But you should know that I regard Daniel
chapter 11 as one of the most complicated
and difficult to teach chapters in the entire
Bible.
For that reason, there will be portions of
it that we will summarize and not go
through verse by verse, but you'll get the
point of it, I trust.
Let's jump right into it.
Daniel chapter 10, verse 1.
In the third year of Cyrus, king of
Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, whose
name was called Belteshazzar.
The message was true, but the appointed time
was long, and he understood the message and
had understanding of the vision.
In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three
full weeks.
I ate no pleasant food, nor no meat
or wine came into my mouth, nor did
I anoint myself at all till three whole
weeks were fulfilled.
This is late in the life of Daniel
the prophet.
As a matter of fact, Daniel is in
his eighties at this time.
He has been among the exiles in Babylon
for some 72 years.
In some respects, the Babylonian exile is over.
King Cyrus of the Persians has given permission
for the Jewish people who have been taken
away to the empire of Babylon, now which
has been conquered by the empire of the
Medes and Persians, I should say.
At this point, they have permission to return,
and many of them have returned under the
leadership of a priest named Ezra, who came
back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
It wasn't a big group of people that
came back with Ezra.
You might ask yourself, well, here is Daniel.
Daniel, if you're so godly, why didn't you
go back home to Jerusalem?
The first chance that you got?
Well, we could respond to things to that.
First of all, cut the guy a break.
He's in his eighties.
You know, I mean, this is a long,
difficult trip, and he's basically going to a
ghost town, a city with no infrastructure, where
everything has to be started again by scratch.
Secondly, Daniel rightly thought that because of his
high position in government in the Medo-Persian
kingdom, he could influence things for the benefit
of the returned exiles to Jerusalem.
He could influence them more from his position
of high authority in the government than he
could being there with them in Jerusalem.
And so Daniel was considering all this and
he was mourning.
We don't know why exactly he was mourning.
Perhaps he was mourning because of the difficulties
that the returned exiles faced.
Perhaps he was mourning because he knew that
it was a very small group.
You know, most of the Jewish people who
were carried away from Judea into Babylon, when
they had the opportunity to return back to
Jerusalem and Judea, they didn't.
It was only a very small proportion that
went back to the promised land, the land
that God promised to give them to give
to their fathers.
And because Daniel was sad, it says there
in verse two that he mourned for three,
four weeks.
And we know that he mourned because he
says that he ate no pleasant food, no
meat or wine came into his mouth, nor
did he anoint himself at all.
This means that he cut out all the
junk food.
He became a vegetarian for three weeks and
he didn't drink any wine either.
We should also note that he didn't anoint
himself.
We should probably take that to mean that
he didn't take a bath or put the
sort of perfumes on.
I don't know if that was a thing
of discipline for himself or the people that
he hung out with every day, but it
was a form of self-denial.
I think it would be a mistake to
describe what Daniel does here as fasting.
Honestly speaking, the understanding of the biblical term
for fasting is to abstain from food.
It's not to restrict your diet.
It's to abstain from food.
So I don't think what we should call
what Daniel did here fasting, although it was
a legitimate and godly form of self-denial.
But not every form of self-denial is
fasting.
Fasting is when you don't eat at all.
All right, verse four.
Now, on the 24th day of the first
month, as I was by the side of
the great river, that is the Tigris, I
lifted my eyes and looked and behold a
certain man clothed in linen whose waist was
girded with the gold of Uphaz.
His body was like barrel and his face
like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like
torches of fire, his arms and feet like
burnished bronze and color and the sound of
his words like the voice of a multitude.
Now, commentators like to divide over the identity
of the certain man that Daniel saw in
this vision, although we're not really told that
it was a vision, are we?
We're told that he saw this man.
This was not necessarily a spiritual vision where
God put in front of Daniel's mind's a
certain image or appearance.
This seemed to be in front of his
actual eyes.
He saw this glorious or spectacular man, a
man clothed in linen.
It's interesting because, again, commentators divide.
First of all, is this the same man
that seems to be with Daniel throughout chapters
10 and 11?
If it is, then it helps determine who
it is.
If it isn't, and this guy just appears
here and then somebody else comes later, then
it determines another way.
Let me sort of put it to you
this way instead of beating around the bush.
This description, especially in verse six, matches up
remarkably with the description that the Apostle John
gives of Jesus when he saw him in
Revelation chapter one.
It's very similar for the purposes of time.
I won't get into it right now, but
put a little mental note there to look
at it and compare side by side the
description that John gives in Revelation chapter one.
It's verses 12 through 16 and the description
that Daniel gets here.
So many people think, well, this is Jesus
that Daniel saw.
And it may be.
But if it's the same person that Daniel
is dealing with throughout Daniel chapter 10, then
I don't think this was Jesus, merely an
angel of high rank for reasons that I'll
explain a little bit later on.
Verse seven.
And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision for
the men who were with me did not
see the vision, but a great terror fell
upon them so that they fled to hide
themselves.
Now, again, the intimation here, although we can't
say with absolute certainty, the intimation is that
the other men should have seen it.
There was something supernaturally clouding their eyes so
that they could not see it.
By the way, a very similar thing happened
to Saul of Tarsus on the road to
Damascus.
He was thrown down to the ground and
he heard a voice from heaven saying, Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting me?
And his companions with him heard something but
did not hear a distinct voice.
The ability to hear the distinct voice was
given to Paul or Saul actually alone.
And so the men hid.
Now, look, verse eight.
Therefore, I was left alone when I saw
this great vision and no strength remained in
me for my vigor was turned to frailty
in me and I retained no strength.
Yet I heard the sound of his words.
And while I heard the sound of his
words, I was in a deep sleep on
my face with my face to the ground,
which is something I've seen a time or
two during preaching.
Matter of fact, I wonder if verse nine
shouldn't be sort of my theme verse for
preaching ministry.
I heard the sound of his words.
And while I heard the sound of his
words, I was in a deep sleep on
my face.
Now, that would be an inspiring verse to
give to somebody on their ordination or entrance
into ministry, wouldn't it be?
In any regard, verse 10, you get the
picture here.
Daniel is very affected by this vision of
the man.
Verse 10.
Then suddenly a hand touched me and made
me tremble on my knees and on the
palms of my hands.
And he said to me, Daniel, man, greatly
beloved.
Understand the words that I speak to you
and stand upright.
For I have now been sent to you
while he was speaking this word to me.
I stood trembling.
So as Daniel was laid out in weakness
by this experience, he was strengthened by the
touch of a hand.
And then a voice comes to him.
And the voice coming to him says, Daniel,
you're a man greatly beloved.
This is the second time that Daniel is
called greatly beloved in the book of Daniel.
The previous time we saw it was in
Daniel chapter nine, and it was just before
Daniel was privileged with a rather spectacular vision
and insight into future prophetic events.
But I do think it's interesting that God
did not mind Daniel knowing that he was
greatly beloved.
I don't think it did him any harm.
If it would have done him harm, then
God wouldn't have told him.
You know, it always seems like there's always
a few people who feel that it's dangerous
for a Christian to feel like God loves
them too much.
You know, you shouldn't know or shouldn't think
that you're greatly beloved by God.
You might get proud.
You might get arrogant.
You might think that you can sin and
God will love you just as much.
God didn't seem to be concerned about that
with Daniel.
I think it's a great blessing for us
to know how greatly God loves us.
And we should be very concerned with this
to know the greatness of the love of
God.
Isn't that a valid prayer for you to
pray?
God, show me the greatness of your love
for me.
If you knew how much he loved you,
you would love him more.
Because the Bible says that we love him
because he first loved us.
If you knew how much he loved you,
you would obey him better.
Because Jesus said, if you love me, you
will keep my commandments.
Friends, it's a wonderful prayer to pray.
It's something I would challenge you to consider.
God, show me and help me to understand
the depths of the riches of your great
love for me.
Well, in any regard, verse 12.
Then he said to me, do not fear,
Daniel.
For from the first day that you set
your heart to understand and to humble yourself
before your God, your words were heard.
And I have come because of your words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
withstood me 21 days.
And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes,
came to help me.
For I had been left alone there with
the kings of Persia.
Now I have come to make you understand
what will happen to your people in the
latter days.
For the vision refers to many days yet
to come.
This is fascinating.
God, as it were, through the message of
this angel, is pulling back the veil and
telling Daniel what happens behind the scenes spiritually.
Isn't this interesting to know?
You know, we understand that there is a
spiritual realm or dimension.
That is just as real as the material
dimension.
We have a tendency to think that somehow
spiritual is ethereal and unreal material.
Well, that's the real stuff.
Might I tell you that the spiritual dimension
is even more real than the material dimension?
Spiritual is more real.
Now, the angel is informing Daniel what was
happening spiritually when Daniel prayed.
In other words, look at it again here.
Verse 12, it says, for from the first
day that you set your heart to understand
and humble yourself before your God, your words
were heard.
And I have come because of your words.
When Daniel began these three weeks of prayer
and self-denial and humbling himself before God,
the very first day an angel was dispatched
from heaven to bring an answer to Daniel.
You say, well, heaven must be a long
way away if it took him three weeks
to get there.
No, it wasn't a long way away.
There was opposition in the way we read
here in verse 13.
Do not fear, excuse me, verse 13.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
withstood me 21 days.
Now, at first glance, we would read that
and say, well, how could a person, whoever
the prince of the kingdom of Persia is,
withstand an angelic messenger for 21 days?
Well, we're led to understand here that this
prince of the kingdom of Persia was more
than a man, that this prince was some
kind of angelic being.
And we would take it that he was
an evil angelic being because he opposed the
word of God coming to Daniel.
And he stood against the angelic messenger to
Daniel.
The word prince in the Bible has the
idea of a ruler or a person of
authority.
And we're told many times in the New
Testament that angelic ranks, including demonic forces, are
organized and have a hierarchy.
It might sound strange to our ears, but
there are a such thing as junior demons
and senior demons.
There's demons in the army of hell, so
to speak, that are privates and there are
generals in Satan's army, so to speak.
We don't understand all of the rankings.
The Bible gives us mentions from time to
time, principalities and powers and so forth.
But we do know this, that there are
rankings.
And apparently this was a demon of high
rank, somehow associated with the kingdom of Persia
that opposed this answer to prayer.
By the way, again, just to remind you
that sometimes a demonic being can be called
a prince.
On three different occasions, Jesus referred to Satan
as the prince of this world.
Now, you know, we don't want to start
giving too much credit to the devil, but
you've got to admire two things about the
devil.
First of all, he's a hard worker.
If Christians worked as hard as the devil,
you would think it'd be about five years
until the whole world had heard about Jesus
Christ.
Secondly, I think the devil's very well organized.
And if Satan is called the prince of
this world, you might think that in an
administrative sense, he supervises the battle plan over
the whole world, from the demonic side, so
to speak.
Well, it would be reasonable to think that
he parcels out areas of administration according to
geography.
And this is the guy who was kind
of, you know, coordinating the attacks on Persia.
The prince of the kingdom of Persia.
Now, what's fascinating about this is that this
angel, this demonic being, the prince of the
kingdom of Persia, withstood this angel for 21
days.
Isn't that amazing?
Now, you could conjure up all sorts of
things in your mind.
You know, what was it?
I mean, you know, you could get into
the whole sci-fi thing.
How did actually this demonic being hinder the
angelic messenger from God?
You know, was it some force field?
Was it some spiritual dimension battle?
Did it look like WWF, you know, in
the cage match or something?
I don't know.
Nobody knows.
It's just pure speculation.
But in some way or another, this demonic
being was able to block, to hinder, to
set off the answer coming to Daniel.
But not forever.
You see, the demonic being couldn't send the
angelic being back to heaven.
He couldn't stop him, but all he could
do was hinder him.
And how long did he hinder him?
For 21 days.
Now, here's the question of the night for
you.
How long did Daniel pray, humble himself before
God and practice self-denial for 21 days?
And when did the answer come?
On the 21st day.
What happens if Daniel gives up his prayer,
humility before God and self-denial on the
19th day?
Does the answer ever get to him?
Perhaps not.
Now, we can't say for certainty, right?
But it certainly seems like that's the case.
That the correlation between Daniel's time of self
-denial and prayer and the duration of the
battle between the angels and the prince of
the kingdom of Persia, that it establishes a
link between Daniel's prayer and the angelic victory.
Now, isn't it sobering to think of?
Here you are and someday, maybe tonight you
pray a prayer and God immediately dispatches an
angelic being with the answer.
But that angelic being is hindered.
And so you pray today and you pray
tomorrow and then you give up.
And then when you give up, for whatever
reason, God withdraws the angelic messenger and Satan's
hindrance, not elimination, but his hindrance is what
stops it.
Now, listen, it wasn't Satan that stopped that
angel.
It was you.
You stopped it by your failure to pray.
Satan could only slow the angel, hinder him.
But you're the one who stopped him.
You're the one who sent him back because
of your failure to pray.
That's scary, isn't it?
It's convicting that we need to persist in
prayer for things, that we need to pray
for things until we have an assurance from
the Holy Spirit that we're done praying with
them.
I think it's fascinating how the help came
to this angel.
It says, Behold, Michael, verse 13.
One of the chief princes came to help
me, for I had been left alone there
with the kings of Persia.
You know, that makes you think kind of
like the old WWF match, you know, they're
going there in the in the ring and
then, you know, he he brings in Michael
into the ring with him and the two
of them can, you know, get out the
folding chair and start whooping on the king
of Persia or whatever it takes.
The bottom line is that in verse 14,
he says, Now I have come now.
Why did God even allow this kind of
angelic conflict in the heavenlies?
Listen, if it was in the plan and
purpose of God, do you think God could
have thought a thought and that prince of
the kingdom of Persia could have been eliminated
like that?
Absolutely, he could.
God had a purpose for allowing this demonic
hindrance to slow down the response of the
angel until Daniel prayed through.
What was God's purpose?
God used that time of delay to develop
Daniel as a man of persistence in prayer.
Why do we need persistence in prayer?
It is not because God is reluctant to
answer our prayers and we need to overcome
his reluctance.
No, my friends, persistence in prayer is necessary
because we need to be trained in prayer.
Oh, not too long ago, I was with
my son and we were sitting around and
I was chatting with some friends and, you
know, they were all grown up friends.
My friends and my son got tired of
it and he wanted us to go on
to the next errand we were going to
run.
And so what he did was he got
a little pole, and in fun, it was
all in fun.
My son and I would goof around like
this periodically.
In fun, he took this little stick and
he just started poking me with it.
Gently, you know, but he must have poked
me with it a hundred times and I
just ignored him, you know, but he just
kept it up with a big smile on
his face.
Poking, poking, poking, poking.
And it was like he was petitioning me
with every little poke of the stick, you
know, until finally, you know, I took the
stick and playfully whacked him with it or
whatever and chased him off.
But the whole point of it was I
wanted to get it across to him.
Listen, you're not going to get anything from
me just poking me with this.
I'm going to stay here and chat with
my friends as long as I please and
we'll go when I'm ready to go.
Well, sometimes we think God is kind of
like that, don't we?
Well, God isn't some mean old dad like
I am.
It's not that God is reluctant to answer
our prayers.
