History is His Story
Daniel 8:1-8,
15-22 Daniel: Serving God In A Godless Culture (Series)
Daniel has a vision about two creatures, the Ram and the Goat (Medo-Persia and Greece).
Daniel 8:1-2 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal.
Notice where the vision took place.
Daniel 8:15-19 15 While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. 16 And I heard a man’s voice from the Ulai calling, “Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.” 17 As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.” 18 While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet. 19 He said: “I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end.
The time of the end, consistently refers to time of the end of a kind of rebellion.
Daniel 8:3-4 3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. 4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great.
This represents the Meds and the Persians. Why do we make this connection?
Daniel 8:20 The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. It’s so important to read scripture in context, to get the right interpretation
. Daniel 8:5-6 5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage.
The Goat represents Greece. How do we know this?
Daniel 8:21 The shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes is the first king. The powerful leader of Greece is Alexander the Great.
Daniel 8:6-7 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. 7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power. 8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.
The end of the Medo-Persian empire. _
Daniel 8:22 The four horns that replaced the one that was broken off represent four kingdoms that will emerge from his nation but will not have the same power. The 4 horns, are the 4 Generals that replaced Alexander the Great. All this history, is fulfilled prophecy.