Daniel Chapter 8: The Little Horn And The Sanctuary Cleansed (Part 1)

Daniel 8-12 is the sealed book of Daniel 12:4 as well as the little book of Revelation 10.

🟪Daniel  8:1-8

In the 3rd year of Belshazzar’s reign, Daniel saw another vision that parallels chapters 2 and 7. This time, God shows him sanctuary animals to describe the two powers of Medo-Pesia (ram) and Greece (goat).

🟪Daniel 8:9–12

- Pagan and Papal Rome combined are described in their efforts to do away with the message of the sanctuary.

- Papal Rome is only an extension of Pagan Rome. 

- This power tries to take over the place and ministry of Jesus here on earth and thus takes away the "daily." 

- The daily of the sanctuary formed the basis for the ministration of the priest in the sanctuary. It was performed every day without exception and included the daily, year-old lamb sacrifices in the morning and evening, helping with the sacrifices brought by the people, ministering the blood of the sacrifices, trimming the lamps of the candle sticks, the intercession at the altar of incense, and making sure the bread is in order. 

- It tries to obscure the ministry of Jesus as our true High Priest by using earthly priests for intercession and forgiveness of sins (verse 12).

- Verse 10 uses the same language as Revelation 12, where Satan deceived a third of the angels with him. He wants to take the place of the “prince of the host” (verse 11). Later, we recognize this prince of princes as the prince of the covenant (verse 25). The Sanctuary message reveals a comprehensive system of truth.

- Daniel wants to know how long this will last (Dan 8:13). The angel then gives Daniel the longest time prophecy in the Bible – 2300-day prophecy. The language used is that of the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest went into the Most Holy Place to cleanse the Sanctuary from its defilement of sin.

🟪Daniel 8 follows the same basic sequence of powers as Daniel 7 but there are four significant differences:

1. Daniel 7 uses a lion to represent Babylon, but Daniel 8 does not use a symbol for Babylon. Why is this? The best explanation for the exclusion of a symbol for Babylon is that the prophecy of the 2300 days/years began during the period of Persian rule and not during the period of the Babylonian kingdom.

2. Daniel 7 has four beasts, and each of them is wild and carnivorous. Daniel 8 has only two beasts, and each of them is domestic. In fact, the sanctuary used the ram for daily services and the goat for yearly ones. This clearly demonstrates that the sanctuary is the central focus of Daniel 8. We will discover in our study that the little horn takes away the daily (represented by the ram), and for this, God will judge it in the yearly service (represented by the he-goat) on the Day of Atonement.

In Daniel 7, there are two separate symbols for pagan and papal Rome. The beast with iron teeth represents Pagan Rome, while the little horn rising from the beast's head represents Papal Rome. However, in Daniel 8, the little horn represents both Pagan and Papal Rome.

Daniel 8 verse 1 to 4

1 In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.

3 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.

4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.

🟢“A Ram”

Verse 20 clearly identifies this as the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. So, unlike chapters 2 and 7, this vision begins without the kingdom of Babylon. The reason is that Babylon was at the end of its reign of world dominance. 

🟢“A ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other”

- “Which had two horns” - Again in verse 20 we are told that the two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.

- The ram that has two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. After Darius the Mede (died in 536 BC), Cyrus (who was half Median and half Persian and died in 530 B.C.), and Cambyses (who was also half Median and half Persian and died in 522 B.C.), all the remaining rulers were Persian.

- Why is the term "the higher coming up last" used in this context? It is because, out of the two nations, the Medes were the weaker, and thus the higher or stronger, which were the Persians, came up last. The kingdom eventually became known as the Persian kingdom.

There is a similarity between the bear in Daniel 7 and this ram. In Daniel 7, the bear is raised up on one side. In Daniel 8, one of the horns is higher than the other. In Daniel 7, the bear has three ribs in its mouth, and in Daniel 8, the ram conquers in three points of the compassed westward (Babylon, 539 B.C.), northward (Lydia, 546 B.C.), and southward (Egypt, 525 B.C.).

Daniel 8 verse 5 to 8

5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.

7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

8 Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

🟢"Goat"

- The he-goat comes from the west. It is not only geographically true that Greece is west of the kingdom of Persia; it is also true that Greece is west of Shushan, where Daniel saw the vision next to the river Ulai.

- In Daniel 8, the he-goat conquers so swiftly that it does not even touch the earth. In other words, it's a flying goat. In Daniel 7, the leopard (a swift beast in itself) is rendered even swifter because it has the four wings of an eagle.

- The he-goat of Daniel 8 sprouts four horns and the leopard of Daniel 7 has four heads. As we compare the leopard of Daniel 7 with the he-goat of Daniel 8 we must conclude that this kingdom had two main periods of existence.

