From Babylon to Jerusalem - (Daniel) ch.7 & 8 — Zac Poonen

Daniel's Historical and Prophetic Sections

Let's turn to Daniel and Chapter 7. The last six chapters that we've looked at where dealing with historical matters is the history of Daniel's lifetime, beginning with him as a young man in Chapter 1 and on up to the age of 90 in Chapter 6.

And in those chapters we see the type of man whom God is looking for in these last days to stand as a testimony for him. The overcomers are to be men like Daniel and his three friends. Now the remaining six chapters of the book are not historical in relation to Daniel's history, but historical in relation to the future, that which is going to take place after Daniel's time, what we call prophecy.

And prophecy is really history written in advance. So we can say the first six chapters were really history written after the events took place, and the last six chapters are dealing with history that's written before the events took place, and that is what prophecy is all about.

And the reason why God has given us such detailed, such a detailed prophecy of the history of the great empires of the world in these following six chapters is to encourage our hearts as we live in this day and look back and see the exact fulfillment of all that is written in these six chapters, many of these things already fulfilled, that gives us an assurance that the things that are yet to be fulfilled are also going to be fulfilled.

But it's very interesting to see that God doesn't begin with prophecy, but he begins with the description of how these men stood in Babylon and over Cain. So to be an overcomer is more important than to understand the details of prophecy.

And that's why we are given a description of Daniel and his character and the type of man Daniel was, to whom prophecy was revealed. The type of man we are is more important than understanding the details of prophecy.

One of the marks of a carnal Christian is that he has no interest in knowing how to get victory over sin, but he's more interested in knowing the prophetic details about the second coming of Christ. The fact, for example, that a man is interested in studying the book of Revelation does not necessarily prove that he is a spiritual person.

He may have a carnal interest in the future, but if he's interested in being an overcomer, as we read in the second and third chapters of Revelation, then that is another thing. And that's why in the book of Revelation, it speaks about the overcomers in chapter two and three, and then begins the prophetic section.

It's exactly the same in the book of Daniel. In the first six chapters, we're told about the type of overcomers that we are to be. Uncompromising in our stand for the truth of God, in the midst of a sinful and adulterous generation and a compromising Babylonian Christianity.

In the midst of this, we are to stand uncompromising for God, and then to such a person God desires to reveal the events of the future. So never let's lose that sense of priority. We come to chapter seven here, and since the prophetic sections are all put together, we find that this took place actually before Belshazzar died.

Daniel has arranged the first six chapters dealing with history, and then in chapter seven onwards, he begins the prophetic section, and he deals with prophecies that were given even before Darius overcame Belshazzar, which we read of in chapter five.

Daniel's Vision and the Outpouring of the Spirit

So chapter seven, we see here in the first year of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.

Daniel was around 87 years old in the first year of Belshazzar the king, or at least 84, or past 80 anyway, and we find he's a man who is still spiritually alert, having dreams and visions. In Acts chapter two, when the apostle Peter spoke about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he said, the Holy Spirit will be poured upon all flesh, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

It's one of the things that's going to be a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that those who are anointed with the Spirit would have visions and dreams, and since the Spirit was upon Daniel, he had visions and dreams.

And Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the word for wind is the same as the word for spirit, and that's significant.

There are spirits in the heavenly places that seek to stir up, and the sea is a picture of humanity in the world. We saw that in Revelation 17, when we studied Revelation, that the waters are multitudes and nations and peoples and tongues, and so we see the spirits in the heavenly places, evil spirits, stirring up humanity.

And that's something that Daniel saw in the Spirit, and if we could see into the spiritual realm today, we would see an identical vision of the spirits in the heavenly places, stirring up humanity against God.

And as a result of this, there's conflict among the nations, and that's always the result of the spirits in the heavenly places stirring them up. And that teaches us that whenever there is strife and conflict in a church, you can be pretty sure that's the work of the same evil spirits who stir up strife and conflict in nations.

And we can say about such a church, that such a church does not have power over satanic spirits. Any church in which there is strife and conflict, particularly among the leadership, and where the leaders are fighting and quarreling, and backbiting and gossiping against each other, we can write across that church, whatever church it is called, that is a church over which Satan has got power.

