The Story of Daniel the Prophet
HISTORY IN BRIEF
God had an object in calling the Jewish nation to separate themselves from other nations of the world. It was that his people might stand before the world as light-bearers. As a beacon set on a hill, Israel was to send beams of Margin light to the world. The plan of education made known to Israel through her prophets was the means of keeping that light burning. When this God-given plan was neglected, the light, as a candle deprived of the life-giving oxygen, burned dim. Then it was that the nation was pressed upon all sides by the foe. There is a Hebrew maxim which says that “Jerusalem was destroyed because the education of her children was neglected.” The prophecies of Daniel and the connected history prove the truth of this maxim. It may be added that the Jews were restored to Jerusalem as the result of the proper education of a few Hebrew boys. SDP 14.3
Just about one hundred years before the days of Daniel, Hezekiah was king of Judah. After a reign of thirteen years, he was on his deathbed, but he pleaded with God to lengthen his life. This was done, and fifteen years were added. On the king’s recovery he was visited by ambassadors from Babylon, to whom he showed all his treasures. They came to hear of the mighty God, that could heal the sick; but he showed them only earthly treasure. He lost the opportunity to give them of the treasure of heaven. Then came a message from God by the hand of the prophet Isaiah, saying, “Behold, the days shall come, that all that is in thine house ...shall be carried into Babylon; nothing shall be left.” He was also at the same time told that his descendants should be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. SDP 15.1
Here was portrayed the future captivity of the Hebrew race. The prophecy was placed on record, and repeated again and again by Jewish mothers as they taught their children. “Must Margin my son be a captive in the court of a heathen king? Then let me so train him that he will be true to the God of his fathers.” There were other mothers who lightly let pass the thought, and the history of their sons’ lives is recorded for our instruction. SDP 15.2
Three years after his life had been saved, a son was born to Hezekiah. Notwithstanding the recent prophecy, Hezekiah and his wife, Hephzibah, failed to teach the young Manasseh in the way of truth. He was but twelve years of age when he came to the throne, but if he had been trained in the fear of God, he would not have chosen the worship of the heathen. SDP 16.1
The youthful Christ at the same age settled not only his own destiny, but the destiny of the universe. When twelve years of age, standing by the temple in Jerusalem, his future work opened before him, and he accepted his appointed mission. Why? Because Mary, his mother, had taught him that heart service to God was his highest pleasure. Manasseh decided in favor of the heathen deities; did evil in the sight of God; and “for the sins of Manasseh” came the captivity of Judah. SDP 16.2
At the age of twelve years, Christ made a decision which saved the world; at the same age Manasseh chose a course which brought ruin to the nation. In the training of your child, are you Hephzibah or Mary? SDP 16.3
The long reign of Manasseh passed, and the prophecy sent to Hezekiah was not yet fulfilled. Men began to wonder if it ever would come to pass. “Since the fathers fell asleep,” said they, “all things continue as they were.” SDP 16.4
It was in the days of Josiah, the grandson Margin of Manasseh, that Jeremiah prophesied. Through this prophet, God pleaded with Jerusalem to return to him. “Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not.” Thus was Babylon described, and Jerusalem’s impending doom portrayed. SDP 16.5
Josiah was spared the sight of the complete destruction of Jerusalem because of the reforms which he attempted. In his days there was kept by Judah, and by Israel also, the greatest Passover feast in the history of the nation. “Because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, ...behold I will gather thee unto thy fathers ...and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.” In a peculiar way God gave Josiah an opportunity to avert the impending calamity. It was not yet too late to change the course of events. This opportunity was through the gifts of his sons. Josiah had three sons and one grandson, who were in turn seated on the throne at Jerusalem. Each, because of wrong training in youth, refused to take God at his word, and failing, hastened the final overthrow. SDP 17.1
The three sons were Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. The grandson was Johoiachin, who preceded his uncle, Zedekiah. The fate of each is a solemn warning to people living at the end of time. He who might have been the light of heathen nations was swallowed up by Egyptian darkness. Jehoiakim, the second, who, properly trained, would have been so charged with the power of God that the heathen king Margin would either have united his forces with the king of Judah, or, opposing, would have been smitten as by a thunder-bolt, failing, paid tribute to Babylon. His capital was entered. Treasures from the house of God were ruthlessly torn from their place and dedicated to heathen worship. Youth,-bright, promising youth,-were taken from the royal family to serve the king of Babylon. Jehoiakim beheld this, but was powerless to interfere. His life was gone; he was not connected with the throne of God. His mother and his father made a fatal mistake, for they did not give him the training which God had commanded them to give. Neither did he profit by these mistakes, but educated his son in courtly manners and in the philosophy of the world; and, as a result, his son Jehoiachin languished nearly thirty-seven years in a prison in Babylon. This was another lamp without the oil; another soul without the heavenly food; another son improperly trained to add to the disgrace of Judah. “Jerusalem was destroyed, because the education of her children was neglected.” SDP 17.2
Zedekiah, the third son of Josiah, had still an opportunity to save Jerusalem. Part of the treasures of this city were already in Babylon. Daniel and his companions had been in the court seventeen or eighteen years when Jeremiah came to Zedekiah with the words: “If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire.... Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.” In this time of peril, how did Zedekiah act? Did he deliver himself unto Margin the Babylonians? God had commanded it; the city would have been saved by it; his own soul would have been saved. Zedekiah pleaded a most human excuse, saying, “I am afraid.” SDP 18.1
In these three sons is revealed the weakness, the cowardice, the wickedness, and the final ruin of those trained for the service of the world and not for the service of God. SDP 19.1