DANIEL 8 RAM VS GOAT2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Daniel 8 Ram Vs Goat

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011.

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Daniel chapter 8 this evening and like we studied last week, Daniel chapter 8 really has a lot of depth to it. Man, we went through Daniel chapter 7 and there was so much more we could have got into and talked about and I think Daniel chapter 8 when we get to the end of it this evening will

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will feel kind of the same way. For some of you that have been, you know, seasoned as Christians, you've been in the Lord for a long time, you'll be able to, you know, take these things and dig in on your own. And for some of you, you've not been around that long and not been walking with the Lord very long. And so these things you'll be trying to grasp to understand. And so we'll try to find the balance of making it simple and understandable, but also looking for what God would speak to us

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with the depth and the meanings that are here in Daniel chapter 8. And really what we're looking at is a vision that Daniel receives. It's God speaking forth to Daniel things that are going to take place. Now from Daniel's perspective, they're future things.

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For us, as we look at them, they're primarily historical things. And so we'll be looking back at history and some of the things that have taken place in history that have already happened and see how God has fulfilled the prophecies that he gave to Daniel. Let's start out though in Daniel chapter 8 verse 1 and 2. It says this,

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In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, to me, Daniel, after the one that appeared to me the first time. I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai.

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And so Daniel here begins chapter 8 describing to us the circumstances and the beginnings of this vision. He tells us when it took place. It was the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar. Now Daniel is alive during the time that Babylon is the world power of the day.

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And Babylon had conquered Jerusalem and taken the survivors captive back to Babylon. And Daniel was one of those captives. That was back under King Nebuchadnezzar. And under King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel was raised up in the ranks of the government. And he had a really high position within the government, even until this time as King Belshazzar is ruling and reigning in Babylon.

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Well, as Daniel is there in Babylon, it's the third year of King Belshazzar, which puts it about 550 B.C.,

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Now as we go through some of these dates, we're going to be talking about quite a few different dates and years. I think I should point out that when we look at the Old Testament datings, the counting is backwards. So last week in chapter 7, we looked at a prophecy that took place or a vision that took place in the first year of Belshazzar. And that was 553 B.C.,

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So three years later now, that takes us to 550 BC. And I'm going to mess up the math all evening and I apologize for that because I'm not good at subtracting, I guess. I'm good at adding but not subtracting. And so 550 BC though is where we're at. Belshazzar is king. He's been king for a couple of years and Daniel now has this vision.

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Now in this vision, he's taken to this place called Shushan. And what he's describing there, the location that he's describing is going to be the capital city or the capital area of the next empire. When Babylon falls, another empire is going to take its place.

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And that is going to be the Persian Empire. And Shushan is the area, the region that is the capital of that Persian Empire. And so God is taking him to the location of this next empire, this next world power that is going to be on the scene.

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And so here's the vision that he had. He begins to describe it in verse 3. It says,

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I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great. And so as Daniel is receiving this vision from God, he first of all sees a ram.

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Now I'm going to have some images on the screen. I know they're a little bit cheesy and corny, but hopefully they help paint the picture a little bit, help you visualize the things that are going on, because some of these things are quite complicated. And so I want to give you something to be able to grasp hold of. And so as he sees this vision, first of all, he sees a ram and the ram has two horns and

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They're both high, but one of them is higher than the other, more prominent than the other. And so he sees this ram.

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And he sees some specific details about it. And those details will be explained or become important later on as we see God interpret this vision for Daniel. And so these things are not in there just because he had a funny dream, but because there's meaning and there's purpose to the different details and different elements of this vision that God is giving to Daniel. And so we'll be talking about those details later.

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But he doesn't just see a ram, he also sees a goat. Look at verse 5. And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

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Verse 7. Verse 8. Verse 9.

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Therefore the male goat grew very great. But when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven. So here now we have the description of this vision as it's continuing. First we saw the ram with two horns. Now we see a goat. The goat has one horn, and it comes furiously at the ram.

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The goat comes and basically conquers the ram, defeats the ram, breaks off the horns there in this vision that Daniel is receiving. And as he breaks off the horns, he defeats the ram and no one is able to withstand him.

