p. 5 | THE LESSON OF DANIEL 2 by D. T. Fero

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 21, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 21.

THE LESSON OF DANIEL 2.

By D. T. Fero

AS He stands related to men in His various offices of creator, mediator, priest, and king, Jesus Christ is the central figure of revelation. More than this, in its entirety the Word expresses His personality, His power, and the great object of His manifestation to the world, so that it can all appropriately be called a revelation of Him. The Scriptures are to make us wise unto salvation. 2 Tim. 3:15. He is Saviour (Matt. 1:21); and the only Saviour. Acts 4:12. Again, a knowledge of God through Christ is essential to salvation, but knowledge must come by a revelation. Rom. 10:14–17; John 17:20; 5:39; 1 Peter 1:10, 11.

This is sufficient to show that we are to find Jesus in all direct revelation. He is first brought to light as Creator in Genesis, corroborated by John 1:3; Col. 1:16. As Creator of the world He had an absolute right to its government; but His ideal was man as vicegerent; so man was formed, and given dominion.

By yielding to temptation, man lost his liberty, life, and dominion. Now Christ appears as Mediator and Saviour, in evidence of which the sacrifices were ordained to prefigure His own suffering and death, by which man and all that he lost was to be redeemed. Man was to be placed back in his home, with perfect liberty to enjoy all the blessings it could impart; but Christ, who has never relinquished His proprietary right, is to have the direct rulership. Micah 4:8; Luke 1:32, 33; Rev. 21:1–7. This will be the kingdom which Christ has gone to receive (Luke 19:12), into which the righteous will be invited (Matt. 25:34), for which Christ taught His disciples to pray (Luke 11:2), and which it is the Father’s good pleasure to give to “the little flock” (Luke 12:32).

Having accomplished our redemption, He took up His priestly work. Heb. 10:12–14; 8:1, 2. When that work is over, He will be invested with kingly authority. Dan. 7:13, 14. Then He will come to this earth, and begin the establishment of His kingdom by taking His people away until the territory shall be prepared; and when the work of preparation is completed, the Lord’s people shall possess the kingdom “forever, even forever and ever.” Dan. 7:18, 27. Then the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdom of our Lord. Rev. 11:15. The object of the plan of salvation will be realized, and man will have received the blessing of eternal life with all its attendant joys and glory.

With loving interest in His people, Jesus, on the Mount of Transfiguration, gave His disciples, Peter, John, and James, a miniature representation of its arrangement, and Peter speaks of it in his letter afterward in such words as plainly point out the object of Daniel’s prophetic teaching. Referring to the transfiguration, he says, “We . . . were eye-witnesses of His majesty;” i.e., we saw Him in His kingly state. Then he adds an unquestionable confirmation in these words: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, . . . , a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts,” meaning, without a doubt, the time when the real kingdom, with its eternal splendor, shall be reached.

The sure word of prophecy must include that of Daniel. At the beginning of his explanation to the king in chapter 2, the prophet said, “There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” He then traced in outline the history of nations as they were successively to rise and fall, until the final change takes place, and establishes the kingdom of which Christ shall be the King, symbolized by a stone “cut out of the mountain without hands” and filling the whole earth. Like the illuminating energy in the search-light, that enables the master of the war-ship to see the enemy miles away through the darkest night, the concentrated light of the brief prophetic delivery of Daniel 2 sends its powerful rays over the changing billows of humanity’s restless sea, revealing the tempests and calms attendant upon the changes of the world’s control. But always it is focused upon the last kingdom, the enduring kingdom of God, and lost in the exceeding splendor of its introduction by the coming of its King with the glory of His Father, attended by the shining host who reflect the light of His eternal presence.

Standing in the light of this prophecy, we see that four important stages of human history are in the past, and the fourth is—

“Only waiting till the shadows Are a little longer grown,”

ere they will all be chased away by the dawn of Christ’s coming glory.

The lesson to us is that Jesus is soon coming to reign as King. To those who believe Him when He said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,” and who pray with John the Revelator, “Come, Lord Jesus,” “come quickly,” this prophecy is a joy-inspiring message. To those who are all absorbed with worldly schemes, it is a lesson of warning, an exhortation to cease their mad rush in life’s fitful struggle, and heed the entreaty of divine love to get ready for the Lord’s coming and kingdom.

D. T. FERO.

San Jose, Cal.