Daniel 8:23 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Daniel 8:23

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At the end of the period of rule by the four powers that will replace Alexander, when the transgressors are ripe for judgment, God will allow one to rise up to punish them. When the Jewish disobedience to God has reached a climax, ‘a king of fierce countenance’ – literally, ‘fierce of face’, a cruel man – ‘and understanding dark sentences shall stand up.’ This is the little horn: Antiochus IV, Antiochus Epiphanes, a great manipulator, a man of cunning strategies and schemes. How do we know it is him? We know he followed the four kings, and he did all the things that are prophesied here. So verse 23 returns to the little horn. This little horn isn’t just Daniel being told about the time up to the coming of Christ: the two middle empires – the Romans are not mentioned here – it is more than that. Antiochus Epiphanes undoubtedly symbolises a terrible future enemy of the people of God in New Testament times. When we look at what Antiochus was going to do, we see that not all of it was fulfilled in the history of the Jews.‘And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power’, which implies God will allow it, or it may mean that he will operate by Satanic power – ‘and he shall destroy wonderfully.’ The word for wonders is used; it will be quite astonishing the terrible things that he does, and the evil things that he accomplishes. ‘And he shall prosper’, in practice and get away with it – that is repeated – ‘for a period of time, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.’ He will never destroy the remnant; he cannot destroy the holy people completely; there will always be a godly remnant preserved by the Lord, but some will be allowed to be faithful unto death. Here is a picture of the end times, because Antiochus does symbolise the final antichrist. We have had a clue to this, because in chapter 7 there is also a little horn. That little horn comes out of the successor kingdoms of the Roman Empire, but it is antichrist. In chapter 7 we are shown the Roman Empire, then the time of Christ, and then right through the gospel age: innumerable kingdoms, represented by the ten kingdoms, and among them the little horn, the antichrist, who will vex and harass the people of God at the end. And here in chapter 8 – though it is true that now he comes out of the Hellenists, the Greeks – the little horn appears again, in the form of Antiochus Epiphanes. But by receiving that name, the little horn, we are helped to see that just as the little horn of chapter 7 is antichrist in the future, so too the little horn of chapter 8, literally Antiochus Epiphanes, represents and symbolises the future antichrist. ‘Through his policy also, he shall cause cunning to prosper in his hand. He shall magnify himself in his heart’ – the great magnification of man, and his knowledge, and his theories, and his skills, all wielded against God. ‘And by peace shall destroy many.’ We might expect that he would prevail by force, by violence, and that is not excluded, but the vision says by peace. That tells us that there will be positive temptation involved as well as threat. Many will be persuaded to give way by the offer of peace. They will be willing to avoid persecution – for we have already been told that he will ‘destroy the mighty and the holy people’ – by the offer of peace, and prosperity, we could add. This is the affluence of the end times, the snare of comfort and wealth, and the world. ‘He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.’ Antiochus of course didn't know he was standing against the Saviour of the world, who was not yet born. He was standing against the Jews and their God, and hostile to them. He himself was a pagan. These words will not be entirely fulfilled until the one comes, who Antiochus Epiphanes symbolises and represents, who consciously will oppose the Lord's Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. ‘He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand’, just as Antiochus was. According to the apocryphal 2 Maccabees 9, he was struck by a mysterious and painful illness which led to his death without any attacker or human instrument. It was a total shock and surprise to all around him. This was something that was stamped in national history for ever. But so will it be with the antichrist – ‘Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming’ (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

Application

We see the beginnings of it today. Never before have we seen human society magnifying itself against God as it does today. God receives thanks for virtually nothing, and man takes credit for everything. We see it in the great apostasy that is going on in the Western world. Never before have we had such hatred of God. In the past antichrist, Satan, has majored on false doctrine. The Catholic Church, for example, acted by misleading people, not by denying God head-on. Yes, there have always been atheists; there has always been antagonism to God, but it is something of recent times that the entire attack of Satan has switched to head-on opposition to God, his being, his existence, his power and attributes, and his revelation. Before that it was, ‘Yes, we all believe in God, but salvation is by works not by grace. It is by the clergy, not by faith and trust in the grace of God and the atoning merits of Christ.’ Always there has been doctrinal distortion or alternative religion, but now it is anti-religion. You now have the hatefulness and the hardness of countenance, and the head-on attack that was symbolised in that ferocious attack upon the Jewish people in the six to seven years of Antiochus Epiphanes. For instance, after the death of that great scientist Stephen Hawkins with his theories in the area of physics, you notice the publicity after his death and the way it is all conducted. There was a film made about his life which attracted considerable sentimental sympathy and admiration for him. No doubt as a person and as a noble sufferer he has been a great man who is worthy of a considerable degree of admiration, and in his work as a scientist also. But as Christians we very much question his atheistic theories. You notice how the young are persuaded to admire him without reservation – ‘What a great and marvellous and almost infallible person he was.’ The world has got to have its great heroes and talk them up. But great as he might have been as a thinker and a worker and a sufferer, nevertheless he was but a man, and in his religious views or antireligious views he was, deeply mistaken, so it is a pity to see many young lives bowled over by all this propaganda and brainwashing.

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Daniel 8:23 Commentary and Bible Study