Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Daniel 8:1-27, Isaiah 6:1-7, Romans 8:31-39

The trouble with understanding apocalyptic literature is that nobody writes it anymore. Perhaps the closest modern analogy to it is the political cartoon, where world events are depicted visually in symbolic scenes. In a political cartoon, for example, an elephant represents Republicans, a donkey represents Democrats, Uncle Sam represents the United States, a bear represents Russia, and so on.

The vision of Daniel 8 depicts world events symbolically, but what do the symbols mean? Let’s start with the fact that the vision is dated to “the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign”—about 550 BC. The big political news that year was Cyrus the Great's establishment of what would become the Persian Empire. Daniel, a Babylon resident, was transported in his vision to Susa, which at the time was relatively insignificant but would soon become a major Persian city (and the setting of the book of Esther).

Many scholars believe Daniel's vision showed him a broad outline of the next several hundred years. According to this interpretation, he saw the rise of the Persian Empire (represented by a ram) to displace the dominant Babylonians, followed by the conquering of the Persians by the Greek Empire (represented by a goat) under Alexander the Great. After Alexander's death, his empire was divided among four generals. One of those generals, Seleucus, ruled over the region that included Jerusalem. The eighth ruler in his dynasty, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, was infamous for his persecution of the Jews, including turning the temple into a pagan shrine (the overthrowing of the sanctuary of Daniel 8:11). Eventually, Antiochus died and temple worship was restored in 164 BC, an occasion celebrated to this day in the festival of Hanukkah.

While the main subject of Daniel 8 is world history between 550 and 164 BC, we can apply it when we remember that the purpose of apocalyptic literature is to encourage those who are suffering. It was not meant to provide a detailed timeline of events. As Gandalf says in The Return of the King, “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.” 

Daniel’s vision tells us that evil may appear to reign, but God remains sovereign and will judge it in His time. If we are discouraged by suffering and injustice, Daniel 8 tells us that God is still at work. In our time, then, we work to uproot evil in small ways and big ways, trusting that God will direct history so that larger evil forces are defeated and the suffering will receive consolation.

Written by Elliot Ritzema