Podcasts about median empire

Matthew 2:1-12 Wise Men, a Con Man, and a King Please turn to Matthew chapter 2. This is a very well-known advent passage about the wise men from the east bringing gifts to Jesus. There's a lot of mystery and wonder in this text. Part of that is because we're not given many details about the wise men. However, we are clearly given their goal. And so, as I read, listen for why they were seeking Jesus and what they did when they found him. Reading of Matthew 2:1-12. Prayer In our house, you'll find several nativity scenes at this time of year. They're festive and add to the aura of the season. But you know, they don't really accurately depict the manger scene. And one of the inaccuracies is with the three wise men. Most nativity scenes have them. They're usually tall, wearing middle-eastern attire, and bearing gifts as they stand next to the animals. Well, first of all, we're never told how many there were. Yes, they had three gifts, but that does not mean there were only three of them. And second, they did not arrive when Jesus was born. No, actually, they arrived likely when he was 1 year old. They weren't there to see Jesus in the manger. I'm not trying to be the grinch and steal your Christmas joy. Rather, I just want to be sure we distinguish what we actually know versus what tradition has come up with over the centuries. There's a big difference. So, then, what do we know? Who were these wise men led by a star to Jerusalem and then to Jesus? Well, we are told they were from the east and we are given a clue of there origin base on their name. The name “wise men” comes from the Greek word magoi. Some translations give them the title of Magi. It's a word derived from the Persian word for wise men. And because of that, some believe that the Magi came from where the Medo-Persian empire was centered (which is where modern day Iran is). Others believe that the Magi came from the region where the Babylonian empire used to be centered. That's where modern day Iraq is. There are good reasons for both possibilities. If we go back to the book of Daniel, it uses a very similar word for the wise men of the land. Daniel, as you may know, lived in Babylon in exile. Similarly, the book of Esther, which takes place in the Persian capital, also uses a similar word for wise men. In both cases, the Greek translation of the Old Testament uses the word magoi. And honestly, I don't think it makes much of a difference whether the Magi came from Medo-Persian roots or Babylonian roots. Even though these empires were centered in adjacent regions in the middle east, they overlapped as each kingdom took control. A few decades after Babylon conquered the whole region, they were then overthrown by the Medes and then the Persians. After that it was the Greeks under Alexander the Great who conquered the land, and then Roman Empire, which was in control when Jesus was born. And when these empires overthrew one another, it's not like they killed all the people. No, the people just were under the control of another kingdom. Yes, some of them moved out or were exiled. Others moved in to govern, but overall, the culture and history were preserved or intermixed with the new empire in power. Furthermore, when we consider the Babylonians and the Medes and the Persians, they each had their wise men. We know this from the Old Testament text as well as from historical writings from the time. The Magi were the highest educated men of the land. They were given utmost respect and they had major influence in the culture. In fact, extra Biblical writings about the Medes particularly emphasize this. Someone could not become a king in that empire without first the same rigorous study as the wise men. Even more, in the Median Empire, it was the wise men who anointed the king. Think about the significance of tht if the Matthew 2 wise men came from that region. The bottom line is that the Magi who were led to Jerusalem were held in the highest esteem and had significant cultural prominence. Now, let me mention something else important. These Magi knew some of the Hebrew Scriptures. Let me make that case. First, let's go back to Babylon. When Babylon overthrew Judah in the early 5th century BC, thousands and thousands of Jews were relocated to Babylon. They brought their culture with them. They brought their history and they brought their writings. Even when they were later permitted to return to Jerusalem, most of them remained in Babylon and some even intermarried with the Babylonians. Not only that, think of the testimony of Daniel and of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego. Their wisdom and faithfulness earned them great status in the Babylonian Kingdom. King Nebuchadnezzar found them 10 time wiser than the wise men and enchanters of the region. That's mentioned in Daniel chapter 1. And when they were put to the test, God delivered each of them - you know, the three thrown in the fiery furnace, and Daniel from the Lion's den. After each incident, it was the Babylonian king who decreed that the one true God should be worshipped and served. These men were furthermore elevated to a high standing in the land. Daniel himself ended up being promoted to the third highest position in the entire Babylonian kingdom. You see, their wisdom, wisdom from God, became part of the wisdom of the land. A very similar thing happened in the Medo-Persian