UNIQUE INTERPRETATION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S IMAGE.
Who are disqualified for correctly interpreting the Image—One Image therefore One Dominion—The Head of gold coexistent with Nebuchadnezzar and the Stone that smites the Image—The other metallic elements also, and the Clay likewise, coexist at the Second Advent—The Chaldean and Roman Babylonish Dynasties, and their Destroyers—Koresh a type of the Messiah as the conqueror of the Assyrian—The Time of the Image-Empire—How the Latter Days may be known—The Adventual Battle—The Iron Legs of the Image—Where are the Feet?—Interpretation of “the Clay”—The Post-Adventual War—Objections categorically answered.
Much that might be said upon the points brought out in our friend’s epistle interrogatory is anticipated in the preceding article styled “Our Motto.” This was not written in view of his letter, and therefore does not dwell particularly on the difficulties he suggests. They are difficulties not to be glossed over or evaded; but they must be ingenuously and evidentially considered, for they are important, as he truly says, and involve a right understanding of the things represented by the Image.
Though much has been said and written explanatory of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, we have seen no interpretation of it that is satisfactory—that is, that harmonises with the testimony of other prophets in relation to the time of the end, or latter days. This is not to be wondered at; for the nation of the Stone power or kingdom, and how it is to be established, have not been, and as far as we are informed, are scarcely at all understood even now. To give such an explanation as will elucidate all the points of the Image and Daniel’s interpretation of it, Ezekiel’s prophecy of Gog, Isaiah’s of the Assyrian, Daniel’s of the King of the North, and Zechariah’s and Joel’s of the gathering of the nations to battle against Jerusalem, must be understood in addition to a right apprehension of the things of the kingdom of God. A theory that makes the Ten Kings antecedent to Antiochus Epiphanes, as commentators do of the Moses Stuart school; or that construes “these kings” to mean Augustus and Tiberius Caesars; or that imagines the Stone-kingdom consists of all saints ruling with Christ over wild beasts then tamed, as the first Adam did in Eden; or that makes “the church,” in its post-pentecostian and future millennial states, the kingdom, clothed with “latter day glory” by the success of its “ministry” in preaching their theories, which all nations come to receive with unanimity to the full manifestation of their “spiritual reign;” while it proscribes Jesus from the earth, and banishes him and “his everlasting kingdom” afar off “beyond the skies;” and suffers him only to return at the end of their 360,000 years spiritual reign, as some make it, to carry off the mortal bodies of the disembodied ghosts alleged to have been reigning with him in kingdoms of the Milky Way, and to burn up the earth and all the wicked on’t—theories that propound such solemn nonsense as these things, have no explanation of the grand and eventful crisis, in which God has predetermined that the past, the present, and the future of human power and wickedness shall find their consummation, as illustrated in the catastrophe of the Image—no exegesis emanating from them is worthy of a respectful consideration.
ONE IMAGE, ONE DOMINION.
The Image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian, in his dream, was a gigantic statue in the form of a man. It appeared to be composed of four different metals from the head to the feet; the first three of different degrees of preciousness, indicative of the relative inferiority of the things represented; and the fourth, more abundant and useful than its predecessors, but symbolical of superior strength and power. A golden head, silver breast and arms, belly and thigh of brass, legs and the feet of iron, made up the whole image, with the exception of some miry potter’s clay which was mixed up with the iron of the feet and toes. It was ONE IMAGE constructed of several integral parts—parts necessary to the Image and without which it did not exist. If Nebuchadnezzar had seen only the golden head, or the iron legs and feet only, he would not have seen a statue, but merely a fractional part of one. Let this then be well remembered, for it is a point essential to a right interpretation of the matter.
