If you would take your Bibles in hand, we come tonight to the penultimate study in our January Intensive looking at the teaching of the book of Daniel. We’ll look at Daniel chapter 12, God willing, this coming Wednesday night as we conclude our study. So do turn now to Daniel chapter 11, page 748 in the church Bibles. You will remember chapters 10 through 12 are really all one long prophetic vision that came to Daniel, as we saw in the opening verse of chapter 10 this morning, in the third year of King Cyrus, the king of Persia. Chapter 10 serves as the introduction to this final extended section of the book. It gave us a glorious vision of a heavenly visitor; we identified Him as the preincarnate Christ. He has come to Daniel to bring him this vision and He shows him that behind the great movements of human history, there rages a spiritual war with the principalities and powers and hosts of spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. And so chapter 10 sets the next two chapters into that context – Christ prosecuting His combat against evil in the world across the ages.
Now chapter 11 is chock-full of combat. In fact, it’s a chapter full of war, empire clashing with empire, kings rising and falling before other kings, allowances made and broken. Chapters 10 and 11 together really allow us to see both sides of the conflict at the same time. Chapter 10 is the spiritual war; chapter 11 the earthly combat zone. And we need to remember as we look across history behind us and as we contemplate at least what we can see, which is, granted, not all that much, but what we can see of the future spreading out ahead of us, we need to remember that both perspectives are necessary if we are going to understand the world from God’s point of view. And I tell you that because chapter 11, which is easily the most difficult in the book of Daniel, certainly the most challenging to preach, chapter 11 is just one long complicated and frankly rather obscure account of the various imperial ambitions of successive ancient Near Eastern kings. There is a real temptation – if you read it before you came you probably felt this temptation – as we read and study it, unless you have a special fascination for military history, there is a real temptation just to switch off.
But let me remind you that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness that the man of God, the woman of God may be thoroughly equipped. We need it all, and if we find our hearts are becoming impatient with difficult texts and obscure passages, then in some ways those texts have already served an important purpose under God. They are exposing a sinfully inadequate view of the authority and sufficiency and inspiration of every word and every line of the book of God. And we dare not say to Him, “This part I don’t need.” And so as we turn to Daniel chapter 11, let me ask you, as the King James Version quaintly puts it, let me ask you to “gird up the loins of your minds” in the conviction that the Lord has a word, even in this challenging chapter, He has a word that He intends for us to hear and to profit from.
I want to highlight three themes with you. First, the perspective we must adopt. Then, the plan we must trust. And then finally, the people we must become. The perspective we must adopt, the plan we must trust, and the people we must become. I really do feel that I have failed you in this series on Daniel in not providing enough alliteration! And so as we near the end, I thought I’d try and remedy that at least to some extent! The perspective we must adopt, the plan we must trust, and the people we must become. Now before we look at all of that, let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord to assist us. Let us all pray.
O God, there is a temptation as we come to the Scriptures sometimes to expect Your truth to come to us like fast food – instant and quick to digest, and if we have to engage with it and wrestle with it and think hard about it, we quit all too easily. Help us tonight as we wrestle with a challenging passage to submit to Your authority, to engage our attention and our reason, to open our hearts, and we pray that You would give us light and understanding and be glorified, wielding this portion of Your Word, which is yet also still the sword of the Spirit, in all of our hearts to slay our sin and make us like Jesus. For we ask this in His name, amen.
Hopefully you will have glanced at least at Daniel chapter 11 before you came tonight, and so in the interest of time, I’m going to summarize the whole chapter first and then I’ll go back and read just a couple of sections of the text. So look at Daniel chapter 11 with me. There are four blocks of text here. Verses 1 through 4 tell us about the rise of the fourth king after Cyrus in whose reign Daniel was writing. The fourth king after Cyrus turns out to be Xerxes. And then we’re told about the coming of the Greek kingdom, the kingdom of Alexander the Great, whose empire would not be inherited by his son and heir, but actually by his four generals. Then verses 5 through 20 tell us about the kings of the south. That’s a reference to Egypt under one of Alexander’s generals, a man called Ptolomy and his successors. And their various wars with the kings of the north, referring to Syria, led by another of Alexander’s generals, a man called Seleucus and his heirs. Then, verses 21 through 35 show us one particularly wicked, a “contemptible person,” the text calls him, a particularly wicked descendant of Seleucus; someone we’ve already met as we’ve studied the book of Daniel. A man called Antiochus Epiphanes. He will arise, and while his ambitions will draw him into conflict with the various regional powers, he shall be especially wicked and tyrannical toward the people of God in Jerusalem and he will desecrate the temple. Then in 36 through 45, now the text seems to continue on smoothly in its description of Antiochus Epiphanes; it begins to describe him in terms that cannot be made to correspond with the historical record. Someone new who seems to follow the trajectory and the pattern of Antiochus, but exceeds him in his wickedness is now being described. Most people think that the end of the chapter gives us a description of a future coming antiChrist at the very end of the age. So much for the chapter in summary. I hope that will orient you to the flow of the teaching. Now let’s hear the Word of God, beginning at verse 1:
“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.
And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.”
And then look over at the twenty-ninth verse. Verse 29, speaking about Antiochus Epiphanes
“At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before. For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.”
Amen.
The largest, intact, full-scale medieval map of the world still extant is known as the Hereford Mappa Mundi, dating from about 300 AD – you can still see it on display in the Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England. But a quick glance at the map will show it to be a very curious map indeed. It does not conform at all, even to the best geographical and cartographical knowledge available to the people in the 14th century. But that’s because it’s not actually a geographical map in any traditional sense. It is, rather, a theological map. An inscription on the map reads, “Let all who have this history, or who shall hear or read or see it, pray to Jesus in His divinity.” It’s meant, the map is meant to teach viewers about the really real world, which is not simply the one you can map and chart and navigate. It is the one beyond what the eye can see where the sovereign God reigns, all the nations of the world. Especially important in the Hereford Mappa Mundi is its center. The absolute center of the map is the city of Jerusalem. It’s not a map for plotting a course between two geographical points. But when it puts Jerusalem at the center of the universe, it is actually reflecting the teaching of Daniel chapter 11 beautifully.
Here in the first place is the perspective we must adopt. The perspective we must adopt. Notice in verse 2, “And now I will show you the truth.” The heavenly visitor tells Daniel that what he is about to be shown is more than simply the facts; it’s the truth. You can have all the facts and still miss the truth completely, can’t you? The facts, all laid out systematically in this chapter in verses 2 through 4 – Cyrus will eventually be succeeded by Xerxes whose wealth will outstrip all his predecessors. He will march against the Greeks but will be defeated. Alexander the Great will sweep all before him. He will be great and do as he wills, but his kingdom was soon broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven. His four generals reigned what was once his empire. Cassander in Macedonia, Lysimachus in Asia, Seleucus in Syria, and Ptolemy in Egypt. And much of the rest of the chapter is focused on Seleucus and his heirs representing the kingdoms of the north, that is, north from Jerusalem, and Ptolemy and his heirs represented here as the kings of the south, that is, south from Jerusalem. In verses 5 and 6, these two kings try to make alliances by marriage, but in 7 through 20, those alliances will fail and Egypt and Syria will wage an intermittent war back and forth through the years and all across the region.
And what is striking about that narrative is that it gives us not just the facts but it tells us the truth. You see it in the balance and in the emphasis of the chapter. The fact is, that Xerxes – this is striking, isn’t it – Xerxes, who contested with Leonidas at Thermopylae. And Alexander the Great, who united Greece and built an empire that ranged from Europe to India, they get three verses. Three verses for these two titans of history and their exploits. If this was a journalist’s report, arriving on the desk of a global news editor for any major news outlet anywhere really, that journalist would be fired. All the attention in the report here falls on the struggle between these two ———-, between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, between Egypt and Syria, across multiple generations. And these titanic figures, Xerxes and Alexander, they barely get a nod. They have hardly a look in. They are footnotes, mere preliminaries. Why all the fuss about the Seleucids and their feuding with the Ptolemies? Why should we care? Who remembers these guys anyway?
