and difficulty and pain, The reality
is it's only for a season. What Daniel knows is as he hears
at the end of the vision, how long shall these troubles be?
And he's told 2300 evenings and mornings. Well, folks, literally,
that's only about six years. That's not a long time compared
to eternity in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. So in the
world, Jesus said in John chapter 16, verse 33, what you shall
have. What's the word? Tribulation. Now let me set down a principle
as we continue to develop this. My goal for you right now is
to be able to get a tangible handle on the language of Daniel
so that you can understand how clear the Bible is in its own
interpretive method. So that you can see that you
can understand these things in their basic framework. Daniel is dealing with that historical
period that takes place between 553 BC right now and 333 BC. We are prior to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are 500, 600 years before
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Daniel is given insight into
what's going on. In Daniel chapter 7, we are told
that it was the first year of Belshazzar. Belshazzar was the
king of Babylon. Daniel is a prime minister in
Babylon. Daniel has been raised up by
God to serve in the Senate of Babylon. He would be like a secretary
of state, but even more prominent. Trying to give you some context
here. That means God has positioned Daniel in a way in which he has
authority, great authority over the masses in Babylon. Daniel
is a great, great, great dignitary in Babylon. In Babylon, he is
under the authority of Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, really
the grandson. He's in Babylon. We've already
looked at what would happen to the Babylonian kingdom represented
by the lion with the two eagle's wings. His wings were plucked. He fell to the ground. He lost
his eminence and his power and his regal status when pride entered
in. Remember that? God brought Babylon
down in the person of Nebuchadnezzar and made him to eat the grass
of the field and gave him over to foolishness for seven years. He lost his mind in order that
he might know what we all must know, that the heavens do rule
in the kingdoms of men. And God gives to kingdoms, whatever
rulers he wants to. He raises them up. He sets them
down. But you know what men do? Men
act a fool. If you don't know what that means
is they lose their mind. They lose their mind because
when they reach a status of prominence and authority, they have a tendency
to forget that God puts them there. And so then God has to
intervene to humble them, to help them to realize that they're
nothing but a peon. In the book of Daniel chapter
2, it says that the nations are less than a drop on the bottom
of a bucket compared to God Almighty. Not a man, a nation. And so it's important for rulers
to understand that God is what? Sovereign. And this is what Daniel
is seeing in this successive vision of one kingdom rising
and another kingdom falling and another kingdom rising and another
kingdom falling. And there's a pattern in the
kingdoms. They rise to prominence by God's purpose because God's
doing a whole bunch of things all at once. You know that, right?
Even right now, at this very hour, our sovereign God is ruling
over the affairs of this world, over our president right now,
the president that will be, and over all the czars and leaders
of the world. God is working everything after
the word, counsel of His own will, right now. The people of
God need to know that, just in case when the storm emerges,
because what we see in Daniel 7 is a storm. The winds are striving
upon the great sea. And kingdoms are rising up out
of the midst of that melee and storm. And that's the world that
you and I have been in. Think about this for a moment.
We hear politically and in the media about peace, don't we?
But in my lifetime, since I've been born, I'm almost 50 years
old. I haven't seen peace anywhere. Have you? Peace seems to be eluding
our world. and we are grasping after it,
and we are promising it. But in fact, of matter, all we
see is war, and conflict, and death, and treachery, and violence,
and hostility. You know why? Because man, apart
from the Spirit of God, according to the Scriptures, is a beast.
That's why he's depicted as these violent, predatory animals. Are you hearing me? Solomon said,
oh, that man might know his status before God, that he has no preeminence
over the beast. As the beast goes into the dust,
so does man go into the dust. only man's spirit ascends to
God to answer to God in the day of judgment. Otherwise, apart
from the Spirit of God, we behave just like the animals of the
world. And so this is why Daniel is seeing visions of beasts rising
up, devouring one another. These are nations. In the seventh
chapter, Daniel saw some ominous things. And in the eighth chapter,
he has seen some ominous things. Look with me in chapter eight,
verse one and two. I want you to see the significance
of the opening statement as we develop this. And as I said,
point number one addresses the vision as an outflow from the
dream. In chapter seven, Daniel is dreaming. In chapter eight, Daniel is wide
awake. He's still in Babylon. This is
the third year of Belshazzar's reign. He received his first
vision three years earlier. We don't know where he is in
the palace of Babylon. He could be working. He could
be at his desk. He could be taking a walk. But
he was interrupted by the spirit of God and made to enter into
the visions of God, much like Ezekiel did. And notice what
it says in verses one and two. In the third year of the reign
of the king of Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto me, even unto me,
Daniel, after which appeared unto me at the first. Do you
know the emphasis? Me, me, Daniel, unto me, even
me, Daniel. There's a reason for that. Now
notice verse two. And I saw in a vision, and it
came to pass when I saw that I was at Shushan, in the palace,
which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in a vision, and I
was by the river, you lie. Do you guys see the picture?
Notice the emphasis. Daniel is talking to us by inspiration
of the spirit. And he's saying he sees himself
in Shushan the palace. Well, physically he was in Babylon. Shushan is in Persia. Persia is several hundred miles
away from Babylon. Persia doesn't even exist as
a kingdom yet. Babylon is still in dominion,
but what Daniel is seeing is two things relevant to us and
to the people of God, and that's this. Daniel sees the emergence
of the Persian kingdom, the Medo-Persian kingdom. He also sees himself
as part of the leadership of that kingdom. Do you hear what
I'm saying? He sees the kingdom emerging.
We already know that in Daniel 7 and 8 that the bear corresponds
to the ram in Daniel chapter 8 and the ram corresponds to
Medo-Persia. So Daniel is actually seeing
in his vision not only God telling him that the Medo-Persians are
about to take over Babylon, but that God's gonna raise Daniel
up, protect him, and keep him, and put him in prominence in
the Medo-Persian kingdom. Now this bears relevance in terms
of Daniel's care for the ultimate reason for which Daniel is there,
and that's the people of God and the glory of God. See now
if you are my prophet and you're telling me about the future and
I know that by virtue of your position I'm safe because you
have power with the leadership to see to it that the people
of God are taken care of. When you tell me that there's
going to be a changing of the guards, a reestablishment of
the government and that government is going to come in and generally
when they do they destroy lots of people in the process. You
also let me know that they're going to take you into their
cabinet. That gives me a little bit of comfort because that means
I'm going to be alright as long as you're alright. See what I'm
getting at? And if you'll notice the book
of Daniel chapter 8, he intentionally told everybody to dream. But
they didn't understand it. But he told it to them anyway.
Because there were words of comfort in it as well as words of warning. So he tells the vision. And so
in chapter 1, chapter 8 verses 1 and 2, what we have is Daniel,
the prominent person in the vision, until we get to verse 3. Now
notice what it says in verse 3. Then I lifted up my eyes. Do you see that? Saints, that's
apocalyptic language that's given to the prophet. That's given
to the prophet when he enters into visions. He lifts up his
eyes in order to see the revelations of God. He lifts up his eyes
in order to see the revelations of God. He lifted up his eyes
and he began to see what was before him, which was being revealed
to him by God. But to lift up the eyes is a
metaphor for comprehending spiritual things. Jesus said in the gospel
of Luke, when tribulation would come, it would be so difficult
that men would be, their hearts would faint for the things that
are coming upon the earth. Jesus says, don't be afraid for
at that time your redemption draws nigh, lift up your heads. Look up for your redemption draws
nigh. So there's a sense in which when trouble comes in the life
of God's people, they must not look horizontally, they must
look vertically. Grasp the revelation of the sovereign
God who's behind the storm because he has a greater purpose in view.
And so this is what's going on with Daniel who becomes the mediator
or medium for his people in terms of the revelation. He lifts up
his eyes and here's what he said he saw. I beheld there stood
before the river, that is you lie, a ram which had two horns. And the two horns were higher,
but one was higher than the other. Didn't we learn two weeks ago
that that ram corresponded with the bear? In Daniel chapter seven,
verse three and four, the bear was laying on one side, which
means he was at peace. But on the other side, the bear
had his hand up and his claws raised and three ribs were in
his mouth. Which means one side of the bear
was a peaceful bear whose policies was not to destroy and to rend
and to tear. But the other side of the bear
was much more aggressive and hostile and violent. And we saw
that what we were dealing with, as the angel tells us in verse
21 and 22 of chapter 8, that Medo-Persia is represented by
the bear. Medo-Persian is also represented
by the ram here. And because the ram has two horns,
one higher than the other, it means that the Persian kingdom
will rise and become more prominent than the Medo kingdom, the Median
kingdom. And the Persian kingdom is the
kingdom that's much more aggressive. Notice what it says in verse
three and four. But the two horns were high and
one was higher than the other. And the higher came up last,
verse four. And I saw the ram pushing westward. Do you see that? Northward and
southward so that no beast might stand before him. Neither was
there any that could deliver out of his hand, but he did according
to his will. He became great. The Persian
kingdom was a prominent, prominent kingdom. It was huge. It was
massive. What you have is an expansion
from the Babylonian kingdom. Now, the Babylonian kingdom was
that kingdom that's in the Middle East right now. It's called Iraq.
You know, Iraq is Babylon. The Babylonian kingdom had persuasive
dominion over the West, over the North, and over the South. It only had some influence in
the East. When you take a map and you deal
with this properly in terms of its geographical significance,
you are dealing with the Middle East, Babylon, Syria, Rome. You're dealing with parts of
India. You're dealing with parts of Egypt. You're dealing with
Israel. You're dealing with Greece. These are the kingdoms that we
are dealing with in this context. So when it talks about and he
covered the whole earth, he's really speaking geographically
about the Middle East. Are you guys hearing me? I'm
saying this so that when we get into Daniel chapter 11, and I
use the language of Daniel chapter 11, the king of the south and
the king of the north, the king of the west, you won't be ignorant.
The king of the south has to do with the southern hemisphere.
The king of the north has to do with the northern hemisphere.
The northern kings are up in Syria and in Rome. The Southern
kings are Israel and Egypt. The Eastern kings are those kings
that have to do with India and those portions of India going
all the way back to Babylon. And then the Western kings have
to do with Syria and Macedonia. Just keep these in your mind.
