Why does history matter? You'll get a lot of responses to that question. People say we need to learn from the mistakes of history so we don't repeat them. While that is true, what's also true is when a prophetic history is given we have to pay attention. Clearly when a prediction is made unless it is a prediction for the near future people do not see that prediction come to pass. Sometimes only those who live far into the future get the privilege of seeing the miracle of fulfilled prophecies. History for us, was a future for those in the past.
Predictions of the future for those in the past, are fulfilled prophecies for us now. How easy it is for those who hear the prophecies when they are first made to discount them. They aren't affected by something far in the future. Then there are those who are watchers of prophecies and they watch and wait for it to take place. Some watch and wait until their deaths, passing the torch on to future generations who will watch and wait. Finally after enough time has taken place, those watching and waiting can see the pieces of prophecy fulfilled as history.
We have the great privilege of being able to look back onto thousands of years of history and prophecy. So why don't we revel in that privilege? Why don't more people shout out about this privilege afforded to us all! How is it possible that we are so blind? How can that thick impenetrable wall of deception be so real? Why do people love to remain blind? The Bible tells us why…
2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
People turn from truth! People turn to fables all because they want to indulge their lusts. They don't want to be told their desire to live a life of selfish lusts is wrong. They want to indulge their lusts, their lusts are the most important part of their lives. Being happy, no matter how that happiness is achieved is the concern of so many. Denying lusts means not expecting to be pleased. Living for Christ is putting our treasures in heaven, finding hope in heaven, finding our pleasure and joy in heaven-- now, and not expecting it to happen for us here on earth in this sin corrupt world.
The Bible has a prophecy spanning 2300 years, did you know that? It does. We need to study Biblical prophecy, praying for full understanding, for truth. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes and hearts to know the love of God, to know and live the truth He would have us live.
All through His amazing love, now and forever! Amen!!!!!!!
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CHAPTER VII. THE KINGDOM AND THE KING
We now return to the words of Daniel in the interpretation.
Dan. 2:39. "And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth."
This third kingdom answered to the body of the image which was of brass, the third metal mentioned. And the identity of this kingdom is as easily determined as that of the Medes and Persians. In chapter 8 is the record of a vision that Daniel had in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, He was in Elam, which had been an independent kingdom, and as a province of Babylon preserved its capital and palace. See Dan. 8:2. Daniel said that in this vision he saw a ram which had two horns, and one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. And the ram became great and did according to his will. And then he saw a he goat which came from the west, which ran unto the ram in the fury of his power and brake his two horns, and stamped upon him; and the goat became very great. Other points in the history of these beasts are passed by for the present, as it is only the purpose here to show what they represent. The angel Gabriel was commanded to explain the vision to Daniel, and of these beasts he said: "The ram which thou sawest having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king [or kingdom] of Grecia." Here it is seen that the Medes and Persians, represented by the breast and
arms of silver in the image, were overthrown by Grecia, which of course is represented by the next metal, the body of brass of the image. That the kingdom of the Medes and Persians was overthrown by the Grecians, is so well known that it is unnecessary to quote history to further show the fulfillment of the prophecy in this particular. Thus we have three parts of the image well and clearly explained, namely, the gold, the silver, and the brass-- Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Grecia.
Dan. 2:40. "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."
It will be noticed that the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, and its interpretation, show that just four great empires should rule over the earth. And it appears that the first, the gold, was to be the most glorious, while the fourth, the iron, was to be the strongest. The first three are named in the prophecy, as we have seen. The fourth is not; but it is brought to view in other scriptures, and abundantly identified in history. Thus we read in Luke 2:1, that their went out a decree from
Cesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. Cesar Augustus was emperor of Rome, and Rome was the only empire that has existed since the rise and fall of the kingdom of Alexander the Grecian, that had power to tax the world. This expression proves universality of dominion, such as was held by Babylon, Persia, and Greece, the first three parts of the great image. No king can tax beyond his jurisdiction, and no part of the whole world could resist the power of Rome. The description of the action of this empire, as given by Daniel, is very expressive. "As the iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." Its rise to universal supremacy was emphatically by a breaking and bruising process. Its rise was not by a sudden overthrow of a ruling empire, as was the case with the Persians and the Greeks. The empire of Alexander was
already divided into four parts, as was prophesied in Daniel 7 and 8. Of course no one of four kingdoms could be as strong as one universal kingdom. These divisions caused the Romans to carry on their conquests in almost every direction, and almost everywhere; and this again led to their having a closer supervision over all parts of the world than did their predecessors. On this text, Dr. Barnes says:--
"Nothing could better characterize the Roman power than this. Everything was crushed before it. The nations which they conquered ceased to be kingdoms, and were reduced to provinces, and as kingdoms they were blotted out from the list of nations."
