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DANIEL 8--THE RAM & THE HE GOAT!--Verses 1-9. ET#47 5/85 DO 2177
1. AMEN, LORD, BLESS US & KEEP US THIS MORNING NOW SAFELY & GIVE US THE STRENGTH FOR THIS TASK! Thank You for these prayers that helped us to be a little better. We really need Thy strength, Lord, to explain these deeply mysterious things to these Thy simple children, Lord. Bless & open their minds & hearts to be receptive & understanding & to be anointed by Thy Spirit with real comprehension, Lord, that they might grasp these important truths, the background of these great historical events that have been foretold thousands of years before, & the great events about to occur, so that we may understand them, recognise them when they occur, Lord, & know, hallelujah, that thus said the Lord! PYJ! TYL! May they be a benefit to us, a blessing, & make us a blessing to millions, in Jesus' name! TYL! Amen, amen!
BELSHAZZAR, THE FALL OF JERUSALEM!
2. THIS 8TH CHAPTER OF DANIEL IS VERY INTERESTING BECAUSE IT HAS A LOT TO DO WITH DANIEL HIMSELF & IS QUITE HISTORICAL. (Verse 1:) "In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me, Daniel." Who's Belshazzar? (Fam: King of Babylon.) And he had a very noteworthy grandfather, do you know what his name was? Belshazzar's called his son, but he was literally his grandson. You're my son & you're my sons & daughters, even though some of you are grandsons & great grandsons, depending on which generation you got born again. So Belshazzar was actually Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, & he was ruling what kingdom again? (Fam: Babylon.) And at this time its capital was where? I think it even tells you here in the next verse. (Fam: Shushan.)--Yes.
3. HOW DID DANIEL GET TO BABYLON? Did he ride on the local express or fly? (Fam: He was in captivity.) He was a captive! He was a prisoner! He was one of the tens of thousands of whom? Who was conquered & overcome & captured & carried off as prisoners to Babylon? (Fam: The Jews.)--Actually Jews, because it was the Babylonians that first started calling them Jews after the predominant tribe that they conquered, which was Judah, where Jerusalem was. There wasn't much point in calling them Israelites at that time because they'd already conquered Israel, which was the Northern half of the Kingdom & the Northern ten tribes. But all of the tribes of Israel were not conquered until they conquered what city? (Fam: Jerusalem.) And what date?--586 B.C.!
4. 586 B.C. IS ONE DATE YOU SHOULD REMEMBER! IT'S A PIVOTAL DATE IN BIBLE HISTORY, & if you ever remember one exact date, that is the date you should memorise, because a lot of things hinge on it. That meant the final fall of all tribes of Israel & all the kingdoms of Israel were wiped out, overthrown. What was the capital of the Northern Kingdom, Northern Israel, the ten tribes?--Still in existence in Jesus' day. Are you forgetting your Bible knowledge? (Fam: Samaria.)--Very good! Good girl! Does anybody remember the date when it fell first? (Fam: 722, I had it written down.)--Very good! It really pays to keep notes in your Bible! 722 B.C. What's B.C. mean, children? (Children: Before Christ.)
ACs--SEEKING TO CHANGE TIMES & SEASONS!
5. THE [EDITED: "ACS"] ARE STILL TRYING TO FIGHT THIS WAY OF KEEPING DATES, ETC., & ESPECIALLY USING A.D., THEY HATE THAT TERM! They've been trying to foist on the World a new system with a new terminology. They're seeking to change times & seasons & dates & ways of saying things & everything! Just like this: When I was a kid, all wavelengths in radio, etc., were called kilocycles. They are now called kilohertz--after [EDITED: "the German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz"]!
6. KILOCYCLES MEAN SOMETHING! IT MEANT EVERY THOUSAND REVOLUTIONS OR CYCLES PER SECOND, THAT WAS THE WAVELENGTH. Why did the [EDITED: "ACs"] change it to kilohertz in a big scientific congress which they control? Because of the Hertz used cars, of course! Is that right?--No! But it was because of a guy by the same name who was a bigshot [DELETED] scientist that they wanted to honour. So they just peremptorily proclaimed that they were no longer kilocycles, they were now called kilohertz after Mr. Hertz!
7. THEY ALSO CHANGED CENTIGRADE TO CELSIUS! Centigrade was comprehensible & understandable, it meant graduated in centimes, so to speak. Fahrenheit was before that, [EDITED: "named after German-born physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit"] who figured out Fahrenheit with almost two degrees per centigrade. But recently they changed centigrade to Celsius, honouring some scientist of the past [EDITED: "Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius"]! [DELETED]
'[EDITED: "JEWISH CULTURE"]'
8. BOY OH BOY, THEY'RE GETTING MORE JEWISH WORDS INTO THE MOVIES ALL THE TIME! We saw a video last night where this guy was calling this other Jew a schmuck, which is about the dirtiest word you can call a Jew. How many of you have heard that word before? You have if you've been around Jews somewhere! Look at how they've gotten their language into English, it's amazing. Jewish food, of course, has become pretty common with cheese blintzes & sour cream & cold borscht and gefilte fish and matzo balls and all very delicious Jewish foods, & if you haven't had'm you've missed something!
DANIEL & THE HISTORY OF BABYLON!
9. ANYHOW, BACK TO DANIEL, WHO WAS ACTUALLY CAPTURED SEVERAL YEARS BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL, WHICH WAS WHEN? (Fam: 586 B.C.) This was about 150 years after Samaria had fallen, the Northern Kingdom. Remember, you have to figure backwards in B.C. It sounds like you're going backward, but you're actually going forward. From 722 B.C. you go forward to 586 B.C. & what have you got? It was 136 years later that Jerusalem fell. It was the strongest, blessed by the Lord, because they kept the closest to the Lord & His doctrines & His teachings & His Laws & the Temple, etc., & they had good kings like King David & Solomon & all those. Well, Solomon kind of soured in the end, but he was a good king for a long time, wrote some of the books in the Bible which we still study & read & are good advice! It's just too bad he didn't follow his own advice.
10. WHAT TURNED SOLOMON AWAY FROM THE LORD? Watch out, boys! (Fam: His wives?)--Women! Let's put it "women," because he only had 300 wives, but he had 700 concubines! That made a thousand women, imagine! I have a hard enough time trying to please just you girls! I don't have a hard time, I enjoy it! PTL! But imagine trying to keep 1000 women happy! Whew! Even if you fucked one every day it would take you almost three years to get through them all!
11. SO THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM OF JUDAH, WHICH WAS ALSO LITTLE BENJAMIN, WAS THE LAST TO FALL, IN 586 B.C. (Points to map:) You can't see it exactly, but Samaria's up here somewhere in the North, & here's Jerusalem right here. The land called Samaria was still there, the remains of the capital & everything was still there in Jesus' day, which was how much later? You can just say the dates! Everything hinges on the life of Christ. 722 years before Jesus was born Samaria fell. 586 years before Jesus was born Jerusalem fell, 136 years apart. So remember what B.C. means.
