Daniel 11

Daniel 11 and the Rise and Fall of the Seleucid Kings

Well, good morning, good morning and no and no. Andy, would you pray for us and pray that I would speak clearly and where they can understand today.

I fall in God again. We thank you for the ability to gather together as a body. Pray Lord that you would be with brother Mike. You would give him clues for thought that we might be able to grow embrace and to understand you better Lord to understand your word better to be changed in our lives.

Become more like the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. So he would have found his only can be praying.

Amen. Daniel chapter 11. I'm going to read because we went to verse nine, but I'm going to try to go through 10 through 35. So I'm going to read 10 through 35. And then we'll start walking through it.

And his sons will mobilize and assemble a multitude of great forces and one of them will keep on coming and overflow and pass through that he may again wage war up to his very fortress and the king of the south will be enraged and go forth and fight with the king of the north.

Then the latter will raise a great multitude, but that multitude will be given into the hand of the former. And when the multitude is carried away, his heart will be filled, will be lifted up and he will cause tens of thousands to fall.

Yet he will not prevail for the king of the north will again raise a greater multitude than the former. And after an interval of some years, he will press on with a great army and much acquitment. Now, in those times, many will rise up against the king of the south, the violent ones among your people will also lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they will fall down.

Then the king of the north will come and he will set up a siege ramp will capture a fortified city and the forces of the south will not be able to withstand their ground. Not even their choices troops for there will be no strength to make a stand, but he who comes against him will do as he pleases and no one will be able to withstand him.

He will also stay for a time in a beautiful land with destruction in his hand. He will set his face to come upon with power upon the whole kingdom, bringing with him a proposal of peace, which he will put into effect.

He will also give him the daughter of women to ruin it, but she will not take a stand for him or be on his side. Then he will turn to his face to the coastlands to capture many, but a commander will put a stop to his scorn against him.

Moreover, he will repay him for his scorn. So he will turn his face toward the fortress of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and will be found no more. Then in his place one will arise who will send an oppressor through the jewel of his kingdom.

Yet within a few days he will be shattered, though he will not be in anger nor in battle. In his place a despicable person will arise on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred, but he will come into a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue.

The overflowing forces will be flooded away before him and shattered, and also the prince of the covenant. After an alliance is made with him, he will practice deception. He will go up and he will gain power with a small force of people, and in a time of tranquility he will enter the richest parts of the realm, and he will accomplish what his fathers never did, nor his ancestors.

He will distribute plunder and booty and possessions among them, and he will devise his schemes against strongholds, but only for a time. He will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the south with a large army.

So the king of the south will immobilize an extremely large and mighty army for war, but he will not stand, for schemes will be devised against him. Those who eat his choices food will destroy him, and his army will overflow, but many will fall down slain.

As for both kings, their hearts will be intent on evil, and they will speak lies to each other at the same table, but it will not succeed, for the end is still yet to come at the appointed time. Then he will return to his land with much plunder, but his heart will be set against the Holy Covenant, and he will take action, and then they will return upon his own land.

At the appointed time he will return and come against the south, but this time it will not turn out the way that it did before, for the ships of Katim will come against him. Therefore he will be disheartened.

He will return and become enraged at the Holy Covenant. He will take action so that he will come back and show regard for those who forsook the Holy Covenant. Forces from him will arise. They will desecrate the sanctuary fortress.

They will do away with the irregular sacrifice, and they will set up the abomination of desolation. By smooth words he will turn to godlessness. Those who act wickedly towards the Covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength, and they will take action, and those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many, yet they will fall by the sword and by the flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days.

Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in their hypocrisy. Some of those who have insight will fall in order to refine, purge, and make them pure until the time of the end, because it is still yet to come at the appointed time.

The Historical Setting of Daniel 11: Babylon, Persia, and Greece

Okay, last week we we went through how many of these are no longer in this prophecy? How many of these, Babylon, how many of these are no longer in the prophecy? Those that were here last week. They're gone.

