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THE SEED SOWERS
HIS WATCHMEN SOUNDING
THE WORD OF GOD
UNCOMPROMISED
COMPILED BY
Apostle William L. Sharon
Jesus Emanuel, The Christ,
died in vain:
If it doesn’t make a difference.
THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL
Contents: Forward, and Introduction to the Book of Daniel........pages 1, & 2.
Study #1---Daniel 1.---Captive in Babylon’s Royal Court....................page 4.
Daniel and His Companions Renamed........................page 6.
Daniel’s Diet............................................page 6.
After Three Years’ Study.................................page 7.
Study #2---Daniel 2: 1-35.---The King Dreams of World Empires..............page 8.
The King’s Wise Men Fail Him.............................page 8.
Daniel to the Rescue....................................page 10.
Study #3---Daniel 2: 36-43.---The Dreams Interpretation...................page 14.
Daniel Interprets the Dream.............................page 14.
Fulfillment of the Dream................................page 14.
The Fall of Babylon.....................................page 16.
The Medo-Persian Kingdom................................page 19.
The Grecian Empire......................................page 19.
The Iron Monarchy of Pagan and Papal Rome...............page 20.
Papal Rome, the Last Universal Empire...................page 21.
Study #4---Daniel 2: 44-49.---The Demise of Earthly Kingdoms..............page 24.
The God of Heaven Sets Up His Kingdom...................page 24.
Nebuchadnezzar Exalts Daniel............................page 26.
Study #5---Daniel 3.—Integrity Tested by Fire.............................page 27.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Golden Image...........................page 27.
Dedication of the Image.................................page 27.
Three Hebrews Under Trial by Fire.......................page 28.
Cast Into the Fiery Furnace.............................page 29.
The Three Hebrews Promoted..............................page 31.
Study #6---Daniel 4.—The Most High Rules..................................page 32.
The King Magnifies the True God.........................page 32.
The King Troubled by Another Dream......................page 33.
Daniel Interprets the Dream.............................page 35.
The King’s Self-exaltation and Humiliation..............page 36.
Nebuchadnezzar Extols the “King of Heaven...............page 36.
Study #7---Daniel 5.---The Handwriting on the Wall........................page 38.
King Belshazzar’s Feast.................................page 38.
The Handwriting on the Wall.............................page 39.
Daniel is Summoned......................................page 39.
Daniel Rebukes Belshazzar...............................page 40.
Daniel Interprets the Writing...........................page 41.
Study #8---Daniel 6.---Daniel in the Lion’s Den...........................page 42.
Daniel Prime Minister in Medo-Persia....................page 42.
A Plot Against Daniel...................................page 43.
Daniel Thrown Into the Lion’s Den.......................page 44.
Daniel Prospered........................................page 45.
Study #9---Daniel 7: 1-14.---The Struggle for World Dominion..............page 47.
Daniel Relates His Own Vision...........................page 47.
The Lion................................................page 48.
The Bear................................................page 48.
The Leopard.............................................page 49.
A Dreadful and Magnificent Beast........................page 50.
A Judgment Scene........................................page 51.
Study #10---“A.D. 2036, The Return.”......................................page 52.
The Heavenly Day of Atonement/Day of Judgment...........page 52.
The End of the Fourth Beast.............................page 56.
The Son of Man Receives His Kingdom.....................page 57.
Study #11---Daniel 7: 15-28.---Daniel Grieved.............................page 58.
The Vision Interpreted to Daniel........................page 58.
The Truth of the Fourth Beast...........................page 58.
The Ten Horns...........................................page 59.
The Little Horn to Make War With the Saints.............page 59.
Pagan Rome Divided......................................page 60.
The Ten Horns; The Ten Kingdoms.........................page 60.
The Rise and Work of the Little Horn....................page 60.
The Challenge of Arianism...............................page 61.
The Little Horn Overthrows Three Arian Powers...........page 62.
The Little Horn Speak Great Words Against the Most High page 65.
The Little Horn to Wear Out the Saints of the Most High page 66.
The Little Horn to “Think to Change Times and Laws.”....page 68.
“A Time and Times and the Dividing of Time..............page 74.
The Judgment Shall Sit..................................page 75.
The Deadly Wound to be Healed...........................page 75.
The Saints Receive the Kingdom..........................page 76.
Study #12---Daniel 8: 1-12................................................page 77.
The World Arraigned Before the Court of Heaven..........page 77.
The Kingdoms of Media and Persia........................page 78.
The Kingdom of Grecia...................................page 78.
Alexander, The “Notable Horn.”..........................page 79.
The Great Horn Broken...................................page 79.
Four Notable Horns Come Up..............................page 80.
A Little Horn Comes Forth...............................page 80.
Does the Little Horn Denote Antiochus?..................page 81.
The Little Horn Denotes Rome............................page 82.
Rome in Two Aspects, Two Phases.........................page 83.
Study #13---Daniel 8: 13, 14.---The Twenty Three Hundred Days/Years.......page 84.
The Time of the Prophecy................................page 84.
The Twenty Three Hundred Days...........................page 84.
What is the Daily?......................................page 85.
The Two Desolating Powers...............................page 85.
What is the Sanctuary?..................................page 86.
It Cannot Be the Earth..................................page 87.
It Cannot Be the Land of Canaan.........................page 87.
It Cannot Be the Church.................................page 88.
The Sanctuary is the Temple in Heaven...................page 89.
The Earthly Sanctuary...................................page 90.
The Heavenly Sanctuary..................................page 91.
Study #14---Daniel 8: 15 – 27.---The Sanctuary Free From Sin..............page 94.
The Cleansing of the Sanctuary..........................page 94.
The Cleansing is From Sin...............................page 94.
The Ministration in Figure and in Fact..................page 96.
The Vision Interpreted..................................page 98.
A King of Fierce Countenance............................page 99.
Papal Rome, “Mighty, But Not by Her Own Power.”.........page 99.
Study #15--Daniel 9: 1 - 24.---A Prophetic Yardstick Spans the Centuries page 101.
The Seventy Years of Captivity.........................page 101.
Daniel’s Remarkable Prayer.............................page 102.
Daniel’s Prayer is Answered............................page 103.
Gabriel’s Mission......................................page 104.
Daniel Greatly Beloved.................................page 105.
The Seventy Weeks......................................page 105.
Cut Off From the 2300 Days/Years.......................page 106.
A Day for a Year in Prophecy...........................page 107.
To Anoint the Most Holy................................page 108.
Study #16---Daniel 9: 25 - 27.---A Prophetic Yardstick Continued.........page 109.
Seventy Weeks Subdivided...............................page 109.
The Beginning of the Seventy Weeks.....................page 109.
Harmony of the Subdivisions............................page 112.
The Date of the Crucifixion............................page 112.
The End of the 2300 Days...............................page 113.
Why in 1844?...........................................page 114.
Study #16---Daniel 10: 1 – 21.---God Intervenes in World Affairs.........page 116.
Daniel’s Sorrow........................................page 116.
Gabriel Encourages Daniel..............................page 117.
Gabriel Delayed by the King of Persia..................page 118.
Study #17---Daniel 11: 1 – 20.---Unrolling the Scroll of the Future......page 121.
Daniel’s Last Vision Interpreted.......................page 121.
The King of the South..................................page 122.
The King of the North..................................page 123.
The Kings of the North and the South in Conflict.......page 125.
Rome Conquers Syria and Palestine......................page 128.
Rome Overruns the Kingdom of the South.................page 129.
Augustus, the Raiser of Taxes Appears..................page 131.
Study #18---Daniel 11: 21 – 45.---Prince of the Covenant Cut Off.........page 133.
Tiberius Cuts Off the Prince of the Covenant...........page 133.
Rome Makes a League With the Jews......................page 135.
Rome Contends With the King of the South...............page 136.
Rome Destroys Jerusalem……….............................page 138.
Rome Pillaged by Barbarians............................page 140.
The Papacy Takes Away “the Daily”......................page 142.
A People Who “Know Their God.”.........................page 146.
A King Magnifies Himself Above Every God...............page 147.
France Fulfills the Prophecy...........................page 147.
The Kings of the North and South Again in Conflict.....page 151.
Turkey Becomes the King of the North...................page 154.
King of the North in Trouble...........................page 156.
The King of the North to Come to His End...............page 156.
Study #19---Daniel 12: 1 – 12.---History’s Coming Climax.................page 158.
Michael Stands up......................................page 158.
The Time of Trouble....................................page 159.
A Special Resurrection.................................page 160.
A Glorious Inheritance.................................page 161.
The Book of Daniel Sealed..............................page 163.
Increase in Knowledge..................................page 164.
How Long to the End?...................................page 165.
The Book of Daniel Sealed Until the Time of the End....page 166.
Until the Times of the Gentiles are over...............page 166.
The Christ’s Second Coming.............................page 167.
The 1290 Prophetic Days................................page 167.
The Year A.D. 508; A.S. 4477...........................page 168.
The Baptism of Clovis..................................page 168.
Clovis, the First Catholic Prince......................page 168.
The popes Endangered by Arian Princes..................page 168.
Clovis’s Conversion a Check on the Arians..............page 169.
Barbarian League Against Clovis........................page 169.
Clovis Launches a Religious War........................page 169.
Clovis Defeats the Visgoths............................page 169.
The End of Arian Resistance............................page 170.
The Significance of Clovis’s Victories.................page 170.
Clovis Paved the Way for Alliance of Church and State..page 170.
Clovis Saved the Church From Paganism, and Arianism?...page 171.
The Foundation of the Medieval Church..................page 171.
The 1335 Prophetic Days................................page 172.
The Day of Atonement, Then and Now.....................page 172.
THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL
In offering these studies, to students of the prophetic word, we believe we are offering a great service to the readers of the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation.
These studies are devoted largely to tracing God’s marvelous dealings, with nations and peoples, in fulfillment of great prophecies of the Bible in the past, but more particularly to the unrolling of the scroll as seen in the stirring events of the throbbing present, and those impending in the eminent, and ominous future. Such events are of the greatest personal significance to all of humanity
None can afford to live in this present day, without acquainting themselves with the vital issues it has pleased God to open to our understanding, in this fast moving end time. Such issues are loaded with eternal consequences to every man, woman, and child.
The study of the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation began generations ago, and in the literary and polemic style of those times. The interpretation of prophecy and the doctrines of truth, established through intensive study of Scripture, have borne the test of time.
No effort has been spared to simplify and clarify the presentation, to verify all historical and exegetical sources, and in instances to fortify the studies by new evidence not available at the time of the original studies. We also seek to bring to bear upon prophetic interpretation, the additional weight of significance so discernible in political, social, and religious developments pressing upon our attention in these culminating days of the gospel era.
Thoughtful and open-minded consideration of these vital themes by every candid reader and student is earnestly invited.
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INTRODUCTION
The book of Daniel was written by the person whose name it bears, there is no reason to doubt. Ezekiel, who was a contemporary with Daniel, bears testimony to his piety and rightness, ranking him in this respect with Noah and Job: “If I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” (Ezekiel 14: 19, 20.) His wisdom, also, even at that early day, had become proverbial, as appears from the same writer. “Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from you.” (Ezekiel 28: 3.) But above all, our Lord recognized him as a prophet of God, and bade His disciples to understand the predictions given through him for the benefit of the church: “When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso reads, let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” (Matthew 24: 15, 16.)
Though we have a more minute account of his early life than is recorded of that of any other prophet, yet his birth and linage are left in complete obscurity, except that he was of the royal line, probably of the house of David, which had at that time become very numerous. He first appears as one of the noble captives of Judea, in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, at the beginning of the seventy years, captivity, B.C. 606; A.S. 3363 (After Sin). Jeremiah and Habakkuk were yet uttering their prophecies. Ezekiel began soon after, and a little later, Obadiah; but all these finished their work years before the close of the long and brilliant career of Daniel. Three prophets only succeeded him, Haggai and Zechariah, who exercised the prophetic office for a brief period contemporaneously, B.C. 520-518; A.S. 3449-3451, and Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, who flourished a little season about B.C. 397; A.S. 3572.
During the seventy years’ captivity of the Jews, B.C. 606-536; A.S. 3363-3433, predicted by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25: 11), Daniel resided at the court of Babylon, most of the time prime minister of that monarchy. His life afforded a most impressive lesson of the importance and advantage of maintaining from earliest youth, strict integrity toward God, and furnishes a notable instance of a man’s maintaining eminent piety, and faithfully discharging all duties that pertain to the service of God, while at the same time engaging in the most stirring activities, and bearing the weightiest cares and responsibilities that can devolve upon men in this earthly life.
What a rebuke is his course of action to many, in this present day, who, having not a hundredth part of the cares to absorb their time and engross their attention that he had, yet plead as an excuse for almost utter, if not total neglect, of Godly obedience and Christian duties, that they have no time for them. What will God say to such, when He comes to reward His servants impartially, according to their improvements or neglect of the opportunities offered them? “I never knew you?”
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But it is not alone, nor chiefly his connection with the Chaldean monarchy, the glory of kingdoms, that perpetuates the memory of Daniel, and covers his name with honor. From the height of its glory he saw that kingdom decline, and pass into other hands. Its period of greatest prosperity was embraced within the limits of the lifetime of one man. So brief was its supremacy, so transient its glory. But Daniel was entrusted with more enduring honors. While beloved and honored by the princes and potentates of Babylon, he enjoyed an infinitely higher exaltation in being beloved and honored by God and His holy angels, and admitted to the knowledge and counsels, of the Most High.
His prophecies are, in many respects, the most remarkable of any in the sacred record. They are the most comprehensive. They are the first prophecies giving a consecutive history of the world from that time to the end. They located most of their predictions within well-defined prophetic periods, though reaching many centuries, and millenniums, into the future. They give the first definite chronological prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. They marked the time of this event so definitely that the Jews forbid any attempt to interpret its numbers, since that prophecy shows them to be without excuse in rejecting The Christ; and so accurately had their minute and literal predictions been fulfilled down to the time of Porphyry, A.D. 250; A.S. 4219, that he declared (the only loophole he could devise for his hard-pressed skepticism) that the predictions were not written in the age of Babylon, but after the events themselves had occurred. This evasion, however, is not now available; for every succeeding century has borne additional evidence to the truthfulness of the prophecies, and we are now, in our own time, approaching the climax of their fulfillment.
The personal history of Daniel reaches to a date a few years subsequent to the subversion of the Babylonian kingdom by the Medes and Persians. He is supposed to have died at Shushan, or Susa, in Persia, about the year B.C.530; A.S. 3439, aged nearly ninety-four years; his age being the probable reason why he did not return to Judea with other Hebrew captives, under the proclamation of Cyrus (Ezra 1: 1), B.C. 536; A.S. 3433, which marked the close of the seventy years, captivity.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMMANUEL, THE WORD
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL
Study # 1.---A Captive in Babylon’s Royal Court. Daniel, Chapter One.
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: Which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. (Daniel 1: 1-2.)
With a directness characteristic of the sacred writers, Daniel enters at once upon his subject. He begins his book in a simple historical style. The first six chapters, with the exception of the prophecy of chapter two, are narrative in content. With chapter seven we reach the prophetical part of the book.
Siege of Jerusalem.---Like one conscious of uttering only well-known truth, he proceeds at once to state a variety of particulars by which his accuracy could be tested. The overthrow of Jerusalem recorded here was predicted by Jeremiah, and was accomplished in B.C. 606; A.S. 3363 (Jeremiah 25: 8-11.) Jeremiah places this captivity in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Daniel in the third. This seeming discrepancy is explained by the fact that Nebuchadnezzar set out on his expedition near the close of the third year of Jehoiakim, from which point Daniel reckons. But the king did not accomplish the subjugation of Jerusalem until about the ninth month of the following year, from which year Jeremiah reckons. Jehoiakim, though bound for the purpose of being taken to Babylon, humbled himself and was permitted to remain as ruler in Jerusalem, tributary to the king of Babylon.
This was the first time Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Twice subsequently the city revolted, but was recaptured by the same king, and more severely dealt with each succeeding time. The second overthrow was during the time Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, when all the sacred vessels were either taken or destroyed, and the best of the inhabitants were led with the king into captivity. The third was under Zedekiah, when the city endured a formidable siege. During its continuance for a year and a half, the inhabitants of the city suffered all the horrors of extreme famine. At length the garrison and the king attempted to escape from the city, and were captured by the Chaldeans. The sons of the king were slain before his face. His eyes were put out, and he was taken to Babylon. Thus was fulfilled the prediction of Ezekiel that he should be carried to Babylon, and die there, yet he should not see the place. (Ezekiel 12: 13.) The city and temple were at this time utterly destroyed, and the entire population of the country, with the exception of a few husbandmen, were carried captive to Babylon, in B.C, 586; A.S.3383.
Such was God’s passing testimony against sin---not that the Chaldeans were the favorites of heaven, but that God made use of them to punish the iniquities of His people. Had the Israelites been faithful to God, and kept His Sabbaths, Jerusalem would have stood forever. (Jeremiah 17: 24-27.) But they departed from Him, and He abandoned
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them. They profaned the sacred vessels by bringing idols into the temple; therefore God allowed these vessels to be further profaned by letting them go as trophies to heathen shrines abroad.
Hebrew Captives in Babylon.---During these days of trouble and distress upon Jerusalem, Daniel and his companions were nourished and instructed in the palace of the king of Babylon. Though captives in a strange land, they were doubtless in some respects much more favorably situated then they could have been in their native country.
“And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; children in whom was no blemish, but gifted, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science. And such as had ability in them to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s food, and of the wine which he drank: So nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might serve before the king.” (Daniel 1: 3-5.)
Here is recorded the fulfillment of the judgments predicted by the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah more than a hundred years before. When this king had vaingloriously shown to the messengers of the king of Babylon all the treasures and holy things of his palace and kingdom, Hezekiah was told that all these good things would be carried as trophies to the city of Babylon, and even his own children, his descendants, would be taken away and be eunuchs in the palace of the king.
The word “children” as applied to these captives is not to be confined to the sense to which it is limited at the present time. It included youth also. We learn from the record that these children were already “skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and . . . had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace.” In other words, they had acquired a good degree of education, and their physical and mental powers were so far developed that a skillful reader of human nature could form an accurate estimate of their capabilities. They are supposed to have been about eighteen to twenty years of age.
In the treatment that these Hebrew captives received, we see an instance of the wise policy and the liberality of the rising king, Nebuchadnezzar. Instead of choosing means for the gratification of low and base desires, as to many kings of later times have done, he chose young men to be educated in all matters pertaining to the kingdom, that he might have efficient help in administering its affairs. He appointed them daily provisions of his own food and drink. Instead of the coarse fare that some would have thought good enough for captives, he offered them his own royal vittles. For the space of three years they had all the advantages the kingdom afforded. Though captives, they were royal children, and were treated as such by the humane king of the Chaldeans.
“Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hannaniah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.” (Daniel 1: 6, 7.)
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Daniel and His Companions Renamed.---This change of names was probably made because the Hebrew names had significant meaning. In the Hebrew, Daniel signified, “God is my judge;” Hananiah, “gift of the Lord;” Mishael, “who is what God is;” and Azariah, “whom Jehovah helps.” Since these names had some reference to the true God and signified some connection with His worship, they were changed to names that had definitions linking them to the heathen divinities and worship of the Chaldeans. Thus Belteshazzar, the name given to Daniel, signified “prince of Bel;” Shadrach, “servant of Sin” (the moon god); Meshach, “who is what Aku is’ (Aku being the Sumerian equivalent of Sin, the name of the moon god); and Abednego, “servant of Nebo.”
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the ration of the king’s food, nor with the wine which he himself drank: Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, ‘I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink: For why should he see your faces less attractive than the children that are of your age? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king.’ Then said Daniel to Melzar, the steward in charge of the wine, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ‘Test your servant, I beseech you, ten days; and let them give us porridge to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenance be looked upon before you, and the countenance of the children that eat of the ration of the king’s food: And as you see, deal with your servants.’ So he consented to them in this matter, and tested them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and better looking in flesh than all the children that did eat of the ration of the kings food. Thus Melzar took away the ration of their food; and the wine that they should drink; and gave them porridge.” (Daniel 1: 8-16.)
In this record Nebuchadnezzar appears wonderfully free from bigotry. It seems that he took no means to compel his royal captives to change their religion. Provided they had some religion, he seemed to be satisfied, whether it was the religion he professed or not. Although their names had been changed to signify some connection with heathen worship, this may have been more to avoid the use of Jewish names by the Chaldeans than to indicate any change of sentiment or practice on the part of those to whom these names were given.
Daniel’s Diet.---Daniel purposed not to defile himself with the king’s food or with his wine. Daniel had other reasons for this course than simply the effect of such a diet upon his physical system, though he would derive great advantage in this respect from the fare he proposed to adopt. It was frequently the case that food used by the kings and pronces of heathen nations, who were often the high priests of their religion, was first offered in sacrifice to idols, and the wine they used, poured out as a libation before their gods. Again, some of the flesh food used by the Chaldeans was pronounced unclean by the Jewish law. On either of these grounds Daniel could not, consistently with his religion, partake of these articles. Hence he respectfully requested the proper officer that from conscientious scruples he might not be obliged to defile himself.
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The prince of the eunuchs feared to grant Daniel’s request, since the king himself had appointed the food for Daniel and his companions. This shows the great personal interest the king took in these captives. It appears that his sincere object was to secure in them the best mental and physical development that could be attained. How different is this from the bigotry and tyranny that usually hold supreme control over the hearts of those who are clothed with absolute power. In the character of Nebuchadnezzar we shall find many things worthy of our highest admiration.
It is interesting to note what was included in Daniel’s request for his diet. The Hebrew word zeroin here translated “pulse,” is built on the same root as the word “seed” in the record of creation, where it mentions “every herb seeding seed,” and again, the “fruit of a tree seeding seed.” (Genesis 1: 29.) This makes it clear enough that Daniel’s request included grains, legumes, and fruits. Then, too, if we understand Genesis 9: 3 correctly, the “green herb” itself must have been included in the diet requested. In other words, the menu for which Daniel asked and which he received was made up of cereals, legumes, fruit, nuts, and vegetables---a vegetarian diet of good variety, together with the universal drink for man and beast, clear water.
The Cambridge Bible has this on zerion: “vegetables, i.e. vegetable food, such as was eaten in the half fast, opposed to meats and more delicate food.”
A ten days’ trial of this diet resulted favorably, and Daniel and his companions were permitted to continue it during the whole course of their training for the duties of the palace.
“As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them; and among them all, was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Therefore served they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and sorcerers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.” Daniel 1: 17-21.)
After Three Years’ Study.—To Daniel alone seems to have been committed an understanding in visions and dreams. But the Lord’s dealing with Daniel in this respect does not prove his companions any less accepted in His sight. By their preservation in the midst of the fiery furnace they had equally good evidence of the divine favor. Daniel probably had some natural qualifications that peculiarly fitted him for this special work.
The same personal interest in these individuals heretofore manifested by the king, he still continued to maintain. At the end of three years, he called them to a personal interview. He must know for him-self how they had fared, and to what proficiency they had attained. This interview also shows the king to have been a man well versed in all the arts and sciences of the Chaldeans, else he would not have been qualified to examine others in them. Recognizing merit wherever he saw it without respect to religion or nationality, he acknowledged them to be ten times superior to any in his own land.
It is added that Daniel “continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus.”
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 2.---The King Dreams of World Empires. Daniel Chapter Two.
“And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and he could not sleep.” (Daniel 2: 1.)
Daniel was carried into captivity in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. For three years he was placed under instructors, during which time he would not of course be reckoned among the wise men of the kingdom, nor take part in public affairs. Yet in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, the transactions recorded in this chapter took place. How, then, could Daniel be brought in to interpret the king’s dream in his second year? The explanation lies in the fact that Nebuchadnezzar reigned for two years conjointly with his father, Nabopolassar. From this point the Jews reckoned, while the Chaldeans reckoned from the time he began to reign alone on the death of his father. Hence, the year here mentioned was the second year after Daniel had completed his preparation to participate in the affairs of the Chaldean Empire, the providence of God brought him into sudden and remarkable prominence throughout the kingdom.
“Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king,.” (Daniel 2: 2.)
The King’s Wise Men Fail Him.---The magicians practiced magic, using the term in its bad sense: that is, they employed all the superstitious rites and ceremonies of fortunetellers, and casters of nativities, and the like. Astrologers are men who pretend to foretell events by the study of the stars. The science, or the superstition, of astrology was extensively cultivated by the Eastern nations of antiquity. Sorcerers were such as pretended to hold communication with the dead. In this sense, we believe, the word “sorcerer” is always used in the Scriptures. The Chalddeans here mentioned were a sect of philosophers similar to the magicians and astrologers, who made natural science and divinations their study. The result desired by each was the same---the explaining of mysteries and the foretelling of events---the principle difference between them being the means by which they sought to accomplish their object. The king’s difficulty lay within the province of each to explain; hence he summoned them all. With the king it was an important matter. He was greatly troubled, and therefore concentrated upon the solution of his perplexity the wisdom of his realm.
“And the king said unto them. I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to understand the dream. Then spoke the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, ‘O king, live forever: Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.’” (Daniel 2: 3, 4.)
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In whatever else the ancient magicians and astrologers may have been efficient, they seem to have been thoroughly schooled in the art of drawing out sufficient information to form a basis for some shrewd calculation, or of framing their answers in such an ambiguous manner that they would be applicable whichever way the events turned. In the present case, true to their cunning instincts, they called upon the king to make known to them his dream. If they could get the full information respecting this, they could easily agree on some interpretation that would not endanger their reputation. They addressed themselves to the king in Syriac, a dialect of the Chaldean language that was used by the educated and cultured classes. From this point to the end of Daniel 7, the record continues in Chaldiac, the language spoken by the king.
“The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, ‘I have forgotten it: If you will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if you tell the dream, and the interpretation thereof, you shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor: Therefore tell me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.’ They answered again and said, ‘Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will tell the interpretation of it,’ The king answered and said, ‘I know of a certainty that you would gain the time, because you see I have forgotten it. But if you will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: For you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can tell me the interpretation thereof.’ The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, ‘There is not a man upon the earth that can reveal the king’s matter: Therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is none other that can reveal it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.’ For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.” (Daniel 2: 5-13.)
These verses contain the record of the desperate struggle between the wise men and the king. The former sought some avenue of escape, since they were caught on their own ground. The king was determined that they should make known his dream, which was no more than should be expected from their profession.
Some have severely censured Nebuchadnezzar in this matter, as acting the part of a heartless, unreasonable tyrant. But what did these magicians profess to be able to do?---To reveal hidden things, to foretell events, to make known mysteries entirely beyond human foresight and penetration, and to do this by the aid of supernatural agencies. There was therefore nothing unjust in Nebuchadnezzar’s demand that they should make known his dream. When they declared that none but the gods whose dwelling was not with flesh could make known the king’s matter, it was a tacit acknowledgment that they had no communication with these gods, and knew nothing beyond what human wisdom and discernment could reveal. “For this cause the king was angry and very furious.” He saw that he and all his people were being made the victims of deception. While we cannot justify the extreme measures to which he resorted, dooming them to death, and
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their houses to destruction, we cannot but feel a hearty sympathy with him in his condemnation of a class of miserable imposters. The king would be no party to dishonesty or deception.
“Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the chief marshal of the king’s guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: He answered and said to Arioch the kings chief marshal, ‘Why is the decree so urgent from the king?’ Then Arioch explained the thing to Daniel. Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would explain to the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that they should not destroy Daniel and his fellows with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.” (Daniel 2: 14-18.)
Daniel to the Rescue.---In this narrative we see the providence of God working in several remarkable particulars. It was providential that the dream of the king should leave such a powerful impression upon his mind as to raise him to the greatest height of anxiety, and yet the thing itself be held from his recollection. This led to the complete exposure of the false system of the magicians and other pagan teachers. When put to the test to make known the dream, they were unable to do what they professed was entirely within their power.
It is remarkable that Daniel and his companions, so lately pronounced by the king ten times better than all his magicians and astrologers, should not have been consulted in this matter. But there was providence in this. Just as the dream was held from the king, so he was unaccountably restrained from appealing to Daniel for a solution of the mystery. Had he called on Daniel at the first to make known the matter, the magicians would not have been brought to the test. But God would give the heathen systems of the Chaldeans the first chance. He would let them try and ignominiously fail, and then confess their utter incompetence, even under the penalty of death, that they might be the better prepared to acknowledge His intervention when He should manifest His power in behalf of His captive servants, and for the honor of His name.
It appears that the first intimation Daniel had of the matter was the presence of the executioners, come for his arrest. His own life being thus at stake, he was led to seek the Lord with all his heart until He should work for the deliverance of His servants. Daniel gained his request of the king for time to consider the matter---a privilege which probably none of the magicians could have obtained, as the king had already accused them of preparing false and corrupt words, and seeking to gain time for this very purpose. Daniel at once went to his three companions, and asked them to unite with him in desiring mercy of the God of heaven concerning this secret. He could have prayed alone, and doubtless would have been heard. But then, as now, in the union of God’s people there is prevailing power. The promise of the accomplishment of that, which is asked, is to the two or three who shall agree concerning it. (Matthew 18: 19, 20.)
“Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever:
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For wisdom and might are His: And He changes the times and the seasons: He removes kings, and sets up kings: He gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He reveals the deep and secret things: He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. I thank You, and praise You, O You God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might, and has made known unto me now what we asked of You: For You have now made known unto us the king’s matter.” (Daniel 2: 19-23.)
Whether or not the answer came while Daniel and his companions were yet offering up their petitions, we are not informed. It was in a night vision that God revealed Himself in their behalf. The words “night vision” means anything that is seen, whether through dreams or visions.
Daniel immediately offered up praise to God for His gracious dealing with them, and while his prayer is not preserved, his responsive thanksgiving is fully recorded. God is honored by our praise to Him for the things He has done for us, as well as by our petitions to Him for help. Let Daniel’s course be our example in this respect. Let no mercy from the hand of God fail of its due return of thanksgiving and praise. In the days of The Christ’s ministry on earth, did He not cleanse ten lepers, and only one returned to give Him thanks? “But where,” asks The Christ sorrowfully, “are the nine?” (Luke 17:17.)
Daniel had the utmost confidence in what had been shown him. He did not first go to the king to see if what had been revealed to him was indeed the king’s dream, but he immediately praised God for having answered his prayer.
Although the matter was revealed to Daniel, he did not take honor to himself as though it were by his prayers alone that the answer had been obtained; but he immediately associated his companions with him, and acknowledged it to be as much an answer to their prayers as it was to his own. It was, said he, “what we asked of You,” and You have made it “known unto us.”
“Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king has appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon: He went and said thus to him; ‘Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: Bring me in before the king, and I will explain unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, ‘I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will reveal unto the king the interpretation.’” (Daniel 2: 24.)
Daniel’s first plea was for the wise men of Babylon. Destroy them not, for the king’s secret is revealed, he implored. True, it was through no merit off theirs or their heathen systems of divination that this revelation was made. They were worthy of as much condemnation as before. But their own confession of utter impotence in the matter was humiliation enough for them, and Daniel was anxious that they should so far partake of the benefits shown him as to have their lives spared. They were saved because there was a man of God among them.
It is ever characteristic of ministers and courtiers to ingratiate themselves with their
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sovereign. So here Arioch represented that he had found a man who could make known the desired interpretation, as if, with great disinterestedness in behalf of the king he had been searching for some one to solve his difficulty, and had found him. In order to see through this deception of his chief executioner, the king had but to remember, as he probably did, his interview with Daniel, and Daniel’s promise, if time could be granted, to show the interpretation of the dream. (Verse 16.)
“The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, ‘Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?’ Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, ‘The secret which the king has demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the vision of your head upon your bed, are these.’ (Daniel 2: 26-28.)
“Are you able to make known to me the dream?” was the king’s salutation to David as he came into the royal presence. Notwithstanding his previous acquaintance with this Hebrew, the king seemed to question his ability, so young and inexperienced, to make known a matter in which the aged and venerable magicians and soothsayers had utterly failed. Daniel declared plainly that the wise men, the astrologers, the soothsayers, and the magicians could not make known this secret. It was beyond their power. Therefore the king should not be angry with them, nor put confidence in their vain superstitions. The prophet proceeded to make known the true God, who rules in heaven, and is the only revealer of secrets. He it is, said Daniel, who “makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.”
“As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed, what should come to pass hereafter and He that reveals secrets makes known to you what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart.” (Daniel 2: 29, 30.)
Here is brought out another of the commendable traits of Nebuchadnezzar’s character. Unlike some rulers, who fill up the present with folly and debauchery without regard to the future, the king thought forward upon the days to come, with an anxious desire to know with what events they should be filled. It was partly for this reason that God gave him this dream, which we must regard as a token of divine favor to the king. Yet God would not work for the king independently of His own people. Though He gave the dream to the king, He sent the interpretation through one of His acknowledged servants.
Daniel first disclaimed all credit for the interpretation, and then he sought to modify the king’s natural feelings of pride in being thus noticed by the God of heaven. He informed him that although the dream had been given him, it was not for his sake alone that the interpretation was sent, but also for their sakes through whom it should be given. Ah! God had some servants there, and it was for them that He was working. They were of more value in His sight than the mightiest kings and potentates of earth.
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How comprehensive was the work of God in this instance! By this one act of revealing the king’s dream to Daniel, He made known to the king the things he desired, He saved His servants who trusted in Him, He brought conspicuously before the Chaldean nation the knowledge of Him who knows the end from the beginning, He poured contempt on the false systems of the soothsayers and magicians, and He honored His own name and exalted His servants in their eyes.
“You, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form thereof was magnificent. This image’s head was of fine gold, his chest and arms of silver, his belly and loins of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part iron and part clay. You watched till a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon the feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: And the Stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2: 31-35.)
Nebuchadnezzar, a worshiper of the gods of the Chaldean religions, was an idolater. An image was an object that would at once command his attention and respect. Moreover, earthly kingdoms, which, as we shall hereafter see, were represented by this image, were objects of esteem and value in his eyes.
But how admirably adapted was this representation to convey a great and needful truth to the mind of Nebuchadnezzar. Besides delineating the progress of events through the whole course of time for the benefit of His people, God would show Nebuchadnezzar the utter emptiness and worthlessness of earthly pomp and glory. How could this be more impressively done than by an image whose head was of gold? Below this head was a body composed of inferior metals descending in value until they reached their basest form in the feet and toes of iron mingled with miry clay. The whole was then dashed to pieces, and made like the empty chaff. It was finally blown away where no place could be found for it, after which something durable and heavenly worth occupied its place. So would God show the children of men that glory, like a gaudy bubble, breaks and vanishes. In the place so long usurped by these, the kingdom of God shall be set up and have no end, while all who have an interest in that kingdom shall rest under the shadow of its peaceful wings forever and ever. But this is anticipating.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 3.---The Dreams Interpretation.
“This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings: For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And where so ever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and fowls of the heaven has He given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold.” (Daniel 2: 36-38.)
Daniel Interprets the Dream.---Now opens one of the most comprehensive histories of the world empires. Eight short verses of the inspired record tell the whole story, yet that story embraces the history of this world’s pomp and power. A few moments will suffice to commit it to memory, yet the period which it covers, beginning more than twenty-six centuries ago, reaches from that far-distant point past the rise and fall of kingdoms, past the setting up and overthrow of empires, past cycles and ages, past our own day, to the eternal state. It is so comprehensive that it embraces all this, yet it is so minute that it gives us the great outline of earthly kingdoms from that time to this. Human wisdom never devised so brief a record that embraces so much. Human language never set forth in so few words such a great volume of historical truth. The finger of God is here. Let us heed the lesson well.
With what interest and astonishment must the king have listened as he was informed, that his kingdom was the golden head of the magnificent image. Daniel informed the king that the God of heaven had given him his kingdom, and made him ruler over all. This would restrain him from the pride of thinking that he had attained his position by his own power and wisdom, and would enlist the gratitude of his heart toward the true God.
The kingdom of Babylon, that finally developed into the nation represented by the golden head of the great historic image, was founded by Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, more than two thousand years before The Christ. “Cush begot Nimrod: He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: Wherefore it is said, ‘Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel [“Babylon,” margin], and Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” (Genesis 10: 8-10.) It appears that Nimrod also founded the city of Nineveh, which afterward became the capital of Assyria. (See marginal reading of Genesis 10: 11.)
Fulfillment of the Dream.---B.C. 608; A.S. 3361. The Babylon Empire rose to power under the general who also became king, Nabopolassar. When he died in B.C. 604; A.S. 3365 (After Sin.) his son Nebuchadnezzar became king. As R. Campbell Thompson declares: “Events had already shown that Nebuchadnezzar was a vigorous and brilliant commander, and physically as well as mentally a strong man, fully worthy of succeeding his father. He was to become the greatest man of his time in the Near East, as a soldier, a statesman, and an architect. Had his successors been of such a stamp instead of callow boys or dilettanti without redeeming vigor, the Persians would have found Babylonia a harder problem. ‘All the nations,’ says Jeremiah (Jeremiah 27: 7, R. V.), ‘shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land come.’”
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Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the first year of his reign, and the third year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah (Daniel 1: 1), B.C. 606; A.S. 3363. Nebuchadnezzar reigned two years conjointly with his father, Nabopolassar. From this point the Jews computed his reign, but the Chaldeans from the date of his sole reign, B.C. 604; A.S. 3365, as stated above. Respecting the successors of Nebuchadnezzar, the authority just quoted adds:
“Nebuchadnezzar died about August-September, B.C. 562; A.S. 3407, and was succeeded by his son Amel-Marduk (B.C. 562-560; A.S. 3407-3409), whom Jeremiah calls Evil-Merodach. He was given little time to prove his worth; the two years of his brief reign are merely enough to show that political conditions were again hostile to the royal house.”
The later Babylonian rulers, weak in power, could not equal the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Cyrus, king of Persia, besieged Babylon, and took it by stratagem.
The character of the Babylonian Empire is indicated by the head of gold. It was the golden kingdom of a golden age. Babylon, its metropolis, towered to a height never reached by any of its successors. Situated in the garden of the East; laid out in a perfect square said to be sixty miles in circumference, fifteen miles on each side; surrounded by a wall estimated to have been two hundred to three hundred feet high and eighty-seven feet thick, with a moat, or ditch, around this, of equal cubic capacity with the wall itself; divided into squares by its many streets, each one hundred and fifty feet in width, crossing at right angles, every one of them straight and level; its two hundred and twenty square miles of enclosed surface laid out in luxuriant pleasure grounds and gardens, interspersed with magnificent dwellings---this city, with its sixty miles of moat, its sixty miles of outer walls, its thirty miles of river wall through the center, its gates of solid brass, its hanging gardens rising terrace above terrace till they equaled in height the walls themselves, its temple of Belus three miles in circumference, its two royal palaces, one three and a half and the other eight miles in circumference, with its subterranean tunnel under the River Euphrates connecting these two palaces, its perfect arrangement for convenience, ornament and defense, and its unlimited resources---this city, containing in itself many things which were themselves wonders of the world, was itself another and still mightier wonder. There, with the whole earth prostrate at her feet, a queen in peerless grandeur, drawing from the pen of inspiration itself this glowing title, “The glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ Excellency,” stood this city, fit capital of that kingdom which was represented by the golden head of this great historic image.
Such was Babylon, with Nebuchadnezzar in the prime of life, bold, vigorous, and accomplished, seated upon its throne, when Daniel entered within its walls to serve as a captive in its gorgeous palaces for seventy years. There the children of the Lord, oppressed more than cheered by the glory and prosperity of the land of their captivity, hung their harps on the willows by the Euphrates, and wept when they remembered Zion.
There began the captive state of the church in a still broader sense; for ever since that time the people of God have been in subjection to earthly powers, and more or less oppressed by them. So they will be until all earthly powers shall finally yield to Him whose right it is to reign. And lo, that day of deliverance draws on apace!
Into another city, not only Daniel, but all the children of God, from least to greatest,
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from lowest to highest, are soon to enter. It is a city not merely sixty miles in circumference, but fifteen hundred miles; a city whose walls are not brick and bitumen, but precious stones and jasper; whose streets are not the stone-paved streets of Babylon, smooth and beautiful as they were, but transparent gold; whose music is not the sighs and laments of broken hearted captives, but the thrilling paeans of victory over death and the grave, which ransomed multitudes shall raise; whose light is not the intermittent light of earth, but the unceasing and ineffable glory of God and the Lamb. To this city they shall come, not as captives entering a foreign land, but as exiles returning to their father’s house; not as to a place where such chilling words as “bondage,” “servitude,” and “oppression,” shall weigh down their spirits, but to one where the sweet words, “home,” “freedom,” peace,” “purity,” “unutterable bliss,” and “unending life,” shall thrill their souls with delight forever and ever. Yea, out mouths shall be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, when the Lord shall turn again the captivity of Zion. (Psalm 126: 1, 2; Revelation 21: 1-27.)
“And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” (Daniel 2: 39.)
Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-three years, and was succeeded by the following rulers: His son, Evil-Merodach, two years; Neriglissar, his son-in-law, four years; Laborosoarchod, Neriglissar’s son, nine months, which, being less than one year, is not counted in the canon of Ptolemy; and lastlyNabonidus, whose son, Belshazzar, grandson of Nebochadnezzar, was associated with him on the throne.
“The proof of this association is contained in the cylinders of Nabonadius [Nabonidus] found at Mugheir, where the protection of the gods is asked for Nadu-nadid and his son Bel-shar-uzur, who are coupled together in a way that implies the cosoverignty of the latter. (British Museum series, Vol, I. pl. 68, no. 1.) The date of the association was at the latest B.C. 540; A.S. 3429, Nabonadius’s fifteenth year, since the third year of Belshazzar is mentioned in Daniel 8: 1. If Belshazzar was (As I have supposed) a son of a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar married to Nabonadius after he became king, he could not be more than fourteen years old in his father’s fifteenth year.”
The Fall of Babylon.---B.C. 538; A.S. 3430. In the first year of Neriglissar, only two years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, broke out that fatal war between the Babyloians and the Medes, which resulted in the overthrow of the Babylonian kingdom. Cyaxares, king of the Medes, who is called “Darius” in Daniel 5: 31. summoned to his aid his nephew Cyrus of the Persian line. The war was prosecuted with uninterrupted success by the Medes and Persians, until in the eighteenth year of Nabonidius (the third year of his son Belshazzar), Cyrus laid siege to Babylon, the only city in all the East which then held out against him. The Babylonians gathered within their seemingly impregnable walls, with provisions on hand for twenty years, and land within the limits of their broad city sufficient to furnish food for the inhabitants and garrison for an indefinite period. They scoffed at Cyrus from their lofty walls, and derided his seemingly useless efforts to bring them into subjection. According to all human calculation, they had good grounds for their feelings of security. Never, weighted in the balance of earthly probability, could that city be taken with the means of warfare then known. Hence, they breathed as freely
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and slept as soundly as though no foe were waiting and watching around their beleaguered city should come down from her throne of glory. And when He speaks, what mortal arm can defeat His word.
In their feeling of security lay the source of their danger. Cyrus resolved to accomplish by stratagem what he could not effect by force. Learning of the approach of an annual festival in which the whole city would be given to mirth and revelry, he fixed upon that day as the time to carry his purpose into execution.
There was no entrance for him into that city unless he could find it where the River Euphrates entered and emerged, as it passed under the walls. He resolved to make the channel of the river his highway into the stronghold of his enemy. To do this, the water must be turned aside from its channel through the city. For this purpose, on the evening of the feast day above referred to, he detailed one body of soldiers to turn the river at a given hour into a large artificial lake a short distance above the city; another to take their station at the point where the river entered the city; and a third to take a position fifteen miles below, where the river emerged from the city. The two latter bodies were instructed to enter the channel as soon as they found the river fordable, and in the darkness of the night explore their way beneath the walls, and press on to the palace of the king where they were to surprise and kill the guards, and capture or slay the king. When the water was turned into the lake, the river soon became shallow enough to ford, and the soldiers followed its channel into the heart of the city of Babylon.
But all of this would have been in vain, had not the whole city given itself over, on the eventful night, to the most abandoned carelessness and presumption, a state of things upon which Cyrus calculated largely for the carrying out of his purpose. On each side of the river through the entire length of the city were walls of great height, and of equal thickness with the outer walls. In these walls were huge gates of brass, which, when closed and guarded, debarred all entrance from the riverbed to any of the streets that crossed the river. Had the gates been closed at this time, the soldiers of Cyrus might have marched into the city along the river bed, and then marched out again, for all that they would have been able to accomplish toward the subjugation of the place.
But in the drunken revelry of that fatal night, these river gates were left open, as had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah years before in these words: “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut” (Isaiah 45: 1.) The entrance of the Persian soldiers was not perceived. Many a cheek would have paled with terror, had the sudden going down of the river been noticed, and its fearful import understood. Many a tongue would have spread wild alarm through the city, had the dark forms of armed foes been seen stealthily treading their way to the citadel of their supposed security. But no one noticed the sudden subsidence of the waters of the river; no one saw the entrance of the Persian warriors; no one took care to see that the river gates should be closed and guarded; no one cared for aught but to see how deeply and recklessly he could plunge into the wild debauch. That night’s dissipation cost the Babylonians their kingdom and their freedom. They went into their brutish revelry subjects of the king of Babylon; they awoke from it slaves to the king of Persia.
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The soldiers of Cyrus first made known their presence in the city by falling upon the royal guards in the vestibule of the palace of the king. Belshazzar soon became aware of the cause of the disturbance, and died fighting for his life. This feast of Belshazzar is described in the fifth chapter of Daniel, and the scene closes with the simple record, “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.”
The historian Prideaux says: “Darius the Mede, that is, Cyaxares, the uncle of Cyrus, took the kingdom; for Cyrus allowed him the title of all his conquests as long as he lived.”
Thus the first empire, symbolized by the head of gold of the great image, came to an ignoble end. It would naturally be supposed that the conqueror, becoming possessed of so noble a city as Babylon, far surpassing anything else in the world, would have taken it as the seat of his empire, and maintained it in its splendor. But God had said that the city should become a heap, and the habitation of the beasts of the desert; that its houses should be full of doleful creatures; that the wild beasts of the islands should cry in its desolate dwellings, and dragons in its pleasant places. (Isaiah 13: 19-22.) It must first be deserted. Cyrus established a second capital at Susa, a celebrated city in the province of Elam, east from Babylon, on the banks of the River Choaspes, a branch of the Tigris. This was probably done in the first year of his sole reign.
The pride of the Babylonians being particularly provoked by this act, in the fifth year of Darius Hystaspes, B.C. 517; A.S. 3452, they rose in rebellion and brought upon themselves again the whole strength of the Persian Empire. The city was once again taken by stratagem. Darius took away the brass gates of the city, and beat down the walls from two hundred cubits to fifty cubits. This was the beginning of its destruction. By this act it was exposed to the ravages of every hostile band. Xerxes, on his return from Greece, plundered the temple of Belus of its immense wealth, and then laid the lofty structure in ruins. Alexander the Great endeavored to rebuild it, but after employing ten thousand men, two months, to clear away the rubbish, he died from excessive drunkenness and debauchery, and the work was suspended. In the year B.C. 294; A.S. 3675, Seleucus Nicator built a New Babylon, in the neighborhood of the old city, taking much of the material, and inhabitants, of the old city, to build up and people the New Babylon. Now, exhausted of inhabitants, neglect and decay were telling fearfully upon the ancient capital, inviting violence of Parthian princes, and hasting its ruin. About the end of the fourth century it was used by, the Persian kings, as an enclosure for wild beasts. At the end of the twelfth century, according to a celebrated traveler, the few remaining ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace were so full of serpents and venomous reptiles that they could not be closely inspected without great danger. And today scarcely enough, even of the ruins, is left to mark the spot where once stood the largest, richest, and proudest city of the ancient world.
Thus the ruin of great Babylon shows us how accurately God fulfills His word, and makes the doubts of skepticism appear like willful blindness.
“After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you.” The use of the word “kingdom” here, shows that kingdoms, and not particular kings, are represented by the different body parts, of this image. Hence when it was said to Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold,” the kingdom, not the king himself, was meant.
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Medo-Persian Kingdom.---B.C. 539 – B.C. 331; A.S. 3430 – A.S. 3638. The succeeding kingdom, Medo-Persia, answered to the chest and arms of silver of the great image. It was to be inferior to the preceding kingdom. In what respect inferior? Not in power, for it conquered Babylon. Not in extent, for Cyrus subdued all the East from the Aegean Sea to the River Indus, and thus erected a more extensive empire. But it was inferior in wealth, luxury, and magnificence.
Viewed from a Scriptural standpoint, the principle event under the Babylonian Empire was the captivity of the children of Israel; under the Medo-Persian kingdom it was the restoration of Israel to their own land. At the taking of Babylon, Cyrus, as an act of courtesy, assigned the first place in the kingdom to his uncle, Darius, in B.C. 538; A.S. 343. But two years afterward Darius died, leaving Cyrus sole monarch of the empire. In this year, which closed Israel’s seventy years of captivity, Cyrus issued his famous decree for the return of the Jews and the rebuilding of their temple. This was the first installment of the great decree for the restoration and building again of Jerusalem (Ezra 6: 14.), which was completed on the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, B.C. 457; A.S. 3512, a date of much importance, as will hereafter be shown.
After a reign of seven years, Cyrus left the kingdom to his son Cambyses, who reigned seven years and five months, to B.C. 522; A.S. 3447. Ten monarchs reigned between this time and the year B.C. 336; A.S. 3633. The year B.C. 335; A.S. 3634 is set down as the first of Darius Codomannus, the last of the line of the old Persian kings. This man, according to Prideaux, was of noble stature, of goodly person, of great personal valor, and of a mild and generous disposition. It was his ill fortune to have to contend with one who was an agent in the fulfillment of prophecy, and no qualification, natural or acquired, could make him successful in the unequal contest. Scarcely was he warm upon the throne, ere he found his formidable enemy, Alexander, at the head of the Greek soldiers, preparing to dismount him from it.
The cause and the particulars of the contest between the Greeks and the Persians we leave to histories especially devoted to such matters. Suffice it is to say that the deciding point was reached on the field of Arbela in B.C. 331; A.S. 3638, where the Grecians, though one to twenty in number, as compared with the Persians, won a decisive victory. Alexander became absolute lord of the Persian Empire to an extent never attained by any of its own kings.
The Grecian Empire.---B.C. 331 – B.C. 301; A.S. 3637 – A.S. 3607. “Another third kingdom of brass . . .shall bear rule over all the earth,” the prophet had said. Few and brief are the inspired words which involved, in their fulfillment, a succession in world ruler-ship. In the ever-changing political kaleidoscope, Grecia came into the field of vision, to be for a time the all-absorbing object of attention, as the third of what are called the universal empires of the earth.
After the battle that decided the fate of the empire, Darius endeavored to rally the shattered remnants of his army, and make a stand for his kingdom and his rights. But he could not gather out of all the host of his recently so numerous and well appointed army a force with which he deemed it prudent to hazard another engagement with the victorious Grecians. Alexander pursued him on the wings of the wind. Time after time Darius barely eluded the grasp of his swiftly following foe. At length three traitors, Bessus, Nabaarzanes, and Barsaentes, fled with him as their prisoner toward Bactria. It was their
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purpose, if Alexander pursued them, to purchase their safety by delivering up their king.
Here, upon Alexander learning of the dangerous position of Darius, in the hands of the traitors, immediately put himself with the lightest part of his army upon a forced pursuit. After several days’ hard march, he came up with the traitors. They urged Darius to mount on horseback for a more speedy flight. Upon his refusing to do this, they gave him several mortal wounds, and left him dying in the cart, while they mounted their steeds and rode away.
When Alexander arrived, he beheld only the lifeless form of the Persian king, who but a few months before was seated upon the throne of universal empire. Disaster, overthrow, and desertion had come suddenly upon Darius. His kingdom had been conquered, his treasure seized, and his family reduced to captivity. Now, brutally slain by the hand of traitors, he lay a bloody corpse in a rude cart. The sight of the melancholy spectacle drew tears from the eyes of even Alexander, familiar though he was with all the horrible vicissitudes and bloody scenes of war. Throwing his cloak over the body, he commanded that it be conveyed to the ladies of the Persian royal family who were captives at Susa, and furnish from his own treasury the necessary means for a royal funeral.
When Darius died, Alexander saw the field cleared of his last formidable foe. Thenceforward he could spend his time in his own manner, now in the enjoyment of rest and pleasure, and again in the prosecution of some minor conquest. He entered upon a pompous campaign into India, because, according to a Grecian fable, Bacchus and Hercules, two sons of Jupiter, whose son he also claimed to be, had done the same. With contemptible arrogance, he claimed for himself divine honors. He gave up conquered cities, freely and unprovoked, to the mercy of his friends and favorites in his drunken frenzies. He encouraged such excessive drinking among his followers that on one occasion twenty of them died as the result of their carousal. At length, having sat through one long dinking spree, he was immediately invited to another, when, after drinking to each of the twenty guests present, he twice drank, says history, incredible as it may seem, the full Herculean cup containing six of our quarts. He was seized with a violent fever, of which he died eleven days later, June 13, B.C. 323; A.S. 3646, while yet he stood only at the threshold of mature life, in the thirty-second year of his age.
“And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: Forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: And as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” (Daniel 2: 40.)
The Iron Monarchy of Pagan and Papal Rome.---B.C. 146 – 27 March, A.D. 2036; A.S. 3823 – 1 Nisan, A.S. 5767. Thus far in the application of this prophecy there is a general agreement among expositors, that Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece are represented respectively by the head of gold, the chest and arms of silver, and the loins of brass, is acknowledged by all. But with little ground for a diversity of views, there is strangely a difference of opinion as to what kingdom is symbolized by the fourth division of the great image---the legs of iron. What kingdom succeeded Greece in the empires of the world? The testimony of history is full, and explicit, on this point. One kingdom did this, and one only, and that was, and is, Pagan and Papal Rome. It conquered Grecia; it
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subdued all things; and like iron, they broke in pieces and bruised.
Says Bishop Newton: “The four different metals must signify four different nations: And as the gold signified the Babylonians, and the silver the Persians, and the brass the Macedonians; so the iron cannot signify the Macedonians again, but must necessarily denote some other nation: And we will venture to say that there is not a nation upon earth, to which this description is applicable, but to the Romans.”
Gibbon, following the symbolic imagery of Daniel, thus describes this empire: “The arms of the Republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.”
At the opening of the Christian Era, the Roman empire took in the whole south of Europe, Franc, England, the greater part of the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the south of Germany, Turkey, and Greece, not to speak of its possessions in Asia and Africa. Well therefore may Gibbon say of it: “The empire of the Romans filled the world, and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. . . . To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly.”
It will be noticed that at first the kingdom is described unqualifiedly as strong as iron. This was the period of its strength, during which it has been likened to a mighty colossus bestriding the nations, conquering everything, and giving laws to the world. But this was not to continue.
“And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: But they shall not be united one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” (Daniel 2: 43.)
Papal Rome, the Last Universal Empire.---February, A.D. 538 – 27 March, A.D. 2036; A.S. 4507 – 1 Nisan, A.S. 5767. When Papal Rome falls the last of the World’s universal Empires falls. Heretofore it was possible for one nation, rising superior to its neighbors in prowess, bravery, and the science of war, to consolidate them into one vast empire. But when Papal Rome falls, such possibilities forever pass away. The iron is mixed with the clay, and has lost the power of cohesion. No man or combination of men can again consolidate the fragments.
The question therefore naturally arises, “Do the ten toes of the image represent the ten final divisions of the Roman Empire?” We answer a resounding, “No.” for the ten toes of the Pagan Roman Empire are seven. The feet and ten toes are at the end of the Papal Roman Empire, February, A.D. 1798; A.S. 5767, and are destroyed with her at the second coming of The Christ, 27 March, A.D. 2036; I Nisan, A.S. 6005. The feet and toes are the total number of the nations of the earth, at the second coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Emanuel, The Christ.
The nations of the world are to continue, in this tenfold division, until the kingdom of the stone smites them, the feet; breaks them in pieces, and scattered them as the wind does ‘the chaff of the summer threshing-floor!’ Yet, through out all this time, a portion of their strength is to remain. And so the prophet says, ‘And as the toes of the feet were part iron, and part clay, so the kingdoms shall be partly strong, and partly broken.’
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Time and again men have dreamed of rearing, on these dominions, one mighty kingdom. Charlemagne tried it. Charles V tried it. Louis XIV tried it. Napoleon tried it, Kaiser Wilhelm tried it, and Hitler tried it. But none succeeded. A single verse of prophecy was stronger than all the hosts of them. . . . ‘Partly strong, and partly broken,’ was the prophetic description. And such, too, has been the historic fact concerning them. . . . Ten kingdoms formed out of it; and ‘broken,’ as then it was, it still continues---i.e., ‘partly broken.’ . . . It is ‘partly strong---i.e., it retains, even in its broken state, enough of its iron strength to resist all attempts to mold its parts together. ‘This shall not be,’ says the word of God. ‘This has not been,’ replies the book of history.
“But then, men may say, ‘Another plan remains. If force cannot avail, diplomacy and reasons of state may---we will try them.’ And so the prophecy foreshadows this when it says, ‘They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men’---i.e., marriages shall be formed, in hope thus; to consolidate their power, and, in the end, to unite these divided kingdoms into one.
“And shall this device succeed?---No. The prophet answers: ‘They shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’ And the history of Europe, is but a running commentary on the exact fulfillment of these words. From the time of Canute until the present age, it has been the policy of the reigning monarchs, the beaten path which they have trodden, in order to reach a mightier scepter and wider sway. . . . Napoleon . . . sought to reach by alliance what he could not gain by force, i.e., to build up one mighty, consolidated empire. And did he succeed?---Nay. The very power with which he was allied, proved his destruction, in the troops of Blucher, on the field of Waterloo! The iron would not mingle with clay.”
But Napoleon was not the last to try the experiment. Numerous European wars followed the efforts of the Little Corporal. To avert future conflicts, benevolent rulers resorted to the expedient of intermarriage to ensure peace, until by the opening of the twentieth century it was asserted that every ranking hereditary ruler of Europe was related to the British royal family. World War I showed the futility of these attempts.
Out of the horrors of that titanic struggle was born an ideal expressed by President Woodrow Wilson, who exclaimed, “The world has been made safe for democracy!” With the conviction that a war had been fought, which would end war, came the announced inherent rights of minorities, and the principles of self-determination, ensured by a World League of Nations which would restrain dictators and punish aggressors.
Yet under the very shadow of the ‘League of Nations’ palace arose leaders who would destroy world peace and shatter the ideal of world union, while preaching a new social revolution. They vainly promised the triumph of culture and union born of radical superiority ensuring the “partly strong” and “partly broken” nations of Europe “a thousand years of tranquility.”
Out of the welter of confusion, the wreck of nations, the destruction of institutions, the sacrifice of treasures resultant from centuries of frugality, through eyes grief-dimmed by the loss of the flower of its young manhood, the ravishment of its womanhood, the slaughter of infancy and age, through clouds of smoking human blood a distraught world looks anxiously for its sign of surcease. Will the elusive mirage of world peace based upon a trust in European solidarity, the result of wishful thinking, again cause men to
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forget the counsel of the word of God, “They shall not be united one to another”?
Alliances may come, and it may appear that the iron and miry clay of the feet and toes of the great image have finally fused, but God said. “They shall not be united one with another.” It may seem that old animosities have disappeared and that the “ten toes” have gone the way of all the earth, but “the Scripture cannot be broken.” (John 10: 35.)
We conclude with a word by William Newton: “And yet if, as the result of these alliances, or of other causes, that number is sometimes disturbed, it need not surprise us. This is, indeed, just what the prophecy seems to call for. The iron was ‘mixed with the clay.’ For a season, in the image, you might not distinguish between them. But they would not remain so. ‘They shall not be united one to another.’ The nature of the substances forbid them to do so in the one case; the words of prophecy in the other. Yet there was to be the attempt to mingle---nay, more, there was an approach at mingling in both cases. But it was to be abortive. And how marked the emphasis with which history affirms this declaration of the word of God!”
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 4. The Demise of Earthly Kingdoms.
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass in the future: And the dream is genuine, and the interpretation is sure.” (Daniel 2: 44, 45.)
