Daniel 8: Evil Kings and the End of Times

At Santa Cruz Baptist, we begin each service with a call to worship, which among other things, acknowledges the sovereignty of God in getting us from our beds to our doors and eventually to the place we all find ourselves in. We have been called out and called here and called together to worship our God through song and sermon.

And I wonder what God has been doing in your lives as we have considered this peculiar and timely text.

Review

As I have reflected this week on my experience in Daniel—meditations on the text to preach or prepare the order of service—I found it helpful to frame our chapter this morning in the grander narrative Daniel is telling. Keeping Daniel 8 from becoming disconnected from the broader book, and indeed from the Bible as a whole, is crucial to rightly understanding it.

After all Daniel 2-7, as Drew reminded us last week, was written in one language (Aramaic) and Daniel 1 and 8-12 is written in another (Hebrew), which seems to imply 2-7 are a cohesive unit and maybe particularly a unit whose bookends help us understand and interpret Daniel 8-12.

So where have we been? What have we seen?

Here the Bible project led by evangelical scholar Dr. Tim Mackie is super helpful. In their brief explainer concerning the book of Daniel, Dr. Mackie clarifies that the structure of Daniel is pretty interesting and complex.

In the first half of Daniel we can see that chapters 1, 3, and 6 offer significant parallels and repetition of language and remarkably similar events. Each of them is a story of faithfulness in the face of persecution and as such they offer hope to God’s people who now live in and among the anti-God empires of the world.

Chapters 4 and 5 then offer similar but contrasting stories of how rulers and nations rebel against God and act beastly toward God and his people.

As such chapters 2 and 7 present the reader with prophetic visions that encourage patience and fortify their hearers with the truth of God’s coming kingdom.

Chapters 8-12, section we enter into this morning, then peak into the future by divine wisdom and power in order to show Daniel when God will establish his kingdom and what must happen in the lead up to it.

We can acknowledge two things given this brief outline:

The purpose of Daniel is to give hope that will motivate faithfulness to God.

The message of Daniel, or the way in which Daniel seeks that purpose, is to reveal the sovereignty of God over all of human history—from the rise and fall of nations to the ins-and-outs of individuals lives.

This morning we find ourselves looking at Daniel 8

A vision which shows Daniel the coming of God’s kingdom and the continued struggles of the Israelites leading up to it.

Even though nearly all, if not all, of the vision’s elements have been fulfilled—there is much that is instructive here for us today, but we must read carefully and seek diligently in order to see it for we are in—as Drew told us last week—apocalyptic literature.

Which is a genre that we might say is characterized by important and relevant messages adorned with perplexing, if not distracting imagery.

Outline

For our purposes this morning I think it will be helpful to focus our attention on two questions:

What is happening in chapter 8?

Why is Daniel so sick?

Thinking about these two questions will help us grapple with the complexity and perplexity of Daniel’s vision. As well, in answering these two questions we will see in this obscure Old Testament text, how Jesus is foreshadowed and the gospel is applied to us today.

What Is Happening in Chapter 8?

I wrestled with how to answer this question. Not because it is unclear in the text. I think it is exceptionally clear given history and the interpretation of the angel Gabriel.

The struggle, rather, is because the structure of the text does not lend itself to quick explanation and I generally like to construct my sermons around the structure of the text. I wonder if we might lose some of the suspense walking through it how I have decided too. It would be good to keep that in mind.

What is happening?

Let’s consider the basic images:

Location is the first thing brought to our and Daniel’s attention. He is in Susa the citadel.

It is important to recognize this because it signals an important shift in Daniel’s story and in fact in all of history.

Verse one tells us that it is the third year of Beltshazzar, but Susa is of little importance to Babylon’s last king. Susa is, however, meaningful to another king. To Cyrus—the king of the Medio-Persia empire.

Cyrus favored Susa and established it as his winter palace. Susa would become the center of power for the next great empire. Thus signaling the coming conclusion of the Babylonians and preparing Daniel for conquest by the Persians.