This is overrun by Osiris. This was overrun by Alexander. So the two that are only left in the four kingdom scheme of earthly kingdoms, okay, remember we still got kingdom on the side, and we'll get there, are these two.

Upon the, as Greece came about after the fall of Alexander the Great, after his death, what happened? It splintered. It splintered into how many kingdoms? Four small empires. Who were the two that arose?

Okay, so that means, who's the king of the north? Remember, God's central location in redemptive history is what? Jerusalem, but we'll say Israel. Who's the king of the north? No, he's south. Egypt's south.

Egypt's south. This would be, it's actually Syria, but we're going to just, because it winds up being Seleucid. And last week we saw a number of them go back and forth, back and forth. Remember, from about 313 in the beginning of the chapter, around, at verse 1 to, I think, around verse 7, you go from about 313, yeah, from about 313 to about 246 BC.

All these times are BC, okay? All this is before Christ, which led us to, at the end of chapter 11, verse 9, we had Seleucus II. Everybody follow me from last week? Everybody remember that was here? What happened with Seleucus II?

What was the last thing, what was said last week about Seleucus II? You may remember? Other than he had a cool name? Calcanius Pogon, the triumphant, beautiful, bearded one. Remember, they had cool names.

All right, so that, we came to Seleucus II. Remember, second, thirds, juniors, all that was a more modern, they had cool names like Soter, Theos, Epiphanes, and all that nonsense. But this dude, he died.

Not yet. There is one, one of these couple get poisoned, but not yet. But you're right, you want to see somebody poisoned this morning, don't you? Yet, this guy here, after the altercation with him and Ptolemy, he does a 10-year peace treaty, and they're not going to fight anymore.

But he dies in a riding accident. I think that was the last thing we talked about before we left. He dies in a riding accident, okay? He dies in a riding accident. He has two sons. Guess what his son's name is?

Seleucus. He's not nearly as cool. Antiochus, or for some that like to say Antiochus. Antiochus. This would be birth. Actually, the Greek would be Antiochus Megas, would be the Greek, and I'm trying to remember him.

So, you have these two men that come about as his fault. Remember, they had a peace treaty. So, when it's over, these guys here say, nah, we want the king of the south. So, that brings us to verse 10.

Antiochus the Great and the Wars Against Ptolemy

His sons, meaning Seleucus II, because that's where we left off, his sons will mobilize and assemble a multitude of great forces, and one of them will keep on coming, overflow, pass through, and he may again wage war up to his very fortress.

Now, what happens, these two brothers unite, they're going to go, and they're going to fight against the king of the north again. This is going to go on for years, okay? What they're trying to do is gain, trying to basically consolidate the area in which Alexander the Great, all these guys wanted to be Alexander.

So, their goal is to try to make the Greek Empire what it was at the time of Alexander the Great, and they fail miserably. So, these two guys wage war against this guy. This guy dies. He is poisoned. He's assassinated, okay?

He's assassinated, which brings now the rise of Antiochus Magus, or who we would call Antiochus the Great, okay? Now, it says here, it says he will wage war against him. He will go up against his very fortress, and the king of the south will be enraged, okay, and go forth and fight with the king of the north.

So, now these guys are ready to go. They're ready to go at it. They're going to fight, and they're going to fight a bunch. It says that the latter will raise a multitude, meaning the king of the south will raise a latter multitude greater, and when the multitude is carried away, his heart will be lifted up, and he will call tens of thousands to fall, yet he will not prevail, for the king of the north will again raise a greater multitude than the former, and after an interval of some years, he will oppress with a great army and much equipment.

So, once again, you have the continual rise of Antiochus the Great. He is gaining much power. He is conquesting much land, and as we get to verse 14, now things are going to really get a little more detailed.

I don't know if you've noticed, as it started in chapter 11, verse 1, we had this kind of 30 ,000 foot look. Now, as we're getting closer towards the end of the chapter, things are narrowing down. First of all, we covered in two verses, we covered 220 years.