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And so it describes this goat as growing very great. Now I want to point out to you some of the details that we'll come back and look at when we get the interpretation of this vision so that you can remember them. And so the ram has two horns. And that's very specific and important. One of the horns is higher than the other. And that's important and specific. Also we see the ram pushing westward.

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northward and southward. So they're going west, north and south but not east. And that becomes important as well as we'll see in the interpretation and understanding of this vision. For the goat, there's some specific things that are mentioned there. I'm going to scoot back a little so you guys can see better. For the goat,

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The first thing is that the goat is from the west. And again, that's an important aspect that we'll see in just a moment. The goat comes swiftly or without touching the ground. And so, so fast that it's not even like he's touching the ground. The goat has one horn, but it's a notable horn. And then he casts the ram to the ground.

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And then the horn is broken and four horns come up in its place. And one of those horns, a little horn, becomes prominent in the focus of the attention. And so these are all details about this vision that Daniel is receiving from God that we'll get to see the significance of later on in this chapter. And so we'll come back and talk about those details and what they mean and how they are fulfilled in history.

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So far so good? That didn't sound very reassuring. Alright, verse 9. Continuing on with this vision, it says, And out of one of them, so out of one of the four horns, came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. And it grew up to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them.

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Verse 13,

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Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, How long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? He said to me, For two thousand three hundred days. Then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

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And so here is this vision is continuing. He's noticing the horn was broken on the goat. Four horns came out in its place and on one of them there was a little horn that became apparent or he begins to observe.

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And this little horn has some specific details about it as well, in that he raises himself up, he proclaims himself to be God, he puts an end to the sacrifices at the temple, and we are going to see these things fulfilled, these details take place in the interpretation or the understanding of this prophecy that God will give him.

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And so what we have here in verses 1 through 14 is Daniel's vision. It's basically these two animals, the ram with two horns, the goat with one horn. There's details about each of them that really show and demonstrate that God is really God. Because

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Because there's no way for all of these details to be given and fulfilled in the way that God will describe in just a moment. There's no way for that to take place unless God is really God. Unless God really is all-knowing. Unless God really knows the beginning from the end and everything in between. What we see here in chapter 8, for us looking back, we see...

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that God reigns on high, that He knows all things, and that He accomplishes His purposes, His will, even through the course of nations, even through the course of history. Well, Daniel receives this vision, and he's not understanding it just yet. He knows it's important, he knows it's a vision from God, but he's wrestling with, what does it mean?

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And so we see that in verse 15. It says, And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Uli who called and said, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.

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So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face. But he said to me, Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.

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Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and stood me upright. And he said, look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation. For at the appointed time, the end shall be. So Daniel now is about to receive the interpretation, the understanding of this vision. And he receives it from God.

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An angel. An angel named Gabriel. Now, we're pretty familiar with Gabriel because we saw him in Luke chapter 1 a couple times. Remember, it was Gabriel who appeared to Zacharias there in the temple. And then also it was Gabriel who appeared to Mary as he was announcing that she would become pregnant with the Messiah, with the Savior.

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And so here, back in the Old Testament, we have Gabriel again. And he is now going to explain to Daniel at the instruction of the Lord. The Lord says, hey Gabriel, explain what this vision means to Daniel. And so he begins to tell him, Daniel, these things refer to or they signify events that will take place in the future. Only God can tell the future.

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At least only God can do it with complete accuracy.

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Because the rest of us, we can guess, we can predict. If you look at the newspaper, you turn on the news, there's lots of guesses and predictions about the future. The future of the housing market, the future of the job market, the future of the stock market, the future of the political things that are going on around the world, the future of earthquakes and tornadoes and weather. Everybody is predicting the future and trying to guess what it might hold.

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And we can see the accuracy of that and know very well that, well, there's just not very much accuracy in those who make those predictions. Now, of course, if you make a lot of predictions, then maybe a couple of them will come true, but nobody is close to being 100% accurate. But what we see...

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as Gabriel is going to be interpreting this, is that God is completely accurate and He is able to declare the future. That's a little bit difficult for us to grasp. It's hard for us to fully understand, but it's important for us to know that God can declare the future. Think about what that means. Consider the implications in your own life. God knows...

