Two years have lapsed since Daniel’s last dream. Daniel 7:1 says, “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.” It is now the third year of Belshazzar’s fifteen year reign over Babylon. It is twelve years prior to Persia’s takeover of Babylon.
Amos 3:7 says, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” God gives us opportunities to repent before releasing judgments. Remember how Moses warned Pharoah prior to each plague on Egypt? In the Book of Revelation, God has revealed seven seal, seven trumpet and seven bowl judgments, followed by a great white throne judgment. Will we heed His warnings or take the path of Pharoah?
“I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision that I was by the River Ulai.” Daniel 8:2
Shushan was comparatively insignificant at the time of Daniel’s vision. It was destined to be the capital of Persia. Daniel was transported there. Shushan is the capital of the kingdom signified by the two-horned ram in this prophecy. The Province of Elam is west of Persia and east of Babylonia. Daniel was in the Province of Elam by the Ulai River via a divine vision. [JFBC]
In Ezekiel 1:1, Ezekiel was near the Chebar River when God gave him a vision. Psalm 1:1-3 says blessed is the man who meditates on God’s Law day and night. He will be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season. In John 7:38, Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” As rivers of waters are to plants, so God’s Word and Spirit are to our souls.
“Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him; nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great.” Daniel 8:3-4
The horn that comes up last and is higher than the other represents Persia. Persia was little compared to Media until the time of Cyrus, but then, it became greater than Media. According to Daniel 5:31, Darius the Mede was 62 years old when he began to reign. He only reigned two years before Cyrus the Persian took over.
The king of Persia wore a jeweled ram’s head of gold instead of a crown. The Hebrew for “ram” springs from the same root as “Elam,” or Persia. The “ram” corresponds to the “bear” of Daniel 7:5. The “one horn higher than the other” answers to the bear “raising itself on one side.” John Wesley's Explanatory Notes states, “the two horns are the kingdoms of Media and Persia. The higher being... Persia which rose last and became more eminent than that of the Medes.”
The ram (Persia) pushed westward conquering Babylon, Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor. He pushed northward conquering Colchis, Armenia, Iberia, and the dwellers on the Caspian Sea. He pushed southward conquering Judea, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya and India, under Darius. [JFBC]
“And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. And I saw him confronting the ram. He was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand.” Daniel 8:5-7
The male goat symbolizes the Graeco-Macedonia empire headed up by a notable horn, namely, Alexander the Great. His “without touching the ground” speaks of the incredible swiftness of his conquests. Alexander’s armies overran the world in less than 12-years. This male-goat answers to the leopard of Daniel 7:6. The first king of Macedonia was said to have been led by goats to Edessa. He changed the name of Edessa to Aege which means “goat-city.” Alexander fought his first victorious battle against Darius the Mede at the Ulai River. [JFBC].
“Therefore the male goat grew very great; but when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it four notable one’s came up toward the four winds of heaven.” Daniel 8:8
Alexander grew strong quickly but also died suddenly of a fever. His mother, his son and his brother were eliminated. The four winds represent his four generals who split up the rule of the conquered lands among them: Antipater (Greece), Antigonus (Asia), Ptolemy (Egypt), and Seleucus (Babylon and Syria). [JFBC]
“And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land.” Daniel 8:9
In Daniel 8:9, the little horn is not an independent fifth horn. It arises out of one of the four existing horns. This horn is described in Daniel 8:23 to be “a king of fierce countenance.” This is a reference to Antiochus Epiphanes. He was an antichrist. His aim was to replace the worship of Yahweh with the worship of Zeus. None of the previous world rulers, Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:31-34), Darius (Daniel 6:27-28), Cyrus (Ezra 1:2-4), Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:12), had systematically opposed the worship of Yahweh. Hence, the need of prophecy to prepare people for Antiochus.
Antiochus is the forerunner of the final Antichrist, standing in the same relation to the first advent of Christ that the last antichrist does to His second coming. The sins in Israel which gave rise to the Greek antichrist were that some Jews began to regard all religions alike. [JFBC]
“And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them.” Daniel 8:10
In Daniel 12:3, those who are wise shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Antiochus wants to humiliate these stars by trampling them under foot.
