Thoughts on the Book of Daniel.
THAT this book was written by the person whose name it bears, there is no reason to doubt. Ezekiel, who was contemporary with Daniel, bears testimony, through the spirit of prophecy, to his piety and uprightness, ranking him in this respect with Noah and Job: “Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; though Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” Eze. 14 : 19, 20. His wisdom, also, even at that early day, had become proverbial, as appears from the same writer. To the prince of Tyrus, he was directed of the Lord to say, “Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee.” Chap. 28 : 3. But above all, our Lord recognized him as a prophet of God, and bade his disciples understand the predictions given through him for the benefit of his church: “When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” Matt. 24 : 15, 16. Though we have a more minute account of his early life than is recorded of any other prophet, yet his origin is left in complete obscurity, except that he was of the royal line, probably of the house of David, which had at this time become very numerous. He is first introduced upon the stage of action as one of the noble captives of Judah, in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, at the commencement of the seventy years’ captivity, B. C. 606. Jeremiah and Habakkuk were yet uttering their prophecies. Ezekiel commenced soon after, and a little later, Obadiah; but both these finished their work years before the close of the long and splendid career of Daniel. Three prophets only succeeded him, Haggai and Zechariah, who exercised the prophetic office for a brief period contemporaneously, B. C. 520–518, and Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, who flourished a little season, about B. C. 397. Throughout the entire period of the 70 years’ captivity, Daniel resided at the court of Babylon, most of the time in honor and prosperity, prime minister of that first and most glorious of earth’s universal monarchies. His life affords a most impressive lesson of the importance and the advantage of maintaining from earliest youth a strict integrity in the things of God, and furnishes a notable instance of a man eminent in piety and communion with God, while at the same time engaging in the most stirring activities, and bearing the weightiest cares and responsibilities that can devolve upon men in this present life. But it is not his connection with the Chaldean monarchy, the glory of kingdoms, that perpetuates his memory, and covers his name with honor. From the height of its glory, he saw that kingdom decline and pass into other hands. Its period of greatest prosperity was covered by the age of one man. So brief was this nation’s career, so transient its glory. But Daniel was entrusted with more enduring honors. While beloved and honored by the princes and potentates of Babylon, he was also greatly beloved of God and his holy angels, and admitted to a knowledge of the counsels of the Most High. His prophecy is, in many respects, the most remarkable of any in the sacred record. It is the most comprehensive. It was the first prophecy giving a consecutive history of the world from that time on to the end. It located its predictions with well-defined, prophetic periods, though reaching many centuries into the future. It gave the first definite prediction of the coming of the Messiah. It marked the time of this event so accurately that the Jews execrate the man who attempts to interpret its numbers, since they are thereby shown to be without excuse in rejecting Christ; and so accurately had its minute and literal predictions been fulfilled up to the time of Porphyry, A. D. 250, that he declared (the only loophole he could devise for his stolid skepticism) that the predictions were written after the events themselves had transpired. Every succeeding century has born additional evidence to the truthfulness29of the prophecy, and its fulfillment is still going forward. The personal history of Daniel reaches a few years subsequent to the transfer of the Babylonian kingdom to the Medes and Persians. He is supposed to have died at Shushan, or Susa, in Persia, aged about ninety-four years; his age being the probable reason why he returned not to Judea with other Hebrew captives, under the proclamation of Cyrus, which marked the close of the 70 years’ captivity. Verses 1, 2. “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.” With a directness characteristic of the sacred writers, Daniel enters at once upon his subject. He commences with the simple, historical style, that being the nature of his book till we reach the seventh chapter, when the prophetical portion, more properly so called, commences. Like one conscious of uttering only well-known truth, he proceeds at once to state a variety of particulars, by which his accuracy could be at once tested. Thus in the two verses quoted, he states five particulars, purporting to be historical facts, such as a writer of fiction would not be likely to introduce: 1. That Jehoiakim was king of Judah; 2. That Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon; 3. That the latter came against the former; 4. That this was in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign; and, 5. That Jehoiakim was given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, who took a portion of the sacred vessels of the house of God, and, carrying them to the land of Shinar, the country of Babylon, Gen. 10 : 10, placed them in the treasure house of his heathen divinity. Subsequent portions of the narrative abound equally with such historical facts. This captivity of Jerusalem was predicted by Jeremiah and immediately accomplished, B. C. 606. Jer. 25 : 8–11. Jeremiah speaks of the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Daniel of the third. This seeming discrepancy is explained by the fact that Nebuchadnezzar set out on his expedition near the close of the third year of Jehoiakim, from which point Daniel reckons. But he did not accomplish the subjugation of Jerusalem till about the ninth month of the year following; and from this year Jeremiah reckons. Prideaux i, 99, 100. Jehoiakim, though bound to be taken to Babylon, having humbled himself, was permitted to remain as ruler in Jerusalem, tributary to the king of Babylon. This was the first time Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Twice subsequently, the city having revolted was captured by the same king, being more severely dealt with each succeeding time. The first of these was under Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, when all the sacred vessels were either taken or destroyed, and the best of the inhabitants, with the king, were led into captivity. The second was under Zedekiah, when the city endured the most formidable siege it ever sustained except that of Titus. During the greater part of its two years’ continuance, its inhabitants suffered all the horrors of famine. At length the garrison and king attempting to escape from the city were captured by the Chaldeans. The sons of the king were slain before his face. His eyes were put out, and he was taken to Babylon; thus fulfilling the prediction of Ezekiel who declared that he should be carried to Babylon, and die there, but yet should not see the place. Eze. 12 : 13. The city and temple were utterly destroyed, and the entire population of the city and country, with the exception of a few husbandmen, were carried captive to Babylon, B. C. 588. Such was God’s passing testimony against sin. Not that the Chaldeans were the favorites of Heaven; but God made use of them to punish the iniquities of his people. Had the Israelites been faithful to God, and kept his Sabbaths, Jerusalem would have stood forever. But they departed from him and he left them. They first profaned the sacred vessels by sin in introducing heathen idols among them; and he then profaned them by judgments, in letting them go as trophies into heathen temples abroad. During these days of trouble and distress upon Jerusalem, Daniel and his companions were nourished and instructed in the palace of the king of Babylon, and though captives in a strange land, were doubtless much more favorably situated than they would have been in their native land.