Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Prophecy - 4

Continuing with prophecy we're going to pick up with Daniel--


We were talking about the Beasts in Daniel 7 depicting the same kingdoms that Daniel 2 speaks of and so far it seems very clear that history has proven that the first two beasts correspond with the head of gold and chest and arms of silver in the great statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Will we find the same of the 3rd beast- will it match up with the belly and thighs of brass which is Greece?


Dan 7:6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.


Another kingdom comes up like a leopard with four wings of a fowl on its back. Remember the lion of Babylon had 2 wings like eagle's on it's back and we talked of the swiftness of the conquering? Well if we believe 2 wings mean swiftness then 4 wings means an even faster conquest and the fact this was another of the feline family says a lot as well. While not the majestic king of the animals, a leopard is impressive as well. Leopards are known for their stealth and this is something a conquering king can use to their advantage and we know for a fact that Alexander the Great was one of the most famous of conquerors for Greece.


Read this… and keep in mind the 4 wings on the leopard denoting speed in conquering.


Alexander conquers his world
Inheriting a kingdom from his father didn't really please Alexander. What kind of hero gets everything given to him? This wouldn't satisfy Achilles or Hercules and it wouldn't satisfy him.



Alexander wanted to get started conquering ASAP.
He got his first opportunity almost immediately. Some of the Greek city-states saw the ascension of the 20-year-old Alexander as a chance to regain their independence from the foreign Macedonians. By the way, "foreign" is how the Greeks saw the Macedonians, not how the Macedonians saw themselves. To this day, there's still contention over whether Macedonians are Greeks.
Alexander took care of the little rebellion post-haste. To set an example, he completely razed the Greek city of Thebes in 335 B.C., killing most of the population -- including women and children -- and enslaving those few left alive. After that the Greeks were happily united behind Alexander and he could focus his attention on expanding the empire.
He immediately began pushing east, against the old enemy Persia -- which his father never succeeded in defeating.
After winning a battle for the city of Gordium, Alexander is said to have solved the famously tricky Gordian Knot. He sliced through the thing with his sword rather than fool around it. A legend supposedly foretold that whoever solved this puzzle would rule all of Asia.
Alexander rapidly moved on to destroy the city of Tyre ... push through Palestine, Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan ... and conquer Egypt (or, depending on your perspective, "liberate" Egypt from the Persians). In bloody battle after bloody battle the Persian Empire and most of the known world fell to the hero Alexander and his Macedonian war machine.

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Amazing! Simply amazing how these prophecies fit together. We can choose to ignore things. We can choose to close our eyes and stop our ears from hearing because we don't want anything to mess with our preconceived ideas of how things are and/or will be. We make choices all the time and some choices we make affect our lives- making the true life or death decisions. When we make choices with God's word they can be eternal life or death choices we are making. Let us pray earnestly that we are being guided by the Holy Spirit unto all truth. Let us NOT close our eyes or cover our ears.


Continuing on we need to look at the rest of the verse---


Dan 7:6 ...the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.


Four heads. This is really important to note. For all that Alexander the Great came up strong and very fast conquering, becoming one of the greatest conquering leaders of all time, he died very young. When he died- he died without any heirs but there were four generals… four…


These plans ended in 323 B.C., however, when Alexander was struck with fever and died in Babylon, leaving no heir. His empire was divided among four of his generals.

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…. And these four generals divided Alexander the Great's Grecian kingdom among them. It's NO coincidence that there were four heads on that leopard, no coincidence at all.


A bit of history mentioning the 4 generals--

In 315 he turned his attention towards Seleucus, the satrap of Babylon. Alarmed, Seleucus fled to Ptolemy in Egypt, and warned him of Antigonus’s ambitions. This can hardly have come as a surprise to Ptolemy, or to the remaining successors, for in the same year Ptolemy, Cassander and Lysimachus issued an ultimatum to Antigonus. In it they demanded that he return Syria to Ptolemy, allowed Seleucus to return to Babylon, give Hellespontine Phrygia to Lysimachus and possibly give Cappadocia and Lycia to Cassander. He was also ordered to split Eumenes’s treasury between them all. This would have left Antigonus with part of Asia Minor. Unsurprisingly he refused.

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Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus


These four men took over that which Alexander the Great conquered. So why weren't there ten or twenty, one or two others who took over? There were four major players here that divided the kingdom of Greece and there were four heads to the leopard. Coincidence? Some would say so and others would pick it all apart to pieces not wanting anyone to make connections. People will warp anything and everything they can just to put doubt to God, doubt to prophecy, doubt to understanding.


There will be those who argue that believing and holding fast to a belief is NOT allowing room for God to reveal what He will. I have to believe that if we truly love God and desire His will over our own, His righteousness over our filthiness, His perfect love over our poor excuse for love, His life over ours then God will open our hearts to ALL TRUTH. If we hold false beliefs God will reveal the true beliefs. We must trust in our Savior in all things and believe as He unfolds truth to us. We must be ever ready to follow where God leads.


This is short tonight, but it is a lot to take in, a lot for us to study and pray about. We are learning about prophecy - history proven prophecy.


By His grace!


Amen.

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