Daniel 8:16 (NLTse)
[16] And I heard a human voice calling out from the Ulai River,
"Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of his vision."
In
Daniel 8 Daniel is given a vision that leaves him shaken. As he is trying to
understand it, Gabriel is instructed to tell him the meaning. Yet at the end of
the chapter Daniel still says, “I was greatly troubled by the vision and could
not understand it.” Daniel was apparently so overwhelmed, and the meaning was
so far in the future that even with Gabriel’s explanation it was beyond his
ability to grasp its meaning.
Looking back in history we can see how it was fulfilled and Gabriel’s explanation makes sense to us. For Daniel, it was a bit like telling Americans in the early 21st Century that sometime in the future Indonesia is going to take over the United States and that the U.S. will then it will be divided into four separate countries. We can imagine all kinds of future scenarios for our country in the far-off future, but that one seems pretty unlikely. Similarly, it was hard for Daniel to believe that the disunited Greek city-states would somehow unite and conquer the great Persian Empire, yet that is what God was telling Daniel. And that is exactly what happened under Alexander the Great.
There are several things we can learn from this but let me focus on one lesson in particular. Daniel was given the meaning and yet he didn’t understand. So it is with us. We can read the Bible over and over, yet not understand what we are reading. There are several reasons for this. First, we are reading something translated from languages that we do not know. Second, we are separated by thousands of years and thousands of miles from when and where it was written. Third, we tend to bring to the text what we have been told about the text rather than paying attention to what the text actually says. Fourth, the scripture is plain in one sense. It is read like any literature is read. But it is not plain in another sense. It is spiritually understood. By that I do not mean that there are hidden messages that we can only discern mystically. But I do mean that as believers, it is the indwelling Spirit of God who gives us understanding not only of what the text is saying, but of how the text is to impact and affect our lives. That is why it is so important to link prayer with Bible reading.
Finally, this is a message from an infinite God. We should expect that we will never fully comprehend who he is or what he has said. That is not to discourage us, for God has given us the Scriptures to reveal himself to us. That is to encourage us to be satisfied with what he has revealed and not try to peek behind the veil and unravel mysteries that he has not intended for us to unravel. Daniel was overwhelmed by the vision, but not undone. Too often I have observed people who discover some “hidden” truth. Revealing that hidden truth often brings more attention to them as the revealers than to God who is being revealed. At some point we need to be okay with mystery while being overwhelmed with the person of God who is greater than our understanding.
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