Another Kingdom Inferior to Thee

The Chest and Arms of Silver

Medo - Persia

538 - 331 B.C.

A new people had now come upon the scene of action. Another kingdom and other rulers were now called by the Most High, and given a charge concerning the world. These must be taught the knowledge of the true God and the principles of His truth. God would now further use His captive people to extend to all peoples, nations, and languages, the knowledge of God and the principles of His truth. And He would make the wrath of man to praise Him.

The conquest of Babylon by Persia was, practically, if not the death-blow, at least a severe wound, to the sensous idol-worship which had, for more than twenty centuries, been the almost universal religion in the countries between the Mediterranean and the Zagros Mountain Range. The religion never recovered itself -- was never reinstated. It survived a longer or a shorter time, in places. To a slight extent it corrupted Zoroastrianism; but on the whole, from the date of the fall of Babylon, it declined. For political reasons [a] respect to the gods of Babylon was advisable. But later Cyrus's own religious views underwent a change; and with his successors there came another religion entirely; so that "the fall of Babylon was also the fall of an ancient, widely spread, and deeply venerated religious system. Not, of course, that the religion suddenly disappeared or ceased to have votaries, but that, from a dominant system, supported by all the resources of the State, and enforced by the civil power over, a wide extent of territory, it became simply one of the many of the tolerated beliefs, exposed to frequent rebuffs and insults, and at all times overshadowed by a new and rival system -- the comparatively pure creed of Zoroastrianism. Bel bowed down; Nebo stooped Isa. 46:1; Merodach was broken in pieces Jer. 50:2. Judgment was done upon the Babylonian graven images; and the system, of which they formed a necessary part, having once fallen from its proud pre-eminence, gradually decayed and vanished." "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods hath he broken unto the ground. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor; that which I have heard of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you." Isa. 21:9, 10. Id., Fifth Monarchy, p. 48. and
Empires of Prophecy by A. T. Jones, pages 48 -51.

Here begins a story that is the unfolding of a prophecy given by God.

"Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to the banks of the Gyndes, a stream which, rising in the Matienian Mountains, runs through the country of the Dardanians, and empties itself into the river Tigris. ... When Cyrus reached this stream, which could only be passed in boats, one of the sacred white horses accompanying his march, full of spirit and high mettle, walked into the water and tried to cross by himself; but the current seized him, swept him along with it, and drowned him in its depths. Cyrus, enraged at the insolence of the river, threatened so to break its strength that in future even women should cross it easily without wetting their knees. Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon, and, dividing his army into two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it in all directions; and, setting his army to dig, some on one side of the river, some on the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid of so great a number of hands, but not without losing thereby the whole summer season. Having, however, thus wreaked his vengeance on the Gyndes by dispersing it through three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with the first approach of the ensuing spring, marched forward against Babylon." Herdotus Book i, p. 39.

Jeremiah was a contemporary of Daniel. While Daniel was a captive inside the city of Babylon God had left Jeremiah free to do a work on the outside.

This local, merely incidental, and seemingly trivial, occurence caused the delay of the whole army of Media and Persia for a whole year. Yet there was a matter of deep importance wrapped up in this delay, and even in the delay continuing from one year to another. God's people were in Babylon, and they must know when its fall would be, that they might save themselves. Sixty years before this the Lord had said: "My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord." Then, too, he gave them the sign by which they should know when her destruction was at hand. "And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler." Thus when Cyrus started out in the spring of 539 B.C., Babylon heard the "rumor" and made all ready. But Cyrus stopped and stayed all summer, through the fall, and all winter, then when spring came again, again he started, and again a "rumor" was heard in Babylon, followed swiftly by "violence in the land," and "ruler against ruler." And that is why he stayed there at the river so long. God was over it all. He had said that two rumors, a year apart, should reach Babylon, that His people should certainly know when to go out of the midst of her, and deliver "every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord." Jer. 51:45, 46.

"Having wintered on the banks of the Gyndes in a mild climate, where tents would have been quite a sufficient protection for his army, he put his troops in motion at the commencement of spring, crossed the Tigris apparently unopposed, and soon came in sight of the capital. Here he found the Babylonian army drawn out to meet him under the command of Nabonadius himself, who had resolved to try the chance of battle. An engagement ensued, of which we possess no details; our informants simply tell us that the Babylonian monarch was completely defeated, and that, while most of his army sought safety within the walls of the capital, he himself with a small body of troops threw himself into Borisppa, an important town lying at a short distance from Babylon toward the southwest.

