April 2024- ‘An Eye for the Long Game’ (Daniel 8:1-28)’
‘What do you need the most?
I had a bad eye infection recently. What started out as a minor irritation on the Saturday morning was a full blown puffy eye by the Monday morning.
I managed to get myself an emergency appointment at Specsavers. The specialist who saw me offered me both sympathy and a solution. However, his initial advice surprised me. He told me that these kind of inflammations get worse before they get better. Admittedly, not the news I was looking for. However, when things did get worse, even only for a few hours, I felt braced for the bad spell and buoyed to hold out for the good spell. Seems the good Doctor knew a thing or too that I didn’t. Who knew?
One of the things the book of Daniel teaches us is the necessity of joyful perseverance in the Christian life. Impatience comes so naturally to us in the 21st Century West. It does to me certainly. Everything is instant. However, the LORD wants us to play the long game as we wait for his promises to unfold. We are called to be community of faith marked by patient endurance, hopeful anticipation and joyful trust.
As we continue to journey through the second half of the book of Daniel, noting the switch from chapter 8 from Aramaic to Hebrew (the ancient tongue of Israel), we need to appreciate that God wanted to speak pastoral words to his people. He wanted to let them know that getting home from Babylon would be longer and more painful than they might be tempted to think.
. A long and arduous road lay ahead even if victory was ultimately promised. They needed to play the long game with his promises.
Why did the LORD speak to Daniel in riddles and pictures as opposed to plain words? I take it that images and moving pictures can capture out imaginations and hearts in a way that simple words on a page cannot. There is something powerful about this genre that keeps us soberly realistic and yet fills us with hope and expectation.
Daniel absorbs the dream…
This vision comes 2 years after the one Daniel had in chapter 7. Daniel is taken into the future to glimpse events as yet unknown. He is carried some 200 miles east to the citadel of Susa (v.2). In his dream he sees an aggressive two horned Ram (v.3). Interestingly, one horn is higher than the other. The Ram dominated with strength and became great (v.4). However, no sooner have we pictured the Ram than a Goat appears from the West (v.5). The Goat charges the Ram and overpowers it. Four horns emerge from the Goat (v.8). Daniel’s attention is drawn to the Little Horn (v.9). With aggression and pomp this Little Horn becomes great (v.10), throws truth to the ground (v.12) and tramples the holy things underfoot (v.13). Daniel would have understood the glorious land (v.9) to be Cannan. The 2,300 evenings and mornings (v.14) conveys something of the duration of time that this ungodly power will wield its power over God’s people. No wonder Daniel is appalled (v.27). This doesn’t sound good.
Gabriel applies the lens…
God sends the angel Gabriel to assist Daniel (v.16). The animals are symbolic. The Ram with two horns represents the Kings of Media and Persia (v.20). The Goat represents the Greek Empire (who we know did battle with the Medes and Persians from 499 BC until until 449 BC before conquering them). Interestingly, four Kingdoms shall arise from Greece (v.22). One of these Kingdoms will succeed in doing some hefty damage to the saints (v.24) defying the LORD’s name and glorifying its own in the process.
The key to unlocking the vision comes as Gabriel states that the vision is for the time of the end (v.17). Our minds can easily drift to understanding this as the end of time when Christ returns. Notwithstanding the merit in that interpretation, if we map history onto Gabriel’s words, there is another possible answer a lot more specific in time.
History reveals the clues…
Antiochus Epiphanes ruled the Seleucid empire in Greece, after Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC, from 175BC to 164BC. He was known for his brass neck attitude to the LORD Most High. He introduced coins containing images of himself with the inscription ‘God manifest’. Charming. Most importantly, as we learn from historical sources, he waged a ruthless war against the Israelites. When he conquered Jerusalem in 167 BC he sought to pollute the temple, violate the sacred spaces and mock and defy the living God of Israel. He even sacrificed a pig on an altar made to Zeus. He is likely the King of Bold Face (v23) that Gabriel refers to. Judas Maccabees, known as the Hammer, was the one who led a successful revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes in the years following this desecration. Jews today still celebrate this event during Hanukah. However, as right as it to be thankful to the Lord for Judas Maccabees’ victory, there was very little in the years that followed truly restored the temple to its rightful place in the hearts of the people. Will there ever be one who will burn with a passion for holiness? Whose heart will beat for the renown of the LORD? Who will win the ultimate victory and secure the ultimate future for God’s people? One who will truly be the light of the world?
There is a glimmer of hope in Gabriel’s words. A figure called the Prince of Princes (v.25) emerges. He will be the one who defeats the enemies of God’s people, secures their future and, presumably, is the one who restores the sanctuary to its rightful place (v.14).
In his earthly ministry, Jesus entered the temple during a time of degradation and laid claim to restoring the temple to its rightful place (John 2:13-17). He is the one who finally triumphs for his people on the cross, who secures their future, and who will sustain his own people in the prolonged season of exile and suffering. In his eternal Kingdom no longer will anything be accursed (Revelation 22:3). Truly, there, peace and righteousness reign. We are strengthened by the grace that is found in his death, resurrection & ascension. We wait for his return.
Many will come who will defy the truth of living God. Don’t let it unsettle you. Allow the promises of the Lord to comfort you. Be soberly realistic about the bad spell and yet be buoyed to hold out for the good spell. Seems the sovereign Lord, like my eye specialist, knows a thing or too that I don’t. Who knew?
