Daniel's Beast Kingdom — Keith Malcomson

Daniel’s Seventh Vision and the Rule of Heaven

In this Bible study here tonight, we're coming to Daniel chapter seven, to our seventh message in this series. And as we've heard before, we're dealing with the heaven's rule. That is the whole theme of the book of Daniel, to open our eyes, to really see that amidst the affairs of men, amidst empires coming and going, kings coming and kings going, that in the midst of that, this book is given.

It's prophecies, it's testimonies is given, so that we can actually see that the heavens do rule. It's not just a past history book, neither is it just a future prophecy book, but it's a book for you and I, the church of Jesus Christ in this hour.

Saints, if ever in this year, if ever we needed to hear that the heavens rule, it is this year. My message here tonight, as we come to Daniel chapter seven, is Daniel's beast kingdoms. Daniel's beast kingdoms.

Not a very nice title here tonight, but I assure you, it is a biblical title that we're dealing with. Daniel chapter seven, and reading from verse one. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.

Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Daniel speak and said, I saw in my visions by night and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea and four great beasts come up out of the sea, diverse one from another.

The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon the feet as a man. And a man's heart was given to it.

And behold, another beast, a second, like a bear, and it raised up itself on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth of it, between the teeth of it. And they said, thus on to it, arise and devour much flesh.

After this, I beheld another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it, four wings of a fowl. The beast had also four heads, the dominion and dominion was given on to it. After this, I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and strong exceedingly.

And it had great iron teeth. It devoured and it break in pieces and it stamped the residue with the feet of it. And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns. I considered the horns and behold, there came up among them another little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.

And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouse speaking great things. Amen. Praise God as we come to this seventh message of our series. Let's pray and ask for God's blessing here tonight.

Father, I do pray that you show us the interpretation of this vision, of this dream, of this revelation from heaven, not only concerning the past, but concerning the future, not only for Daniel, but for us here in this meeting tonight and all those that are gonna listen to this Bible study afterwards.

Father, I pray that by your Holy Spirit, that you would teach us, that you would instruct us, that you would show us the meaning of this dream that you gave unto Daniel to be sealed up and to be revealed and fulfilled in the very last days before Jesus Christ returns to the earth again.

Lord God, we give you all the glory. And we know that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus Christ. Would you lead us to Christ tonight? Would you lead us to the Son of Man tonight? Would you lead us by the power of your Holy Spirit to the sinless, spotless Son of God who died for us at Calvary?

My God, I pray the power of prophecy, knowing that you know all things, that you have ordained all things, that you work on all things, would reveal our need of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. We come to our Bible study here tonight in Daniel chapter seven. And our message is Daniel's Beast Kingdoms. We see here in this vision, we see four great beasts that we are gonna deal with tonight.

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7: Parallel Prophetic Visions

But as I said last week, in preparing for this Bible study, read Daniel chapter two and also read Daniel chapter seven. I believe these two chapters dovetail together and you don't understand one without the other.

They both go together. These four kingdoms in Daniel two and the four kingdoms in Daniel seven are the same four kingdoms. I believe they go together. There can be no doubt that the first kingdom in each chapter is the Babylonian kingdom.

There can be no doubt of that. The second kingdom has a dual division or a dual nature. The third kingdom in both chapters ends up having a four-fold division. And the fourth empire or the fourth kingdom in each of these chapter ends up having a 10-fold division at the end of its days.

Also, that fourth kingdom in chapter two and in chapter seven here that we have read, that fourth kingdom is marked by iron. Now, these are only a few thoughts to show that chapter two and chapter seven actually dovetail together.

What is stated in Daniel chapter two is expanded in Daniel chapter seven. In Daniel chapter two, we have each of the four kingdoms and we have a revelation of their governmental power and structure, not their history.

There is no history as such in Daniel chapter two. What God has shown is four kingdoms and what is their governmental structure. How are they put together? But here in Daniel chapter seven, there is an expansion on this.

And we begin to learn, and this is about 40 years later in the life of Daniel, between chapter two and chapter seven, you have a period of about 40 years. But here in chapter seven, we have an expansion of the vision in Daniel chapter two.

