Daniel 11
Turn in your copy of the scriptures
to Daniel chapter 11. We’re going to read the entire
chapter. I think it’s about 45 verses. Yep. And it’s a tough one. It’s
a doozy. So fair warning. While you’re
making your way there, remember we are studying the book of Daniel. Daniel was exiled from Israel
in I think he was in the 597 crowd,
and we’re in about the year 530 BC, so he was a teenager, had
a few years on him. And so now, you know, 60 plus
years later, he’s getting on up there. And so that’s the timeframe
of the person. Remember, he’s served the kings
of Babylon and the kings of Persia, and we’re getting to the tail
end, at least in the things he’s speaking of tonight, we’re getting
near the tail end of his ministry among governors. But then his
visions, which he has seen, and we are now in the midst of having
an explanation of, they cover from the year 530, which would
be present day for Daniel at this very moment, all the way
to about the year 163. So Jesus will not be born for
another 160 years, 157 years, something like that. He was born
6 BC. So it’s still a good ways before,
but what we’re looking at is the rough patch of history after
the exile of Persian rule, of Greek rule, and then a mixture
of Egyptian and Syrian rule. And then finally, the wicked
rule of Antiochus Epiphanes. And he’s the center of our passage.
He’s the bad guy here. So that hopefully gives you a
little helpful bird’s eye view of what we’re looking at. So let’s read chapter 11 of Daniel. So beginning
at verse one. And as for me in the first year
of Darius the mead, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.
And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall
arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all
of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he
shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty
king shall arise who shall then rule with a great dominion and
do as he wills. And as he is arisen, his kingdom
shall be broken, it shall be divided toward the four winds
of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority
with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and
go to others besides these. Then the kings of the south shall
be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and
shall rule and his authority shall be a great authority. After
some years, they shall make an alliance and the daughter of
the King of the South shall come to the King of the North to make
an agreement. But she shall not retain the
strength of her arm and he and his arm shall not endure. But
she shall be given up and her attendants who fathered her and
he who supported her in those times. And from a branch from
her roots, one shall arise in his place. He shall come against
the army and enter the fortress of the kings of the north. And
he shall deal with them and shall prevail. He shall carry off to
Egypt their gods and with their metal images and their precious
vessels of silver and gold. And for some years, he shall
refrain from attacking the king of the north. Then the latter
shall come into the realm of the king of the south, but shall
return to his own land. His son shall wage war and assemble
a multitude of great forces. which shall keep coming and overflow
and pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress. Then the king of the south, moved
with rage, shall come out and fight with the king of the north,
and he shall raise a great multitude, but it shall be given into his
hand. And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall
be exalted. He shall cast down tens of thousands,
but he shall not prevail. For the king of the north shall
again raise a multitude greater than the first, and after some
years he shall come on with a great army and abundant supplies. In
those times, many shall rise up against the kings of the south,
and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves
up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail. Then the
king of the north shall come and throw up siege works and
take a well-fortified city, and the forces of the south shall
not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no strength
to stand. But he who comes against him shall do as he wills, and
none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious
land with destruction in his hand. He shall set his face to
come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring
terms of an agreement and perform them. He shall give him to the
daughter of women to destroy the kingdom, but it shall not
stand or be to his advantage. Afterward, he shall turn his
face to the coastlands and shall capture many of them, but a commander
shall put an end to his insolence. Indeed, he shall turn his insolence
back upon him. Then he shall turn his face back
towards the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble
and fall and shall not be found. Then shall arise in his place
one who shall send an exactor of tribute for the glory of the
kingdom. But within a few days, he shall
be broken, neither in anger nor in battle. In his place shall
arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been
given. He shall come in without warning
and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Armies shall be utterly swept
away before him, broken even the Prince of the Covenant. And
from the time that an alliance is made with him, he shall act
deceitfully. and he shall become strong with a small people. Without
warning, he shall come into the richest parts of the province,
and he shall do what neither his father’s or his father’s
fathers have done, scattering among them plunder and spoil
and goods. He shall devise plans against
strongholds, but only for a time. And he shall stir up his power
