Day 258. Daniel 7-9

We have noticed characteristics of apocalyptic literature in our earlier readings, but here in the last chapters of the Book of Daniel we encounter apocalyptic fully developed. Apocalyptic is addressed to an oppressed minority to encourage them in a time of persecution. That is what the Book of Daniel does—constantly underlining the theme that in spite of appearances, The LORD is in charge of history and that before long he will vindicate and rescue his "holy ones." As we noted earlier the Book of Daniel is set during the period of transition between the Babylonian and Persian empires and centers around the character of a Jewish hero and sage of that period whose name it bears. But in fact it was written by an unnamed author much later in the Greek period when the Jews were experiencing savage persecution at the hands of Syrian overlords. He uses all the apocalyptic elements to convey his message—visions, dreams, supernatural voices, and a
language of bizarre symbols intended to reveal a hopeful message about the future while hiding its meaning from the hostile and the uninitiated.
We are among those uninitiated, dear readers, and we have to pick our way slowly through our obscure text to uncover its meaning. The story is set hundreds of years before its writing, back before the fall of Babylon to Darius the Persian. The sage named Daniel experiences "a dream and visions of his head as he [lies] in bed" (7:1). The substance of his dream is this: Out of the sea—symbolizing the chaotic future—there arise four beasts, each different. There is a winged lion, a tusked bear, and four-headed leopard. Daniel does not linger longer over these than it takes to describe these beasts, symbolizing powerful kingdoms that rise and fall with the ebb and flow of history.
It is with the fourth beast that the dream is mostly concerned—it is depicted as "terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong" (7:7). Unlike the beasts that preceded it, this one has "ten horns"—horns, apocalyptic symbols of power, in this case represent kings. As Daniel watches a small horn sprouts from among the others, and three earlier horns are "plucked up by the roots" to make room for it (7:8). This new horn is different from the others in that it has "human eyes"—symbols of sentience and knowledge and a "mouth [that speaks] arrogantly" (7:8). This king is the immediate threat to the writer's generation. Daniel's vision of the distant future is his clear and present danger.
The vision continues as Daniel is ushered into the heavenly court and sees "an Ancient One" enthroned, "his clothing . . . white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool" (7:9), surrounded by "ten thousand times ten thousand [angels] attending him" (7:10). The appearance of God—his great age-- emphasizes that persistent theme in the Book of Daniel—that the LORD's dominion is an everlasting one, outlasting all earthly kingdoms. They are mere upstarts, coming and going, as the "Ancient One judges and deposes them. The "books" are opened—they represent the record kept of the good and evil deeds done by nations and individuals in preparation for their final judgment (7:10). The "arrogant words that the horn was speaking" are registered. He is endured for a time, but like all the others he will fall. The beast from which he springs will be "put to death" and its body "burned with fire" (7:11). The other three
beasts have lost their dominion, "but their lives [are] prolonged for a season and a time" (7:12)—this last expression, familiar to apocalyptic literature, means a while, but not forever. They live only at the sufferance of LORD until his final kingdom is established, then they too will pass away.
Still in the heavenly court, Daniel sees "one like a human being coming on the clouds of heaven" and approaching the Ancient One (7:13). The identity of this heavenly being, described as having the appearance of a mortal man—a son of man-- is not revealed in our text. Perhaps he is the embodiment of the coming kingdom, or perhaps he is God's true intention for humanity—his untarnished image. Of course Christians are bound to identify him with Jesus Christ, to whom is delivered an eternal dominion and a kingship . . . that shall never be destroyed," once the beasts—the kingdoms of this world-- have passed away. And it is a source of comfort to us to think of Jesus Christ, who is the same "yesterday, today, and forevermore."
But Daniel finds no such consolation in his dreams; in fact we are told that "the visions in [Daniel's] head terrified [him]" (7:15)--just as Nebuchadnezzar's dreams had frightened him. In his perplexity he approaches one of the supernatural attendants to "ask him the truth concerning all this." In reply he is told that the four beasts he had seen represent "four kings that shall arise out of the earth." They are indeed terrifying and powerful in their own time, but in the end the "holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom forever" (7:18). Then Daniel inquires specifically about the fourth beast because it is so especially frightful, and he is told that it is a kingdom "different from all other kingdoms," because it will "devour the whole earth" (7:23). Ten horns—ten kings—shall arise from its head, and then a last king—the little horn that sprouts among the others-- will be different from all the former and
much worse, because he blasphemes the LORD God, makes war upon his "holy ones," and attempts to change the sacred seasons and the law" (7:25)—undermining the identity of the Jewish people. These "holy ones" shall be given into his power for "a time, two times, and half a time" –apocalyptic language for 3 ½ years (see Daniel 9:27). Then the divine court shall sit in judgment and the power of the fourth beast shall be taken away and dominion will be "given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High" forever (7:27). It is an encouraging thought, but Daniel can only contemplate with fear the persecutions that are coming to his people and we are told that his face turns pale with terror (7:28).
Two years later Daniel is visited by another dream. This time he finds himself "in Susa in the province of Elam" (8:2). King Belshazzar still reigns in Babylon, but now Daniel is transported to the winter capital of the Persian Empire, the empire of Darius, who will supplant Belshazzar. There at the heart of the Persian realm the prophet sees a ram with two horns. It charges "westward and northward and eastward"—all other beasts "are powerless to withstand it" (8:4).
Then a male goat appears with a single horn between its eyes—a lone ruler. It runs at the ram "with savage force" (8:6). It ran at the ram and broke it horns and the ram "did not have power withstand it" (8:7) and "there was one who could rescue the ram from its power." And "the male goat became exceedingly great; but at the height of its power. The great horn was broken, and in its place there came four prominent horns toward the four winds of heaven" (8:8).
This is where the prophecy intersects with writer's own moment in time. Out of one of these horns grows a smaller horn, a ruler who will extend his power in all directions notably toward "the beautiful land"—Israel. He not only acts arrogantly, as former rulers had. He also interferes with temple worship, taking "the regular burnt offering away [from the LORD]" and overthrowing "the place of his sanctuary" (8:11). His evil regime shall "cast truth to the ground," but nevertheless keep on "prospering in what it [does]" (8:12). The persecution seems unendurable. As the Book of Daniel is being composed, the Jewish people are asking--How long can this state of affairs continue? Daniel hears one of the "holy ones"—an angel—ask another that question, and he replies that after 2300 morning and evenings "the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state" (8:14). Until then the people of God must wait and hope.
Confused and frustrated--and well he might be—Daniel the sage struggles to understand the vision he has been granted. The angel Gabriel tells him that these visions are "for the time of the end" (8:17). Apocalyptic literature always deals with "the appointed time of the end" (8:19). It attempts to explain the direction in which history is moving, and to elucidate how present events fit into the universal scheme of things.
So Gabriel explains that the ram with two horns stands for the king of Media and Persia, whose alliance overthrows the Babylonian empire. The "male goat" signifies the King of Greece--the great horn is its king—Alexander the Great. After Alexander's death—when "the horn . . . [is] broken" (8:22)-- his vast empire is divided among four of his generals, who received respectively Macedonia and Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt—the four horns. Palestine fell first under the authority of Syria and its rulers, who were called the Seleucids, after the first ruler Seleucus I.
The Seleucid ruler at the time of the writing of the Book of Daniel is one Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163 B.C). He is the horn, "a little one, which grows exceedingly toward the south, [and] toward the east," extending his sphere of power outward from the Seleucid capital of Antioch, and encroaching upon "the beautiful land" (8:9)—Israel. Antiochus is the one who will "without warning . . . destroy many." There will be martyrs among the faithful, and he will even rise up against the Prince of princes"—against God himself. Putting himself in the place of God, savagely persecute those who do not accept his authority—the "holy ones" of our text-- and he will even venture to interfere with the sacrifices in the temple.
The sage Daniel in our story does not understand the prophecy even when the angel explains it and his lack of comprehension makes him physically ill (8:27). But he gets up and goes back to the king's work, strengthened by the assurance that God will in the end triumph over all his enemies—the beasts that defy him—and save his people.
Now Daniel has recourse to the writings of the prophet Jeremiah, especially the prophecy that seventy years—one full lifetime-- after "the devastation of Jerusalem" the people will be allowed to return to their homeland (9:2). So in the hope that God will keep his promise made long ago, Daniel prays "with fasting and sackcloth and ashes" (9:3-4), making confession for the sins of his people, past and present. God is righteous; Israel is shameful in its disobedience (9:7). God is merciful and forgiving; Israel is disobedient and willful (9:8). Daniel readily admits that "what was done against Jerusalem" was the result of the people's infidelity to the Law of Moses. "God is right in all that he has done" (9:14). But in spite of that, Daniel prays that "[his] face shine upon [his] desolated sanctuary" (9:17). Daniel presents his supplication for himself and his people "not on the ground of [their] righteousness, but on the ground
of [God's] great mercies" and for his name's sake (9:19).
And as Daniel is praying the angel Gabriel appears "in a vision . . . in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice" (9:22). He assures Daniel that he is "greatly beloved" (9:23) and gives him an insight into things to come. For the writer of the Book of Daniel the seventy years of captivity in Babylon are long past. Now another crisis is taking place—a pagan ruler is seeking to destroy the very identity of the Jewish nation. It will be "seventy weeks"—a long, but finite time—before the persecution will end. The exile in Babylon was a punishment for sins against the Law. The persecution the Jews are now undergoing has a larger meaning. It is not only a punishment and atonement for past sins, but part of the struggle "to bring in everlasting righteousness" (9:24). It is part of God's plan for the establishment of his kingdom.
The "seventy weeks" of persecution is broken down into periods: seven weeks for the word to go out to rebuild Jerusalem; sixty-two weeks and then an "anointed one" shall be "cut off"—defeated--with nothing. Then the "troops of a prince who is to come"—Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria—"shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (9:26). There will be all sorts of disasters-- flood and war-- and "desolations are decreed" (9:26). This evil prince—called in the text "the desolator" (9:27) will make a "strong covenant" with many of the Jews—traitors and collaborators. With their collusion, he will stop the "sacrifice and offering" in the temple. In place of rightful worship, he will establish "an abomination that desolates"—The Abomination of Desolation—in the sanctuary (9:27). In fact, Antiochus IV Epiphanes did erect a statue of the Olympian Zeus within the temple compound, sparking the revolt among
pious Jews recorded in the books of First and Second Maccabees. But "the desolator" and the "abomination that desolates" have a "decreed end." God is sovereign over all those evil forces at work in history to thwart his will, and his holy people will share his victory over them.