empire. Esther in the Old Testament was Jewish, but she was chosen to be queen by the Persian King. Some of you know the history. A plot was made against all the Jewish people in the land. They were to be slaughtered, but through the wisdom of Esther and her uncle, that plot was turned against the perpetrators. In the end, it was the Jewish people who prospered in all 127 provinces of the kingdom. It mentions from India to Ethiopia. Here is my point. Whether the wise men from the east came from a Babylonian heritage or from a Medo-Persian heritage, the wisdom of the land included wisdom from God almighty. Their education would have included testimonies of God's people and their teaching, which God had spread all throughout the east. So, these Magi, who were the highest learned men in the near Eastern culture, would have studied and known the God of Israel, and his prophecies, and the wisdom given his people. Perhaps they knew Balaam's prophecy from Numbers 24 that “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” So, yes, they came from the east, but they were not unfamiliar with what God had revealed and the prophecies of the Messiah. Now, we are not told what prompted them to leave their country and follow a star to Jerusalem. They may have been given a vision given by God in a dream (you know, similar to the dream they were given in verse 12); or it may have been an angel appearing to them similar to how angels appeared to Mary and Joseph and the shepherds. Or, as some have suggested, it may have been their studies of the Jewish Scriptures and the timing of the Messiah. We don't know, but whatever means God used, they knew that they were to seek the promised king who had come… and that he was worthy to be worshiped. Notice what they said when they arrived in Jerusalem. Verse 2. They asked: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Now, given the prominence and status of these Magi, their arrival in Jerusalem came with great acknowledgment. We know that because word of their arrival and their question.. filtered all the way up to King Herod. By the way, this Herod was Herod the Great. That is how he was known. Multiple Herods are mentioned in the New Testament. All of them are descendants of this Herod, Herod the Great. And none of them reached the prominence and power of their father or grandfather. This Herod was even given the title “king of the Jews” by the Roman senate. He wasn't even Jewish. This Herod is the one who built the great city Caesarea by the sea. He similarly constructed the mountaintop fortress of Masada in the south. This is the same Herod who ordered the massive renovation of the temple. He did this to try to please the Jews and solidify his title. If you remember, the temple had been rebuilt some 500 years earlier by some of the exiles who had returned. However, Herod transformed and refined it. He doubled the size of the temple mount. And he had the temple adorned with gold plates, and had it covered in white marble. The Jews appreciated this, of course, but it didn't change their opinion of him. In fact, in 2007 (you know, less than 20 years ago) archaeologists actually found Herod's tomb. It was inside the massive fortress that he built near Bethlehem called the Herodium. When they found it, they also found that Herod's sarcophagus had been smashed to pieces. You see, the Jews hated Herod the Great. It's likely, back in the first century, a group made their way into the chamber and destroyed his coffin and did something with his bones. That is because Herod was not a just ruler. He had his first wife executed, including his mother-in-law. He also executed three of his sons. And he had dozen of opponents killed, including high priests and pharisees. Now, look at verse 3. When Herod heard about the wise men and that they were seeking the newborn king of the Jews, it says Herod was troubled. This larger-than-life ruler of the land, who had political and military power, was troubled. Of course he was. These renowned Magi from the east had arrived and they were seeking a new king of the Jews. But that was Herod's title. Do you see why he asked the Magi in verse 8 to find the child born a King? It was not, as Herod had said, so that he could also worship him. No, not at all. Herod was a con man and a tyrant. He wanted to put to death yet another potential threat to his power. Herod did not know where to find this newborn king, so he did two things. First, he asked the priests and scribes. They mentioned Isaiah's prophecy about Bethlehem. Well, that wasn't narrow enough, so second, Herod met with the Magi. He asked them to return to him after finding the newborn king. Well, as the text mentions later, the Magi were warned about Herod in a dream. And so, Herod would never get his wish. So, the Magi were in Jerusalem. Herod had met with them. They knew they needed to travel further, but exactly where, they did not know. But just like before, a star rose to guide them. This star is mentioned four times in Matthew 2. It had brought them west from their country to Jerusalem. The star then turned them south towards Bethlehem. And it led them to the very house where Mary and Josph and baby Jesus were staying. But you ask, how can a star, high in the heavens above lead to a specific home? This is why I believe that it was more of a supernatural star-like object in the sky. Afterall, it moved. It turned them from heading west to south, and then it was able to bring them to a specific place. As verse 9 says, it came to rest over the place where the child was. So, the Magi arrived. Now, in a minute, I want to come back to what they did at that moment. But first, let's consider their gifts. They had brought gifts with them from the east. We sing about them and hear them often at this time of year. The Magi brought gold, and frankincense (not Frankenstein), and they brought myrrh. Now, different scholars have postulated different meanings for the gifts. Some have simply said the gifts were merely a royal tribute. In other words, the Magi brought expensive gifts as they would for any king. Others have suggested that each gift signified something. I think that's likely the case. Let me work that out. First, the gift of gold. Just like today, it was the most precious of metals. It was hard to find and hard to mine. Gold had many uses, but one prominent use of gold was for a king. You know, crowns were made mainly of gold. Kings drank from vessels of gold and they wore golden rings. They carried golden scepters. All those uses are highlighted in various passages in the Scriptures. Of course, gold was not exclusively used for kings, but it's reasonable to conclude that in the giving of gold by the wise men, they were acknowledging Jesus as a king. Second, they also brought him frankincense. It's a strange word. At its core is the word incense. And that is what it was. It came from a rare tree that grew in East Africa. Frankincense is referenced many times in the Old Testament as a fragrant perfume. Most often it was used in the temple by the priests including the high priest. Now, here's the important part. In it's temple use, Frankincense was reserved for incense and sacrificial anointing for Yahweh – for God. It's even referred to as Yahweh's incense. So, it's reasonable to conclude that the Frankincense signified Jesus' divine nature and his priestly role. Which brings us to the last gift. Myrrh. It was a perfume. It was used as a beautiful fragrance for women. You can find it referenced multiple times in the Song of Solomon. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, it's mentioned as a fragrance for clothing. But also, it was used as one of the burial spices. The bottom line is that Myrrh was a fragrance for man – you know, mankind. So, it was different from Frankincense which was reserved in the temple use for Yahweh. Myrrh was instead used for the people. As one commentator put it, “it was a perfume used by and in the interest of… man to make his life more pleasant… and his burial less repulsive.” So, as a gift from the Magi, Myrrh likely signified Jesus' humanity and perhaps his atoning death. In sum, the gifts brought by the Magi testified to who this child was. In the very least, the gifts testified to his kingship. But likely they furthermore testified to the fulness of Jesus divine nature and the fulness of his humanity. In his humanity he was, at that time, a young child born a king, but in his deity, he had existed from eternity past as God the Son. And he had come. The Magi knew and they testified to the wonder and awe of who this child was. He was worthy for them to worship. And I want you to notice something significant. Before the Magi even entered the house, look what verse 10 says. They rejoiced with exceedingly great joy! They gave praise to God for leading them to Jesus. They recognized the significance of that moment in history and that God had brought them to this place, to this child king. And after that, the Magi entered and it says they fell-down before him and worshiped. These revered men, who were not Israelites, who were known for their decades of study and known for their cultural prominence fell down before a one-year old child and worshiped him. Is that not tremendous? I think it is in a couple of different ways. Number 1 - God used non-Israelites to acknowledge his Son, the true king. These Gentile Magi affirmed what many Jews would reject. As the Gospel of John points out, Jesus came to his own, but his own did not receive him. The worship by the Magi is a tremendous thing. It affirmed what the Scriptures in the Old Testament had been saying all along. That through the offspring of Abraham, through the seed of David, all nations would be blessed. It is truly an amazing affirmation of the Gospel call to all tribes, tongues, and nations. Number 2 – the second thing that is tremendous is that they were led by God. God had turned the hearts of these men to him and they followed him. They followed his star. Even with all the temptations for pride that comes with knowledge and wisdom, these men humbled themselves to worship the true king. Go back to verse 10, again. They rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. Again, this was before they fell down and worshiped. In other words, they gave glory to God for leading them to Jesus. And then they worshiped him. Believer in Christ, you and I were not led by a star to Jesus. But it is no less supernatural how God turned your heart and mine and led us to him. Yes, let's worship the newborn king in this advent season. Yes, let's give praise to God in Christ who is Lord and Savior. Yes, let's declare the reason that Jesus came. He was born to die in our place and then resurrected so to overcome sin and death and the devil for us. So, yes, let's worship Jesus for all these reasons. But let's also rejoice like the Magi for God bring us to him. Were it not for God leading in our lives, we would still be in darkness. But God has led us to his Son, the King. Perhaps you've come today or you've been coming, but you have yet to fall down and worship. God has been leading you. After all, you are here. He's led you to Jesus. He's led you to hear his Word. But there's something preventing you from falling down in worship. Maybe skepticism. Maybe you say that you cannot intellectually get to a place of belief. But if there was any group back then who could argue against belief, it would have been the Magi. Wouldn't it not? The Magi were the intellectuals of the time. Yet, they submitted themselves to God and they humbled themselves before him. They both praised him for leading them to Jesus and then fell down and worshiped the true king. God has led you to this point. Let him now lead you into the house before the humble king. It takes faith, doesn't it? Was it not by faith that the Magi followed the star. It was. It also requires setting aside your unbelief and forsaking your own way. It takes humility to recognize all that you don't know compared to the wisdom and glory and power of God. And it takes falling down before him and submitting your whole life to him, just as the Magi. Will you let God lead you into his house and will you fall down as the Magi did to worship Christ? He is, as 1 Corinthians says, the power of God and the wisdom and of God. He is worthy to be worshiped. What an amazing testimony in these verses… of God at work leading and affirming that he himself has come to us. May we each praise God for leading us as he did the Magi. And as they also did, may we each humbly fall down before the king of kings, for who he is… and for what he has done for us so that we may worship him. Amen

History sometimes has a habit of framing cultures as either heroes or villains, depending on the source. When it comes to Greek sources Herodotus "The Father of History", is kinda the go to when it comes to the period of antiquity. Every story needs a bad guy or a great evil to overcome, and when it comes to Herodotus his history was many times more fiction than fact. For the Greeks it was the vast and powerful Persian Empire coming to snuff out the light of the greek world. Weeeellllll...the Greeks were already doing a decent job of that themselves to be honest. While the first Persian Empire, established by the Acheamenid (Ack-a-men-id) Dynasty was central to the story of Greece "uniting", the Persians were across the Aegean doing some pretty incredible things. Founded by Cyrus the Great the Achaemenid Dynasty became the largest empire in the world during its time. Religious Tolerance, establishment of great road systems to carry trade and culture, the first mail system, a standardized monetary system based on the gold and silver, and a common language just to name a few. We owe a surprising amount of things in our modern world to this Empire. Tune in a find out just who were the Achaemenids and why maybe the Greeks kinda had it coming... Support the show

With the Clouds of Heaven Daniel 7:1-28 by William Klock The seventh chapter of Daniel begins this way: In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.   It's finally Daniel's turn to dream.  The storyteller rolls back the clock about a decade to the first year of Belshazzar, which would have been about 550 BC.  The implied audience, remember, is the faithful Jews living in Judah in the early 160s BC, during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.  The purpose of the book of Daniel was to encourage them and to exhort them to stand firm for the Lord, to stand firm for his law, even as this pagan king was making it illegal for them to live according to the law and to worship the Lord, even as many of their fellow Jews were caving in to the pressure and apostatizing.  The book of Daniel points them back to their ancestors who lived during the Babylonian exile and had their own struggles to remain faithful to the Lord.  The story is told through their eyes to encourage the current generation. We also need to understand that the book of Daniel now shifts its genre from tales about Daniel and his friends in the Babylonian court to apocalyptic visions.  There are four visions.  This first one in Chapter 7, a second in Chapter 8, a third in Chapter 9, and a fourth spanning Chapters 10-12.  In Greek, an apokalypsis is a revelation, an unveiling, of something.  It's related to prophecy, but it usually has—at least in the Bible—it usually has to do with current events and is God's way of pulling the curtain back to show that current events aren't just random or haphazard, but that he's at work behind them.  Biblical apocalyptic encourages the faithful to stand firm and to trust in the Lord knowing that even as evil seems like it's out of control, it's not.  God is sovereign and he—and his faithful people—will win the day.  It reminds us that God is king and that he will vindicate his people for their faith. And, as we saw with Revelation, one of the defining characteristics of apocalyptic literature is that it communicates through symbols.  And that can make it difficult for us.  The symbolism would have been obvious to the original hearers, but because it's very context dependent—things like culture and history, worldview and mythology and things like that—it can be very hard for us to understand.  