The Bible Echo, vol. 11
June 8, 1896
“The Eastern Question. What Its Solution Means to All the World. No. 4.—The Events of the End” The Bible Echo 11, 22, pp. 171, 172.
HOW DANIEL’S PRAYER WAS ANSWERED
HOLDING in view now the field which we have so far surveyed, let us turn to another portion of the word of God and inquire concerning the present time, and the place of Turkey and the nations. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.1
“In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia,” B. C. 536, Daniel was greatly troubled for the work and cause of God in the world. Daniel 10:1. In the first year of Cyrus that king had issued a decree for the return of Israel to their own land and to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem. When the heathen who were in the land were not allowed for their own bad purposes to join in the building of the house and city, they hired counsellors at the court of Cyrus to prevent the building of the Temple at all. And these counsellors were kept at the court of Persia all the days of Cyrus. See Ezra 4. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.2
Daniel himself was a principal officer in the government of Cyrus; and soon discovered these intriguers and their purposes there. But instead of beginning any counter-intrigue, he set his heart to seek God and to know His counsels, and have Him frustrate the intriguers and make His own cause a success in the world. Three full weeks was Daniel engaged in seeking, by fasting and prayer and supplication, a knowledge of the will of the God of heaven in the difficulties of the time. When three weeks were expired, the angel Gabriel came to him in vision, and said: “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.” Verse 12. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.3
As Daniel had been at this three full weeks, and yet “the first day” his words were heard and the angel was sent, what had delayed the angel all this time? The next verse tells why. “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days.” BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.4
This is precisely the three full weeks. To answer Daniel’s prayer the angel had to go to the court of Cyrus and deal with the king in his counsels, against those hired counsellors there. The angel continues:— BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.5
“But lo! Michael one of the chief princes came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.... Then said he: Knowest thou wherefore I am come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I am gone forth, to the prince of Grecia shall come. But I will show thee that which is noted in the Scripture of truth; and there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince.” BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.6
FROM DARIUS TO ALEXANDER
THESE are the last verses of Daniel 10, and in chapter 11 the angel gives his message concerning what should come “in the latte days.” In doing this the angel begins at the time where he and Daniel then were, and follows events straight through to the end of the world and the resurrection of the dead. The eleventh chapter of Daniel is all the words of the angel. He says: “Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him. And now will I show thee the truth. Behold there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia [Cambyses, Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes], and the fourth [Xerxes, the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther] shall be far richer than they all, and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.” Xerxes led an army of five millions across the Hellespont and against Greece. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.7
As soon as the angel mentions Grecia he skips the remaining history of Persia and sketches Greece, saying, “And a mighty king shall stand up [Alexander the Great] and shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will [See also Daniel 8:20, 21.] And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven [See Daniel 8:22]; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.” BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.8
At Alexander’s death there was a period of confusion for about twenty years among the many able governors and generals of his great dominion. Finally, a four-fold division was accomplished, as in the words of the angel “toward the four winds of heaven”—the east, the west, the north, and the south. Seleucus secured the eastern portion extending from Syria to the river Indus. Cassander obtained Macedon and other Greek territory on the west. Lysimachus held Thrace and Bithynia on the north—territory of which Byzantium was then, and Constantinople is now, the centre. And Ptolemy had Egypt on the south. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.9
“AT THE TIME OF THE END.
AFTER stating how Alexander’s dominion should thus be divided into its four parts, he turns his attention to the two kingdoms—“the king of the south” and “the king of the north.” And from verse 5 to verse 14 he treats solely of the succession of principal events occurring between these two. At verse 14 the Roman power—“the children of robbers,” margin—enters the field and occupies the angel’s attention for a large space and for a long time, “even to the time of the end.” Verse 35. Finally in verse 40 he comes again, and at the time of the end,” too, to “the king of the south” and “the king of the north.” The territories of the northern and of the southern division of Alexander’s dominion remain respectively the kingdoms of the north and the south unto the end, and from beginning to end, whatever power might occupy these respective territories would be the king of the north or of the south. Whatever power therefore which, at the time of the end, occupies the territory of Thrace and Bithynia, originally held by Lysimachus, will be the king of the north as certainly as was the power of Lysimachus itself. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.10
It is not necessary to repeat here the evidences so fully given last week, that we are now, and the world has been since 1840, in “the time of the end.” And now, as Constantinople is the centre of the territory originally held by Lysimachus the first “king of the north;” and as the power that now reigns in Constantinople holds the identical territory held by Lysimachus himself; it is plain enough that this power is “the king of the north” of the last verses of the eleventh chapter of Daniel, and of our own day. And as it is the Turkish power that now occupies Constantinople and holds the territory originally held by Lysimachus, the first king of the north, it is also plain enough that the Turkish power is the power referred to in the words “the king of the north” in the last five verses of Daniel 11. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.11
THE KING OF THE NORTH AND HIS END
IN the 44th verse the angel says of this king of the north,—the Turkish power,—“tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him and he shall go forth with fury to destroy and utterly to make away many.” This was accomplished in the Crimean war when Russia from the north and east warred against the Ottoman Empire, and the Turkish Power was saved only by the support and power of Great Britain and other allies. BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.12
And now the last verse of Daniel 11 tells of the two events that all Europe are constantly expecting to see; the events that many people in mass meetings and other assemblies are loudly calling for; the events which are certain soon to take place; namely, the expulsion of the Turkish power from Constantinople, and the wiping out of the Ottoman Empire. These are the words of the angel as to this looked-for event: “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him.” BEST June 8, 1896, page 171.13
Constantinople itself is “between the seas.” But this does not meet the word of the angel. No, but he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas “in the glorious holy mountain.” This can be no other place than Jerusalem; even as Jerusalem is even now called in the Turkish and Arabic “The Holy.” It is certain therefore that the seat of the Ottoman power will be removed from Constantinople, and will finally be planted in Jerusalem, and then it is just as certain that that power comes to an end. BEST June 8, 1896, page 172.1
Yea, “he shall come to his end and none shall help him.” This expression shows that he would before have come to his end unless somebody had helped him. We have seen how fully this has been so since 1840. And in the autumn and winter of 1895-96, we have again seen that power standing for months on the very brink of expulsion from Constantinople; how that each morning as we arose and bought the daily paper we expected to read despatches telling that this had been accomplished. But in this crisis again somebody has helped him, and he still abides in his place. But the day is certain to come, and to come soon, when the Ottoman power will be removed from Constantinople and will be planted in Jerusalem, and then he shall come to his end and none shall help him—and indeed he will come to his end simply because none will help him. BEST June 8, 1896, page 172.2
A. T. JONES.