Daniel 8 - 4 - Gods purpose for the Ram was that no living things could stand against or be delivered from Him

Daniel 8:4
Gods purpose for the Ram was that no living thing could stand against or be deivered from Him!
By Brother Mike (11-22-24; 37 minutes)

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4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great .

INTRODUCTION

In our last study of Daniel 8:1-3 , Daniel had a vision in the third year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, which we had learned was in 547 BC while Daniel was in exile due to Nebuchadnezzar, an earlier king of Babylon, having conquered Judah, Jerusalem, and its temple in 587 BC and having taken Daniel into captivity in Babylon along with many other Israelites. Indeed, God had used the Babylonians to destroy His Very Own Israelite people and take many of them into captivity due to their rebellion against His Law, as they worshipped the Idols of the nations that surrounding them and in their midst at what were called High Places on Israel's hills and mountains, and under what seemed to be almost every tree, for the Israelites greatly abandoned Yahweh, their God, and therefore, Yahweh abandoned them and gave them over to the nations surrounding them to be utterly destroyed, just as He said He would do in His Law if they turned from Him to worship other gods and idols.

Now, in Daniel's vision described in Daniel 8, we were told that he was taken to the province of Elam in verse 2, and we had learned that this word

himself who deceived all the churches and congregations worldwide to worship him and receive the Mark of the Beast, and he brought in his counterfeit gospels, counterfeit teachings, and counterfeit signs and wonders to spiritually destroy them.

Now, before moving on further, we should note that Christ, like Satan, is also referred to as a lion in scripture. Remember, we read,

Re 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David [Christ] , hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof .

And, in describing Christ by four beasts (better translated as four living creatures), we read,

Re 4:7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle .

So, Christ and Satan can both be described as a lion in scripture, but Satan is the counterfeit lion. Satan comes looking just like Christ, which is one of the reasons why he is described as a lion in the same way that Christ is. And there are many Old Testament verses that both typify Christ and Satan as a lion that we will not get into for brevity, but with that being said, let's look at one last verse. We read,

Hosea 13:5 I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought . {great ... : Heb. droughts }

6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me .
7 Therefore I [God] will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I [God] observe them :
8 I [God] will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I [God] devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them . {wild ... : Heb. beast of the field }

Notice that in this verse, because God is bringing judgment on His own people, God describes Himself as all three of the same beasts - the leopard, bear, and lion - which are used to describe Satan coming against God's Church as judgment against them during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to when Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011 in our verse of study, Revelation 13:2. In fact, Hosea 13:5-8, the verses we just read, typifies God's judgment that would come upon the New Testament Israel, the Church, which we see being described in verse 2 of our study in Revelation 13.

Now, our verse 2 of Revelation 13 ends like this: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. That is, the beast (Satan and his kingdom) that rose up out of the sea (was loosed to rise up out of the bottomless pit in which it was first bound at the cross) to bring God's judgment against all the churches and congregations worldwide beginning on May 21, 1988 according to the well-proven , Biblical Timeline of History got its power from the dragon who we learned is the devil, Satan himself .

so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great .

Once again, the first sentence reads, I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward . Notice how the ram pushed toward only three points of the compass: westward, northward, and southward. Why is that? Why did it not say that the ram pushed eastward as well? Most can probably already answer this if they have followed along with our studies throughout the last 15 years. Yes, spiritually speaking, by listing only three directions by which the ram pushed forward, God is emphasizing that it was God's very own purpose for the ram to so push forward in the way that it did (see Bible number 3 ). And because we were told by Gabriel the angel in Daniel's vision that the ram represented the kings of Media and Persia (Daniel 8:20), we should emphasize, then, that it was God's own purpose for the kings of Media and Persia (Astyages and Cyrus, symbolized by the ram) to have pushed forward and conquered the rulers and peoples that they did to eventually form what became the entire Persian Empire because the Median kingdom of Astyages was eventually conquered by Cyrus of Persia in 550 BC and integrated into the Persian Empire to be called the Medio-Persian Empire by historians. After the Medes were conquered by Cyrus of Persia in 550 BC, the Persian kingdom grew even further by its conquering of Lydia in 547 BC, the Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, and Egypt in 525 BC, as seen in the following map:

Elam means eternity. Thus, spiritually speaking, Daniel was taken to the place of eternity in his vision, which place can be none other than heaven itself. And, just previous, the scripture also stated that he [was] at Shushan [in] the palace . More literally, Daniel says, I [was] in Shushan the palace , which could be translated, I [was] in the palace of Shushan . Whatever the case, because we had learned that the word Shushan means Lily, and the word lily, in the Bible, represents magnificence, glory, majesty, beauty, and even Christ Himself, for He is called the Lily of the valleys (So. 2:1), we can say, spiritually, that Daniel was in the palace of the Lily, that magnificent, beautiful, majestic, and even that place of Jesus Christ Himself, our king in heaven.

Furthermore, Daniel, in his vision, not only said he was in the palace of Shushan, but he also said , and I was by the river of Ulai . But, because we are looking at this spiritually where we learned that in his vision, Daniel was taken to the palace, which is that place of our king, that Lily, Jesus Christ in heaven, it would make better sense to translate the sentence, which reads, and I was by the river of Ulai as, and I was above the river of Ulai (a perfectly legitimate translation in the Hebrew) because we had learned in our last study that the river of Ulai symbolized the streaming forth of God's word or gospel by Christ's mighty ones (His Elect or Saints). And so, spiritually, the picture God is painting in Daniel's vision is that Daniel was taken to the vantage point of king Jesus in heaven above to be able to look down and see the streaming forth of God's word or gospel through Christ's people on earth during what we will gradually realize was the 1955 years of the Church Age from Pentecost of 33 AD to May 21,2011 according to our very accurate , Biblical Timeline of History . Indeed, in his vision, Daniel is given a better than Birdseye View from heaven over what occurred during, first, the sending forth of the word of God or gospel to the world during the Church Age, and then, what took place to bring about the spiritual Great Tribulation from May 21,1988 to May 21,2011, and even to this very day, as we shall see.

Now, as we had learned, what Daniel next saw in his vision was a ram that had two high horns, and the angel Gabriel interpreted that ram for Daniel to be the kings of Media and Persia in verse 20 of Daniel 8. Those two kings, we had discovered, were king Astyages of Media and king Cyrus of Persia. We considered them to be the one and the same ram because eventually Astyages , king of the Medes who reigned from 585-550 BC was conquered by Cyrus, the Persian king, and the Median kingdom, therefore, became a part of the Persian kingdom, as Cyrus had occupied and plundered Ecbatana, the Median capital in 550 BC. Then later, in 539 BC, the then one Median-Persian kingdom under the monarchy of king Cyrus, that one ram , conquered Babylon in 539 BC, and Darius the Mede, who was the son of Astyages , was given rule over Babylon by Cyrus, the king who had become the ruler over the entire Median-Persian kingdom when, as already stated, he had conquered the Medes and their king in 550 BC.

We further had learned in our Last Study, that the two high horns of the ram represented the power and strength of both the Median and the Persian kingdoms, and in that these two horns were said to be high meant that both those kingdoms had great power and strength, for in the Bible, horns are symbolic of power and strength. And in that we were told that one of these horns was higher than the other, and the higher came up last , it meant that the Persian king and kingdom eventually became stronger and more powerful than the Median king and kingdom, which was exactly what we saw in the historical timeline because, remember, Cyrus of Persia conquered Astyages of Media, proving that the higher horn, the Persian kingdom, had become stronger and more powerful over time than the Median kingdom. And yet, before the Median kingdom was conquered, both kings were two high horns, each being quite strong and powerful.

Now, even though that all took place literally in the historical record, we had learned it was but a foreshadow or type of events that would take place at the time of the end , for Gabriel had said to Daniel,

20 Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision .

And according to the very accurate , Biblical Timeline of History , the time of the end (the time of the end of the world) began on May 21,1988 when God's Final Judgment on this world began at the House of God (1Peter 4:17), the corporate Christian Church, which all Christian churches worldwide are a part. Yes, this Judgment on the Christian churches continues even to this very day, as they continue to be blinded and deceived by the virtually perfect counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST, Satan himself. This is why we, God's true people, had been commanded to depart out from all Christian churches so that we do not partake of her sins and so come under the spiritual plagues of God (Revelation 18:4), as listed in Revelation 8 , 9 , 13, and 16 (see Why leave all churches?; The Final Tribulation ).