in his heart against the kings of the South with a great army. And the king of the South shall
wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army. But he
shall not stand, for plots shall be devised against him. Even
those who eat his food shall break him. His army shall be
swept away, and many shall fall down slain. And as far as for
the two kings, their hearts shall be bent on doing evil. They shall
speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for the end
is not yet to be at the time appointed. And he shall return
to his land with great wealth, but his heart shall be set against
the holy covenant, and he shall work his will and return to his
own land. At the time appointed, he shall
return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time
as it was before. For the ships of Kittim shall
come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall
turn back and be enraged, and take action against the holy
covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who
forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear
and profane the temple and the fortress, and shall take away
the regular burnt offering. and they shall set up the abomination
that makes desolate. He shall seduce with flattery
those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their
God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the
people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall
stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they
stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves
to them with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so
that they may be refined, purified, and made white until the time
of the end, for it is still awaiting the appointed time. and the king
shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify
himself above every God, and shall speak astonishing things
against the God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation
is accomplished, for what is decreed shall be done. He shall
pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one
beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to
any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all. He shall honor
the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers
did not know, he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious
stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest
fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him,
he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over
many and shall divide the land for a price. At the time of the
end, the king of the south shall attack him. But the king of the
north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and
horsemen and many ships. And he shall come into countries,
and shall overflow and pass through. He shall come into the glorious
land, and ten thousands of ten thousands shall fall. But these
shall be delivered out of his hand, Edom and Moab, and the
main part of the Ammonites. He shall stretch out his hand
against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and silver
and of the precious things of Egypt. The Libyans, the Kushites
shall follow in his train, but news from the east and from the
north shall alarm him. And he shall go out with great
fury to destroy and to devote many to destruction. And he shall
pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy
mountain. Yet he shall come to his end with none to help him. Amen. The word of the living
God. So it’s okay to use cliff notes,
right? Your English teacher in high
school told you, no, uh, your Shakespeare teacher in college
said, uh, that’s cheating, but it’s okay to use cliff notes.
Uh, why? Well, if your goal is to understand,
you need the cheat sheet, right? You need the cast of characters.
Uh, you need the time, you need the place and you need the events. And so, The CliffsNotes version
of this passage. Here’s the extreme CliffsNotes
version. It’s gonna be really hard for
God’s people until the coming of Christ. So grin and bear it. That’s one way to look at it.
Here’s the lengthier CliffsNotes version of what’s taking place.
After Daniel, after Darius the Mede, there will be the Persians,
there will be the Greeks, there will be a twisted… a round
of Egyptian and Assyrian, the kings of the north and south,
rule for quite a while. And then there will be this Antiochus
the fifth, the fourth, the Epiphanes, the first narcissist recorded
in history, I suppose, who arises on the scene and it’s gonna be
nasty for Jerusalem. I don’t know if you could see
it in the way we read through it, but in chapter 11, verse
two, you’re talking about the Persians. In chapter 11, three
and four, you’re talking about the Greeks. In chapter 11, five
to 20, you’re talking about the Egyptians and the Syrians
or the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, a bunch of history there. And
so this is tonight, 355 years of messy politics. And then about 12 years of Antiochus,
the great Epiphanes. So that’s in a sense, the CliffsNotes
version of what we’re looking at. Remember where Daniel is. Daniel has been praying and fasting
and mourning for about three weeks. because of Israel’s sin,
because of Daniel’s sin, because word from Jerusalem has returned
to him and they’re having a hard time in the rebuilding campaign. The enemies from Samaria and
other places are making it difficult. But also the times, the prophecies,
the visions Daniel has seen bring him great trouble. So he’s in
prayer and fasting and mourning for about three weeks. He’s not
eaten a thing. He’s not splashed himself with
his cologne. He’s not taken a bath. He’s not
gotten out of his pajamas. He’s not left the house. And
so this is a great time of trouble. It’s, well, in the timing of
this, the third year of Cyrus, Cyrus reigns about eight years.
