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BEASTS, HORNS, AND CROWNS #4
HORROR MOVIES ON CHANNEL 7
We’ve been studying a very colorful prophecy from the
book of Daniel — and today we’re about to add to the menagerie! In this
ancient dream, Daniel sees a lion with wings, a lopsided bear snacking
on baby-back ribs, a four-headed, four-winged leopard, and then a terrifying
beast right from the Black Lagoon and the midnight creature feature on
the Sci-Fi Channel. Today we want to add 22 elephants to the mix.
In our discussion time so far, we’ve found that the parallel visions of
Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 take us through three great world empires: Babylon,
Medo-Persia, and then the juggernaut of Alexander the Great’s kingdom
of Greece. By the way, if you’re interested in the panoramic prophecies
of Daniel and Revelation, be sure to check out our new Bible course, Focus
on Prophecy. So far, all of these world powers have had very definitive
start-and-stop dates; in fact, history tells us that Belshazzar’s Babylon
fell to General Cyrus on October 12 in the year 539 B.C. — the night of
the well-known “handwriting on the wall.” Two hundred nine years later,
in 330, Medo-Persia sank beneath the waves.
But now when we come to Greece’s domination, eventually to be taken over
by Rome, it’s a bit fuzzier. There’s no one clear-cut moment when some
general from Athens handed over his sword to Julius Caesar, so to speak.
First, though — and then we’ll get to the 22 elephants — let’s read the
Bible’s colorful description about the arrival of Kingdom #4. Here’s Daniel
7:7:
“After that” — the rise and fall of the lion, bear,
and leopard — “in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was
a fourth beast — terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had
large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot
whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it
had ten horns.”
After the death of Alexander the Great, you may recall,
Greece was essentially divided up into kingdoms ruled by four generals.
Antigonus was really the last leader to try to hold things together as
one unified empire, but he was killed, as we mentioned yesterday, in the
Battle of Ipsus, 301 B.C. A good century later, his descendants were now
facing the threat of growing Roman power. King Philip V of Macedonia had
already been defeated once by Roman armies at the Battle of Cynoscephalae,
which would make an extremely good spelling word on Final Jeopardy. So
he was already subjugated and adhering to a treaty with Rome.
Now, Philip had two sons: Perseus and Demetrius. Demetrius, the younger
of the two, was Macedonia’s ambassador to Rome, and got along well with
the Romans. Perseus, out of some jealousy and also because he thought
his kid brother was too cozy with the foreigners, actually talked his
dad, King Philip, into having Demetrius executed. So, after his little
brother had a hemlock milkshake, and King Philip himself passed away,
Perseus had a clear path to the throne.
Immediately, relations with Rome took a turn for the worse. The Roman
authorities had enjoyed a rapport with Demetrius, so they were suspicious
already. In 171 B.C. Rome declared war on the empire of Greece. Just two
years into the conflict — 169 B.C. — Roman consul Q. Marcius Philippus
won an important psychological victory by capturing the city of Dion,
which was not only a source of gold but also — being at the base of Mount
Olympus — a holy city dedicated to the worship of Zeus.
The next year, though, 168 B.C. now, a new consul was appointed: Lucius
Aemilius Paulus. That set the stage for a huge confrontation between the
legions of Rome and the phalanxes of Greece. It was a marquee matchup:
Paulus vs. Perseus. The armies of Greece had recaptured Dion by this time,
and set themselves up in an unassailable spot by the River Elpeus.
It’s informative to read the various Internet descriptions of this classic
battle; in fact, there’s a web site, wargamer.com, that uses this historic
conflict and assigns computer points and Game Boy tokens to these two
great armies. It was an even match: 38,000 Roman troops versus about 44,000
warriors for Macedonia; both sides had about 4,000 cavalry soldiers. And
Rome started off with a fake: about 8000 infantry troops headed toward
the coast and the city of Heraclium, to make Greece think that an amphibious
assault was forthcoming. Then, under cover of darkness, those same troops
doubled back and set up on the other side, ready to outflank Macedonia
by land. But a deserter from the Roman army slipped away and warned Greece
of the bait-and-switch game plan. Perseus sent a General Milo with 12,000
men to meet the Roman task force, but had the worst of it. Retreating
back to the main army, the Macedonian forces regrouped at a place called
Katerina, which was a village just south of Pydna. It was a level plain,
perfect for the kind of organized, shoulder-to-shoulder fighting of Greece’s
feared phalanxes.
