Daniel 8

CHAPTER 8THEME: Daniel’s vision of the ram and he goat; the meaning of the visionThe vision recorded by Daniel in this chapter was prophetic when it was given, but it has since been fulfilled. Because it has been so clearly and literally fulfilled, this chapter is the basis for the liberal critic giving a late date for the writing of the Book of Daniel. His argument rests on the fact that prophecy concerning the future is supernatural and he does not believe in the supernatural; therefore, this prophecy could not have been written at the time of Daniel, but must have been written afterward as history. That is a very weak argument, and I won’t say anymore than that the Book of Daniel was written by the prophet Daniel. You know, there is a debate among some scholars as to whether Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. Mark Twain’s amusing reply to that question was that if Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare, it must have been written by another man of the same name! Well, if Daniel did not write the Book of Daniel at about 600 B.C., then it must have been written by another man of the same name at the same date. Daniel’s prophetic vision of the ram with two unmatched horns and the he goat with one horn places a microscope down on the conflict between the second and third world empires and the struggle between the East and the West, between the Orient and Occident, between Asia and Europe. This was the struggle between the Medo-Persian and the Graeco-Macedonian empires. The vision includes another “little horn,” who has already been fulfilled in Antiochus Epiphanes, the great persecutor of the Jews called “the Nero of Jewish history.” We should also note that the preceding section (see Dan. 2:4-7:28) was written in Aramaic, the original language of Syria and the world language of these four great empires. With the beginning of chapter 8, the book returns to the use of the Hebrew language.

Daniel 8:1

THE VISION OF THE RAM AND HE GOATThis is the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. The vision given in chapter 7 was in the first year of his reign; therefore, both of these visions took place toward the end of the Babylonian empire.

Daniel 8:2

In the vision Daniel finds himself at Shushan, which is Susa, the capital of Medo-Persia, the second world empire. “In the palace” is more accurately, “near the fortress.” “Ulai” is the Kerkah River which flowed by Susa. The reason for the setting of the vision being at Susa rather than at Babylon is that this vision concerns the second and third world empires. The events foretold in this vision were all fulfilled within two hundred years. Such fulfillment is so remarkable that the liberal critic insists upon a late dating of the Book of Daniel. That is, he maintains that Daniel was written after these events had transpired and so is merely a historical record. This is an attempt to get rid of the miraculous, which is embarrassing to his system of interpretation.

Daniel 8:3

“A ram which had two horns” will be identified later as Media-Persia (see v. Dan_8:20). “The higher came up last.” In other words, the horn representing Media came up first when Gobryas the Median general destroyed Babylon. Then later the Persian monarchs gained the ascendency over the Medes and took the great empire to its highest peak. This ram, then, with its two horns and one horn more prominent than the other, is the Medo-Persian Empire with the Persians being in the ascendancy.

Daniel 8:4

“I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward.” Why doesn’t it say he was pushing eastward? Persia was in the East and made no further advance into the Far East. If they had gone farther in that direction, they would have stepped into the Orient, into India and China. However, they were projecting their empire in all other directions. This is the empire which was represented by the bear in chapter 7; they were motivated by the spirit of conquest.

Daniel 8:5

As Daniel was marveling at the power and ability of the ram, yonder from the west came a goat with great movement and a dominant horn. The goat represents Greece (see v. Dan_8:21), and the horn typifies Alexander the Great. Under Xerxes, Persia intended to move west, but from the West came this goat which was moving so fast it “touched not the ground"that corresponds to the four wings of the panther and denotes the speed with which Alexander moved his army.

Daniel 8:6

“He was moved with choler” means that he was moved with anger and great hatred. He ran into him in order to destroy him. Xerxes was the last great ruler of Persia, and he made a foray against Europe, against Greece. He moved with an army of 300,000 men and their families. The Greeks were smartthey didn’t go out to meet him. Instead, they waited until he got to Thermopylae, which was a narrow pass into which he could not fit a big army. Since one Greek soldier was equal to at least ten of the Medo-Persians, who were not a trained and disciplined army as the Greeks were, the Greeks gained the victory at Thermopylae. They decimated that tremendous Persian army as it attempted to advance through the pass a few soldiers at a time.

