Studies in Daniel

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, Cal. · Feb 6, 1912

Studies in Daniel

Great Persecuting Powers

We come to a new division of the book of Daniel, quite different in character from that which we have passed over. The latter part of the book deals more directly with the people of God, and the relationship they sustain to the powers of earth. Rather, we may say, it deals with the great powers of earth, and the relationship which they sustain, the attitude which they take, regarding God and His people. We have had before us these powers of earth in the 2d chapter. There they were represented by the great metallic divisions of the image, simply as different dynasties, regardless of character. In the prophecies which begin with the 7th chapter of Daniel they are presented before us especially as regards character; the revelation of their attitude toward God and His laws and His people is set before us. By a great and magnificent image God revealed truth to the pagan king. By fierce and cruel beasts He reveals the same powers to His people. We will first learn —

The Answer of the Text

1. What occurred to Daniel in the first year of Belshazzar? 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. Verse 1. Note 1.

2. What did Daniel see in his vision? Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of heaven brake forth upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. Verses 2, 3. Note 2.

3. What was the first beast like? The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon two feet as a man; and a man's heart was given to it. Verse 4. Note 3.

4. Describe the second beast. And, behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear; and it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. Verse 5. Note 4.

5. What was the appearance of the third beast? After this I beheld, and, lo, another, like a leopard, which had upon its back four wings of a bird; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. Verse 6. Note 5.

6. How does he describe the fourth beast? After this I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, a fourth beast, terrible and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. Verse 7. Note 6.

7. What change took place as he considered the fourth beast? I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. Verse 8. Note 7.

8. What great vision then appeared before him? I beheld till thrones were placed, and One that was ancient of days did sit: His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousands of thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld at that time because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given to be burned with fire. And as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. Verses 9-12. Note 8.

9. What further heavenly scene was brought before him? I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven One like unto a son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Verses 13, 14. Note 9.

10. How did the vision affect Daniel? What did he seek? As for me, Daniel, my spirit was grieved in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. Verses 15, 16. Note 10.

11. What interpretation did the angel give of the vision? These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, that shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Then I desired to know the truth concerning the fourth beast, which was diverse from all of them, exceeding terrible, whose teeth were of iron, and its nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet; and concerning the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, and before which three fell, even that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake great things, whose look was more stout than its fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Verses 17-22. Note 11.

12. What did he especially say regarding the horns? Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise. Verses 23, 24. Note 12.

13. What did he say concerning the little horn? And another [horn] shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings. And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time. But the judgment shall be set, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. Verses 24-26.

14. To what glorious consummation did the vision carry him? And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts much troubled me, and my countenance was changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart. Verses 27, 28.

Note and Comment

1. VISIONS AND DREAMS.—See Num. 12:6; Isa. 46:9, 10. God was speaking through Daniel in His own appointed way. THE FIRST YEAR OF BELSHAZZAR.—Babylon closed its history as one of the ruling dynasties of earth 538 B.C. Belshazzar reigned conjointly with Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, during the last three years of Babylonian reign. The first year of Belshazzar was therefore 540 or 541 B.C. Babylon was yet in its glory. Nabonidus the king was erecting great temples to the gods, and doubtless was entrusting more or less of the active court duties of the kingdom to his degenerate son. Babylon was nearing its end, but before Babylon had passed away God gave to His anxious children a vision of the future.

