THE VISION (PART 2): HISTORY MATTERS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. In my vision, I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great.

As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power. The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.

Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord; it took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord, and His sanctuary was thrown down. Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.

Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the Lord’s people?”

He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated.”

While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. And I heard a man’s voice from the Ulai calling, “Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.”

As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.”

While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.

He said: “I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end. The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes is the first king. The four horns that replaced the one that was broken off represent four kingdoms that will emerge from his nation but will not have the same power.

“In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise. He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.

“The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.”

I, Daniel, was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.

Daniel 8

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

My brother and I were having a conversation today about his ongoing work in college as he pursues his degree. He was sharing a little bit about each course he was taking and when he got to history, he mentioned how much of an affinity he had for the subject after which I promptly said:

“I’m really not all that into history.”

Well, I had no quicker let those words slip out of my mouth that I had to go back and correct myself because although as a whole I really don’t get into history, I do love the Bible and the holy scriptures within and to love that means you have to love history. It really is central to the word of God.

This fact is no more true than as we look at a second vision had by Daniel in Chapter 8, a vision that like the one in Chapter 7 precedes the time of King Darius found in Chapter 6. This vision, occurring in the “third year of King Belshazzar’s reign”, foretells events that are yet to come in Daniel’s time but events that have already happened as we look back at history today. Thus to understand the meaning of Daniel’s vision, we will first look at historical happenings, specifically the empires and people who rose to power.

First, since the king at the time of Daniel’s vision is Belshazzar, we know the Babylonians were in power. They were defeated by the Medo-Persian empire who ruled and reigned until the Greeks came under the leadership of Alexander the Great and conquered the Medes and Persians. After Alexander the Great passed, various people came to power and one such ruler was a Greek king known as Antiochus Epiphanes who reigned over Syria from 175-164BC. His true title was supposed to be Antiochus IV but he himself chose to add the name “Epiphanes” which translated to mean “illustrious one” or “god manifest”. Indeed, Antiochus likened himself to a god and made it one of his missions to go after the Jews, bringing brutal persecution upon them.

During the reign of Antiochus, there were two major factions within Judaism: the Hellinists who were grounded in the Greek culture to include the pagan worshiping of Greek gods and the Traditionalists who remained strictly faithful to the Mosaic ways and Jewish traditions. I think you can obviously see how these two factions would be at odds with each other and so to try and standardize the way people worshiped, Antiochus issued an edict that banned Jewish religious rites and ordered all Jews to worship the Greek god Zeus instead of the Lord God Almighty.

In other words, Antiochus was trying to eradicate Jewish culture and make all Jews Hellenists. Obviously, this wasn’t going to sit well with the Traditionalists who rebelled against Antiochus who promptly raided God’s temple in Jerusalem, stole all the treasures within, set up an altar to honor Zeus, and performed sacrifices on the altar to the Greek god. The Jews were outraged and after protesting the defiling of the temple, Antiochus responded by either slaughtering the Jews or selling them into slavery. Further, Antiochus upped the ante on his persecution by banning circumcisions and ordering Jews to sacrifice to pagan gods and eat pig meat, commands that led the Traditionalists to fight back.

And fight back they did for in 167-166BC, the Traditionalists took the fight to the Syrian-Greek military forces and won a series of victories. The uprising became known as the Maccabean revolt named after the Jewish leader, Judas Maccabaeus, and after the Traditionalists gained victory and vanquished Antiochus, they cleaned and restored God’s temple in 165BC, reinstituting proper worship to the Lord God Almighty. The restoration of the temple after the revolt is the impetus for the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.          

With all this as a backdrop, let’s now go back to the vision of Daniel in Chapter 8 and bring things together.

The ram with two horns that Daniel observed was none other than the Medo-Persian empire. The reason one horn was longer than the other was because the Persians were more prominent within the empire. Note how the Medo-Persian empire was very powerful as no one could stand against it as it did as it pleased.

That is until the Greeks showed up on the scene, represented by the goat within the vision. The prominent horn symbolized Alexander the Great as the one who was in power. And just as the goat made quick work of destroying the ram, so too did the Greeks completely dominated and overthrew the Medes and Persians. The goat (Greeks) would grow in power but while they were at the height of dominance, the large horn was broken off, signifying the death of Alexander the Great. In his place, we find other prominent leaders emerge, one of which grows in power and begins to mistreat the holy ones of God. This, of course, is Antiochus Epiphanes.

The vision begins to document the actions of Antiochus against the Jews as he “took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord” and threw down His sanctuary was thrown down. The Lord’s people were subject to the persecution of Antiochus and their ability to properly worship God was taken away. Antiochus was characterized as being “completely wicked”, fierce-looking", and a “master of intrigue”. He considered himself superior to everyone including God Himself.

But note what happened when the Holy One spoke. Daniel was given a reassurance in the vision that the suffering of the Jews would not last forever for a day would come when the sanctuary of the Lord would be reconsecrated once again and the one who considered himself superior would meet his end, not by way of human hands but rather at the hands of God Himself. .

And so it came to be. God’s word in the vision played out exactly as it was stated and the rest became history, history we get to study and revel in today, history that continuously reminds us of God’s awesome greatness and superiority, no matter how powerful any one world leader might become.

Then, now, and forever, God reigns and rules supreme over His creation. And that will never change, no matter how many chapters history writes.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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