Daniel 8

Daniel seeks to understand; someone with the appearance of a man stands before him. Wesley: the meaning—a more clear discovery of those things. The appearance of a man—probably Gabriel.

Understanding is given, not guessed.

Calvin: when I sought to understand, there stood like the aspect of a man—Christ, who had not yet put on our flesh, a taste of his coming as Mediator.

God meets the seeker. Daniel seeks; one stands. The next verse will name Gabriel.

A man's voice between the banks of the Ulai: Gabriel, make this man understand. Wesley: a man's voice—of him before mentioned, namely, Christ.

Christ commands; Gabriel interprets. Shared with Calvin: Gabriel is sent to make Daniel understand. Media, Persia, and Greece will be named.

Calvin: a human voice in the midst of the river; Christ commands Gabriel. From this, Christ's divinity: he issues orders to angels. Gabriel: the strength of God.

Application: the voice is not Daniel's guess. Gabriel must make him understand.

He comes near; Daniel is frightened and falls on his face. Understand, son of man; the vision belongs to the time of the end. Wesley: he came near—that he might speak more familiarly to him, yet Daniel could not bear the glory of it. How much less can we bear the glory of God, and how graciously hath the Lord dealt with us, to teach us by men, and not by angels? O son of man—to make him mind his frailty. At the time—in God's appointed time, in the latter day, but not now in thy life-time.

The end is appointed, not in Daniel's lifetime, and not a last-days rapture scheme Wesley does not use. Frightened; understand; timed. Stay with the indignation v. 19 will name.

Calvin: frightened and fell; fear prepares for obedience. Understand, son of man: there shall be an end of the vision at a fixed time; God does not throw words into the air.

Application: time of the end is the appointed completion, the end of that indignation, not a rapture timetable they do not use. Common ground: son of man; the vision has its time.

Deep sleep, face to the ground; touched and made to stand. Wesley: toward the ground—being terrified with the splendor and grandeur both of the messenger and message. Set me upright—by one touch only. The power of spirits is incomparably greater than that of the strongest of men.

One touch; he stands to hear. God raises what he has laid down. Humility, not a pose of decoding power.

Calvin: I fell into a swoon with my face upon the ground; he touched me and set me upright. Fear prepares for obedience; God prostrates and then raises, that the mind be composed to listen.

Raised to hear, not to chart. Deep sleep, touched, stood.

Latter time of the indignation; appointed time of the end. Wesley: the indignation—God will raise up Antiochus to execute his wrath against the Jews for their sins, yet there shall be an end of that indignation.

An end of that indignation—Antiochus, not a last-days rapture scheme. God appoints the end. The ram and the goat will be named next.

Calvin: what shall happen at the last end of the indignation: that severer punishment after the people abused forbearance; at the time appointed the end shall be. God has a settled time; bridle haste.

The appointed time of the end is the close of that wrath under Antiochus. Shared: there shall be an end. God limits the indignation.

Wesley writes no note here; his nearest (v. 3): two horns—the kingdom of Media and Persia. The higher—the kingdom of Persia which rose last, in Cyrus, became more eminent than that of the Medes.

Pastorally: named empires, not a modern map. Calvin reads it the same way: Medes and Persians.

Calvin: the ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. Two empires united; God names them so the vision is not a riddle for later flags.

Media and Persia, as already shown. On this both agree: the ram is named.

The rough male goat is the king of Greece; the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Wesley writes no note here; his nearest (v. 5): an he-goat—the Grecian empire. A horn—this was Alexander the great.

Greece, Alexander. Shared with Calvin.

Calvin: the he-goat is the king of Greece; the great horn is the first king, Alexander. Who then would have thought a king of Greece would seize that monarchy? God said it before it was.

The first king is named, and so is his empire. Goat = Greece; great horn = Alexander.

Wesley writes no note here; his nearest (v. 8): was broken—when Alexander was greatest, then was he broken, and that to pieces. The four winds: Antipater got Greece; Asia was possessed by Antigonus; Ptolemy got Egypt; Seleucus had Babylon and Syria.

