Daniel 11:1-35 | Prophecy of Events

Action.

We are nearing the completion of this amazing book, Daniel. And what we're going to talk about today is prophecy of events. So what we have seen in the first six chapters, we have seen the sovereignty of God protecting Daniel and his buddies.

We have seen him give Daniel insight onto visions, which are actually going to tie into some of the things of today. Last week, Pastor Jeff brought us into the world of angels. That was an important lesson, something that we do need to know.

Daniel’s Prophetic Vision and the Reliability of God’s Word

We're going to tie that into the beginning of this. God's word accurately prophesied events that already have occurred. And we see this in the first part of this chapter is the prophetic version of things to come as recorded in this book, totally accurately described what actually did happen through the time of the Persians and the Greeks.

It then jumps ahead into discussing this little character that we know as the Antichrist. And Jeff, I think you mentioned earlier today that of all the books in the Bible, of all the chapters in the Bible, this is the most densely filled with prophetic statements.

Yes. Yep.

We're actually going to be able to look through the first portion of this, of these prophetic statements, and see how they came to be. There has been a reestablishment of when was the book of Daniel written in realization that everything that was written in these stuff, where you're talking about Persia and Greece, et cetera, et cetera, it comes to be without law.

There's no way this was written back in the time of Daniel. That can't be. And there's a big push that this is actually written more in the time of the Maccabees, where they would have looked back at all this stuff and then recorded the events.

That's not true, folks. We know this was written at the time of Daniel. And when God spoke, he spoke in prophecy, proven by events that occurred. So the last half of this chapter, we can trust the prophecies of events yet to come.

We were spending a little bit of time. We had an amazing first 42 minutes this morning, time together, talking about stuff like that.

Yes.

Yeah, I knew where you were going.

And then I'd won up the elections.

He told me Michelle Obama would probably be the next president. I was like, we were having the best meeting, and now you just ruined my day.

Yes.

Why don't we pray?

Yeah, go for it.

Father God, thank you so much for your word. Your word is truth. And Lord, especially for this Daniel chapter 11 with the most densely populated prophetic chapter.

In the word of God.

Lord, everything that you said would happen came to pass. And so you build our faith by this. And so Lord, as we look into it now, we pray that you would help us and that our faith would.

Grow more and more.

From wherever it is now to a higher point, Lord God, in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you.

Daniel 10 as the Setup for Daniel 11

I'm going to start back a little bit, because it is really cool how these two scenes, these two approaches to it, they tie in so importantly. In chapter 10, starting at verse 12, then he said to me, he is a messenger angel.

Fear not, Daniel, for the first day that you set your heart to understand, and humble yourself before your God. Your words, your prayers, have been heard and I have come because of your words and your prayers.

The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for 21 days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the king of Persia. Came to make you understand. Now we move down to verse 19.

And he said, oh man, greatly loved, fear not. Peace be with you. Be strong of good courage. We can take those words, again, on top of what's going to be spoken here, because what's going to be spoken in this next chapter are kings and kingdoms and wars and battles and marriages and alliances and murder and all this other kind of stuff.

Eventually we get to the end times. Fear not, peace be with you. Be strong and of good courage. As he spoke to me, I was strengthened. Let my Lord speak for you, strengthen me. And then he goes on and he says, I will now return.

This is the messenger to fight the prince of Persia. That would be the demon. And when I go, behold, the prince of Greece will come. That's the demon. So there are things that are going to be going on in the earthly realm.

At the same time, there are things going on in the spiritual battle realm. Words like fear not, do not be dismayed. Peace I have before you. I am your hope. I will tell you. Give me, you don't even have to look it up.

Proverbs 16, 33.

The casting of the law is in the lap, but the Lord determines its every decision.

Verse 21 of chapter 10, I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth. Now what is coming now in chapter 11 are the things that are described in the book of truth. What is the book of truth?

Word of God.

It is the word of God. I think in addition to that, it is God's decreed plan. Decreed before the foundation of the world. Proverbs 16, 33, he knew the casting of the law.

Even before the cast.

It was written in his book, so to speak. Now we do know that is the word of God, but I do believe when we go into chapter 11, the events of things that are going to happen in the world through world history are recorded in God's decreed plan, his decreed will.

I'm going to tell you what's in that decreed will, what's in that book of life, that book of truth. This is how we can actually come into this. We start out, verse 11, it's not important, but we're going to follow the pronouns a little bit there.

I'm going to start over here. Rick, if you would give me just verse one of chapter 11.

And as for me, in the first year of Darius for me, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

All right, so now we've got some pronouns here. We've got I, we have me, et cetera, et cetera. In that particular verse, following the antecedents, the I and the me is the messenger angel. It's not Daniel.

