HISTORY & THE
INTERPRETATION OF PROPHETIC BOOKS
When we want to
interpret prophetic books, it is vitally important that we try to put ourselves
into the time and situation of a prophet. This necessitates basic
insights into historical and religious developments among the people of a
prophet and among the nations of their “world”. In this case the world
involved is the Middle East. Only then can we understand the predicaments
of a prophet and his people or his reasons for a great need of knowledge of the
future. Furthermore, the nature of information contained in a recorded
prophecy reveals the nature of a prophet’s quest for knowledge, because man
receives, what he asks for, as Christ also taught.
Before I traced the meanings and historical values and prophecies of Daniel and Ezekiel, I produced historical charts or chronologies of the kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, Media and Persia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Greece and Rome. Then I dated the prophecies according to the time elements given by the prophets. After that a clear picture emerged:
After King Solomon’s death the Twelve Tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom was Israel with the capital Samaria; the southern kingdom was Judah with the capital Jerusalem. At times they fought against each other.
By 720 B.C. the mighty
Assyrian empire conquered much of the Near East, in the South the border
of Egypt, including the northern kingdom, Israel, and the carrying away of the
inhabitants into Assyrian slavery.
In 612 B.C. the Medes
(kings from the east) and their Babylonian allies conquered the empire of
Assyria an divided it; the Babylonians inherited Assyrian holdings in the
Fertile Crescent; the Medes controlled the highlands of eastern Turkey
(Anatolia) , which was once part of Urartu, and got into war with the
Lydians. In 585 B.C. there was peace between the Medes and the
Lydians. The Halys Rivers became the border
In 587 B.C. the Babylonians conquered Judah and Jerusalem, and
carried most of the inhabitants off into slavery. According to historical
records the major kingdoms at that time were the Medes, the Lydians, the
Babylonians, and the Egyptians; they ruled the Middle East. They may have
been the four beasts (animals symbolize earthly powers) of
In Dan. 7:3-8, Daniel doesn't interpret for us, which beast symbolizes which kingdom
While Daniel and
Ezekiel were with their people in Babylon, and the people of Israel were
scattered among the Babylonians and the Medes, Cyrus the Great became king off
the Medes. He united the Medes and the Persians and established the first
Persian empire in 559 B.C. Cyrus was determined to enlarge his empire,
and he defeated King Croesus of the Lydians at the Halys River. Lydia
remained under Persian control, along with the cities at the western coast of
Asia Minor (Turkey, along the Aegean Sea).
Thus, the Persians
were no longer only the kings of the east but also kings of the uppermost north
of the Middle East, as far as the north shore of the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, the
Israelite and Judean slaves sat like “sitting ducks” scattered among their
conquerers, and one can almost hear Daniel and Ezekiel plead with the Lord for
knowledge of what will happen to their people who, they knew from earlier
prophecies of their ancestors, were to bring forth the Messiah. And God
answered them. Evidently, Ezekiel’s questions were, to begin with, how
all of this had started and led up to the current predicaments, for he learned
first of events “of times far off” that is, of the remote past and “of many
days hence”, the future. Then Ezekiel begins to prophesy future developments
for a number of peoples.
Daniel, on the other
hand, served Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who, too, seems to have
observed the developments around himself, with concern because of his vision,
or dream-vision, of the statue that had a head of gold, a chest of silver,
lower body of brass, legs of iron, and feet which consisted of a mixture of
iron and clay. Daniel interpreted it in terms of the fate of the kingdom
of Babylon; it did not concern the fate of the Jewish people.
In 539 B.C. then,
Cyrus the Great - who was a king of the uppermost north by then - attacked the
city of Babylon, but the strong, very high city-walls were invincible. He
therefore had a strong dam built, which diverted the waters of the Euphrates -
which normally flowed through the city of Babylon - and found access to the
inner city in the temporarily dry riverbed. (The use of this example in
the Book of Revelation is symbolical; it does not involve another physical
action but a spiritual one, i.e. a river of light to the inner sanctuary).
