THE GRECIAN LITTLE HORN-Bible Study

THE GRECIAN LITTLE HORN

Chapter 8

In beginning this address, I would call your attention to a most interesting fact in regard to the structure of the book we are considering. It was originally written in two languages. The first chapter, and verses 1 to 3 of chap. 2, are in Hebrew. But from verse 4 of the second chapter to the end of chap. 7, the language employed is Chaldean, or Aramaic. The balance of the book is in Hebrew. There seems to be a very simple and yet significant reason for this. The first section was for the special help and encouragement of the faithful among the scattered Jews; so it was written in their own language. But in the second section, God is tracing out the course of the Times of the Gentiles, and He led Daniel to write the record of it in the popular language of the day, that the Chaldeans might read it understandingly, and profit thereby.

The portion to which we now turn, beginning with this eighth chapter and going on to the end of the book, concerns the Jews in a very special way; so, it was written in Hebrew, as was the first part. It is of importance to see the different applications of each of these sections. God has nothing to say about the course of Christendom, or the Church of this dispensation, either here or elsewhere in the Prophets. He is giving us the truth both in regard to Judah and Israel and to the Gentiles as such. If we fail to observe this, Scripture will be all in confusion: that is, our apprehension of it. The principle is a simple one, but if kept in mind will aid greatly to a proper understanding of the word of God. When in the Prophets we read of Judah, we are not to suppose the Church is meant; nor yet when we read of Zion or of Jerusalem. Judah means Judah, Zion means Zion Jerusalem means Jerusalem, Israel means Israel, and the Gentiles have neither part nor lot in what is written concerning these. The Church, which is the body of Christ, is something very different. There are three, not merely two. classes of people in the world today all contemplated in Scripture. " Give none offence, "says the apostle Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, " neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God." These are the three classes; and if the various passages of Scripture referring to each are rightly divided, and not all mixed up together in the mind of the reader, he is in a fair way to get a proper understanding of what is commonly called dispensational truth; which is nothing more nor less than giving to each dispensation or period of God's special dealings with men, the portions

that apply particularly to each.

In studying the Chaldean part of this book, we have noticed how the omniscient God has traced for us the course of the great empires of this world. We have had outlined for our learning their rise, progress, decline and fall, emphasizing the truth that " righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Now all this was written in the language spoken by the Gentiles at that time. But we are now to be largely occupied with that race long-despised and hated, but ever watched over by Jehovah, His covenant people of old, beloved for the fathers' sakes, no matter how great their failure and sin. That is why the last part of the book is written in Hebrew. It is true that we shalt still read of some of these world powers (we are largely occupied with two of them in this chapter), but it is only as clearing the ground for light in regard to the future of the Jewish nation.

A careful study of the book of Revelation will show you that it is very similar in structure to the book of Daniel. After the first part (Rev. chaps. 1-3) which is devoted to the prophetic history of the Church, we have, from chap. 4 to chap. 11: 18 the judgments that are to fall upon apostate Christendom and the powers connected with it. Their history is traced right on down to the end, closing with " the time of the dead that they should be judged." But the Lord had said to John: " Thou must prophesy again; " and so he begins to take things up once more from the 12th chapter on, but it is all connected with God's earthly people, the nation of Israel. Thus, the first part has chiefly to do with the course of the world as such, and it turns the divine searchlight upon the great movements among the nations. Rut the second half has to do with the same people that we have before us in the last part of Daniel. As remarked in the previous address, the one book dovetails into the other. Daniel cannot be understood apart from the book of the Revelation; and Revelation itself is in many places only intelligible because of what had previously been made known to the prophet in Babylon. Let us remember then that our present chapter is the first of the Hebrew section; while the chapters we have lately been reading were in Aramaic, and especially concerned the Gentiles.

The first verse shows us that two years elapsed between the visions of chapter 7 and what we have here; for it was in the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar that Daniel was given the vision of the ram and the he-goat. Either actually, or in spirit, he was in the palace, in the province of Elam by the river Ulai. Elain was the ancient name of the highlands east of Babylon, stretching from India to the Persian Gulf. It was in this very region that Cyrus was to obtain his first great victories; so, it was fitting that in his vision Daniel should be in the land soon to be completely dominated by the Persians, because that which he saw had largely to do with Persia in her early triumphs and subsequent defeat.

