6. The Parable of Symbolic Vision.
PARABLES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
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CHAPTER VI. THE PARABLE OF SYMBOLIC VISION. The destruction of symbolical and apocalyptic visions: — I. The symbolic visions of Amos. IL The visions of the dry bones and the Temple in Ezekiel. III. The symbolic visions of Daniel. IV. The symbolic visions of Zechariah. FROM the consideration of the parable in allegory and riddle, and of the parable of symbolic action, we pass on naturally to some notice of the parable of symbolic vision — like the former in its obvious suggestion of deeper meaning — like the latter in presenting that suggestion, not to the ear, but to the eye. The general subject of prophetic revelation by means of visions is a large one, singularly rich in both poetic and philosophical interest. If, indeed, we had to consider all forms of such revelation, as distinct from the plainer and more direct revelation by the “Word of the Lord,” and to deal with the subject as a whole with any thoroughness of detail, it would be sufficient to occupy a volume instead of a chapter. But if we look at it simply in connexion with the general principle of parabolic teaching, we can greatly narrow the largeness of our consideration.
It is quite possible to distinguish between visions which we ma}’ call parabolic, as direct!}- symbolizing man’s action and God’s dealing with him, and visions merely apocalyptic, in which the unspeakable majesty of God simply unfolds itself to man, so far as he is capable of conceiving it — clothing themselves in the imagery or visible grandeur and sublimity, but at the same time obviously implying through these a transcendent supernatural and mysterious reality. The two kinds of vision are, indeed, naturally connected.
They melt not unfrequently into one another; and may, perhaps, be considered as embodying the same fundamental principle. Still the distinction indicated above may be substantially drawn. It is clearly with the former class only that we are directly” concerned; and the latter need only be noticed so far as is rendered necessary by the connexion noted above. With one exception, it may be observed that the revelation through visions belongs to the prophets of the later ages of prophecy. After the simple rustic visions of the herd man -prophet Ames, — perhaps the earliest representative of the written prophecy of the Old Testament, — we find no record of prophetic visions, until the era of the captivity in the books of Ezekiel and Daniel, and the period after the return in the book of Zechariah, the son of Iddo. It can hardly be accidental that this was exactly the time when the imagination of the captive prophets of Israel must have been deeply impressed by the magnificent and colossal imagery of the palaces and temples of Babylon, which modern discovery has exhumed before the eyes of our own age. In some cases we have distinct traces of its effect on the special imagery of the visions themselves; in all, we may fairly suppose that it was allowed to suggest the special phase, under which the inspiration of God was to act upon the soul of the prophet. In all cases of the distinctly symbolic visions the interpretation and enforcement are expressly given. The visions, therefore, served (it would seem) simply the purpose of quasi-pictorial illustration, — intended, first, to arrest the attention, and then to tell on the imagination, and so impress themselves on the memory of the prophet and his hearers. They present in this respect an obvious similarity to those parables of our Lord of which He has been pleased to give through His disciples an interpretation to the world and which, nevertheless, exercise by their very parabolic form, a peculiar and undying influence over the imagination and thought of Christendom.
I. The visions of Amos, — which, though they do not open the book as we have it now, may, perhaps, from their connexion with the story of his calling, be taken as the first and simplest revelation to his yet untaught soul, — are of a characteristic homeliness and simplicity. He prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II. — a time of singular restoration of temporal prosperity, unaccompanied apparently by by any spiritual revival; and he foresaw the coming destruction at the hands of the Assyrian power, by a process gradual, not without some intermissions of respite, but moving on to only too complete an end. This foresight expresses itself in four simple visions.
Amos 7:1-10. — “Thus the Lord God shewed me, and, behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth: and lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. And it came to pass that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small. The Lord repented concerning this, It shall not be, saith the Lord.
“Thus the Lord God shewed me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire; and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten up the land. Then I said, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee, how shall Jacob stand? for he is small. The Lord repented concerning this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.
“Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more: and the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
Amos 8:1-3. — “ Thus the Lord God shewed me, and behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. And the songs of the temple shall be bowlings in that day, saith the Lord God: the dead bodies shall oe many: in every place shall they cast them forth with silence.” In the first two of these rustic visions the prophet is brought back to what he had doubtless often seen — the swoop of the cloud of locusts on the aftermath, which, “ after the king’s mowings “ of royal tribute, was the hope of the husbandman — the devouring ravage of the fire, ready to eat up the land, which is often spoken of by the prophets, in juxtaposition with the scourge of the locusts. Against both he cries out to God for the helpless littleness of Israel, and twice the judgment is stayed, “ It shall not be, saith the Lord.” The respite (we must suppose) was granted for repentance. Unhappily, it was granted in vain to the princes and people, besotted with luxury and pride, whom Amos so vividly describes and denounces in his whole prophecy. The next two visions are clearly parallel to each other, although between them is inserted the story of Amos’s call. Both tell of utter ruin; the plumb-line set in the midst of Israel marks the completeness and certainty of the doom of destruction; the basket of summer fruit, to be eaten as soon as gathered, tells of the rapid fulfilment of that doom. The application is drawn out with the graphic power of a terrible simplicity. It dwells on the desolation of the holy places, the sword drawn against the royal house, the songs of the palace turned to yells of anguish, the dead bodies cast out in the silence of a despair too deep for mourning. The completeness of its fulfilment by the hand of Shalmaneser we may almost picture to ourselves by a glance at the ruthless cruelties of Assyrian conquest, as depicted on the monuments now before our eyes.
II. The change of tone is infinite, from the simplicity of Amos to the sublime and mysterious grandeur of the visions of Ezekiel, only equalled or exceeded I in the Apocalypse of the New Testament. We have had to note already the symbolic and figurative character of Ezekiel’s teaching in his wealth of allegory. Yet even this has less forcibly impressed itself on Christian thought as characteristic of his prophecy, than the revelation of his great visions. As a rule, however, it would seem that these visions are to be considered as rather Apocalyptic than symbolic — revelations of God in visible and awful majesty, rather than illustrated parables of His dispensation to man. Such is (for example) the great opening vision at the river Chebar of the glory of the Lord — the four mysterious cherubim upholding the crystal firmament and the throne, on which sat “ the likeness as of a man,” and from which came as to Israel the charge of prophetic mission (cc. i.-iii.). Such, again, is the second vision of the same Divine Presence, bearing the prophet to the Temple at Jerusalem, to see there Its manifold degradations by the worship of graven and painted idols on the walls, and of the sun In heaven, to hear the charge of Divine vengeance on all who had not the mark of the Lord on their foreheads, and to behold the departure from the polluted Temple of the glory of the Lord, which he had seen in Chebar (cc. viii.-x.). These visions, of infinite solemnity and mystery, are symbolic only so far as this, — that all descriptions in human language of the Majesty of God can only symbolise the ineffable reality. But they can hardly be said to have a proper place among “ the parables of the Old Testament.” The first really symbolic vision with which we have direct concern is the celebrated vision (in C. xxxvil.) of the “dry bones,” long whitening in the valley — the charnel-house of some great slaughter of the past — and now restored to life.
Ezekiel 37:1-14. — “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones • and he caused me to pass by them round about: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and co\^er you with skin, and put breath in you, and }’e shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold an earthquake, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And I beheld, and lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me.
Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind. Thus saith the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say. Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut of. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. And I will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land, and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”
It would be superfluous to comment on the sublimity of a picture, which has passed into a proverb, and has reproduced itself in a thousand forms of human thought and metaphor. Nor is there anything to explain in the perfect simplicity of the interpretation, making the vision simply a parable of the coming revival of Israel out of the grave of national destruction, after the long, terrible dryness of the seventy years’ captivity. But it may be well to note the singular accuracy, underlying this splendid description of the process of spiritual revival, whether in a nation or in a Church. First, after the long and apparently hopeless desolation, the “ thundering and earthquake “ of some approaching revolution; next, the stirring of individual energies in separation, and the drawing together of those thus awakened to motion; then, the uniting of all in “ the sinews and flesh “ of that bodily organisation which makes each group a whole.
