1 In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one that had appeared to me earlier. 2 And in the vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa, in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision that I was beside the Ulai Canal.

3 Then I lifted up my eyes and saw a ram with two horns standing beside the canal. The horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one grew up later. 4 I saw the ram charging toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against him, and there was no deliverance from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.

5 As I was contemplating all this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came out of the west, crossing the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground. 6 He came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and rushed at him with furious power. 7 I saw him approach the ram in a rage against him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him, and the goat threw him to the ground and trampled him, and no one could deliver the ram from his power.

8 Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven.

9 From one of these horns a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the Beautiful Land. 10 It grew as high as the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the earth, and trampled them. 11 It magnified itself, even to the Prince of the host; it removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary. 12 And in the rebellion, the host and the daily sacrifice were given over to the horn, and it flung truth to the ground and prospered in whatever it did.

13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long until the fulfillment of the vision of the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host to be trampled?”

14 He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be properly restored.”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Susan Duc

In the hit sci-fi movie, the ‘Matrix’, there’s a scene where the lead character, Neo, sees the same black cat twice in succession. It was a case of ‘déjà vu’, where you feel like you’ve experienced the exact same event before – and in Neo’s case, it clues him to the fact that danger is just around the corner.

This second vision must have filled Daniel with that dreaded sense of déjà vu. Once again, he sees terrifying animals that symbolise powerful kingdoms. In this case, the two-horned ram represents Medo-Persia, and the goat is Greece. Daniel sees that the ram (Medo-Persia) will be an irresistible force and will become great (v 4) … that is, until the goat (Greece) arrives from the west. Then it is Greece which will become very great and conquer the world (v 8).

The vision then focuses on a ruler, a ‘little horn’, who would attack the ‘Beautiful Land’ of Jerusalem. He would set himself up against God, destroy God’s city, plunder God’s temple in Jerusalem, and persecute God’s people.

It’s no wonder that Daniel hears one angel ask another: ‘How long?’ How long will God allow this evil to endure? The answer comes: for 2,300 evenings and mornings (about 3½ years). But then God would act to deliver his people and restore the temple (v 14).

Although the timing is debated, this probably points to the same arrogant and cruel Greek king Daniel learned about in chapter 7 – a king called Antiochus who, in 167 BC, slaughtered the people of Jerusalem and desecrated the temple in Jerusalem. But as Daniel foresaw, God delivered his people and the temple was restored 3½ years later.

Even the mighty kingdoms of the Medo-Persians and Greeks were under God’s sovereign will – and by his will, they faded away. But just as God chose to love Israel, the most insignificant of all peoples, so he is continuing to build his forever kingdom – by choosing the weak things of the world to shame the strong and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are (1 Cor 1:27). What a joy and relief for us!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan is one of our Assistant Ministers.