Now, he goes back to the same four kingdoms and we begin to get details about their history, about events in each one of these kingdoms. And we begin to get information that we can recognize each one of them.

But listen to me more carefully here. I'm giving you an overview of where we're going in the next six weeks as well. This is Daniel seven, where we are tonight. But as we go forward from Daniel chapter seven to Daniel chapter 12, we have six chapters.

We have already taught on six chapters. We are now beginning to teach tonight the next six chapters. And there is a distinction here. The first six chapters that we have already dealt with, they went in sequence, chronology, by year by year.

But here in chapter seven, we're gonna go back in time again. And we're gonna see that the visions and the revelations of the next six chapters that we're gonna deal with actually fit into the story we've already covered in the previous six chapters.

In other words, they overlap. The revelations and prophecies from chapter seven to chapter 12 in time sequence are placed in the previous six chapters. Let me just prove that. As we come to Daniel chapter seven, verse one, we are given the date.

Then Daniel chapter eight, verse one, we're given the date or the year. Daniel chapter nine, verse one, we're given the year. Daniel chapter 10, verse one, again, we're given a year. So for the next six chapters, we are given four divine revelations.

And each of these revelations fit into our previous stories. So all that we've already covered before, we are going back in time. In other words, when we see Daniel in the den of lions, that is as old as we see him.

That is the last bit of history in Daniel's life. Now we're going back in the life of Daniel and he's no longer gonna be speaking in the third person about the story happening. Now he speaks in the first person and he's giving you the information of the next four revelations in six chapters.

I hope you're understanding this tonight because as we come to chapter seven here, we're going deeper into chapter two, what we've already taught. And in fact, after this week, beginning next week from chapter eight to chapter 12, we are then even gonna go deeper and gain more information and more facts and more details.

The Little Horn and the Antichrist

But listen to me tonight, from tonight, from tonight for the next six weeks, as we cover the last six chapters of Daniel, there is a certain theme, there really is. Do you realize that in the next four visions, in the next six chapters, there is an underlying thing.

God gives this revelation to Daniel for a very specific reason. Now there's much information we're gonna cover, but there's something I want you to note here. And I wanted to impress you here tonight that there's a theme from chapter seven to chapter 12.

And listen, this is it. It is the little horn or what we as the church through the New Testament know as the Antichrist. Now I know that's gonna shock and disturb and disappoint many Christians because you know what we've been told, don't focus on the Antichrist, don't teach the Antichrist, teach about Christ.

I'm not looking for the Antichrist, I'm looking for Christ. I don't need to know about the Antichrist, all I need to know is about Christ. And you know what, all through the church, we hear constantly, just deal with the real, don't point out what's false.

Do you realize that sounds very spiritual? It sounds very correct. It sounds very mature, but it's totally unbiblical. It is utterly incorrect with the Bible. Do you realize the Bible constantly, if it's gonna show you a real prophet, it teaches you what a false prophet is.

If it's gonna show you the real, it also alongside it shows what is false all the way through the Bible, beginning with Cain and Abel all the way through to Revelation where we see that mother of harlots placed alongside the real bride of Christ.

So here, do not listen to those that say, we don't need to teach on the Antichrist. We won't be here for it. It doesn't affect us. Since we as a church in every generation need to teach about the little horn.

And that, you might as well close your Bible now and not read any further in Daniel if you don't wanna hear about the little horn because this is a vital theme. But don't think that takes away from Christ.

As we look at this, we begin to see the reality and the power and the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are remarkable prophecies that we're gonna deal with in the next six weeks. They are extraordinary prophecies.

Here tonight, let's begin on these six chapters. These four revelations are visions of Daniel that are concerning the last day. Although he deals with history, although he deals with prophecies, some of which is already fulfilled, all of it is to bring us to this hour that you and I are in now.

All of it is to bring us, to prepare us, to give us insight concerning this generation, the last generation before Jesus returns. And I assure you, this is biblical teaching. This is God's teaching. And don't you treat it lightly saying, I don't need to know since you may play games with your soul if you play games with the word of God like that.

