Page 11 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

temple enclousure. It is true also that Jeremiah has lately reiterated these warnings, since
Jehoiakim has departed from the ways of Josiah. The resentment that flames against the
good prophet of Anathoth by the court crowd, may bring him to a fate similar to that of

Isaiah. And have you noted, Daniel, that my friend and contemporary, Habakkuk the
Levite, has also assumed the prophet’s toga and has spoken out with similar warnings?
Wait, I have a copy, given me by Gemariah, of some of the recorded predictions of
Habakkuk! Listen while I read:

‘Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work
a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up
the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of

the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not their’s. They are terrible and
dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves, Their horses also
are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves, and their
horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall

fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup
up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff
at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong
hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass

over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.’
Is Jeremiah more specific than that?”

“No, my father, that is very impressive. I did not know that Habakkuk the Levite,

who has been in our home many times„ had become such a spokesman for Jehovah!
Think you, my father, in the face of these predictions, we should flee the city?”

“I know that Gemariah the son of Shaphan, has already planned to take his fine son

Michaiah, your school-mate, and go down to Beth-Shemesh on the borders of the
Philistine country. I think we will take no such flight. If Jehovah delivers our city to the
Chaldeans and Zion is trodden under foot by the Gentiles, shall we not suffer it? And if
you, my son, be carried captive to Babylon, may it not be that you shall there witness

for the God of Israel as Jonah did to the Ninevites? Is it not that we might be a ‘light to
lighten the Gentiles’ that since the days of Abraham we have been His chosen people?
Remember, my dear son, if such a testing should overtake you, that you depart not from

the law of God. Did not Moses the law-giver command us concerning the words of this
holy law, ‘Bind them upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes’?
When you were born I named you ‘Daniel―God is my judge,’ for I desired above all
things that you should walk all the days of your life in the presence of Elohim, knowing
that it is His approval you seek, not that of any man, and remembering ever that when

you come to the end of your sojourn on earth (as Solomon the sage hath said) ‘Elohim
will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or