The angel Gabriel interprets the vision to the man of God. The key to its meaning is given in his very first words, “Understand, 0 son of man, for the vision belongeth to the time of the end” (Vs. 17, R.V.). The time of the end is a very definite Scripture formula, and refers here unmistakably to the end of the Jewish age, which is identical with the time of the Great Tribulation, yet future. Daniel is greatly overcome by the appearance of his heavenly visitor, but the angel touched him and set him upright, and then said, “Behold, I will make thee know what shall be the latter time of the indignation: for it belongeth to the appointed time of the end.” (v. 19.) Then again in verse 26, he says, “Shut thou up the vision; for it be longeth to many days to come.” Plainly, this is not to be applied alto gether to the past; we are rather to look into the future. And we shall find that the end time in this prophetic vision is identical with the end time in all the dreams and visions which pre cede it, as well as those following it. “The ram which thou sawest that had two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.” (V. 20.) Babylon is omitted from this vision, for Daniel is looking downward along the line of Gentile supremacy from the stand point of Shushan, the capital city of Persia. The ram, then, is Medo-Per- sia. Its two horns are its representa tive kings, Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. This corresponds with the breast and arms of silver. (Ch. 2.) One horn, Cyrus, was higher than the other, Darius, and the higher came up last. So he did, but he eclipsed his uncle, Darius, and became very high upon the head of the ram. This cor responds with the second beast, the bear, in chapter 7, “which raised up on one side.” The ram pushed west ward and northward and southward. This is the bear crunching the three ribs between his teeth; it is Medo- Persia subjugating Lydia, Babylon and Egypt, which entered into a triple alliance to check the progress of the new world-power. No beast could stand before him, neither was there 30
P ETTINGILL, “It is worthy of notice, as we take up the study of the eighth chapter, that while the first part of the prophecy of Daniel, after the introductory section, is written in the Chaldean or Aaramaic language, the latter part, from the opening of chapter 8, is in Hebrew. The purpose of this becomes clear when we observe the distinctive characteristics of the parts of the book as thus divided. The first chapter and the first four verses of chapter 2 are in Hebrew, because this section of the book gives the story of the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity of Israel. The Chaldee is used from chapter 2:5 to 7:28 because the thing chiefly in view is the Gentile power — the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them—while Israel is incidental. From chapter 8:1 to the end of the book, Israel occupies the foreground, filling an increasingly im portant place in the picture as the story proceeds.” As in chapter 7, so also in the eighth chapter, the Gentile powers are depicted in the form of fierce, rapa cious beasts. This is God’s own view of the brutal character of the “powers that be.”
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