And it came to pass, when I Daniel had seen the vision, I sought for the understanding of it, and behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.
Daniel has just seen the vision of the ram and the goat. Now he wants to know what it means. Verse 15 is the turning point of the chapter. The prophet stops looking and starts asking, and heaven answers by sending someone in human form to stand beside him.
Daniel did not stop at seeing. What he wanted next mattered to God.
The prophet was not content with the vision itself, but he "sought to understand it." God approved the desire of his heart, for He delights to share His mind with the seeking soul. So no sooner did the prophet wish to know the meaning of the vision than the interpreter was at hand.
Daniel describes the visitor only by his likeness: a man. The next verse gives him a name, and the same messenger appears at other key moments in Scripture.
God sent this angel to Daniel to explain the vision he had seen of the ram and the goat, and to tell him the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Daniel calls him "the man Gabriel," and one that had "the appearance of a man." Dan. 8:15; Dan. 9:21. God also sent him to Mary the mother of Jesus, and to Zacharias the father of John the Baptist, to announce the birth of their sons. To Zacharias he said, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God." Luke 1:19, 26.
Daniel asked for meaning. You might expect the answer to say the same thing in plainer words.
Never suppose that the explanation of a vision in Scripture is only a repeat of what has gone before. They allude to the past, but they add fresh features not given before. This is very plain here. Most of what the prophet had already seen has now happened. But the explanatory part adds fresh information that looks on to the last days.
One writer links Daniel's question with how far the answer reaches.
I have no doubt Daniel was sure there was much underlying this vision, much that did not appear on the surface, about which God would have him greatly enlightened. That is why he wanted to know its meaning. The angel Gabriel brings him the answer. In the interpretation we learn that the doings of the little horn in the vision are only a faint foreshadowing. What it pictures will take place through a power that will be set up in the east, as the Roman power will be in the west. By means of another power, not his own, he will prosper and destroy. He is an offspring of the great destroyer, the devil, and his aim will be to wipe out every trace of the name of God on the earth. But he will be broken without any human hand. Christ will deal with him at His appearing.
Another writer puts the weight on timing.
Gabriel is the interpreter of the whole vision. It deserves close study. It points to a future fulfilment. Gabriel told Daniel that the vision has a special meaning for the time of the end.
Understanding was not all Daniel received.
First, Daniel hears plainly that the vision looks on to the time of the end. The vision of what will happen to his people in the latter times overwhelms Daniel, and he receives strength to face the truth.
- Seek — Daniel was not satisfied with what he saw; he wanted what it meant. God approved that desire, for He delights to share His mind with the seeking soul.
- Sent — the interpreter was already at hand. Gabriel is the same messenger God later sent to Mary and to Zacharias. He says of himself, "I stand in the presence of God."
- Surpass — the explanation is never a bare repeat of the picture. It points back to the past but adds fresh features, carrying the vision on to the last days.
- Span — what Gabriel unfolds reaches past the little horn to a coming power that no human hand will break. Christ will deal with him at His appearing.
- Strengthen — the truth about the latter days overwhelmed the prophet. The messenger who brought the understanding also brought strength to face it.
And I heard a man's voice between [the banks of] the Ulai; and he called and said, Gabriel, make this [man] to understand the vision.
Daniel has just watched a ram and a goat fight across the world stage, and he cannot make sense of it. Then a human voice calls across the water, naming an angel and giving him an order about Daniel.
The verse before this one shows Daniel looking for the meaning. The answer came at once, and that speed says something about God.
The prophet was not content with the vision itself, but he "sought for the meaning." God approved the desire of his heart, for He delights in sharing His mind with the seeking soul. So as soon as the prophet wished to know the meaning of the vision, the interpreter was at hand.
Daniel's book opens by crediting him with understanding in all visions and dreams. So the order "make this man understand" comes as a surprise.
It is astonishing that in both the seventh and eighth chapters the prophet receives the vision, and yet afterwards he needed an interpreter to understand its meaning. And this is a man said to have had "understanding in all visions and dreams" (chap. 1:17). As for the visions and dreams given to the Gentile, that is easy to understand. We would not expect God to put Himself in direct communication with an idolater. "The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him" (Ps. 25:14), and "the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). But here is Daniel, a man greatly beloved, and he has to be made to understand the vision that has been given to him!
This is the first time in the Bible an angel is called by name, and the name reappears at moments that shape everything after.
The angel who was sent to Daniel to explain the vision he had seen of the ram and the male goat, and to reveal to him the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Daniel calls him "the man Gabriel," and one who had "the appearance of a man." Dan. 8:15; Dan. 9:21. He was also sent to Mary the mother of Jesus, and to Zacharias the father of John the Baptist, to foretell the birth of their sons. To Zacharias he said, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God." Luke 1:19, 26.
The name Gabriel carries a meaning, and so does the human form Daniel sees.
Michael is always the warrior-angel, marked out by his name, as Gabriel — "man of God" — is the messenger of God to men. If God draws near to men, He does it in the tender familiarity of manhood. How plainly these names speak to us!
Gabriel does not volunteer. The voice names him, and he answers it.
Gabriel, obedient to the command he had received, came near where Daniel stood.
Being sent is not a lower place. It goes with standing close to God.