As an aside, this is likely informing his nonchalance to the offer of Beltshazzar in Daniel 5. Why turn down an offer to move Daniel from obscurity to prominence—the third in command of the empire. Such a position will have no lasting relevance.

This plays into the next symbol, the Ram with a lopsided-horn situation,

which we are told represents that Medio-Persia empire, with the Medes as the lower horn which pre-existed the Persians (symbolized in that it came up first), but was not as powerful (thus situated lower on the head).

This Persian-Ram does basically whatever he wants and is unstoppable in his endeavors.

Until, enter the goat with one “conspicuous horn.”

Which we are told in verse 21 is Greece, with its first and greatest king as the horn.

Though Greece does not appear in the historical writings of the Bible, historically we can draw pretty clear connection to Alexander the Great.

Alexander III of Macedonia became the first king of the united Greece and he quickly embarked on an unprecedented military campaign in which he was undefeated in battle and developed an reputation lasting to our day as one of histories greatest military strategists.

This comports with the brief description in Daniel of the goat’s power and exceeding greatness. As well as the goat moving so quickly that it does not touch the ground.

As well, history records that Alexander conquered the Persians, as is foretold in verses 7-8.

And, Daniel records:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

8 Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.

This also matches Alexander’s biography, as he died young (age 32) at the height of his power (“when he was strong”) and left his kingdom to be run by four generals who divided the kingdom into four pieces.

In the wake of this empire division, eventually arises a little horn.

We ought to be aware that historically it is unclear if the little horn here is the same little horn referenced in Daniel 7. The text does not require us to understand them as representing the same king, but it does require that we understand them as having a resemblance.

As such this “little horn” is a type-of anti-Christ. Which is not surprising given what is said about him:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

10 It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them.

Here the hosts of heaven and the stars thrown down are emblematic of Israel and the Jewish people. Though this symbolism is rich in the Bible, to pick one important clarifying reference consider that Abraham is promised by God in...

Genesis 15:5 ESV

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Back to thinking in terms of the anti-Christ, we see:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. 12 And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper.

We’ll get to the him in a little bit, but here it appears that the temple sacrifices (burnt offerings) are stopped by this little horn and that he disregards the truth… likely a reference to the Torah.

So we can see the anti-Christ flavor here:

Persecutes God’s people

Outlaws the worship of Yahweh

Treats the word of God with contempt

This description, though not interpreted for Daniel, finds a high level of scholarly agreement on what it is describing.

This is not MERELY a general description of anti-Christ behavior.

Most scholars believe, and I am convinced that, the little horn to be a king from what is called the Seleucid Dynasty by the name of Antiochus IV who called himself Epiphanes. Which means God made manifest.

Antiochus IV gained power through political intrigue and usurpation. Which may be what verse 25 refers to:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

25 By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great.

History books references to Antiochus IV are nearly exclusively limited to his brutal persecution of the Jewish people, even to the extent of desecrating the Temple and setting up a statue to Zeus in Jerusalem.

However, according to our text, this is neither a surprise nor a challenge to God.

I said we would come back to the “him” in verse 11. The him connects to this title “The Prince of the hosts” which is similar to verse 25 which gives us “The Prince of Princes.”

These titles refer to the same figure and it is him who is the him of the phrase:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

the regular burnt offering was taken away from him

Meaning that this Prince of hosts and Prince of Princes is someone worshipped at the Temple. This is divine figure. And Antiochus IV outlaws his worship and tries to dethrone him—remember his self-given nickname, God Made Manifest, God Incarnate.

To state it simply, albeit anachronistically, Antiochus is putting himself on a level with the Christ.

But what do we ultimately see? That this little horn—like Nebuchadnezzar, Beltshazzar, and Cyrus before him:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

he shall be broken—but by no human hand.

The specific implication is that he will challenge the Prince of Princes and in turn the Prince of Princes will crush him.

Answering the Question

So what is happening?

