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Daniel 8 (ESV)

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.

 

REFLECTION:

1. The third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, about 551 BC, which is two years after the vision in Chapter 7, and also before the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. Daniel saw a vision which is related to the second and third world powers—Medes-Persia (3, 4, 20) and Greece (5-7, 21). From this chapter to chapter 12, there are many visions that Daniel saw, all related to Israel and the Gentile nations that ruled them.
2. As in the previous chapter, after Daniel saw the vision, he still stood by the Ulai River, waiting for God to reveal the meaning of the vision. God sent the angel Gabriel to explain the message of the vision to Daniel. Daniel was willing to understand (15), but when Gabriel approached him to explain it to him, he fell to the ground in a panic, feeling fear and trembling. Daniel “fell into a deep sleep” under the complex emotions of panic and doubt, which meant that he couldn’t help but fainted. However, the angel lifted him up, and said with certainty: “I will make known to you … it refers to the appointed time of the end.” (cf. 19)
3. The ram with the two horns is Medes Persia (20). The goat is the king of Greece. The great horn between his two eyes is Alexander the Great (21). He came from the west, conquered everywhere, and furious with the ram, knocked her to the ground and trampled her on the ground. In 334 BC, Greece began to counter-attack Persia and annihilated it in 331 BC.
4. “As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose” (22). It prophesies the fall of the Greek Empire, Alexander the Great’s generals attacked each other, and finally four people came out to divide the land. One of them was Syria, which gave birth to King Antiochus who later opposed the God and the Jews.
5. “A king shall arise” (23) is also the “little horn” mentioned in verse 9: referring to Antiochus in Syria. Historically, he strongly promoted Hellenization and issued edicts to unify the religions, laws, and customs of all countries under his governance. But the Jews strongly resisted him. He set up an altar of Zeus on the altar of burnt offering in the temple and sacrificed with pork, cruelly slaughtering the Jews who kept the Sabbath, the Law, and circumcision. The brutal persecution of Antiochus was the direct cause of the famous Maccabee Revolution.

 

PRAYER:

Thank God that God’s words are true, and the prophecies of the Bible must be fulfilled. Pray for God to give you a heart that loves God like Daniel and is willing to understand God’s will. Now that you know that God is in charge of history, ask God to empower you to live out God’s will in your life.