Mon, 23 October, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Daniel 8:18-26

¹⁸ And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. ¹⁹ He said, “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. ²⁰ As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹ And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. ²² As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. ²³ And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. ²⁴ His power shall be great–but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. ²⁵ By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken–but by no human hand. ²⁶ The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.”

Daniel has a vision of a ram and a goat. There is a fight between the two with the single horned goat defeating the two horned ram. Then the one horn of the goat broke and was replaced with four smaller horns.

Fortunately, an angel interprets this vision for Daniel, so we are not left to guess.

This vision is of how Greece, under Alexander the Great (the one great horn in the goat) would defeat the Medes and Persians (the two horned ram). But then Alexander the Great would die and be replaced by four of his generals (the one great horn replaced by four smaller horns) who would divide his empire.

Babylon is at the height of its power. But God reveals what will happen to the empire that will depose Babylon.

What do we learn from this?

The rise and fall of nations is all according to God’s plan. The Greek empire was particularly significant because Alexander was a proponent of bringing the Greek culture to all the nations he conquered. He united them with a common language: Greek. Even up to the time of Jesus, Greek was the common language of the Roman empire. And so the New Testament was written in Greek. Paul could travel through the Roman empire and spread the gospel to Jews and Gentiles because he could preach to them in the common language: Greek.

God was preparing the world for the easy spread of the gospel by uniting the Roman empire with a common language.

And as we learn from Daniel’s vision, all this was known hundreds of years before hand. The Greek empire was no accident. It was God’s plan from the beginning.

Where is Christ in this passage?

God was preparing the world for the advent of Jesus Christ and for the spread of the good news about what happened. People would come to faith through the gospel preached in Greek. They would learn about the Person and work of Jesus Christ by reading of Him in the Greek New Testament. God’s work was accomplished by Alexander the Great conquering the known world.