Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Daniel 11:1-35 | Date: October 20, 2019 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Unlike last Sunday evening, I don’t have a cane. I’m progressing. Many of you have asked about the knee this week. I appreciate your concern, your prayers. We hope that there’s some progress. I’m hobbling around on my knee. Pastor Boyd has had a cold all week. You could tell it in his voice and the slow motion this morning, I think, as well. Pastor Greg is away in Europe floating on the Rhine River somewhere. All that to say, the elders of RBC this week really aren’t worth much. I was scheduled to be away to Louisville a couple of days this coming week, but today’s technology allows some changes for that. I don’t want to be on my leg any more than I have to, so I’ll be teaching remotely, so I’ll be around anyway. We are glad to have you here. We’re glad especially if I can mention Eric and Christy Conner and family. Just a treat to see you guys. Great to have you with us. Good friends.

Open your Bibles if you will please to Daniel chapter 11. We have had quite an interruption since our last time in Daniel. There was my vacation, there’s the regular monthly rotation, and then the last couple of weeks, other things to address. And so finally, we’re back to Daniel. You’ll remember in Daniel chapter 10, remember I said that Daniel chapters 10 through 12 form one unit. Chapter 10 is the setup for the vision or the prophecy that is given in chapter 11 and the first verses of chapter 12. And we saw that in chapter 10, the angel showed up to give the prophecy to Daniel. And now that prophecy begins in chapter 11. It is still the angel Gabriel speaking in chapter 11 and verse 1. And I’ll take the time today to read through verse 35. I hope next week to be able to finish the chapter. Daniel 11, beginning with verse 1, will be dealing today with the subject of Israel and her troubled future.

“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, 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 rule with great dominion and do as he will. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken, 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 king of the South shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he, and he 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 King of the North, and he shall deal with them and shall prevail. He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods 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 sons shall rage 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, and he shall be cast down. 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 against the King 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. He shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them. He shall give him 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 toward the fortress 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 kingdom by flatteries. Armies shall be utterly swept away before him and 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. He shall do what neither his fathers nor his father’s fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time.

And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king 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 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 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 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 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 might be refined, purified, made white until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, You have given us this rather mysterious portion of your word for our good. We pray that you will give us a mind and a heart to understand and take from it what you would have for us. Help us from this to be impressed with the greatness of our God and his rule over history and help us by that to trust you then more faithfully. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Israel and Her Troubled Future

Well, if you, while I was reading through these verses, thought, “What in the world is he talking about?” you probably have a bit of a sense for how Daniel felt when he heard it the first time. This is a prophecy of things to come. Things that will come in the following few centuries after Daniel, and it sets up for us, finally, the setting for when we come to the New Testament. But at this point in history, this is 6th century BC; all of this lies ahead. Some of it several hundred years ahead. But God is informing Daniel on his plans for that part of the world in the coming years.

We saw in chapter 10 that Daniel had been praying to know God’s purpose. We saw in chapter 7 and in chapter 8 that Daniel was informed of these coming kingdoms that would rise. There’s Babylon, then there’s Medo-Persia. After Medo-Persia would come Greece, and after Greece would come Rome, although it’s not named. It certainly is Rome in view. But after that third kingdom, the Greek kingdom, we saw the four divisions, and of those two are very important. And he has seen all of that, but now he wants to know more about it. And it seems that in chapter 10 then, he’s wanting to know with all of this that is coming down the pike, what about God’s promises to Israel? What’s going to happen with Israel? What about the promises God has made? What about the promise of the Messiah, the kingdom of God? And all of that is in his mind. This seems like it is at odds with what God has promised before. So he’s puzzling over that in chapter 10. What about these kingdoms that shall arise? What about the problems that will come with that one little horn in particular? There’s national and international affairs coming. How is all of this to play out? And while he is praying, we saw that the angel Gabriel shows up, as he has before for Daniel, and begins to explain to him in some detail now what will come.

