Part 46 (2/2)
Xerxes boasted that he was leading ”the whole race of mankind to the destruction of Greece.” But his invasion ended in the total rout of his forces by land and by sea. It was an advertis.e.m.e.nt to the world that Persia's might was broken. The prophecy treats it so, and deals no further with Persian history.
aeschylus at the time celebrated the pa.s.sing of Persia's prestige in the lines,--
”With sacred awe The Persian law No more shall Asia's realms revere; To their lord's hand At his command, No more the exacted tribute bear.
Before the Ionian squadrons Persia flies, Or sinks engulfed beneath the main; Fallen! fallen! is her imperial power, And conquest on her banners waits no more.”
--_”Persae,” Potter's translation._
The next great world change was to be the rise of Grecia to dominion.
So, although a number of kings followed Xerxes in Persia, the prophecy pa.s.ses from his disastrous invasion directly to the coming of Grecia under its ”mighty king,” Alexander the Great.
Grecia
_Prophecy._--”A mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity.” Dan. 11:3, 4.
_History._--Alexander the Great stood up and ruled with great dominion, over a kingdom stretching from India to Grecia, with kings yet farther west sending emba.s.sies to Babylon to make submission. But in the height of his power, as the prophecy suggests, he was suddenly cut down by death. All his posterity perished, and out of the struggles of his generals for supremacy came (301 B.C.) the division of the empire toward ”the four winds,” as the prophecy had declared so long before. Rawlinson, the historian, says:
”A quadripart.i.te division of Alexander's dominion was recognized: Macedonia [west], Egypt [south], Asia Minor [north], and Syria [stretching eastward beyond the Euphrates].”--_”Sixth Monarchy,” chap. 3._
The Kings of the North and South
Next, a rearrangement of these powers is noted; and it is this that gives us the key to the study of the closing portion of the long prophetic outline dealing with events of our own day. The narrative continues:
_Prophecy._--”The king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes ... shall be strong above him;... his dominion shall be a great dominion.” Verse 5.
_History._--The history testifies that the king of the south (Egypt, under Ptolemy) was strong; but one of the four princes was ”strong above him.” Seleucus, of Syria and the east, pushed his dominion northward, subduing most of Asia Minor, and extending his boundary into Thrace, on the European side, beyond the Dardanelles. Henceforward, as Mahaffy says,
”there were three great kingdoms--Macedonia, Egypt, Syria--which lasted, each under its own dynasty, till Rome swallowed them up.”--_”Alexander's Empire,” p. 89._
Thus Seleucus took the territory of the north, and the Syrian power became king of the north, its empire extending from Thrace, in Europe, through Asia Minor to Syria and the Euphrates. The seat of empire was removed from the east, and Antioch, in northern Syria, ”once the third city of the world,” became the famous capital.
The prophecy next foretold in remarkable detail the contests between these two strong powers, the king of the north (Syria and Asia Minor) and the king of the south (Egypt). The conflict raged back and forth till the coming of the Romans. The Holy Land was the frequent meeting place of the contending armies. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes it:
”Palestine was as of old the battle field for the king of the north and the king of the south.... The history of these times is lost in its details.”--_Ninth edition, Vol. XV, art.
”Macedonian Empire,” p. 144._
We shall not follow the details of this contest as foretold in the prophecy, nor yet the outline of events after the coming of the Roman power ended the rivalry between Syria and Egypt. It is necessary only that we fix the events and geographic terms of this early portion of the prophecy. Then we shall have the key to the closing portion, dealing with events of the last days, when the king of the north again appears.
The Modern King of the North
In the last verses of the chapter we find the king of the north a chief actor in this same region, ”at the time of the end.” Verse 40. And we are told that when this power comes to its end, it is the signal that the great day of G.o.d is at hand. (See Dan. 12:1.)
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