The 2,300 day Prophecy in Daniel 8-9

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The 2,300 day prophecy in Daniel 8-9 is the longest prophecy in the bible. This is the second half of the article for Daniel 8-9. If you have not read the first article on the 70 weeks you will not understand this one as we will not be covering the foundational information twice.
In summary the first article proved two things.

  1. The prophecy starts with the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 457BC
  2. The 70 Weeks for the coming Messiah have been cut out of this time period (2,300 days) specifically for the Jews.
  3. Since the 70 prophetic weeks works out as 1 prophetic day is equal to one year and the 70 weeks is part of the 2,300 day prophecy then, the 2,300 day prophecy is 2,300 years long.
2300 day Prophecy

This article will cover the rule of the Ram, Goat, and Horn before God’s Judgment comes.

Daniel 8:3-14 I looked up, and there before me was a Ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. I watched the ram as he charged toward the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stand against him, and none could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.
As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. He came toward the two horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at him in great rage. I saw him attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him; the goat knocked him to the ground and trampled on him, and none could rescue the ram from his power. The goat became very great, but at the height of his power his large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up towards the four winds of heaven.
Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the beautiful land. It grew until it reached the host of heavens and it threw some of the starry host down to earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host; it took away the daily sacrifice from him and the place of his sanctuary was brought low. Because of rebellion, the host of the saints, and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.
Then I heard a holy one speaking and another holy one said to him, “How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled – the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host that will be trampled underfoot?”
He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated.”

The first rule when interpreting bible prophecy is to always use the bible to interpret the bible. When Daniel saw the ram with two horns, a horn in bible prophecy stands for a king or kingdom. Think about the 10-horned beast that came out of the sea in Daniel 7, the angel told Daniel that the 10 horns were 10 kings that would come from the beast Daniel 7:24.

Medo-Persia 539 - 331 BC

The ram with the two horns represents a ruling power with two kings or kingdoms. In Daniel 8:20 Gabriel tells Daniel that the two horned Ram represents the kings of Media and Persia. This makes sense as the second horn (larger one) grew up later. Media was the first country to take over after the fall of Babylon, but Persia arose later, became larger and became more well known.

Greece 331-168 BC

Gabriel continues by telling Daniel in Daniel 8:21 The shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king. The four horns that replaced the one that was broken off represent four kingdoms that will emerge from his nation but will not have the same power.
The Goat with the prominent horn was none other than Alexander the Great (Greece). The speed in which he conquered Medo-Persia and all the other countries was incredible.  Perhaps that’s why the Goat was represented as flying across the land without touching it. The vision states that at the height of its power the large horn was broken off and in its place four prominent horns grew up. Alexander the Great defeated all the countries on his ancient map. He became depressed as he didn’t have any more countries to fight against. He died at an early age of 33. When asked, who shall rule after you? His comment was let the strongest of you rule. Alexander had 4 generals; Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. Each general basically took over the land they were in charge of. Lysimachus received Thrace and most of Asia Minor. Cassander obtained Macedonia and Greece. Ptolemy was given Egypt, Palestine, Cilicia, Petra, and Cyprus while Seleucus controlled the rest of Asia: Syria, Babylon, Persia, and India. We now have our 4 horned goat.

Rule of the Horn

Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the beautiful land.
The bible says that out of one of the four horns another horn started to grow. This means the horn must come from the area currently controlled by Greece. As stated earlier, a horn represents a King or Kingdom, so the horn is a kingdom. The next country that came into world power was Rome. Think of Daniel’s statue with the two legs of iron representing East and West Roman Empire 142BC-476AD. It started small and eventually took over all of Europe and all the land around the Mediterranean Sea, Including the Beautiful Land which was Israel. So the horn coming out of the four horns is Rome.

It grew until it reached the host of heavens and it threw some of the starry host down to earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host; it took away the daily sacrifice from him and the place of his sanctuary was brought low. Because of rebellion, the host of the saints, and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.