The God of Heaven Sets Up His kingdom.---We have reached the climax of this stupendous prophecy. When Time in its onward flight shall bring us to the sublime scene here predicted, we shall have reached the end of human history, 27 March, 2036; 1 Nisan, A.S. 6005. Then the kingdom of God! Grand provision for a new and glorious dispensation, in which His people shall find a happy terminus of this world’s sad, degenerate, and changing career. Transporting change for all the righteous, from gloom to glory, from strife to peace, from a sinful to a holy world, from death to life, from tyranny and oppression to the happy freedom and blessed privileges of a heavenly kingdom! Glorious transition, from weakness to strength, from the changing and decaying to the immutable and eternal!
But when is this kingdom to be established? May we hope for an answer to an inquiry of such momentous concern to humanity. These are the very questions on which the word of God does not leave us in ignorance, and herein is seen the surpassing value of this heavenly boon.
The Bible plainly declares that the kingdom of God was still future at the time of our Lord’s last Passover. (Matthew 26: 29.) The Christ did not set up the kingdom before His ascension. (Acts 1: 6.) It states further that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 15: 50.) It is a matter of promise to the apostles, and to all those who love God. (James 2: 5.) It is promised in the future to the little flock. (Luke 12: 32.) Through much tribulation the saints are to enter the coming kingdom. (Acts 14: 22.) It is to be set up when The Christ shall judge the living and the dead. (Timothy 4: 1.) It is to be before the generation, that saw Jerusalem taken from the gentiles, dies. (Luke 21: 24; Psalm 90: 10.) This is to be when He shall come in His glory, with all His holy angels. (Matthew 25: 31-34.)
Time has fully developed this great image in all its parts. Most accurately does it represent the important political events it was designed to symbolize. It had stood complete for more than fifteen centuries. It waits to be smitten upon the feet by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, that is, the kingdom of The Christ. This is to be accomplished when the Lord shall be revealed in flaming fire, “taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord, Jesus Emanuel, The Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1: 8.) (See also Psalm 2: 8, 9.) In the days of these kings the God of heaven is to set up a kingdom. We have been in the days of these kings for many
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centuries, and we are still in their days. The United States of America has been in the days of these kings since 04 July, A.D. 1776; A.S. 5745, and we will be till 27 March, A.D. 2036; 1 Nisan, A.S. 6005. So far as this prophecy is concerned, the very next event is the setting up of God’s everlasting kingdom. Other prophecies and innumerable signs show unmistakably that the coming of The Christ is near at hand.
The early church interpreted the prophecies of Daniel 2, 7, and 8 as we do today. Hippolytus, who lived A.D. 160 – A.D. 236; A.S. 4129 – A.S.4205, and is thought to have been a disciple of Irenaeus, one of the four greatest theologians of his age, says in his exposition of Daniel 2, and 7:
“The golden head of the image and the lioness denoted the Babylonians; the shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Persians and Medes; the belly and thighs of brass, and the leopard, meant the Greeks, who held the sovereignty from Alexander’s time; The legs of iron, and beast dreadful and terrible, expressed the Romans, who hold the sovereignty at present; the toes of the feet which were part clay and part iron, and the ten horns, were emblems of the kingdoms yet to rise; the other little horn that grows up among them meant that Antichrist in their midst; the stone that smites the earth and brings judgment upon the world was The Christ.”
“Speak with me, O blessed Daniel. Give me full assurance, I beseech you. You do prophecy concerning the lioness in Babylon; for you were a captive there. You have unfolded the future regarding the bear; for you were still in the world, and did see the things come to pass. Then you speak to me of the leopard; and whence can you know this, for you are already gone to your rest? Who instructed you to announce these things, but He who formed you in your mother’s womb? That is God, you say. You have spoken indeed, and that not falsely. The leopard has arisen; the he-goat is come; he has smitten the ram; he has broken his horns in pieces; he has stomped upon him with his feet. He has been exalted by his fall; the four horns have come up from under that one. Rejoice, blessed Daniel! You have not been in error: All these things have come to pass.
“After this again you have told me of the beast dreadful and terrible. ‘It had iron teeth and claws of brass: It devoured and broke in pieces, and stomped the residue with the feet of it.’ Already the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it brings all the unwilling into subjection; already we see these things ourselves. Now we glorify God, being instructed by you.”
The part of the prophecy that had been fulfilled at that time was clear to the early Christians. They saw also that there would develop ten kingdoms out of the Roman Empire; that three would fall, and that the Antichrist would appear among them. They looked forward, with hope, to the grand consummation, when the second coming of The Christ, would bring an end to all earthly kingdoms, and the kingdom of righteousness would be set up.
The coming kingdom! This ought to be the all-absorbing topic with the present generation. Reader, are you ready for the issue? He who enters this kingdom shall dwell in it not merely for such a lifetime as men live in this present state. He shall not see it degenerate, or be overthrown by a succeeding and more powerful kingdom. No, he enters it to participate in all its privileges and blessings, and to share its glories forever, for this kingdom is not to “be left to other people.”
Again we ask you, ‘Are you ready?’ The terms of heir-ship are most liberal:
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“If you are The Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”(Galatians 3: 29.) Are you on terms of friendship with The Christ, the coming King? Do you love His character? Are you trying to walk humbly in His footsteps, and obey His teachings? If not, read your fate in the cases of those in the parable, of whom it is said, “But those Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before Me.” (Luke 19: 27.) There is to be no rival kingdom where you can find an asylum if you remain an enemy to this, for God’s kingdom is to occupy all the territory ever possessed by any and all of the kingdoms of this world, past and present. It
is to fill the whole earth. Happy are they to whom the rightful Sovereign, the all conquering King, at last can say, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25: 34.)
“Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshiped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him. The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing you could reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: But Daniel sat in the council chamber of the king.” (Daniel 2: 46-49.)
We must return to the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel, as he stands in the presence of the king. He has made known to the monarch the dream and its interpretation, while the courtiers and the baffled soothsayers and astrologers, wait their fate, in silent awe and wonder.
Nebuchadnezzar Exalts Daniel.---In fulfillment of his promise of rewards the king made Daniel a great man. There are two things which in this life are specially supposed to make a man great, and both these Daniel received from the king: A man is considered great if he is a man of wealth; and we read that the king gave him many and great gifts. If in conjunction with riches a man has power, certainly in popular estimation he is considered a great man; and power was bestowed upon Daniel in abundant measure. He was made ruler over the province of Babylon. Thus speedily and abundantly did Daniel begin to be rewarded for his fidelity to his own conscience and the requirements of God.
Daniel did not become bewildered or intoxicated by his signal victory and his wonderful advancement. He first remembered the three who were companions with him in anxiety respecting the king’s matter. As they had helped him with their prayers, he determined that they should share his honors. At his request they were placed over the affairs of Babylon, while Daniel himself sat in the council chamber of the king. The council chamber was the place where councils were held and where matters of chief concern were considered. The record is a simple declaration that Daniel became chief counselor to the king.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 5.---Integrity Tested By Fire. Daniel Chapter Three.
“Nebuchadnezzar the king made a image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.” (Daniel 3: 1.)
Nebuchadnezzar’s Golden Image.--- We may well believe that this image had some reference to the dream of the king as described in the previous chapter. In that dream the head was of gold, representing Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. The head was succeeded by metals of inferior quality, denoting a succession of kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar was doubtless gratified that his kingdom should represented by the gold; but that it should ever be succeeded by another kingdom was not so pleasing. Therefore, instead of having simply the head of his image of gold, he made it all of gold, to denote that his kingdom should not give way to another kingdom, but be perpetual.
“Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, deputies, captains, judges, treasurers, counselors, sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the princes, deputies, captains, judges, treasurers, counselors, sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald cried with might, ‘To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up:’ And who does not fall down and worship shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the people, nations, and languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.” (Daniel 3: 2-7.)
Dedication of the Image.---The dedication of the image was made a great occasion, for the chief men of the kingdom were called together. To such pains and expense will men go, in sustaining idolatrous and heathen systems of worship. Alas, that those, who are the children of God, should be so far outdone in these respects, by the upholders of the false and counterfeit! The worship was accompanied with music; and whoever failed to participate therein was threatened with being thrown into a fiery furnace. Such are ever the strongest motives to impel men in any direction---pleasure on the one hand, pain on the other.
“ Wherefore, at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. They spoke and said to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, ‘O king, live forever. You, O king, have made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut,
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psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image: And who does not fall down and worship, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not obeyed you: They serve not your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.’” (Daniel 3: 8-12.)
Three Hebrews Under Trial by Fire.---The Chaldeans who accused the Jews were probably of the sect of philosophers who went by that name, and who were still smarting under their failure to interpret the king’s dream of Daniel 2. They were eager to seize upon any pretext to accuse the Jews before the king, and either disgrace or destroy them. They worked upon the king’s prejudice by strong insinuations of their ingratitude. ‘You have set them over the affairs of Babylon, and yet they have disregarded you,’ they said. Where Daniel was upon this occasion, is not known. He was probably absent on some business of the empire. But why should Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, since they knew they could not worship the image, be present on the occasion? Was it not because they were willing to comply with the king’s requirement as far as they could without compromising their religious principles? The king required them to be present. With this requirement they could comply, and they did. He required them to worship the image. This their religion forbade, and this they therefore refused to do.
“Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said unto them, ‘Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you do not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now, if you be ready that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: But if you do not worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?’ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, “We have no need to be careful to answer you in this matter. If it is His will, our God, whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.’” (Daniel 3: 13-18.)
The forbearance of the king is shown in his granting Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego another trial after their first failure to comply with his requirements. Doubtless the matter was thoroughly understood. They could not plead ignorance. They knew what the king wanted, and their failure to fulfill his command was an intentional and deliberate refusal to obey him. With most kings this would have been enough to seal their fate. But no, said Nebuchadnezzar, I will overlook this offense if upon a second trial they comply with the law. But the Hebrews informed the king, that he need not trouble himself, to repeat the test.
Their answer was both honest and decisive. “We have no need to be careful,” they said, “to answer you in this matter.” That is, you need not grant us the favor of another
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trial; our minds are made up. We can answer as well now as at any future time; and our answer is, we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image that you have set up. Our God can deliver if He so desires; but if not, we shall not complain. We know His will, and we shall render Him unconditional obedience.
“Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and his attitude changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: Therefore he spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven time more than it was usually to be heated. And he commanded the mightiest of his men, which were in his army, to bind Shadrach, Mechach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their sox, their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire killed those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste, and spoke, and said unto his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’ They answered and said unto the king, ‘True, O king. He answered and said, ‘Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’” (Daniel 3: 19-25.
Nebuchadnezzar was not entirely free from the faults and follies into which an absolute monarch so easily runs. Intoxicated with unlimited power, he could not brook disobedience or contradiction. Let his expressed authority be resisted on however good grounds, and he exhibits the weakness common to our fallen humanity under like circumstances, and flies into a passionate rage. Ruler of the world, he was not equal to that still harder task of ruling his own spirit. Even his attitude changed. Instead of the calm, dignified, self-possessed ruler that he should have appeared as, he betrayed himself in look, and act, as the slave of an ungovernable passion.
Cast Into the Fiery Furnace,---The furnace was heated seven times hotter than usual; in other words, to its utmost capacity. The king overreached himself in this, for even if the super-heated furnace had the expected effect, upon the ones he threw into it, the victims would only be destroyed the sooner. The king gains nothing by his fury. But seeing they were delivered from it, much was gained for the cause of God and His truth; for the intense the heat, the greater and more impressive the miracle, when the young men are delivered from it.
Every circumstance revealed the direct power of God. The Hebrews were bound in all their garments, but came out with not even the smell of smoke upon them. The mightiest men of the army were chosen to throw then into the furnace, but the heat killed them before they came in contact with the flames. But upon the Hebrews it had no effect, although they were in the very midst of its flames. It is evident that the fire was under the control of some supernatural intelligence, for while it consumed the cords, with which they were bound, so they were free to walk about in the midst of the fire, it did not even singe their hair, or garments. They did not spring out of the fire as soon as they were
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free, but remained in it; for the king had put them into the furnace, and it was his place to call them out. Then, too, the form of the fourth was with them, and in His presence they could be content and joyful, as well in the furnace of fire, as in the delights and luxuries of the palace. Let us, in all our afflictions, our joys, our persecutions, our straight places, and our trials, have the “form of the fourth” with us, and it is enough.
The King Gets a New Vision,---The king said, “The form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” This language is by some supposed to refer to The Christ. A more literal rendering , according to the Revised Version, and other good authorities, is “like a son of the gods,” that is, He had the appearance of a divine being. Though this was doubtless Nebuchadnezzar’s accustomed way of speaking of the gods he worshiped (see comments on Daniel 4: 18), it does not at all prevent its referring to The Christ, inasmuch as the word elahin, used here in its Chaldean form, although in the plural number, is regularly translated “God” throughout the Old Testament.
What a scathing rebuke upon the king for his folly and madness was the deliverance of these worthies from the fiery furnace! A higher power than any on earth had vindicated those who stood firm against idolatry, and poured contempt on the worship and requirements of the king. None of the gods of the heathen ever had wrought such deliverance as this, not were they able to do so.
“Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spoke, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the most high God, come forth, and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, captains, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have disobeyed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, ‘That every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: Because there is no other god that can deliver after this sort. Then the king made to prosper, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.” (Daniel 3: 26-30.)
When bidden, these three men came forth from the furnace. Then the princes, governors, and the king’s counselors, through whose advice, or at least concurrence, they had been thrown into the furnace (for the king said to them, “Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” Verse 24), were gathered together to look upon these men, and have tangible proof of their miraculous preservation. The worship of the great image was forgotten. The interest of this vast concourse of people was concentrated upon these three remarkable men. How the knowledge of this deliverance would be spread abroad throughout the empire, as the people should return to their respective provinces! What a notable instance in which God caused the wrath of man to praise Him.
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The King Acknowledges the True God,---Then the king blessed the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and made a decree that none should speak against Him. This, the Chaldeans had undoubtedly done. In those days, each nation had its god or gods, for there were “gods many, and lords many.” The victory of one nation over another was supposed to be won because the gods of the conquered nation were not able to deliver it from the conquerors. The Jews had been totally subjugated by the Babylonians, who had, no doubt spoken disparagingly or contemptuously, of their God. This the king now prohibited; for he plainly understood that his success against the Hebrews was the result of their sins and not of any lack of power on the part of their God. In what a conspicuous and exalted light this placed the God of the Hebrews in comparison with the gods of the nations! It was an acknowledgment that He held men amenable to some high standard of moral character, and that He did not regard with indifference their actions in reference to it. Nebuchadnezzar did right in publicly exalting the God of heaven above all other gods. But he had no right, civil or moral, to attempt to force his subjects to similar confession and reverence, and to threaten men’s lives for not worshiping the true God, than he had to threaten death to all who refuse to worship the golden image. God never compels the conscience.
The Three Hebrews Promoted.---The king promoted the young captives, that is, he restored to them the offices that they held before the charges of disobedience and treason were brought against them. At the end of verse 30 the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, adds to the Hebrew text: “He advanced them to be governors over all the Jews that were in his kingdom.”
It is not probable that he insisted on any further worship of his image.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 6.---The Most High Rules. Daniel Chapter Four.
“Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God has wrought toward me. How great are His signs! And how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.” (Daniel 4: 1-3.)
This chapter, says Adam Clarke, “is a regular decree, and one of the most ancient on record; and no doubt was copied from the state papers of Babylon. Daniel has preserved it in the original language.”
The King Magnifies the True God.---This decree of Nebuchadnezzar was promulgated in the usual way. He wished to make known, not to a few men only, but to all peoples, and nations, God’s wonderful dealings with him. People are ever ready to tell what God has done for them in the way of benefits and blessings. We ought to be no less ready to tell what God has done for us in the way of humiliation and chastisements. Nebuchadnezzar set us a good example in this respect, as we shall see from the subsequent parts of this chapter. He frankly confesses the vanity and pride of his heart, and freely tells the methods God used to humble him. With a genuine spirit of repentance and humiliation, he thought it good to show these things, that the sovereignty of God might be extolled and His name adored. Nebuchadnezzar no longer claimed immutability for his own kingdom, but made a full surrender to God, acknowledging His kingdom alone to be everlasting, and His dominion from generation to generation.
“Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace: I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the vision of my head troubled me. Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might reveal unto me the interpretation of the dream. Then came in the magicians, astrologers Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: And I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof. But at last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: And before him I told the dream, saying, ‘O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.
“Thus were the visions of my head in my bed; I was having a vision, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was food for all: The beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed,
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and behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven: He cried aloud, and said thus, ‘Hew down the tree, and cut off his branched, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: Let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches: Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth: Let his heart be changed from man’s and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven years pass over him. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: To the intent that the living may know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and sets up over it the basest of men.
“This dream, I, king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now you, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to reveal unto me the interpretation: But you are able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.” (Daniel 4: 4-18.)
This part of the narrative opens with Nebuchadnezzar as a victor over his foes. He had accomplished successfully all his military enterprises. He had subdued Assyria, Phoenicia, Judea, Egypt, and Arabia. These great conquests probably betrayed him into vanity and self-confidence. At this very time, when he felt most secure, when it was most unlikely that anything would occur to disturb his self-complacent tranquility---at this time God chose to trouble him with fears and forebodings.
The King Troubled by Another Dream.---But what could strike fear to the heart of such a monarch as Nebuchadnezzar? He had been a warrior from his youth. He had often faced the perils of battle, the terrors of slaughter and carnage, and in the midst of such scenes he had been unmoved. What could make him afraid now? No foe threatened, no hostile cloud was visible! His own thoughts and visions were used to teach him what nothing else could---a salutary lesson of dependence and humility. He who had terrified others, but whom no others could terrify, was made a terror to himself.
A still greater humiliation than that narrated in the second chapter was brought upon the magicians. At that time they boasted that if they only knew the dream they could make known the interpretation. Upon this occasion Nebuchadnezzar distinctly remembered the dream and related it to them, but his magicians ignominiously failed him again. They could not make known the interpretation, and once again the king turned to the prophet of God.
The reign of Nebuchadnezzar, is symbolized by a tree in the midst of the earth. Babylon, the city where Nebuchadnezzar reigned, was approximately in the center of the then known world. The tree reached unto heaven, and the leaves thereof were fair. Its external glory and splendor were great. Its fruit was abundant, and it had food for all. The beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of heaven dwelt in its branches. What could more plainly and forcibly represent the fact that Nebuchadnezzar ruled his kingdom in such a way as to afford the fullest protection, support, and prosperity to all his subjects? When the order was given that the tree should be cut down, it was commanded that the stump should be left in the earth. It was to be protected with a band of iron and brass, that it might not decay, but that the source of future growth and
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greatness might be left.
The day is coming when the wicked shall be cut down, and no hope will be left them. No mercy will be mingled with their punishment. They shall be destroyed both root and branch.
“Let seven years pass over him,” was the decree. This simple expression is evidently to be understood literally. But how long a period is denoted by the words “seven times”? This may be determined by ascertaining how long Nebuchadnezzar, in fulfillment of this prediction, was driven out to have his dwelling with the beasts of the field. This, Josephus informs us, was seven years. A “time,” here, then, denotes one year.
What an interest the holy ones, the holy angels, take in human affairs! They see, as mortals never can, how unseemly a thing as pride, is in the human heart. As ministers of God, they cheerfully execute His decrees, for the correction of evil. Man must know that he is not the architect of his own fortune, for there is One who rules in the kingdom of men on whom his dependence should be humbly placed. A man may be a successful monarch, but he should not pride himself upon that; for unless the Lord had permitted him to rule, he would never have reached this position of honor.
Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the supremacy of the true God over the heathen oracles. He appealed to Daniel to solve the mystery. “You are able,” he said; “for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”
As remarked on Daniel 3: 25, Nebuchadnezzar here again uses his accustomed way of mentioning “gods” in the plural, though the Septuagint renders the phrase “the Holy Spirit of God is in you.”
“Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was perplexed for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spoke, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof trouble you. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream is pleasing to them that hate you, and the interpretation thereof to your enemies. The tree that you saw, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth; whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was food for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation: It is you, O king, that has grown and become strong: For your greatness is grown, and reaches unto heaven, and your domain to the end of the earth. And whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven years pass over him.
“This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which is come upon my lord the king: That they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven years shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; your kingdom shall be secure unto you, after that you shall have known that the Heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto you, and break off your sins by righteousness,
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and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of your tranquility.” (Daniel 4: 19-27.)
The hesitation of Daniel, who sat perplexed for an hour, did not arise from any difficulty he had in interpreting the dream, but from the delicate matter of making known its meaning to the king. Daniel had received favor from the king---nothing but favor, so far as we know---and it was hard for him to be the bearer of so terrible a threatening of judgment against him as was involved in this dream. The prophet was troubled in determining in what way he could best make it known. It seems the king had anticipated something of this kind, for he assured the prophet by telling him not to let the dream or the interpretation trouble him. It was as if he had said, Do not hesitate to make known, whatever bearing it may have upon me.
Daniel Interprets the Dream,---Thus assured, Daniel spoke with forceful and delicate language: “The dream be to them that hate you, and the interpretation thereof to your enemies.” A calamity is set forth in the dream, which Daniel wished might come upon the king’s enemies rather than upon him.
Nebuchadnezzar had given a minute statement of his dream, and as soon as Daniel informed him that the dream applied to him, it was evident that the king had pronounced his own sentence. The interpretation that follows is so plain that it needs no explanation. The threatened judgments were conditional. They were to teach the king “that the Heavens do rule,” the word “heavens” here being put for God, the ruler of the heavens. Hence, Daniel took occasion to give the king counsel in view of the threatened judgment. But he did not denounce him in a harsh and censorious spirit. Kindness and persuasion were the weapons he chose to wield: “Let my counsel be acceptable unto you.” In like manner the apostle Paul beseeches men to suffer the word of exhortation. (Hebrews 13: 22.) If the king would break off his sins “by righteousness,” and his iniquities “by showing mercy to the poor,” it might result in a lengthening of his tranquility, or, as the margin reads, “A healing of your error.” By repentance he might even have averted the judgment the Lord designed to bring upon him.
“All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spoke, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you is spoken; The kingdom is taken from you. And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: They shall make you to eat grass as oxen, and seven years shall pass over you, until you know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: And he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.” (Daniel 4: 28-33.)
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The King’s Self-exaltation and Humiliation,---Nebuchadnezzar failed to profit by the warning he had received, yet God bore with him twelve months longer before the blow fell. All that time he cherished pride in his heart, and at length it reached a climax beyond which God could not suffer it to pass. The king was walking in the palace, and as he looked upon the splendors of that wonder of the world, great Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, he forgot the source of all his strength and greatness, and exclaimed, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built”? Archeologists have found the ruins of that ancient city, which Sir Frederic Kenyon describes in the following sentences:
“These confirm the generally wrecked character of the site, but also revealed much as to its plan, architecture, and ornamentation. The buildings found were almost wholly the work of Nebuchadnezzar, who rebuilt the previous city most extensively, his own enormous palace (‘this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty’) being the most conspicuous building of all.”
The time had come for Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation. A voice from heaven again announced the threatened judgment, and divine providence proceeded immediately to execute it. His reason departed. No longer the pomp and glory of his great city charmed him. God with a touch of His finger took away his capability to appreciate and enjoy it. He forsook the dwellings of men, and sought a home and companionship among the beasts of the field.
“And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my reason returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that lives for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are to be considered nothing: And He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: And none can stop his hand, nor say unto him, What are You doing? At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness returned unto me; and my counselors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, extol, and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: And those that walk in pride He is able to humble,” (Daniel 4: 34-37.)
Nebuchadnezzar Extols the “King of Heaven.”---At the end of seven years God removed the hand of affliction, and the reason and understanding of the king returned to him. His first act was to bless the Most High. On this Matthew Henry makes the following appropriate remark: “Those may justly be reckoned void of understanding that do not bless and praise God; nor do men ever rightly use their reason till they begin to be religious, nor live as men till they live to the glory of God.”
His honor and brightness returned to him, his counselors sought him, and he was once more established in the kingdom. The promise was that his kingdom should be secured to him. (Verse 26.) During his insanity, his son Evil-Merodach is said to have reigned as regent in his stead. Daniel’s interpretation of the dream was doubtless well understood in
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the palace, and was probably more or less the subject of conversation. Hence, the return of Nebuchadnezzar to his kingdom must have been anticipated, with interest. Why he was permitted to make his home in the open field, in so forlorn a condition, instead of being comfortably cared for by the attendants of the palace, we are not informed.
The affliction had its designed effect. The lesson of humility was learned. The king did not forget it with returning prosperity. He was ready to acknowledge that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will. He sent forth, throughout his entire realm, a royal proclamation containing an acknowledgement of his pride, and a manifesto of praise and adoration, to the King of heaven.
This is the last Scripture record we have of Nebuchadnezzar. This decree is dated 563 B.C.; 3406 A.S., in the Authorized Version, says Adam Clarke, one year before Nebuchadnezzar’s death, though some place the date of this decree seventeen years before his death. There is no record that the king ever lapsed again into idolatry. We may therefore conclude that he died a believer in the God of Israel.
Thus closed the life of this remarkable man. With all the temptations, incident to his exalted position as king, may we not suppose that God saw in him honesty of heart, integrity, and purity of purpose, which he could use to the glory of His name? Hence, His wonderful dealings with him, all of which seem to have been designed to wean him from his false religion, and attach him to the service of the true God. We have his dream of the great image, containing a valuable lesson for this, the last generation. We remember his experience with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in their refusal to worship his golden image, wherein he was again led to an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the true God. Finally, we have the wonderful incidents recorded in this chapter, showing the unceasing efforts of the Lord to bring Nebuchadnezzar to a full acknowledgment of the Creator. May we not hope that the most illustrious king of Babylon, the head of gold, may at last have a part in that kingdom before which all earthly kingdoms shall become as chaff and the glory of which shall never fade?
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 7,---The Handwriting on the Wall. Daniel, Chapter Five.
“Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the gold, and silver vessels, that his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, had robbed from the temple in Jerusalem; that the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink there from. Then they brought the golden vessels that were robbed out of the temple of the house of God that was in Jerusalem, and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and of stone,” (Daniel 5: 1-4.)
King Belshazzar’s Feast.---A.D. 538; A.S. 3431. This chapter describes the closing scenes of the Babylonian Empire, the transition from the gold to the silver of the great image of Daniel, chapter 2, and from the lion to the bear of Daniel’s vision in chapter 7. This feast is supposed by some to have been an appointed annual festival in honor of one of the heathen deities. Cyrus, who was then besieging Babylon, learned of the celebration, and laid his plans for the overthrow of the city. Our translation reads that Belshazzar, having invited a thousand of his lords, “drank . . .against the thousand,” showing that in addition to whatever other weakness he may have had, he was also a heavy drinker.
That this festival had some reference to former victories over the Jews may be inferred from the fact that when the king began to be heated with his wine, he called for the sacred vessels that had been taken from Jerusalem. He would most likely use them to celebrate the victory by which they were obtained. Probably no other king had carried his impiety to such length as his. And while they drank wine from vessels dedicated to the true God, they praised their gods. Perhaps, as we have noted in the comments on Daniel 3: 29, they celebrated the superior power of their gods over the God of the Jews, from whose vessels they now drank to their heathen deities.
“In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried urgently to bring in the astrologers, Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spoke, and said to the wise men of Babylon, ‘Whosoever shall read this writing, and explain to me the interpretation thereof, shall be honored with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.’ Then came in all the king’s wise men: But they could not read the writing, nor reveal to the king the interpretation thereof. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his color was changed in him, and his lords were perplexed.” (Daniel 5: 5-9.)
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The Handwriting on the Wall.---No flashes of supernatural light, no deafening peals of thunder, announced the interference of God in their impious revelries. A hand silently appeared tracing mystic charters upon the wall. A hand wrote over against the candlestick. Terror seized the king, for his conscience accused him. Although he could not read the writing, he knew it was no message of peace and blessing that was traced in glittering characters upon his palace wall. The description the prophet gives of the effect of the king’s fear cannot be explained any better. The king’s countenance was changed, his heart failed him, pain seized upon him, and so violent was his trembling that his knees smote one against another. He forgot his boasting and revelry. He forgot his dignity. And he yelled urgently for his astrologers, and soothsayers, to solve the meaning of the mysterious inscription.
“Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: And the queen spoke and said, ‘O king, live forever: Let not your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance be changed: There is a man in your kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your grandfather, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar your grandfather, the king, I say your grandfather, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers; forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spoke and said unto him, ‘Are you that Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king, my grandfather, brought out of Jewry? I have heard of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in you. And now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and reveal to me the interpretation of the thing: And I have heard of you, that you can reveal the meaning, and dissolve doubts: Now if you can read the writing, and reveal to me the interpretation thereof, you shall be honored with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.’” (Daniel 5: 10-16.)
Daniel is Summoned.---It appears from the circumstance here narrated, that Daniel as a prophet of God had been lost sight of at the court and palace. This was doubtless because he had been absent at Shushan, in the province of Elam, whither he had gone on the business of the kingdom. (Daniel 8: 1, 2, 27.) Probably the invasion of the country by the Persian army compelled him to return to Babylon at this time. The queen, who made known to the king that there was a person to whom appeal could be made for knowledge in supernatural things, is supposed to have been the queen mother, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. She must have remembered the wonderful counsel Daniel had given in her father’s reign.
Nebuchadnezzar is here called Belshazzar’s father, according to the then common custom of calling any paternal ancestor father, and any male descendant son. Nebuchadnezzar was in reality his grandfather. When Daniel came in, the king inquired
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if the prophet was of the children of the captivity of Judah. Thus it seems to have been ordered that, while the princes were holding impious revelry in honor of their false gods, a servant of the true God, one whom they were holding in captivity, was called in to pronounce the merited judgment upon their wicked course.
“Then Daniel answered and said before the king, ‘Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. O you king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your grand father a kingdom and majesty, and glory and honor: And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: Whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was made vain, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his mind was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he recognized that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that He appoints over it whomsoever He will. And you his grandson, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you know all this; But have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you, your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine in them; and you have praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: And the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, have you not glorified: Then was the part of the hand sent from Him: And this writing was written.’” (Daniel 5: 17-24.)
