Thoughts on the Book of Daniel.
By Uriah Smith
VERSES 31–35. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake 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-floors; 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. Nebuchadnezzar, according to the Chaldean religion, was an idolater. An image was an object which 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. With a mind unenlightened by the light of revelation, he was unprepared to put a true estimate upon earthly wealth and glory, and to look upon earthly governments in their true light. Hence the striking harmony between the estimate which he puts upon these things, and the object by which they were symbolized before him. To him they were presented under the form of a great image, an object in his eyes of respect and admiration. With Daniel the case was far different; and to him these same earthly kingdoms were afterward shown under the form of cruel and ravenous wild beasts. 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; and how could this be more impressively done than by an image commencing with the most precious of metals, and continually descending to the base, till we finally have the coarsest and crudest of metals, iron, mingled with the miry clay; then dashed to pieces, and made like the empty chaff, no good thing in it, but altogether lighter than vanity; and finally blown away where no place could be found for it; after which something durable and of heavenly worth occupies its place. So would God show to the children of men, that earthly kingdoms were to pass away, and earthly greatness and glory, like a gaudy bubble, would break and vanish; and the kingdom of God, in the place so long usurped by these, should be set up to have no end, and all who had an interest therein, should rest under the shadow of its peaceful wings forever and ever. But this is anticipating. VERSES 36–38. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of Heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. Now opens one of the sublimest chapters of human history. 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, dating from twenty-four centuries in the past, reaches on down past the rise and fall of kingdoms, past the setting up and overthrow of empires, past cycles and ages, past our own day over into the eternal state. It is so comprehensive that it embraces all this; yet it is so minute that it gives us all the great outlines of earthly kingdoms from that time to this. Human wisdom never devised so brief a record which embraced so much. Human language never set forth, in fewer words, a greater volume of historical truth. The finger of God is here. Let us heed the lesson well. With what interest, as well as astonishment, must the king have listened to the words of the prophet, as he informed him that he, or rather his kingdom, the king being put for his kingdom, was the golden head of the great and terrible image which he had seen. Ancient kings were grateful for success; and in cases of prosperity, the tutelar deity to whom they attributed their success, was to them the adorable object upon which they would lavish their richest treasures, and bestow their best devotions. Daniel indirectly informs the king that in his case all these are due to the God of Heaven, since he is the one who has 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 Babylonish Empire, this head of gold, was founded by Belesis, the Baladan of Scripture, B. C. 747. It arose from the ancient Assyrian Empire, founded by Nimrod, Gen. 10: 9, 10, which had governed Asia for about thirteen hundred years. It reached the summit of its glory under Nebuchadnezzar, who added to his original dominions the provinces of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. These, with the empire of Babylon proper, embraced all the then known world of any national influence or power, which constituted this the first universal empire. In 667, B. C., it became connected with the people of God by the capture of Manasseh, king of Judah, and is at this point introduced into prophecy. The character of this empire is indicated by that portion of the image by which it was symbolized—the head of gold. It was the golden kingdom of a golden age. Babylon, its metropolis, towered far above all its later rivals. Situated in the garden of the East, laid out in a perfect square sixty miles in circumference, fifteen miles on each side, surrounded by a wall three hundred and fifty feet high, and eighty-seven feet thick, with a moat, or ditch, around this, of equal cubic capacity with the walls, divided into six hundred and seventy-six squares, each eighteen furlongs in circumference, by its fifty streets, each one hundred and fifty feet in width, crossing each other at right angles, twenty-five each way, every one straight and level, and fifteen miles in length; its two hundred and twenty-five square miles of enclosed surface, divided as just described, and 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 wall, its thirty miles of river wall through its center, its hundred and fifty 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 kingly 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 arrangements 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. Never before saw the earth a city like that; never since has it seen its equal. And there, with the whole earth prostrate at his feet, it sat, a queen in peerless grandeur, “the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency,” fit capital of that kingdom which constituted the golden head of this great historic image. Such was Babylon, with Nebuchadnezzar, youthful, bold, vigorous, and accomplished, seated upon its throne, when Daniel entered its impregnable walls to serve a captive for seventy years in its gorgeous palaces. 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 of the sparkling Euphrates, and wept when they remembered Zion. And there commenced 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, and more or less oppressed by, earthly powers. And so they will be, till earthly powers shall give way to Him whose right it is to reign. And lo! the day of deliverance draws on apace. Into another city, not only Daniel, but all the children of God, from least to greatest, from first to last, are soon to enter; 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 handsome as they were, but transparent gold; whose river is not the mournful waters of the Euphrates, but the river of life; whose music is not the sighs and laments of the broken-hearted captives, but the thrilling paeans of victory61over 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. Into this city they shall enter, not as captives entering a foreign land, but as exiles returning to their father’s house; not as to a place where the chilling words of bondage, servitude, and oppression, shall weigh down their spirits, but where the sweet words, home, freedom, peace, purity, unutterable bliss, and unending life, shall thrill their bosoms with delight forever and ever. Yea, our mouths shall be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, when the Lord turns again the captivity of Zion. Ps. 126: 1, 2. U. S.