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what's happening in each of our lives. But he doesn't just know what's happening at the moment, he knows what will happen tomorrow and the next day and next week and next year and ten years if he tarries. He knows what is going to take place. He knows all things. He doesn't just know as someone who kind of knows the vague things that might take place or

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Some details here and there, but he knows all of the details. Not only does he know the events that will happen in your life tomorrow, but he knows the thoughts that you'll think about those events and the feelings that you'll have surrounding those events and everybody else that's involved as well. He knows all of the details of all things. And so here he's able to declare to Daniel what is to come for the next couple hundred years. Could you imagine that?

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God is able to declare what is going to take place for the next several hundred years. He knows the future. He knows the end from the beginning. This is the God that we serve. And so Gabriel now is going to declare to Daniel the future, the interpretation of this vision that

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which is describing the future. Now again, for us, the majority of this is past. And so we can look back and we can see it was fulfilled exactly the way that God told Daniel it would be. For Daniel is future. And that's what makes this chapter so spectacular. Because these details were there hundreds of years before the events actually took place. So let's get into this interpretation. Starting in verse 20, it says...

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The ram which you saw, having two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power. And so God is declaring, this vision concerns Israel.

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World powers or world kingdoms that were yet to come from Daniel's perspective. Now again, Daniel was alive during the time of Babylon's reign. Babylon was the world power of the day. It ruled the civilized world. The red circle there on the map, that's the area of Babylon. Jerusalem is there on the left. You can see that. Babylon was situated over by the Euphrates River.

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And so that was the region that was ruled by Babylon. God says in this interpretation to Daniel in verse 20, he said, the ram with the two horns is two kings or two kingdoms, Media and Persia. Now they're circled in blue is the areas that were governed by those two kingdoms, Media and Persia.

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And what we find out as we look back at history is that Media and Persia joined together. They formed an alliance and they basically became one kingdom, one nation. And so the Medes and the Persians got together just as God declared that they would well in advance of the actual event.

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Well, then he goes on to describe the goat being the kingdom of Greece. Now, Greece is over there, circled in yellow. You see Athens there, that's where Greece is located. And so, these are the regions that are being dealt with. Daniel is under the reign of Babylon, the region there that's in red. But God is saying there's going to be a clash between the Medes and the Persians.

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And the Greeks. There's going to be two kingdoms that clash. As the ram and the goat battled, there's going to be battles between the Medo-Persian Empire and the Greek Empire. Now, we've seen this before. In fact, in Daniel chapter 2, we saw the vision that was given to King Nebuchadnezzar. Remember, Daniel interpreted that. And that was the statue with the different kinds of medals.

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And God interpreted the dream, each metal represented a world power, a world kingdom that was going to come. The gold was Babylon, the silver was the Medo-Persian Empire, that's what we're talking about here. So the Medo-Persian Empire is there represented by the silver in the statue. It's represented by the ram here in the vision of Daniel chapter 8.

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Well, then after that empire was going to be the Greek empire, represented by the bronze thighs on the image. And this Greek empire is what Daniel is referring to here, or in Daniel chapter 8, it's the goat. And so you have the silver, the Medo-Persian empire, the bronze, which is the Greek empire, represented by the ram and the goat here in Daniel chapter 8.

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And so what we're finding here, Daniel chapter 2 is kind of an overview of those. In Daniel chapter 7, last week we saw that as well, kind of an overview. And here in chapter 8, we're getting more detail and insight into the transition from the Medo-Persian Empire to the Greek Empire. And so he's kind of zeroing in on that particular time frame, on those particular nations, and giving us some insights through this vision that he gives us.

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So we understand the ram represents the Medes and the Persians. The goat represents the Greeks. These are two nations that are far apart. The Greek nation, at the time that Daniel is prophesying these things or receiving this vision, was not a threat to anybody. It was a small civilization. It wasn't a great, you know, massive army. It was a great, you know,

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Because Daniel is receiving these things hundreds of years before they actually take place. You remember back in verse 1, he says, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar. And so again, that's 550 BC. Well, you look at the Medo-Persian Empire and that took over Babylon around 539. So about 11 years after this vision is when the Medo-Persian Empire conquers Babylon.