Daniel Rebukes Belshazzar.---Daniel first disclaimed the idea of being influenced by such motives as governed the soothsayers, and astrologers. He said, “Let your rewards be to another.” He wished it distinctly understood that he did not enter upon the work of interpreting this matte on account of the offer of gifts and rewards. He then rehearsed the experience of the king’s grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, as set forth in the preceding chapter. He told Beltshazzar that though he knew all this, yet he had not humbled his heart, but had lifted himself up against the God of heaven. He had even carried his impiety so far as to profane God’s sacred vessels, praising the senseless gods of men’s invention, and refusing to glorify God in whose hand his breath was. For this reason, Daniel told him, the hand had been sent forth from God whom he had daringly and insultingly challenged, to trace those characters of fearful, though hidden import. He then proceeded to explain the writing.
“‘And this is the writing that was written, Me’-ne, Me’-ne, Te’-kel, Uphar’-sin. This is the interpretation of the word: Me’-ne; God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. Te’-kel; You are weighted in the balances, and are found wanting. Pe’-res; Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.’ Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.” (Daniel 5: 25-29.) 40.
Daniel Interprets the Writing.---In this inscription each word stands for a short sentence. Mene, “numbered;” Tekel, “weighted;” Upharsin, from the root peres, “divided.” God, whom you have defied, has your kingdom in His own hands, and has numbered its days and finished its course just at the time you thought it at the height of its prosperity. You, who have lifted up your heart in pride as the great one of the earth, are weighted, and found lighter than vanity. Your kingdom, that you did dream was to stand forever, is divided between the foes already waiting at your gates.
Notwithstanding this terrible denunciation, Belshazzar did not forget his promise. But invested Daniel at once with the scarlet robe and chain of gold, and proclaimed him third ruler in the kingdom. This Daniel accepted, probably with a view to being better prepared to look after the interests of his people during the transition to the succeeding kingdom.
“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the median took the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.” (Daniel 5: 30, 31.)
The scene here so briefly mentioned is described in remarks on Daniel 2: 39. While Belshazzar was indulging in his presumptuous revelry, while the Hand was tracing the doom of the empire on the walls of the palace, while Daniel was making known the fearful import of the heavenly writing, the Persian soldiery, through the emptied channel of the Euphrates, had made their way into the heart of the city, and were speeding forward with drawn swords to the palace of the king. Scarcely can it be said that they surprised him, for God had just forewarned him of his doom. But they found him and slew him, and in that hour the empire of Babylon ceased to be.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANNUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 8,---Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Daniel, Chapter six.
“It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; and over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: That the princes might report accounts unto them, and the king should have no lose. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no occasion or fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then said these men, ‘We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.’” (Daniel 6: 1-5.)
Babylon was taken by the Persians, and Darius the Median was placed upon the throne in B.C. 538; A.S. 3431. When Darius died two years later, B.C. 536; A.S. 3433, Cyrus took the throne. Somewhere, therefore, between these two dates the event occurred which is narrated in this chapter.
Daniel was an active leader in the kingdom of Babylon at the height of its glory. From that time until the Medes and Persians took the throne of universal empire, he was at least a resident of the capital city, acquainted with all the affairs of the kingdom. Yet he gave us no consecutive account of events that occurred during his long connection with these kingdoms. He touched upon only an event here and there which would inspire faith, hope, and courage in the hearts of the people of God in every age, and encourage them to be steadfast in their adherence to the right. The event narrated in this chapter is alluded to in Hebrews 11, where we read of those who through faith “stopped the mouths of lions.”
Daniel Prime Minister in Medo-Persia.---Darius set over the kingdom one hundred twenty princes, there being at that time, as is supposed, one hundred twenty provinces in the empire, each one having its prince, or governor. By the victories of Cambyses and Darius Hystaspes, it was afterward enlarged to one hundred twenty seven provinces. (Ester 1: 1.) Over these princes were set three presidents, and of these Daniel was chief.. Daniel was doubtless advanced to this high position because of the excellent spirit and fidelity manifested in his work.
As a great man in the empire of Babylon, Daniel might have been regarded an enemy by Darius, and have been banished or otherwise put out of the way. Or as a captive from a nation then in ruins, he might have been despised and set at naught. But to the credit of Darius be it said, Daniel was preferred over all the others, because the discerning king saw in him an excellent spirit. The king thought to set him over the whole realm.
Then the envy of the other rulers raised against him, and they set about to destroy him. As related to the kingdom, Daniel’s conduct was perfect. He was faithful and true. They could find no ground for complaint against him on that score. They then said they could find no occasion to accuse him, except as concerning the law of his God. So let it be with
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us. A person can have no better recommendation.
“Then these presidents, and princes, assembled tumultuously together, to the king, and said thus unto him, ‘King Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, the princes, the counselors, and captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save you O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which alters not.’ Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.” (Daniel 6: 6-10.)
A Plot Against Daniel.---Mark the course these persons took to accomplish their nefarious purpose. They came together to the king---came tumultuously, says the margin. They came as if some urgent matter had suddenly sprung up, and they had come to present it before him. They claimed that all were agreed. This was false, for Daniel, the chief of them all, was of course not consulted in the matter.
The decree they presented was designed to increase honor and respect for the royal will. No prayer or petition, they declared, was to be addressed to any man or god, save the king, for thirty days. By this flattering approach the princes hid their evil design against Daniel. The king signed the decree, and it became an unalterable law of the Medes and Persians.
Mark the subtlety of these men---the length to which they went to accomplish the ruin of the good. If they had made the decree read that no petition should be asked of the God of the Hebrews, which was the real design of the matter, the king would not have signed. But they gave it a general application, and were willing to ignore and heap insult upon their own religion, and all the multitude of their gods, in order to ruin the object of their hatred.
Daniel realized that a conspiracy was formed against him, but he took no means to thwart it. He simply committed himself to God, and left the issue to His providence. He did not leave the capital on pretended business, or perform his devotions with more than ordinary secrecy. When he knew the writing was signed, he knelt in his chamber three times a day, as was his usual custom, with his face turned toward his beloved Jerusalem, and offered his prayers and supplications to God.
“Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king’s decree: Have you not signed a decree, that every man shall ask a petition of any god or man within thirty days, save of you, O king, shall be thrown into the den of lions? The king answered and said, ‘The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which alters not.’ Then answered they and said before the king, ‘That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regards you not, O king, nor the decree
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that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.’ Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: And he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, ‘Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establishes may not be changed.’ Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and threw him into the den of lions. Now the king spoke and said unto Daniel, ‘Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.’ And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.” (Daniel 6: 11-17.)
Daniel Thrown Into the Lions’ Den.---After the trap was set, it only remained for these men to watch their victim that they might ensnare him. So they again came together, this time at the residence of Daniel, as though some important business called them suddenly to consult the chief of the presidents; and lo, they found him, Just as they intended and hoped, praying to his God. So far their scheme worked well. They were not long in going to the king with the matter.
Receiving an acknowledgment from the monarch that the decree was in force, they were ready to inform him against Daniel. In an attempt to excite the prejudices of the king they said, “That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regards you not, O king, nor the decree that you have signed.” Yes, they complained, that poor captive, who is entirely dependent on you for all that he enjoys, so far from being grateful and appreciating your favors, regards you not, nor pays any attention to your decree. Then the king saw the trap that had been prepared for him as well as for Daniel, and he labored until the going down of the sun to deliver him, probably by personal efforts with the conspirators to cause them to relent, or by arguments and endeavors to procure the repeal of the law. But the law was sustained; and Daniel, the venerable, the brave, the upright, and faultless servant of the kingdom, was thrown into the lions’ den.
“Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him: And his sleep went from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: And the king spoke and said to Daniel, ‘O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions?’ Then said Daniel unto the king, ‘O king, live forever. My God has sent His angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: Forasmuch as before Him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt.’ Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God. And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they threw them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or even they came at the bottom of the den.” (Daniel 6: 18-24.)
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Daniel Delivered.---The course of the king after Daniel had been cast into the den of lions attests his genuine interest in the prophet’s behalf, and the severe condemnation he felt for his own course in the matter. At dawn he repaired to the den of hungry and ravenous beasts. Daniel was alive, and his response to the monarch’s salutation was no reproach for his having yielded to his evil counselors. In terms of respect and honor he said, “O king, live forever.” Afterward he reminded the king, in a manner, which he must have keenly felt, but to which he could take no exception, that before him he had done no wrong. Because of his innocence, God, whom he served continually, had sent His angel and had shut the lion’s mouths.
Here, then, stood Daniel, preserved by a power higher than any power of earth. His cause was vindicated, his innocence declared. “No manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in God.” Faith did it. A miracle had been wrought. Why, then, was Daniel’s accusers brought and thrown in? They probably attributed the preservation of Daniel, not to any miracle in his behalf, but to the fact that the lions chanced, at that time, not to be hungry. The king may have said, “In that case they will no more attack you than him, so we will test the matter by putting you in.” The lions were hungry enough, when not restrained by divine intervention, and these men were torn to pieces before they reached the bottom of the den. Thus was Daniel doubly vindicated, and the words of Solomon were strikingly fulfilled: “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked comes in his stead.” (Proverbs 11: 8.)
“Then king Darius wrote unto all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: ‘Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: For He is the living God, and steadfast forever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His domain shall be even unto the end. He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who has delivered Daniel from the paws of the lions.’ So Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” (Daniel 6: 25-28.)
Daniel Prospered.---Daniel’s deliverance resulted in another proclamation’s being sent out through the empire in favor of the true God, the God of Israel. All men were commanded to fear and tremble before Him. The plot that Daniel’s enemies had designed to prove his ruin, resulted only in his advancement. In this case, and in the experience of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, the approval of God is placed on two great lines of duty---the refusal to yield to any known sin, and the refusal to omit any known duty. From these instances the people of God in all ages may derive encouragement.
The decree of the king sets forth the character of the true God: He is Creator; all others are without life in themselves. He is steadfast forever; all others are helpless and unavailing. He has a kingdom; for He made and governs all. His kingdom shall not be destroyed; all others come to an end. His dominion is without end; no human power can prevail against it. He delivers those who are in bondage. He rescues His servants from their enemies when they call upon Him for help. He works wonders in the heavens and
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signs upon the earth. And to complete all, He has delivered Daniel, giving before our eyes the fullest proof of His power and goodness in rescuing His servant from the power of the lions, and evil men. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMMANUEL, THE WORD.
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
Study # 9.---The Struggle For World Dominion. Daniel, Chapter 7.
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, I, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: Then he wrote the dream, and set forth the whole matter.” (Daniel 7: 1.)
This is the same Belshazzar mentioned in Daniel 5. Chronologically, this chapter precedes the fifth chapter; but chronology is here disregarded in order that the historical part of the book may stand by itself.
“Daniel spoke and said, ‘I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.” (Daniel 7: 2, 3.)
Daniel Relates His Own Vision.---All Scripture language is to be taken literally, unless there exist some good reason for regarding it as figurative. All that is figurative is to be interpreted by that which is literal. That the language here used is symbolic, is evident from verse 17, which reads, “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth,” That kingdoms are intended, and not merely individual kings, is clear from the word, “But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom.” In explaining verse 23, the angel said, “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth.” These beasts are therefore symbols of four great kingdoms. The circumstance under which they arose, as represented in the prophecy, are also stated in symbolic language. The symbols introduced are the four great beasts, ten horns, and another horn which had eyes and a mouth, and which rose up in war against God and His people. We have now to inquire what they denote.
In symbolic language winds represent strife, political commotion, and war, as we read from the prophet Jeremiah: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth.’” (Jeremiah 25: 32, 33.) The prophet speaks of a controversy that the Lord is to have with all nations. The strife and commotion, that produces all this destruction, is called “a great whirlwind.”
That winds denote strife and war is evident in the vision itself. As the result of the blowing of the winds, kingdoms arise and fall through political strife.
Seas, or waters, when used as a Bible symbol, represent peoples, and nations, and tongues. Said the angel to the prophet John, “The waters which you saw . . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” (Revelation 17: 15.)
The definition of the symbol of the four beasts is given to Daniel before the close of the vision: “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth.” Verse 17. With this explanation of the symbols, the field of the vision is definitely open before us.
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Since these beasts denote four kings, or kingdoms, we inquire, Where shall we begin and what four empires are represented? These beasts arise consecutively, for they are enumerated from the first to the fourth. The last one is in existence when all earthly scenes are brought to an end by the final judgment. From the time of Daniel to the end of this world’s history, there were to be but four universal kingdoms, as we learn from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great image in Daniel 2, interpreted by the prophet sixty-five years before. Daniel was still living under the kingdom denoted by the head of gold.
The first beast of this vision must, therefore, denote the same kingdom as the head of gold, of the great image, namely, Babylon. The other beasts no doubt represent the succeeding kingdoms portrayed by that image. But if this vision covers essentially the same period of history, as the image of Daniel 2, the query may arise, Why is it given? Why was not that first vision sufficient? We answer, The history of world empires is passed over again and again in order that additional characteristics may be brought to view, and additional facts and features may be presented. It is thus that we have “line upon line,” “precept upon precept,” and “here a little, and there a little,” according to the Scriptures. In chapter 2, only the political aspects of world dominion are portrayed. Here earthly governments are introduced in their relationship to God’s truth and people. Their true character is shown by symbols of wild and ravenous beasts.
“The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I looked till the wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s mind was given to it.” (Daniel 7: 4.)
The Lion.---B.C. 608-539; A.S. 3361-3430 (After Sin.) In the vision of Daniel 7, the first beast seen by the prophet was a lion. For the use of the lion as a symbol, read Jeremiah 4: 7; 50: 43, 44. The lion as first seen in the vision before us had eagle’s wings. The symbolic use of wings is impressively described in Habakkuk 1: 6-8, where it is said that the Chaldeans should “fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.”
From these symbols we may easily deduce that Babylon was an empire of great strength, and that under Nebuchadnezzar its conquests were extended with great rapidity. But there came a time when the wings were plucked. It no longer rushed upon its prey like an eagle. The boldness and spirit of the lion were gone. A Man’s heart---weak, timorous, and faint---took the place of the lion’s strength. Such was the case with the nation during the closing years of its history, when it had become enfeebled and effeminate through wealth and luxury.
“And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth: And they said unto it, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’” (Daniel 7: 5.)
The Bear.---B.C. 539-331; A.S. 3430-3637. As in the image of Daniel 2, so this series of symbols, a marked deterioration is noticed as we descend from one kingdom to another. The silver of the chest and arms is inferior to the gold of the head. The bear is inferior to the lion. Medo-Persia fell short of Babylon in wealth, magnificence, and brilliance. The bear raised itself up on one side. The kingdom was composed of two
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nationalities, the Medes and the Persians. The same fact is represented by the two horns of the ram in Daniel 8. Of these horns it is said that the higher one came up last, and of the bear that it raised itself up on one side. The Persian division of the empire, fulfilled the prophecy, for although it came up last, it attained the higher eminence, becoming the dominant influence in the empire. (See comments on Daniel 8: 3.) The three ribs doubtless signify the three provinces of Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, which were especially oppressed by Medo-Perisa. The command, “Arise, devour much flesh.” Would naturally refer to the stimulus given to the Medes and Persians by the overthrow of these provinces. The character of the power is well represented by the bear. The Medes and Persians were cruel and rapacious, robbers and spoilers of the people. This Medo-Persian empire continued from the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus to the battle of Arbels in B.C. 331 B; A.S. 3637, a period of 207 years.
“After this I looked, and lo another, like a leopard, that had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.” (Daniel 7: 6.)
The Leopard.---B.C. 331-301; A.S. 3637-3607. The third kingdom, Grecia, is here represented by the symbol of a leopard. If wings upon the lion signified rapidity of conquest, they would signify the same here. The leopard itself is a swift-footed beast, but this is not sufficient to represent the career of a nation here symbolized. It must have wings in addition. Two wings, the number the lion had, were not sufficient; the leopard must have four. This would denote unprecedented celerity of movement, which we find to be a historical fact in the Grecian empire. The conquest of Grecia under Alexander had no parallel in ancient times for suddenness and rapidity. His military achievements, are here summarized, by W. W. Tarn:
He was a master in the combination of various arms; he taught the world the advantages of campaigning in winter, the value of pressing pursuit to the utmost, the principle of ‘march divided, fight united.’ He marched usually in two divisions, one conducting the impediments and his own [division] traveling light; his speed of movement was extraordinary. It is said that he attributed his military success to ‘never putting anything off.’ . . . The enormous distances traversed in unknown country imply a very high degree of organizing ability; in ten years he had only two serious break-downs. . . . Had a lesser man attempted what he achieved, and failed, we should have heard enough of the hopeless military difficulties of the undertaking.”
“The beast had also four heads.” The Grecian Empire maintained its unity but little longer than the lifetime of Alexander. After his brilliant career ended in a fever induced by a drunken debauch, the empire was divided among his four leading generals. Cassander had Macedonia and Greece in the west; Lysimachus had Thrace and the parts of Asia on the Hellespont and the Bosphorus in the north; Ptolemy had Egypt, Lydia, Arabia, Palestine, and Coele-Syria in the south; and Seleucus had Syria and all the rest of Alexander’s dominion in the east. By the year B.C. 301; A.S. 3637, with the death of Antigonus, the division of the kingdom of Alexander into four parts, was completed by his generals. These divisions were denoted by the four heads of the leopard.
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Thus accurately were the words of the prophet fulfilled. As Alexander left no available successor, why did not the huge empire break up into countless petty fragments? Why into just four parts, and no more?---For reasons that the prophecy foresaw and foretold. The leopard had four heads, the rough goat four horns, the kingdom was to have four divisions; and thus it was. (See more fully in comments on Daniel 8.)
“After this I saw in the night visions, and look, a fourth beast, dreadful and magnificent, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: It devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the remainder with the feet of it: And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” (Daniel 7: 7.)
A Dreadful and Magnificent Beast; Pagan and Papal Rome.---B.C. 146-A.D. February 1798; A.S. 3823-5767. Inspiration finds no beast in nature to symbolize the power here illustrated. No addition of hoofs, heads, horns, wings, scales, teeth, or nails to any beast found in nature will answer. This power is diverse from all the others, and the symbol is wholly different from anything found in the animal kingdom.
The foundation for a volume is laid in verse 7, but for lack of space we are compelled to treat it briefly here. This beast corresponds to the fourth division of the great image---the legs of iron. In the comment on Daniel 2: 40 are given some reasons for believing this to be Rome. The same reasons are applicable to the present prophecy. How accurately it answers to the beast before us! In the dread and terror that it inspired, and in its great strength, it answered admirably to the prophetic description. The world had never seen its equal. It devoured as with iron teeth, and broke in pieces all that stood in its way. It ground the nations into the dust beneath its brazen feet. It had ten horns, which are explained in verse 24 to be ten kings, or kingdoms, which should arise out of this empire.
“I considered the horns, and, look, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: And, look, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.” (Daniel 7: 8.)
Daniel considered the horns. A strange movement appeared among them. Another horn, at first little, but afterwards more stout than its fellows, thrust itself up. It was not content quietly to find a place of its own, and fill it; it must thrust aside some of the others, and usurp their places. Three kingdoms were thus plucked up.
A Little Horn Among the Ten.---A.D. 538-2036; A.S. 4507-6005. This little horn, as we shall have occasion to notice more fully hereafter, is the papacy, Papal Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, and The Holy Roman Empire. The three horns plucked up by the roots represented the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals. The reason for their removal was their opposition to the teachings and claims of the papal hierarchy.
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“In this horn were the eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things”---fit emblems of the shrewdness, penetration, and arrogant claims of an apostate religious organization. Papal Rome. More in the studies of The Revelation.
“I looked till the thrones were placed in order, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: A thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: The judgment was set, and the books were opened.” (Daniel 7: 9, 10.)
A Judgment Scene.---March, A.D. 1031-2031; 1 Nisan, A.S. 5000-6000. A more sublime description of a more awe-inspiring scene is not to be found in the word of God. Not the grand and lofty imagery alone could arrest our attention; the nature of the scene itself demands most serious consideration. The judgment is here brought to view. Whenever the judgment is mentioned, it ought to take an irresistible hold upon every mind, for all have a deep concern in its eternal issues.
By an unfortunate translation in verse 9, a wrong idea is almost sure to be conveyed. The phrase “cast down” is from a Chaldee word remi, which may properly be rendered “hurled by violence,” as is plainly the case where it is used to describe the casting of the three Hebrews into the fiery furnace, and of casting Daniel into the lions’ den. But another equally correct translation is “to set or place in order,” as in placing of the judgment seats mentioned here, as also a like setting or placing in Revelation 4: 2, in which the Greek bears out the same meaning. The Revised Version in Daniel 7: 9 reads properly, “thrones were placed,” as Gesenius defines the root remah, with reference to Daniel 7: 9 as an example.
The “Ancient of days,” presides at the judgment. Mark the description of His person. Those who believe in the impersonality of God are obliged to admit that He is here described as a personal being, but they console themselves by saying that it is the only description of the kind in the Bible. We do not admit this latter assertion; but granting it were true, is not one description of this kind as fatal to their theory as though it were repeated a score of times? The thousand thousand who minister unto Him, and the ten thousand times ten thousand who stand before Him, are not sinners arraigned before the judgment seat, but heavenly intelligences who wait before Him, attendant on His will. John saw the same heavenly attendants before the throne of God, and he describes the same majestic scene in these words: “I saw, and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures, and the elders: And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” (Revelation 5: 11.) A fuller understanding of these verses involves an understanding of the types and shadows of the earthy sanctuary services vs. the antitypical services of the heavenly sanctuary.
The closing work of The Christ, our great High Priest, in the heavenly sanctuary, was the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary of the sins of the righteous. The act of a heavenly moment; 22 October, A.D. 1844; 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, A.S. 5813, and the sanctuary was cleansed, once, for all of eternity.
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THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
Study # 10.---Taken From the Book, “A.D. 2036, The Return.”
“The Heavenly Day of Atonement/Day of Judgment.---We are now living in the end of the heavenly Day of Atonement. The heavenly Day of Atonement reaches from, in our time line, March, A.D. 1031 – March A.D. 2031; 1 Nisan, A.S. 5000 - 1 Nisan A.S. 6000. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for physical Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin in humiliation before the Lord, least they be cut off from among the people.
“In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the Lamb’s Book of Life should now, in the few remaining years of their probation, afflict their souls before God by repentance of sin in humiliation. There must be deep, faithful searching of the heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians, cultural Christians, nominal, social, secular, orthodox Christians, must be put away. There is earnest warfare for all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups, or in denominations. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. We stand before God as if there were no other being upon the face of the earth.
“As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon The Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary.
“As the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins of the righteous, by which it had been polluted, so the cleansing of the Heavenly was accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins that were there recorded. The cleansing of the Heavenly sanctuary, at the termination of the 2300 years, involved The Christ removing the sins of the repentant, and placing them upon the head of Satan, 22 October, A.D. 1844; 10 Tishri, A.S. 5813, the act of a heavenly moment, and the heavenly sanctuary was cleansed. Today, the sins of the righteous are placed upon the head of Satan retroactive to 22 October, A.D. 1844; 10 Tishri, A.S. 5813, as they were in the earthly Day of Atonement, the type and shadow of things to come. It was the act of a heavenly moment, and the heavenly sanctuary was cleansed, made clean, free of the sins of the righteous. This work of removal has been preformed and we wait for the second coming of our Lord to take us, the redeemed, to our Father’s house; for when He comes, His reward is with Him, to give to mankind according to their works. To the righteous He gives eternal life, to the wicked eternal death, annihilation. (Revelation 22: 12.)
“It is seen, also, that while the sin offering pointed to The Christ as sacrifice, high priest, and mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the repentant, the righteous, have been placed. The scapegoat was sent away into a land not inhabited, never to come again into the congregation of Israel. So also will Satan be forever banished from the presence of God, and His people, and he will be blotted from existence in the final destruction sin and sinners, annihilated.
“The Christ’s mission was not for judgment; mankind passes judgment upon themselves, but for salvation and atonement. And before the Sanhedrin Jesus declared.
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“Truly, I assure you that he who listens to My message and believes (obeys) Him who sent Me, has eternal life; he comes under no sentence, but has passed over from death into Life.” (John 5: 24.)
“Because He tasted the very dregs of human affliction and temptation, and understands the frailties and sins of mankind; because in our behalf He has victoriously withstood the temptations of Satan, and will deal justly and tenderly with the souls that His own blood has been poured out to save – because of this, the Son of man is appointed to execute the judgment of execution, March A.D. 2036; 1 Nisan A.S. 7005.
Day of Atonement
Leviticus, chapter 16.
Earthly Day of Atonement,
10th day, 7th month, Tishri. Israel’s
Type probation
Earthly Sanctuary ends for
Sanctuary the year.
Sunset Midnight Sunrise cleansed Sunset
6 PM 12 AM 6 AM 1:30 PM 6 PM
I------------------------I------------------------I------------------------I------------------------I
Heavenly Day of Atonement,
A.D. 1031 – 2031; A.S. 5000 – 6000. Rev. 11: 15.
Antitype Mankind’s
Heavenly Sanctuary probation
Sanctuary ends for
cleansed eternity
Tribulation Inquisition Reformation 22 October, 22 March
A.D. 1031. A.D. 1281 A.D. 1531 A.D. 1844 A.D. 2031
I------------------------I------------------------I------------------------I------------------------I
A.S. 5000 A.S. 5250 A.S. 5500 A.S. 5813 A.S. 6000
Dan. 8:14. Michael
stands up.
Dan.12: 1
The earthly Day of Atonement vs. The heavenly Day of Atonement.
The earthly Day of Atonement, 10 Tishri, the type, had 24 hours, 48 half hour segments. The time of cleansing the Sanctuary was 1:30 P.M., and is 39 segments, or 75 % of the 48 segments.
The heavenly Day of Atonement, now coming to its end, of necessity, must be divided into 48 segments, to cover the type and shadow. The heavenly moment of cleansing is 39 segments, or 75 % of the 1000 year heavenly Day of Atonement, 1 Nisan, A.S. 5000 to 1 Nisan, A.S. 6000, or 22 October, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813, the termination of the 2300 year prophecy of Daniel 8: 14, that began, went into effect, 10 Tishri, B.C. 457; A.S. 3512.
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“The Christ came with the truth of heaven, and all who are listening to His voice, the Holy Spirit, are drawn to Him. The worshipers of self belong to Satan’s kingdom and are judged from the beginning. In our attitude toward The Christ, all show on which side they stand. And thus, we, all of mankind, every one, pass judgment upon ourselves.
“The Christ’s atoning sacrifice in behalf of mankind was full and complete on Calvary, once for all. The condition of the atonement was fulfilled, once for all. The work for which He had come to this world was accomplished, once for all. He had won the kingdom, once for all. He wrestled it from Satan and is heir of all things.
“Our Lord returned to the throne of God to be honored by the heavenly host. Yet, one thing remained, the removal of the sins of the saints from the heavenly Temple.
“As the disciples went out preaching, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand,” so it was proclaimed, in the late A.D.1700’s, that the longest prophetic time period brought to view in the Scriptures was about to expire, that the heavenly Temple was to be made clean, free from the sins of the saints, that the judgment of execution was at hand, and the everlasting kingdom was to be ushered in. The message given at the turn of the century announced the termination of the 2,300 days of Daniel 8: 14.
“The Lord gave Daniel a vision regarding this important matter. In Daniel 8: 13-14 we read:
“How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression that causes desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he told me, ‘For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.’”
“What are the 2,300 days? Since a day stands for a year in the Bible prophecy (Numbers 14: 34; Ezekiel 4: 6), they represent 2,300 years.
“When does this time period begin? Daniel 9: 23-25 gives us the answer:
“Seventy weeks are determined upon your people, and upon the holy city . . . Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks.”
“The Hebrew word for “determine” is (chathak) and the meaning is to “cut off.” Seventy weeks (of seven days each, or 490 years), were to be cut off from the 2,300 year prophecy for the Jews “to make an end of sins, and . . . to bring in everlasting righteousness.” (Daniel was careful to point out that during that 70th week of the prophecy the Messiah would come.)
“The book of Ezra records that the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem was issued by Artaxerxes in the fall of B.C. 457; A.S. 3512. (Ezra 6: 14; 7: 7.) Thus the prophecy began in that year, on the 10th day, of the 7th month, Tishri, of the Jewish calendar.
“When would the prophecy end? Beginning in the fall of B.C. 457; A.S. 3512, and counting towards our day, the 2,300 years would end in the fall, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813.
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Thus the prophecy ended in that year, on the 22nd day, of the 10th month, October of the Gregorian calendar; the 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, of the Jewish calendar.
“We can be sure of our dated by checking them with the life of The Christ. Daniel declared that 69 weeks, or 483 years, would pass from the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah came. In the fall of B.C. 4; A.S. 3965, the 10th day, of the 7th month, Tishri, of the Jewish calendar, the Christ child was born. In the fall of A.D. 27, the 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, A.S. 3996, of the Jewish calendar, exactly 483 years after the fall of B.C. 457; A.S. 3512. The Christ, The Messiah was baptized by John the Baptist, at the age of 30 years, and began His ministry, preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” (Luke 3: 1, 21; Mark 1: 15.)
“In the middle of the 70th week the Messiah was to be cut off from the living, murdered. This happened on the 28th of March, A.D.31; 14th of Nisan A.S. 4000 when He was 33.5 years of age. The gospel would be preached to the Jews for another half week (three and a half years). This brings us to the fall of A.D. 34; 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, A.S. 4003. In that year the gospel went to the Gentiles. (Acts 13: 46.)
“Because of the crucifixion of the Lamb of God, and the murder of His followers, and their unrepentant hearts, physical Israel was cut off at the termination of the 490 years, fall of A.D. 34; 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, A.S. 4003. The branches, physical Israel, were pruned from the Tree of Life, Jesus Emanuel, The Christ, and can only attain salvation through the Blood of the Lamb. Any concern for the Israelis today is to believe the deceptions of Satan. The true Israel of today is Spiritual Israel, the followers of the Lamb of God, Jesus Emanuel, The Christ.
