To Babylon and Beyond

Vision of a Ram and a Goat—Daniel 8

This is around 551 or 550.

Citadel of Susa was a fortified city of Persia two hundred miles east of Babylon. Xerxes and Esther used this as their winter home.

Ram represents the kings of Media and Persia (8:20). Goat is Alexander the Great.

2 Horns perhaps represents the 2 kingdoms

Daniel saw a male goat coming from the west (8:5) which represented Greece (8:21).

The “horn” between the goat’s eyes represents Alexander the Great.

Four horns follow the broken horn.

One of the horns grew greater than the others. This is probably the Seleucid dynasty of Syria.

In light of 8:25, verses 10-11 likely refer to Antiochus Ephiphanes IV. He was a Seleucid who “removed the sacrifice” and the “daily offering” in the temple.

2300 days?

We aren’t sure what this means.

70 Weeks—Daniel 9.

Prayer (9:1-19) and Prophecy (9:20-27).

Daniel 9 occured, chronologically, before Daniel 6.

This Ahasuerus is not the king mentioned in Esther who reigned at a later time (486-464). Ahasuerus and Darius are titles like Herod.

Daniel read from Jeremiah 25:11-12 “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.” and Jeremiah 29:10 ““For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”

As Daniel was praying, Gabriel was sent to deliver a message of hope.

Daniel 9:24–27 ESV

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

Six Purposes of God:

to finish the transgression—accomplished in the Gospel

to make an end of sin or sacrifice for sin.

to make atonement for iniquity

to bring everlasting righteousness

to seal up—complete--vision and prophecy

to anoint “the most holy”

Perhaps this passage is an example of dual fulfillment

Destruction of temple by Antiochus IV in 168 and rededication by Judas Maccabeus in 165.

The coming of Christ and the destruction of the temple.

70 weeks represents 490 years.

70 & 490 could be symbolic

No interpretation answers every question, but we are limited—by the Text--to what occured during the days of the fourth empire (Rome).

Four possible decrees mentioned in verse 25

1.decree of Cyrus (538)

2.decree of Darius I (519)

3.decree of Artaxerxes I (457)

4.decree of Artaxerxes I (444)

Encouragement—Daniel 10.

How does God encourage?

He sent a message.

He “touched me.”

He gives reveals spiritual warfare.

He reminds us that he knows the future and he controls the future.