But again, as I say, this all lies in the future for Daniel, and I’m sure on the first hearing of it, he is wondering as well, “How will all of that play out?” Well, from our perspective now, we look at Daniel 11 verses 1 to 35, and we see what is to us ancient history. For Daniel, it was prophecy of the coming centuries. But in verses 1 to 35, we have described for us in some detail—in fact, amazing detail that I’ll highlight here for you in a minute—Israel’s coming time of trouble. And it’s fairly easy to interpret. These events now are past for us, and it’s rather straightforward. And they climax in a figure by the name known to us now as Antiochus Epiphanes that we’ll see in a moment. That’s verses 1 to 35. I’ll try to explain next week that beginning with verse 36, there is a shift in the focus of this prophecy, which is typical of Old Testament prophecy. We’re looking at one scene and one large drawn-out episode, and then suddenly the purview is much longer, and we’re looking ahead to the end times. And verses 36 to the end of the chapter have the end times in view, and we’ll see that, I trust, next time. Then chapter 12, verses 4 and following tie up some loose ends and answer some related questions. And we’ll see that, I hope, the time after that.

For today, then, chapter 11, verses 1 to 35: Israel and her troubled future. Remember now Medo-Persia is in charge now in Babylon. The Babylonian kingdom has fallen just as Daniel prophesied that it would back in chapter 2 and in chapter 7. That was prophesied. We saw it happen in chapter 5 at Belshazzar’s feast that the Babylonian kingdom has fallen and Darius the Mede now is the king in charge in Babylon. Now there’s some question as to who Darius is. There is Cyrus who is the king of the Medo-Persian Empire and there’s Darius who is king in Babylon. Some actually argue that Cyrus and Darius are one and the same. They’re the same person under two different names. That happens in the ancient world; it would not be terribly unusual. I’m not persuaded that they are one and the same. It seems to me rather that Cyrus is the king over the Medo-Persian Empire and Darius is the man in charge in Babylon. It really makes no difference for us in terms of the interpretation of this passage. But do keep in mind now that Cyrus is the king of the Medo-Persian Kingdom.

Now verse 1 of chapter 10 dates this as the third year of Darius. So that would be about 535 BC. The third year of Darius would be the third year of Cyrus as well. In verse 2 now of chapter 11, we have a later king who is mentioned. And he mentions two aspects of his rule. Notice verse 2, chapter 11: “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.” So two things are highlighted about this fourth king down the line who is coming. He’ll be wealthy and he’ll attack Greece. Now, it doesn’t give us specific information so that we can see it coming, name the guy, except that it’s the fourth king to come. So, okay, the fourth king from Cyrus is a man by the name of Xerxes (X-E-R-X-E-S). Depending on which version of the Bible you have, you’ll find the name in the book of Esther. He is the king in view in Esther. Xerxes or Ahasuerus is the other name that you’ll see depending on which translation you have. He’s known to history, Ahasuerus or Xerxes is known to history as one, a very enormously, massively wealthy king, just as Daniel said he would be. And he’s also known to history as the Medo-Persian king who invaded Greece. He invaded Greece with a massive 200,000-man army, a massive naval fleet, and he attacked Greece. It seemed that he would win, but he in fact was defeated now at the famous Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. But all of this is just what Daniel said would happen in verse 2.

Now we have verse 3 then: “Then a mighty king shall arise who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills.” So another king now is arising on the scene. He doesn’t identify him as a Persian. And in fact, what we find historically, now he’s referring just in broad brush to the exploits of Alexander the Great. That’s what we saw in chapter 7, and we saw it in chapter 8 briefly as well. This is around 330 BC. So this is something like 200 years now after Daniel. Verse 4 tells us of this great king’s career: “As soon as he is risen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity or according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides.”

Well, this tells us then of the fourfold division of Alexander’s kingdom. We have here told us that this great king is going to arise. He’ll have mighty exploits. And in fact, the Greek kingdom was greater even than the Medo-Persian kingdom. The Medo-Persian kingdom, as we have seen, was a massive kingdom greater than that of Babylon, swallowed up huge amounts of territory. But it took Medo-Persia about a generation to do that. But this king, Alexander the Great now, the Grecian kingdom, conquers even a vaster amount of territory, even going into the Indus Valley. And he did it in the space of about three years. And he arises, but he’s no sooner arisen, and it tells us he’s broken. He’s cut off. Alexander the Great did not die of old age. He died as a very young man, and in fact, as I’ve told you before, he was a very disappointed man that he didn’t have more territory to conquer. And now he’s arisen, and because he’s such a young man, at his death, there is no provision for his successors, no heir. Actually, there was a son, but they took care of that. And his generals fought over the territory to decide who should be ruling, and actually then it splintered up into a number of different territories, four of which were the most prominent.

