GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DANIEL 8:15-17
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15 When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I tried to understand it. Then standing in front of me was someone having the appearance of a man. 16 I heard a human voice from between the banks of the Ulai, calling, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” 17 So he came near where I stood; but fear came over me and I fell down on my face. But he said to me, “Son of man, understand that the vision is about the time of the end.”
This is the first of four times that the angel Gabriel appears by name in the Bible. He will also speak with Daniel in chapter 9, and of course we know that he spoke to Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:19) and to Mary, telling her that the baby she was carrying was the Savior Jesus (Luke 1:26-35). The name Gabriel means something like “Heroic one of God.” In the Old Testament, the only time that we learn angels’ names are here in Daniel (see also 10:13, where we learn about Michael). And while both of these names occur in the New Testament, they are the only two angels’ names that are in Scripture. There are some other angel names given in the Apocryphal books: Raphael (Tobit 3:17), Uriel (4 Esdras 4:1); Raguel (Enoch 20:4), Saraqael (Enoch 20:6), and Remiel (Enoch 20:8). When I was a Freshman in college studying for ministry, someone asked our religion professor about the names of angels apart from Gabriel and Michael, and I said that I had heard of Raphael and Uriel. The professor shot me a look and asked where I had learned those names (perhaps he was weeding out students who pried into such matters) but I had to admit that I had sung Haydn’s “Creation” oratorio in High School where Raphael is a bass and Uriel is a tenor part.
We might recall briefly some things we know about angels. They were created some time during the six days of creation, although we cannot say just when. There are different ranks or tasks of angels; different titles, at least, such as cherubim and seraphim, angel and archangel, powers, authorities, and so on. They serve God and sometimes serve him by serving and protecting us (Hebrews 1:14). They praise God in words and in song (Job 38:7; Revelation 5:11-12). We imagine that their singing is more beautiful than anything we know (“How angel-like he sings!!” ) and yet the souls of humans in heaven also sing (Revelation 15:2-3) and this, too, must be gorgeous in its sound (“Such harmony is in immortal souls” ).
Angels watch over sinful men and women. We forget that they are concerned about us because God commands it; they do not judge us, but protect us. What angel protects the vilest sinner? What angel watches over that man’s wicked wife? “What angel shall bless this unworthy husband?” What angels might be tasked with watching over you? They do these things because that is their duty to God.
Angels defend mankind in unseen battles. We will encounter this later on in Daniel (10:20), and we ask God to send his holy angels to watch over us: “Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me” (Luther’s Evening Prayer). But we need not and should not pray to them, as Hamlet does (“Angels and ministers of grace defend us!”). God hears and answers the prayers of his people.
Gabriel is described here as looking like a man. A voice came from the river, “from between the banks,” instructing this manly-looking angel to make Daniel understand the vision. Daniel’s reaction was not much different from others who encounter angels. He fell down to the ground. Balaam “saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn, so he bowed low and fell facedown” (Numbers 22:31). And when the angel of the LORD ascended into heaven in their fire, Manoah and his wife “fell with their faces to the ground” (Judges 13:20). This also happened to David (1 Chronicles 21:16), to John (Revelation 22:8) and others (Ezekiel 1:28; 3:23; 44:4). This reaction of Daniel’s wasn’t an act of worship, but of fear.
There are a couple of references here to the look and sound of what Daniel encounters being “human.” Gabriel had an appearance like a man, and the voice Daniel heard was a human voice, “the voice of a man.” Gabriel’s appearance was evidently more human-looking that the other holy ones he had seen. Also, the voice “from between the banks of the Ulai” was the voice of God, but sounding in this case less frightening, and more like an ordinary human voice. These things must have been for the benefit of the prophet, so as not to overwhelm him.
But at the same time, we cannot help but notice these things from the other end of time, 2,500 years later, and after the advent coming of Christ, and I notice certain things:
Gabriel is involved; the angel of Christ’s annunciation. Gabriel is the personal giver of some of the very best gospel messages in the history of the world. When we think of Gabriel, we naturally think of the announcements about the birth of Christ.
Someone with a human appearance is involved. Now, while this turns out to be Gabriel the angel, doesn’t the record of his appearance come into the Scriptures for our benefit? Another heroic one “from God” is of course Jesus, “being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8).
This manly-looking angel appears at the banks of a river, foreshadowing, dimply, but foreshadowing nonetheless, Jesus’ forerunner John who came baptizing in the Jordan (Mark 1:9; John 1:28) and preaching about Jesus there at the river (John 10:40).
And in addition to this, God himself speaks with a human voice, which is what Jesus would do beginning with his birth and continuing on for all eternity, for what the Son of God has taken up for our sakes, especially his human nature, he has not set down. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
Also, this angel was commanded to make Daniel understand the vision. Christ came to open the minds of men to make them understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).
What wonderful things act like shadows here on the banks of the Ulai Canal in Daniel’s vision, as if God can scarcely send his angels anywhere to do anything without the whole plan of salvation peeking out like streams of glorious light shining out from behind a curtain in the dark of night. The glory of God’s whole plan of salvation is here hinted at in this one moment in Daniel’s vision.
The most important part of this passage is Gabriel’s announcement that this vision is “about the end.” While the elements of the vision all seem tied up in the near future and the arrival and terrible deeds of Antiochus, the vision also applies to the much later time, the end of the Antichrist and his power. The overthrow of the sanctuary, the terrible sacrifice of pigs on the holy altar, and the forbidding of babies to be circumcised, all point ahead to the defiling work of Antichrist against God’s people in later times– which of course are the times we live in today. Yet Daniel like all Old Testament prophets (especially Isaiah) sees the coming of Christ as one singular event, while we know from being born when we have been, that there are two advents of our King. The first, when he was born in Bethlehem, gathered his apostles to teach them and to present the Gospel and the Sacraments to the church, ending the Law of Moses by fulfilling it, and paying for the sins of the world with the sacrifice of his own body on the cross (Luke 24:25-27). The second will be his return at the end of time to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).
What a marvelous, merciful God we have, who loves us and cares for us and wants us to know that we are held safely in the palm of his hand.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Daniel 8:15-17 the time of the end