We have come to the close of our brief studies in Daniel. Now we must take a survey and retrospect of the whole of the ground which we have traversed.

      First of all let us recall the peculiar position held for God by the young Jewish captive who grew old in this service, and what was the occasion and the situation, and the times that called for Daniel's prophecy.

      Of first importance is the key-fact that Jehovah had delivered up his faithless people Israel into captivity and exile, and His city and His sanctuary to destruction. This was not done until after long forbearance and patient, faithful warning and pleading. Israel persisted in disobedience until there was no remedy. First the Assyrian laid waste the Northern Kingdom, and carried a large part of its population away into exile. About 150 years later the Kingdom of Judah and its capital Jerusalem, were given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

      This would not have been in God's original program for His people. His expressed purpose was to make His people Israel head of the nations, to set them above all peoples of the earth, and to make Jerusalem the great capital, and its temple the center of the world's worship. (Deuteronomy 26:19; 28:1, 13; 1 Kings 8:41-43; Isaiah 56:7.)

      But it was not as though the word of God had come to nought, or as if God had failed. God never fails and is never thwarted, nor ever gives up His plans or purposes (Romans 11:29). The disobedient nation was then started on a course of age-long discipline, during which they were to be under the rule and sovereignty [51] of the Gentile world-powers. Thus began "the times of the Gentiles" which continue unto this day (Luke 21:24). Ever since Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, Israel has been under Gentile domination. They have never again possessed their land, nor have they ever again been a sovereign and autonomous nation in it. [Until 1948. See footnote on page 5.]

      But when God gave them up into captivity He did not leave Himself without witness. He was still jealous for His name. In the first company of captives whom Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylon¹ was a young man--a lad perhaps 16 years of age--son of the royal family, or of a family of nobles, of Judah who was destined to be God's instrument, God's vessel unto honor, and faithful servant in the world-court of Babylon. Through him God made Himself known, upheld the honor of His name, and taught lessons that should stand for all time.

      Two outstanding prophecies in Daniel constitute the main track that runs through the book. They are:

1. The vision of the Great Statue in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream. (Daniel 2.)
2. The Vision of the Four Beasts. (Daniel 7.)

      These two which are one (like Pharaoh's double dream--Gen. 41:25), span the whole period of Gentile world-sovereignty from its beginning to its end. All else in the book of Daniel is introductory, supplementary, illustrative, and additional. The prophecy of four great Gentile world-powers in Daniel 2 and 7 is the backbone, as it were of the book.

      It is not the purpose of this retrospect to rehearse again the details of Daniel's education for the Babylonian court, and his, and his companions' determined loyalty toward God; nor the circumstances under which God revealed Nebuchadnezzar's forgotten dream to Daniel. All this is related in Daniel 1 and 2, and has been discussed in the former lessons. Our purpose here is to bring out the great central truths.

      We see then Daniel standing before the astonished king, as the spokesman of the Most High God and revealing to him that deepest of all inscrutable secrets that could be conceived--a forgotten dream. There could be no doubt in the king's mind that it was the same God that sent the dream that was now speaking to him through lips of the young Jewish captive. But why did not this Most High God communicate with him, King Nebuchadnezzar himself, directly? It was because the heathen king must learn that this people Israel, though in rejection, was ordained to be God's point of contact with mankind, His priestly nation, the appointed channel of God's communications. It is through Israel that God's word and light and truth must go out. (Compare John 4:22.) True, God had given them into Nebuchadnezzar's hand for the time; but they were God's people still (Romans 11:29).

      That the prophecy of the Four Beasts in Daniel 7 runs parallel with that of Nebuchadnezzar's Statue is not open to dispute (though, of course, some few have tried to dispute it at one time and another). The theme of the two prophecies is the same, their scope and progress are the same, the terminus and outcome of both are the same. Not that the prophecy of the Four Beasts is a mere repetition of that of the Statue--it is far fuller in detail, more realistic in presentation, and carries much additional revelation. The four great world-powers are represented in the seventh chapter according to their true character--as beasts; and (as was the "head of gold" in the Statue) the first is the noblest; and the progressive deterioration in the four parts of the Statue (gold, silver, bronze, iron, clay) is seen in the four successive Beasts also; the last of which shows (like the toes of the Statue) a ten-fold division, and, like the Statue in its last part, meets its doom by an act of judgment direct from on High.

      It is notable that the Statue, though consisting of four successive parts, is viewed as a whole, and in the end is represented as being destroyed as a whole (Daniel 2:35). This feature does not appear in the Four Beasts until, in the vision of John of things future (Revelation 1:19; 4:1ff) the fourth Beast appears again in its final development, in the end-time, and it embodies in itself then the characteristic features of all the four. (Revelation 13:1, 2.) [52]

      The destruction of the Statue, as also the judgment visited upon the last Beast, is, in each case, followed by the reign of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. In Daniel 2 we read--"in the days of those kings"--not the kings of the four successive world-powers, which could not have been meant, for they were not contemporaneous, but in the days of the ten kings of the last world-power "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people"--as the Babylonian kingdom was left to the Medes and Persians; and the latter passed over to Greece; but this kingdom which God will set up, "will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever." (Daniel 2:44).

      So likewise in Daniel 7:

"These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come."

"The Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom."

"Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him." (Daniel 7:17, 18, 22, 27.)

      The same fact appears in John's Revelation. The ten-horned beast of Revelation 13, like the fourth of Daniel 7, is a world-power (see Revelation 13:2, 7) and is one of Daniel's four (there were not to be five)--and manifestly the fourth one; and it is seen there in its future and final manifestation.

      This beast (like the fourth of Daniel's vision) meets its doom at the hands of the returning Christ from heaven, when He comes with "the armies of heaven." (Revelation 19:11-21.)

      Immediately after the execution of the Divine judgment upon the Beast, Christ and His saints take over the government--precisely as in Daniel 7:26, 27. (Revelation 20:4-6.)

      These correspondences are not accidental, nor are they fabricated by man's ingenuity and imagination, but they lie plain and open in the Word itself, as the faithful reader can see and verify.

      The eighth chapter of Daniel takes up in detail certain matters concerning the "silver" and the "bronze" kingdoms of Daniel 2, and the "bear" and the "leopard" kingdoms of Daniel 7, which correspond to the silver and bronze. Only here they are not the "bear" and the "leopard" but a ram and a he-goat; and these stand for the Persian and Grecian world-powers respectively. His purpose is to trace certain developments in the third, the Grecian, world-power in the "latter days."

      The intercessory prayer of Daniel (one of the great prayers of the Bible) in Daniel 9, issues in the time-prophecy of the Seventy Weeks which leads to Israel's final and glorious restoration. (Daniel 9:24.) And his three weeks' siege of prayer at the Tigris River, is answered by a wondrous heavenly messenger (Daniel 10) whose message of revelation deals with the developments of the last days, and reaches to the close of the book.

      We find Daniel praying first in chapter 2, when Nebuchadnezzar's decree had gone out that the "wise men" of Babylon should be slain--under which decree Daniel himself was included.

      We learn in chapter 6 of Daniel's daily prayers--three times a day, praying and giving thanks--and refusing to vary from this, even at the threat of the lions' den.

      In chapter 9, Daniel's wonderful prayer of intercession for his people.

      In chapter ten he prays with fasting for three weeks, till the answer came.

      With the coming of the Savior a new and closer approach to God has been opened. But how few are the Christians whose prayer-life holds any comparison to the earnest, fervent praying of this Old Testament saint!

      The book of Daniel contains but two definite references to Christ. The language of one of these the Lord quoted and applied to Himself when He witnessed His good confession before Caiaphas.

      Daniel saw, "in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every [53] language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13, 14.)

      The challenge of Caiaphas and the answer of our Lord runs as follows:

"The high priest said to Him, 'I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.' Jesus said to him, 'You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.'" (Matthew 26:63, 64.)

      As given by Mark, "I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." (Mark 14:62.)

      In this reference to Daniel 7:13, 14 the Lord also testified to His exaltation at God's right hand, and to His return "with the clouds" in like manner as He had gone to heaven.

      The other prophecy of Christ is in Daniel 9:26 where it is stated that "Then after the sixty-two weeks (the 69th week) the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing."

      But the reference to the Anti-Christ² is very full and detailed. We see him first as the "little horn," the "insolent king," in Daniel 8. (The question of the identity of the two "little horns" [one in chap. 7, and one in chap. 8] is discussed in the lesson on Daniel 8.) In Daniel 9 he is "the prince who is to come," who makes "a firm covenant with the many for one week." In Daniel 11, from v. 36 on he is the willful king. Make a list of all the things said about him, and compare the description with the dictators of our day. The resemblance is amazing.

      One point stands out clearly in Daniel's prophecy--that regardless of all that transpires on the earth Jehovah bears supreme rule. Though for a time He has given over the sovereignty of the earth into the hands of the Gentiles, He has by no means abdicated His throne and authority. He is "the God of heaven," the "Most High God" who has established His throne in the heavens, and whose kingdom rules over all. (Psalms 103:19.) The Gentile world-kingdoms derive their power and authority from Him (Romans 13:1) and their rulers hold their thrones only by His will and sufferance. Moreover these rulers are strictly responsible to Him for their conduct, their attitude toward Him, and especially as to their treatment of His people Israel.

      This was first deeply impressed on the mind of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4) and later even more emphatically upon Belshazzar (Daniel 5).

      Nebuchadnezzar was taught that "The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, And bestows it on whom He wishes And sets over it the lowliest of men."

      When he had learned this lesson Nebuchadnezzar said,

"I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion; And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?' . . . Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true because everything he does is His ways just, and He able to to humble those who walk in pride." (Daniel 4:17, 34, 35, 37.)

      Belshazzar's lesson was a more severe one. To him came "the handwriting on the wall," because he knew all this, yet lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven. Also, as Daniel said to him, "you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways." (Daniel 5:22f.) So on that selfsame night, he was deprived of both his kingdom and his life, and the world-sovereignty passed into the hands of the Medes and Persians. Thus the others, also, when their cup was full, were set aside by the God of heaven. And the extreme doom is reserved for the last of the Gentile world-powers. [54]

      Finally, let us list the things that shall come when "the times of the Gentiles" come to their end--i. e., after the destruction of the last Gentile world-power. (Luke 21:24.) See especially Daniel 7:21, 22, 25-27; Daniel 9:24.

[LOD3R 51-55]