To assure the construction and completion of the second temple after Israel’s Babylonian exile, Zerubbabel was commissioned to undertake the project with supernatural help. As we read in Zechariah 4:6, Zerubbabel as governor of Judah was empowered by the Holy Spirit to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. As the first temple was destroyed in 587 BC (2 Kings 25), it was in fulfillment of YHWH’s judgment upon Jerusalem and all of Judah. Where until its final destruction, numerous occupants of the city were exiled to Babylon, and for 70-years, they remained in captivity. After the Persians of the North conquered Babylonia in 539 BC, its emperor Cyrus the Great released the Hebrews back to their homeland to complete the 70-year expulsion due to their rejection of God.
As promised of YHWH, the people of Israel returned to their appointed country and began to undergo restoration to include the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple, among other dwellings. Not to the former grandeur that it was known of before, but to a reduced stature without the presence of God and His glory to occupy it. The people of Judah were again free, but they still faced hardships as they worked to regain stability through trade, agriculture, husbandry, farming, and other areas of city living. The context of living at the time involved the strenuous and burdensome recovery of the land and the rebuilding of the previously destroyed city.
The visions of the golden lampstand and the olive trees (Zechariah 4:1-14) provide the surrounding context by which the Holy Spirit inhabits Zerubbabel and fills him with the power to build the second temple. As decreed by YHWH, Zerubbabel accomplished this task over time, not by his strength, stamina, wealth, or capabilities but by the Holy Spirit’s power.
While presented within the vision of the golden lampstand with a bowl above it, we encounter the Holy Spirit’s symbolism over the total construction effort. That the bowl symbolizes the supply of power necessary to complete the task set before Zerubbabel, that is, to build the second temple that shall exist during the time of Christ to usher in the Kingdom of God.
The second temple’s existence contributes to the physical environment by which the work of Jesus is carried out. It so appears that the restoration of the physical temple without its indwelling presence provides the situational and eschatological framework by which the life and ministry of Jesus are set in motion. The reconstruction of the temple and the return of the people were to become restored in the near term and the distant future in support of Christ’s future redemptive work. Altogether part of an orchestrated effort to include the destruction of the temple yet again by the Romans in 70 AD.
Through these circumstances, as given by Zechariah 4:6, we are presented with an example of an empowering work from the Holy Spirit. YHWH provided the indwelling of the Spirit within Zerubbabel to empower him, as He can do the same for those in Christ who are born of the Spirit. So, it is here the theological principle applies to bring confidence that we are to trust in Him and live by the Spirit. As it is a reliance on the Spirit rather than our capabilities, resources, intellect, or strength to accomplish what He desires of us.
This post is in the context of my Psalm 82 worldview. I follow and accept the first-century perspective of the Apostle’s view of Scripture. So that may provide some sense of premise I have as to what scenario is offered here from personal studies and interpretation in the book of Daniel. I am aware of the conventional interpretations from dispensationalists. I have read the Hays text as well on this. Still, I am fully prepared to be entirely wrong, or corrected on this. This is merely a preliminary perspective about the four-beasts written about in the book of Daniel (chapter 7). Some suspicions and written observations are here about what the near and far view of Daniel’s prophetic meaning looks like apart from an amillennial or preterist perspective.
Gentile pagan empires are the four beasts we read about in Daniel. From a prophetic and historical perspective, the lion is Babylon (Assyria), the bear is Medo-Persia (Iraq/Iran), the leopard is Greece (Yavan, or Asia Minor/Turkey in Daniel’s time), and the fourth beast of iron and clay is fierce, unlike the others (Europe/Rome occupied Caliphate). The corollary to this vision is Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, as interpreted in Daniel. Since Daniel 7 is an interpretive repetition of the statue in Daniel 2, all inferior empires (beasts) were historically destroyed by the fourth empire.
Prior to the rise of the historical Roman empire, it was Greece that campaigned throughout the Middle East and conquered numerous nations to the East. This third beast (kingdom), under the leadership of Alexander the Great, was also responsible for the destruction of numerous nations. As a beast that devoured the rest (Babylon and Medo/Persia), this historical empire looks to have wrought a level of destruction entirely familiar to what we read about from the fourth beast. To include the spiritual principalities over the nations or territories set before Greece (Macedon) under Alexander the Great.
