Prophetic Lights

BABYLON

“The four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings.” Daniel 7:2-4. See pp. 86,87. PROLI 60.5

“And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.” Daniel 1:20. God had given “knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom” to these faithful servants of his, “and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.” Verse 17. PROLI 60.6

Immediately after Daniel had finished his course, his talents were called into action. In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign as sole ruler of Babylon, but the fourth year after he had begun to reign conjointly with his father, he dreamed a dream which troubled him greatly, and the more so because he could not remember what it was. Excessively annoyed and troubled, he sent for the magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers, and demanded of them that they should tell him the dream. They replied: “O king, live forever; tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” But Nebuchadnezzar could not tell the dream, any more than they could tell the interpretation without the dream, and after parleying with them for awhile, he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon should be destroyed. (See Daniel 2:1-13.) PROLI 61.1

Although Daniel was not among those to whom the king had applied for an interpretation of his dream, the command was to destroy all the wise men of Babylon, and so it included him and his companions. It seems that the first intimation Daniel had of the whole affair was when the officers came to take him to the place of execution. (See Daniel 2:14, 15.) He immediately went to the king and asked for a little time, promising that he would tell the dream and the interpretation. PROLI 61.2

Daniel did not use the respite granted to him in incantations, as the magicians would have done, but went to his house, and, with his three companions, prayed to the God of Heaven. “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of Heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his; and he changeth the times and the seasons; he removeth kings, and setteth up kings; he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things; he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee; for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.” Daniel 2:19-23. PROLI 61.3

In this action of Daniel’s we have an example of true faith in God. As soon as the secret was revealed to him in the night vision, he began to praise the Lord. He did not wait to see if the king would recognize what had been revealed to him, as being his dream, but was positive that the Lord had given him just what he asked for. He evidently acted in accordance with the words of the Saviour: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mark 11:24. If this injunction were followed by all those who seek the Lord, how much praise there would be to God for blessings conferred. PROLI 61.4

It was a trying occasion when Daniel went before the king to make known to him his forgotten dream, and one well calculated to cause a young man to tremble. If he failed, one word from the haughty monarch, who had once been disappointed, and who now believed that all his professedly wise men were knaves, would have cost him his head. But we may be sure that Daniel did not tremble, because he knew that he should not fail. He modestly disclaimed the possession of any natural wisdom more than other men, and said: “The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king; but there is a God in Heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” Daniel 2:27, 28. PROLI 62.1

Then without any hesitation he proceeded to tell the dream. Said he:— PROLI 62.2

“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. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:31-35. PROLI 62.3

These verses contain in outline the history of the world from the days of Nebuchadnezzar until the end of time. Immediately after relating the dream, the prophet addressed the king as follows: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of Heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” Verses 37, 38. PROLI 62.4

How simple are the words of divine truth! In the most direct manner, and in the fewest words possible, Daniel rehearsed the greatness of the empire over which Nebuchadnezzar reigned, and declared that it was represented by the golden head of the terrible image. The expression, “Thou art this head of gold,” does not refer to Nebuchadnezzar as an individual, but as the representative of the most magnificent empire that the world ever saw. It was to Nebuchadnezzar that Babylon owed her wonderful prosperity. Rawlinson says:— PROLI 62.5

“Nebuchadnezzar is the great monarch of the Babylonian Empire, which, lasting only eighty-eight years — from B.C. 625 to B.C. 538 — was for nearly half the time under his sway. Its military glory is due chiefly to him, while the constructive energy, which constitutes its especial characteristic, belongs to it still more markedly through his character and genius. It is scarcely too much to say that, but for Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians would have had no place in history. At any rate, their actual place is owing almost entirely to this prince, who to the military talents of an able general added a grandeur of artistic conception and a skill in construction which place him on a par with the greatest builders of antiquity.” — Seven Great Monarchies (Rawlinson), Fourth Monarchy, chap. 8, paragraph 24. PROLI 63.1

It was fitting, therefore, that Nebuchadnezzar should stand for the empire. PROLI 63.2

The extent of the Babylonian Empire is indicated in verse 38: “Wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all.” This means universal dominion. A few years later, the prophet Jeremiah bore testimony to the same effect. The kings of Tyre, Edom, Moab, etc., with Zedekiah, king of Israel, were contemplating a revolt from Babylonian rule. To show them the folly of such an attempt, the prophet, by the command of the Lord, sent messengers to them, saying: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus shall ye say unto your masters: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son.” Jeremiah 27:4-7. PROLI 63.3

This language is not figurative nor hyperbolical. It is plain history, and is substantiated by the writings of profane historians. The “Encyclopedia Britannica,” art. “Babylonia,” after telling how Nabopolassar, ruler of the province of Babylonia, revolted from Assyrian rule, says:— PROLI 63.4

“The seat of empire was now transferred to the southern kingdom. Nabopolassar was followed in 604 by his son Nebuchadnezzar, whose long reign of forty-three years made Babylon the mistress of the world. The whole East was overrun by the armies of Chaldea, Egypt was invaded, and the city of the Euphrates left without a rival.” PROLI 63.5

The city of Babylon is described at great length by Rollin (Ancient History, vol. I, book 3, chap. I), and by Prideaux (Connexion, vol. I, book 2). Our space, however, will allow us to give only the brief, yet very clear, description given by Herodotus. It is as follows: PROLI 64.1

“The city stands on a broad plain, and is an exact square, a hundred and twenty furlongs in length each way, so that the entire circuit is four hundred and eighty furlongs. While such is its size, in magnificence there is no other city that approaches to it. It is surrounded, in the first place, by a broad and deep moat, full of water, behind which rises a wall fifty royal cubits in width, and two hundred in height. PROLI 64.2

