the Fourth Week after Easter
Click here to learn more!
Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Daniel 8:1-14
The new vision, given to Daniel before the end of the first empire (v. 1), looks on already to the connection between the second kingdom (Persia) and the third (Greece), and also to the final phase of the latter. The Medo-Persian dominion (the ram) must be struck down and ousted by "the he-goat", that is the Grecian empire. This in its turn was to be dismembered on the death of Alexander the Great and to be shared between four of his generals (v. 8). In every detail, this vision has been remarkably confirmed by history. After this, the prophecy, without any transition, passes right over this present period and takes us to the "time of the end" (v. 17). While the West is to be governed by "the Beast" (Daniel 7:1-28), another extremely powerful personality will arise in the East, in the place once occupied by one of the other "horns". This is the Assyrian, mentioned by other prophets. His sole ambition will be to become great, to lift himself ever higher. He will reach out in the direction of "the pleasant land" (Israel, v. 9); in his profane rashness he will put a stop to the worship of God at Jerusalem. Nothing will match his pride and folly. And yet! . . . to trample under foot heavenly gifts and the sacrifice of Christ, to cast the truth down to the ground, this is the attitude of all those who deny the faith (vv. 9, 12).
