God’s Word for You

Daniel 8:4 West, north, and south

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, November 29, 2025

4 I watched the ram making thrusting charges toward the west, toward the north, and toward the south. No animal could stand against him, and none could rescue anyone from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.

The ram that Daniel saw began running, charging, making “thrusting charges” as I have proposed we translate the participle. The word “nagah” in its simplest sense means “to gore” as in Exodus 21:29, the act of an angry or startled ox or bull. But in the intensive (piel) form that we have here, an added and intentional violence is depicted. We see this same meaning in Moses’ prophetic blessing to the tribe of Joseph: “He will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth” (Deuteronomy 33:17).

Here the ram of Persia makes these intentional, violent, charging attacks in three directions. He does not charge to the east because he came from there: “the east already belonged to the Medo-Persian empire, and no farther expansion in that direction was to be expected.” To the west (literally, “sea-ward”) they would charge through what remained of Philistia to the sea: “all the kings of the Philistines, those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod” (Jeremiah 25:19). And another prophet says: “Foreigners will occupy Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines” (Zechariah 9:6; cp. Zephaniah 2:4). And also along the sea, other places fell to Persia: “The day has come to cut off all survivors who could help Tyre and Sidon” (Jeremiah 47:4). The Persians also pushed northwest into Lydia in Asia Minor.

To the north (literally “toward the darkness”), the ram of Persia charged up into Scythia; Cyrus and Darius were conquerors there. That realm, north of the Black Sea, was the very edge of the known world in that direction. To the south (literally, “toward the desert”), of course, the Persians under Cambyses conquered Egypt and Libya. By citing these three directions, the vision touches an otherwise unexplained detail in the mouth of the bear in the vision of chapter 7: the three ribs correspond to these conquered regions, since the Persian bear of chapter 7 had three ribs in his teeth. So the ram of Persia would not conquer the whole world, but only what it desired.

A ram—to be clear, an adult male sheep with curved horns—is not the most frightening creature, even in the barnyard. My dad and uncles can tell stories about more fearsome attacks from a certain rooster. And I have been far more concerned about bulls and stallions, and even coyotes, than about any sheep. But this one had impressive power. “No animal could stand against him, and none could rescue anyone from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.” Persia rose to prominence at a time when there were no superpowers to oppose them. They ruled the barnyard for a while, and they were feared. “None could rescue anyone from their power.”

This verse preaches the law, and in more than one way:

First, Babylon would be overthrown. This is the main point throughout Daniel. Nations come and go, and Babylon would be virtually lost to history by this ram of a nation that was soon to come, Persia. In fact, Cyrus the great was on the way to his rise to power even as Daniel was seeing this vision.

Second, God rules over history. This goes right along with the first point. This is a superlative lesson of the holy Bible. God is supreme and almighty. In the end, this is the lesson of the book of Job, who confessed his faith: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). We do not need to be impressed or to fear other nations. “Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine, (God’s) honour and the greatness of his name shall be, and make new nations.” We confess our faith: “God the Father not only has given us all that we have and see before our eyes, but also he daily guards and defends us against every evil and misfortune, warding off all sorts of danger and disaster. All this he does out of pure love and goodness, without our merit, as a kind father who cares for us so that no evil may befall us” (Large Catechism).

Third, a heathen nation can be used by God for his purposes without bringing any merits for itself in God’s eyes. The sins of that nation, all of its people and its leaders, remain on their heads, even when they are picked up and used like a tool by God. Our prayer is not merely to be useful to God, for even an unbeliever, a murderer, a wicked woman, can be put to use by God in a given moment. But rather we pray that God will forgive our sins, and that when he does choose to use us for his holy purpose and in his divine plan, that he will remember our faith over our deeds. “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:11-12). For God does not see “good” in us as a potential for service. God condemns our original sin and also our actual sins as well as our sins of omission, for “every inclination of a person’s heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21), and “I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Therefore we give glory to God that he has given us the gift of faith, and rescued us. For even though in the vision “No one could rescue anyone from the power” of the Persian, Cyrus, God has rescued us from a far more formidable enemy, the devil, who is “the enemy of everything that is right” (Acts 13:10).

How does the Gospel answer these accusations against our sins? First: The overthrow of Babylon foreshadows the far more important overthrow of the devil by Jesus. Second, God’s rule over history is all about our salvation, for he “chose us in him before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). He has moved mountains, seas, islands, governments, nations, kings, and even grains of sand and slivers of wood, to bring about our rescue from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Third, we rejoice that even though ours is a heathen nation, too often caught up in a false imposition of so-called ecumenism that impresses many but is not according to God’s commands, yet he is merciful to us. He allows our country to stand. There are laws that are intended to permit any and all worship, and we benefit from those laws. Like Daniel, we are tolerated even though our faith is so completely different from that of everyone who surrounds us, as so many surrounded him at court. But Jesus encourages our little flock: “Remain in me. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” (John 15:7,9). He loving arms surround us, and he has us in mind always.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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