In this post we look at Daniel 8 to see how the first man and woman came under God's wrath.
Because of Scripture's parabolic language, such as in Daniel 8:1-8, people sometimes compare the Bible to Alice in Wonderland. In a way they're right: every dream sighting designates some part of our psyche that mir- rors itself in metaphor; and every Scriptural sighting points to a spiritual truth reflecting itself in parabolic images. So by understanding Biblical parables, we learn how to understand ourselves.
Metaphor transcends analysis, therefore becomes much more interest- ing. Logical analysis alone keeps us penned into what we already know: if all dogs have fleas then so does Rex; but, except for the dog, who cares. However if we take fleas on a dog and think up a metaphor—bureaucrats on a drowning man; relatives on the holidays; lawyers in the E.R; fans on Oprah's weight chart; paparazzi on Britney's fart chart—then we have different ways of looking at whatever.
According to the KJV existence outside the body lies beyond human comprehension: 9But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Corinthians 2:9). Therefore if God wrote about what Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard… nor what …entered into the heart of man, then He'd have had to use earthly stories to embody what we can't comprehend, which is how we define Scripture's parabolic language.
Just as algebra uses letters to represent numbers, principles or operations, Scripture uses events with historical or fictional people to personify Bib- lical (spiritual) truths. Depending on the context, characters or things can symbolize Christ, Satan, hell, heaven or God's law.
Just as an algebraic place marker can stand for more than one number, physical (earthly) things or people can represent more than one spiritual item or concept, thus reveal more than one story that reflects or allego- rizes the same Spiritual truth. Thus Scripture can use historical events to prophesy what will happen thousands of years later; e.g., when the book of Jeremiah condemns ancient Israel, it actually reviles the twentieth-century churches. Through this process of abstraction, Scripture reveals within a shorter space more information with greater scope. Such is the case with Daniel 8:1-8:
1In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. 2And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. 3Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. 4I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great. 5And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 6And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. 7And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. 8Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
In a vision Daniel in Babylon finds himself about two hundred miles east in what is today's southwest Iran; in Shushan (Susa), one of the ancient capital cities of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires. He sees a ram and a he goat.
Daniel 8:20 defines the ram and its two horns: 20The ram… having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia: i.e., Darius the Mede (B.C. 522 – B.C.486) and Cyrus (B.C. 559 – B.C. 530), the higher one.
And verse 21 defines the he goat: 21…the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn…between his eyes is the first king. Scripture also prophesizes Alexander the Great in Daniel 10: 20Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
If we back up to 2 Kings 20:17, 18, to get the historical context: Isaiah prophesizes to Hezekiah, king of Judah (715 – 686), that Babylon would sack Jerusalem. A hundred years later, in 587, the prophecy fulfills itself: The Babylonian general, Nebuzaraddan, destroyed the city, captured Zedekiah, king of Judah, and took the prophet Daniel as a young slave to king Nebuchadnezzar (see Jeremiah 52).
Thirty seven years later Belshazzar, probably the grandson of Nebuchad- nezzar through his mother, Niticris, now rules as king (553 to 539).1.. 1.In the third year of…Belshazzar, Daniel, still in Babylon, 2…saw…a vision; …at Shushan (roughly a hundred miles north of the Persian Gulf's shoreline) in the palace. The vision predicts, among other things, that the Medes and Persians would conquer Babylon. Indeed in 539, while Belshazzar partied (Daniel 5), the Persian army marched in and took over: 30In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. 31And Darius the Median took the kingdom…(Daniel 5:31).
Darius the Median (B.C. 559 – B.C. 530) became Cyrus the Great by starting the Achaemenid Empire, conquering Babylon and much of the known world. King Darius the Great (522BC - 486BC) extended their borders into India and Europe and founded their ceremonial capital, Persepolis, in today's southwest Iran. For maybe a couple of hundred years Persia dominated over Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and parts of Asia Minor. So now we know why Daniel 4…saw the ram pushing west- ward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.