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But then, 330 BC, so now we're talking 200 years later basically, is when the Greek Empire rises to power. And so God has given Daniel a vision which is describing events that will take place over the next several hundred years. And we'll see that more clearly as we continue on this evening. And so we have the ram and the goat.

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Now, the ram represents the Medes and the Persians, or Media and Persia, joined together in an alliance. They become one nation. And so those two horns of the ram represent these two nations, the Medes and the Persians. But notice, one horn is higher than the other horn.

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And so what ended up happening, as you look back in history at the Medes and the Persians, is that the Persians became more prominent. And in fact, it's called the Persian Empire. It's not called the Median Empire. It's called the Persian Empire because the Persians took power and they became more prominent. And so although they joined together as an alliance at the beginning, one of them was more powerful. And it was the Persians. And so they dominate the empire.

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Well, then we also see the detail there in Daniel's vision that the ram was pushing westward and northward and southward. And as you can check it out later on, as you go over the territory that was conquered by the Persian army, you'll find that they went west and north and south, but they didn't do much conquering eastward. It was all the other direction. And so,

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The Medo-Persian Empire, the Persian armies, the Persian Empire, fulfill all of these details that are given by God in advance of the events happening. Now, this is pretty incredible. We look back and we can say, okay, that makes sense. But Daniel had no idea how these things would be fulfilled. He knows and he's declaring what God is showing him.

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But he didn't have the benefit of being able to look back and write the things with confidence because they've already taken place. He's writing these things down because God has shown them to him, but it's not happened yet. And so could you imagine, tonight, you go home, you lay down, and God gives you a vision. And He tells you, this is what the vision means. This is what's going to happen to the United States over the next several hundred years.

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That would be a pretty radical experience. I mean, that would just blow your mind. Would you be able to handle it? Daniel here, of course, this isn't the first time that God has given him a vision, but this is pretty mind-blowing. In fact, we see the effect on Daniel towards the end of the chapter.

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In fact, we'll just jump there for a second. Verse 27, look there with me. It says, And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days. Afterward I arose and went about the king's business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it. This was something that made him sick. It was difficult. He was trying to grasp it. These things were heavy things. And so he's seeking to understand it. God's giving him the interpretation, but the effects are long-lasting in his life.

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And he's faint afterwards. He's overwhelmed by what God is revealing to him. So the ram represents the Medes and the Persians. Again, the goat represents then the Greeks. Now again, there's details back in the first 14 verses about the goat that are fulfilled later on in history by the Greek Empire. And so you can look at some of these things. The goat comes from the west, right?

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Now, if you'll picture in your mind the map that I showed just a moment ago, where is Greece from Babylon and Persia? It's west. And so the goat, Greece, comes from the west, just like God said. Without touching the ground. That was a characteristic he saw. The goat was going swiftly so that it wasn't even touching the ground as it came. Well, what's significant about...

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the Greek Empire and their rise to power is how quickly it took place. The Greek armies were led by Alexander the Great. He was the king of Greece. And he led his armies to victory, conquering the world essentially in a little less than 13 years. It was phenomenal the way that he was able to obtain these victories.

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They weren't just, you know, all these weak little cities and towns and nations, but there were some massive victories and there were many occasions where he's massively outnumbered and yet he was able very quickly to conquer the world. In fact, it's talked about or declared that he conquered the world and then he was sad, he cried, he wept because there was nothing left for him to conquer.

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That he conquered the limits. He reached as far as he could and there was nothing else for him to do. No more battles to wage. And so the swiftness of him overtaking the world is represented here by this goat that goes so swiftly that its feet do not touch the ground.

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Well, we also see in the goat that there's a notable horn which fits very well with Alexander the Great. Very notable. Still very well known to this day, the things that he did, the wars that he fought. The goat comes and casts the ram to the ground. Now again, the ram represents Persia, the Persian Empire. And that's exactly what Alexander the Great did. He led the Greek armies and

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against Persia and the Persian armies, and he defeated them soundly, conquered the nation, broke the horns, cast it to the ground. The Persian empire fell to Alexander the Great, to the Greek empire. Well, then it tells us that the horn is broken. Now, what happened in Alexander's life is that he died at a very young age. He died at approximately 33 years old.