We get a clue, if you’ll look at verse 16. Verse 16, “But he who comes against him shall do as he wills and none shall stand before him and he shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his hand.” Here’s the central concern, stuck between these ancient Hatfields and McCoys, stranded between the north and the south is a little strip of land on the Mediterranean coast where the covenant people of God have made their home and the temple of the living God, at the time this vision was unfolding, was slowly being rebuilt. What is the divine perspective? How does God view history? What matters to Him isn’t how many people Alexander was able to subjugate before he was done or how vast his empire became. What matters is what happens to his suffering people. And all the forces for good and ill that impinge upon their lives and their fortunes are at the absolute center of the divine concern and occupy all the business of this chapter. Ralph Davis points it out beautifully that this imbalance is typical in the Bible. Luke, for example, is careful to highlight both Caesar Augustus and Quirinius, “but the real history of note,” says Ralph Davis, “is what happens when this Nazareth carpenter and His intended reach Bethlehem.” You see the same imbalance. Where is God’s focus, God’s perspective? Not on the great titanic figures of history, but upon His people and His own saving designs.
That’s the perspective of heaven, the perspective we need so very badly. Switch on your television screens, look up your newsfeed – it is full of wars and rumors of wars, presidents and prime ministers, oligarchs and multinational conglomerates. But the history that really matters, let’s never forget, the eye of God falls on His little flock, serving and suffering and striving for faithfulness, often out of sight, certainly never regarded, rarely reported upon by the media of the world. This whole chapter is teaching us a new perspective on history. It is teaching us to draw our map of the world with theology and not just geography in mind. Do not get so swept along in the fearful drama of this broken world’s politics and power struggles that you miss what matters most of all – the preservation and progress of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Have you got your priorities out of order? Daniel 11 is meant to help you get them straight once more. The perspective we must adopt.
Now think with me in the second place about the plan we must trust. The plan we must trust. This long survey in chapter 11 of future events sweeps on past the early Ptolemaic and Seleucid wars until we drive at one Seleucid monarch who really stands out from the crowd in verses 21 through 35. Notice in verse 21, “In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given.” We’ve met this guy before in Daniel. This is Antiochus Epiphanes who usurped the Seleucid throne from Demetrius who stood next in the line of succession. Royal authority hasn’t been given. He took it. It wasn’t his by rights. If you look at verses 22 through 24, there is an overview for us of Antiochus’ reign. His military prowess, verses 22 and 23, he will sweep away armies; he’ll even remove the prince of the covenant. Most scholars think that’s a reference to Onias III who was the high priest in Jerusalem; Antiochus forcibly removed him and established a puppet that he could control in his place. In verse 24, he will richly reward those who serve him, scattering among them plunder, spoil and goods.
Twenty-five through 31, we see him deal with his various opponents and enemies. Just like his forebears, he fights with the king of the south in 25 through 27. But you’ll notice he is especially savage toward the people of God in 28 through 35. In verse 30, he shall be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the covenant. So he is opposed to the people of God and he is on the lookout for backsliders, compromisers within the visible community of God’s covenant people that he can turn to make them serve his own agenda. Verse 31, forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress and shall take away the regular burnt offering, and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. All of this happened in 167 BC as we’ve noted before. Antiochus made the Sabbath and circumcision illegal. He stopped all Jewish temple worship. He imposed Greek pagan religion. He set up a shrine to Zeus on the altar of God and offered pig’s blood on the altar in sacrifice. He incentivized apostasy and he penalized covenant faithfulness. It was a horrific time to belong to the people of God.