King of Persia. And then it ends this whole stretch
with the first year of Darius the Mede. So about eight years,
eight years of really troubled times for old man Daniel, as
he understands these visions. And as he says in chapter 11,
I stood up to confirm and strengthen Darius the Mede. So, so this
is all while old man Daniel is working for Darius and Cyrus. but he’s looking at the next
old 375 years of history. One of the things we must remember
through all this, God loves Daniel. Daniel’s prayer has been heard
and God has dispatched his servants to meet with Daniel and to give
him the answer to the prayer. And so if you look at chapter
11, verse two, he says, I’m going to show you the truth. All right,
so before us tonight is the truth, the whole truth, nothing but
the truth. And it’s a brutal truth. It’s a hard truth. It’s
a painful truth. If this were the next 365, 67
years of our history, we would be alarmed. We would be sad.
We would be depressed. Um, but that’s what’s before
us. So the first thing we see, uh, in, in, in our passage 11
verse two speaks of the Persians, three, three Kings, and then
a fourth one. Uh, the fourth one is strong
through wealth. Um, everybody agrees it’s Ahasuerus. Remember Queen Esther? Esther
was a contemporary maybe after towards the end of Daniel’s life.
And remember Ahasuerus was throwing a big old party. And at his big
old party, he wanted the queen to do things that ought not be
done, and she refused, and on and on it went, and Esther saves
the plot, Mordecai, Haman, all that business. But Ahasuerus
was so rich, he threw parties that lasted months, not Friday
nights and Saturday nights, but they lasted months, half the
year. And he became strong through
wealth, But his kingdom ended, the Persian empire ended after
Cyrus, a couple kings, and then Ahasuerus. And then the Greeks
come along and that’s verses three and four. A mighty king
is spoken of who had great dominion. We believe it would be Alexander
the Great. And the passage tells us he does
as he wills. And then after a time, his kingdom
is broken and divided. And we have this history. It
lasts a pretty good while. It’s Egypt and Syria. The kings
of the South would be Egypt. The kings of the North would
be Syria. The Egyptians were the Ptolemies, the Greeks or
the Syrians, the Seleucids, I believe. And this was like a Shakespearean
time. lots of backstabbing, lots of marriages, lots of divorces,
lots of just Shakespearean plots and
subplots, if you will. There’s a stronger prince who
makes it for a time. There’s the North dominant for
a little while, the South dominant. And all of this ends, and we
come to, the Greek rule again, and it’s
Antiochus Epiphanes. And you see in chapter 11, 21
to 35, and then, oh, let me think if I got this right
here. There’s kind of a parallel, I believe it is. Chapter 11,
21 to 35 is a parallel with chapter 11, 36 through the beginning
of chapter 12. So twice we get this cycle of
telling about Antiochus. He’s a bad dude. Some of you
will remember, back in 2004. I think it was Alan Keyes. Alan Keyes was a carpetbagger
and he moved to Chicago and he did so at the behest of the Republican
Party and he did so to run against a little-known state senator
named Barack Obama. And why was it so important,
we wanted to know, that this man be a carpetbagger and move
from wherever he was from, Florida maybe, to Chicago and take up
residence in order to run in the Senate against, well, no
one in the Republican Party could withstand the pressure test of
morality and other things. And they all began to think,
this Barack Obama fellow, we don’t want him in the Senate
because guess what? He’s a charismatic dude. he’ll become president. Well, lo and behold, what happened?