And we have that in view here. Two of those four are actually the most prominent of all. And they are Ptolemy, the general by the name of Ptolemy (P-T-O-L-E-M-Y, P is silent, you kind of get there, Ptolemy, whatever). He’s king in Egypt. And we have the Ptolemaic dynasty now down in Egypt. He is the man in view in verse 5 when it speaks of the king of the South. Alexandria was the capital in Egypt. The Ptolemaic dynasty now is in rule in the southern kingdom. That is down in Egypt. The other prominent king in view that he picks up in this chapter is Seleucus, another general of Alexander’s. He has his capital in Antioch in Syria, and so he is, in verse 6, the king of the North. The king of the North and the king of the South. In Egypt, everyone in the dynasty is a Ptolemy. In Syria, all of the significant kings are named either Antiochus, hence Antioch, or Seleucus.

Now, all of that broad background, and now verses 5 to 35, we have the ongoing conflict of these two dynasties, the King of the North and the King of the South. The King of the North in Syria, the Seleucid dynasty; the King of the South in Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty. And we have them itemized for us throughout this prophecy. In broad brush, what he’s telling us here is the succeeding kings in both dynasties will arise. Various events will happen between them. There will be continued rivalry between them. And what’s important for Israel is that they’re caught in the middle. You have the king of the North, the king of the South. North and south, that is relative to Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is caught in the middle and because everybody wants all the land they can have, the land of Palestine is often in dispute. And sometimes Palestine belongs to the King of the South and sometimes it belongs to the King of the North. And all of this is told for us in this prophecy—remarkable prophecy, centuries in advance. And it’s fascinating, I think, at least from an evidential or an apologetic standpoint to see how God foretold all of this in such specific detail ahead of time.

I cannot work through the entire passage in detail. I’m going to try to highlight all of verses 5 to 35, but only highlight it, and I’ll pick some of the specific samples that he prophesies here to give a feel for what God has let Daniel in on ahead of time.

Relations Between the First Three Generations

All right then, verses 6 to 20, we have the relations between the first three generations of these dynasties, the King of the North and the King of the South. Notice verses 6 through 8:

“After some years they shall make an alliance. And the daughter of the king of the south, that is the daughter of the king of Egypt now, the successor to Alexander in that area, the daughter of the King of 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, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times. And from a branch of her roots—that sounds like a brother, her roots being her parents, a branch from her roots that is a brother—one shall arise in his place and shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the King of the North. And he shall deal with them and shall prevail. And he shall also carry off to Egypt their gods 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.”

All right, what’s going on here? In verses 6 through 8, we obviously have some kind of marriage alliance going on here. The daughter of the king of the South is married off to the king of the North. But she shall not retain, the end of verse 6, the strength of her arm. That is, the Egyptian wife, now up in the north, won’t last long. She won’t retain the strength of her arm. And he and his arm shall not endure. That is, her hubby won’t endure long either. Verse 7, a branch from her roots shall arise and come against the king of the north. So her brother then will come and attack the king of the north. Despite this alliance that has been made, this marriage alliance, it’s gonna fall apart. And then verse 8, for some years, he shall refrain from attacking the King of the North. So there’ll be some period of peace to follow. So a marriage alliance, the failure of the marriage alliance, and then a time of peace. That’s in broad brush what is predicted in verses 6 to 8.

Now, how did all that play out? Well, verse 6 says, “after some years.” This marriage alliance will occur. As it plays out, it’s about 40 years later. This now is about 300 years after Daniel. We have an alliance between Ptolemy II and Antiochus II. After decades of fighting, they decide to shake hands and cement the agreement with a marriage. And so the daughter of the King of the South is married off to the King of the North. Now there’s one complication with that, and it is alluded to here, and the way it plays out is fascinating. The complication is the King of the North is already married. He’s married to his half-sister, who has considerable influence herself because she is, after all, the daughter of the king. So he’s already married to his half-sister. And now for the marriage alliance, he takes this daughter from the King of the South and marries her. To do that, he’s got to divorce his first wife.