“The Messiah came to His people in the fall of A.D. 27; 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, A.S. 3996, once for all. He returns 27 March, A.D. 2036; 1 Nisan, A.S. 6005, not as a redeeming Messiah, but as a Warrior King, King of kings, Lord of lords, Harvester King, to desolate the wicked, and, to take the redeemed, His Church, to His Father’s house.
“The earthly, the old covenant sanctuary was a typical system which was symbolic, a shadow, a type of the priesthood, and sacrifice of The Christ, The Lamb of God.. The cleansing of earthly sanctuary was the last service preformed by the high priest in the yearly round of ministration. It was performed on the Day of Atonement, the 10th day, of the 7th month, Tishri. It was the removal, putting away, or blotting out of the sins of penitent physical Israel, from the earthly Sanctuary. It prefigured, was the type, the shadow of the ministration of our Great High Priest, Jesus Emanuel, The Christ in heaven, in the removal, the putting away, or the blotting out of the sins of His people, spiritual Israel, from the heavenly Sanctuary.
“As in the typical, the antitypical Lamb, Jesus Emanuel, The Christ, offered Himself once for all, on the tree of Calvary, for this earth is the outer court of the Heavenly Sanctuary. (Revelation 11: 2.) As in the typical, in the antitypical, The Christ, our Great High Priest, removed, put away, and blotted out the sins of the saints, once for all, for eternity, from the heavenly and placed them upon the head of Satan, the antitypical scapegoat. This occurred 22 October, A.D. 1844; 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, A.S.5813, the act of a heavenly moment, and the heavenly Sanctuary is clean, free from the sins of the righteous. Satan, the scapegoat for removal, who, in the judgment of execution, must bear the final penalty, shall forever be banished in death, from the presence of God, His heavenly Host, and the host of the righteous, in the fiery final destruction of sin and
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sinners. (Hebrews 8.)
“After the Heavenly Sanctuary was made clean, the act of a heavenly moment, free from the sins of the saints, 22 October, A.D. 1844; 10th day, 7th month, Tishri, A.S. 5813, the court of Heaven is again open to receive the penitent sinner. Those who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb of God will be accepted until the close of the Heavenly Day of Atonement, 22 March, A.D. 2031; 1st day, 1st month, Nisan, A.S. 6000.
“When the Heavenly Day of Atonement shall have ended, then, and not until then, probation will close, the door of mercy will be forever shut. At that time, 22 March, A.D. 2031; 1st day, 1st month, Nisan, A.S. 6000, the followers of The Lamb will be ready for His appearing. Then the church, the Church of the First Born, His Church, which our Lord, at His coming will receive to Himself, will be a glorious church.
“So that He may present the church to Himself gloriously, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5: 27.)”
“I looked then because of the voice of the great words that the horn spoke: I looked even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their domain taken away: Yet their lives were prolonged for a while and time.” (Daniel 7: 11, 12.)
The End of the Fourth Beast; Papal Rome.---There are those who believe in a thousand years’ reign of righteousness over all the world before the second coming of The Christ. There are others who believe in probation after The Lord comes, during which the immortal righteous still proclaim the gospel to mortal sinners, and lead them into the way of salvation. Neither of these theories can be substantiated from the Bible, as we shall see.
The terrible fourth beast, after the total demise of Pagan Rome, continues without change of character, and the little horn, Papal Rome, continues to utter its blasphemies, holding its millions of votaries in the bonds of blind superstition, until the beast is given to the burning flame. This is not its conversion, but its destruction. (See 2nd Thessalonians 2:8.)
The life of the fourth beast is not prolonged after its dominion is gone, as were the lives of the preceding beasts. Their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a while. The territory and subjects of the Babylonian kingdom still existed, though made subject to the Persians; so also, with the Persian kingdom in respect to Greece, and Greece in respect to Pagan Rome, and the world to Papal Rome. But what succeeds the fourth kingdom? No government or state in which mortals have any part, follows it. Its career ends at the second coming of our Lord, 27 March, A.D, 2036; A.S. 6005, and is utterly destroyed in the lake of fire, March, A.D. 3036; A.S. 7005 and it has no existence beyond. The lion morphed into the bear, the bear into the leopard, the leopard into the terrible, magnificent fourth beast. But the fourth beast is not merged into another beast. It is to be cast into the lake of fire, and utterly, and totally consumed.
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“I saw in the night visions, and, look, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7: 13,14.)
The Son of Man Receives His Kingdom.---The scene here described is not the second coming of The Christ to this earth, for the Ancient of days is not on this earth, and the coming here spoken of is to the Ancient of days. There, in the presence of the Father, dominion, glory, and a kingdom are given to the Son of man. The Christ receives His kingdom before His second coming. (See Luke 19: 10-12.) Therefore, this is a scene that takes place in heaven, and is closely connected with that brought to view in verses 9 and 10. The Christ receives His kingdom at the close of His priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary, 22 March, A.D. 2031; 1 Nisan, A.S. 6000. The people and nations that serve Him are the redeemed (Revelation 21: 24). The wicked nations of the earth, are killed, at the second coming of The Christ, by the brightness of His coming, 27 March, A.D. 2036; 1 Nisan, A.S. 6005, (Psalm 2: 9; 2nd Thessalonians 2: 8.), and are eternally destroyed in the lake of fire, that purifies the earth of sin and sinners, March, A.D. 3036; 1 Nisan, A.S. 7005, then God makes all things new. Out of all nations, tribes, and kindred, and tongues of the earth will come those who serve God with joy and gladness. They shall inherit the kingdom of our Lord, the earth made new.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL.
“I Daniel was grieved in my spirit within me, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me understand the interpretation of the things. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. (Daniel 7: 15-18.)
The Vision Interpreted to Daniel.---We should be no less concerned than was Daniel to understand the truth of these things. We have the assurance that when we inquire with sincerity of heart, we shall find the Lord as ready now as in the days of the prophet to lead to a correct understanding of these important truths. The beasts and the kingdoms that they represent have already been explained. We have followed the prophet through the course of events, even to the destruction of the fourth beast, the final overthrow of all earthly governments. Then the scene changes, for we read, “The saints . . . shall take the kingdom.” Verse 18. The saints! Despised, reproached, persecuted, cast out; looked upon as the least likely of all men ever to realize their hopes---these shall take the kingdom, and possess it forever. The usurpation and misrule of the wicked shall come to an end. The inheritance forfeited because of sin shall be redeemed. Peace and righteousness shall reign eternally over all the fair expanse of the earth refurbished, made new.
“Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, that was different from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, broke into pieces, and stomped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other that came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.” (Daniel 7: 19, 20.)
The Truth of the Fourth Beast.---Of the first three beasts in his vision, Daniel had a clear understanding. But he was astonished at the fourth beast, because of its unnatural and dreadful character. It was of this beast and its ten horns, more particularly of the little horn that came up last, “whose look was more stout than his fellows,’ that he desired further information. The lion is a product of nature, but it must have the addition of two wings to represent the kingdom of Babylon. The bear we also find in nature, but as a symbol of Medo-Persia, an unnatural ferocity is denoted, by three ribs in its mouth. So, also the leopard is a beast of nature, yet fitly to represent Grecia, four wings and three more heads must be added. But nature furnishes no symbol that can fitly illustrate the fourth kingdom. The vision therefore introduces a beast the likeness of which was never before seen, a beast dreadful and terrible, with nails of brass, and teeth of iron, so cruel, rapacious, and fierce that from mere love of oppression it devoured, and broke in pieces,
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and trampled its victims beneath its feet.
The Ten Horns.
Astounding as all this was to the prophet, there was something still more remarkable that gripped his attention. A little horn came up, and, true to the nature of the beast from which it sprang, thrust aside three of its fellows. Lo, the horn has eyes, not the uncultivated eyes of a brute, but the keen, shrewd, intelligent eyes of a man. Stranger yet, it had a mouth, and with that mouth it uttered proud sayings, and put forth preposterous and arrogant claims. No wonder the prophet made special inquiry respecting this monster, so unearthly in its instincts, so fiendish in it works and ways. In the following verses some specifications are given respecting the little horn, which enable the student of prophecy to make an application of this symbol without danger of mistake.
“I looked, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” (Daniel 7: 21, 22.)
The Little Horn to Make War With the Saints.---The amazing wrath of the little horn against the saints particularly attracted the attention of Daniel. The rise of the ten horns, or the division of Pagan Rome into ten kingdoms, between A.D. 351 and A.D. 476; A.S. 4320 and A.S.4445, has already been noticed in comments on Daniel 2: 41.
As these horns denote kingdoms, the little horn must denote a kingdom also, yet not of the same nature, because it is diverse from the others. They were political kingdoms. Now we have but to inquire, since A.D. 476; A.S. 4320, if any kingdom has risen among the ten divisions, of the Pagan Roman Empire which is diverse from them all; and if so, what one? The answer is, Yes, the spiritual kingdom of the papacy, the Catholic Church, the Holy Roman Empire. It answers to the symbol in every particular, as we shall see as we proceed.
Daniel saw this power making war upon the saints. Has such a war been waged by the papacy? Millions of martyrs answer, Yes. Witness the cruel persecutions of the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the Protestants in general, by the papal power.
In verse 22 three consecutive events seem to be brought to view. Looking forward from the time when the little horn was in the height of its power, to the full end of the long contest between the saints, and Satan with all his agents, Daniel notes three prominent events that stand as mileposts along the way:
1. The coming of the Ancient of days: The position that Jehovah takes in the opening of the Atonement/Judgment scene described in verses 9, 10, March A.D. 1031 – March, A.D. 2031; 1 Nisan, A.S. 5000 – 1 Nisan, A.S.6000 and,
2. An appellate court, given to the saints: The time when the saints sit with The Christ, as an appellate court, for a thousand years, March, A.D. 2031 – March, 3031; 1 Nisan, A.S 6000 – 1 Nisan, A/S. 7000, and,
3. The time that the saints possess the kingdom: The time of their possession of the new earth, March, A.D. 3036; 1 Nisan, A.S. 7005.
Then the last vestige of the curse of sin, root and branch, will have been wiped away, and the territory so long misruled by the enemies of God’s people, will be given to the righteous, to be possessed by them forever. (Matthew 25: 34; 1st Corinthians 6: 2, 3.)
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“Thus he said, ‘The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be different from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and brake it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: And another shall rise after them; and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall persecute the saints of the most High, and he shall think himself able to change times and laws: And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.’” (Daniel 7: 23-26.)
Pagan Rome Divided.---Pagan Rome, before its division into ten kingdoms, lost that iron vigor it possessed to a superlative degree during the first centuries of its career. Luxury, with its accompanying effeminacy and degeneracy, the destroyer of nations as well as of individuals, began to corrode and weaken its iron sinews, and thus prepared the way for its disintegration into ten kingdoms, and then there were seven kingdoms.
The Ten Horns; The Ten Kingdoms.---The division of Pagan Rome was accomplished between A.D. 351 – A.D. 476; A.S. 4320 – A.S. 4445. The era of this dissolution thus covered a hundred and twenty five years, from about the middle of the fourth century A.D. to the middle of the fifth. No historians of whom we are aware, place the beginning of this work of the dismemberment of the Pagan Roman Empire earlier than A.D, 351; A.S. 4320, and there is general agreement in assigning its close in A.D. 476; A.S. 4445. Concerning the intermediate dates, that is, the precise time from which each of the ten kingdoms that arose on the ruins of the Pagan Roman Empire is to be dated, there is some difference of view among historians. Nor does this seem strange, when we consider that there was an era of great confusion, that the map of the Roman Empire during that time underwent many sudden and violent changes, and the paths of hostile nations charging upon its territory crossed and crisscrossed each other in a labyrinth of confusion. But all historians agree in this, that out of the territory of Western Rome, ten separate kingdoms were ultimately established, and we may safely assign them to the time between the dates A.D. 335 – A.D.476; A.S. 4320 – A.S.4445.
The ten nations that were most instrumental in breaking up the Pagan Roman Empire, and that, at some time in their history, held respectively, portions of Roman territory as separate and independent kingdoms, may be enumerated (without respect to the time of their establishment) as follows: Anglo-Saxons, Burgundians, Franks, Heruli, Huns, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Suevi, Vandals, and Visigoths. The connection between these and some of the modern nations of Europe, are still traceable in the names, as England, Burgundy, Lombardy, France, and etc.
The Rise and Work of the Little Horn.---February, A.D. 538 to 27 March, A.D. 3036; A.S. 4507 to 1 Nisan, A.S. 7005. Perhaps enough has already been said respecting the fourth beast as (Pagan Rome) and the ten horns, or ten kingdoms, which arose out of this power. The little horn (Papal Rome), now more particularly demands our attention. As stated in comments on verse 8, we find the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning this little horn, in the rise and work of the papacy, Papal Rome. It is a matter of both interest and importance, therefore, to inquire into the causes that resulted in the development of this arrogant, and blasphemes power.
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The first pastors, or bishops, of Rome enjoyed a respect proportionate to the rank of the city in which they resided. For the first few centuries of the Christian Era, Rome was the largest, richest, and most powerful city in the world. It was the seat of empire, the capital of the nations. “All the inhabitants of the earth belong to her,” said Julian; and Claudian declared her to be “the fountain of laws.” “If Rome is the queen of cities, why should not her pastor be the king of bishops?” was the reasoning these Roman pastors but forth. “Why should not the Roman Church be the mother of Christendom? Why should not all nations be her children, and her authority their sovereign law? “It was easy,” says d’Aubigne, from whom we quote these words, “for the ambitious hearts of man to reason thus. Ambitious Rome did so.”
The bishops in the different parts of the Roman Empire felt a pleasure in yielding to the bishop of Rome some of that honor which that city received from the nations of the earth. There was originally no dependence implied in the honor thus paid. “But,” continues d’Aubigne, “usurped power increases like an avalanche. Admonitions, at first simply fraternal, soon became absolute commands in the mouth of the pontiff. . . . The Western bishops favored this encroachment of the Roman pastors, either from jealousy of the Eastern bishops, or because they preferred submitting to the supremacy of a pope rather than to the dominion of a temporal power.” Such were the influences clustering around the bishop of Rome, and thus was everything tending toward his speedy elevation to the spiritual dominance of Christendom.
The Challenge of Arianism.---But the fourth century was destined to witness an obstacle thrown across the path of this ambitious dream. The prophecy had declared that the power represented by the little horn would “subdue three kings.” In the rise and development of Arianism early in the fourth century and the challenge it represented to papal supremacy, we find the cause leading to the plucking up of three of the kingdoms of Western Rome by the papal power.
Arius, parish priest of the ancient and influential church of Alexandria, promulgated his doctrine to the world, occasioning so fierce a controversy in the Christian church that a general council was called at Nicaea, by the emperor Constantine in A.D. 325; A.S. 4294, to consider and rule upon its teaching. Arius maintained “that the Son was totally and essentially distinct from the Father; that He was the first and noblest of those beings whom the Father had created out of nothing, the instrument by whose subordinate operation the Almighty Father formed the universe, and therefore inferior to the Father, both in nature and dignity.” This opinion was condemned by the council, which decreed that The Christ was of one and the same substance with the Father. Hereupon Arius was banished to Illyria, and his followers were compelled to give their assent to the creed composed on that occasion.
The controversy itself, however, was not to be disposed of in this summary manner. For ages it continued to agitate the Christian world, the Arians everywhere becoming the bitter enemies of the pope and of the Roman Catholic Church. It was evident that the spread of Arianism would check the onward march of Catholicism, and that the possession of Italy and its renowned capital by a people of the Arian persuasion would be fatal to the supremacy of a Catholic bishop. The prophecy, however, had declared that this horn, symbolizing the papacy, would rise to supreme power, and that in reaching this position, it would subdue three kings.
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The Little Horn Overthrows Three Arian Powers.---Some difference of opinion has existed in regard to the particular powers which were overthrown by the papacy in its rise to power. In this connection the remarks of Albert Barnes seem pertinent: “In the confusion that existed on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, and the imperfect accounts of the transactions which occurred in the rise of the papal power, it would not be wonderful if it should be difficult to find events distinctly recorded that would be in all respects an accurate and absolute fulfillment of the vision. Yet it is possible to make out the fulfillment of this, with a good degree of certainty, in the history of the papacy.”
The word “before” used in verses 8 and 20 represents the Chaldee, qadam, with the root meaning “front.” Combined with min, meaning “from,” as it is in two verses, Davidson translates it “from the presence of,” and Gesenius says it is equivalent to the Hebrew, lipna, meaning “in the presence of.” It therefore has here the meaning “before” in the sense of “place,” as it does in the same phrase in verse 10, where it is properly translated in the Authorized Version “from before Him.” We have, then, in verse 8 the picture of the little horn pressing in among the ten and forcibly plucking up three horns from before it. In verse 20, it is declared that the three horns “fell” from before it, as if overcome by it. In verse 24, we read that another king, representing the little horn, “shall subdue three kings [horns],” evidently by acts of force. While the word “before” in verse 7, there can scarcely be a doubt that it is used in the sense of place in the three verses cited above.
The position is here confidently taken that the three powers, or horns, plucked up by the roots were the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Astrogoths; and this position rests upon reliable historical data. Odoacer, the leader of the Heruli, was the first of the barbarians who reigned over the Romans. He took the throne of Italy, A.D. 476; A.S. 4445. Of his religious belief Gibbon says: “Like the rest of the barbarians he had been instructed in the Arian heresy; but he revered the monastic and Episcopal characters; and the silence of
the Catholics attested the toleration which they enjoyed.”
The same author says: “The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin clergy, preferred the more intelligible lessons of their domestic teachers; and Arianism was adopted as the national faith of the warlike converts who were seated on the ruins of the Western Empire. This irreconcilable difference of religion was a perpetual source of jealousy and hatred; and the reproach of barbarian was embittered by the more odious epithet of heretic. The heroes of the north, who had submitted with some reluctance to believe that all their ancestors were in hell, were astonished and exasperated to learn that they themselves had only changed the mode of their eternal condemnation.”
The Arian doctrine had a marked influence on the church at that time, as will be observed in the following paragraphs: “The whole of the vast Gothic population which descended on the Roman Empire, so far as it was Christian at all, held to the faith of the Alexandrian heretic. Our first Teutonic version of the Scriptures was by an Arian missionary, Ulfilas. The first conqueror of Rome, Alaric, the first conqueror of Africa, Genseric, were Arians. Theodoric the Great, king of Italy, and hero of the ‘Nibelungenlied,’ was an Arian. The vacant place in his massive tomb at Ravenna is a witness of the vengeance which the Orthodox took on his memory, when on their triumph they tore down the porphyry vase in which his Arian subjects had enshrined his ashes.”
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Ranke states: “But she [the church] fell, as was inevitable, into many embarrassments, and found herself in an entirely altered condition. A pagan people took possession of Britain; Arian kings seized the greater part of the remaining West; while the Lombards, long attached to Arianis, and as neighbors most dangerous and hostile, established a powerful sovereignty before the very gates of Rome. The Roman bishops, meanwhile, beset on all sides, exerted themselves, with all the prudence and pertinacity which have remained their peculiar attributes, to regain the mastery---at least in their patriarchal diocese.”
Machiavilli says: “Nearly all the wars which the northern barbarians carried on in Italy, it may be here remarked, were occasioned by the pontiffs; and the hordes with which the country was inundated, were generally called in by them.”
The relation which these Arian kings, sustained to the pope, is shown in the following testimony from Mosheim, in his church history:
“On the other hand, it is certain, from a variety of the most authentic records, that both the emperors and the nations in general were far from being disposed to bear with patience the yoke of servitude which the see of Rome was arrogantly imposing upon the Christian church. The Gothic princes set bounds to the power of the bishop of Rome in Italy, permitted none to be raised to the pontificate without their approbation, and reserved to themselves the right of judging concerning the legality of every new election.”
An instance in proof of this statement occurs in the history of Odoacer, the first Arian king above mentioned. When, on the death of Pope Simplicius, A.D. 483; A.S. 4452, the clergy and people had assembled for the election of a new pope, suddenly Basilius, lieutenant of King Odoacer, appeared in the assembly, expressed his surprise that any such work as appointing a successor to the deceased pope should be undertaken without him, in the name of the king declared all that had been done null and void, and ordered the election to be begun anew.
Meanwhile, Zeno, the emperor of the East, and friend of the pope, was anxious to drive Odoacer out of Italy, a movement which he soon had the satisfaction of seeing accomplished without trouble to himself. Theodoric had come to the throne of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Moesia and Pannonia. Being on friendly terms with Zeno, he wrote him, stating that it was impossible for him to restrain his Goths within the impoverished province of Pannonia, and asking his permission to lead them to some favorable region, that they might conquer and posses. Zeno gave him permission to march against Odoacer and take possession of Italy. Accordingly, after a five years’ war, the Herulian kingdom in Italy was overthrown, Odoacer was treacherously slain, and Theodoric established his Ostrogoths in the Italian peninsula. As already stated, he was an Arian, and the law of Odoacer subjecting the election of the pope to the approval of the king, was still retained.
The following incident will show how completely the papacy was in subjection to his power. The Catholics in the East having begun a persecution against the Arians, A.D. 523; A.S. 4492, Theodoric summoned Pope John into his presence and thus addressed him: “‘If the emperor [Justin, the predecessor of Justinian] therefore does not think fit to revoke the edict which he has lately issued against those of my persuasion [that is, the Arians], it is my firm resolution to issue the like edict against those of his [that is, the
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Catholics]; and so see it everywhere executed with the same rigor. Those who do not profess the faith of Nice, are heretics to him, and those who do are heretics to me. Whatever can excuse or justify his severity to the former, will excuse and justify mine to the latter. But the emperor,’ continued the king, ‘has none about him who dare freely and openly speak what they think, or to whom he would hearken if they did. But the great veneration that he professes for your See, leaves no room to doubt but he would hearken to you. I will therefore have you to repair forthwith to Constantinople, and there, to remonstrate, both in my name and your own, against the violent measures in which that court has so rashly engaged. It is your power to divert the emperor from them; and till you have, nay, till the Catholic [this name Theodoric applies to the Arians] are restored to the free exercise of their religion, and to all the churches from which they have been driven, you must not think of returning to Italy.’”
The pope who was thus peremptorily ordered by the Arian emperor not to set foot again upon Italian soil until he had carried out the will of the king, certainly could not hope for much advancement toward any kind of supremacy until that power was taken out of the way.
The feelings of the papal party toward Theodoric may be accurately estimated, according to a quotation already given, by the vengeance that they took on his memory. They tore from his tomb the vase in which his Arian subjects had enshrined his ashes. These feelings are put into language by Baronius, who inveighs “against Theodoric as a cruel barbarian, as a barbarous tyrant, as an impious Arian.”
While the Catholics were thus feeling the restraining power of an Arian king in Italy, they were suffering a violent persecution from the Arian Vandals in Africa. Elliott says: “The Vandal kings were not only Arians, but persecutors of the Catholics; in Sardinia and Corsica under the Roman Episcopate, we may presume, as well as in Africa.”
Such was the position of affairs, when, in A.D. 533; A.S. 4502, Justinian entered upon his Vandal and Gothic wars. Wishing to obtain the influence of the pope and the Catholic party, he issued that memorable decree which was to constitute the pope as the head of all churches, and from the carrying out of which, A.D. 538; A.S. 4507, the period of papal supremacy is to be dated. And whoever will read the history of the African campaign, A.D. 533 – A.D. 534; A.S. 4502 – A.S. 4503, and the Italian campaign, A.D. 534 – A.D. 538; A.S. 4503 – A.S. 4507, will notice that the Catholics everywhere hailed as deliverers the army of Belisarius, the general of Justinian.
But no decree of this nature could be carried into effect until the Arian horns, which stood in the way, were overthrown. A turn came, however, in the tide of affairs, for in the military campaign in Africa and Italy the victorious legions of Belisarius dealt a crushing blow to Arianism, so much so that its final supporters were vanquished.
Procopius relates: “That the African war was undertaken by Justinian for the relief of the Christians (Catholics) in that quarter, and that when he expressed his intention in this respect, the prefect of the palace came very near dissuading him from his purpose. But a dream appeared to him on which he was bidden “not to shrink from the execution of his design; for by assisting the Christians he would overthrow the power of the Vandals.”
Mosheim declares: “It is true, the Greeks who had received the decrees of the Council of Nice [that is, from the Catholics], persecuted and oppressed the Arians wherever their influence and authority could reach; but the Nicenians, in their turn, were not less
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rigorously treated by their adversaries [the Arians], particularly in Africa and Italy, where they felt, in a very severe manner, the weight of the Arian power, and the bitterness of their resentment. The triumphs of Arianism were, however, transitory; and its prosperous days were entirely eclipsed when the Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of Italy, by the arms of Justinian.’
Elliot summarizes: “I might cite three that were eradicated from before the pope out of the list first given, viz., the Heruli under Odoacor, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths.”
From the historical testimony above cited, we think it clearly established that the three horns plucked up were the powers named: The Heruli, A.D. 493; A.S. 4462, the Vandals, A.D. 534; A.S. 4503, and the Ostrogoths finally in A.D. 553; A.S. 4522, though effective opposition by the latter to the decree of Justinian ceased when they were driven from Rome by Belisarius in A.D. 538; A.S. 4507.
The Little Horn to “Speak Great Words Against the Most High.”---This prophecy, too, has been unhappily fulfilled in the history of the pontiffs. They have sought, or at least have permitted to be applied to them, titles that would be hyperbolical and blasphemous if applied to an angel of God.
Lucius Ferraris, in his Prompta Bibiotheca which the Catholic Encyclopedia refers to as “a veritable encyclopedia of religious knowledge” and “a precious mine of information,” declares, in its article on the pope, that “the pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of Christ. . . . The pope is of such lofty and supreme dignity that, properly speaking, he has not been established in any rank of dignity, but rather has been placed upon the very summit of all ranks of dignities. . . . The pope is called most holy because he is rightfully presumed to be such. . . .
“The pope alone is deservedly called by the name ‘most holy,’ because he alone is the vicar of Christ, who is the foundation and source and fullness of all holiness. . . . ‘He is likewise the divine monarch and supreme emperor, and king of kings.’ . . . Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and earth and of the lower regions. . . . Moreover the superiority and the power of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertain only to heavenly things, to earthly things, and to things under the earth, but are even over angels, than whom he is greater. . . . So that if it were possible that the angels might err in faith, or might think contrary to the faith, they could be judged and excommunicated by the pope. . . . For he is of so great dignity and power that he forms one and the same tribunal with Christ. . . .
“The pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief king of kings, having plenitude of power, to whom has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction not only of the earthly but also of the heavenly kingdom. . . . The pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws.”
Christopher Marcellus, at the fourth session of the fifth Lateran Council in an oration to the Pope, exclaimed: “Thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the husbandman; finally, thou art another God on the earth.”
Again, Adam Ckarke says on verse 25: “‘He shall speak as if he were God.’ So St. Jerome quotes from Symmachus. To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They
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profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them. And they go against God when they give indulgences for sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies.”
The Little Horn to “Wear Out the Saints of the Most High.”---It requires but little historical investigation to prove that Rome, in both the times of antiquity and during the Dark Ages, carried forward a work of destruction against His church, the church of God. Abundant evidence can be given, showing that from the time of The Christ’s great work on the earth, wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions, and persecutions of all kinds were the methods adopted to compel all to submit to, the Pagan and Papal, Roman yoke.
The history of pagan and medieval persecution is a frightful one, and we dread to dwell upon its detail. Yet, for a proper understanding of this passage it is necessary that we recall some of the happenings of these unhappy times. Albert Barnes, in his comment on these passages, remarks:
“Can anyone doubt that this is true of the papacy? The Inquisition, the ‘persecutions of the Waldenses;’ the ravages of the Duke of Alva; the fires of Smithfield; the tortures at Goa---indeed, the whole history of the papacy may be appealed to in proof that this is applicable to that power. If anything could have ‘worn out the saints of the most high’---could have cut them off from the earth so that evangelical religion would have become extinct, it would have been the persecutions of the papal power. In the year 1208 A.D; 5177 A.S., a crusade was proclaimed, by Pope Innocent III, against the Waldenses and Albigenses, in which a million of men perished. From the beginning of the order of the Jesuits, in the years A.D. 1540 – A.D. 1580; A.S. 5509 – A.S. 5549, nine hundred thousand were destroyed. One hundred and fifty thousand perished by the Inquisitions in thirty years. In the Low Countries fifty thousand persons were hanged, beheaded, burned, and buried alive, for the crime of heresy, within the space of thirty-eight years from the edict of Charles V against the Protestants, to the peace of Chateau Cambreses in A.D. 1559; A.S. 5528. Eighteen thousand suffered by the hand of the executioner in the space of five years and a half during the administration of the Duke of Alva. Indeed, the slightest acquaintance with the history of the papacy will convince any one that what is here said of ‘making war with the saints’ (verse 21), and ‘wearing out the saints of the Most High’ (verse 25), is strictly applicable to that power, and will accurately describe its history.”
These facts are confirmed by the testimony of W. E. H. Lecky. He declares: “That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a complete knowledge of history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are now so scanty that it is impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize their suffering. . . . These atrocities were not perpetrated in the brief paroxysms of a reign of terror, or by the hands of obscure sectaries, but were inflicted by a triumphant church, with every circumstance of solemnity and deliberation.”
It makes no difference that in numerous instances the victims were turned over to the
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civil authorities. It was the church that made the decisions upon the question of heresy, and it then passed the offenders over to the secular court. But in those days the secular power was but the tool in the hands of the church. It was under its control and did its bidding. When the church delivered its prisoners to the executioner to be destroyed, with fiendish mockery it made use of the following formula: “And we do leave and deliver you to the secular arm, and to the power of the secular court; but at the same time do most earnestly beseech that court so to moderate its sentence as not to touch your blood, or to put your life in any danger.” Then, as intended, the unfortunate victims of popish hate were immediately executed.
The testimony of Lepicier is to the point in this connection: “The civil power can only punish the crime of unbelief in the manner and to the extent that the crime is judicially made known to it by ecclesiastical persons, skilled in the doctrine of the faith. But the church taking cognizance by herself of the crime of unbelief, can by herself decree the sentence of death, yet not execute it; but she hands over the execution of it to the secular arm.”
The false claims of some Catholics that their church has never killed dissenters, have been flatly denied by one of their own standard writers, Cardinal Bellarmine, who was born in Tuscany in A.D. 1542; A.S. 5511, and who, after his death in A.D. 1621; A.S. 5590, came very near being placed in the calendar of saints on account of his great services in behalf of the church. This man, on one occasion, under the spur of controversy, betrayed himself into an admission of the real facts in the case. Luther, having said that the church (meaning the true church) never burned heretics, Bellarmine, understanding it of the Roman Catholic Church, made answer: “This argument proves not the sentiment, but the ignorance or impudence of Luther; for as almost an infinite number were either burned or otherwise put to death, Luther either did not know it, and was therefore ignorant; or knew it, he is convicted of impudence and falsehood---for that heretics were often burned by the church, may be proved by adducing a few from many examples.
Alford Baudrillart, rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, when referring to the attitude of the church toward heresy, remarks:
“When confronted by heresy, she does not content herself with persuasion; arguments of an intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture. She creates tribunals like those of the Inquisition, she calls the laws of state to her aid, if necessary she encourages a crusade, or a religious war, and all her ‘horror of blood’ practically culminates into urging the secular power to shed it, which proceeding is almost more odious---for it is less frank---than shedding it herself.
“Especially did she act thus in the sixteenth century with regard to Protestants. Not content to reform morally, to teach by example, to convert people by eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low Countries, and above all in Spain, the funeral piles of the Inquisition. In France under Francis I, and Henri II, in England under Mary Tudor, she tortured the heretics, while in both France and Germany during the second half of the sixteenth, and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, if she did not actually begin, at any rate she encouraged and actively aided the religious wars.”
In a letter of Pope Martin V (A.D. 1417 – A.D. 1431; A.S. 5386 – A.S. 5400.), are the following instructions to the king of Poland: “‘Know that the interest of the Holy See,
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and those of your crown, make it a duty to exterminate the Hussites. Remember that these impious persons dare proclaim principles of equality; they maintain that all Christians are brethren, and that God has not given to privileged men the right of ruling the nations: they hold that Christ came on earth to abolish slavery; they call the people to liberty, that is, to the annihilation of kings and priests! Whilst there is still time, then, turn your forces against Bohemia; burn, massacre, make deserts everywhere, for nothing could be more agreeable to God, or more useful to the cause of kings, than the extermination of the Hussites.’”
All this was in harmony with the teaching of the church. Heresy was not to be tolerated, but to be destroyed.
Pagan Rome persecuted the Christian church relentlessly. It is estimated that three million Christians perished in the first three centuries of the Christian Era. Yet it is said that the primitive Christian prayed for the continuance of imperial Rome, for they knew that when this form of government should cease, another far worse persecuting power would arise. That would literally “wear out the saints of the Most High,” as this prophecy declares. Pagan Rome could slay the infants, but spare the mothers; but papal Rome slew both the mother and infants together. No age, no sex, no condition in life, was exempt from her relentless rage.
The Little Horn to “Thank to Change Times and Laws.---What laws and whose? What times and whose? Not the times and laws of other earthly governments; for it was nothing marvelous or strange for one power to change the laws of another, whenever it could bring such power under its dominion. Not human times and laws of any kind; for the little horn had power to change these so far as its jurisdiction extended; but the times and laws in question were such as this power should only “think” to change, but not be able to do so. They are the laws of the same Being to whom the saints belong who are worn out by this power, namely, the times and laws of the Most High. And has the papacy attempted this?---Yes, even this.
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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
(Exodus 20: 1-17)
And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt (sin), out of the house of slavery (to sin).
I
You shall have no other gods before Me.
II
You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shall not worship them nor serve them: I, the Lord your God am a jealous God bringing down the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.
III
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
IV
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of The Lord your God: In it you shall not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, nor the stranger that is within your gates: For in six days The Lord made heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: Wherefore The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
V
Honor your father and mother: That your days may be long upon the land that The Lord your God gives you.
VI
You shall not murder.
VII
You shall not commit adultery (secular and religious).
VIII
You shall not steal.
IX
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
X
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.
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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
As Abbreviated in Vernacular Roman Catholic Catechisms*
“He shall think himself able to change times and laws.”
Daniel 7: 25, Douay Version.
I
I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.
II
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
III
Remember you keep holy the Sabbath day.
IV
Honor your father and your mother.
V
You shall not murder.
VI
You shall not commit adultery.
VII
You shall not steal.
VIII
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
IX
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
X
You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
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*Such as Keenan’s and Geiermann’s in English. The two vernacular catechisms here quoted and many more like them, bear the imprimatur of bishops of the Church and are used for teaching the laity.
The Catholic Church, has added the second commandment of the Decalogue to the first, making them one, and divided the tenth into two, making the ninth forbid the coveting of a neighbor’s wife, and the tenth that of a neighbor’s property---thus making up the full number ten. While the full wording of the second commandment is retained in the Roman Catholic Bible and in the Roman Catechism authorized by the Council of Trent, painstaking explanation is made that in the case of images and likenesses of any kind except that of God Himself, their making and use are not forbidden by the commandment when employed only to venerate the virtues of the saints and not to worship them as gods, which latter is expressly forbidden in the commandment. The same principle is applied also to ashes, bones, and other relics of saints, and to representations of angels.
As to the fourth commandment, numbered as the third in their arrangement, the
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catechism of highest authority in the Roman Catholic Church retains the entire commandment, and urges punctilious observance of the Sabbath in the personal life and in public worship as a sacred privilege and duty. Nevertheless the position is taken that the particular day on which the Sabbath is to be observed, was connected with the ceremonial ordinances of the Jews, and was with them done away in The Christ. Reasons are then given why the Sabbath should be observed on the first day of the week commonly called Sunday.
In support of the foregoing brief statement on the changing of “times and laws” by the papacy, we draw evidence from the catechism of highest authority in the Roman Catholic Church, cited hereafter. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, “the authority of this catechism is higher than that of any other, but is, of course, not on a level with that of the canons and decrees of a council.”
Before making quotations, it should be first stated that in the polity of the Roman Catholic Church, the canons and decrees of an ecumenical church council are both official and supreme. Outstanding among such ecumenical church councils is the Council of Trent, held at Trent, Italy, from A.D. 1545 – A.D. 1563; A.S. 5514 – A.S. 5532. Since that council, called to counteract the spreading influence of the Protestant Reformation, dealt so widely with the doctrines and usages of the church, it officially decreed the following: “The holy synod commands all bishops . . . [to explain the sacraments] according to the form to be prescribed by the holy synod for all the sacraments in the catechism, which bishops will take care to have faithfully translated into the vulgar tongue, and expound to the people by the parish priests.”
In pursuance of this command, a catechism was composed in Latin, for the Roman Catholic Church by St. Charles Borromeo and other theologians, in A.D. 1566; A.S. 5535, and published in Rome by the Vatican Congregation for Propagation of the Faith, under the title Catechismus Romanus ex decreto Sacrosaneti Concilii Tridentini, jussu S. Pii V Pontificis Maximi editus, in other words, Roman Catechism according to the decree of the Sacred Council of Trent, published by order of St. Pius V, Pontifex Maximus.”
This book was translated into English by “Very Rev. J. Donovan, D. D. . . .Domestic Prelate to His Holiness Gregory XVI,” Etc., and published in Dublin with a preface dated June 10, A.D. 1829; A.S. 5798. The title of this book reads, Catechism According to the Decree of the Council of Trent, edited by the command of our Most Illustrious Lord Pius the Fifth.
From the fifth edition of this Roman Catechism published in Rome in A.D. 1796; A.S. 5765, we quote the following from Donovan’s English Translation, in regard to the fourth (Catholic third) commandment:
“It pleased the church of God, that the religious celebration of the Sabbath day should be transferred to ‘the Lord’s day’ [meaning Sunday]; for as on that day light first shone on the world; so by the resurrection of our Redeemer on that day, who opened to us the gate to life eternal, our life was recalled out of darkness into light; whence also the Apostles would have it named ‘the Lord’s day.’ We also observe in the sacred Scriptures that this day was held sacred because on that day the creation of the world commenced, and the Holy Ghost was given to the apostles.”
Here is the declaration of the papacy that the Roman Catholic Church changed the time for observing Sabbath from the seventh day, according to the Decalogue, to the first
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day of the week, which it here erroneously calls “the Lord’s day.” (See comment on Revelation 1: 10.) It will be observed that the apostles are here charged with making the change from the seventh day to the first, but without any proof whatsoever from the Scriptures, because there is no such proof. All the reasons for the change given in this declaration, are purely a human and ecclesiastical invention.
The foregoing testimony is sufficient to show how the papacy has though to change times and laws. How later Roman Catholic catechisms for instruction of “the faithful” come out boldly in declaring that the church changed the day, and even taunt Protestants with acceptance and observance of the change, will be found in our comment on the “Mark of The Beast” in Revelation 13.
Before leaving this matter of the change of the Sabbath, it will be enlightening to observe other reasons given by the papacy for the change than the false one that it was made by the apostles. In the same Roman Catechism referred to above, is an attempt to explain how the Sabbath commandment differs from the others in the Decalogue:
“That difference, then, appears certain, that the other precepts of the Decalogue belong to the natural law, and are perpetual and unalterable, whence is it that, although the law of Moses has been abrogated, yet the Christian people observe all the commandments which are contained in the two tables, not because Moses so commanded, but because they agree with the law of nature, by the force of which men are impelled to their observance; whereas this commandment, touching the sanctification of the Sabbath, if considered as to the time appointed [for its observance], is not fixed and unalterable, but susceptible of change, nor does it belong to the moral law, neither is it a principle of the natural law, for we are taught or formed by nature to give external worship to God on that rather than on any other day; but from the time the people of Israel were liberated from the bondage of Pharaoh, they observed the Sabbath day. . . .
“But the time when the observance of the Sabbath was to be removed, is that same time when the other Hebrew rites and ceremonies were to be abrogated, namely, at the death of Christ; for as those ceremonies are, as it were, images that shadowed forth the light and truth (Hebrews 10: 1), it was, therefore, necessary that they should be removed at the coming of the light and truth, which is Jesus Christ,”
The reader needs only to be reminded that the ten-commandment law was written with God’s finger on tables of stone, while the ceremonial laws, were written in a book, by Moses. More than this, the Decalogue was written before the ceremonial laws were given to Moses. Shall we charge God with mixing in one ceremonial commandment with the nine of the moral law, and leave it to a presumptuous ecclesiastical body to make the correction? The reason also for the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, as given in the commandment itself, is that the Creator Himself rested on that day, and set it apart as a memorial of His work of creation, but with no indication whatsoever of its being “a shadow of things to come” in The Christ, to whom all ceremonial ordinance point forward.
One more quotation from the Roman Catechism is worth noticing:
“The Apostles, therefore, resolved to consecrate the first day of the seven to divine worship, which they called ‘the Lord’s day;’ for St. John, in his Apocalypse, makes mention of ‘the Lord’s day’ (Apocalypse I, 10); and the Apostle orders collections to be
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made ‘on the first day of the week’ (1 Corinthians xvi, 2), which is, as St. Chrysostom interprets, the Lord’s day; to give us to understand, that even then the Lord’s day was kept holy in the church.”
In addition to falsely charging the apostles with changing the day of the Sabbath, it is here represented that the business reckoning of one’s accounts on the first day of the week is a reason for its observance as the Sabbath contrary to God’s unchangeable law.
This quotation also reveals the fact that the practices and interpretations of the Fathers, such as “St. Chrysostom.” Here mentioned, are relied on rather than the Scriptures themselves for proof that the Sabbath of God’s law was changed to Sunday.
One more observation is appropriate here, especially for Protestant clergy and laymen to consider. In the Roman Catechism, composed by order of Pope Pius V about the middle of the sixteenth century, is contained virtually every argument used by Protestants in our day to support the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Note these:
1. They assume, without proof, that the seventh-day Sabbath was part of the ceremonial law (though it is embodied in the very heart of the moral law written by the finger of God), and therefore done away in The Christ.
2. They boldly claim that the apostles ordained that the first day of the week be observed in place of the seventh, citing John’s use of the term “Lord’s day” in revelation 1: 10, despite the fact that the only day God ever set apart as holy and claimed as His own by resting on it Himself was the seventh day of the fourth commandment.
3. They claim that the Sabbath law of rest “agrees with the law of nature” requiring cessation of labor and a period for meditation and worship, but assert that the time of its observance is “susceptible of change,” since according to their argument, it does not “belong to the moral but ceremonial law,” and was therefore changed by the apostles, by the Fathers, and by the church to the first day of the week.
4. The arguments they use for such changes are that light first shone on the world on the first day of the week; the resurrection of The Christ took place on that day; the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles on the same day of the week, Paul admonished Christians to reckon their business accounts and lay aside a portion for the Lord on the first day of the week---all of ungodly human invention and without Scriptural authority as reasons for such a change.
The only reasons given by the Creator and Lord of the Sabbath, are, that He furbished the world in six days, rested on the seventh, and set apart that day for holy use on the same permanent and unalterable basis as He created all other things on the other days of furbishing days.
Protestants; Christianity in general, may not be aware that in defense of the Sunday Sabbath they are using the Roman Catholic arguments contained in the Catechism of the Council of Trent published in the sixteenth century, but every one of them mentioned above is found in that work. Our appeal to every Protestant, every Christian is to break away fully from the papacy, and hold to the Bible, and the Bible only, in their belief and practice.
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“A Time and Times and the Dividing of Times.---The pronoun “they” in the sentence containing this phrase embraces the saints, the times, and the laws just mentioned. How long a time were they to be given into the hands of this power? A time, as we have seen from Daniel 4: 23, is one year; two times, the least that could be denoted by the plural, two years, and the dividing of time, or half a time, half a year. The word “dividing” in the phrase “dividing of time” is translated from the Chaldee word, pelag, which Gesenius defines as “a half,” and refers to Daniel 7: 25 as an example. The Septutagint translates it “half.” We thus have three years and a half for the continuance of this power. The Chaldee word for “time” in the text before us, is, iddan, which Gesenius defines thus: “Time. Spec. in prophetic language for a year. Daniel 7: 25, for a year, also two years and half a year; i.e., for three years and a half; comp. Jos. B.J.I.I.I.”
We must now consider that we are in the midst of symbolic prophecy; hence in this measurement the time is not literal, but symbolic. The inquiry then arises, How long a period is denoted by the three years and a half of prophetic time? The Biblical principle given us is, that when a day is used in symbolic prophecy, it stands for a year. (Ezekiel 4: 6; Numbers 14: 34.) Under the Hebrew word for day, yom, Gesenius has this remark on its plural: “Sometimes yamim marks a definite space of time; viz., a year; as also Syr. And Chald. Iddan denotes both time and year; and as in English several words signifying time, weight, measure, are likewise used to denote certain specified times, weights, and measures.”
Bible students have recognized this principle through the ages. The following quotations reveal the agreement of various authorities on this point. Joachim, abbot of Calabria, applied the year-day principle to the 1260-year period. “The woman, clothed with the sun, who signifies the church, remained hidden in the wilderness from the face of the serpent, a day without doubt being accepted for a year and a thousand two hundred and sixty days for the same number of years.” (Revelation 12.)
“Three times and a half; that is, for 1260 solar years, reckoning a time for a calendar year of 360 days, and a day for a solar year. After which ‘the judgment is to sit, and they shall take away his dominion’ not at once, but by degrees, to consume, and to destroy it unto the end.”
The Bible year, which must be used as the basis of reckoning, contains three hundred and sixty days. (See comments on Revelation 11: 3.) Three years and a half contain twelve hundred and sixty days. As each day stands for a year, we have twelve hundred and sixty years for the continuation of the supremacy of this horn. Did the papacy possess dominion that length of time? The answer again is, Yes. The edict of the Emperor Justinian, dated A.D. 533, A.S. 4502, made the bishop of Rome the head of all the churches. But this edict could not go into effect until the Arian Ostrogoths, the last of the three horns that were plucked up to make room for the papacy, were driven from Rome; and this was not accomplished, as already shown, until February, A.D. 538; A.S.4507. The edict would have been of no effect had this latter event not been accomplished; hence from this latter year we are to reckon, as this was the earliest point where the saints were in reality in the hands of this power. From this point did the papacy hold supremacy for twelve hundred and sixty years?---Exactly. Form A.D. 538; A.S. 4507 + 1260 years = A.D. 1798; A.S. 5767, and in that year, February, A.D. 1798; A.S. 5767, Berthier, with a French army, entered Rome, proclaimed a republic, took the
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pope prisoner, and inflicted a deadly wound upon the papacy. Though it has never since enjoyed all the privileges and immunities which it possessed before, we are seeing a gradual restoration of its former strength.
The Judgment Shall Sit.---After describing the terrible career of the little horn, the papacy, and stating that the saints should be given into his hand for 1260 years, bringing us down to February, A.D. 1798; A.S. 5767, verse 26 declares: “But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” In verse 10 of the same chapter we have substantially the same expression regarding the judgment: “The judgment was set.” It is consistent to suppose that the same judgment is referred to in both instances. The sublime scene described in verse 10 is the opening of the Heavenly Day of Atonement, Day of Judgment, in the Heavenly Sanctuary, March, A.D. 1031; 1 Nisan, A.S. 5000. The cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary, at the termination of the 2300 years, involved The Christ, out heavenly High Priest, removing the sins of the repentant, and placing them upon the head of Satan. This occurred 22 October, A.D. 1844; 10 Tishri, A.S. 5813, the act of a heavenly moment, and the Heavenly Sanctuary was clean, free from the sins of the saints. The unrepentant, at the close of the Heavenly Day of Atonement, 22 March, A.D. 2031; 1 Nisan, A.S. 6000, are driven from the camp of the saints. To the righteous He gives eternal life, to the wicked eternal death, annihilation. (Revelation 22: 12.)
Four years after this, in A.D. 1848; A.S. 5817, the great revolution that shook so many thrones in Europe, also drove the pope from his dominions. His restoration shortly after was through force of foreign bayonets, by which he alone was upheld, until his final loss of temporal power in A.D. 1870; A.S. 5839. The overthrow of the papacy in A.D. 1798; A.S. 5767 marked the conclusion of the prophetic period of 1260 years, and constituted the “deadly wound,” prophesied in Revelation 13: 3 to come upon this power; but this deadly wound was to be “healed.”
The Deadly Wound to be Healed.---In A.D. 1800; A.S. 5769 another pope was elected, his palace and his temporal dominion over the Papal States were restored, and as George Croly, noted British commentator, says, every prerogative except that of a systematic persecutor was again his, for the “deadly wound” was beginning to be healed.
How could the “deadly wound” be healed, and the specifications of Daniel 7: 26, “ they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end,” be realized? How are we to explain this apparent paradox? Whatever the exegetical difficulties may be, the fact remains that in the history of the papacy, these two specifications are being seen.
In March, A.D. 1031; A.S. 5000, thrones were placed, and we have the opening of the heavenly Day of Atonement, Day of Judgment. On 22 October, A.D. 1844; 10 Tishri, A.S. 5813 the sins of the righteous were removed from the heavenly Sanctuary, and put upon the head of Satan. With this work, the heavenly Sanctuary is clean, free from the sins of the saints. The sins of the repentant righteous, between 22 October, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813, and the close of probation, the close of the heavenly Day of Atonement, 22 March. A.D. 2031; 1 Nisan, A.S. 6000, are forgiven, retroactive to 22 October, 1844; 10 Tishri, A.S. 5813. (Verse 10.) In verse 11 we are told that because of “the great words which the horn spoke . . . the beast was slain.’ On 8 December, A.D. 1854; A.S. 5823, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, was decreed by the pope. In A.D. 1870;
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A.S. 5839, the armies of Victor Emmanuel took away the temporal power of the pope, the very year that the Twentieth Ecumenical Council decreed the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra, that is, when as shepherd and teacher of all Christians he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals. But despite the increasing honors heaped upon the office of the bishop of Rome by the clergy, the pope’s temporal power was wholly taken away. Thereafter the popes shut themselves up as prisoners in the Vatican at Rome until the signing of the concordat with Italy, A.D. 1929; A.S. 5898, which restored “his dominion” over the Vatican City, a small section of the city of Rome.
“And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all powers shall serve and obey Him. This is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my thoughts much troubled me, and my color changed in me: But I kept the matter in my heart.” Daniel 7: 27, 28.)
The Saints Receive the Kingdom.---After beholding the dark and desolate picture of papal oppression of the church, the prophet is permitted once more to turn his eyes upon the glorious period of the saint’s rest, when they shall have the kingdom, free from all oppressive powers, in the everlasting possession. How could the children of God keep heart in this present world, amid the misrule and oppression of the governments of earth, and the abominations that are done in the land, if they could not look forward to the kingdom of God and the return of their Lord, with full assurance that the promises concerning them both shall certainly be fulfilled, and that speedily.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANUEL, THE WORD/
TO THE PROPHET DANIEL
Study # 12.---The World Arraigned Before the Court of Heaven, Daniel 8.
“We now come once more,” says Adam Clarke, “to the Hebrew, the Chaldee part of the book being finished. As the Chaldeans had a particular interest both in the history and the prophecies from chapter 2: 4 to the end of chapter 7, the whole is written in Chaldee; but as the prophecies that remain concern times posterior to the Chaldean monarchy, and principally related to the church and people of God generally, they are written in the Hebrew language, this being the tongue in which God chose to reveal all His counsels given under the Old Testament relative to the New.
“In the third year of the king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.” (Daniel 8: 1.)
One prominent characteristic of the sacred writings that should forever shield them from the charge of being works of fiction, is the frankness and freedom with which the writer states all the circumstances connected with events that he records. Here in verse 1 states the time when this vision was given to Daniel. The first year of Belshazzar was B.C. 540; A.S. 3429. His third year, in which this vision was given, would consequently be B.C. 537; A.S. 3432. Since Daniel was probably about twenty years of age when he was carried to Babylon in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar in B.C. 606; A.S. 3363, he was at that time about eighty-eight years of age. The vision he refers to, as the one that appeared unto him at the first, is doubtless the vision of the seventh chapter, which he had in the first year of Belshazzar’s reign.
“And I saw in the vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.” (Daniel 8: 2.)
As verse 1 states the time when the vision was given, this verse gives the place where the prophet received the revelation. Shushan was the metropolis of the province of Elam, which was then in the hands of the Babylonians, and the king of Babylon had a royal palace there. Daniel, as minister of the state employed in the king’s business, was in that place. Abradates, viceroy of Shushan, gave his allegiances to Cyrus, and the province was joined to the Medes and Persians; so that, according to the prophecy of Isaiah 21: 2, Elam went up with the Medes to besiege Babylon. Under the Medes and Persians, Elam regained its liberties, of which it had been deprived by the Babylonians, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah 49: 39.
“Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: And the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beast might stand before him, neither was there any that could
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deliver out of his hands; but he did according to his will, and magnified himself.” (Daniel 8: 3, 4.)
The Kingdoms of Media and Persia.---In verse 20 an interpretation of this symbol is given in plain language: “The ram that you saw having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.” We have only therefore to consider how well the power answers to the symbol in question. The two horns represented the two nationalities of which the empire was composed. The higher came up last. This symbolized Persia, which at first was simply an ally of the Medes, but later came to be the leading division of the empire. The directions in which the ram pushed denote the directions in which the Medes and Persians carried their conquests. No earthly powers could stand before them as they marched toward the exalted position to which the providence of God had summoned them. So successful were their conquests that in the days of Ahasuerus (Esther 1: 1) the Medo-Persian kingdom, consisting of one hundred twenty-seven provinces, extended from India to Ethiopia, the boundaries of the then known world.
“And I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and without touching the ground: And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with anger against him, and smote the ram, and broke his two horns: And there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he threw him down to the ground, and stomped upon him: And there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.” (Daniel 8: 5-7.)
The Kingdom of Grecia.---“As I was considering,” said the prophet. Here is an example for every lover of truth and all who have any regard for spiritual things. When Moses saw the burning bush, he said, “I will now turn aside, and see this great sight.” How few are willing at the present time to turn aside from their pursuit of business or pleasure to consider the important themes which God seeks to bring to their attention.
The symbol here introduced is explained to Daniel by the angel. “The rough goat is the king [kingdom] of Grecia.” Verse 21. Concerning the fitness of this symbol to represent the Grecians, or Macedonians, people, Thomas Newton observes that the Macedonians, “about two hundred years before Daniel, were denominated AEgeadae, or goat’s people.” He explains the origin of the name as recounted by heathen authors: Caranus, their first king, going with a great multitude of Greeks to seek new habitations in Macedonia, was commanded by the oracle to take the goats for his guides to empire: And afterwards seeing a herd of goats flying from a violent storm, he followed them to Edessa, and there fixed the seat of his empire, made the goats his ensigns or standards, and called the city AEgeae, or the goat’s town, and the people AEgeade, or the goat’s people. . . . The city of AEgeae, or AEgae, was the usual burying place of the Macedonian kings. It is also very remarkable that Alexander’s son by Roxana was named Alexander AEgus, or the son of the goat; and some of Alexander’s successors are represented in their coins with goat’s horns.”
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The “goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth.” That is, Greece lay west of Persia and attacked from that direction. The Greek army swept everything on the face of the earth before it.
The goat “touched not the ground.” Such was the marvelous celerity of his movements that he seemed to fly from point to point with the swiftness of the wind. The same characteristic of speed is indicated by the four wings of the leopard in the vision of Daniel 7, representing the same nation.
Alexander, The “Notable Horn.”---The notable horn between his eyes is explained in verse 21 to be the first king of the Macedonian Empire. This king was Alexander the Great.
A concise account of the overthrow of the Persian Empire by Alexander is given in verses 6 and 7. The battles between the Greeks and the Persians are said to have been exceedingly fierce. Some of the scenes recorded in history vividly bring to mind the figure used in the prophecy---a ram standing before the river, and the goat running toward him in “the fury of his power.” Alexander first vanquished the generals of Darius at the River Granicus in Phrygis. He next attacked and routed Darius at the passes of Issus in Cilicia, and afterward defeated him on the plains of Arbela in Syria. This latter battle occurred in B.C. 331; A.S. 3638, and marked the fall of the Persian Empire. By this event Alexander became master of the whole country. Concerning verse 6---“He [the goat] came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power”---Thomas Newton says: “One can hardly read these words without having some image of Darius’s army standing and guarding the River Granicus, and of Alexander on the other side, with his forces plunging in, swimming across the stream, and rushing on the enemy with all the fire and fury that can be imagined.”
Ptolemy begins the reign of Alexander in B.C. 332; A.S. 3637 but it was not until the battle of Arbela, the year following, that Alexander became “absolute lord of that empire in the utmost extent in which it was ever possessed by any of the Persian kings.”
On the eve of this battle, Darius sent ten of his chief relatives to sue for peace. When they had presented their conditions to Alexander, he is said to have replied, “Heaven cannot support two suns, nor the earth two masters.”
The language of verse 7 sets forth the completeness of the subjection of Medo-Persia to Alexander. The two horns were broken, and the ram was thrown to the ground and stomped upon. Persia was subdued, the country ravaged, its armies cut to pieces and scattered, and its cities plundered. The royal city of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire---even in its ruins, one of the wonders of the world to the present day---was sacked and burned. Thus the ram had no power to stand before the goat, and there was none that could deliver him out of his hand.
“Therefore the he-goat magnified himself exceedingly: And when he was strong, the horn was broken; and for it came up notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.” (Daniel 8: 8.)
The Great Horn Broken.---The conqueror is greater than the conquered. The ram, Medo-Persia, became “great;” the goat, Greece, became “very great.” “When he was
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strong, the great horn was broken.” Human foresight and speculation would have said, ‘When he becomes weak, his kingdom torn by rebellion, or weakened by luxury, then the horn will be broken, and the kingdom shattered.’ But Daniel saw it broken in the prime of its strength, at the height of its power, when every beholder would have exclaimed, Surely, the kingdom is established, and nothing can overthrow it. Thus it is often with the wicked. The horn of their strength is broken when they think they stand most firm. The Scripture says, “Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” 1st Corinthians 10: 12.
Four Notable Horns Come Up.---After Alexander’s death there arose much contention among his followers respecting the succession. After a seven days’ contest, it was agreed that his natural brother, Philip Aridaeus, should be declared king. By him, and by Alexander’s infant sons, Alexander AEgus and Hercules, the name and show of the Macedonian Empire were for a time sustained. But the boys were soon murdered, and the family of Alexander became extinct. Then the chief commanders of the army, who had gone into different parts of the empire as governors of the provinces, assumed the title of king. They at once began warring against one another to such a degree that within a few years after Alexander’s death, the number was reduced to four---the exact number specified in the prophecy.
Four notable horns were to come up toward the four winds of heaven in place of the great horn that was broken. These were:
1. Cassander, who had Greece and the neighboring countries;
2. Lysimachus, who had Asia Minor;
3. Seleucus, who had Syria and Babylon, and from whom came the line of kings known as the “Seleucidae,” so famous in history;
4. and Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who had Egypt, and from whom sprang the “Lagidae.”
These held dominion toward the four winds of heaven. Cassander had the western parts, Lysimachus the northern regions, Seleucus the eastern countries, and Ptolemy the southern portion of the empire. These four horns may therefore be named Macedonia, Thrace (which then included Asia Minor, and those parts lying on the Hellespont and the Posphorus), Syria, and Egypt.
“And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the glorious land. And it waxed great, even in opposition to the host of heaven, and it defeated some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stomped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him, the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.” (Daniel 8: 9-12.)
A Little Horn Comes Forth.---A sixth power is here is here introduced into the prophecy. In the explanation given to Daniel by the angel this symbol is not described as definitely as are Medo-Persia and Greece.
There are two common interpretations of the symbol that need to be noticed in these
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brief comments. The first is that the “little horn” denotes the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes. The second is that it denotes the Roman power. It is an easy matter to test these two positions.
Does the Little Horn Denote Antiochus?---If Antiochus Epiphanes does not fulfill the specifications of the prophecy, the application cannot be made to him. The little horn came out of one of the four horns of the goat. It was therefore a power existing distinct from any of the other horns of the goat. Was Antiochus such a power?
