Introduction: Our study of Daniel is beginning to look more and more
like a barnyard and a band with all of these animals and horns
running around! What do these visions of animals have to teach us
today? Is there anything relevant to us? Anything that inspires
confidence in God? Or, is this just old, boring stuff? Let’s dig in
and find out!
- The Ram and the Goat
- Read Daniel 8:1-2. Was Daniel standing by the water in the
province of Elam? (No. He was there in vision.) - Do you like to stand beside water? If so, why? (It is
peaceful to look at water.) - We are told this is the third year of the reign of
Belshazzar. Do you have any idea how long he reigned
as King of Babylon? (Matthew Henry tells us this was
this last year! Babylon was about to fall to the
Medo-Persians.) - Read Daniel 8:3-4. You are Daniel, in your dream you are
having a peaceful stroll by the waterside, and you look up
and see this ram with “long horns.” Is this dream turning
into a nightmare? How would you like to see a ram like
this staring you in the face? - The text says the ram “did as he pleased.” Does this
sound like your children? - What do you think this means? (The text says
that no one could stand against him or rescue
from his power. This was a dangerous animal.) - Let’s skip ahead and read Daniel 8:20. What is this
ram? (The interpretation of the dream is made clear
in this chapter. This is the Medo-Persian empire.
This refers to a time when it ruled the world.) - Let’s skip ahead a little more. Read Daniel 8:27. The
vision makes Daniel sick. Why do you think he got
sick over it? Is that because he is scared by his
dream of this dangerous ram? (Remember that Daniel
was one of the top administrators of the Babylonian
empire. He had just been told in this vision that the
Medo-Persian empire will take control ( Daniel 8:4)
from the Babylonians. This means turmoil and upheaval
in his life.) - Let’s go back to Daniel’s waterside stroll. Read Daniel
8:5-7. That takes care of the ram problem. What do you
think is meant by this goat with the big horn entering
Daniel’s vision? (Since the two-horned ram represented
Medo-Persia, this goat with the big horn must represent a
world power that took over by defeating Medo-Persia.) - Read Daniel 8:21. What do we learn about then
identity of the “Goat” power? (It is Greece. The “big
horn” no doubt refers to Alexander the Great and the
reference in v.5 to the goat moving so fast he did
not touch the earth refers to the lightening speed of
Alexander’s conquests.) - What parallel do you see between these texts and what
we learned in the prior lessons about Daniel 2 and 7?
(This reaffirms part of the king’s dream about the
statute (Daniel 2) and Daniel’s dream about the
beasts (Daniel 7). It reveals the political future of
Daniel’s world.) - Why would God give Daniel the same information three
times? (It must have been important.) - What importance do you see in it?
- Put yourself in Daniel’s place. You are a
captive – and you have been a captive for most
of your adult life. You worship what you claim
to be the most powerful (and only) God of the
universe. How would you explain the apparent
powerlessness of your God? Why are “God’s
people” in captivity? (Worshiping the most
powerful God has not resulted in you or your
fellow Jews being released from captivity. This
could cause doubt about whether God is in
control. God gives Daniel three messages that,
at their center, say God is in charge of kings
and kingdoms.) - Is this a relevant message for today? Is
it encouraging to you? - The Horn
- Read Daniel 8:8-9, 22-23. What are these four horns – and
the one that grows into a “stern-faced king?” (Verse 22
clearly tells us that the four horns are four kingdoms
that arise from the Greek Empire. Since we have already
seen in Daniel 2 and 7 that the Roman Empire arises after
Greece, this growing “stern-faced” horn appears to be the
beginning of the Roman empire.) - Let’s read on: Daniel 8:10-11, 24-25. When you read
(v.10) about the horn throwing down the “starry host” what
other Bible text comes to mind? ( Revelation 12:4. It says
the “red dragon” “swept a third of the stars out of the
sky and flung them to the earth.”) - What do you make of this similarity between these
texts? (That the horn is related to Satan. The power
of Satan must be behind it.) - Did the Roman empire (v.11)stop the daily sacrifice
of the temple? Did it (v.25) take a stand against the
“Prince of princes?” Did it (v.11) bring low “the
place of his sanctuary?” (Yes! Rome destroyed the
temple in 70 A.D.. By its authority, it killed Jesus
– the Prince of princes. Obviously, destroying the
temple stopped the “daily sacrifice.”) - Let’s just stop a minute here. Put yourself in Daniel’s
shoes. Did a temple in Jerusalem exist at the time he was
strolling by the water? (No. It had been destroyed by the
people who took him captive.) - What would Daniel have to conclude about the
reference in the future to stopping the daily
sacrifice and (v.11) bringing low the place of the
sanctuary? (The temple in Jerusalem had not yet been
rebuilt. Remember this vision took place ( Daniel 8:1)
in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar.This was sometime between 536 B.C. and 551 B.C. The
temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and it is not
rebuilt until about 516 B.C. However, it seems likely
that work had begun on the rebuilding of the temple
at this point. Another thing that would made Daniel
sick ( Daniel 8:27) was the obvious conclusion that
the temple that was being (or about to be) rebuilt
would be destroyed for a second time!) - 2300 Days
- Read Daniel 8:13-14. Is this good news for Daniel? (Yes.
