DANIEL 8
Read Daniel 8:1-27
Here Daniel has another vision which is again expressed in very colourful language. At the end of the chapter Daniel himself said, ‘I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding’ And if Daniel couldn’t understand what was going on, then we shouldn’t feel bad if we can’t either.
The second part of the chapter does give an explanation, and it looks as if it is about Alexander the Great (the King of Greece) who invaded the land ruled by Kings of Media and Persia (v20) after the death of Belshazzar. The main theme of Daniel’s vision seems to be power, represented, not just here but throughout the Bible and especially in Revelation, by the symbol of the horn. The King of Greece is said to have a large horn, and indeed, Alexander gained great power by conquering a swathe of land from Greece through the Middle East to what is now Pakistan and India. Four horns (but with less power) replaced the great horn (v22); when Alexander died his empire was divided up into smaller empires ruled over by four of his generals. In one of these smaller empires a king arose, Antiochus Epiphanes, who gained power in about 160BC, and wreaked havoc particularly against the Jewish people. But Antiochus was defeated not by human power (v25) but by the Lord. The story of this can be seen in the Book of Maccabees, one of the non-canonical books that at one time were part of the Bible.
So is Daniel just getting a sneak preview of the history of the Middle East here? I think there is more to it than that. The small horn (Antiochus) is seen to have power and misused that power to attack God and his people (one thing he did was to sacrifice a pig to Zeus in the temple). He got away with his wickedness for a while, but in time God dealt with him. The lesson for Daniel (and for us) is that although it doesn’t always seem to us that God is in charge, he is. God is sovereign and he will permit evil to prevail, but not indefinitely. And we see a similar message in the Book of Revelation.
The point of this vision that God gave to Daniel was to encourage him; to tell him that in all these power struggles and the coming and going of great kings and great empires, God is still in charge. And for the Jewish people in exile there is the encouragement that they will return to the Promised Land. When they Babylonians invaded they destroyed the temple, the worship centre and symbol of God’s presence. But God said to Daniel, ‘the sanctuary (the temple) will be re-consecrated’ (v14). With God there is always hope for his people.
And as we look at the world around us we might well despair at the power politics, the wars and empire building that is going on. But we have comfort that God is sovereign and that he will prevail. People may think that they have great power but the real power lies with the Lord Almighty.