45: The Promises to Israel - The Time of the Promise at Hand

The Present Truth : March 11, 1897

In closing our study of the Babylonian captivity last week we saw that if Israel had learned the lesson of trust in God and had not continued still in the bondage of pride and self-confidence, the seventy years of Babylonian captivity would have brought them to a point where the long-deferred promise of an everlasting inheritance might speedily have been fulfilled; for, as already stated, up to the time of the beginning of the captivity in Babylon the only definite time of prophecy was the period of seventy years. But God foresaw before this time ended that the lesson had not been learned; and so, toward the close of that period He gave the prophet Daniel a vision in which another and longer time was fixed. The prophecy is briefly this: —

The Vision of Daniel 8

Daniel saw in vision a ram with the peculiarity that one horn was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.  He “saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.” Daniel 8.3, 4

Next he saw a goat coming furiously from the west, having one notable horn between his eyes. “And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he goat waxed very great; and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host,” etc. Daniel 8.5-11

After giving some further details concerning this wonderful little horn, the prophet thus concludes the account of the vision: —