Anyway, continuing to summarize what we had learned in our Last Study , there was a deeper spiritual meaning to the ram with the two high horns. We had found that the ram symbolized Christ Himself, and the two high horns of that ram , Jesus Christ, symbolized the great spiritual power and strength of His Church, for the number 2 in there being two horns symbolizes the Church (see Bible number 2 ), and the horns themselves symbolize power and strength. One horn of the ram , Jesus Christ, symbolized the Old Testament Church, and the other horn of the ram symbolized the New Testament Church. Then, that horn that was higher and came up last, we found, symbolized the New Testament Church because it came up last after the Old Testament Church in time, and it was higher because it was greater in spiritual power and strength than the Old Testament Church.

Okay, having briefly reviewed what was covered in our Last Study , let's continue further in our study of Revelation chapter 8 by moving on to our verse 4. It reads,

4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward;

So, looking at the map, we see that the pushing forward of the ram (Astyages of Media and then Cyrus of Persia) was incredibly successful. First, during the time period before the Median kingdom was conquered by the Persians in 550 AD, the Median kingdom under Astyages was quite successful, which is why, being symbolized by one of the ram's horns, it was said to be high just as the other horn, symbolizing the Persian kingdom, was also said to be high (verse 3). But eventually the Persian kingdom under Cyrus became stronger and more powerful, and so that second horn on the ram, symbolizing the Persian kingdom, was said to be the higher horn, and it came up last or after the first horn (verse 3).

But now, after Daniel said that he saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward , the Authorized King James then says, so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will and became great . Let's first look at the sentence, so that no beasts might stand before him. In this sentence, the Hebrew feminine noun translated as beasts can be better translated in this day as animals or living things , and the conjunction that begins this sentence and is translated as, so that is more literally translated simply as, and . Thus, our verse now reads , and no animals could stand before him . Furthermore, since the context of our verse has to do with the ram (symbolizing the kings of Media and Persia) pushing forward to conquer other kingdoms, it would not be animals that could not stand before the ram (stand before the conquering kings of Media and Persia), but it must be rulers and kingdoms that could not stand before the ram; and rulers and kingdoms are people, not animals. Thus, it would be best to use the translation living things instead of animals in our verse because people can more readily be considered living things than animals, for, unlike animals, people are created in the image of God. So, in order to make that distinction, our sentence that r eads, and no animals could stand before him is better translated, and no living things [meaning no people in this case] could stand before him . Wherever the ram (symbolizing the

Median and Persian kings) rushed forward to conquer, no peoples could stand against them. They had great success whichever direction they turned, and as we previously mentioned, this was God's purpose as symbolized by the number 3 in the three directions in which the ram pushed forward: westward , northward , and southward .

But then, our verse continues by declaring, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand . This sentence is self-explanatory. It means exactly what it says: not only could no peoples stand against the advances of the ram that symbolizes the Median and Persian kings, but neither could any deliver out of his hand . Indeed, once the Median or Persian kings pushed forward and conquered a given people, none could snatch them back, recover them, or, as the Authorized King James translates it, none could deliver them out of the ram's hand, namely the hands of the Median and Persian kings. They were just to powerful and strong, as symbolized in both the ram's horns being high, although, as previously learned, the horn representing the Persian kingdom became higher at the last, as the Persian kingdom eventually conquered the Median kingdom in 550 BC, and then, the Median kingdom became part of the Persian kingdom under king Cyrus, which then, together and later, conquered the Babylonian kingdom in 539 BC, as mentioned multiple times.

