The 2300 Days of Daniel

In Daniel the 8th chapter is an astounding prophetic vision, which has been the subject of much speculation, personal opinion and interpretation by so many.

In Daniel the 8th chapter is an astounding prophetic vision, which has been the subject of much speculation, personal opinion and interpretation by so many.

The only way we can fully understand what this prophecy is saying is to let the Bible interpret the Bible.

So, let’s open our Bibles, turn to Daniel chapter 8 and read what God inspired the prophet Daniel to record.

The setting of the prophecy is in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, king of Babylon.

And Daniel receives a vision while he was at the palace in Shushan, and he describes what he saw in vision.

Daniel chapter 8 and verse 3.

3 I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the river. It had two horns; and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.

In Bible prophecy, horns are used to depict power, military strength, rule or government.

4 I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward; no beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power; he did as he pleased and magnified himself.

Who did this ram symbolize?

We don’t have to speculate or guess because verse 20 gives us the answer.

Verse 20, Daniel chapter 8.

20 As for the ram which you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.

The ram symbolized the Medo-Persian empire that toppled the kingdom of Babylon under Belshazzar.

Let’s go back and read verse 5.

5 As I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west across the face [or the surface] of the whole earth, without touching the ground [this he-goat was moving really fast]; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.

Who was this he-goat?

Verse 21 reveals WHO this he-goat was.

21 And the he-goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn between his eyes is the first king.

The first king of Grecia or Greece.

Back to verse 7.

7 I saw him [the he-goat] come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns; and the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled upon him; and there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.

Historians believe this he-goat of Daniel 8 is Alexander the Great, “the first king” of the Greco-Macedonian empire.

He defeated the Medo-Persians in 331 BC and established the Greco-Macedonian empire.

The third of four world-ruling empires.

Continuing now in verse 8, Daniel 8.

8 Then the he-goat magnified himself exceedingly; but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns [four prominent leaders] toward the four winds of heaven.

The great horn was Alexander the Great who died suddenly in 323 BC at the age of 33.

And then, what happened?

Drop down to verse 22.

22 As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power.

Alexander’s four generals divided his empire into four separate kingdoms.

Cassander over Greece and Macedonia; Lysimachus over Asia Minor; Seleucus over Syria, Babylonia and territory east to India; and Ptolemy over Egypt, part of Syria and Judea or Palestine.

And they ruled over them; but not with the same might and power that Alexander wielded.

Back to verse 9.

9 Out of one of them came forth a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.

The glorious land is Palestine or the nation of Israel today.

A little horn appears from one of those 4 divisions!

Who was this “little horn?”

History identifies this “little horn” as Antiochus Epiphanes who ruled Syria in 176 BC.

Verse 10.

10 It grew great [referring to the little horn] even to the host of heaven; and some of the host of the stars it cast down to the ground, and trampled upon them.

11 It magnified itself, even up to the Prince of the host; and the continual burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown.

12 And the host was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through transgression; and truth was cast down to the ground, and the horn acted and prospered.

This prophecy did happen.

Antiochus desecrated the temple, erected an altar to Jupiter Olympus then offered swine’s blood on the altar of burnt offering.

He stamped out the truth and authorized the burning of as many scrolls of the Old Testament that could be found.

Antiochus Epiphanes then launched a brutal, savage persecution of the Jews.

Indescribably heinous atrocities were committed.

Such a time has never been equaled in the history of Israel and Judah!

13 Then I heard a holy one [probably an angel] speaking; and another holy one said to the one that spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the continual burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled under foot?”

14 And he said to him, “For two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings [the evening and morning sacrifices described in Exodus 29:38-43; Leviticus 6:8-13; Numbers 28:1-8]; then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”

Since the daily sacrifice was offered twice a day, this prophecy is actually speaking of one thousand one hundred fifty 24-hour days.

By this little horn the daily sacrifices — the evening and morning sacrifices — were taken away for one thousand one hundred and fifty days!

Not 2 thousand three hundred 24-hour days!

At the end of this 1,150-day period, “the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

This prophecy in verse 14 has yet to be fulfilled!

Notice verse 17, Daniel 8.

17 So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened and fell upon my face. But he said to me, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.”

The prophecy about Antiochus Epiphanes and what he did were merely a type of a more terrible fulfillment in this end time.

Our time!

The time of the end!

Notice Daniel 8 and verse 23.

23 And at the latter end of their rule, when the transgressors have reached their full measure, a king of bold countenance, one who understands riddles, shall arise.

A king, a ruler — with fierce features; someone skilled in sinister schemes — shall emerge.

Verse 24.

24 His power shall be great, and he shall cause fearful destruction [or with intense ferocity], and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people of the saints.

He will be supported by a coalition of 10 kings and that false religious leader, the man of sin (2nd Thessalonians 2:3)

25 By his cunning [and treachery] he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall magnify himself. Without warning he shall destroy many; and he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes; but, by no human hand, he shall be broken.

Daniel’s end-time little horn described as the BEAST in Revelation 17 verse 13 is this great military ruler, leading this military, economic and political coalition of ten nations.

Led by the Beast, this European colossus — the 7th and final revival of the Holy Roman Empire — shall arise in the latter days having powerful, fearsome military might.

He shall destroy “mighty men”:modern Israel today, the United States and the British-descended peoples.

And he will cause the martyrdom of “the people of the saints” whom the Bible calls the lukewarm, remnant of the church of the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:14, 16).

This beast will also stand up against the Prince of princes: the returning Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of Lords.

And this beast will be defeated not with human hands but by divine intervention at the return of Jesus Christ!

And, together with the false prophet, end up in the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20).

Verse 26.

26 The vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been told is true; but seal up the vision, for it pertains to many days hence.”

“Seal up the vision,” Daniel is told by God’s messenger; “for it shall yet be in the future.”

That’s why Daniel couldn’t fully understand the vision.

Very soon now, the “sanctuary” and the “evening and morning sacrifices” will be restored.

When the Jews re-captured old Jerusalem in 1967, an Israeli officer exclaimed at the time, “With Jerusalem back, we are now half-way to the Messiah! The other half is the building of the temple.”

Jewish groups are actively preparing for re-building the third temple in Mount Moriah, where the Moslem Dome of the Rock is currently situated.

Today, there are these five red heifers in Shiloh, which, according to a news outlet, instigated the Hamas attack on October 7th of 2023.

The Bible commands one of these heifers must be slain, and its blood sprinkled upon the temple by the priest to purify and cleanse everything in the temple (Numbers 19:1-4).

And the Bible makes it quite plain that a temple will exist just before the end of our age.

The evening and morning sacrificial services will be restored.

And a priesthood will be established to officiate in those rituals.

And then comes the end-time fulfillment of Daniel’s prophetic vision.

The Beast occupies Jerusalem, puts an end to the sacrifices and defiles the sanctuary with a pagan idol, the abomination of desolation.

Bible prophecy says that an unprecedented time of great trouble and turmoil — the great tribulation — is about to occur.

It will be at that point, when all of mankind faces the grim prospect of total annihilation, that God will step in to put an end to this present, evil world.

Jesus Christ will return as a warrior king, leading His army of angels to subdue all opposition.

And finally, as King of kings and Lord of lords, He will set up the Kingdom of God on the earth.

May God hasten that time of peace and joy in God’s wonderful world tomorrow!