The keynote of the book of Daniel is the great truth that: "the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will." (Daniel 4:17 also vs. 25,32)
This was the great culminating lesson in the instruction to Nebuchadnezzar. It was the disregarding of this great lesson by Belshazzar, that caused to be written the terrible handwriting on the wall, announcing the doom of Belshazzar and of Babylon, which fell upon both "that night." (Daniel 5:30)
That great truth was acknowledged, and its lesson was learned, by Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. And by prophetic sketches in the 7th, 8th, and 11th chapters of the book, that great truth is so fully and so clearly illustrated that no one, whether the ruler of a world's empire, or a poor peasant, can be without excuse in ignorance of it.
In the 7th chapter of Daniel, the course of the kingdom of men is outlined from the days of Babylon to the end of the world, by four great beasts, representing the four great world-empires; then ten horns on the head of the fourth, representing ten kingdoms, into which the fourth would be divided; and finally, another one, arising among the ten, uprooting three of them, and continuing until "the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end;" (Daniel 7:26) and then: "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." (Daniel 7:27)
In the 8th chapter of Daniel the course of the kingdom of men is again outlined, from the rise of "Media and Persia," through the domination of "the king of Grecia" and the four divisions of his empire, to and through the rising and working of another power: "A king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences. ... And his power shall be mighty, ... and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against [or "in place of"] the Prince of princes [the Lord Jesus himself]; but he shall be broken without hand." (Daniel 8:23-25)
This power would be "broken without hand" in the mighty breaking caused by: "a stone cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke 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." (Daniel 2:34-35)
In the 11th chapter of Daniel the course of the kingdom of men is yet again outlined:
• from the "third year of Cyrus," (Daniel 10:1) through the reigns of his "three" successors, and even of "the fourth," who was "far richer than they all," and who, "by his strength through his riches," would "stir up all against the realm of Grecia"; (Daniel 11:2)
• then through the reign of the "mighty king" of Grecia, who would "rule with great dominion, and do according to his will"; (Daniel 11:3)
• then through the breaking of his kingdom, and its dividing "toward the four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity, nor according to the dominion which he ruled," but it would be "plucked up, even for others beside those"; (Daniel 11:4)
• then through the reigns of six kings "of the north" and six kings "of the south"; (Daniel 11:5-13)
• then through the exalting of the "children of robbers" "to establish the vision"; (Daniel 11:14)
• then through the reign of the children of robbers themselves, and their successors down to the "king of the north," who "shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain," and "come to his end," with none to help him; (Daniel 11:15-45)
• to "that time" when Michael shall "stand up, the great Prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 12:1-2)
Thus fully, and thus specifically, is sketched in the book of Daniel, and by the hand of Daniel, five hundred and thirty-four years before Christ, the history of the kingdom of men from that day to the end of the world. And all this was so fully and so specifically written, "to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will." (Daniel 4:17)
And this is the keynote, and the one great lesson, of the book of Daniel.
Next we purpose to go over this ground again, and put the names of the empires, kingdoms, and kings in place of the symbols.--Advent Review, May 31, 1898.