Who was Antiochus? From the time that Seleucus made himself king over the Syrian portion of Alexander’s empire, thus constituting the Syrian horn of the goat, until that country was conquered by the Romans, twenty-six kings ruled in succession over that territory. The eighth of these was Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus, then, was simply one of the twenty-six kings who constituted the Syrian horn of the goat. He was, therefore, for the time being, that horn. Hence he could not at the same time be a separate and independent power, or another and remarkable horn, as was the little horn.
If it were proper to apply the little horn to any of these twenty-six kings, it should certainly be applied to the most powerful and illustrious of them all; but Antiochus Epiphanes was not by any means the most powerful king of the Syrian line. Although he took the name Epiphanes, that is, “The Illustrious,” he was illustrious only in name. Nothing, says Prideaux, on the authority of Polybius, Livy, and Diodorus Siculus, could be more alien to his true character; because of his vile and extravagant folly, some thought him a fool and changed his name from Epiphanes, The Illustrious,” to Epimanes, “The Madman.”
Antiochus the Great, the father of Epiphanes, being defeated in a war with the Romans, was able to procure peace only by the payment of a prodigious sum of money and the surrender of a part of his territory. As a pledge that he would faithfully adhere to the terms of the treaty, he was obliged to give hostages, among whom was Epiphanes, his son, who was carried to Rome. The Romans ever afterward maintained this ascendancy. The little horn of the goat was to wax exceedingly great; But Antiochus Epiphanes did not become exceedingly great. On the contrary, he did not enlarge his dominion, except by some temporary conquest in Egypt. These he immediately relinquished when the Romans took the part of Ptolemy and commanded him to desist from his designs on that territory. The rage of his disappointed ambition he vented upon the unoffending Jews.
The little horn, in comparison with the power that preceded it, was exceedingly great. Persia is simply called great, though it consisted of a hundred twenty-seven provinces. (Esther 1: 1.) Grecia, being more extensive still, is called very great. Now the little horn, which waxed exceedingly great, must surpass them both. How absurd, then, to apply this to Antiochus, who was obliged to abandon Egypt at the dictation of the Romans. It cannot take long for anyone to decide the question, Who was the greater power---the one that evacuated Egypt, or the one that commanded the evacuation?
The little horn was to stand up against the Prince of princes, which expression refers, beyond controversy, to Jesus, The Christ. (Daniel 9: 25; Acts 3: 15: Revelation 1: 5.) But Antiochus died one hundred sixty-four years before our Lord was born. The prophecy cannot therefore apply to him, for he does not fulfill the specifications in a single particular. The question then may be asked, Why has anyone ever tried to apply
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it to him? We Answer, Roman Catholics take that view to avoid the application of the prophecy to themselves; and many Protestants follow them apparently in order to oppose the doctrine that the second coming of the Christ is now at hand, March, A.D. 2036; A.S. 6005.
The Little Horn Denotes Rome.---It has been an easy matter to show that the little horn does not denote Antiochus Epiphanes. It will be as easy to show that it does denote Rome.
The field of vision here is substantially the same as that covered by Nebuchadnezzar’s image of Daniel 2, and the vision of Daniel 7. In both these prophetic delineations we have found that the power that succeeded Grecia as the fourth great power was Rome. The natural inference would be that the little horn, the power that, in this vision succeeds Grecia as “exceedingly great” kingdom, is also Rome.
The little horn comes forth from one of the four horns of the goat. How, it may be asked, can that be true of Rome? Earthly governments are not introduced into prophecy until they become, in some way, connected with the people of God. Rome became connected with the Jews, the people of God at that time, by the famous Jewish League in B.C. 161; A.S. 3808. But seven years before this, that is, in B.C. 168; A.S. 3801, Rome had conquered Macedonia, and made that country a part of its empire. Rome is therefore introduced into prophecy just as, from the overthrow of the Macedonian horn of the goat, it is going forth to new conquests in other directions. It appeared to the prophet as coming forth from one of the four horns of the goat.
The little horn waxed great toward the east. This also was true of Rome. She conquered Syria in B.C. 65, and made it a province.
The little horn waxed great toward the pleasant land. So did Rome. Judea is called “the pleasant land” in many scriptures. The Romans made it a province of their empire in B.C. 63, and eventually the city and the temple, and scattered the Jews throughout the earth.
The little horn waxed great toward the south. This was true of Rome. Egypt was made a province of the Roman Empire in B.C. 30; A.S. 3939, and continued such for some centuries.
The little horn “waxed great against the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground.” Rome did this also. In this expression two figures are introduced, “the host” and “the stars.” When used as a symbolic sense concerning events taking place on earth, these figures refer almost always to the people of God and their leaders. In verse 13 of this chapter we read that both the sanctuary and the host will be trodden under foot. Here, undoubtedly, reference is made to God’s people and the place of their worship. The stars would naturally represent the leaders of the work of God. This thought is further indicated in one of the applications of Revelation 12: 4 where we read that the great red dragon, a symbol of Satan, of Rome, cast down a third part of the stars to the ground.
The little horn :magnified himself even to the Prince of the host.” Rome alone did this. In the interpretation (verse 25) the little horn is said to “stand up against the Prince of princes.” This clearly an allusion to the crucifixion of our Lord under the jurisdiction of the Romans.
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Rome in Two Aspects, Two Phases.---By the little horn “the daily sacrifice was taken away.” This little horn symbolizes Rome in its entire history, including its two phases, pagan and papal. These two phases are elsewhere spoken of as the “daily” (sacrifice is a supplied word) and the “transgression of desolation;” the daily (desolation) evidently signifying the pagan form, and the transgression of desolation, the papal. (See comments on verse 13.) In the actions ascribed to this power, sometimes one form is spoken of, sometimes the other. “By him [the papal form] the daily [pagan form] was taken away.” Pagan Rome was remodeled into papal Rome. “The place of his sanctuary,” or worship, the city of Rome, was cast down. The seat of government was removed, by Constantine, to Constantinople, A.D. 330; A.S. 4299. This same transaction is brought to view in Revelation 13: 2, where it is said that the dragon, Satan, pagan Rome, gave to the beast, papal Rome, his seat, the city of Rome, power, and great authority.
A “host was given him [the little horn] against the daily.” The barbarians that subverted the Roman Empire in the changes, attritions, and transformations of those times, became converts to the Catholic faith, and the instruments of the dethronement of their former religion. Though conquering Rome politically, they were themselves vanquished religiously by the theology of Rome, and became the perpetuators of the same empire in another phase. This was brought about by reason of “transgression;” that is, by the working of the mystery of iniquity. The papacy may be called a system of iniquity because it has done its evil work under the pretense of a pure and undefiled religion. Of this false religion system, Paul wrote in the first century to the Thessalonians, “The mystery of iniquity does already work.” 2nd Thessalonians 2: 7.
The little horn “cast down the truth to the ground, and practiced and prospered.” This describes in few words the work and career of the papacy. The truth is by it hideously caricatured, loaded with traditions, turned into mummery and superstition, and thrown down and obscured.
Of this ecclesiastical power it is declared that it has “practiced”---practiced its deceptions on the people, practiced its schemes of cunning to carry out its own ends and aggrandize its own power.
Likewise it has “prospered.” It has made war upon the saints, and prevailed against them. It has well-nigh run its allotted career, and is soon to be broken without hand, to be given to the burning flame, and to perish in the consuming glories of the second appearing of our Lord, 27 March, A.D. 2036; A.S. 6005.
Rome meets all the specifications of the prophecy. No other power does meet them. Hence, Rome, and no other, is the power in question. This inspired description given in the Word of God of the character of this system are fully met, and the prophecies concerning it have been most strikingly and accurately fulfilled in history.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO DANIEL, THE PROPHET.
Study # 13---The Twenty Three Hundred Days/Years.
“Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint that spoke, ‘How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to yield both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?’ And he said unto me, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed; delivered.’” (Daniel 8: 13, 14.)
The Time of the Prophecy.---These two verses of Daniel 8 close the vision proper. They introduce the one remaining point, that, of all others would naturally be of a most absorbing interest to the prophet, and to the church, namely, the length of time the desolating powers, previously brought to view, were to continue. How long shall they continue their course of oppression against God’s people? If time had been given, Daniel might have asked this question himself, but God ever anticipates our desires, and off-times answers them before we ask.
Two celestial beings converse upon this subject. This is an important matter that the church should understand well. Daniel heard one saint speaking. What the saint said, we are not informed. But another saint asked an important question: “How long shall be the vision?” Both the question and the answer are placed upon record, which is prima facie evidence that this is a matter the church should understand. This view is further confirmed by the fact that the answer was addressed to Daniel, as the one whom it chiefly concerned, and for whose information it was given.
The Twenty Three Hundred Days.---The saint declared, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be delivered.” The question may be raised, Why does the Vatican edition of the Septuagint (LXX) render this number “twenty-four hundred days”? On this point S. P. Tregelles writes:
“Some writers on prophecy have, in their explanations or interpretations of this vision, adopted the reading ‘two thousand and four hundred days;’ and in vindication of it, they have referred to the common printed copies of the LXX version. In this book, however, the translation of Theodotion has been long substituted for the real LXX: And further, although ‘two thousand four hundred’ found in the common printed Greek copies, that is merely an erratum made in printing the Vatican edition of 1586, which has been habitually perpetuated. I looked (in 1845) at the passage in the Vatican MS., which the Roman edition professedly follows, and it reads exactly the same as the Hebrew text [“twenty-three hundred days”]; so also does the real LXX of Daniel. (So to Cardinal Mai’s edition from the Vatican MS. Which appeared in 1857).”
Further substantiating the veracity of the twenty-three hundred-day time period, we quote the following from Dialogues on Prophecy:
“The edition of the Greek Bible which is commonly used, is printed, as you will find it stated in Prideaux and Horne, not after that of the 70, but after that of Theodotion, made about the end of the second century. There are three principal standard editions of the Septuagint Bible, all containing the version of Daniel by Theodotion; viz., the
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Complutensian, published in 1514; the Aldine, 1518; and the Vatican, 1587, from which the last English editions of the 70 have been chiefly taken; to these three we may add a fourth, being that of the Alexandrian text, published between 1707 and 1720. Besides these, there is one called the Chisian, 1772, which contains the Greek text both of Theodotion and of the 70. Of all these six copies the Vatican alone reads 2400, all the rest agreeing with the Hebrew and our English Bibles. Moreover, the manuscript itself, in the Vatican, from which the edition was printed, has 2300, and not 2400, and therefore it is indisputable that the number 2400 is nothing but a misprint.”
These quotations show clearly that no confidence whatsoever can be placed in this rendering of the Vatican edition of the Septuagint.
What is the Daily?---We have proof in verse 13 that “sacrifice” is the wrong word to be supplied in connection with the word “daily.” If the taking away of the daily sacrifice of the Jewish services is here meant, as some suppose (which sacrifice was at a certain point of time taken away), there would be no propriety in the question, How long shall be the vision concerning it? This question evidently implies that those agents or events to which the vision relates occupy a series of years. Continuance of time is the central idea. The whole time of the vision is filled by what is here called the “daily” and the “transgression of desolation.” Hence the daily cannot be the daily sacrifice of the Jews, for when the time came for it to be taken away, that action occupied but an instant of time, when the veil of their temple was torn, halved, from top to bottom, at the crucifixion of The Christ. It must denote something that extends over a period of years.
The word here rendered “daily” occurs in the Old Testament one hundred and two times, according to the Hebrew concordance. In the great majority of instances it is rendered “continual” or “continually.” The idea of sacrifice is not attached to the word at all. Nor is there any word in the text that signifies sacrifice. That is a supplied word, the translators putting in the word that their understanding of the text seemed to demand. They evidently entertained an erroneous view, the sacrifice of the Jews not being referred to at all. But it appears to be more in accordance with both the construction and context to suppose that the word “daily” refers to a desolating power, like the “transgression of desolation,” with which it is connected. Then we have two desolating powers, that for a long period of time, oppressed, or desolate, the church. Literally, the text may well be rendered, “How long shall be the vision [concerning] the continuance and the transgression of desolation?”---The word “desolation” being related to both “continuance” and “transgression,” as though it was expressed in full thusly: “The continuance of desolation and the transgression of desolation.”
The Two Desolating Powers.---By the “continuance of desolation,” or the perpetual desolation, we understand that paganism, throughout its history, is meant. When we consider the long ages, through which paganism had been the chief agency of Satan’s opposition to the work of God, in the earth, the propriety of the terms “continuance” or “perpetual,” as applied to it, becomes apparent. We likewise understand that “the transgression of desolation” means the papacy. The phrase describing this latter power is stronger than that used to describe paganism. It is the transgression (or rebellion, as the word also means) of desolation; as if under this period of the history of the church the desolating power had rebelled against all restraint previously imposed upon it.
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From a religious point of view, the world has presented these two strong phases of opposition against the Lord’s work in the earth. Hence, although three earthly governments are introduced in the prophecy as oppressors of the church, they are arranged under two headings: “the Daily” and “transgression of desolation.” Medo-Persia was pagan; Grecia was pagan; and Rome, in her first phase, was pagan. These were all embraced in the “daily.” Then comes the papal form, the “transgression of desolation.” A marvel of craft, and cunning; the incarnation of cruelty. No wonder the cry has gone up from suffering martyrs from age to age, “How long, O Lord, how long?” No wonder the Lord, in order that hope might not wholly die out of the hearts of His downtrodden, waiting people, has shown them the future events of the world’s history. All these persecuting powers shall meet an utter and everlasting destruction, March, A.D. 3036; A.S. 7005. For the redeemed, there are unfading glories beyond the suffering and sorrow of this present life, 27 March, A.D. 2036; A.S. 6005.
The Lord’s eye is upon His people. The furnace will be heated no hotter than is necessary to consume the dross. It is through much tribulation that we are to enter the kingdom. The word “tribulation” is from tribulum, a threshing sledge. Blow after blow must be laid upon us, until we are free of the chaff of sin, and are fit for the heavenly garner. But not a kernel of wheat will be lost.
Says the Lord to His people, “You are the light of the world,” “the salt of the earth.” In His eyes there is nothing else on the earth of consequence or importance. Hence, the peculiar question here asked, “How long . . . the vision concerning the daily and the transgression of desolation?” Concerning what?---the glory of earthly kingdoms? The skill of renowned warriors? The fame of mighty conquerors? The greatness of human empire?---No, but concerning the sanctuary and the host, the people and worship of the Most High. How long shall they be trodden underfoot? Here is where all heaven’s interest and sympathy are enlisted.
He who touches the people of God, touches not mere mortals, weak and helpless, but Omnipotence. He opens an account that will be settled in the judgment of execution. Soon all these accounts will be adjusted and the iron heel of oppression will be crushed. A people will be brought out off the furnace of affliction prepared to shine as the stars forever and ever. Every child of God is an object of interest to heavenly beings, one whom God loves, and for whom He is preparing a crown, with immortality hereafter. Reader, are you one of that number?
There is no information in this chapter concerning the 2300 days, introduced for the first time in verse 14. It is necessary, therefore, to pass this period of time for the present. Let the reader be assured, however, that we are not left in any uncertainty concerning those days. The declaration, is given for the instruction of the people of God, and is to be understood. The 2300 days are mentioned in the midst of a prophecy that the angel Gabriel was commanded to make Daniel to understand. Gabriel carried out this instruction, as will be found in the study of the next chapter.
What is the Sanctuary.---Connected with the 2300 days is another subject of equal importance that now presents itself for consideration, namely, the sanctuary. With this is connected the subject of the cleansing, the delivering. An examination of this matter reveals the importance of having an understanding of the beginning and ending of the
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2300 days, so we may know when the great event called “the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary” took place. All the inhabitants of the earth, as will appear in due time, have a personal interest in that solemn work.
Several views have been held as to what the sanctuary is, such as the earth, the land of Canaan, the church, and the sanctuary in heaven, the “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man,” that is “in heavens,” and of which the Jewish tabernacle was a type, pattern, or figure. (Hebrews 8: 1,2; 9: 23, 24.) Which, of these conflicting views is correct, must be decided by the Scriptures. Fortunately the testimony is neither meager nor ambiguous.
It Cannot Be the Earth.---The word “sanctuary” occurs in the Old Testament one hundred forty-four times. From the definitions of lexicographers, and its use in the Bible,
we learn that it is used to signify a holy or sacred place, a dwelling place for the Most High. If the earth is the sanctuary, it must answer to this definition. But what single characteristic pertaining to this earth will satisfy the meaning of the term? The earth is neither a holy nor a sacred place, nor is it a dwelling place for the Most High. It has no mark of distinction from other worlds, except as being a revolted planet, marred by sin, scarred and withered by the curse of transgression. Moreover, it is nowhere in all the Scriptures called the sanctuary. Only one text can be produced in favor of this view, and that by an unreasonable application: “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious.” (Isaiah 60: 13.) This language undoubtedly refers to the new earth; but even that is not called the sanctuary, but only the “place” of the sanctuary, even as it is called “the place” of our Lord’s feet. This is an expression that probably denotes the continual presence of God with His people, as it was revealed to John when it was said, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3.) All that can be said of the earth, therefore, is that when renewed it will be the place where the sanctuary of God will be located. It cannot present any claim to being the earthly sanctuary of Daniel’s time, or the heavenly sanctuary, but only where one was, and the other will be.
It Cannot Be the Land of Canaan.---So far as we may be governed by the definition of the word “Canaan,” it can present no better claim than the earth to that distinction. If we inquire where in the Bible it is called the sanctuary, a few texts are brought forward which are supposed by some to furnish the requisite testimony. The first of these is Exodus 15: 17. Moses, in his song of triumph and praise to God after the passage of the Red Sea, exclaimed: “You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which You have made for You to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.” Moses here speaks in anticipation. His language is a prediction of what God would do for His people. Let us see how it was accomplished.
We turn to David, who records as a matter of history what Moses uttered as a matter of prophecy. (Psalm 78: 53, 54.) The subject of the psalmist is the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian servitude, and their establishment in the Promised Land. He says: “He (God) led them on safely, so that they feared not: But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain,
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which His right hand had purchased.” The “mountain” here mentioned by David is the same as the “mountain of Your inheritance” spoken of by Moses, in which the people were to be planted. This mountain David calls, not the sanctuary, but only the border of the sanctuary. What, then, was the sanctuary? Verse 69 of the same psalm informs us: “He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He has established forever.” The same distinction between the sanctuary and the land is pointed out in the prayer of good king Jehoshaphat: “Are You not our God, who did drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the seed of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwelled therein, and have built You a sanctuary therein, for Your name.” (2nd Chronicles 20: 7, 8.)
Taken alone, Exodus 15: 17 is used by some as an inference that the mountain was the sanctuary; but when we take in connection with it the language of David, which is a record of the fulfillment of Moses’ prediction, and an inspired commentary upon his language, such an idea cannot be entertained. David plainly says that the mountain was simply the “border” of the sanctuary, and that in that border, or land, the sanctuary was “built” like high palaces, reference being made to the beautiful temple of the Jews, the center and symbol of all their worship. But whoever will read carefully Exodus 15: 17 will see that not even an inference is necessary that Moses by the word “sanctuary” means the mountain of inheritance, much less the whole land of Palestine. In the freedom of poetic license, he employed elliptical expressions, and passes rapidly from one idea or object to another. First, the inheritance engages his attention, and he speaks of it; then the fact that the Lord was to dwell there, then the place He was to provide for His dwelling there, namely, the sanctuary which He would cause to be built. David thus associates Mount Zion and Judah together in Psalm 78: 68, because Zion was in Judah.
The three texts, Exodus 15:17; Psalm 78: 54, 69, are the ones chiefly relied upon to prove that the land of Canaan is the sanctuary. But, singularly enough, the two latter, in plain language, clear away the ambiguity of the first, and thereby disprove the claim that is based on it.
Respecting the earth or the land of Canaan as being the sanctuary, we offer one thought more. If either constitutes the sanctuary, it should not only be somewhere described as such, but the same idea should be carried through to the end, and the purification of the earth or of Palestine should be called the cleansing of the sanctuary. The earth is indeed defiled, and it is to be purified by fire; but fire, as we shall see, is not the agent that is used in the cleansing of the sanctuary. This purification of the earth, or any part of it, is nowhere in the Bible called the cleansing of the sanctuary.
It Cannot Be the Church.---The solitary text adduced to support the idea that the church is the sanctuary is Psalm 114: 1, 2: “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.” If we take this text in its most literal sense, it would prove that the sanctuary was confined to one of the twelve tribes. This would mean that a part of the church only, not the whole, constituted the sanctuary. Why Judah is called the sanctuary in the text quoted, need not be a matter of perplexity when we remember that God chose Jerusalem, which was in Judah, as the place of His sanctuary. “But chose,” says David, “the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He has established forever.” (Psalm 78: 68, 69.) This clearly shows
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the connection that existed between Judah and the sanctuary. That tribe itself was not the sanctuary, but it is once spoken of as such when Israel came forth from Egypt, because God purposed that in the midst of the territory of that tribe His sanctuary should be located.
If it be shown that the church is anywhere called the sanctuary, it would be of no consequence to our present purpose, which is to determine what constitutes the sanctuary of Daniel 8: 13, 14; for the church is there spoken of as something distinct: “To give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot.” That by “host” the people of God is here meant, none will dispute; the sanctuary is therefore something different from the earth.
The Sanctuary Is the Temple in Heaven.---There now remains but one claim to be examined, namely, that the sanctuary mentioned in the text is identical with the one in Hebrews 8: 1, 2, which is called the “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man,” and which is located in “the heavens.” Of this sanctuary there existed in ancient times a pattern, type, or figure, first in the tabernacle built by Moses, and afterward in the temple at Jerusalem.
Let us put ourselves in the place of Daniel, and view the subject from his standpoint. What would he understand by the term “sanctuary”? At the mention of that word, his mind would inevitably turn to the sanctuary of his people; and certainly he well knew where that was. His mind did turn to Jerusalem, the city of his fathers, which was then in ruins, and to their “beautiful house,” which, as Isaiah laments, was burned with fire. (Isaiah 64: 11.) Accordingly, with his face turned toward the place of their once-venerated temple, as was his custom, Daniel prayed God to cause Hiss face to shine upon His sanctuary, which was at that time desolate. By the word “sanctuary” he evidently understood the temple at Jerusalem.
On this point, the Scripture bears testimony that is most explicit: “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.” Hebrews 9: 1. What was the sanctuary of the first covenant? The answer follows: “For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candle stick, and the table, and the showbread; which was the Holy place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had man’-na, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak in detail.” (Hebrews 9: 2-5.)
There is no mistaking what is described here. It is the tabernacle erected by Moses according to the directions of the Lord (which was afterward merged into the temple at Jerusalem), with the holy and a most holy place, and various articles of service. A full description of this building, as well as the sacred articles of furniture and their uses, will be found in Exodus 255 and onward. If the reader is not familiar with this subject, he is urged to turn and read the description of this building. Plainly, this was the sanctuary of the first covenant, and we wish the reader to carefully mark the logical value of this declaration. By telling us what constitutes the sanctuary, the book of Hebrews sets us on the right track of inquiry. It gives us a basis on which to work. We have before us a distinct and plainly defined object, minutely described by Moses, and declared in Hebrews to be the sanctuary during the time of the first covenant, which reached to the
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days of The Christ, October, A.D. 34; 10 Tishri, A.S. 4003.
But the language in Hebrews has greater significance even than this. It annihilates the claims put forth that the earth, the land of Canaan, or the church, is the sanctuary. The arguments that would prove any of these to be the sanctuary at any time, would prove it to be such under ancient Israel. If Canaan was at any time the sanctuary, it was such when Israel was planted in it. If the church was ever the sanctuary, it was such when Israel was led forth from Egypt. If the earth was ever the sanctuary, it was such during the same period. But were any of these the sanctuary at that time? The answer must be a
resounding, “NO”, for the writers of the books of Exodus and Hebrews tell us the tabernacle built by Moses, replaced by the temple later, constituted the sanctuary of Old Testament times.
The Earthly Sanctuary.---This building answers in every respect to the definition of the term, and to the use for which the sanctuary was designed. It was the earthly dwelling place of God. “Let them make Me a sanctuary,” said He to Moses, “that I may dwell among them.” (Exodus 25: 8.) In this tabernacle, which they erected according to His instructions, He manifested His presence. It was a holy, or sacred place---“the holy sanctuary.” (Leviticus 16:33.) In the word of God it is repeatedly called the sanctuary. Of the more than one hundred thirty instances in which the word is used in the Old Testament, it refers in almost every case to this building.
The tabernacle was at first constructed in such a manner as to be adapted to the conditions under which the children of Israel lived at that time. They were entering upon their forty years’ wandering in the wilderness when this building was set up in their midst as the habitation of God and the center of their religious worship. Journeying was a necessity, and the tabernacle had to be moved from place to place. This was made possible because the sides were composed of upright boards, and the covering consisted of curtains of linen and dyed skins. Therefore, it could be readily taken down, conveniently transported, and easily erected at each successive stage of their journey. After Israel entered the Promised Land, this temporary structure gave place in time to the magnificent temple of Solomon. In this more permanent form the sanctuary existed, except during the time it lay in ruins in Daniel’s day, until its final destruction by the Romans, 28 October, A.D. 70; 10 Tishri, A.S. 4039.
This is the only sanctuary connected with the earth, concerning the which, the Bible gives us any instruction, history, or record. But is there nowhere any other? This one was the sanctuary of the first covenant, and with that covenant it came to an end. Is there no sanctuary that pertains to the second, or new, covenant? There must be, otherwise the analogy would be lacking between the two covenants. In such a case the first covenant would have a system of worship, which, though minutely described, would be unintelligible, and the second covenant would have a system of worship that would be indefinite and obscure. The writer of Hebrews virtually asserts that the new covenant, in force since the death of The Christ, the testator, has a sanctuary; for when, in contrasting the two covenants, as he does in Hebrews 9: 1, he says that the first covenant “had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.” This is the same as saying that the new covenant has likewise its services and its sanctuary. Furthermore, verse 8 of this chapter speaks of the worldly sanctuary as the first tabernacle. If that was the first, there must be a second; and as the first tabernacle existed as long as the first covenant was in
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force, when that covenant came to an end, the second tabernacle must have taken the place of the first, and must be the sanctuary of the new covenant. There can be no evading this conclusion.
The Heavenly Sanctuary.---Where, then, shall we look for the sanctuary of the new covenant? The use of the word “also” in Hebrews 9: 1 intimates that this sanctuary had been spoken of before. We turn back to the beginning of the previous chapter, and find a summary of the foregoing arguments as follows: “Now of the things that we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Can there be any doubt that we have in this text the sanctuary of the new covenant? A plain allusion is here made to the sanctuary of the first covenant. That was pitched by man, and erected by Moses: But this tabernacle was pitched, by the Lord, not by man. That was the place where the earthly priests performed their ministry; but this is the place where The Christ, The High Priest of the new covenant, performs His ministry. That was on the earth; this is in heaven. That was therefore very properly called a “worldly sanctuary;” this one the “heavenly” one.
This view is further sustained by the fact that the sanctuary built by Moses was an original structure, but was built after a pattern. The great original existed somewhere else, and what Moses constructed was but a type, or model. Note the directions the Lord gave him on this point: “According to all that I show you, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it.” Exodus 25: 9. “Look that you make them after their pattern which was showed you in the mount.” Verse 40. (For further clarification of this point, see Exodus 26: 30; 27: 8; Acts 7: 44.)
Now of what was the earthly sanctuary a type, or Antitype?---Of the sanctuary of the new covenant, the “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.” The relation that the first covenant sustains to the second is that of type to antitype. Its sacrifices were types of the greater sacrifice of the new covenant. Its priests were types of our Lord in His more perfect priesthood. Their ministry was preformed unto the example and shadow of the ministry of our High Priest above. The sanctuary where they ministered was a type, or figure, of the true sanctuary in heaven, where our Lord performs His ministry.
All these facts are plainly stated in Hebrews. “If He [The Christ] were on earth, He should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: For, See says He, that you make all things according to the pattern showed you in the mount.” (Hebrews 8: 4, 5.) This testimony shows that the ministry of the earthly priests was a shadow of The Christ’s priesthood. The evidence is in the directions that God gave to Moses to make the tabernacle according to the pattern shown him in the mount. This clearly identifies the pattern shown to Moses with the sanctuary, or true tabernacle, in heaven, where our Lord ministers, as mentioned in Hebrews 8: 2.
The Scriptures further says: “The Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing; which was a figure for the time then present.” (Hebrews 8: 9, 9.) While the first
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tabernacle stood, and the first covenant was in force, the ministration of the more perfect tabernacle was not, of course, carried forward. But when The Christ came, a high priest of good things to come, when the first tabernacle had served its purpose and the first covenant had ceased, then The Christ, raised to the throne of the Majesty in the heavens as a minister of the true sanctuary, entered by His own blood (verse 12) “into the holy place,” that is, the heavenly sanctuary.
Therefore, the first tabernacle was a figure for the time then present. If any further testimony is needed, the writer of Hebrews speaks in verse 23 of the earthly tabernacle, with its apartments and instruments, as “patterns” of things in the heavens; and verse in 24, he calls the holy places made with hands, that is, the earthly tabernacles and temples of ancient Israel, “figures” of the true, that is, of the tabernacle in heaven.
This view is still further corroborated by the testimony of John. Among the things that he was permitted to behold in heaven were seven lamp stands of fire burning before the throne (Revelation 4: 5), and altar of incense, and a golden censer (Revelation 8: 3), and the ark of God’s testament (Revelation 11: 19). All of this was seen in connection with a temple in heaven. (Revelation 11: 19; 15: 8.) These objects every Bible reader must at once recognize as the furniture of the sanctuary. They owed their existence to the sanctuary, and were confined to it, to be employed in the ministration connected therewith. Even as they would not have existed without the sanctuary, so wherever we find them, we may know that there is the sanctuary. Hence, the fact that John saw these things in heaven after the ascension of The Christ, is proof that there is a sanctuary in heaven, and that he was permitted to behold it.
However reluctant a person may have been to acknowledge that there is a sanctuary in heaven, the testimony that has been presented is certainly sufficient to prove this fact. The Bible says that the tabernacle of Moses was the sanctuary of the first covenant. Moses says that God showed him in the mount a pattern, according to which he was to make this tabernacle. The book of Hebrews testifies again that Moses did make it according to the pattern, and that the pattern was the true tabernacle in heaven, which the Lord pitched, and not man; and that of this heavenly sanctuary the tabernacle erected with hands was a true figure, or representation. Finally, to corroborate the statement of the Scriptures that this sanctuary is in heaven, John bears testimony as an eyewitness that he saw it there. What further testimony could be required?