And if you go, oh, please, please, please,
please, please, please, please, please.
Then you can eventually talk God into it.
No, no.
The key is this.
First of all, either your prayer is in
the will of God or not.
If it is, he'll answer it.
If it's not, he won't.
But secondly, even if your prayer is in
the will of God and God intends to
answer it, God may delay the answer, giving
you an opportunity to display persistence so that
the answer to prayer trains your character.
You see the difference there?
It's not that you're overcoming God's reluctance.
It's that you're laying hold of his character,
his heart.
So anyway, Daniel's great success in this.
It makes us reflect on our failures.
How much angelic insight, how much angelic assistance
has never been realized in our lives or
has been greatly delayed because we lacked persistence
in prayer.
Verse 15.
When he had spoken such words to me,
I turned my face towards the ground and
became speechless.
And suddenly one having the likeness of the
sons of men touched my lips.
Then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying
to him who stood before me, my Lord,
because of the vision, my sorrows have overwhelmed
me and I've retained no strength.
For how can the servant of my Lord
talk with you, my Lord?
As for me, no strength remains in me
now, nor is any breath left in me.
Then again, the one having the likeness of
a man touched me and strengthened me.
And he said, oh, man, greatly beloved.
Fear not.
Peace be to you.
Be strong.
Yes, be strong.
So when he spoke to me, I was
strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for
you have strengthened me.
Then he said, do you know why I've
come to you?
And now I must return to fight with
the prince of Persia.
And when I have gone forth, indeed, the
prince of Greece will come.
But I will tell you what is noted
in the scripture of truth.
No one upholds me against these except Michael,
your prince.
Also, the first year of Darius, the I
even I stood up to confirm and strengthen
him.
Now, in verse two of chapter 11, we
get in to this great prophecy.
One point more, if you notice in the
flow of the chapter, one of the great
reasons why some people believe that perhaps this
glorious man that Daniel saw on the shores
of the River Tigris, why it may not
have been Jesus, even though it answers so
closely to the description given of Jesus in
Revelation chapter one.
If it's the same being throughout chapter 10,
then we would have to say that Jesus
could not defeat or overcome this prince of
the kingdom of Persia until Michael came along
and helped him.
And we just can't say that, right?
There's just no place for saying that scripturally.
So some people believe that maybe in some
way that that is a little hard to
grab a hold of that two or three
different beings, angelic or divine, are spoken of
here in chapter 10.
Other people think that, well, just the description
of the being in the early part of
the chapter, it's similar to Jesus, but it's
not Jesus.
But you get that this sort of side
issue of some interest there.
Well, let's get into it now.
Daniel chapter 11, beginning at verse two.
I need to preface this great chapter with
a few remarks.
First of all, I need to tell you
that this chapter contains one of the most
specifically fulfilled prophecies of the Bible, predicting history
over some 375 years and to the end
of all history and what has been fulfilled
already in this passage has been fulfilled with
amazing precision.
This chapter is so specific that many critics
who deny the supernatural inspiration of the Bible
have insisted that it could not have been
written before these things take place.
Absolutely not.
It had to have been written as history,
not as prophecy, and that it, in fact,
fraudulently claims to be prophecy.
Well, because of the great detail of the
prophecy, we're going to be forced to frequently
summarize through Daniel chapter 11, but the fulfillment
of the prophecy will be observed as we
go along.
First of all, in Daniel chapter 11, verses
two through four, it describes the division of
the Greek empire.
Verse two.
And now I will tell you the truth.
Behold, three more kings will arise in Persian.
The fourth shall be far richer than them
all.
By his strength through his riches, he shall
stir up all against the realm of Greece.
Well, we can document these three kings that
he mentions and the fourth.
The fourth was King Xerxes of Persia, very
famous king of ancient history who had famous
and epic battles.
Some of the most epic battles of ancient
history were fought between the Persians and the
Greeks, in particular, under the leadership of this
great Persian king Xerxes.
And so he attacked the realm of Greece.
Look at it here.
Verse three.
Then a mighty king shall arise who shall
rule with great dominion and do according to
his will.
And when he is arisen, his kingdom shall
be broken up and divided toward the four
winds of heaven, but not among his posterity,
nor according to his dominion with which he
ruled.
For his kingdom shall be uprooted even for
others.
Beside these.
No, the angel tells Daniel, OK, you're going
to have three more kings over Persia, but
then the fourth one will attack Greece and
then you're going to see a mighty king
from the Greek people and he's going to
be mighty and exercise his dominion everywhere.
But he's going to die.
And when he dies, his dominion will not
be passed to his descendants.
Rather, it won't be passed to any one
man.
It'll be split up.
His dominion will not be transferred as a
whole.
That's what the angel says.
Well, this was fulfilled exactly in the person
of Alexander the Great, one of the truly
compelling figures of ancient history.
It says that he shall rule with great
dominion and do according to his will.
In verse three, Alexander the Great was certainly
a mighty king, but he did die prematurely.
He died at 32 years of age of
a fever after a drunken party in Babylon.
And when his kingdom was divided, assumed after
him, it was not by any of his
children, any of his descendants.
Not that they didn't try.
Alexander left three possible heirs.