The daughter from the South, as it played out, was a lady by the name of Bernice (B-E-R-N-I-C-E). You would pronounce that Bernice. No self-respecting woman in Greece would call herself Bernice. Bernike. So Bernike comes up and marries Antiochus II in the north. His first wife, Laodice, I think her name was, she had to be divorced. As you can imagine, she wasn’t thrilled with that new arrangement. But they make an agreement, it says. There’s an alliance and there’s an agreement with the alliance. And the agreement was that Bernike, when she bears children, her son will be heir to the throne. Well, that’s a reasonable request, but it brings about this fascinating scenario in which now the daughter of the king of the south has a son now who is heir to the throne in the south and to the throne in the north. And as you can imagine, wife number one is not real happy with that kind of arrangement.

Well, a few years into the alliance, as it plays out, and just as Daniel prophesies here—keep in mind this is about 300 years after Daniel—a few years into the alliance, Ptolemy II, the father of Bernice in Egypt, dies. Antiochus decides it’s no longer important to be married to Bernice. “I want wife number one back.” And so he divorces Bernice and marries his first wife again. Well, as I say, the first wife, Laodice, was not very impressed, and she’s still not really impressed. And we learn that for certain because shortly into the remarriage, she has her husband murdered. And then she plots with her son to murder Bernike, and they do, and her infant son, and her attendants, all of which was prophesied for us here in verse 6 of Daniel’s prophecy. And so Laodice’s son now is king.

Meanwhile, as you can imagine, Egypt is not very happy with these developments. And so a branch from her roots, her brother, who’s now King Ptolemy III in Egypt decides to exact revenge on the King of the North. And so we have, as Daniel prophesied in verse 7, he comes against the King of the North in Syria, invades. He’s very successful. He does not capture the capital city, but he did capture their great fortress on the Tigris River and carried back with him all kinds of booty, among which were the Egyptian gods that had earlier been taken by the Syrian kings in their victorious battles down in Egypt. They’ve carried them off back to Syria, and now he’s back from Egypt to Syria, and he recaptures those Egyptian gods and carries them back to Egypt again, just as Daniel prophesied in verse 8. And then the end of verse 8, after that victory, we have a six-year peace between the kingdoms and Ptolemy is back in Egypt, happy with his victory and taking it easy. All of that detail was prophesied in this prophecy given to Daniel in chapter 11.

Well, that’s just part of it. Let’s highlight some more. In verses 9 and following, we have the aftermath of all of that. There’s continued rivalries between them. History gives us a wonderful detail about that again to corroborate the prophecy here or correspond with it. Verses 13 and following take us to about 200 BC, and here we have Antiochus III. There’s another marriage alliance mentioned in verse 17 and following. The daughter of Antiochus III by the name of Cleopatra—this is not Cleopatra of Roman fame, but one of her predecessors—Cleopatra is married off to make an alliance with the king of the north. The treaty is made, verse 17, with some ill motives, and then the details of that in the next few verses are given for us. We can’t take time with that now. Just as detailed, just as specific, and fulfilled just as spoken. All of that, again, prophesied by Daniel some 300 years ahead of time.

Now again, as I mentioned earlier, all of this is of concern to the people of Israel because the rivalry between the king of the north and the king of the south, that is north and south of Jerusalem, leaves Jerusalem caught in the middle. And as I mentioned, Israel falls under the possession of the King of the North or the King of the South, back and forth, determined by these various rivalries that have happened. In the end, it is Antiochus III in Syria who has possession of Israel, and that’s mentioned in verse 16: “He shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his hand.”

