PREPARING FOR HEAVEN - Part 03

A MYSTERIOUS DREAM - Concluded

The Fall of Babylon In the first year of Neriglissar, only two years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, that fatal war broke out between the Babylonians and the Medes, which resulted in the over A Mysterious Dream (28) [Daniel and the Revelation] throw of the Babylonian kingdom. Cyaxares, king of the Medes, who is called “Darius” in Daniel 5:31, summoned to his aid his nephew Cyrus of the Persian line. The war was prosecuted with uninterrupted success by the Medes and Persians, until in the eighteenth year of Nabonidus (the third year of his son Belshazzar), Cyrus laid siege to Babylon, the only city in the entire East which then held out against him. The Babylonians, gathered within their seem ingly impregnable walls, with provision on hand for twenty years, and land within the limits of their broad city sufficient to furnish food for the inhabitants and garrison for an indefi nite period. They scoffed at Cyrus from their lofty walls, and derided his seemingly useless efforts to bring them into subjection. According to all human calculation, they had good ground for their feelings of security. Never, weighed in the balance of earthly probability, could that city be taken with the means of warfare then known. Hence they breathed as freely and slept as soundly as though no foe were waiting and watching around their beleaguered walls. But God had decreed that the proud and wicked city should come down from her throne of glory. And when He speaks, what mortal arm can defeat His word? In their feeling of security lay the source of their danger. Cyrus resolved to accomplish by strategy what he could not do by force. Learning of the approach of an annual festival in which the whole city would be given up to mirth and revelry, he chose that day as the time to carry his purpose into execution. There was no entrance for him into that city unless he could find it where the River Euphrates entered and emerged, as it passed under the walls. He resolved to make the channel of the river his highway into the stronghold of his enemy. To do this, the water must be turned aside from its channel through the city. For this purpose, on the evening of the feast day above referred to, he detailed one body of soldiers to turn the river at a given hour into a large artificial lake, a short distance above the city; another to take their (29) station at the point where the river entered the city; and a third to take a position fifteen miles below, where the river emerged from the city. The two latter military groups were instructed to enter the channel as soon as they found the river fordable, and in the darkness of the night explore their way beneath the walls, and press on to the palace of the king where they were to surprise and kill the guards, and capture or slay the king. When the water was turned into the lake, the river soon became shallow enough to ford, and the soldiers followed its channel into the heart of the city of Babylon. (See Herodotus, pp. 67-71; George Rawlinson, The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, Vol. II, pp. 254-259; Humphrey Prideaux, The Old and New Testament Con nected in the History, of the Jews, Vol. I, pp. 136, 137.) But all this would have been in vain, had not the whole city given itself over on that eventful night to the most aban doned carelessness and presumption, a state of things upon which Cyrus calculated largely for the carrying out of his pur pose. On each side of the river through the entire length of the city were walls of great height, and of equal thickness with the outer walls. In these walls were huge gates of brass, which, when closed and guarded, debarred all entrance from the river bed to any of the streets that crossed the river. Had the gates been closed at this time, the soldiers of Cyrus might have marched into the city, along the river bed, and then marched out again, for all that they would have been able to accomplish toward the subjugation of the place. But the Lord had spoken and in the drunken revelry of that fatal night, these river gates were left open, as had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah years before in these words: “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.” Isaiah 45:1. The entrance of the Persian soldiers was not perceived. Many a cheek would have paled with terror, had the sudden going down of the river been noticed, and its A Mysterious Dream (30) [Daniel and the Revelation] fearful import understood. Many a tongue would have spread wild alarm through the city, had the dark forms of armed foes been seen stealthily treading their way to the citadel of their supposed security. But no one noticed the sudden subsidence of the waters of the river; no one saw the entrance of the Persian warriors; no one took care that the river gates should be closed and guarded; no one cared for aught but to see how deeply and recklessly he could plunge into the wild debauch. That night’s dissipation cost the Babylonians their kingdom and their freedom. They went into their brutish revelry sub jects of the king of Babylon; they awoke from it slaves to the king of Persia. The soldiers of Cyrus first made known their presence in the city by falling upon the royal guards in the vestibule of the palace of the king. Belshazzar soon became aware of the cause of the disturbance, and died fighting for his life. This feast of Belshazzar is described in the fifth chapter of Daniel, and the scene closes with the simple record, “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” The historian Prideaux says: “Darius the Mede, that is, Cyaxares, the uncle of Cyrus, took the kingdom; for Cyrus allowed him the title of