He left a half brother named Philip.
Philip was mentally deficient, and so he was
not considered for the throne.
He left a son who was born after
Alexander died, and he left an illegitimate son
named Hercules.
The half brother and the posthumous son were
first designated co-monarchs, even with the regent
or each of them with the regent.
But then the regents fought against each other.
And in all the fighting, all the possible
heirs of Alexander were murdered.
So what did they do with his kingdom?
They divided it up among four of his
leading generals.
So the kingdom was divided, but not among
his posterity.
Now, the rest of this chapter will have
to do with two of the four inheritors
of Alexander's realm.
One of them took the area known as
Syria.
The other took the area known as Egypt.
Now, if you look at Syria, greater Syria
and greater Egypt on a map, what's right
in between those two realms, the land of
Israel and the battles between these two kings,
the kings, the the dynasty of the north
will be called the king of the north.
The dynasty of the south will be called
the king of the dynasty of Egypt will
be called the king of the south.
Their battles, one with another, are relevant to
the people of God.
Because Israel was caught in the middle like
a big football between these two warring empires.
Well, in any regard, the kings of the
north and the kings of the south fight
against one another with great regularity.
That's what's described in verses five through 20.
Let me just read you a verse five.
Then the king of the south, that's Egypt,
shall become strong as well as one of
his princes, and he shall gain power over
him and have dominion.
His dominion shall be a great dominion.
Well, this prophecy of the king of the
south was fulfilled in a man named Ptolemy,
the first of Egypt.
He exerted his control over Egypt and then
northward into the Holy Land.
As soon after the division of Alexander's empire,
the Ptolemies dominated the region of Egypt.
Now, Ptolemy, the first had a prince named
Seleucus, who rose to power and took dominion
over the region of Syria.
He became more powerful than his former Egyptian
ruler.
And so the Seleucids, you're going to hear
me say these two terms a lot.
The Seleucids are identified with the north, the
Ptolemies with the south.
And the dynasties of the Seleucids and the
Ptolemies fought each other for 130 years.
And the stronger of the two always held
dominion over the Holy Land.
Well, basically, that's what this chapter is about
until we get to verse 36.
But there's just fascinating little precise explanations in
here.
Again, honestly, it's a little too much for
us to go into it piece by piece.
We could spend, honestly, four or five evenings
going through this prophecy in almost exquisite detail.
But just look at verse six.
It says, 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.
But she shall not retain the power of
her authority, and neither he nor his authority
shall stand.
But she shall be given up with those
who brought her and with him who begot
her and with him who strengthened her in
those times.
Well, this was fulfilled precisely.
You see, there was a marriage between Antiochus,
the second of the Seleucids and Berenice, who
is the daughter of Ptolemy, the second.
And there was a peace for a time
because of this marriage.
But then the whole marriage got messed up
and there were murders on each side.
And the details of verse six were fulfilled
exactly.
So Daniel chapter 11, verses seven through 20
goes into amazing detail, describing the conflict and
the intrigue between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids
over many years.
And why is it all relevant?
Look at verse 16.
It says, 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.
Well, what do you think the glorious land
is?
Southern California, Maui?
No, biblically speaking, it's the land of Israel.
And this is why this is important.
I really like one commentator, an old Puritan
commentator named John Trapp.
He describes these two great kingdoms, the Syria
of the Seleucids and Egypt of the Ptolemies
as being like two great millstones and what's
caught in the middle getting crushed Israel.
And that's why this is all relevant to
the people of God.
Now, in the midst of all of this,
eventually in the line of the Seleucids who
rule over Syria arises a notable person.
Look at verse 21.
We read there and in his place shall
arise a vile person to whom they will
not give the honor of royalty, but he
shall come in peaceably and seize the kingdom
by intrigue.
You see, the angel told Daniel that after
the brief reign of the former king of
the north, the next king would be a
vile person.
He would not be recognized as royalty, but
he would take his power by intrigue.
Now, we're going to spend a little bit
of time talking about this fella because Daniel
spent some amount of time talking about him.
This was fulfilled in the successor of Seleucus,
the third, who was named Antiochus, the fourth.
This man did not come to the throne
legitimately.
It was strongly suspected that he murdered his
older brother, who was the previous king and
the other potential heir was imprisoned in Rome
at the time.
Now he came in peaceably, but he came
in because he flattered and bribed and and
patted on the back everybody he could.
He was a real politician, smooth as oil
and knew all the right words to say.
But at the same time, he could be
brutal as anything.
And Antiochus, the fourth, took a title.
It's the title Epiphanies.
Have you ever heard that?
I had an epiphany.
Do you know what that means?
It means you had a moment of crystal
clear, bright, shining revelation or insight.
It was an epiphany to me, you might
say.
Well, Antiochus Epiphanies means illustrious Antiochus, the illustrious
one.
Other people derisively called him Antiochus Epimanes, which
means Antiochus, the madman.
But that's another item altogether.
Verse 22, it describes here the failure of
Antiochus Epiphanies to conquer Egypt.
Again, we could go into this, but I'm
going to summarize this.
Verses 22 through 27 describe this intense battle
that Antiochus Epiphanies had bringing this kingdom of
the north, the Syrian dominions, down in a
furious, intense war against the Ptolemies of Egypt.
