Introduction to Daniel 5: SEVENTY YEARS!

 

D. God’s unfolding timetable for the restoration of Judah: 70 years.

 

The Divinely-appointed length of the Babylonian Captivity: 70 years! For this reason, Babylon’s destiny was sealed and its days were numbered (Dan. 5:25-28). As Dan 2:21a states: “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings…” God is sovereign over all times and seasons, and sovereign over all changes and revolutions in states and kingdoms.

 

o   As chapter 5 opens (Oct. 12, 539 BC), the 70 years of the appointed Captivity—commencing with Nebuchadnezzar’s first incursion into the Promised Land (605 BC)—were swiftly approaching their completion. As the Handwriting on the Wall in this chapter will indicate, Babylon’s predicted downfall was immediately at hand. Dan. 5:26: “'MENE'--God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.”

 

o   While the Exile had been elsewhere predicted by earlier prophets, it was left to Jeremiah, in the 25^th chapter of his prophecy, to first reveal the precise length of Israel’s absence from the Land.

 

Jer. 25:8-13: ⁸"Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed My words, ⁹behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' declares the LORD, 'and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰'Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹'This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹²'Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' declares the LORD, 'for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation. ¹³'I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.’”

 

o   In a letter written unto the exiles of Judah (ch. 29), Jeremiah advised them to get comfortable and establish roots in Babylon… for they would be there quite awhile! But after the appointed 70 years, God would remember them and lift His hand of judgment, restoring them to their own land.

 

Jer. 29:10-11: "For thus says the LORD, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”

 

o   As a profound student of the Scriptures in general, and of predictive prophecy in specific, Daniel knew the times in which he was living…

 

Dan. 9:2: “…in the first year of his [i.e., Darius the Mede’s] reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.”

 

o   The Chronicler reveals God’s design in establishing the precise length of the Exile:

 

2 Chron. 36:17-21: ¹⁷Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. ¹⁸All the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his officers, he brought them all to Babylon. ¹⁹Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. ²⁰Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, ²¹to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.

 

The enormous catalogue of Israel’s sins, which brought them to the point-of-no-remedy (2 Chron. 36:16), and which initiated the Covenant Curses of the Mosaic Law (including, ultimately, expulsion from the Promised Land; cf., Lev. 18:26-28, 20:22, 26;33, Deut. 28:36, etc.), was vast indeed—including the shedding of much innocent blood in the days of Manasseh, King of Judah (2 Kings 24:3-4).

 

The specific violation of the Sabbath Year throughout through 490 years of its history, however, when the Land was to lie fallow every 7^th Year and the nation was simply to trust in God’s gracious provision, was the reason attributed to the precise length of the Captivity.

 

Lev. 25:2-7: “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

 

Violation of this law was attended by a prescribed penalty:

 

Lev. 26:33-35:  And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.”

 

The 70 occasions in which the Sabbath Year failed to be observed over a period of some 490 years of Israelite History thus resulted in precisely 70 years of Exile in Babylon, in which the Land would finally observe the 70 Sabbaths that it had been denied.

 

Failure to trust in the Lord is a grievous sin indeed, in that it calls into question both His power and His very integrity!

Introduction to Daniel 5: the Rise of Cyrus & the Doom of Babylon

 

C. Thunder from the East: the Rise of Cyrus the Great and the Silver Kingdom.

Correspondent with the decline of Neo-Babylonian power came the rise of challengers from the East (i.e., Iran): the Medes and the Persians. While the great king Nebuchadnezzar was long-resistant in his personal acceptance of Daniel’s interpretation of the Dream of the Colossus (ch. 2), the Silver Kingdom would arise nonetheless, under the sovereign direction of Almighty God!

 

Cyrus the Great

  o    The Medes were an Iranian people who had been allied with the Neo-Babylonians in their revolt against Assyrian power, destroying the Assyrian capital of Nineveh (612 BC) with a vicious and merciless ferocity. Forming a powerful kingdom, they ultimately fell under the dominance of a kindred Iranian people, the Persians, with the rise of Cyrus the Great.

  o    The Persians were a nomadic and pastoral Iranian people that rose to prominence in the days of their great warrior-king Cyrus (c. 600-530 BC), dominating the neighboring Medes (550 BC) and rapidly rising to international prominence, forming the vast Medo-Persian, or Achaemenid (i.e., "of the House of Achaemenes") Empire.  

