And the Visions Keep on Coming! An Apocalyptic Ram, Goat, and Little Horn

This much Daniel already knows: a little horn of great depravity will arise and make himself great, even claiming divine status for himself (v. 11). He will defeat the saints (v. 10), defile the sanctuary (the temple and holy place; vv. 11, 13), and disregard the Scriptures (v. 12). He will do so for twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings, a period of six to seven years or, more likely, three to four years (again depending on how one interprets the phrase).

This is a lot to consider, but specifics are still wanting. Though under no obligation, God, in grace, helps Daniel in “trying to understand it” (v. 15).

Daniel is “watching the vision and trying to understand it” (v. 15). Suddenly, he says, “there stood before me someone who appeared to be a man.” His name is Gabriel; he’s an angel of God (v. 16). His name means “Strong Man of God,” or possibly “God Is My Hero/Warrior.” Andrew Hill points out,

Only in Daniel in the Old Testament are angels named (Gabriel in 8:16; 9:21[cf. Luke 1:19, 26]; Michael in 10:13, 21; 12 [cf. Jude 9; Rev 12:7]). (“Daniel,” 152)

God has sent him to “explain the vision” to Daniel. Without divine aid, Daniel would not be able to comprehend what he saw.

Not surprisingly, Daniel is terrified as Gabriel approaches him (v. 17). He “fell facedown” prostrate before the heavenly messenger. Gabriel addresses Daniel as “son of man” (or “son of Adam”), in this context meaning a mere human, one who is mortal. It is not a Christological title, as it is in 7:13. Gabriel tells Daniel he has come to help him “understand that the vision refers to the time of the end.” We hear that phrase and think of the end of the age, the second coming of Christ, and the millennial kingdom. However, in context it is more likely a reference to the particular persons and events prophesied in this chapter. In particular, it likely refers to Antiochus IV and his persecution of the Jewish people. Still, as Stephen Miller notes,

It is possible to be true to the text and allow that the little horn of Chapter 8, Antiochus IV, may be a type of that one spoken of in Chapter 7, the eschatological antichrist, for the parallels between their characters and careers are striking. (Daniel, 232)

The angel Gabriel starts talking (v. 18), and Daniel goes into a comatose state (“I fell into a deep sleep”)! Gabriel touches him and gets him on his feet. He says, “I am here to tell you what will happen at the conclusion of the time of wrath” (v. 19), that is, the time when the persecution (and God’s discipline of his people) under the Syrian Antiochus IV comes to an end. Gabriel tells him, in something of a parallel phrase, that this “refers to the appointed time of the end.” The time has been determined and set by the sovereign Lord of history. God’s people will suffer for their sins, but their suffering will not be indefinite. God is in absolute control of all that is and all that will happen. This includes the trials and tribulations of his people. Human powers are merely instruments in the hands of an all-powerful and providential God.

Verses 20-22 enlighten our understanding of the main characters in the vision of verses 1-15. The two-horned ram refers to Media and Persia. The shaggy goat refers to Greece. The large horn between the eyes of the goat refers to the first king (Alexander the Great). The four horns that replaced the broken horn refer to the four kingdoms (belonging to the four generals Cassander, Lysimachus, Selucus, and Ptolemy). Gabriel says, “They will rise from that nation” (Greece and Alexander), “but without its power.” They will be mini-empires, not major ones on the scale of Medo-Persia and Greece.

Verses 23-26 then turn to Antiochus Epiphanes, referred to as “a ruthless king, skilled in intrigue” (v. 23). The English Standard Version calls him “a king of bold face.” He is characterized by arrogance and pride. He will arise “near the end of their kingdoms” (175–163 BC) because mighty Rome is on the way. This will happen “when the rebels [i.e., God’s rebellious people] have reached the full measure of their sin.” Verse 12 provides helpful commentary on this understanding. God is once more disciplining his people for their sin.

The words “he” and “his” are prominent in verses 24-25, enabling us to outline the activities of the “ruthless king” who “will come to the throne” (v. 23).

Despite the gravity and grotesqueness of this image, Gabriel affirms the vision is true (v. 26). Daniel must write it down, seal it up, and preserve it for those in days yet to come who will need it. Remember, what is in the past to us was in the future to Daniel. He must safeguard it for future generations.

So, did the Bible get it right in Daniel 8? The answer is a resounding yes! A brief historical summary adds a little meat to the bones of Daniel’s prophecy. Antiochus Epiphanes was violently bitter against the Jews. He hated them and was determined to exterminate them and their religion. He devastated Jerusalem in 168 BC, murdered tens of thousands, defiled the temple, offered a pig on its altar, erected a shrine to Jupiter, prohibited temple worship, forbade circumcision on pain of death, sold (according to 2 Macc 5:11-14) forty thousand Jews into slavery, destroyed all copies of Scripture that could be found, and slaughtered everyone found to be in possession of God’s Torah. He resorted to every conceivable torture to force Jews to renounce their religion.

