Daniel 8.6-The Male Goat with the Conspicuous Horn Charges the Two-Horned Ram with Great Rage
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 25, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 8:6-The Male Goat with the Conspicuous Horn Charges the Two-Horned Ram in a Great Rage
Lesson # 234
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 8:1.
Daniel 8:1 During the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, the king, a vision appeared to me, I, Daniel after the one appearing to me previously. 2 Indeed, I was staring because of this vision. Specifically, I myself was in a trance like state staring as I myself was in Susa, the citadel, which was in the province of Elam. Furthermore, I was staring because of this vision as I myself was beside the Ulai Canal. 3 Then, I lifted up my eyes and then I was staring as behold a ram was standing in front of the canal with it possessing two horns. Furthermore, the two horns were long. However, one was longer than the other with the longer one growing up last. 4 I saw this ram continually butting westward as well as northward and in addition southward as all the beasts could by no means stand in front of it. Furthermore, none could deliver out from its power so that it acted according to its desire. Indeed, it became great. 5 Then, I myself was in a trance like state as behold a male-goat who is ruler over the female-goats, was traveling from the west over the earth’s surface. In fact, it was not touching the earth’s surface. Also, this male-goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes. (Author’s translation)
Daniel 8:6 He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath. (NASB95)
“He came up to the ram that had the two horns” refers to the male goat with the conspicuous horn traveling from the west over the surface of the entire earth without its hooves touching the ground and approaching the ram with the two horns.
“Which I had seen standing in front of the canal” refers to Daniel looking at a prophetic revelatory vision of the ram with two horns standing in front of the Ulai Canal when the male-goat confronted it.
“And rushed at him in his mighty wrath” refers to the male-goat rushing in an aggressive manner against the ram for the purpose of attacking it.
“In his mighty wrath” speaks of a very strong feeling of displeasure and hostility and antagonism toward another, usually in relation to a wrong, whether real or imagined and expresses the fact that this male-goat charged against the ram in a powerful rage.
Daniel 8:6 Next, it traveled up to the ram possessing two horns which I saw standing in front of the canal. In fact, it charged against it in a powerful rage. (My translation)
Daniel continues his description of the male goat by describing for the reader that it approached the ram possessing two horns which he saw standing in front of the Ulai Canal.
He then advances upon this by telling the reader that this male-goat attacked this ram in a powerful rage.
In Daniel 8:20, the elect archangel Gabriel identifies this ram as representing the kings/kingdoms of Media and Persia.
Then, in Daniel 8:21, the angel interprets this male-goat as being the kingdom of Greece and the conspicuous horn refers to the first king of the kingdom of Greece, which was Alexander the Great.
Though his father Philip II of Macedonia had united all the Greek city-states except Sparta, Alexander is considered Greece’s first king.
Alexander was the first king of Greece when it was a world-wide empire.
Therefore, in Daniel 8:6, the vision presents in symbolic terms Alexander the Great attacking the Medo-Persian Empire in a powerful rage, which refers to his righteous indignation against the latter and as a result seeking vindication.
Why was Alexander enraged at the Medo-Persian Empire?
He was enraged at the Medo-Persians because they were the hated enemy of his people.
The Persians sought to subjugate the Greek peoples.
For this reason, Alexander was in a great rage towards the Persians.
He sought vengeance because of the years of assaults waged by the Persians across the Aegean Sea against the Greek city states.
Decades before at the Battles of Marathon and Salamis, the Greeks had repelled the massive Persian army and navy.
Alexander wanted to conquer and subjugate the Persians to himself and the Greek people.
Therefore, a comparison Daniel 8:6 with Daniel 8:21 reveals that in the sixth century B.C. in symbolic language God was informing Daniel through Gabriel that the Greek Empire, which at the time was an insignificant nation, would rise to superpower status and become a world-wide empire, defeating the Persians.
God was also symbolically predicting centuries before he came to world prominence, that Alexander the Great would conquer the Persian Empire and subjugate the world to himself at a very young age.
Again, the application for us here in the church age in the twenty first century is that God is not only sovereign over the nations raising up insignificant nations and tribes to superpower status and world-wide empires but he also judges world-wide empires handing them over to other nations (cf. Daniel 2:21; Isaiah 40:15, 17).
Daniel chapter eight also teaches us that God’s Word is omnipotent in the sense that He can bring to pass whatever He says, which should encourage us and compel us to exercise faith in God’s Word and obey His Word in order to solve our problems in life and deal with our adversities.
This chapter like the rest of the book of Daniel teaches us that God controls history and circumstances since He is responsible for nations rising and falling and since this is the case, we should be content with our circumstances since God put us in our circumstances in order to glorify Him and fulfill His purpose.
Daniel chapter eight also teaches us another very important eternal spiritual principle, namely that nothing that happens in history or what happens today or will happen in the future is not an accident but has been ordained by God from eternity past.
Life is not a haphazard set of circumstances governed by fate as the heathen believe, but life is totally controlled by God to eventually bring glory to Him and blessing to His people.
Daniel chapter eight also reveals to us here in the twenty-first century that God has a plan for this earth and that the events of history, the events of today and the events of the future are all a part of His perfect plan to bring glory to Himself, manifesting His character and nature and to bring blessing to His people.
The nations of the earth are deceived by sin and Satan (Revelation 20:3; 1 John 5:19) but God has compassion for the nations and seeks to deliver them from the tyranny of sin and Satan through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
The nations of the earth are in a tumult and at war constantly because they are enslaved to sin and Satan.
Yet, the God of love sent His Son to the cross to deliver the inhabitants of the nations to deliver them from the devil and the curse of sin.
God also plans to bring peace to the nations now at war in that He will establish His Son on the throne of planet earth.
His Son Jesus Christ will rule bodily from Jerusalem over the nations of the earth.
The Prince of peace will at that time bring peace to the nations.
Therefore, knowing all this, we here in the church age in the twenty-first century must not be discouraged or become disillusioned as to the state of our nation or the deplorable state of the world since our God has a plan for this earth.
Our God is sovereign and incomparable and will bring to pass all that He has planned from eternity past, which has now been revealed to those who are His children, in His Almighty Word!