Day 258 (Daniel 7-9) - Year 4
08:02 Share

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee 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 mouths 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 in 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 the 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, 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. He asks God to bring their judgment to an end and restore them, not because they're righteous, but because God is merciful.

While Daniel is mid-sentence, the angel Gabriel shows up again. By the way, some translations say Gabriel came to Daniel in swift flight, but the original Hebrew seems to indicate that that phrase, in swift flight, is pointing to Daniel, not Gabriel. In Hebrew, the phrase falls more along the lines of, he came to Daniel in the midst of Daniel's extreme weariness.

So maybe the swift flight terminology is supposed to indicate that Daniel is fading fast, slipping away into sleep, which isn't uncommon for his vision states. Regardless, we shouldn't take it to mean that Gabriel flies. Angels seem to travel at the speed of thought.

Gabriel reminds Daniel that he is greatly loved. Then he responds to Daniel's request. He gives him a timeline for the remainder of their exile, then a timeline for restoration. There are lots of opinions on these timelines. I even had a hard time finding a resource that addresses them all. But we put a very complex link in the show notes for those of you who want to geek out on this.

Gabriel says there will be some setbacks during this timeline. Namely, Jerusalem will be destroyed again. There will be wars and more devastation and desolation, but verse 27 tells us there is a decreed end to these tragedies. And that falls right in line with my God shot for today.

Repeatedly in these visions, there are little phrases that show us how all of this is part of God's plan, how his enemies are on a leash, and how the clock is ticking on their part of the story. We saw it in 7.6 and 7.12, where dominion is both given and taken away from the four beasts. We saw it in 8.19 and 8.23, where God says there is an appointed time for things and that there will be a limit on transgression. And we see it again here in 9.27 with the decreed end.

God is sovereign over his enemies, over his timeline, over his plan. And in the midst of raising up and bringing down kingdoms, in the midst of his plan to bring an end to transgression and restore his people in relationship with him, in the midst of all the huge things on his to-do list, he still sends a messenger to tell his prophet before everything else, you are greatly loved. He's in the rise and fall of kingdoms, and he's in the tiny whispers to his servants. And he's where the joy is.

The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week. For more information on DGroup, visit mydgroup.org.