 

  o    This first Persian Empire is pictured by the means of various symbols employed by Daniel:

      o    In Daniel 2, Persia is the Great Colossus’ breast and arms of silver (v. 32).

      o    In the Night Vision of Dan. 7, it appears as the great lopsided bear (v. 5).

      o    In Dan. 8:1-7, the Persian Empire is pictured as a great Ram with two horns of differing lengths that is defeated by a great he-goat (Greece).

      o    The lopsidedness of the great Bear and the Ram’s horns of uneven-length are indicative of the fact that the Median element—while honored and prominent—was nonetheless subject to the dominant Persian element.

 

For further background, review pp. 20-21, Sec. II. A. 3. c. i.

Study Notes: The Bible vs. Theistic Evolution

  

Biblical Problems with Theistic Evolution

(Pastor Terry L. Reese of Valley GBC of Armagh, PA, 8/19/22)

Intro & Recap:

We have been examining the various alternatives with regard to the question of human origins, and the logical & scientific errors associated with materialistic Darwinian Evolution. We also examined some reasons why some professed believers embrace Theistic Evolution. This is a significant issue: how we interpret the Word is at stake!

 

This week we encounter some of the Biblical problems associated with Theistic Evolution.

 

1. Two horses. Theistic evolution fits neither the Bible nor science in its attempt to

find a middle ground between the two. Darwin made it clear that the supernatural was unnecessary in his theory. The Bible, however, excludes naturalistic evolution. Theistic evolution thus tries to ride two horses, creation and evolution, which are going in opposite directions!

 

>NOTE: Theistic evolution is NOT taken seriously by modern science!

 

This speaks of the double-mindedness of modern believers.

 

James 1:5-8:  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

 

Matt 6:24: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

 

1Kings 18:21: And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

 

2Cor. 11:3: But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

 

2. Theistic Evolution destroys the integrity of Scripture.

1. Biblical History called into question. Is Gen 1-11 subjective myth? Are Adam, Noah, the Flood narrative, and the Tower of Babel real?

 

2. Were there untold eons of death and decay before the Fall? Is Death an instrument of creation? How did Death originate?

Rom. 6:23: For the wages of sin is death…

 

3. What of the explicit details of the Creation Hymn of Gen. 1, regarding the time and order of events? Can we harmonize these with the claims of Lyellian-uniformitarian-geology & evolutionary Darwinism? Impossible! The Bible says Plants were created before (Day 3) the sun, moon, and stars (Day 4)—in contrast to current cosmological theories. The Bible says whales & birds (Day 5) existed before land animals (Day 6)—even though modern scientific theory has it the other way around. Biblical Days cannot thus be reinterpreted as long ages in the name of reconciliation with current popular science.

 

4. Theistic evolution disturbs the entire storyline of Scripture, calling into serious question the basic concept of the earth and mankind being at the center of God’s creative & redemptive activity. Is Earth just one of many planets upon which salient life evolved? But the Earth was created before the Sun and the stars of heaven (Gen. 1:1, 16), HUMAN sin introduced death and imperfection into God’s perfect universe (Gen. 1:31, Gen. 3, Rom. 8:20-22), Jesus was incarnated only in HUMAN flesh (Heb. 2:5-18, meaning only HUMANS can be saved), and died ONCE for all, completing His atoning work (Heb. 10:11-14). He will return to THIS Planet (Zech. 14:4), and God will ultimately regenerate the entire Universe based upon Christ’s redemptive activity at Calvary (Rev. 21-22). The EARTH is God’s Grand Theater of Redemption through which He brings eternal glory unto Himself!

 

3. Theistic Evolution Denies the explicit teaching regarding Adam & Eve’s formation.

Did Man evolve? Or was he directly formed of the dust of the ground?

Gen. 2:7: Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

 

The creation of Eve? Gen. 2:18-25?

 

Also, Theistic Evolution provides no clear answer to this question: “Where & when did man acquire his soul? From whence the Imago Dei?”