And then at Salamis, Xerxes’ fleet of three hundred vessels was destroyed by a storm. When word was brought to him that his fleet had been destroyed, he went down to the sea, took off his belt, and beat the waves with itthey had destroyed his fleet! I would say that that was not the action of an outstanding and intelligent man, by any means. This marked the last effort of the East to move toward the West; no great advance was ever made again. It is true that the great hordes of Mohammed, the Moors, came up through Spain, but Charles Martel stopped them at the battle of Tours. It is also true that the Turks attempted to come through the East, through the Balkans, but they failed. Now there rises in the West this tremendous general, a young man, Alexander the Great. He was only thirty-two years old when he died. He was a military genius, one of the greatest. He could move a striking force by land quicker than any man ever had.

Daniel 8:8

“When he was strong, the great horn was broken.” What was it that broke this horn? There was no human power that could break it. We are told that when he came to power, the whole world was under the heel of Alexander the Great. Tradition says that he sat down and wept because there were no more worlds to conquerhe had conquered the then-known world. However, in the midst of his vast projects, he was seized by a fever after a nightlong drinking bout, and he died in Babylon in the year 323 B.C. at the age of thirty-two. “When he was strong, the great horn was broken.” All three of these empiresthe Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, and the Graeco-Macedonianwent down in a drunken orgy. Let me say that I do not think our nation will be destroyed by marijuana or heroin, but alcohol will destroy it. Don’t misunderstand meI am not for legalizing marijuana, and I believe the drug traffic is a grave danger, but we have lost sight of the fact that alcohol destroys nations. According to the latest 1981 statistics I have seen, about 26,000 Americans are killed and another million suffer crippling and other serious injuries every year in drunk-driving incidents. We have had protest movements over the deaths caused by war, but do we see anyone carrying a whiskey bottle, saying, “This is the real danger to America today”? The drinking-driver problem creates an estimated economic cost of more than five billion dollars annually. There are no statistics on the unemployed who are alcoholics. Billions of dollars are spent each year for liquor. The facts are alarming. The great empire of Alexander the Great went down because he was an alcoholic. He conquered the world, but he could not conquer Alexander the Great. There is grave danger in Washington, D.C., today, which is that many decisions of our government are made during cocktail parties. Why do we think we are something special? Why are there people who think that the United States happens to be God’s little pet nation? We think we are so superior intellectually, the ultimate product of the evolutionary process, and there is no chance that we will go down as a nation. My friend, it is time someone blew the whistle and announced that we are on the way out. If I read prophecy correctly, we are on the way out. “And for it came up four notable ones.” When Alexander died, his empire was divided among four men (which correspond to the four heads of the panther in ch. 7). These were the four generals who divided the empire: Cassander, who was married to Alexander’s sister and took the European section (Macedonia and Greece); Lysimachus who took the great part of Asia Minor, which is modern Turkey; Seleucus who took Asia, all the eastern part of the empire, except Egypt; and Ptolemy who took Egypt and North Africa.

Daniel 8:9

“The pleasant land” is Israel. The “little horn” of this chapter is not the same as described in the previous chapter. There the little horn arises out of the fourth kingdom; here the little horn comes out of the third kingdom. This little horn is historical, while the little horn of chapter 7 is to be revealed in the future. The little horn being presently considered came out of Syria from the Seleucid dynasty. He was Antiochus IV, or Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus the Great. He is sometimes called Epiphanes, “the madman"he was another demented ruler. Antiochus came to the throne in 175 B.C. and he made an attack on Jerusalem. It was against him that the Maccabees were raised up in Judah. Anti-Semitic to the core, he tried to exterminate the Jews. He placed an image of Jupiter in the Holy Place in the temple in Jerusalem. This was the first “abomination of desolation.” He also poured swine broth over all the holy vessels.

Daniel 8:10

This statement is admittedly difficult to interpret. I think that the natural interpretation is that Antiochus challenged God and was permitted to capture Jerusalem and the temple. This warfare included the spiritual realm where angels and demons were involved. Some of the feats attributed to Antiochus are astounding; if they are true, demonic power was exhibited.

Daniel 8:11

Antiochus was a devotee of Jupiter of whom he may have thought himself an incarnation. He chose for himself the title Theos Epiphanes, meaning “God manifest.”

Daniel 8:12

It was by the permissive will of God that this little horn practiced and prospered during this period.

Daniel 8:13

Saint is a “holy one” and refers to one of God’s created intelligences other than manwhat we would call a supernatural creature. (I often wonder what angels call us, by the way.) The profaning of the temple is called here a “transgression of desolation.”

