The Preservation of the Faithful Remnant in Type - Bible Study

The Preservation of the Faithful Remnant in Type

Chapter 6

In the interesting historical incident now brought before us by the pen of inspiration, we have portrayed what should be for the comfort of every trusting soul: God's tender care over all who walk uprightly before Him and confide in His love and power. Like the previous events it also has a typical character, setting forth the peculiarly trying position in which the faithful remnant of Judah will find themselves in the days of the Antichrist.

Darius, the satrap of Babylon, was pleased, we are told, to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty princes; and over these, three presidents, of whom Daniel was first. The prophet was thus appointed to a position very similar to that of a present-day prime minister or secretary of state; and because of the excellent spirit that was in him, and his faithfulness in administering the affairs of the kingdom, he was preferred above all the other dignitaries. In this exalted office, he became, as many in similar circumstances have been, the object of the enmity and hatred of unprincipled political plotters, who sought their own advancement at the expense of his downfall. Themselves corrupt, they tried to find occasion against him, taking it for granted that he was actuated by the same selfish motives as they were. But though they endeavored in every way to obtain proof of some dereliction of duty on his part, concerning which they might accuse him to the king, they at last were forced to confess, " We shall not find any occasion against this

Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God."

The cunning plotters, knowing the intensity of his religious convictions, put their heads together therefore, and drew up a statute, which, they felt sure, if they could but prevail on the king to sign it, would insure the downfall of his favorite. With this in mind, they came into the presence of the king, and pretending to great loyalty and zeal for the dignity of his office, they said: "King Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counsellors and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man, for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth

not."

Their statement was false upon the face of it, for one at least of the presidents there was, and he the chief of all, who had not been consulted in the matter; but it was he whose destruction they desired. Darius shows to poor advantage here, though in the main perhaps, an excellent man, but like many another, easily persuaded by the tongue of flattery. Without consulting with his chief minister, he signed the decree; thus, establishing it as a law unalterable' even by royal veto. By the signing of this statute Darius practically put himself into the place that the man of sin, the lawless one, will occupy in the last days. He became a type of the Antichrist, who shall "sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." And right here, it is of moment to remark that there may be a vast difference between what a man is in himself and the place he occupies in scripture typology. Darius, as a man, was doubtless a very different character to the coming false Messiah. He was kindly and amiable, and as we know, was afterwards deeply repentant for having permitted himself to act so foolishly. But as the king, making himself an object of worship, and denying the liberty of any to offer prayers or adoration to any other God save himself, he fittingly pictures the Antichrist.

We see the same principle brought out, for instance, in the case of David, who, looked at officially, is one of the most nearly perfect types of Christ that we have in the Old Testament;

but who, as a man, possesses the same faults and commits as serious sins as many another.

After the vain glorious monarch had allowed himself to be flattered into appending the seal royal to the infamous interdict, the plotters doubtless congratulated themselves that Daniel's doom was sealed. His holiness of life was a continual rebuke to their impiety, and his integrity but accentuated their crookedness. We are reminded, as we read of their inability to find anything whereof to accuse him save in the matter of the Lord his God, of that verse in the Proverbs which tells us that " when a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (or, silent to him), that is, they cannot truthfully allege anything against the man who walks with God. When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, there was on his part evidence of neither fear nor ostentation. He simply pursued his godly course, as though the decree were not in existence. Notice, verse 10 tells us, " He went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as lie did aforetime." Observe, it is not said that he opened his windows; it is quite the contrary, " His windows being open; ", to shut them now would be cowardice; whereas to have opened them, if he had previously been in the habit of keeping them

closed, would have been to court persecution, a foolhardy thing, which the child of God is never called upon to do. But Daniel remembered the words of Solomon, which he prayed concerning the people of Israel: " If they sin against Thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and Thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near: yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto Thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; if they return to Thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which Thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which Thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Thy Name: then hear Thou from the heavens, even from Thy dwelling-place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Thy people which have sinned against Thee" (2 Chron. 6:36-39).

In full accord with this, Daniel went up into his house three times daily; and bowing down upon his knees before his windows, opened toward Jerusalem, ho offered his prayers and thanksgivings, and made his confession to his God. And now when he knows that he takes his life in his hand each time he carries out his pious custom, he does not shrink for a moment, or seek in any way to hide from his enemies the fact that he has to do with the God of Israel. As he kneels with bowed head facing the direction of the desolated city of Jehovah, Jerusalem, the place where the Lord had set His name, we may be assured that his prayer was none the less fervent, and his thanksgiving none the less real, because he knew, as he could not help but know, that malignant spies were waiting to report his conduct to the king, who, according to the unalterable laws of the Medes and Persians, was bound to carry out its provisions, and to visit upon each offender the penalty prescribed.

Having secured the evidence they desired, the conspirators repaired to the royal presence, and made accusation against Daniel. Darius at once realized the mistake he had made; and we are told lie ", labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him." But the unhappy ruler found himself helpless in the hands of his crafty advisers. He had to own the authenticity of the decree and of his signature. He could do no other than see that it was enforced. In this we see one great point of difference between the head of gold and the silver breast. Nebuchadnezzar's word was absolute. No law held him in check: " Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive." But it was otherwise with the Persian rulers. The law of the state had authority even over kings. And in each empire- that followed we find imperial power more and more curtailed, and the voice of the people making itself heard with ever greater force and intensity until the days of the feet of the image, part of iron and part of brittle pottery, a union of social democracy and imperialism.

Darius found it impossible to evade the statute in the face of his insistent ministers, who demanded that the decree be carried out, and the chief of the presidents be cast into the den of lions. The king seems to have had some sense in his soul of the power of the God of Daniel, for, after giving the command, he said to him, confidently, " Thy God whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee."

So, Daniel was cast in, and Darius had a bad night of it, tossed between conflicting emotions

of hope and fear as to his servant's fate. In the morning, we see him early at the mouth of the den, and in great distress calling to find out whether Daniel had been destroyed or delivered. " O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?", his anxious query bespeaking both a measure of confidence in what he must have learned from Daniel himself as to the omnipotent power of his God, and yet his own lack of acquaintance with Him. But, to his joy, he found that Daniel's God was as good as His word, and had preserved the prophet unharmed in the midst of the ravenous beasts.

Daniel's reply is noble in its very simplicity: " O king, live forever," he says. " My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before Him innocence was found in me; and also, before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. "The misguided king is delighted to find that his own wretched blander had wrought no real damage to his minister, and at once commands him to be taken up out of the den; the law having been complied with fully, and the prophet having suffered no hurt. Thus was Daniel delivered, " because he believed in his God." What a lesson to tried saints everywhere! " Who is he that shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good? " It may not always please God to deliver from the trial, but. He will always preserve in it, and eventually bring His own in peace out of it.

The king now commands that Daniel's accusers with all their households, be cast into the den. It was a heathenish way of visiting retribution upon them, inasmuch as the wives and children were not offenders: but it was quite in keeping with Oriental conceptions of justice. The lions had the mastery of them, we are told, and broke all their bones in pieces the moment they came to the bottom of the den. Thus was the righteous one delivered out of trouble, while the wicked suffered in his stead.

Darius then made a new decree, which was sent to all people, nations and languages in the

Medo-Persian dominions, in which he bade men everywhere to tremble and fear before the God

of Daniel: " For He is the living God, and steadfast forever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end. He deiivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." We may hope that Darius had thus learned the same lesson that had been taught to Nebuchadnezzar, in so different a school, long before. As for Daniel, the record says, he prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. How much his influence had to do with the issuing of the decree later on, permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem, we know not, but there can be little doubt that his voice would be heard by Cyrus in the matter.

It will be necessary now to dwell somewhat particularly upon the typical character of all this. The whole scene points us on to a time when Daniel's people will once more be restored to their land, and there shall rise up among them one who will magnify himself above all that is called God and is worshiped, so that he shall sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. He will make a decree that prayer and worship shall be addressed to him alone, and every other god ignored. All this will be considered in its place, when we come to take up the latter part of chapter 11, where, from the thirty-sixth verse on, we have a vivid description of the Antichrist and his times. I do not touch here on the notion common to many Protestants that the papacy is the Antichrist, because that too will be taken up then. What I especially wish to make clear now is that God's word has distinctly foretold the regathering of the Jews to Palestine, though at first in unbelief, and that out of the whole company a remnant will be taken up in grace and turned to the Lord. The mass will own the claims of the willful one, who will pose as their Messiah, while the remnant will be distinguished by their unyielding opposition to his decrees, and therefore, as in the case of Daniel in this chapter, will be called upon to pass through a period of severe testing, designated in both Testaments as the tribulation. But out of it all they shall eventually emerge in triumph, through the power of God, and they shall see visited upon their enemies the desolation and destruction which they had thought to visit upon this faithful remnant.

And first, in order that it may be made plain that the restoration of Israel, so frequently referred to by the prophets, is yet in the future, I would direct your attention to the eleventh chapter of the prophet Isaiah. You will do well to read the entire chapter at your leisure, though I shall here quote but a few verses, beginning with the 11th. " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah

from the four corners of the earth. . . . And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt" (vers. 11, 12, and 16). That this passage has no reference to the return from Babylon in the past is evident, for it distinctly tells us that the Lord shall set His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people. The first time was when they came up 'from the dominions of Cyrus and Artaxerxes, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The second recovery will be when they are brought back, not only from those lands, but from Egypt and all the islands of the sea. How they will return is set before us in the eighteenth chapter of the same prophet. There we learn that some great maritime nation will further the work of restoration by bringing thein in many ships from the most distant places to their ancient patrimony. " In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion. "That this return must be carried out in order to fulfil the promises made by God to the fathers should be self-evident. In the thirtieth chapter of Jeremiah the Lord corroborates the word in Isaiah by saying, " For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." And this return is still in the future, for in connection with it the pledge is given that when Jacob shall return he " shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. "This could hardly be said of the previous return from Babylon; for at no time, until again cast out of their land after Messiah's rejection did, they dwell in rest and quietness undisturbed by their enemies, and possess the land. But they are Jehovah's people, in spite of all their sins; and in His own time He will fulfil to the letter every pledge He has made. That they will have to pass through a season of severe testing ere entering into the promised rest is equally clear, as the same chapter and many another portion of Scripture witnesses. "For thus saith the

Lord: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it'' (vers. 5 to 7).

We may turn back to Isaiah, chap. 24, for a fuller description of this time of trouble, the great tribulation. The first twelve verses picture the land of Palestine as it will be in those days of distress. Throughout the chapter read "land" instead of "earth." Now, notice verse 13: "When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea." Here we have the remnant distinguished from the mass; instead of being overwhelmed with despair because of their sorrows when cast, as it were, into this den of lions, they lift up their voices in song, like Daniel glorifying the God of heaven. To them will be fulfilled the precious promises of Isaiah, chap. 43, in the day that the Lord shall " say to the north. Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, 1 have made him " (vers.

6, 7). These shall be Jehovah's witnesses, testifying to the power and glory of the one true God, when apostate Christendom shall have been given up to the strong delusion to believe the lie of the Antichrist.

The prophet Ezekiel, in chap. 36, foretells both their scattering and their regathering. Verse 24 says, "For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land." The verses that follow show us that at that time they will be cleansed from their filthiness; a new heart and a new spirit given them; the Spirit of God put within them, who will cause them to walk in His statutes and keep His judgments, to do them. Now I ask any unprejudiced person, has this ever been fulfilled in the past? When the remnant of Judah returned from Babylon, did they give any evidence of having been as a company regenerated, so that they found delight in the law of the Lord? Was not the contrary the case, as evidenced by their turning away from His statutes even in the life-time of Ezra and his co-laborers, and their crucifixion later of the Lord of glory?

The New Testament revelations on this subject show us plainly that their recovery awaits the close of the present dispensation. In our Lord's prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, as related in the twenty-first of Luke, He says: "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. . .. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all the nations: and Jerusalem shall

be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (vers. 20 and 24).

Jerusalem's rehabilitation awaits, then, the falling of the Stone upon the feet of the Gentile image; for, as we have already seen, that will conclude the Gentile Times. But now a connected passage in the eleventh chapter of Romans will show us just where and when to place the turning of the remnant to God, In the 25th verse of that chapter the apostle writes: "For 1 would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Now we are not to confound the fulness of the Gentiles with the Times of the Gentiles. The latter expression takes in the entire course of Gentile domination in the Holy Land. As long as the Jew is not master in Palestine the Times of the Gentiles are running on. But the fulness of the Gentiles, as the context in this chapter makes clear, is an expression referring to spiritual blessing, not national nor temporal. This fulness will have come in when the message of the gospel has accomplished the purpose for which it was given, and God has completed His present work of taking out from among the Gentiles a people for His name. In other words, the fulness of the Gentiles and the rapture of the Church are coincident. Therefore, between the fulness of the Gentiles and the close of the Times of the Gentiles there will be a time-period, in which the great bulk of prophecy will have its fulfilment. This is the period designated in Daniel "the Time of the End." A reference to the chart will help to make clear its proper position. The line running cross the chart beneath the parenthetic portion, which represents the present age, sets forth the fulness of the Gentiles. The line below, immediately above the inscription concerning the kingdom, represents the close of the Times of the Gentiles. Between these two lines we have the Time of the End; and it is then that the conversion and testing of the Remnant will take place.

The later chapters of Zecnariah have much to tell us of that time of trouble, and the testimony that will be maintained in it. I refer you now to but two verses, chap. 13, vers. 8 and 9: " And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. "The greater part of the book of Revelation, from chapter four to the end of chapter nineteen, is concerned with the events of this Time of the End. The saints seen on earth at that time are not Christians, but Jews, who will then be called upon to suffer for the sake of their once-rejected Messiah. I grant that in chapter seven, after the account of the sealed 144,000 out of all the tribes of Israel, we have pictured a great multitude, whom no man can number, of saved Gentiles; but they do not form part of the Church, nor do they appear throughout the book as in the place of testimony on earth. They come out of the great tribulation, emerging at last to take their place in the world-kingdom of our God and His Christ; but it is to the Israelitish remnant alone that a place of testimony is given. This remnant will then heed the word of the Lord; they will search the Scriptures; and from them they will learn of their place in the course of time. They will understand that the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and that God is again taking up His earthly people. I have no doubt that this very book of Daniel which we are studying will show them where they are, and will lead them to seek the face of God, and to stand for Him when all Christendom and the bulk of their own nation shall have gone into the last great apostasy. Through them a final call will

go out to the heathen who have never yet heard the gospel, nor rejected its precious message.

The result of that ministry will be the ingathering of the great multitude shown to us in the

seventh chapter of Revelation.

With this I close the present lecture, and urge each one to search the Scriptures for himself to

see whether these things be so.