Verse 21 tells us that the he goat is the kingdom of Grecia or Greece, under the rulership of Alexander the Great.

🟢“Horn was broken”

From verse 21, we see that this notable horn is the first king. History tells us that this was Alexander the Great. When the empire was at its peak in strength, Alexander died in a drunken debauch at about the age of 31. They asked him just before his death who would inherit the kingdom. The reply came back that it would go to the strongest.

🟢“Came up four notable ones”

In verse 22, we see that these four notable horns represent four kings or kingdoms. 

The prophecy accurately predicted the division of the kingdom into four kingdoms.  

- Cassander, who had Macedonia and Greece in the west.

- Lysimachus, who had Thrace and a large part of Asia Minor in the north. 

- Ptolemy, who had Egypt and a part of Syria in the south. 

- Seleucus, who had the bulk of the Persian Empire from Syria eastward.

Daniel 8 verse 9 to 11

9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.

10 And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.

11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down.

🟢“Little horn”

So what power arose from outside of the Greek empire? Rome stood apart from Alexander's kingdom and had a greater dominion than any other kingdom before it. Rome conquered Egypt in the south in 30 B.C., Syria in the east in 65 B.C., and Palestine in 63 B.C.

🟢“Waxed exceeding great”

The ram ‘waxed great’ (8:4), the he-goat ‘waxed very great’ (8:8), but the little horn ‘waxed exceeding great’ (8:9). 

🟢“Cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them”

The host or the stars represent God’s people on earth (Exodus 7:4; 12:41; I Samuel 17:45; Revelation 1:20; Daniel 12:2-3).

Who cast down some of God’s people and His leaders to the ground? This refers to Rome's persecution and attacks on Jews.

Rome crucified Jesus Christ - Psalms 2:1-2 and Acts 4:25–27 show that, even though the Jews plotted and orchestrated Christ’s death, they still had to gain authority from Pilate/Herod to carry out the crucifixion.

The iron monarchy of Rome imposed a heavy yoke on Israel, lasting until their destruction.

But we need to remember from Chapter 7 that Rome has two phases: pagan and papal. 

🟢“Daily sacrifice was taken away”

The little horn not only wars against the host but also attacks the Prince of the host, the ‘daily’ that belongs to the Prince, and the place of the Prince’s sanctuary. 

The Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that this word refers to the daily ministration of the priest in the court and the holy place of the sanctuary. In other words, the little horn was going to attempt to take away from the Prince of the host his ministerial position in the court and in the holy place of the sanctuary.

There can be no doubt that in this vision, the prince is ministering in the heavenly sanctuary. Therefore, Jesus is the prince. And where does Jesus minister today? Matthew 21:12–13 tells us that Jesus entered the temple of God at the end of the Triumphal Entry and referred to it as My Father's house. However, just a few days later, Jesus announced to the Jewish leaders, ‘Your house is left unto you desolate.’ (Matthew 23:38) Jesus' presence had forsaken the Jerusalem Temple, making it neither the Father's house nor the temple of God. This is what the veil's rending meant. The system of earthly types and shadows had come to an end (Matthew 27:51). The destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 70 (Luke 19:41-44) left it unrebuilt. For this reason alone, it is impossible to conclude that the sanctuary that the little horn trampled upon was the Jerusalem Temple. During the Christian dispensation, when the little horn did its work, there was no earthly Jerusalem Temple in existence.

The Roman Catholic mass counterfeits the teaching of Jesus' one-time, all-encompassing death. In the mass, the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus is repeated over and over again. Roman Catholic believers, instead of focusing on the Lamb of God in heaven, direct their gaze towards the wafer host, believed to contain the entire body of Jesus (ubiquity). Instead of coming boldly to Jesus at the throne of grace in heaven, believers are taught that they are being nourished by feeding on the literal body of Jesus on earth. In fact, the host is stored in a flower-like artifact called the Tabernacle. At the center of the artifact is the round wafer-like host, and coming forth from the host are the rays of the sun. The congregation teaches the faithful to bow and worship the host when they present the tabernacle to them. This is simply a refined system of sun worship.

Furthermore, the Roman Catholic priest on earth takes over the power and prerogatives of Jesus when he pronounces the words of consecration “hoc est corpus meum”. Roman Catholic theology teaches that when these words are pronounced, the earthly priest has the power to transubstantiate the wafer into the real body of Jesus. In other words, the earthly priest has the power to create the Creator! This is blasphemy to the fullest degree.

Next: Daniel Chapter 8: The Little Horn and the Sanctuary Cleansed (Part 2)

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