Daniel 8:14

There has always been a great deal of disagreement as to the interpretation of these twenty-three hundred days. Seventh-Day Adventism grew out of the “great second advent awakening” in which this verse was given the day-year interpretation and the date for Christ’s second coming was set for the year 1843. William Miller and his followers, among whom was Ellen G. White, understood “the sanctuary” to be the earth which would be cleansed at His coming. Miller was a sincere but badly mistaken Baptist preacher. The day-year interpretation was a fragile and insecure foundation for any theory of prophecy, and history has demonstrated it to be false. However, if the twenty-three hundred days are taken as being literal twenty-four-hour days, the period would be between six and seven years, which approximates the time of Antiochus who began to perpetrate his atrocities in about 170 B.C. Finally the Jewish priest, Judas Maccabeus (“the hammer”), drove out the Syrian army, at which time the temple was cleansed and rededicated after its pollution. This cleansing is celebrated in the Feast of Lights. In Joh_10:22 we read: “And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication [rededication of Lights], and it was winter.” This was one of the holy days celebrated at the time of Christ and which is still remembered by the Jews. It is a feast not mentioned in the Old Testament at all, because it was established in the intertestamental period between the Old and New Testaments.

Daniel 8:15

THE MEANING OF THE VISIONDaniel was puzzled by the vision, and he desired to learn the meaning of it. There appeared to him the angel Gabriel. This is the first time Gabriel is introduced to us in the Bible.

Daniel 8:17

Gabriel, in the explanation that follows, will make it clear that Antiochus Epiphanes is but a picture in miniature of the coming Antichrist. “For at the time of the end shall be the vision.” Notice that it is for “the time of the end,” not the end of time. Nowhere in the Bible are we told about the end of time. “The time of the end” locates the complete fulfillment of this prophecy in the period which our Lord Jesus called the Great Tribulation. The man referred to is the Antichrist, also called the Man of Sin and the little horn of chapter 7. This prophecy goes beyond the immediate future and is projected into the distant futureeven in our day it is still future. Antiochus is merely an adumbration of the other “little horn” who will come at the end of the “times of the Gentiles,” which is made abundantly clear by the use of these eschatological terms.

Daniel 8:18

Notice the physical effect of this vision upon Daniel.

Daniel 8:19

Again Gabriel moves from the local fulfillment in Antiochus to the end of the Times of the Gentiles.

Daniel 8:20

They are clearly identified for us; we do not have to speculate. The ram definitely represents the kings of Media and Persia.

Daniel 8:21

So the “rough goat” is likewise labeled the king of Greece, and the “great horn” is the first king, Alexander the Great.

Daniel 8:22

In other words, none of these kings would have the power that Alexander the Great had.

Daniel 8:23

The “little horn” is Antiochus Epiphanes of the line of the Seleucidae that took Syria. The only adequate explanation of this verse and of the facts of history is that this man was demon possessed. In this respect he is also a picture of the coming Antichrist. The Lord Jesus made reference to him when He said, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mat_24:24).

Daniel 8:24

“The holy people” refers to Israel. The slaughter of these people by Antiochus Epiphanes seems almost unbelievable. He was as bad as Hitler. However, he is merely an adumbration of the Antichrist who is coming, of whom it is said: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations” (Rev_13:7).

Daniel 8:25

Antiochus was but a faint type of this king who is coming. And he will do four things which Antiochus did in pygmy style:

1. “He shall cause craft to prosper in his hand.” We are told in Rev_13:17 that no man will be able to buy or sell save the one who has the mark of the beast. He will control the economy with a vengeance.
2. “He shall magnify himself in his heart.” Rev_13:5 says that he is given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. He will be given power to continue forty-two months. Humility is not a characteristic of the Antichrist! He is like Satan who was filled with pride.
3. “By peace shall destroy many.” He comes in as a lamb, but he goes out as a lion. In Revelation 6 he is the rider on the white horse. Notice that right after him comes the red horse of warhe has brought in a false peace.
4. “He shall stand up against the Prince of princes.” You see, he will oppose and fight against Christ. One of the marks of Antichrist and of that first beast in Revelation 13 is that he is against Christ.

Daniel 8:26

Daniel was told that the vision would be for the distant future"for it shall be for many days” to come.

Daniel 8:27

The physical and psychological effect of this vision upon Daniel was devastating. At this point God was beginning to mesh the “times of the Gentiles” into the history of the nation Israel. That was the thing that puzzled Daniel at the first, and it still puzzles a great many people. How can God mesh His program with Israel into His program for the Gentiles in the world? And today to further complicate it, there is His program with the church. The answer is quite simple, of course. In our day God is calling out a people to His namewe label this called-out group “the church.” When that is concluded, and the church is removed from the earth at the Rapture, then He will again turn to His purpose with Israel and the gentile nations.