Today we begin Daniel chapter 8 and enter another challenging apocalyptic vision involving kingdoms, a ram, a goat, Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and the desecration and restoration of the temple. While there is plenty in Daniel 8 that can be difficult to understand, Daniel reminds us of something important: history is not random. Kingdoms rise and fall, rulers come and go, and sometimes we cannot see what God is doing—but God remains sovereign and faithful. We may not understand every detail of God’s plan, but we can trust the God who does. When the future seems uncertain and the arc of history is difficult to see, we can remain faithful because God is guiding the story toward his purposes.
Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.
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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Monday morning. I hope you had a great weekend, and I hope all is well with you as we begin this new week.
We’re going to continue in Daniel, and today we’re starting chapter 8.
I think we’re actually going to finish Daniel this week. We have chapters 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, so I think what makes the most sense is to take a chapter a day and finish out the book on Friday.
And then, depending on where we go from there, we may jump into something in the New Testament next week. If there’s something in the New Testament you’d like to explore, let me know. Message me and give me some ideas. I’ll probably do something New Testament—not “New Testament-ish,” because I’m not really sure what that means! We’ll do something actually in the New Testament.
But today, Daniel chapter 8.
There are 27 verses in this chapter. I’m not going to read every single verse, but I want to read the vision and then some of the interpretation that Gabriel gives Daniel.
Daniel has another vision. He sees a ram with two horns, and then he sees a male goat coming from the west. The goat attacks the ram and defeats it. Then the goat becomes exceedingly great, but at the height of its power, its great horn is broken. Four horns arise in its place, and then from one of them comes another horn—a little horn—that becomes exceedingly powerful.
This little horn becomes arrogant. It attacks the people of God, interferes with worship, and desecrates the sanctuary.
Daniel hears a question:
“How long is this vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and the host to be trampled?”
And the answer is given: 2,300 evenings and mornings, and then the sanctuary will be restored to its rightful state.
Then Gabriel comes to Daniel and begins to explain the vision.
The ram with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia.
The male goat represents the king of Greece.
The great horn represents the first king.
And when that horn is broken and four horns arise in its place, four kingdoms will arise.
And then we get this little horn who becomes powerful, arrogant, and destructive.
And this is where history helps us understand what Daniel is talking about.
The great horn is generally understood to be Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered an enormous empire, but he died at a relatively young age, and his kingdom was eventually divided among four of his generals.
And the little horn is generally understood to be Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Greek ruler who severely persecuted the Jewish people.
He desecrated the temple. He stopped Jewish worship. He even sacrificed a pig on the altar of the temple.
And that desecration eventually contributed to the Maccabean revolt, when the Jewish Maccabees rebelled against the Seleucid Empire and eventually regained control of Jerusalem and rededicated the temple.
That is the historical background that helps us understand much of Daniel 8.
There is some debate about the 2,300 evenings and mornings and exactly how that number should be understood. Some interpret it very specifically; others understand it more symbolically.
And I think this is where we have to be careful with apocalyptic literature.
I don’t think every number in Daniel or Revelation is necessarily meant to function like a mathematical equation where we simply plug in the numbers and figure out exactly when something will happen.
These visions are communicating something bigger.
And there’s something really important we need to remember whenever we read Scripture:
We are not the first audience.
The Bible can have tremendous meaning and application for us, but it wasn’t originally written directly to us.
Daniel was written to people living in a particular historical situation. Revelation was written to people living in a particular historical situation. The Gospels were written to people living in particular historical situations.
So we need to ask, “What would the first audience have understood?”
And as we understand what the original audience understood, we can then begin to understand what that means for us today.
And I think Daniel 8 gives us a really important message.
History is going somewhere.
History is not random.
The things that are happening in the world are not simply disconnected events.
The story is not random.
Our lives are not random.
The biblical story tells us that there is a purpose behind the arc of history.
We are going somewhere.
Daniel sees things that are going to happen, and then history unfolds.
The kingdoms rise.
The kingdoms fall.
Alexander comes.
Alexander dies.
His kingdom is divided.
Antiochus rises.
He persecutes the Jewish people.
The temple is desecrated.
And eventually the temple is restored.
Daniel sees a pattern: kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, but God remains faithful.
And that’s important for us because we don’t always understand what’s happening.
There are seasons of life when we look around and say, “I have no idea what God is doing.”
There are moments when the arc of history seems confusing.
There are moments when the future feels uncertain.
There are moments when we wonder, “Where is all of this going?”
And Scripture says: God knows.
God has a plan.
God has a purpose.
God is not surprised by history.
I think about that famous line often attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
That’s the idea here.
The arc is long.
Sometimes it’s difficult to see where it is going.
Sometimes it looks like the wrong people are winning.
Sometimes kingdoms seem incredibly powerful.
Sometimes evil seems to have the upper hand.
Sometimes we wonder whether things will ever be made right.
But God is still at work.
God is still sovereign.
And God will, in God’s own time, bring history where God intends it to go.
That doesn’t mean we understand every detail.
Daniel certainly didn’t.
At the end of this chapter, Daniel says that he was overcome and became sick for several days. And then he says something that I find comforting:
“I was dismayed by the vision and did not understand it.”
I love that.
Daniel didn’t understand everything.
So if you read Daniel 8 and think, “I don’t understand this,” welcome to the club.
Daniel didn’t understand all of it either!
And maybe we don’t have to.
Maybe the point isn’t that we figure out every horn and every number and every kingdom.
Maybe the point is that we trust the God who knows where history is going.
There is a plan.
There is a purpose.
And the same God who was faithful to Daniel will be faithful to us.
So if you are in a season right now where you don’t understand what God is doing, trust God.
If you’re in a season where you can’t see the destination, trust God.
If the future seems uncertain, trust God.
If the arc of history seems confusing, trust God.
Because we know how this story ends.
God is victorious.
God is faithful.
God is sovereign.
And God will guide history exactly where God intends it to go.
So we don’t have to know everything.
We don’t have to understand everything.
We don’t have to have every answer.
We simply have to be faithful.
So today, put your hope in God.
Put your trust in God.
And remember that your life is not random.
Your story is not random.
History is not random.
God is at work, even when we can’t see exactly what God is doing.
And in the middle of all of that uncertainty, we can say:
God has a plan.
God has a purpose.
And God is going to see it through.
So thanks for being with me today. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and we’ll continue tomorrow as we keep moving through Daniel.
Have a great day.