And now before we come to the Word of God, I'd
like for us to bow in prayer on this very special
day in our culture, a day when we honor motherhood.
Would you join me please as we pray? Father,
I thank you this morning for the gift of Mother.
For each one of us looks to that one, that very
special one in your plan that brought us into
the world. We thank you for the nurture, the
love, the gentleness example that Godly mothers
have set before us. And Father, I thank you for
those mothers here within our church who are
seeking to set that example now in a very difficult
time in the world when pressures are upon them
and upon their families. to the extreme. Grant
to them that special grace from the Spirit of
God to be able to fulfill and find satisfaction
in that highest of roles that you planned. And
Father, we are mindful too that there are those
in our church that desire to have children but
have not been able to. And together as their
brothers and sisters in Christ we lift them up
and pray that in your goodness and providence
If it be your will that you would grant to them
the desire of their hearts And father we pray
for those mothers who have lost children You
would give on this day of undoubtedly many memories,
a special comfort. And may they sense your arms
around them, your tender love and understanding.
And may that help fill the void that remains
in their lives. God, you have revealed yourself
to us as Father. And yet you have many wonderful
mothering qualities among your attributes. We
are glad for the gentleness and love that you
show to us. We are glad for the way that you
discipline us faithfully. Teach us not to resist
that, but to cooperate. and to understand then
that it brings righteousness and peace to our
lives. Now as we come to your word, we pray that
the Holy Spirit would be our teacher. Guide us
through this complex chapter. Open our understanding
to it, but then apply it to our lives in ways
that will send us away from here encouraged that
we serve a sovereign God. In Jesus' name we pray,
Amen. If you enjoy a biblical prophecy, this
chapter, the 11th chapter of Daniel, is one that
will thrill you. The angel which had been sent
from God gave to Daniel information which covers
a span of nearly 400 years. and then beyond that.
Now just imagine that. Having understanding of
what was going to happen over hundreds of years
to come in the future. Most of us today can't
tell what's going to happen tomorrow. I can tell
what's going to happen for the next seven years,
and I'll explain why. This last week I was working
on a project in our home. My wife had wonderfully
papered the hallway in the upstairs of our house.
It looked so nice and clean and fresh. All of
the smudge marks from children's hands had been
removed and covered over with this lovely paper.
And it was my assignment after she had done all
of the work to put up the mirror that I'd taken
down from the wall. Do I have to say more? I
put the two little brackets on the bottom of
this mirror that was just four feet tall and
about 18 or 12 inches wide. And the other two
brackets were in the bathroom down the hallway.
And so I backed away from the mirror and it clung
tightly to the wall. So I walked into the bathroom
and heard crash. I went out into the hallway
and saw not only the mirror broken, but the wallpaper
torn and scarred from the sharp glass of the
mirror. So I know what's going to happen over
the next seven years. But most of us today don't
know what's going to happen tomorrow. But Daniel
is here given information for centuries to come,
and in some respects it was much worse than a
broken mirror. So specific and sweeping is this
revelation that God gives that those denying
a supernatural God must somehow deal with this.
This is one of those passages that absolutely
shreds their idea that God is not intervening
in human affairs and that God, if there is a
God, is simply not interested in the world and
in human history. This chapter proves exactly
the opposite of that, and so their only recourse
is to tear the book of Daniel apart and repaste
it back together in such a way that they say
this part of Daniel had to be written after these
events. So that instead of it being prophetic,
someone falsely is claiming to be Daniel and
writing about it, lying about it actually, saying
it's going to come to pass when it already happens.
And so their only recourse is to say that the
book of Daniel is a fraud, but it's their theology
that's a fraud. Indeed, this passage of Scripture
is prophetic and covered hundreds of years to
come from the lifetime of Daniel. Now for us
today, most of it is history. Chapter 11, verse
2 up through verse 35 is prophecy dealing with
events that now have occurred long ago. The last
part of the chapter, verses 36 -45, deal with
events that are yet to come from our own day.
Now today we're going to look at the first part
of the chapter and see what God revealed to Daniel.
Things to come which did. Things to come from
the day in which Daniel lived and which did come
to pass. Now we don't have time to read the text.
I've encouraged you before to read it in advance.
I have to hope you've done that or that you will
do it later. But we're going to need to skim
through the text and deal with it very quickly
because it is broad and sweeping and complex
really in its details. And we don't have time
to deal with all of those complexities. The verse
2 tells us of the future of Persia. Remember
that's the nation in which Daniel is now living.
Babylon has fallen. He is a leader in Persia.