"Withdrawing the greater part of his army from the vicinity of the city, and leaving behind him only certain corps of observation, Cyrus marched away up the course of the Euphrates for a certain distance, and there proceeded to make a vigorous use of the spade. His soldiers could now appreciate the value of the experience which they had gained by dispersing the Gyndes, and perceive that the summer and autumn of the preceding year had not been wasted. They dug a channel or channels from the Euphrates by means of which a great portion of its water would be drawn off, and hoped in this way to render the natural course of the river fordable." drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up." "And I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry." Jer. 50:38; 51:36.

"When all was prepared, Cyrus determined to wait for the arrival of a certain festival during which the whole population were wont to engage in drinking and reveling "Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink." Isa. 21:5, and then silently, in the dead of night, to turn the water of the river and make his attack. "Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield." Isa 21:5. All fell out as he hoped and wished. The festival was held with even greater pomp and splendor than usual; for Belshazzar, with the natural insolence of youth, to mark his contempt of the beseiging army, abandoned himself wholly to the delights of the season, and himself entertained a thousand lords in his palace." Empires of Prophecy by A. T. Jones pages 40 - 42.

"We are told in Daniel that Babylon was captured on the night of a great feast to the idol gods, at which the wives and concubines joined in a wild revelry. But the women were not in the habit of feasting with men -- how is this? An account, by Cyrus himself, of his capture of Babylon, was dug up only a few years ago. In it he declares that Babylon was captured 'without fighting,' on the fourteenth day of the month Tammuz. Now the month Tammuz was named in honor of the god Tammuz, the Babylonian Adonis, who married their Venus, or Ishtar; and the fourteenth of Tammuz was the regular time to celebrate their union, with lascivious orgies. On this day of all days the women took part in the horrible rites; and it was in this feast of king, princes, wives, and concubines that Babylon was taken and Belshazzar slain. The Bible is here fully and wonderfully corroborated." Wm. Hayes Ward, D. D. Sunday-School Times, Vol. xxv. pp.659, 660. and Ibid, Jones p. 44.

"When the morning came, Cyrus found himself undisputed master of the city, which, if it had not despised his efforts, might with the greatest ease have baffled them." "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut." Isa. 45:1. "Thus perished the Babylonian Empire." "And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates; and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shalt not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah." Jer. 51:63, 64. "Seven Great Monarchies," Fourth Monarchy, chap. viii. and Ibid, Jones p. 46.

Darius having put down all these aspirants to the throne, determined to extend his conquests and enlarge his dominions. In the vision of the eighth chapter of Daniel, the ram representing Media and Persia, was pushing westward, northward, and southward. Cyrus had carried their arms westward to the Aegean Sea, with Cambyses southward to Ethiopia. Now Darius fulfills the other specification and carries the boundaries of the empire yet farther westward, and also northward.

Controlling already all the East to the borders of India, -- for "of the greater part of Asia Darius was the discoverer" -- (Herodotus), -- and there not being any room for conquest toward the south, only the west and the north remained open. Accordingly, Darius, in 516 B.C., gathered "the whole force of his empire," both army and navy, for the purpose of invading Scythia. The army, led by Darius himself, marched through Asia Minor to the shore of the Bosporus, about half-way between the Black Sea and the point where Constantinople now lies. There his navy met him. A bridge of boats was made across the Bosporus, upon which the army crossed. After the army had crossed, the "fleet was sent forward into the Euxine [Black Sea] to the mouth of the Danube, with orders to sail up the river two days' journey above the point where its channel begins to divide, and to throw a bridge of boats over it."Ibid, Jones p. 74.

In his seventh year, 480-79 B.C., Xerxes reached once more his own capital of Susa, and having divorced Vashti at the time of the grand banquet before the expedition against Greece, he issued his decree for the gathering together of maidens from the different parts of the empire, from whom he might choose a wife. Among these was Esther, who was chosen to be queen. "So Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti." Esther 2:16, 17.Ibid, Jones p. 125.

To Nebuchadnezzar the Lord said that after him there should arise another kingdom "inferior" to his, which was Medo-Persia, "and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth." Dan. 2:39, last part. Ibid, Jones p. 141.

In Dan. 10:20 the angel said, "And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come." Therefore we know that Grecia was the power that should succeed that of Media and Persia -- that Grecia was the "third kingdom of brass" which should "bear rule over all the earth.' Ibid, Jones p. 141.