Daniel 8:3 Commentary and Bible Study

In the previous vision in chapter 7, Daniel has seen four empires (also in chapter 2), but only the middle two of them will feature in this next vision. Daniel is given a close-up of the two middle empires before the coming of Christ, numbers two and three in the previous vision. The first of the four, Babylon, is about to fall and is ignored in chapter 8. The second is the empire of the Medes and the Persians; the third will be the empire of the Greeks. Something is going to arise out of the Greek Empire which is going to be very troublesome to the Jews, and is also a symbol of what is to happen in the very last days during the gospel age, just prior to the return of Christ. The last of the four, the Roman Empire, is not mentioned in this particular vision. ‘Then I lifted up mine eyes’ – it’s a waking vision; Daniel peers and looks into the vision; it isn’t a night vision – ‘and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns.’ A little later, it is explained that the ram is the empire of the Medes and the Persians. It hadn't yet come into existence. The Medes are one horn and the Persians are the other. ‘And the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.’ The Persians eclipsed the Medes, and their portion was much greater and their conquests more numerous. And although the two were allied, they are seen by Daniel, even before this happens, as two unequal horns. Nobody ever thought in the time of the Babylonians that this would happen: that Babylon would fall to such relatively obscure and minor people as the Medes and the Persians. Of course they were growing in power, but still there was confidence right to the end, that Babylon could never be overpowered or fall. But here it is in this vision: it is going to be supplanted, and this time, the Median-Persian Empire is seen as a ram. That's interesting. Previously, it has been a bear. Babylon was a lion, and the Median-Persian Empire was a bear, a ferocious bear. But now it's a ram. A ram doesn't sound anything like as ferocious as a bear. Why has the animal imagery been scaled down? Because now this is a message to the remnant, to faithful believing Jews. It is comfort for them. Up to chapter 7 and including chapter 7 the Book of Daniel has had a message to the whole wide world: empires will arise and fall – hence it was written in Aramaic. But now Daniel switches to the sacred language of Hebrew, as though to tell us he is speaking to the sacred people, to believers. As far as they are concerned, the ferocity and the aggression of the Medo-Persian Empire and the empire of the Greeks that will follow it, will be nothing like as serious as the aggression towards outsiders, towards the world in general. What is a bear to the world will be a ram to Israel. There is tremendous intelligence in this book, and in the deployment of the different figures. The ram is in the process of expanding its territory; it cannot go eastward because it is as far east as you can go in the world of those days. ‘So that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand.’ It was ferocious, this empire, but not so bad for the Jews. They, after all, obtained religious liberty through the edict of Cyrus, and they were served by Daniel, who no doubt was steering things in favour of the Jews, and for their comfort and safety. The edict of Cyrus proclaimed liberty for Jews to return to their homeland and to rebuild, and a sizeable minority went back. Jerusalem was re-established and the land of Judah re-settled, so that empire was very reasonable towards the Jewish people, but it was ferocious towards other neighbours who resisted its rule.