The angels are in ministry. Those who stand nearest the throne are perhaps the most abundant in ministry. Well they may be, since they are so near that source of goodness. For Gabriel again and again appears in ministry; and he could say of himself, as one so near the throne, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God."
Gabriel brings more than information. Notice where his explanation points, and what it does to Daniel.
In the verses that follow, the angel Gabriel makes the meaning of these visions known to Daniel. First, he tells Daniel outright that the vision looks on to the time of the end. The vision of what will happen to his people in the latter times overwhelms Daniel, and he is strengthened to face the truth.
Gabriel is sent to explain. That raises a question: what does an explanation in Scripture actually do?
We are never to suppose that the explanations of a vision in Scripture are merely a repetition of what has gone before. They refer to the past, but they add fresh features not given before. This is particularly plain in the present case. Most of the earlier part of the vision has already come to pass. The explanation adds fresh information that looks on to the last days.
- Desire. Daniel wanted the meaning. God delights to answer a seeking soul, and the interpreter was already at hand.
- Command. The voice does not ask; it names and sends. Gabriel obeys at once, and the angels nearest the throne serve the most.
- Messenger. "Man of God" is his name, and a man's form is what Daniel sees. When God draws near to explain, He comes close in a human way.
- Understanding. A gifted prophet still needed a teacher. The vision came first, the meaning second.
- End. What Gabriel adds goes beyond what Daniel saw, carrying him to the time of the end and strengthening him to face it.
And he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was afraid, and fell on my face; and he said unto me, Understand, son of man; for the vision is for the time of the end.
Daniel has just seen a vision he cannot explain, and Gabriel comes to interpret it — but the prophet cannot stay on his feet. The verse holds three things: a command to understand, a title given to Daniel, and a time stamp on the vision.
The command to understand did not fall on a passive man. Daniel had already asked for the meaning.
The prophet was not content with the vision itself, but he "sought for the meaning." God approved the desire of his heart, for He delights in sharing His mind with the seeking soul. So the moment the prophet wanted to know the meaning of the vision, the interpreter was at hand… In this way Gabriel gave him both understanding and strength, so that he could receive the interpretation of the vision.
Fear knocked Daniel to the ground. One writer explains why God does not leave a prophet lying there.
The prophet cannot even listen to the message while lying face down. That posture may truly express how the creature is nothing in the presence of God, but it cannot express God's grace towards him. We see this all through the history of the prophets — in Daniel, and again in John the beloved. God cannot utter His thoughts to one prostrate in the dust before Him.
Gabriel addresses Daniel by a name used of only one other prophet, Ezekiel, and the shared circumstances of the two men explain it.
God applies it to two of His prophets, Daniel and Ezekiel (Dan. 8:17; Ezek. 2:1, etc.). He raised up both of these men as witnesses at a time when the nation had turned away from His worship and was under a foreign yoke. Rule passed from Israel to the Gentiles… So when the Lord described Himself as the Son of man, He took up a title that until then only prophets in exile had carried.
The same title runs forward to Christ. In the Gospels one speaker uses it, and no one else.
"The Son of Man" is a title used of Ezekiel about one hundred times, and once of Daniel (Dan. 8:17), the only Hebrew prophet spoken of in this way. The Lord alone in the Gospels uses the title of Himself, about seventy times… The title expresses a wider range of rule and glory than that of king of Israel… It is a title of special delight to the Lord.
The phrase is not vague. It marks the close of an era with a known starting point.
The end refers to the close of the age. That age began when Nebuchadnezzar rose to supreme power, and it will run on as long as Gentile rule stays on top and Israel is servant to the nations… In Daniel the phrase "the time of the end" comes up again and again (Dan. 8:17; Dan. 11:35, 40; Dan. 12:4, 9). So the end means the close of the period called elsewhere "the times of the Gentiles."
The vision did come true in history. But Gabriel's opening words point past that.
What Daniel saw came true in history, in Antiochus Epiphanes during the time of the Maccabees. But Gabriel's interpretation now teaches us that this historical fulfilment also pointed forward to another fulfilment… So in his very first words the angel says, "At the time of the end shall be the vision"; and again, "Behold, I will make you know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be" (vv. 17, 19).
The writer quotes an older Bible version here; the ESV reads "the vision is for the time of the end."
Verse 19 names what this end is the end of: "the indignation."
What was the beginning of the indignation? What does "the indignation" mean?… It is God's holy displeasure at the ongoing idolatry and corruption of Israel. So in the end He let the Gentiles not only conquer them, but use their victory to drive them out of the land. The "end of the indignation" will close with their restoration, inside and out, as all the prophets testify.
- Sought — Daniel asked for the meaning first. God delights to share His mind with a seeking soul, so the interpreter came at once.
- Strengthened — fear flattened the prophet. God does not speak His thoughts to a man lying in the dust, so Gabriel gave strength as well as understanding.
- Styled — "son of man" named only Daniel and Ezekiel, prophets who served after rule passed from Israel to the Gentiles. The Lord later took up that same exile title.
- Scheduled — "the time of the end" means the close of the times of the Gentiles. That era began under Nebuchadnezzar.
- Still ahead — history gave one fulfilment under Antiochus Epiphanes. But Gabriel's own words push the vision on to the end of God's indignation and Israel's restoration.