As it was one entire image it represented one entire dominion; and as it was composed of five different substances, a dominion was thereby symbolised as being constituted of as many different political elements. As a whole, it was a great Assyrian dominion, for the Assyrian Dynasty is declared to be represented by the Head of gold. Hence Daniel addressing the king styles him “a king of kings,” that is, an Emperor, and reminding him of the universality of his dominion, says to him, “Thou art this head of gold;” that is, the golden head represents thy dynasty, which was the Assyrian, symbolised in the seventh chapter by a lion stripped of its Ninevite wings, and no longer crouching, but standing erect upon its feet like a man, and possessing a human heart. The golden lion-head was the head of the statue he beheld, answering to the first beast of Daniel’s vision which he saw in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, and which Assyrian Lion is represented to the prophet as a dominion coexistent with the destruction of the Fourth Beast, and the possession of the kingdom by the Son of Man and the Saints—Daniel 7: 12. Let this be noted. It is admitted on all hands that the Head of gold and the First Beast represent the same thing; and that thing is the Assyrian Dominion –the Assyrian under two dynasties, the Ninevite and Babylonish; the Ninevite, the Lion with the eagle’s wings; and the Babylonish, the Lion without wings, as stated above, having very much the appearance of a man. Now mark; this Babylonish Assyrian dominion exists in the latter days, and loses its dominion then; but that its subjects in Assyria continue a people thenceforth for a season and a time, “whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Assyria the work of my hands”—Isaiah 19: 23-25. From these, and many other testimonies that might be adduced, we conclude that the Head of gold represents not one man, but a dynasty contemporary with the latter days—an ancient dynasty, indeed, taking root potentially, but not hereditarily, in Nebuchadnezzar who saw the dream.
But, not only doth the golden, but also the silver, brazen, and iron parts of the statue coexist in the latter days when judgment is given to the Saints. It is admitted that the Four Beasts Daniel saw in the first year of Belshazzar represent the same dominions as the Four Metals of the Image. Now these four beasts do all coexist at the crisis of the Fourth Beast’s destruction: which no world-wise man would aver had yet come to pass. It follows, then, that the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, or the dominions they represent, are all contemporarily existent with the setting up of the kingdom of God. But of these coexistent dominions which is ascendant over the rest? Which of them is then “a king of kings, to whom the God of heaven hath given a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and made ruler over all the sons of men,” as he had Nebuchadnezzar before him? It is not Persia, nor Greece, nor Rome; for the head of the Image Empire is neither silver, brass, nor iron: it is then the Assyrian, for he is the Head of Gold, and something else, as we shall see.
THE TWO BABYLONISH DYNASTIES AND THEIR DESTROYERS.
We may remark here in passing, that the first king of the Head was Babylonish, and so will the last king be likewise. The first was literally and typically Head of Babylon’s dominion; a city or metropolis which was the beginning of the Assyrian monarchy, and so named because there the confusion of human speech began: the last of Assyria’s kings is literally and antitypically Head and Feet of the empire of the latter days, figuratively styled the Babylonish; for the dominion he will have then acquired, comprehending all the Iron Kingdom and its divisions, commenced in Rome, the city of confusion, where the one speech of the faith was confounded, and whence the scattering over the modern earth began; and because of many points of similitude also named “great Babylon”—Daniel 4: 30; Revelation 17: 5. The Chaldean Babylon and the Roman Babylon are as type and antitype. When the career of both is finished, the latter as completely as the former, they will both have belonged to “the Assyrian.” We do not say that the Czar’s dominion began in Rome. He is hereditarily descended from Rurik of the family of Russ, of Scandinavian origin, which first appears in history about A. D. 862. Rurik was invited by the Scythians to become their sovereign. He accepted the invitation, and founded the Grand Duchy of Great Russia, whose capital was first at Novgorod and afterwards at Kiew. This was the origin of the Czar and his present dominion. But he is destined to acquire another dominion—the dominion of the Iron monarchy—and this dominion, we say, the modern Babylonish, had its commencement in Rome. It is this hereafter-to-be acquired dominion that will constitute the Autocrat’s dominion the Babylonish.