all his conquests as long as he lived.” Humphrey Prideaux, The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews, Vol. I, p. 137. Thus the first empire, symbolized by the head of gold on the great image, came to an ignoble end. It would naturally be supposed that the conqueror, becoming possessed of so noble a city as Babylon, far surpassing anything else in the world, would have taken it as the seat of his empire, and maintained it in its splendor. But God had said that the city should become a heap, and the habitation of the beasts of the desert; that its houses should be full of doleful creatures; that the wild beasts of the islands should cry in its desolate dwellings, and dragons in its pleasant palaces. (Isaiah 13:1922.) It must first be deserted. Cyrus established a second (31) capital at Susa, a celebrated city in the province of Elam, east from Babylon, on the banks of the River Choaspes, a branch of the Tigris. This was probably done in the first year of his sole reign. The pride of the Babylonians being particularly provoked by this act, in the fifth year of Darius Hystaspes, 517 BC, they rose in rebellion and brought upon themselves again the whole strength of the Persian Empire. The city was once more taken by strategy. Darius took away the brazen gates of the city, and beat down the walls from two hundred cubits to fifty cubits. This was the beginning of its destruction. By this act, it was left exposed to the ravages of every hostile band. Xerxes, on his return from Greece, plundered the temple of Belus of its immense wealth, and then laid the lofty structure in ruins. Alexander the Great endeavored to rebuild it, but after employing ten thousand men two months to clear away the rubbish, he died from excessive drunkenness and debauchery, and the work was suspended. In the year 294 BC, Seleucus Nicator built the city of New Babylon in the neighborhood of the old city, and took much of the material and many of the inhabitants of the old city, to build up and people the new. Now almost exhausted of inhabitants, neglect and decay were telling fearfully upon the ancient capital. The violence of Parthian princes hastened its ruin. About the end of the fourth century, it was used by the Persian kings as an enclosure for wild beasts. At the end of the twelfth century, according to a celebrated traveler, the few remaining ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace were so full of serpents and venom ous reptiles that they could not be closely inspected without great danger. And today scarcely enough even of the ruins is left to mark the spot where once stood the largest, richest, and proudest city of the ancient world. Thus the ruin of great Babylon shows us how accurately God fulfills His word, and makes the doubts of skepticism ap pear like willful blindness. “After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to A Mysterious Dream (32) Daniel and the Revelation thee.” The use of the word ‘kingdom’, shows that kingdoms, and not particular kings, are represented by the different parts of this image. Hence when it was said to Nebuchadnezzar, “Thou art this head of gold,” although the personal pronoun was used, the kingdom not the king himself was meant. Medo-Persian Kingdom The succeeding kingdom, Medo-Persia, was indicated by the breast and arms of silver of the great image. It was to be inferior to the preceding kingdom. In what respect inferior? Not in power, for it conquered Babylon. Not in extent, for Cyrus subdued all the East from the Aegean Sea to the River Indus, and thus erected a more extensive empire. But it was inferior in wealth, luxury, and mag nificence. Viewed from a Scriptural standpoint, the principal event under the Babylonian Empire was the captivity of the children of Israel; under the Medo-Persian kingdom it was the restora tion of Israel to their own land. At the taking of Babylon, Cyrus, as an act of courtesy, assigned the first place in the kingdom to his uncle, Darius, in 538 BC. But two years afterward Darius died, leaving Cyrus sole monarch of the empire. In this year, which closed Israel’s seventy years of captivity, Cyrus issued his famous decree for the return of the Jews and the rebuilding of their temple. This was the first installment of the great decree for the restoration and building again of Jerusalem (Ezra 6:14), which was completed in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, 457 BC, a date of much importance, as will hereafter be shown. After a reign of seven years, Cyrus left the kingdom to his son Cambyses, who reigned seven years and five months, to 522 BC. Ten monarchs reigned between this time and the year 336 BC. The year 335 BC is set down as the first of Darius Codomannus, the last of the line of the old Persian kings. This man, according to Prideaux, was of noble stature, of goodly person, of the greatest personal (33) valor, and of a mild and generous disposition. It was his ill fortune to have to contend with one who was an agent in the fulfillment of prophecy, and no qualifications, natural or acquired, could make him successful in the unequal contest. Scarcely was he warm upon the throne, ere he found his formidable enemy, Alexander, at the head of the Greek soldiers, preparing to dismount him from it. The cause and the particulars of the contest between the Greeks and the Persians we leave to histories especially de voted to such matters. Suffice it to say that the deciding point was reached on the field of Arbela in 331 BC, where the Grecians, though only one to twenty in number as compared with the Persians, won a decisive victory. Alexander became absolute lord of the Persian Empire to an extent never attained by any of its own kings. Grecian Empire “Another third