Now, we've covered not even a century, and now we're fixing to cover only 50 years, and then we're going to get to where we're only going to cover about three years. Okay, you see what God's doing in his prophecy?

He's narrowing it down. It says, now, in those times, many will rise against the king of the south. The violent ones among your people will also lift up themselves in order to fulfill the vision, and they will fall down, and the king of the north will come and will cast up a siege ramp and capture a well-fortified city, and the forces of the south will not be able to stand his ground, not even with the choice is true, for there will be no one to make a stand, but he who comes against him will do what he pleases, and no one will be able to withstand him, and he will also stay in the land, in a beautiful land with destruction in his hand.

So, as Antiochus the Great is making his conquest, I wish I had the Israel map in here, he comes down, he originally come down, he came down through Sidon and Gaza to try to capture that land so that he could take over.

Remember, Sidon and Gaza were basically part of Israel's territory. They want to come down, they want to take, he wants to take Palestine. I know that's a more acronistic reading, but he wants to take Palestine away from Ptolemy.

Ptolemy is running Israel, okay? So, understand, Seleucus is wanting that area, so as he's going, he's capturing those areas. He was defeated very badly in 217 by the Ptolemies in 217, very badly. He goes back, he does his thing, he gets more forces, now he's coming back.

He's going to now capture Gaza, and he's going to capture it, and that's going to be somewhere around 200, 202 BC. Now, he is actually gaining more power, more strength, and he has the intent of now taking over Egypt.

He has made his way across. So now, here's what it says, as he's going across, it says in verse 15, that he will lay a siege ramp, get the fortified city, he will take, that's when he took Gaza, forces from the south, they won't be able to stand him, not even their choices, and it says this, it says, but he comes, he comes against him, and he do as he pleases, and no one will be able to stop him, and he will stay in the beautiful land with destruction in his hand.

Let me tell you what happens. When Alexander the Great was taking over Palestine, he laid waste to, to, to Tyre. When he came to Jerusalem, they shut the gates, but they shut the gates because it was on the Sabbath, okay?

He didn't like that. He thought they were being rude to him, so he was going to crush the city until one of the guys came out and says, hey, you've been prophesied by Daniel. God talked about you, that you were going to be, he said, okay.

He said, no problem. I like this God, okay, not that he wanted to worship, I like this prophecy, it was good. So, he let Israel basically rule themselves. Ptolemies didn't go in there bothering them. They were basically self-governed, but it was under the territory.

Well, they had some, basically, some Ptolemy sympathizers, I mean some Seleucid sympathizers that no longer wanted Ptolemy to be any part of their land. We don't even want to own our land. So, what they did is they gained forces with Antiochus the Great and says, you know what, we'll go fight Ptolemy.

And it says it right here, where it says, some of the violent ones of your land, Jerusalem, some of the violent ones of your land, they will go in and they will fight with him. So, he has now, Antiochus the Great, has now gotten some Israelites of the Hellenistic type to fight with him.

So, as he's sitting in the beautiful land, he has destruction in his hand, but not destruction against Jerusalem, okay? Not yet. This is destruction against Ptolemy. And then it says in 17, he will then give him his daughter of women to ruin it.

He, Antiochus the Great, says, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to infiltrate him. He's going to give his daughter to Ptolemy V, who is a boy at this time. He's like nine years old or something ridiculous.

Cool? Guess who the daughter is? Guess. Anybody got, just anybody. Cleopatra. No, this gets worse. This even gets worse. So, he's like, all right, check it out. I'm going to give him my daughter, things like that, and he said, now I won't have to go in here and kill all these people.

I'll let her infiltrate it. She'll do what I want her to do, and then things will be hunky-dory. The problem is, when Cleopatra gets over there, remember he gives it to ruin, it says here, he gives her to ruin it, but she will not take a stand for him or be on his side.