We'll develop them as we go. And the reason why I'm sharing
this with you is because as we unfold this, the vision that
Daniel has of what he's sharing with his people is not so esoteric
that his people don't understand what's going on. Now that you
and I are removed from the vision some 2,500 years from now, we
have to labor in the Word of God. We have to labor in history,
ancient history, in order to understand the assignment. But
we don't have to labor exclusively in extra-biblical material. Look
with me in chapter 8, verse 20 and 21. I just want you to see
it for yourself. By the way, and I'm aware of
this because of my studies within the context of these chapters,
that the angel is giving Daniel very clear interpretation on
what's going on. But we're in chapter 20, chapter
8, verse 20 and 21. Are you there? The ram, which
you saw having two horns, are the kings of media in Persia.
Got it? Verse 21. And the rough goat,
which we're about to get into, is the king of who? All right. And the great horn that is between
his eyes is the first king. We'll go on to develop that here
in a moment. What Daniel saw was a progression from what he
had seen in chapter seven. He's moving from the Babylonian
kingdom to the Medo-Persian kingdom. Insofar as the Babylonian kingdom
is concerned in the eighth chapter, Babylon's gone. Babylon's subdued. Babylon's been taken over. We
know how he died, right? I won't get into that again.
But chapter 2 gave us a composite sketch of all four kingdoms under
the great image of that man. Remember that? That golden image
that Nebuchadnezzar saw? Head of gold, chest of brass,
And then his bowels and his thighs of silver, rather his chest of
silver, his bowels and his thighs of brass, and then his legs and
his feet of iron and clay. Remember that? This is one beast,
not four. Four parts, one beast. Which
means this is a composite whole system ran by one power, even
though it's broken up into four segments. They are energized
by the same demon power called Satan. And the objective is to
rule the world. These are your ruling powers. They only have their succession
in history according to the purpose of God. Now notice too when it
says it went from gold, the head being gold, to the chest being
of silver, and then of the lower belly and thighs being of brass.
and then the legs and the feet of iron and clay. We have a degradation
or diminishing of the quality of the material, isn't that right?
From gold all the way down to brass and iron. While we have
a degradation or diminishing of the material, which is significant,
we also actually have a strengthening of the material, which is significant. Because while there's a diminishing
of the glory from gold to silver, to bronze, The glory has diminished. The quality has diminished. It
diminishes because each successive kingdom becomes more hostile
and more antichrist-like and therefore loses its image of
God in which it was created originally. Are you following me? So while
there is a diminishing of the glory in terms of the beauty
and the exquisite nature of the material which symbolizes divine
attributes. These are all seen in the book
of Revelation. It's because each successive kingdom removes itself
further and further and further away from the true and the living
God. Babylon was the closest to the true and the living God.
Nebuchadnezzar had revelations of God. Nebuchadnezzar saw the
Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of the fire. Nebuchadnezzar was
the one that said God was sovereign, rules over all things. Remember
that? And as a consequence, Nebuchadnezzar was very amiable towards the
people of God. What takes place in the Revelation,
in terms of the heart language we're about to get into dealing
with the third and fourth beast, does not take place in Babylon.
Babylon does not seek to devour and completely annihilate and
destroy Israel. Only heads the men, according
to the sovereign hand of God. And Medo-Persia, which is where
we are now, They were the most auspicious towards Israel. For
what Daniel hears as he sees his vision of the ram standing
by the river is the jubilee sound that's about to take place in
calling Israel out of Babylon back to their own homeland. Are
you hearing me? See, Daniel can tell Israel it
won't be long, fellas, before some of us will be marching back
to Palestine. In fact, the vision that Daniel
has is in 550 BC. The call to go back to Israel
began in 539 BC. That's only 11 years from the
vision that Daniel's having. Daniel knows this by virtue of
reading the books. We'll see this when we get to
Daniel chapter nine. So Israel is actually about to
be released from captivity. under the auspices and blessings
of the Medo-Persians. We'll know this more specifically
when we go into the book of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, particularly
Ezra and Nehemiah, where they rebuild the temple under the
command of Cyrus the king. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So God takes the sovereign earthly pagan powers and demands that
they bless God's people who've already gone through captivity,
coming out on the other side, going back into the promised
land. Daniel sees all this inherent in the vision that's going on
right now. This is not part of the details. I'm sharing it with
you, but Daniel sees this. It's implied because of the latter
parts of the verses that we're about to get into. So Daniel
has shared with us that the kingdoms will be successive, they will
have a purpose, but they will become more hostile in nature.