These are words that are being spoken by the messenger angel, words coming from God, describing what is in the book of truth. Now, Darius the Mede is the first Persian ruler in Babylon. And we talked about this way back when we got into Darius the Mede.

There are a couple of approaches of this, because you're going to have Cyrus mentioned, you're going to have Darius the Mede mentioned. And in fact, if you look into the history books of the sequence of the Persian kings, Darius the Mede isn't in that list.

Cyrus is. And there are a couple of ways to look at it, and either one works fine. One is that Cyrus really was the Persian king. The battle was fought, and he placed a different gentleman by the name of Darius to be the governor over Babylon.

So Babylon was just one of the kingdoms that was defeated by the Persians. And so this guy, Darius the Mede, oversaw as the governor. Another version is that they're the same person, different names. It's not important.

Yeah, Rick.

It is interesting how it switches back between the third person referring to Daniel and then Daniel speaking. For example, in the beginning of 10, it says, a word was revealed to Daniel.

Yes.

In the third person.

And then in verse two, in those days, I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. So you have to be careful with it. It goes back and forth.

It does. And that's why I say, we're gonna follow the pronouns, the predominance of the commentaries. Take the first person in chapter 11, verse one. As for me, I stood up to strengthen him, to talk about, this is not a role that Daniel took.

This was a role of the messenger angel. That's not critical to the reality of the prophecy. It's prophecy that's coming from God. It's being recorded in the book of Daniel. And it's gonna prove out to be true in history as we go through the first many verses.

I can be persuaded to say, well, maybe me and maybe I is Daniel speaking as he was given word from the messenger angel. And I'm not gonna dogmatically stand up against that. But he is definitely telling him to be encouraged because what is going to come out here is truth.

Yea, verily, it is from the book of truth spoken of in verse 21. So having said that, Sandy, I'm gonna give you all of verse two.

Persia, Greece, and the Rise of Alexander the Great

And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise at Persia. Then in forth will gain far more riches than all of them. As soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece.

All right, we're talking now about Cyrus. And if you want to believe Cyrus and Darius and Mede are one and the same, that's okay. If you wanna believe that Darius Mede is the governor over Babylon, Cyrus is in the history books, the one recorded as the first of the kings, that's okay, too, in either event.

Daniel 5, verses 30 and 31 talks about Darius the Mede received the kingdom. And he didn't conquer the kingdom, he received the kingdom according to chapter five. And this Ezra reference talks about Cyrus.

He was the one that made the proclamation releasing the people to go to Judah to go and rebuild the temple. So there were two proclamations, one in the time of Ezra, go back and rebuild the temple, and then in the time of Nehemiah, he goes into Artaxerxes and his countenance, and he says, what do you want?

The walls, and he's allowed to go back. The sequence of kings is gonna start out with Darius the Mede or Cyrus, and we can debate that one way or the other. History books put Cyrus first. It says there will be three more kings, and history bears that to be true.

And my phone is ringing, and I'm going to turn it off. Okay, Canbisus, I'm gonna really mess up the pronunciations, followed Cyrus. He reigned for about eight years. Smyrdas was a short-lived king for one year, and then we have Darius I coming after that, and he reigned for quite a while.

It says there will be three kings that will come up, arise in Persia, and then the fourth, and the fourth will be far richer than all of them, and that fourth king is Ahasuerus or Xerxes. We do know of Ahasuerus or Xerxes.

What specific passage do we hear? Yeah, what happened there? With Mordecai's help, Haman, Haman the Arab, horrible. One of God's protections, when Satan tried to wipe out the entire genocide, get rid of God's chosen people, stop the Messiah, Haman, God rose Mordecai, he rose Hester, and that was it.

The line of Haman, we went through that. That pastor gave us that little clip from his Sunday sermon, and we went through the history from all the way back from Ham, Hamas. I like that, and that's where we are here with Mordecai.

And Mordecai facing this evil.

Yes, absolutely, and God gave, if I perish, I perish, those famous lines that were given there. Three more kings shall arise, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them, and that was Xerxes. He was very powerful, he was very influential, more so than the other kings, and he is the first one that was really recorded as having major battles against Greece, and so Greece becoming a powerhouse, he stood up and fought against them.

All of that recorded and historically accurate in verse two. Three and four, Barb, I'm going to ask if you could read three and four, please.

Okay, then a mighty king will appear who will rule with great power and do as he pleases. After he has appeared, his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have power he exercised, because his empire will be uprooted and given to others.