Perhaps it may be well to add a few more hints under this head. When “the very time of the king of Babylon’s land” had come, that is, when the 70 years allotted to the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-Merodach, and Belshazzar, during which all nations were to serve them, were fully accomplished, the time had arrived for the restoration of Israel—Jeremiah 27: 7; 29: 10. There was no disposition on the part of Belshazzar to release them. He imagined himself firmly seated on his throne in “the golden city.”
“He ruled the nations in anger, and opened not the house of his prisoners; but said in his heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation (Mount Zion) in the sides of the North: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High”—Isaiah 14: 6, 13-17, 19.
But how this vain-glorious monarch trembled when he saw the hand inscribing the doom of his dynasty upon the wall! He that drank to the praise of his gods out of the gold and silver vessels of the temple, and “lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven,” was seized with the pallor and prostration of extreme fear. But the Lord whom he had defied had numbered his kingdom and finished it; he had weighed him in the balances and found him wanting; and had therefore divided his kingdom to the Medes and Persians. Nor was he long in executing the sentence he had pronounced; for in that night he was slain—Daniel 5, and “cast out as an abominable branch—as a carcase trodden under feet.”
Now, let it be observed that the effect of the fall of “the Assyrian,” and the acquisition of supreme power by Koresh, or Cyrus, was a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, saying—
“The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem”—Ezra 1: 2-4.
This Koresh, we doubt not, was a representative man. His name, the part he played in the overthrow of the Assyrian and the restoration of the Jews, and the things which the Lord uttered concerning him, are strongly evidential that he was a typical person. His name Koresh is compounded of the prefix k, pronounced kar, signifying comparison or resemblance, namely, as, as if, like; and the noun yoraish heir. Kah-yoraish “like the heir,” contracted into Koresh, because of certain rules in the pointing with which it would be useless to trouble the reader. It is to be remembered here that about 185 years before the fall of Babylon Jehovah gave the name of LIKE-THE-HEIR to the Persian who overthrew the Assyrian and delivered Israel. He says concerning him,
“For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me”—Isaiah 45: 4.
He also says of him,
“He is my Shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid”—Isaiah 44: 28.
Then again he styles him “his Anointed,” that is, his Christ—Isaiah 45: 1. Can it be imagined that all these expressions found their full signification in the Persian Conqueror? No, we conclude rather that Jehovah named him Like-the-Heir, because he was to enact a similar part in regard to the first Babylon to that predetermined for Jehovah’s Anointed Shepherd, “the Heir”—Matthew 21: 38; Hebrews 1: 2, in respect to the last. The Persian was therefore officially like him. Each Babylonish dominion, the ancient and the modern, require a destroyer. Cyrus smote the former on the Head; Christ in smiting the latter on the feet will also abolish the head: Cyrus proclaimed the return of Israel; so will Christ “in the day of the great slaughter” when “he shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm,” and “he shall beat down the Assyrian who smote with a rod”—Isaiah 30: 25-26, 30-31: Cyrus laid the foundation of the temple; Christ, “the man whose name is the Branch * * shall build the temple of the Lord”—Zechariah 6: 12: all the kingdoms of the earth were given to Cyrus; so also hereafter the kingdoms of this world are to become Jehovah’s and his Christ’s. These are not accidental analogies. Well, therefore, may the Persian be styled “Like the Heir,” for the work appointed for each to do is as relative as the substance and the shadow.
Lastly, under this head it is important to observe, that Jehovah in his utterances against the ancient Babylon, makes a declaration which has found no accomplishment hitherto. His words are—
“The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed so shall it stand; that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot; THEN shall his yoke depart from off them (Israel) and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations—Isaiah 14: 24-26.