My message tonight, Daniel's beast kingdoms, starting with Daniel chapter seven and verse one. And it says here, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon. Notice here, this is going back to the beginning of the reign of Belshazzar.

Remember we saw him on his last night in Babylon in Daniel chapter five. Now Daniel takes us right back to the very beginning of this last king of Babylon, which is gonna bring us to the end of the Babylonian kingdom.

And it says in that year of the first reign of Belshazzar, Daniel had a dream and a visions of the head. Notice here on this night, he was upon his bed. And it first says that he had a dream. As he slept, a dream is something you have as you sleep.

As he slept, he had this dream. And yet it goes on to say he had visions as well. That means all of this began with a dream. He had this dream when he was asleep, when he was unconscious, he had a clear dream.

Then when he woke up, he was still lying upon his bed and he began to have visions, the exact same visions. Then it says, while he's still on his bed, he wrote the dream down. And he told the sum of the matter or the main points of it, the substance.

He didn't give everything that he saw, but he gave the main information as inspired by the Holy Spirit. It says then in verse two, Daniel speak and said, I saw in my visions by night and behold the four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea.

Notice here that in this vision, as it begins to open, you've got the four winds of the heavens striving upon the great sea. Notice that this is a vision that he's talking about. In the vision, he sees the great sea.

See that term, the great sea, in the Old Testament, it always means the Mediterranean Sea. That term is very specific. And I could give you many scriptures that prove that this statement, the great sea only speaks about the Mediterranean Sea.

So in his vision, he is seeing the Mediterranean Sea as a specific bit of water. And he sees these four winds blowing upon it are striving upon the water. In other words, stirring the water up. Do you know in the Bible, when it talks about these four winds of heaven, there's almost 120 references to the winds of heavens in the Bible.

90 of these times are in the Old Testament. And over half of these, when it speaks about the winds coming from heaven, usually means the divine influence of heaven. In other words, heaven's influence upon the earth.

Now look with me, this is all in the vision that he is seeing it. And as these winds stir up the Mediterranean Sea, stir up the waters, and there's a great storm and a great shaking of the waters, up out of these waters, what does it say here in verse three?

And four great beasts came up out of the sea, diverse one from the other. When it says four great beasts, it means huge, domineering, dominating beasts. In other words, you can't ignore them. You cannot ignore them.

They are dominating. When they rise up, each one of them dominates the entire scene. And yet he says they're diverse one from the other. They're distinct. They're different. You could never confuse one for the other.

They are so radically different. And notice with me, as we begin to deal with these four beasts, it actually says they are like beasts as we begin to look at them. In other words, they're not normal animals or normal creatures.

These creatures or these animals, they look like certain animals, but they are not certain animals. They're actually mystical. So you get a lion with wings. I don't know whether you know, but there are no lions with wings.

So these are not normal beasts. They look like certain animals, but they are very different. They are very unusual. And look at it. It is God's influence upon the sea. You see, it says a little bit later that this sea in the vision, this great sea, in verse 17, it says that it's the earth, the Mediterranean sea, the great sea in the vision represents the earth, or in other words, the land mass.

In other words, these four creatures that come up out of the Mediterranean sea, that's in the vision. That when it's interpreted, there are actually four kingdoms or four empires that come up out of the earth, but there's a connection with the Mediterranean sea.

I've got three clear points from this chapter for you tonight, three clear points of what I want to deal with. And this is my first one. As we begin to understand, since I'm taking you somewhere, we already have chapter two as a foundation.

Next week, we're going to begin on chapter eight through to chapter 12, but here tonight, chapter seven, let's hear what God says about this. This is my first point. Four beasts from history. Four beasts from history.

Babylon: The Lion With Eagle’s Wings

What I'm dealing with as we look at these four beasts, we're going to identify them, and we're going to see that they're four beasts, not in the future, but in the past. In other words, they were a prophecy in Daniel's day, but they were fulfilled before the first century or the beginning of the church of Jesus Christ.

