The Conspicuous Horn-Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Handout
As we begin this morning, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to Daniel chapter 8. we will be reading verses 5-14 shortly, so please have these verses marked and ready for that time.
Last week we began by examining many of the rulers of the Medo-Persian Empire. An empire that was to dominant ruler on earth for a period of 220 years. During that period of time the empire had 6 dominant leaders and 4 that were not so dominant, in some ways they maintained the status-quo of what the previous leaders had established.
In looking at the dominant leaders, we spent more time looking at Xerxes, also known as Ahasuerus, who was the king from the Book of Esther. We highlighted how volatile he was, how irrational he was. It seemed like it took nothing to set him off and when his temper raged, lets just say you wanted to steer clear of him.
Case in point. One of the things we looked at last week was Xerxes attempt at defeating the Greeks. If you will recall, the Greek historian, Herodotus estimated his army to be 1,7000,000 foot soldiers, plus 80,000 in his calvary, as well as numerous chariots as well as soldiers who fought via camelback. So he had an army of close to 2 million. Well the journey from Persia to Greece was incredibly long and difficult.
We looked at this map last week, I’d like to look at it again. Well their journey to do battle against the Greeks took them through Celaenae (Celainai) in Phrygia (which is modern-day Turkey), which is part of the Persian Empire. Upon arriving they were greeted by Pythius who was a very wealthy governor serving in the Medo-Persian empire. Well Pythius hosted Xerxes and his army in the most marvelous fashion and lavished money and supplies upon them. Xerxes was absolutely delighted with all that Pythius did for he and his army. Pythius had 5 sons serving in the army and as he was aging, he had one simple request of the king; allow his oldest son to stay behind and care for him in his last days. Xerxes flew into a rage at the request, feeling Pythius doubted they could defeat the Greeks. So he had the eldest son killed, then cut in half, and marched his entire army between the two halves, as a warning to all who expressed doubt or reservation about service to their King.
The other thing we noted last week was that due to the way Xerxes wasn’t just content conquering the area around Athens, he wanted to humiliate the entire area, taking special effort in burning their many temples to foreign gods. By the way last week we highlighted the defeat of their navy at Salamis. What I didn’t mention was that one of the roles of his large navy was to both provide support and supplies to his army, but also to bring additional warriors to the battle. Without the support, supplies and additional warriors, combined with the fact that winter was setting in, and battles in ancient history generally shut down during the winter months, Xerxes began to make his way back to Persia, leaving his general, Mardonius and most of the soldiers behind. Xerxes boarded one of the remaining war ships and sailed back to the Persian empire. A few months later, Mardonius began to march back over areas they had already defeated. This brought he and the army back into Athens, about 10 months after they had burned to to the ground. During that 10 months, many Athenians had returned to clean the ruble and begin to rebuild. Upon hearing Mardonius and his army were heading their direction, they fled to safety. Mardonius looked over all the Athenians had done to clean and rebuild, and proceeded to destroy all the work they had accomplished. Needless to say, all of these efforts created an intense hatred for the Persians, a hatred that only grew for the next 150 leading up to the rule of Alexander the Great.
Now, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word?
As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 6 He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. 7 I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. 8 Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
9 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 It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. 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.”
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.
Let’s go before theLord in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
We are honored to hold in our hands Your living Word. Father, we ask that You would speak to us this morning through what we see on these pages. We present our hearts to You that as we consider these truths, our hearts and lives would be seeking to be transformed. O that we would never open these pages, read these Words, Words straight from Your heart of love, and not be moved by what we read.
Change us this morning.
This we pray, in Jesus Name Amen
Last week we began our look at The Conspicuous Horn, this week we should complete this portion of Daniels vision as recorded here in chapter 8. As we look at chapter 8 verse 5, one of the first things we notice is;
Speed Kills. Daniel 8:5; Daniel 7:6
What do we read in verse 5:
As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.
