Who is the Goat?

A new acronym that has been created through social media is “the GOAT,” or the Greatest Of All Time. During the NBA Finals the questions kept coming up, Who is the goat? Is LeBron James the goat? Is Michael Jordan still the goat? During football season questions abound about Tom Brady being the goat. The question is new, and somewhat strange, but our generation is not the first to ask it. In fact, Daniel tried to figure out who the goat was thousands of years ago.

In a troubling vision, Daniel saw a ram with two horns get crushed by a goat with one horn between his eyes. He prayed for understanding of the vision, and God sent the angel Gabriel to explain it in general terms. History has filled in more of the gaps for us. Who is the ram? According to Gabriel, the ram depicted the Medo-Persian Empire, thus the two horns. So who is the goat? Gabriel said the goat was Greece, and history confirms that the goat was Alexander the Great, who in 331 BC defeated the Medes and Persians and became the world’s superpower. However, in the vision the goat’s horn broke off, and four other horns came in to replace it (historically, Alexander the Great died an untimely death, and with no successor, his kingdom was divided into four parts and ruled by four men); one of the four horns became a terror, and would eventually destroy God’s temple and end the daily sacrifices.

History tells us that horn was Antiochus Epiphanes, an absolutely evil monster who desecrated the temple by offering a pig on the altar in 167 BC. Or was it in AD 70 when Titus destroyed the Jerusalem temple? Or will it be when the Antichrist comes during the Great Tribulation? I believe it is all three. Daniel, like many of the prophets, gave a prophecy that had layers of fulfillment. The immediate fulfillment was with Antiochus and Titus, but the ultimate fulfillment will be shortly before the Second Coming of Christ.

While Daniel gives us a clue as to the ram and goat, he also tells us who the real GOAT is. In his other vision Daniel described the Ancient of Days, the most powerful ruler who will sit on the throne forever. There will always be evil people and corrupt rulers, but the best news we have is that Jesus is the Ancient of Days—He is from everlasting to everlasting, and once He sets His throne on earth in the New Jerusalem, His kingdom will have no end.