 

4. Theistic Evolution dismisses the historicity of Adam, and thus, his theological importance.

1. Adam is held up as the antitype of Christ, the Last Adam (Romans 5, 1 Cor. 15). A real Adam is the explanation for the imputation of Adamic sin (Rom. 5:12) and for the doctrine of Original Sin (the inheritance of sin seen in Gen. 5:3), as well as for the existence of Death…

2. What is the foundation of Holy Matrimony (Matt. 19 & Mark 10, referring back to Gen. 2)?

 

Matt. 19:4-6: He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

 

5. Theistic Evolution defies the Biblical Law of “Kind after Kind” taught in Gen.1.

11-12: Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

 

21: God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

 

24-25: Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

 

6. Theistic Evolution desecrates the Person of Christ by making Him the Son of a Primate.

Heb 10:5  For this reason, coming into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but You prepared a body for Me.”

 

Note the sanctity and perfection attending the eternally prepared Incarnation of the One acceptable sacrifice, the Son of God, the Son of Man, who died for us. The Son of an animal did not die for us!

 

7. Makes man more akin to beasts than something created in the image of God.

Man was created in the image of God—but he is fallen. Man’s savage sinful desires are not the result of natural evolutionary processes! (Gen. 2:16-17). Our sin is ultimately unnatural—God did not originally create Adam this way (Gen. 1:31)! Let us not blame God for our pride, greed, brutality, and out-of-control and aberrant sexuality.

 

8. Makes Christ a false witness of the history of the early earth. Note His testimony as to a real Adam & Eve, a real Abel (Luke 11:51), and a real Noah (24:37-39). Note His testimony regarding a real first marriage in the Garden of Eden in Mark 10:6-9:

 

“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

 

9. God’s Nature Misrepresented.

1. Theistic evolution gives a false representation of the nature of God because death and ghastliness are ascribed to the Creator as principles of creation.

 

2. In Theistic Evolution, God becomes a minimal “God of the Gaps.”

The Bible states that God is the Prime Cause of all things. ‘But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things … and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him’ (1 Cor. 8:6). And He is the Great Sustainer (Col. 1:17, Heb. 1:3), upholding all things.

 

Theistic evolution, in contrast, ascribes minimal activity to God, allowing Him to directly intervene only over those areas that cannot be presently “explained” by science. In other words, the only workspace allotted to Him is that part of nature which evolution cannot ‘explain’ with the means that are presently at its disposal. He is thus reduced to being a ‘god of the gaps’ to explain that phenomena about which there are scientific doubts.

 

Conclusion.

Prov 18:17  The first to put forth his case seems right, until someone else steps forward and cross-examines him.

 

Evolution seems right because people don't hear the evidence against it and no one questions the collective wisdom of the pop culture—and the churches thus repeat the Galileo syndrome (i.e., the church embracing popular science over Scripture). Regarding Galileo, the Bible does NOT teach geocentric theory (i.e., the sun orbiting the earth)—the secular Greek science of Aristotle and Ptolemy did! Roman Catholic leaders foolishly embraced secular science over the Scriptures and thus made a human theory—geocentricism—the formal doctrine of the church. This is precisely what Theistic Evolutionists are doing today!

 

A better alternative: special, immediate (direct) creation.

Based upon two important elements: Faith & Facts.

 

1. Faith: we fully accept what God—the only eyewitness to creation—has to say.

Heb. 11:3: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

 

2. Facts: We accept the inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of Scripture. The Bible tells the truth--whether it be about the mundane things of earth or the spiritual things of Heaven (John 3:12: "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?")

.

John 17:17: “Thy word is truth…”

Intro to Daniel 5: The Decline of the Neo-Babylonian Monarchy

 

B. The Steady Decline of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

 

Following the death of the great Nebuchadnezzar, the Empire rapidly and steadily declined under the administration of lesser men. Babylon’s last two decades are characterized by a rising moral decadence, a lack of unified direction and purpose, religious confusion and controversy, military decline, crumbling international influence, and profound internal divisions and partisan paranoia—which was punctuated by destabilizing political coups.   

 

The decline of Babylon the Great can be illustrated in a brief survey focusing upon the seven rulers who presided over its administration, dating from its rise with the revolt and subsequent coronation of Nabopolssar in 626 BC, unto its fall some 87 years later with the Persian Conquest of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC.

 

1.     Nabopolassar (626-605 BC).

A tough and hardy Chaldean warrior rising from obscurity who was the self-described “son of a nobody,” Nabolpolassar took advantage of the weakness of the crumbling Assyrian Empire and led a revolt against his Assyrian overlords in 626 BC, declaring himself King of a revived Babylon. His leadership marks the Pioneer and early Conquest stages (using Sir John Glubb’s terminology) of the rising Neo-Babylonian Empire. His reign ended gloriously with the stunning defeat of Pharaoh Necho of Egypt at Carchemish in 605 BC, led by the generalship of his son, the Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar.

 

2.     Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC).

Also known as “Nebuchadnezzar the Great,” he was the brilliant “Head of Gold” whose reign marks the supreme high-point of Neo-Babylonian power, wealth, influence, and cultural achievement. “The Destroyer of Nations” who consolidated and expanded upon his father’s victories, he was also noted for his astonishing building program and for his dominance in international trade. His legendary reign rightly represents the Conquest and Commercial stages of Glubb’s survey outlined in The Fate of Empires. Like our own George Washington, it could truly be said that he was “First in war, First in peace, and First in the hearts of his countrymen.” Let us here remind ourselves that this awesome sovereignty enjoyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 2:37-38, 5:18-19; Jer. 27:5-8; 28:14) was the Lord’s doing: the King of Babylon, like all earthly sovereigns, was God’s chosen instrument for the fulfillment of His own purposes (Hab. 1:5-6).

 

3.     Evil-Merodach (562-60 BC), aka, Amel-Marduk.

Many unanswered questions surround the ascendancy of Nebuchadnezzar’s Crown Prince and appointed heir. It is known, for example, that Evil-Merodach was not Nebuchadnezzar’s eldest son, and that he also seemed to have been at extreme odds with his father at one juncture (attempted usurpation?)—even unto the point of imprisonment! Nonetheless, it was he who ascended to the throne in 562 BC.[1] Little is known of his life and career, other than opposition to his rule rose quickly from within the midst of the Royal Family, resulting in his assassination less than two years after his enthronement. He is best known by Bible students for his kindness towards King Jeconiah of Judah, whom he released from prison and treated with royal dignity and honors. Later Jewish tradition suggests that Evil-Merodach befriended Jeconiah during the time of their common imprisonment by Nebuchadnezzar.

 

2 Kings 25:27-30: Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison; and he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon. Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king's presence regularly all the days of his life; and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.

 

This act of clemency is the only surviving royal decree of Evil-Merodach, in that the annals of his reign are sparce, and much that survives from antiquity concerning him doubtlessly originates from the hands of his enemies. Let us note, with regard to the decline of Babylon, that we see here the beginnings of a destabilizing political factionalism within the Royal Household.

 

4.     Neriglissar (560-56 BC). Neriglissar (who has been identified by some as the Nergal-sar-ezer mentioned in Jer. 39:3, 13) was a prominent general and immensely wealthy and influential high official who served King Nebuchadnezzar—and who also became the King’s son-in-law when he married Nebuchadnezzar’s daughter Kashshaya. Through this marriage, it has been speculated by some scholars that Neriglissar became aligned to a less legitimate, but nonetheless wealthier and more prominently established Royal faction than that represented by Evil-Merodach. Usurping the throne after orchestrating his brother-in-law’s assassination in 560 BC, Neriglissar is noted for achieving success in his military campaign in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). His triumph was short lived however, in that he died soon afterward, after only serving some 3 ½ years upon the throne.

 

5.     Labashi-Marduk (556 BC).
The unfortunate son of Neriglissar who inherited his father’s throne as a mere youth (though perhaps after reaching the age of majority), but who was deposed and murdered after only three months upon the throne as the result of a coup orchestrated by a rival faction within the Royal Family. This conspiracy was presumably led by Belshazzar, who then seized and absorbed the young king’s considerable wealth and assets. It is possible that Labashi-Marduk’s mother was not Kashshaya, but another wife of Neriglissar. The possibility that he was not a blood descendent of the great Nebuchadnezzar would potentially have made him vulnerable to claims of regal illegitimacy.

 

6.     Nabonidus (556-39 BC). This enigmatic figure—another son-in-law of King Nebuchadnezzar, who was married to his daughter Nitocris—was apparently a most reluctant inheritor of the Royal Throne. One of his inscription’s flatly states: “I am Nabonidus, the only son, who has nobody. In my mind there was no thought of kingship.” It appears that while the plot against Labashi-Marduk was masterminded by the nobleman Belshazzar, it was nonetheless deemed unseemly by the conspirators to directly offer the throne to Belshazzar while his own father, Nabonidus, was still alive. Thus, the unlikely and rather elderly figure of Nabonidus—military officer, courtier, and scholar—became last full-king of Babylon.