The bear was much more hostile than the lion, but the leopard
was also much more hostile than the bear. So let's deal with
that because we're moving now from the Medo-Persians of which
Daniel sees himself in a few years. See, Daniel receives his
vision of Medo-Persia in Babylon under Belshazzar. He's about,
Daniel's about 55 almost 60 years old Daniel will not finish his
His service in the kingdoms till he's almost 100 years old. He
will be an old sage by the time he dies Daniel comes out of that
out of eat out of Israel into Babylon. He sees Babylon coming
go 70 years He will actually see me don't media go and he
will see Persia come in Daniel will die and guess who will take
Daniel's place brother Nehemiah and He'll be the King's cupbearer
at that time. And then we'll get to see how
Nehemiah addresses the concerns of his people. I shared this
with you before. When we get to chapter nine,
Daniel's going to do what Nehemiah has to do and what Ezra has to
do in order for God's will to get done. And that is fall on
his face and intercede for his people, confessing to God that
the reason we're in this mess is because of what? Sin. See,
release doesn't come unless there's a mediator. And so what we're
dealing with now is Daniel understanding the succession. So we've dealt
with the Median kingdom and the Persian kingdom. And there's
something profound that comes up now. Look with me at verse
three and four, four and five. I saw the ram pushing that is
Medo-Persian. He went northward, southward. and westward so that
no beast might stand before him, neither was there any that could
deliver out of his hand, but he did according to his will
and became great. That means God gave the Medo-Persians
great, great, great dominion. In the book of Esther, chapter
one, verse two, it tells us about the 127 provinces that Medo-Persia
took over from Egypt, Ethiopia, all the way to India, up towards
Greece. That means they had a lot of
authority. They had expanded their kingdom. beyond the Babylonians
but something happens I want you to see this look at verse
5 and as I was considering see Daniel considered visions behold
and he goat came from the West on the face of the whole earth
and he touched not the ground and the goat had a notable horn
between his eyes do you guys like pictures I love pictures
I love paintings, I love pictures, I love images. I'm very artistic
in my thinking. That's why I love Revelation
and I love the book of Daniel. I love the book of Zechariah,
because that really just jazzes me, it quickens me, because I
love to see the details. And so here's the picture that's
painted, we talked about it before. There's this goat, he's a he-goat.
Now the he-goat is a mountain goat. A mountain goat is a very
powerful animal. He's agile, he can run up and
down the hills. Have you ever seen them? on these
nature shows. It's amazing how they can go
almost straight up a mountain and straight down, fast and quick.
But one of the things that is common with the he-goat as it
is with the ram is they like to butt things. They like to
run through things, push through things. It's in their nature. When something's in the way,
they look at it and say, get out of my way. So we got a problem
when a ram who has the same tendency meets up with a he-goat who has
the same tendency. Isn't that right? The ram is
a much more docile creature. He's actually larger than a he-goat,
but his temperament is much milder. The ram doesn't look for trouble,
the he-goat does. But the ram can take care of
its own. Only in this case, remember we saw in verse four, the ram
had went through, he was pushy. That means budding in the Hebrew.
He was budding. He was destroying nations. And
then he finally took his rest on the river. You lie. Daniel
said, and I saw a ram looking on the edge of the river. You
lie. The river, you lie. It's a river that ran through
Persia in the province of Shushan, the palace. So the ram is sitting
there in his authority and in his power. And guess what he's
doing. He's looking just like Daniel
is looking. And guess what they're both looking
at? This crazy he-goat that's coming. I'm just trying to paint
the picture for you. He's on the river, which means
there's a division between his kingdom and the kingdom of the
he-goat. And from the river, the ram can
see the he-goat coming. And the ram is considering what
he must do, cause he sees the he-goat coming. And if you look
at the text very carefully, This would be remarkable to you, too,
that the text is in verse five. And as I was considering, behold,
the he go came from the West. That's from Syria, folks. If
I'm in Persia and Persia is adjacent to Babylon, Syria is west of
me, is slightly northwest, but it's west of me. And I see out
of the West a he-go with a very nasty attitude coming towards
me. Now the ram is looking because the ram kind of knows why he's
coming. It's because the ram has ran
through the West too and tried to subdue the West too. And actually
in subduing the West, he has agitated this he-go. I'm just
trying to stay within the framework of the vision. I could explain
this historically. I'll talk about it a little bit,
but I don't want to get into the real details. But historically,
the Persians, as they pressed forward to dominate the world,
sometimes what they did is they really agitated powers who had
the ability to oppose them, but rather negotiate. See, all kingdoms
aren't ready to throw off their nukes and blow up everything
and destroy the world just because you come at them. Let's sit down
and talk. I'd much rather have peace. And that's the way it
was with Syria. But because the ram kept pushing, the Syrians
said, you know what, I'm tired of this. And then somewhere around
350 BC, a boy was born. You know who that boy was? Alexander
the Great. Alexander the Great was a piece
of work. His daddy was Philip the Great. Philip the Great was
a great, great, great king too. The kings in these days were
often kings that were given over to polytheism and deism. That is, they viewed themselves
as incarnations of God and they worshiped the gods of the heavens
and the stars. And Alexander the Great was part
of the Syrian kingdom and therefore he was under the influence of
the Grecian philosophy. The Greeks believed in a lot
of gods. And Alexander the Great was prophesied
by one of the priests when his mama had him, that he was the
incarnation of Zeus. Zeus was the, greatest God of
the Greeks of that day. He is a type, an anti-type of
Christ. The pagans viewed him as the
incarnation of God. We view Christ as the incarnation
of God. He therefore, this, what I definitely
consider Alexander inspired by the devil, controlled by the
devil. Why? Because the prominence to which he rose in just a few
years inexplicable except a sovereign God allowed a demonic power to
give him the kind of resources and success that he did. Will
you hear me ladies and gentlemen? There's only one kingdom in the
world that is completely controlled by the Spirit of God and that's
the kingdom of God. I didn't even say the church. I said the kingdom of God. Outside
of the kingdom of God, all other kingdoms are controlled by the
wicked one. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. We'll see this in chapter 10, but against principalities
and powers and dominions and wickedness in high places, strategically
set up in governmental powers to exercise his own antichrist
will over the masses with this one great objective in view,
to destroy the church and to still God's glory. I hope that's
not too simplistic for you. But all nations outside of Christ
ultimately exceed their boundaries of calling and purpose and seek
to destroy God's people. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Alexander rises up. This young soldier is about 20,
22, 23 years old. And he's mad as all get up. Why? Because he's a great general
in his army and in his own right. And the Medo-Persian kingdom
has sought to destroy him several times and has not been successful.
