Talk about a work in progress. Some authors these days will state that a novel has taken them years to write however, in the case of the book of Daniel it took the author over 70 years over the expanse of a lot of Jewish deprivation. When you get to Daniel 8 interpretation you had better understand the first 7 chapters to get a grasp of what is contained in the prophesy of the 8th chapter. The book of Daniel is filled with a lot of drama, politics, religion and history and is worth every year in the making.
Because the name Daniel literally means that God is his Judge, it stands to reason that whatever challenges Daniel came up against the only opinion he was worried about was God’s. Daniel and his close family and friends were taken from Judah in the exile to Babylon and put on as royal advisors in an attempt to win over the exiled people into Babylonian culture. Daniel was from a noble family and was chosen for his good looks, rugged physical attributes and most of all his intelligence.
So it stands to reason that Daniel knew a thing or two of what God wanted from him by the time he arrived in Babylon. From his first order of business of denying the king’s choice foods, Daniel and his friends chose to do things God’s way. His friends were given new pagan names such as Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo but even a slight name change couldn’t affect the ideals that were clearly God given.
When it comes then to Daniel 8 interpretation, interpreting false Messiahs was probably something that Daniel was already well aware of and was prepared for, although that knowledge was clearly God given. This chapter speaks clearly to the prophetic course that Israel was following to its destiny. The prophecy of the ram and male goat along with the time line and humiliation and restoration would be something that Daniel would see over his lifetime even though he would not be present to ever return to Judah himself. In Daniel’s 92 years he wrote the most prophetic book of the Old Testament that is heavily used in the book of Revelation in the New Testament.
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