"In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god." (Daniel 1:1-2)
It was not the Lord's wish that the king of Babylon or anyone else should besiege Jerusalem. It was not the Lord's wish that King Jehoiakim should be captured by Nebuchadnezzar. It was not the Lord's wish that the holy vessels of His own holy house should be carried away by an idolatrous king, and laid up as tokens of victory in the house of a false god.
It is therefore well for us to study the causes of these unwished results. This will be well also, in order that we may the better discern the true setting of the book of Daniel.
The Lord sent His prophets, and especially the prophet Jeremiah, with messages of love, in counsel and warning, to save Judah and Jerusalem from that which came upon them. That which came upon them was but the inevitable result of causes from which the Lord earnestly endeavored to save them. And there were several of these which stand out so clearly as easily to be distinguished.
The first of these, and the worst, was formalism in religion. The Lord had appointed, in His service, many forms and ceremonies, as the means of expressing the religion that, from Him, was to dwell in the heart. And when that religion was not truly abiding in the heart, all the forms and ceremonies which even the Lord had appointed as the means of expressing it, were only meaningless and empty nothings.
Yet this was the very position which the king and the great mass of the people occupied. They made everything of the forms of religion, and nothing of the religion which alone could give meaning and grace to the forms.
Under these circumstances, all sorts of iniquity appeared in the daily life, while at the same time they were exceedingly zealous in the performance of all the forms of religion. Then when the messenger of the Lord would reprove them for their iniquity, they would reject it all, and shield themselves with their punctilious practice of the forms. And as the temple of the Lord was the great center of all the worship and of all the forms, they made it the citadel of their formalistic defense against the reproofs of the Lord upon their essential wickedness.
When the Lord, by the prophet, told them that their wickedness of life would surely result in the destruction of the city and the temple, and in their own captivity, they hooted at it:
"What! the Lord destroy His own temple, where dwells even now the holy Shekinah! the holy house which was built under His own direction, and which, at its dedication by the great Solomon, had been accepted by the complete filling of it with His own glory! Faugh! Away with such prophesying, and with such prophets, too! The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these!"
But Jeremiah was commanded of the Lord to go and stand in the very gate of the temple, and "proclaim there this word": "Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. ... Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the Lord. But go you now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim." (Jeremiah 7:2-4,8-15)
Yet even with all this, the Lord pleaded with them, and promised, "For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever." (Jeremiah 7:5-7)
But they would not mend their ways. They would not cease their wickedness. They would not believe the Lord. Therefore the sure result came,--their wickedness grew so great that the land was not able to bear them; their city was made a heap of ruins, the temple was completely destroyed, they themselves were carried into captivity or slain, and their land was left desolate.
Now this same condition of formalism in religion is declared in the Word to be, and it is, the great characteristic of the last days. Read: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
In these last days, too, men will increase the forms of religion, and intensify their adherence to them, while in their wicked lives they, as "evil men and seducers, shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." (2 Timothy 3:13)
And this, as of old, will be persisted in until the terrible captivity of death by sword, famine and pestilence carries away the whole multitude, and the whole earth is left desolate, without an inhabitant. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 19:11-21; Jeremiah 4:23-29)
Thus it is plain that the evil practices that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of that whole land, are used by the Lord, and are recorded in His book, for the counsel and warning of the people in the last days. And the book of Daniel, written specially for the last days, is a book of divine principles which, if received by all, would save the world from the destruction that came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
And even though these divine principles be rejected by the great mass, resulting only in the great destruction, yet every individual who will receive these principles as his life will surely be delivered in the great day, "when the towers fall." (Isaiah 30:25)-Advent Review, January 11, 1898.