And he lost.
He lost because the Egyptians, the Ptolemies of
Egypt, received reinforcements from the Roman navy.
And there's a very famous scene from history
where Antiochus Epiphanies is defeated.
His navy has been defeated.
His army has been defeated.
He has to go back to Syria with
his tail between his legs.
And the Roman general comes up to him
on the seashore and he says, Antiochus, here's
the deal.
You've got to decide whether you want to
die and we destroy everything that you have
or you can become a client state of
Rome.
It's up to you.
And then this is what the Roman general
did in the sand.
He drew a circle around Antiochus and he
said, and you have to make up your
mind before you step out of that circle.
It was Rome's way of flexing their muscle
and saying, you're ours now, mister.
We own you.
We beat you in battle.
We are the new masters of the Mediterranean.
Well, to put it mildly, Antiochus went from
Egypt back up north to his Syrian dominions.
He went back in a bad mood and
he took it out on Jerusalem, which was
on the way.
Look at it here.
Verse 28, while returning to his land with
great riches, his heart shall be moved against
the holy covenant.
So he shall do damage and return to
his own land at the appointed time.
He shall return and go toward the south,
but it shall not be like the former
or the latter for ships from Cyprus shall
come against him.
That was the reinforcements of the Roman Navy.
Therefore, he shall be grieved and return in
rage against the holy covenant and do damage.
So he shall return and show regard for
those who forsake the holy covenant.
Now, notice what it says there.
It says that when Antiochus returned to Jerusalem,
he would show regard for those who forsake
the holy covenant.
This is what Antiochus Epiphanes did to the
Jewish people, the people of God, as they
existed under his dominion.
Antiochus Epiphanes wanted to impose Greek culture upon
the Jewish people.
In other words, you can't dress like a
Jewish man anymore.
No, you've got to wear clothes like the
Romans do, excuse me, like the Greeks do.
You can't cut your hair like the Jewish
people do anymore.
You have to do it like the Greeks.
You have to learn Greek.
You have to learn how to enjoy the
entertainments of the Greek people.
You have to go to the public baths
like the Greeks and all the rest of
it.
He wanted to impose Greek culture upon the
Jewish people.
Now, how do you think the Jewish people
embraced that?
Well, let me tell you, a lot of
them said, hot dog, we're sick of sticking
out like sore thumbs.
You know, isn't that same tendency within Christianity
today?
It's sad to see Christians who just can't
identify with the world enough.
I mean, they spend all their efforts trying
to show the world how hip they are
and how, oh, we're not like anything, like
Christians, like you know them.
You know, there needs to be a place
where Christians will make a distinction and say
we're not of this world.
Now, I know that there's always those who
want to put out an extreme and say
we're not And I know that there's always
those who want to put out an extreme
and say, well, what do you want us
to do?
Be like the Amish?
No, we don't want to be like the
Amish, nor do we want to be like
those people on certain widespread, though not necessarily
greatly watched Christian television channels who seem to
decorate their sets in a way unknown to
any of our homes or dress and apply
their makeup and their hairstyling and such in
something that we haven't seen for 30 or
40 years.
But, you know, despite those extremes, there is
a very real place for saying, you know,
we're Christians and we're just not going to
go along with the cultural and the thinking
and the mentality of this world.
Nevertheless, some of the Jewish people very much
embraced Greek culture.
And their whole thing was, man, this Antiochus
guy is the new guy in town.
Let's get along with him the best we
can.
These were those who forsook the Holy Covenant
and received regard from Antiochus.
For example, there were men who wanted political
power over the people of God.
And so they bribed Antiochus Epiphanes and said,
make me the high priest.
And then the people of God kicked out
the high priest that was put in by
a bribe.
Then Antiochus came back and said, what, you
kicked out my high priest?
You don't do that to me.
He paid me good money for that office.
And you can see the battle erupting.
Well, in any regard, we go on here.
Where did we leave off with the Holy
Covenant?
On now to the next verse.
He says, and forces shall be mustered by
him.
And they shall defile the sanctuary fortress.
They shall take away the daily sacrifices and
place there the abomination of desolation.
Those who do wickedly against the covenant, he
shall corrupt with flattery.
But the people who know their God shall
be strong and carry out great exploits.
And those of the people who understand shall
instruct many.
Yet for many days they shall fall by
the sword and flame by captivity and plundering.
Now, when they fall, they shall be aided
with a little help.
But many shall join with them by intrigue.
And some of those of understanding shall fall
to refine them, purify them and make them
white until the time of the end, for
it is still for an appointed time.
Do you get the picture here?
He says that when this future leader who
was fulfilled specifically in Antiochus Epiphanes, when he
comes, it will bring a division among the
people of God.
Some will side with him, perhaps out of
worldliness, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of
cowardice.
Other people will stand against him and there
will be severe conflict.
Again, all of this was fulfilled when Antiochus
Epiphanes returned from Egypt, bitter from defeat, and
he vented his anger against Jerusalem, which was
already reeling because Antiochus had sold the office
of the high priest and persecuted the Jewish
people to conform to Jewish culture.
And so he came and he did whatever
he could.
