Day 258 (Daniel 7-9) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Today we transitioned out of the hope literature portion of this book, and into the apocalyptic prophecies portion of this book. But I'm pretty sure you already figured that out. Today Daniel opens with a flashback to a dream or a vision he had during King B's reign, before he died and Darius took the throne. This time, even Daniel the dream whisperer couldn't figure things out. He needed help from an angel.

His dream was about four beasts, and the fourth beast was the worst by far. It destroyed everything in its path. It had 11 total horns on its head, and one of the horns was attacking three of the other horns. We've talked previously about how horns in scripture represent strength and power, and the angel tells Daniel that these beasts represent empires or kingdoms, and the horns represent kings. The biggest and worst horn is the one who will rise up and try to destroy God's people. He'll try to abolish their laws, and he'll punish them for an amount of time that most commentators believe amounts to three and a half years. We'll see that time period referenced a lot in the apocalyptic books of the Bible. As we know, numbers have a lot of significance to ancient Jews. Seven symbolizes completion and perfection, like the seven days of the week. On the other hand, some say 3.5 carries the idea of incompletion, and possibly even failure. So maybe this time period is literal, or maybe it's symbolizing the failure of the horn. Regardless of whether it's literal or figurative, the end result is the same. The horn doesn't win, because God, the Ancient of Days, is on the scene, ready to issue judgment. He's on his fiery chariot throne, and he brought his servants, who are probably angels, with him. The horn mounts off to God, so God annihilates him. Then someone referred to as the Son of Man comes in and begins to reign, and his rule will never end. The Son of Man is definitely Jesus. He claims this title in Mark 14, among other places. In fact, it's his favorite way of referring to himself.

If you want to know more about the reason and meaning behind that, check out the short article we've linked to in the show notes. Here's another interesting thing in this text. Some commentators believe these four beasts represent the same four empires King Nebi had dreamed about in his statue dream.

Remember how the feet part of the statue was made of the most resilient material in the statue, but that ended up getting crushed by a rock? That could correspond to Daniel's four beasts, with the fourth being the strongest, who then gets taken down by the son of man. So it's possible God could be communicating the same information here, just using different imagery.

Commentators are divided on which four empires are represented here based on the timeline, but most believe the fourth empire is either ancient Greece or ancient Rome. Those who fall on the Greece side of things usually believe the bad horn is the Greek tyrant Antiochus IV, whose reign fits the descriptions and the three-and-a-half-year timeline. And those who fall on the Rome side of things usually believe the horn is an antichrist. Some believe these prophecies were fulfilled a few hundred years later in Jesus' time, and others believe they still apply to the future. Chapter 8 gives us more animals and horns and a vision that is so historically precise that it could make a believer out of a skeptic. The vision begins with Daniel in Susa, the capital city of Persia. He sees a ram with two horns attacking everything in sight and winning until a one-horned goat attacks the ram and breaks its horns. Then this one horn gets broken and replaced by four horns. One of the horns becomes really strong and takes away the burnt offering and desecrates the sanctuary. This is all pretty perplexing to Daniel, but the angel Gabriel shows up and tells him the meaning of everything. Per usual, animals represent empires and horns represent the rulers of those empires. Gabriel tells Daniel that Greece is the goat, specifically at the time when Alexander the Great is ruling the empire. And a ruler after him, who is almost certainly Antiochus IV, will punish God's people and succeed at bringing destruction to so many of the things they cherish.

History tells us that he slaughters thousands of Jews. He sacrifices a pig on the altar in the temple, and he sets up offerings to Zeus there. God says he will personally destroy him. Verse 25 puts it this way, He shall be broken, but by no human hand. After hearing all this, Daniel is so disturbed that he has to call in sick for a few days. Then verse 27 says he rose and went about the king's business. In chapter 9, Daniel is reading some of the other prophets, Jeremiah specifically, and realizes that the 70 years prophesied for their captivity is almost over. You'd think he'd be thrilled, but he seems more grieved than anything. He puts on sackcloth and smears himself with ashes, the traditional attire for mourning, and he fasts and prays and begs God for mercy. Prophets act as mediators between God and mankind, and much of what Daniel has been doing is hearing from or interpreting God's words to the people, but now he's working the other end of the prophetic spectrum. He's talking to God on behalf of the people. He acknowledges Israel's wickedness and God's just response to the broken covenant.