Satan is the prince of the power of the air.  Daniel 10 lifts the veil

and shows that he has his own angelic embassies at the court of kings.  The

beast who exalts himself above every god, will 'honour the God Of Munitions

(margin Dan. 11:38), even a god whom his fathers knew not'.

There are indications that the beast will be small and obscure in its

origin, but this will matter nothing then.  Daniel sees among the ten horns

another little horn, which emulates the beast that carries it by plucking up

three of the horns by the roots, as the beast had devoured the three beasts

before it:

'The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth ... and the

ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and

another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first,

and he shall subdue three kings.  And he shall speak great words

against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High,

and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his

hand until a time and times and the dividing of time' (Dan. 7:23 -25).

The parallel in Revelation 13 is remarkable:

'And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and

blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two

months ... to make war with the saints, and to overcome them' (13:5 -

In the light of Daniel 7 we realize that the interest passes from the

beast as a whole to 'the horn that shall arise'.  The second beast, who is

called the false prophet (19:20), leads the world to worship the first beast

whose deadly wound was healed.  This beast has power to perform miracles, he

makes fire come down from heaven, and deceives them that dwell on the earth

by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the

beast.  An image to the beast is made, and life is given to it so that the

image speaks, all who refuse to worship the beast are ordered to be killed.

Who that reads these words does not think of the image in the plain of Dura,

the dulcimers and the sackbut and all kinds of music, the command, 'whoso

falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst

of a burning fiery furnace'.  We remember the noble answer of Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abednego:

'O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the

burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O

king.  But If Not (what a marvellous lack of worldly wisdom!  What a

ruthless lack of compromise! but if not), be it known unto thee, O

king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image

which thou hast set up' (Dan. 3:16 -18).

The glorious testimony of these three, together with the equally

glorious witness presently of Daniel himself under a similar trial (6:1 -28),

while being historic fact concerned personally with the four men named, is

placed in the prophecy, illustrating for us more plainly than any vision

could portray the days of the beast and the false prophet, and the sterling

testimony of those who: