The Ram, The Goat and the Little Horn - The Book of Daniel - Daniel 8:1-27

The Ram, The Goat and the Little Horn

Daniel 8

1. The Context: The Ram and the Goat

2. The Focus: The Little Horn

3. The Response: Daniel's Weakness & Life

Quotes:

Because of that "Antiochus accused the people of rebellion, savagely attacked and sacked Jerusalem, and executed tens of thousands of its inhabitants - forty thousand apparently dying within the space of three days - while others were taken captive. He entered the holy of holies in the temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar of burnt offering, defiled the temple precincts, took the sacred furniture, and established a traitor, Menelaus as high priest" - Sinclair Ferguson

Ian Duguit says it well "The cross is the guarantee that God's plan will always prevail in the face of our weakness, rebellion and sin, and in spite of the fierce enmity of Satan and all of his hosts"

Scripture

-"for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything to take your stand" - Eph. 6:12-13

 1 John 2:18 "Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour".

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Open with me to Daniel 8

Let's read!

v. 1-2 are key at connecting this vision with the previous vision.

Notice that the vision is during Babylons reign, and Daniel is in Babylon, yet he is in this vision appearing in the city of Susa, which is the capital of Persia

The structure of this vision is very simple yet a lot of details that make it not simple, and we will address some of it not all.:

• first, we are introduced to two animals, the ram and the goat, which is the background to the vision

• secondly, the focus narrows down to the "little horn on the goat".

• thirdly, the interpretation of the vision, and Daniel responds to the vision.  

I. The Context: The Ram and the Goat

v. 3-4, 20

The Ram is the Medo-Persian Kingdom following Babylonian kingdom (560 BC- 330 BC)

• God is saying that after Babylonia reign, will come Persia

• This kingdom had two horns but one was longer than the other. Meaning the Persians were stronger in power than the Medes. But they were together in one kingdom.

• This is the same as the second beast of chapter 7:5, about the bear who was raised on one side

v. 5-8, 21-22

The Goat is the Greek empire following Medo-Persian Kingdom (330BC - 146BC)

• This animal comes from the west yet, it is not touching the ground, as if flying over it.

◦ This is Similar to the third beast in chapter 7, which is the leopard with four wings of a bird and four heads.

◦ The Greeks started to have influence during the Persian empire through their philosophy and writing by people like: Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and more.

◦ Yet, when Alexander the Great "the conspicuous horn" came into power around 330, he was able to bring Greek dominance extremely fast, first he secured their own Mesopotamian boarder, and then went to fight Persia and was very successful militarily and conquering them without any problems.

As we are reading this, we can forget that this was written before the events took place.

• Daniel was writing this in the 6th century, with extreme accuracy!

• But we believe that God not only knows the future, he directs it in ways he sees right.

◦ Often when crazy world events happen that shake us up to the reality that this world is full of brokenness and evil, we might lose heart.

◦ We let our anxieties paralyze us in living this life.

◦ But God knows, he allows them to be, he saw this from the beginning of time. Don't you think he knows better and he has a plan for all this!!!

◘ When crazy things happen in the world, and you are fearful, run to the Father, look to Him for comfort and peace.

• No only are we reassured that God knows the future, but also that he is in control even when it seems that evil reigns

◦ We don't know why God allows evil to reign for now, but we know that evil is not outside of God's plan. God allows it for His reasons. No matter how hard they are and difficult it is for God's people, he is there and He is with us.

II. The Focus: The Little Horn

The whole trust of this vision narrows down to this is "little horn"

in v. 9-14, 23-26

• It is a bit surprising that the huge world powers and even Alexander the great is not give the spotlight here but this particular little horn,

◦ Little horn, emphasizes the smallness it has in comparison to the world events, a king over a small area, and not very significant in himself. Why focus attention on this king??

◦ This king will do a lot of evil to the Jews, to the people of God, and God cares about that very much!!!

◦ In verse 13, a holy being is speaking to another holy being summarizing the way the little horn will attack the people of God

So who is this little horn coming to the south and the east and toward the beautiful land?

• This little horn is not identical to the little horn of chapter 7 of the fourth beast. But there are similarities.

• After Alexander the Great dies, the kingdom of Greece is divided into four generals. One of the generals was over Syria governed by Seleucus Nicantor, which became the Seleucid dynasty.

◦ From this dynasty comes "Antiochus Epiphanes" who is represented by this little horn.

• Antiochus came to power in 175 BC, who was Antiochus IV.

• Because of that "Antiochus accused the people of rebellion, savagely attacked and sacked Jerusalem, and executed tens of thousands of its inhabitants - forty thousand apparently dying within the space of three days - while others were taken captive. He entered the holy of holies in the temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar of burnt offering, defiled the temple precincts, took the sacred furniture, and established a traitor, Menelaus as high priest" - Sinclair Ferguson

This was pure evil, and totally focused on annihilating the Jews and their religion!

• When Gabriel is explaining this vision of the little horn, not only is he describing Antiochus Epiphanes in v. 23-26, but also somewhat in the same breath describes the ultimate "antichrist".

◦ Meaning Antiochus is a type of the ultimate eschatological Antichrist.

◘ He is operating in ways that this evil world is operating, and it is focused on destroying the people of God!

• Why should we know all this?

◦ Because we need to see that there are often little "antichrists" in power that will try everything in their midst to destroy God's people, and it is fueled by Satan himself.

◦ We might look at news and only see people, but we also need to realize that there are underlining elements at play.

◦ The Bible says: "for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything to take your stand" - Eph. 6:12-13

◦ The question to all of us is this: are we in God's army? Do we have security in his power? Or are we fake?

◦ The reality is this power that the enemy exerts is given a time.

◘ It is allowed to do it's evil things, but for a time.

◘ At one point this king is desolates the temple, kills godly people, exercises power over the place, but then comes the end.

◘ In God's plan, there is always an end to the evil,

◘ Ian Duguit says it well "The cross is the guarantee that God's plan will always prevail in the face of our weakness, rebellion and sin, and in spite of the fierce enmity of Satan and all of his hosts"

◦ Now Jesus is reigning and living, holding power over Satan, sin and death.

◦ Yet, we are still at war until he comes to claim total victory.

◘ Jesus say "You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 10:22)

◘ We as believers are to hold strong.

III. The Response: Daniel's Weakness & Life

• Notice two areas where we see Daniels Response to all this:

◦ The first is after the vision of the Animals and this horn, Daniel is trying to understand what is happening.

we read v. 15-19

◦ Daniel is overwhelmed by this vision and the presence of heavenly beings

◘ He is confused, he is weak and unable to even stand.

◘ The Gabriel calls him "Son of man" - which often means human, mortal, and thus "weak" in comparison to the Spiritual powers.

◦ Daniel was supposed to understand the vision

◘ So for us Christians, we are see and understand more about this vision because it has happened, but it also points to the ultimate "big horn" the "antichrist" that is coming into the work and will wage war against the people of God.

◘ As John says in 1 John 2:18 "Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour".

Secondly, after this vision, and seeing what will happen in the future to God's people, Daniel responds in. v. 27

• It made him overcome and exhausted and he laid sick for many days.

But then notice, he didn't stay in that condition forever, it says "I got up and went about the kings business"

Daniel lived as a faithful godly person even though he did not understand the vision.

• We should not read the apocalyptic letters like Daniel, 2 Thessalonians and Revelations to try to piece things and find who fits where. And what do each number mean?

• Don't lose sleep over the future, because you are simply a human, who is limited. You trust God and be faithful in where you are at.

◦ Go to work, do your job well.

◦ Be a good witness to people around you.

Amen