Friday, April 26, 2013

Discuss the significance of the idioms of the Ram and the He-Goat as they relate to whom they represent. 522 - 9-5

A shofar is a curved ram’s horn and the blowing of it incorporated in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Blowing the shofar was used to announce the start of a war perhaps best remembered from Joshua 6:4, “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.” This gave rise to the song goes, “And the walls came tumbling down.”
 
The goat may be used as a sin sacrifice. It also is an idiom for those who will be condemned during the judgment of the sheep and goats.

The Ram and He-Goat vision of Daniel was in the year 554 BC during the reign of King Belshazzar. In his vision, Daniel was at Shushan in the province of Elam by the river of Ulai, many miles from Babylon. In his vision Daniel saw standing before the river a ram which had two horns one being higher than the other. The two-horned ram would be indicative of the kings of Media and Persia, with Persia being represented by the greater of the two horns. This ram was pushing westward and northward and southward and no beast/ country was able to stand before it including Babylon which fell to the Persian Empire without a battle.

Later in Daniel’s vision a he-goat came from the West running so fast it appeared that his hoofs did not even touch the ground. The he-goat had a horn between his eyes, the symbol of the ancient Macedonians. This beast represented Alexander the Great who conquered the Persian Empire. Later the horn of the he-goat was broken into four representing the four successors of Alexander.

Two years earlier Daniel had another dream/ vision which involved four great beasts that came up out of the sea. Two of these beasts were idioms of those in his present vision. The second beast in that vision looked like a bear that was raised up on one of its sides; a ram with unequal horns. The third beast of this vision looked like a leopard with four wings like those of a bird; a he-goat who hoofs seemed not touch the ground. The leopard had four heads; the break-up of Alexander’s empire. The four head and the broken horn woud be Cassander, Lysimacus, Seleucus and Ptolemy.

The horn was an idiom for Antiochus IV who “subjugated the people and land of Israel, desecrated her temple, interrupted her worship, and demanded for himself the authority and worship that belongs to God.” Antiochus IV was a precursor of the Anti-Christ to come in the Last Days.

Prophecy is history written in advance and so Daniel's prophecies involved the so-called 400 silent years between the last book of the Old Testament and the ministry of John the Baptist.

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