Daniel 8:15 - Meaning and Application

Here Daniel shows his earnest desire to understand the vision. He says, “I sought the meaning” (Daniel 8:15). People who truly know the things of God always want to know more. If we want to understand what God has shown us, we must seek it carefully and pray for light, as Daniel did before (Daniel 2:18). He did not search in vain.

Then God gave an order through the angel Gabriel, who was sent to explain the vision to Daniel. One who looked like a man, and whom some think was Christ himself because only Christ could command angels, told Gabriel to make Daniel understand it. In this way God sometimes uses angels to protect his people and also to teach them. He serves both his providence, his care for the world, and his grace, his saving kindness, through their ministry.

When Gabriel came near, Daniel was terrified (Daniel 8:17). Though Daniel was wise and brave, the arrival of such a heavenly messenger overwhelmed him. He fell on his face, not to worship the angel, but because the brightness of his glory was more than he could bear. Then he fell into a deep sleep (Daniel 8:18). This was not carelessness. It came from weakness and the heavy burden on his spirit, because he had received so many revelations. Like the disciples in Gethsemane, he was willing in spirit, but weak in the flesh.

The angel then comforted him. He touched him and set him on his feet (Daniel 8:18). In a similar way, when John was frightened, Christ laid his right hand on him (Revelation 1:17). The touch was gentle, showing that the angel came to help Daniel, not to harm him. God can strengthen a person with just a touch. When we are slumped over and fixed on earthly things, we are not ready to hear from God. But if he means to teach us, he will awaken us by his grace and lift us up.

The angel also promised to explain the vision. He said, “Understand, son of man” (Daniel 8:17). By calling Daniel “son of man,” he showed tenderness and reminded him of his human weakness. He also taught him humility. Even though Daniel was allowed to speak with angels, he must not become proud. At the same time, the title gives him honor, since the Messiah had recently been called the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13), and Daniel stands near him as a prophet and a man greatly loved.

The angel told Daniel that he would understand what would happen at the end of the indignation, meaning the end of God’s judgment on his people (Daniel 8:19). This is a comfort to people who live through hard times: the anger will not last forever. It will pass away, as God promised in Isaiah 10:25 and Isaiah 26:20. It may pause and then return, but its final end will be good. God can even bring good out of it.

He also said that the vision belonged to “the time of the end” (Daniel 8:17). That may mean the end of the judgment itself, when the vision would be made clear by events. Or it may mean the later days of the Jewish church, hundreds of years ahead, so Daniel could leave this record for future generations. If Daniel wanted a more exact date, the answer was simple: “At the time appointed the end shall be” (Daniel 8:19). God has fixed the time in his own counsel. It cannot be changed, and it is not for us to probe into it.

Then the angel explained the vision. The ram stood for the line of kings in Media and Persia, and the rough goat stood for the kings of Greece (Daniel 8:20-22). The great horn was Alexander the Great, and the four horns that rose after him were the four kingdoms into which his empire was divided, as noted earlier (Daniel 8:8). They came from among the nations, but not in the same power as Alexander. None of them ever matched his greatness.

Josephus also tells a story about Alexander after he had taken Tyre and subdued Palestine. As he marched toward Jerusalem, Jaddua, the high priest, feared his anger and sought God in prayer and sacrifice for the safety of the people. He was then warned in a dream to open the city gates, and he and the other priests were to meet Alexander in their priestly clothes, while the people came out in white. Alexander, seeing them from a distance, went alone to the high priest and bowed before the God whose name was engraved on the gold plate of his mitre, his priestly headpiece. When one of Alexander’s captains asked why he did this, Alexander said that while he was still in Macedon, thinking about conquering Asia, a man dressed like the high priest had appeared to him and promised him success. The priests then led him to the temple, where he offered sacrifice to the God of Israel. They also showed him the book of Daniel, where it was foretold that a Greek would come and destroy Persia. This greatly encouraged him in his campaign against Darius. As a result, he protected the Jews and their religion, and he promised to be kind to Jews in Babylon and Media. In his honor, priests whose sons were born that year named them Alexander.

The angel then moved on to Antiochus and his oppression of the Jews. This came in the later time of the Greek kingdom, when the transgressors had come to the full (Daniel 8:23). That is, the corrupt Jews had filled up the measure of their sin and were ready for judgment. God could no longer, in honor, delay their punishment, so this king would arise as the rod in God’s hand to correct the Jews.

Now observe here, first, his character. He is a king with a fierce face, bold and angry, who does not fear God or respect people. He is said to understand dark sayings, or more plainly, to be skilled in hidden schemes, dishonest tricks, and the secret arts of deceit. He is a master of hiding his true purpose and of clever falsehood. He knew how to do evil well.