This paints a picture of a time when the temple will be
restored.) - At this point we get into controversy among Christians.
Some suggest that the end of the temple sacrifice is the
work of Antiochus Epiphanes at a time before Jesus was
born. Does this seem logical to you? (Attributing this to
Antiochus is a common belief, but the time frame is not
correct. Antiochus desecrated the sanctuary in 168 B.C..
Daniel is looking at the destruction of the temple by Rome
in 70 A.D.. Jesus, referring to Daniel’s vision in Matthew
24:15, also speaks of the future destruction of the temple
in Jerusalem. The suggestion that this horn/stern-faced
king is Antiochus has serious time problems. - Other Christians believe that this horn is the head
of the Roman Church. Does this seem logical to you?
(If this text does refer to the destruction of the
temple (and that seems plain), then the suggestion
that the horn is the Roman Church also seems to have
time-frame problems. The temple was destroyed long
before the Roman Church became powerful.) - What do you think Daniel concluded from this 2300 day
prophecy? (It was, at bottom, good news. It meant that the
temple would be back in operation at some time in the
future.) - Why would it be important for the temple to be in
operation with its sacrifices? (This was the method
used by the Jews to obtain forgiveness of sins.) - The “teacher comments” in the “Teachers Edition” of the
lesson states that “questioning voices regarding the
interpretation of Daniel 8:14 … strike at almost every
major [church] doctrine.” Do you agree or do you think
that the lesson writers need to get out more?
- Those who think this refers to Antiochus Epiphanes,
and who, based on Daniel 8:11, believe this is 2300
literal days, set the end of this time as 165 or 142
B.C.. The “Millerite movement,” believing this
referred 2300 literal years, set the end of this time
period at 1844. Adam Clarke, a famous Bible
commentator, wrote in 1825 (in his commentary on this
text) that the end of the time period was 1966. If
the time period is years, and it starts with the time
of the destruction of the temple, then the end would
be 2370 (about 368 years in the future). Is the
timing of this important? (The SDA Bible commentary
on Daniel 8:11 discusses the Antiochus theory, the
Roman Church theory and the Roman Empire theory. It
discounts the Antiochus theory and concludes, “as
with other difficult passages of Scripture, our
salvation is not dependent upon our understanding
fully the meaning of Daniel 8:11.) - What do you understand to be the major doctrines of
the church? Do ANY of them turn on time prophecies?
(No. The major doctrines of true Christians deal with
the Deity, atonement and mediation of Christ,
righteousness by faith and the sanctifying work of
the Holy Spirit, the proper worship of God here on
earth, the resurrection and the promise of a sin-free
new world to come. Not even the belief in Christ’s
work in heaven as our mediator in the judgment, which
is clearly taught in Hebrews 8 (and elsewhere in
Hebrews), is dependent on a time prophecy.) - Friend, why did God give Daniel these visions? (Other than
to make a difficult and challenging study?) God gave
Daniel (and us) these visions so that when our world seems
to be going awry, when life is not going as we hoped, we
can have confidence that God is in charge. He will win the
battle against evil. Since God is in charge, will you
choose to serve Him today?
- Next Week: Daniel 9: The Coming of the Messiah.
