Subtle sin.
We have here a description of a terrible evil power which, in manner and appearance, is deceptively harmless, and yet which is really most destructive and wicked and destined to detection and overthrow.
I. EVIL WORKS MOST EFFECTIVELY WHEN IT HIDES ITS TRUE CHARACTER.
1. It works under a fair show. The king has "an insolent countenance" and "magnifies himself in his heart." There is a bold self-assertion and an apparent frankness which sometimes blind men to the falsehood beneath.
2. It works by craft, as much as by force. The king "understands dark stratagems" and "craft prospers under his band." The tempter is more successful when he appears as the subtle serpent than when he comes as a raging lion. Transformed into an angel of light, he persuades by deceit. Intellect is a more dangerous weapon in the hands of a bad man than mere brute force.
3. It turns peaceful prosperity into a means of harm. Warfare and persecution are less dangerous than the insidious temptations of luxurious vices and flattering indolence.
II. THOUGH EVIL MAY BE OBSCURE TO US, ITS CHARACTER AND DESTINY ARE NOT CHANGED.
1. It is still destructive. This crafty and peace-loving king is really as destructive as the old warlike monarch. Sin is not the less fated because it wears a fair mask.
2. It is still only the abuse of Divine gifts. The king is mighty, "but not by his own power." All sin is only possible by the abuse of talents lent us by God. The boldness of self-assertion is no proof of independence and liberty to pursue our own course.
3. It is still defiance of the will of God. "He shall stand up against the Prince of princes." We may rebel against God with a smile as much as with a frown. Guilt is not measured by manners, but by motives. Crafty treachery is not less guilty than open rebellion.
4. It is still destined to judgment and overthrow. We may deceive men; we cannot deceive God (Romans 2:16). God also "understands the dark stratagems" of subtle wickedness. They will be detected and defeated. The punishment of sins of subtlety and craft is as certain as that of sins of open and confessed guilt.
HOMILIES BY H.T. ROBJOHNS
Modes of supersensual vision.
"I saw in a vision" (Daniel 8:2); "Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint" (Daniel 8:13); "Behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man" (Daniel 8:15). Of the next vision, the time should be noted—two years after the last, Belshazzar still living; and the place, viz. Shushan. Daniel seems not to have been there in reality, but only in vision. So Ezekiel from Babylon was "brought in the visions of God to Jerusalem." This vision concerned the overthrow of Persia, and so the prophet was placed at the centre of the empire, whence he might see the desolation coming. This vision develops dramatically:
1. We have symbols. (Verses 1-12.) Then:
2. Answering voices. (Verses 13, 14.)
3. Communication from God through Gabriel. (Verses 15-27.) This may suggest discourse on some modes of coming to the vision of supersensual truth. By—
I. CONTEMPLATING PICTURES IN THE WORLD OF SENSE. Daniel was brought first into contact with symbol—picture of power and action, the ram, the goat; destruction of the ram; certain transformations of the goat. So man's first lesson now comes through the sense-pictures of the world. This depends, as a fact, on the truth that the world is one transparency, through which is ever shining supersensual truth. Behind all phenomena of space and time lie luminous eternal truths. Consider how much we can see in and learn from:
1. Our present home of the material world
2. The life-forms with which it is crowded.
3. Common employment.
4. Social relations. How much of spiritual truth may be seen, e.g; in paternity, the family, civil constitution, law, etc.!
5. Our training through the successive incidents of life.
II. LISTENING TO ANSWERING VOICES. "Then I heard one saint," etc. (verse 13). Here we pass to a higher realm than that of sense-pictures, into the arena of pure intelligence. An angel-voice addressed Daniel, or was about to address him, when another, interrupting, requested the first angel to afford Daniel definite information on certain points; which he did. We may learn much:
1. From the colloquy of the angels. True, we cannot hear this; but much of angel-discourse is recorded in the book. Think of Stier's 'Words of the Angels.'
2. From the controversies of the Church. Present and past. What have they been but contentions, out of which truth has come with a clearer definition and more resplendent aspect'?
3. From the assaults of unbelief. The indebtedness of the Church to disbelief, misbelief, and non-belief can never be accurately reckoned. Scepticism often has:
We may go a step further:
4. From the continuities of infidelities among themselves.
III. DEVOUT ATTENTION TO MAN INFORMED BY GOD. (Verse 15.) Daniel looking on the vision, behold, the apparition of a man! Gabriel—the man (the vir. not the homo) of God. To Gabriel a voice—not that of the genius of the river Ulai, but of God. Here we have intimated another way in which supersensual truth may be uncovered to man; i.e. by man, but by man informed by God. We use the word "informed" in two senses:
1. Through manhood. Through man at his highest, noblest, best. Through holiness unfallen, as in the case of Gabriel. Or through holiness restored, as in the case of a man. Through power, virility, genius sanctified.
2. Vitalized by God. Filled with God.
3. Spoken to by God. (Verse 16.) Note: The Divine voice has a human tone in it. We may take, as examples of this mode of revelation, the case of the text, Gabriel; any real prophet; Christ, the Divine Man; the true preacher of modern times. The first effect of Divine revelation, as with Daniel, may be consternation (verse 17); but that effect may be relieved and softened by sympathy (verse 18): "but he touched me." Think of Christ's healing touch.—R.
Two world-empires.
"The ram which thou sawest," etc. (Daniel 8:20, Daniel 8:21). The only way in which the substance of the vision can be legitimately treated seems to us the expository. But be it remembered that the exposition of a chapter like this is really an explication of the gradual unfolding of a part of the history of the kingdom of God antecedent to the Incarnation. We set up here simply directing-posts to mark the way. Note particularly the partial character of this vision—it is not now of the four world-empires and of the everlasting kingdom, but only of two—Persia, Greece—and the development of Greece. And mark, the symbols are authoritatively interpreted (Daniel 8:21, Daniel 8:22). Here we have a key wherewith to unlock the secrets of the rest of the book.
I. PERSIA. In the symbol we have:
1. Its unity. "A ram."
2. Its duality "Two horns." Media and Persia.
3. Its inequality. One horn the higher; and came up last.
4. The direction of its aggression. (Daniel 8:4.) Babylon; Lydia; Egypt.
5. Its temporary irresistibility. (Daniel 8:4.)
6. Complete overthrow. (Daniel 8:7.) Compare throughout with the bear of Daniel 7:1-28.
II. GREECE. Here should be opened out:
1. The fitness of the goat as a symbol; e.g. Greece abounded in goats; several municipalities adopted it as a symbol, and struck its image on their coins, etc. See detailed Expositions.
2. Its ubiquity. "On the face of the whole earth."
3. Celerity. "Touched not the ground."
4. The concentration of its genius. "A notable horn." Alexander (Daniel 7:21).
5. Its victory.
6. Its subsequent growth.
7. Sudden break-down.
III. GREECE DIVINED.
1. Into four. Greece; Asia Minor; Syria; Egypt.
2. At the zenith of power; i.e. under Alexander (Daniel 7:8).
3. With instant collapse. (Daniel 7:22.) "Not in his power."—R.
The scourge of Israel.
"He shall stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand" (Daniel 8:25). As in the previous homily, we give a mere directive outline, for the help of those who may care to make the antichrist of the later Hebrew time the subject of treatment. The sketch given by the prophet undoubtedly applies to Antiochus Epiphanes. The only question has been raised by those who wish to throw discredit on the supernatural in prophecy, and who, struck by the marvellous minuteness of Daniel's description, have tried to show that it must have been written after the event, and therefore not by Daniel at all. Observe:
1. The general description. Out of one of the four kingdoms into which Alexander's empire was divided, came forth a new kingdom—at least a new king, with special characteristics, and with special antagonistic relations to the kingdom of God.