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Now he had reigned for 13 years, so he took the throne, he began to reign when he was 20, very young king. And yet he accomplished these great victories and conquered the world in 13 years. But he dies at a young age of 13. He had no sons that were able to take the throne upon his death. He was too young, his sons were too young, they weren't ready. And so...

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the kingdom then was divided and split up between his four generals. Now going back to the vision that God gave to Daniel, you remember the horn was broken, that notable horn was broken off, but in its place came four horns. When Alexander the Great died, the four generals, his four generals died.

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took control of the kingdom and essentially split the kingdom into four separate kingdoms. So that horn was broken off, but four now grow in its place. Again, this is taking place hundreds of years after God has given this vision to Daniel. And yet the details and the accuracy of these details is astounding. And so these four generals...

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take over the Greek Empire, and then there's a little horn that Daniel pays attention to.

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We'll talk about this little horn in the coming verses as well. But it seems that this little horn is fulfilled by a particular ruler of the region of Syria, which we'll get into. But also it looks like this little horn is a prophecy that's a dual fulfillment. Now we've seen that in the past. We haven't really talked about it in the book of Daniel.

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But we saw it a lot in Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah where there's a lot of prophecies that have dual fulfillments. That means they're fulfilled twice.

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They're fulfilled one time, it's kind of a partial fulfillment, and usually that's within the next hundred years or so, or a couple hundred years, there's a historical fulfillment. But then also there's a yet future fulfillment, which will take place at the end times, or during the end times. And we see that here in the little horn, that it's probably a dual fulfillment, in that this one guy, his name is Antiochus Epiphanes, he fulfills

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the little horn and what's described there. But the ultimate fulfillment of those things will be taking place during the reign of the Antichrist in the tribulation period. A lot of details there. I apologize if you don't quite grasp all of the things that I'm referring to, but we need to continue to move on through Daniel chapter 8 here. So you have the ram and the goat. The ram has two horns. It's the Medes and the Persians united.

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And then you have the goat with one notable horn, Alexander the Great. He casts down the ram. The Greek Empire conquers the Persians. Four generals take over the Greek Empire upon Alexander's death when that horn is broken off. And then there's a little horn that we'll pay attention to. You with me so far? Alright. Let's move on to verse 23. Verse 23.

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It says, "...and in the latter time of their kingdom..." It's the four horns that we just talked about. "...in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise having fierce features who understand sinister schemes."

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Verse 2,

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but he shall be broken without human means. And so now again, he's paying attention on this little horn. And he describes this little horn as being in the latter time of the four horns, the latter time of the division of the Greek empire into four different nations or empires.

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Now, near the end of the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire rose to power and conquered and overtook the area that once was known as the Greek Empire. And so near the end of that, before the Romans were able to conquer these four different kingdoms that came out of the Greek Empire, there's a king that rises up and has fierce features and his power is mighty.

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Now this, again, seems to fit and seems to be describing a man named Antiochus Epiphanes. Again, this is probably a dual fulfillment though because all of the details are not fulfilled. But many of the things that we look and see here in chapter 8 about this little horn and the things that are described are also talked about in regards to the Antichrist.

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And so you can check out Revelation chapter 13 and basically the whole rest of the book of Revelation in the activities of the Antichrist. We'll talk more about this next week as well in Daniel chapter 9 because we'll come back and revisit this same piece of history and talk about what it means. And so you'll get more understanding as we go or you can dig into it on your own in Revelation 13 and following.

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But we'll focus on Antiochus Epiphanes for a moment. He reigned in the region of Syria. And so as the kingdom was divided into four different parts, he was one of the later kings. He reigned the region of Syria from about 175 to 163 B.C.

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And so he was later on in history. Remember, Daniel's prophesying this in 550 BC. So this is, you know, about 400 years later that these events are actually taking place.

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Well, Antiochus Epiphanes claimed that he is or he was a god. In fact, his name Epiphanes, that's not his given name. That was a name that he gave himself. And you've ever heard someone say they had an epiphany? That means a revelation. That's what he was saying. He says, I'm a revelation from God. He proclaimed himself to be God.

