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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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