It becomes necessary here to remind ourselves of the basic principle of Christian understanding of prophecy, particularly in the Old Testament: The primary reason for preserving the Old Testament in the first place is because it points to Christ (1 Peter 1:10-12). Further, we are compelled to read the Old Testament in the same fashion as the New Testament writers. They invariably took a Hebraic Mystical view, what is often called "spiritualizing" the text. Finally, the clues to what particular reading we should have are not wide open to any subjective impulse, but are clearly laid out in Scripture, and amplified by external sources taking the same view. Among the Hebrew writers of the Old Testament, Daniel raises to a high art form the mystical, symbolic and parabolic form, which the Apostle John does well to emulate in his Revelation, both in style and in content.
The reason John links his Revelation of Last Things to Daniel's prophecy is because Daniel was given such a clear understanding of the gospel truth well before it came. It was first a stone cut without hands, which became a mountain filling the whole earth. Then it was a vision of the Ancient of Days establishing His Kingdom on the destruction of the Fourth Beast. Closely connected to this new Kingdom of Heaven would be the demise of Daniel's own nation, which Daniel was shown in the influence of the Persian and Greek religious cultures. Then Daniel is shown in the Seventy Weeks how the Restoration would be an empty gesture, lacking any restoration of faith, ending in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple ritual. Now we approach the final vision, showing in some detail the events of how the last vestige of Israel as a people would become so wrapped up in politics and materialism, they would even go so far as to compromise with someone seeking to wipe away every trace of Mosaic Law. Daniel struggled not with discernment of the message, but in making sense of it, in light of his youth under the reforms of Josiah, and reading his fellow prophets. That all this effort would come to naught, that the Restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple meant nothing in the long run, that all his hopes had hung on the wrong objective was a bit hard to internalize.
Thus, we learn immediately Daniel most surely understood the message in the vision. Daniel had been in mourning, seeking some consolation from the Lord, seeking to understand all he had learned so far. Three weeks into this deep mourning, as he stood by the Tigris River, he encountered an eternal presence. He has a vision of the final revelation of Jehovah, a manifestation of the Messiah, floating above the river. We need not understand all the ways in which this caused so much distress to Daniel. Anyone in the presence of God is immediately stricken with a powerful realization of their sinful nature, and it affected Daniel's entourage the same way. Daniel cannot proceed with the matter at hand until the angels intervene to strengthen him. We assume reasonably this is Gabriel again, bringing the manifestation of Messiah with him.
We learn in passing Daniel heard a lot of things, from the Messiah and from Gabriel, which he does not appear to record for us. We also get a partial image of the way things work in the Spirit Realm, between demons and angels. We discover all the gods of the nations are actually demons, and they have a valid authority which can affect the way God answers prayer, at least to delay things as we count time here in our world. We learn Michael is the name for the angel of Israel. So just what is this matter Gabriel brings to Daniel which calls for such an intense battle in the Spirit Realm? The demons who rule the kingdoms don't what Daniel to know what comes next. They don't want him to write his prophecies regarding the final end of Israel as a nation of on earth. Yet, we see Michael finds it part of his mission to make sure Daniel hears this description of how Israel commits the final betrayal of her Covenant with God.
It would be so very easy to get wrapped up in the historical details of Gabriel's narrative, but that misses the point. Indeed, from a historian's point of view, we must note some really important stuff gets passed over quickly. Several major Persian Emperors get a passing mention, and Alexander the Great gets one sentence. We are then treated to a quick review of some truly minor squabbling between the Seleucids and Ptolemies over Judea. While the details are accurate, it's odd the things included and the things unmentioned. Rather, we notice the tone seems to place a great deal of emphasis on how the battles are endless, mixed with petty political wrangling, all devastating to the Jews trapped in between. Marriages, alliances, betrayals, territory, troops, gold -- and none of it really accomplishes anything. Finally, we are introduced to a fellow we now know is named Antiochus IV, and he gets half of chapter 11, yet historically is quite insignificant. Further, we see no mention at all of the Maccabees nor the Hasmonean Kingdom, nor the beginning of Roman domination in 63 BC. The lesson is drilled home in the words of Gabriel, God's own Messenger Angel: The spiritual understanding of human events little notes what men see, but makes much of the spiritual forces behind them.
What exactly is the spiritual importance of this petty monarch named Antiochus, his crumbling kingdom, and his mad persecution of the Jews? He is a symbol of Satan. As Jesus manifests the Father, so Antiochus manifests Satan. This is the demonic man who brings to reality the thing Daniel most dreads: the destruction of Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple and its services, and the Law of Moses itself. And he does it all with an alliance of Jews. The few who cling to the truth (11:32-35) will make their presence felt, but they can't stop the relentless fall of the nation. The rest of the chapter cannot be easily matched to known historical events, simply because it recounts the spiritual events behind the whole narrative. This spirit is described in previous visions as the blasphemous horn of the Fourth Beast and as behind one of the four horns of the Goat. His purpose is to destroy the Nation of Israel, to shatter the Law of Moses. This will end in one final battle of spiritual forces, symbolized by the gathering of troops outside Jerusalem, a battle Satan will lose. The actual historical event will be the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. However, that will not give Satan any victory, but will the beginning of the end for him.
The Apostle John makes of this Final Battle something to celebrate, and elaborates the spiritual symbols at length in the Apocalypse. John connects this vision to a wider context of explaining this is how Satan operates. As there will be a New Israel, so Satan will try again to destroy the New Jerusalem of Christ. For Daniel, just trying to assemble a mental framework for the complete tectonic shift from what he has known to a world where such massive spiritual warfare results in countless thousands of lives lost, it's all too much. Yes, he understood it. He knew much of it stretched before him by many years. Had the Returnees bothered to retain their Hebrew cultural orientation, they would have understood it, too. But Daniel had already been warned they would lose it to Persian and Greek influences, becoming steadily wrapped up in human politics and materialism, as if such things could somehow reflect what really mattered. The darkest part of the vision for Daniel was the realization his own people would reject their Messiah.
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Ed Hurst
12 December 2007
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