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His region that he ruled included the city of Jerusalem. And so he had authority over Jerusalem and he persecuted the Jews quite intensely. He removed the high priest and set up his own high priest instead. But not only that, he defiled the temple and put an end to the Jewish sacrifices. His life, the things that he did in his reign...

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parallel the interpretation that is given to Daniel here. Verse 24 again. Verse 25.

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He will even rise against the prince of princes because he declares himself to be God. But he shall be broken without human means. Now, going back earlier on in chapter 8, there was the vision of this little horn as it was growing up or rising up. There in verse 11 it says, He exalted himself as high as the prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away. So you see this little horn fulfilled in this ruler later on

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who we find out to be Antiochus Epiphanes, fulfills these things, fulfills these details. Now, how could these details be known? Unless it's God who's giving them. Unless God truly does know the beginning from the end. Now, just going back and talking a little bit about history again, Antiochus Epiphanes started to reign in about 175 BCE.

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In 171, he removed the high priest and set up his own high priest. And then in 168, he attacked Jerusalem. He outlawed Judaism. He went into the temple, removed the altar that was there for God, and set up an altar to Zeus. And there on the altar to Zeus, he sacrificed a pig.

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Now, of course, that would be very offensive to the Jewish people. Pigs were considered unclean by the law and so this would be something that would defile the temple and it would be very offensive. And so the temple sacrifices ceased at that time. They weren't able because their altar was gone and now the altar that was there was defiled. And so they had no way to continue on practicing Judaism.

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Now, this led to a revolt. It was a revolt led by Judas Maccabeus and he overthrew Antiochus Epiphanes' rule of Jerusalem and he was able to lead a revolt and the people cleansed the temple and restarted

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the sacrifices. It's called the Maccabean Revolt. You can check that out later on if you want to look into it. But that took place in 165 BC. So about three years after the temple was defiled, then the temple was purified. And it happened.

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Daniel chapter 8 this evening and like we studied last week, Daniel chapter 8 really has a lot of depth to it. Man, we went through Daniel chapter 7 and there was so much more we could have got into and talked about and I think Daniel chapter 8 when we get to the end of it this evening will

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will feel kind of the same way. For some of you that have been, you know, seasoned as Christians, you've been in the Lord for a long time, you'll be able to, you know, take these things and dig in on your own. And for some of you, you've not been around that long and not been walking with the Lord very long. And so these things you'll be trying to grasp to understand. And so we'll try to find the balance of making it simple and understandable, but also looking for what God would speak to us

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with the depth and the meanings that are here in Daniel chapter 8. And really what we're looking at is a vision that Daniel receives. It's God speaking forth to Daniel things that are going to take place. Now from Daniel's perspective, they're future things.

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For us, as we look at them, they're primarily historical things. And so we'll be looking back at history and some of the things that have taken place in history that have already happened and see how God has fulfilled the prophecies that he gave to Daniel. Let's start out though in Daniel chapter 8 verse 1 and 2. It says this,

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In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, to me, Daniel, after the one that appeared to me the first time. I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai.

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And so Daniel here begins chapter 8 describing to us the circumstances and the beginnings of this vision. He tells us when it took place. It was the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar. Now Daniel is alive during the time that Babylon is the world power of the day.

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Babylon had conquered Jerusalem and taken the survivors captive back to Babylon and Daniel was one of those captives. That was back under King Nebuchadnezzar and under King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel was raised up in the ranks of the government and he had a really high position within the government even until this time as King Belshazzar is ruling and reigning in Babylon.

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Well, as Daniel is there in Babylon, it's the third year of King Belshazzar, which puts it about 550 B.C.,

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Now as we go through some of these dates, we're going to be talking about quite a few different dates and years. I think I should point out that when we look at the Old Testament datings, the counting is backwards. So last week in chapter 7, we looked at a prophecy that took place or a vision that took place in the first year of Belshazzar. And that was 553 B.C.

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So three years later now, that takes us to 550 BC. And I'm going to mess up the math all evening and I apologize for that because I'm not good at subtracting, I guess. I'm good at adding but not subtracting. And so 550 BC though is where we're at. Belshazzar is king. He's been king for a couple of years. And Daniel now has this vision. Now in this vision, he's taken to this place called Shushan.

