The Book of Daniel | The future of the gentile reign and the jewish remnant

Listener's Guide | Session 11 | Daniel 8 | Dr. Randy White

The Circumstances of the vision | Daniel 8:1-2

• Chapter 8 records a vision received in 553BC, under the last King of Babylon.

• With Daniel 8, the book begins again in the Hebrew, signifying that what will be seen is not a revelation about the times of the Gentiles, but rather about the rescue of the remnant of Israel.

• Verse 1 --

  • me, even unto me, Daniel - It seems that the Lord foresaw that the authorship of the book would be questioned by the rationalists, and so the Spirit had Daniel emphasize his authorship.

  • after that which appeared - Presumably after the vision of the four beasts in Daniel 7.

    
    

• Verse 2 -- river of Ulai** - *Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker encyclopedia of the Bible** 1988 : 2114. *

The vision | Daniel 8:3-12

• Verse 3 --

  • This ram is unequivocally defined in v. 20 as the kings of Media and Persia.

  • …- While not certain, this could be a reference to Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Great of Persia.

    
    

• Verse 4 --

  • The Medes and Persians were located to the west of Babylon (in modern day Iran) and pushed the borders of the kingdom farther west, north, and south than the Babylonian reach.

  • no beasts might stand - As chapter 7 referred to the four kingdoms as beasts, it appears that this passage collectively uses the term beasts for all kingdoms.

    
    

• Verse 5 --

  • an he goat - Verse 21 unequivocally defines this goat as the Kingdom of Greece.

  • a notable horn - The notable horn is the first king of the Grecian empire, thus Alexander the Great.

    
    

• Verse 8 -- … - This perfectly describes the death of Alexander and the four-fold division of the Kingdom to his generals.

• Verse 10 - Likely a reference to the satanic influence on the Antichrist.

  • Compare Isaiah 14:13 and Revelation 12:3-4.

  • The host of heaven is a phrase used 19 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and is most often very clearly a reference to the planets, stars, etc., though there are a few passages when the term could be interpreted to be either people or angels, but these same passages can be interpreted to be planets, etc. It seems best to see hosts of heaven as objects of the universe.

    
    

• Verse 11 --

  • he magnified himself - Note that the pronoun has changed from it to he, giving further definition to the horn.

  • … - The Hebrew reads from him not by him.

  • The daily sacrifice* *and the place of his sanctuary were both taken from the prince of the host. Though the identity of the taker is not expressly stated, the little horn is the only viable option.

    
    

• Verse 12 -- … - The host here is not to be confused with the host of heaven in v. 10, but rather refers to an army. Because of transgression, the little horn (v. 9) is allowed to take an army to stop the daily sacrifice.

The duration | Daniel 8:13-14

• Verse 13 - Daniel now eaves drops on a conversation between two saints, or holy ones, possibly angels.

• Verse 14 - This time period has been interpreted in about as many ways as there are commentaries.

  • The Seventh Day Adventists used this to argue that the Lord would return in 1844 (2300 years after the desecration of the temple by Antiochus, in 167BC.)

  • In the end, no interpretation is perfectly satisfactory, but the best appears to be to consider this as fully fulfilled in Antiochus, who removed the regular priesthood in 171BC and died in 164BC, the entire time the Temple being desecrated to some degree, even though the sacrifices were not fully halted until 167BC. If this is the correct interpretation, then there is no need to align this time period with the seven years of tribulation seen in Daniel 9.

  The Angelic Insight | Daniel 8:15-19