Just try to picture in your mind a furious goat moving so fast across the face of the earth his feet appear as if they are not even touching the ground.
Growing up I looked forward to Saturday morning cartoons. Of course before we were permitted to turn on the TV, we each had a to-do list on the kitchen counter, our chores for the day, but once completed you’d find us watching our favorite cartoons. One of my favorites was this one, which kinda helps me picture how this one horned goat moved.
Compare this with the description he gave in his vision recorded in chapter 7. which took place about 2 years earlier. Daniel 7:6
After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
As was mentioned a few weeks back when we were in chapter 7, leopards are notorious for their brutal and swift attacks, and adding to that 4 wings is specifically done to emphasize a swiftness that is far greater than what they are normally known to have.
We will address the 4 heads later.
Both of these depictions are meant to communicate the speed with which Alexander the Great and the Grecian Empire conquered the known world.
To give you an idea, let’s look at the time frame for each of the early major empires noted in Biblical times.
The First was;
The Assyrian Empire; 300 years.
The Assyrian empire took almost 300 years before it reached it’s peak as far as the land mass it conquered. This empire had been off of the scene for a long time when Daniel was prophesying, so he doesn’t mention it in his book.
The next empire ruled for almost all of Daniels days, and it is;
The Babylonian Empire; 21 years.
It took around 21 years for the Babylonian empire to reach its peak size. You may recall, it’s reason for existence, according to the will of our sovereign God was first, the exercise God’s judgement on the wicked Assyrian empire, but it was also God’s instrument of judgement to fulfill the prophecies of Jeremiah that Judah would spend 70 years in captivity.
The third major ruling empire was;
The Medo-Persian Empire. 28 years.
We have looked at the timeline of their conquest in previous weeks so we won’t spend much time here this morning. But I do want to remind us what we considered last Sunday, and that is our sovereign Good brought this empire on the scene to exercise God’s judgement on the Babylonian Empire for dishonoring His great Name and for destroying the Temple in Jerusalem.
This leads us to The Conspicuous Horn, which is;
The Greek Empire. 12 years.
In some ways you could say it was slightly less. Alexander the Great began to rule in 336 BC, began to battle and conquer the Medo-Persian empire in 334 BC and was done by 323. Before we discuss this empire and how it fits with Daniels prophecy. There is something else to note. Not only was Alexander the Greats conquest swifter than any of the other ancient ruling empires. The land mass he conquered was also very large.
Let me show you on this map. Change colors for each empire
Assyria-just below the Black sea to Tadmor
Babylon all of Assyria, east to Tarsus, down into Egypt.
Medo-Persia All of Babylon, east to Thrace, west to to India and the Arabian Sea.
Greece. Most of the Medo-Persian empire and as far east as Macedonia, extending down to Sparta. There was a part of the Medo-Persian empire on the west side Alexander didn’t conquer, but probably for a couple reasons. One of which the terrain made conquering this area incredibly difficult and dangerous, but the second reason was, for as difficult as it would have been to conquer, the economic benefits would have been very minor.
In other words, not only was Alexander the Great’s conquest the quickest, the land mass he conquered was significantly larger than all but the Medo-Persian empire.
You can see how Daniels 2 visions highlighted the speed of his conquest.
But there is something else to note in Alexander the Greats conquest that I believe shows that, despite him being a pagan ruler, the Hand of the Almighty was upon him. Those who do not believe in the sovereignty of God credit his conquest with his military prowess, however, I think a better explanation is, just as was prophesied by Daniel, here 200 years before his conquest took place. God’s Hand was upon him.
The army of Alexander the Great was somewhere between 35,000-50,000 soldiers. The Army of Darius III was anywhere from 250,000 to as high as 1 million, yet they appeared powerless to stop the army of Alexander the Great. Which is exactly what we see prophesied by Daniel, 200 years earlier in Daniel 8:7
I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.
We looked at the furious rage with which he conquered last Sunday. So we won’t go back over that this morning.
