p. 12 | The Head of the Great Image

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 14, 1907

The Head of the Great Image

The first kingdom, then, here represented by the head of gold, was that of Babylon. Let me first briefly notice what is said about it in the Word of God, and in what respects that which was prophesied of it has been fulfilled. You will always perceive that one kingdom passes from the stage the moment that the other comes on. In other words, the Persian kingdom was constructed from the ruins of the Babylonian; the Greco-Macedonian was constructed from the ruins of the Persian; and the Roman kingdom rose upon the ruins of all that preceded it.

About 612 B. C. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Nineveh; or, in the language of Scripture, as shown to be true by the disclosures of Layard, “made its grave;” burying in the deep and silent earth all its grandeur, its pomp, and its splendor. And when Nineveh, till that time the greatest kingdom upon earth, was thus entombed in its grave, Babylon ascended the throne, and swayed the scepter over all the nations of the world. The walls of the city of Babylon, as we read not only in Scripture, but in Xenophon, the beautiful and classical Greek historian, were of gigantic size, measuring sixty miles in circumference; and the breadth of these walls, which were very solid, being built of brick cemented with bitumen, a substance produced upon the soil, were capable of allowing six chariots, each with two horses, to drive abreast upon them. The city had one hundred gates of solid brass. The temple of Bel, or of Belus, as it is called by classic writers, had a circumference of half a mile, and was upward of one thousand feet in height, or nearly three times the height of St. Paul’s Cathedral [in London]. The fertility of the whole region of Chaldea, watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates, was so great that classical historians, Herodotus and Strabo, tell us that it produced two hundredfold; that is, that one seed of corn [wheat], if I may use this mode of illustration, produced in the ear two hundred seeds; a degree of fertility unrivaled in any modern country. This I state to justify the description of the prophet, when he calls Babylon “the excellency of Chaldea,” and literally “the glory of kingdoms.” Again, what is the sign of it in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream?—“The head of *gold;” in its natural and physical properties the most valuable of the four metals.

[Dr. Cumming then quotes the various prophecies concerning Babylon and its downfall, introducing his quotations with these words: “I will give, I say, first of all the predictions of God, as these were uttered many years before its fall, and then I will read the facts recorded in history by impartial writers who did not even know of the prophecy, and who could not have the least design or intention of showing its fulfilment.” The portions of Scripture referred to are the following: Jer. 25: 11, 12; Isaiah 13 and 14; Jeremiah 50 and 51. He then continues.—Ed.]

I have thus read the leading parts of that great burden of prophecy against Babylon. I now quote in evidence of the fulfilment of these the prophecies of God, the dispassionate testimony of the heathen historians: and I shall then give you an account not only of the rise, as I have already briefly done, but also of the fall, of the head of gold, previous to the silver empire taking its place, and its order in succession onward to the end.

First, then, in these prophecies, Cyrus is specified as the general who was to march his forces against Babylon. Xenophon directly states that such was the fact. Babylon, trusting in its gigantic walls, and in its provisions for twenty years, adequate to maintain it in case of its being besieged, instead of preparing to repel the invading army, gave itself, its whole population, from the prince upon the throne down to the meanest of its subjects, to debauchery, riot, profligacy, and drunkenness. In the next place, Cyrus, after he had come in array against Babylon, besieged it for years without success, and at last fell upon the expedient of digging trenches round the walls of Babylon, ostensibly for blockade, but really to divert the waters of the Euphrates from their accustomed course, and leave in the empty channel a pathway for his soldiers to march into the city. It was, as I have described, surrounded by vast walls; but the river Euphrates rolled through the midst of it. There was therefore an opening thus formed through the center of the city; only there were walls on each side, or on each bank of the river, with gates to each street leading down to it; and the plan of Cyrus was therefore to divert the waters of the Euphrates into the trenches he had dug, and to make the dry central channel a road for his troops to march down in order to gain possession of the city. Herodotus, the father of historians, relates that, even after having marched along the bed of the river, the obstacles to his entrance were just as great as elsewhere; for there were gates to each street leading to the banks of the river; and if these had been secured, the obstruction to the entrance of Cyrus would have been complete. But there was a prophecy—part of which I read to you—that these gates should not be shut; and the Babylonians, not suspecting the stratagem of Cyrus in diverting the waters of the river, left their gates open as if in conscious possession of impregnable security; when part of the army, therefore, entered at one side of the city, marching up the bed of the river, and another part of his troops at the other side of the city, marching down the bed of the river, they found each of these gates open, which would not have been the case had not the people been indulging in feasting and drunkenness;

the troops therefore entered by every gate; and before the Babylonians were aware that the enemy was so near at hand, their great and impregnable capital was in the hands of the next empire, the empire of the Persians.

We notice another minute point that was singularly fulfilled. It was predicted that the enemy should come upon them unawares, and that “one post should run to meet another in the midst of the siege.” Now, that such was literally the fact is recorded by Herodotus, for he says that those at one end of the city were in the hands of Cyrus before those at the other end of the city were aware of his attack, and before they had time to give the alarm; thus fulfilling the prediction of the prophet, that post should run to post, and watchman to watchman, to give the awful and startling alarm that the forces of Cyrus were upon them.

Then it is predicted by the prophet, that “they that were drunken should sleep a perpetual sleep;” and that “the two-leaved gates should be thrown open.” It is stated by the historian that the monarch was indulging in a feast, and was intoxicated with wine, surrounded by all his princes, nobles, and courtiers, at the very moment when the city had fallen into the hands of the Persian army; and hearing a noise outside the palace, he insisted on knowing what it was; and when some of the chief princes rushed to the gates of the palace in order to ascertain the cause, and threw them open for that purpose, they thus fulfilled the prophecy,—the troops of Cyrus instantly rushed in, and Belshazzar and his princes were slaughtered in the midst of their festival: “the drunken slept a perpetual sleep.” Thus you have every prediction that God gave by the mouth of Isaiah and Jeremiah fulfilled to the very letter; and that fulfilment is recorded by the dispassionate pens of the historians of ancient Greece.—“Prophetic Studies; or Lectures on the Book of Daniel,” by John Cumming, D. D., London, 1850, pages 47-55.