Daniel is seeing a vision in which four successive kingdoms—the Persia, the Alexander’s Greece , the divided Greece, and Antiochus IV’s Greece—arise, but each passes away while God remains. God is steadfast and he is sovereign. His kingdom is unshaken and unhindered in its coming and advance by the rise and fall of kings and empires of this world.

Further, God is communicating the need for patience for the faithful remnant. Daniel is told that the dream is for “many days from now.”

No kidding

For Daniel it will be 200 years before Alexander the Great conquerers Persia.

And another 150 years between Alexander and Antiochus IV.

Put those two together and what is the message? It is remarkably similar to something Jesus says in the Gospel of John, chapter 16:

Meditation on John 16:33

Jesus, speaking to his disciples, like God showing Daniel this vision, presents some hard to swallow content.

He tells them of how they are not ready for some of the truths he must teach them.

He tells them of how he must leave them for a little while.

He tells them of coming sorrow resulting in counter-intuitive joy.

He tells them of the Father’s love and of how they will be scattered.

The wedding of such truths is difficult to comprehend. The disciples understandably struggle.

Then Jesus says:

John 16:33 ESV

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Consider those couple of sentences for a moment:

(1) I have said these things… that you may have peace.

Jesus’s revelation to his disciples is not mere fortune telling, it is intended for a purpose. It is intended to produce peace.

Similarly Daniel 8 is not a party-trick of God’s. He is showing Daniel the grand-plan for all of human history.

He is showing Daniel how the events of this world are in God’s hands, they do not surprise God, they do not catch him unawares.

They are, in fact, the result of his sovereign decree. They will ultimately lead in the establishment of God’s everlasting Kingdom.

(2) More than that, note the personal nature of the comment: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.”

This is not some worldly peace, a superficial peace, broken and violated when hardship comes.

This is a peace that is for you—his disciples—and it is found in him, and in him alone.

Good health, sufficient income, a thoughtful life-plan. None of this will provide this sort of peace. Because each of these things can be taken in a moment. Peace in Christ though… Well just listen to the apostle:

Colossians 3:1–4 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

This is an outworking of the gospel itself—that by the grace of God we can have peace with God and our saved from his just wrath. The one and only way to this peace is by hiding our lives in Christ. Trusting in him and his righteousness for our salvation.

In a similar way Daniel is being taught that reliance on human empires will fail. He must trust God, his Kingdom, and its king, the Prince of Princes.

(3) In a similar vein, it is a peace that is practical. It does not hide, sweep under the rug, or ignore the complexities and difficulties of life. No Jesus tells us that we will have tribulation in the world. By implication it is that tribulation that Jesus gives us peace.

This makes sense when we pause and reflect. Peace is not peace that cannot hold up to tribulation.

Similarly you are not kind unless you can be kind to someone who challenges your kindness.

You cannot say you are loving until you have loved when it is difficult. Until forgiveness is necessary.

You do not know that you are courageous until you have faced your fear.

So too, peace is not meant for the clam waters of life, but when the crosscurrents of life be they financial or vocational, family or romantic, cultural or political produce a dangerously choppy waters.

But embracing the peace of Christ that comes only by the Gospel enables us to see our trials as Gospel tools to shape our characters.

Milton Vincent writes:

More than anything else I could ever do, the gospel enables me to embrace my tribulations in there by position myself to gain full benefit from them. For the gospel is the one great permanent circumstance in which I live and move; and every hardship in my life is allowed by God only because it serves his gospel purposes in me. When I view my circumstances in this life, I realize that the gospel is not just one piece of good news that fits into my life somewhere among all the bad. I realize instead of the gospel makes a genuinely good news out of every other aspect of my life, including my severest trials. The good news about my trials is that God is forcing them to bow to his gospel purposes and do good on to me by improving my character and making me more conformed to the image of Christ. (A Gospel Primer, 32-33)

(4) So we are to “take heart.” To be encouraged because Jesus says “I have overcome the world.” Jesus has won.