Second, observe his success. He will bring terrible ruin on the nations around him. His power will be great and will crush everything in front of it, but not by his own strength (Daniel 8:24). Part of his rise came from help from allies such as Eumenes and Attalus, part from the weakness and betrayal of many Jews, even some priests who joined his side, and most of all from God’s permission. It was not by his own power, but by power given from above, that he destroyed so greatly and made himself important by being a great destroyer.

He truly destroys in a remarkable way. He destroys the mighty people, and they cannot hold him back by their power. The princes of Egypt cannot stand before him with all their armies, but he works against them and succeeds. The strong people of the earth often meet someone at last who is stronger than they are. So let the strong person not boast in his strength, however great it may seem, unless he can be sure no one stronger exists.

He also destroys the holy people, the people of the holy ones. Their holy calling does not stop him from attacking them, and it does not protect them from harm. In this world, the same fate often comes to all, and the mighty and the holy both face hardship and death.

The means by which he succeeds are not true courage, wisdom, or justice, but policy and craft (Daniel 8:25). By fraud, deceit, and snake-like cunning, he makes craft succeed. He carries out his plans so skillfully that he wins by clever persuasion and flattery. He destroys many by peace, just as others do by war. Under the appearance of treaties, leagues, and alliances, he takes away their rights and tricks them into submission. In this way, a nation that wins honestly in war may later have what it gained taken back by another nation through treacherous peace, and craft is made to prosper.

He also does great harm to religion. He lifts himself up in his heart and thinks himself fit to set rules for everyone, so he stands against the Prince of princes, that is, against God himself. He will defile God’s temple and altar, stop the worship of God, and persecute those who worship him. See how far some people’s wickedness can take them. Their pride leads them to openly challenge God himself, even though he is the King of kings.

At last, he will be broken without hand, that is, without human help. He will not be killed in battle, nor stabbed by an assassin, as tyrants often were. Instead, he will fall into the hand of the living God and die by a direct act of judgment. When he heard that the Jews had thrown out the image of Jupiter Olympius from the temple where he had placed it, he became furious at them and vowed to turn Jerusalem into a common graveyard. He set out at once to march there, but before he could act, he was struck with a severe and incurable disease in his bowels. Worms grew so quickly in his body that pieces of flesh sometimes fell off. His pain was extreme, and the smell of his sickness was so foul that no one could bear to come near him. He suffered this misery for a long time.

At first he still kept threatening the Jews, but when he saw he would not recover, he called his friends together and admitted that these troubles had come on him because of the wrongs he had done to the Jews and because he had profaned the temple in Jerusalem. Then he wrote friendly letters to the Jews and promised that if he recovered, he would allow them free worship. But when his disease got worse, and he could no longer bear his own smell, he said it is right to submit to God, and for mortal man not to put himself against God. Then he died miserably in a foreign land, on the mountains of Pacata near Babylon, according to Ussher's Annals, in the year 3840 from creation, about 160 years before the birth of Christ.

As to the time set for the stopping of the daily sacrifice, this is not explained here, only confirmed (Daniel 8:26). The vision of the evening and morning is true in the plain sense of the words and needs no further explanation. However unlikely it may seem that God would allow his own sanctuary to be treated this way, it is true, painfully true, that it will happen.

Here is the end of the vision. Daniel is first told to keep it private for the present. He is to shut up the vision and not make it publicly known among the Chaldeans, so that the Persians, who were soon to take the kingdom, would not be angered against the Jews by it because it foretold the fall of their kingdom. That would have been out of season, since the king of Persia’s decree freeing the Jews was expected soon. He is told to seal it up, because it would not be fulfilled for many days. About 300 years would pass from this vision to its fulfillment. So for now he must keep it shut up, even from the Jewish people, so it would not astonish or confuse them. Yet it should be safely kept for later generations, those who would live near the time of fulfillment, because they would understand it best and benefit from it most.

What we know of God’s truth should be carefully stored away, so that later, when needed, we can use it faithfully. Even what seems to have no present use may be useful another time. Divine truth should be sealed up among our treasures so we can find it again after many days.

Daniel also took care to keep it private after receiving this command (Daniel 8:27). He fainted and was sick from the many thoughts within him caused by the vision. He was the more overwhelmed because he was forbidden to publish what he had seen, so his heart felt like wine with no vent, ready to burst like new wineskins (Job 32:19). Even so, he kept it to himself and suppressed the concern he felt, so those around him could not tell. He still carried on the king’s business as his duty required, whatever that work was.

As long as we live in this world, we must have work to do in it. Even those whom God has especially honored with his favor must not think they are above their daily responsibilities. And the joy of fellowship with God must not pull us away from the duties of our own calling. We must continue in them while staying with God. Those who have public responsibilities especially must make sure they carry out their trust faithfully.