One of the hard things for us, one of the things that gets lost in translation is the visceral reaction this symbolism would have created in the original audience.  For us it's just something to decode: this means that.  For them, the imagery would stir up emotions.  This wasn't about events thousands of years ago.  This was about what they were experiencing.  It was about their world, their not-too-distant past, and their not-too-distant future.  It was about the present affliction, the present persecution, the present pressures that confronted them.  Think of the feelings you might have as you watch the evening news: fear, dread, sadness, elation.  Those sorts of feelings were connected with this imagery.  The timing of this vision, at the beginning of Belshazzar's co-regency, means that Daniel's vision would coincide with big news.  For millennia the Assyrian empire had dominated the Near East.  The Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus and Belshazzar was the last incarnation of Assyria.  To the north was the Median Empire and to the east the Persian.  Cyrus the Great, the Persian emperor was on the move, gobbling up parts of Media and Babylon.  In 550 BC the Medes fell to the Persians.  Now Babylon was in Cyrus' sights.  Here were Daniel and his people, bystanders in the middle of turbulent times.  We can imagine Daniel hearing the most recent news of the fall of the Medes, going to bed, tossing and turning, finally falling into restless sleep, and dreaming.  Let's continue with verse 2: Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.' After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.  (Daniel 7:2-8) In his vision, Daniel stands by the great sea.  In the Old Testament the “great sea” always means the Mediterranean.  It was the centre of the ancient world.  Imagine Daniel standing in a place jutting out into the sea, a place the Rock of Andromeda at Joppa.  The waters rage and the winds blow.  It's not an ordinary wind.  The winds rage from north and south, east and west all at the same time and the sea churns violently around him.  For all the ancient Near Eastern peoples, the sea represented chaos.  Genesis opens with the sea—formless and void—representing the chaos of the uncreated world into which the Lord speaks, separating the waters, raising dry land, bringing the order needed for humans to live and to flourish.  Now, in his dream, Daniel sees the sea raging.  Chaos threatens the order of God's good creation.  As we look at our own current events, it's not very hard to image what Daniel felt.  Turn on the news or look on the Web and so often it seems like chaos and evil are tearing the world apart.  In so many places humans languish when they should be flourishing, all because of war and corruption, because of poverty and greed and sickness.  Sometimes it seems like chaos has won the day. And who's at the heart of the chaos?  Daniel sees four ferocious beasts emerge from the sea.  The beasts are symbolic and it's hard to be certain exactly how all the symbolism here works.  A lot of it seems to come from the Old Testament prophets, but it could also be coming from the mythology and the symbols of the various peoples and empires that are symbolized.  Some of it is eerily similar to the symbolism of the Babylonian books Daniel would have studied in learning about divination and the symbolism of dreams.  What we do know—because Daniel is told in verse 17—is that these beasts represent four empires.   We know from what has preceded and what follows in Daniel that the sequence of empires begins with Assyria, of which Babylon was the last incarnation.  So a regal lion with the wings of an eagle emerges from the sea representing the greatness of Babylon.  Its wings are plucked off and it is set on two feet, which reminds us of Nebuchadnezzar in Chapter 4, ranging in the wilderness like a wild animal, but eventually restored to humanity and kingship by the Lord. From this point there's disagreement on how to interpret the symbolism and that's because of our distance from the original context.  We just can't be sure what the symbolism means and it then becomes very easy to look through history and cherry pick things that match the symbolism and squeeze it into our modern interpretations.  I'll just note that the rabbis and Christians for most of our history interpreted these four empires as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.  That was mostly because in the days of the rabbis and early Christians, Rome was the great global power and because Rome so often stood opposed to both the Jews and Christians.  Rome fell, but Byzantium—the eastern Roman empire—remained until the 15th Century.  And there were successors to Rome in the West.  In 800 Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans and it wasn't until 1806 that the Holy Roman Empire finally came to an end.  But as the years went by, connecting Daniel's fourth beast to Rome became more difficult, and since the early 19th Century folks have had to work especially hard to hold on to that interpretation, whether identifying the beast with the papacy or with the European Union—and those schemes have consistently ended up falling apart. History gives us a better basis for interpreting Daniel's beasts.  