These four beasts were beasts that were fulfilled in history. It says in chapter seven of verse 15, I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit, in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

As he looked at these four beasts, you know, after the vision, after the dream, this is the effect it had. I'm sick to death with people's dreams and visions. I've had dreams from God. I've had open visions from God.

I was only once in my life caught up in a trance, but I want to tell you, I'm sick to death with people's stupid dreams and visions. They're absolutely worth nothing. They're not even worth listening to.

They don't have a clue what they've seen or what it means. But look at Daniel, the effect. When he had a real dream and a real vision, it grieved his spirit. Seeing these four creatures, it grieved him in his inward parts.

Deep within him, his spirit was grieved, but also his head was troubled. Then I came near unto one of them that stood by, and I asked him the truth of all of this. Notice what Daniel says. When he's seen the dream and a vision, he is a man gifted by God to interpret other people's dreams.

He could interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. He could interpret the writing on the wall. And yet, look, when he has a dream and a vision, he is caught up in this vision, and he doesn't understand what these four creatures are.

So what does he do? He asks one that was standing by. I believe this is an angel, and we're going to see this angel again, at least in another two chapters, the same angel. But he speaks to this angel, and he asked him the truth of all of this.

He's in a vision. He's in a dream. And he said, so he told me. You know, a lot of people that do well to shut their mouths and go to prayer rather than talking about the dreams they had at night. I assure you, begin to ask God, and he will show you.

And he asked him the truth of all this. So he told him, and he made me know the interpretation of these things. In other words, he opened it up. He explained it. He made it clear. He made it obvious. Verse 17.

These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. Then in verse 23. Now notice with me, what are the four beasts? They are four kings. Verse 17 says there are four kings.

But then in verse 23, it says the fourth kingdom was diverse from all the other kingdoms. So we see in this chapter, the interpretation. What are these four creatures? They are four kings. No, they are four kingdoms.

In other words, each of these beasts represents a king, but also represents an entire kingdom, just like Daniel chapter two. Each of those gold or the silver or whatever represented a king and a kingdom.

Again, each of these beasts represent a king and a kingdom. Each beast represents a certain man, but more than a certain man, an entire kingdom that that man was head over. He was head over it. Since we are looking at something remarkable here, and I want you to take you in this first point to four prophetic kingdoms that were fulfilled in history.

When Daniel gives it, he is in the midst of the first kingdom. The other three do not exist. They're not even on the horizon, but yet he's given a specific vision of kingdoms that are gonna replace each other one after the other in history.

And he's given historic information about them. In fact, he writes down information that you can identify them very clearly. That's why Daniel seven is given so that beyond any shadow of a doubt, you can recognize them.

Let's look at these four kingdoms for a moment that came in history, that are in the past. First of all, we see the first in verse four. The first was like a lion. Notice it says like a lion. It doesn't say a lion.

It says like a lion. And it had eagle's wings. Now that's the first thing I want you to notice. Notice of this first piece that it was like a lion, but it had two wings like an eagle. Now, what does this represent?

This represents King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. The Babylonian Empire. Now, Nebuchadnezzar's father was the king of Babylon in the year 626. Shortly after that, Assyria that ruled over Babylon fell in the year 612.

And there was another decisive battle in the year 609. This Nebuchadnezzar's father. Notice the date, the year 609. In 70 years time, Babylon is gonna fall and there'll be the end of the Babylonian kingdom.

In other words, you see the rise of Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar's father 70 years before it will come to an end. Exactly 70 years in the year 609. What a remarkable thing here that we have in history.

But four years later, in the year 605, his son Nebuchadnezzar is at the gates of Jerusalem, conquering it for the first time when he gets news that his father has died back in Babylon. So he takes a small portion of Jerusalem, including Daniel, and he returns to the city of Babylon and he becomes king of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian kingdom. This is the first empire that ruled over Jerusalem. It was the golden head of Daniel chapter two. But notice how Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon is depicted as a lion.

It looks like a lion with the wings of an eagle. Like a lion, but it has eagle's wings. Do you realize that in Jeremiah chapter 49, Jeremiah prophesied about Nebuchadnezzar and the rise of the Babylonian kingdom.