See Rev 9:14 and Rev.16:12
Cyrus the Great freed the
Jews, and he and other wealthy Persians provided the Jews financially with the
means to rebuild the city and the Temple, and also the wall later on. Can
we envision the concerns of the prophet sand their people who wondered if this
situation could be trusted? Daniel must have asked for knowledge of his
people’s future because his so-called “end-time” prophecies describe the
characteristics of Persian and other kings, as well as some of their major
actions with such significance, that one merely has to compare these with the
relevant histories of Persia, Greece, Jerusalem, Egypt and Rome to be able to
date Daniel’s and other prophets’ predictions. I have don't that and obtained further detail from the Books of
Nehemia, Ezra, Esther, and of the Maccabees. this does not makes
sense to me......
The second set of two
beasts in Daniel 8 concerns Persia, the ram, and the shaggy male goat, Greece
(see Dan. 8:21-22).
8:21 And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is
the first king.
8:22 As for the broken horn
and the four that stood up in its place,
four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power.
This too is significant because three earlier empires no longer existed:
Lydia, Babylon and Egypt. The Persians ruled the entire “world” of the
Middle East, from the shores of the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the
Mediterranean, including Egypt to the border of Ethiopia, and in some east
parts of India, from the late 6th century B.C. to about 300 B.C. It
therefore, did not matter just where the Jewish people lived, for the Persians
rule 127 “provinces” (Bk. of Esther 8:9)
(Upper Nile Region-These orders were written
in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the
Jews in their own script and language).
Daniel’s detailed
end-time prophecies occurred to him in 539 B.C. (Dan. 9:1)
Dan. 9:1
In the first year of
Darius the son of Ahasuerus,of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over
the realm of the Chaldeans;
and he was told that
his people and their holy city were given seventy weeks (of years), in Dan.
9:24.
Dan. 9:24
Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy
Seventy weeks of years are 490 years. In verse 25, a
division is made, a count of seven weeks (of years), meaning 49 years. In
the Book of Esther we learned that in 473 B .C. the Persian Haman conspired
against all Jews in the empire to have them all killed. He
almost succeeded, but the plot was discovered just before action was to
commence. It had been close and there was some fighting, but the Jewish people
survived again.
Meanwhile, there was no
long-term peace anywhere in the Persian Empire. Rebellions in Lydia,
Egypt, along the Mediterranean coast lands led to battles on and off. The
Book of Nehemiah contains detail about the problems in Palestine in the 5th
century B.C. Still, the wall of Jerusalem was finished by 433 B.C., and
the Second Temple by 417 B.C. (Ezra 6:15).
Ezra 6:15
And this house was
finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth
year of the reign of Darius the king).
The Spartans rebelled
against Persia, and then there was the Peloponnesian War which ended 404 B.C.,
after 56 years of warring with an occasional pause. After that
Egypt regained its freedom for a time but the Persian emperor Artazerxes III
(359-338 B.C.) was defeated by the Egyptians which encouraged Palestine,
Phoenicia, and parts of Cilicia to rebel against the Persians in 345
B.C. Two years later, however Egypt was conquered again by the
Persians. In 337-336 B.C., the Egyptians revolted again, but Darius III
of Persia put down this revolt.
These are only some of
the major upheavals around Palestine, whose Southern border is also that of
Egypt.
Meanwhile, the Greek
kingdoms united and the Persians lost the Battle of Granicus against Alexander
the Great in 334 B.C.(Dan 8:23)
Dan 8:23
And in the latter time
of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance,
and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
But did this mean
freedom for Palestine? Good heavens, no! After the Persian empire
had lost this war and the Greeks grew strong, the most incredible tribulations
commenced for the Jews in their homeland, which are recorded especially in the
Books of the Maccabees, brutal killing, torture and mocking because of their
faith, seemed unending for the Jewish people, but the majority of them did not
betray the law.
Let’s follow up
briefly some of the events contained in Daniel’s prophecies:
Alexander the Great was one of the kings of the north. After
his death, Palestine comprised part of the share of his Marshall, Ptolemy
I Soter, son of Lagus, who had occupied Egypt and made Alexandria his
capital. (A king of the north who conquered the king of the south
(Egypt) to Cush (Ethiopia).
Under Ptolemy II
Adolphus, many of the Jewish slaves in Egypt, whom his father had brought
there, were set free. Under his rule the Jewish sacred scrolls were
translated into Greek to become the Septuagint, a major source for our Old
Testament.
In 198 B.C. Jerusalem
was acquired by the northern dynasty, descended from Seleucus I Nicator,
another of Alexander’s marshals, which ruled from Antioch, contemporary
Antakya, Turkey. (Another King from the north.) Many Jewish people
suffered incredibly under these rulers.
In 167 B.C., the
growth of Greek, or pagan, influence affronted the orthodox, whose hostility
burst into armed rebellion, after the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes had
deliberately desecrated the Temple. The revolt was led by Mattathias and
was carried on by his son Judas, known as the Maccabee. They succeeded in
expelling the Seleucid by using Joshua’s sacred trumpets that had assisted him
in bringing down the wall of Jericho - and established a state almost the size
of Solomon’s, which came to include, “Galilee of the Gentiles”.
In 63 B.C., the Roman
Pompey captured Jerusalem
Dan., 8:23-24
22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for
it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but
not in his power.
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when
the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce
countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall
stand up.
A clash with Jewish
nationalism was averted for some time by the political skills of a remarkable
family, whose most illustrious member was Herod the Great who was of Edomite
descent, though of Jewish faith. Through his mother, he was allied with the
nobility off Nabatacan Petra, the rich Arab state that lay to the east of
Jordan , and we read in Daniel’s account:
Dan. 11:34 -
Now when they fall (the
Jewish people) they will be aided with a little help, but many shall join
them by intrigue (slipperiness, flattery).
We read that Edom was
not part of the lands which the Romans conquered in
Dan 11:41
He shall enter also into
the glorious land, and many countries shall be
overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even
Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.
There we have,
according to history, the Edomite noble Herod the Great whose political skills
kept the worst o troubles away from Palestine for the time being. He was
a close friend of Anthony (Markus Antonius) . After the defeat of Anthony
by Octavian at Actium in 31 B.C., Herod the Great hastened to become a
close friend of Octavian who later became the Roman emperor Augustus.
This turn of events required a rather quick “change of mind” by
Herod.
King Herod the Great
largely rebuilt Jerusalem.
Now, of the 490
years which, according to Daniel were granted the Jewish people during the
prophetic vision of 622 B.C., we had accounted for only 7 weeks of years (i.e.
49 years to 473 B.C., Haman;s plot. Then there were another sixty-two
weeks of years:
Dan. 9:25
“Know therefore and
understand that from the going forth or the command (see verse 23)
to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there
shall be seven weeks (49 years) and sixty- two weeks.... The
street (square) shall be built again and the wall, even in
troublesome times.”
Nehemia gives insight into
the troublesome times of his office as governor, from 445 to 433 B.C. In Neh. 5:24, and in Neh. 5:16 we read that during his time the wall of Jerusalem was completed, In Ezra 6:15 this prophet states tat the rebuilt Temple was finished in 417 BC.
Dan. 9:26
“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off
(suffer the death penalty), and the people of the prince who is to come
(Romans) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
62 weeks of years: 62 x 7
=
434 years
When
a count includes more than
49
years, we must reckon one Jubilee
year
(50th) after every 49th year: 008
442 years
When 442 years are
deducted from 417 B.C. we arrive at 25 A.D. and Daniel said that, not in that
year, but after that, the Messiah would suffer the death penalty.
In 66 A.D. the
Jews rebelled against the Romans, and there must have been a reason for that of
which I do not know. In 67 A.D. commenced the siege of Jerusalem by Titus
and its destruction in 70 A.D. The Temple was reduced to ashes (Dan,
8:24). Chapters
10-12 of Daniel elaborate on the brief overview in Chapter 8.
Daniel’s
concern was the fate of his people - not of mankind - as he said in Dan. 9:24, 10:14, 11:14, and twice in Dan. 12:1.
Dan. 12:1
And at that time shall
Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy 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 thy people shall be delivered,
every one that shall be found written in the book.
Daniel did not prophesy any developments that occurred after 70 A.D.
So, what are we to
make of Hal Lindsey’s doomsday forecasts, which are based on mainly Daniel’s prophesies
that were fulfilled 1,920 years ago?
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