The war by which the Assyrian was broken by Cyrus was waged in Chaldea and at the gates of Babylon; and not upon the mountains of Israel; and although the yoke and burden of the oppressor departed from the Jews, it was only in a limited degree. The Assyrian to this day is Israel’s greatest tyrant, for there are more Israelites in his dominions and he treats them more barbarously than any other despot. But other prophecies show that the breaking referred to occurs in the latter days, and doth actually come to pass on the mountains of Israel—Ezekiel 38: 8; 39: 4, 17, and that too by “THE HEIR,” who is thenceforth to be Israel’s Prince for ever, even “in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.”
THE TIME OF THE IMAGE-EMPIRE.
One Image of divers parts, one dominion of different elements, and that the Assyrian. This is the proposition sustained by the testimonies adduced. But our friend inquires, if the Image represent one dominion at what time does it exist? In reply, we remark that it does not exist now; nor has it at any time hitherto existed as a whole. In the days of Nebuchadnezzar, although a great dominion, his rule did not extend over Asia Minor, Greece, Italy and the West; therefore the Image, which comprehends these, did not represent to him an existing dominion, but only an empire that should “hereafter” exist, of which his dynasty, the Assyrian, should be the Head. But when should this hereafter be? Hear what Daniel saith,
“There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king what shall be IN THE LATTER DAYS.”
And again,
“Thy thoughts, O king, came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known unto thee what shall come to pass.”
The grand object, then, of the revelation was to make known “what should be in the Latter Days”—what should come to pass then; and only incidentally to inform the king of the divinely purposed existence of certain dominions intermediate between his and that to be established by God in the latter days. After he had gone to bed one night he appears to have been revolving in his mind what would come to pass after his decease. He was the founder of the greatest empire that had hitherto existed, and nothing was more natural than that he should be solicitous to know the fate of it. He could only conjecture. He might suppose it would exist always; and that the dying generations of mankind would be for ever ruled by his successors the kings of Assyria. Poor pagan, what else couldst thou imagine but something like unto this! Thou dist not know that “the Heavens do rule,” and had predetermined a better fate for humanity than this. Thou wert like the Absolutists and Democracy of today, who as vainly and foolishly imagine that their nostrums will become the eternal facts of endless years to come! But “the Heavens” condescended to enlighten thy darkness, O king, for their sakes who should make known to thee the things thou couldst not divine for thyself. Know, then, that thy dynasty, or kings descended from thee, shall not reign over Assyria to the end of its dominion. Its empire will be enlarged, and thy throne shall be occupied by the Medes, Persians, and Macedonians. After these the Romans shall incorporate much of Assyria in their kingdom, which shall be divided; but in the latter days an Assyrian King from the north shall overflow and pass over their territory, and overthrow them. His dominion shall be great; for he shall rule over the West, Asia Minor, Egypt, Libya, Khushistan, Persia and the Land of Israel, besides his own hereditary estate. Then shall Assyria have attained the full extent of its dominion; and like thy grandson, Belshazzar, its Golden Head, will lift “himself against the Lord of heaven,” and “sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the north.” But his counsel shall not stand; for though he shall exalt himself against the Prince of princes, he shall be broken in pieces. Thus shall he come to his end, and none shall help him; and Assyria’s dominion shall be no more.
HOW THE LATTER DAYS MAY BE KNOWN.
The Image represents this catastrophe in the latter days. But it may be asked, How are we to know the latter days? By the signs given. Thus, Jehovah saith,
“The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice; afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and the Beloved (Dawid) their king: and shall fear Jehovah and his goodness in the Latter Days”—Hosea 3: 4-5.
Have the Israelites returned and sought David II. their king? No. Then the Latter Days of Hosea are in the future. Again, “I will bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the Lord”—Jeremiah 48: 47; and “Moab shall escape out of the hand of the king of the north”—Daniel 11: 41. This is not yet accomplished; therefore the latter days of Jeremiah are still future. And again, Balaam showed the king of Moab what Israel should do to his people in the latter days. Hear his words. Speaking of Israel he says,
“His kingdom shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom more highly exalted.”
“I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold the event though it is not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptred chief shall arise out of Israel, who shall smite the princes of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also his enemy shall be his possession; and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the City”—Numbers 24: 7: 25: 14-19.