This all eventually led to what historians call the Maccabean revolt in 164 BC. Judas Maccabees (meaning “the hammer”) would lead the Jews to victory and the restoration of their religion. Today Jews celebrate Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights) in remembrance of that event. It is referenced in John 10:22, when the Light of the World walked into the temple.

And Antiochus? The Jewish book of 2 Maccabees records his end:

But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him an incurable and unseen blow. As soon as he ceased speaking he was seized with a pain in his bowels for which there was no relief and with sharp internal tortures—and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions. Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body. (2 Macc 9:5-7)

And just like that, the evil and ruthless king was gone.

What Daniel saw and took in wiped him out. It was personally overpowering. He was “overcome and lay sick for days.” The New International Version says, “I was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days.” The Message paraphrase says, “I . . . walked around in a daze, unwell for days.” Daniel had been “deeply distressed,” even “terrified” by the vision of Chapter 7. He is completely undone by the vision of Chapter 8. It was more than he could bear. He was comforted by the reality that God was in control and that his kingdom would eventually come (v. 25b), but to know that there would be so much evil in the world and so much suffering for God’s people before it arrived was overwhelming. It was too much, at least for a while.

Daniel’s sickness passed. God’s grace was sufficient. Regaining his strength, God’s prophet got up and went back to work as he normally would: “I got up and went about the king’s business” (v. 27). Sinclair Ferguson says it well:

He returned to the duties to which God had called him. He did not retire from the world in view of the evil days that were coming. Nor did he go to the opposite extreme and live on a “high” visionary excitement. Instead he did his duty.

Daniel’s attitude illustrates an important biblical principle: In view of what the future holds, we must live holy lives now. He caught a glimpse of realities that would take place centuries later. Those events were shadows of the last conflict between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdoms of the world. One day Christ will return and the Antichrist “shall be broken without human hands” just as Antiochus was. We know this from the New Testament. How then should we live? Passage after passage gives the same answer: Do the King’s business; walk in obedience; live in holiness; purify yourself as He is pure. While riding to a preaching engagement one day, John Wesley was stopped by a stranger who asked him what he would do if he knew that Christ was going to return at noon the next day. Wesley reached into his saddlebag, retrieved his diary, read out his engagements for the rest of the day and for the morning of the next day, and said, “That, dear sir, is what I would do.” His knowledge of the Lord’s future kingdom allowed him to live already for that kingdom. That was the spirit of Daniel. Is it so surprising that his life made such a lasting impression? (Daniel, 165)

The vision “greatly disturbed” him and he “could not understand it.” Nevertheless, Daniel did not let it paralyze him. He did his job, and he trusted in his God. He is an example to all of us.

Daniel 8 should be read in the light of Daniel 7, which speaks of Christ as the coming Son of Man, and Daniel 9, which speaks of Christ as “the Anointed One [who] will be cut off” (9:26). Doing so sheds light on the identity of “the Prince of the heavenly army” in 8:11 and “the Prince of princes” in 8:25. All four titles point to Christ, the One who will shatter the “ruthless king” (v. 23) but “not by human hands” (v. 25). Parallels with the Prince of Daniel 8 and the Messiah Prince in the New Testament are helpfully highlighted by Sidney Greidanus:

The first major analogy is that both were attacked by evil people. “The Prince of the host” was attacked by the evil king (8:11, 25). Jesus was also attacked but much more severely. When Jesus was born, King Herod tried to kill him (Matt 2:13); the devil tempted him three times (Matt 4:1-10); the people of his hometown of Nazareth tried to “hurl him off the cliff” (Luke 4:28); “The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death” (Luke 22:2); Pilate had Jesus flogged and then “handed him over to be crucified” (Matt 27:26); the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus, “spat on him,” struck him on the head with a reed, and crucified him (Matt 27:30-35). Surely, the spirit of the Antichrist was at work attacking the Christ even during Jesus’ own lifetime.

The second major analogy is that the attacker will be destroyed. Daniel 8:25 declares that the evil king “shall even rise up against the Prince of princes. But he shall be broken, and not by human hands.” The implication is that “the Prince of princes” will break the evil king. This prediction was fulfilled when King Antiochus was destroyed. But it will find final fulfillment at Jesus’ Second Coming. Paul writes about the end of time: “Then the lawless one [the antichrist] will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming” (2 Thess 2:8). (Preaching Christ from Daniel, 268)

To this helpful insight, David Helm rightly adds,

In his earthly ministry, Jesus entered the temple at a time of religious degradation and laid claim on restoring it to its rightful place (John 2:13-22) [contra Antiochus and his evil actions]. . . . Jesus’ substitutionary death and resurrection put an end to the need for morning and evening sacrifices once and for all (Hebrews 10:1-18). . . . The final word is not had by the ram, or the goat, but by the Lamb. (Daniel for You, 154–55)