This takes us to the next thing we see in Daniels Vision, as recorded in Daniel 8:8
Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
In verse 8 we see;
The Conspicuous Horn is Broken. Vs. 8
The way in which Alexander the Great, the Great Horn, the Conspicuous Horn was broken, I believe adds to the truth that his conquest had more to do with the sovereign God than his prowess as a military leader. You see, after he had accomplished all that God had determined in advance for him to do, his demise was quick. So quick that he never even returned to Greece.
He was fascinated with the city of ing Nebuchadnezzar, the city of Babylon. After a great deal of celebratory parties, where alcohol flowed freely, he died abruptly. Although we don’t know for sure, some have said he suffocated in his own vomit. Not long before he died, in the midst of a fever he couldn’t seem to beat, someone close to him asked what should become of his empire should he not recover. It has been reported that he replied; “Give it to the strong!”
Well it took about 20 years for all of it to pan out, but in that time his 2 wives and his 2 sons were murdered, thus removing any chance of one of his sons taking over as ruler. Which, by the way is yet another thing we saw prophesied 200 years earlier in Daniels vision and the angel Gabriels interpretation. Look what Gabriel stated in verse 22; Daniel 8:22
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..
“…but not with his power. The angel Gabriel states. In other words, the next ruler, or in this case rulers, would not be in the line of Alexander the Great.
For the next 20 years the leadership of the empire was being battled for, until it was divided among his four generals, exactly as was prophesied by Daniel in verse 8, and interpreted by Gabiel in verse 22.
the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. (8:8)
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. (8:22)
The empire was divided accordingly;
The Four Successor Kingdoms;
Ptolemy: Claimed and ruled Egypt, founding the long-lasting Ptolemaic Dynasty.
Seleucus: Gained control of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Persia (the East), establishing the Seleucid Empire.
Cassander: Took command of Macedonia and Greece in mainland Europe.
Lysimachus: Was assigned and ruled Thrace and parts of Asia Minor
The next thing we see in Daniels vision is 1 horn growing out of the 4 horns, which I believe you will be fascinated by how many believe this will play out, but I will save that for our next time in the book of Daniel. But I’d like to close this morning by looking at some thing different as we close this mornings message, something important to all of us, something that should be an encouragement to all of us.
One of the most beautiful and valuable lessons I have learned in my, now, 60 years as a Christ follower. It was in the summer, back in 1966, 60 years ago I was led to the Lord by my father, whom most of you have met. And since that time I have seen the Hand of God move in some powerful ways.
I have lived through times where everything just seemed to fall in place perfectly, so much so that I marveled at seeing God orchestrate things with flawless perfection.
But I have also lived through time where nothing seemed to work out, where every time I rounded the corner, I hit another dead-end, or worse yet, faced yet one more tragedy. Generally, right in the middle of those times, it’s easy to miss the Hand of God, but as I have looked back on many of those times, I have seen how even in the midst of tough time, troubled times, even time of great tragedy, the Hand of God is still at work, orchestrating in magnificent ways.
As many of you know, I have always loved music. One of my favorite classes in high school was concert choir. I believe it was during my Junior year we were preparing for a state choir competition. We were working on a very complicated choir piece. I remember Mr. Huckabee, our choir teacher, breaking it down section by section. He’d work for a bit with the guys singing bass, then baritone, 1st tenor, second tenor, alto, all the way up to the highest voices among the sopranos. Honestly, outside of the sopranos, when we worked individually, it sounded pretty terrible. As the days turned into weeks, it began to sound better and better. But this particular piece wasn’t for the competition, per se, it was actually specifically for all of the high school choirs who were at the competition, to join as one large choir. I really don’t know how many were a part of the final choir, but I am certain it was in the hundreds. When everything and every choir, every voice, was put together in one huge choir, it sounded magnificent. Everyone was amazed.
