Daniel 7 & 8 -- Almost Too Much Information

God communicated His difficult-to-understand messages to Daniel through dreams and visions.  My commentary helped by describing what is known now looking back on history and how it relates to what Daniel was shown.  In chapter 7, the restless sea represented nations moving against nations.  The lion with wings like an eagle represented Babylon.  “God told Daniel that the Babylonian Empire would fall.” 

 

The bear represented the Medes and Persians.  The leopard with 4 wings represented Alexander the Great of Greece, and the four horns matched the splitting up of his empire into four parts after his death.

 

The dreadful and terrible beast represented the Roman Empire.  “Daniel was then living in the Babylonian Empire, but he knew that Babylon would be taken by the Medes and Persians, and that Greece would conquer the Medo-Persian Empire, and Rome would eventually conquer all.  Prophecy is history written beforehand.”

 

There is a future aspect (for us) of Daniel’s visions – the kingdom of the Antichrist which will declare war on God, and the Kingdom of Christ, which we long for.

 

In chapter 8, Daniel again has a vision, delivered by the angel Gabriel.  The male sheep with two horns represented Cyrus, ruler of the Medo-Persian Empire, which defeated the Babylonians.  Alexander the Great is here depicted as an angry goat.  Four horns represent the splitting of Alexander’s kingdom after his death, and the little horn depicted Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled Syria from 175-163 B.C., who attacked Jerusalem in 168 B.C. and plundered the Temple and leveled Jerusalem, abolishing the Jewish religion when he declared one religion for all his kingdom.  In 165 B.C., Judas Maccabeus and his army retook Jerusalem and purified the Temple, allowing Jewish worship to be restored.  Antiochus foreshadows the Antichrist, my commentary says, and what Daniel learned in the rest of the chapter made him physically and emotionally ill.  Those evidently will be times that we won’t want to live through.

 

Father, I’m glad that You know the future and that You are also in charge of it.  Please help us to live each day for You now, for this side of heaven we will not know the impact that You will be making on the world and on the future through us.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford