Walk With Me

From Rams To Empires: Daniel 8–9 Explained

• JJ

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Hello, everybody, and welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, JJ. So glad to have each and every one of you here. Good to see the repeat listeners, and I see a lot of people asking questions about the end time. I really do appreciate the questions. If you're new to the podcast, uh we do have an email address, walk with me bible study at gmail. Walk with me bible study at gmail.com. And all one words, all lowercase, and I welcome all questions. It's not uh if you know how they say in the in in the word in the secular sense that if there's no such thing as a stupid question, well, I kind of believe that way it the same thing in the Bible when it comes to biblical things. Um now I will say that that if if you're one of those people who just want to debate something, listen, I'll uh thank you all. Thank you, thank you for liking and sharing and telling other people about the podcast. I see the listenership going up. Big shout out to our sponsors, two bars the lyricists with our intro and outro asquiz the creations with the tumblers and swag. And again, I am glad to have each one of you here. We're gonna get right into it because we have a lot to cover today. We have a lot to cover. So, if this is your first uh foray into our end time Bible study, I'm just gonna do you a quick recap. That the thing we have to remember when we're talking about the end time, we're talking about end time prophecies and things of that nature. Everybody wants to run to Revelation, and Revelation is good, but there's also another book, a sister book, a companion book, and that book is the book of Daniel. So we are going to today we're gonna talk about the same things you're gonna see in Revelation, but Daniel is looking at it as it happened in to the future, whereas John, John the Revelator, is looking at it as if it happened in the past. So uh today we're gonna spend a little bit of time in Daniel chapter 8, verses 1 through 15. I'm not sure I'm gonna get through all of it today, uh, but this is where we this is our goal, okay. So please understand that this section, this section of the book of Daniel is a vision that was given to Daniel in the third year in which Belshazzar was the king of the Medes and the Persians having when God had wrote on the wall, because Belshazzar had that party. We talked about it a couple weeks ago. And God came and wrote that phrase on the wall, and next thing you know, the Medes and the Persians was tearing Babylon in half. So this is right about that same time, that same year that this happened, Daniel got a vision from God. And um and Daniel was still a slave in Babylon, and this could preach for a minute because we always think just because we heard from God that everything's gonna be okay, that everything we asked for, we're gonna get from God. And this is not not even Daniel had that same um outcome. He was still in Babylon, they were still Israel was still enslaved, and but God gave uh Daniel a provision, and he was transported to what was called the River Uli, which is in the province of Shushan, which is the chief city of Elam. Now, Shushan became one of these principal cities of the Medes and Persians, and this entire state, there's the entire book of Esther, as a matter of fact, took place in that city of Shushan. So this is all intertwined together. And I did a lot of times we take we take a book here, we take a book there, we want to pull it out, and when we do that, we sort of um uh uh minimize, diminish the word of God. This is the same city where uh Esther got her name in the Bible, right? So we're gonna start off with what we all like to talk about these four beasts. The first beast was a ram with two horns. Now, this ram, biblically speaking, represented those kings of Medes and the Persians. Now, this is gonna be in Daniel 8 and 20. Now I'll read it for you. Oh, yes, we do have uh we do have a rule about this podcast. When we talk about scripture, uh, we always want to read the verse or two above or the verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter, because context is key. Alright, I just covered maybe one or two verses, uh, but I just want to make sure that we don't take anything out of context because we'll screw the up, screw up the whole thing, actually. And if that language is too tough, I'm sorry, but we'll just mess it up. We'll mess up the Bible, we'll just totally destroy the meaning of it, and then we get led astray. And this is where um the question came because of the whole rapture thing. So let me not get off in the weezer. This it's gonna be Daniel 8 and 20. Remember uh a verse or two below and a verse or two above, but preferably the whole chapter. Alright, so 8 and 20. Remember, these ram represents the kings of means and persians, and and that reads, the ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Medes and Persians. So we start noticing something here. The horns, for some reason, will always represent uh a king or a leader or something of that nature, right? And the body, the animal, will represent something else, not necessarily a country, but more or less a kingdom. But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. So here we have the ram with two horns, had uh the kings of me's in the Persian. Now it's it's very simple and a significant thing to understand that the Mede-Persian