Daniel 8

is the God who saves people and rescues them from danger and death, and who performs signs and wonders (Dan. 6:27; see 3:28–29; 4:3; Deut. 6:22; Neh. 9:10; Ps. 74:9; 105:26–36; 135:9; Jer. 32:20–21).

God’s servant prospered (v. 28). Since Darius the Mede is a “shadowy figure” in ancient history, we aren’t sure how long he ruled Babylon and exactly when Cyrus took over the throne personally. It’s been suggested that since Darius was sixty-two years old when he took Babylon (5:31), he may have died within a few years and then Cyrus ascended the throne. Regardless of what transpired, Daniel was respected by Darius and Cyrus and continued to be a witness for the Lord. He lived to see Cyrus issue the edict that permitted the Jews to return to their land and rebuild their temple (2 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4) and may have been used of God to help bring about this fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy (Dan. 9:1–2; Jer. 25:11–12). Certainly his prayers for his people played an important role in the positive attitude Cyrus had toward the Jewish people.

Along with the account of the deliverance of the three men from the fiery furnace (Dan. 3), the report of Daniel’s deliverance from the lions’ den must have brought great encouragement to the Jews in exile. They knew about Jeremiah’s prophecy and wondered if their God would really deliver them. But if He could deliver three men from a furnace and Daniel from the lions, surely He could deliver the exiles from Babylon and take them back to their own land.

But Daniel has a message for God’s people today who are being attacked by the enemy and suffering because of their righteous stand for the Lord. Whether we face the fiery furnace (1 Peter 1:6–8; 4:12–19) or the roaring lion (5:8–10), we are in the Lord’s care and He will work out His divine purposes for His glory. “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (v. 7 nkjv).

From chapter 8 to the end of the book of Daniel, the text is written in Hebrew, for the major emphasis of these chapters is God’s plan for the nation of Israel in the end times. From 2:4—7:28, the book is written in Aramaic because the emphasis in those chapters is on the Gentile kingdoms in history and prophecy. It was the nation of Israel that God chose to be the vehicle of His revelation and redemption in the world. Through the Jewish people came the knowledge of the one true and living God, the written Scriptures and, most important of all, the Savior, Jesus Christ. “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). In this chapter, five persons move across the great stage of prophecy and history.

King Belshazzar’s third year was 551, so this vision came to Daniel before the fateful banquet described in chapter 5. This explains why the Babylonian Empire isn’t mentioned, for within a dozen years Babylon would be taken by Cyrus, who would usher in the rule of the Medes and Persians. In terms of Nebuchadnezzar’s great image (Dan. 2), the era of the head of gold would end and the era of the silver arms and chest would begin. The lion with the eagle’s wings would be defeated by the bear with the ribs in its mouth (7:4–5).

Receiving the vision (vv. 1–2). Shushan (Susa) was a city about two hundred miles southeast of Babylon and at that time wasn’t too important to the Babylonians. Eventually it became the capital of the Persian Empire (Neh. 1:1; Est. 1:2). The River Ulai (Dan. 8:2, 16) was probably a canal that flowed through Susa.

It’s unlikely that Daniel left Babylon and traveled to Susa to receive the vision. It’s more likely that God transported him to Susa just as He transported Ezekiel to Jerusalem (Ezek. 8; 40) and the apostle John to the wilderness (Rev. 17:3) and to the high mountain (21:10). Since Daniel was about to describe the victory of the Medes and Persians over the Babylonians, God put him into the future capital of the Persian Empire.

Requesting the meaning of the vision (vv. 5–19). In the earlier part of the book, Daniel was able to interpret and explain the dreams and visions of others; but here he had to ask an angel for the meaning of the ram defeating a goat and the little horn becoming a mighty kingdom. The voice that commanded Gabriel may have been the voice of the Lord. Gabriel means “man of God,” and it was he who explained to Daniel the vision given in chapter 8 as well as the vision about the seventy weeks (9:21–22). Centuries later, Gabriel would be sent to Zechariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:11–20), and to Mary to announce that she would give birth to the Messiah (vv. 26–38). The only other angel who is named in Scripture is Michael (“Who is like God?”), who has been especially assigned to care for the nation of Israel (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7).

