Daniel 8:15-27--The Interpretation of the Vision

Daniel 8:15-27
English Standard Version

The Interpretation of the Vision
15 When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. 16 And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” 17 So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.”

18 And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. 19 He said, “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. 20 As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. 21 And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. 22 As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. 23 And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. 24 His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. 25 By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. 26 The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.”

27 And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.

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I gave you a lot of the interpretation as we went through the vision last time, but there will be some things in the passage today that I didn't say yesterday.  Daniel does not immediately make the connection between this vision and the previous vision from Chapter 7 and the dream he delivered the interpretation for in chapter 2 (God gave the interpretation to Daniel, but He let Daniel deliver it to Nebuchadnezzar).  The angel Gabriel appears (I'll tell you why this is significant in a bit) to explain Daniels vision to him.  In fact, Gabriel was commanded by God to make Daniel understand the vision.  Daniel was afraid at the appearance of Gabriel (like others are in the Bible).  Daniel was told that these visions he had received were about "the end times."  While some of these events would happen soon and other would not happen for a very long time from Daniel's perspective, these are all things that Daniel needed to understand needed to happen before Messiah would appear--that's going to be the big vision that he's going to receive very soon, and we know part of Jesus arriving "in the fullness of time" is that the Roman Empire had conquered the known world before He arrived and this prepared the world to have a single written language (Greek, from the conquering of Alexander the Great) and roads that went to every corner of their empire so that they could quickly respond with military force when needed, but these same roads would be used by the Apostles to take the gospel to the uttermost ends of the earth.  All this must happen before the end will come.

Daniel was put into a deep sleep and when he was rested, Gabriel touched him to wake him up and give him even more interpretation for the vision he just received.  The ram in the dream was the king of Media-Persia, and the goat was the king of Greece. (Alexander the Great).  Four kingdoms would come out of the Greek empire, each ruled by a different man, though none of them rose to the level of Alexander the Great--able to unite the entire world under their leadership.  God would let people continue in their wickedness until things get so bad that he allows an antichrist-figure to appear out of one of these four kingdoms.  Without warning, he will lash out and destroy many people and seek to make war with the Messiah (to keep God's promises from coming to pass).  Just as Antiochus IV Epiphanies desired to keep Jesus from coming in His first Advent, the Antichrist will seek to keep Jesus from coming in His Second Coming to bring His Kingdom.

No harm will come to God's plan (and this also looks forward to the Antichrist in the future who will also be unsuccessful in his attempts to stop Jesus from coming back and setting His feet on the Mount of Olives).  Daniel is told that these visions he has received are all true things that will happen, but they are not for people to understand in his day and time.  He is to write them down but they are to be sealed up and preserved for a people from another time (like our time, when we are very close to the end of days now, since all of these four kingdoms have come and sort of gone--though you could argue that the Roman Empire is what we would now call "The Western World" and "First World Countries" (the major centers of power is still in Europe and European colonies and places with a European worldview that came directly out of the influence of the Roman Empire).  It appears that dynamic won't change until there is a confederation of ten nations that comes together to try to rule the world once again (we can see this being possible with the globalist movement today and lots of organizations such as the League of Nations, the European Union, the United Nations, The World Bank, The World Health Organization, and many other such organizations that desire to have global influence in existence today that all seem ready to follow the lead of a single individual if he could unify all of them.  We appear to be in the last days, not just because these are the days after Jesus's birth, death, burial, and resurrection and the birth of the church.  We are just waiting now for the gospel to go to every people and tongue so that there will be a remnant from every tribe, tongue and nation.  The kingdom of God will make it to the ends of the earth first, and then the end will come with Satan trying to stop the work that God has done, but he will be unsuccessful.

Daniel heeded what Gabriel said and got up and went about the king's business (his daily work), but he was still troubled by and appalled by the vision that he received, and did not completely understand it.  I mentioned before that I would come back and tell you why it was important that Gabriel delivers this message.  We see Gabriel usually connected with Messianic prophecies (prophecies concerning the coming of Messiah).  This vision doesn't seem to directly connect with that, but I already made the connection for you that the fall of Media-Persia and the rise and fall of Greece must all happen before Messiah would come.  We will see another named angel in the book of Daniel named Michael, and he is given watch over the people and nation of Israel.  There will be one place in Daniel where the two of them show up together because the continued existence of the Jewish people and the coming of the Messiah from the line of Judah were very much connected ideas--if the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ceased to exist, where would the promised Messiah come from?  Perhaps you see now why Satan was so busy working through so many different kingdoms to try to exterminate the Jewish people in the past (and he still attacks them to this day along with the Christians because he hates all the people that God has chosen to love).  More on this as we continue to study the prophecies given in this book.