Daniel 8

“And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” (v. 27)
Daniel was so moved by the vision that he had seen that he could hardly stand it; it made him ill to even think of it. There is much conjecture as to what all this means, and the text explains much itself, but the point is that the Lord wanted to share something with Daniel, something very important. Though it was explained somewhat to Daniel, he “none understood it”, or didn’t understand any of it. My friends, if Daniel could not understand all of it, how can we? Daniel had a very close walk with the Lord, and few can even measure up to his faithfulness, let alone the faithfulness of Christ, and yet, he did not fully understand the vision. We know that it was very serious, and that Daniel was greatly affected by it. I will not attempt to explain the meaning of the vision, as most of us have already heard a few different interpretations perhaps, but I will say, “be careful” when looking back at history to explain the dream. History can answer many questions and clarify many things, but it is also a mocker and a deceiver of many. I must say though, it is not the history that deceives, but our interpretation of it. We have many “scholars” today who presume to know what Daniel did not know because they have history to verify it. History, as I have said, reveals many things, but it also mimics many things and they appear to us as if they have been fulfilled already, and we can find examples that “fit” the description and the situation, but we must realize that there may be other things that fit it too, which we have not yet seen. This prophecy may still be ahead of us. I do not say that dogmatically, because I do not know for sure, it is merely conjecture, but I am careful not to dogmatically interpret it in the annuls of history and leave it there either.
One thing that we need to note is that Daniel got up from his sickness, and went back to work. He was a man of character. He was sick “certain days” and we do not conjecture as to how long that was, but we do see him going back to work for the king as soon as he can. There was a similar reaction to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, as we have read already, and Daniel was quite moved by it also (4:19). We see the heart of Daniel in that he was compassionate toward these men and so much so that it affected his countenance as well as his health. This sort of compassion is rare even in the world today. Only a close walk with God can create such compassion in us; we do not have the capacity for it ourselves. Perhaps this too is related to great character.