Listen to this articleREIGN OF THE FOUR KINGDOMS SEEN BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR
A more detailed analysis of the visions of Daniel is given as separate teachings. This teaching assumes you have already read them.
1. BABYLON 607 – 559 BC
So God first gave Israel over to Nebuchadnezzar. Who is named. So we wont waste much time with him. But remember he sat in the seat of the messiah, ruling over Israel and the Jews.
Jeremiah 27:6-7 (WEB)
6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him. 7 All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.
This Babylon is now called IRAQ.
2. MEDO PERSIA (559 – 331 BC)
This kingdom was headed by Cyrus the Persian and he co ruled with Darius the Mede. He inherited ruler-ship over Israel and Jerusalem from Nebuchadnezzar. Lets read.. the bible.
Ezra 1:1-2 (WEB)
1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that Yahweh’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
This is the second gentile kingdom to sit in the seat of the Messiah. Having authority over all kingdoms, and over Israel and Jerusalem. Persia was ruled by Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes.
Ezra 6:14 (WEB) The elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
3. GREECE (333 – 146)
By the way, Medo Persia is now IRAN.
3. GREECE (333 – 146)
The bible is also not silent about who succeed the Medo-Persian empire. Daniel sees the vision of a Ram being Killed by a Goat and he is told:
Daniel 8:7-8, 20-21 (WEB)
7 I saw him come close to the ram, and he was moved with anger against him, and struck the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to stand before him; but he cast him down to the ground, and trampled on him. There was no one who could deliver the ram out of his hand. 8 The male goat magnified himself exceedingly. When he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable horns toward the four winds of the sky.
20 The ram which you saw, that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. 21 The rough male goat is the king of Greece. The great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
I have intentionally used the bible in showing this history so that you can see that even without encyclopaedias and google the history and fulfilment is there in scripture. However the Greek kingdom got divided into four parts at the death of Alexander the great. Daniel had also been told about it.
Daniel 8:21-22 (WEB)
21 The rough male goat is the king of Greece. The great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. 22 As for that which was broken, in the place where four stood up, four kingdoms will stand up out of the nation, but not with his power.
Alexander The great Died in 323 BC.
His Kingdom was divided between his four generals.
Thats…
1.Egypt under Ptolemy
2. Syria under Seleucus
3. Macedon
4. Pergamos.
Egypt and Syria were the most powerful. So true to the word the Greek kingdom ruled over Israel and Jerusalem taking the seat of The Messiah. This is written in the book of Daniel but to avoid dispute let me quote the historical books of the Maccabees written by Jews living in that time.
1 Maccabees 1:1-5 (WEB)
1 It came to pass, after that Alexander the Macedonian, the son of Philip, who came out of the land of Chittim, and struck Darius king of the Persians and Medes, it came to pass, after he had struck him, that he reigned in his stead, in former time, over Greece. 2 And he fought many battles, and won many strongholds, and killed the kings of the earth, 3 and went through to the ends of the earth, and took spoils of a multitude of nations. And the earth was quiet before him, and he was exalted, and his heart was lifted up, 4 and he gathered together an exceeding strong army, and ruled over countries and nations and principalities, and they became tributary to him. 5 And after these things he fell sick, and perceived that he should die.
1 Maccabees 1:10-11, 14, 16, 20-25 (WEB)
10 And there came forth out of them a sinful root, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king, who had been a hostage at Rome, and he reigned in the hundred and thirty and seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks. 11 In those days came there forth out of Israel transgressors of the law, and persuaded many, saying, let’s go and make a covenant with the Gentiles that are round about us; for since we were parted from them many evils have befallen us. 14 And they built a place of exercise in Jerusalem according to the laws of the Gentiles; 16 And the kingdom was well ordered in the sight of Antiochus, and he thought to reign over Egypt, that he might reign over the two kingdoms. 20 And Antiochus, after that he had struck Egypt, returned in the hundred and forty and third year, and went up against Israel and Jerusalem with a great multitude, 21 and entered presumptuously into the sanctuary, and took the golden altar, and the candlestick of the light, and all that pertained thereto, 22 and the table of the show bread, and the cups to pour withal, and the bowls, and the golden censers, and the veil, and the crowns, and the adorning of gold which was on the face of the temple, and he scaled it all off. 23 And he took the silver and the gold and the precious vessels; and he took the hidden treasures which he found. 24 And when he had taken all, he went away into his own land, and he made a great slaughter, and spoke very presumptuously. 25 And there came great mourning upon Israel, in every place where they were;
Okay. So the four divisions of the Greek empire are now.
Syria, Turkey, Egypt,
Macedon no longer exists as a nation.
4. ROMAN EMPIRE (146 BC – 1453 AD)
So the Romans came and defeated the Greek kings one at a time… culminating in the battle of corinth in 146 BC where Romans had total victory. And true to the calling of the Beast, Ceasar came and ruled over Jerusalem and the Israelites. So The Messiah is born in the reign of Rome the fourth Kingdom to rule over Jerusalem and the Jews.
Luke 3:1 (WEB) Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
Judea was being governed by a Roman. Josephus the Jewish Historian who lived at the time of the 70 AD also describes how Pompey The Roman General sieged Jerusalem in 63 BC and entered into the holy of holies…
Pompey himself entered the Temple’s Holy of Holies which only the High Priest was allowed to enter, thereby desecrating it. He did not remove anything, neither its treasures nor any funds, and the next day ordered the Temple cleansed and its rituals resumed. Pompey then headed back to Rome, taking Aristobulus with him for his triumphal procession.
Jesus The Messiah Then Came.
Let’s go back to Daniel 2.