Now step back a moment and notice there is another of those narrative imbalances that we remarked upon earlier. It took verses 5 through 20 to cover 150 years of Seleucid and Ptolemaic wars. Seven different Seleucid kings are dealt with in those fifteen verses. And then the next fifteen verses focus on this one lunatic tyrant, Antiochus Epiphanes. I call him a lunatic because that’s what his enemies called him. They didn’t call him Antiochus Epiphanes; they called him Antiochus Epimames, Antiochus the Madman. Why all this attention on this one crazy king? Well because the next section of the chapter points us to another figure who appears both to mirror and surpass the monstrous behavior of Antiochus. He exalts himself above all gods, verse 36. He shall magnify himself above all, verse 37. His god is the god of fortresses, verse 38. That is to say, he will love nothing more than military might. Like Antiochus, he will lavish his favors on those who serve him, verse 39. And he too will wage his wars, verse 40. Like Antiochus, he shall come into the glorious land, the land of Israel, verse 41. Some nations he will spare, some he will destroy, some he will utterly dominate, 42 through 45. But all in all, this man seems entirely unstoppable. Daniel is describing the one to whom Antiochus points us, for whom Antiochus prepares us. He describes the figure the New Testament names the antiChrist, the man of sin who shall come before the ages end.
Randy Alcorn wrote somewhere that, “Anticipating heaven does not eliminate pain, but it lessens it and puts it in perspective.” And I think that’s true, but the same can also be said for coming evil and future suffering. And part of what this vision is meant to do for Daniel and the people of God in Daniel’s day, and what it’s meant to do for the people of God in our own day is to show us in Antiochus a glimpse of the character of the man of sin who will mimic and surpass him. Alcorn said, “Anticipating heaven doesn’t eliminate pain, but it lessens it and puts it in perspective.” Daniel 11 would add, “Anticipating evil doesn’t eliminate pain either, but it too can help to lessen it and put it in perspective.” Daniel 11 is saying, “Get ready. Get ready. Be prepared.”
But alongside that sobering thought we mustn’t overlook the thread of hope weaving its way through this whole bleak story of war and suffering and escalating horror. Commentators have pointed out that the best way to see this thread of hope running through the chapter is to track – if you have a highlighter pen or you’re using our Daniel booklets, underline the English conjunction “but.” Here are kings and empires, throwing their armies at one another in pursuit of wicked agendas, but again and again their plans falter, their schemes fail. Verse 4, “But his kingdom shall be broken and divided.” Verse 9, “But he shall return to his land.” Verse 11, “But the multitude shall be given into his hand.” Verse 12, “But he shall not prevail.” Verse 14, “The violent shall lift themselves up but they shall fail.” Verse 17, “But it shall not stand or be to his advantage.” Verse 18, “But a commander shall put an end to his insolence.” Verse 19, “But he shall stumble and fall.” Verse 20, “But within a few days he shall be broken.” And best of them all, verse 45, speaking of this seemingly unstoppable career of antiChrist himself we read, “He shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain, yet he shall come to his end with none to help them.”
This king makes that alliance and lies and cheats and kills, but it all comes to nothing. That king sweeps away all his competitors, but he soon dies himself. Even antiChrist dominates the world and no one can stand against him, but without any fanfare or drama, isn’t the matter-of-factness of verse 45 delicious? Without any fanfare or drama, we’re simply told as he’s at the heights of his power, “he shall come to his end with no one to save them.” It’s gloriously prosaic and unflinching in announcing effortlessly the judgment of God. As if to say, “Well of course, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers of the nations conspire together, including even antiChrist himself, seeking to cast off the rule of God, but the one who sits in heaven laughs. The Lord holds them all in derision.” Yes, yes, evil fulminates and rages on, but our God reigns still. He shall come to his end with no one to save them. Evil rages on but our God reigns still. Make sure you hear the divine interruption breaking into the long, dreary monologue of wickedness and violence and suffering in Daniel chapter 11, the “But God,” over and over and over. It will help you find the hope that is actually always there when everything looks bleak.
And let’s remember that that divine interruption happens not just on the global stage. God breaks in just like this into individual human hearts too, doesn’t He? He interrupts the sad, sorry story of our sin and our rebellion in much the same way He does in Daniel chapter 11. Ephesians 2:1-3 tells our dreary tale. “You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body in the mind and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” That’s who we were before we were Christians. That is our natural condition.
