is to be judged and destroyed," the number four standing over against the four horns does not only suggest that " for every enemy of God's people God has provided a counter acting power adequate to destroy it,"[1] but points to four powers also successive, though in the vision, like the four horns, presented together. And, if I am asked to state more definitely which four powers, I answer the first was the Medo-Persian, which by the hand of Cyrus broke down the horn of Babylon; the second was the Grecian, which by the hand of Alexander terrified and humbled the power of Persia; the third was Rome, which in its turn prostrated and trod down the power of Greece.[2]
This last, the most terrible of all, not only acted as one of the " workmen " or " smiths " to terrify and break down the great world-power which immediately preceded it, but, in relation to the Jewish people and the Church of God, still exists as the last of the four horns; and in its revived form, under the leadership of the Satan-possessed head of the final confederacy of apostate Gentile world-powers, will bring about the climax of all the sorrows and the sufferings of Israel in the last " great tribulation, such as hath not
- ↑ Lange.
- ↑ The following curious passage about the four carpenters or "smiths" is from Kimchi's Commentary: " And the Lord showed me four workmen, ... in order to cut off the horns that is to say, each kingdom shall he a carpenter, to cut off the kingdom that preceded it, for the Babylonian monarchy fell by the hand of the Persians, and the Persian by the hand of the Greek, etc. Or, the carpenters may signify in a parable the angels the supernatural princes who are appointed over the king doms; and our Rabbis of blessed memory have interpreted the verse of the days of the Messiah, saying, Who are the four carpenters? R. Simon Chasida says they are Messiah the Son of David, the Messiah the Son of Joseph, and Elias, and the righteous priest. This passage, quoted by Kimchi, is found in the Talmud, Succah, fol. 52, col. 2, where Rashi says, in his commentary on the authority of Bereshith Rabha, that the righteous priest means Shem the son of Noah, who is there supposed to be identical with Melchizedek. The legend about the angels is thus given in the Pirke Eleazar: The Holy One, blessed be He, descended with the seventy angels who surrounded the throne of His glory, and confounded their language into seventy nations and seventy languages, each nation with its own writing and language, and over each nation He appointed an angel, but Israel fell to His portion and lot, and therefore it is said, The Lord's portion is His people. "