kingdom of brass . . shall bear rule over all the earth,” the prophet had said. Few and brief are the inspired words which involved a succession in world rulership. In the ever-changing political kaleidoscope, Grecia came into the field of vision, to be for a time the all-absorbing object of attention, as the third of what are called the universal empires of the earth. After the battle which decided the fate of the empire, Darius endeavored to rally the shattered remnants of his army, and make a stand for his kingdom and his rights. But he could not gather out of all the host of his recently so numerous and well-appointed army, a force with which he deemed it prudent to hazard another engagement with the victorious Grecians. Alexander pursued him on the wings of the wind. Time after time Darius barely eluded the grasp of his swiftly following foe. At length three traitors, Bessus, Nabarzanes, and Barsaentes, seized the unfortunate prince, shut him up in a close cart, and fled with him as their prisoner toward Bactria. It was their purpose, if Alexander pursued them, to purchase their own safety by delivering up their king. Hereupon A Mysterious Dream (34) [Daniel and the Revelation] Alexander, learning of the dangerous position of Darius in the hands of the traitors, immediately put himself with the lightest part of his army upon a forced pursuit. After several days’ hard march, he came up with the traitors. They urged Darius to mount on horseback for a more speedy flight. Upon his refusing to do this, they gave him several mortal wounds, and left him dying in the cart, while they mounted their steeds and rode away. When Alexander arrived, be beheld only the lifeless form of the Persian king, who but a few months before was seated upon the throne of universal empire. Disaster, overthrow, and desertion had come suddenly upon Darius. His kingdom had been conquered, his treasure seized, and his family reduced to captivity. Now, brutally slain by the hand of traitors, he lay a bloody corpse in a rude cart. The sight of the melancholy spectacle drew tears from the eyes of even Alexander, familiar though he was with all the horrible happenings and bloody scenes of war. Throwing his cloak over the body, he com manded that it be conveyed to the ladies of the Persian royal family who were captives at Susa, and furnished from his own treasury the necessary means for a royal funeral. When Darius died, Alexander saw the field cleared of his last formidable foe. Thenceforward he could spend his time in his own manner, now in the enjoyment of rest and pleasure, and again in the prosecution of some minor conquest. He entered upon a pompous campaign into India, because, according to Grecian fable, Bacchus and Hercules, two sons of Jupiter, whose son he also claimed to be, had done the same. With contemptible arrogance, he claimed for himself divine honors. He gave up conquered cities, freely and unprovoked, to the mercy of his bloodthirsty and licentious soldiery. He often murdered his friends and favorites in his drunken frenzies. He encouraged such excessive drinking among his followers that on one occasion twenty of them died as the result of their carousal. At length, having sat through one long drinking spree, he was immediately invited to another, when, after drinking (35) to each of the twenty guests present, he twice drank, says history, incredible as it may seem, the full Herculean cup containing six of our quarts. He was seized with a violent fever, of which he died eleven days later, June 13, 323 BC, while yet he stood only at the threshold of mature life, in the thirty-second year of his age. Iron Monarchy of Rome “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” Daniel 2:40. Thus far in the application of this prophecy there is a general agreement among expositors. That Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece are represented respectively by the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, and the sides of brass, is acknowledged by all. But with as little ground for a diversity of views, there is strangely a difference of opinion as to what kingdom is symbolized by the fourth division of the great image; the legs of iron. What kingdom succeeded Greece in the empire of the world, for the legs of iron denote the fourth kingdom in the series? The testimony of history is full and explicit on this point. One kingdom did this, and one only, and that was Rome. It conquered Grecia; it subdued all things; like iron, it broke in pieces and bruised. Says Bishop Newton: “The four different metals must signify four different nations: and as the gold signified the Babylonians, and the silver the Persians, and the brass the Macedonians; so the iron cannot signify the Macedonians again, but must necessarily denote some other nation: and we will venture to say that there is not a nation upon earth, to which this description is applicable, but the Romans.” Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. I, p. 240. Gibbon, following the symbolic imagery of Daniel, thus describes this empire: “The arms of the Republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, A Mysterious Dream 36 Daniel and the Revelation the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.” Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. III, general observa tions following chap. 38, p. 634. At the opening of the Christian Era, this empire took in the whole south of Europe, France, England, the greater part of the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the south of Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Greece, not to speak of its possessions in Asia and Africa. Well therefore may Gibbon say of it: “The empire of the Romans filled the world, and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. . . . To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly.” Ibid., Vol. I, chap. 3, pp. 99, 100. It will be noticed that at first the kingdom is described without question as strong as iron. This was the period of its strength, during which it has been likened to a mighty colossus bestriding the nations, conquering everything, and giving laws to the world. But this was not to continue. “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.” Daniel 2:41-42 Rome Divided Rome, before its division into ten kingdoms, lost that iron vigor which it possessed to a superlative degree during the first centuries of its career. Luxury, with its accompanying effeminacy and degeneracy, the destroyer of nations as well as of individuals, began to corrode and weaken its iron sinews, and thus pre pared the way for its disintegration into ten kingdoms. Iron and Clay In this mixture of metal and mud we see a very unnatu (37) ral situation, the strength of the iron is undermined by the brittleness of clay and the fact that they do not even stick together makes it even worse. But there is a deeper meaning in this symbol and we learn much by looking into it. Iron is used in the Bible as a symbol of ruling power. (see: Psalms 2:9; Revelation 2:27) It stands for Civil or State power. Clay is used in a figurative way in describing God’s people or church. Isaiah 64:8; “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” (Also see: Jeremiah 18:1-6) But here we do not see just clay; we are told it is miry or dirty clay. Miry clay denotes filthy or corrupted churches. The combination of the iron and miry clay represents the mingling of State-craft and Priest-craft which is an abomination to God. The feet come into history close to the time of the beginning of the Papal supremacy of the 1260 years where the church ruled the secular governments and used them for her own corrupt ends. The ten toes are also of this same material and our attention is called to them by the explicit mention of them in the prophecy. The Roman kingdom was finally divided into ten parts. However the ten toes of the image do not repre sent the ten divisions of the Roman Empire. We know this because in the division of the Roman Empire, three kingdoms were removed leaving only seven. This we do not see in the ten toes. We will address them later. The Ten Toes The image of Daniel 2 is exactly parallel with the four beasts in the vision of Daniel 7. The fourth beast represents the same kingdom as do the iron legs of the image. The ten horns of the beast correspond naturally to the ten divisions of the Roman Empire. These horns are plainly declared to be ten kings (or kingdoms) which should arise, but here we are also told that 3 would be uprooted. It is only when we look to Revelation 17 that we find further information regard A Mysterious Dream (38) [Daniel and the Revelation] ing the final ten toes on the image and what they stand for. Daniel and Revelation are actually one prophetic book with the first part having been given by Christ to Daniel and the second part having been given by Christ to John on Patmos. Any attempts to truly understand these prophetic books separately will yield poor results. In Revelation 17 we see a beast with seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads correspond with the seven kingdoms of the earth and the ten horns here are described: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” Revelation 17:12 At the end of time there will be a confederacy of ruling powers that will have one mind and will give their power to the Beast for a short time. These correspond with the ten toes on the image of Daniel 2. They are not ten kingdoms, but one kingdom with ten kings. We will learn more of this later. In Daniel’s interpretation of the image he uses the words “king” and “kingdom” interchangeably meaning the same thing. In verse 44 he says that “in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.” This shows that at the time the kingdom of God is set up, there will exist this plurality of confederated kings acting as one kingdom and giving their power to the Beast. The Ten Kingdoms This division of the Roman Empire was accomplished between AD 351 and 476, a hundred and twenty-five years, from about the middle of the fourth century to the last quarter of the fifth. The map of the Roman Empire during that time underwent many sudden and violent changes, and the paths of hostile nations charging upon its territory, crossed and recrossed each other in a labyrinth of confusion. But all historians agree in this, that out of the terri tory of Western Rome, ten separate kingdoms were ultimately established as follows: Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-Saxons, and Lombards. The connection between these and some of the modern na 39 tions of Europe, is still traceable in the names. “And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Daniel 2:43 With Rome, fell the last of the world’s universal empires. No other world kingdom was to succeed it, as it had the three which went before it. It was to continue until the kingdom of the stone smote it, upon its feet; broke them in pieces, and scattered them as the wind does ‘the chaff of the summer threshing-floor.’ Yet, through all this time, a portion of its strength was to remain. And so the prophet says, ‘And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.’ Time and again men have dreamed of rearing on these dominions one mighty kingdom. Charlemagne tried it; Charles V tried it; Louis XIV tried it; Napoleon tried it; Hitler tried it; and none of them succeeded. A single verse of prophecy was stronger than all their hosts. ‘This shall not be,’ says the word of God. ‘This has not been,’ replies the book of history. But then, another plan remains. If force cannot avail, diplomacy and reasons of state may. And so the prophecy foreshadows this when it says, ‘They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men’, i.e., marriages shall be formed, in hope thus to consolidate their power, and in the end, to unite these divided kingdoms into one. To avert future conflicts, benevolent rulers resorted to the expedient of intermarriage to ensure peace, until by the opening of the twentieth century it was asserted that every ranking hereditary ruler of Europe was related to the British royal family. And did this device succeed? No! World War I showed the futility of these attempts. The prophet an swers: ‘They shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’ Alliances may come, and it may appear that the iron and miry clay of the feet and toes of the great image have finally fused, but God said, “They shall not cleave one to A Mysterious Dream (40) [Daniel and the Revelation] another.” It may seem that old animosities have disappeared, but “the Scripture cannot be broken.” John 10:35. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these king doms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Daniel 2:44-45 The phrase, “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom”, denotes a process, which God carries out in this time of the toes of the image, that takes place just before the Second Coming of Jesus. If it referred only to Christ’s coming, it would be worded; “In the days of these kings shall Christ return and destroy all the nations and rule forever”; but instead we see indicated, the development of Christ’s kingdom. The coming kingdom! This ought to be the all-absorbing topic with the present generation. He who enters this kingdom shall dwell in it not merely for such a lifetime as men live in this present state. He shall not see it degenerate, or be overthrown by a succeed ing and more powerful kingdom. No, he enters it to partici pate in all its privileges and blessings, and to share its glories forever, for this kingdom is not to “be left to other people.” Are you ready? The terms of heirship are most liberal: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29. Are you on terms of friendship with Christ, the coming King? Do you love His character? Are you choosing to walk humbly in His footsteps, and, by His enabling grace, obey His teachings? If not, read your fate in the cases of those in the parable, of whom it was said, “But those Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me.” Luke 19:27. There is to be no rival kingdom where you can find an (41) asylum if you remain an enemy to this, for God’s kingdom is to occupy all the territory ever possessed by any and all of the kingdoms of this world, past or present. It is to fill the whole earth. Happy are they to whom the rightful Sovereign, the all-conquering King, can say at last, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda tion of the world.” Matthew 25:34. The ‘Stone, cut out without Hands’ represents the last remnant of God’s faithful. It is Jesus that cuts them out and prepares them by the Holy Spirit. He polishes and perfects them through trial and tribulation, to be able to show them at last as His precious First-Fruits. (Also see Daniel 7:18; 27) They carry forth the final message of mercy and warning that leads quickly to the Second Coming of Christ to take His faithful home. These will be translated without seeing death at Jesus’ Second Coming. The idea that the stone itself is Christ’s coming is an overly simplistic and unbiblical view and does not fit the Bible evidence. Jesus cannot cut himself out of Mount Zion, which represents God’s faithful saints. But Jesus uses the stone He cuts out to bring to an end the wicked reign of Satan and his cohorts forever. “Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.” Daniel 2:46, 47 Nebuchadnezzar felt that he could accept this interpretation as a divine revelation; for to Daniel had been revealed every detail of the dream. The solemn truths conveyed by the interpretation of this vision of the night made a deep impression on the sovereign’s mind, and in humility and awe he “fell upon his face, and worshipped.” Nebuchadnezzar saw clearly the difference between the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of the most learned men of his kingdom. In fulfillment of his promise of rewards, the king made Daniel a great man. A man is considered great A Mysterious Dream (42) [Daniel and the Revelation] if he is a man of wealth; and we read that the king gave him many and great gifts. If in conjunction with riches a man has power, certainly in popular estimation he is considered a great man; and power was bestowed upon Daniel in abundant measure. He was made ruler over the province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Thus speedily and abundantly did Daniel begin to be rewarded for his fidelity to his own conscience and the re quirements of God. “Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.” Daniel 2:48, 49 Daniel did not become bewildered or elated by his signal victory and his wonderful advancement. He first re membered the three who were companions with him in anxiety respecting the king’s matter. As they had helped him with their prayers, he determined that they should share his honors. At his request they were placed over the affairs of Babylon, while Daniel himself sat in the gate of the king. The gate was the place where councils were held, and where mat ters of chief importance were considered. The record is a simple declaration that Daniel became chief counselor to the king." [Understanding Daniel and the Revelation, 28-42]