. . . Everyone that comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock-mass. Consequently, when a flood arose, the river dashed against that house, but was not strong enough to shake it, because of its being well built,” said Jesus. (Luke 6:45-48) Allow Jehovah’s witnesses to help you to apply yourself to the Word of God, and your heart will be enriched beyond measure.

Alexander the Great and Bible Prophecy

MANY persons have gone through high schools and colleges thinking that they know the story of Alexander the Great. But often such persons are entirely unaware of the most important fact concerning Alexander: His career of speedy conquest was foretold in Bible prophecy.

Jehovah gave his prophet Daniel advance information concerning the rise and fall of world powers. Between 618 and 535 B.C. Daniel received from God prophecies concerning the rise of Greece as the world power to supplant Medo-Persia and concerning the role Alexander was to play in connection therewith. About two hundred years before Alexander was born, Daniel had foretold the conqueror of Medo-Persia: “And a mighty king will certainly stand up and rule with extensive dominion and do according to his will. And when he will have stood up, his kingdom will be broken and be divided toward the four winds of the heavens, but not to his posterity.”—Dan. 11:3, 4.

This “mighty king” came to the throne of Macedonia at twenty years of age, in the year 336 B.C. This was the same year that the king of the fourth world power, Medo-Persia, received the throne, namely, Darius III. A speedy conquest of Medo-Persia and other nations was foretold in Bible prophecies. The rise of the Macedonian or Grecian line of world rulers was foretold, for instance, at Daniel 7:6 under the symbol of a leopard with “four wings of a flying creature”; at Daniel 8:5 under the symbol of a he-goat that came “from the sunset upon the surface of the whole earth, and it was not touching the earth.” We are not left in doubt as to the identity of the he-goat, for Daniel said: “The hairy he-goat stands for the king of Greece.”—Dan. 8:21.

The symbolic he-goat’s not touching the earth and the symbolic leopard’s having wings indicate what? Speed and swiftness of conquest. Let us see with what swiftness Alexander conquered the world, in fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

ALEXANDER’S ARMY

His army was not of great size. Alexander had about 30,000 infantrymen and 5,000 cavalrymen. But the army was well organized. Most of the officers had experience in campaigns under Alexander’s father, Philip II. It was Philip who introduced the phalanx, and Alexander perfected it.

What gave the phalanx its singular character? It was both the weapons and the coordination of the individual soldiers. The members of the phalanx were heavily armed, equipped with helmet, armor and a shield that protected most of the body. Their main weapons were a lance or spear thirteen to eighteen feet long and a short Greek sword. They usually stood sixteen deep, the lances of the first five files projecting beyond the front, a formidable barrier to any enemy; the hinder files laid their lances on the shoulders of those in front. Members of the phalanx received strenuous gymnastic training to make possible unity, precision and rapidity. Alexander coupled the phalanx with heavy cavalry charges. He also used light-armed troops for special purposes.

On the banks of the river Granicus, Alexander won his first victory over the forces of the Persian king, Darius III. The Persian cavalry had lined the bank of the river, with the infantry kept back in reserve. Alexander, appearing with his army on the other side of the river, was, as one historian puts it, “particularly conspicuous by his shield, and the plume of feathers that overshadowed his helmet, on the two sides of which there rose two wings, as it were, of a great length, and so very white, that they dazzled the eyes of the beholder.” In the ensuing battle, the Persian cavalry, though greatly outnumbering Alexander’s, could not offer effective opposition to the phalanx with its array of long pikes. The Persian infantry, who had looked on the cavalry battle that had just ended disastrously for the Persians, were routed next. Alexander’s victory struck terror in the Persians, especially so because of the large number of Persian grandees killed, two of them by Alexander’s own hand.

A famous general in the service of the Persians, Memnon of Rhodes, devised a plan to stop Alexander. The Persians would carry the war to Macedonia and force Alexander to return home. Ships were readied and troops put aboard. But suddenly Memnon died. Darius did not carry out Memnon’s plans to use Persian wealth and ships to carry the war to Macedonia. Darius decided to fight it out in a general battle in which he personally would take command. The Persian king collected a vast army of some 600,000 men. Relying on the numerical strength of his army, and anxious for a general battle, Darius let Alexander advance unopposed, even through mountain passes and defiles that could have been formidable strongholds of Persian defense.

In the ensuing battle at Issus, the Persians were unprepared for the suddenness and vehemence of the Macedonian attack. Darius III, in his chariot, perceived the desertion of some of his forces and turned around and fled with the foremost of the fugitives. The rout of the Persian army was complete, Alexander even capturing Darius’ mother, wife, sister, infant son and two daughters—brought along to witness what was to have been a spectacular victory for Darius.