“And here I may not omit to tell the use to which the mold dug out of the great moat was turned, nor the manner wherein the wall was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat the soil which they got from the cutting was made into bricks, and when a sufficient number were completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building, and began with bricking the borders of the moat; after which they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, along the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one another, leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen lintels and sideposts. The bitumen used in the work was brought to Babylon from the Is, a small stream which flows into the Euphrates at the point where the city of the same name stands, eight days’ journey from Babylon. Lumps of bitumen are found in great abundance in this river. PROLI 64.3

“The city is divided into two portions by the river which runs through the midst of it. This river is the Euphrates, a broad, deep, swift stream, which rises in Armenia and empties itself into the Erythraean [Arabian] Sea. [The river does not flow directly into the Arabian Sea, but into the Persian Gulf.] The city wall is brought down on both sides to the edge of the stream; thence from the corners of the wall, there is carried along each bank of the river a fence of burnt bricks. The houses are mostly three and four stories high; the streets all run in straight lines, not only those parallel to the river, but also the cross streets which lead down to the water-side. At the river end of these cross streets are low gates in the fence that skirts the stream, which are, like the great gates in the outer wall, of brass, and open on the water. PROLI 64.4

“The outer wall is the main defense of the city. There is, however, a second inner wall, of less thickness than the first, but very little inferior to it in strength. The center of each division of the town was occupied by a fortress. In the one stood the palace of the kings, surrounded by a wall of great strength and size; in the other was the sacred precinct of Jupiter Belus, a square inclosure two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass; which was also remaining in my time.” — Book I, chap. 178-181. PROLI 64.5

The royal cubit was twenty-one inches. The reader will therefore see that the outer wall of the city was eighty-seven feet thick, and three hundred and fifty feet high. The city was divided into two parts by the Euphrates, which ran diagonally through it, the banks of which were protected by walls, and the following means of passage from one part of the city to the other was devised:— PROLI 65.1

“In each of these walls were twenty-five gates, corresponding to the number of the streets which gave upon the river; and outside each gate was a sloped landing-place, by which you could descend to the water’s edge, if you had occasion to cross the river. Boats were kept ready at these landing-places to convey passengers from side to side; while for those who disliked this method of conveyance a bridge was provided of a somewhat peculiar construction. A number of stone piers were erected in the bed of the stream, firmly clamped together with fastenings of iron and lead; wooden draw-bridges connected pier with pier during the day, and on these passengers passed over; but at night they were withdrawn, in order that the bridge might not be used during the dark. Diodorus declares that besides this bridge, to which he assigns a length of five stades (about one thousand yards) and a breadth of thirty feet, the two sides of the river were joined together by a tunnel, which was fifteen feet wide and twelve high to the spring of its arched roof.” — Seven Great Monarchies, Fourth Monarchy, chap. 4, paragraph 6. PROLI 65.2

The public buildings of the city were on the same magnificent scale. Of one of them we read:— PROLI 65.3

“The most remarkable edifice in Babylon was the temple of Bel, now marked by the Babil, on the northeast, as Professor Rawlinson has shown. It was a pyramid of eight square stages, the basement stage being over two hundred yards each way. A winding ascent led to the summit and the shrine, in which stood a golden image of Bel forty feet high, two other statues of gold, a golden table forty feet long and fifteen feet broad, and many other colossal objects of the same precious material.” — Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Babylon. PROLI 65.4

“The great palace was a building of still larger dimensions than the great temple. According to Diodorus, it was situated within a triple inclosure, the innermost wall being twenty stades, the second forty stades, and the outermost sixty stades (nearly seven miles), in circumference. The outer wall was built entirely of plain baked brick. The middle and inner walls were of the same material, fronted with enameled bricks representing hunting scenes. The figures, according to this author, were larger than the life, and consisted chiefly of a great variety of animal forms.” PROLI 65.5

“But the main glory of the palace was its pleasure-ground — the ‘Hanging Gardens,’ which the Greeks regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world. This extraordinary construction, which owed its erection to the whim of a woman, was a square, each side of which measured four hundred Greek feet. It was supported upon several tiers of open arches, built one over the other, like the walls of a classic theater, and sustaining at each stage, or story, a solid platform, from which the piers of the next tier of arches rose. The building towered into the air to the height of at least seventy-five feet, and was covered at the top with a great mass of earth, in which there grew not merely flowers and shrubs, but trees also of the largest size. Water was supplied from the Euphrates through pipes, and was raised (it is said) by a screw working on the principle of Archimedes.” — Id., paragraphs 9, 10. PROLI 65.6

The city thus briefly outlined, well deserved the title given to it by the prophet, — “The glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency.” To the mind of man it would seem that the city so substantially built must stand forever, but God had spoken to the contrary. Without pause, the prophet said: “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.” Daniel 2:39. Jeremiah, when he spoke of the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire, foretold its fall, and also told under whose reign it should fall. He said:— PROLI 66.1

“And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come; and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.” Jeremiah 27:7. PROLI 66.2

Thus we find that in the days of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson the kingdom of Babylon should pass away, and other nations and other kings should establish themselves, and serve themselves of this kingdom. And in the direct record of the fall of Babylon, given in Daniel 5, Nebuchadnezzar is repeatedly spoken of as the grandfather of Belshazzar, the king who was reigning in Babylon at the time of its fall. See verses 2, 11, 13 (margin); also “Seven Great Monarchies,” Fourth Monarchy, chap. 8, notes 179, 185, and paragraph 51. The exact fulfillment of prophecy in the fall of Babylon will be noted in the next chapter. PROLI 66.3