12. SO DANIEL WAS CAUGHT AS A YOUNG BOY, PROBABLY JUST A TEENAGER AS FAR AS WE KNOW. And what fall came soon afterwards? (Fam: Fall of Jerusalem.) And what date? (Fam: 586 B.C.)--Very good! You're learning a little history. After all, you're supposed to be Christians & you're supposed to know something about Jews & Jewish history. If you don't by this time, God help us! And if you're going to be talking to people, witnessing to people, FFing important businessmen who've had a good education, perhaps even talk to some Jews, who are usually pretty well-versed in their history, by all means, you don't want to be such an ignoramus dumb bunny that you don't know anything even about your own Bible & your own history when it's all right there! Amen? So you need to get the setting of some of these things.
13. SO DANIEL WAS CAPTURED UNDER NEBUCHADNEZZAR & HE WAS CARRIED TO THE KINGDOM OF BABYLON. (Points to map:) He was captured here & carried clear over here, probably not right across the Arabian desert, into Babylon, which was around here. And eventually he wound up over here, after going through several kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar's son, & then Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar. What happened to Babylon during Belshazzar's reign?
14. DANIEL HAD BECOME FAMOUS & SECOND MAN IN THE KINGDOM UNDER WHICH KING? (Fam: Nebuchadnezzar.) Well, that's one you remembered, how come you remembered that? You knew that because of what? (Fam: Because of Daniel 2.)--Daniel 2! He was telling Nebuchadnezzar his dream, right? So you knew Daniel must have been pretty important. After that it tells how he gave him a chain of gold for around his neck & he exalted him to be the man next to the king himself as his counsellor & advisor.
15. HERE WAS THIS JEWISH PRISONER, JUST A YOUNG MAN AT THE TIME, & HE WAS SUDDENLY PROMOTED FROM VIRTUALLY A PRISON CELL--we don't know that he was actually in a dungeon or anything. Actually, the Babylonians were rather selective in who they brought. They didn't just bring everybody, every Tom, Dick & Harry & just herd all the people together & walk'm all the way to Babylon, which is about a thousand miles away, quite a distance to go!
16. THE POINT ABOUT THIS IS THAT PROBABLY MOST OF THESE CAPTIVES THAT THEY TOOK WERE THE RICH--who probably had their own transportation, horses & carriages, etc., & I don't doubt that they let'm use'm to go with the army--& artisans, skilled workers, teachers, brains to teach them languages. This is what all the conquerors in those days did. The prisoners who were carried off as captives & considered slaves, were slaves right in Caesar's palace who taught his own children! Because they were brilliant scholars & philosophers of Greece! And some were treated highly, given luxurious quarters & good food & treated like a member of the family!
17. SO WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT THESE CAPTIVES, IT DIDN'T NECESSARILY MEAN THAT THEY WERE ALL IN JAIL OR ALL IN CHAINS. Very few were put in chains, in fact, the Jewish king himself being one of them, because he'd caused them so much trouble. He's the one that caused all the trouble. He'd made peace with Nebuchadnezzar's army & agreed to pay taxes, but after they left he flatly refused to pay any more, & that's what finally brought about the fall of Jerusalem.
18. NEBUCHADNEZZAR GOT FED UP WITH THE STUBBORN JEWS! He'd been down there 2 or 3 times before & made'm say "uncle," but he decided this was going to be the last time, & this time they tore down the walls of Jerusalem, they destroyed the Temple & they took all the outstanding people, rich people, smart people, educated people, teachers, artisans & the intelligentsia of the Kingdom.
19. BUT WHO DID THEY LEAVE BEHIND? It even tells us in the Bible when you're studying what particular Prophet? (Peter: Jeremiah.) Amongst whom? (Peter: The poor.)--The poor of the land! The poor were left there on their farms to till their plots & left alone as usual.--Another example of just what I told you in "Relief for the Third World"! (No.1985)
20. SO JEREMIAH GOT LEFT WITH THE POOR--BUT HE SURVIVED & SO DID THEY--WHEREAS THE REST OF THEM WERE ALL TAKEN CAPTIVES OVER INTO BABYLON, virtually prisoners. They weren't actually put in jails, although some were, even the king was put in chains & his eyes put out, a terrible cruel thing, because Nebuchadnezzar was so mad at him for having been a rebel & rebelled against them. So he thought he'd teach them a lesson finally & this time he destroyed their city, Temple, & took away all their nobility & their rich & skilled artists & teachers & philosophers & all the rest to Babylon & just left the poor, the farmers.
21. AND IF YOU'VE READ THAT LITTLE BACKING ON "RELIEF FOR THE THIRD WORLD", WE WENT OVER THAT AGAIN, HOW THE RICH HAVE COME & GONE, THE GREAT HAVE COME & GONE, BUT THE POOR LIVE ON FOREVER! PTL! Jesus Himself said, "The poor ye shall have always with you."(John 12:8) A lot of people thought that was a kind of a deprecating remark, that, "Well, I guess somebody's always going to be poor, isn't that sad? We can never get rid of the poor." The poor should be very thankful that they are poor, & that's why nobody ever gets rid of them. Nobody cares about the poor so they don't try to get rid of them. They don't try to kill them & wipe them out because the poor can't do'm any harm, can't do any damage, they don't have anything they want. So they live on forever. Whereas the rich & the powerful are always fighting with each other & killing each other & destroying each other & they come & go & come & go & never last very long!
22. SO THIS MAN DANIEL, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS MADE A RICH MAN BY THE KING, WAS A PRISONER IN BABYLON. He outlasted several kings. Think of it! He outlasted the King who captured him, Nebuchadnezzar, & his son, & Belshazzar his grandson, & then who moved in? Actually it was Darius who led the army that captured the city, & he was king of the Medes. That's always easy to remember because the Medes were first. But then the Persians rose up afterward & it became a united kingdom, & Cyrus was the greatest, & we're going to see that in this Chapter.
23. DANIEL LIVED THROUGH NEBUCHADNEZZAR, I'VE FORGOTTEN HIS SON'S NAME, IT'S NOT VERY FAMOUS, & BELSHAZZAR, THAT'S THREE KINGS, THEN DARIUS & CYRUS. Which king was he living under when he had this vision? (Fam: Belshazzar.) It says right here in the first verse, Belshazzar.
DANIEL 8:1 & 2!
24. "IN 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." What's he talking about there? Did he have some more visions before that?--Actually only one vision, really.--Except that it must have also been like a vision for the Lord to reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream about the Image. Then he had a vision in Chapter 7, & we studied that, of these beasts, four great empires. And which empires were they? Somebody name them quickly! (Fam: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece & Rome.)--Exactly.
