Daniel 2:31-33 You, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you… The passage here brought to our attention is only the first of several visions recorded in the book of Daniel treating of the same events. The dream of the great image as given in this chapter, and the vision of the four beasts as recorded in the seventh chapter, unquestionably describe the same things. To a certain extent, the same thing is true of the vision of the ram and the he-goat in the eighth chapter, and of the statements in the eleventh chapter regarding the succession of kings. Daniel was first of all a devout worshipper of the true God; he was further a patriotic Few; and the combination of these peculiarities turned his thought intensely toward the promise of the coming Messiah. God uses men according to their fitness, and Daniel, by his predispositions, was eminently fitted for the Messianic prophecy. But Daniel had his speciality even in this. He was a statesman — the greatest of his age. From the beginning of manhood till the weight of years was heavy upon him he stood behind the throne, and in the reigns of four kings and during two dynasties he was the chief adviser of royalty, studying with the eye of a master the relation of nations and the development of history. His Messianic prophecies were shaped accordingly. He wrote, not as did Isaiah, of Christ the sufferer, but of Christ the king, and he viewed the future in its relations to the rise and fall of kingdoms, their influence on the coming kingdom of Christ, and the final triumph of that mysterious and mighty Messianic dominion which should cover the whole earth. The dream of Nebuchadnezzar, as interpreted by Daniel, describes the succession of four great world-kingdoms, each preparing the way for the kingdom which followed it, and the four leading to the last and most wonderful, a fifth, to fill the whole earth and last for ever. All interpreters agree that the last kingdom is that of Christ. The statement, also, is explicit that the first kingdom is the Babylonish. What are the three intervening? There is substantial agreement that the second and the third kingdoms are the Medo-Persian Empire and the Macedonian. The only serious division of interpretation is in regard to the fourth kingdom. What is meant by the legs of iron, with feet part of iron and part of clay? Until within about a hundred years there has been no question that by this was signified the Roman Empire. But after Luther's day entered German rationalism, claiming that the book of Daniel was written by an uninspired pseudo-Daniel living in the times of the Maccabees. Such a man, of course, could write history, but would neither dare nor wish to prophesy another earthly dominion antagonistic to the Jews; and so these rationalists feel obliged to find some other kingdom than the Roman to represent the fourth. It is a similar prejudice against the supernatural which has led to much of the destructive criticism of the present day, and it was such prejudice which first suggested the substitution of the Syrian Empire for the Roman in the interpretation of this passage. It is enough for our present purpose that such scholars as Keil and Pusey advance satisfactory arguments that the fourth kingdom can be no other than the Roman. Why, then, are these great kingdoms introduced here? Because they prepared the way pre-eminently for the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth. Each world-kingdom represented certain ideas, and the downfall of that kingdom showed their inability to meet the needs of man. Each world-kingdom did a certain work in shaping human life, so that when Christ came the world was in better shape to receive Him. Let us briefly examine these great empires to see what they accomplished in these directions. 1. In showing that certain prevailing ideas of excellence were inadequate to satisfy human wants, each one of these world-kingdoms played an important part. It has evidently been a part of God's plan to let nations try, on a great scale, their theories of human advantage. Then, as one after another nations carrying out these theories have gone down into ignominy and ruin, the fallacy of their theories of happiness has been proved. Babylon represented the idea of sensuous and sensual pleasure. There money could purchase everything, and there the grossest delights of the flesh were indulged in to the full. Its luxury was boundless. The wild and wanton feast of Belshazzar and his lords, as described in the book of Daniel, is a mild picture of the drinking habits, the profligacy and licentiousness of the Babylonians. No other nation ever illustrated so fully as they the idea that man cannot find satisfaction in material enjoyments. An Oriental people, of warm blood, living in a hot climate, with the greatest abundance about them, their very religion ministering to their ideas of pleasure, surely, they, if any in the world could do it, might find the end of life in luxury. But in this they were grievously disappointed. Their pleasure-loving was utterly demoralizing, and ended in their ruin. The Medo-Persian Empire comes next into view. This people had higher ideas of life than the Babylonian. They were monotheists, or at least dualists. They were not a luxurious people. They despised silver and gold, and when they made war upon Babylon they could not be bought off as other attacking armies. Hence Isaiah says, "Behold, I will stir up the Medea against them," — that is, against the Babylonians — "which shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it." The controlling idea of the Medo-Persian Empire was glory. What they sought above all else was military renown. To them vastness of numbers and vastness of territory had a peculiar charm. At one time the empire covered an immense stretch of country, from the river Indus and the Hindoo-Koosh Mountains on the east to the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Sahara on the west. This was the empire which delighted in the most immense armies the world has ever known. Xerxes brought together against Greece two million and a half of men. But glory failed to satisfy, as had pleasure in the preceding kingdom. Presently this great empire, with its twenty satrapies, fell to pieces. The Macedonian Empire followed, bringing into view a wonderful civilization. Its days exalted intellect. Philosophy and art were the prominent forms of delight. Men sought refuge from the ills of life in the spacious groves of the academy, where Socrates and Plato and other great thinkers elaborated schemes of thought to explain all that troubles man and to provide a remedy. The faculties of man were at their highest, and in no age of the world has there been a finer development of literature and art. But it failed to meet the cravings of man, or to defend him against evil. The Macedonian Empire went down into speedy decay. With the death of Alexander it broke into two great fragments, the empires of the Ptolemies and the Selucidae, and presently another and greater world-empire swallowed up both of these. The Roman Empire was the last of these great world-kingdoms, and this set forth the idea of power. Rome, as no other nation before it, was thoroughly organized. The controlling ambition of Rome in its highest prosperity was to rule. It emphasized the ideas of law, of order, of force. It drew up a legal code that became the model for subsequent ages. Its mighty legions swept all lands, and nothing could stand before them. Lacking the grace and delicacy of Grecian civilization, caring less for fame and show than the Medo-Persian civilization, scorning in its best days the sybaritism of the Babylonian civilization, its fitting symbol was not the gold of Babylon, nor the silver of Persia, nor the bronze of Greece, but iron — hard, destructive, invincible iron. But law, though organized most thoroughly, and force, though developed into its highest forms, gave no guaranty of national permanence and secured no national happiness. Rome lapsed into weakness. The magnificent nation became permeated with vice, and easily fell a prey to the barbarians of the north. Its iron was mingled with clay. 2. And as the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold were broken in pieces together and carried away by the wind, while the stone that smote them became a great mountain and filled the whole earth, it is well for us to see how these world-kingdoms all contributed toward the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth before they disappeared. Babylon destroyed the tendency of the Jews to idolatry. Before they were carried away into captivity they had repeatedly gone after the false gods of the nations around them. But Babylon established them in the firmest opposition to the sin. Even Rome trembled before the fierceness of their hostility to idolatry, and at their wish removed from Jerusalem its military ensigns on which were images of Caesar. This intense monotheism was a necessary preparation for the coming of Christ. The Babylonish captivity likewise scattered the Jews everywhere. But few of them returned to Jerusalem. This dispersion of the Jews served an important purpose in making ready for the kingdom of Christ. It caused a general expectation of His coming throughout the world. It provided places for the preaching of the Gospel, for wherever a synagogue stood there Jewish Christians were at first able to speak for Christ. It secured an early presentation of the Gospel in all lands. The Jews converted at Pentecost went back into every land with the story of the Cross. The Jews in foreign lands were obliged to modify largely the ritual of their fathers. The Medo-Persian Empire broke down the scandalous Babylonish idolatry and destroyed a pestiferous influence in the ruling forces of the world. By its wide conquests it broke up the fallow ground of human thought, destroyed prejudices, and so opened the way for the Gospel. It re-established the Jewish worship in Jerusalem, and so kept the Divine fire of religious truth burning till Christ should come. The religious efforts inaugurated in the time of Cyrus and Darius and other Medo-Persian kings were permanent in their results. Not simply was the temple rebuilt, but the Scriptures were collected and copied and familiarized. And what did the Macedonian Empire do for Christ? It diffused the Greek language with Greek literature and Greek modes of thought. Intellects were wonderfully quickened the world over. The Old Testament was translated by Alexandrian scholars into Greek. Thus the Scriptures were made known to the world, thus language was fitted to express the lofty thoughts of the Gospel, and thus men were lifted up on a higher plane of thought, where they could appreciate and receive the preaching of the apostles. And Rome? The great Roman Empire established a universal dominion which facilitated the spread of the Gospel. It built good roads to all lands and policed them. It secured a fair measure of good order. In consequence the apostles could carry their Divine message all over the world. The Roman Empire also had an important bearing on Christ's atonement. It was the official authority which put Him to death. Thus it joined Gentile and Jew as alike guilty before God, and alike needing the benefits of the great sacrifice. It furnished a legal, and, therefore, peculiarly incontrovertible testimony to His death. It proved His resurrection by stationing guards at the tomb, who would assuredly have been put to death if His body had been stolen by His disciples. And it ended the Jewish ritual, for shortly after Christ's death Roman legions destroyed the temple, scattered the Jews, and made impossible the temple service. Can we doubt, even after this review, that Christ's empire is superior to all that went before it, and that on their pulverized and widely scattered fragments it is built up? (Addison P. Foster.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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