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The Coming Prince
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Chapters 2-3 |
by Sir Robert Anderson,
K.C.B., LL.D.
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"THE COMING PRINCE" on 8 html pages-
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTORY on page 1 ---New Window
CHAPTERS 2-3 on page 2 (this page)
CHAPTERS 4-6 on page 3
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CHAPTERS 7-9 on page 4
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CHAPTERS 10-12 on page 5
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CHAPTERS 13-15 on page 6
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PREFACES on page 7
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APPENDICES on page 8
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Table of Contents
page 2
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CHAPTER II.
DANIEL AND HIS TIMES
"DANIEL the prophet." None can have a higher title to the name,
for it was thus Messiah spoke of him. And yet the great Prince of the Captivity would
himself doubtless have disclaimed it. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the rest, "spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;" (2 Peter 1:21) but Daniel uttered no
such "God-breathed" words. [1]
Like the "beloved disciple" in Messianic times, he beheld visions,
and recorded what he saw. The great prediction of the seventy weeks was a message
delivered to him by an angel, who spoke to him as man speaks with man. A stranger
to prophet's fare [2]
and prophet's garb, he lived in the midst of all the luxury and pomp of an
Eastern court. Next to the king, he was the foremost man in the greatest empire of
antiquity; and it was not till the close of a long life spent in statecraft that
he received the visions recorded in the latter chapters of his book.
To understand these prophecies aright, it is essential that the leading events of
the political history of the times should be kept in view.
The summer of Israel's national glory had proved as brief as it was brilliant. The
people never acquiesced in heart in the Divine decree which, in distributing the
tribal dignities, entrusted the scepter to the house of Judah, while it adjudged
the birthright to the favored family of Joseph; [3]
and their mutual jealousies and feuds, though kept in check by the personal
influence of David, and the surpassing splendor of the reign of Solomon, produced
a national disruption upon the accession of Rehoboam. In revolting from Judah, the
Israelites also apostatized from God; and forsaking the worship of Jehovah, they
lapsed into open and flagrant idolatry. After two centuries and a half unillumined
by a single bright passage in their history, they passed into captivity to Assyria;
[4] and on the birth of
Daniel a century had elapsed since the date of their national extinction.
Judah still retained a nominal independence, though, in fact, the nation had already
fallen into a state of utter vassalage. The geographical position of its territory
marked it out for such a fate. Lying half-way between the Nile and the Euphrates,
suzerainty in Judea became inevitably a test by which their old enemy beyond their
southern frontier, and the empire which the genius of Nabopolassar was then rearing
in the north, would test their rival claims to supremacy. The prophet's birth fell
about the very year which was reckoned the epoch of the second Babylonian Empire.
[5] He was still a boy at
the date of Pharaoh Necho's unsuccessful invasion of Chaldea. In that struggle his
kinsman and sovereign, the good king Josiah, took sides with Babylon, and not only
lost his life, but compromised still further the fortunes of his house and the freedom
of his country. (2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:20)
The public mourning for Josiah had scarcely ended when Pharaoh, on his homeward march,
appeared before Jerusalem to assert his suzerainty by claiming a heavy tribute from
the land and settling the succession to the throne. Jehoahaz, a younger son of Josiah,
had obtained the crown on his father's death, but was deposed by Pharaoh in favor
of Eliakim, who doubtless recommended himself to the king of Egypt by the very qualities
which perhaps had induced his father to disinherit him. Pharaoh changed his name
to Jehoiakim, and established him in the kingdom as a vassal of Egypt (2 Kings 23:33-35;
2 Chronicles 36:3, 4).
In the third year after these events, Nebuchadnezzar, Prince Royal of Babylon, [6] set out upon an expedition
of conquest, in command of his father's armies; and entering Judea he demanded the
submission of the king of Judah. After a siege of which history gives no particulars,
he captured the city and seized the king as a prisoner of war. But Jehoiakim regained
his liberty and his throne by pledging his allegiance to Babylon; and Nebuchadnezzar
withdrew with no spoil except a part of the holy vessels of the temple, which he
carried to the house of his god, and no captives save a few youths of the seed royal
of Judah, Daniel being of the number, whom he selected to adorn his court as vassal
princes. (2 Kings 24:1; 2 Chronicles 36:6, 7; Daniel 1:1, 2) Three years later Jehoiakim
revolted; but, although during the rest of his reign his territory was frequently
overrun by "bands of the Chaldees," five years elapsed before the armies
of Babylon returned to enforce the conquest of Judea. [7]
Jehoiachin, a youth of eighteen years, who had just succeeded to the throne,
at once surrendered with his family and retinue, (2 Kings 24:12) and once more Jerusalem
lay at the mercy of Nebuchadnezzar. On his first invasion he had proved magnanimous
and lenient, but he had now not merely to assert supremacy but to punish rebellion.