So what the Medo-Persians have done is hired different nations
such as Egypt and Babylon and Macedonians to try to subdue
Alexander. Alexander finds out that there's
a conspiracy to try to take him out and he immediately goes after
the realm. That's our context. Pastor, where
you get this from? Go with me to chapter 11, I'll
show you, it's in the Bible. I'm in chapter 11, verses one
and two, I want you to see it for yourself. Are we there? Also, I, that is
Daniel, in the first year of Darius, that's the Median kingdom,
even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. See, Daniel had
an auspicious, favorable relationship with the Medes. Look at verse
two. And now I will show thee the
truth. Behold, there shall stand up
yet three kings in what? Persia. And the fourth shall
be far richer than they all. And by his strength through his
riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of what? Greece. That's your text. Alexander comes
out of Greece. The Hego that we're dealing with
is the Grecian kingdom. In that way, verse 21 of chapter
8 said, the Medo-Persian had three major kings. They were
Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. Now these are titles. These are
not names. Official titles of rulers. We'll
see this more in the book of Esther, in the book of Nehemiah,
in the book of Ezra. But what chapter 11, verse 2
tells us is the reason for which the Hego is ticked off. Did you
get it? Because he has stirred up the
realm of Greece. Go back to our text. I'll show
you what I'm talking about. I love interpreting the scriptures by
the scriptures because it completely sets you at rest, particularly
when you don't have the advantage of studying history in order
to make the correlation between the historical archives and the
biblical text. Now notice what it says over
in verse six. And he came to the ram. Do you see that chapter
eight, verse six, that had the two horns, which I had seen standing
before the river. And he ran unto him in the fury
of his power. You know what that little Hego
did? He ran way back. And he said, when I hit this
Joker, this is going to be a serious hit. Historically and geographically,
what's taking place is Alexander is marshalling more and more
strength as he goes through the land subduing all the kingdoms.
He's subduing all the kingdoms. He's destroying them. He's bringing
men into his army. He's killing off the weak ones.
He's drawing in the strongest. He's getting ready to deal with
the top dog. He knows what he's doing. And
in fact, the text tells us he scattered the whole of the earth,
setting up for this one projectory towards the Medo-Persians. So he didn't make a beeline to
the Medo-Persian. He took his time subduing all
the other nations on his way there. Now notice what it says. Verse 7, And I saw him come close
unto the ram. See, Daniel is seeing the progression
of the revelation, isn't he? Daniel's on the edge of the river,
right along with the ram, and they see him coming. They see
him subduing. They see him bringing down kingdoms.
They see him setting up strategies, but he's headed here. The ram
has to deal with that. And so what Daniel sees is him
coming towards them. Listen to what it says. And I
saw him come close to the ramp and he was moved with what? Anger. Why? Because of chapter 11, verse
two, because the ram stirred up the realm of Greece. Notice
what it goes on to say. He was moved with anger against
him and he smote the ram and he break his two horns and there
was no power in the ram to stand before him. Listen, that little
he go kept button after the ram button after the ram until he
subdued him. The Kings of Persia were amazed
at this general. Why? Because the Kings of Persia
was an army of millions. And Alexander only had between
8,000 and 30,000 men. How does 30,000 men subdue millions
except God give him the authority to do it? Are you hearing what
I'm saying? This is what makes the parable
so remarkable because this little horn, this notable horn, this
he goat is actually massively decimating a huge military army. I don't know if you heard it
before, but some of you young people know how the vernacular
go. It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size
of the what? Fight in the dog. That's what's going on here.
See, the he-goat only had 8,000 to 30,000. How's he gonna stand
against a million men? Because God can subdue a nation,
whether with many or with few. And when he raises up a king,
he raises him up and gives him all the ability in the world
to get the job done. And the Medo-Persians have to
come down now. Now, pastor, why are the Medo-Persians coming
down? Because they come down the same way all other nations
come down. Are you ready for it? Nations get proud. And once they get proud, God
starts backing up and allowing the hedge of protection that
he put around a nation to diminish. And when that hedge of protection
around that nation diminishes, everybody knows it because whereas
before they boasted about their impenetrable state, somebody
is able to break in and knock down this building and knock
down that building and Take out this city and subdue, create
havoc over here. And all of a sudden you realize
your kingdom is what? Vulnerable. But that's not the
problem, Saints. The problem is not you and I
finding out that our kingdom is vulnerable because it always
was. That's the delusion we walk in.
America the beautiful, America the great. We shall arise from
this and we shall become stronger after this. This is what we always
hear, isn't it? We shall become stronger. That's
what the Medo-Persian said. We shall become stronger. That's
what the Babylonian said. We shall become stronger. That's
what Israel said. We shall become stronger. God
says you're a liar. You're a liar. What you should
have said is, Lord, have mercy on us. We've sinned. The only thing that God wants
from a nation and its leaders when his hedge is broken is to
confess its sin and bow the knee to the true and the living God
and acknowledge that God sovereignly controls this world and it sets
up government. All government is set up by God.