And we shouldn’t be surprised. Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Daniel 8 all have told us in different images and from different angles that God wins, God’s prince conquers, the spirit of the World, the nations which rage against God will be defeated and destroyed.

But if that is what Daniel 8 is getting at why is Daniel so sick?

His response is not one of someone fortified by the peace of God.

Why Is Daniel So Sick?

Well, this is a bit of speculation on my part, but I think it is an interesting question, which might be answered through noticing a few ideas buried in the text that I think Daniel easily caught, but fall prey to our ignorance. So we must cast ourselves into the story, stepping into Daniel’s sandals.

He is having this overwhelming vision of future events that are imaged in wild animals brutally goring each other. This is a highly unsettling experience.

And in the midst of it we note:

Daniel 8:11–14 ESV

It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”

We already covered what much of this means but we ignored a crucial historical fact.

The sanctuary, the Temple in Jerusalem, present in these verses... was destroyed around 587 BC. Daniel is having this vision about 37 years later. And he sees the Temple standing!

Consider the emotion of such a vision then!

Nestled in the Old Testament is a book titled Lamentations, which records the destruction of Jerusalem as an act of God’s wrath against the sins of Israel. Listen to the anguish of a small excerpt from Lamentations:

Lamentations 2:5–7 ESV

The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. He has laid waste his booth like a garden, laid in ruins his meeting place; the Lord has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord as on the day of festival.

A Madisonian Example

Try and imagine what is happening to Daniel. Maybe it would be helpful to use a reference from our nation’s history:

In 1812 war broke out between the United States of America and the United Kingdom. British soldiers stationed in Canada fought off an American offensive and then invaded. After twenty-six months of battle the British troops reached and captured Washington, D.C.

On the 24th of August 1814, the city was burned including the White House and the U.S. Capitol building.

One can image that this was a dark and devastating day for our nation’s fourth president, James Madison.

But now imagine President Madison—having fled the capitol—has a vision of continued American strife. But it is not of events of the next few years or even the next few generations. But rather of 2021.

Imagine the emotion as he sees the Capitol restored, congress in session, proceeding with business as usual.

Can you imagine the hope and encouragement it would be to see that the War of 1812 would not be the final word on American democracy.

But this still doesn’t do Daniel’s vision justice. We may have captured some of the encouragement—but remember this vision does not end with Daniel’s head held high, but Daniel in bed sick.

To return to our Madisonian analogy, now imagine that it is not merely an innocuous day in 2021, but it is January 6th. And our fourth president watches the congressmen and senators are evacuated and a gallows is erected in a threat to the sitting-Vice President. Madison’s stomach would have turned watching such a vision. As encouragement turned to concern and questioning.

That is what Daniel experiences. He sees the sanctuary, the Temple standing. No longer is God’s house a neglected pile of rubble in a wall-less city. What a glorious vision! But before his eyes this boastful little horn desecrates and makes desolate the Temple. From glory to infamy.

To add insult to injury Daniel notes:

Daniel 8:12 ESV

And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper.

Why does God allow this? Because of the sin of the host! The people of God commit sin again, fall back into idolatry.

Daniel is in exile because of idolatry and sin! What he is seeing is tacit confirmation that little will be learned from this exile! At some point for this vision to be true the people of God must go back to Jerusalem, they must rebuild the “glorious land” as verse 9 calls it. They must re-erect the Temple—the dwelling place of God—but they will again fall into unrepentant sin and will again be punished for it.

What a blow to Daniel! No wonder this passage ends with him in bed sick!

But we should acknowledge that Daniel does not despair long, but recovers and goes back to work.

How? What enables Daniel’s recovery.

Counting the Days

Consider this narrative structure of part of this vision:

Daniel 8:13–14 ESV

Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”

Daniel overhears two angels discussing the vision and one asks the other, “how long?” What happens next? The angel turns to Daniel! Though Daniel does not ask the question, the answer is for him and the answer is 2,300 evenings and mornings.