These are events that have never come to pass yet, therefore the Latter Days of Balaam are still in the future.
In these texts the original words for “in the latter days” are be acharith hay-yamim. They occur in all the passages cited below—Daniel 10: 14—as well as in Daniel 2: 28, the only difference in this place being the difference between Chaldee and Hebrew, as be-acharith yomayya. It is well to observe this, because in Isaiah and Micah the common version renders the words “in the last days.” This phrase is the same as “in the latter days,” being the same in the original, and therefore to be regarded as referring to the same time. Now, Isaiah and Micah both testify in the texts below that in the days under notice—
“The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.”
The meaning of this is thus given by Jeremiah in prophesying the return of Israel from the land of the north, or Assyria;
“It shall be, saith the Lord, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the Name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem”—Jeremiah 3: 14-18.
Still living in their own countries they shall be gathered to Jerusalem as the metropolis and seat of the government then ruling the world.
“Then,” continues Micah, “many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth THE LAW, and THE WORD of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall rule (veshanplat) many peoples, and he shall cause to conquer with respect to * strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into scythes: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.”
None of these events have happened yet, therefore the latter days in which they are to occur must still be in the future.
*(So I render vehokiach legoyim; the verb in Hiphil from the obsolete root koach to overcome in war: le insep. Part, with respect to. In the common version it is rebuke; Dr. Boothroyd has it decide among; and Dr. Lowth, work conviction in. Yea, conviction will be wrought in strong nations by the invincible power of the Lord’s hosts, whom he will cause to conquer every foe.)
In Daniel 10: 14, the angel informed the prophet that he had come to make him understand “what should befall Israel in the latter days;” and that he might not suppose that those days were near, he added, “for yet the vision is for many days”—the vision seen as described in the eighth chapter. That he might understand he unfolded to him the premises from which the conclusions of the latter days might be deduced. Hence he began with affairs pertaining to the Ram and Goat, and more particularly outlined the international policy and wars of two of the Goat’s Horns lying north and south of Israel, and by which the Jews suffered much, until they both disappeared for a time in the shadow of the Goat’s Little Horn. He then describes the character of this which he styles THE KING, who delights to honour the Roman god, and divides the land of Israel for gain. Having returned to the subject of the land after this digression about the king and his pontiff, the prophet finds himself “at the time of the end,” which is another phrase for “the latter days.” By this time the two horns of the Goat emerge from the darkness that had overshadowed them for some 1900 years. Daniel is told that the northern or Assyrian Horn would be the conqueror of the time. That he would invade Israel’s land, and encamp against the Holy Mountain. That it would be a great day, so that none should be like it, even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but that he should be saved out of it, and strangers should no more serve themselves of him; but they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king whom he would raise up unto them—Jeremiah 30: 7-9. That Michael was he—the Prince that stands up for Israel, who should break the Assyrian, and bring the wonders of the prophecy to the appointed end, of which the greatest would be the resurrection of the dead, when he, Daniel, should stand in his lot at the end of the 1335 days. Such is the catastrophe of the plot on the eve of its accomplishment. It has not been fulfilled, therefore the latter days remain to be revealed.
Lastly, Ezekiel testifies that “in the latter days” a cloud of warriors from the north shall cover the land of Israel. That they shall be marshalled by the Assyrian, whom he styles “Gog of Magog, the Prince of Rosh, Mosc, and Tobl.” That silver Persia, brazen Ethiopia and Libya, &c., iron Gomer, and clayey Togarmah and his bands, shall be confederate with him. But that while he is there making a spoil of Israel, the Stone-Power is revealed in fury and causes him to fall upon the mountains of Israel, so that only one sixth part of his multitude is permitted to escape alive. This is the battle of Armageddon, the smiting of the statue on the feet, by which the Image-empire is dissolved for ever. This has not yet occurred, therefore the latter days of Ezekiel are yet to come.