2. THE FOUR WINDS.—Wind is a symbol of strife; as the natural earth and all movable objects upon it are affected by great winds, so God has used that figure to represent the changing, moving, passing kingdoms of earth. See Jeremiah 25, where the four winds blowing are represented as a great whirlwind, and bringing war and strife throughout all the earth. Jer. 25:32. THE SEA—THE GREAT SEA.—The sea is another striking figure, always restless, always in motion. Even so with the great ebb and flow of the nations of earth. Consequently God has represented the nations and peoples of earth as the great sea. In Isa. 8:7 the kingdom of Assyria is represented by the overflowing waters of the river Euphrates. In Rev. 17:15 the waters where the harlot sat represented "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." BEASTS.—Beasts represent nations. God takes the fierce, cruel beast to represent the fierce, sinful, wicked nation. So we read in the 17th verse, "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings [or kingdoms], that shall arise out of the earth." The word "kings" is used interchangeably with "kingdom," as we learn from the next verse, and also from the 23d verse: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom [or dynasty] upon earth." The import of the vision, therefore, is this,—that as Daniel looked out upon the great, shifting, changing sea of men, of peoples, of nations, he saw the constant strife which would sweep over them, and as the result of that strife there should four great empires, or dynasties, arise upon the earth. The reader will recall that Nebuchadnezzar, in his patriotic zeal and love for Babylon, declared, in the very image which he reared, his patriotic symbol for Babylon, that that nation would stand forever,—a golden kingdom all the way through. The Lord then revealed to Daniel that there should be four kingdoms represented by the four metals of the image. He reveals in this vision the character of those dynasties which should appear. The fitting symbol of character is the cruel, carnivorous, devouring beasts of the earth.

3. A LION . . . EAGLE'S WINGS . . . THE WINGS PLUCKED.—A fitting symbol for Babylon, the very symbol that the Lord has used through another prophet, one who told literally of the great power from the north that was about to sweep down upon Judea. Jeremiah lived right in the very time of the Babylonian captivity. Jer. 4:7: "A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations." Verse 13: "Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles." The same figure is used concerning the Chaldeans, in Habakkuk, where they are called a "bitter and hasty nation," "terrible and dreadful." "They fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour." The lion with eagle's

wings fitly represented the strength of Nebuchadnezzar, and the rapidity of his conquests, as well as the soaring pride of his heart. But the prophet looks further; the wings were plucked. The glory of Babylon passed when Nebuchadnezzar's reign came to an end. From that time its condition was one of humiliation. No longer did its ruler possess the brave, bold heart of a lion; the timid heart of a man was given to it. The humiliation may possibly refer to Nebuchadnezzar himself, in the period of seven times that he was made to eat grass with the ox, and the standing on the feet as a man, when God gave him a heart to see that He, God, was ruling, Nebuchadnezzar was but a servant.

4. A SECOND, LIKE TO A BEAR.—The power which followed Babylon was Medo-Persia, represented by the ram in chapter 8, where it is specifically called Medo-Persia, and by a wolf in Jer. 5:6. The raising of itself up on one side may refer to the fact that the first dominant kingdom was Media, the side which came up first; and so Media is mentioned first. But after that came Persia. And the three ribs are taken to mean the three provinces of the great Babylonian empire that were especially ground down and persecuted by Medo-Persia,—Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt. The very spirit which they aroused in Medo-Persia was to increase its appetite for dominion. They said to it, "Arise, devour much flesh."

5. ANOTHER LIKE A LEOPARD.—So the third power which should persecute or dominate the Jewish nation is called in Jer. 5:6: "A lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities." The leopard is noted for its craftiness, its subtlety, its catlike cruelty. It here represents the great power which followed Medo-Persia, or Grecia, symbolized by the he goat in Daniel 8, and there called Grecia. The four wings upon its back would naturally indicate its rapidity of conquest. This was especially marked in the career of Alexander the Great, the marvelously short time in which he swept over the whole of the known Asiatic world; and the four heads, the division of Alexander's dominion after he had passed away, as represented by the four horns of the goat in chapter 8, and also the four winds of heaven in chapter 11. Dominion was given to it; God would have us remember that He Himself controls the affairs of earth. It was He Himself who gave the kingdom and the dominion under the whole heaven to Nebuchadnezzar. This we have already learned in chapter 4, and this we are told also in Jer. 27:6, 7: "And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant. . . . And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondman." That is, his kingdom should be divided; it was given to the Medes and Persians, and many of the little provinces which Babylon controlled became semi-independent. Medo-Persia became God's servant among the nations of earth; but when the divine purpose could use that power no longer, it was set aside, and dominion was given to Grecia. Fuller particulars will be given on chapter 8.

