INTRODUCTION: The Book of Daniel shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic in 2:4-7:28 and here shifts back to Hebrew. The most likely explanation for this shift is that the use of Aramaic would enable many Gentiles to hear and to read the message so that the portion in Aramaic would be for the Gentile audience. Now with the opening of Daniel 8 [+/-]Daniel 8 [8:1]In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. [2]And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the capital, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. [3]I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. [4]I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. [5]As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. [6]He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. [7]I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. [8]Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. [9]Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. [10]It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. [11]It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. [12]And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. [13]Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?" [14]And he said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state." [15]When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. [16]And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision." [17]So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, "Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end." [18]And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. [19]He said, "Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. [20]As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. [21]And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. [22]As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. [23]And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. [24]His power shall be great--but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. [25]By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken--but by no human hand. [26]The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now." [27]And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it. (ESV)
, the attention turns back to the Jewish people.

This chapter is a straightforward declaration of a vision and its interpretation.

I. The Vision 8:1-14

A. The general contours of this chapter are relatively easy to discern; the details present the difficulty but at the same time take us into the deeper dimensions of the text. This text is a simple restatement of the visions that we have already seen that are related to the four emerging empires. What is clear is that they all come and go for a short period of time serving the purposes of the sovereign God without any awareness that they are controlled by God’s hand. This is the general picture. Now, let’s look at the details.

B. Daniel was in Susa when he saw the vision (8:2). Susa was the chief city of the Medo-Persian Empire. It was located about 250 miles east of Babylon. Daniel sees a ram with two horns, both of them tall but one was taller than the other (8:3). This is a clear reference to the Medo-Persian empire with the Persian Kingdom more powerful and pervasive than the kingdom of the Medes. Verse 4 shows the power and penetration of this kingdom.

C. Daniel sees then a goat that goes across the whole earth so very rapidly that it does not touch the earth, cf. the leopard, 7:6. The horn between the goat’s eyes is a symbol of significant power that then attacks and overcomes the Ram which is pointing the empire of Greece under the leadership of Alexander. This goat overcomes the ram but then the horn is broken off (8:8) with four horns toward the four winds of the earth which shows us the sudden death of Alexander and the assignment of his kingdom to four generals, the two most famous being Seleucus and Ptolemy.

D. The little horn that comes out of these four horns is the well known ruler of the Seleucids Antiochus IV. We need to know a little about him and his kingship. He was the eighth kind of the Seleucid dynasty whose intent was to “Hellenize” the kingdom so as to eliminate all other cultural customs. Second, Antiochus hated the Jews and their religious system. He sought to eliminate it at every place and in every way. Third, he saw himself as a “god” whose role was to do the work of the “gods” upon the earth. He called himself “Epiphanes” or an “epiphany” of the supreme gods of Greece. He demanded honor and obedience and desired to be worshiped. He was an agent of the devil, 8:10. He forbade the Jews to have copies of the Torah and ended the sacrificial system among the Jews, 8:11. He stopped the practice of circumcision among the Jews and called for its reversal among the adult males. Antiochus ruled from 171 B.C. until the Temple was restored and right worship reinstituted on December 14, 164 B.C. There are three very important realities that need to be in place at this point:

1. God tells Daniel that this wicked ruler will be in charge for 2,300 evenings. Now here is what is interesting: if we take the number as whole days and divide by the number of days in a year we come up with just over six years BUT if we count according to Jewish reckoning a day as morning and evening then we must half the whole number and then we come up with just over three years. Either way it reveals a historical reality. The time from the beginning of reign of Antiochus IV to the restoration of the Temple was just over six years; the time from the “abomination of desolation” to the restoration was just over three years.

2. The abomination of desolation came among the Jews to refer to that time when Antiochus came to Jerusalem with his armed forces, stormed into the Temple through all of its courts and offered a pig upon the altar. It desecrated the altar and the Temple and was called the abomination of desolation, cf. Mk. 13:14 [+/-]Mark 13:14 [14]"But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (ESV)
. Thus, the reign and rule of Antiochus became for the Jews and for Jesus the “type” of the coming Antichrist.

3. It was the rule of Antiochus that triggered the revolt from a Jewish family in Modin led by a father and his sons the most remembered of which is Judas Maccabeas who led to the eradication of the forces of Antiochus and the reestablishment of the practice of Jewish religion in Jerusalem. This restoration is celebrated every December in the feast of Hannukah. The center of this celebration is festive food and fun parties in homes where candles are kept illumined in the windows during the night. It also includes the exchange of gifts.

II. The Interpretation of the Vision 8:15-27

A. God sends Gabriel to interpret the vision for Daniel. This is the first mention by name of an angel in the Bible and look at how Gabriel is described: he has the appearance of a man and speaks with a human voice. He comes to Daniel in human form and his role is to help Daniel see the meaning of what he has just bee shown. What Gabriel wants Daniel to know that is of first importance is that what he has been shown has to do with the end.

B. To this point we know that there will emerge in the end a kingdom that is much like the ancient Roman Empire in its power and pervasiveness and that Kingdom will be tied to a religious system over which the Antichrist will rule. Now, we are about to learn about this one in the end who will be much like Antiochus Epiphanes IV.

C. Gabriel makes clear at the first what we have already seen about the two kingdoms, 8: 18-22. Then he turns his attention to this one who will come whose model is Antiochus; what will he be like?

1. First, he will be one who understands riddles. He will be like a Solomon in the exercise of his wisdom. He will be able to bring a resolution to very difficult dilemmas. He will be brilliant intellectually and very wise relationally. He will express knowledge exercised by wisdom.

2. Second, he will be very powerful. He will bring destruction to enemies because of his great power. He will be successful in what he does and his power that is used to destroy enemies will be turned against the saints. By the time he makes the Christians or followers of Jesus his enemies, he will have gained such influence that the world will go after him against the believers.

3. He will be able to do what he does against those who belong to God because he will be so deceitful. We do not know exactly what the scenario would be but remember that when the Roman rulers asked the early Christians to say, “Caesar is Lord,” that many so-called Christians who did just that were in distress over the Christians who would not do it because their not saying “Caesar is Lord” caused confusion and chaos for the rest of the church. In other words, compromised commitment became the standard because it brought the monetary and material blessings of those in power and the argument was that God wanted to bless His people so that those who refused to once a year say “Caesar is Lord” were just radical fanatics who didn’t love their country in the first place!

D. The angel tells Daniel two things in the end and then notice what Daniel does in response. The angel tells Daniel that God is going to destroy the Antichrist in a flash and that Daniel is to seal up the vision because its time is not yet come. This vision is opened up for us in a much more clear way in the Book of Revelation. Notice what Daniel does:

1. Daniel was sickened by the vision. Can you imagine one who had been through what Daniel had been through being shown that some would one day compromise their commitment so as to blend into the culture while still calling themselves committed people of God?

2. Daniel was appalled by the vision. It was not that he could not understand the coming judgment of God. It was that he could not understand why anybody for any reason would be deterred in their devotion to God by difficulty or danger.

3. Daniel got up and went about the king’s business. That sentence is so sacred because it speaks to the business of the pagan king being done in the context of commitment to the plan and purpose of the sovereign King. It reminds us who live in these days that trying to figure out all the events of the end can be a real waste of both time and energy if it deters us from doing the work that King Jesus has saved us and sent us to do.

Tags: Daniel 8

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