If you notice, it says very pointedly there
in verse 31 that they shall take away
the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination
of desolation.
Do you know what Antiochus Epiphanes did to
desecrate the Jewish temple?
He set up an image of Zeus at
the temple altar.
And he said, come sacrifice to Zeus at
the temple.
He demanded sacrifice to that image.
And later he desecrated the temple by sacrificing
a pig on the altar and taking the
broth and the blood and the juices from
that pig and sprinkling it everywhere around the
temple.
Now, this great offense against the Jewish people
was combated, led by a notable family in
Jewish history known as the Maccabees.
You may ask yourself, I've heard of those
by those books of the Bible, you know,
in the old Catholic Bible or something, I
see first and second Maccabees.
What you should know that the books of
first and second Maccabees are largely accurate historically.
They're just not inspired scripture.
Say, well, why aren't they inspired scripture?
Well, first of all, you should know that
Jesus nor the apostles never quoted from any
one of the apocryphal books.
Secondly, the early church never regarded them as
scripture.
They regarded them as perhaps useful, good books
from antiquity, but not on the same level
as scripture.
Well, in this great battle, the two sides
of the Jewish people were pitted against each
other.
But there was a great and tremendous battle,
as it describes in verse 33.
Did you notice that it says?
And those of the people who understand shall
instruct many.
Yet for many days, there shall be.
They shall fall by sword and flame by
captivity and plundering.
You see, on his attack on Jerusalem, Antiochus,
the fourth is said to have killed 80
,000 Jews, sold 40,000 more into slavery
and taken 40,000 as prisoners.
He also plundered the temple and they calculated
the modern value of what he plundered the
temple of.
And it was approximately a billion dollars worth
of gold and precious metals.
So this Antiochus Epiphanes dude was a bad
fellow.
But what's very interesting and perhaps most notable
for us is when we get to verse
36, there's sort of a transition.
It says, then the king shall do accordingly
to his own will.
He shall exalt and magnify himself above every
god and speak blasphemies against the God of
gods and shall prosper till the time of
wrath has been accomplished for what has been
determined shall be done.
Have you ever used a function, perhaps in
video editing, or you've seen it certainly on
television and the like, where you have two
images and the first image appears on the
screen and the second image begins to fade
in over the first image.
And there's a time when the first image
only is in view.
Then there's sort of a transition between the
two.
And then there's a time when you can
see both of the images.
And then as it continues to fade, all
you can see is the second image.
This is kind of what we have in
the transition that sort of starts around verse
36.
Antiochus Epiphanes, as important and compelling a figure
as he was, he is most notable as
a preview of the coming Antichrist.
And verse 36 begins the section that seems
to have the Antichrist of the end days
in mind more than Antiochus Epiphanes.
Now, again, this may seem very strange to
you.
You may say, wait a minute, how can
this be where you're cooking along in exact,
precise fulfillment?
And then from one verse to a next,
you have a dramatic shifting of gears and
a fulfillment that takes place 2,500 years
later.
Well, let me explain to you that this
is a common phenomenon of prophecy.
And I could quote you example after example,
where a scripture is given prophetically.
And the first half of the scripture was
fulfilled at Jesus's first coming.
And the second half of the scripture will
clearly be fulfilled at Jesus's second coming.
You've got like a 2,500 year gap
between the two.
The idea of a near and a far
fulfillment in scripture is used often.
One picture that may be helpful for you
to sort of comprehend this is that sometimes
people give the idea of you're standing on
a distant vantage point and you see two
mountain peaks in the distance.
What you look at the two mountain peaks
from a distance and they look like they're
right by each other.
If you were to get close to them,
you might see that the two peaks are
actually hundreds of miles apart.
But you can't tell that looking from a
distance.
Now, what's interesting about this is in verse
36.
It says that this king, the willful king
who will do according to his own will.
It says that he shall exalt and magnify
himself above every god and shall speak blasphemies
against the god of gods.
Now, was this true of Antiochus Epiphanes?
Yes, but not exactly.
You see, here we shift from what was
fulfilled in the days of the Ptolemies and
the Seleucids to what will be fulfilled in
the Antichrist.
You see, we know that everything about this
prophecy was not fulfilled during the career of
Antiochus Epiphanes.
Jesus specifically spoke of the abomination of desolation,
did he not?
That it was still future in his day.
Friends, Antiochus Epiphanes had been dead for almost
200 years when Jesus walked this earth.
Jesus is letting us know that the abomination
of desolation was not fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes.
Did he provide a preview of it?
Yes, absolutely.
There will come someone who will desecrate the
temple like Antiochus Epiphanes.
But he'll do it in a little different
flavor.
Look at it again in verse 36.
He shall exalt and magnify himself above every
god.
Now, certainly Antiochus Epiphanes did this in the
general sense that all sinners oppose God.
Yet he did remain loyal to the Greek
religious tradition.
Let me put it to you this way.
Antiochus Epiphanes did not put a statue of
himself in the temple of Jerusalem.
He put a statue of who?
Zeus.
This fellow spoken of in verse 36 shall
exalt and magnify himself above every god.
Well, will there come a man so bold
as to put an image of himself in
the temple of God that we believe will
be rebuilt in Jerusalem?