6. A FOURTH BEAST.—This fourth beast is literally indescribable. He has all the characteristics, cruel and voracious, of all the beasts before him, and other characteristics which the prophet endeavors to depict. He was terrible and powerful and strong, with great iron teeth, which he used in devouring; and what he could not devour, he broke in pieces, and stamped under his feet. He was diverse from all the beasts that were before him, and he had ten horns. All students of history are acquainted with the great empire which followed that of Grecia and its divisions; and that empire is Rome. Grecia was divided into various divisions after the death of Alexander. For a period of about twenty years Alexander's generals warred for dominion. None of them assumed to call themselves kings until 306, but it was not until 301 B.C. that the kingdom was divided into just four parts, Seleucus holding Babylonia, in fact all the way from Palestine and the Mediterranean Sea to India on the east; Lysimachus a large part of Asia Minor and Thrace; Cassander, Macedon; and Ptolemy, Egypt. Of these divisions, the Seleucid division of the kingdom conquered Macedon and Asia Minor. The dominions of Cassander and Lysimachus passed to the descendants of Seleucus. Yet constant revolution went on in Macedon and Greece, until Rome stepped in and conquered this division of the kingdom, passed from there over to Syria and brought her into subjection, and thence conquered Egypt. The whole world itself fell under the dominion of the iron dynasty of Rome. The beast, when Daniel first saw it, does not seem to have had horns. He adds that as a last consideration, that it had ten horns. Between the years 351 and 476, there were ten divisions developed in the Roman Empire.

7. I CONSIDERED THE HORNS.—The vision meant much to Daniel. He was not so anxious to get away from it as some are from the instruction of God's Word. He wanted to know what it meant. So have all God's servants regarded His revelations. When Moses saw the bush burning and not consumed, he turned aside to see it. When Daniel saw that cruel beast before him, he considered him; and evidently as he considered, the ten horns sprang up, and he considered the horns; and even while he was considering, there came up among them another horn,—a little one, before which three of the horns were plucked up by the roots, and he saw in that horn another remarkable thing: it was not a blind, dead horn, or protuberance, upon the beast; it seemed to have a life and an intelligence which horns do not possess; in it were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. These were marvelous things to the prophet. The ten horns, or ten kingdoms which arose in Rome, are as follows: the Alemanni, 351; the Franks, the same year; the Burgundians, 406; the Vandals and the Suevi, the same year; the Visigoths, 408; the Saxons, 449; the Lombards and Ostrogoths, 453; and the Heruli, 475 and 476. Of course there were other changes in these powers, and different developments in different years; but between these two dates, A.D. 351 and 476, there were developed in the Roman Empire ten different divisions, known as the ten divisions of Western Rome. The last one, as noted, arose in 476, so at that date there were just ten kingdoms existing. Three of those were to be plucked up by the little horn, or before its advancing power; and there were three of the ten kingdoms plucked up, the Heruli in Italy in 493, the Vandals in Africa in 533, and the Ostrogoths in Italy in 538 and a little later; but the great death-blow was struck in 538. Therefore, between the year 476, when the last kingdom was developed, and the year 493, when the first was plucked up, there were ten kingdoms existing in Western Rome—no more, and no less. And the power represented by the little horn must be appearing upon the stage of action during that very period. We wish the reader to note these specifications. We will refer to them a little later.

8. UNTIL THE THRONES WERE PLACED.—Daniel saw further. God does not give His children a view of the awful calamities, revolutions, changes, and fearful persecutions which will take place upon the earth, without giving them a view of His own kingdom which lies beyond. He does not reveal to them the imperfect judgments of the human, under which His own people go down to death through persecution and hardship, without revealing the fact that there is a just judgment which will right all things. And so Daniel beholds thrones placed in heaven. He sees there sitting the Ancient of Days, God the Father, with raiment white as snow, indicating purity, His throne like fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire, indicating the all-searching justice of God. He sees ministering before Him thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand,—an innumerable company of angels, as set forth in Rev. 5:11. He sees a great judgment-seat, and the books opened in which are written all the deeds of all that ever lived upon this earth, who have wrought for or against God. We may learn from other scriptures, and will from Daniel 8 when we reach it, that the great judgment of God began its sittings in 1844, when the time of the closing of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ reached its beginning. Daniel saw at that time that little horn speaking great, blasphemous words. He saw it increasing in its assumptions, and beheld even until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. The end of this beast differed from those which had gone before. They had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. They were merged, more or less, in the empire which followed; but when the power represented by this beast comes to an end, that is an end of all earthly kingdoms.

