Chap. 8:1-12.
DANIEL 2:77They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it. (Daniel 2:7) to the end of chapter 7 is written in the Chaldean language, and the rest of the book in Hebrew; for God in His infinite had so ordered it, that the Gentiles might have a testimony in their own tongue of what immediately concerned them.
Chapter 8 describes a power, or more properly a person at the head of a power, who acts in the east, and who will be destroyed because he exalts himself against Christ, after having violently deceived and oppressed the Jewish people. The previous chapter speaks of one who acts in the west, though Israel is ultimately the object of his attack, and Jerusalem the place of his destruction (Zech. 12:2-42Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. 3And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. 4In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. (Zechariah 12:2‑4)), and who is destroyed because of his open rebellion against God. (See Rev. 13 and 19.) But the country in which these two powers are destroyed and their origin is totally different, indeed, the peculiar phases their rebellion takes differ in many important points. The beast of chapter 7 “speaks great words against the Most High,” while the power in chapter 8 stands up against the Prince of princes. (v. 25.) In the former case it is the name by which God is known as possessor of heaven and earth, what He will be then claiming from man as His right and title, and which they will then be refusing to own, ―acknowledging Him as the God of heaven (Rev. 11:1313And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. (Revelation 11:13)) while claiming the earth for themselves (v. 4 of the same chapter shows us God as beginning to assume His right to it). In the latter case it is a title of Christ that has reference more especially to Israel, and the place they then occupy before God in the world, both for government and worship. (Duet. 32:8.) There is reference made here to “the sanctuary,” “the holy people,” “the daily sacrifice,” and other particulars perfectly unintelligible to a Gentile, having no reference to them, and which are not found in chapter 7.
The vision here, though seen during the existence of the first Gentile monarchy, is placed further east, not at the capital Babylon, but in the province Elam (or Persia), by the river Ulai; hence a symbol belonging to that country is used, viz., a ram instead of the bear of chap. 7:5, and with two horas to represent the component parts of the kingdom, Media and Persia (v. 20); the former, though the younger of the two, finally becoming the greater, has the first place. The scene is thus more to the east than in chapter 7, and the ram pushes westward, northward, and southward, becoming great and overcoming all, when another power arises and from the west; all of these points, if noted, will help to clear up the difficulty to some of an apparent similarity between chapters 7 and 8.
Verse 5 is an inroad from the west, at first sight apparently improbable, as it was from the east that the human race sprang. This power is of vast strength, and moves with exceeding rapidity, led on by some great person; verses 6 and 7 describe an assault by this power under the symbol of a goat coming from the west with a notable horn between his eyes, which is clearly descriptive of Alexander the Great, he being the first king of all Greece, and the only one who as such so totally defeated the Medes and Persians as to answer the description here given, inasmuch as on his death, which happened when at the summit of his power, the kingdoms he had conquered were divided among his four generals, as here described― “Therefore the he goat waxed very great; and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.” (v. 8.) Greece on the west, Egypt on the south, Persia on the east, and Asia Minor on the north, becoming each a separate kingdom. Out of one of them a little horn arises, from which it is not said but as he waxed exceeding great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the “pleasant land” (see Deut. 11:1212A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. (Deuteronomy 11:12); 1 Kings 9:33And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. (1 Kings 9:3)), it may reasonably be concluded that he came from the north; for in scripture the “pleasant land,” or “Canaan,” is always considered as God’s center. (See Deut. 32:88When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8); Psa. 132:13, 1413For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. 14This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. (Psalm 132:13‑14).)
We now get a partial history of this little horn; how he acts towards Israel, which the interpretation tells us (v. 19) is brought in to show what will happen to them in the closing scenes of the dispensation― the last end of “the indignation.” (See Isa. 10:2525For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. (Isaiah 10:25).) In the same manner Antiochus Epiphanes is brought in, in chapter 11, as type of a power that will exist in the latter days; for though the one spoken of may be an immediate successor of Alexander, the Brand object of the Spirit is to bring out what will happen “at the time of the end.” It is in consequence, therefore, of the territories he occupies that Scripture speaks of him as “the king of the north.” (chap. 11:40.)
Verse 10 describes the conduct of this power (whose origin we have seen) towards the leaders of the nation, who are called the host of heaven; this marks a position, not a moral state. They are so called because of being God’s people, though not yet publicly owned by Him, yet they are the ones through whom and by whom He will yet exercise His power and authority, when it shall be “the days of heaven upon the earth;” hence the expression, “host of heaven and stars” as a figure of the leaders and their subordinates among the Jewish people; for it is their whole policy that this little hora overturns. From v. 11 to the word “transgression” in the middle of v. 12 must be read as a parenthesis; they are mentioned here in connection with the Jewish system and its overthrow, in order to describe the complete destruction for a time of the worship of God at Jerusalem, and of an insult offered to Christ Himself, who is “the Prince of the host,” to whom the daily sacrifice belongs, and from whom it is taken away. The margin gives a more correct reading― “yea, he magnified even against the Prince of the host, and from Him (that is the Prince of the host) the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.” This verse and the part of 12 are brought in as the Spirit is occupied with what concerns Israel, accordingly a summary is given of what will befall that nation; viz., the destruction of their worship and defilement of their sanctuary; not merely what the one who is the antitype of this little horn will do, but all the worst evils with which Israel will be afflicted. No doubt Antiochus Ephiphanes, who is here described, actually did all this, but in the interpretation (v. 19), which especially refers to what the antitype of this little horn will do in the latter days, not a word is mentioned of this parenthesis from v. 11 to middle of v. 12, where again the connection with v. 10 is resumed; no longer he as in v. 11 but “it cast down,” &c., the same power as mentioned in v. 10; thus continuing the direct history which for a time had been dropped, in order that the Spirit of God might sum up the various evils with which Israel will be afflicted; for, as another writer has said elsewhere, “God attaches far more importance to what happens to His poor and distressed people, their priests and rulers who govern them, than to all the mighty events which will at that time be going on in the world,” whereby Satan will be seeking to blind men’s eyes, and deceive and hurry them on to destruction.