In this prophecy of Daniel 8, we receive an accurate description of what happens after 539 BC. It is very striking how precisely the Lord describes the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes and what he will do to Israel centuries before it actually takes place.

Anyone reading this must admit that this history is accurately and reliably prophesied here. Dealing with this prophecy poses a problem for people who will not bow before God’s Word in all things. For them, the accuracy of Daniel 8 serves as proof that Daniel does not see this in a dream in 547 BC. It is simply impossible, according to them, that things are described so accurately. They therefore believe that this prophecy dates to the time after all the events take place and is thus not a prophecy but a historical description put in the form of a prophecy. The historian uses Daniel’s name in order to give more weight to his description. According to them, the purpose of this writer would be to encourage God’s people with this book. The resulting message is that the Lord will preserve and protect his people in the future. This would, therefore, not be a revelation of God to Daniel. In their eyes, God’s revelation about the future cannot be accurate!  Thus they deny that God rules according to his eternal plan and they also deny that the Lord, in his divine way, can give a perfectly reliable revelation of the future.

We will, however, now look at what we find in Daniel 8 as a perfectly reliable revelation about the future. Here we see again how all of history is in God’s hands, right down to the smaller details.

For a proper understanding of Daniel 8, it is important to notice that there is a difference in perspective between Daniel 7 and Daniel 8.  The vision in Daniel 7:1–28 extends to the return of the Lord Jesus on the clouds. It also deals with the Antichrist and his power, which is being broken up by the Ancient of Days. We see, too, that Christ will reign eternally with the saints. In Daniel 8:1–27, the perspective does not reach that far.  In this vision, Daniel only surveys the period between 547 and 164 BC. In Daniel 7 we receive a perspective that spans the whole of further history and the church of all ages is thus encouraged. In Daniel 8 we see that it is not only with the view of the distant future that the Lord encourages his people, not only with the final righteous judgment that is to come. God’s people also draw courage when they see in a very concrete way that what the Lord has prophesied regarding the future actually happens, and that in a very real way he controls and shapes history. The fact that everything is in his hands is also an enormous comfort for us today.