Mongol Helmet

Which was the world’s greatest empire?

In terms of strength, we might suggest the Roman. In terms of global reach, the British. In terms of contiguous land mass, however, this accolade goes to the Mongols. These people from the Steppes of Asia conquered from the Sea of Japan all the way to the Poland and the borders of Austria. The helmet, pictured above, is a Mongol piece from that period of rapid imperial growth, the thirteenth-century. They plundered and weakened the Muslim empires of Egypt and Iraq and even defeated the Templar Knights. Their leader, Genghis Khan, explained:

“I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

Whether he spoke in dreadful arrogance, or really was God’s judgement upon the Islamic and Catholic worlds, I do not know. The prophet Daniel remarked in 2:21:

And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

We know that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and various Assyrian kings were raised by God to humble and chastise His people. Khan went their way too- he died and his empire shrank within a few generations. Once this helm would have inspired dread and terror in those who saw it; now, little children stand by it, thumbs raised, selfies taken. God uses human might to humble human might, but both mights wither in the end. Only one coming empire will endure forever- Christ’s:

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Daniel 2:35 (NKJV)