Now we see a shift as the Horn becomes a religious power as it reaches toward heaven and sets itself up as great as the Prince of host, which is the Messiah. So this horn is representing a religious King. This is not a King set in place by God as the description here is evil… trampling on the host of heaven… truth was thrown to the ground….and….it prospered in everything it did. So this king although religious is not a righteous king. The Bible states that because of rebellion, the saints and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. So this king is defeating the real saints of god as he’s presenting himself to be a prince.

The other problem we have in solving this mystery is the time factor. None of this happened over night or in one person’s live time. The time period given to this prophecy is 2,300 prophetic days, or as we have learned from the first article it’s 2,300 years. Once again if this were 2,300 days the Jews had 360 days in their calendar so 2,300 days is 6.4 years. This prophecy covers the rule of the Ram, Goat, and Horn. The Ram alone ruled for 208 years, Greece ruled for 163 years so once again you have to interpret this as years. The prophecy starts with the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 457BC so 2,300 years from that date brings you to 1844. The prophecy concerning the horn runs from 168BC to 1844, that’s over 2,000 years. Rome ruled from 142BC-476AD so that leaves 1368 years unaccounted for.

What’s interesting is that there are multiple prophecies concerning this horn in Daniel. This is the same horn prophecied about in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. When certain events have been determined or decreed by God to happen, He will provide multiple prophecies to confirm the events. As the pattern develops we can start painting a picture of the events foretold.

Daniel 7:4-14
Lion, (Babylon)
Bear, (Medo-Persia)
Leopard (Greece)
4th Beast (Rome)
10 Horns
Little Horn
Judgment

Daniel 7:19-26
 
 
 
4th Beast (Rome)
10 Horns
Little Horn
Judgment

Daniel 8:5-25
 
Ram, (Medo-Persia)
Goat, (Greece)
Horn,(Rome)
 
The Horn changed
Judgment


Notice that the description of the Horn in Daniel 8 starts by describing the country of Rome but finishes with the description of the Little Horn found in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13.

  1. It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host. In other words, it was claiming to be as great as God. The Prince of the host referred to here is the Messiah sent from God. So the Horn is claiming to be as Great as the Messiah himself.
  2. it took away the daily sacrifice from him and the place of his sanctuary was brought low. The Roman Caesars claimed to be Gods and demanded worship. This didn’t stop there as the next king to arise took a religious office and also claimed to be God in the flesh.
  3.  Because of rebellion, the host of the saints, and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground. Because of rebellion, God is allowing this Horn to prosper. The Horn takes away the daily sacrifice and the true saints of God are unable to stop it. In Daniel 7 we’re told that the Little Horn would make war against the saints of the most high and defeat them. This Horn has no regard for the Truth as truth is thrown to the ground.

If Rome fell in 476AD, we have 1368 years unaccounted for. The time period just happens to fit in the area covered by the 10 Horns and the Little Horn. The 10 horns stand for the 10 kingdoms after Rome fell so the 10 Horns were fulfilled in 476AD and continued on for a period of time. This was covered in the article called, "Daniel 7 Vision of the Beast" but the prophecy continues on until 1844. In Daniel 7:8 we have the Little Horn coming up among the 10 Horns, uprooting 3 of them. If we can find out what happened there we’ll have a good case for identifying this Little Horn. We’ll present this case in the article entitled, “The Little Horn”. We’ll also see how the rule of this Little Horn was determined by God to be 3.5 Years, 42 months, or 1260 days. If a prophetic day is an actual year, this rule of the Little Horn would be 1,260 years and fit perfectly in the 1368 years unaccounted for.

Also notice that each set of events foretold in Daniel 7:4-14, Daniel 7:19-22, Daniel 7:23-26, and Daniel 8:5-25 ends with God judgment. This brings us to the year of 1844. You would think that there must be some major events that started to happen in 1844. We your right, this is covered in the article called “God’s Judgment Begins”.