Daniel has already seen the doom of Babylon in his previous vision, falling to the Medo-Persian forces in 539 BC. Two years after that earlier vision, Daniel receives in about 551 BC another vision for what follows that doom. The text here returns to the Hebrew writing, as there is nothing left to tell the Chaldeans, but much God wishes to reveal to His people. On a spiritual level, it is important to show the linkage between the next two empires, and how they form a one-two punch which sets up Israel for her final end. The vision does not clearly depict that end, but shows how it comes about.
Daniel sees himself in the future Persian summer palace of Susa, in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains where the ancient Elamite Kingdom once stood. The River Ulai is actually an ancient canal. Beside that water course he saw the ancient symbol of the Medo-Persian Empire, the symbol they used for themselves: a ram with two uneven horns. The Medes had been around longer, but the Persians were stronger. No other nation could resist their conquest. That is, until they had provoked the Greeks, attempting by various means to conquer them.
The Macedonian people referred to themselves as the "goat people," and the name Aegean means "of the goat." Once united under Phillip, his son Alexander led the Macedonians to force unity across all of Greece, then advancing into the Persian Empire. Because of all the intrigue and dirty tricks played against him by the Persians, Alexander rejected all attempts at treaty or surrender. His troops maneuvered in phalanxes, slicing through the Persian formations with ease. With such incredible speed, only the exhaustion of his men kept him from conquering past the far eastern edge of Persia. Three years after his conquests began, he died in Babylon. In short order, his entire royal line died out, and was replaced by his four generals. Cassander returned to rule Greece and its neighbors, while Lysimachus held Asia Minor. Ptolemy became the Greek Pharaoh of Egypt, and Seleucus grabbed Syria and Babylon.
The latter two founded dynasties we now name after them: Ptolemaic and Seleucid. The Egyptian branch first held Judea, and were fairly benign. Ptolemy himself funded the Alexandrian Library and the attached university. His dynasty carried on in Alexander's evangelistic promotion of Hellenist culture. The Seleucids and Ptolemies fought back and forth over possession of Palestine, and eventually the Seleucids kept it. They were decidedly less kind, as they used military force to impose Hellenism. One in particular, Antiochus (175-164 BC), lost all patience with the Jewish insistence on keeping the Law of Moses. He placed a statue of Jupiter in the Temple in 167 BC, sacrificed a pig to it on the altar, and forced the residents of Jerusalem to join in a pork feast. Then he sent agents with troops across the land to force every Jewish community to follow suit. This created an uprising which we call the Maccabean Revolt, lead by the family eventually known to us as the Hasmoneans.
This abomination of desolation in the Temple lasted about three years. We note most English translations miss the point, when the angels discuss there would be a period of 2300 "evening-mornings" -- a reference to 2300 offerings (morning and evening), for a total of 1150 days, just over three years. At the end of that time, the Maccabean revolt had succeeded to the point of allowing the Temple to be cleansed and rededicated. However, it would be foolish to see the little horn as simply one man. Rather, this man's assault on Jewish religious practices was a manifestation of the one who had power to throw down stars from the sky, a Hebrew expression for leading angelic beings astray. Unlike the Mesopotamian astrologers, who saw the stars as gods, Hebrew culture regarded them as angelic beings, including those fallen as demons. The man, Antiochus IV, was empowered by Satan himself. What he accomplishes is the climax of a far greater destruction.
With the Persians and their Zoroastrian religion came the material wealth connection to faith. To the Persians, seeking the favor of the gods inevitably meant profit for the kings, in the literal sense of material wealth. We see this later in the New Testament where Jesus confronts the Jewish assumption material wealth is the primary mark of God's favor. It was under the Persians when Jews first developed their powerful banking industry, causing Jesus to remark about serving the god Mammon -- a name we understand to mean material wealth. Under the Greeks, Jews developed a powerful attachment to Western logical forms, losing touch with their mystical Hebrew roots. Greek rationalism twists the essential concept of holiness by calling it a logical ideal, and revelation is displaced by man seeking that ideal. God is no longer the initial force in redemption, by offering His grace and mercy via His mystical revelation. In the Greek mind, the ideal takes no action, but waits man to stumble upon the truth by his striving to build a rational framework. Thus, in Jesus' day the Jewish leadership were spiritually blind, utterly lacking the very mental framework for understanding the revelation of God. While the Hasmoneans do bring about a brief period of political independence, the nation was already spiritually dead. As Daniel says it, Satan had "cast truth to the ground."
The angels proceed to explain to Daniel some elements of the vision. Among the notes we see the little horn is powerful, but not by his own might, a veiled reference to spiritual sources. The power behind Antiochus IV was worked to finish off the Nation of Israel in the sense of their identity as the Holy People. In the place of their Hebrew mindset, Satan caused deception to prosper, a new understanding which blinded them. In the end, Satan will be broken when he comes against the Prince of Princes -- Christ -- and his end will not a matter of human activity, but the work of God Almighty.
For Daniel, the most startling thing was the ending of the sacrificial offerings in the Temple. From his point of view, just as the Nation of Israel was nearing their return, for the very purpose of regaining the Temple rituals, it was to be taken from them. Thus, the part of the vision where the offerings are suspended is something which would grab the attention of any Jew who read this. Once Antiochus took his oppressive measures, it was plain for anyone to see just what he was. This no doubt fired the passion of the few who dared to oppose him. However, Daniel surely senses it will be too late. The atmosphere in which the sacrifices are stopped is unchanged even when the Temple is cleansed. It looks different, and observant Jews today celebrate the Feast of Lights in honor of it, but in God's eyes it meant nothing. It was just a ritual, a blind observance of things they no longer could understand. This realization must have truly broken Daniel's heart, for it leaves him physically ill for several days.
Return to Index
[<-- Previous Lesson]
[Next Lesson -->]
Ed Hurst
03 December 2007
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)