Listen to what he says, this phrase. He shall come against Jerusalem like a lion. Then a bit further, it says, he shall come up and fly as an eagle. In other words, years before Jeremiah prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians were like an eagle and also like a lion.

Do you realize both of these animals are the kings of both the air and the land. The lion is the king of all land animals. The eagle is the king of all flying animals. Also in Ezekiel chapter 17, Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon is symbolized as an eagle.

Nebuchadnezzar was a king of kings. And what depicts his kingdom? A winged lion. That's what it is. Do you realize the old Nebuchadnezzar's palace? He had statues all through there of lions with eagle's wings.

It was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. If you go to the British museum, you can walk through there and see statues from the palace and the city of Nebuchadnezzar. They are large lions with wings all through there.

This was all through the city of Babylon in that hour. But what does it represent? This beast represents something. This is the history of Nebuchadnezzar and of this kingdom. You see this creature, this lion with eagle's wings speaks about kingship, royalty, grandeur.

Also the eagle can mount up and swoop down upon its prey. Do you realize this one city Babylon became a great empire? It was a city state that swept out like an eagle that came roaring like a lion. Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest warrior king of the ancient world.

He ruled over the entire landmass and he made Babylon the center of the world. If you go and read the old cuneiform, he said, this is the center of the entire world culture. Babylon is at the center of everything.

Since this first creature, and notice Daniel is getting a vision here as he draws closer to the end of this first kingdom. Notice what happens to this lion with eagle's wings. Verse four, I beheld till.

In other words, he's speaking about the latter end of this kingdom. He's talking about as it comes close to its end. I beheld to the wings thereof were plucked In other words, they're pulled off. The two eagles wings were pulled off the body of a lion and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon its feet as a man.

And the man's heart was given onto it. Do you know what Daniel is saying is the later history of the Babylonian kingdom. It's no longer gonna be grand like a lion. It's gonna become like a man. It's gonna lose its wings, the ability to mount up, to sweep in on its enemies.

It'll lose all of this ability. The last 10 years of Belshazzar's kingdom, it was in a terrible condition. They had lost their ability to fight or as a warrior nation, they weren't conquering anymore.

That's what we see with Belshazzar, a drunken party and the people of Babylon are sick to death of the entire system. You know what? It was no longer a God-like kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar was no longer that deity, but the whole thing, political system was just like a man.

That's all it was in its end. That's the first kingdom. The second kingdom that's gonna replace Babylon in verse five, and behold another beast, a second like to a bear. And it raised up itself on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth of it between its teeth.

And they said onto it, arise and devour much flesh. Now we said it was the Medo-Persian empire and Cyrus the Great who replaced the Babylonian kingdom. Now we know about Cyrus the Great that he became king in Persia in the year 559.

10 years after that in 549, he conquered the larger greater Midian empire beside him just 10 years after becoming king of the small Persian tribes. 10 years after that in the year 539, he conquered Babylon.

The Babylonian empire fell. And in 539, as Cyrus rode into the city of Babylon, the Medo-Persian empire rose up to power. What a remarkable thing. All through chapter six of Daniel, it's called the Medo-Persian empire.

It is one empire. It is one kingdom undivided joined together because 10 years previously, he had joined these two great kingdoms and made them one kingdom. He also married a Median girl whose father was next in line for the throne.

So he literally merged in marriage. He made it one. He caused them to be one empire that would march together against her enemies. Do you know what we read about Cyrus's great army? He started with a few thousand Persian rebels just 20 years before.

That's all he had. That's all he had. When he marched against Media, he had almost no army at all. But as he advanced on Babylon, he had 40 ,000 horsemen and 150 ,000 foot soldiers. Do you know some of the old writers say that he had an army of at least 1 million soldiers, maybe as many as 1 .5 million.

The old writers said that when his army marched, it was like a great sea covering the landmass. It was remarkable. But look how God looks at this history of Cyrus and the Medo-Persian empire. What does he say?

Another beast, a second, like to a bear. Cyrus and the Medo-Persian empire, from God's perspective, is like a great bear, a ferocious bear, a very vicious bear. Do you know what a bear represents? Power, power, ferociousness.