A Contemptible Person

Now, all of that detail sets us up for this notoriously awful phase of Israel’s history, the most difficult, the most oppressive period of Israel’s history, and that is under the reign of Antiochus IV in Syria. Verse 21 introduces him to us. He is the most savagely vicious opponent of all of Israel’s ancient history until we come to AD 70, which we’ve mentioned as well. Verse 21: “In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain a kingdom by flatteries.” Notice he’s called a contemptible person. That’s the translation in the ESV and the NIV. The New American Standard translates it as despicable person. The King James translates it as a vile person. You get the picture. This is not a good guy. Someone who is despised, he’s contemptuous. And because of all that he does, he’s an evil, evil ruler.

And of course, as I’ve mentioned, this has reference to, as it plays out, Antiochus IV, or as he named himself, Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes is a Greek word which means “the illustrious one” or something like that. But it also means “manifest.” Antiochus manifest. What’s being manifest? What’s evident? Well, we find out, if you don’t figure it out on your own, we find out because Antiochus IV had coins minted with the word Theos stamped on it: God. He is God manifest, of course. He’s an evident manifestation of God himself. Well, that’s what he thought of himself anyway. He was a notorious tyrant. He set himself out to destroy the Jewish religion altogether. Rather than being called Epiphanes, some of his contemporaries nicknamed him Epimanes, sort of a pun. Epimanes does not mean the illustrious one or God manifest; Epimanes means “madman,” showing what they thought of him. But he claimed divine honor for himself on all of the coins that he had minted. He, in fact, comes into Jerusalem, sat in a court of the temple, and expected the Jews to admire him as divine. And as you can imagine, that did not go over very well.

Well, that brings us then to verses 21 to 35, where it highlights for us some of the important details of the military career of Antiochus IV. Verses 21 to 29, it’s his early years; especially his rivalry with Egypt is surveyed there for us. Again, we have some fascinating specifics that I just don’t have time to get to. Even specifics like how he got his position on the throne with flatteries—that is, he wasn’t the exact heir to the throne, but he got it anyway. Fascinating intrigue. All of that prophesied by Daniel.

Verses 25 to 28 then highlight for us Antiochus’s defeat, devastating defeat of Egypt. Beginning with verse 25:

“He shall stir up his power and his heart against the king 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. And 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 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.”

Now this then takes us to some events that occur in the year 170 BC. So now we’re about 360-plus years after Daniel. Antiochus goes against Egypt with a great army. Ptolemy has actually a greater army than Antiochus has, but Antiochus wins. It’s due in part to some treachery on his part. During the battle, Antiochus’s army was prevailing, and it was very obvious that he was prevailing, and it would have been a complete wipeout, a slaughter of the Egyptian army. But at a high point in the battle, when it was obvious what was happening, Antiochus calls a halt to the battle, to the fighting. He sends messages across the line and he invites the officers of the other side to come and fight for him on his side. And so many of the officers, including many of the soldiers, switch sides in the middle of the battle and come over and finish up, wiping up then on Egypt. It was a devastating kind of defeat as you can imagine. Antiochus did not make it all the way to Alexandria, the capital city, but they did make it as far as Memphis, destroyed it, took tons and tons of booty with them. It was a devastating defeat for the King of the South.

Well, that matter of gaining great wealth was exactly what was foretold in verse 28. In verse 26, we have the idea of the officers switching sides, although in vaguer terms in the prophecy, but that’s how it worked out. And in fact, verse 27, as you’ll notice, speaks of speaking lies at the same table. These two kings, when are they at the same table? Well, in fact, Ptolemy was captured during this battle and taken back to Antioch. And the kings there, the king in Antioch then, how do you say it, warmed up to him, all under a guise of trying to get back to Egypt further. And so they make these agreements at the table. Both are lying to each other, and it didn’t work out the way it was intended by either side. But that’s what we have in verse 27, prophesied again some 360-some years later.

Now then, verses 29 and 30. This is a later episode of the rivalry. An aftermath of this has direct bearing on Jerusalem and its later history. Verses 29 and 30:

“At the time appointed, he shall return and come into the South, but it shall not be this time as it was before. Why? For 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.”

That is, pay attention to those in Israel who aren’t faithful to the 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.”