So, she gets over there and goes, you know what? I kind of like these Egyptian dudes. So, what does she do? When he dies, you know who takes the throne? Cleopatra becomes queen. Pharaohs, or whatever you call them, when they become, when the woman becomes the leader.

So, she now is in support of the Ptolemaic cause. That's not working out. So, they're going to fight. So, he will turn his face towards the coastlands. Hey, so when this doesn't work out the way that he wants, there they, he wages war with them.

Antiochus the Great. It says he goes around the coastland to capture many. So, what he does is he leaves there, and he says, you know what? Well, I'll just go around the Aegean Sea, and I'll capture all of this other stuff.

That's what he'll do, and he did. He started capturing all the islands around the Aegean Sea. He started capturing small areas, and he continued on. It says he will turn his face toward the fortress of Azon.

Oh, sorry, not yet. But, a commander will put a stop to him, and will cause him to repay him for his scorn. Now, here's what happens. He decides, after he has caught all the Aegean Sea islands, that he is now going to, man, I wish I had a big map.

He is now going to go into Egypt. He says, you know what? I've got enough power now. I'm going to go into Egypt. Huge problem. What happens when he tries to go into Egypt, they, he gets some help by another well-named person that we've probably heard of.

You know anything about history? He gets some help by a commander and another army by the name of Hannibal. So now, Antiochus the Great is going to join forces with Hannibal. He is a Carthage. Problem is, what happens when they go to do that, they're cut off.

They're cut off because the Ptolemaic Empire says, you know what? We're going to join. We're going to get some help from the Roman Republic. Remember, Rome did not start off as an empire. It started off as a republic.

So they are at a, they are representative. What's that? Okay, so they're, they're going to get help. These two come together, Ptolemy. They get help, and I, and there's a reason why. They don't want, and they don't want, they don't want Alexandria and Memphis to fall.

Where's Alexandria and Memphis? Don't nobody say Virginia or Tennessee, because I can promise you Antiochus didn't go that far. Egypt. Yeah, Memphis would be probably your next major city before you get to Alexandria.

Remember, cities, even think about when Israel fell. There was a lot of other cities that didn't fall when Jerusalem fell in 70 AD, but once the capital falls in a country, what happens to the rest of the country?

Eventually, that's right. You might have your infighting and all that, but until the capital falls, nothing, everything normally stays intact as far as being empire. So they don't want this to happen, because what will happen, if they take that, then that means all they can do is just hop over the sea, and then they can start trying to go into Spain, Gaul, all those other areas.

That's not what they want. So, the Roman Republic comes to the aid, and in a battle of Magnesium in 190, the Roman Republic, with 30 ,000 troops, blasted, blasted Antiochus with 70 ,000, laid waste, sending back, tail-tucked.

I'm not so sure that it's not also about, not just because they didn't like him, hey, the Roman Republic didn't like this guy either. Anybody know what happened to the Roman Republic with that guy? Just in history?

Wasn't he the dude who got elephants and like drones? Well, we're gonna get into that here in a few, but yes, elephants certainly played a big role in it. Egyptian elephants are much bigger than your Asian elephants, and your Syrian armies would have had Asian elephants, your Ptolemaic and the Carthage, all that, but they would have elephants from the African side, which are much bigger, taller, even, you know, you see the elephants with the gigantic ears?

Those are Africans. The one with the big old goofy curled up ears are the Asian ones. They're bigger, yes, and they just, that was like having a tank. It's power through, but what happened, this is just so you have some background.

The Roman Republic, the worst time it had ever been beaten was with this guy here. He killed 50 ,000 people, okay, and it was at this point, this happened I think in 213, I think 213 or 216, that was the Battle of Connex.

I'm just gonna put this up here if anybody's writing, just so you know, and it was terrible. It was terrible. When they defeated the Roman Republic then, they killed 50-something thousand people. When they went back, the city mourned.

They're in Rome figuring out what they're going to do, and it is at that point that Rome says, we will never surrender, and we will never make peace again. Remember that. That's important. They never make peace.