This is exactly what takes place with our sovereign God. He works magnificently behind the scenes, in ways we oftentimes don’t see or realize, and like the Master choir director He is, He orchestrates, He directs, and all of the sudden everything falls into place until a beautiful masterpiece breaks forth.
This leads me to a question that almost all of you should have no difficulty in answering, because I have not only addressed it multiple times while going through the book of Daniel, but I have also asked this question multiple times.
What is the overarching theme of Daniel? (the sovereignty of God).
One of the areas His sovereignty has been displayed in a major way is through fulfilled prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy which is clearly seen, and some that we really had to dig down deep to see, which we looked some last Sunday. But His sovereignty is seen in other areas to, areas we could easily miss, if not for our ability to look back at what has unfolded in history. We have spent considerable time looking at fulfilled prophecy, and we will continue to do so in the coming weeks until we complete the book of Daniel. But there is something else I’d like to look at this morning, where the Hand of God is working masterfully!
The Divine Orchestration of The Master Choir Director.
All through ancient history, even when there were mighty empires that ruled the known world. There was always a significant language barrier. Whether it was the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire. It didn’t matter, they may have ruled over huge land masses, but each area they conquered maintained their native languages.
You may recall that we learned while we were going through the Book of Daniel, Daniel recorded his thoughts in Hebrew from chapter 1 through the 3rd verse of chapter 2. Can anyone tell me what language he moved to moving forward beginning in verse 4 of chapter 2? (Aramaic).
Do you recall why he transitioned? (the target audience shifted from the Jewish audience to the Babylonians). Then as we moved into chapter 8, he shifted back to Hebrew, because the target audience was, once again the Hebrews. In both instances he wrote in the language understood by the target audience.
That all changed under the rule of the Greek Empire. The Greek Empire insisted that everyone in the empire speak one language.
The orchestration of Koine Greek.
The language was Koine Greek-or common Greek. Now you could easily look at this as a negative, and many did, but over time, everyone learned to speak Koine Greek. And this is where we see the Hand of God working behind the scenes to orchestrate what appeared to be sour individual notes, into what I will call, a magnificent musical masterpiece.
The orchestration of the Septuagint.
Up until that time, the only copies of God’s word were written in Hebrew. This meant that only the Jewish people had access to God’s Word. And the Jews had no interest in educating others in this area. But as time went on, and as more and more Jews moved to the place where they no longer spoke or understood Hebrew, there was a push to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew to Koine Greek. Most of this was accomplished over a hundred years before the birth of Christ. Guess what this meant? It meant that God’s Word was no longer available only to the Jews, it was available to anyone who could speak of read in Koine Greek. As a result, the revelation of the God of creation began to spread.
But it didn’t end there because our great God wasn’t done yet.
The orchestration of the spread of the Gospel.
While many of the Hebrew’s wanted to remain exclusive in their religious beliefs, very early in the church age the Apostles and early church leaders turned their backs on exclusivity, and embraced spreading the Gospel, as Jesus Himself directed them in Acts 1:8 “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
As the apostles, and those associated close to them, recorded their thoughts, they did so in the common language of the people. They wrote in Greek, they taught the truths of Jesus in Greek, they prayed in Greek. When they entered new towns to teach the truths of God’s Word and of all that Jesus had don, practically everyone was able to understand. Thus the Gospel was available to all people.
Our Divine Master Choir Director was in complete control of all this, that His message of grace and mercy, bought and paid for by the Blood of Jesus Christ, spread in ways that would have been impossible, had it not been for the powerful empire of the Conspicuous Horn.
So the lesson for us this morning is this, we can trust Him, He is in complete control, even of what appears to be the sour troubled notes of our life, orchestrating a Masterpiece so magnificent, that we will look back one day, and marvel t what He has done. But only those who have surrendered to Him, who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus, will see and hear this divine orchestra. If this doesn’t include you, why not surrender to Him right now?
Let’s close our time this morning in prayer.