Yet in none of these is as yet the breath of true spiritual revival: the renewed organisation is perfect, yet as to the higher life it is dead still. But, at last, at the call of the prophet there comes “ the breath of God “ — a Pentecostal gift of the Spirit. Then, and not till then, is the revival accomplished: and “ they live and stand on their feet, an exceeding great army,” instinct with the indwelling life of God Himself The description is plainly illustrated in the actual course of its fulfilment by the restoration of Israel. As the seventy years drew to an end, there must have been, amidst signs of approaching change and revolution, stirrings of hope and energy in those, who, like Daniel, knew from “the books” of the approaching close of the captivity. In the restoration itself we see from the Book of Ezra how instinctively the relics of the people drew together in their old tribes and families, and how, once in their own land, they carefully revived all the civil and religious organisations of days gone by. Yet the inner spirit of true revival was not in these, but in the anointing by the Spirit of the Lord of the leaders and the people, and through this gift the renewal of spiritual life, witnessed and diffused by Haggai and Zechariah; the long interruptions, the weary delays, the obvious defects of the restoration, came from the imperfect reception of that inspiration; perhaps it may be said that for want of even such full outpouring of the higher life as had been known of old, and the tendency, already showing Itself, towards the substitution of the Law for the Spirit — the germ of a future Pharisaism — the restored people actually failed to be, as fully as they might have been, a great living army of God. But the prophecy is not simply “ of private interpretation.” Its fundamental idea has fulfilled itself again and again in the history of the past and the experience of the present. Every true revival must have in it something more than busy individualities and completeness of new organisations. It must live by the life of some great spiritual principle, pervading, in various methods and degrees, the whole body of human society. Such life-giving impulse a national revival may to some extent find in the ardour of loyalty, the passion for freedom, the glow of patriotism, the spirit of a wide and fervent philanthropy, the hunger and thirst after righteousness — all of which are (so to speak) the fainter breathings of the Spirit of God. But the true spiritual life, which has so often been felt as underlying the greatest national revivals, and which is the conscious inspiration of all revivals of the Church of God, is the known breathing, the direct Presence, of the Spirit of God, as the Spirit of Holiness, of Truth, of Love. Where this is, there is, in spite of individual failures and defective organisation, the revival of real spiritual life. Where this is not, all individual stirrings, all imposing organisations, are in vain; there may be a semblance of revival but all still is or soon will be dead.
There has, indeed, been a natural, almost irresistible, impulse to extend the application of the Parable from the many revivals of earth to the final “ regeneration,” of which these are but typical — the Resurrection of the Great Day, when the earth and the sea shall “ give up their dead.” It has supplied the imagery of many descriptions of that indescribable mysterious reality. It has suggested some answers to the bewildered or ironical inquiry, “ How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? “But it is clear that this further application, if not simply a play of Christian imagination, must rest merely on the general principle of typical application to the perfect Kingdom of Christ, and that it can claim here no hint of such further meaning in the original passage itself. This grand vision presents no difficulty of interpretation, either as to general method, or in detail.
It is far otherwise with the second great symbolic vision of Ezekiel, the elaborate and detailed picture of the future Temple, with which the book closes (cc. xl.-xlviii,). That this vision is symbolic cannot be seriously questioned. It was, indeed, suggested by some of the older interpreters, that it literally preserved, with a view to the future restoration, the true design of Solomon’s Temple, expanded, perhaps, and glorified by the larger ideas of the prophet himself; and that only the feebleness and timidity of the restored exiles prevented its full accomplishment. But this interpretation cannot be maintained, on a thoughtful consideration of the details of the description— as absolutely incapable of any literal realisation, as the picture of the dimensions and details of the new Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, — and (perhaps even more obviously) in view of the significant discrepancies of Ezekiel’s ritual from that of the Levitical law, and the plainly symbolic description, in c. xlvii, of the living waters flowing forth from the Temple. The other cognate idea — that the description is simply predictive, and waits for a literal fulfilment in the future, — is not only liable to the same objections, but is moreover burdened with special difficulties of its own.
Putting these aside, we must conclude that in spite of what seems to us a strange and prosaic minuteness of detail, the vision is to be taken as mainly symbolic. It has indeed so far a simply predictive value, that it brings out the certainty of a restored temple, of which “ the glory should be greater than the glory of the former house “; but beyond this it must be regarded as symbolic of the completeness, the symmetry, the mysterious greatness, of the inner spiritual life of Israel, of which the temple was always the visible shrine — through these shadowing out something of the outline of its perfection in the kingdom of the Messiah.
It will be sufficient here to indicate some of the leading points of this symbolism. The description of the Temple (cc. xl.-xliii.) preserves, in respect of the Sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies, the old literal dimensions and furniture of Solomon’s Temple — in themselves adapted from those of the ancient Tabernacle — which had acquired a prescriptive sacredness. The position of the tribes of the future (cc. xlvii, xlviii.) retains similarly, though with much variation, something of the actual order of the ancient settlement — only omitting the land on the eastern side of the Jordan, which had become heathenised, and so “ unclean.” Many of the details of the law and ritual of the Temple are drawn from the Levitical code; although here also with characteristic variations, which the actual restoration never dreamt of adopting. The image of the living waters flowing out from the Temple is clearly suggested by the actual stream of Siloam.
Like the vision of the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, but with infinitely more of closeness and minuteness of detail, the whole description takes as its basis the familiar reality of the ancient Temple, now laid in ruins. But through this, and often strangely interwoven with it, there shines the significance of a symbolic treatment. As in a dream, the ancient memories reproduce themselves in grander and more mysterious forms.
Thus — not to enter on the difficult question of the mystic significance of numbers, which holds so important a place in all the Apocalyptic visions of Holy Scripture — the prominence of symmetry, as indicative of perfection, impresses itself at once and forcibly on the mind. Like the Holy City of the Apocalypse, “all lies four square.” The Temple and its Courts form a square of 500 cubits; the Temple precincts a square of 3,000 cubits; the sacred territory of “ the Oblation,” assigned to the priests, the Levites, and the Holy City a square of 25,000 reeds (each of six cubits), or something over 40 miles. The walls of the Temple (again like the city of the Apocalypse) are equal in breadth and height. The arrangement of the tribes sacrifices history to a general symmetry, of which it is difficult to trace the guiding principle. The portion (c. xlv.) of the prince (to which, so far as we know, there was no historical counterpart whatever) flanks the territory of Oblation equally on either side. Everywhere we have the same presentation of a symmetry — to modern thought perhaps somewhat artificial — as marking an ideal perfection, in contrast with the irregularities and the contradictory influences of earth.
Closely connected with this is the continual presentation of a completeness of law and order, developing to a higher perfection the elaborate organisatlon ol the Levitical code itself. The detailed exactitude of the measurement of every dimension, the definition of every detail — all which to us seems prosaic and artificial — serve this purpose throughout as truly as even the purification from all pollution and unfaithfulness, with which (see c. xliii. 10-12) it is expressly connected. The “ law of the house “ is at once the safeguard against evil and the expression of higher resolution. The rigid exclusion of the aliens, “uncircumcised in heart and in flesh,-” from the service of the sanctuary — the careful organisation of the life and conduct of the priests — the exact regulations, in some points new, of the ritual and sacrifice, even to the order in which prince and people shall approach and leave the Temple — all embody the same idea. So, perhaps even more strikingly, the apportionment to the prince of a definite land of possession (flanking on either side the territory of the priests and Levites and the city), and of definite offerings from the people, and the laying upon him the duty of provision of the national sacrifices, are declared to be the Divine order of witness and provision against “the violence and spoil and the exactions” of the past, for the “execution^-’ in the future “of judgment and justice.^^ The assignment to the tribes in a new order of accurately-defined territories, stretching in parallel divisions from sea to sea, is another expression of the same idea. A perfect law, willingly and unerringly obeyed, is the image of the perfect life of the Covenant. It is not, perhaps, our ideal; for the Gospel teaches us to substitute for it “ the glorious liberty of the children of God,^’ expressing itself in free and varied development of service, above and beyond law. But it is the true, although less perfect symbol of this Divine reality, in which the one will of God fulfils itself by many hands, and in many ways.
Again, in the description of the ritual of the Temple of the vision (xlv. 18 — xlvi. 16), it is difficult not to infer some symbolical meaning attaching to the variations, — surely conscious and deliberate, — from the order of the Levitical system. There is the appointment of a new dedicatory and propitiatory sacrifice for the Temple and for the errors of its worshippers, on the first day and the seventh day of the first month: there is a notice of tv/o of the great feasts, — the Passover of religious consecration, the Tabernacles of glad thanksgiving for temporal and national blessings; while of the Feast of Weeks, traditionally connected with the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, and of the great sin-offering of the Day of Atonement, there is a singular omission. The regularly recurring sacrifices — the daily sacrifice, the sacrifices of the Sabbath and the new moon, — are noticed with especial stress, and invested with a fuller solemnity. The prominence given to “ the prince “ — in whom Rabbinical interpretation recognized the Messiah — and the absence of all mention of the High Priest, while they correspond strikingly with the record of Solomon’s consecration, yet come out with marked significance in contrast with the later history. All things seem to suggest the conviction that the vision symbolically shadows forth a higher condition of the worship of the covenanted people, under a completed atonement and a fulfilled law, and in the unveiled presence of the King of Israel, — again reminding us, though in but faint and imperfect approximation to the full reality, of the vision of the Holy City and people of God in the Apocalypse of the New Testament. But of all the phases of this last vision of Ezekiel, the most obvious, and at the same time the highest, strain of symbolic meaning is found in the famous picture (c. xlvii.), which has its parallel in the Apocalyptic vision of the elder Zechariah (Zechariah 14:8), of the living waters, a better Siloam, issuing out of the Sanctuary of God. The keynote of spiritual meaning is struck at once in the conception of the stream from under the Temple of God, as widening and deepening at once, while it flows on to bless and fertilise the world, — at the first thousand cubits “ reaching to the ankles,” at the next “ to the knees,” at the third “ to the loins,” at the last, “ water to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.” In the same higher symbolism the living waters are seen, mingling a diviner stream with the sacred Jordan, till the combined rivers flow on to the Dead Sea, — the sea of barrenness and lifelessness; and so “ the waters are healed,” and swarm with renewed life, the barrenness lingering only in the stagnant marshes outside their life-giving flow; and “ on this side and on that, there grows every tree for meat, whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall the fruit thereof fail; it shall bring forth new fruit every month... and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf for healing” (comp. Revelation 22:2). What can describe more vividly the power of the stream of new life from the presence of God, mingling with the waters of the ancient covenant — deepening continually age after age, as the flow spreads over the world, till that vast flood becomes fathomless in its depth — pouring into the Dead Sea of a blighted and barren humanity the quickening power which makes it teem with fresh and manifold life, — flowing on to water a new Paradise, rich with supernatural fruits, at once the medicine of sin and the sustenance of an undying spirit? To the prophet’s hearers the symbol must have come home, not only with a cheering promise of Israel’s revival, but with a foreshadowing of the Messianic life. To us there breathe from it at once the spirit of thankfulness for the partial realisation of the promise in the new kingdom of Christ on earth, and the aspiration of a sure and certain hope for that fuller realisation of His Kingdom in Heaven, which St. John saw in vision at Patmos.
Thus this last symbolic vision of the Temple brings home at least three spiritual ideas — the absolute perfection, the Divine Order, the inexhaustible and boundless life, of the true kingdom of God. In so many respects parallel to St. John’s vision of the new Jerusalem, it has this marked and characteristic difference — that to the Jewish prophet-priest the Divine reality could be symbolised only in a new and grander temple; on the Apostle there dawned the higher conception, “I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.”
These two great symbolic visions, in two very different styles, yield the highest exemplification of this form of teaching. Both have brought home their spiritual lessons, and have stamped them ineffaceably on the religious thought and imagination of the future.
IV. In the next series of the symbolic visions — the famous visions of the book of Daniel — we enter upon a wholly different region. The visions are not perhaps of higher grandeur than those of Ezekiel, but they are of larger scope. They pass beyond the history of Israel, and the future of the religious life and worship of the Temple, to shadow forth, in their higher phases, the grandeur of successive world-wide empires, and the diviner majesty of a universal Kingdom of God. In this respect it is obvious that they are strongly characteristic of the era, at which the national life of Israel was for a time absorbed in the universal Empire of Babylon; hardly less characteristic of the mind of the man, who, as the chosen councillor of Nebuchadnezzar and of Darius the Mede, was brought close to the centre of this imperial power, and in some degree was commissioned to wield it. That they, more distinctly even than the visions of Ezekiel, borrow their very imagery from the colossal figures of the palaces and temples before the eyes of the prophet, must be clear to any one who contemplates even those relics of Babylonian magnificence which time has left us. Grand as they are, they are not so much mysterious in the true sense of the word as obscure in some points of their application. In each case, as before, the meaning of the vision is explained, by Daniel himself to the king, or by an angel’s voice to the prophet. But in the case of two visions evidently referring to the same reality, the explanation still leaves much difficulty, and so admits of much variety of historical interpretation. Of the four symbolic visions of the book of Daniel, two are dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, interpreted by the prophet; two are visions revealed to the prophet himself, for which he has to seek interpretation from heaven. Of these, however, it is tolerably clear that the dream of the Image and the vision of the four beasts refer to the same reality, and so must be considered in connexion and as mutually interpreting each other. The dream of the image — one of the colossal figures, seated in an impassive majesty, with which we are now familiar, and of which probably the golden image of c. iii. was only a splendid specimen — presents in itself but little difficulty. All the points of the description, — the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the feet mingled of iron and clay, — are in themselves perfectly clear, and receive a simple explanation as successive exhibitions of world-wide empire, which to the king seem naturally to diminish in preciousness and beauty. The “ stone cut out without hands “ stands out in plain contrast, not of degree, but of kind, with the merely artificial splendour, which it destroys “like the chaff of the summer threshing floors,” and supersedes by a higher power, unique alike in its imperishable strength and its “ filling of the whole earth “; and the interpretation of it, as of a kingdom, unlike all kingdoms of men — a true kingdom of heaven, universal on earth — is natural and obvious. Were it not for inevitable comparison with the vision of the Four Beasts, that which is called “the traditional interpretation,” handed down from Christian antiquity, would establish itself inevitably, as the only adequate interpretation, by its accordance with the broad, unquestioned facts of history; except, of course, in the minds of those who deny any supernatural reality of prophetic foresight, and who therefore, according to the date which they assign to the book, regulate the interpretation of what is to them simply a fulfilled history, claiming falsely and dishonestly to be prophetic prediction. As a matter of fact, there have been but four great Empires which could even claim universal sway over the civilised world of various ages — the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian which superseded it, the Greek Empire of Alexander, “having rule over the whole earth,” and the iron empire of Rome, which was undoubtedly in a special sense a destroying and pulverising force against all existing nationalities, and which in the very hour of its world-wide triumph began to indicate a mingled strength and weakness, and to verge to its long “ Decline and Fall.” Nor is it less the plain fact that in the days of the Fourth Empire there arose the new “ Kingdom of heaven,” unlike all other kingdoms in its origin and character; and this kingdom it was which (as the strongest and wisest Roman Emperors clearly saw) by its very nature could not but supersede, and, as to form, destroy the Empire itself and the civilisations which it inherited. It is plain also that it claims, and has hitherto fulfilled its claim, to be a kingdom “which shall never be destroyed,” but “ shall stand fast for ever.” Evidently the ancient interpretation, and it alone, accords with the symbolism of the vision, and with the actual facts of history.
But, it is all but impossible to disconnect this dream from the fuller and more vivid vision of the Four Beasts subsequently manifested to the prophet (c. vii.), or with its corresponding picture of Four successive Empires, and of the universal kingdom of the “ Son of Man.” In this vision the Empires present themselves not as part of one great continuity, but as successive and antagonistic powers, — not as differing merely in dead material, but as having each its characteristic form of living energy. The lion with eagle’s wings — the favourite emblem of Babylonian royalty — is here exalted into the higher attributes of humanity, as Nebuchadnezzar was changed by the knowledge of the true God. The bear not unfairly represents the fierceness and massive strength of the Persian conquest. The leopard with its four wings and four heads is the fit emblem of the more agile and graceful strength of the Greek Empire, with its four resulting monarchies. In the beast, unnamed because unnaturally strong and terrible, ruthless in its utter destructiveness of conquest, diverse from all others in its strength and permanence, it is impossible not to acknowledge the very image of the iron Empire of Rome. Nor can we fail to identify the spiritual kingdom of “ the stone cut out without hands,” with the sublime description of the Son of Man, brought near to the unspeakable and all-subduing glory of “ the Ancient of Days,” to be invested with dominion and glory and a kingdom, “ in which all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him,” “a dominion which is an everlasting dominion, and a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.” Thus — only with infinitely greater force and beauty, — the revelation moves along the same lines, and the same interpretation must for the same reasons justify itself But there comes in here an apparently disturbing element, on the strength of which the old explanation is set aside, and the far less striking and convincing application to the Babylonian, Median, Persian, and Greek Empires adopted, by high authority. In vv. 7, 8, the Fourth Empire divides itself into the ten horns of ten kingdoms; and among these comes up a “ little horn, before whom there were three horns plucked up by the roots, and behold in this horn there were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking proud things,” and the interpretation describes it as one “ diverse from the other kings “ (or kingdom), who “ shall speak words against the Most High, and wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change, times and laws,” until the appointed hour of his judgment and destruction shall come. Now in c. viii. 9, from among the four horns of what is undoubtedly the Greek Empire, there comes forth “ a little horn, which waxes exceeding great, towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious land,” “magnifying itself, even against the prince of the host,” taking away the daily sacrifice, and casting down the sanctuary. It is assumed, in spite of not inconsiderable variety of detail, that the two must be identified, and that, therefore, the Fourth Empire must be the Greek and not the Roman. The identification is tempting, but not irresistible; especially when we note that in a passage of the Apocalypse, evidently looking back to this (Revelation 13:1-10), the beast with ten horns (uniting the characteristics of bear and leopard and lion) is clearly Roman in meaning, and has one horn, which, like the “ little horn “ of this vision, is a blaspheming and persecuting power. May not the “ little horn “ be simply the natural description of a power, growing from small beginnings to an inflated audacity of vaunt and blasphemy? If so, the “ little horns “ of the two visions may well be not identical, but similar, manifestations of a proud, ungodly power, striving against the kingdom of God, and drawing down upon itself a righteous destruction.
Certainly the identification of the two can hardly be so certain, as to prevail decisively against the otherwise all but irresistible strength of the old interpretation of the whole vision, and force us to substitute another, weaker and poorer in itself, and beset with many difficulties of application. In the grandeur of those two parallel revelations, we may still fairly trace a comprehensive view of the whole future course of the world’s history, in its preparation, conscious or unconscious, for the eternal kingdom of Christ. The next symbolic vision, recorded in the second dream of Nebuchadnezzar (c. iv.), while it is elaborate and full of beauty, presents no difficulty of interpretation. In itself the great tree of the dream is but a visible representation of one of the allegories of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 31:3-16), there referring to the great Assyrian monarchy in its pride and its fall. But the doom of “ the Watcher, the Holy One,”— a title borrowed by the king from the Babylonian mythology, and in Daniel’s interpretation made simply to represent the instrument of “ a decree of the Most High,” — bidding that the tree be cut down, and the stump left with a band of brass and iron, till seven times pass over it, is peculiar to the vision, and suits well with the special revelations of angelic ministration running through the whole of this book. The application of the vision — sadly but solemnly uttered by Daniel, not without vain warning to the king to avert or defer the doom by turning to righteousness and mercy — stands out with perfect clearness; and the narrative of its fulfilment in the sudden madness falling on the king in the hour of his greatest pride, while it is inexpressibly solemn, yet breathes the plainest simplicity of fact. It has become, in the truest sense, an acted parable, — a very proverb of pride abased, and humbled before “ the Most High, who liveth for ever and ever,” to whom “ all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing,” and “ all whose works are truth and his ways judgment.”
Hardly more difficult of interpretation is the last symbolic vision of “ the ram and the he-goat,” differing from that of the Four Beasts, which precedes it, in referring, not to the great world-wide revelation, but to the other subject, smaller and more closely connected with Israel, which alternates with it throughout the book. It is accordingly (so to speak) narrower and more prosaic in itself, and explained in all its details. In the slower and more deliberate conquest of the two-horned ram of the Medo-Persic Empire, — in the sudden swoop, “touching not the ground,” of the Grecian victory, before which the huge Persian Empire so rapidly collapsed, — the symbol corresponds in every point with the explanation. In the “ little horn “ growing out of one of the four horns of Alexander’s divided empire, to wax great against the stars of heaven and the sanctuary of the Lord, it would be obvious, even without the interpretation of verses 23-25, to recognize the reckless and cruel Antiochus Epiphanes, “ the king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences,” in his virulent persecution of Israel, “ destroying the mighty men and the holy people,” and in his singular overthrow, “broken without hand,” by what seemed a hopeless resistance. The vision has evidently suggested some portions of the Apocalypse — the persecution of Antiochus being taken as typical of ungodly and anti-Christian power — but of its splendid primary meaning there is no shadow of doubt or obscurity. The splendid story of the heroic Maccabean struggle and victory is the best comment upon it.
IV. From these grand visions of Ezekiel and Daniel, we go back to a narrower and humbler strain in the numerous symbolic visions of Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They occupy the larger portion of what is believed to be the true book of the post-exilian prophet; [1] and are all directed to the one main purpose of his prophecy — the encouragement of the restored exiles, under their evident weakness and timidity, by the sense of God’s presence with them, and by the promise of renewed national life in His covenant.
Zechariah 1:8-18. — “I saw in the night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white. Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees, answered and said. These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said. We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words, eve7i comfortable words. So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.
Therefore thus saith the Lord: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. Cry yet again, saying. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” This first vision is not so much significant in itself, as introductory of distinct promise. In it are seen a man on a red horse, “ the angel of the Lord,” and the horses behind him red, sorrel, and white, messengers “ of the Lord “ sent to walk to and fro on the earth. In the vision itself there is no further symbolism; but it is made to lead on to an intercession of the angel for Israel, and a declaration from the Lord of displeasure against the carelessness of heathen triumph over His people, and of promise to them of His renewed Presence, full of prosperity and comfort to their past sorrow.
Zechariah 1:18-21. — “And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold four horns. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me. These are the horns which scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. And the Lord shewed me four smiths. Then said I, What come these to do 1 And he spake, saying. These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.” The next vision tells its own story. It is simple and homely enough, — a vision of four horns of heathen power to vex Israel on every side, and of four smiths, messengers of the Lord, to fray and foil them.
Zechariah 2:1-6. — “And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me. To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle therein. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her. Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord.” Of the third vision, as of the first, the real force lies in the promise of which it is made the occasion. The vision itself is but of an angel, as in Ezekiel’s vision, going out to measure the city of the Lord. But his hand, it would seem, is arrested. The promise is given that Jerusalem shall spread, unwalled and free, to include multitudes, and that the Lord Himself shall be as a wall of fire around her; and it is followed by a full burst of supreme grace and blessing. “ Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Sion: for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.” The scene of the next two visions, of wholly different character, is laid in the Temple.
Zechariah 3. — “And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying. Take the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich apparel. And I said. Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord stood by. And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou also shalt judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will g\v(t thee a place of access among these that stand by.
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee; for they are men which are a sign: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch. For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; upon one stone are seven eyes, behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.” In this first vision Joshua, the high priest, is seen standing before the Lord, with the Accuser (Satan) at his right hand, and in the filthy garments of shame. The Accuser is silenced by the Lord; the accused rescued ’’as a brand out of the fire”; the filthy garments changed for rich apparel and the mitre of dignity. The vision may involve some definite historical allusion. But its general symbolism is clear.
Joshua (Jesus, “the Lord the Saviour”), the great high priest of the Restoration, is the representative of “ the royal priesthood, the holy people,” as redeemed to the covenant of the Lord. The vision tells of him and them forgiven and clothed in dignity, and of the stone of the Temple, with the seven eyes of the Lord upon it, laid as a sure foundation. But the prophecy which applies it goes on beyond this immediate blessing to dwell on my “ servant the BRANCH, “ the true Divine Saviour, of whom Joshua is but a type.
Zechariah 4. — “ And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be } And I said. No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying. This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the head-stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things t for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, even these seven, which are the eyes of the Lord; they run to and fro through the whole earth. Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered the second time, and said unto him. What be these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, that empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two sons of oil, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” In the second vision is seen the well-known great golden candlestick, with its seven lamps, but with two living olive trees, shedding oil into it on either side. In the candlestick is symbolized the light of Israel’s life; in the two olive trees, Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two associated ministers of that life to Israel. But as the former vision brought out the exaltation of Joshua, so this latter vision emphasizes almost entirely the Divine blessing on the royalty of Zerubbabel, the ancestor and the type of the true Son of David. The plummet, with the seven eyes of the Lord upon it, is here in his hand. The blessing, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,” given to him, is in its fulness the characteristic blessing of the kingdom of Christ.
Zechariah 5. — “ Then again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me. This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land: for every one that stealeth shall be purged out on the one side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be purged out on the other side according to it. I will cause it to go forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall abide in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof
“Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance in all the land, (and behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead:) and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah. And he said. This is Wickedness; and he cast her down into the midst of the ephah: and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came forth two women, and the wind was in their wings; now they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me. To build her an house in the land of Shinar, and when it is prepared, she shall be set there In her own place.”
Again the next two visions, somewhat obscurer in their symbolism, are linked together. A huge “flying roll” appears — written, no doubt, with lamentation and woe — and is interpreted to be the righteous curse of the Lord sweeping over the earth, and falling on the thief and the false swearer, to destroy them and their houses. An ephah with leaden lid is next seen, and placed in it a female form, the impersonation of wickedness, to be borne away by angelic messengers to the land of Shinar, its own congenial and appointed place. The meaning is perhaps less plain; but it seems to shadow forth the power of evil, punished In its exhibitions by God’s judgment, and in its root taken away from Israel by his gracious will.
Zechariah 6:1-9. — “ And again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; and in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled bay horses. Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, what are these, my lord? And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth. The chariot wherein are the black horses goeth forth toward the north country; and the white went forth after them; and the grisled went forth toward the south country. And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth. Then cried he upon me, and spake unto me, saying. Behold, they that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.” The last vision is the most difficult of all. In it four chariots come out from two mountains of brass drawn by red, white, black, and grisled bay horses. The black go to the north, and the white after them; the grisled to the south; and the bay are sent to walk to and fro on the earth. The four chariots are in some way identified with the four winds of heaven; and those who go towards the north are said to have “ quieted or satisfied the spirit of the Lord in the north country.” No key to the vision is given beyond this. The meaning remains obscure, except that we may see in these chariots the messengers of God’s judgment over the north (Babylon?), and the south (Egypt?), and over the length and breadth of the heathen world; and that thus the vision harmonizes with the general purpose of the whole book. The remnant of the chosen people, restored to their old land, yet stood there shorn of their old strength and glory, beset with enemies, and utterly prostrate under the great heathen Empire of Persia. They needed to see the arm of the Lord stretched out in protection for them, in judgment on their oppressors. It is precisely this which in various forms is symbolized in the visions of Zechariah. While they fall far short of the mystery and grandeur of the visions of Ezekiel and Daniel, they equally meet the needs, and fulfil the purposes, of their time.
These symbolic visions, indeed, form a peculiar section of the subject, and, deeply interesting as they are, they embody but imperfectly the parabolic idea. They are like the parable in conveying spiritual truths through visible symbols, and like it, therefore, in their laying hold of minds, which mere abstract teaching might fail to reach. But they do not appear to bring out with clearness and completeness that idea on which the true parable rests, — the principle of an analogy running through all workings of the Providence of God, in virtue of which the lower and simpler forms of its manifestation, real in themselves, yet suggest and illustrate higher realities.