When Gabriel moved closer to Daniel, the prophet became very frightened and fell into a faint and a deep sleep. (See Dan. 10:9, 15, 17; Rev. 1:17.) Gabriel called him “son of man,” which is a messianic title (Dan. 7:13); but here it was used to emphasize the weakness and humanness of the prophet. Gabriel’s touch awakened Daniel (10:10–11, 16, 18), and the angel explained to him that the vision applied to the latter days of Jewish history. “The indignation” refers to God’s displeasure with His people and the times of intense suffering Israel would endure before the coming of the end and the establishing of the promised kingdom.

This is the man who conquered Babylon. Centuries before Cyrus appeared on the scene, the prophet Isaiah called him by name and even called him God’s “shepherd” (Isa. 41:2, 25; 44:28–45:4). It was Cyrus whom God chose to defeat the Babylonians and permit the Jews to return to their land. Just as Babylon was identified with the lion and eagle, Persia was identified with the ram. The two horns symbolize the Medes and Persians, the Persians being the higher (stronger) of the two.

Cyrus and his armies did indeed “push westward and northward and southward” and defeat their enemies, taking Libya, Egypt, all of Asia Minor and moving as far as India, creating the largest empire ever in the ancient east until the time of Alexander the Great. Once his conquests were consolidated, he attacked Babylon and took it in 539. Cyrus was kind to those he took captive and permitted the Jews to return to their land to rebuild the temple and restore the nation (Isa. 44:28; 2 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–3; 6:2–5). He also allowed them to take with them the sacred vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple (Ezra 1:5–11).

The imagery used in connection with Cyrus is fascinating. He is called “the righteous man” (Isa. 41:2), or as the NIV puts it, “calling him in righteousness.” This means that he was called to fulfill God’s righteous purposes in freeing Israel from their Babylonian yoke and allowing them to return to their land. Our sovereign Lord can use even a pagan king to accomplish His purposes! Isaiah 41: pictures his victorious conquest as a man walking on mortar or on soft clay, because these materials can’t resist him. The prophet Isaiah also called Cyrus the Lord’s anointed (45:1) before whom He would go and open the way. Even the great gates of Babylon couldn’t stand before his victorious march!

Why did God call Cyrus? “For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen” (v. 4 niv). No matter how brutally the Gentile nations may treat the people of Israel, God uses the nations to accomplish His ordained purposes. His plans for Israel will be fulfilled no matter how much the Gentile nations may oppose His chosen people.

In Nebuchadnezzar’s image, Greece was depicted as the thigh of brass (2:32, 39), and in Daniel’s vision described in chapter 7, Greece was a swift leopard with four heads. Now Daniel sees Greece as an angry goat who runs so swiftly his feet don’t even touch the ground! The large protruding horn represents Alexander the Great, who led the armies of Greece from victory to victory and extended his empire even beyond what Cyrus had done with the Persian army. But the horn was broken, for Alexander died in Babylon in June 323, at the age of thirty-three, and his vast kingdom was divided among four of his leaders, symbolized by the four horns that grew up (see 7:4–7; 11:4).

However, the remarkable conquests of Alexander were more than battle trophies, for they accomplished God’s purposes in the world and helped to prepare the world for the coming of Christ and the spread of the gospel. For one thing, Alexander put an end to the Oriental influence that threatened to take over the Western world. At the same time, he “shook the ancient world to its very foundations” and “compelled the old world to think afresh.” By extending Greek culture and language, he helped to bring peoples together; and eventually the common (koine) Greek became the language of the New Testament. Even though his empire divided four ways after his death, Alexander brought nations together so they could interact with each other. His policy of kindness toward conquered peoples introduced a powerful example of brotherhood into the world. He literally “wedded East to West” when nine thousand of his soldiers and officers (some historians say ten thousand) married Eastern women in one mass wedding.

