There are two powers now concentrated in Western and Eastern Europe. Zechariah never speaks of the Assyrian. He belonged to the captivity of Israel, though the Jews were restored that Messiah might be presented to them. But the post-captivity prophets do not call the Jews God's people, unless speaking of their future. The other prophets, those before the captivity, never speak of the beast as such, because Israel was owned, God's throne still being there.
Ezekiel goes over from Babylon to Israel again in the land. We have more directly to say to the beast because the time is going on in which they rule: only that in result it becomes open rebellion. There is a raising up of the beast from a seemingly fatal wound in an utterly diabolical character.
God has put into the hearts of a little remnant of the Jews then to look to Him. But the nation blossoms and buds, and seems as if it were beginning a time of full prosperity in its own land. But then it is browsed and eaten down, the resort of beasts and birds of prey. These are judged and Israel is received and blessed. And if, says the Apostle, the falling away of them be the riches of the Gentiles, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead to the world?
All this calls our hearts, beloved, to a far more divine apprehension that our portion is in heaven while Christ is rejected. Christ having been rejected, Christians also are rejected, and Christ being in heaven, their conversation or citizenship is there also; we do not live here anymore, though we pass through it as pilgrims and strangers. What I have to do is to convince the world that there is a power which delivers from it, to manifest Christ and Christ's motives in it. "If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.”
The danger for the saints now is that, instead of seeing the evil going on and rising up against the Lord, man is thinking of improving the world and bringing in good. What is before us is that in the last days perilous times shall come. But men are wise in their own conceits, and fancy they will do better than Christ and the apostles-not make Christians for God, but improve the earth. The testimony of God is that the professing church and the world are both ripening up to evil. The Lord is coming to receive us to Himself, and to judge the habitable earth in righteousness, and reign for its blessing, and primarily over the restored Jewish people.
J.N. Darby