The spirits in the heavens are stirring him up. And such a church is not the church which Jesus is building, because Jesus said the church which he built, the gates of hell, would never prevail against it.

And if I belong to a church in which the leaders were fighting, I would leave it at the first opportunity, and find a place where the leaders do not fight. I'm surprised to see that there are so many believers who don't have that much sense as to see that it is satanic spirits who stir up strife among the leaders, and it's stupid to belong to a church where Satan is working more than the Holy Spirit.

The Four Beasts and the Kingdoms of the World

And we see here as a result of the stirring up of the great sea in humanity, verse 3, four great beasts came up from the sea, different from one another. And as we read through this chapter, we find that these beasts, these four beasts, are the same as the four kingdoms which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream.

You remember Nebuchadnezzar saw the dream with a statue of four different types of metals, and the four different metals were gold, silver, bronze, and iron, symbolizing the four great kingdoms that were going to come from Daniel's time, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

We saw that in our study of chapter 2. Now, that was man's vision of the kingdoms of the world. Nebuchadnezzar saw the kingdoms of the world as precious metals, gold, silver, bronze, and iron. But when God gives Daniel his viewpoint of these same four kingdoms, he says they are not like precious metals, they are like wild beasts.

And God's view of these kingdoms is quite different from man's view. What we saw in Daniel chapter 2 was man's view, what we see in Daniel chapter 7 is God's view. The sea, the Bible says in Isaiah 57 verse 20, that the wicked are like the troubled sea which cannot come to rest.

That's a mark of wicked people. They can never come to rest because they are constantly stirred up by Satan. Wherever there is unrest, there is the working of evil spirits. Remember that. Whenever there is unrest in any heart or in any assembly, it's the working of evil spirits.

It's the mark of the wicked. Like the troubled sea, they cannot rest. And from this troubled sea comes forth these four beasts. And we see in verse 4, the first beast was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle.

And that's the picture of Babylon. And history shows us these pictures used even by those kings in those days, of a lion with the wings of an eagle. And it says here the wings were plucked, which is a picture of Nebuchadnezzar being humbled by God.

A lion was the king of the animals and the eagle was the king of the birds, and that was the power that Nebuchadnezzar had as the king of Babylon. And God plucked his wings. He was humbled. And when God made Nebuchadnezzar behave like a beast, as we studied in chapter 4, it was God teaching him, this is my opinion of all of you great men on the earth.

But it says here, finally, he was lifted up from the ground. We studied in Daniel 4 that Nebuchadnezzar began to eat grass like cattle. But then God lifted him up and this speaks of his conversion, where he was made to stand on two feet like a man.

Till then he was like a beast. And we need to see all the governments of the world and all the political parties of the world, in God's eyes, they are like beasts. One type of beast, another type of beast.

And when you're asked to vote, you're asked to vote between one beast and another. That's why I never vote, because there's not much of a choice between these different beasts that there are in these political parties.

We see in Daniel 7, that is God's view of all these people who seek for political power. And we don't vote for beasts. But Nebuchadnezzar, towards the end of his life, was converted. Then he became like a man.

Until man is converted, he's really like a beast. It's a human being as God wants him to be. And a human mind was given to it. Verse 5, then he saw another beast, which is a picture of the second kingdom, that is Medo-Persia, resembling a bear.

And that speaks of the ferocious nature of the kingdom that overpowered Babylon, the kingdom of Cyrus and Darius, Medo-Persia. It was two kingdoms together, were joined up. And it says it was raised up on one side, which indicates that Media came up first, and Persia overpowered it, and it became the kingdom of Medo-Persia.

And three ribs were in its mouth, between its teeth. And we know from history, that the Medo-Persian empire spread in three directions of the compass. Not in four directions, but in three. And that's what's symbolized by the three ribs.

Medo-Persian empire is what is today known as Iran. And we know from history, 500 years before Christ, in the 6th century before Christ, that this empire of what is now Iran, spread not eastwards towards India, but north, south and west.

It spread in these three directions, and finally reached, history tells us, right up to the borders of Greece, in a Grecian town called Marathon. That's where this Medo-Persian empire reached. Now, it's quite amazing, how God gave Daniel a clear picture of all that was going to happen.

And now, as we live in a day when we can look back, and compare the word of God with history books, we find exactly what God said. We see it fulfilled in history. And then we read in verse 6, the third empire, the Medo-Persian empire, as I said, reached up to the borders of Greece.

And then, the third empire, after this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard. And this speaks of the empire of Alexander the Great, under, as the king of Greece. And he conquered the known world at a fantastic speed.

And that's why he's likened to a leopard, from which family, the cheetah comes, the fastest animal. The speed with which he conquered, he came right up to the borders, right up to India, Alexander the Great.

And he had on his back four wings, unlike the two wings that Babylonia had in verse 4. He had four wings, spreading, going forth in quick speed. And it says here, the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

Now this is something else that was fulfilled in history. History tells us that when Alexander the Great died, at the age of 32 or 33, very young, because of living a very licentious life, his kingdom was divided up between four of his generals.

And that's symbolized by the four heads. And the four generals controlled four parts of Alexander's empire. One took Syria, another took Egypt, another took what is today Turkey, and another one took Greece.

And this is described to Daniel. Now I just mentioned this to see how exactly all that God said to Daniel was fulfilled. And after this, verse 7, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong.

This is the iron in the legs of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw, the empire of Rome. And it had large iron teeth. You see the iron coming in here too. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet.

And we find that Rome conquered Greece and became the dominant empire of the world, right up to the time that Jesus was born, and on to a few centuries after Jesus' death and resurrection. And it was different from all the beasts that were before it.

There were many ways, we don't have time to go into it, which the Roman empire was different. Rome had elections and various things. They had a senate, parliament, things which the other three kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece never thought of.

It was different, but yet it was powerful. And now I want you to notice something, that at this point where it says it was different from all the beasts that were before it, there is a comma. And from that comma, there is a gap of 2 ,000 years of what we call the church age.

Now the church age was hidden from Daniel. Daniel was like a man who was looking at a number of mountain peaks, and he saw this mountain peak of Rome, and he did not see the 2 ,000 year valley that lay between that and the next mountain peak, which is the kingdom of the Antichrist.

And looking from a distance, he saw this mountain peak and the other one, and he thought the two went on one after the other. We read in 1 Peter chapter 1 that this age of the church was a mystery, not revealed to the Old Testament prophets.

None of the Old Testament prophets knew about this mystery of the Jews and the non-Jews becoming one in the church. And so we see in Daniel and his prophecy that he goes on straight from Rome, skips over 2 ,000 years of church history, and comes immediately to the ten kingdom empire in Europe that's going to be finally headed up by the Antichrist.

It's almost as though one is going to follow after the other, but we know now that there is a 2 ,000 year gap in that comma, in the end of verse 7, and it had ten horns. And these are the ten kingdoms that we studied in the book of Revelation.

And verse 8, while I was contemplating the horns, another horn, this is the Antichrist, a little one came up among them. Daniel was the only Old Testament prophet who had a clear revelation given to him, even though he probably didn't understand it fully, of the Antichrist.

And we see it beginning here, a little one came up among the horns. Among the ten kingdoms will rise up one person who will rule the world. And three of the first horns, that is three of the first kingdoms, were pulled out by the roots.

In other words, this one is going to overpower three kingdoms, and this horn possesses eyes like the eyes of a man. He's going to be the Superman the world's been looking for. And his mouth is like the mouth of Satan, uttering great boasts.

That's the spirit of the Antichrist, a mouth uttering great boasting things. And remember this brothers and sisters, whenever we open our mouth to boast about ourselves, even if it is giving a Christian testimony, it's the spirit of the Antichrist that's operating through our mouth when we boast.

Never forget that a mouth uttering great boasts is a description of the Antichrist. And that's what we sang in the hymn just now, spirits of pride are quickly drawn to the Antichrist. And we'll see it as we go through this chapter, how it comes up again and again, this boasting spirit.

The Ancient of Days and the Final Judgment

I kept looking until thrones were set up. You see this is the end of time, and Daniel sees it one peak after the other, and he does not see the valleys that lie in between. And he sees the throne set up, this is the time of judgment, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.

His vesture, that is God himself, God Almighty. His vesture, Ancient of Days means the one who is eternal. His vesture was like white snow, speaks of his holiness and his purity. And his hair was like pure wool, white wool, speaks of his wisdom, the holiness and the wisdom of God.

His throne was ablaze with flames, speaking of his purity. Its wheels were a burning fire. God is called a consuming fire. And a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. The Holy Spirit is not only a river of living water, he's also a river of fire, coming out from before God.

And look at this beautiful picture of the angels. Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him. Ministering to him means worshipping him. And myriad, that means ten thousands upon ten thousands, millions, a hundred million angels were standing before him awaiting his orders.

I just want you to notice two things there. We say thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. This is how the angels stand in heaven. There are two things mentioned that the angels do in heaven.

One, they worship him. It says they were attending on him. They were attending on him means they were ministering to him, worshipping him. And the second thing said there is, they were waiting for his word.

Waiting for his orders. Waiting to hear what God Almighty has to tell them to do. And it's a beautiful vision of heaven we have here, which we need to experience in our own life. That spirit of worshipping the Lord and waiting before him for his word.

Speak Lord, your servant is hearing. What do you want me to do? That is the spirit in which we are to live all our earthly lives. Worshipping him and waiting on him. And that's something we can, it's an attitude we can have right through the day.

Attending on him and standing before him from morning till night. And the court sat, this is the time of judgment, and the books were open. This speaks of the final judgment at the end of the millennium.

Another thousand years is over. So Daniel missed out three thousand years here. And he sees it all together. One mountain peak after the other. There's a two thousand year valley between the first two.

Another thousand year valley between the second and the third. He sees it all together. Then I kept looking. Because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking. Notice the emphasis again.

The spirit of the Antichrist is always manifested in boasting. Boastful words. Boastful words. And they are very often heard even in Christian circles. Words that exalt oneself instead of exalting Jesus Christ.

I kept looking until the beast was slain. The kingdom of the Antichrist is finally destroyed. His body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. We know that the Antichrist himself is going to be cast alive into the lake of fire and his kingdom is going to be destroyed.

As for the rest of the beasts, that is the remaining kingdoms on the earth. And here is a little picture of the millennium. Their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time.

That period we see from Revelation 20 was a thousand years. All the heathen are not going to be wiped out from the earth when Jesus comes during the thousand years reign of Christ. There are going to be earthly kingdoms with sinners who are not converted.

That is spoken of in verse 12. Some are going to be spared to live on for the thousand years in the millennium. And I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man.

Now this is the contrast I want you to notice. First of all, a lion, then a bear, then a leopard, then an indescribable beast. All animals and then a man. That's the contrast. Animals ruling the world and even today it's animals that are ruling every nation of the earth.

But finally will come a man who will rule the earth, not a beast. And that is Jesus. The son of man was coming. This is the contrast in Daniel 7. God wants a man to rule the world, a man in contrast to the animals.

And he came up to the father and was presented before the father, before God Almighty. And to him was given dominion. Notice here, the word given occurs more than 20 times in the book of Daniel. It speaks of God's sovereignty.

He gave Nebuchadnezzar. He gave the kingdom to Cyrus. He gave it to Alexander the Great. He gave it to the Romans. He gives it to the Antichrist for a period. But finally, God the father gives it to the one to whom it rightfully belongs.

And even Jesus, you see the humility of Jesus, that he doesn't take the kingdom. He waits for the father to give it to him. Everything we are to receive like that, given by God. The spirit of grabbing is the spirit of Satan.

And we are born with that spirit. And during our earthly lifetime, God seeks to deliver us from the spirit of grabbing and to teach us to learn to receive by faith. That's how Jesus receives the kingdom.

Dominion, glory, and all the people's nations, men of every language will serve him. A time will come when every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

And his dominion is an everlasting dominion. Which will not pass away. All the other dominions ruled by these various beasts, they pass away after a while. But his dominion is an everlasting dominion which does not pass away.

And which will never be destroyed. The kingdom of Christ. And as for me Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me. And the visions in my mind kept alarming me. He was concerned because he couldn't understand all this.

We see it clearly now. But Daniel couldn't understand all that this meant. And so he did the very best thing that we can do when we don't understand the scriptures. He approached one of those who were standing by in this vision of God.

And he asked him the exact meaning of all this. What a wonderful thing to do. Lord, teach me the exact meaning of this scripture. He sought for the revelation of the Holy Spirit on the word that he did not understand.

And so he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. And the same Holy Spirit is there today to interpret the word of God to us. And he said these great beasts which are four in number are four kings who will arise from the earth.

But the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom. You see, we saw the kingdom being received by Jesus in verse 13 and 14. But he's not going to receive it alone. He's going to receive it with his body.

Jesus is the head and the body is the church. And they are together going to receive the kingdom. Jesus said that in Luke 12. Fear not, little flock. It is your father's good pleasure to give, to grant you the kingdom.

We've just got to receive it. We can't earn it. We can't fight for it. We receive it. Because God is pleased to give it to the saints. And they will possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come. What a beautiful picture again of Jesus, who will not rule alone.

He wants to rule along with us. He would not have a glory which he does not, which he cannot share with us. That is pure unselfishness. And that is what, that is the nature he seeks to impart to us. Where we do not seek a glory for ourselves, which we do not want to share with our brothers and sisters in the church.

That's the spirit of Christ. He will not have that glory, which he cannot share with us, his brothers and sisters. Let's never forget that's the spirit of Christ. Then he says in verse 19,. Then I desire to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast.

You see, he was particularly concerned about that, which is different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron, claws of bronze, which devoured, crushed, trampled down the remainder with its feet.

And the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three of them fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth, uttering great boasts, and which is larger in appearance than its associates.

I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints, and overpowering them, which teaches that God allows the Antichrist to overpower Christ. Way back 2 ,500 years ago, he saw in vision all that was coming in the future.

And he saw the Antichrist rising up and fighting against Christians, able to overpower them physically. Why? Because they will not bow down to him in spirits. Praise God that there are going to be people like that.

These are the saints described in verse 21, who are the overcomers, who have stood against the spirit of the Antichrist through the ages, who are going to possess the kingdom, as mentioned in verse 18.

Until the ancient of days came, verse 22, which teaches us that there is a time limit. God allows the Antichrist to reign, but only for three and a half years. There's this wonderful word, until. There is a time.

And God has a perfect timetable for the kingdoms of the earth. Exactly on the right day, Cyrus came and took over Babylon, exactly on the right day, Alexander the Great came up and overpowered Medo-Persia, exactly at the right time, the Antichrist will rise up and exactly at the right time, the Antichrist will be put down and the saints will possess the kingdom.

As it says here in verse 22, judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one and the time arrived. And we can be sure that God's trains all run on time. Not one of them is late. The saints took possession of the kingdom.

Praise God. Wonderful. And thus he said, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the others. And it will devour the whole earth and thread it down and crush it.

And as for the 10 horns, this is the last days. Verse 24, out of this kingdom, 10 kings will arrive out of that old Roman kingdom from Europe. As we know it today, 10 kings will arise, 10 kingdoms and another, the Antichrist will arise after them.

He'll be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. And he will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one. And he will intend to make alterations in times and in law.

He will alter God's laws and they will be given. Notice that word given again. This is the word that describes God's sovereignty. God has given it, allowed him to have it into his hand for a time, times and a half time.

We saw that in Revelation 6, a crown was given to that man who rode on the white horse, the Antichrist. When the court will sit for judgment, when the three and a half years, verse 25, a time, one year times two years and a half a time, half a year, three and a half years is going to be the period of the Antichrist.

And when that time is up, the court will sit for judgment and his dominion will be taken away. God gave it to him and God will take it away. Annihilated, he'll be annihilated, the kingdom and destroyed forever.

And again, we find in verse 27, for the third time, the sovereignty, the dominion, the greatness of all the kingdoms out of the whole heaven will be given not just to the Lord Jesus Christ, but to the people of the saints of the highest one.

