The Buck Sheep and the Hairy He-Goat

Our Past is Our Future

Daniel 8

written in 549BC; 500 years of history given ultra clearly
- liberal scholars will argue and try to remove the supernatural and instances of God from this, and state everything is written in 160BC after everything has happened
- Susa is in Iran
- why focus on Persia and Greece??
  - will show us the enduring lessons of historic hostility

Regardless of how senseless and harmful the nightly news seems to be, God is taking the history of humans somewhere
- Daniel 8:19
  - Oshawa’s tagline clearly applies here… “prepare to be amazed!”
- The Vision: 2 point buck sheep butting W, N, S
  The Prophecy (what will happen): The kings of Medes and Persia
  History (what did happen): 550-330BC, Babylon to Asia Minor, Caspian Sea to Ethiopia
- The Vision: 1 point Hairy He-Goat from the west, later broke off
  The Prophecy: the first king of Greece
  History: 334-323BC, Alexander the Great
- The Vision: 4 points after the broken point
  The Prophecy: 4 weaker kingdoms from Greece
  History: 319-64BC, Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus and Ptolemy
- The Vision: from 1 point a small point grew
  The Prophecy: 1 stern-faced king
  History: 175-164BC, from Seleucus came Antiochus Epiphanes IV
God is amazingly and completely in charge/control of the affairs of the kingdoms of this world
- Daniel 8:26
Success can outstrip its capacities to be maintained particularly when the effort is human strength and savvy alone
- giant horn represents Alexander the Great, who is broken in v8
  - there are many people who have expended everything they have to get where they are only to find they don’t have enough to keep what they were able to get (cf Eph 6:13)
  - Alex the Great had his army fighting for almost 9 years straight to expand kingdom, gathering more and more success and focussing on power and greatness; his army rose against him and destroyed the greatness
- we must not base our success on the deprivation of care, health, family, service…
Be careful not to be overly unsettled by the fact that very often deceitfulness and trickery seems to be rewarded with power and position
- Daniel 8:24-25
- some are not a victim of their own success but regularly successful by victimizing others (cf Eccl 9:11, Eccl 10:57)
- Antiochus IV put Zeus idol and pig offering in the temple; “abomination leader to desolation”
  - referenced in chapters chapters 11 and 12 of Daniel
  - Antiochus IV suddenly dropped dead while riding one day; we do not always have to worry about repaying desolation through human/fleshly means