Resources For Daniel 8 From Each Harderwyk Preacher
Pastor Aaron VanderVeen - WaterShed Preacher
From NIV Application Commentary by Tremper Longman
That leads us back to the function of the highly symbolic numbers in Daniel and elsewhere, which are so difficult to figure out. Their purpose is not for date-setting but for comfort. They remind us that God knows what he is doing. God is sovereign and has set a limit on how long the present evil world will oppress us. These facts should comfort us by reminding us that God is in control of the situation.
I submit for our consideration that the misuse of these apocalyptic dates is an attempt to wrest control from God and place it firmly in our own sinful grasp. But the result is disruption in the church and in our lives. Such vain speculation leads, as in the case of the people I mentioned above, to a complete disregard for present realities. God calls us to live in the present while waiting with hope for the future.
Pastor Bill Lindner - Celebration Preacher
Understanding Apocalyptic Visions: There's More To Reality Than Meets The Eye - My own blog - CLICK HERE
In this blog post, I gather some thoughts and Scriptures that teach us about the "complex, nuanced view of reality" that permeates the Bible. Namely that there is more to reality than just a "cause-and-effect physical realm" and that understanding that a "spiritual realm" exists as well is key to understanding apocalyptic writings like we face in Daniel 7.
Freshman Humanities Class and the Book of Daniel - my Blog Post - CLICK HERE
This is a repeat reference to my blog on how I have come to trust the historical references in Daniel. I was taught as a college student that there was no mention of King Belshazzar apart from Daniel 5, 7 & 8, and that the Bible was not trustworthy in its history. At that moment, a rebuttal was sitting in a Berlin museum waiting to be translated. A real-life archaeology story that is not as adventurous as Indiana Jones, bur far more consequential.
From Daniel - Reformed Expository Commentary by Iaian Duguid
The message of the vision was thus good news to generations of saints who suffer at the hands of earthly kingdoms, whether the Babylonians, or the subsequent Persians and Greeks, or present-day persecutors. These empires that to human eyes looked so powerful, that seemed to have no weaknesses or chinks in their armor, were actually merely sheep and goats whose destiny lay in the hands of the divine shepherd, the Lord himself. They weren’t even the cosmically frightening monsters of Daniel 7, but only overgrown domestic animals. Like any good shepherd, the Lord is easily able to judge mere sheep and goats who step out of line and to put them back in their place (see Ezek. 34). p.126
Whose transgression is in view here? Most commentators take this transgression as the rebellion of the little horn.6 However, it makes far more sense to understand this transgression as the rebellion of God’s own people, a theme that anticipates Daniel’s prayer of repentance in Daniel 9.7 After all, the outcome of this rebellion is that the host and the sanctuary are “given over” into the power of the little horn (Dan. 8:12). It is certainly true that at times the sovereign Lord may bring an enemy against his people in order to display his own glory, when they have not sinned against him (e.g., 2 Chron. 20; Ezek. 38). Yet he would hardly give his people and sanctuary over into the hand of his enemy, except on account of their own sin (see Deut. 28:45–48). This was the case in Daniel’s own day (see Dan. 1:2), and what Daniel saw was a future repetition of the sin and judgment of God’s people that had led to the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. The holocaust of the exile was not the end of the cycle of sin and judgment for Israel. p. 131
Yet why 2,300 days? This period is just short of seven years, which might be considered a full period of judgment, as in Daniel 4. However, the number doesn’t exactly fit any pairing of events in the Maccabean period, although many attempts have been made to do so. It may be, therefore, that we are simply intended to see this number as a figurative representation of a significant but limited period of suffering on the part of the people of God.10 What is particularly striking about the figure, though, when compared to the less precise “three and a half times” of Daniel 7, is the fact that this period is measured in days. The most important point may be that God has a precise calendar for the events of world history, a calendar that is accurate to the day, yet at the same time utterly inscrutable to all human efforts to decode it. p. 132
Here we move beyond “wars and rumors of wars,” beyond the general trials and tribulations of life that mark out every era of history, to focus on one of the specific assaults of Satan against God’s people. God is sovereign over all of the events of world history, but his greatest concern is with the fate of his own people. Alexander the Great was one of the greatest military strategists, one of the pivotal men in world history. Yet in Daniel 8 he is a mere footnote, meriting barely a mention before the vision moves on to the more important matter of the little horn and his assault on God’s people, and even on God himself.
Once again, with the benefit of historical hindsight, we can clearly identify the little horn of Daniel 8 as a historical figure, Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175–164 B.C.). Antiochus, whose nickname “Epiphanes” means “God made manifest,” was king of the Seleucid empire, one of the four kingdoms that emerged from Alexander the Great’s former territory. Initially he was not first in line for the throne, but he seized it from his nephew through intrigue and then enlarged his kingdom through substantial military successes. Antiochus was a tyrant who tried to unify his kingdom by forcing all of his subjects to adopt Greek cultural and religious practices. He banned circumcision, brought an end to sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem in 167 B.C., and then deliberately defiled it by burning pig’s flesh on the altar and placing an object sacred to Zeus in the Holy of Holies. He also burned copies of the Scriptures and slaughtered those who remained true to their faith in God, fitting perfectly the description of a stern-faced king who was completely wicked. This king was part of the fulfillment of the dream, for the angel had prophesied that “in the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced 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 the mighty men and the holy people” (Dan. 8:23–24).
These acts of gross sacrilege by Antiochus triggered a rebellion on the part of faithful Jews, who were led in their revolt by the Maccabees. After a lengthy struggle, their rebellion culminated in the Seleucid forces being driven out of Judah and the temple being cleansed and rededicated in 164 B.C. Antiochus himself died in somewhat obscure circumstances during a campaign in the eastern part of his empire in 164 B.C. These events of real history faithfully reflect the events described in Daniel 8, reinforcing once again the message of God’s control of all of history.
Daniel 8 opens a window onto the bigger picture of the struggle against Antiochus, though. Antiochus was not simply at war against the earthly saints, but against the heavenly host as well. We are told that he made himself as great as God, the Prince of the heavenly host, and swept some of the stars from the sky. This is a visionary way of describing the cosmic struggle that will come to the fore in Daniel 10. It is as if the curtain is drawn back, and behind Antiochus we see the ominous power of the spiritual forces of darkness arrayed against our God. p.128-129
Comments
Post a Comment