 

Nabonidus is remembered chiefly for his iconoclastic and unconventional religious beliefs which led to his estrangement from the official religious-establishment of Babylon, as well as for his 10-year long absence from the capital city—all of which served to undermine his popularity with the nation.

 

Nabonidus was born the son of an Assyrian Priestess of the Moon god Sin—a deity to which he remained loyal throughout his life—and he thus dedicated much of his efforts the promotion and elevation of this foreign deity. Nabonidus was thus absorbed throughout his reign with temple-building projects—potentially with the aim of displacing Marduk and the traditional national deities of Babylon.

 

This matter of contention with the official establishment of Babylon may have been prominent with regard to his mysterious and self-imposed 10-year exile from the city of Babylon, during which time he resided in Tayma of Arabia. During this period, the capital was under the administration his son and co-regent, Belshazzar.

 

Arrested and deposed by the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, it appears from the more reliable sources that Nabonidus was graciously granted a comfortable retirement in exile by Cyrus, living to a most advanced age (possibly outliving both Cyrus and his son Cambyses).

 

Let us carefully note some of the outstanding characteristics of Nabonidus’ reign in this terminal period of Babylon’s history—confusion, disunity, division, and lack of a unified national-purpose. As Nabonidus left the throne, his people appeared in the streets and cheered the entrance of the foreign conqueror from Iran!

 

7.     Belshazzar (co-regency with Nabonidus; 553-539 BC) was the son and co-regent of Nabonidus, as well as the last blood-heir of Nebuchadnezzar to sit upon the throne of Babylon. More of an “establishment man” then his father, his regency during Nabonidus’ 10-year absence saw a return to religious “orthodoxy,” catering to the traditional Babylonian oligarchy. Portrayed in Daniel as irreverent, drunken, dissolute, and debauched, Belshazzar is a fitting symbol for the decadent state of a dying Empire in its last gasps. Perhaps an old warhorse like Nabopolassar or an astonishing genius like Nebuchadnezzar would have been up to the challenge posed by the great Cyrus—but definitely not the discordantly individualistic Nabonidus, nor the self-centered and corrupt Belshazzar!

 

 

---

[1] Evil-Merodach’s elevation constitutes an interesting outworking of Divine Providence. Why Nebuchadnezzar—who died a regenerate believer in the God of Israel—was led to elevate this unlikely candidate to the Kingship is unknown—but it definitely served God’s eternal purposes. Evil-Merodach’s favorable disposition towards King Jeconiah of Judah—perhaps an old prison-mate—would ultimately serve as a sign and source of encouragement unto the Hebrew People that God was not finished with the House of David, and that He was still mindful of the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7) and its attending Messianic Hope.

The Fate of Empires (Introduction to Daniel 5)

 II. God’s Sovereignty seen in His Control over World Empires (chs. 2-7).

 

Introduction: An Empire on the Brink...

by Pastor Terry L. Reese

 

Daniel 5 relates the sad last days of the Neo-Babylonian Empire following the death of the great Nebuchadnezzar, which had occurred only some 23 years earlier, and it provides us with some invaluable geo-political insights into the workings of a sovereign God in these present “Times of the Gentiles.”

 

A. The Fate of Empires.

Job 12:23-25: He makes nations great, and He destroys them; He enlarges nations, and leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

 

Distinguished British military officer Sir John Glubb (1897-1986) once wrote a brief but memorable treatise entitled The Fate of Empires (1978) in which he attempts to lay out a generic pattern which characterizes the general life-story of the world’s great empires, following the cyclical pattern of their typical rise and fall. As a career military man who personally participated as an eye-witness to the great events that typified the rise and fall of the British Empire, Glubb was perhaps in an enviable position to author such a study.  

 

Analyzing the histories of eleven selected empires, Glubb concluded that the average lifespan of a great empire is approximately 10 generations, or 250 years (about the current age of the United States—but notably longer than the 87 years of the Neo-Babylonian Empire). In any event, all worldly empires are mortal and eventually collapse—which we might note is in full harmony with the message of Daniel 2 and its Dream of the Great Colossus!

 

Glubb further observes that empires typically pass through a generic life-cycle, or generally predictable series of stages (some of which run concurrent with one another). These stages, or typical pattern of imperial trajectory, include the following:

 

1)    The Age of Pioneers (or “Outburst” Stage).

2)    The Age of Conquests.