So the King of the North will go against the King of the South, he’s telling us, but it won’t go as well for him this time as it did the previous time because the ships of Kittim will join forces with the King of the South. Ships of Kittim—that’s ships from Cyprus—will take sides with the king of the South and the king of the North, then will return back home and on his way take out his rage on Jerusalem. That’s the long and short of the prophecy.

Well, sure enough, now we are in 168 BC and we have Antiochus going after Egypt. And he would have destroyed Egypt entirely this time, but the ships of Kittim showed up. Now Kittim, as I mentioned, is named for Cyprus. But long before this time, it was a Roman navy that anchored in Cyprus. And so the ships of Kittim become a byword for the Roman navy. And as this played out, a fascinating episode in history: a Roman general by the name of Popilius was there on the scene. So we have Antiochus coming down to the King of the South in Egypt. He would have won over them easily. But standing just outside the border, he is met not only by the King of the South, or the army of the South, but also by Popilius, this Roman general who came on the navy ships. And he drew a line in the sand. That’s where we get the expression. Drew a line. Actually, it was a circle he put around Antiochus. “You decide now. Are you going to come against Egypt or are you going to go back home? When you step outside of that circle, we’ll know which direction you’re heading. Just know that if you come against Egypt, you’re coming against Rome.” And Antiochus didn’t like that. But what are you going to do? You can’t fight Rome. He turned around and went back. Obviously, he returns now in a foul mood, and guess who’s along the way that he can take out his rage on? And so we have him taking out his rage now on Jerusalem as it was prophesied here in all of those details. By the way, we read all of that history in 2 Maccabees, an apocryphal book full of wonderful history, 2 Maccabees chapter 5.

The People Who Know Their God Shall Stand Firm

Well then that takes us to verse 32 where we have a horrible and yet a very noble period of Jewish history. Verse 32: “He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” That is to say then, he wins over the support of some of the Jews because they’re afraid of him. They’re not faithful to the covenant in the first place, but many are loyal to the covenant, and that introduces us to what is known now as the Maccabean Revolt.

It was led at first by a priest by the name of Mattathias from Modin, the village of Modin. He was in Jerusalem. An agent from Antiochus had come now to Jerusalem. He’s there. He sets up a false worship in the temple. And he demands that a Jewish priest, Mattathias, lead in the worship there and offer a sacrifice to the false gods. Mattathias is not about to do that. So they appoint another priest, another Jewish man, to offer the sacrifice. Mattathias is not about to allow that either. He walks up with a sword and slays the priest, turns and kills the agent of the Syrian government as well, and the revolt is on. Fascinating period in Israel’s history.

Mattathias soon died, but his sons took up the cause. His sons by the name of Judas, Jonathan, Simon, and Eleazar took up the cause, each of them leaders in their own right. These are Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan Maccabeus, and so on. These are the men who took up the cause against the Seleucid rule, a war for independence from them. And they actually conducted brilliant military maneuvers, guerrilla warfare, some of the strategies of which are still being looked at in military academies today. They were brave. They’re heroic. There’s one famous episode in that Maccabean revolt where Eleazar becomes the hero of the day, saving Israel. The Syrian army was coming down and they had a war elephant. How do you fight against a war elephant? It’s like going up against a tank. You just can’t do that. In the midst of the battle, Eleazar makes his way up to the elephant, goes underneath, shoves his sword up into the belly of the elephant. The elephant collapses. Eleazar sacrificed himself for the cause, and they were victorious.

There was a series of stunning victories on the part of the Maccabees, and eventually they won their independence from Syria. Daniel here commends those who would engage in the fighting because of their loyalty to God. And like I say, through a series of strategic victories, they did win the victory. They finally, having won it, marked the occasion by cleansing the temple, rededicating the temple, installing a new priest, and the occasion is known to us now as the Feast of Hanukkah, which of course is still being observed by Jews today. That holiday, by the way, Hanukkah, is obviously then something that’s not prescribed in the Torah, but it is something that is given indirect divine approval—one by the commendation of those who did it here in Daniel. There’s a mention of it also in Zechariah, commending those who rise up out of faithfulness against the Seleucid dynasty. And in fact, when we come to the New Testament in John chapter 10, we find Jesus taking part in the festivities of the Feast of Dedication as well.