The Empire of Alexander illustrated above is a fulfillment of the prophecy and angelic interpretation concerning the conflict between the ram and the goat. Symbolic of both Media/Persia (ram) and Greece (goat) respectively. Where eventually the great horn that emerges from the goat is recognized as Alexander the Great. Once that great horn is destroyed, the four horns that emerge from it will produce a single ruler of great power. It was and is to have great power as the already, but not yet. From Daniel’s perspective, the vision was in the distant future to explain Antiochus Epiphanes of Greece. Historically originated from Seleucid kingdom, and the one who is not of his own power (Dan 8:24), he was anti-Christ type figure risen to commit the atrocities written about in Scripture and across history. To fulfill the relative near view of prophecy concerning the evil ruler among the four receding kingdoms we are informed about by Gabriel, the archangel in Scripture (Dan 8:16).
I am aware of traditional views that accept the fourth beast of iron as Rome. And that the “Roman” empire is predicted to revive during the end times. However, I suspect the region is “governed” or headed by a principality that includes Europe. Rome is in Europe, and I am coming to the view that the fourth beast/empire is the Islamic Caliphate’s presence across the European Union. The onslaught invasion of the Islamic peoples throughout Europe is happening again, but it is also growing well beyond that.
Historically, Rome never entirely destroyed the other three empires/beasts as we read about in Daniel as the Parthians of Persia remained in the North, and they were not fully conquered (Dan 7:12). However, the historical Islamic Caliphate did, in fact, conquer all three of the empires. And on its current trajectory, it may become revived with a substantial presence in Europe (Rome) by geometric growth. It can develop a coalition of nations (10-horns; Dan 7:27) in which anti-Christ may emerge (Daniel 2:34-35, 40) if there is such a person after Antiochus Epiphanes (175 – 164 BC) who desecrated the Jerusalem temple just prior to its destruction in 70 AD (abomination of desecration).
So, I am inclined to tentatively recognize the view that the four beasts are Babylon, Medo / Persia, Greece, and Rome. A Rome (Europe) that is fed by Greece (Yavan/Turkey) that is again flooded by Islam with its Caliphate of nations. One could also easily take the position of Greece becoming the eschatological fourth beast, or that it overlaps Europe/Rome, since it is Yavan from the root text of Scripture to identify its geographic position of modern Turkey. Moreover, in my reading of Daniel, Greece is Yavan, as written in Daniel 8:21 and elsewhere. Since Greece did not exist at the time of Daniel’s prophecy, it is rendered in the root language as Yavan / Javan (Asia Minor).
Today it is widely recognized that Turkey aspires to rebuild a Caliphate and is forming its Islamic alliance. This is presumably the 10-horns (Dan 7:7) that grow from the fourth beast written about in Daniel. To infer that the current Caliphate coalition-building among nations are Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Still, the identity of coalition nation states, and borders by quantity are not as precisely important as is the controlling spiritual principalities in the region. The prophecy of ten horns is of the area to include its spiritual involvement as eschatological messaging, not of the entire planet. As an aside, in my view, Turkey is today a government-sanctioned version of ISIS, and it needs to be ejected from NATO.
This is where my tentative opinion is currently, and I understand the history of Antiochus Epiphanes as an anti-Christ type from long ago. Specifically, the little-horn among the ten that emerged (Dan 7:8, 7:20, 8:9, 8:23-25). Since I so far fully accept the near/far view of concurrent truth and prophetic fulfillment, I would watch for the origin of a final principality-controlled anti-Christ from the Seleucid (Greek) lineage. Some (preterists) speculate that there is no further prophetic prediction of anti-Christ while others think the far view of fulfillment arises from either Judaism as their long-awaited messiah of the Hebrew Old Testament. See Daniel 8:5-9 for its background identity in terms of its geographic proximity.
Prophecy is a puzzle that comes into view from various perspectives among everyone who studies eschatology. As the pieces are brought together, the prophetic vision becomes clear. Most especially in light of definitive historical fulfillment AND support from authoritative Scripture as such.