And then, for many of us there came the divine interruption. “But God,” Paul says. “But God. But God.” Are there any two sweeter words in the English language? “I was lost and guilty and dead in my sin, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even while we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast.” But God. God interrupted. God interrupted. However dark it gets, never forget the divine interruption breaking into the midst of human evil. He does it here and now in the Gospel to bring us deliverance from the dominion of the evil one. If we will not listen to Him as He calls to us, one day He will do it again but not in mercy, but in final and ultimate judgment.
The cross and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are the greatest interruptions of them all, aren’t they? Acts 13:33, “Though they found in Him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have Him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead.” Put the narrative of Daniel 11 with its depressing account of mounting human evil, climaxing in the appearance of antiChrist, put it into the still greater context of God’s sovereign plan that thwarts the claims of wicked men and brings them suddenly to nothing, at the very height of their powers and secures salvation for sinners when all hope in themselves was lost. And He does it by the greatest interruption of evil in all of history, when the stone was rolled away and the Lord Jesus Christ stepped alive from the tomb. There is a perspective we must adopt and a plan we must trust. God is interrupting all the plans of the evil one to bring salvation to the ends of the earth and to thwart His enemies.
And then finally and very briefly, thirdly notice the people we must become. The perspective we must adopt. The plan we must trust. Now, the people we must become. Certainly this is a chapter warning of coming evil. It’s a hopeful reminder too of a sovereign God. But I think part of the purpose of the chapter is also to serve as an encouraging challenge toward Christian faithfulness. Look again at verses 30 through 35. Antiochus Epiphanes shall be enraged and take action against the holy covenant, verse 30. In 31 and 32, he will court those who belong outwardly to the covenant and cause them to turn traitor. He will pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. He will seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant. In verse 33, the people of God will stumble by sword and flames by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. These are days of dreadful suffering in Jerusalem for the believing Jewish remnant.
But look again at verse 32. Antiochus will seduce many of them to forsake the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. I like the King James Version better. Just pithier. “The people who know their God shall stand firm and do exploits.” Isn’t that great? In the face of terrible evil, stand firm and do exploits, accomplish great things for your God. Do not be intimidated. Do not back down. He that is with you is greater than he that is in the world. Don’t be daunted by the evil to come, Daniel 11 is saying. First John 3:3, “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.” This is the way it was always going to go. Be forewarned that you might be forearmed. Stand firm and do exploits. Don’t back down. Step up. Serve your Savior in difficult days. He gave Himself for you, now you give yourself for Him. And do notice verse 36. There is even in all the foaming at the mouth malice of Antiochus Epiphanes and the terrible sufferings he inflicts, there is in all of it a divine design. Do you see it in verse 36? All the suffering is that they may be refined, purified and made white until the time of the end.
This is just 1 Peter 4:12, isn’t it? “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” God is at work to refine and sanctify you by your trials and your sorrows. He is stripping from you all your dependence upon the world and sometimes the process is painful. But isn’t there something laugh-out-loud lovely in the thought that this contemptible person, Antiochus Epiphanes, all his best efforts to the contrary, becomes the agent of the sanctification of the people of God. He hates the living God, and the more he does to stamp out His purposes and praises and His people, the more he makes those suffering saints like Jesus. So suffering brothers and sisters, God is at work in your life that you may be refined, purified, made white until the time of the end. Knowing that might just be enough to help you stand and do exploits in the midst of all the pain to the glory and praise of God.
There is a perspective here we must adopt – see history theologically and not just geographically and chronologically. There is a plan we must trust – though evil may look insurmountable and utterly bleak, but God. God will break in again and again and again until His kingdom prevails. The proof is the cross and the empty tomb; the greatest interruption of them all. And there is a people we must become – a people who stand firm and do exploits in whose lives and hearts all our sufferings are blessed of God until we are made more and more like Jesus Christ. May God help us then to adopt that perspective, trust His plan, and become these God-glorifying people.
Let us pray.Our Father, we bless You for Your Word. Would You write its truth on all our hearts. May it bear much fruit today and in the days to come, to the glory of the name of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.