We know now that at the time Daniel was written there was a common scheme across the Ancient Near East for describing the succession of empires.  The four great empires were Assyria, the Medes, the Persians, and the Greek Macedonians.  In fact, as the Romans replaced the Greeks in the centuries that followed, they were added to the scheme as a fifth empire. So following this common pattern, the bear represents the Medes.  As in Nebuchadnezzar's statue, it was clearly inferior to the Babylonians.  The three ribs in its mouth may be a reference to Jeremiah 51:27-29, which describes the three nations that joined with the Medes in their attack on Babylon.  And the four-winged, four-headed leopard then represents the Persians.  The swiftness with which the Persians conquered the four corners of the earth contrasts with the ponderous bear imagery of the Medes.  But Daniel's vision really isn't very interested in the second and third kingdoms.  The focus of his dream is on the fourth.  This is the kingdom that raged and threatened the people of God at the time the book was written. And the fourth kingdom is different.  As we'll see in a bit, the first three beasts, despite appearances, were all under control.  But this fourth beast, it does what it wants to do—or at least, that's how it thinks of itself.  The imagery of the great beast, exceedingly strong, and stamping into oblivion what was left after breaking things apart with its iron teeth or tusks, suggests an elephant—a good image of Alexander's unstoppable army that conquered the territory of the other three empires.  The ten horns are fitting symbols of the ten kingdoms that arose from Alexander's empire after his death.[1]  But out of those horns there came up one king in particular, who was a menace to the people of God.  The little horn is, again, a fitting image of Antiochus Epiphanes.  He tried to abolish the law and the worship of the God of Israel.  He was the one who claimed divinity for himself.  He was the cause of all their woes. But then, in the midst of the chaos, as the sea churns and these ferocious beasts rage across the earth, a new image appears—a bit like Dad coming home to find his unruly children tearing apart the house.  Look at verses 9 and 10: “As I looked, thrones were placed,          and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow,          and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames;          its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued          and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him,          and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment,          and the books were opened.   The beasts are brought to heel as the God of Israel takes his seat as judge.  The one who tamed chaos in the first place established earthly kings to preserve his order and to promote human flourishing.  These kings have done the opposite and now what at first seemed like wild and ferocious beasts stand pitifully before the judgement seat of the Most High God, his fiery throne, and before the heavenly hosts.  Then verses 11 and 12: “I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.   Even as he stands before the Most High, that blasphemous little horn continues to speak.  The other beasts, for all their raging, served the Living God—as we've seen in the first six chapters.  They all, in some way and in the end, acknowledged him.  The Lord of history raised them up to serve his purposes.  But this horn on the fourth beast rages against the sovereign God and is judged: killed, destroyed, and burned to oblivion.  The vision gave hope to the faithful living under his reign of terror. But that's not all there is to it.  Daniel has a second vision and this one's not just about the bringing down of wicked rulers; this one is about the raising up of a righteous one.  As St. Paul writes in Romans, creation waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed.  It's not enough to judge the wicked.  Creation longs for its rightful stewards.  Look at verses 13 and 14: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven          there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days          and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion          and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages          should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,          which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one          that shall not be destroyed.   History will not continue as a reign of terror and blasphemy, nor will it merely end in judgement.  In place of the raging kings represented by ferocious beasts, Daniel now sees one “like a son of man”.  In the beginning the Lord created human beings to rule his creation with goodness and wisdom as his stewards and that's what this new figure like a son of man represents.  After the Lord has judged the wicked empires of the world, this son of man arrives riding on the clouds—that's a dramatic image of the Lord's war chariot.  He is presented before the Ancient of Day, before the Most High God, and to him is given glory and an everlasting dominion—ultimately a kingdom that will not be destroyed. But what does this all mean?  The dream continues as one of the heavenly host explains the symbolism to Daniel in verses 15-27: “As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.'   “Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet, and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions. As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.   “Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth,          which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth,          and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise,          and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones,          and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High,          and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,          and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand          for a time, times, and half a time. But the court shall sit in judgment,          and his dominion shall be taken away,          to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion          and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven                   shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,          and all dominions shall serve and obey him.' This is the hope of the saints.  The blasphemous little monster will put himself in the place of God.  He will torment the faithful.  He will have power and authority and, to all appearances, it will seem like his reign will last forever—or longer than those other kingdoms, at any rate.  A time, times—and that would go in sequence: four times and eight times and sixteen times and so on.  But no.  It's a time and times and suddenly a half.  That might be a reference to the roughly three-and-a-half years Antiochus Epiphanes terrorized Judah, but it's more likely the idea that his power is cut short at its height.  The Lord will give him enough rope to hang himself.  And his kingdom will be given to the saints, to the holy ones of the Most High—and his dominion, his kingdom will go on forever and ever. It's an image of the world set to rights.  Chaos is finally, once and for all given order in by the Lord, and human beings are restored to their rightful place, to serve before the Lord as his stewards—as priests and kings.  This is why the Jews saw the son of man here as a symbolic representative of Israel.  They were the people elect and set apart by the Lord, a people made holy to be a light to the nations—a people who, in living with the Lord in their midst—gave the world a glimpse of what creation was supposed to be like and who pointed forward to the day when it really would be set to rights and men and women would finally serve the Lord as the stewards and rulers of his creation. The chapter ends in verse 28: “Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart.” This is the end of the first vision, but there's more to come.  This vision sets the scene and gives us the setting and timeframe for the visions that will follow.  But then—and I guess I'm jumping ahead to the end of Daniel—we realise as Christians that even as Daniel's visions end, it's not really the end of the matter.  The Lord did indeed bring down the evil Antiochus IV.  The Lord did indeed vindicate his people.  A new king would take the throne in Judah.  But as is so often the case with Old Testament prophecy, even though we see it obviously fulfilled in the events of those days, it's fulfilled in a way that leaves things open to a final and greater fulfilment.  Judah was only free for a century and then Pompey came, conquered Jerusalem for Rome, and deposed the Hasmonean dynasty.  And the people would wait again for the Lord to deliver them. It was in those dark days that Jesus was born and began his ministry and it shouldn't surprise us in the least that he took for himself this title from Daniel, son of man.  He was the embodiment of the humanity we forsook in the garden and the embodiment of the Israel that Israel could never manage to be.  In him, God became the first man to be what we were created to be.  And as our representative, he broke the bonds of sin by letting evil do its worst.  The chaos and the vicious beasts of fallen, sinful, rebellious humanity rose up around him and did their worst, they killed him, and they buried him in the earth, and for three days evil thought it had triumphed.  But on the third day, God vindicated his son, raising him from death.  And as Jesus rose from his grave, so Jesus also rose to take his throne.  The son of man has been given dominion and glory and his kingdom and as the good news of his death and resurrection goes out, the peoples, nations, and languages are being brought to him in faith, to serve him and to give him glory.  And in that, we see the people of God, the new Israel, the church empowered by word and Spirit, coming on the clouds—riding the Lord's war chariot, equipped with the gospel—the good news of Jesus, crucified, risen, and enthroned in glory.  And there, Brothers and Sisters, we ought to find hope and inspiration to stand firm in faith even as the seas rage today, as new beasts emerge from the dark waters, even as they speak vain and blasphemous things.  Jesus has won the decisive battle.  He now sends out: Onward!  Christian soldiers.  And on we go, taking up our crosses into the world, knowing that the one who humbled himself on the cross and who conquered by his blood not only stands with us, but has filled us with his own Spirit and now goes on before us. Let's pray again our Collect: Almighty God, consider the heartfelt desires of your servants, we pray, and stretch out the right hand of your majesty to defend us against all our enemies, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.   [1] Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucia, Macedon, Pergamum, Pontus, Bithynia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Parthia, and Bactria.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Dan. 2) could usefully occupy us for many pages. It provides insight not only into Daniel and his times, but into our times as well.(1) The pagan Babylonian Empire had its share of astrologers and other fortune tellers. Like thoughtful people in every generation, Nebuchadnezzar had his suspicions about their competence, and put them to this rather brutal test. Anecdotal accounts of “magical” insight cannot withstand this level of analysis.(2) Daniel's bold approach to the king claims nothing for himself and ascribes everything to God, who knows our thoughts and our dreams. That took courage. Here is the next stage in the development of Daniel's character. The courageous and unshakable old man that Daniel became (Dan. 6) was formed by a young man who obeyed God even in what he ate, and who was so honest that he would not take any credit where none was due. He was committed to faithfulness, humility, courage, and integrity. He has few successors in high places.(3) Doubtless contemporary psychiatrists would speculate that the colossus in Nebuchadnezzar's dream betrays profound personal insecurity. Megalomaniacal ambition to rule the world may suggest secret doubts about whether or not one has feet of clay. Whatever the means, God uses the vision to disclose something more profound—the future of forthcoming empires.Most liberals have argued that the four metals—gold, silver, bronze, and iron—represent, respectively, Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. After the death of Alexander the Great, the Greek Empire disintegrated into four territories squabbling among themselves—hence the feet of clay. Certainly the later chapters of this prophecy focus not a little attention on that period, and picture the dawning of the messianic kingdom succeeding it. Nevertheless that view is tied up with the theory that at the very least the later chapters of Daniel were written pseudonymously in the second century B.C. Most evangelicals find little evidence to support that stance. Moreover, they point out that there never really was a Median Empire. It is better to speak of the Medo-Persian Empire; the Median element was not much more than a transition team. On that view the four empires are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome—and during the latter the messianic kingdom delivers the mighty blow that ultimately fells the colossus. That seems to be what Jesus held (Matt. 24:15).(4) This vision reminds us that in this broken and ambiguous world the people of God nurture a hope for what God will do in the end. Little in the Christian way makes sense without such hope; little in our culture makes much sense without a shared vision toward which to press, a vision that transcends personal fulfillment and selfism. This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson's book For the Love of God (vol. 2) that follow the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan.

The majority of the Median Empire is known through the writing of Herodotus, the "father of ancient history." He wrote about the important aspects of his empire, especially its capital Ecbatana, a modern archaeological marvel. The empire began and ended without any major wars or major rivalries, instead it broke away from the Assyrian Empire at its inception and then was absorbed into the Persian at its decline. Thank you Emily Moran for writing on this unique empire. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this video podcast, we'll take a look at one of the most overlooked peoples of ancient history, the Medes, and reconstruct their early history using Assyrian, Babylonian and Greek sources, namely Herodotus (the Medes don't have any primary sources of their own). It was the Medes and the Median Empire that laid the foundation upon which the Achaemenid Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great and his descendants rested upon.Sources and Suggested Reading ► https://bit.ly/3ehWgovFollow History with Cy:YouTube ChannelInstagram Facebook Twitter Website Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/historywithcy)

Just as Cyrus the Great, now officially the King of Persia, was consolidating his hold over the recently conquered Median Empire, a new war started. This time, the Persians were facing Lydia, the fabulously wealthy Anatolian kingdom ruled by King Croesus. This war really had it all. Deceptive strategies, surprising alliances, strange tactics, and wildly confused ancient sources to tell the story, but in the end it was just one achievement for Cyrus. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/history-of-perisa/support

Around 550 BCE, King Cyrus II of Anshan went into revolt against the Median King Astyages. The young Cyrus was aided by a rebellious Median general called Harpagus and conquered the whole Median Empire in one war. Then, Cyrus declared himself King of Persia, and took his first step on the path to becoming "Great." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/history-of-perisa/support

History of Iran podcast, episode nine. On the Herodotian narrative of the Median Empire and modern scholarship's correctives to it.