Daniel 8:1-14
Daniel 8:1-14
New King James Version (NKJV)
Vision of a Ram and a Goat
1 In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me—to me, Daniel—after the one that appeared to me the first time. 2 I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision that I was by the River Ulai. 3 Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. 4 I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him; nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great.
5 And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 6 Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. 7 And I saw him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand.
8 Therefore the male goat grew very great; but when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven. 9 And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land. 10 And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. 11 He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. 12 Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered.
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?”
14 And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
My Thoughts:
Today we start another study of prophetic symbols, the Ram and the Goat. This vision was two years after the one in chapter 7 but as we will see they are related. As I was reading the verses today I stopped for a moment and I thought about what Jesus had said in (Matthew 24:15) “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand).” Christ wants us to understand all we need to do is make the effort to read. There is an old saying that “God helps those that help themselves”. Although contrary to what people may say it is not in the Bible, but that does not make it any less true. God will give us the food, the information or whatever we need but we also must do our part and pick it up, read it or whatever is required.
Just like chapter 7, chapter 8 and chapter 9 take us through the political entities of history, but this time leaving out Babylon and taking us through medieval Christianity.
What do the two beast look like in this chapter and what kingdoms do they represent? Let’s start with the ram; it has two horns but one horn was higher than the other and they represent Media and Persia. And the other beast the goat; has a noticeable horn between his eyes, and he represents the kingdom of Greece. Something I find noteworthy is the fact that the goat did not touch the ground; this is to represent the fast moving pace which Alexander the Great conquered the other kingdoms.
But the thing about the great horn of the goat is, it broke, and that it broke in to four pieces, now this is nothing new for us we have seen this in chapter 2 and 7 but let’s move on. Now we read in (v.8 ) “…the large horn was broken, and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven.” Many times people think that the “other one” came up from one of the pieces of horn but if you read the verse in Hebrew you will see that the one that came up is not part of the horn but from the four winds, thus this represent Rome.
But there are those that say that is was the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes that came up from the others, but he was only one of 26 kings that made up the Syrian horn and he never achieved any great power, and it is said that the little horn will stand up against the Prince of princes, which would be Jesus Christ (Daniel 9:25; Acts 3:15; Revelation 1:5). And Antiochus died 164 years before Christ was born. It is plain to see that the Roman Empire is the one that Daniel is talking about.
We are going to stop here for today and we will pick up where we left off tomorrow.
Ellen White Statements:
“There is need of a much closer study of the word of God; especially should Daniel and the Revelation have attention as never before in the history of our work. We may have less to say in some lines, in regard to the Roman power and the papacy; but we should call attention to what the prophets and apostles have written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit has so shaped matters, both in the giving of the prophecy and in the events portrayed, as to teach that the human agent is to be kept out of sight, hid in Christ, and that the Lord God of heaven and His law are to be exalted. Read the book of Daniel. Call up, point by point, the history of the kingdoms there represented. Behold statesmen, councils, powerful armies, and see how God wrought to abase the pride of men, and lay human glory in the dust….
The light that Daniel received from God was given especially for these last days. The visions he saw by the banks of the Ulai and the Hiddekel, the great rivers of Shinar, are now in process of fulfillment, and all the events foretold will soon come to pass.” {TM 112}
Last thoughts:
When we study the book of Daniel we see that;
Daniel 2 focuses on Christ our King
Daniel 7 focuses on Christ or Judge
Daniel 8 and 9 focuses on Christ our High Priest, who died for our sins.
But the thing I love about Daniel the most is that the key theme to his book is the Salvation and the Sanctuary, we will address the Sanctuary after we finish Chapter 8. We will take Friday and spend the day studying why this Sanctuary in verse 13 is so important for us to understand.
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Daniel 8 :14 is said to be the focus of the entire book of Daniel. The angel Gabriel answered the anxious question about how long the priestly ministry would be trampled underfoot. “For two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings; then shall the sanctuary be restored to its rightful state”. We have to remember that this verse is located in the SYMBOLIC portion of Daniel 8. We understand that the time is 2300 DAYS, symbolic days, which means 2300 years. This is when it gets so exciting! I pray everyone will have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow.