THOUGHTS ON DANIEL by Eld. U. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 18, 1881

THOUGHTS ON DANIEL.

By Eld. U. Smith

BY ELD. U. SMITH.

CHAPTER II.—THE GREAT IMAGE.

"AND after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee." The use of the word kingdom, here, shows that kingdoms, and not particular kings, are represented by the different parts of this image; and hence, when it was said to Nebuchadnezzar, "Thou art this head of gold," the kingdom, not the king, was meant.

The succeeding kingdom, Medo-Persia, is the one which answers to the breast and arms of silver. It was to be inferior to the preceding kingdom. In what respect inferior? Not in power; for it was its conqueror. Not in extent; for Cyrus subdued all the East from the Egean Sea to the River Indus, and thus erected the most extensive empire that the world had, up to that time, seen. But it was inferior in wealth, luxury, and magnificence.

Whether it was designed as the fulfillment of the prophecy or not, it is at least an interesting co-incidence that the kingdom answering to that portion of the image where the two arms are located, was composed of the union of two nationalities, the Medes and Persians. And this is rendered the more significant from the fact that this feature is distinctly marked in the other symbols representing the same empire, namely the bear of chapter 7, and the ram of chapter 8. This fact is not observable in other symbols of the fourth kingdom; and the two legs, as we shall see, cannot be taken to represent two divisions in that empire.

Viewed from a Scriptural stand-point, the principal event under the Babylonish Empire, was the captivity of the children of Israel; so the principal event under the Medo-Persian kingdom, was their restoration to their own land. At the taking of Babylon, B. C. 538, Cyrus, as an act of courtesy, had assigned the first place in the kingdom to his uncle, Darius. But two years afterward, B. C. 536, occured the death of Darius; and in the same year also died Cambyses, king of Persia, Cyrus' father. By these events, Cyrus was left sole monarch of the empire. In this year, which closed the seventy years' captivity, was issued the famous decree of Cyrus 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, which was completed in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, B. C. 457, and marked the commencement of the 2300 days of Dan. 8, as will hereafter appear, the longest and most important prophetic period mentioned in the Bible.

After a reign of seven years, Cyrus left the kingdom to his son, Cambyses, called Ahasuerus in Ez. 4:6, who reigned seven years and five months, to B. C. 522. Eight monarchs, whose reigns varied from seven months to forty-six years each, took the throne in order till the year B. C. 336, as follows: Smerdis the Magian, seven months, called Artaxerxes in Ez. 4:7, in the year B. C. 522; Darius Hystaspes, from B. C. 521 to 486; Xerxes, from B. C. 485 to 465; Artaxerxes Longimanus, from B. C. 464 to 424; Darius Nothus, from B. C. 423 to 405; Artaxerxes Mnemon, from B. C. 404 to 359; Ochus, from B. C. 358 to 338; Arses from B. C. 337 to 336. The year 335 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 the greatest personal valor, and of a mild and generous disposition. Had he lived at any other age, a long and splendid career would undoubtedly have been his. But it was his ill fortune to have to contend with one who was an agent in the fulfillment of prophecy, and no qualifications, natural or acquired, could render him successful in the unequal contest. Scarce was he warm upon the throne, says the last-named historian, ere he found his formidable enemy, Alexander, preparing to dismount him from it.

The cause and particulars of the contest between the Greeks and Persians we need not stop to follow. The deciding point was reached on the field of Arbela, B. C. 331, in which the Grecians, though only one to twenty in number, as compared with the Persians, were entirely victorious; and Alexander thenceforth became absolute lord of the Persian empire to the utmost extent ever possessed by any of its own kings.

"And another third kingdom of brass shall bear rule over all the earth," said the prophet. So few and brief are the inspired words, which involve in their fulfillment a change of the world's rulers. In the ever-changing political kaleidoscope, Grecia now comes into the field of vision, to be, for a time, the all-absorbing object of attention, as the third of what are called the great universal empires of the earth.