The next day, they went at it. The fighting didn’t start until mid-afternoon;
some historians surmise that Rome wanted to wait until the sun wasn’t
in their soldiers’ eyes! But the two legions of Rome went right up the
middle against the huge phalanx of Macedonia. Rome had its cavalry on
the two wings — and by the way, here come the elephants. The right guard
of Rome actually had 22 of them, trumpeting the call to arms.
Well, what happened? In the first skirmish, Rome actually fell back. But
as the Macedonian armies pressed ahead over the uneven ground, their lines
became uneven too, and Paulus seized his opportunity. The Roman legions
moved into the gaps, and the cavalry moved in from the two sides. In close
combat, the longer Roman swords were more effective than the short dagger-like
weapons of the Macedonian soldiers . . . and don’t forget those 22 elephants
wreaking havoc right and left. Perseus turned and fled, and of his 40,000
infantrymen, 25,000 died right there on the battlefield in one day. Most
historians concur that General Perseus really lost the battle single-handedly
by bad strategy. And he paid the price: after surrendering to Paulus,
he had to bear the shame of being paraded through the streets of Rome
as the victorious troops celebrated. He died in prison, and 168 B.C. really
does mark the end of the leopard and the beginning of Rome’s long, undisputed
reign over the then-civilized world.
And so we have this fourth beast in full control. With
or without the help of elephants, the hideous creature of verse seven
rules the entire world; it’s in control when the infant Jesus is born
in Bethlehem, and stays in power until several centuries A.D. It’s interesting
how the new Message Bible, now available in both testaments, describes
this fourth beast of Daniel 7:
“After that, a fourth animal appeared in my dream,”
Daniel writes. “This one was a grisly horror — hideous. It had huge iron
teeth. It crunched and swallowed its victims. Anything left over, it trampled
into the ground. It was different from the other animals — this one was
a real monster. It had ten horns.”
Clear down in verse 23, the heavenly being who is helping
explain the vision tells Daniel — and we’re still in the Message paraphrase:
“The fourth animal is a fourth kingdom that will appear
on earth. It will be different from the first three kingdoms: a monster
kingdom that will chew up everyone in sight and spit them out.”
And really, when it came to warfare and conquest, Rome
was exactly that: a monster kingdom. Over in Daniel 2, this great power
is represented by “legs of iron”; now we have iron teeth and ferocious
strength.
It’s interesting, though, to do some outside reading, like in Mervyn Maxwell’s
wonderful commentary, God Cares. He points out that, over in Romans chapter
13, God actually HONORS Rome “as a civilizing force.” In Romans 12, though,
God “criticizes Rome as a persecuting force.” In many ways, Rome was actually
a positive power on planet earth.
“The Roman Empire was responsible for a great many
good things,” writes Maxwell. “Its fabulous network of paved roads comes
to mind, its advanced system of law and jurisprudence, and its famous
Roman peace (pax Romana). Paul was proud of his Roman citizenship and
took advantage of its privileges.” You can read about that in Acts chapter
22. “In Romans 13 he taught that Roman authorities were God’s servants,
authorized by Heaven to punish evildoers.”
Scholars also suggest that, if you actually tally the
numbers, Rome didn’t persecute as much as it has a reputation for. A Professor
W. H. C. Frend, working at Cambridge, proposes that the number of martyrs
killed for their faith under Rome probably didn’t add up to 5,000 . .
. which is much less than the millions many have believed. Of course,
even one is always one too many.
Well, friend, this was a long time ago, and if you call up a map on your
laptop screen, it doesn’t look much like the abbreviated world of 168
B.C. The incredible thing for us — always — is to realize that God knows.
We quote from this book, God Cares, but He also KNOWS. Hundreds of years
earlier, clear back in the times of Babylon, He let Daniel know that Medo-Persia
would come along. Then Greece. Then Rome. He knew that Paulus would beat
Perseus, that the frightful beast would devour the leopard, that the 22
elephants would do their thing. And on and on, right down to the day that
He sends His own Son to rule the world.
Speaking of phalanxes vs. legions, long swords vs.
short, Greece vs. Rome . . . wouldn’t you just as soon be on the side
of the soon-coming King of the universe?
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