CHAPTER VI

THE VISIONS OF DANIEL

Nebuchadnezzar's image — Daniel's vision of the four beasts - Daniel's second vision (Chapter 8)- The seventy weeks - Last great vision of Daniel.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S IMAGE (DAN. 2-3)

The story of the image that was shown to the great king of Babylon in vision is very wonderful and interesting, and the interpretation very instructive, insomuch that all students of the Scriptures are familiar with the narrative. We will therefore content ourselves with pointing out some features in the interpretation which will be seen, when properly considered, to harmonize with the foregoing recast of the modern system of interpretation, especially insomuch as it applies to the people of Israel.

"In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king." And as his dream had gone from him, he demanded of them that they should both revive the dream, and also show the interpretation, and when they insisted upon his telling the dream, he charged them with trying to gain the time, and said there is but one decree for you, either tell me the dream and the interpretation thereof, or ye shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill. And when they could neither tell him the dream, nor the interpretation, the king was very angry and furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. But Daniel counselled Arioch, the king's captain, to moderation, saying that if they would give him time, he would show the king the interpretation.

"Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: and he changeth the times and the seasons; he removeth kings, and he setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding (as Jesus said 'To him. that hath, shall be given '): he revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him."

When, therefore, Daniel was brought in before the king, "the king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make

known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded, cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king: but there is a God in heaven which revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days" (Dan. 2: 1-28).

Now here it should be specially noted, that whatever reference this vision may have to the former days and to things that have transpired in the past, from the time that Nebuchadnezzar reigned in Babylon, and during the reigns of the kingdoms of the Medes and Persians, Grecians and Romans, up to the day that the emperor of Rome, by the hand of Titus, the son of Vespasion, destroyed the kingdom of Judah and removed them out of God's sight as the Lord had declared he would do for their wickedness, by his servants the prophets, I say whatever reference this vision may have to what transpired in those great empires of antiquity up to the time that the sceptre departed from Judah, and they ceased to be a people, its chief and principal application and fulfillment relates to, and will be manifested in the latter days; because these great empires of the past have their former days and their latter days, as well as have the house of Israel, and they run mostly parallel with each other. They existed contemporaneously in their former days, and they will do so again in the latter days. And whatever features of the prophecies relating to them have not been fulfilled in the past, will transpire in the future; and as has been already from the time that the Jews ceased to be a people some eighteen centuries since, down past the present time until the second exodus in the future, the doings, wanderings, sufferings, and persecutions of that people are not chronicled nor particularized by the prophets, and so it is with the nations during that long period.

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire, as brought to view by Rollin and other historians, and its subdivisions into a multitude of lesser kingdoms and states; the rise and manifestation of the Turkish power, of Austria, Italy, Germany, Russia, England, and other states of lesser importance, are not treated of during the times referred to by the inspired writers, nor do they come, during this long period, within the range of prophetic vision. "The valley of vision," as it is called in the Scriptures and spoken of particularly in the twenty-second chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, is far down the stream of time, beyond the present, in the latter days. Down into that valley the prophets looked and described what they saw there of God's mighty works with his people Israel, and the nations of the earth. "Behold it is come and it is done, saith the Lord, this is the day (the latter day) whereof I have spoken" (Ezek. 39:8).

A lack of understanding of this principle of interpretation has been the cause of amassing a mountain of theological rubbish as it is manifested in voluminous commentaries and attempted interpretations of the prophecies, straining to fit them to peoples to whom they have no reference, and to show their fulfillment in an age to which they do not apply. Certain classes of mankind also are liable to two great errors; Paul cautioned the churches against the one, and Peter cautioned them against the other. The first is, when Christ's coming is far away, to deceive people by teaching that it is near;

the other is, when the day of the Lord is near, to teach that it is far away. Both classes of these deceivers will have their day; therefore let wise men take warning and not be deceived by them. One class of them has been manifest in the earth from the days of the apostles, down to the present time, and the other class will be manifest in the latter days, and will say, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world." This they will say while the wise men of God will cry throughout the land in trumpet tones, "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly" (Zeph. 1).