25. NOW HE'S GOING TO HAVE A VISION ABOUT JUST TWO OF THESE KINGDOMS with details about those two that are amazingly prophetic, they had not happened yet, they were not yet to happen for a couple of hundred years.
26. WHAT GREAT PROPHET OF GOD PREDICTED THE NAME OF CYRUS A COUPLE OF HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE CYRUS EVEN AROSE OR EVEN WAS BORN OR LIVED? (Fam: Isaiah.)--Right! The Lord said, "You'll know I'm God & this is My prophecy & it's going to come true 'cause I'm going to even tell you the name of the man who's going to set you Jews free from your captivity!" Even before the captivity occurred He said, "I'm going to tell you the name of the man who's going to set you free--Cyrus!" (Isa.44:28; 45:1) And did he? He came a couple of hundred years later & set them free!
27. JUST THINK, DANIEL LIVED THROUGH MOST OF THESE KINGS! His life in Babylon extended from the first year of Nebuchadnezzar through the reigns of the succeeding five kings, past the Fall of Babylon, through the reign of Darius the Mede, even unto the third year of Cyrus the Persian & the Persian Empire! We're going to hit some of the details of history, marvels of fulfilled prophecy in this history in this passage today.
28. (VERSE 2:) "AND I SAW IN A VISION; & IT CAME TO PASS WHEN I SAW, THAT I WAS AT SHUSHAN IN THE PALACE"--more commonly known in history as Susa, but the Jews called it Shushan. And I'll show you where it was. I don't know exactly, but it was over here on this side of these rivers, about here where this border is now between Iran--which for thousands of years before that was called Persia--& this country today called Iraq.
29. IRAQ HELD TWO OF THESE GREAT EMPIRES, ASSYRIA & BABYLONIA, & also was occupied by the Medo-Persian Empire. The Medes & the Persians came from further East here. Here's Persia & the Medes were about in here. And Susa, you may have it in your Bible, in your maps. If you look in the back of your Bible, if you find it at all, you'll find it over in this area here, considerably East of the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers, & between a couple of little rivers that look like they may form the boundary of what is now Iraq & Iran. It was actually only about 100 miles from the sea, from the mouth of what two rivers? (Fam: Tigris & Euphrates.) And what was the sea? (Fam: The Persian Gulf.) It was only about a hundred miles from here up to Susa, which would have placed it not too far from what had been the city of Babylon.
30. HE WAS IN THE PROVINCE OF ELAM WHICH SUSA WAS THE CAPITAL OF AT THE TIME, & you're going to hear some more interesting things about the history of Susa today, God willing, if I don't get too far afield! And it was by what river?--The River Ulai, (you-lie) is the way it was pronounced according to my Bible, probably Jewish pronunciation.
DANIEL 8:3--THE RAM, MEDO-PERSIA!
31. (VERSE 3:) "THEN I LIFTED UP MINE EYES & SAW, & BEHOLD, THERE STOOD BEFORE THE RIVER A RAM WHICH HAD TWO HORNS." Now what is a ram? Not a battering ram, but that's where the battering rams got their names. What's a battering ram? (Fam: What they used to bash down the doors of the castles with.)--Yes. They used to break down the doors of castles or batter down the gates of the city with a battering ram! And what was a battering ram like? You guys have been building castles, you ought to know something about battering rams! David, what's a battering ram? (David: Like a big log.)--Exactly, it was usually a big log. And do you know what they often put on the end of those battering rams? If it was a big thing like the gate of a castle or city, they'd have maybe 50 to 100 men lined up on both sides of this battering ram carrying it, & then they'd swing it! They didn't have to run back & forth, they'd just swing it. They had to have a whole lot of men holding up that big heavy log.
32. BUT GUESS WHAT THEY USUALLY HAD ON THE END OF IT?--A big metal thing, usually metal, frequently actually carved into the shape of a ram's head! You may have seen some pictures of it, a big thing on the end carved in the shape of a ram's head. I don't know whether the ram got his name from the battering ram or the battering ram got its name from a ram. I imagine the battering ram got its name from the ram, because which was created first? (Fam: The ram!)
33. FIRST OF ALL, WHAT KIND OF AN ANIMAL WAS A RAM? (Fam: A goat?) (Fam: A sheep.)--A sheep! You didn't study this chapter, because we hear first about the ram & next we hear about the goat! There's a difference! So a ram is a sheep! What kind of a sheep?--(Fam: A male sheep.)--A male sheep, a he sheep. Later on comes the he goat. But a ram was a he sheep. And if you've ever seen one of those big huge monstrous mountain sheep or mountain rams, they're really giants, nothing like these nice peaceful little sheep that you normally see. The lead sheep is usually the biggest one, the toughest one that's won the most fights & therefore proved he's the most powerful & fit to lead the flock. He's a big tough guy with two great big horns. And on some of those they curl way up around like this, beautiful magnificent creatures, you may have seen pictures of them. And that he sheep, usually the leader of the flock, is called a what? (Fam: A ram!)
34. AND FROM THAT WE EVEN GET OUR WORD "RAM". We still use it today, think how long that word's survived from the old English. When do you usually use that word today? (Fam: Car accidents.) He rammed into another car! They still use the word, think of that, all taken from that ancient animal the ram, a big giant he-sheep!
35. SO WHAT'S DANIEL HAVING?--A DREAM? (Fam: No, a vision.) How do you know he wasn't having a dream? (Fam: It says "I saw in a vision.") Not only that, what was he doing? I always picture him as standing there. He might have been lying down, it doesn't actually say he was standing, but the ram was standing.
36. "THERE STOOD BEFORE THE RIVER A RAM WHICH HAD TWO HORNS"--BIG GIANT HORNS! They curve around like this to make good rams, & they're always ramming into things & banging things & buttin' things, very similar to goats. "And the two horns were high"--they were very high & powerful--"but one was higher than the other & the higher came up last."
37. ACTUALLY, GOD WAS SHOWING HIM A PICTURE, A SIMPLE, CHILDLIKE PICTURE OF THE GREAT KINGDOM OF MEDO-PERSIA WHICH WAS TO ARISE AFTER THIS. At this time Daniel was living in the days of what king? (Fam: Belshazzar.) King of...? (Fam: Babylon.) Let's get it straight now, it won't hurt you to learn a little Bible history. If you get the setting for this, then you realise how marvellous it was. As the guy said, "It really happened!" This is history! He was actually there & Belshazzar was the king & he was living in the country of Babylon. But he was at Susa, or where Shushan the palace was located in the province of Elam. All these are real actual historical places & names found in history. It really happened! And he really happened.
38. AND THIS RAM THAT HE WAS SEEING WAS WHOM? (Fam: Medo-Persia.) It was the Kingdom of the Medes & the Persians, but we abbreviate it, take a short cut, & we say Medo-Persia. Instead of the Kingdom of the Medes & Persians we say Medo-Persia.--Because it was a combo kingdom, a combination kingdom, two big kingdoms combined, the Medes & Persians. They were a lot stronger that way, right? In fact, by uniting & becoming strong enough, they became stronger than Babylon & they overcame it! They had overcome Babylon, & do you remember the story how they did it?