In Matthew 24:29, Jesus spoke of the end times, saying, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
In Isaiah 14:13, Lucifer boasted, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” In Revelation 12:4, the dragon’s “tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.” Satan’s goal is destroy Christ and His followers, but he will fail.
“He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered.” Daniel 8:11-12
The antichrist opposed the daily sacrifices because of transgression. He found fault with the people and their sacrifices, thus, he felt justified to cast the truth that they spoke to the ground.
They needed Messiah. Christ made the perfect sacrifice for sin. Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Thus, we trust in the merits of Christ for the forgiveness of sin and for victory over enemies.
One of the curses of the Law was to be defeated by enemies. Deuteronomy 28:25 says, “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth.” This happened in Joshua 7:1 after Achan took of the accursed things of Jericho for himself. “The accursed things” were set apart and devoted to the God of Israel, whether for special ceremonial use or destruction. Thus, Israel was defeated before their enemies until Achan’s sin was revealed and dealt with in accordance with God’s Law.
Throughout the Book of Judges, from 1 Samuel to the end of 2 Chronicles, in the prophets, and even in the Book of Acts 5:1-11, God dealt severely with those who dealt falsely with Him.
According to 1 Corinthians 12:12–31, we are one body with Jesus Christ as our Head. The Lord asks us in 1 Corinthians 5:6, “Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?” The body of Christ as a whole is to be holy as He is holy.
Faith in the perfect sacrifice of Christ reverses the curse of the Law. Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Christ took the curse we deserved and gave us the blessing that we did not deserve.
Romans 5:18-19 says, “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
Revelation 12:10-11 says that the saints overcame the accuser of the brothers “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
“Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, ‘How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?’ And he said to me, ‘For 2,300 days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.’” Daniel 8:13-14
The Lord told His people that they would be in exile for 70 years. The Lord also told His people the exact number of days that daily sacrifices would stop. The 70 years of exile was to make up for the 490 years of unobserved Sabbath years, or 70 sets of 7 years (See 2 Chronicles 36:21). The 2,300 days without sacrifices on the altar were to cleanse it from defilement by apostate Jewish leaders and by Zeus-worshipping Antiochus Epiphanes.
“Then it happened, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning, that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, ‘Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.’ So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face; but he said to me, ‘Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.’ Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground; but he touched me and stood me upright. And he said, ‘Look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation; for at the appointed time the end shall be. The ram which you saw, having the two horns—they are the kings of Media and Persia. And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power.” Daniel 8:15-22
Today, we have the advantage of a fuller revelation from Jesus Christ than Daniel had.
“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. He shall destroy fearfully and shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. Through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule; and he shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without human means. And the vision of the evenings and mornings which was told is true; therefore, seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future.” Daniel 8:23-26
The Lord said to Daniel, “In the latter time... when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise.” A lawless society is a perfect breeding ground for an evil leader to be born. In 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, Paul wrote, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” Why is the restrainer taken out of the way? 2 Thessalonians 2:12 says, “That they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” People who had access to the truth of Christ rejected Him.
In Genesis 15:16, the Lord says, “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” In Matthew 23:32, Jesus spoke of people filling up the measure of their fathers’ guilt. In 1 Thessalonians 2:16, Paul wrote of people filling up the measure of their sins until wrath comes upon them to the uttermost. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God gave Pharaoh of Egypt ten opportunities to repent, but after each miracle, the proud king refused to humble himself before the Lord.
“And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days; afterward, I arose and went about the king’s business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it.” Daniel 8:27
He experienced loss of country. He was a captive. His kings and priests had failed. His future involves a succession of empires that will persecute godly people. Where’s the hope? Who could he cling to bring about a better world?
The answer to Daniel’s dilemma is Jesus Christ. In Colossians 1:26-28, Paul wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations has now been revealed to His saints. God has made known among the Gentiles the riches of His glory, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ there is safety and there is love, joy and peace. John wrote in 1 John 4:4, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” 1 John 3:8 says, “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” According to Ephesians 3:20 and my personal experience, God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” Our hope is in Christ alone!
[JFBC] Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary
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