Accordingly he ransacked the city for everything of value, and "carried away
all Jerusalem," leaving none behind "save the poorest sort of the people
of the land." (2 Kings 24:14)
Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah was left as king or governor of the despoiled and depopulated
city, having sworn by Jehovah to pay allegiance to his Suzerain. This was "King
Jehoiachin's captivity," according to the era of the prophet Ezekiel, who was
himself among the captives. (Ezekiel 1:2)
The servitude to Babylon had been predicted as early as the days of Hezekiah; (2
Kings 20:17) and after the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy respecting it, Jeremiah
was charged with a Divine message of hope to the captivity, that after seventy years
were accomplished they would be restored to their land. (Jeremiah 29:10) But while
the exiles were thus cheered with promises of good, King Zedekiah and "the residue
of Jerusalem that remained in the land" were warned that resistance to the Divine
decree which subjected them to the yoke of Babylon would bring on them judgments
far more terrible than any they had known. Nebuchadnezzar would return to "destroy
them utterly," and make their whole land "a desolation and an astonishment."
(Jeremiah 24:8-10; 25:9; 27:3-8) False prophets rose up, however, to feed the national
vanity by predicting the speedy restoration of their independence, (Jeremiah 28:1-4)
and in spite of the solemn and repeated warnings and entreaties of Jeremiah, the
weak and wicked king was deceived by their testimony, and having obtained a promise
of armed support from Egypt, (Ezekiel 17:15) he openly revolted.
Thereupon the Chaldean armies once more surrounded Jerusalem. Events seemed at first
to justify Zedekiah's conduct, for the Egyptian forces hastened to his assistance,
and the Babylonians were compelled to raise the siege and withdraw from Judea. (Jeremiah
37:1, 5, 11) But this temporary success of the Jews served only to exasperate the
King of Babylon, and to make their fate more terrible when at last it overtook them.
Nebuchadnezzar determined to inflict a signal chastisement on the rebellious city
and people; and placing himself at the head of all the forces of his empire, (2 Kings
25:1; Jeremiah 34:1) he once more invaded Judea and laid siege to the Holy City.
The Jews resisted with the blind fanaticism which a false hope inspires; and it is
a signal proof of the natural strength of ancient Jerusalem, that for eighteen months
(2 Kings 25:1-3) they kept their enemy at bay, and yielded at last to famine and
not to force. The place was then given up to fire and sword. Nebuchadnezzar
"slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had
no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he
gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small,
and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of
his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and
brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and
destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword
carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons, until the
reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah."
(2 Chronicles 36:17-21)
As He had borne with their fathers for forty years in the wilderness, so for
forty years this last judgment lingered, "because He had
compassion on His people and on His dwelling place." (2 Chronicles 36:15) For
forty years the prophet's voice had not been silent in Jerusalem; "but
they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets,
until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy."
[8]
Such is the sacred chronicler's description of the first destruction of Jerusalem,
rivaled in later times by the horrors of that event under the effects of which it
still lies prostrate, and destined to be surpassed in days still to come, when the
predictions of Judah's supreme catastrophe shall be fulfilled. [9]
CHAPTER III. Back to
Top
THE KING'S DREAM AND THE PROPHET'S VISIONS
THE distinction between the Hebrew and the Chaldee portions of the writings of Daniel
[1] affords a natural division,
the importance of which will appear on a careful consideration of the whole. But
for the purpose of the present inquiry, the book will more conveniently divide itself
between the first six chapters and the last, the former portion being primarily historical
and didactic, and the latter containing the record of the four great visions granted
to the prophet in his closing years. It is with the visions that here we are specially
concerned. The narrative of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters is beyond
the scope of these pages, as having no immediate bearing upon the prophecy. The second
chapter, however, is of great importance, as giving the foundation of the later visions.
[2]
In a dream, King Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image, of which the head was gold,
the breasts and arms silver, the body brass, the legs iron, and the feet partly iron
and partly potter's ware. Then a stone, hewn without hands, struck the feet of the
image and it fell and crumbled to dust, and the stone became a great mountain and
filled the whole earth. [3]
The interpretation is in these words:
The predicted sovereignty of Judah passed far beyond the limits of mere supremacy among the tribes of Israel. It was an imperial scepter which was entrusted to the Son of David.
Such were the promises which Solomon inherited; and the brief glory of his reign
gave proof how fully they might have been realized, (2 Chronicles 9:22-28) had he
not turned aside to folly, and bartered for present sensual pleasures the most splendid
prospects which ever opened before mortal man. Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great
image, and Daniel's vision in interpretation of that dream, were a Divine revelation
that the forfeited scepter of the house of David had passed to Gentile hands, to
remain with them until the day when "the God of heaven
shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." (Daniel 2:44)
It is unnecessary here to discuss in detail the earlier portions of this prophecy.
