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DANIEL

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 8, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 10.

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DANIEL.

By F. D. Starr

BY F. D. STARR.

"WHOSO readeth, let him understand." This is our Lord's statement concerning the book of Daniel, as found in Matt. 24:15.
With this warrant for the perusal of this book, and the assurance that it is the will of God that we should understand it, let us proceed to the delightful pursuit of examining its contents.
It seems futile to attempt, in human language, adequately to extol the merits of this portion of divine revelation. This is the book upon which were based the calculations that showed that a great crisis was to take place in the time of the great Advent movement of over a half century ago. It is the little book spoken of in the tenth chapter of Revelation, which the angel held in his hand, open, and from which he made the proclamation that time should be no longer; the book whose contents were first so sweet and then so bitter, illustrating the experience of the church at the time when its hopes of the soon-coming of our Lord were not realized.
This point can be better explained when we come to consider the book of Revelation. These are companion books, and indeed there is a great similarity not only in the books themselves, but also in the character and experience of the writers of these two books.
Let us notice some of the points of resemblance between Daniel, the prophet, and John, the writer of the book of Revelation. In the first place, they seem to have been in a special way the favorites of Heaven. Concerning Daniel, it was said by the angel, "Thou art greatly beloved;" "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved;" "O man greatly beloved." Dan. 9:23; 10:11, 19. The well-known appellation given to the apostle John was the "beloved disciple." This is founded upon the expressions found in John 13:23; 20:2; 21:20. "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved;" "The other disciple, whom Jesus loved;" "Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following." While all are in a sense loved by the Lord, yet these men were designated as being in a special way beloved of the Lord. Surely what they wrote must be full of messages of love. Both these men were in a strange land when they had these important visions. Daniel was a captive in Babylon, and John was an exile on the isle of Patmos. Both were miraculously preserved from the hands of those who sought their lives. Daniel was delivered from the lion's den without harm. John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil, but came forth unharmed—the only one of the twelve who escaped a violent death. Both these men lived to the age of nearly or quite a century, which was something extraordinary even in their days.
The points of similarity in the books themselves are too numerous to mention. Both bring before the mind the fate of the universal empires of antiquity. Both give in a very clear manner the blasphemous, persecuting, and disloyal character of the Papacy, furnishing some six or more points of identity in describing the career of this power. Both give the allotted time of this power as being 1,260 days (prophetic years). Both give important information concerning the Eastern question; and, indeed, these prophets seem to furnish about all the information we have on this question. These are the only two books concerning which anything was said directly in regard to their being sealed. Of the book of Daniel it was said: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end." "The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Dan. 12:4, 9. In the last chapter of Revelation we read, "And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand." Here is a similarity in dissimilarity; the books are alike in that something is said concerning their being sealed, but unlike in that while one was sealed for a limited time, the other was not to be sealed at all. It seems quite significant and appropriate that something should be said about the book of Revelation, whether it should be sealed or not, inasmuch as this book describes the opening or unsealing of the precious book that was sealed; so the question naturally arises as to whether the book of Revelation should be sealed or not.
The book of Daniel contains several distinct and very important lines of prophecy. For a very interesting explanation of these lines of prophecy, the reader is referred to the work entitled "Daniel and the Revelation," and other works of like nature, for sale at the office of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
We will notice a few points of interest. The first half of the book, with the exception of chapter two, is largely historical; the last half, prophetic. In the first chapter we have one of the most pronounced instances of the beneficial results of an abstemious and temperate manner of living. It is interesting to note that the Septuagint gives for the word pulse, as found in our version (Dan. 1:12), the word "seeds," showing that what is meant is the same kind of diet that God gave man in the beginning (see Gen. 1:29), a vegetarian diet, the best calculated for health.
In the explanation of the vision of chapter two, the interpreter said the various metals were ground to pieces, so that they became as chaff of the summer thrashing-floor. The Greek version says, "as the dust of the summer thrashing-floor." It seems more in harmony with the reality, that stone and iron, etc., should become dust than that they should become as the chaff. According to the German translation, Dan. 8:17 (last part) reads: "This vision belongs in the time of the end." Both the Septuagint and the German give the word law in Dan. 7:25 in the singular, showing it was the law of God, the Decalogue, that the Papacy sought to change.
The subject of Christ in the Old Testament is very clearly developed in this book. For instance, in chapter 9:25, we have in both the German and the Greek the statement that the given prophetic period would last unto "Christ the Prince." The word "Messiah," of course, means the same thing, but the meaning is not as readily discerned as when we use the familiar name, Christ.
Surely this is one of the books to which the Saviour alludes when He says, "they are they which testify of Me." May we, through a saving knowledge of this same Christ, as revealed in this book, be so happy as to have it said to us, in the closing words of this book: "Thou shalt . . . stand in thy lot at the end of the days."
Forest, Idaho.