Dan the bad boy

- Chapter 8 -

A couple of years later, during the third year of king Belshazzar's reign, I had another vision. This time, I was standing in Susa, one of the provinces in Babylon. As I looked around, a saw a ram, walking around near a gate. Suddenly, another horn on the ram appeared, bigger than his other horn. It then charged around the place, looking as if he ruled the kingdom.

Then, I saw a billy goat, with a huge horn in the middle of its forehead. He charged forward, straight for the ram with a look of anger. The goat hit the ram so hard it broke off its two horns, knocked him to the ground and stomped over his body.

I gasped, knowing nothing could save the ram that was dying right before my eyes.

Immediately after the ram died, the billy goat grew enormous. His horn popped of his forehead and was replaced by four smaller horns, each pointing in the four main directions like a compass. One of these horns began to grow, and soon became quite large.

It grew so large that it reached into the sky, took out the stars and then stomped on them. This horn even challenged God and ruled the earth, and over everyone. It forced people to forget about God and didn't allow the holy people anywhere to worship God.

Then I heard voices. It was of two angels speaking together.

One said, 'How long will this last, where God's people are being persecuted?'

The other replied, 'After 2,300 evenings and mornings, God will set this earth right again.'

I tried to make sense of what was happening in this vision, but I could not.

Suddenly in the vision, a man spoke to an angel and asked him to explain what was happening to me.

As the angel walked up to me, I became terrified. He looked so powerful that I fell to the ground, not wanting to look him in the eye.

'This vision has to do with the end of time.' The angel spoke.

Overwhelmed by everything, I fainted.

I then woke to the feeling of the angel's arms on me, pulling me up from the ground.

He continued with the interpretation, 'this is what is going to happen when the days of judgment slowly start to stop, but this is the meaning of what you saw:

'The first ram you saw represents the Medes and Persians and the billy goat represents the Greek kingdom. The horn on the goats' forehead symbolises the first Greek king, and the four horns symbolise the other four kings after the first, but not as great. During the end of their rule, the rulers will become very sinful and a king will rise to power. He will become very powerful and destroy men and the people of God. But, eventually he will be destroyed by someone not earthly. Your vision of the 2,300 mornings and evenings is also true, but keep this dream a secret because it reveals things far into the future.'

After this vision, I felt sick to the stomach. For days, I lay in bed unwell until I finally was able to go back into working for the king. However, I still felt confused and almost frightened by the vision as I didn't understand much of it.