I want to assure you, don't you ever get out of your car if there's a bear around. You better be sure it's been tamed or it's chained. That bear has enormous strength. It has great size. It is very heavy and it has an appetite that you couldn't even begin to imagine.

It is less swift than a lion. It is not as glorious as a lamb, but it is second to a lion. Notice here with this great, ferocious, large, dominating beast, far bigger than a lion. It says here that it raised itself up on one side.

Now, what does that represent? It is lopsided. There's two sides to it, Persia and Media, but one side gets raised above the other and dominates the entire creature. It is a very awkward creature, but it is dominated by the smaller Persia.

Persia came later. Persia was far smaller, and yet it dominates this great bear. It also said that it has three ribs within its mouth and it's devouring the flesh. What's it talking about? These three ribs represent kingdoms or nations of people.

Listen to me, Cyrus and the Medo-Persian Empire, to arise as an empire, conquered three other kingdoms. First of all, the kingdom of Media in 549, then Lydia in 546, and finally Babylonia in 539. Then she became the second beast, the second empire on the world.

Do you know what it also says here? Arise and devour much flesh. See those three ribs in the mouth show that it was not satisfied. This creature, this bear was not satisfied even after conquering the Babylonian Empire.

It was to arise and to devour much else. Cyrus's son conquered Egypt. Then the next king, Darius, reached all the way into India to the Indus Valley. Then Xerxes I, he went the other way and he invaded Greece.

Look at it. This bear is ferocious. It has a heavy weight. It doesn't move. You know, a bear can run fast, short distance. You don't want to be around a bear and think you can outrun it. You won't, but it can only run like that for a short distance.

Yes, it's fast, but only for a short distance. Nebuchadnezzar was fast over a long distance. And so we see all of this. Do you know that this Medo-Persian Empire remained in place for 200 years? It began on Daniel's day and it continued all the way through to the year 331 in the days of Alexander the Great.

Then verse six, after this, and behold, and lo another, a third beast. What's it like? It's like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings like a fowl or like a bird. And the beast had four heads and dominion was given onto it.

Greece: The Leopard and Its Four Heads

Now look closely. This is the Grecian Empire, just like Daniel chapter two. This third beast, this leopard, is the Grecian Empire of Alexander the Great. Isn't it funny how they're all called in our history books, the Great, Nebuchadnezzar the Great, Cyrus the Great, now Alexander the Great.

See, our world remembers these men. The Bible is accurate. Do you know Alexander as a young man was homeschooled. He was a homeschooled boy. You'll go far if you get homeschooled. That's a plug for someone out there, I can assure you.

Up until the age of 16, he was homeschooled. Who taught him? Who was his personal teacher? It wasn't his mommy. It was Aristotle, one of the great Greek philosophers. In fact, the greatest of his generation, the greatest thinker, the greatest academic actually taught Alexander the Great until he was 16 years old.

Do you know who trained Aristotle? Plato. Do you know who trained Plato? Socrates. So we see these three greatest of ancient Greek philosophers, they poured all their learning down into this young boy, this young man, this soldier, this fighter.

Do you know what? God was preparing a leopard to be released against that old Median Persian empire. And he found himself a young man called Alexander. It was in the year 336 that his father, that Alexander, his father died.

He's just a young man. Two years later in the year 334, and listen to this, with an army of 32 ,000 foot soldiers and over 5 ,000 horsemen, he crossed Asia Minor to begin to attack and conquer the Persian empire.

This young whippersnapper, this young man, this young warrior was going to take on the greatest empire that the world had ever known. 200 years and it was unconquered. And yet this young man trained by Aristotle is gonna go forward to fight against this empire.

You know, the history books tell us that it was in the year, just two years after he began, in the year 332, that he took the city of Jerusalem. The following year, he defeated the Persians and he took the city of Babylon and he made Babylon his headquarters.

In a period of 10 years, he conquered at great speed from Macedon in the land of Greece all the way through to India. And on the way, he stopped to defeat the Medo-Persian empire, the greatest empire the world had ever seen.