HOW THE MEDES & PERSIANS CONQUERED BABYLON!
39. THAT WAS QUITE A THRILLING & EXCITING STORY, DO YOU REMEMBER? (David: Belshazzar was having a party & they were outside the walls, but everyone was drunk & nobody knew.)--Yes. Babylon was some city in those days! It had walls so thick that two chariots could ride abreast, a 2-lane highway on top of the wall, which was 136 feet thick! In other words, chariots were going back & forth on a road on top of the wall. I think it was 300 feet high! That's even higher than the Heavenly City has! That's about 40 stories high in the average size of floors today. Imagine! A gigantic city! And inside it was beautiful, they had these famous Hanging Gardens of Semiramis. Even a hotel down in Tenerife, one of the fanciest hotels down there, was called the Semiramis after the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. And it was a great, powerful, rich, beautiful kingdom!
40. BUT ONE NIGHT BECAUSE OF THE SINS & WICKEDNESS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S GRANDSON, A HAND WROTE ON THE WALL! And what did it say? (Fam: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.)--Not tickle, but Tekel! Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. (See Daniel 5.) And it warned them, "Thou art weighed in the balances & found wanting, & this night shall thy kingdom be required of thee!"
41. AND AT THAT VERY MOMENT, WHAT WAS THE ARMY OF THE MEDES DOING? (David: They were outside the city & they couldn't attack the city.) It had huge brass gates, such thick heavy brass gates they couldn't break them down, no battering ram could have pounded them down. So how'd they get in? (David: I think they crept under where the water went.)--Right! There was a big river that flowed right through the city to water the city & the people when they were under siege, like they were then. They were all bottled up in the city with the big brass gates closed & the high wall & they thought they were safe & sound inside, & they had plenty of water because the river flowed right through.
42. BUT THE WALL WAS BUILT RIGHT DOWN INTO THE RIVER, SO THAT IF ANYBODY TRIED TO SWIM THROUGH, CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW WIDE THE BASE OF A WALL WOULD BE THAT WAS 300 FEET HIGH? They would have drowned before they got to the other side trying to swim through underneath! They didn't have scuba-diving outfits then. And imagine a soldier trying to carry swords & shields & helmets & armour & all this equipment, can you imagine him trying to swim any distance underneath the wall? They couldn't have swum it. So what did they do? How did they get through?
43. YOU'RE RIGHT, THEY CAME THROUGH WHERE THE RIVER WENT UNDER THE WALL, BUT HOW? Actually, they dug a new channel outside & they diverted the water of the river into a lake so that that riverbed dried up. Did the whole army go under the tunnel? (Fam: No.)--Just a few men in the middle of the night. They got it low enough that these guys could wade through, enough soldiers to go to these 12 giant gates of brass & throw every single one of them wide open in the middle of the night while they were having this big bash at the palace. Apparently the soldiers & guards must have been drunk & not on the job & they secretly crept in. This would've made a movie! I wonder why they never make movies like that! I mean, there's so much drama in the Bible!
44. I PHONED UP ONE OF THE MOVIE PRODUCERS ONE TIME IN HOLLYWOOD & SAID, "WHY DON'T YOU GUYS EVER DRAMATISE WHAT'S REALLY IN THE BIBLE INSTEAD OF COOKING UP ALL THIS FICTIONAL STUFF? There's more drama right in the Bible if you'd just do it like it is!" Talk about action & things, look what a movie that would have made!--Soldiers creeping under the wall & sneaking in the dark through the city. They weren't lighted as well as they are today, sneaking through dark alleys out to the 12 gates of brass & then heaving those big latches & throwing the gates open, & then the army which surrounded the city just completely poured in!--Slaughtered nobles & kings & everyone!
45. AND GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO DANIEL? (Fam: He was captured!) And was that a good thing?--Yes, because his life was spared, he wasn't killed. And he then became what? He'd been second man to King Nebuchadnezzar & his son & his grandson Belshazzar, & now, because he was such a big man about town, about Babylon, & was so powerful & influential & wise, because he had the Spirit of God, he was made right hand of the new king!
46. AFTER DARIUS TOOK OVER THE CITY, WHO THEN MARCHED IN WITH HIS ARMY & BECAME TOP DOG? (David: Cyrus.)--Cyrus! They were combined kingdoms but Persia was the most powerful, the strongest, so Cyrus was higher than Darius. And doesn't it say that right here? "The ram"--which is Medo-Persia--"had two horns"--which were two kings--"& one was higher than the other"--Cyrus, higher than Darius. Cyrus King of Persia was more powerful than Darius, even though Cyrus came up last. He came up last but he was the most powerful. Here's a perfect picture of the kingdom & its two kings. So that's how they conquered Babylon.
DAN.8:4--THE CONQUERING RAM!
47. THEN DANIEL SAID, "I SAW THE RAM PUSHING WESTWARD", here we go again! Where did the Persians & the Medes come from? (Fam: Media & Persia!) But which direction? You can't tell by this modern map very well, but you can tell from Persia, they came from the East, & they're moving which way? (Fam: Westward.) They conquered Babylon here so they're moving Westward.
48. "AND I SAW THE RAM PUSHING WESTWARD"--HERE'S A DIRECT PROPHECY OF WHICH DIRECTION THEY WERE GOING TO GO--"& northward". They pushed up this way, to what's now Turkey. "And southward", they even pushed southward this way into what region? (Fam: Israel.)--Israel & those surrounding countries there, the coastal countries of the Mediterranean. I don't remember history well enough to remember if they ever got to Africa, but I wouldn't be surprised, they must have conquered Egypt too.
49. "SO THAT NO BEASTS MIGHT STAND BEFORE HIM, NEITHER WAS THERE ANY THAT COULD DELIVER OUT OF HIS HAND." Why do you suppose it's talking about him & his? I thought there were two kings! (Fam: Talking about the ram.)--Yes, or if it's talking about one of the kings, which one would it be talking about? (Fam: Cyrus.)--Right!
50. "BUT HE DID ACCORDING TO HIS WILL & BECAME GREAT!" Did Cyrus become very great?--He certainly did! And if you want to call it the ram, well, he certainly became great. He & his successors conquered all of the Mideast, what was important at all in the Mideast, all these former kingdoms & empires.--Egypt, which is down here, Assyria which is up in here, & Babylon, three former kingdoms, & now Medo-Persia.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT!
51. (VERSE 5:) "AND AS I WAS CONSIDERING, BEHOLD, AN HE GOAT CAME FROM THE WEST." Now where's West? Here's Medo-Persia covering all this territory here including Turkey. It used to be called Asia Minor. What's West of Turkey? (Fam: Greece.) See that little piece of land, you can just barely see it up there? Across the Dardanelles there, across the Bosporus, is Greece, on the other side of that neck of water that joins the Mediterranean with the Black Sea.
52. SO ALL OF A SUDDEN THIS HE GOAT STARTS COMING FROM THE WEST, & THAT COULD ONLY BE GREECE.--"From the West on the face of the whole Earth." In other words, he was just really conquering everything in his path! "And touched not the ground"--what does that signify? If you're not touching the ground, what are you doing? (Fam: Flying!) And if you fly, how fast are you going?--You must be going fast! In fact, we find out that this great he goat was what coming kingdom or empire? (Fam: Greece.)--And Alexander was its King.
53. AND HE DIDN'T EVEN TOUCH THE GROUND, HE WAS GOING SO FAST! How do we know how fast Alexander went? History tells you he conquered everything from Greece clear over here to India, more than any conqueror had ever conquered before, in exactly ten years! Those are two good pivotal dates to remember.--From about the year 333 B.C. to 323 B.C., exactly. Because by the time he got over here to India, his men were pretty well worn out & tired of all this conquering & they decided it looked like there was no end to the World they were conquering & they were getting clear over here with the Indians & they refused to go any further, they just flatly refused. At last they disobeyed him & said they wanted to go home.
54. SO HE SENT A BIG BATCH OF THEM HOME BY WATER, BY THE SEA, BELIEVE IT OR NOT. Now how they got there we don't know, because the Suez Canal wasn't cut through yet. Probably he shipped them back as far as he could by water. Alexander had his fleets of boats too, probably a fleet of boats met'm on the Mediterranean & sailed'm all the rest of the way home. If they'd come this way, clear around up the water here, clear up to where it stopped the arm of the Red Sea there, then they would have had to march 103 miles across the land, the length of the Suez Canal, & then ride comfortably, more or less, on his big fleet that he had in the Mediterranean, right on back to Greece.
55. BUT WHAT DID ALEXANDER & HIS MOST LOYAL SOLDIERS DO THAT REFUSED TO LEAVE HIM, BECAUSE HE REFUSED TO LEAVE? What did they do? (Fam: They marched back?) To where? Now this makes it very interesting to the story. They marched back to what had become the capital of Medo-Persia, Susa, Shushan, the palace. It was apparently even during the time of Babylon, it was the Summer palace or Summer capital, a cooler place, to which the kings of Babylon went to spend the Summer. I've forgotten how many thousand men Alexander marched back to Susa with, where Shushan the palace was--& it was such a beautiful place, well-watered, not as hot as the rest, sea breezes, etc.
56. OH, I CAN'T LEAVE THIS PART OUT, MAYBE THIS IS WHY HE MARCHED BACK TO SUSA! He had fallen in love with the princess of the Medes & Persians & he married her there. She was then known as the Princess of Bactria, it's so close it looks like bacteria! The first time I ever read it I thought it said"bacteria" so I've always remembered it that way! She was then known as the Princess of Bactria. Well, she must have had some bacteria, because he got back here in the year 323, his ten years of conquest over, & he there died exactly one year later of a fever! So she must have had some bacteria! Now I bet you won't forget that, will you?--That Alexander the Great married the Princess of Bacteria & as a result he died of a fever a year later! Pretty easy to remember, huh?
57. HE LOVED THAT LUXURY, THE VERY LUXURY THAT HE'D BEEN CONQUERING, & he found the city full of treasures of all kinds, one of the richest places on Earth at that time, & so he settled down there & even took on the ways, it says, of the Medes & the Persians. He adopted their ways & worshipped their gods, wore their clothing, he became one!--He became one & died as a result!
58. SO HERE'S THIS HE GOAT FLYING ALONG FAST, CONQUERING THE WHOLE OF THAT PART OF THE EARTH, & "HE HAD A NOTABLE HORN BETWEEN HIS EYES"! The horn was always significant of a powerful king, right?--And its kingdom of course. The beast's body usually represented the kingdom & the horn the king. What was this notable very outstanding horn, one horn? (Fam: Alexander.)
59. HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF A UNICORN IN THE BIBLE! What do they call an animal with only one horn?--A unicorn! Well, this happened to be a goat, however, & most goats have two horns. We used to have a little billy goat, in fact we called him Billy, the ice man gave him to us in Miami when I was about the age of you children. And we also had a little bulldog that belonged to our tenant there, in fact, it was Dolores' little bulldog when she was little. And that little billy goat would just pester the life out of that bulldog, because little goats like to butt each other, they like to play like this. They'll stand off from each other & run at each other--bang--like that!--With their heads down like that with those two horns sticking out! And if he couldn't find anything else to butt, often he'd butt me!
60. HE WAS ONLY ABOUT SO BIG, BUT IT JUST WAS BORN IN HIM, GOD MADE HIM THAT WAY TO WANT TO BUTT THINGS! He'd butt the door or he'd butt my legs, or if he'd catch you sitting on the ground he'd run up behind you & butt you in the back! He was a little pest if I ever saw one! And he bedevilled the life out of that poor little bulldog! That little bulldog would get up & try to go away, he didn't know what to do about it, he knew the goat was a pet & a real spoiled pet at that, he never tried to bite him, never fought him or anything, he'd just get up & move, get up & trot off! I guess he figured it was no use trying to fight those 2 horns!
61. BUT THIS GOAT ONLY HAD ONE HORN, A VERY UNUSUAL GOAT! I don't know whether he had it between his eyes or one just got broken off & he just had one left or what, but he just had one horn! And who was this horn? We know who was the great king of Greece, the most famous king that Greece ever had, in fact, who conquered all of the powerful World of his day! He's called, Alexander the Great!
62. IMAGINE THE DEAR EVIL MAGICIAN CALLING BOTH OF HIS CHILDREN AFTER ALEXANDER! I knew something was wrong with him then! (See No. 666) That was Deborah's Evil Magician I'm talking about, Techi. He called both of their children Alexander. He called one Alexander, which is male, & the next child was a girl so he called her Alexandra, which means a female Alexander. Anyhow, I don't want to get on that for sure, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the lesson!
DAN.8:6,7--DOWNFALL OF MEDES & PERSIANS!
63. (VERSE 6:) "AND HE CAME TO THE RAM"--WHO CAME TO THE RAM? (Fam: Alexander, Greece.)--This big he-goat, & he's coming from the West way up there, Greece. I don't know how he got across the water but he had a lot of ships. Greece had quite an armada of warships. He got across there & believe it or not, it's almost unbelievable, but wasn't it the Battle of Gaugamela? It is said that the major part of his army consisted of only 50,000 men who won that battle against the largest army, at that time, that had ever been put into the field in one battle! Talk about a miracle, how large was the Medo-Persian army, does anybody remember?--About half a million men against 50,000! That's about 10 to 1!