As far as the question of what constitutes the sanctuary is concerned, we now have the sanctuary before us in one harmonious whole. The sanctuary of the Bible---mark it well---consists, first, of the typical tabernacle established by the Hebrews in the exodus from Egypt, which was the sanctuary of the first covenant. Secondly, it consists of the true tabernacle in heaven, of which the former was a type, or figure, which is the sanctuary of the new covenant. These are inseparably related as type and antitype. From the antitype we go back to the type, and from the type we are carried forward naturally and inevitably to the antitype. Thus we see how a sanctuary service has been provided from the exodus to the end of probation, 22 March, A.D. 2031, A.S. 6000.
We have said that Daniel would at once understand by the word “sanctuary” the sanctuary of his people at Jerusalem; so would anyone at the time of its existence. But does the declaration of Daniel 9: 14 have reference to that sanctuary? That depends upon the time to which it applies. All the declarations respecting the sanctuary, which apply
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during the time of ancient Israel, have respect of course to the sanctuary of that time, the earthly, and the old covenant. All the declarations respecting the sanctuary, which apply during the time of the Christian Era have respect of course to the sanctuary of that time, the heavenly, and the new covenant. If the 2300 days, at the termination of which the sanctuary is to be cleansed, ended before The Christ, the sanctuary to be cleansed was the sanctuary of that time. If they reached over into the Christian Era, the sanctuary of this era---the new-covenant sanctuary in heaven. This is a point that can be determined only by further argument on the 2300 days. This will be found in remarks on Daniel 9: 24, where the subject of time is resumed and explained.
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THE REVELATION OF JESES EMANUEL, THE CHRIST,
TO DANIEL, THE PROPHET.
Study # 14.---The Sanctuary Free of Sin.
The Cleansing of the Sanctuary.---What we have thus far said respecting the sanctuary has been only incidental to the main question in the prophecy. That question has respect to its cleansing. “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” But it was necessary first to determine what constituted the sanctuary, before we could understandingly examine the question of its cleansing. For this we are now prepared.
After learning what constitutes the sanctuary, the question of its cleansing and how it is accomplished, is soon decided. It has been noticed that whatever constitutes the sanctuary of the Bible must have some service connected with it which is called its cleansing. There is such as service connected with the institution which we have shown to be the sanctuary, and which, in reference to both the earthly building and the heavenly temple, is called its cleansing.
Does the reader object to the idea of there being anything in heaven that needs to be cleansed? The book of Hebrews plainly affirms the cleansing of both the earthly and the heavenly sanctuary: “Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood there is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the pattern of things to the heavens should be purified [Greek, katharizesthai, cleansed] with these; but the heavenly things themselves [cleansed] with better sacrifices than these.” (Hebrews 9: 22, 23.) In the light of the foregoing arguments, this may be paraphrased thus: “It was therefore necessary that the tabernacle erected by Moses, with its sacred vessels, which were patterns of the true sanctuary in heaven, should be cleansed with the blood of calves, goats, and sheep; but the heavenly things themselves, the sanctuary of the Christian Era, the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man, must be cleansed with better sacrifices, even with the blood of The Christ.”
We now inquire, What is the nature of this cleansing, and how is it to be done? According to the language just quoted, it is accomplished by means of blood. The cleansing is not, therefore, a cleansing from physical uncleanness or impurity, for blood is not the agent used in such work. This consideration should satisfy the objector’s mind in regard to the cleansing of the heavenly things. The fact that heavenly things were cleansed, 22 October, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813, does not prove that there is any physical impurity in heaven, for that is not the kind of cleansing referred to in the Scriptures. The reason assigned why this cleansing is performed with blood, is that without the shedding of blood there is no remission, no forgiveness of sin.
The Cleansing Is From Sin.---Remission of sin, then, and the putting away of sin, is the work to be done. The cleansing, therefore, is not physical cleansing, but a cleansing from sin. But how did sin come to be connected with the sanctuary, in either the earthly or the heavenly, that it should need to be cleansed? This question is answered by the ministration connected with the type, the earthly sanctuary, to which we now turn.
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The closing chapters of Exodus give us an account of the construction of the earthly sanctuary, and the arrangement of the service connected therewith. Leviticus opens an account of the ministration that was there to be performed. All that it is our purpose to notice here is one particular branch of the service. The person who had committed sin brought his offering, a live animal, a lamb, to the door of the tabernacle. Upon the head of this victim he placed his hand for a moment, and as we may reasonably infer, confessed over it his sin. By this expressive act he signified that he had sinned, and was worthy of death, but that in stead he consecrated his victim, and transferred his guilt to it. With his own hand (and what must have been his emotions!) he then took the life of the animal. The law demanded the life of the transgressor for his disobedience. The life is in the blood. (Leviticus 17: 11, 14.) Hence, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission; but with the shedding of blood remission is possible, for the demand of life by the law is thus satisfied. The blood of the victim, representative of a forfeited life, and the vehicle of its guilt, was then taken by the priest and ministered before the Lord.
By his confession, by the slaying of the victim, and by the ministry of the priest, the sin of the individual was transferred from himself to the sanctuary. Victim after victim was thus offered, and, day by day the work went forward, and thus the sanctuary became the receptacle of the sins of the congregation. But this was not the final disposition of these sins. The accumulated guilt was removed by a special service for the cleansing of the sanctuary. This service, in the type, the earthly sanctuary, occupied one day in the year, the tenth day of the seventh month, which was called the Day of Atonement. On this day, while all Israel refrained from work and afflicted their souls, the High Priest brought two goats, and presented them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. On these goats he cast lots, one lot for the Lord, and one lot for the scapegoat. The one upon which the Lord’s lot fell was then slain, and his blood carried, by the High Priest, into the Most Holy place of the sanctuary, and sprinkled upon the mercy seat. This was the only day on which he was permitted to enter that apartment. Coming forth from the Most Holy place, he was then to “lay both his hands upon the head of the live scapegoat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat.” (Leviticus 16: 21.) He was then to send the goat away by the hand of a fit man into a land not inhabited, a land of separation, or forgetfulness, the goat never again to appear in the camp of Israel, and the sins of the people to be remembered against them no more.
This service was for the purpose of cleansing the people from their sins, and also for the cleansing of the sanctuary, its furniture, and its sacred vessels from the sins of the people. (Leviticus 16: 16, 30, 33.) By this process, sin was entirely removed. Of course this was only in figure, for all that work was typical.
The reader, to whom these views are new, will perhaps be ready here to inquire, with some astonishment, What could this strange work possibly be designed to typify, and what was it designed to prefigure in our day? We answer, A similar work in the ministration of The Christ, as the Scriptures clearly teach. After the statement in Hebrews 8: 2 that The Christ is the minister of the true tabernacle, the sanctuary in heaven, it is declared in verse 5 that the priests on earth served “unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.” In other words, the work of the earthly priests was a shadow, a type of the ministration of The Christ above.
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The Ministration in Figure and in Fact.---These typical priests ministered in both apartments of the earthly tabernacle, and The Christ ministers in both apartments of the heavenly temple. The temple in heaven has two apartments, if not, it is not correctly represented by the type and shadow; the earthly sanctuary. Our Lord officiates in both apartments, or the ministration of the priest on earth was not a correct type and shadow of His work. It is stated plainly in Hebrews 9: 21-24 that both the tabernacle and all the vessels in the ministry were “patterns of things in the heavens.” Therefore, the service performed by The Christ in the heavenly temple corresponds to that performed by the priests in both apartments of the earthly building. But the work in the second apartment, or most holy place, was a special work to close the yearly round of service and cleanse the sanctuary. Hence, The Christ’s ministration in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary is, must be, a work of like nature, and constitutes the close of His work as our great High Priest, and the cleansing of the sanctuary.
As by the typical sacrifices of old, the sins of the people were transferred, in figure, by the priests, to the earthly sanctuary, where they ministered; so, ever since The Christ ascended, to be our intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary, the sins of all those who sincerely seek pardon, through Him, were transferred in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. Whether The Christ ministers for us in the heavenly holy places, by His blood, literally, or only by virtue of its merits, we need not stop to inquire. Suffice it to say that His blood has been shed, and through that blood, remission of sin is obtained in fact, which was obtained only in figure through the blood of the lambs, calves, and goats of the former ministration. But those typical sacrifices had real virtue in the respect that they signified faith in a real sacrifice to come. Thus, those who employed them have an equal interest in the work of The Christ with those who in our era come to Him by faith through the ordinances of the gospel.
The continual transfer of sins to the heavenly sanctuary makes its cleansing necessary on the same ground that a like work was required in the earthly sanctuary. An important distinction between the two ministrations must here be noticed. In the earthly tabernacle, a complete round of service was accomplished every year. On every day of the year, the ministration of the sin sacrifices, went forward, in the first apartment. On the Day of Atonement, Day of Judgment, tenth day, seventh month, Tishri, the High Priest, in the most holy, in his work of cleansing the sanctuary, completed the yearly round of services. The work continued in the holy place until another Day of Atonement, Day of Judgment completed the year’s work. A succession of priests performed this round of service in the earthly sanctuary. But our divine Lord “ever lives to make intercession” for us. (Hebrews 7: 25.) Hence, the cleansing work of the heavenly sanctuary, instead of being a yearly work, was performed once, for all, 22 October, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813. The beginning of the heavenly Day of Atonement is, March, A.D. 1031; A.S. 5000, and the end, the close of probation, is 22 March, A.D. 2031; A.S. 6000. Instead of being repeated year by year, one grand cycle is allotted to it, in which it is carried forward and finished forever. Amen.
One year’s round of service in the earthly sanctuary represents the entire work of the entire work of the sanctuary above. In the type, the cleansing of the sanctuary was the brief closing work of the year’s service. In the antitype, the cleansing of the sanctuary is the closing work of The Christ, our great High Priest, in the tabernacle in heaven. In the
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type, to cleanse the sanctuary, the high priest entered into the most holy place, to minister in the presence of God, before the ark of His testament. In the antitype, when the time came for the cleansing of the true sanctuary, 22 October, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813, our High Priest, in like manner, entered into the most holy place, once for all, for all eternity, to make a final end of His intercessory work in behalf of mankind, and probation closes 22 March, A.D. 2031; A.S. 6000.
Dear reader, do you now see the importance of this subject? Do you begin to perceive, what an object of interest, for the entire world, is the sanctuary of God? Do you see that the whole plan of salvation centers here, and when it is done, probation is ended, 22 March, A.D. 2031; A.S. 6000, and the cases of the saved and lost are eternally decided? Do you see that the cleansing of the sanctuary is a brief and special work by which the great plan of salvation is forever finished? Do you see that the atonement work, cleansing work, was accomplished 22 October, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813, and do you see that the close of your and my probation is 22 March, A.D. 2031; A.S. 6000. The world was, and still is, admonished to “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.” (Revelation 14: 7.) The hour of His judgment was, 22 October, A.D. 1844; A.S. 5813, and the close of this earths probation is, 22 March, A.D. 2031; A.S. 6000. The heavenly sanctuary is the one in which the decision of all cases is rendered. The progress of the work there should be the special concern of mankind. If you understood the bearing of these subjects on your eternal interests, you would give them your most careful and prayerful study.
“And it came to pass, when I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.” (Daniel 8: 15, 16.)
We now enter upon the interpretation of the vision. We have already mentioned Daniel’s longing to understand these things. He sought for the meaning. Immediately there stood before the prophet one who had the appearance of a man. Daniel heard a man’s voice, that is, the voice of an angel as of a man speaking. The commandment was given to make this man, Daniel, to understand the vision. It was addressed to Gabriel, a name that signifies “the strength of God,” or “man of God.” He continues his instruction to Daniel in chapter 9. Centuries later this same angel was commissioned to announce the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zacharias, and that of the Messiah to the virgin Mary. (Luke 1: 26.) To Zacharias, he introduced himself with these words: “I am Gabriel, that stands in the presence of God.” (Luke 1: 19.) From this, it appears that Gabriel was here addressed, by one still higher in rank, who had power to command and control his work. This was none other than The Word.
“So he came near where I stood: And when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: But he said unto me, ‘Understand, O son of man: For at the time of the end shall be the vision.’ Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: But he touched me, and set me upright. And he said, ‘Behold, I will make you to know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: For at the time
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appointed, the end shall be.” (Daniel 8: 17-19.)
As stated, it was not for the purpose of worship, which caused Daniel to fall before the angel; he was completely overwhelmed, afraid, and overcome by the majesty of the heavenly messenger. He fell prostrated, face first, to the ground. The angel laid his hand upon him to give him assurance (How many times have mortals been told by heavenly beings to “fear not”! and from this helpless and prostrate condition set him upright.
With a general statement that at the time appointed the end shall be, and that he will make him to know “what shall be in the last end of the indignation,” the angel enters upon an interpretation of the vision. “The indignation” must be understood to cover a period of time. What period of time? God told His people Israel that He would pour upon them His indignation for their wickedness; and thus He gave directions concerning the “profane wicked prince of Israel:” “Remove the diadem, and take off the crown. . . . I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: And it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.” (Ezekiel 21: 25-27, 31.)
Here is the period of God’s indignation against His covenant people, Israel, the period during which the sanctuary and host are to be trodden underfoot. The diadem was removed, and the crown taken off, when Israel was subjected to the kingdom of Babylon. It was overturned by the Medes and Persians; again by the Grecians; again by the Romans, thus corresponding to the three times the word is repeated by the prophet. The Jews, having rejected The Christ, were soon scattered abroad over the face of the earth. Spiritual Israel, the followers of The Christ, and the Apostles, has taken the place of literal seed, Israel; but we are in subjection to earthly powers, and will be until the throne of David is again set up---until He who is its rightful heir, the Messiah, the Prince of peace, shall come, 27 March, A.D. 2036; A.S. 6005. Then the indignation will have ceased. The events that shall take place in the end of this period are now to be made known to Daniel, by the angel.
“The Ram that you saw having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: And the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.” (Daniel 8: 20-22.)
The Vision Interpreted.---As the disciples said to the Lord, so may we here say of the angel who spoke to Daniel, “Lord, will you now speak plainly, and no proverbs?” This explanation of the vision is in language plain to be understood. The distinguishing feature of the Persian Empire, the union of the two nationalities that composed it, is represented by the two horns of the ram. Grecia attained its greatest glory as a unit under the leadership of Alexander the Great, a general as famous as the world has ever seen. This part of her history is represented by the first phase of the goat, during which time the one notable horn symbolized Alexander the Great. Upon his death, the kingdom fragmented, but soon consolidated into four grand divisions. These were represented by the second phase of the goat, when it had four horns that came up in the place of the one, which had been broken. These divisions did not stand in his power. None of them
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possessed the strength of the original kingdom. These great way-marks of history, on which the historians have written volumes, the inspired penman here gives us in sharp outline, with a few strokes of the pen.
“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressions are accomplished, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by prosperity shall destroy many: He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” (Daniel 8: 23-25.)
This power succeeds the four divisions of the goat kingdom in the latter time of their kingdom, that is, toward the termination of their career. It is of course the same as the little horn of verse 9 and onward. Apply it to Rome, as set forth in remarks on verse 9, and all is harmonious and clear.
“A King of Fierce Countenance.--- In predicting punishment to come upon the Jews from this same power, Moses calls it “a nation of fierce countenance.” (Deuteronomy 28: 49, 50.) No people made a more formidable appearance in warlike array than the Romans.
As to “understanding dark sentences,” Moses says, in the scripture before mentioned, “Whose tongue you [the Jews] shall not understand.” This could not be said of the Babylonians, Persians, or Greeks, in reference to the Jews; for the Chaldean and Greek languages were used to some extent in Palestine. This was not the case, however, with the Latin language.
When do the transgressors “come to the full”? All along, the connection between God’s people and their oppressors is kept in view. It was on account of the transgressions of His people that they were sold into captivity. Their continuance in sin brought more and more severe punishment. At no time were the Jews as a nation more corrupt morally than at the time they came under the jurisdiction of the Romans.
Papal Rome, “Mighty, but Not by Her Own Power.”---The success of the Romans was owing to the aid of their allies, and divisions among their enemies, of which they were ever ready to take advantage. Papal Rome also was mighty by means of the secular powers over which she exercised spiritual control.
“He shall destroy wonderfully.” The Lord told the Jews by the prophet Ezekiel that He would deliver them to men who were “skillful to destroy” (Ezekiel 21: 31); and the slaughter of eleven hundred thousand Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army, was a terrible confirmation of the prophet’s words. Rome in its second, or papal, phase was responsible for the death of millions of martyrs.
“Through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand.” Rome has been distinguished above all other powers for a policy of craft, by means of which it brought the nations under it control. This is true of both pagan and papal Rome. Thus, by peace it destroyed many.
Finally, in the person of one of its governors, Rome stood up against the Princes of princes, by giving sentence of death against Jesus, The Christ. “But he shall be broken
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without hands.” This parallels the prophecy of Daniel 2: 34, where the stone “cut out without hands” destroys all earthly powers.
“And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: Wherefore, keep it to yourself; for it shall be for many days. 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.” (Daniel 8: 26, 27.)
“The vision of the evening and the morning” refers to the period of 2300 days. In view of the long period of oppression, and the calamities that were to come upon his people, Daniel fainted and was sick for a while. He was astonished at the vision, but did not understand it. Why did not Gabriel at this time fully carry out his instructions, and cause Daniel to understand the vision? Undoubtedly because Daniel had received all the instructions he could bear. Further instruction is therefore deferred to a future time.
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THE REVELATION OF JESUS EMANUEL, THE WORD,
TO THE PROPHET, DANIEL.
Study # 15---A Prophetic Yardstick Spans The Centuries. Daniel Chapter 9.
“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the ruin of Jerusalem.” (Daniel 9: 1, 2.)
The vision recorded in the preceding chapter was given in the third year of Beltshazzar, B.C. 538; A.S. 3431. The events narrated in this chapter occurred in the first year of Darius. Since Beltshazzar was the last ruler of Babylon, and Darius the first ruler of Medo-Persia, probably less than a year elapsed between the events of these two chapters.
The Seventy Years of Captivity.---Although Daniel, as prime minister of the foremost kingdom on the earth, was cumbered with cares and burdens, he did not let this deprive him of the privilege of studying into things of a higher moment---the purposes of God revealed to His prophets. He understood by books, that is, the writings of Jeremiah, that God would accomplish seventy years in the captivity of His people. This prediction is found in Jeremiah 25: 12; 29: 10. The knowledge of it, and the use that was made of it, shows that Jeremiah was early regarded as a divinely inspired prophet; otherwise his writings would not have been so soon collected, and so extensively copied. Though for a time contemporary with him, Daniel had a copy of his works that he carried with him in his captivity. Though he was so great a prophet himself, he was not above studying carefully what God might reveal to others of His servants.
The seventy years of captivity must not be confused with the seventy weeks that follow. Dating the period of the seventy years of captivity from B.C. 606; A.S. 3363, Daniel understood that they were now drawing to a close, and that God had even begun the fulfillment of the prophecy by overthrowing the kingdom of Babylon.
“And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” (Daniel 9: 3.)
Because God has promised, we are not released from the responsibility of beseeching Him for the fulfillment of His word. Daniel might have reasoned in this manner: God has promised to release His people at the end of the seventy years, and He will accomplish this promise; I need not therefore concern myself at all in the matter. Daniel did not thus reason; but as the time drew near for the accomplishment of the word of the Lord, he set himself to seek the Lord with all his heart.
How earnestly he engaged in the work, even with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes! This was probably the year when Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. The reader will recall that the decree approved by the king had forbidden all his subjects to ask any petition of any god except the king, on pain of death. But regardless of the decree, Daniel
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prayed this prayer three times a day with his window open toward Jerusalem.
“And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, ‘O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and Mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments.’” (Daniel 9: 4.)
Daniel’s Remarkable Prayer.---We have here the opening of Daniel’s wonderful prayer, a prayer expressing such humiliation and contrition of heart that one must be without feeling who can read it unmoved. He begins by acknowledging the faithfulness of God, who never fails in any of His engagements with His followers. It was not from any lack on God/s part in defending and upholding them, that, the Jews were then in captivity, but only on account of their sins.
“‘We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and from Your judgments: Neither have we listened unto Your servants the prophets, which spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs unto You, but unto us shame of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither You have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against You. O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed Your law, even by departing, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him. And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: For under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: Yet we did not pray to the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand Your truth. Therefore has the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: For the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He does: For we obeyed not His voice.’” Daniel 9: 5-14.)
To this point Daniel’s prayer is employed in making a full and heartbroken confession of sin. He vindicates fully the course of the Lord, acknowledging the sins of his people to be the cause of all their calamities, as God had threatened them by the prophet Moses. He does not discriminate in favor of himself. No self-righteousness appears in his petition. Although he had suffered long for others’ sins, enduring seventy years of captivity for the wrongs of his people, he lived a godly life, and received signal honors and blessings from the Lord. He brings no accusations against anyone, pleads no sympathy for himself as a victim of others’ wrongs, but classes himself with the rest, saying, “We have sinned, and unto us belongs shame of face.” He acknowledges that they had not heeded the lessons God designed to teach them by their afflictions.
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“And now, O Lord our God, that has brought Your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has gotten You renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I beseech You, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain: Because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. O my God, incline Your ear, and hear; open Your eyes, and see our desolation, and the city which is called by Your name: For we do not present our supplications before You for our righteousness, but for Your great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hear and do; defer not, for Your own sake, O my God: Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Daniel 9: 15-19.)
The prophet now pleads the honor of the Lord’s name as a reason why he desires his petition to be granted. He refers to the fact of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the great renown that had accrued to the Lord’s name for all His wonderful works manifested among them. All this would be lost, should He now abandon them to perish. Moses used the same argument in pleading for Israel. (Numbers 14.) Not that God is moved with motives of ambition and vainglory; but when His people are jealous for the honor of His name, when they evince their love for Him by pleading with Him to work, not for their own personal benefit, but for His own glory, that His name may not be reproached and blasphemed among the heathen, this is acceptable with Him. Daniel then intercedes for the city of Jerusalem, called by God’s name, and His holy mountain, for which He has had such love, and beseeches Him for His Mercies’ sake, to let His anger be turned away. Finally, his mind centers upon the holy sanctuary, God’s own dwelling place upon this earth, and he pleads that its desolation may be repaired.
Daniel understood the seventy years of captivity to be near their termination. From his allusion to the sanctuary, it is evident that he so far misunderstood the important vision given him in Daniel 8 as to the suppose that the 2300 days expired at the same time. This misapprehension was at once corrected when the angel came to give him further instruction in answer to his prayer.
“And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.” (Daniel 9: 20, 21.)
Daniel’s Prayer Is Answered.---We here have the result of Daniel’s supplication. He is suddenly interrupted by a heavenly messenger. The angel Gabriel, appearing again as he had before in the form of a man, whom Daniel had seen in the vision at the beginning, touched him. An important question is at this point to be determined, namely, Has the vision of Daniel 8 ever been explained, and can it ever be understood? To what vision
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does Daniel refer by the expression, “the vision at the beginning”? It will be conceded by all that it is a vision of which we have some previous record, and that in that vision we shall find some mention of Gabriel. We must go back beyond this 9th chapter, for all that we have in this chapter, previous to this appearance of Gabriel, is simply a record of Daniel’s prayer. Looking back, then, through previous chapters, we find mention of only three visions given to Daniel. The interpretation of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar was given in a night vision. (Daniel 2: 19.) But there is no record of any angelic agency in the matter. The vision of Daniel 7 was explained to Daniel by “one of them that stood by,” probably an angel; but we have no information as to what angel, nor is there anything in that vision, which needed further explanation. The vision of Daniel 8 gives some particulars that show this to be the vision referred to. Gabriel is there introduced by name. He was commanded to make Daniel understand the vision. Daniel had said that he did not understand it, showing that Gabriel, at the conclusion of Daniel 8, had not completed his mission. There is no place, in the Bible, where this instruction is continued, if it is not in Daniel 9. If therefore, the vision of Daniel 8 is not the one referred to, we have no record that Gabriel ever complied fully with the instructions given him, or that that vision has ever been explained. The instruction that the angel now gives to Daniel, as we shall see from the following verses, does exactly complete what was lacking in Daniel 8. These considerations prove beyond a doubt the connection between Daniel 8 and 9, and this conclusion will be still further strengthened by a consideration of the angel’s instructions.
“And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, ‘O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding. At the beginning of your supplication the commandment came forth, and I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved: Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.’” (Daniel 9: 22, 23.)
Gabriel’s Mission.---The manner in which Gabriel introduced himself on this occasion shows that he has come to complete some unfinished mission. This can be nothing less than to carry out the instruction to make this man “understand the vision,” as recorded in Daniel 8. He says, “I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding.” As the charge still rests upon him to make Daniel understand, and as he had explained to Daniel in chapter 8 all that he could then bear, and yet he did not understand the vision, he now comes to resume his work and complete his mission. As soon as Daniel began his fervent supplication, the commandment came forth; for Gabriel received instruction to visit Daniel, and impart to him the requisite information.
From the time it takes to read Daniel’s prayer down to the point at which Gabriel made his appearance upon the scene, the reader can judge of the speed with which this messenger was dispatched from the court of heaven to this servant of God. No wonder that Daniel says he was caused to fly swiftly, or that Ezekiel compares the movements of these celestial beings to a flash of lightning. (Ezekiel 1: 14.)
“Understand the matter.” He says to Daniel. What matter? Evidently the matter that he did not understand, as stated in the last verse of Daniel 8. “Consider the vision.” What vision? Not the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, or the vision of Daniel 7, for there was no difficulty with either of these; but the vision of Daniel 8, in reference
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to which his mind was filled with astonishment and lack of understanding. “I am come to show you, also said the angel.
Daniel had no difficulty in understanding what the angel told him about the ram, the he-goat, and the little horn, symbolizing the kingdoms of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Nor was he mistaken in regard to the ending of the seventy years’ captivity. But the burden of his petition was in respect to the repairing of the desolations of the sanctuary, which lay in ruin. He had undoubtedly drawn the conclusion that the time for the fulfillment of what the angel had said in regard to the cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of the 2300 days. Now he must be set right. This explains why at this particular time, so soon after the previous vision, instruction was sent to him.
The seventy years of captivity were drawing to a close. Daniel was acting upon a misunderstanding. He must not be suffered longer to remain ignorant of the true import of the former vision. “I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding,” said the angel. How could the connection between the former visit of the angel and this one be more distinctly shown than by such words at such a time from such a person?
Daniel Greatly Beloved.---One expression seems worthy of notice before we leave verse 23. It is the declaration of the angel to Daniel, “For you are greatly beloved.” The angel brought this declaration direct from the courts of heaven. It expressed the state of feeling that existed there in regard to Daniel. Think of celestial beings, the highest in the universe, God, the holy angels, having such esteem for a mortal man here upon earth as to authorize an angel to bear the message to him that he is greatly beloved! This is one of the highest pinnacles of glory that mortals can attain. Abraham reached another, when it could be said of him that he was the “friend of God;” And Enoch another, when it could be said of him that he “walked with God.” Can we arrive at any such attainment? God is no respecter of persons; but He is a respecter of character. If in virtue and godliness we could equal these eminent men, we could move the divine love to equal depths. We, too, could be greatly beloved---could be friends of God, and could walk with Him. We must be in our generation what they were in theirs.
There is a figure used in reference to the last church that denotes the closest union with God. “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3: 20.) To sup with the Lord denotes an intimacy equal to being greatly beloved by Him, walking with Him, or being His friend. How desirable a position! Alas, for the evils of our nature, that cut us off from this communion! O for the grace to overcome these, that we may enjoy this spiritual union here, and finally enter the glories of His presence at the marriage supper of the Lamb!!
“Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.” (Daniel 9: 24.)
The Seventy Weeks.---These are the first words the angel uttered to Daniel in imparting to him that instruction which he came to give. Why did he thus abruptly introduce a period of time? We must again refer to the vision of Daniel 8. We have seen
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that Daniel, at the close of that chapter, says that he did not understand the vision. Some parts of that vision were at the time clearly explained. It could not have been these parts that he did not understand. We therefore inquire what it was that Daniel did not understand, or what part of the vision was left unexplained.
In that vision four prominent things are brought to view:
1. The ram,
2. The he-goat,
3. The little horn, and
4. The period of 2300 days.
The symbols of the ram, the he-goat, and the little horn were explained, but nothing was said respecting the period of time. This must therefore have been the point that he did not understand. The other parts of the vision were of no avail while the application of this period of 2300 days was left in obscurity.
Says the learned Dr. Hales, in commenting upon the seventy weeks, “This chronological prophecy . . . was evidently designed to explain the foregoing vision, especially in its chronological part of the 2300 days.”
If this view of the subject is correct, we should naturally expect the angel to begin with the point which had been omitted, namely, the time. This we find to be true in fact. After citing Daniel’s attention to the former vision in the most direct and emphatic manner, and assuring him that he had now come forth to give him understanding, he begins with the very point there omitted: “Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city.”
Cut Off From the 2300 Days.---But how does this language show any connection with the 2300 days, or throw any light upon that period? We answer: The language cannot be intelligently referred to anything else. The word here rendered “determined” signifies “cut off,” and no other period is given in the vision here referred to from which the seventy weeks could be cut off, except the 2300 days. How direct and natural, then, is the connection. “Seventy weeks are cut off.” Cut off from what?---The 2300 days, most assuredly.
The word “determined” in this clause is a translation of the Hebrew nechtak, based on a primitive root defined by Strong as meaning “to cut off, (i.e., fig.) to decree---determine” (the latter by implication). The Authorized Version employs the remoter definition by implication, “determine,” as in the text before us. The Revised Version uses the second definition, and makes it read, “seventy weeks are decreed [e.i., allotted] upon your people.” Taking the basic and simpler definition, we have “seventy weeks are cut off for your people.” If cut off, it must be from some larger than itself---in this case from the 2300 years of the prophecy heretofore discussed. It may be added that Gesenius gives the same definition as Strong: “to cut off, . . . to divide, and so to determine, to decree.<