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Lesson 24: Persia and Greece

 Daniel 8:1-14  
¹ In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.
² And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal.
³ I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.
⁴ I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.
⁵ As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.
⁶ He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath.
⁷ I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.
⁸ Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
⁹ Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.
¹⁰ It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them.
¹¹ It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown.


¹² And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper.
¹³ Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?”
¹⁴ And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”

This vision came to Daniel about nine years before the events given in chapter 5. The ram with two horns in this vision is the Medo-Persian Empire, and the goat is Greece, with the great horn being Alexander the Great. The four horns replacing the great horn were Alexander’s four generals who took over his kingdom when he died.

We will read more of the interpretation in our next lesson.

*What gives you confidence today that Jesus is still in control of all that is happening in our world?