Enter the he goat: in B.C. 336 an assassin killed Phillip II, ruler over the Macedonian kingdom in northern Greece. His son, Alexander the Great, became king at 19. As a genius at warfare, he conquered India, Africa, the remains of Babylon and all of Europe—but only for 13 years before dying of a fever. God had raised up Alexander to conquer the known world, especially Persia, the ram: In Belshazzar's third year, Daniel's vision predicted what would take place two hundred and twenty years later: 5…an he goat came from the west…and 7…smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him.
…the Persian garrison in the mountains was destroyed, and in January 330, the Macedonian army stood in Persepolis… Many inhabitants fled, some committed suicide, but the governor sur- rendered the town and its treasure. Alexander gave the town it- self to his soldiers, who had seen the riches of the East several times, but had never had their share. So the city was looted, ex- cept for the royal palace.
Almost at the same time, nearby Pasargadae (Pâthragâda) was captured, Persia's religious capital, where the kings were inaugu- rated.2.
So far we have only the historical context, not the spiritual intent, and The Bible is a spiritual book…in any interpretation we must look for the spiritual meaning.
Scripture uses the Medes and Persians to represent the kingdom of God. In Isaiah 44:28 God refers to Cyrus as my shepherd. But Cyrus was a king, never a shepherd. The Bible also describes Christ as the good shepherd (John 10: 1-2, 11, 14), so Scripture uses Cyrus as a picture of Christ. Christ is the good shepherd who perform(s) all my pleasure, (Isaiah 44:28). God gave Christ All the kingdoms of the earth (Matthew 13:44: John 16:33) as He does Cyrus (in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23). Just as Christ destroyed Satan at the cross (Luke 10:18), Cyrus destroyed Babylon in B.C. 539; and Revelation 16:19, 18:2, 21 uses Babylon as a picture of the kingdom of Satan that's cast into the lake of fire (in Revela- tion 19:20, 20:10). Just as God commanded Cyrus to build Jerusalem, God commanded Christ to build a spiritual body, the holy city, new Jerusalem (John 4:34, 5:30, 6:38-39) by paying for the sins of the elect. That Artaxerxes I (Cyrus, king of Persia, 465 – 425 in Ezra 1) gives Ezra the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem shows that the Medes and Persians typified God's rule.
In the book of Esther we have the Persian King Ahasuerus (404 – 359) in Shushan. He rules over 127 provinces (Esther 1:1), which is a picture of God's kingdom. Scripture reveals the death age, 127, of only one woman: Sarah, Abraham's wife (Genesis 23:1). While Galatians 3:29 defines Abraham as the father of all true believers, Galatians 4:26 defines Sarah as the mother of all the elect. So her death identifies the number 127 with them, i.e., the kingdom of God that the Medes and the Persians represent.
In Genesis 1-2 God created a perfect universe and put His kingdom on a flawless earth. On December 1, 2008 we determine the year according to the Gregorian calendar. Just as the ram typified God's kingdom through Media and Persia, the ram stands for God's physical kingdom: the garden of Eden. In Daniel 8:3 the ram had two horns and the higher (one) came up last. In Eden we have two people in the kingdom of God, one coming out of the rib of the other. So the two horns representing Media and Persia also represent Adam and Eve. God had made man to have domin- ion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (Genesis 1:26); as does the ram in Daniel 8: 4…pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him…
We don't see the ram…pushing eastward. The sun is a metaphor for God: 11 For the LORD God is a sun (Psalms 84). The sun rises in the east. Adam and Eve came from God and didn't rebel against Him by pushing eastward—not yet, anyway; however just as the ram … did according to his will, they had free will to eventually rebel. The he goat came from the west, i.e., in opposition to God by getting Adam and Eve to rebel.
Because the he goat destroys the ram with two horns, the he goat stands for Satan (in Genesis 3), embodied by Alexander (in Daniel 8). Just as Alexander conquered the world, Satan conquered man (in Genesis 3) and won the right to rule over him. But Satan didn't win control over the physical earth: the he goat...touched not the ground (Daniel 8:5). So be- fore letting Satan have rule over fallen man in a perfect world, God first cursed the earth, then gave it to him (Genesis 3:17-18). That's how, in Daniel 8:5, the he goat could come…on the face of the whole earth…
We look again at the same story on Wednesday, June 18.
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