God’s Word for You
Daniel 8:22-23 Even blessed by tyrants
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, December 9, 2025
22 He is the horn that was broken, and in his place four others arose. Four kingdoms will arise from his nation, but they will not have his power. 23 At the end of their rule, when the rebellious have reached their full measure, a merciless king will rise up, one skilled in intrigue.
Alexander the Great died in 323 BC. As I described in the devotion on Daniel 8:8, he was succeeded by the four Diodochoi, or the Successors. They were Lysimachus in the north (Thrace), Ptolemy in the south (Egypt), Seleucus in the east (Syria and Persia), and Antigonus in the west (Greece). It is worth noting that Seleucus built many strong cities throughout Syria and the east, and he named quite a few cities “Antioch” after his father Antiochus, although his son Antiochus Epiphanes seems to have laid claim to this later on. The largest of these Antiochs was the one in Syria on the Orontes River which served as his capital. It had a large Jewish population, and later became an important central location for Christianity. The disciples of Jesus were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26).
When Seleucus and the others were to take over, Gabriel says, “they will not have his power.” God holds supreme authority over everything. When we think of authority over people, then we must think in terms of two authorities: the church and the sword. “Our teachers,” our confession states, “have been compelled, for the sake of instructing consciences, to show the difference between the power of the church and the power of the sword, and they have taught that on account of God’s command both are to be held in reverence and honor as the chief gifts of God on earth” (Augsburg Confession). How are the church and the secular government the “chief gifts”? The government, or temporal authority, protects the body as well as property and the power of lesser authorities, so that no one holds themselves to be above the law of the land or unaccountable to punishment. Even queens and kings must pay for crimes: “Glory grows guilty of detested crimes, when, for fame’s sake, for praise… we bend.”
But to the church alone God gave the command to forgive sins and to preach the Gospel. The power of the church administers eternal things and must interfere as little as possible, or not at all, with the civil authorities, just as the civil authorities must interfere as little as possible, or not at all, with the working of the church. “The state protects not souls but bodies and goods from manifest harm, and constrains men with the sword and physical penalties, while the Gospel protects souls from heresies, the devil, and eternal death.”
But even the scope and strength of authority for a civil government is under God’s supreme control. We see that here in the limited power of the four horns, but also that God permitted the merciless king skilled in intrigue (the son of Seleucus, Antiochus Epiphanes) to seize more power and authority than he should have. This was done in part to expose his sinfulness, so that the rebellious would reach their full measure. Yet we also know that “God sometimes permits much good to come to a people through a tyrant or scoundrel.”
For example, the outrages of Antiochus included the forced Hellenization of Judea. While this was one of the things that led to the Maccabean revolt, it was the widespread introduction of the Greek language that led to the use of Greek both among Jews and also, later, among the Christians, allowing the rapid spread of the Gospel through a commonly understood language.
With regard to the Jews in the more immediate context, the oppression and subsequent revolution led to the retaking and rededication of the Temple now recognized as Hanukkah (the “miracle” of the single night’s oil lasting eight nights is from a later Rabbinic tradition and not from the account in either 1 Maccabees 4:56-59 or 2 Maccabees 10:5-6). But setting aside the oil, the rededication was and is celebrated by Jews, and rightfully so. Jesus did so while he was on earth (John 10:22-23). Today, this is outshined by the celebration of the birth of Jesus, since both holidays fall late in December. And while it is not wrong for a Christian to commemorate the Feast of Dedication or Hanukkah, when we consider that Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation of the Son of God and Savior of mankind, it’s no wonder that we tend to focus on the accounts of the Gospels more than of Maccabees.
Praise God for his supreme power. He provides for us and watches over us through parents and parliaments, grandparents and governments. He provides us with everything that we need. He gives me “all I own, and all I need to keep my body and life. God also preserves me by defending me against all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil” (Small Catechism). And since everything we have and everything in heaven and earth besides is daily given and sustained by God, it inevitably follows that we are in duty bound to love, praise, and thank him without ceasing, and in short, to devote all these things to his service, as he has required and proclaimed in the Ten Commandments. Praise him and worship him with your life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.