fierce of countenance." * But the next clause, understanding dark sentences," presents the subtlety of the Greek mind.† Possibly some of the considerations just advanced may explain the fact that Israel and Greece are brought into sharp collision, at the time of the end, in Zechariah's prophecy: "When I shall have bent Judah for Me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece." And it is not unworthy of notice that, at the first advent, the three kingdoms of Greece, Rome, and Israel, are found together in the inscription on the cross. § The expression, "his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power," is probably to be explained by those other words, "And the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority." || Strengthened by such a helper, the fierce king will spread havoc in a wondrous manner, will by his cunning make the deceit which he devises successful, and will destroy many by professions of peace, or, as the words may mean, by unexpected and malignant attacks in times of security. It is especially mentioned that he will work the utter ruin of " strong ones and the people of the saints." The latter would seem to be the Jews, of whom-if we render the twelfth verse more correctly-we have already been told that "a host shall be given up, together with the daily sacrifice, because of transgression." It is more Zech. ix. 13. * Deut. xxviii. 50. + Dan. viii. 23. || Rev. xiii. 2. difficult to find out who are indicated as the "strong ones,” but probably they are that nation, or those nations, which, comprising many believers in Christ, will at first be moved to resist Antichrist with the sword, and will, consequently, have to pay the penalty with which those who do so are threatened.* The king will further defy God by destroying the temple, and will at last stand up against the Prince of princes Himself: but he will then be broken without hand, dashed to pieces by the stone cut without hands from the mountain. The words of the angel in regard to the two thousand three hundred days are mysterious. The literal Hebrew expression is, not " days," but " evenings mornings," which proves that actual days of four-and-twenty hours are intended; just as when we hear of forty days and forty nights, or of three days and three nights. And we should note that seven full prophetic years would contain two thousand five hundred and twenty days; that is, that the time mentioned by the angel is two hundred and twenty days short of seven years. Now it may be that the vision of the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation refers to the whole period of Antichrist's connection with Jerusalem. If so, he is to make a covenant with the majority of the Jewish nation for seven years, as we shall see in a later chapter, and after the first three years and a half will cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. The remaining three years and a half will be the * Rev. xiii. 9, 10. time of the great tribulation. But the Lord Jesus has promised that those days shall be shortened for the elect's sake.* Possibly, then, the angel's words are intended to give us the extent of this shortening; and if so, God will spare His people two hundred and twenty days from the last year. We have thus examined some of the most remarkable prophecies of the Old Testament which relate to Gentile dominion. Before the later Scriptures were written three of the great world-powers had passed away, so that we no longer hear of Babylon, Persia, and Greece, but only of Rome. And even of Rome but little is said, until she is set before us embodied, as she will be, in her last king. At that time, as we shall presently see, many Jews will be dwelling in their own land, having been gathered thither to endure that purification by the Spirit of judgment and burning which shall prepare the meek among them for their glorified inheritance. And then, when God begins to remember Israel, His dealings will resume their direct reference to the government of earth; so that at this point prophecy again enters into details of earthly matters. But of what will happen to the kingdoms of this world during the dispensation of grace only the barest outline is revealed. For believers in Christ have a heavenly calling, and are commanded not to mind earthly things, but to be ever waiting for the coming of their Lord. We will now briefly consider some New Testament predictions respecting the fourth empire. *Matt. xxiv. 22. THE GREAT RED DRAGON. The second of the wonderful signs which John describes in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse is a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. Now the dragon himself is afterwards declared to be "the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world." * But the ten horns indicate also the fourth beast of Daniel's vision, and later revelations make the seven heads équally characteristic of it. The symbol seems, therefore, to represent the spiritual power of wickedness which impresses its image upon, and works in the sphere of flesh by means of, the fourth world-kingdom; in other words, it sets before us Satan in active energy through the medium of the Roman empire. The meaning of the heads and horns, in their earthly development, will be discussed presently. We will only remark in anticipation that the former are seven consecutive rulers of the Latin realms,† special agents of Satan in his various attempts to corrupt or destroy the followers of Christ; and that they appear crowned because the vision includes the reigns of all the monarchs who are represented by them. The ten horns, on the contrary, are contemporaneous kings, the same as the toes of the image and the horns of Daniel's fourth beast; and their crownless condition intimates that those who are signified by them will not receive kingdoms while this scene of Rev. xvii. 12, 13. *Rev. xii. 9. Rev. xvii. 10. the vision is in process of fulfilment, but will begin their part in the great drama at some period subsequent to the removal of the man-child. Such, then, was the monster which appeared in heaven: nor was he standing in idle pose; for his eyes were fixed, and his energies concentrated, upon a woman who was writhing in travail before him, while he was waiting to devour her child as soon as it should be born. To enter into detail with regard to the woman would be beside our present purpose; we must merely mention the conclusion that she represents Jerusalem as the mother-city of the Israel of God; that she is the holy seed,* or the Jewish Church. Of her son, we are told that he is destined to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and the prediction has induced many to maintain that Christ is thereby signified, because this prerogative is assigned to Him in the second Psalm. But, in the epistle to the church at Thyatira, He Himself promises the same power to all overcomers. And so the man-child, as being heir to an inheritance common to the Lord and His people, seems to prefigure the mystic Christ, of which the personal Christ is the head, and the Church of the first-born the body; while the attitude of the dragon points to the great object for which Satan uses the world-power, namely, to destroy the people of God. To understand the travailing of the woman, we must remember that the earthly city of the great Rev. ii. 26, 27. * Isa. vi. 13. + Psa. ii. 9. |