hotcoffee
New Member
Daniel 8:23 “In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise. 24 He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people. 25 He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.
26 “The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.”
27 I, Daniel, was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.
26 “The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.”
27 I, Daniel, was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.
In verses 23 & 24 Gabriel continues to describe the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. His reign is so violent that it's not hard to see why so many of the commentaries would want to skip ahead and say that these verses are about the Anti-Christ. He's doing a lot of the things the Anti-Christ will do.
The majority of the commentaries even contribute his devious knowledge to demons and even Satan himself. God is allowing this to happen, and based on the story of Job, it's not impossible to fathom that God is allowing Satan and his demons to do the dirty work. After all God did allow Satan to attach Job. The same thing is going on here. Antiochus IV Epiphanes is attacking the people of Jerusalem. The difference is that Job was a believer. Job worshiped God faithfully and even after God allowed Satan to do his thing, Job didn't give up his faith. The Jewish nation bought what Antiochus IV Epiphanes was selling hook line and sinker. The high priests even paid bribe money. It's easy to see why things went so horribly wrong for the people.
In verse 25 things got so easy for Antiochus IV Epiphanes that he actually thought he was an equal to God or even god. A couple of the commentaries say that Antiochus IV Epiphanes had a coin minted declaring himself "image of God".
Magnify himself in his heart (Literally = "in his heart he will act arrogantly") - Obviously this speaks of Antiochus' pride, arrogance, and self-exaltation. In fact, Antiochus Epiphanes even had coins minted which bore his image on one side and an inscription on the other (see above) which said "Antiochus, image of God, bearer of victory".
Verse 25 uses the phrase "Prince of princes". In the old testament, according to the commentary, this phrase is a term used for God Himself. The commentary goes on to show that in the next chapter that same phrase will describe the Messiah. It's not a stretch, IMHO, to say that when Christ does return, the war He'll make on Satan and his followers will make the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes look like child's play.
In the same verse Gabriel says that Antiochus IV Epiphanes will be destroyed but not by human hand. He died of a disease.
Gabriel instructed Daniel not to reveal this vision yet. I'm pretty sure that if people had found the scroll back in the last days of the Babylonian rule, they wouldn't have believed it anyway. They certainly wouldn't have been capable of interpreting it. Can you imagine the ridicule Daniel would have had to go through saying an Angel interpreted it for him?
It's also understandable to see that the vision left Daniel sick. This whole vision was so terrifying, and Daniel, due to his strong faith, knew it was going to come true in the future and there wasn't a single thing he could do to save the people of Jerusalem from this fate.