64. BUT GOD WAS WITH ALEXANDER BECAUSE HE WANTED HIM TO CONQUER THE WHOLE WORLD so they'd all speak the beautiful Greek language & the New Testament then could be written in Greek for the whole educated World, to make it a universal language. Of course, you can't get half a million men all at one place at one time, but he could concentrate his 50,000 & he won battle after battle with parts of this huge army of the Medes & Persians. I mean, it was too big to control. They didn't have walkie-talkies & radio, they had to send messengers & send signals with flags & things like that. The Medo-Persian Army was just so big & bulky & unwieldy they couldn't even control it!
65. BUT ALEXANDER WITH HIS CONCENTRATED LITTLE FORCE JUST DOVE RIGHT IN & DESTROYED'M, & mostly he scared'm, he attacked'm & scared'm & they just turned around & ran, just fled!--Almost like some of the incidents in the Bible where God scared the army to death or scared them into fleeing when nobody was even pursuing! So that's how it happened, so fast! Do you want to go over these details? (Fam: Yes!)
66. WHAT GOD IS PICTURING TO DANIEL ACTUALLY HAPPENED, EXACTLY THE WAY HE SAYS IN DETAIL! Every one of these little details is important!--The direction from which he came, one main king & so fast, over all of the Earth that was powerful at that time.
67. "HE CAME TO THE RAM THAT HAD TWO HORNS, WHICH I HAD SEEN STANDING BEFORE THE RIVER, & RAN UNTO HIM IN THE FURY OF HIS POWER!" Boy, I have seen big goats with big horns literally batter down a gate! They'd face a big wooden gate made of big heavy planks that thick, planks this wide, in a pen, back off & run at that gate & back off again & run at it until they actually broke the boards & it fell down! They are something!
68. YOU REMEMBER THAT FAMOUS FRANK SINATRA SONG ABOUT THE GOAT THAT KEPT BATTERING AT THE DAM? "Oops, there goes a million kilowatt dam!" He just kept battering. It was a song about not giving up. Of course it's kind of a fairy tale. This goat was supposed to be trying to knock down this dam. You know what a dam is, a great big concrete thing that holds back a big lake of water. So the goat kept ramming at the dam & ramming at the dam, until finally, according to the song, he knocked it down! The song said so! It must be a big story, huh! Anyhow, the idea was never give up, keep trying! Who knows? You might do the impossible!
69. WELL, THAT'S WHAT ALEXANDER THE GREAT DID, HE DID THE IMPOSSIBLE! He defeated this huge army of the Medes & Persians, scared them half to death for one thing, they just turned around & ran! They'd hardly had to fight before because everybody was scared of so many men. They just marched in & took over things. This time this guy actually challenged their army & charged at them & they got so scared they turned around & fled, the whole works, including the king who'd come out right in the battlefield with'm!
70. (VERSE 7:) "AND I SAW HIM COME CLOSE UNTO THE RAM, & HE WAS MOVED WITH CHOLER AGAINST HIM, & SMOTE THE RAM & BRAKE HIS TWO HORNS; & there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground & stamped upon him: & there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand." Now by this time the two horns were no longer Darius & Cyrus, God spared them & didn't let them live to see this day, but it was some kings later. In fact, it was Darius the III, I think, one of his grandsons, who finally lost the kingdom, along with a later king of Persia. So all of this was literally fulfilled, exactly as the Lord is saying here to Daniel! Isn't that amazing?--Only it's in a picture.
71. IF WE WANTED TO DRAW A SIMPLE PICTURE, IF WE WANTED TO MAKE A POSTER OF HOW ALEXANDER THE GREAT CONQUERED THE MEDES & THE PERSIANS, HOW WOULD WE DO IT? It would almost look silly to draw a picture of half a million men & then only 50,000 men challenging him & Alexander the Great riding at the head of his forces. Kings didn't usually ride at the head, they kept a little safer backward. But that would be a pretty big difficult thing to illustrate, wouldn't it?
72. SO THE LORD ILLUSTRATED IT JUST AS SIMPLY AS COULD BE, LIKE TWO BIG ANIMALS, the ram with two great big horns. We'll say this is the West, & here comes this big he goat with one great big horn, & here comes this big ram with two great big horns, & they go "Bam!" like that! I'll bet that horn hit him right between the eyes, right between the horns! But he broke off both of those horns of the Medes & Persians! This hand over here with the thumb up is Alexander the Great coming from the West! And which one is this then? (Fam: Medo-Persia.) This is what kind of an animal? (David: The he sheep!)--Called a ram, right! And this is a what? (Kids: A he goat!)--A he goat with one horn & a ram with two horns & they go head-on! They both like to butt, so you can imagine what a clash that was, BAM!--A good illustration of the war, though, wasn't it? And the he goat broke these two horns, they're broken, & the ram fell down dead, I suppose.--Well, conquered anyhow. "And nobody could deliver the ram out of his hand"--whose hand? (Fam: Alexander's.)
73. YOU SAY, "WHY GO OVER ALL THIS OLD STUFF, DAD? You've been over this so many times & the kids know this by heart!" Well, you said you wanted to know the details, so here they are! Here are the exact details how God predicted in detail exactly how it was going to happen, & this is all fulfilled in history, think of that!
DAN.8:8--ALEXANDER DIES, 4 GENERALS!
74. (8TH VERSE:) "THEREFORE THE HE GOAT WAXED VERY GREAT: & WHEN HE WAS STRONG"--ACTUALLY AT HIS STRONGEST, HE'D CONQUERED ALL THE KNOWN WORLD, WHAT HAPPENED?--"The great horn was broken", without a hand. Think of that! He lived through all those battles, killed all those people, was threatened by millions of soldiers, & wound up sick in bed dying of a fever. They say he died whimpering, crying, because there were no more worlds to conquer! In fact, they say he died drunk, he actually drank himself to death because he was through conquering the World & there wasn't anything else to do, so he just lived in pleasure with his bacterial wife, must have caught the germ, & died of a fever! Bet you won't forget that, will you!
75. "HIS GREAT HORN WAS BROKEN, & FOR IT CAME UP FOUR NOTABLE HORNS!"--Out of this one great horn, all of a sudden out of this beast, boom!--See that? It didn't happen quite that fast, but when he died, when the great horn was broken like that, boom, then up came four horns, & what were they? (Fam: The four generals.)--His four generals!
76. BEFORE HE DIED THEY ASKED HIM, "TO WHOM IS YOUR EMPIRE GOING TO GO?" Because now by this time he really ruled the World all the way from India to Greece, & from Egypt probably up to the border of Russia, all that amounted to anything in those days. That was the area of the great powers & great nations & rich countries of the World! They weren't out West, they weren't back East, nothing in North America to speak of. This was the center of World power, the center of great empires, all this area that you see here & beyond, Greece, Rome etc. No more worlds to conquer! So he died of drunk-enness & pleasure & it sounds like bacteria, a fever.
77. AND BEFORE HE DIED HIS FOUR GENERALS ASKED HIM, "TO WHICH ONE OF US SHOULD THE KINGDOM GO?" And what did Alexander say? (Fam: To the strongest!) A rather wise say-ing, wasn't it? What would that have meant if they'd done it? They'd have had a big bunch of wars fighting each other for the kingdom, which they really did later. But at that time they made a very wise decision. They decided they'd split it up peacefully instead of having a bunch of wars & just making themselves weak & divided so that other powers like Rome would overcome them, which it did later, because they did divide later & did begin fighting each other.
78. BUT AT FIRST THEY MADE PEACE WITH EACH OTHER & THEY DIVIDED THE GRECIAN EMPIRE INTO FOUR PARTS, & WHAT PARTS WERE THEY? History tells you their names & everything. We're getting into recorded history now, written history, it tells you their names. But here it was predicted in the Bible.
79. WHEN DID DANIEL LIVE WITH BELSHAZZAR IN BABYLON? It must have been somewhere around 500 or before. If he was captured around 600 & he was probably already a teenager, then he must have been born somewhere around 620 B.C. And if he lived to be 100, this was near the last of his life here. He lived on into the time of Cyrus as far as we know & I don't think any further. But just to make it a round number, we'd say somewhere around 500 B.C. that he's having these visions & all.
80. THE FIRST DREAM HE INTERPRETED WAS WHEN HE WAS JUST A YOUNG MAN. But now he's an old man, he's lived through several kings & he's not too far to the end of his time, because he only has a few more visions here to finish out & he had done his job & was ready to "go stand in his lot", as God's Word says, "at the end of his days." (Dan.12:13) What do you think his lot was? It says, "Thou shalt stand in thy lot!" I can prove to you there are lots Up There in Space City! They're not for sale, either! They're already owned by somebody, they all belong to somebody, & they're not going to sell'm! There are lots of lots Up There, & on those lots are Mansions!
81. SO THESE FOUR GENERALS AGREED TO DIVIDE UP THE GRECIAN EMPIRE INTO FOUR PARTS SO THAT THEY WOULDN'T FIGHT & then be overcome by their enemies. So what were those parts? Anybody want to volunteer to come up here & point them out? (Fam: Egypt, Greece, Turkey & Assyria.) Assyria's not on the map, but where did I tell you Assyria was?--In that little country that was called Mesopotamia, which housed the Empires of Assyria & Babylon & Medo-Persia. That one little country has been the seat of all those various empires, think of that! (Fam: Iraq.) Iraq was the seat of several of these great empires. And that general area there of the Mideast was more or less known as Assyria, but actually afterward it was the land of the Medes & the Persians which they had captured.
82. SO THEY DIVIDED THE WORLD UP between Greece & Egypt & Turkey & all those little countries around there, including Persia, etc. What modern country was Persia? (Fam: Iran.)
SHAH OF IRAN, MONUMENT TO CYRUS!
83. THE SHAH OF IRAN BUILT A HUGE MONUMENT IN PERSIA, NOW CALLED IRAN, NEAR TEHRAN OF COURSE, THE CAPITAL. The last Shah, the last great king--that literally means king, he was king of Persia or Iran--built a huge multimillion-dollar monument & had a tremendous celebration, invited all the kings & leaders of the World to it & most of them went, all the leading heads of Europe & everyone went to this celebration. And this monument was to whom? Come on, make a good guess! (Fam: Cyrus?)--Cyrus!--Honouring him as the first & greatest king of Persia & as the founder of the Persian Dynasty of kings of whom the Shah also claimed to be a descendant.--The supposed longest-lived monarchy the World has ever known! How long did it last?--About 2500 years!
84. HE HAD A BIG CELEBRATION & THEY ANNOUNCED THE ANNIVERSARY, WHICH WAS AROUND 2500 YEARS, & THEY HONOURED THE MONUMENT OF CYRUS. They had huge pavilions & tents & lavish, luxurious quarters built all around the monument to have this huge celebration that went on for days & days! And the Shah of Persia furnished all the luxury & the housing & the food & refreshments & entertainment & everything. As I recall, it was celebrating the 2500th anniversary of Cyrus King of Persia!--Supposedly the longest-lived monarchy that the World has ever known. And then what happened? (Fam: He fell.) What did he do, trip over his foot or something?
85. IMMEDIATELY AFTER ALL THIS TREMENDOUS CELEBRATION & EVERYTHING, WITHIN JUST A SHORT TIME THIS GUY KHOMEINI AROSE & stirred up the religious opposition & all the mullahs & the heads of the bazaars, the merchants. Khomeini stirred up the merchants & the mullahs against the Shah. The Shah was trying to modernise Iran & bring it out of the dark ages & civilise its people & its women & give them freedom & bring it into the 20th century, now! But these religious leaders, & for money, the rich bazaar owners, rose up against him & stirred up the people who were Muslims religiously to oppose him.
LEBANON--TYRE & SIDON!
86. LIKE MOST WARS, SO MANY REVOLUTIONS ARE RELIGIOUS. All that fighting going on in Beirut & Lebanon now is all between religious factions, different religions fighting each other.--Even some Muslims fighting other Muslims, Shiites fighting Sunnis, Druzes fighting Muslims & Christians fighting Druzes! It's not a very big country but it's one of the biggest messes in the World, Lebanon! And you look it up, it has been fulfilled exactly what the Lord said about it. (See Ezek.26.)
87. HE SAID THAT THE CITY OF TYRE WOULD BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED & BECOME AS BARE AS THE TOP OF A ROCK, EVEN HER STONES & DEBRIS CAST INTO THE SEA, & become a place for the spreading of the fishermens' nets. And that's exactly what happened. Ancient Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar came along & got so mad at'm, because they had fled to this little island a half a mile offshore with all their treasures & riches & he couldn't get there because he didn't have any boats. So he destroyed the entire old city of Tyre from which they had fled, the great city of Tyre which had been a city of the Phoenicians for centuries. He left it there in ruins.
88. BUT ALONG CAME ALEXANDER THE GREAT & HE WASN'T GOING TO PASS UP ALL THOSE RICHES, & he's the smart guy that decided to take all the ruins & scrape them into the water & build a causeway!--A road! I lived in Miami for years, & there was a three-mile causeway from Miami to Miami Beach, a road built up out of the water about three feet above the water level. Alexander only had a half a mile to go & scraped all the ruins of Ancient Tyre. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it, Alexander came along later & scraped it all into the water & built a road out to the new city & captured it!
89. SO THIS AMAZING COUNTRY, LEBANON, HAS GONE THROUGH ALL THESE THINGS. The City of Sidon was very wicked also, & have you heard about Sidon lately? Haven't they been talking about Tyre & Sidon, having all kinds of battles & killings & shootings & everything? I mean that country's a mess! They're all divided up against each other. No wonder they fell so easily to the Israelis.