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And what he's describing there, the location that he's describing is going to be the capital city or the capital area of the next empire. When Babylon falls, another empire is going to take its place.

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And that is going to be the Persian Empire. And Shushan is the area, the region that is the capital of that Persian Empire. And so God is taking him to the location of this next empire, this next world power that is going to be on the scene.

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And so here's the vision that he had. He begins to describe it in verse 3. It says,

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I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great. And so as Daniel is receiving this vision from God, he first of all sees a ram.

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Now I'm going to have some images on the screen. I know they're a little bit cheesy and corny, but hopefully they help paint the picture a little bit, help you visualize the things that are going on, because some of these things are quite complicated. And so I want to give you something to be able to grasp hold of. And so as he sees this vision, first of all, he sees a ram and the ram has two horns, which

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They're both high, but one of them is higher than the other, more prominent than the other. And so he sees this ram.

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And he sees some specific details about it. And those details will be explained or become important later on as we see God interpret this vision for Daniel. And so these things are not in there just because he had a funny dream, but because there's meaning and there's purpose to the different details and different elements of this vision that God is giving to Daniel. And so we'll be talking about those details later.

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But he doesn't just see a ram, he also sees a goat. Look at verse 5. And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

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Verse 7. Verse 8. Verse 9.

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Therefore the male goat grew very great. But when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven. So here now we have the description of this vision as it's continuing. First we saw the ram with two horns. Now we see a goat. The goat has one horn.

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And it comes furiously at the ram. The goat comes and basically conquers the ram, defeats the ram, breaks off the horns there in this vision that Daniel is receiving. And as he breaks off the horns, he defeats the ram and no one is able to withstand him.

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And so it describes this goat as growing very great. Now I want to point out to you some of the details that we'll come back and look at when we get the interpretation of this vision so that you can remember them. And so the ram has two horns. And that's very specific and important. One of the horns is higher than the other. And that's important and specific. Also we see the ram pushing westward.

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northward and southward. So they're going west, north and south but not east. And that becomes important as well as we'll see in the interpretation and understanding of this vision. For the goat, there's some specific things that are mentioned there. I'm going to scoot back a little so you guys can see better. For the goat,

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The first thing is that the goat is from the west. And again, that's an important aspect that we'll see in just a moment. The goat comes swiftly or without touching the ground and so fast that it's not even like he's touching the ground. The goat has one horn but it's a notable horn and then he casts the ram to the ground and

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And then the horn is broken and four horns come up in its place. And one of those horns, a little horn, becomes prominent in the focus of the attention. And so these are all details about this vision that Daniel is receiving from God that we'll get to see the significance of later on in this chapter. And so we'll come back and talk about those details and what they mean and how they are fulfilled in history.

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So far so good? That didn't sound very reassuring. Alright, verse 9. Continuing on with this vision, it says, And out of one of them, so out of one of the four horns, came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. And it grew up to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them.

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He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host. And by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices, and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered. Verse 13

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Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, How long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? He said to me, For two thousand three hundred days. Then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

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And so here is this vision is continuing. He's noticing the horn was broken on the goat. Four horns came out in its place and on one of them there was a little horn that became apparent or he begins to observe.

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And this little horn has some specific details about it as well, in that he raises himself up, he proclaims himself to be God, he puts an end to the sacrifices at the temple, and we are going to see these things fulfilled, these details take place in the interpretation or the understanding of this prophecy that God will give him.

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And so what we have here in verses 1 through 14 is Daniel's vision. It's basically these two animals, the ram with two horns, the goat with one horn. There's details about each of them that really show and demonstrate that God is really God. Because

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Because there's no way for all of these details to be given and fulfilled in the way that God will describe in just a moment. There's no way for that to take place unless God is really God. Unless God really is all-knowing. Unless God really knows the beginning from the end and everything in between. What we see here in chapter 8, for us looking back, we see...

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that God reigns on high, that He knows all things, and that He accomplishes His purposes, His will, even through the course of nations, even through the course of history. Well, Daniel receives this vision, and he's not understanding it just yet. He knows it's important, he knows it's a vision from God, but he's wrestling with, what does it mean?

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And so we see that in verse 15. It says, Then it happened when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.