Overview of Daniel 11

Well, I hope you're having a pleasant Sabbath. Today we have our Bible study, and the title of it is an overview of Daniel 11. During World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain told the U.S.

Congress, the person must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below. He was referring to a great purpose and a design, something that God had said in place that he felt that any man would just be blind if he couldn't see that God was doing that. God says in Isaiah chapter 46 verses 9 and 10, Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is none like me. Then he makes an interesting statement, declaring the end from the beginning. That is one thing that God does, is he tells the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done. So here God shows that he can prophesy accurately, precisely, and it is one of the things that he regularly has done in the Bible, is foretold things that will happen at the end and he foretold them from the beginning. How can this be? Well, he explains that in the next verse, in verse 10 of Isaiah 46.

Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. So it is not that God looks into the future and sort of guesses what is going to happen. He says, I have said it will happen and I will bring it to pass. He says, I have purposed it. I will also do it. So God sometimes chooses to steer events and sometimes steer people in order to work out his prophesied will.

He will even influence people to perform or fulfill certain prophesied actions. Sometimes these things are minute or small. You might remember the foretelling of the 30 pieces of silver that Judas would want in order to betray Christ. Some small events like that, that hundreds and hundreds of years later would take place exactly as God said it would. Today I would like to examine a clear example of this. It is found in the 11th chapter of Daniel. It is a special chapter. It is special to me. I hope to make it very special to you as well. Here we are going to see how God steers events. Daniel 11 is one of those unique sections of the Bible that goes into incredible detail.

I am going to take a look right from the Bible today at Daniel 11. I am going to breeze through it as quickly as I can in the time allotted. Don't worry about taking notes. Just read along because at the end I am going to give you a handout with everything that is contained in this chapter that I mentioned and a lot more than I have time to mention. I am just going to go through and use the markings in my Bible here from Daniel 11.

We start in the first verse. Daniel here is receiving instruction, input, prophecies from God. In the first year of Darius the Mede, I, this angel from the previous chapter, stood up to confirm and strengthen him. I think that is personally referring to Michael in the preceding verse. Now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia.

Here is Daniel now. At the time of Persia, he has conquered Babylon. Three more kings will arise. How does God know three more kings? Why not two more kings, or six more kings, or maybe some more kings? Three more kings. And the fourth shall arise in Persia. But notice about the fourth one. He will be far richer than the first three. This is an incredible type of detail that you get in this prophecy in Daniel 11.

And he shall stir up against all the realm of Greece. This fourth is actually Esther's husband, Xerxes. Xerxes, you remember, was a prime individual during the time of Esther. This is referring to him. And he shall stir up against all the realm of Greece. He sent ships and one million troops, history records this, down to Greece. It's just some of the events that took place.

Then a mighty king shall arise. Who is the mighty king? Alexander the Great, who shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will. And when he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up. And that's what happened to Alexander the Great and his four generals. And divided towards the four winds. He died in 323 BC.

And his kingdom was divided into the four winds. What does that mean? Well, you have north, east, west, and south. And that's exactly how his commanders divided the kingdom. The northern, the southern, the eastern, and the western. But not according to his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled. It won't be his children, in other words. For his kingdom shall be uprooted, even for others besides these. They actually were four other generals than his kin. He had kin, but these were four generals other than his kin.

You see, we're just down here to verse 4 or through verse 4, and we've already seen specific detail as to how things would happen. Verse 5, also the king of the south, this is Ptolemy I, shall become strong as well as one of his princes, who was Seleucus Nicator. And he shall gain power over him, and have dominion.

His dominion shall be a great dominion. Seleucus Nicator ruled from Syria all the way to India. We've come down to 252 BC. And at the end of some years they shall join forces. For the daughter of the king of the south shall go to the king of the north to make an agreement with him. And this was done, and her name was Bernice. You know, it's interesting how this just reads out like a book.

You could write a novel about this. You could make a movie about it. But God said all of this in advance. But she shall not retain the power of her authority, and neither he or his authority shall stand, but they shall be given up with those who brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times. Somebody brought her, gave her up, the one who strengthened her. All of them were killed in 246 by Ptolemy the second. But from a branch of her roots one shall arise in his place, that's Ptolemy the second, who shall come with an army into the fortress of the king of the north and deal with them and prevail.

That was Seleucus the second. And he, Ptolemy the third, shall also carry their gods captive to Egypt with their princes and their precious articles of silver and gold. And he shall continue more years than the king of the north. He died in the year 226. So these two rivals, one was predicted to live longer than the other. And he did.

Also the king of the north shall come to the king of the south, but shall return to his own land.

However, his sons shall stir up strife. There's going to be reprisal here, you see.

And assemble a multitude of great forces.

One shall certainly come and overwhelm and pass through, and he shall return to his fortress and stir up strife. And the king of the south shall be moved with rage.

Now we jump forward a little bit to Ptolemy the fifth.

Moved with rage, and he'll go out and fight with him. And the king of the north Antiochus the third now, who shall muster a great multitude, but the multitude shall be given into the hand of his enemy. When he has taken away the multitude, his heart will be lifted up, and he will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not prevail. For the king of the north, who is Antiochus the third, will return and muster a great multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come to an end at the end of some years with a great army and much equipment.

See how God is just saying this in advance. He knows what's going to happen. He knows who's going to do it. He knows the equipment, the number of troops, how long people are going to live.

Now in these times many shall rise up against the king of the south, and violent men of your people, your people, Daniel, the Jews, violent men of the Jews, shall exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they shall fall. So the king of the north shall come and build a siege mound and take a fortified city, and the forces of the south shall not withstand him. Even his choice troops shall have no strength to resist. But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and no one shall stand against him. He shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his power. And Tychus the third came back and retook Judea, and he stood in the glorious land with destruction in his own power. And he also shall set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright the ones with him. And thus he shall do. And he shall give him, who was Ptolemy the fifth, he shall give him the daughter of women, Cleopatra. Here's Cleopatra mentioned, hundreds and hundreds of years before she was ever there. So, and he shall give him, Ptolemy the fifth, the daughter of women, Cleopatra to destroy him. So what he did was, took his daughter, you know how fathers are with their daughters, they're real close, okay, you go marry Ptolemy the fifth, right, and go down there in Egypt, and you kind of subvert him and undermine him, and then I'll come down there and conquer it. But men don't know daughters that well.

But she, it says, shall not stand with him or be for him, her father and Tychus the first, because wives tend to fall in love with their husbands and support and love their husbands.

And so, verse 18, after this, he and Tychus the third shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall take many. But a ruler, this ruler, notice rule, ruler, first time we hear about ruler, who is the iron rulers, the Romans? So we have the Roman general, Sipio, shall bring a reproach against them to an end, and with the reproach removed he shall turn back on him. In other words, the reproach of defeat will be turned back. Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land. In other words, his own land, being the temples of the false gods, he will turn against the fortress of his own land. History records that he robbed the Greek temples to get money, and he shall stumble and fall and not be found. He was killed in 186 BC.

There shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom.

That was Seleucius IV, and he imposed taxes on the kingdom. He used, actually, a Jew to impose those taxes. The Jew's name was Heliodorus. He was a tax collector of Judea, and I guess he did well at it because he was employed to impose taxes on the glorious kingdom. But in a few days, he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle. Not in anger or in battle. So, this Seleucius IV, his death is determined. Specifically, no one will be in a rage, he won't be in a fight, and he won't be at war. He'll die somehow else. Seleucius IV was poisoned.

We get the specifics right here.

He was poisoned by Heliodorus, by the way, the guy who had hired him to be a tax collector, now thought a lot more about himself. You know how people are when you put him in a position, and pretty soon they understand how things work, and then you poison the guy that put you there, and you take over. So, in his place shall arise a vile person. One of the most vile people in history, as far as the Jews were concerned, was Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus Epiphanes, from whom they, Heliodorus, and the taxes, and the Jews, will not give the honor of royalty.

So they refused him and rejected him. Heliodorus is kind of getting a big head now.

But he shall come in peaceably and seize the kingdom by intrigue. And so what happened here was, since Heliodorus and the other wouldn't pay taxes, what Antiochus Epiphanes did, he kind of saddled up to the Jews in Judea and became friends to them. And he used some kind of intrigue and deceit. He will seize the kingdom by intrigue. With the force of a flood, they shall be swept away before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant.

And after the league by the Jews is made with him, he shall act deceitfully. For he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. He did this using a Robin Hood type of tactic.

He came up to the Jewish people and began the process of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, of taxing the rich and giving it to the poor. And he ingratiated himself with the Jewish people. And then once he, with a small number of people, once he had that kind of power and mystique and reputation among them, notice the next verse, he shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province, and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers. He shall disperse among them the plunder, the spoil, the riches. He gives them all of this stuff, you see.

And he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time. He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south, who has now taught me the sixth, down in Egypt, with a great army. And the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him.

Yes, those who eat of the portion of his delicacy shall destroy him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. Both these kings' hearts shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table, but it shall not prosper, for the end will still be at the appointed time. And while returning to his land with great riches, here comes Antiochus Epiphanes, returning from Egypt with great riches, his heart shall be moved against the holy covenant, against the Jewish worship system, the sacrificial system there in Jerusalem.

