The Sabbath-School by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 37.

The Sabbath-School.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—OCT. 17.

The Four Kingdoms of Daniel 7.

"In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions of his head upon his bed; then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters." Dan. 7: 1. The exactness of the Bible narrative is worthy of note. "In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon." Concerning Belshazzar as king of Babylon, and the time of his reign, we extract the following from Rawlinson:—

"Nebuchadnezzar expired at Babylon in the forty-fourth year of his reign, B. c. 561, after an illness of no long duration. He was probably little short of eighty years old at his death. The successor of Nebuchadnezzar was his son Evil-Merodach, who reigned only two years, and of whom very little is known. . . . He had been but two years upon the throne when a conspiracy was formed against him; he was accused of lawlessness and intemperance; his own brother-in-law, Neriglissar, the husband of a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, headed the malcontents; and Evil-Merodach lost his life with his crown. Neriglissar, the successful conspirator, was at once acknowledged king. . . . Neriglissar reigned from B. c. 559 to B. c. 556, and, dying a natural death in the last-named year, left his throne to his son, Laborosoarchod, or Labossoracus. This prince, who was a mere boy, and therefore quite unequal to the task of governing a great empire in critical times, was not allowed to retain the crown many months. . . . On the death of Laborosoarchod the conspirators selected one of their number, a certain Nabonadius, or Nabannidochus, and invested him with the sovereignty. . . . It is probable that one of his first steps on ascending the throne was to connect himself by marriage with the royal house which had preceded him in the kingdom. . . . Very shortly after the accession of Nabonadius (B. c. 555) he received an embassy from the far northwest. . . . At the earliest possible moment—probably when he was about fourteen—he had associated with him in the government, his son, Belshazzar, or Bel-sharuzar, the grandson of the great Nebuchadnezzar."—Fourth Monarchy, chap. 8, par. 38-50.

THIS gives us the Babylonian succession from Nebuchadnezzar to the end of the monarchy. The monument contains the names of both Nabonadius and Belshazzar, and for a long time historians thought they referred to the same person. Further research has shown their true relationship. As Belshazzar was left in Babylon, never leaving it, so far as known, he is very properly termed king of Babylon, the more so, as he really held that title, in conjunction with his father. Cyrus, king of Persia, is in one place (Ezra 5:13) called the king of Babylon, because that was his capital. As will be noticed, the date in the margin of Dan. 7:1, agrees with the historian, in placing the first year of Belshazzar in B. c. 555.

"DANIEL spake 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." Dan. 7:2, 3. The Scriptures never put a man under the necessity of guessing at anything that is intended for him to know—and whatever is revealed is designed for us. Deut. 29:29. So we find in this same chapter the clew to unravel the whole thing. In verse 17 we are told in plain words that "these great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth." And then, showing us that not individual kings but kingdoms are meant, the next verse continues: "But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."

ANOTHER thing is shown by verse 17. We learn from it that these four kingdoms terminate with the kingdom of God, of which the saints are heirs, and in which they are to dwell forever. We found that this was the termination of the four kingdoms of Dan. 2. Now when we note that these beasts came up one after another (see verses 4-7), and that they represent kings that bear rule over all the earth (see verse 23), we know that the four kings of Dan. 7 must be identical with the four kings of Dan. 2. For it is an utter impossibility that two series of universal kingdoms should exist in the earth at the same time.

THERE are two other symbols in this prophecy, but they are easily explained. We know that the winds and the sea are symbolical, for the beasts are symbolical, and literal winds and waters do not produce real kingdoms. Winds blowing on the ocean always produce commotion; and since it is as the result of the commotion thus produced that the four kingdoms arise, we must conclude that by the blowing of the winds on the sea, wars are indicated, since it is through strife and bloodshed that kingdoms arise. We shall find that prophecy bears us out in this conclusion.

IT must be accepted as a fact that when a symbol is once used in prophecy, with a certain meaning, it must have the same meaning in whatever other prophecy it is found. If this were not so, we would have no harmony in the Bible. By following this principle, all is harmonious. In the 17th of Revelation, John speaks of a woman that he saw, sitting on many waters (verse 1), and the angel told him (verse 15) that these waters were "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and kings." Then the great sea, of Daniel 7, represents the people of the earth. See also Isa. 8:7, where the king of Assyria is called "the waters of the river." If the sea means people, then of course the stirring up of the sea, by winds, denotes the stirring up of the people—strife. In harmony with this, we find in Jer. 25:32, 33, that as the result of a great whirlwind in all the earth, the slain cover all the earth. In Rev. 7:1-3 the winds—the fierce passions of men—are represented as being held so that the earth may not be hurt.

THE prophecy, then, simply brings to view the four universal empires,—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome,—each arising as the result of the ungoverned passions of the people. The first, Babylon, with its power and glory, was represented by a lion, with eagle's wings. Dan. 7:4. It was described as follows: "For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation. . . . Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat." Hab. 1:6-8.

BUT the prophet beheld until the wings wherewith it was lifted up from the earth, were plucked, and it was made to stand on its feet as a man. Instead of flying over the country, in conquest, it came to a full stop. Then the second, Medo-Persia, was represented by a bear with three ribs in its mouth, indicating its ferocious disposition. Calmet, a Catholic commentator, in reference to this passage, says that the Persians have exercised the most severe and the most cruel dominion that we know of. The cruelty of the Medes is described in Isa. 13:17, 18. The third kingdom, Grecia, was represented by the leopard with four wings. Nothing could more fitly represent the Grecian empire under Alexander, whose very name is a synonym for celerity of movement. Says Rollin (Book XV, sec. 2, last par.), "Alexander, in less than eight years, marched his army upwards of seventeen hundred leagues, without including his return to Babylon." And he conquered enemies as he went.

BUT the fourth beast was the one concerning which Daniel wished information. He knew what they all represented, but the fourth was "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns." Dan. 7:7. It needs no further argument to show that this represents Rome, for the 23d verse says: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth." For the more full proof that the fourth kingdom is Rome, see note in preceding number of the SIGNS.

"AND the ten horns are ten kings that shall arise." Verse 24. This does not refer to ten successive kingdoms, because, "Another shall arise after them, and he shall subdue three kings." When the little horn arose, he plucked up three of the first horns by the roots. Verse 8. If the ten came up one after another, then there would simply have been eleven kings; and he could not have plucked up three out of the ten as he came up, if all had not existed at once. The ten horns refer to the ten divisions of Western Rome. While different commentators have differed slightly as to the names of these divisions, all agree that they were formed, and that they exist to-day as the various States of Europe.

These divisions are also indicated by the toes of the image. We know this from the statement that "in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed." Dan. 2:44. The expression, "these kings," could not by any possibility refer to the four kingdoms, for the kingdom of God could not be set up in the days of all of them, since one succeeded the other. It could not have been set up in the days of Babylon, and also in the days of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Not until after the division of Rome, which took place in the fifth century, was that kingdom to be set up. When it is set up, it will fill the whole earth, to the exclusion of all human governments.

Comments on the kingdom represented by the little horn, must necessarily be reserved for other lessons. E. J. W.