What Alexander and the Greeks began, the Romans completed, helping to prepare the ancient world for the coming of Christ. They are represented by the legs of iron (2:33, 40) and the “dreadful beast” (7:7). Roman roads and bridges enabled people to travel and share their ideas; Roman law kept nations under control; Roman legions enforced that law with an iron fist; and the Roman peace (Pax Romana) gave people the opportunity to experience more security than they had known before. All of this contributed to the taking of the Christian message throughout the Roman Empire, and sometimes, as in the case of Paul, Rome paid the bill for the missionaries to travel!

Antiochus IV Epiphanes (8:9–14)4 As we have already seen, after the death of Alexander the Great (the “notable horn,” v. 5), his empire was divided into four parts with four of his officers taking control (v. 8). Out of one of those horns a “little horn” appears who becomes a great leader, and this is Antiochus Epiphanes, the ruler of Syria from 175 to 163 BC and known as one of the cruelest tyrants in history.

Antiochus gave himself the name “Epiphanes,” which means “illustrious, manifestation,” for he claimed to be a revelation (epiphany) of the gods. He even had the word theos (god) put on the coins minted with his features on it, and his features on the coins came to look more and more like the Greek god Zeus. He had a passionate desire to turn the Jews into good Greeks. One of his first acts was to drive out the high priest Onias, an ardent Jew, and replace him with Jason, a patron of the Greeks. But Jason was replaced by Menelaus, who actually purchased the priesthood. Believing a rumor that the king was dead, Jason attacked Jerusalem only to learn that Antiochus was very much alive. The angry king attacked Jerusalem and plundered the temple. In 168 he sent an army of twenty thousand men under Apollonius to level Jersualem. They entered the city on the Sabbath, murdered most of the men, and took the women and children as slaves. The remaining men fled to the army of the Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus.

But the king wasn’t satisfied, so he issued an edict that there would be one religion in his realm and it wouldn’t be the Jewish religion. He prohibited the Jews from honoring the Sabbath, practicing circumcision, and obeying the Levitical dietary laws, and he climaxed his campaign on December 14, 168, by replacing the Jewish altar with an altar to Zeus—and sacrificing a pig on it! Any Jew found possessing a copy of the law of Moses was slain. Jerusalem was eventually delivered by the courageous exploits of Judas Maccabeus and his followers, and on December 14, 165, the temple was purified, the altar of burnt offering restored, and Jewish worship once again restored. It is this event that the Jewish people celebrate as “The Feast of Lights” or Hanukkah (see John 10:22). Antiochus went mad while in Persia, where he died in 163.

Knowing these facts about Antiochus helps us better understand the text of Daniel’s prophecy. Antiochus started in a small way but gradually accumulated power as he magnified himself and dealt ruthlessly with the Jewish people. He attacked the Jews in their “pleasant [beautiful]” land and put a stop to their religious practices. He even claimed that he was a god. In verse 10, the Jews are described as “the host of heaven” (i.e., “godly people”) and “stars” (Gen. 15:5; 22:17). When Antiochus stopped the daily sacrifices in the temple and substituted pagan worship, this was called “the abomination that makes desolate” (“the transgression of desolation,” Dan. 8:13). This concept is found in 9:27; 11:31; and 12:11, and is used by Jesus in Matthew 24: and Mark 13:14. What Antiochus did was a foreshadowing of what the Antichrist will do when he puts his image in the temple and commands the world to worship him (2 Thess. 2; Rev. 13). Daniel 8: and 11: refer to Antiochus, and the other references to Antichrist, of whom Antiochus is a picture.

The two angels (8:13–14; “saints”) spoke together about this matter and from their conversation, Daniel learned the prophetic timetable. Between the desecration of the temple and its cleansing and restoration 2,300 days would pass. The Hebrew text reads “2,300 evenings and mornings,” because burnt offerings were sacrificed at the temple each morning and each evening of every day. But does this mean 2,300 days or 1,150 days, 2,300 divided by two? And what date or event signals the beginning of the countdown? Some students opt for 2,300 days, that is, about six years, if you use 360 days for the year. Others prefer 1,150 days, which give us slightly over three years.

But what is the starting point for the countdown? The six-year advocates begin with 171 BC, when Antiochus deposed the true high priest. Subtract six years and this takes you to 165 when Judas Maccabeus defeated the enemy and reconsecrated the temple. However, the three-year advocates begin with the establishment of the pagan altar in the temple on 25 Kislev, 168, and this takes us to 165. Either approach meets the requirements of the prophecy.

We’ll meet Antiochus Epiphanes again before we complete our study of the book of Daniel.

The angel awakened Daniel from his deep sleep and told him there was yet more prophetic truth for him to hear, and it related to “the time of wrath” (v. 19 niv) and the “time of the end” (vv. 17, 19, 23), which is the time of tribulation. The Old Testament prophets called this period “the time of Jacob’s trouble” and “the day of the Lord,” the period when God’s wrath would be poured out on an evil world (Jer. 30:7; Isa. 2:11–12; 13:6, 9; Joel 2:1ff.; Zeph. 1). In other words, what Daniel learns in Daniel 8:23–27 relates to the end times when Antichrist will oppose God and God’s people.

The “king of fierce countenance” is the Antichrist, not Antiochus Epiphanes; but if you compare verses 23–27 with verses 9–14, you will see that the characteristics and career of Antiochus parallel those of Antichrist. • Both begin modestly but increase in power and influence. • Both blaspheme God with mouths that speak great things. • Both persecute the Jewish people. • Both claim to be gods and put images in the temple. • Both impose their own religion on the people. • Both are opposed by a believing remnant that knows God. • Both are energized by the devil and are great deceivers. • Both appear to succeed marvelously and seem to be invincible. • Both are finally defeated by the coming of a redeemer (Judas Maccabeus and Jesus Christ).

Many other parallels exist, which you will discover as you study the relevant Scriptures.

The “Prince of princes” (v. 25) is Jesus Christ, who is also the “God of gods” (11:36) and the “King of Kings” (Rev. 19:16). Antichrist opposes Jesus Christ and seeks to replace Him, but ultimately Jesus Christ defeats Antichrist and consigns him, his false prophet, and Satan to the lake of fire (20:1–3).

As a result of this experience of receiving the vision and communing with angels, Daniel became ill. One cause of his physical and emotional collapse was his inability to understand where this vision of the “king of fierce countenance,” prefigured by “the little horn,” fit into the prophetic scheme for Israel. He knew that the “little horn” would appear in the last days, but what would occur between his day and that day? He would learn from Jeremiah’s prophecy that his people would be released from bondage and allowed to return to their land and rebuild their temple, but Daniel knew nothing about God’s “mystery” concerning the church (Eph. 3:1–13) or the “mystery” concerning the partial blinding and hardening of Israel (Rom. 11:25–36). And who was the “king of fierce countenance” and why would he attack the Jewish people? Daniel felt the burden of the suffering his people would experience, and he knew the awful consequences of truth being cast to the ground (Dan. 8:12; Isa. 59:14–15).

Daniel is a good example for students of prophecy to follow. He asked the Lord for the explanation (Dan. 8:15) and allowed the Lord to instruct him. But his investigation into God’s prophetic program wasn’t a matter of satisfying curiosity or trying to appear very knowledgeable before others. He was concerned about his people and the work they had to do on earth. He so identified with what he learned that it made him ill! Too many “prophetic students” don’t wait before God for instruction and insight, nor do they feel burdened when they learn God’s truth about the future. Instead, they try to display their “knowledge” and impress people with what they think they know. The whole exercise is purely academic; it’s all in the head and never changes the hearts.

When he got over his weakness and sickness, the prophet went back to work for the king and didn’t tell anybody what he had learned. But God still had more truth to teach him, and he was ready to receive it.