He tells us that he lifted up his eyes, " and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. 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." In verse 15 we have the interpreting angel drawing near, whose mission it was to explain the meaning of the vision. We shall notice each part separately, connecting with it the interpretation given. In verses 19 and 20, the angel says: ''Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. The rani which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. ''Thus we are not left to form our own judgment as to what the ram might represent, but we are distinctly told by the angel that it stands for the same dominion as the breast and arms of silver in Nebuchadnezzar's great image, and the bear that was lifted up on one side, in the previous vision. It is as though God would give us symbol after symbol to impress upon our minds the events to follow one another upon the earth prior to the establishment of the kingdom of His Son. "A threefold cord," we are told elsewhere," is not quickly broken."

Remember that when Daniel had the vision, Babylon was still the supreme power, though already in its decline. But Daniel was given this revelation as to the ram of Persia, when no human mind could possibly have predicted the place, it was to take in the affairs of men. It is rather interesting to know that, according to standard authorities, the ram was the symbol of Persia, and a picture of one was borne on her banners, before her armies. The two horns, the higher of which came up last, clearly connect with the bear lifting itself up on one side: that is they set forth the fact that the Medo-Persian empire was composed of two nations, the ancient and venerable kingdom of Media, and the then modern kingdom of Persia, which latter, after the confederation, became by far the more powerful of the two. Thus, the horn that came up last was the higher. Daniel saw this ram pushing westward, northward and southward; thereby indicating exactly the course of Persian conquest. The armies of Cyrus did not turn eastward to conquer the barbarous tribes toward the sun-rising; but they pressed toward the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the Persian Gulf, and continued their conquests until all western Asia and Egypt were subject to them.

While Daniel was considering what the ram could mean, he saw a he-goat come from the west on the face of the whole earth, which touched not the ground, it ran so swiftly. This goat had a notable horn between his eyes; and he came to the ram that had the two horns, and ran upon him in the fury of his power. Daniel vividly describes the terrific onslaught: " And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him; but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. "The interpretation is given in verse 21: " The rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." Thus, we are again freed from all necessity of exercising any ingenuity in order to find out the meaning of the vision; for God has Himself revealed it through His angel.

Greece, at the time that Daniel prophesied, consisted of a number of independent and often warring states, bound together nevertheless by ties of consanguinity. It remained for Alexander the Third, commonly called the Great, the remarkably gifted son of Philip of Macedon, to consolidate these separate kingdoms into one loyal, united power, which was destined for a season to rule the world. Here, as everywhere in the book, the vision exactly answers to the after history. I do not want to occupy you too much with history; for a knowledge of human records is certainly not necessary to enable one to understand the word of God; but on the other hand, nothing is gained by ignorance, and faith is but confirmed, and God glorified, when we see how the wonderful exactness of His holy Word is witnessed to by the annals of uninspired men.

The first thing of note I would have you observe is this: the he-goat came from the west. Now, according to history, we know that an altogether new thing appeared in the rise and progress of Alexander the Great. Previous to that time, power had always risen up in the east and reached out toward the west. The East was the cradle of the human race, and there the most ancient civilizations existed. The nations of the Orient thought of all the rest of the world, especially the distant lands of the west, as "barbarians," for whom they entertained a haughty contempt. But from the despised "West came the he-goat, with great choler. In great passion, he touched not the ground in the swiftness and the fury of his onslaught. In this it is easy to see a fitting symbol of the whirlwind campaign of the army of the west headed by its intrepid commander. The overrunning of Asia by Alexander was not merely to gratify his ambition for world empire, but it was a paying-off of old scores. The Greeks had never forgotten the disgrace and shame of earlier Persian conquests. Nor could they forgive the Persians for their unsuccessful descent, under Xerxes, upon the Hellenic States. For years they had brooded over these things, and had nursed the desire for a bloody and triumphant revenge; and at last, they realized that the time had come to gratify their passion. Hence, it was with more than usual alacrity that they sprang to arms, and at Alexander's beck and call, rushed upon the Persian hosts in angry mood, eager to settle up these old scores and execute vengeance upon their ancient enemies. So, Daniel sees the he-goat moved with choler, and charging the ram in the fury of his power. By this terrific attack, the ram was cast to the ground, and his two horns broken. All this was fulfilled when Alexander met the hosts of the last Darius, and completely defeated them. By this he became ruler of the world.

But Daniel goes on to say: " The he-goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. "In the interpretation, after explaining that the great horn was the first king of Grecia, the angel says: "Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power." Alexander's day of power was a very brief one; his early death testifying to his inability to hold in check his appetites and passions; and thus the great horn was broken.