Four, not with Alexander's power. Both traditions agree: four successors from his nation. Stay with the named split. The passage is not a chart of later goats.

Calvin: four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. Cassander, Seleucus, Antigonus, Ptolemy; not one equal to the first king.

In practice: from his nation, weaker. Four, not with his power.

Latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce face, who understands riddles. Wesley: in the latter time—when they were come to the height, and beginning to decline. When the transgressors—when the Jews were grown to an excess of wickedness, then God suffered Antiochus to persecute them. Dark sentences—full of subtilty: such all histories declare Antiochus to be.

Wesley names Antiochus, not a modern bold face. Latter end, transgressors full, a cunning king.

Calvin: at the time of their kingdom, when the wicked are consummated—the impious who provoked God's wrath. A king hard of face, skilled in enigmas: Antiochus, destitute of nobleness, remarkable for low cunning and impudence.

Application: a named tyrant when sin is full. Shared with Wesley: Antiochus, bold and cunning.

Power mighty, but not by his own power; fearful destruction; he succeeds; he destroys mighty ones and the holy people who are the saints. Wesley: not by his own power—not by any heroick deeds, but by making use of the Jewish factions, through the divine commission to punish a backsliding nation; and by means of Eumenes and Attalus, by whose help he got up to this height. Shall destroy—he shall by force, craft, and cruelty, destroy many of God's people.

Power is permitted, not original. The saints are destroyed, not abandoned. Common ground: not by his own power; the holy people suffer for a time. God still appoints the end of the indignation.

Calvin: his power shall be strengthened, yet not by his own might—not open magnanimity, but clandestine arts; or not comparable to Alexander's. He shall make wonderful havoc and destroy the strong and the people of the saints.

Mighty is still bounded. Not his own power; saints hurt.

Cunning, deceit prospers; in his mind he becomes great; without warning he destroys many. He rises against the Prince of princes; broken—but by no human hand. Wesley: by peace—under colour of kindness. Against the prince of princes—he fought against God, affronting God's laws, profaning God's worship, and temple, and setting up the image and worship of Jupiter there. Without hand—by a disease whereof he died.

He fights God; God breaks him. The Prince of princes is God; broken by no human hand.

Calvin: he shall magnify himself in his heart; in peace destroy many. Against the Prince of princes: some take the high priest; that is too confined; God is meant. Yet he shall be destroyed without hand—the sufficiency of the divine power without any human aid. Do not pass by Antiochus to invent Antichrist as the first sense.

God breaks the tyrant. Rise against God; no human hand.

The vision of evenings and mornings is true; seal it; many days from now. Wesley: shut thou up—lay it up in thy heart. For many days—three hundred years after this; long after Daniel's days.

In practice: evenings and mornings already counted as days in 8:1–14; do not reopen a day-year scheme. Seal it; it is not for Daniel's lifetime.

Calvin: the vision of the evening and morning is truth: days, not years or months; about six years and a half until the temple is cleansed. Close the vision, because it is for many days—not immediately apparent; guard the treasure even if many reject it.

Days, then restoration. True; seal; many days. God already limited the 2,300 as days.

Overcome, sick some days; he rose up and did the king’s business; appalled, he did not understand. Wesley: was sick—being overwhelmed by a sense of the calamity that should befall the people of God. Did the king's business—having recovered strength, he minded his place, duty and trust, and concealed the whole, that they might not see it by his countenance.

Sickness is compassion, not a license to decode headlines. He does the king's business; he does not understand it all. Daniel is sick, then returns to duty in humility. Gabriel has interpreted the named empires; the rest is sealed.

Calvin: astonished and afflicted by disease, that he might embrace the vision with reverence. He returned to the king's business—his ordinary occupation under that king, still in Chaldea. No one understood the prediction: attend; it is not a vanished specter.

For the hearer: appalled and still obedient. Common to both: sick, king's business, did not understand. The response is humility, not a chart. God still breaks the tyrant by no human hand.