Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XIII. Of the fact that opposing powers turn the attack, which they aim at men, even against each other.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XIII.
Of the fact that opposing powers turn the attack, which
they aim at men, even against each other.
For it is quite clear
that they aim these attacks, with which they assault men, even against
each other, for in like manner they do not cease to promote with
unwearied strife the discords and struggles which they have undertaken
for some peoples because of a sort of innate love of wickedness which
they have: and this we read of as being very clearly set forth in the
vision of Daniel the prophet, where the angel Gabriel speaks as
follows: “Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou
didst set thy heart to understand, to afflict thyself in the sight of
thy God, thy words have been heard: and I am come for thy words. But
the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me one and twenty
days: and behold Michael one of the chief princes came to help me, and
I remained there by the king of the Persians. But I am come to teach
thee what things shall befall thy people in the latter
days.”1536
And we can not
possibly doubt that this prince of the kingdom of the Persians was a
hostile power, which favoured the nation of the Persians an enemy of
God’s people; for in order to hinder the good which it saw would
result from the solution of the question for which the prophet prayed
the Lord, by the archangel, in its jealousy it opposed itself to
prevent the saving comfort of the angel from reaching Daniel too
speedily, and from strengthening the people of God, over which the
archangel Gabriel was: and the latter said that even then, owing to the
fierceness of his assaults, he would not have been able to come to him,
had not Michael the archangel come to help him, and met the prince of
the kingdom of the Persians, and joined battle with him, and
intervened, and defended him from his attack, and so enabled him to
come to instruct the prophet after twenty-one days. And a little later
on it says: “And the angel said: Dost thou know wherefore I am
come to thee? And now I will return to fight against the prince of the
Persians. For when I went forth, there appeared the prince of the
Greeks coming. But I will tell thee what is written down in the
Scriptures of truth: and none is my helper in all these things but
Michael your prince.”1537
And again:
“At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who
standeth for the children of thy people.”1538
So then we read that in the same way
another was called the prince of the Greeks, who since he was patron of
that nation which was subject to him seems to have been opposed to the
nation of the Persians as well as to the people of Israel. From which
we clearly see that antagonistic powers raise against each other those
quarrels of nations, and conflicts and dissensions, which they show
among themselves at their instigation, and that they either exult at
their victories or are cast down at their defeats, and thus cannot live
in harmony among themselves, while each of them is always striving with
restless jealousy on behalf of those whom he presides over, against the
patron of some other nation.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