After the fatal battle which decided the fate of the empire, Darius still 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 did Darius elude the grasp of his swiftly-following foe. At length two traitors, Bessus and Nabarzanes, seized the unfortunate prince, shut him up in a close cart, and fled with him as their prisoner toward Bactria. It was their purpose, if Alexander pursued them, to purchase their own safety by delivering up their king. Hereupon Alexander, learning of Darius' dangerous position 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 his cart, while they mounted their steeds and rode away.

When Alexander came up, life was extinct. As he gazed upon the corpse, he might have learned a profitable lesson of the instability of human fortune. Here was a man who, but a few months before, possessed of many noble and generous qualities, was seated upon the throne of universal empire. Disaster, overthrow, and desertion, had come suddenly upon him. His kingdom had been conquered, his treasure seized, and his family reduced to captivity. And 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 even from the eyes of Alexander, familiar though he was with all the horrible vicissitudes and bloody scenes of war. Throwing his cloak over the body, he commanded it to be conveyed to the captive ladies of Susa, himself furnishing the necessary means for a royal funeral. For this generous act, let us give him credit; for he stands sadly in need of all that is his due.

When Darius fell, 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 Grecian fable, Bacchus and Hercules, two sons of Jupiter, whose son he also claimed to be, had done the same. He conquered all that there was any necessity for conquering, and then is said to have wept that he had not another world to conquer. For what? That he might do good to his fellow-men, bless and elevate the race and ameliorate their woes? No; but to gratify his own insatiable thirst for power, and to pander to his ungovernable lusts. With contemptible arrogance, he claimed for himself divine honors. He gave up conquered cities, freely and unprovoked, to the absolute mercy of his blood-thirsty and licentious soldiery. He himself often murdered his own friends and favorites in his drunken frenzies. He sought out the vilest persons for the gratification of his lust. At the instigation of a dissolute and drunken woman, he, with a company of his courtiers, all in a state of beastly intoxication, sallied out, torch in hand, and fired the city and palace of Persepolis, one of the finest palaces in the world. He encouraged such excessive drinking among his followers that on one occasion twenty of them together died as the result of their carousal. At length, he, having sat through one long drinking spree, was immediately invited to another, when, after drinking to each of the twenty guests present, he twice drank full, says history, incredible as it may seem, the Herculean cup containing six of our quarts. He thereupon fell down, seized with a violent fever, of which, in a few days after, he died, in the very prime of life, aged 33.

Such was Alexander, whom the fulsome pages of history style "the great." If vice, and cruelty, and vain-glory, and love of power, and thirst for blood, constitute greatness, he was great; if otherwise, he was a monster, the more monstrous because his powers of mind, some of which he possessed to a remarkable degree, were prostituted to unholy ends. But he was an agent in the hands of God in the fulfillment of his word; and when that work was accomplished, he was cast away as a loathsome thing, unworthy of any further notice.

The progress of the Grecian Empire, we need not stop to trace here, since its distinguishing features will claim more particular notice under other prophecies. Daniel thus continues in his interpretation of the great image:—

VERSE 40. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Thus far in the application of this prophecy there is a general agreement among expositors. That Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Grecia, are represented respectively by the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, and the sides of brass, is acknowledged by all. But with just as little ground for diversity of views, there is still a difference of opinion as to what answers to the fourth division of the great image, the legs of iron. On this point we have only to inquire, What kingdom did succeed Grecia in the empire of the world? for the legs of iron denote the fourth kingdom in the series. The testimony of history is full and explicit on this point. One kingdom did this, and one only; and that was Rome. It conquered Grecia; it subdued all things; like iron it broke in pieces and bruised. Gibbon, though perhaps unconscious of the fact, used the very figure of the prophecy, when describing this empire. He says:—

"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 or their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome."

At the opening of the Christian era, this empire took in the whole south of Europe, France, England, the greater part of the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the south of Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Greece; not to speak of its possessions in Asia and Africa. Well, therefore, may Gibbon add:—

"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. And 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.