Alexander, we've now shifted from Persia to Greece, and we now have Alexander. We've seen Alexander already a few times as we've been studying through the book of Daniel. In Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Greece was the belly and the thigh of bronze.

And when we go to Daniel seven, to Belshazzar's dream, it was the winged leopard, quick to the battle, fast and swift, could not be stopped by anybody. And then when we get into Daniel eight, it is the prominent horn of the goat.

There are horns that are there, and the prominent horn is Alexander. What happened to Alexander? He was such a powerful and successful king. What happened to him?

Died at 32.

Do we know why, how?

It's a mystery. Some people say excessive drinking or a disease.

It is realized that he did die. I had it written down here somewhere, I don't have it. More of medical. He did not die in battle.

No.

He wasn't murdered. It was more of a medical disease type of a thing. And it's interesting that the kingdom was then not given to his children, which would have been normal. The next line of succession would have had to go to the next line down below.

But his kingdom went to four individuals, his four generals. And I've got them listed here. Lysimachus, he had Thrace and Bithynia. Cassander, he had Macedonia. Then Ptolemy won Soter, and Seleucus won Nicaea, had Egypt and Syria.

What is interesting, and he brings this up, and that it was divided into the four winds, not to his prosperity, or according to the authority that he ruled, his kingdom was plucked up and given to others besides.

The generals get the... But what's gonna happen now, basically for the rest of this prophecy, is Lysimachus and Cassander are not part of the discussion of what's gonna happen in the rest of this chapter.

Now Macedonia shows up briefly at one time. Why do you think that Ptolemy won Soter down in Egypt, and Seleucus won Nicaea up in Syria are the focus in this chapter?

Because Israel's right in the middle.

Israel's right in the middle. And remember we identified way back, the chapter eight shifts from the book being written in Aramaic to being written in Hebrew. And Aramaic is the language that would have been written because it was the Gentile nation-centric information, and then the rest of it is written in Hebrew.

It's Hebrew-centric information. And we're now talking about Ptolemy won Soter and his followers, and Seleucus won Nicaea and his followers, and the reason they're of import is everything that they did, and every time they interacted with each other, where did they have to go?

Through Israel. And Israel was always in the crosshairs as these two kingly lines worked themselves through.

John, I Googled how Alexander died.

Oh, thank you.

And it says West Nile encephalitis.

Yeah, encephalitis.

Or malaria, typhoid fever, one of those.

Speculation. Those are all speculations, and Rick, I've read articles that indicate that his system was compromised through excessive alcoholism so that these things actually could take.

He liked to party on the peripherals. And Cassander married his half-sister Thessalonica. That's where we get the name of the city, too.

Thessalonica.

Thessalonica, that's the Nicaea River.

Interesting, appreciate that.

I don't think it's odd that the Romans weren't passed down to the kings that came from the religious side of the development or the political side of the development, but to the generals, to the military side, because of Alexander's focus on the military.

Correct.

It made more sense.

And that's the rationale why the generals got it, because they were his favorite, they were doing his fighting, and that's the rationale behind it, yeah. We all know the real reason, which is?

God's sovereignty.

Thank you very much.

It was written in the book, I think it said 1021.

Yes, it is, written in the book of truth. Five to 20. Stan, could you read that whole section for me? Five through 20.

Nice.

Just a couple of verses.

Okay, we're gonna find it.

Go for it.

Go for it.

The king of the south will become strong, but one of his commanders will become even stronger than he and will rule his own kingdom with great power. After some years, they will become allies. The daughter of the king of the south will go to the king of the north to make an alliance, but she will not retain her power, and he and his power will not last.

In those days, she will be handed over together with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported her.

That's the good stuff.

I'm gonna comment on that.

The Kings of the South and North: Alliances, Marriages, and Betrayal

All right, Ptolemy I Soter has, his follower is Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Seleucus I Nicator, his follower is Antiochus I Soter. That is not Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus is a name that's used quite frequently.

We get into here, the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger. In that case, one of his princes is now reverting to the north. So we have Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Antiochus I Soter.

They are at odds with each other. One is stronger than the other, and they end up being in conflict with each other. Guess who's in the middle every time these conflicts take place?

Israel.

Yeah, that's Israel. Antiochus II Theos comes in after Antiochus I Soter and he is married to Laodice. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.

Laodice.

Okay.

But he divorces her. And in an attempt to create peace and harmony, Ptolemy II Philadelphus sends his daughter, Bernice, to marry Antiochus II Theos, so that there could be a marriage and there could be peace between them.

Note what he read here in verse six. And after some years, they shall make an alliance. The daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. So the marriage takes place in an attempt to establish peace.

