76.1 What Happened at the End of the 2,300 Days?
by Hubert F. Sturges, www.144000.cc, December 2009
Topics:
What Happened at the End of 2300 Days?
Links and Parallels between Daniel 8 and Leviticus
The Daily and Contaminating Sin
Establishing Dates for the 2300 days
Links and Parallels between Daniel 8 and Leviticus
The Daily and Contaminating Sin
Leviticus -- Sanctuary Services
Daily and Yearly
Restoration
Summary
What Happened at the End of the 2300 Days?
With the dates established in the previous article, we may ask: What was to happen at the end of this time period? What was to happen in 1844?
Daniel 8:14 says, "Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed (re-consecrated)." This is the heavenly sanctuary referred to in verses 11 and 12, the same that the little-horn power figuratively attempted to cast down to earth in the eyes of humanity. In so doing, it attempted to usurp for itself the prerogatives of that heavenly sanctuary. Thus there have been two rival plans of sanctuary ministry and salvation -- the heavenly original and the earthly substitute. There have been two rival sanctuaries and two rival priesthoods. There have been two rival high priests who have officiated over these plans.
At some point in the history of this struggle there must come a time for a decision, or judgment, between these two plans and their results. This judgment is what is brought to view in the time period of Daniel 8:14, the 2,300 days. The "cleansing" (KJV) or "re-consecration" (NIV) of the sanctuary thus has to do with righting the wrongs that the little horn’ has created in its attempt to establish an earthly substitute for the work of the heavenly sanctuary. Through this judgment it will become evident that all during this struggle the true sanctuary was the one in heaven (Hebrews 8:2). It will become evident that the true priesthood was the priesthood of Jesus in heaven (Hebrews 8:1), and that the services of the true sanctuary were those located in heaven with Christ, the priestly Prince.
The verb which the Hebrew text uses to express this manifold restoration is sadaq, meaning "to be right or righteous." In Hebrew this is a very rich, broad word which in its broader aspects takes in the various words – "cleansed," "re-consecrated," "vindicated," "restored," "victorious" -- with which it has been translated.
The sanctuary, defiled symbolically by the little horn, will be cleansed by this judgment. It has been cast down in terms of symbolic action; it will be restored to heaven again, figuratively. The earthly judgments against the saints will be overturned, and the clear judgments of heaven will be made manifest. In all these ways, the sanctuary will be set right, emerge victorious, vindicated. It will be cleansed of the earthly contamination from which it has suffered.
The heavenly judgment, occurring at the end of the 2,300 days, is affirmed by various lines of evidence.
First, the problem of Daniel 8:11-13 requires such a judgment to resolve it. Second, the heavenly judgment shown Daniel in vision in chapter 7:9-14, is in a parallel position to that vision found here in Daniel 8:13, 14. The coming of the judgment in Daniel 8:14 is not explained at that point; but was shown to him in vision in Daniel 7:9-14. These prophecies need to be studied in reverse order – because the announcement of judgment in Daniel 8 leads logically to the picture of that judgment in Daniel 7.
The other line of evidence for this judgment comes from typology found in the book of Leviticus.
Links and Parallels Between Daniel 8 and Leviticus
What can the book of Leviticus have to do with a prophetic book such as Daniel? When one considers the content of this prophecy, it can be seen that they connect through the sanctuary. Daniel 8 is ultimately a prophecy about the sanctuary; Leviticus is a book of laws and regulations about what happened in the earthly sanctuary. Thus there is a natural, logical connection between these two books, and that link is reinforced by the nature of the symbols used in Daniel 8.
First, the word "sanctuary" itself is used three times in Daniel 8 (vss. 11, 13, and 14).
Second, the word tamid, meaning "daily" or "continual" can be used as an ordinary adverb to modify other actions, was commonly used for priestly activities within the temple.
Third, the ram which represented Persia, was a domesticated animal which was used for sacrifice in the sanctuary service.
Fourth, the goat which represented Greece, was a domesticated animal which was used for sacrifice.
Fifth, the "evening-morning" time unit is parallel to the "evenings and mornings" of Creation week. An evening-morning is equivalent to one whole twenty-four-hour day.
There is a theological reason for selecting this time unit for the prophecy. When the Israelites set out on their travels in the Sinai peninsula (Numbers 9:14-23), the very presence of God went with them, represented by the cloud over the sanctuary. When that cloud turned into a pillar of fire in the evening, the high priest knew that it was time to offer the evening sacrifice. When it turned back into a pillar of cloud in the morning, he knew that it was time to offer the morning sacrifice. Thus an evening-morning was also a sanctuary day, delineated by God Himself to indicate the times in that day when He wanted the various aspects of His service conducted.