9. THERE CAME WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.—Daniel looks beyond. He sees in the closing up of God's work One like the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days. He sees what Jesus Himself predicted in the Gospel. In His parable of the pounds in Luke 19, Jesus likened Himself to a certain nobleman that went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. When our Lord went away He assured His disciples that He was coming again, and coming to gather them home to an everlasting kingdom. When He went away He entered upon His priestly work at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 8:1), there to sit a Priest upon His Father's throne (Rev. 3:21). When that priesthood is finished, when the judgment itself ends, He receives from the Father the kingdom, and dominion, and glory. Then will He return to execute upon the wicked the judgment written, to gather His own children home to Himself. Then will he set up, not one of the kingdoms of the earth which will give place to another, but an everlasting kingdom, which shall not be destroyed. Such was the vision.

10. MY SPIRIT WAS GRIEVED.—The vision troubled Daniel. He did not know what it meant. He came near to one of the angels standing by, and asked him the truth of it, and he tells us that the angel made him know the interpretation. "Seek, and ye shall find," says our Lord; "knock, and it shall be opened." The psalmist declared that "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him," and to them will He make known His covenant. And so to Daniel was made known the interpretation of the dream.

11. THESE GREAT BEASTS.—There were four of them, and as we have before learned, the angel tells him that these represent four different kingdoms that shall arise out of the earth. But these are to be succeeded by an everlasting kingdom which the saints of the Most High shall receive when God's time comes and all the kingdoms of the earth have been tried and are found wanting. Then Daniel asked to know the truth of the fourth beast, and the angel told him that this fourth beast was the fourth kingdom which should arise upon the earth, and that the ten horns were ten divisions of that kingdom. Daniel still further looked, and he beheld that the little horn which arose among the ten made war even until the Ancient of Days came. It was a power which should exist even to the very end, until the saints of God possessed the kingdom.

12. The fourth beast, we have already learned, was the fourth kingdom, different from all the other kingdoms in its cruelty, in its tenacity, in its exercise of power, in its extent

of dominion, in the way in which he trod down and broke in pieces all the other nations of the earth. To some of those nations it promised liberty from their neighbors and the wars in which they were engaged, but they found that the liberty which Rome gave them was the severest tyranny. The consideration of the little horn we will leave until our next study, but before we leave the chapter we wish the reader to note the following specifications concerning that little horn:

It arose among the ten horns (verse 8).
It was a little horn at first (verse 8).
In order that it might be established, three of the first horns are plucked up before it (verse 8).
It had eyes like the eyes of a man, indicating wisdom and foresight (verses 8, 20).
It had a mouth which uttered not the noise of a beast, but great boasting, such as could only be uttered by a being above a beast (verses 8, 11, 25).
It was a different power and character from those around it (verse 24).
It became strong, so that its look was more stout than its fellows (verse 20).
It made war upon the saints, or people, of God (verse 21).
It was to prevail against them until the Lord should come and take judgment to Himself (verses 21, 22).
It should presume, or think, to change the times and the law of God (verse 25).
It should continue for a time and times and half a time, or three and one half years (verse 25).
It would lose its temporary dominion as a horn (verse 26).
Its greatest words came in the very closing part of its career (verse 11).

Here are thirteen definite, specific characteristics given of the power symbolized by this little horn. In the very nature of the case, all the law of probabilities would be against these specifications applying to more than one power. It would be a practical impossibility to find two powers to which they all applied. Two or three might apply to several powers of earth, but only one power could be found to which they all applied. One specification declares that it is diverse. All these specifications will show us why and how it is diverse. We hope that our readers will study them, and be prepared to consider more fully in our next article that power or kingdom of earth to which these specifications apply.