And what verse 2 tells us is that following Cyrus,
there would be kings to come. And there are four
of them that are suggested. And that's exactly
what happened. Following Cyrus came Cambyses,
530 to 522 BC. Following him came a man who pretended
to be an heir to the throne. He is sometimes
called Pseudo -Smerdis, a false Smerdis, because
after a few months on the throne they found out
that he in fact was a perpetrator, and so they
threw him out. And then to the throne came Darius
I. He had a long reign from 521 BC to 486 BC.
And then came a fourth king, as Daniel mentions
here, a fourth one that would stand out. in his
riches, and which would arouse his realm against
Greece. And the fourth king was one who was called
Exerxes. Now he is mentioned in the Bible, although
not by that name. His Hebrew name is Ahasuerus.
Much easier to call him Exerxes, which is the
Greek form of his name. He is the one who married
Esther. And the king in that book is this king,
the fourth one that Daniel mentions, that would
come. He reigned from 486 BC until 465 BC. And
in fact, not long after he became king, he aroused
his forces, got an army of a million men together,
according to the historian Herodotus, and attacked
Greece. And he had hundreds of ships in his navy.
The reason for his attacking Greece was the avenging
of a defeat given to his father in 490 BC at
Marathon. Xerxes with his army pushed across
Greece, they reduced Athens to ashes, but then
suffered an unexpected naval defeat and as a
result of that had to retreat and eventually
went back home to Persia. In verses 3 and 4,
then, Daniel is given information regarding the
future of Greece. Now remember, we're skipping
ahead more than a century at this point, or almost
a century, up to the day of Alexander. It says
that a mighty king will arise and will rule with
great authority and do as he pleases. This is
the same figure that we've seen earlier in Daniel.
It is the one described as a winged leopard in
chapter 7 and verse 6 and as a conspicuous horn
on the goat of Daniel 8 verses 5 through 8. It
is Alexander the Great who as the young king
of Greece conquered Persia. Alexander had quite
a history for about 11 years as he swept across
the the Mesopotamian region. He, however, died
early at the age of 33 because of malaria and
alcoholism. And after his untimely and early
death, as Daniel is told here, his kingdom was
divided among four generals. These generals were
not relatives, but they were very influential
men under Daniel. They are the same ones as the
four heads on the leopard of chapter 7, verse
6, and the four horns that appeared on the goat
of chapter 8, and verse 8. To name them, they
are Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus.
A Cassander was given the region of Macedonian
Greece to reign over. Lysimachus was given Thrace
and Asia Minor. Ptolemy was given Egypt. and
Palestine and Seleucus was given the northern
part of Syria and all of Mesopotamia and so the
kingdom of Alexander the Great was thus divided
exactly as Daniel is told it would be. That brings
us then to verses 5 through 20 which gives a
detailed prophecy of the future struggle between
Syria and Egypt. The King of the North in these
verses is Syria. And it is the Seleucid Empire
or dynasty that was founded by Seleucus I. The
King of the South on the other hand is Egypt
in this text. And it is the dynasty of Ptolemy
founded by Ptolemy I. In these verses you find
the battles and maneuverings between the King
of the North and the King of the South. as it
occurred over about a 225 year period and a succession
of several kings or rulers. For our purposes,
in our study this morning, we simply want to
mention the one that stands out the most in verses
15 through 19. And that is a man who was known
as Antiochus III, or Antiochus the Great. For
as the king of the north of the Syrian region,
of the Seleucid Empire and dynasty, Antiochus
III, conducted the most extensive campaigns since
Alexander. His attempt was to try to reunite
the empire in some way to recapture the glory
of Alexander, yet he failed to do that. His final
campaign was directed against Rome, but he was
stopped in his tracks by a commander, as Daniel
is told that he would be. In history we know
that this commander's name was Cornelius Scipio
Asiaticus. And having been stopped in his fight
against Rome, Antiochus III went back to his
homeland, where he soon died. Rome enforced upon
him some very severe peace terms. In order to
have peace, he had to surrender all of the claims
to the territory west of the Tarsus Mountains.
Those mountains are on the east side of Asia
Minor. He further had to give up one of the most
powerful elements of his army, an elephant brigade.
And he had to give up his navy. In order to have
peace, he had to send 20 hostages to Rome. Their
basic purpose was to ensure that he would pay
a heavy tax or tribute to Rome that they exacted
from him Now interestingly one of the 20 hostages
was his second son who bore his name Antiochus
the fourth and we'll talk about him in a moment
But upon the death then of Antiochus the great
His first son ruled in his place. His name was
Seleucus IV. He reigned from 187 to 176. He is
the one who is mentioned in verse 20. Because
he was responsible now to pay this heavy tax
to Rome, he in turn heavily taxed the people
to pay the tribute. Word came to him of valuables
that were hidden in the Jerusalem temple. And
so he sent his tax collector there to plunder
the temple in Jerusalem. The man's name was Heliodorus.
And this gentleman, as he was heading toward
Jerusalem, so secular history tells us, had a
terrifying vision. It was a vision of himself
being attacked and flogged by angels. Being frightened
of the vision, he turned around and went back,
did not complete his assignment. We see that
in the Book of Second Maccabees, the third chapter.
And whatever the intrigue involved, after this
sometime, the same man, this tax collector named
Heliodorus, poisoned the king, Seleucus, hoping
that he himself would be able to come to power.
However, history doesn't mention him after his
deed, for in fact the younger son, who had been
held hostage in Rome, had in the meantime been
released, and was living in Athens, and he heard
that his older brother had been killed, and so
he quickly went back to Syria and claimed the
throne. He reigned from 175 to 163, this gentleman
who is called Let me back up this beast, not
gentleman, who is called Antiochus the fourth.
For he is described now in verses 21 through
35. The longest portion of this first half of
the chapter is dedicated to this man. And you
will notice that the word of God says he was
a despicable person. And indeed he was evil,
he was a tyrant. He was a liar and a deceiver.
There was not anything honorable about Antiochus
the fourth. It might be difficult for us to appreciate
this man had we not known Hitler in our own generation.
He was very much like a Hitler. He was able to
consolidate power amazingly. He liked to be called
Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greek word which means
the illustrious one. In fact, he claimed for
himself deity. But behind his back, those who
hated him called him Antiochus Epimenes. You
can hear a similarity in the word. It means the
madman, because that's what he was. This one
is mentioned also earlier in the book of Daniel
in the eighth chapter, verses 9 through 12, and
then again, verses 23 through 25. It is because
of his profound evil, His deep hatred for the
Jewish people and because he foreshadows another
yet future persecutor of the Jews That so much
space is given to him in Daniel chapter 11 He
came to power by intrigue as verse 21 suggests
to us It was not conferred upon him by natural
succession It did not come upon him because of
conquering, it came upon him because of trickery.
He illegally seized the throne of his murdered
brother. Verses 23 and 24 tell us that he then
attempted to bring peace to his kingdom and did
this by redistributing the wealth. He would go
to those who were wealthy and besiege them and
take their riches and... give it to the poor,
and in such a way he tried to get the poor, which
were far greater in number, of course, on his
side. He was always playing one side against
the other. He always had a hidden agenda somewhere,
and that was his plan and redistribution of wealth.
In verses 25 through 27, we see that he moves
against Egypt. It talks again about the king
of the south, talking about the Ptolemy dynasty
ruling over Egypt. Now at this particular time,
it's interesting that his own nephew was reigning
in Egypt because Antiochus' sister, whose name
was Cleopatra, was married to the Ptolemy king
of Egypt as sort of a political alliance. And
she bore a child, in fact two of them. and her
eldest was on the throne. So Antiochus' nephew
was actually the one reigning in Egypt. But he
marched upon Egypt. He brought his smaller army
against a very large Egyptian force and defeated
it near the Nile Delta. He took his own nephew
prisoner. Although it was a funny way of being
a prisoner, he treated him well. and yet didn't
allow him any liberty. When this man had been
taken prisoner, the powers to be in Egypt put
his brother next to him on the throne, and so
now Antiochus had another nephew who was on the
throne in Alexandria. Well, the nephew that he
held prisoner didn't care for that either, and
so that nephew and Antiochus got together at
a table, as is suggested here by Daniel, and
at that table they sought to work out some kind
of a plan whereby they could take this younger
brother off the throne of Egypt, and Antiochus
would put the older brother back on the throne,
but he would be a puppet to Antiochus. And in
that way he would be able to reign over Egypt,
which was his real desire. And so the two of
them got together at the table. They both pretended
friendship and they acted like they were going
to agree together on this to do it. But both
of them were lying. They had hidden agendas on
both sides and nothing much ever came of it because
they marched with their army against or toward
Alexandria and took over Memphis, but they were
unable to take over Alexandria. The armies of
Egypt successfully stopped Antiochus IV in his
advance. And as a result of that, he had to stop
his advance and go back home. In the meantime,
he installed his imprisoned nephew as king over
part of Egypt at Memphis. And so at this point,
there were two kings of Egypt, one in Alexandria
over the Ptolemy Empire and one installed by
Antiochus over the part he had conquered. And
he was reigning in Memphis. Not Tennessee, by
the way. Now in verse 28, we find something interesting.