Commentator Rodney Stortz states,

Daniel—The Triumph of God’s Kingdom The Vision (8:9–14)

Usually God does not tell us how long, but in this case he did. He told the people of God how long it would be so that they would trust him during this terrible day. He could tell us how long our difficulties will last if he wanted us to know. Instead, he wants us to learn from Daniel that he has things under control, and he is working them out in his time for our good. So in the meantime we must trust him in quiet submission.

Another commentator Sidney Griedanus adds,

Preaching Christ from Daniel: Foundations for Expository Sermons Textual Theme and Goal

since God will limit the duration of this persecution and destroy the persecutor, another goal is to assure Israel that their God is sovereign and will set limits to the days of persecution. Therefore, we can formulate the goal as a dual goal: to forewarn Israel about a period of severe persecution in the future and to assure them that their sovereign God will limit the days of persecution and destroy the persecutor.

In spite of this vision being immensely, even physically, unsettling the vision carries this seed of hope that the Sovereign God is enthroned and is counting the days.

Similarly for us, Jesus states

Mark 13:32 ESV

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

We can and should read this in one way that leads us to eschew any attempt to discover the times and hour of God’s enactment of judgement.

But let’s also be aware that this verse implies there is a time! There is an hour!

God is still in the business of sovereignly ruling while he counts the days!

We know that this was meaningful to Daniel because Daniel noted how the Angel turns to him and clearly tells him. The angel didn’t want him to miss it and Daniel doesn’t want us to miss it either.

Applications

So as we close I want to consider a few applications to how we have walked through the text:

(1) Persecution has been and will be a reality for followers of God. We should not be surprised, but prepared for it. By prepared by the way, I don’t primarily mean prepared to fight back, but prepared to be faithful.

Prepared to live in a radically Jesus-centric, God-oriented, word-guided, Spirit-dependent way.

Which, to add another caveat, you will likely realize looks oddly ordinary.

Consider Jeremiah’s practical exhortation to Daniel and his colleagues as they dwell in exile:

Jeremiah 29:4–7 ESV

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Let us live the same. Let’s gather and sing, let’s read and discuss the scriptures, get married, raise kids, work hard, enjoy God and the life he has given you. Let’s live in our beautiful Californian Babylon but let’s never forget our glorious Heavenly home.

(2) Repentance, Daniel see a vision of his people’s continued struggles to remain faithful to God. Let us remember that the Christian life is not one of perfection, but humble repentance. Let’s confess our sins to God and to one another. In the safety of loving community let’s seek holiness by bringing sin into the light where it has no power and where the light of the Truth—the light of Christ and his gospel sets us free.

(3) Pray, let’s remember and acknowledge that the task laid out before us. The task of holiness, godliness, Christ-likeness—is not one that can be pursued under our own power and by our own strength. So Let’s pray for the Lord to do what he has already promised… to finish the good work he has begun.

As well, the task of evangelism is not one that can be accomplished by ourselves. We can evangelize, we can share, we can witness, and we can testify. But it is God who will give faith. So let’s ask him—in his sovereignty that stretches over earthly kingdoms and penetrates into human hearts—to give faith and save the lost.

Prayer

On that note let’s pray:

Father in Heaven,

Holy is your name.

Your kingdom come and your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

That will, which Jesus taught us to pray for, leads to and through many secular and pagan empires. Kings and kingdoms rise and fall, but you Lord endure.

Fashion us into faithful servants that we, like Daniel, by your grace cling to you in faith.

Give us peace in Christ and courage too, because he has overcome the world…and not only the world but Satan… and not only Satan but our sin.

Help us, by the power of your Spirit, by the washing of the Word, to pursue holiness. To set out minds in Heaven—where Christ is seated—so that we are not tempted and lured by the things of earth.

When we face temptation may the Spirit of faithfulness lead us out.

When we despair fix the eyes of our hearts on you and your kingdom.

The nations rage, but you laugh.

Persecution arises to discipline and to test, but you count the days.

May Christ reign in us!

May we be people of prayer and repentance. Which is to say people who depend on you for our salvation, for our sanctification.