None of his own house succeeded Alexander; but, upon his untimely decease, his dominions were divided among his four leading generals, namely: Ptolemy, who was acknowledged as king of Egypt and the adjacent countries; Seleucas, who took Syria and Asia Minor; Lysimachus, who had the sovereignty of Thrace and the contiguous territory; and Cassander, to whom fell Macedonia and all Greece. Thus was the empire divided, and there was never again a master hand commanding, until the Roman conquest in the last century before Christ. Two of these divisions occupy a large place in prophecy; but Scripture never again occupies us with Thrace, and only once directly with Greece, and that in the ninth chapter of the book of Zechariah, verse 13. But Syria and Egypt are the powers known in this book as the " King of the North," and the "King of the South." Directions in Scripture are always, unless otherwise specified, to be understood as having reference to Jerusalem as a centre; and so, when the Bible speaks of the north and the south, it is north or south of Jerusalem. Unless this is kept in mind, one may easily become confused. Up to a little more than fifty years before the coining of the Lord Jesus, these two kingdoms existed as independent powers, with the land of Palestine between them. The Holy Land thus became a veritable battle-ground for their opposing armies, torn by dissensions for over two hundred years. The wretched history of those two centuries of horror is given us prophetically in the 11th chapter, and we shall take them up in detail when we come to consider that portion of the book.

The chief reason for introducing all this was that Ave might be enlightened in regard to one who is to play a very important part in the Time of the End, and who is destined to arise out of the Syrian division of Alexander's empire. For the present, and ever since the Roman conquest, the goat with the four horns has been apparently destroyed. But just as the Roman empire is to be revived in the last days, so we learn that two out of the four horns of the divided Grecian dominion will re-appear upon the prophetic map in that time of trial, and out of one of them shall that Little Horn arise who will be the bitter enemy of the returned. Jews in that day.

In verse 9 we read: " And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced and prospered. "I do not question for a moment that all this has had a fulfilment in the enormities of that monster of wickedness, Antiochus Epiphanes, whose persecutions of the Jews and desecration of the temple are here described. But a comparison with the interpretation of the vision makes it equally clear, to my mind, that there remains another and more complete fulfilment yet to take place.

Many confound the Little Horn here spoken of with the Little Horn of chapter seven. But we have already noticed that he who rises up in the western ten-horned kingdom is the same as the Beast of Revelation, chapters thirteen and seventeen. He is a Roman, not a Grecian off shoot. Here, we see one arising out of the old kingdom of Sdeucas, a king of the north, not of the west. Antiochus in his bloodthirsty career was the type of one who will be Jerusalem's bitter enemy in the time of the Lord's indignation. Now the Turks have for centuries been in possession of the lands once dominated by Seleucas. The future King of the North, therefore, will in all likelihood be the last sultan of the Ottoman empire, or the fierce leader of whatever power controls Turkey in Asia at that time.

The Roman Little Horn will be an apostate Christian in league with the personal Antichrist, who will take unbelieving Israel under his wing so long as it suits his purposes. The Grecian Little Horn is likely an utter infidel, the successor to Mohammed, actuated by inveterate hatred to the Jews, and probably the bitter foe of the future emperor of the west. The angel tells Daniel, in verses 23 to 25, that " in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the fall, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince, of princes; but he shall be broken without hand." Now it is evident that much that is here written cannot possibly apply to Antiochus. He answers quite fully to the vision, but he does not meet the requirements of the interpretation. In the first place, the prophecy is to have its complete accomplishment "when the transgressors are come to the full"; an expression which might refer to the ripening of iniquity in Syria of old were it not that the kingdom was not destroyed upon the death of Epiphanes, as it would have been if its sins had reached the limit set by the Moral Governor of the universe. It seems far more likely that the expression refers to the Time of the End, when the whole world will be ripe for the judgment of God.