All authority and power is by God. David says, I've heard once,
I've heard twice. All power belongs under God.
It's all God wants a nation to do. Notice then how irreparably
sinful we are. Notice how depraved we are, that
when God gives us signals of the diminishing of our strength
and our power, we still can't say, Lord, I blew it. See, this
is the doctrine of total depravity. Man is so totally sinful, so
totally depraved that when God shows him his depravity, he still
doesn't have a heart to say, Lord, I've sinned and done that
which is evil in your sight. unless God grants repentance
until the acknowledgement of the truth that we might be saved. Men go on in their rebellion
against God until they're destroyed. Am I telling the truth? So God raised up this little
crazy ego. Do you know, he was called Alexander
the Great, but in his own country of Macedonia, he was called Alexander
the Goat. Do you know why? Because the
goat was the symbol of the kingdom of Greece at that time. Like
the ram was the symbol of the kingdom of Persia at that time.
Like the lion was the symbol of the kingdom of Babylon at
that time. Why am I saying this? Because I want you to understand
that when Daniel was given the imagery concerning the vision,
that it was not completely and totally disconnected from reality.
The people could pick up on what Daniel was saying. And if you
and I were to read the book of the Revelation carefully and
understand what Christ is saying to the church, you'd understand
some of the symbolism too. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him and he will show them his covenant. Daniel
understood what was going on. He saw that this little he goat
would destroy the kingdom that had not emerged to prominence
yet of which Daniel would be a part of it for several years
before he died. But he sees the demise of that
kingdom. You have to really be privileged of God to see kingdoms
come and kingdoms go, be a part of them. And God can trust you
to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth
and not use your revelation and vision for your own gain and
your own glory. Isn't that something? Daniel
saw Babylon gone while Daniel was in Babylon. Daniel saw Persia
come before it came and he saw Persia go before it came. What
type of strength of character must a man have to serve in a
cabinet of a kingdom that he's already seen destroyed and he
knew the kingdom that would destroy it? Am I talking to you? That's
integrity, isn't it? Yeah, it's integrity, but it's
also a confidence that you know that the God that you serve and
love is doing all these things for his own glory and the salvation
of his people. You guys got that? Give me a
little bit more of your time. There's something that remark
that's remarkable that takes place now. This little stubborn
goat rises and falls quickly. Look at verse eight. Chapter
8, verse 8. Therefore the he-goat waxed very
great, and when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and
from it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of
heaven. Do you see that? What's being described here is
the rise and fall, the quick rise and fall of Alexander the
Great. He was only 33 years old when he died. He was a young
man when he died. It only took him six years to
accomplish this particular campaign of taking over the Middle Eastern
world. When he rose to prominence, God
had him taken out. Now here's what happened. He
had become so successful in taking over the different kingdoms that
there was nothing else for him to take over. Do you know power
is like an aphrodisiac? It's like being drunk. It's like
being intoxicated. There's nothing more intoxicating
than power. And this man was not only intoxicated with power
from his prowess and his ability to subdue nations, but he was,
as I said before, demonically induced. And therefore, because
he had become wealthy and powerful and rich, he gave himself over
to debauchery. In fact, he was engaging in debauchery
all alone. I'm going to get into this in
the 11th chapter, more specifically, when I deal with the bio of Antiochus
Epiphanes, who is the ultimate Antichrist, which we'll talk
about for a few minutes before we close. But I'm saying this
because there's nothing new under the sun. There is no virtue in
power, politically, economically, financially, whatsoever, when
your character is not right. When your character is not right,
there's no virtue in you being the president. There's no inherent
virtue in you being the senator or the governor or whoever. What
we need to know is, do you have the right disposition and framework,
the moral foundation, the clear ethical principle to be able
to govern and negotiate that office to the welfare of the
people to whom you have committed that trust? Or are you just one
of the rest of the legion of crooks who get in that office,
manipulate and coerce and abuse your power? Am I saying something
worthy of consideration here? Alexander the Great was no different
than all the other pagan kings who were megalomaniacs, self-centered,
narcissistic, and ultimately destroyed themselves because
once you reach the height of heights of power and authority,
there's nothing else to pursue or to grasp. When you don't know
God, you can't be satisfied. So he began to do stupid things,
like marry the pagan women of the nations that he subdued to
the neglect of his own Macedonian culture, and then he created
within his own people group an animosity and hostility towards
him. Because to marry into these pagan nations like Egypt and
other of the nations that were still prominent at the time is
to endanger the stability of the kingdom that he initially
rose up out of. If the United States... Let me not go there. I'll go
back. That's a whole other... Look, and so what happened was
his own generals, his own boys start to question this man's
wisdom. And he started disrespecting them by telling them that every
time he came into the room, they needed to bow down and worship
him as the incarnation of Zeus. Don't look at me crazy. That
goes on in church all the time. It's called preacher worship. Now, Don't you know those boys
knew Alexander from the time he was a little child, little
snotty-nosed boy, little silly boy growing up? Don't you know
they know his good side and his bad side, his wicked side and
his weak side? Don't you think it was ridiculous
for his captains and his generals to be told by Alexander the Great
that he's the Zeus incarnate? There was nothing in Alexander's
life tangibly evident that proved that to be the case other than
the sovereign power of a God who remotely controlled it and
led him to his destiny. He was just a sinful man like
everybody else and worthy of being despised and rejected when
telling his own people that they need to bow to him like he's
some God. Am I making some sense? And so
He frequented himself continually in the house of wine and murk
and stayed drunk a little bit too long. Look, when you don't
have, when your secret servicemen are not your bosom buddies and
they're not willing to flank you in such a way to die for
you, when they allow you to get hit upside your head with a shoe. See, I shouldn't go there. Now listen to me. Listen to me. If I was a president, I'd have
smiled at the cameras, and we'd have went on about our diplomatic
way. After the cameras were cut out, get all these fellas out
of here. I'm changing my whole security system, because these
fellas don't. This ain't nothing but a shoe. One of those fellas
should have been diving and protecting me. This ain't nothing. Here
I am having to parry myself, protecting. I don't need you.
If I got to protect myself? I was so ticked off when I saw
that. I was so ticked off when I saw that. I was so ticked off. You don't
let a fool like that even come close to the president. I don't
care what kind of president he is. He's the president of America,
my country. So The storybook goes like this, that either Alexander the Great
one day was walking just in a stupor of drunkenness on a very cold
and rainy night. This is what the hagiographers
say. Now the hagiographers are those who write about you. And
when they write about you, they cover up all your blemishes.
They make you like an angel. They only talk about all your
good stuff. You understand what I'm saying? So they can sell
books. It's called hagiographist. The hagiographist says that he
went out, he got a cold, he went home, he died a new moment. See, we got a whole lot of stories
like that, don't we? You don't get to hear the truth
until 10 and 20 years later. But the other folks that knew
said he was poisoned by one of his girlfriends. That's about
right, because see, when we get down to Antiochus Epiphanes,
the other nut in the scriptures, who will be the beginning of
the Roman Empire, where there will be a succession of Caesars
that will follow him, you will find out that one of the prominent
ways by which a kingdom is taken over is assassination and poisoning. Because that's what happens when
you decide to be a king. All right, I'm just about done.
Will you notice the most interesting thing takes place by which Daniel
is himself utterly disturbed, utterly, utterly disturbed. All
that we've talked about thus far has not bothered Daniel.
But this part bothers Daniel because it tells us over in verse
nine, and out of one of them, that is out of the four kingdoms
that emerged out of the Grecian kingdom, because when Alexander
died, his four generals took over the kingdoms. Those are
the four horns. They didn't have the same authority and power
that Alexander did, but they were the four horns. They were
the Syrian kingdom, the Macedonian kingdom, the Egyptian kingdom,
and they were the... The Babylonian kingdom, four
kingdoms that dominated the area, Grecian, Macedonian, Egyptian
and Babylonian kingdom. They four was sort of like checks
and balances among themselves, very powerful men, very powerful
men. But out of them emerges another
horn, it tells us in verse nine. Out of them came forth a little
horn, which waxed exceeding great. Do you see that? Toward the south
and toward the east and toward the pleasant land. Which means
he came out of the West. Which means he came out of Syria.
He was Syrian. He was born Syrian. And he waxed
great even to the host of heaven. To the host of heaven. What does
that mean? God started paying attention
to him. See, there's a metaphor. Once you rise to the status of
the host of heaven, now you're dealing with God. We're dealing
with symbolism. I'm just going to make a few
applications in close to the host of heaven. Now he's becoming
noticed in the host of heaven. Why do you say that, pastor?
Keep your hand there. Go back to chapter seven, and we're going
to be dealing with the same horn over in verse 11. This is the
same little horn. that is talked about in verse
8 of chapter 7 I considered the horns and behold there came up
among them another little horn behold before whom there were
three of the first horns plucked up by the roots and behold in
this horn were eyes like a man and a mouth what speaking great
things verse 11 and I beheld them because of the voice of
the great words which the horn spake I beheld until the beast
was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame."
Do you guys see that? That latter part of the vision
we talked about was the interception or intervention of God's kingdom
when the Roman Empire becomes so prominent and so blasphemous
that only God could stop it. This is what's happening in chapter
8. This little horn is Antiochus and he's rising to such prominence
But he's got a problem. He's blaspheming God. Verse 10. It waxed great even to heaven
and it cast down some of the host of the stars to the ground
and stamped upon them. Do you see that? Metaphor, metaphor. We're not talking literal. The
stars here are a metaphor for the religious element in Israel.
These are the same stars that are talked about in Revelation
12 when the great dragon by his tail drew the third part of the
stars of heaven and cast him down to the ground. The stars
are a symbol or metaphor for people who dwell in heavenly
places. In the Old Testament, Israel was said to be as the
stars in heaven for multitude. And so what's being talked about
here is how Antiochus Epiphanes or this great horn had the ability
to cause the children of Israel to fall. The stars represent
religious folks. They represent people who ostensibly
have citizenship in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven
from which we look for our Lord and Savior. Isn't that right?
