THE BOOK OF DANIEL
CHAPTER 8
DANIEL'S
VISION
DANIEL'S VISION STUDY ON DANIEL'S VISION STORY WITH DANIEL'S VISION MESSAGE ON DANIEL'S VISION PROPHECY
Great to have you back for more great Bible stories from the Old Testament
book of Daniel. To start off with, let's familiarize ourselves with the time period
and setting of our story. The events of this chapter happened two years after
Daniel's dream that we studied in Chapter 7, but it is still before the lion's
den incident.
Daniel is a Prophet of God ... An Israelite, captive in Babylon, although he
has been well favored by the two kings that he has served under,
Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar, because of his incredible gift of
interpreting dreams and visions.
Daniel refers to the incident you're about to read about, as a
vision. In this vision, Daniel was in the palace at Shushan, which was
the capital of Persia at that time, in the ancient city of Elam, by the river of Ulai.
Today, this would be somewhere in the southwestern area of Iran.
In Daniel's
vision, he saw a ram, standing in front of the river, with two tall
horns, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up
last. The ram was pushing westward, northward and southward. No beasts
dared challenge him and nobody could be saved from him. He did whatever
he wished and became very strong.
Then an he-goat came from the west carried through the air, and the goat
had a prominent horn between his eyes. He charged at the ram in great fury and
power and attacked, breaking his two horns, leaving the ram no strength to
remain standing. The goat threw him to the ground and stamped on him, and
nobody could save the ram from the goat.
When
the he-goat became strong, his great horn was broken and instead of it,
there came four horns
from the four winds of Heaven, and
out of one of them came a little horn, which became very strong,
toward the south, the east, and toward the pleasant land. It became very
powerful, opposing the host of Heaven, and
some of the host and the stars, it threw down to the ground, and
trampled on them.
He esteemed himself equal to
the prince of the host, and he took the daily sacrifice away and the
temple was pillaged. The he-goat accomplished and prospered much.
DANIEL'S VISION LESSON WITH DANIEL'S VISION EXPLANATION AND DANIEL'S
VISION SUMMARY
Then Daniel heard a holy one
say, How long will this last? And another Angel answered, Two thousand and three
hundred days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.
While Daniel tried to
understand the meaning of the vision, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him,
and a voice from the banks of the river called to him and said, Gabriel,
make this man to understand the vision. As he approached Daniel, it
terrified him and he fell on his face, but Gabriel said, Understand that
the vision will be at the time of the end.
Daniel then fell into a deep sleep with his face toward the ground
but Gabriel set him upright and explained the vision.
The ram, having
the two horns are the kings of Media and Persia, an empire growing to the
north, south and west, and the he-goat is the
king of Greece, west of the Medo-Persian Empire. The great horn between his eyes is the first king, then
there will be four after him which will not be of his bloodline, but will
come from different places.
Then there will arise a fierce
king, clever with trickery. He will exercise great power, derived from the
devil, and he will cause great destruction, and will prosper and destroy
the strong and the saints. He will magnify himself in
his heart and by his craftiness, in a time of peace, he will destroy many. He will also stand
up against the Prince of princes, but he will be destroyed without even being touched.
Gabriel continued, The vision
of the times that you've seen is true, but keep it to yourself, because it
won't happen for a long time. Daniel fainted and was sick for days, then
got up and returned to his work for the king. The vision astonished him, but
he really didn't understand it.
We've probably all heard it
said that history repeats itself. Well, There is a very interesting thing
about this vision of Daniel's. You see, it happened already, just as
Daniel prophesied, and the book of Revelation indicates, as well as the
Angel Gabriel explained, that it will happen during the End Times.
Let's take a look at that
period in history, when these things already came to pass for just a
moment, shall we? There was indeed a king from Greece that took over the
Medo-Persian empire. You've probably heard of him before, he was known as
Alexander the Great.
DANIEL'S VISION INFORMATION WITH DANIEL'S VISION MEANING
AND DANIEL'S VISION DISCUSSION
You can investigate this in
history books if you like, and you'll find that Alexander's kingdom was
not passed down to his heirs at his death, but rather, it fell among many
... But particularly, it was divided into four kingdoms. To the west of
Alexander's kingdom, became the Roman domain, the area that the Bible
refers to as Macedonia was ruled by Antigonus, the area formerly known as
Asia was taken over by Seleucus, and Egypt was conquered by Ptolemy.
By and by out of Greece there
came along the little horn, whose name was Antiochus Epiphanes. In
addition to his tyrannical ruling of every place he conquered, he reigned
terror on Israel for three and a half years, pillaged the temple, took
away the daily sacrifice and built an idol on God's altar. He made the
Jewish people build temples, set up idols in every city, offer swine to
them every day, and forsake the worship of God. Anyone who didn't obey him
was threatened to be punished. He murdered many, burned the city, took
thousands and thousands captive and appointed guards to make sure the
Jewish people did as he commanded.
Now, remember that in
Daniel's vision, Gabriel told him that he (the little horn) would be
destroyed without even being touched. It just so happened that Antiochus
Epiphanes, in his pursuit to terrorize yet more people in Persia, was
challenged by them, driven away and lost much of his army in the conflict.
At the same time, the Jewish people began to strengthen themselves against
Antiochus by opposing his commanders in Judea, and when he was told of the
defeat, coupled with the beating he took in Persia, it literally drove him
mad, and he died of insanity, admitting just before his death that he was
being punished for the misery that he had brought upon the Jewish people.
If you
think all of this is interesting ... Just you wait!!! Have you ever had a
recurring dream? If so, you're not the only one! Daniel had another vision
concerning this very same thing that we'll be studying when we get to
Chapter 11, and you'll find out how this prophecy also refers to the
events that will happen in the End Times, so be sure to come back soon and
we'll enjoy more of God's word together.