There is no way to appreciate or understand what Daniel is talking about without knowing a little about history. In the few brief remarks below I will try to outline a quick history that will help the reader understand (partially) what Daniel spoke of.
Before I wade into the discussion and interpretation of Daniel’s vision I want to make a quick observation about prophecy that I think applies here: some prophecies have “dual fulfillments”. The first fulfillment would be called a “foreshadowing” of the second, and the second would be a more complete and more profound fulfillment. For example, Jonah was in the whale for 3 days and then came out. Jesus was in the grave for three days and then rose. Jonah’s punishment is a foreshadowing of Jesus actions. These foreshadowings occur all throughout scripture, and they prove to us (circumstantially) that someone has designed all events in the timeline. It’s hard to conceive of all these things happening “by coincidence” therefore, someone who knew what the future would be must have given us clues by orchestrating a similar event in ancient history. One other example: When the Hebrew people sin in the wilderness, God sent serpents among them to bite, poison and kill them. Moses is told to put a bronze serpent on a pole and lift it up in full view of the people…anyone who looks on the serpent will be saved. (Numbers 21:9) So, what “plagues” them is on the pole, and all who look upon are healed. Jesus mentions this exact event when He says “just as the serpent was lifted up in the desert, so must I be lifted up”. (John 3:14) Everyone who looks to Jesus will be healed, and the “snake bite” is sin. Everyone looking to Jesus will be forgiven of their sins. The bronze serpent “foreshadows” Jesus. This powerful example precedes the very famous verse, John 3:16 which proclaims that God sent His only Son into the world to save it.
Quick history: The Babylonian empire would be the greatest while ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. His son would squander the kingdom away and be killed within a couple of years, paving the way for Darius the Mede to take over the kingdom. Darius is soon replaced by Cyrus the Persian, and their place in history is often combined (the Medes and Persians). Both the Medes and Persians were part of the Babylonian empire to begin with, so maybe that’s why. The Medes weren’t conquered from an outside force, it was more an overthrow from inside.
The Persian empire would eventually be conquered by Alexander the Great. If you know your history, Alexander dies in the prime of his life, leaving his entire kingdom to four generals. The kingdom is eventually consolidated into three powers, one centers around Greece itself, one takes the land around Israel, Turkey and the east (Iran, Iraq over to Pakistan) and the third one is south… into Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The General who controls the land around Israel is named Seleucid, and after several generations of rulers, a king comes to power called Antiochus Epiphanes. He is a vile, wicked man who oppresses the Jews harshly. At one point his troops overrun Jerusalem, and he takes possession of the temple. In order to break the will of the people, Antiochus enters the temple, erects false gods and then offers a pig on the alter as a sacrifice. Pigs are unclean to the Jews, so this was about as serious an offense as you could imagine.
His efforts have the opposite effect…instead of the Jews being defeated, they rally in their outrage around a Jewish freedom fighter named Jacob Maccabee. Jacob, and his sons following him retake possession of the temple and purify it….but they never overthrow Antiochus completely. He only fades from history when the Romans appear and take control of all the Greek empire, and extend it with their own rule. So by the time of the Romans, much of the world is speaking Aramaic Greek, thanks to Alexander and those who followed him.
So for today, let’s simply acknowledge a few key facts:
The four animals are the four kingdoms that would come. They are the same four kingdoms that Daniel revealed to Nebuchadnezzar years earlier when that king saw a statue with a golden head. In this case the leopard (an extremely fast animal) represents Alexander, whose armies moved with lightning speed across the continent. Note the four wings, and four heads….those make sense now, right? Then a great and terrible beast arises….I see that to be the Roman Empire…the little horn the replaces the others could well be Antiochus Epiphanes. I say that because he is clearly the person who set up an “abomination that causes desolation” within the temple. (false gods, pig sacrifices). But at the same time, we have to acknowledge that he may be only a foreshadowing of a more complete fulfillment which will occur later….because of the words that Gabriel speaks (this is a prophecy concerning the end of time). I suppose you could posit that the “end of time” in one sense was the entrance of Jesus into the world…since Jesus himself said in John 4 that “a time is coming, and has now come”. or in Luke 10 “the kingdom of God is near”.
This “kingdom of God” is the rock that smashes the feet of iron and clay on the statue.
On the other hand, the times mentioned here (3 1/2 years, and 2300 days (about 7 years)) are also seen by John the Apostle on the Isle of Patmos when he pens the Revelation. So, since John sees these events as still being in the future in some way, we cannot conclude that the Romans and then Antiochus were the complete fulfillment of the prophecy, because Antiochus was long dead by the time John wrote Revelation.
They must be a foreshadowing of some greater fulfillment.
Let’s discuss it more tomorrow..
Faithfully,
PR