Absolutely.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in
2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
He says, let no one deceive you by
any means.
For that day will not come unless the
falling away comes first.
And the man of sin is revealed, the
son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God or that
is worshiped so that he sits as God
in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God.
And so this is what's fascinating about this.
Antiochus Epiphanes is important, but he's most important
as a historical preview of the Antichrist.
And this is why so much space is
given to describing the career of one evil
man, because he prefigures the ultimate evil man.
If you don't understand what I'm talking about,
let me put it in another way.
Antiochus Epiphanes is the trailer.
The Antichrist is the feature.
So you sit in the movie theaters and
see the trailer for coming attractions.
Well, that's what he was.
He shows you some glimpse, but no, he's
not the whole movie.
That is the Antichrist who will come along
at the end.
Well, let's take a look here.
Verse 37, he shall regard neither the God
of his fathers, nor the desire of women,
nor regard any God, for he shall magnify
himself above them all.
But in their place, he shall honor a
God of fortresses.
God, which his fathers did not know, he
shall honor with gold and silver, with precious
stones and pleasant things.
Thus, he shall act against the strongest fortresses
with a foreign God, which he shall acknowledge
and advance its glory, and he shall cause
them to rule over many and divide the
land for gain.
It's a very interesting phrase used there in
verse 37, where it says he shall regard
neither the God of his fathers, nor the
desire of women.
Based on this, some Bible scholars believe that
the Antichrist will be of Jewish descent.
Now, it's not necessary from that verse, but
a natural way to take that phrase, God
of his fathers, would be the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
It could just be a way of saying
he won't recognize the God of his descendants,
but it could be a clue that at
least by ethnicity, the Antichrist may be of
Jewish extraction.
Let me be very careful when I say
that.
This is a very slender thread to hang
this on.
But just so you know that it's out
there, and this is why some people believe
this.
You could also know that some people believe
that the Antichrist will be a homosexual, because
it says that he will not regard the
desire of women.
I don't think that that's what this verse
is talking about, though I will allow the
possibility.
Most commentators, or many, I should say, believe
that the desire of women here refers to
Jesus in the sense that all women desired
the honor of bearing the Messiah.
And Haggai chapter 2 verse 7 gives a
messianic title to Jesus, speaking of him as
the desire of women in that sense.
So that's what seems to make sense to
me in the light of this context, though
I will not say that the idea that
this is a clue that perhaps he could
be a homosexual, I will not say that
that's impossible.
The things about this regarding the Antichrist, a
perhaps Jewish heritage, a perhaps homosexual orientation, those
things may not be popularly known about the
man at all.
I mean, nobody may think of him in
those terms one bit.
It may be that he has Jewish heritage
in an obscure way.
It may be that he is a homosexual,
but that it's secret to the world.
And so you shouldn't say, well, look for
the charismatic politician who's a Jewish man and
who's homosexual, and that's going to be the
next Antichrist.
That would be just about as misguided as
you could get in considering who the Antichrist
would be.
No, the much more reliable way is to
add up the letters of their name and
see who adds up to 666.
That's just a joke also.
Fortunately, we don't have to concern ourselves with
looking for the Antichrist.
We should keep our eye and our vision
on Jesus Christ, who is our salvation and
will be revealed unto us.
Well, from verse 40 to verse 45 describes
the final conflict ending in the ruin of
the Antichrist.
Let me just end with the final verse
here in verse 45.
And he shall plant the tents of his
palace between the seas and the glorious holy
mountains.
Yet he shall come to his end and
no one will help him.
You know, in the end, there is no
hope, no help for the Antichrist or for
any of his followers.
I think of the contrast.
There's Daniel praying and an angel was dispatched
to help him.
And the angel was there to help Daniel.
But Daniel helped the angel by his persistent
prayer.
And then God dispatched another helper to come
and help the angel who was battling against
this, who was being helped by Daniel's prayer.
Can I put it to you this way?
There's a lot of help in the kingdom
of God.
Some of it comes directly from God's hand
himself unto us.
Other of it comes through angelic messengers that
we cannot even seen.
But you've sensed it before, haven't you?
That you've been strengthened by an unseen hand
in your life.
Sometimes that strengthening comes from the help that
God brings to us just through another brother
or sister who's there to give us comfort
and encouragement.
But there's a lot of help in the
kingdom of God.
In the end of it all, the kingdom
of the Antichrist and his followers, there is
no help.
There will be no one to help him.
I don't know about you, but it just
reaffirms my desire to stay on the side
where there's a lot of help, because I
need a lot of help.
I don't know about you.
I'll take it from the Lord and his
messengers of any kind.
Let's pray and thank the Lord for this
passage of scripture this evening.
Lord God, we thank you for the amazing
precision of your word.
And Father, seeing the phenomenon of fulfilled prophecy
makes us so persuaded of your truth, of
your power, of your accuracy, so to speak,
Lord, that we have great and tremendous confidence
that you can fulfill every good purpose that
you've occasioned in our life.
We love you, Lord.
We thank you together this evening.
And as you keep working in our hearts,
God, make us people of persistent prayer.
Continue to stir us.
Continue to move us.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.