Chap. 8:13-27.
Verses 13 and 14 continue the history. As to the dates found here, there is not a word about them in the interpretation, and there it is that we find a description of what the antitype of this power will do in the latter days. These dates consequently have been fulfilled, and will not be repeated at the close; very different is the case in chap. 12, as we shall hereafter see. These verses simply continue the history of Antiochus, and show how at all times God interests Himself in His people whom He has chosen for the earth, and formed for Himself (Isa. 43:2121This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise. (Isaiah 43:21)), with a love that never can be quenched, and is only waiting the time of His long-suffering patience with the Gentiles to close, in order to display itself in a way infinitely beyond anything that they as yet have known.
The interpretation begins at v. 19 and is very important, as it gives us what will happen at the last end of the indignation, when Israel are again back in their land, subject to the attacks of violent and bitter enemies, and not yet restored to blessing. As a rule, the explanation of a vision in Scripture refers not merely to what has preceded, but to some future event of which the subject interpreted was in a measure typical. The distinction between the horn of this and of the previous chapter is very distinctly marked the latter arises (ch. 7:24) from out of the ten divisions that the fourth or Roman Empire is divided into, while the former comes from one of the four kingdoms of the third or Grecian Empire― “in the latter time of their kingdom when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” (v. 23.) Greece, Persia, Egypt, now exist as kingdoms; it only remains for the fourth kingdom, over which Antiochus ruled, to be reformed, from out of which the king here spoken of is to arise. Thus the most casual observer cannot but see that this chapter speaks of an entirely different power from the previous one, inasmuch as the same power could not spring out of two different places at once; and here we are dealing with the east― “Syria;” there we were occupied with the west, and the ten kingdoms composing the Roman empire united under one head. Moreover the character of the power in chap. 8 is stipendiary he acts “not by his own power” (v. 24). The very opposite is the case with the “little horn” of chap. 7, and the king of chap. 11:36, with whom this power is often confounded in consequence of his dealings with Israel; for though he is indeed connected with them, it is not in the same way, as a careful comparison of verses 24 and 25 with chapter 11:36, 39, will at once show. The power in this chapter is the same as the Assyrian of the prophet Isaiah portrayed especially by Sennacherib. Finally, he stands up against Christ, and is broken without hand; that is, by divine power without man’s intervention. His ultimate end will be seen more in detail in Ezek. 38 and 39, where he is found in his last form. When Israel is first brought back into the land, it is merely the power occupying the former territory of Antiochus Epiphanes that is called the king of the north; as such he oppresses Israel; ultimately, however, there is a grand confederation of the various kingdoms that lie outside of the great Western Empire; these come up against Israel, as Sennacherib did of old, hoping to find them fall an easy prey, the Roman empire, with the little horn of chap. 7 and the king of chap. 11 at its head, the beast and false prophet respectively of Rev. 13 having then been judged according to the close of Rev. 19 For a while these powers, Gog and Magog, have it all their own way; there are none to oppose them, till the Lord Himself intervene, smiting them by His divine power upon all the mountains of Israel, “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.”