Concerning the strength and extent of the Roman empire, and the watchfulness which the emperors exercised over this vast domain, Gibbon thus testifies:--
"But the empire of the Romans filled the world, and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of imperial despotism, whether he was compelled to drag his gilded chain in Rome and the Senate, or to wear out a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or the frozen banks of the Danube, accepted his fate in silent despair. To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his irritated master. Beyond the frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing, except the ocean, inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of fierce manners and unknown languages, or dependent kings, who would gladly purchase the emperor's protection by the sacrifice of an obnoxious fugitive. Wherever you are, said Cicero, to the exiled Marcellus, remember that you are equally within the power of the conqueror." Decline and Fall, chap. 3, paragraph 37. Dr. George Weber, professor at Heidelberg, in his "Universal History," says:--
"It was under Augustus that the Roman empire possessed the greatest power abroad, and the highest cultivation at home. It extended from the Atlantic ocean to the Euphrates, and from the Danube and Rhine to the Atlas and falls of the Nile." P. 102, Brewer & Tileston, Boston, 1853.
The Romans were well represented by the iron, not only in the strength of their empire, but in the cruelty of their dispositions. They were iron-hearted, delighting in shedding human blood. Titus was considered one of the mildest of Roman conquerors, the most benignant of Roman rulers, so that his subjects gave him the title of "the delight of the human race;" yet Josephus, speaking of
his conquest of the Jews, said:--
"While Titus was at Cesarea, he solemnized the birthday of his brother after a splendid manner, and inflicted a great deal of the punishment intended for the Jews in honor of him; for the number of those who were slain in fighting with the beasts, and were burnt, and fought with one another, exceeded two thousand five hundred." Wars, Book 7, chap. 3, sec. 1.
At Berytus, a city of Phúnicia, he celebrated the birthday of his father in a similar manner, where a great multitude perished by the same means. The reader cannot fail to be interested in the following remarks of Professor Gaussen, of Geneva, in his "Discourses on Daniel," on this subject:--
"The fourth empire was iron. Iron--no better definition than this can be given of the character of the Romans. Everything in them was iron. Their government was iron--merciless; hard-hearted, inhuman, inexorable. Their courage was iron cruel, bloody, indomitable. Their soldiers were iron--never was their a nation more fearfully armed for battle; their breastplates, their helmets, their long shields, their darts, their javelins, their short and heavy two-edged swords, all their weapons were ingeniously terrible. . . . Their yoke upon the vanquished was iron,--heavy, intolerable, and yet unavoidable. In their conquests they crushed everything; they made Roman provinces of all the subjected countries; they left them nothing of their own nationality, and in a short time had even deprived them of their language. It was soon commanded to speak Latin not only in all Italy, but in Germany, south of the Danube, in all France, in all Belgium, in Switzerland, in Geneva, in Spain, in Portugal, and even in Africa. . . . When Julius Cesar, who
took all France, and made it a Roman province, finished the assault of the last city, he ordered that both hands be cut off from all the men that were found in it, which cruelty he proudly mentions in his Commentaries. They wanted human blood in all their joys." Vol. I, pp. 146-8, Toulouse, 1850.
Luther, in his "Introduction to Comments on Daniel," said:--
"The first kingdom is the Assyrian, or Babylonian; the second, the Medes and Persians; the third, that of Alexander the Great, and the Greeks; the fourth, the Roman. In this explanation and opinion all the world are agreed."
To be continued…
(From Eden to Eden-A Historic and Prophetic Study. By J. H. Waggoner. 1890.)
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