NOTES for Dan 8:1-14
In apocalyptic visions, history plays an important role, and historical events always occupy a special place in them. But from the standpoint of the revelation received by the visionaries, these events are usually interesting not in themselves, but in the context of the spiritual processes that stand behind them. In some cases even historical detail as such turns out not to be especially important. The apocalyptic tradition is oriented not so much toward history as toward what is sometimes called historiosophy: the understanding of the meaning of history, which in God's eyes often turns out to be entirely different from what it is in human eyes. At times great events can look even somewhat caricatured in apocalyptic visions, roughly as the duel between the goat and the ram must have looked in Daniel's eyes (vv. 3-8). Yet despite the spectacular and even surreal quality of the scene unfolding before him, behind it stood something very serious and tragic: the history of humanity as an endless and senseless war, in which victors and vanquished, looking equally ridiculous and foolish, nevertheless hate one another so much that the defeated cannot count on mercy.
And the horns on the victor's head, if they are not broken off in time, can become an obstacle even to the fulfillment of God's plans (vv. 9-14). The fallen world, as can be seen, knows only one form of interaction: violence. And if exceptions are possible in relations between individual people, there are no exceptions in relations between masses of people, between peoples and states: war triumphs in the world. It is no surprise that sooner or later it turns against the people of God, for the people of God also occupy a definite place in history, being part of it, and therefore are subject to the historical laws of the fallen world just like any other people. Yet God has a special plan for His people, and therefore history cannot move endlessly in its vicious circle. Sooner or later the moment will come when God breaks this circle, putting an end to the bad infinity that will never cease by itself. And for the author of the Book of Daniel, all hopes for the coming of the Messiah and for the triumph of the Kingdom are connected only with such direct intervention by God in earthly history.