In other words, somebody comes in and offers them peace because they want to make war. Rome says, no, no, no, no, no, no, we don't make peace. We make war. Very important. So, when you said the Romans got defeated in 213.

Bad, very bad. 50 ,000 casualties, not including all the ones that, that's dead people, that's not including the ones that were captured and all that. So, what happens in the Battle of Magnesia, Antiochus and Hannibal are beat.

What's interesting, too, is the Roman Republic says, hey, well, here's what we're gonna have to do. Now, because we whipped you, Antiochus, you owe us, well, war debt. Those war debt. Like, I don't know, 100 ,000, 1 ,000-something towns, something ridiculous.

But part of that, war debt, they wanted them to turn over this guy. Why do you think they wanted him? They wanted off with his head, all right? So, now, let me get rid of some of this so I can write some more stuff up here.

Have I lost anybody yet? If I need to slow down? Miss Jackie, am I talking too fast? Nope, as long as you don't test me on it. Oh, I was gonna have you put your Bibles under here and do a pop quiz. All right, so, the war debt.

Here you go. War debt. Part of that war debt is it had to be paid. Yes, ma 'am? Where was Magnesia? Uh, down in... Would have been up... Should have been on here. Should have been in Phrygia? Phrygia?

It would have been near the Lydia, in this area here. So, the war debt. You can Google it, if you want to see it on a map. Okay? The war debt. Antiochus, it says here, first I'll show you the war debt.

It says that, he will turn his face toward his own land, but he will stumble and fall and be found no more. Okay. Antiochus the great gets whipped, he turns around, he's going to go back towards his homeland.

Where was his homeland? Syria. So, as he is going back to his homeland, he decides, you know what, I owe all this war debt, let me start raping and pillaging these temples on the way. He gets to Susa, he rapes and pillages one there.

It's sacrilege. He's killed. He's not killed in battle, he's killed for doing a sacrilege. So, Antiochus the great dies. Got it? Everybody? Dead. Antiochus is dead, but he has two sons. Guess what his sons were?

Seleucus,.

The fourth, this is this guy's name, Phelan Potter, daddy's boy. That's what it is. And he has a brother,.

Mithradates. Part of the war debt and the agreement was, he goes hostage, part of the war debt, to Rome.

Rome, Hostages, and the Rise of Antiochus IV Epiphanes

Quick question. Quick answer. On the previous slide, you're using Ptolemy and the Roman Empire.

Kind of interchangeably. Not interchangeably, they joined forces to try to hold off the Seleucids. Okay.

And they do that again. So, Ptolemy is still Hellenistic and the Roman Empire.

Is... Ptolemies are Hellenistic, even Seleucids are Hellenistic. Remember, these Greek empires are still Greek and they have a desire somewhat to Hellenize the world, but the Seleucids really became brutal.

With it. Where's Rome hanging out.

In this whole thing? Rome is a republic. Really, they're not as significant right now as they will be. Remember, the Roman Republic doesn't become an empire until technically Julius Caesar dies and Octavian puts away Mark Anthony, the other Cleopatra, and then he assumes it, getting rid of the Triumvirate in around I think 36 B .C.?

34? And he doesn't just go in there and take it. There's distrust among the Triumvirate and then this guy gets penalized. The other one gets killed. One gets exiled and then he assumes then Octavian, you know who Octavian winds up being?

Octavian winds up being Caesar Augustus. That's when he takes the name Caesar Augustus. That's when the empire actually then becomes an empire. Even though Julius Caesar was a dictator, he tried to take that.

He was not an emperor. He was not an emperor. This time, 190 would have been the time of the war debt was starting to be due. 189 -190. So Lucas, daddy's boy, is going to start paying debt, his dad's debt back.

Why does he want to pay his dad's debt back? One, you don't want to die. You don't want Rome at this point because of what happened in the Battle of Cannae? They ain't playing. It was all known that when Rome came through and they were going to make peace with somebody, they would burn it, leave it a wasteland and call it peace.

