08. THE VISION OF THE FOUR WILD BEASTS
ONLY a short time after his memorable dream, the rebellion of Jerusalem obliged Nebuchadnezzar to march the stone strike the image upon its feet when as yet there were neither feet nor legs? The division of Rome into the Eastern and Western Empires—to say nothing of the formation of the Ten Kingdoms—did not take place till centuries after the first advent.
¹This will take place rapidly, no doubt, but not instantaneously. Irresistible though it be, it is no more than a stone which descends, and, consequently, the immediate effect of its descent is locally restricted. But after the destruction of the image, it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth.
From other Scriptures we gather that the agency by which Christ will then spread His Kingdom will be similar to that which He now uses, while the circumstances will be altogether changed.
The word will go forth no longer in weakness, but in manifested power; its ministry—as we learn from Isa. lxvi. 19—will be committed to the children of Abraham; and the opposition of the spiritual powers of wickedness will have been removed.
against that city. His invasion was irresistible; and having deposed and—as the prophecies of Jeremiah seem to imply—slain Jehoiakim, he placed the youthful Jehoiachin upon the throne, and departed to press the siege of Tyre. But a fatal impulse moved the dominating party in Jerusalem to resume their intrigues with Egypt, and caused the prompt return of Nebuchadnezzar, whose determination so terrified the Jews that Jehoiachin, his mother Nehushta, and all the royal princes and officers, went out and surrendered themselves to be carried as captives to Babylon. With an unwonted clemency, which can only be ascribed to the impressions wrought on him by the revelations of Daniel, the wrathful autocrat still refrained from destroying the city. His forbearance resulted, however, in nothing more than a short respite: for Zedekiah, who had sworn to rule as his vassal, was soon discovered, like his predecessors, to be “sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people.”¹ Then the Chaldean king gave vent to his just anger; and, after a little delay, Jerusalem was levelled to the ground, and the Temple, in which the bigoted but ungodly Jews had placed their trust, was consumed with fire.
Yet God would not altogether give up Israel: sinful as the inhabitants of Judah had been, they were still His people, and His prophets continued among them.
Stationed with the miserable remnant in Palestine was Jeremiah, who, while he sternly rebuked their sins, nevertheless foretold that earth would soon be moved at the ruin of great Babylon, but that fallen Israel should rise again. And if any of his countrymen were
¹ Ezek. xvii. 15.
humbled in spirit before Jehovah, he could comfort them with the sweet assurance ;—“ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”¹
And even when the Jews, rebellious as ever, determined against the will of God to flee to Egypt for refuge, Jeremiah still remained among them, and prophesied to those who dwelt at Migdol and Tahpanes and Noph and in the country of Pathros.
Nor were the captives by the river of Chebar forgotten. With them was the prophet Ezekiel, who saw indeed mournful visions of the departure of the glory from the Temple, and of the punishment of Jerusalem ; but who also declared that the Spirit of the Lord should yet pass over the dry bones of Israel, and cause the people to arise from their graves, an exceeding great army ; and that the Messiah should, in happy times, build a structure far surpassing the Temple of Solomon, to which the glory of the Lord should return, and abide in it for ever.
Such, then, was the distribution of prophets among the Jews, who in all their afflictions did not cease to be the people of Jehovah, until they had filled up the measure of their iniquities by contemning His Son.
And since the sovereignty was now, according to the purpose of God, delivered to Nebuchadnezzar, and the Gentiles were being put to the test, a prophet was stationed at Babylon also, to reveal the Divine will, and to direct or warn as occasion might require. And so the new era commenced.
It is, of course, with the revelations of the prophet
¹ Jer. xxix. 11 appointed to minister to the Gentiles that we are at present concerned. We have already considered his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's vision, of the great image which represented Gentile dominion, noble and terrible as it would appear to the eyes of men. We saw that by it four great empires were disclosed as destined to run their course before the times of the Gentiles should be ended, and the Lord return to restore the Kingdom to Israel. That the fourth empire would be first divided into two, and then, after it had become more or less democratic, into ten kingdoms, which would nevertheless be in some way united under one head. That the parts of the body were significant of the unity, or the composite character, of the empires symbolized by them. That the arrangement of the metals intimated a continual degeneracy in the form of government. That judgment will not come until power has descended to the feet, or to the lowest order of the people. And, lastly, that the fourth empire will, in its final phase, include, together with new accessions, all the territory previously possessed by the others.
Such is the first great prophecy which relates exclusively to the Gentile powers. Most significantly it is not written in Hebrew, but in Chaldean, the world-language of that time. This is also the case with the five following chapters of Daniel, the last of which contains a second vision of the Gentile empires; while the intermediate four, though strictly historical, seem to be at the same time prophetic, since they are illustrative of the spirit which animates the World-powers, and also foreshadow scenes which will take place on a far grander scale in the closing years of the age.
In the third chapter, the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar set up in the plain of Dura was apparently suggested by his dream. Some have found difficulty in admitting this, because no exact copy of the vision-statue was attempted. But since the king knew that the head of gold represented himself, it was surely natural that he should use that metal alone to form the symbol of his own power. Homage to the statue may possibly have been intended to mean nothing more than submission to the king by a recognition of his gods as superior to those of vanquished nations. But far more probably it was a worship of himself—such as that which Darius received in the second empire, which was offered to Alexander as he entered Babylon, and which the Roman emperors were ever striving to exact from the Christians of the early Church. And in this case how completely does the scene in the plain of Dura foreshadow that which shall be hereafter! (For the last king of the Gentiles, like the first, will also set up his image for worship; and the false prophet who stands before him will cause all those who refuse him Divine honour to be put to death.)
Again; the contents of the fourth chapter—Nebuchadnezzar's second dream, its interpretation, and the sequel—are clearly a type of the whole course of God's dealings with the Gentiles. This is much more plainly brought out in the seventh chapter, in which we find that the World-powers are regarded by God as wild beasts; while, in contrast to them, the Lord Jesus takes the government upon His shoulders as a Son of man—that is, of man as God originally made him, before he fell into the bestial condition. And what hope there is for the human race in the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar to his sovereignty and glory, and in the noble confession by which he shows that his chastisement has been made a means of healing to him!
The types in the fifth and sixth chapters are striking and obvious. In the seventh we come to a vision which affords us another glimpse of the Gentile empires, but this time from an altogether different point of view. For the seer is no longer the head of the World-power gazing upon Gentile dominion displayed before his eyes in the noble appearance and fair proportions of a majestic human form, but the prophet of God, who is made to see things as they really are. Hence we have now no mere disclosure of the number of the coming empires, and of their gradual descent from absolute monarchy to democracy, but an insight into their real character as it appears, not to men, but to God.
It was in the first year of Belshazzar's vice-royalty at Babylon—when the armies of Cyrus were advancing, and perhaps the defeat of the Babylonians had already forced their king Nabonadius to take refuge in Borsippa—that Daniel, who was doubtless pondering the impending changes, received a further revelation.
He thought he was standing on the shore of the great sea, and lo! from the four corners of heaven, violent blasts were hurling themselves upon its restless waters, and lashing the whole surface of the deep into a tumult of dark foam. The prophet gazed with awe upon the troubled scene, and, while he was looking, a huge monster gradually lifted itself up from the boisterous waves, a creature in shape like to a lion, but with eagle's wings. Suddenly its great pinions were torn away, and it was raised up so as to stand upon its hind legs in the posture of a man, beast though it still was; and a man's heart was given to it. Then a second creature, like to a ponderous bear, came forth from the waters; it raised its right side, and was holding three ribs between its teeth. And the prophet heard a voice crying to it;—"Arise, devour much flesh." Anon a third beast appeared, resembling a spotted leopard; but upon its back were four wings, not like those of an eagle, but of a more ordinary bird. It had also four heads, and dominion was given unto it. Lastly, there arose a fourth monster, diverse from all the others, with a form unlike that of any earthly creature, having iron teeth and claws of brass, with which it devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue under foot. Upon its head were ten horns, and while it was passing before Daniel, another small horn sprouted, uprooting, as it gradually increased, three of the ten. And the prophet perceived that in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.
Turning his face toward heaven, Daniel saw that judgment thrones were being set¹ in the empyreal height, the same probably as those described by John in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse—that is to say, the Throne of God and those of the twenty-four elders. Then, in indescribable majesty, the Ancient of days appeared surrounded by innumerable angels, the books were opened, and Daniel saw in vision the great Assize
¹ Such is the sense of the original: the rendering of the Authorized Version, "till the thrones were cast down," is incorrect.
which shall hereafter be held over the as yet unconscious world. By its sentence the career of the fourth monster was suddenly arrested; because of the blasphemies of the horn the beast was slain, and his body given to the burning flames. His fate thus differed from that of the other beasts; for though successively deprived of their dominion, their lives had, nevertheless, been spared.
Then, in place of the beasts, Daniel saw One like to a son of man brought before the Ancient of days; and to Him was given all power, so that His dominion should, unlike those which had preceded it, be everlasting, and His Kingdom one which should never be destroyed.
Such, then, was the vision, a partial interpretation of which was given by an angel who stood near. But by comparing the previous revelation the prophet might have perceived that the four beasts represented the same four empires which had been displayed to Nebuchadnezzar in the parts and metals of the image; and that the vision foreshadowed the course and end of those Gentile powers to which God had delegated the sovereignty of earth, during the chastisement of His people Israel.
Daniel thought that he was standing on the shore of "the great sea," an expression which in the Old Testament always signifies the Mediterranean.¹ This indicated the locality of the world-powers; they must all border upon the Mediterranean before they could have anything to do with the vision.²
¹ Num. xxxiv. 6; Josh. i. 4; ix. 1; xv. 12.
² It is worthy of notice that each empire in succession acquired a greater extent of Mediterranean coast-land, until at last the whole of "the great sea" became a Roman lake.
§
In the dark and troubled sea we have a symbol of the confused anarchy of the nations, the tumults of the peoples, out of which empires are wont to rise; just as did that of Napoleon from the French revolution and Reign of Terror.
But unless they had been provoked, the waves would never have lashed themselves into the fury of a storm. They were impelled by external forces, the blasts which were breaking upon them. And these blasts represented the evil powers of the air, the angels and demons of darkness, which by their ceaseless assaults keep men in a perpetual state of unrest, excite their passions, and drive them on to every kind of wickedness.
The fact that there were four winds, corresponding to the four quarters of heaven, pointed to the universality of the influence, and showed that people of all regions of the earth would be affected by it, and moved hither and thither in violent commotion.
The first beast which arose from the seething foam was in form like a lion, but had also the wings of an eagle. Such figures—of a colossal size, and probably reminiscences of the Cherubim—were well known in Nineveh and Babylon, and many of them have been disinterred by Sir Henry Layard, and are now in the British Museum. The apparition would, therefore, suggest to Daniel the Babylonian Empire; and he would recognize the combination of the lion, the king of beasts, with the eagle, the chief of birds, as a symbol similar in meaning to the golden head of the image. And the kingdom of the Chaldeans had indeed ruled royally like the lion, and winged its conquering flight over the world like the eagle. For nothing was more characteristic of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar than the energy and rapidity of their irresistible movements.
But while Daniel was gazing upon the beast, its wings were suddenly plucked off; so that it could no more fly victoriously over the earth, or hover as a ruler above it. Then it was lifted up, and made to walk as a man upon two feet instead of four, while at the same time a man's heart¹ was given to it. It was still a beast, but it assumed the attitude, and was endowed with the intellect, of a man. It no longer trusted to the savage strength of its claws and teeth, which had failed it, but had recourse to human artifice and skill. By this means it was yet able to compass its ends in spite of the loss of its brute force. For although a man, if he be opposed to wild beasts with no other defence than his natural limbs, will have little chance in the struggle, yet let him only plan and make his weapons, and he will quickly destroy the most terrible monsters.
The wings of the lion were old and heavy when Cyrus marched against its Lydian ally: there was then no Nebuchadnezzar to hasten to the scene of action, and vigorously arrest the progress of the conquering Persian. So dilatory had the Chaldeans become, that their confederates, the Lydians and Egyptians, were defeated, Sardis was captured, and Cressus made a prisoner, before their army had even started from Babylon. When they heard of these disasters, they no longer dared to think of advancing out of their own country, but began to construct huge
¹ We must remember that the Hebrews regarded the heart as the seat of the intellect as well as of the emotions.
defensive works. The fierce brave spirit of that bitter nation, the Chaldeans, had been taken from it: it could no more go forth conquering and to conquer. Fifteen years after the capture of Sardis, Cyrus invaded Babylonia, swept everything before him, and at last took the great city itself. Then the wings of the Chaldean beast were plucked off for ever: he was deprived of all his brute strength, and was no longer the acknowledged head of the beasts and birds of the earth.
He was not, however, destroyed, but assumed the attitude and received the heart of a man. This description appears to glance at the subsequent history of the Chaldean caste. While its members wielded the still vigorous power of Babylon, they were enabled to rule the world by force; but when they were driven out of the city by Cyrus and the almost monotheistic Persians, they retired to Pergamos, and there sought by machination and craft to compass that which they could no longer obtain by force. Of their success, and by what means they recovered the sovereignty of the world, first through the Empire and then through the Church of Rome, we shall have to speak presently; and shall then be able to explain the manner in which the existence of the first beast is prolonged to the times of the end, and discern a reason for the breaking out of its spirit in the fourth, as well as for the transference of the name of Babylon to Rome.
The second empire is likened to a bear, the strongest beast after the lion, distinguished for its voracity, and called by Aristotle "an omnivorous animal." It has none of the agility and majesty of the lion, but is awkward in its movements, and effects its purpose with comparative slowness, by brute force and sheer strength. As it appeared upon the scene of Daniel's vision, it raised up itself on one side in readiness to attack, it held three ribs in its mouth, and the command was given to it;—"Arise, devour much flesh."
Now all these points find a ready interpretation in the characteristics and history of the second empire. It was ponderous in its movements: it did not gain its victories by bravery or skill, but overwhelmed its enemies by hurling vast masses of troops upon them, armies the greatest that have ever been collected. For instance, when Darius Hystaspes invaded Scythia, he took with him 700,000 men, and, in addition, a naval force of 600 ships manned by 120,000 sailors and marines. Xerxes' expedition against Greece was undertaken with 2,500,000 fighting men gathered from fifty-six nations. Adding the camp-followers, the whole body made up some 5,000,000 souls, a vast multitude, which, as Justin remarks, were able to drink up rivers on their march, but could not exhaust the royal treasury. Artaxerxes Longimanus used 600,000 men to subdue the one province of Egypt, and raised 1,200,000 to crush the rebellion of his brother Cyrus. Even in the last throes of the empire, Darius Codomannus opposed nearly 600,000 troops to Alexander at the battle of Issus. And after his defeat he made another supreme effort, and appeared in the plain of Gaugamela with a well-equipped army of 1,000,000 infantry, 40,000 cavalry, and 200 scythed chariots.
In the movements of such enormous bodies of men much flesh was indeed devoured, and that not merely by the sword, but by famines in the countries requisitioned for the vast armies, and also by a reckless waste of life in the armies themselves.
The side of the bear which was raised up to attack seems to signify Persia, in which lay the chief strength of the twofold empire. It will thus correspond to the right breast and arm of the image; and also to the horn of the ram which came up last, but was higher than the other.¹
The three ribs are the three kingdoms of Lydia Babylon and Egypt, which formed a league to check the Medo-Persian power, but were all destroyed by it.
The third beast, which represents the Grecian empire of Alexander, was like a leopard. This is the most agile and graceful of creatures; but its speed is here still further assisted by wings. Slight in its frame, but strong, swift, and fierce, its characteristics render it a fitting symbol of the rapid conquests of Alexander, who, followed by small but well-equipped and splendidly brave armies, moved with the greatest celerity and skill, and in about ten years overthrew the unwieldy forces of Persia, and subdued the whole civilized world.
The four heads and four wings must be interpreted of different things, and not taken together; for otherwise there would have been but two heads to correspond to the four wings.
Probably the wings denote spreading and extension of dominion to the four quarters of the earth. But they are only the wings of a fowl, and not those of an eagle; the progress would not be so royally victorious as that of the Chaldean power.
The four heads, on the other hand, are the four king-
¹ Dan. viii. 3.
doms into which the empire of Alexander was divided by his generals, namely, Thrace and Bithynia, Macedonia and Greece, Syria Babylon and the East, and Egypt. In these kingdoms the empire of Alexander was continued until, in B.C. 31, Egypt, the last survivor of them, was destroyed by the Romans.
The fourth beast, diverse from all its predecessors, was indescribably dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong. And certainly the career of the Roman Empire has already, even in the past, been more bloody than those of all the others, while its crimes include the murder of the Son of God Himself. Daniel beholds it as it arose and destroyed the Grecian empire; but nothing is revealed to him of its after career until the yet future time of the Ten Kingdoms. To Nebuchadnezzar, the Gentile, its intermediate division into two Empires, the Eastern and Western, is foretold: but that event took place in the period during which Hebrew prophecy is in abeyance;¹ therefore it was not disclosed to Daniel. He sees only the beast and its ten horns—the Empire in its first phase till the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and its final condition, in the last seven years of God's dealings with Israel, when the ten horns, corresponding to the ten toes of the image, will be developed. He is instructed that the ten horns are ten kings, and that another shall arise among them, diverse from all the rest, who shall subdue three of the ten, and gain the ascendency over them all. That this king will be distinguished by intelligence and great intellectual power is indicated by the eyes of the horn; while the mouth speaking
¹ The reader will find this explained by the comments on the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks in Part II.
great things shows that he will be boastful and blasphemous. He is the last monarch of the Gentiles, who will with stupendous magnificence bring up the rear of that long procession which was headed by Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean nearly two thousand five hundred years ago.
The brief account of this potentate here given to Daniel exactly corresponds with the descriptions in the thirteenth and seventeenth chapters of the Apocalypse. He will speak great words against the Most High, wear out the Saints of the High Places,¹ and think to change times and laws. And his power will be limited only by his will for a time, times, and the dividing, or half,
¹ It is interesting to distinguish the meanings of three expressions in the seventh chapter of Daniel.
In verses 18, 22, 25, and 27, the Authorised Version translates, "Saints of the Most High," whereas it should read, "Saints of the High Places." Daniel could not of course understand who these would be—for the mystery of the Church was not then revealed—but we can easily recognise those who will live and reign with the Lord in the heavenly regions, taking the place of "the host of the High Ones that are on high." In ver. 25, the reference is specially to that portion of them which will be upon earth during the great tribulation, but will suffer martyrdom rather than worship the Beast or his image.
In ver. 27, there is also mention of another class, "the people of the Saints of the High Places;" that is, the people which stand in close relation to these saints, namely, the Israelites. To the latter "the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given." That is, they shall become "the Kings of the Earth upon the earth," in the stead of the destroyed Gentile powers (Isa. xxiv. 21).
In ver. 21, the simple expression, "the saints," seems to embrace all the people of God who are upon earth at the time, the believers who pass through the tribulation, and the pious Jews. In ver. 22, it includes still more, nothing less, indeed, than the completed Church and the whole Israelitish people; for the reference is to the Millennial age, and "the Kingdom" comprehends both the heavenly and the earthly portions of Christ's government.
of a time—that is, probably, for three years and a half, or, as it is elsewhere called, for forty and two months.¹ At the end of that time God will sit in judgment, the dominion will be given to the Lord Jesus, and He will go forth to consume the Lawless One with the breath of His mouth. “Because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, I beheld even till the Beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.”
Since the Beast, which represents the body politic, is slain because of the blasphemous words of the horn, it is evident that Antichrist will be in perfect sympathy with the ungodly inhabitants of earth. There is here no illustration of the famous line of Horace,
“Quidquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi.”²
Unlike the kings of former times, this monarch will be an exact exponent of the will of the people; therefore, they will justly share his punishment. Their community of feeling is strikingly set forth in the seventeenth chapter of the Apocalypse, where the eighth king, who corresponds to the little horn, is said to be the Beast himself.³
The previous empires were not destroyed when their power was taken away; for Babylon prolonged its life in the manner described above, while Persia and Greece remain as insignificant kingdoms to this day. But with the fourth empire all must meet their doom; for, in the vision of the image, the stone which strikes it upon the feet breaks the whole into pieces, so that gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay, are mingled together in one indistinguishable ruin.
¹ Rev. xiii. 5. ² Hor., Epist. i., 2, 14 ³ Rev. xvii. 11.
THE VISION OF THE RAM AND THE HE-GOAT.
We must not forget the peculiar significance of the vision of the four beasts to Daniel and the Jews, for they learnt from it how long Jerusalem must be trodden down of the Gentiles. Four World-empires were to run their course, and then the times of the Gentiles would be ended, and the Lord would descend and restore the Kingdom to Israel.
This forcordained purpose was also disclosed to Zechariah, when he heard the angel of the Lord crying;—"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?" For the Lord spoke comfortably both to the angel and to the prophet, while to the latter He showed four horns and four smiths. Zechariah asked for an explanation, and the reply was;—"These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it."¹
V.