90. SIDON IS FURTHER SOUTH DOWN THE COAST, ANOTHER PORT. The Bible, if you'll look it up, predicted not the total destruction of Sidon, it predicted that Sidon would last a long time, but continually have war & slaughter & famine & disease & all kinds of curses for years & years to come. (Eze.28:20-23) And Sidon is still at war! It has had nothing but war from ancient history to today. That poor little land of Lebanon is a mess!
THE BORDERS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE!
91. SO THE GENERALS DIVIDED UP THE WORLD INTO WHAT FOUR COUNTRIES now, everybody? (Fam: Egypt, Greece, Turkey and Assyria.)--Assyria here which you can say is Assyria or was Medo-Persia at that time, and everybody seemed to be happy and satisfied for awhile. But the rich and the powerful are never satisfied, are they? So at the first opportunity when one of them saw the other one was a little bit weaker or something, they began to challenge each other and invade each other and they began to have constant wars with each other.--Until it weakened the whole Grecian Empire by being divided up like that. Until later on who came along? (Fam: Rome!)
92. FROM FURTHER WEST CAME SOME MORE WESTERNERS FROM ROME, FROM ITALY, & THEY SWEPT ACROSS ALL OF IT & CONQUERED IT ALL. They conquered all the great civilised powerful World of the day all the way from what to what? What was the Western boundary of Rome? (Fam: Britain.)--Britain! What was the Eastern boundary of Rome?--All the way to India again, in its widest extent. What was the Northern boundary of Rome? (Fam: Germany?)--Well, Germany, Europe. They conquered nearly all of Europe & most likely parts of Russia & all of that.
93. SOUTHERN BOUNDARY? THEY SPENT A LONG TIME CONQUERING THAT PART. (Fam: North Africa.)--Yes. Egypt, & down here was what great city? (Fam: Alexandria.) And another famous city which was in Libya that Rome had great wars with was Carthage!--The great city of Carthage, the great state of Carthage with which Rome battled in the Punic Wars.--Until finally it sacked Carthage & burned it to the ground. And the ruins are still over there & still a tourist point in Libya.
DANIEL 8:9--THE LITTLE HORN!
94. SO FOUR NOTABLE ONES CAME UP, NOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH THEY WERE? Once again, Class. (Fam: Egypt, Greece, Turkey & Assyria.) For some reason or other we Americans have a tendency to either go left to right in reading or go clockwise in going around pictures & things like that, so that's naming them clockwise, beginning on the South going clockwise from Egypt to Greece to Turkey & Assyria or Medo-Persia or whatever you want to call it. I guess they usually say Assyria because I think that's what it was called. In fact, later it was called not Assyria, but Syria. The part that that General got was later called Syria. It had been Assyria. And the actual country of Syria was right where you were pointing up there, this little country right there, see it? It was all part of Assyria at one time.
95. SO JUST EXACTLY AS GOD SHOWED THE PROPHET DANIEL, THE WHOLE THING CAME TO PASS, although it took many years before it all happened. I started to talk about the chronology. Daniel was prophesying, in round numbers, approximately, we don't know exactly, probably sometime before the year 500 B.C. Alexander conquered the World between what years? (Fam: 333 & 323.)--Ten years, so that's easy to remember. He conquered the World by 324 & died in 323. So actually it was 10 years from 333 through 324, & then 323 would have been the 11th year & he died. So it was divided up at the time of his death, which was 323. Now all of a sudden a sudden change takes place here.
96. (VERSE 9:) "AND OUT OF ONE OF THEM"--ONE OF WHOM? (Fam: The four divisions.)--One of these four divisions of the Grecian Empire. "Out of one of them came forth a little horn." Have you heard that expression before? Where did you hear it before? (Fam: In Chapter 7.) Chapter 7 talks a lot about that little horn. Well, what in the World ever happened to Rome? Here's the Grecian Empire falling apart & all of a sudden up springs this little horn!
97. WELL, HE'S TALKING MOSTLY IN THIS CHAPTER ABOUT WHAT TWO GREAT EMPIRES, TO BEGIN WITH? (Fam: Medo-Persia & Greece.) Those are the main subjects, the two beasts that he saw in the vision. Then out of where these four horns were, these four divisions of the empire, sprang a little horn. He's particularly talking about places now, that part of the Grecian Empire, & about the same little horn that he talked about back in Chapter 7. And He's jumping over Rome completely, not going into detail about Rome or anything like that. He already dealt with that in the last chapter in detail. So He's pushing you suddenly into the future. In fact, He's not only jumping over ancient Rome, but He's jumping over modern Rome & the whole stretch of Roman domination of the World for the past 2,000 years or more so that He's landing you where? When is the Little Horn going to arise?--Maybe in 1986!--Now, at the End!
98. WHY DOES HE DO IT THIS WAY? WHY DOESN'T HE MENTION THAT OTHER BEAST, ROME? Why doesn't He say something about Rome? The Lord is especially interested in describing to Daniel those last kings, & especially the Antichrist, & spent more time on that even in Chapter 7. So again He's jumping over the whole thing, catapulting over a great gap of 2,000 years of history in order to show you the Antichrist, & more important, this is the only Scripture in which it tells where he is from!
99. NOW THE PUZZLE IS, THE MYSTERY IS, THE CONUNDRUM IS TO FIGURE OUT WHICH OF THE FOUR HE'S FROM! And we shall deal with that in the next lesson! PTL! Isn't that the way all those TV series used to end?--At the most exciting moment, the cliffhanger! The guy's hanging on with his fingernails to the cliff & about to fall & on comes a commercial! And that's to make you want to make sure you're hooked so you'll be sure & see what happened next time. As I said, the only movies I ever remember are the ones I never finished, I never saw how they turned out. The ones I saw the whole thing & saw how it turned out, I forget'm! Sometimes I start watching a video & get almost halfway through & it suddenly dawns on me I've seen this movie before. I just saw it & forgot it because I saw how it ended & my curiosity was all gone, I didn't try to remember it or anything.
100. BUT NOW MAYBE YOU'LL REALLY STUDY THE NEXT HALF OF THIS CHAPTER & YOU'LL REALLY REMEMBER IT because you'll want to know, just where did the Antichrist come from!--Which part of this Empire! That's another clue in the identity of the Antichrist. Not that we will know, but why would the Lord have told us if we weren't going to know?--Because it's one of his ID tags, one of his identification points, where he is from. So that's our next lesson, God willing!
101. I'VE BEEN OVER ALL OF THESE THINGS BEFORE, BUT APPARENTLY NOT IN SUCH DETAIL & WORD BY WORD. But at least maybe you'll really get it down pat this time so you can know whereof you speak when you're witnessing & telling other people about it & remembering yourself & waiting for signs, for the Antichrist & what he's like, where he's from, how he arises & all these things. It's very important that we know, right? Because I'm sure we will recognise him long before the World does, for what he really is. PTL!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