3)    The Age of Commerce.

4)    The Age of Affluence.

5)    The Age of Intellect.

6)    The Age of Decadence.

7)    The Age of Decline & Collapse.

 

The general life story of an empire begins with an obscure and underprivileged, but nonetheless hardy band of founding pioneers (Stage 1), who are strengthened by great personal hardship, and who thus achieve key victories over a better-situated and established opposition through their personal bravery and relentless innovation. Eventually overwhelming the opposition and appropriating both their superior technology and assets, the rising nation goes on to conquer and expand, forging a great and vast empire (Stage 2).

 

Vast conquests and a great patriotic vision go hand-in-hand with commercial expansion (Stage 3), which leads to the enrichment and prosperity of the empire.

 

The beginnings of the Age of Commerce are splendid: the empire is now rich and spends its resources on great public works and monuments, patronizing the arts and cultural attainment. At the same time, the empire retains its patriotic and martial spirit, promoting manly virtue and civic duty.

 

But the Age of Commerce becomes the Age of Affluence (Stage 4), in which the attainment of wealth and property becomes the principle societal goal. The love of MONEY (1 Tim. 6:10) eventually overwhelms the public’s sense of honor, courage, and duty.

 

Eventually, both the Empire and its individual citizenry become so obsessed with wealth that they lose the patriotic vision and spirit of personal sacrifice that so remarkably characterized their founders, and they become more-and-more focused upon a defensive policy of retaining their luxuries at all costs. In such a climate, glory and duty become a thing of the past. Likewise, education becomes less about serving the public good and more about acquiring personal wealth and position.

 

Military preparedness also begins to evaporate as the people seek to “buy off” perspective foreign rivals, and then go on to contemptuously denounce military service and vigilance as something “unsophisticated” and barbarically “beneath them.”  

 

Somewhat concurrent with this Stage of Affluence runs the Stage of Intellect (Stage 5). The new generation seeks affirmation in academic honors and intellectual pretensions. Such an interest indeed leads to technological advancement—but also plays a mighty role in continued societal rot and self-absorption, as young people increasingly engage in unending, meaningless academic debates (Acts 17:21). Overly confident in its intellectual ability to solve problems, the society loses its general consensus that such old-fashioned virtues as unselfishness and personal sacrifice are necessary ingredients for the empire’s continued well-being and promotion.

 

This new spirit of self-interest and rudderless academic pursuits leads to the widening of divisions within the society. Societal cohesion begins to evaporate.

 

As the empire inevitably advances into its final stages of Decadence and Decline (Stages 6 & 7), Glubb notes that it is characterized by several key aspects:

 

o   a rise in pessimism and ultra-materialism,

o   an unbearable and unsustainable influx of foreigners who do not share the cultural vision or values of the society’s original founders,

o   the expansion of an Entitlement Culture and the Welfare/Nanny State,

o   the weakening of traditional religious concepts and values,

o   the rise of a general spirit of frivolity (1 Cor. 15:32), in which athletes & entertainers increasingly become the popular heroes and focus of society’s attention.   

In short, decline flows from an idle and self-centered community that has been corrupted by prosperity, and which in its final stages even sees its beloved wealth and culture of luxury begin to wane. As the society’s collective wealth continues to dwindle, so too does its collective sense of optimism and unity.

 

Ultimately, the empire descends into its death-throes, typically falling into the hands of a more aggressive, rising people.   

 

Writer G. Michael Hopf, in his post-apocalyptic novel Those Who Remain, offers a relevant quote that underlines the cyclical nature (Eccl. 1:4-11) of the rise and fall of empires: “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

 

Remarkably, Glubb’s general thesis seems to universally prevail, despite the differing eras, geographical locations, or cultural climates in which various empires arise. MAN IS ALWAYS MAN!

 

BABYLON had swiftly passed through its appointed stages, and now appears here in Daniel 5 in its final stages of Decadence and Decline.

 

Postscript:

Let us now dare pose a question, dear reader! "What stage has our own beloved United States of America now entered into--at the general age (again, 250 years) when most empires reach the limits of their span?"

In times like these, let God's people LOOK UP (1 Thess. 4:16-18)!--and be joyfully and reverently prepared to receive that eternal and Divine Kingdom that will not be created by human hands (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45), and which represents a radical discontinuity from the sinful and worldly patterns of the present evil age (Gal. 1:4).