In the book of Revelation, you have the vision of two women,
one in the wilderness, one in heaven. One who is a harlot and
one who is a virtuous woman. The harlot in Revelation 17 is
Mr. Babylon, that great mother of
abominations of the earth. She's in the wilderness, on the
earth, in the land. That's where she's conceived
and born and lives. In Revelation 12, we have that
woman who's clothed with the sun. How can she be clothed with
the sun? She's in heaven. The moon under
her feet, 12 stars around her head. That's the church. She gave birth to Christ. That's
the symbolism. The church is viewed as dwelling
in heavenly places. In the Old Testament, the Old
Testament church was viewed as being God's heavenly steward. It is the steward of the mysteries
of the gospel in the Old Testament. So when you hear about the stars
being cast down or the metaphors given as Jesus used that same
apocalyptic language, The heaven shall be shaken and the sun shall
not give us life and the moon will be darkened and the stars
shall fall from heaven as symbolism for the destruction of a kingdom
that had its relationship in a spiritual dimension. That's
all I say for now. Because what he did was affect
the leaders in Israel. Verse 11. Not only did he cast
his stars down to the ground and trampled them underfoot,
yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host. Who
is that? Jesus. And by him, that is this great
horn, the daily was taken away. What daily? The sacrifice on
the altar. the place of the sanctuary was
cast down. What had he done? He had entered
into Israel, he had plundered the temple, he had destroyed
the altar. Now saints, the altar is the
center of worship. The temple was God's revelation.
Men couldn't be saved unless they came to Jerusalem. God dwelt
between the cherubim in the Holy of Holies on the Ark of the Covenant. That's where his judgment seat
was. And he met sinners at the judgment seat with blood by the
mediator who was the high priest between the sinner and the Holy
God. Am I telling the truth? And the altar Israel knew you
couldn't come to God without a blood sacrifice. You couldn't
come to God without sin atonement. You couldn't come to God without
the justification of His holiness being vindicated because of our
sin. When you remove the altar, you remove Christ crucified.
When you remove the altar, you remove the preaching of the only
means by which sinners can be made right with God. Antiochus
moves in, he destroys that altar, and he raises up another altar,
humanism. The worship of man. The worship
of the flesh. See, I'm carrying it over to
our time because I can. The same symbolism that's in
Daniel is in the book of Revelation to tell us that we're not merely
dealing with historical realities. We have a paradigm that has been
carried over to help us, who is the New Testament Church,
understand that we've taken over from that which the Old Testament
Church was responsible for, and that is the revelation of God
in the Old Testament, culminated in the coming and crucifixion
of Christ, transferred to the New Testament Church. What are
you talking about? The kingdom of God was taken
from Israel and given to a nation that would bear the fruit thereof.
Who? The Gentile Church. That's why the devil for 2,000
years has been coming after the church because the devil knows
that God gave the church the authority of the kingdom of God.
And what we see in Daniel chapter eight is the apostasy of the
church under the influence of a pagan king as a foreshadow
of the apostasies that have gone on throughout church history
under the influence of politics. Are you guys able to hear me?
As I'm just about done, look at what it says here in verse
12. And a host was given him. In
the Greek, this is what we call a divine passive. And what that
means is our elder is talking about this this morning. I was
so tempted to want to get in on that conversation when he
raised that question. Do you know God is sovereign? Do you
know that God gives power and authority to whomever he wants
to? Now watch this. And you and I are foolish when
we raise certain questions about what God does. Do you know that
there are certain questions that when you raise, you're dead at
the start? I talked to our guys about this
in our theology studies about the times when different prominent
theologians would talk about things with their students, stupid
things like what was God doing before God created the will of
God? What a stupid question. What
was God doing before God created or produced or brought to pass
his will? Luther said, God was casting
folks in the hell who ask silly questions like that. That's what
God was doing. I bet you that student didn't
ask that stupid. Listen to me. There are certain questions you
don't ask because God does whatsoever he pleases in heaven and in earth.
And you can know this. If he did it, it was right. No
questions asked. Based upon who he is, if he did
it, it was right. If God created this world with
it being planned to fall into sin and perdition and damnation,
God knows what he's doing. And you can't bring the sovereign
Lord into question. If he's determined that men and
women will only get to heaven through the shed blood of Jesus
Christ, there's no question to be asked, why isn't there some
other way? Well, if God is infinite wisdom,
there's no question there. There's no question there. And
according to the record, God gave Antiochus power to plunder
Israel. And there's a reason because
of their disobedience. Will you hear me? I'm done. God
won't ever let a thing happen to you and me. That doesn't fall
under his righteous judgment. And sometimes God will get us
because of our sin. You better you better know that.
And the righteous are simply to say, God, you're right in
your judgment. All that you do is right. David
says the word of the Lord is right and all of his judgments
are done and true. I acknowledge God's doings. In
one of our articles, I write that Aaron sat back and watched
his two sons get consumed by the fire of God because they
dared to enter into the Holy of Holies, assuming they had
right to go into God's presence by themselves. God killed his
two sons. And you know what Aaron says?
I was dumbfounded. I kept my mouth shut because
you did it. I'm not going to question you.
If you did it, it was right. You wanna know what right is?
Whatever God does. Our last point, I'm done. The
elect will stand. Do you guys see that? Do you
believe that? I do. And we'll find out next
time. Let's close in prayer. Father,
we thank you. We thank you for your word. We
thank you for the truth as it is in Christ. We thank you for
the opportunity to worship and to hear your word expounded.
Help us, Lord, to consider the vision. Help us to consider the
revelation. Help us to make application in our own life as well. And
Lord, help us to stand in the day of adversity and in the day
of trouble. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.