But Laodice, or whatever her name is, is having none of it. She kills Bernice, and she kills Antiochus II. Nice family, okay? She shall not retain the strength of her arm and he and his arm shall not endure.

She shall be given up in her tenants and he who fathered, he who supported her in those times. So now we have an opening, if you would, and the king of the north, Laodice has killed the wife and the king, but in the south we still have Ptolemy II Philadelphus is there.

Start again in verse seven, if you would.

Stan?

One from her family line will arise to take her place. He will attack the forces of the king of the north and enter his fortress. He will fight against them and be victorious. He will also seize their gods, their metal images, and their valuable articles of silver and gold and carry them off to Egypt.

For some years he will lead the king of the north alone.

Okay, let's leave it there. So Ptolemy II, Ptolemy III, you wear, whatever, Ptolemy III. He takes over, it's listed there, that there would be another that would come from the line. And Seleucius II, Calinicus now is now the king in the north, and you can see the times.

There is a battle of vengeance that Ptolemy III wedges against the north because Bernice has been killed. And it says that he will enter the enemy, the fortress of the king. He shall deal with them and he shall prevail.

Ptolemy III is successful in war against Seleucius II and he takes the riches, their metal images, their precious vessels of gold and silver. For some years he shall refrain. So he is going to take the riches and Laodice is gonna be murdered and she's gonna be taken out of the picture.

How old is she now?

Huh?

How old is she at this point?

Who knows? But she's not making trouble for anybody anymore. But Ptolemy III has battled against the north in vengeance for the fact that Bernice has been killed. And they have succeeded and they have taken the riches back.

Give me verse nine, Steve.

And real quick, how many years has this taken place?

The numbers are here. You can see the years of their reigns. Ptolemy III is there from 246 to 221. Seleucius, 246 to 227. Then you can see all the way back in the top of this, Ptolemy I's soda was 323 to 285.

So you can see we're talking in the realm of 60, 70 years of time. Seleucius I, Decatur, same time frame. So we're talking 60, 70 years of time passage.

And to be fair, at that particular point, especially when the divorced wife kills her ex-husband and his wife, we know how to do it.

Paint Place had nothing on these guys. That was an old soap opera.

Hey Rich, is this where we get Laodicea?

Laodicea.

Is the town named after this woman? Probably, yeah.

Maybe.

I don't know. You're supposed to know that.

Well, towns are always named after people.

Right.

Usually. Yeah.

Okay, give me verse nine, Stan.

Then the king in the north will invade the realm of the king in the south, but will retreat to his own country. His son will prepare for war and assemble a great army.

Okay, let's stop there. Seleucius III now is now the king and in vengeance for what the north has done to him, he goes and attacks to the south. Guess what he's gotta go through? He's gotta go through Israel.

Every time there's one of these arrows going back and forth, they're going through Israel and Israel's getting the brunt of it all. Now, if we go on in chapter, in verse 10, go ahead and reading through 13.

Do you want me to continue?

Yeah, 10 to 13.

Okay, back to 10. His son will prepare for war and assemble a great army, which will sweep on like an irresistible flood and carry the battle as far as his fortress. Then the king of the south will march out in a rage and fight against the king in the north.

It will raise a large army, but it will be defeated. When the army is carried off, the king of the south will be filled with pride and will slaughter many thousands, yet he will not remain triumphant.

For the king of the north will muster another army larger than the first. And after several years, he will advance with a huge army fully equipped.

Okay, now the north is gonna go back to the south and he's gonna try, but he's not gonna succeed and his pride is hurt. Guess who he takes it out on? Israel. He takes it out on Israel and there's wars that go on there and there's captivity and the battle just keeps going back and forth from one side to the other.

And it says eventually he's gonna come back with great armies and great supplies and he's gonna have an attack that's gonna take place.

The Odyssea was indeed named, Antiochus named that town after his wife.

Yep. Excellent.

Thank you. Good job.

Now, 14 to 19, Stan. This is so fascinating because you gotta remember, this is written in Daniel and he's in captivity in Babylon and at that time we have Darius the Mede and God is giving him from the book of truth things that are gonna happen.

And these are prophecies in history, bears it out right to the fact of divorce and murder and alliances and it's just, it's fascinating.

Go ahead.

14 to 19.

In those times, many will rise against the king of the south their valiant men among your own people will rebel in fulfillment of the vision but without success. Then the king of the north will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city.

Their forces of the south.

By the way, I apologize. There, the word fortified city was sighting. So as they're fighting and they're going now through Israel, Sidon is the well-fortified city that they take down. Can continue on.

Okay, the forces of the south.