This agrees with the angel's words, " I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation "; which is undoubtedly the end of the Times of the Gentiles. In that time, then, this predicted Little Horn shall stand up, a man of great intelligence and diplomacy, but of whom we read that " his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power." Now these words could hardly be applied to the " little horn •'' of the past, for he reigned as an independent monarch, prosecuting his purposes as his own will dictated, until in measure thwarted, by the interference of Rome. But there is a leader who occupies a large place in prophecy, denominated by Isaiah " the Assyrian," who will be Israel's enemy in the last days, and who is to be destroyed by the personal appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel's blessing and restoration are connected by Isaiah with his downfall. He seems clearly to be the same as the Little Horn here depicted, for he too relies, apparently, upon some other ally. The power

that will back him is prophesied of in Ezekiel, chapter 38, and is evidently Russia, the great dominion of the north. Then, again, the Little Horn is to stand up against the Prince of princes, and be broken without hands. The Prince of princes can be none other than the Messiah: consequently, these words were not fulfilled in the life and death of Antiochus. But they point us on to the Time of the End, when Messiah

Himself shall appear in person on behalf of oppressed Israel, and shall overthrow the Assyrian.

What is said of the Little Horn as an individual is largely applicable to the Ottoman empire as a whole. Fierce and relentless, it has ever been the enemy of the people of God; and it has existed for centuries, not because of any inherent power of its own, but because of the jealousies of the nations of Europe. Were the Turk driven out of Constantinople, all Europe would be thrown into war, each great Power anxious to possess the dominions over which the Crescent now floats. Hence the abominable horrors of Armenian and Jewish massacres are permitted by civilized and so-called Christian nations because they do not dare to interfere, lest by so doing they jeopardize the peace of the world. It is said of the Little Horn that he shall cause craft to prosper, and by peace shall destroy many. This too has been characteristic of the "unspeakable Turk,'' especially in his dealings with the Jews. The monotheism of Mohammedanism naturally appeals to the Jew; and the false prophet himself made marked advances to the seed of Israel, hoping thereby to win them over to Islam. But behind all the fair words and goodly promises of the sultans, the poison

and the sword have ever lurked. The Little Horn of the latter times will embody in himself the spirit of the Ottoman empire.

But we have not yet finished with the vision. In verses 13 and 14, Daniel says: "Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake. How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." The word for days is really "'evening-mornings,'' and refers, not to lengthened periods, but clearly and distinctly to twenty-four-hour days. It is a time-prophecy that has to do with the defilement of the temple by Antiochus. From the time that he polluted the sanctuary by sacrificing a sow upon the altar, and setting up a statue of Jupiter in the holiest of all, twenty-three hundred literal days elapsed until it was again purified and dedicated to the service of Jehovah. As if to warn us of the danger of allegorizing this period, the angel says to Daniel in verse 26, " The vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. "It was the failure to apprehend this that led the Millerites into their great blunder in the early part of the last century; and the same crude error has blinded their successors, the Seventh-Day Adventists, and resulted in the blasphemous sanctuary-theory which they hold. According to them, the Lord Jesus never entered the holiest until A.D.1844, being twenty-three hundred year-days from the time when Cyrus issued the decree to build the temple. But it is all an unhallowed nightmare, utterly unsupported by Scripture. The twenty-three hundred days have long since been fulfilled in the history of Daniel's people, the Jews; and that literally, after the desecration of the holy places by the Syrian tyrant. There is no hint that there remains another twenty-three hundred days to be fulfilled in the future, though the characters of the Little Horn of the vision, and the last great Assyrian of Isaiah, chapter 14, verses 24 to 27, are so very much alike. This latter will undoubtedly be a man of great ability, but cunning, crafty, and deceitful, a worthy successor to the Ottoman rulers of the past. But he is to be broken in Immanuel’s land, and all his army

shall be destroyed upon the mountains of Israel, when he dares to stand up against the Prince of princes, who shall come forth in glorious majesty for the deliverance of the faithful remnant whose hearts will cleave to Jehovah in that dreadful time of Jacob's trouble. Already we can see events shaping themselves for the fulfilment of these things. The end cannot be far off.

"Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

The effect of the vision on Daniel was that lie fainted, and was sick certain days. " Afterward," he says, " I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." The centuries since have borne witness to the truth of much of it; the days to come will manifest the balance. May our hearts be so impressed by these things that we too shall be deeply exercised before God about them, and that we may be found in a very real sense doing the King's business while we wait for His personal return from heaven!

Nor would I close without once more warning the Christless to flee from the wrath to come. The clouds of doom are gathering, black and ominous, over this poor world. Soon the lightnings of wrath, the thunders of judgment, and the storm of vengeance, will break forth. How unspeakably sad will be your condition if exposed to the full fury of the tempest of the Divine indignation, with no Christ, no refuge nigh Trust Him now while grace is offered to each sinful soul; else " What wilt thou say when He shall punish thee? "