Rome at this point, the Battle of Cannae being killed, all those people, that switched their brains to when we go through, we'll just mark through, kill everything in sight if they don't pay war debt, pay tribute, all of that.

Alright, so Lucas IV is going to start paying his dad's war debt. He hears there's a place in Jerusalem that has a temple and that temple is filled with gold and he says, you know what? Why don't we go get that?

So, it's at verse 20. Then in his place, one will arise who will send an oppressor through the jewel of his kingdom, yet within a few days he will be shattered. Here it is. Not in anger and not in battle.

So, Lucas IV, Filopater, daddy boy, he sends a man by the name of Heliodorus Maccabees, 2nd Maccabees. You want to read all about this? I'm going to give you a Cliff Notes version of what happened. You can read 2nd Maccabees.

I think it's the 1st or 2nd chapter. You can read about what happens. So, Lucas says, I'm going to send my razor of taxes. Hey, this is basically his campaign finance manager. I'm going to send him. He's going to go in there.

He's going to rape and pillage the place. He's going to get the money that I need. I'll start paying my stuff so we can get out from under what is owed to Rome. Heliodorus is on his way and the night before he gets there, he has a dream.

He has a dream that angels come and flog him to death for going in to the holy covenant. So, he wakes up the next morning and says, I ain't going to do that. He ends up dead none other than being poisoned by Heliodorus.

He has a son, Demetrius. He's rightful heir to the throne. Rome says, we're going to take him and we're going to give you this guy. It is at this point that Mithridates name now becomes Antiochus IV or Antiochus Epiphanes Theos.

Everybody knows who this guy is, don't we? We talked about him already somewhat. This guy will be the pain in the posterior in more ways than one to the Jewish people. It says right here, in his place a despicable person will arise on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred.

Who was rightfully the king? Demetrius. Basically, who do you serve today? Basically, by Rome's help. Remember, he had been in Rome since 189 to 175. He had been in Rome as a hostage being trained up in Rome.

He kind of liked Rome. He kind of liked the fact what Rome was doing. He kind of liked the fact, oh wow, he learned some very good military things. He learned some good philosophy. It wasn't like they had him locked in a dungeon.

They took care of him to send him back when the debt was paid. They weren't going to mistreat him. The goal was, we want our money.

And then we'll give you your kid back. Basically, a ransom. Yes. Who becomes Antiochus IV?

Mithridates. His name actually was Mithridates. When he assumes the throne, that's when he takes this name. That was not his name. He changed his name to that. Demetrius is Seleucus's son? Seleucus IV's son.

He goes as a hostage. Basically, did a hostage exchange. We're going to give you this guy back. Here's what happens. He will come in a time of tranquility. He will seize the kingdom by intrigue. The overflowing forces will come with a flood away before him, shattered and also the prince of the covenant.

Look, he continues to... Oh man, we got to go. He comes in. He offers so that people will gain support for him. He takes it by intrigue. He offers them land, power, position. He offers them all of these things as long as they support his cause.

Now, at this point, he has not become this ruthless traitor. They just see this guy is going to try to help us raise our cause, extend the Seleucid Empire, and maybe this is the one that will overthrow Ptolemy and will usher in the golden era again of the Greek Empire.

So, he's doing it by intrigue. He did not have military power. He took the military power. It says he did it by what? Through intrigue. Then he did gain overflowing forces, and then he says, also for the prince of the covenant.

That's kind of ambiguous. Did he... Is taking the prince of the covenant, he actually went and he captured a king, and he captured one of the Ptolemaic sons and put him in prison. It didn't really work out the way that he wanted.

He put him in prison thinking, hey, they'll now want to work out something to get him back. Think about it was the Ptolemaic, when that king got captured, they didn't care. You know what they did? They just anointed another one as king.

And it really kind of messed up his plan, but he was able to adjust to continue to go in. After an alliance is made, he will practice deception. Here it is. And he will go up and gain power with small force of people.