And so he shall do damage and return to his own land. He looted the temple, and he killed the Jews, and he just ransacked the whole area that he, by deceit and intrigue, had gotten to follow him.

At the appointed time he shall return and go to the south, but it shall not be like the former or the latter. Isn't the detail here, though, incredible? This is the whole point of chapter 11. The detail is just incredible, and you can go through history and just chart it. I'm only hitting the highlights. There's a lot more detail here than what I'm giving you.

For the ships from Cyprus, these are Roman ships. In the margin here it says, the ships from Kittim, or western lands, especially Cyprus, which would have been Rome, shall come against him, and therefore he shall be grieved and return in a rage against the Holy Covenant and do damage. Now he's coming back again. This is different than what he'd done before. Remember, he'd gone up and killed and ransacked Jerusalem and Judea. So he shall return and show regard for those who forsook the Holy Covenant. He would return to the Jews and show regard for those who forsook the temple worship, who adopted the Greek culture, in other words, those who bought into his Greek culture. Verse 31, and forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress. And Tychus Epiphanes went in and offered and sacrificed a pig on the altar, just to desecrate that there in Jerusalem. And then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation. But he did. He placed an image of the god Zeus in its place, in place of the true God, and in place of the temple.

Those who do wickedly against the covenant, these are the Jews who were coerced into becoming the Greek pagans. He shall corrupt with flattery, but the people who know their God shall be strong. This is referring to the Maccabees. If you've done any study about this period in time, the Maccabees came and they were very strong. It was a very strong family. And they shall carry out great exploits. Those great exploits actually led Judah into independence, for a short time. First time they had had independence, and I believe the independence lasted, I want to say 160 years, but I really forget. But we come now to verse 33, and it's sort of a transition here from Old Covenant to New Covenant. But the detail continues and it sort of shoots up all the way to the end time.

And those of the people who understand shall instruct many. See, now we have people with understanding and teaching. You have, I believe, the New Testament church. Yet for many days they shall fall by the sword and by captivity and the flame and by plundering.

We find that this has sort of been the story of many eras of God's church down through time. Now when they fall they shall be aided with a little help, but many shall join with them by entry. Even Christ warned that there would be many false prophets who would come into the church. There would be tears among the wheat. Indeed there are. We don't know who they are, but there are always tears.

We should be doing all we can, praying for God's help, so that you and I individually are not one of those tears, one of those false teachers.

And some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them. Again, this is prophesied, to purify them, to make them white, until the time of the end, because it is still for the appointed time. Then the king shall do according to his own will. You see here from the time of Rome and the Caesars and also all the way down in the revivals of the Roman Empire, you had those appointed to that Roman system who were always in charge. They did whatever they wanted to do. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods. We know that the final ruler of the Roman Empire, that second beast, the religious ruler, will declare himself to be God and above God, and shall prosper. And one of the key things there in Revelation the 18th and 19th chapter is about the money, it's about the prospering, it's about the great riches that that system brings in.

Till the wrath has been accomplished, for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the gods of his father nor the desires of women. The first 14 out of 15 Roman Emperors were homosexual. Whether this is a reference to that or not, I don't think we can be certain, but when you say that he will not regard the gods of his fathers, well, there you have the ancient gods, as it were, nor the desire of women, could be referring to homosexuality, nor regard any god, for he shall exalt himself above them all. And this was the theory or the mentality behind Emperor worship. Of all the gods in Rome, I believe the Emperor considered himself to be the living God, the God. And so that system, as it comes down to our day, you have one who is called the most holy father. And there are some other titles that have been used back in the 1800s that we won't mention right now. But in the end, you see, it's not such a huge leap to where this person comes back into the holy place. Just as Antiochus Epiphanes did in the first version, he comes back and defiles the temple, stops the sacrifice, sets up the abomination of desolation, which is declaring himself to be God. Now it says, And a god which the god of his fathers did not know. This is actually a reference. That god is a reference to the Pope, which, like the Caesar, you see, the Roman system became a religious system. And like the Caesar was the leader, now you had the religious leader of the Pope, whom the Emperor then was crowned by, whom his fathers did not know, and he shall honor him with gold and silver. And the tributes then would always be paid to that papal authority with precious stones and pleasant things. It began with Constantine in the year 313 AD, whereby the Pope was honored by the Emperor. Something had not happened before, because you had a transition from state to church, but the same system came essentially along with it. That same Roman system that was adopted from Persia, which, or a Greek which was adopted from Persia, which was adopted back to Babylon. And thus he, here in verse 39, we're really talking about an Emperor to come. He shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, with this papal authority, which he shall acknowledge and advance its glory. Remember? The twelve, I'm sorry, the ten kings of the beast's power then receive this second beast, the religious beast, that advances that system.