I apologize, history shows in 203, Sidon was defeated by the forces of the Seleucids and in 199, the Seleucids controlled all of Israel. These are basically born out in history.

Go ahead.

Okay, the forces of the south will be perilous to resist. Even their best troops will not have the strength to stand. The invader will do as he pleases. No one will be able to stand against him. He will establish himself in the beautiful land.

That's, by the way, that is, that is, no, that's Israel. They now have taken the land and that's born out in history in 199.

Go ahead.

Making a note.

Yep, it's on the sheet there, but go ahead.

Oh, I'm making a note.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, he will establish himself in the beautiful land and will have the power to destroy it. He will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom and will make an alliance with the king of the south.

And he will give him a daughter in marriage.

Stop, here we go again. So we have had battle now between the north and the south. And although the Seleucids are having success just annihilating Israel on the way, they're not having as much success in defeating and totally overrunning the Ptolemies.

So what's the solution? I got a daughter.

Yeah.

Is that who it is? I did not know that.

Thank you.

Go ahead, continue on, Stan.

I'm making a note. All right, he will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom and will make an alliance with the king of the south. And he will give him a daughter, Cleopatra, in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom.

But his plans will not succeed or help him.

It did not work. And again, this is all born out of history. The Seleucids were unable to override the Ptolemies through this marriage. So go on, let's keep going.

I'm making a note. Then he will turn his attention to the coastlands and will take many of them. But a commander will put an end to his insolence and will turn his insolence back upon him. After this, he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own country, but will stumble and fall to be seen no more.

So on the way back, he's going into the coastlands. He's going back into Egypt, I'm sorry, Israel. And he's wreaking more havoc on those people. And anybody who dares to stand up against him, those with insolence, he's gonna put an end to them.

And eventually, he's gonna go back to his own land, but he dies. And in his place, we end up with Seleucus IV, Philopter. Give me verse 20, Stan.

His successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor. In a few years, however, he will be destroyed, yet not in anger or in anger.

This guy was heavy-handed on the Jews. This guy was heavy-handed in levying taxes and being overbearing on top of them. He's poisoned. It says, but within a few days, he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle.

He does not die in arms. He's poisoned, and that's the end of Seleucus IV, Philopter. Down in Egypt, at this point in time, Ptolemy VI, Philometer. I love these names. If you're wondering what your grandchildren should be named, just go into history of the Seleucids.

Is LeBron James named after Philopter, because he philops, and he acts like he got fouled?

I was named Bob because I philoped.

Oh.

I'm losing control here.

It's my fault.

That's all right. Now we get to the contemptible person. Rod, if you would give me verses 21 to 35, please.

Meet Newton.

In this place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not yet been given.

Antiochus Epiphanes and the Abomination of Desolation

All right, we're gonna stop there. This is Antiochus Epiphanes.

He's, yeah.

He's the one

Sam, making a note.

You know how you do.

Yeah.

He's the one that comes after Seleucius for Philopter. Demetrius Soter was the next in line, but he doesn't ever become king. Antiochus Epiphanes was a general, and perhaps because of his power and favored from Seleucius for Antiochus Epiphanes becomes king.

He, by the way, disposes of the high priest, whatever that means, and he takes the throne. He gives himself the name Epiphanes, which means illustrious one. I am Antiochus for the illustrious one. He gives himself that name, but that's not what people call

Epiphanes.

Epiphanes, which means madman. So that's how he's known as the madman. Go ahead, continue on, Rod.

He shall come in without warning and obtain the 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, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his father's fathers have done, scattering among them plunders, oil, and goods. He shall devise plans against his 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. 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 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.

Keep going, beginning of 30.

You got it.

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 Cain shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw.

Okay, stop there. The battles that Antiochus Epiphanes wages are noteworthy. He attacks Egypt, he defeats the large army. He tries to make peace, but both sides are being deceitful and deplicious against each other.

That peace doesn't work. So he goes back north with wealth, as recorded in here, but he doesn't get full victory. Guess who he takes it all out on again? Israel. It's just that it's an overstated thing, but it happens.

Now he's gonna return back south with a larger army, but the king of the south has done something he didn't expect. He made an alliance with Chittim, and they bought ships, Chittim, roll. So now the king of the south has reinforced his strength, and when the king of the north comes, he's forced into a battle that he can't win, and he retreats in humiliation one more time.

Now, yeah.

And even with all the conniving, the planning, and the strategy set forth in his mind, God is sovereign over every instance, and that's the glory of this. Even in our life and times today, as we see the world changing, I know, we all know that our God is sovereign and controls every last ounce of the outcome.