Empire, the national symbol of that was a ram. Daniel saw that second horn that was higher than the first, and it came up last. So in the beginning, uh when they all when the Medes and the Persians became a thing, the Median Empire was stronger than the Persian Empire. But gradually, Persia became uh the number one, the top dog, the big boy on the block. We hear a lot about Persians. We hear about uh Persians and in you know cinematic movies like the 300. So these are these are the same Persians, right? Now, moving on, we're gonna have what what the Daniel referred to as the he goat. Now, what is the he-goat? The he-goat is sort of a ram, but it's not a ram like you just heard. Now, the he-goat is just a male goat, and male goat will also have what? So that eagle came from the west and traveled very fast. It attacked the ram with huge power and anger and dude and beat it. Now, this e-goat would have to have been Greece. Now, who what if you've been listening to the podcast? I've kind of mentioned them before. Who was that Greecian leader? That's right. Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great tore apart the means of the Persian Empire, he destroyed them with nobody's, like nobody's business. And and matter of fact, um, he was Alexander had the idea that he was going to conquer the known world. The only problem is he didn't realize that there was a world south of the Sahara Desert. I mean, history would have been a lot different if he had just kept going south a little bit. So, um, and then after uh after he conquered the Medes and the Persians, and he thought he, you know, conquered the known world, he got he got he lived high on the hog, he got drunk, he started living a life of robotry, and then he died at 32 years old. 32. He did all that, conquered the known world, and then died at 32 years old. And he had already been in power for 12 years and eight months. This is Alexander the Great we talk about. Now, this lesson, this is a lesson too, that the four generals that came after that will be who divided Alexander the Great's kingdom after he died. Now, I I know I'm a little moving a little faster because I want to get to these four beasts in this episode. So, what's the next one? The next one is called the little horn. The next vision is called the Niddlehorn, and they're gonna call that a beast. And you're gonna see why momentarily. Now, of these four divisions, these four horns that rose up, uh, there is gonna be another little horn that's gonna become exceedingly great towards the south and east, and it's called the and towards what it's referred to as the pleasant land. Now, that pleasant land, biblically speaking, is Palestine. We call it Palestine, however, there is no such comfort as Palestine. The land was called Palestine. Now, and this little horn is going to come out of Syria, and that little horn is gonna be the general known as Aleutius. This little horn, uh, a type of the Antichrist, came out of the ten horns, and the ten horns that are on that beast is going to be the ten horns of the gentile kingdom. That little horn is going to be what's referred to as a type in the shadow of the Antichrist, who will be General Seleucus, and he came from one of the divisions of the Greek and the Grecian Empire. Now, that little horn that we're talking about that everybody wants to look for right now, is literally fulfilled in the person that we know as Antiochanes that came out of Syria. He made a lot of promises to Jews, only to disregard them when he desecrated the temple. He killed priests, and then he made the misfortune of sacrificing a swine on the altar. Now, everybody will say, Oh, well, okay, well, the Antichrist is already covenant gone. Remember, Daniel was looking at it from the future tense, John was looking at it from the past tense. So these things, a lot of these things are going to happen again. This is why you have to look at Daniel to see how these things happen. Now, there is a little late time that between the desecration of the temple and the deliverance of Jerusalem under the Judas Maccabeas, and of course, that's not to be confused with Judas Iscariot, it was actually 2300 days. This Judas Maccabeas rescued the children of Israel um within about 2300 days, it's exactly 2300 days to be exact. And there have been a lot of false teachers that are out there that are gonna that will try to build a doctrine that there's a symbol of time symbolizing 2300 days. However, history verifies the length of time being literally 2300 days. So basically, what's happening here, you would have a lot of people that would say oh 2305, uh 2296. No, it was literally exactly 2300 days. So just to recap, just to recap, you had four world empires, you have Babylonian, the Medes and Persian, the Greek, and the Roman. Now there are two more to come. There's two more to come. One would be the Antichrist Empire, and the other one will be the Lord's Empire, the Christ's Empire. And to get the symbolization of how this is going to happen, you look in chapter two, because that's where that statue is talking about how these um how these empires will come and how and the order and the sequence in which they will arise, Daniel, Daniel chapter 7 will tell you what the symbolizes those uh the symbols of those empires are, but I also want you to remember something and notice something. There is no symbolization for Christ's kingdom, there's no animal symbolizing Christ's