THOUGHTS ON DANIEL by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 17, 1881

THOUGHTS ON DANIEL.

By Uriah Smith

BY ELD. U. SMITH.

CHAPTER VIII.—THE RAM, HE-GOAT, AND LITTLE HORN.

"We now come once more," says Dr. Clarke, "to the Hebrew, the Chaldee part of the book being finished. As the Chaldeans had a particular interest both in the history and prophecies from chap. 2:4, to the end of Chap. 7, the whole is written in Chaldee; but as the prophecies which remain concern times posterior to the Chaldean monarchy, and principally relate 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."

Verse 1. In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

One prominent characteristic of the sacred writings, and one which should forever shield them from the charge of being works of fiction, is the frankness and freedom with which the writers state all the circumstances connected with that which they record. This verse states the time when the vision recorded in this chapter was given to Daniel. The first year of Belshazzar is set down as B. C. 555. His third year, in which this vision was given, would consequently be 553. If Daniel, as is supposed, was about twenty years of age when he was carried to Babylon, in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 606, he was at this time about seventy-three years of age. The vision he speaks of as the one "which appeared unto him at the first," is doubtless the vision of the seventh chapter, which he had in the first year of Belshazzar.

Verse 2. And I saw in a 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.

As verse 1 states the time when, this verse gives the place where, the vision was given. Shushan, as we learn from Prideaux, was the metropolis of the province of Elam. This was then in the hands of the Babylonians, and there the king of Babylon had a royal palace. Daniel, as minister of State, and employed about the king's business, was accordingly in that place. About three years after this time, Abradates, viceroy or prince of Shushan, revolted 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 it regained its liberties which it had been deprived of by the Babylonians, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah 49:39.

Verse 3. Then I lifted up mine 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. 4. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beast might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.

In verse 20 an interpretation of this symbol is given in plain language: "The ram which thou sawest, having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia." We have only therefore to consider how well the symbol answers to the power in question. The two horns represented the two nationalities of which the empire consisted. The higher came up last. This represented the Persian element, which, from being at first simply an ally of the Medes, came to be the leading division of the empire. The different directions in which the ram was seen pushing, denote the directions in which the Medes and Persians carried their conquests. No earthly powers could stand before them while they were marching up to the exalted position to which the providence of God had pointed them. And so successfully were their conquests prosecuted that in the days of Ahasuerus (Esth. 1:1), the Medo-Persian kingdom extended from India to Ethiopia, the extremities of the then known world, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. The prophecy almost seems to fall short of the facts as stated in history, when it simply says that this power did according to its will, and became great.

Verse 5. And as I was considering, behold, he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 6. 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. 7. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

"As I was considering," says the prophet; and in this he sets an example for every lover of the truth, and all who have any regard for things higher than the objects of time and sense. When Moses saw the burning bush, he said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight." But how few are willing at the present time to turn aside from their pursuits of business or pleasure, to consider those important themes to which both the mercy and the providence of God are striving to call their attention.

The symbol here introduced is also explained by the angel to Daniel. Verse 21: "And the rough goat is the king [or kingdom] of Grecia." Concerning the fitness of this symbol to the Grecian or Macedonian people, Bishop Newton observes that, "two hundred years before the time of Daniel, they were called Ægeadæ, the goats' people; the origin of which name is said to be as follows: 'Carnaus, their first king, going with a multitude of Greeks to seek a new habitation in Macedonia, was advised by an oracle to take the goats for his guide; and afterward, seeing a herd of goats flying from a violent storm, he followed them to Edessa, and there fixed the seat of his empire, and made the goats his ensigns or standards, and called the place Æge or Ægea, the goats' town, and the people Ægeadæ, the goats' people; names which are derived from aix, aigos, a goat. The city of Æge or Ægea, was the usual burying-place of the Macedonian kings; and in reference to this origin, Alexander called his son by Roxana, Alexander Ægus, Alexander the goat. All this shows the very great propriety of the symbol here used."

The goat came from the west. Grecia lay west of Persia.

"On the face of the whole earth." He covered all the ground as he passed; that is, he swept everything before him; he left nothing behind.

He "touched not the ground." Such was the speed and celerity of his movements, that he did not seem to touch the ground, but to fly from point to point, with the speed of the wind; the same feature is brought to view by the four wings of the leopard in the vision of chapter 7.

The notable horn between his eyes. This is explained in verse 21 to be the first king of the Macedonian Empire. This king was Alexander the Great.

Verses 6 and 7 give a concise account of the overthrow of the Persian Empire by Alexander. The contests between the Greeks and Persians are said to have been exceedingly furious; and some of the scenes as recorded in history are vividly brought to mind by the words of the prophecy, a ram standing before the river, and the goat running unto him in the fury of his power. Alexander first vanquished the generals of Darius at the river Granicus in Phrygia; he next attacked and totally routed Darius, at the straits of Issus in Cilicia, and afterwards on the plains of Arbela in Syria. This battle occurred B. C. 331, and marks the conclusion of the Persian Empire; for by this event Alexander became complete master of the whole country. Bishop Newton quotes verse 6: "And he [the goat] came to the ram which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power," and adds: "One can hardly read these words, without having some image of Darius' 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 B. C. 332, but it was not till the battle Arbela, the year following, that he became, according to Prideaux (i, p. 378), "absolute lord of that empire to the utmost extent in which it was ever possessed by the Persian kings." On the eve of this engagement, Darius sent ten of his chief relations to sue for peace; and upon their presenting their conditions to Alexander, he replied, "Tell your sovereign . . . that the world will not permit two suns nor two sovereigns!"

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 cast to the ground and stamped upon. Persia was subdued, the country ravaged, its armies cut to pieces and scattered, its cities plundered, and the royal city of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire, and 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.

Verse 8. Therefore the he-goat waxed very great; and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

The conqueror is greater than the conquered. The ram, Medo-Persia, became great; the goat, Grecia, became very great. And when he was strong, the great horn was broken. Human foresight and speculation would have said, When he becomes weak, his kingdom racked by rebellion, or paralyzed by luxury, then the horn will be broken and the kingdom shattered. But Daniel saw it broken in the very prime of its strength, and 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 firm; but the righteous, even when they think themselves ready to perish, often find that, through the sustaining power of God, the bruised reed is not broken, and the smoking flax is not quenched.

Alexander fell in the prime of life. See notes on verse 39 of chapter 2. After his death there arose much confusion among his followers respecting the succession. It was finally agreed, after seven days' contest, that his natural brother, Philip Aridæus, should be declared king. By him, and Alexander's sons, Alexander Ægus and Hercules, the name and show of the Macedonian Empire was for a time sustained; but all these persons were soon murdered; and the regal family being then extinct, the chief commanders of the army, who had gone into different parts of the empire as governors of the provinces, assumed the title of kings. They thereupon fell to leaguing and warring with each other, to such a degree that within the short space of fifteen years from Alexander's death, the number was reduced to—how many? Five? No. Three? No. Two? No. But four; just the number specified in the prophecy; for 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. Seleucus, who had Syria and Babylon, and from whom came the line of kings known as the Seleucidæ, so famous in history. 2. Lysimachus, who had Asia Minor. 3. Ptolemy, son of Lagus, from whom sprang the Lagidæ; and 4. Cassander, who had Greece and the neighboring countries. These held dominion toward the four winds of heaven. Cassander had the western parts, Lysimachus had the northern regions, Ptolemy possessed the southern countries, and Seleucus had the eastern portions 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 Bosporus), Syria, and Egypt.