They advance the glory of this papal god, and he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain for both church and state. As you see the church and the state in the ten nation, economic, political power, and then the papal beast being for the religious power.

At the time of the end, the king of the south, we fast forward right to the time of the end, and we're looking at a king of the south now, not being one of the Ptolemaic rulers or somebody left over from Greece, but probably the Muslim world, which is represented in that area at this time. The king of the south, a Muslim individual or leader, will attack the beast, and the king of the north, this beast, shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and horsemen, with many ships, and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. They will pass through the Middle East. So we're looking at the end time for something from the Muslim world to attack, bother the nations of Europe, the beast power. And we see right now today so many potential possibilities of that from what will it be terrorism, what exactly would it be? Will it be a fight over oil, etc., etc. And so whatever that happens, we'll come to pass, and he shall, as the king of the north comes through, enter the countries, overwhelm them, pass through, passing through the Middle East, he will enter into the glorious land, the modern-day nation of Israel, and many countries shall be overthrown. But these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. This area refers to modern Jordan. The modern country of Jordan will not be taken over by the beast power when it comes roaring through that area. We see some of those lands on the eastern side of the Middle East today allied with Russia, China, India, in what's called the Shanghai Accord. What will exist then we do not know. It's also been posited that the place of safety might be in Jordan somewhere, and perhaps for that reason this would be the case as well. He shall stretch out his hands against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall as power over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also for the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.

Probably talking here about east, north, west, South Africa, the various regions there of Africa.

But news from the east and the north shall trouble him. What is east and north of that region? Well, we look up to Russia and China and India, east being India, and you start moving up around the north. And again, today we see the consortium of those countries that also have a desire to have a link with Iran right at this time. So this news is going to trouble him, and therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. Just so happens in the east and the north is where the greatest population of the world exists. You have almost a billion, I believe, in India. You have well over a billion in China, and you have some great lands up in the Baltic and Russian areas. I don't know what the population is up in those areas, but certainly here the Bible specifically talks about many and annihilating many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas, between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, which pretty much you're looking at Jerusalem, I would think, and the glorious holy mountain, which would be Jerusalem.

And yet he shall come to his end and no one will help him. If we go to Revelation 19 and verse 20, you can see the fulfillment of this. And then it says, The beast was captured, and with him the false prophet, who worked signs in his present, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image. And these two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. Of course, this is done when Jesus Christ returns, and the saints rule with him. So what we've seen here from this overview of chapter 11 is incredible detail that took place after the life of Daniel. But God even had individuals, what they would think, how long they would live, daughters, and what they might do, and what fathers might think they would do.

God knows and has in the palm of his hand all the events in time. You have so many hairs on your head, and he is aware of them. God is a great and wonderful God that is not going to leave or forsake those who are responding to his calling at this time. And ultimately, he will have salvation brought to everyone in their own time that's allotted. While God steers the events that happen in the world as he chooses, he even predestines some events and predestines some to have a calling, their chance of calling at a certain time. I mentioned Judas before. Paul talks about the firstfruits or those who are the elect being predestined not to succeed or fail, but to have a calling, an early calling, and have a chance at reigning with Jesus Christ. One thing we need to realize, though, is God does not predestined or determine who will succeed or fail regarding eternal life. The Bible and God's way is all about choice. It's all about opportunity and personal choice. You can read Deuteronomy the 28th chapter, which is very clear about good, about evil, and then you need to choose. We as individuals have to choose. Everyone is predestined to have an opportunity. I'll cover this sometime in a future sermon. There is now, there's the millennium, there's the great white throne judgment. Everybody is predestined to be called sometime, but nobody is predestined to succeed or fail. It says in 2 Peter 3, verse 9, The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

That's God's will. So if anybody should fail, it's against his will, his desire.

In conclusion, I hope this Bible study has been helpful in just showing how detailed God can be and sometimes is about what events will transpire on this earth. He can be specific declaring future events and then making them take place exactly as he said they would.

So we can have absolute confidence that the prophecies of the Olivet prophecy of Matthew, chapter 24, the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation will come to pass exactly as God has said they would. As support for the Bible study today, we had a handout. We'd like to give one of these to each family who is here. And if you would like to take this home and read some of the incredible detail of historical events that played out once this prophecy was given to Daniel, I think you'll find it quite inspiring. Thank you for coming to the Bible study. We're now dismissed, and church will begin in a few minutes.