kingdom. So, and and that's to to kind of distinguish it from the antichrist kingdom because it it will be symbolized by an animal. Even in Daniel chapter 8, we just kind of went over it, we didn't read it specifically, but then we we did talk about the ram and the hego. None of these are Christ's kingdom, Christ's kingdom is actually symbolized by a rock, so it's just good to know and know what we're looking for and be careful because remember the Antichrist kingdom, according to what we know of the Antichrist, is supposed to try to mimic Christ, but they're gonna have one thing that's going to be wrong with it, and it's going to have a an animal, uh, it's gonna have animalistic characteristics. Now, when we go into uh Daniel chapter 9, there's a huge importance there, and the the very important thing about chapter 9 in the prophetic importance is that it's spoken of being the framework of the Bible prophet. There are key verses in this chapter. Remember, remember I tell you verse or two above, verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter. But in Daniel chapter 9, there are going to be key verses in these in this chapter that will give the key to the correct interpretation of what's going on. Remember, scripture is not given to private interpretation, and a lot of times we don't get it right, and so we sort of make it up as we go along, and then when it kind of when our interpretations fall on their face, we get real quiet, but we just move on to something else. But we have to pay attention to the key verses and make sure they stay in context. Now, a lot of times we will talk about uh when people talk about the prophecies, they'll talk about the 70 weeks of dain. And in Daniel 9 and 24, it says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. All of that is in one verse, and that means an entire situation is going to happen. Before Gabriel brought this revelation to Daniel, this prophecy to Daniel, Daniel had been praying concerning the future of the people, but he was only praying concerning the future of the Jews, who had been in captivity for almost 70 years. Lord, oh Lord, forgive, oh Lord, hear, hearken, and do, defer not for thy own sake, oh my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. This is Daniel 9:19. So Daniel was praying for the city, which is Jerusalem, and for thy people, which is the tribe of Judah, because remember, Judah and the rest of Israel have stood that at that time. And God sent an answer that concerned the future of thy people, Judah and the holy city, Jerusalem. You gotta be careful what you pray for. God will answer the prayer that you pray, even if you mess up and pray the wrong thing, God will answer that prayer. If you believe that He is and He will answer prayers, you will answer that prayer. You gotta be careful what you pray for. But this prophetic truth brought out um in Daniel 9 and 19 or Daniel chapter 9 only applies to Israel. It doesn't deal with the Gentiles, doesn't deal with the church, and the moment we start trying to make it make it apply to the church, we we take away from God's word. We almost rob God for his word. So, and and this is where people start coming up with well, this is 70 weeks, and this happened, and and then the rapture is gonna happen that day. This is where we start coming up with a lot of false doctrines that we hurt ourselves very badly when we start coming up with these weird sort of doctrines. Now, and the the funny thing is, and well, actually, that's not funny, the sad thing is that um it'll sound real good too. It'll sound great, and you'll take a little scripture from here and a little bit of a scripture from there, and you'll tie it all together, and then bam, you just create a whole false doctrine, and anybody who listens to you is now on their way to hell because they believe something that God never said, they believe a lot, and because you lied to them, you're sending them straight to the hot spot. So we gotta be careful where we don't do, we don't take anything out of God's word to fit our our our studying and seeking the the future, the prophecy. And so, and the biggest thing I think we have, the biggest thing I think we have with the uh as far as man and and prophecy is the idea of time. Remember, this entire chapter nine took place in the first year when when Darius had turned over the kingdom to Belshazzar because Daniel was about 90 years of age, he had he had a huge burden concerning what Israel was gonna go through, what God's gonna do to the children of Israel, and he understood that there was a 70-year period, and that 70 years of Israel captivity was coming to an end, and it would soon be time for Jews to return home in their own land. So, again, they would be able to worship in the holy city of Jerusalem. So, by Daniel's example, we can kind of learn that there's a value of being familiar with what God said in verse chapter 2. Sorry, verse 2 of this chapter. Uh Daniel stated he understood the captivity of to be 70 years of name. In fact, he learned that by reading the writings of the prophet Jeremiah. So, you in order to figure that out, go to Jeremiah 25, 11 and 12. And this whole land shall be desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years, and it shall come to pass when 70 years are accomplished, I will punish the king of Babylon. Now that has to be very encouraging if you're over the country. Okay, it's December of uh year 69. Yeah, that's coming, our deliverance is coming, but it would also be encouraged in Daniel, who's also familiar with what was taught in Leviticus 26, 33 to uh 34. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and I will draw the sword after you, and your land shall be desperate, your city's waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbath as long as it lies desperate, and you be in your enemy's land, even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbath. What is the word that kept repeating this? Sabbath. What is the Sabbath? A Sabbath. So the children of Israel have been in Palestine for 980 years by Palestine. We're talking about the land, not the country. So stop it. So don't tell me anything about Palestine. Okay, they had been in that line, land called Palestine, from the occupation of the land under Joshua until the time of captivity. So every seventh year was to be a sabbatical year, and the Jews had ignored that law for 490 years. So that meant that there was exactly 70 sabbatical years in the total period which had not been celebrated. This is why God took Israel and put them in captivity for exactly 70 years. Don't believe me? Second Chronicles 36 and 21. Just read that on your own time because I'm actually running real short on time. That's what I love about Bible study because I can get off into some other places and not stay on the subject. So, but Daniel would have never been aware of that fact if he had not been studying the scripture. So he knew exactly why the number 70 was important in that time of captivity. He knew he knew what God's judgment was going to be, he knew it. So just as Daniel uh was well versed in the scripture and stuff like that, we have to do that as well. We have to be sure we're reading the word of God because this is how we don't get off into something that God is not trying to say, we don't make up things as we go along. And even though Daniel, we Daniel was kind of considered perfect for his time at this time. Um, he had to confess his sins before God, too. Now I didn't say before a man, I said before God. He identified himself with his people, he didn't he didn't walk around like he was all high and mighty, and he was some special somebody. He was Daniel, and he knew that he had his own flaws, even though he was considered perfect at that time. And Daniel 9 and 45, and this will probably be the end of the episode today. Daniel 9 and 45 said, I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession. We we have sinned, not they, we have sinned and committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and from your judgment. Now, you know, the hardest thing, the hardest things for people to do, especially when we call ourselves living for God, we call ourselves Christians, we call ourselves church folk, we call ourselves everything. Everything nice. I was gonna say everything but a child of God, but no, we actually are calling ourselves children of God. But the hardest thing for us to do is to get down in our own selves and say, God, I have sinned, I have done the wrong thing, I have messed up, I need your help. It's a very difficult profession. It's it's self-accountability because we don't want anybody else to hold us accountable, but we have to be held accountable, we have to hold ourselves accountable, and we can't go around thinking that we're we're somebody special. Yes, God loves each and every one of us. Yes, absolutely. God created you out of nothing, yes, absolutely. God died for you, yes, he well, he hung on the cross for you. God never died, he hung on the cross for you, and everything that was done for you is done for you, even right now, today. You get up, you go to work, you come back home. You get you go to work, you come back home safely with no accidents and nothing goes wrong. That was like God doing that for you, and so we sort of take these things for granted. Oh, God gave me a blessing, but that doesn't mean we don't have to say, God, I'm sorry, I've I've messed up something. I've messed up in this thing. I messed up how I talked to that person. I messed up. And God, please forgive me, help me not do it again. So this is Daniel, and and Daniel sought God like this often: prayer, fasting, repentance. And these are the three biggest things that we have to work on right now today prayer, fasting, and repentance. And he did that in order just to have the future of Israel revealed. However, while he was yet praying, Gabri came and said, Hey, I got something else to go you do. Gabri had been commissioned and sent, and one of the one of my favorite chapters. I I it's very hard to say what a favorite chapter is, but Daniel chapter 10 is one of my favorites, because God heard Daniel because Daniel was constantly in connection with God. But Daniel started asking for a revelation and asking for a thing, and it still took 20 days for his answer to get to Daniel, because the devil tried to stop. That all being said, we're gonna wrap it up today. I hope we got something out of this today. I know we we kind of dug into some things, we talked about the beasts, we talked about what they symbolize and the horns and things of that nature. We it was a little bit less lasting than the last couple, so I I invite you to study Daniel chapter 8 and go into Daniel chapter 9. Thank you for liking and sharing. We're running out of time. I love all each, every one of you. Thank you all. See y'all on the next one. God bless you, to do.