There is, in fact, no controversy as to its general character and scope; and bearing
in mind the distinction between what is doubted and what is doubtful, there need
be no controversy as to the identity of the empires therein described with Babylonia,
Persia, Greece, and Rome. That the first was Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom is definitely
stated, (Daniel 2:37, 38) and a later vision as expressly names the Medo-Persian
empire and the empire of Alexander as being distinct "kingdoms" within
the range of the prophecy. (Daniel 8:20, 21) The fourth empire, therefore, must of
necessity be Rome. But it is sufficient here to emphasize the fact, revealed in the
plainest terms to Daniel in his exile, and to Jeremiah in the midst of the troubles
at Jerusalem, that thus the sovereignty of the earth, which had been forfeited by
Judah, was solemnly committed to the Gentiles. [4]
The only questions which arise relate, first to the character of the final
catastrophe symbolized by the fall and destruction of the image, and secondly to
the time of its fulfillment; and any difficulties which have been raised depend in
no way upon the language of the prophecy, but solely upon the preconceived views
of interpreters. No Christian doubts that the "stone cut out without hands"
was typical either of Christ Himself or of His kingdom. It is equally clear that
the catastrophe was to occur when the fourth empire should have become divided, and
be "partly strong and partly brittle." Therefore its fulfillment could
not belong to the time of the first advent. No less clear is it that its fulfillment
was to be a sudden crisis, to be followed by the establishment of "a kingdom
which shall never be destroyed." Therefore it relates to events still to come.
We are dealing here, not with prophetic theories, but with the meaning of plain words;
and what the prophecy foretells is not the rise and spread of a "spiritual
kingdom" in the midst of earthly kingdoms, but the establishment of a kingdom
which "shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms." [5]
The interpretation of the royal dream raised the captive exile at a single
bound to the Grand-Vizier-ship of Babylon, (Daniel 2:48) a position of trust and
honor which probably he held until he was either dismissed or withdrew from office
under one or other of the two last kings who succeeded to Nebuchadnezzar's throne.
The scene on the fatal night of Belshazzar's feast suggests that he had been then
so long in retirement, that the young king-regent knew nothing of his fame. [6] But yet his fame was still so great with older men, that
notwithstanding his failing years, he was once more called to the highest office
by Darius, when the Median king became master of the broad-walled city. [7]
But whether in prosperity or in retirement, he was true to the God of his
fathers. The years in which his childhood in Jerusalem was spent, though politically
dark and troubled, were a period of the brightest spiritual revival by which his
nation had ever been blessed, and he had carried with him to the court of Nebuchadnezzar
a faith and piety that withstood all the adverse influences which abounded in such
a scene. [8]
The Daniel of the second chapter was a young man just entering on a career
of extraordinary dignity and power, such as few have ever known, The Daniel of the
seventh chapter was an aged saint, who, having passed through the ordeal scathless,
still possessed a heart as true to God and to His people as when, some threescore
years before, he had entered the gates of the broad-walled city a captive and friendless
stranger. The date of the earlier vision was about the time of Jehoiakim's revolt,
when their ungovernable pride of race and creed still led the Jews to dream of independence.
At the time of the later vision more than forty years had passed since Jerusalem
had been laid in ruins, and the last king of the house of David had entered the brazen
gates of Babylon in chains.
Here again the main outlines of the prophecy seem clear. As the four empires which
were destined successively to wield sovereign power during "the times of the
Gentiles" are represented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream by the four divisions of
the great image, they are here typified by four wild beasts. [9] The ten toes of the image in the second chapter have their
correlatives in the ten horns of the fourth beast in the seventh chapter. The character
and course of the fourth empire are the prominent subject of the later vision, but
both prophecies are equally explicit that that empire in its ultimate phase will
be brought to a signal and sudden end by a manifestation of Divine power on earth.
The details of the vision, though interesting and important, may here be passed unnoticed,
for the interpretation given of them is so simple and so definite that the words
can leave no room for doubt in any unprejudiced mind. "These
great beasts, which are four, are four kings" (i.e., kingdoms; compare
verse 23), "which shall arise out of the earth; but the saints of the Most High
shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever." (Verses 17, 18)
The prophet then proceeds to recapitulate the vision, and his language affords an
explicit answer to the only question which can reasonably be raised upon the words
just quoted, namely, whether the "kingdom of the saints" shall follow immediately
upon the close of the fourth Gentile empire. [10]
"Then," he adds, "I would know the truth of the fourth beast,
which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron,
and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue
with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which
came up, and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth
that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his 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."
Such was the prophet's inquiry. Here is the interpretation accorded to him in reply.
Whether history records any event which may be within the range of this prophecy is a matter of opinion. That it has not been fulfilled is a plain matter of fact. [12] The Roman earth shall one day be parceled out in ten separate kingdoms, and out of one of these shall arise that terrible enemy of God and His people, whose destruction is to be one of the events of the second advent of Christ.
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTORY on page 1
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CHAPTERS 2-3 on page 2 (this page)
CHAPTERS 4-6 on page 3
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CHAPTERS 7-9 on page 4
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CHAPTERS 10-12 on page 5
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CHAPTERS 13-15 on page 6
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PREFACES on page 7
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APPENDICES on page 8
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For more about the author, read:
Sir
Robert Anderson and the Seventy Weeks of Daniel ---New Window
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