hotcoffee
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Daniel 8:15 While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. 16 And I heard a man’s voice from the Ulai calling, “Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.”
17 As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,”he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.”
18 While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.
17 As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,”he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.”
18 While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.
b.Daniel 8:17 The Hebrew phrase ben adam means human being. The phrase son of man is retained as a form of address here because of its possible association with “Son of Man” in the New Testament
The commentaries are once again at odds with one another. While they all agree that Gabriel is an angel, they disagree on the meaning of "the time of the end" phrase in verse 17. So I'm on my own again.
The first question I had when I read these verses was "What the Ulai?" The Ulai was the river where Daniel had been transported in this dream. Daniel was on the bank of the river in this vision he was having.
All the commentaries agree that God is the one speaking to Gabriel in a human voice. That makes sense, since the Angels are all subjects of God.
There's even some disagreement about what the phrase "I was in a deep sleep" means. Did Daniel faint or was the deep sleep caused by God. One of the commentaries attributes the deep sleep just like the one Jonah was in when the storm hit the boat.
Jonah 1:4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
Now the way I see it... If I were perfectly awake, sitting on the side of a riverbank, daydreaming and the Angel Gabriel walked up to me in real life and started talking to me.... I'm pretty sure I would faint. On the other hand, Daniel is already asleep and he's having a vision, so it makes more sense that the deep sleep wasn't a fainting spell but something controlled by God Himself. I'll leave that interpretation up to you.
Either way, Gabriel woke Daniel up and made him stand up.
Now back to the "the time of the end" phrase that the commentaries can't agree on. Is this the end of the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek ruler who killed 100,000 Jews and defiled the Temple by bring in his little idol and causing people to worship it instead of God? Or, as some commentaries contend, the end of Satan's plans when Christ returns to defeat him?
I once did a wonderful Bible Study with some friends at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. We used a Beth Moore publication to study the building of the Temple as directed by God. Beth Moore told is [in the video that came along with the pack] that the Holy of Holies that was built in the Temple was a model of what already exists in Heaven. The Arc of the Covenant is a man made model of the Arc of the Covenant that already exists in Heaven. Heaven is where everything new exists first. Makes sense right?
So isn't possible that the "the end of a time" here in Daniel is a model of the "end of time" in Revelations? It's an example of what is to come when Christ comes back to throw Satan in the pit before the 1000 years with no temptation? That would mean that Antiochus IV Epiphanes is an example of the antichrist. I'll leave interpretation up to you.
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