Sermon - Daniel 8:1-14 - Ram and Goat - Littleby Baptist Church - July 19, 2020


Daniel chapter 8 is the second of the apocalyptic visions found in the second half of the Book of Daniel. Like chapter 7, this one also takes place during the reign of king Belshazzar.

We will find some areas where this vision ties to chapter seven and Nebuchadnezzar’s from chapter two.

Daniel 8:1-2

In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me earlier. I saw the vision, and as I watched, I was in the fortress city of Susa, in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision that I was beside the Ulai Canal.”

The first vision in chapter 7, came during the first year of the king’s reign and this one came a short two years later.

In this vision Daniel saw that he was in Susa in the providence of Elam beside the Ulai Canal. Susa is one of the Persian royal cities that is more than 200 miles from Babylon. Roughly one-hundred years after Daniel received this vision the king Xerxes built a magnificent palace there. This palace happens to be were Esther put her life on the line to save the lives of her people. It is also where Nehemiah served as cupbearer to the king.

Esther and Nehemiah are not relevant to what we will be looking at in this vision, but it does help to build some geographic context and show how God’s Word is linked.

Daniel 8:3

I looked up, and there was a ram standing beside the canal. He had two horns. The two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one came up last.”

A ram with two horns, with one being longer than the other. Horns represent strength and power in the ancient East. The differing lengths of these horns ties to part of the vision in chapter seven with the beast that looked like a bear.

Daniel 7:5

“Suddenly, another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up! Gorge yourself on flesh.’”

The bear being raised up on one side, had to do with the Persians being the aggressors from the Mede and Persian Empire and they are the ones that drove the conquest of the other nations.

The ram is the Mede and Persian Empire and the horns represent the strength of each of the two nations as rated individually. The shorter and older horn represents the Medes who were not as strong or aggressive as the Persians. The younger and longer horn is the Persians who were the driving force behind the growth of the empire.

Daniel 8:4

I saw the ram charging to the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stand against him, and there was no rescue from his power. He did whatever he wanted and became great.”

The Mede and Persian Empire could not be stopped. It went where it wanted to go and conquered who it wanted to conquer. There was no escaping it, there was no resisting it. The Medes and Persians moved, conquered, and grew into a great nation.

Daniel 8:5

As I was observing, a male goat appeared, coming from the west across the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground. The goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.”

Then a goat appears, one that is moving so fast that its feet do not touch the ground. The goat ties with the third beast in the previous vision and represents Alexander the Great and his kingdom.

In the CSB version that I am reading from it states that it had a conspicuous horn, others say the horn was prominent, very large, notable, or powerful. Horns represent power and strength, so if this horn is viewed as larger than that of the rams. Regardless of the word used, what we are being told is this goat is very fast and more powerful that the one before it. God used Alexander to conquer nations larger than his and the nation grew faster than those that came before it.

Daniel 8:6-7

He came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and rushed at him with savage fury. I saw him approaching the ram, and infuriated with him, he struck the ram, breaking his two horns, and the ram was not strong enough to stand against him. The goat threw him to the ground and trampled him, and there was no one to rescue the ram from his power.”

The goat attacked and trampled the ram. The third beast with thirty thousand troops conquered the second beast with millions of troops. The goat was swift and powerful, and the ram did not stand a chance.

During the reign of the ram or the second beast, none stood against it. Then the third beast or the goat arrived, and no one could rescue the ram.

The goat reigned.

Daniel 8:8

Then the male goat acted even more arrogantly, but when he became powerful, the large horn was broken. Four conspicuous horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven.”

Like the third beast from chapter seven having four heads representing the four kings or kingdoms that emerged out of Macedonia. The goat lost its first strong horn, Alexander the Great, and was replaced with four horns as the kingdom was split into four.

Daniel 8:9

From one of them a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land.”

So far, this vision has mirrored the previous vision and the beasts, but here it takes a bit of a turn. After reviewing the last vision when we see ‘little horn’ we may think this is referring to the antichrist, but that was part of the fourth beast this is still referring to the third. Also, this small horn emerged from one of the existing horns. The antichrist’s little horn pushed four horns out of its way. The wording may be similar, but these small horns are not the same and are talking about two different people.

This is telling us that one of the four kingdoms that comes to power after Alexander the Great’s kingdom will grow to the forefront. This horn or nation is conquering other nations but is still be part of the third beast’s kingdom.

When this horn grew to the south, it fought against Egypt. When it grew to the East it fought against those in Persia, and to the beautiful land, it conquered Judea.

The benefit that we have that Daniel did not is we can look at history and now see how this played out. This little horn that emerged from one of the kingdoms that split off from Macedonia is Antiochus IV, who took the name Theo Antiochus Epiphanes, or Antiochus, the Illustrious God around 175 BC, some 375 years after Daniel received this vision.

Daniel 8:10

10 It grew as high as the heavenly army, made some of the army and some of the stars fall to the earth, and trampled them.”

The strength of the horn, Antiochus’ kingdom grew, and he attacked God’s people and trampled them. He not only conquered them physically, but he attacked their beliefs and exalted himself above God.

Daniel 8:11

11 It acted arrogantly even against the Prince of the heavenly army; it revoked his regular sacrifice and overthrew the place of his sanctuary.”

Antiochus, the Illustrious God as he liked to be called challenged the almighty God. He desecrated the Holy Temple by erecting a statue of Zeus in it, sacrificed a pig on the alter, and burned the Torah scrolls. He no longer allowed the Jews to practice the sacrificial system put in place by our God.

Antiochus made himself God and made the worship of anything but him completely unacceptable.

Daniel 8:12

12 In the rebellion, the army was given up, together with the regular sacrifice. The horn threw truth to the ground and was successful in what it did.”

It would be nice to say that the Jewish people stopped serving God because of Antiochus, but Scripture and history show us that they were already in rebellion against God. They were not following the Commands they had been given, they were not trusting in God, they were not honoring Him in their sacrifices, their faith had been compromised even before Antiochus showed up.

Antiochus was the tool that God used to subdue His people. The army, the host, and the people were turned over to this conquering king. He is the horn that grew from the goat, and it was being prophesied that he would prevent any and all worship of the One True God. Like the ram before him, there was no stopping him as he was being used by God to bring judgement to the Jewish people.

Daniel 8:13-14

13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the speaker, “How long will the events of this vision last—the regular sacrifice, the rebellion that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and of the army to be trampled?” 14 He said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be restored.””

The question is asked, how long will the temple be defiled, how long will sacrifices stop, how long before the Jews will rededicate the temple to worshipping their God… the answer is 2,300 days or 6 years and 110 days. The 2,300 days started when the Jews stopped worshipping their God faithfully, includes roughly 3.5 years under the kings rule and then the time it took for the Jewish people to finally rededicate the temple in 164 BC.

This vision continues to show us that is ultimately in control. He gave Daniel the vision which shows us that our God knows the future, He knows exactly what is going to happen. Everything we have talked about today has already been fulfilled. God knew it was going to happen, He told Daniel, and it happened exactly as was foretold.

In previous weeks we have seen how God used the Babylonians to carry out His plan and we saw it with the Medes and Persians. When the Medes and Persians fulfilled their mission, God used the goat or Macedonians under Alexander the Great. God causes kingdoms to rise and fall and in these cases it was in hopes of guiding His people back to Him.

God will allow us to live with the consequences of our actions. When we do not listen to Him. When we continue to embrace the sin in our lives. Eventually it will catch up with us. Thankfully as we continue to see with our Lord, it does not end up there.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.””

When life catches up to us Jesus wants us to come to Him. As we turn to Him, as we give our lives to Him, as we submit to Him, we will find that His yoke is much easier to carry than the one we created on our own. The burden He puts on us is nothing compared to the burden we tend to carry. If we give Jesus our lives… we will find rest.

Our Lord is in control. He knows what our future holds. Whatever is going on in your life let Him guide you.  



God Bless,

Robert

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