Now, not only could no people stand before the ram , nor deliver out of his hand, the final sentence of our verse 4, reads, but he [the ram, symbolizing the kings of Media and Persia] did according to his will and became great . This simply lets us know that the ram , symbolizing the kings of Persia and Media, pushed forward and conquered whoever he desired. So, it isn't difficult to see how the ram, which symbolizes both the kings of Media and Persia, became great , or it could be translated, but he did according to his will and magnified himself . Yes, it was the Median king, Astyages, that first became great in the years previous to 550 BC, and then the Persian king, Cyrus, gradually became greater than the Median king as evidenced by his conquering the Median kingdom in 550 BC to become one very

large Medio-Persian kingdom that continued to expand for many years to come under Cyrus and others until finally conquered by Alexander the Great of Grecia or Greece, as we shall see further on in our study of Daniel 8.

But now, before closing this particular study on verse 4 of Daniel 8, let's begin to train ourselves to see the deeper spiritual application of Daniel 8 for the time of the end of the world that we have been in ever since God's Final Judgment on the world began at the house of God (the Christian churches - 1Peter 4:17) on May 21, 1988 according to the most accurate , Biblical timeline of history . When Daniel says, I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; and no peoples [or living things] could stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will and became great , the ram symbolizes Christ, and the two horns on the ram symbolize His Church as we had learned in our previous study . Therefore, our verse paints a picture of the 1955 years of the Church Age from Pentecost of 33 AD to May 21,1988 during which it was God's purpose that Christ (symbolized by the ram) and His Church (symbolized by the ram's two horns) push forward, conquering peoples by the gospel. Wherever Christ willed to go, they went, and no living thing whether peoples, or Satan and his host, could keep Christ and His Church by the Holy Spirit from saving all those for whom He had come to save. And every time that someone became saved through hearing the gospel or word of God, which spiritually is Christ, it revealed that the kingdom of Satan had been conquered, and Satan had been bound in the pit at the cross in the sense that he could no longer keep any of God's true people or His Elect from hearing the gospel and becoming saved from every nation in the world. O yes, Satan could still go about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour, and bringing about much evil in the world and the Church, but he was restrained in the Church by the Holy Spirit during the Church Age, so the Church was protected to a high degree until the Holy Spirit removed Himself from the corporate Christian Church (2Thessalonians 2:7; listen to 2Thessalonians 2:1-11 ), and Satan was released from the pit, in which he had been bound since the cross, on May 21,1988 so that he

could finally conquer the Christian Church to be used of God to begin God's Final Judgment on the world at the house of God, for Judgment [had to] begin at the house of God (1Peter 4:17). And this release of Satan from the pit also began the Great Tribulation described in Revelation 8 , 9 , and 13 , which was completely spiritual with the counterfeit Christ, THE ANTICHRIST (also known as the beast, the man of sin, the Little Horn, and the Abomination of Desolation), the devil himself, given rulership in the Christian Church wherein none could any longer be eternally saved, but only deceived into worshipping Satan himself to this very day as if he were the very Christ. But during the Church age, the whole world heard of the Christ (the ram ), so He became great worldwide, and no one could deliver out of His hand any of those whom He eternally saved, which reminds us of what Christ said in John 6,

39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day .

Indeed, all we who were given to Christ (the ram ) in salvation can never be delivered out of His hand, for it is the Almighty Father's will who sent Christ to save us that Christ lose nothing, and so, no one is strong enough to deliver us out of His hand.

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY

In this study of Revelation 8:4, we learned that the ram pushing toward just three points of the compass: westward, northward, and southward symbolizes that, on the one hand, it was God's purpose that no living things could stand before the kings of Media and Persia (symbolized by the ram) in pushing forward and conquering all the peoples that they did in history, and that no one could deliver any of these conquered peoples out of their hands; but these kings of Media and Persia did as they willed, and they became great. Yet, on the other hand and spiritually speaking for the time of the

end , it was also God's purpose that no living things , including Satan and his host, could stand before for Christ with His Church (also symbolized by the ram with its two horns) in their pushing forward and conquering by saving all the peoples from every nation that God had willed to be saved during the Church Age, and that no one can ever deliver any of these saved peoples out of His hand; but Christ who is God did as God willed, and, as is now plain to all, Christ became great.

So, we see a double application to our verse 4 of Daniel 8, just as we shall see throughout Daniel 8. The earlier application is the foreshadow or type of the latter application.

Now, until the next time, may Yahweh bless thee, and keep thee: Yahweh make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: Yahweh lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace (Numbers 6:24-26)