But referring again to what Daniel said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king, what shall be in the latter days." With this statement before us, we must look to the latter days (still future) for a fulfillment of this vision. For in the past the image was never complete, and never was manifest except in sections; one part of the image only appeared at a time. When the head of gold passed away, then appeared the breast and arms of silver, next the belly and thighs of brass, and then the legs of iron, but the feet and toes have never in the past been fully manifest. But in the latter days the image will appear perfect and complete in all its parts, the gold, the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay, standing in all its brightness upon the mountains of Israel, when the form thereof will be dreadful and terrible.

Daniel proceeded saying, "As for thee O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter (especially in the latter days). And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass (2:31). Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, and his breast and arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut without hands, which smote the image on the feet, that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces.'

Now it must be understood that there is a special reason why the stone first smites the image upon his feet, instead of smiting it upon the head. That reason is this, the clay about the feet and toes are the people of Israel, and judgment, according to God's appointment, falls upon the Jew first, and after that upon the Gentile. Therefore the stone must needs smite the image upon the feet first.

(Verse 35) "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them, and the stone which smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."

This," said Daniel, “is the dream, and we will show the interpretation thereof before the king." In the interpretation which follows, it will be noticed that the part of the image where the clay is found attracts by far the most attention in the interpretation, because the clay is the people of Israel who join this great confederation of nations, and enter into covenant

with them, but it will be found as of old a very brittle and uncertain affair, and of a very temporary nature.

THE INTERPRETATION

Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory, and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thine hand and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold, and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise."

The Feet and Toes of the Image

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes of potter's clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with the miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." Now the peculiar feature of this image is the clay element, called "miry clay." The house of Israel is represented at the judgment of the latter days, as potter's clay, and as potters tread clay, so is this clay to be trodden by the Assyrian, or king of the north. And therefore the Lord says by Isaiah, “I have raised up one from the north and he shall come, from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name, and he shall come upon princes (the princes of the rebellious house of Israel) as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay." They came from the northeast, and are therefore called in the Revelation, "kings of the east," or "the east wind" elsewhere, and they come upon the Israelitish clay as upon mortar, for that, as Isaiah says, is a day of treading down, and crying to the mountains ("saying to the mountains and rocks. fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb ").

Again, the children of Israel confess that they are clay, saying, "But now, O Lord, thou art our father, we are the clay and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquities for ever" (Isa. 64: 8-12). This is said at a time when their holy cities are reduced to a wilderness, and Zion is a wilderness, and Jerusalem a desolation, and when their holy and beautiful house where their fathers praised the Lord is burned up with fire, because of their wickedness. We will cite another Scripture to confirm the fact that the clay element is the people of Israel in that day.

The Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah, "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work upon the wheels, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so

he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, O house of Israel, at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil ways, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them; and at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.

"Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you; return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways good. And they said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own doings, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Ask ye now among the heathen, Who hath heard such things? The virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, which cometh from the rock of the field, or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forgotten? because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths in a way not cast up, to make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing, every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face in the day of their calamity."

This parable and prophecy refers unmistakably to the day of Israel's trouble in the latter days, called by Jesus also a time of trouble such as never was, no nor ever shall be." And this and other Scriptures, as well as the image, point out the house of Israel as clay to be fashioned and moulded as God, their potter, sees fit at the judgment, because of all their doings.

Again as iron does not mix with clay, so the people of Israel do not readily blend with the Gentiles, and all covenants that have been made with them have soon been broken, because it was forbidden; and the covenant that they will make in the latter days with the nations who compose and make up this great image will soon be disannulled, and they, together with the nations that they mingle with, will be ground to powder, as Jesus taught them in the parable, saying, "Upon whomsoever this stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder" (Matt. 21:44).

Again it is said in the interpretation (verse 43), "And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they (the children of Israel) shall mingle themselves with the seed of men."

This passage is unmistakable in its meaning, for Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." Not that there is anything wrong in marrying or giving in marriage, because marriage is honorable and was instituted by God himself. But when we refer to the Scripture annals as to what transpired before the flood, we