One not so happy, but very interesting note, is that this courageous patriotism on the part of the Jews was sparked by the zeal of the Hasidim, the pure ones, who later became the Pharisees, who, when the Messiah came, rejected him. Another historical note of interest here: For decades, the Maccabees ruled with relative independence in Israel. You may have heard the name John Hyrcanus. He was the nephew of Judas Maccabeus. John Hyrcanus had a granddaughter by the name of Mariamne. Mariamne was the wife of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was appointed king in Israel by Octavius, the Roman emperor, because of political connections his father had. The Jews hated Herod the Great because of his Edomite ancestry, but being married to Mariamne gave some claim to legitimacy to his throne. Well, this prophecy then foretells that historic era of Jewish history, a momentous time that shaped the ancient Near Eastern world and provides for us the background setting of the events of the New Testament.

The Greatness of Our God

All right, a lot of history. How is all of that important to us? Why would God want that in the Bible for us, what, 2,500 years to be reading and learning? Well, first and foremost, as I’ve mentioned all throughout, this tells us something very important about God. To us, this is ancient history, but we must remember that in its first instance, this was not history; this was prophecy. And God is detailing these events—detailing them in specific, kind of amazing detail—sometimes hundreds of years in advance. Centuries of empires and dynasties and intrigue and revenge and vengeful wives and ex-wives and alliances and marriage alliances and all of this kind of detail given us sometimes centuries in advance. And looking back at it all, you just have to be impressed. You’ve got to just marvel at how God can do this.

In fact, it is so detailed and so specific, the history that we’ve just highlighted here, it is so specific in accordance with the historical events as they played out in the coming centuries—so specific that the critics just can’t believe it. “Daniel had to be written after the fact.” That’s their line. Now, in fact, every objection that they have brought up—we won’t get into that—but every objection they have brought up over the last 150 years has been answered. But in a way, it’s easy to understand their frustration. Given a naturalistic worldview, how in the world can this happen? Centuries in advance giving details like that?

Now for you, this is easy because you believe Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” You believe that? This stuff is easy. That God is Lord over history. And that all of history is an unfolding of his purpose. And that God can tell the history ahead of time, simply because it is his story. And in the unfolding of his purpose, he is the one, frankly, who wrote the script. And of course, Daniel has been setting us up for this all through his prophecy, hasn’t he? Through the historical events that we see in chapters 1 to 6, through the prophecies he’s been hammering away, hammering away, hammering away at this theme that we’ve seen over and again through Daniel: that God is king over all the earth. He puts down kings. He raises up others. Chapter 2, he’s the God who is God over all of history. He is not a God who is sovereign only after the fact and can turn things to his own. He’s a God ahead of time, before the fact, who directs all things to accomplish his purpose. And in fact, then we find that God does have an all-inclusive purpose for history. And now and then, he lets us in on it ahead of time. So that we’ll marvel at his greatness and marvel at his sovereign rule over history.

But he also tells us this ahead of time—these kinds of things—so that we will see that he is a God who is altogether trustworthy. When God makes a promise, when God says he will do something, oh, you’d better believe it. He’ll do it. And he’s demonstrated it over and again. And in fact, we will see beginning in verse 36 and following that he’s going to tell of another period of trouble that is coming. And he’ll speak of Antichrist and another great opponent who will come in the end times. And he tells us the outcome of that, chapter 12: that there’ll be a resurrection of all the dead. Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And then we read on in the story. We go on to the New Testament. We find how we can be among the righteous who are raised to everlasting life through Jesus Christ. And all the indicators are: you had better believe it. God has told us what he will do. He has told us how we can be on the right side of history. And he’s demonstrated in all of his other fulfilled prophecies that we must believe him and trust accordingly. Here’s how we can escape the wrath to come, he tells us; we had better believe it. Salvation in Christ—rest assured, we may have it and take part in what he tells us of in chapter 12, the resurrection in which we will shine as the stars forever and ever.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we are impressed. We are amazed at your rule over history. What a remarkable thing. And what a remarkable thing to see the ease with which you can tell these things and then see that they happen. We adore you for your greatness. We ask, Lord, that you will give us more trusting and faithful hearts. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.