Daniel 8

The Interpretation of the Vision (8:15–27)

15–18 As Daniel was trying to understand what he had seen, the angel Gabriel was told to explain it to him (see Luke 1:1819). Daniel was overwhelmed by the angel’s presence. Gabriel told him that the vision he had seen concerned the time of the end²⁵ (verse 17).

19–25 Here the angel Gabriel explains the meaning of Daniel’s vision; this has already been commented on above. The stern–faced king is Antiochus (verse 23). He will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes, that is, God (verse 25). Yet in the end he will be destroyed, but not by human power. Antiochus’ death was caused by accident or disease; thus he was “destroyed” by God’s power.

26–27 Because Daniel’s vision concerned future events, Gabriel told him to seal up the vision; that is, Daniel was to keep his vision confidential. This may be one reason why he wrote this and the remaining chapters in Hebrew and not in Aramaic; fewer people would be able to understand what he had written.²⁶

There is a final point to make about Daniel’s visions. We have seen that his visions concerning the Greek and Roman Empires have come true—even though there was no such thing as a Greek or Roman Empire in Daniel’s day! Yet there are still aspects of Daniel’s vision that have not yet come true—those aspects that concern the end of the world. What we should learn from Daniel is this: if his prophecies of past history have come true, we can expect his prophecies of “future history” to come true also. These visions of Daniel are not simply poetic fancies or flights of imagination: they are visions given by the living God of history to one of his servants—and through that servant, to us. What Daniel has said about our own future will come to pass; we need to be ready for it.²⁷ “What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” (Mark 13:37).