It says, then he will return to his land with
much plunder, but his heart will be set against
the Holy Covenant. That is language that talks
about the covenant of God with the Jews. But
what happened was that Antiochus was very frustrated
and angry that he was unable to take all of Egypt
and had to settle for only part of it. And so
as he turned to go back home, he marched across
Palestine. And as he came to Jerusalem, he determined
to rob the temple, and he did. And he desecrated
it and murdered many of the Jews, the people
whom he hated above all others. And he put in
place a high priest who would do his bidding
among the Jews. Well, then verses 29 through
32 tell us that a couple of years later, at the
appointed time, this is 168 BC now, he decided
to make another move against Egypt. And so he
marched his forces again across Palestine, down
against Egypt, but this time, Rome intervened.
Now Rome is growing in power, you see, all of
this time. and does not want Antiochus to gain
any more power. Now they knew Antiochus, because
he had been held prisoner there, remember. He
knew many other people in the Senate. They wanted
to stop him from attacking Egypt, and so they
sent a very powerful representative, along with
their naval forces, those are the ships of Khatim
that are mentioned here, down to Egypt. and they
enforced upon Antiochus a decree that he should
not enter Egypt. They said, if you enter Egypt,
Rome will come and do battle against you. And
Antiochus didn't particularly want that at this
point in his life. He hesitated to agree to this
forced stopping of his advance. The leader of
the delegation from Rome drew a circle around
Antiochus in the sand. And he said, don't come
out of that circle until you decide what you're
going to do. Well, Antiochus was absolutely humiliated
by this. In front of all of his forces, this
took place. And he had to bow to Rome. And because
of the tremendous anger, the humiliation, and
the frustration that he had over the second failure
to take Egypt, he again turned his armies around
and marched across Palestine. This time doing
even greater damage to the Jewish people, killing
many of them. Again ransacking the temple, seeking
to destroy the Jewish religion, and giving encouragement
to those who were renegade Jews who acted wickedly
toward the covenant as it mentions in verse 32.
You see among the Jews there were those who were
cooperating with Antiochus and the Syrian forces.
And then there were others, as are mentioned
here, who knew their God and who displayed strength
and who took action. Well, these verses, up through
verse 35, now describe to us a period of Israel's
history that is very dark. On December the 16th,
167 B .C., Alexander went into the Jewish temple.
And there in place of the burnt offering, that
sacred spot to the Jews in their temple, he erected
a statue and an altar to Jupiter, or to Zeus,
one of the chief of the Roman gods, the Greek
gods. And he offered there a pig upon this altar.
Well, this of course was highly offensive to
the Jews. Not only was there an idol to a false
god in their temple, but a pig, a swine, the
dirtiest of animals, of all the unclean animals,
to the Jew the worst. The blood of that animal
shed in their temple. It was tremendously offensive.
At the same time, he ordered that on the 25th
of every month, in honor of his own birthday,
the Jews should offer a pig. just like he had.
Well, this is called here the abomination of
desolations. And that is a term that is important
because our Lord speaks of that again as we will
probably see as we look into the next part of
this chapter next week. As a result of this flagrant
violation of the Jewish religion and conscience,
there were some Jews who reacted. Among those
were a priest by the name of Mattathias and his
five sons. These men led what has come to be
known as the Maccabean Rebellion. This was a
protracted guerrilla warfare against the Syrian
occupation forces and against the Jewish traitors.
It was a time that lasted about three or four
years. It was a time of tremendous suffering
and persecution on the part of the Jewish people.
But as is suggested to Daniel here, the result
of it would be to refine, to purge, and to make
pure until the end time. In other words, the
result of it was that the faithful among God's
people were refined and purified. Daniel does
not hear speak of Antiochus' death, but this
insane man did finally die in 163 B .C. and his
insanity was probably caused by syphilis. Now
do you understand what we've covered here in
brief this morning? Daniel is living about 536
BC. And God gives to Daniel understanding of
the events that would take place over the next
400 years in that part of the world. And not
just in the broad sense, but in specifics. Now
I'd like to go on with this chapter, but because
of its length and what we need to deal with next,
We're going to wait until next week to talk about
it. Let me just say that what we've had up to
this point for us in 1990 is history. Long ago
it occurred. What we're going to look at next
is yet future to our own day. For Daniel did
not realize, he was not given the information,
that between verses 35 and 36 there would be
a gap of time, even thousands of years. We're
going to see that there is another one who is
coming up on the scene of the world who will
be every bit the hater of the Jews and of the
people of God, as was Antiochus IV, who has long
been in hell. But before I bring this to a close,
there are some things I'd like to say to you.
