The End Of An Empire

The End Of An Empire

What determines how long an empire will last?

IN 539 B.C., Cyrus II, the Persian king of the Medes and the Persians, conquered Babylon. God had referred to Cyrus as his anointed who would fulfill his purposes (Isaiah 45:1-6). God had prophesied of Cyrus: “Before him, mighty kings will be paralyzed with fear. Their fortress gates will be opened, never again to shut against him” (Isaiah 45:1). To Cyrus himself the Lord said, “I will go before you, Cyrus. . . . I will smash down the gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron” (v. 2).

That is exactly what happened. The first step in Cyrus II’s ascendancy to power was a successful rebellion against his Median overlord, who was also his grandfather. As a result, the entire Median army defected from his grandfather to him. The resulting nation is often referred to as “Medo-Persia” since the two former nations were combined into one. Then Cyrus conquered Babylon, and for the next two centuries the Medo-Persian Empire dominated the civilized world.

In the vision of the four beasts recorded in Daniel 7, Daniel writes, “Then I saw a second beast, and it looked like a bear. It was rearing up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And I heard a voice saying to it, ‘Get up! Devour many people! (v. 5). Here “rearing up on one side” is a reference to the ascendancy of the Persians over the Medes, and the three ribs in its mouth is most likely a prophecy of the three major victories of Medo-Persia over Lydia (546 B.C.), Babylon (539 B.C.), and Egypt (525 B.C.).

The end of the Medo-Persian Empire is prophesied in Daniel 8. Here Medo-Persia is symbolized by a ram with two horns representing Media and Persia: “One of the horns was longer than the other, even though it had begun to grow later than the shorter one” (v. 3), referring to the fact that Persia developed later as a power than Media but became the more powerful of the two. In the vision Daniel says that Medo-Persia “did as it pleased and became very great” (v. 4).

Daniel also relates that “suddenly a male goat [Greece] appeared from the west. . . . This goat . . . had one very large horn between its eyes [Alexander the Great]” (v. 5). The nation that was to defeat Medo-Persia and become the next world empire was Greece, under the leadership of Alexander the Great. Becoming king of Macedon at the age of twenty, Alexander led a confederacy of Greek states to conquer Medo-Persia.

The first battle against Persia was at Issus in modern-day Turkey. There Alexander defeated Darius III on a narrow plain, where the Persians lost the advantage of their superior numbers.

Alexander then marched south toward Egypt. On the way he visited the temple in Jerusalem, where he offered sacrifices to God under the supervision of the high priest Jaddua. Then the high priest showed Alexander the prophecy of Daniel 8 that he was the one who was to conquer Persia. Alexander accepted the prophecy and as a result became favorably disposed toward the Jews, allowing them to continue to follow their religious practices and exempting them from paying tribute in sabbatical years when their fields lay fallow.

Alexander’s fateful battle with Persia occurred on October 1, 331 B.C., at Gaugamela in present-day northern Iraq when he was just twenty-five years old. There the Persians were decisively defeated. Daniel’s vision described it: “The goat [Greece] charged furiously at the ram [Medo-Persia] and struck it, breaking off both its horns [Media and Persia]. Now the ram was helpless, and the goat knocked it down and trampled it. There was no one who could rescue the ram from the goat’s power” (v. 7).

An empire that “did as it pleased” (v. 4) brought God’s judgment upon itself.

Reflection

When you listen to the news, do you think about the role that God’s hand plays in the affairs of nations? What are some examples? What does that tell us about God?

Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he alone has all wisdom and power. He determines the course of world events; he removes kings and sets others on the throne.

Daniel 2:20-21