In a time of tranquility, he will enter the richest parts of the realm, and he will accomplish what his fathers did not do, nor his ancestors. He will distribute plunder and booty and possessions. There it is once again.

His scheme to get people to follow him is, I'm going to give you all this. You go with me, you will be rich. I'm going to give you the plunders of the cities. And he will devise schemes against the strongholds, but only for a time.

He will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the south with a large army, so that the king of the south will mobilize an extremely large and mighty army for war, but it will not stand, for schemes will be devised against him.

Those who eat at his choice food will destroy him, and his army will overflow with many and will fall down slain. As for both kings, their heart will be set on evil, and they will speak lies to each other at the table, but it will not succeed, for the time of the end is still yet to come.

We're going to stop right there. So what happens is, you have Antiochus taking this king that he captured, and says, alright, you know what? I'm going to help you. I've captured you. They put this new king in power.

I'm going to try to put you back in power if you help me. So you have these two kings sitting at the table, both Ptolemaic. One was a captured king. One was the installed king of the Ptolemaic Empire.

They're sitting with one another. Then they decide to make plans to overthrow Antiochus. And what happens, it fails miserably. Why does it say? Because they were making plans to hurt one another at the same time.

So these two evil kings, making plans to overthrow Antiochus, the word gets out to Antiochus that, you know what? They're really not trying to help you, this other one. They're going to overthrow you.

And it says that, but it will not succeed, for the end is still yet to come at the appointed time. And we're going to stop there. It's a good place to stop. One, because we only got a couple of minutes.

The other is a good reason. It's because all of this that has been said from chapter 1, 11 verse 1 up to 27, the end of it says what? The end is still to come. And it's going to come when? What's it say?

At the appointed time. What does that tell us? That tells us that there's a God in heaven that is orchestrating all of this. And everything is going just as God planned. Just as God planned. Nothing's going to go before.

Nothing's going to come after. Nothing's going to get sped up or slowed down. It's on God's time frame. And it's on God's time frame because He's trying to, not trying, He is accomplishing His purposes.

And He's accomplishing His purpose through pagan, wicked, blasphemous kings. Now, our minds don't operate like that. Why did He do that? Well, as we get towards the end, you're going to see that He uses these wicked men to purge to fake people.

He uses it to take those who are the Hellenizing Jews to weed them out. Even then we get into the New Testament. What was the problem in Acts with feeding the Jewish women at the table? Anybody remember?

It was because the Hellenized Jews and the traditional Jews couldn't get along. Well, after the New Covenant comes, that should have been squashed. But what happens is because the Hellenizing Jews were looked as traitors.

And rightfully so, listen to what I'm saying, rightfully so under the Old Covenant. Okay? Rightfully so under the Old Covenant. Who were they supposed to obey under the Old Covenant? God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

They had clothing, they basically had a dress code. They had dietary laws. They had laws on how they were supposed to do sacrifice, kosher, everything. Well, when the Hellenistic Jews start coming along, they become compromisers.

They become the progressives per se. And then what happens is it begins to pull the people of God away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they begin to look more like the Greeks instead of looking more like a kingdom of priests that God had called out of Egypt.

That's why. And the end will not come until the appointed time. Hey, next week we'll pick up at 28 and maybe get to maybe get to 35. 36 through 36 through 2 -1 is going to take some time. So just plan on next week.

I don't know if anybody of y 'all read ahead or doing your own studying. Just plan on doing 28 through 35 next week. Any questions? Disagreements? Clarifications?

I had one on the as you're kind of following, you alluded to this just what you were saying, but like if you're following the covenant people through this time, there was there was relatively like after, you know, Ezra and Nehemiah come back into the land, there's forces at play in the land trying to subvert and all that stuff.

But from like Alligator the Great and the Hellenistic time up to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, was it largely quiet for them or were there you know, was there persecution going on by these forces at play?