Hope and change, right? But this man sort of snuck in
on us, and one of the youngest men to ever run and become president
became so, and it really changed the history of America. The passage
here speaks of a king who exalts himself. This is a man who, what? two months ago, six weeks ago,
during the strictest COVID rules, throws a party for himself, invites
the whole country, and, oh, it’s fine. We’re educated, we’re vaccinated,
we’re cultured people. But Alan Keyes seemed to know
something way back then, but he snuck in and he became powerful. And maybe you noticed some of
the verses in In our scripture, it seems to speak of, I’m not
saying it’s about modern day princes, it’s not. It’s about
this time before the coming of Christ. But we love to rule and
we love to lavish upon people gifts for them helping our rule
and we’ve seen that so well. You can’t seem to drain the swamp
up in Washington. But Antiochus is a guy who exalts
himself. Nobody saw him coming. He slithered
in, he snuck in, he bought his way in while everyone else was
busy, busy, busy, he came in. And one of the climaxes of Antiochus,
I was about to say ministry, but his rule, he got so angry
when he lost to the Egyptians, he came back home and he took
it out on Jerusalem. And when we read this man against
the covenant, when we read this man who stopped the sacrifices,
he stopped the temple worship, he did a couple of things. We
mentioned this a few chapters ago. He offered on the altar
of God, in the temple of God, an offering to Zeus. Great sacrilege,
great blasphemy. But he also forbade every means
of grace under the old covenant. If you were caught circumcising
your son on the eighth day, the death penalty. If you were caught
sacrificing, if you were caught reading the Torah, if you were
caught doing basic Jewish means of grace, diligent Jewish practices,
you would get it. Life in the promised land. This
is after their return from exile and their rebuilding. Life in
the promised land was futile. And I want to not paint such
a harsh picture of Antiochus that we should. And I don’t want
to paint a nasty picture of all the rulers from the Greek period
and the Egyptian period and the Persian period, that that might
be helpful. But I want you to see throughout
this passage, there are a number of words, and I hope you notice
them along the way. This person will rise, this person
will do that, this person will conquer, and on and on. But also
what it says, their kingdom will be splintered. their kingdom
will be broken. There will be failure. There
will be defeat. There will be weakening. There will be arrogance. There will be a fall. And it
reminds us, doesn’t it, of the cycle of the kings of the earth.
Remember when you’re in high school, maybe a freshman year
in college, you study Western civilization. And what do you
see continually in the patterns and in the cycles of history?
There’s the rise and the fall and the rise and the fall and
the rise and the fall. One of our kids recently commented,
after studying Roman history, that America is in the exact
spot that Rome was when it fell. We’re idolatrous. We’re a sexualized
culture. We love money. We are greedy. We love comfort. on and on and
on and on, the decadence and the ease while the world is falling
apart. And so a person who reads history,
a person who reads their Bible understands that there will come
good times and bad times, wicked times and peaceful times. But
what’s ahead for Israel? What’s ahead for God’s people
here? Well, it’s some pretty nasty times. A king who will
exalt himself. a king who will take his fury
out on God’s people. But I want you to notice what
it says in verse 32 of this man. It says, he shall seduce with
flattery those who violate the covenant. So it’s kind of a Romans
1 statement. There will be evil people and
they will be encouraging other evil people, but, there’s a but,
the people who know their God shall stand firm and shall take
action. The hymn we sang at the beginning
tonight, I think it was 382 from Hebrews, says the last stanza,
take care to fix your eyes on Christ, the author of true faith. Draw near to God, hold fast to
hope, and give sacrificial praise. The world may fall apart around
us. Political action may not go the way we wish. We’ll eat
our Wheaties, right? We’ll get fortified and strengthened.
And at some point, it will be over. These will die. They’ll
go. to the grave without even a whimper,
but the people of God must trust in him. Let’s look to God in
prayer. Our Father, we pray that you
would bless us with hope and strength. These are overwhelming
words, overwhelming passages, lots to think on, lots to comprehend,
but we remember the end of the scriptures, the book of Revelation.
Jesus wins. The conqueror is the victor.
Satan loses. One little word shall fail him.
And so whether it be a man of the earth or demons and powers
and principalities that are against us, if God is for us, who can be
against us? We think and know and pray and
we ask it in the name of Christ, amen.