2. The notes of time—very remarkable. The date of the rise of Antiochus is given. "In the latter time" of the dominion of the four kingdoms "a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up." These kingdoms were gradually absorbed into the Roman empire, but may be considered to have commenced with the defeat of Perseus at the battle of Pydna, b.c. 168. Another note: "When the transgressions are come to the full." We understand that to be said of the state of thing,s in Judaea. There affairs were in a frightful state. We can imagine the condition when men fought for the high priesthood, and obtained it often by bribery or murder. "The sacred writers often speak of iniquity as being full—of the cup of iniquity as being full—as if there was a certain limit or capacity beyond which it could not be allowed to go. When that arrives, God interferes, and cuts off the guilty by some heavy judgment." Such a state of things existed at Jerusalem, when Antiochus ascended the throne of Syria.
I. HIS CHARACTER was marked by:
1. Shameless audacity. "Of fierce countenance;" i.e. "hardy of countenance" (verse 23). Destitute of shame. Most conquerors respected the religion of the conquered; this man forced on the Jews his own.
2. Deceitful subtlety. Master of deceitful wiles. "Understanding dark sentences" (verse 23).
3. Power. But such advantage as he gained against Israel was "not by his own power." By whose .9 By God's. In what sense? The eternal law of righteousness made him its instrument, as against the iniquity of Israel.
4. Practical genius. "He shall practise" (verse 24); i.e. "he shall do;" i.e. the man was to be no mere dreamer. What he professed he would perform.
5. Destructiveness. (Verse 24.) The activity should be malicious.
II. HIS ACTION.
1. He practised deceit. (Verse 25.) "And though … by peace shall destroy many." He would destroy a people resting in an unreal security.
2. He disliked the ecclesiastical rulers in Israel. (Verse 10.) Read, The horn "waxed great against the host," etc.
3. He acted so that the whole Hebrew commonwealth was at his mercy. (Verse 12.) Read, "A host was given [him] with the daily sacrifice, by reason of transgression."
4. He abolished the daily sacrifice. (Verse 11.) Read, "And by him was taken away the perpetual, and was cast down the place of his sanctuary." No doubt the daily sacrifice is principally intended, but there is given to it grandeur by designating it "the perpetual," i.e. the everlasting changeless element in the Hebrew ritual. The undying testimony to the atonement of the Lord (Exodus 29:35-44; Le Exodus 6:13). Against the Redeemer's own memorial did Antiochus lift up his hand. That struck down, the sanctuary was desolate. (See terrible description, 1 Macc. 1. Note the heroic fidelity of some, verses 63, 64.)
5. He struck at the truth. (Verse 12.)
6. He sets himself against God. "He magnified himself against the Prince of the hosts;" "He stood up against the Prince of princes" (verses 11, 25).
7. He attained to a certain sort and measure of prosperity. (Verse 9.) The reference is to Egypt, to what remained of Persia, and to Judaea.
III. THE DOOM. How sublime the prophecy! "He shall be broken without hand." How terrible the fulfilment! He fell by an invisible blow from the King of kings. He died of grief and remorse at Babylon (1Ma Daniel 1:16; 2Ma 9.).—R.
Prophecy's sure fulfilments.
"Unto evenings and mornings, two thousand and three hundred; The vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true" (Daniel 8:14, Daniel 8:26). Two thousand three hundred days, that is, six years and a hundred and ten days. Whence reckoned? To what time? The cleansing of the sanctuary took place under Judas Maccabaeus, December 25, b.c. 165. Reckoning back two thousand three hundred days, we come to August 1, b.c. 171. Up to this latter date the relations between Antiochus and the Jewish people had been peaceful; then began a series of aggressions, which ended only with his death. (For account of the new dedication of the temple, see 1 Macc. 4:36-61.) We suggest a homily on The certainty of the fulfilment of the Divine Word.
I. THE DEFINITENESS OF THE END. Here "the cleansing of the sanctuary."
II.. THE EXACT MEASUREMENT OF ALL INTERMEDIATE SECOND CAUSES. The number, force, combination, duration of their action.
III. CONSEQUENT LIMIT OF TIME. In the Divine mind. Not necessarily revealed to us; though the exact number of the days was so in this case.
IV. OUR MORAL ATTITUDE. Belief in the word. Confidence in the Word-giver. Obedience, active and passive. The entertainment of a great hope. Let the sunshine of the assured future light the present.—R.