and (the great horn) that is between his eyes is the (first king).
The goat represents the Greco-Macedonian Empire,
and the notable horn stands for its first king— (Alexander the Great).
6And 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.
7And 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.
Alexander’s empire overwhelmed the Medo-Persians in 331 b.c.,
just as verses 6 and 7 prophesied it would!
8Therefore 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.
-The horn that represented the first Grecian king,Alexander, was suddenly broken.
Alexander the Great, at the height of his power, died of fever suddenly while in Babylon.
He was only 33 years old.
“Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it,
four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.”
-After Alexander died in 323 b.c., his kingdom was divided into (four major parts),
none of which were as strong as Alexander’s empire, .
9And (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.
-First, so there is no confusion, this is not referring to the
(little horn) mentioned in Daniel 7:8. That little horn rose up in the midst of the other horns.
In Daniel 8:9, the little horn springs up out of one of the four horns from Alexander’s empire.
10And 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
this little horn in Daniel 8 is: Antiochus Epiphanes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_Epiphanes
He came up out of one of the four divisions and, in a sense, bridged
the gap between the Greco-Macedonian Empire and the Roman Empire.
Antiochus was a ruthless dictator who, through deceitful
lies and flatteries, obtained rule in Palestine in 176 b.c.
In 168 b.c., Antiochus pillaged and desecrated the Jews’ temple in Jerusalem.
He also burdened the Jews with unbearable taxes.
But never before, neither under the Assyrians nor under the Babylonians,
had it received such a blow as the edict issued by Antiochus Epiphanes by which
he hoped to crush and destroy the faith of Israel
-This prophecy in Daniel also applies to an end-time Antiochus.
His goal will be to crush the faith of (spiritual) Israel—God’s Church.
The temple, today, is God’s Church (Ephesians 2:20-21).
people are looking for the wrong sign if waiting for sacrifices to start.
the daily in prophecy refers to the sacrifice, or work, of the Church.
There is also an end-time abomination of desolation, as
prophesied here in Daniel 8 and in Matthew 24 and Luke 21.
But what we have not understood is the spiritual dimension to this prophecy.
Anciently, Antiochus went to Jerusalem and desecrated
the temple first. Afterward, he ransacked the whole city.
Notice, here the daily is taken away because of transgression.
So this is a different event than in Daniel 12:11, where there
is a “daily” taken away because of righteousness—to the place
of safety. Also, in Daniel 12 an end-time Antiochus violently
shatters the power of the holy people. But here in Daniel 8, he
subtly comes to the temple with flatteries.
Daniel 8 is discussing transgression, truth being cast
to the ground—a satanic host practicing and prospering
at destroying the daily(continual) all from within the sanctuary,
God’s own Church.
There is a duality here. First, there is an Antiochus used by Satan
to destroy God’s Church, spiritual Israel, from the inside.
Then there is an Antiochus, leading the Holy Roman Empire,
who destroys the nations of Israel.