Co-Co, the coconut-throwing chimpanzee schoolmaster taught his students to strive to understand the essence of any work of literature – most especially THE WORD OF THE GOD OF KING SOLOMON. He would throw his coconuts with unerring accuracy at any student who could not apprehend the underlying thesis of any book and articulate it concisely and succinctly.

Co-Co would always illustrate how to pierce the heart of a book. He argued that The Book of Daniel is, in essence, the answer to two questions:

• King Nebuchadnezzar: ‘What shall come to pass hereafter?’ (2:29)
• Daniel, The King’s Captive: ‘What shall befall My People?’ (10:14)

The first question is asked in the year 604 B.C.E. and is answered in the form of a great image:

Co-Co, The Chimpanzee Schoolmaster used to like to draw a comparison between THE MIGHTY GOD OF THE PATRIARCH, JACOB, (Genesis 29:24) choosing a stone to smite The Seeming Invincible Kingdoms of This World and The Shepherd King of Israel, David, choosing five stones from the brook (I Samuel 17:40…49) and felling the giant of The Philistines, Goliath.

Co-Co, the Chimpanzee schoolmaster, taught all his students to select the perfect stone – or coconut – and to sling it like the shepherds of Ancient Israel:

The second question is asked seventy years later in the year 534 B.C.E. and is answered – primarily – in Chapters Eleven and Twelve, the final two chapters of the book, one of the most detailed prophecies in THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. These chapters describe the pivotal events leading up to The Coming of The Messiah and HIS Mighty Defeat of Satan, Sin and Death prophesied in The Prophecy of The Seventy Weeks (Daniel 9:24 – 27)

All that is noted in these last chapters of ‘The Book of Daniel’ is pertinent to Daniel’s People.

(Daniel’s question is asked in the third year of the reign of King Cyrus, The Persian.)

Chapters Eleven and Twelve begin with a prophecy of ‘Three Persian Kings and a Fourth’ after King Cyrus:

• King Cyrus (537 B.C.E. – 530 B.C.E.) allowed the Hebrew Captives to return to Judah to build The Temple for THE GOD OF HEAVEN in Jerusalem (II Chronicles 36: 22 & 23: Ezra 2-4).

• The first of the three Persian kings after Cyrus, Cambyses II (530 B.C.E. – 522 B.C.E.) forbad the rebuilding of the the city of Jerusalem ( Ezra 4:6). He is famous for conquering Egypt for The Persians.

• Pseudo-Smerdis (522 B.C.E. – 521 B.C.E.), Cambyses’s supposed brother, continued Cambyses II’s policy towards the Jews (Ezra 4:7) in his short-lived reign. (This policy’s history is chronicled in Ezra 4:4 -6 & 8:24.)
• Darius I (522 B.C.E. – 486 B.C.E.) upheld the decree of Cyrus and The Temple was completed in The Sixth Year of the reign of Darius I (Ezra 5:1 – 6:22). This was the Year 516, seventy years after the temple had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.E.

Darius was a magnificent administrator who organized the communication system of the Persian Empire.

He also, ironically, saw the first defeat by the Grecians of the Persian Forces at the Battle of Marathon:

• ‘The fourth king richer than them all’ (Daniel 11: 2b) – noted in the extended answer to Daniel’s question – is the famous King Xerxes.

The Tomb of King Xerxes (486 B.C.E. – 465 B.C.E.)

King Xerxes is honoured by all Jews, It was He who prevented the slaughter of The People of Daniel by Haman, the Agagite. The Jews were saved by the wisdom and beauty of Queen Esther and her uncle, the great Mordecai. (The Book of Esther).

Xerxes is also famous for his crossing of the Hellespont.

(Like his father, Darius The Great, Xerxes was also defeated at the hands of the Greeks at Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea.)

Next Week: Co-Co, The Coconut-Throwing Chimpanzee Schoolmaster’s Pre-eminent Ruler from Cyrus The Persian unto THE MESSIAH.