These five reasons show that Daniel 8 is a prophecy which draws heavily from the sanctuary services for its symbolism. To understand that symbolism, we should turn to the last portion of Exodus (chapters 25-40) which tells how the sanctuary was built, and the book of Leviticus which tells how the sanctuary was put into use and about the services conducted there.
There were two types of services in the sanctuary – the daily and the yearly. The daily services were carried out every day and were known by the word that we encounter in Daniel – tamid. The yearly services were generally festivals of celebration and thanksgiving such as Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles (see Leviticus 23).
The Day of Atonement (yom kippur) was one of these annual festivals. More than any of the others, it brought a final conclusion round of daily sacrifices and services. With the blood of the Lord’s goat, the sanctuary was cleansed of its record of sin for the past year and was made new and fresh all over again to begin another round of sacrifices for the next calendar year (see Leviticus 16). Thus in Leviticus we meet these two great aspects of the sanctuary service – the daily and the yearly.
The Daily and Contaminating Sin
We see this also in Daniel 8. The daily is referred to as the tamid and is an object of contention between the little horn and the Prince (8:11). This daily ministry in the heavenly sanctuary actually belonged to the Prince, but the little horn contended with him for it, introducing false elements into that service (8:12). A false priesthood ministered for the people in a way that was not prescribed by God. When that happened in the Old Testament earthly sanctuary, the sanctuary was defiled. The holiness of the sanctuary was also was corrupted by idols (Leviticus 20:1-3; Jeremiah 7:30, 31) or by a priesthood that was not fit to serve there (Leviticus 21:6-8; Ezekiel 22:26). This defilement was cleansed or atoned for in special ceremonies in the services of the Day of Atonement.
Leviticus - Sanctuary Services
The record of forgiven sins was transferred into the sanctuary by the sin offerings. In Leviticus 4, we find instructions for the sin offering. In Leviticus 5 and 6, we find instructions for the guilt offering. When these sacrifices were made, either the blood was taken into the sanctuary or the priest was to eat a portion of the sacrifice in a holy place. Both procedures transferred the forgiven sin from the sinner to the sanctuary (Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31, 35). When the priest had completed his manipulation of the blood from the slain sacrifice, he had made atonement for the sinner and he was forgiven. An Israelite did not have to wait until the Day of Atonement to find out if he was forgiven; he was forgiven from the moment the sacrifice was made and the priest handled the elements from the sacrifice in the appropriate way.
On the yearly Day of Atonement, all of the sacrifices of the year were incorporated into the blood of the Lord’s goat which was taken into the Most Holy Place only this once and applied to the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. Thus the entire year’s accumulation of sins which had been transferred from sinners to the sanctuary through the daily sacrifices were "gathered~up" as it were in the single sacrifice of the yearly service. There was no confessing of sin over the head of the Lord’s goat (Leviticus 16:8, 9). The sins had already been confessed over the heads of the individual sin offerings throughout the year (Leviticus 4:29). With the blood of the Lord’s goat on the Day of Atonement, the priest made atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Holy Place, and the altar in the courtyard of the sanctuary (Leviticus 16:16-18).
These ceremonies cleansed or atoned for the sanctuary. It was restored to its former state of purity and was ready to begin another round of sacrificial services for the next year (Leviticus 16:22-25). A final disposition of sin was made when all the sins, which had been forgiven and recorded in the sanctuary throughout the year, were brought out of the sanctuary, placed upon the head of the goat for Azazel, and sent into the wilderness, never to be seen by the people of Israel again (Leviticus 16:20-22).
The Daily and the Yearly
Daniel 8 contains these same two elements – the daily and the yearly – now set in a prophetic relationship of type and antitype. Leviticus is the type, and Daniel is the antitype. The comparison can be seen as follows:
| Daily Service | Yearly Service | ||
| 1. Leviticus 1-15 | a. Leviticus 16 | ||
| b. During the 2300 days | b. At the end of the 2300 days |
Just as there was a cleansing and restoration of the sanctuary on the Day of Atonement, just so would there also be a full restoration of the heavenly sanctuary when the judgment – the antitypical day of atonement -- began at the end of the 2,300 days in A.D. 1844 (Daniel 8:14).
Restoration
What is it from which the heavenly sanctuary has to be cleansed or restored?
In symbol, the little horn has reached into heaven itself and defiled the purity of that sanctuary with its machinations. In Old Testament times, this was done literally by conquerors (Ezekiel 4:6- 8; 7:20-24; 24:21), false priests (Leviticus 22:15; 2 Chronicles 36:13; Zephaniah 3:1-4), and idolaters. Under the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, we read: "Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles 36:14).
What befell the temple in literal terms can be projected into the realm of the heavenly sanctuary in symbolic terms. When the judgment convenes in the heavenly sanctuary all of the long-standing questions about the plan of salvation will be made clear. That which has been impugned or made obscure will now stand pure and clear in the mercy and justice of God that shines forth from the heavenly sanctuary. Thus the sanctuary is said to be "cleansed" (8:14, KJV), "re-consecrated" (NIV), or "returned to its rightful state" (RSV).
The judgment of the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament also took care in a final way of the record of the forgiven sins of the saints (Leviticus 16:16, 22). Thus the Day of Atonement accomplished two major events, (1) the cleansing or restoration of the sanctuary from the record of the sins of the righteous, and (2) the cleansing from any impurity that had been introduced by false conduct in relation to the sanctuary itself. Leviticus 16:16 says, "In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion [sins] of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been."
The uncleanness referred to is the state of uncleanness, that defiles the sanctuary (Leviticus 11 - 15). The rebellion is the personal and corporate sins of Israel (Leviticus 1 - 7). In terms ol the typological parallels in the book of Daniel, the sins of the righteous that are dealt with in the final heavenly judgment correspond to the forgiven sins of the Israelites that were recorded daily in the sanctuary. The uncleanness that the little horn has symbolically introduced into the sanctuary by defiling the knowledge of the work of the true sanctuary for humanity corresponds to the state of impurity in uncleanness from which the Old Testament sanctuary was cleansed. The pattern is this:
| Leviticus 1 | Leviticus 11-15 | Leviticus 16 | |||
| Sins of the
righteous forgiven and recorded in the sanctuary. |
States of impurity an uncleanness that defile the sanctuary. |
Cleansing and restora- tion of the sanctuary by final judgment upon both. |
|||
| Daniel 8:1a | Daniel 8:10-12 | Daniel 8:14b | |||
| Activities of the
Prince as the heavenly HIgh Priest. |
Activities of the
little horn. |
Judgment at the end
of the 2300 evening- mornings. |
|||
|
True application of the "daily" service during the 2300 days. |
False application of the "daily" service. |
The climax of the "daily" service |
|||
Thus a fuller knowledge of the function of the sanctuary in the book of Leviticus can indeed illuminate the references to the sanctuary in the prophecy of Daniel 8. But the book of Daniel has more to say on this subject with the vision of Daniel 7. That will be the focus of our attention in the next chapter.
SUMMARY
The prophecy of Daniel 8 is not really a complicated topic. The prophecy begins with the story of the Persian ram – its origin, its successes, and its final demise. Then it goes on to the Greek goat and its initial successes and final dissolution. That dissolution led to the division of the Greek empire into four smaller kingdoms distributed around the eastern Mediterranean basin. Into this region came a new power represented by a little horn that grew greater and greater. Its greatness was first revealed by its conquest in the regions of the former Greek kingdoms. It successfully conquered and absorbed all four of those kingdoms.
In its second phase, this power in Rome took on a more religious character. It was the church that has its seat in Rome, the church that had such a powerful influence in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. During those centuries, it exercised its power as a persecuting force, and this is clearly revealed by the Roman church’s history. Its theology reveals something else: an approach to the plan of salvation which has been carried out through channels which are not approved of by the Bible. In this way, it has actually come to be something of a rival to the plan of salvation which it claimed to minister. This organization, which started out so well, actually came to find itself in opposition to the purposes of God through its desire to exercise control.
In this way a rivalry developed, On the one hand was the true heavenly sanctuary from which the true plan of salvation was ministered by the true High Priest, Jesus Christ. On the other hand was an earthly power attempting to divert attention away from that heavenly sanctuary and its Priest and its services and focus, instead, on an earthly substitute.
The judgment at the end of time is what the prophecy is talking about when it refers to the (heavenly) sanctuary being cleansed, restored, and justified at the end of the 2,300 evenings-mornings. We can learn more about this "yearly" service, coming at the end of the "daily" services, by considering parallels from the book of Leviticus. Leviticus chapters 1- 15 represent the daily, and chapter 16 describes the yearly. That yearly service, or Day of Atonement, was a day of judgment for ancient Israel. Likewise, the antitypical Day of Atonement brings to view a judgment in the heavenly sanctuary which will determine all who truly belong to the camp of the saints of the Most High.
It is not our part to judge who those saints will be; that is God’s part in His judgment. Only He knows how much light and truth any individual has received. Our task is to apply ourselves to His Word so that we may truly come to know Him as our Lord and Savior. Our task is to receive His Spirit so that we may live for Him. All other aspects of judgment we may safely leave with Him, our God of mercy and justice.
See:
Shea WH: Christ as Priest (Daniel 8:10-14). Daniel: A Reader’s Guide. Pacific Press Publishing Assoc., Nampa, ID. 2005. 173-195