Did you notice that three times? Verse 18, verse 22, and again in verse 27, the kingdom is coming to the overcomers. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and his dominion and all dominions will serve and obey him.

Receiving Every Gift from God

At this point, the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself. There's one thing that we see very clearly in this chapter and that is that all these people receive from God.

The difference is that the heathen beasts who receive the kingdom do not realize that God has allowed them to have it. Whereas Jesus and the saints, when they receive from God, they recognize this is the gift of God.

And I believe that's the mark of an overcomer. One mark of an overcomer is that he recognizes that everything he has, every good and perfect gift is from above, from the Father. And therefore, he is free from that pride.

See, pride comes when we think there's something I have which God didn't give me. I accomplished it myself. I achieved it myself. That's the spirit of the antichrist. But the overcomer and the spirit of Christ is, I have nothing of my own.

Everything is given. Do I have intelligence? It's God's gift. Do I have spiritual gifts? That's God's gift. Do I have health? That's God's gift. Has God given me the ability to make money and earn a living?

That's God's gift. Has God given me a good family in which I could grow up? That's God's gift. Has God given me a house? Has God given me a fellowship? It's God's gift. There is absolutely no room for pride in the overcomer because he recognizes that from zero to a hundred, from top to bottom, everything is the gift of God.

Not a single thing which he has which is not given, given, given, given, given. That's the great thing that comes through in the book of Daniel. And now we move on to chapter eight because this also deals with somewhat similar period of time.

Daniel's Vision of the Ram and the Goat

Daniel chapter eight is again prophecy and we can believe what the word of God says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And as we study through it, we benefit by seeing again the fulfillment of prophecy exactly and thereby are encouraged to believe that everything else that's prophesied in the scripture will also be fulfilled exactly.

In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, Daniel is about 87 or so now, a vision appeared to me. Wonderful. He kept on going and he kept on seeing visions about the future. And it says, I looked in the vision and I saw I was in the citadel of Susa, which was the winter capital of the Babylonian empire in the province of Elam, which is Persia now.

And I looked in the vision and I myself was beside the Ulai Canal or river. And I lifted up my gaze and looked and a ram. This is a picture of the Medo-Persian empire. You see, he has come to the third year of the reign of Belshazzar.

Verse one, the Babylonian kingdom is almost finished. Belshazzar is just about to be overpowered and he sees the next kingdom, which he saw earlier as a bear. He now sees it as a ram with two horns, Media and Persia, two kingdoms standing in front of the canal.

You see the exactness of fulfillment. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other with the longer one coming up last. It's exactly like that in history that the Median empire was a small one.

The Persian empire overpowered it and the was a bigger horn came up last, but it was considered a joint empire of Media and Persia. And I saw the ram butting. Notice the exactness. We saw this in chapter seven as well in three directions, not four.

We know that Medo-Persia did not invade India, which is eastward. It invaded westward, northward and southward. And no other beast could stand before him. The Babylonian empire was crushed. There was no one to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased.

And notice this phrase, which comes repeatedly in chapter eight. He magnified himself. That's the spirit of the Antichrist. Magnified himself. It was there in Media-Persia, right? While I was observing this, that's the spirit of Satan.

While I was observing, behold a male goat. This is the kingdom of Greece described now as a goat. Was coming, it's a repetition, but with a little more detail, but highlighting that the spirit of the Antichrist was there even in those empires.

Was coming from the west. West of Iran is Greece. And Greece came in from the west. Over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. And that speaks of the speed of Alexander's conquests.

And the goat had a conspicuous horn. That is Alexander the Great himself. Between his eyes. Now this is all written over two hundred years before they were fulfilled. And Daniel writes it down. And I saw him come beside the ram.

And it says here in verse six. He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I saw standing in the canal. And rushed at him in his mighty anger. Earlier on the Medo-Persian empire had come right up to the borders of Greece and defeated them at one point.

Even though they couldn't proceed from there. And the fury of the Greeks for their earlier defeats is manifested now under Alexander the Great. It says they came in mighty wrath. Verse six. And that's exactly how it was fulfilled in history.