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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Daniel 8:15-27
The angel Gabriel is sent to explain to Daniel the vision which has frightened him so much. In the latter times of the kingdom yet to come – that of the North, the Grecian empire – when man’s wickedness will have reached its climax (v. 23), a king will arise called the Assyrian, different from the little horn of Daniel 7:1-28. This man will make use of his extraordinary intelligence to do evil (vv. 24, 25). Finally he will dare to attack Christ. Then he will be broken by God’s direct intervention ("without hand"), in contrast to those empires in whose history we see God using the one to overthrow the other (Job 34:20).
Thus this chapter has shown us how the horns of the ram (the Medo-Persian empire) have been broken and replaced by the horn of the he-goat (the Grecian empire), and afterwards by the arrogant king himself. God allows this man to arise, to dispose of his rivals, to fill the earth with his exploits, but his end is to be broken (Proverbs 6:15). History supplies us with more than one example of men of his type. Such was Alexander, called "the Great", that impetuous conqueror who died at 33 years of age, after having won an immense empire. He illustrates no doubt better than many others those words of the Lord Jesus, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