First of all, as we look through this text and
we think about it, we are confronted with a theological
Question. We see here that God can predict exactly
what is going to happen in the future. The question
is, can God control it? You see, if he can't
control what's going to happen in the future,
then how can he be God? On the other hand, if
God can and does control what's going to happen
in the future, why does He permit the rise of
someone like Antiochus IV? Why didn't God cause
His mother to be barren? Why didn't He die in
childbirth? God can predict, but can he control?
And if he controls, why does he allow someone
like a Hitler, like an Antiochus, to come up
on the face of the earth? Well that is a complex
question that would take a series of messages
to fully explore, but I'd like to suggest two
or three thoughts to you this morning that may
stimulate your thinking about it. One is that
such evil as we see here, is the consequence
of sin. Sin that indwells all of Adam's race.
God is not the originator of sin. Antiochus IV
and people like him, whether an exterminator
of a race or an abortionist of one baby, are
the inevitable results of human sin. And in one
sense it is the mercy of God that He allows us
to see in people like Antiochus IV the grossness
and the consequence of the evil that is in every
one of us. You see, it puts into perspective
why God so hates sin. Too often we look upon
sin as a game. We see it as a harmless, trifling
thing in our lives that we play with. But in
fact, it is a very malignant principle and power.
And it destroys. And just as it destroyed the
person of Antiochus IV and those around him and
over whom he reigned, so if we allow sin to reign
in our lives, it will do the same. We may not
be in the position to fulfill the evil that Antiochus
did, but where sin reigns it destroys and it
brings death. The fact is that all of us need
deliverance from it. And so I say that in one
sense it is the mercy of God that He allows a
person like this to come to the surface occasionally
so that we see the kind of evil that lurks in
every human heart. And it reminds us that we
need deliverance from that evil that is within
us. A deliverance that does not come by self
-reformation. It comes only by the work of Jesus
Christ in saving us. It is only the power of
the cross of Jesus Christ that can bring an end
to the tyranny of sin in our lives. It is only
the risen Christ who can bring the newness of
His power within us so that we can rise above
the sin principle that even yet dwells within
the body of the believer. Secondly, I would say
this, that God in His providence allows evil
people to prosper. and to even cause suffering
so that those who suffer may come to the end
of self -sufficiency and see the wretchedness
of their own lives independent of God and be
brought to repentance. That seems to be what
is said in verse 35. Part of the purpose of this
suffering was to refine, to purge, to make pure.
Suffering, you see, is a moral teacher. Suffering
is not good in itself, but it may accomplish
good, you see, if it brings the sufferer into
submission to God. So why does God allow suffering?
Well, in part, that it might teach us of our
need for Him. That we might see the wretchedness
of our own self -sufficiency and submit our lives
and our wills to Him. then I would suggest that
God uses the egotistic tirades and murderous
deeds of an Antiochus IV to ultimately accomplish
His own good and beneficent purposes. We need
to be careful of judging God by our own finite
standards and judging Him too quickly. God does
not work by our calendar. God is not limited
in His purposes by our understanding. God has
His own reasons, and God has His own times. And
whatever He allows to occur within His providence
and sovereign plan, even if what He allows is
evil and murder and suffering and persecution,
in the end must accomplish His good purpose.
And so as we are in the midst of suffering and
in the midst of persecution, we must be careful
not to judge God by our standards. There's a
whole second issue I'd like to talk about briefly,
and that is this. that God's plan for his own,
for you and for me, does not preclude suffering.
Whether that suffering arises from the normal
hurts and injustices that are a part of the human
experience, or if it be that particular pain
and persecution that is the result of our godly
living, we are not immune to suffering. God has
not put up a hedge around us that says, you cannot
get cancer. You cannot die young. God has not
said to us, if you live godly in Christ Jesus,
I will deliver you from persecution. Indeed,
he says just the opposite. He says all who choose
to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
So if that is God's plan, if that is God's purpose,
that we also partake of the suffering of fallen
humanity, as well as that suffering that comes
to us because we are saints of God. If that is
God's plan, then let us be faithful in our suffering.
Let us glorify God. in the midst of our pain,
whether that be a physical affliction, or it
be an emotional loss and disappointment, or if
it be mental illness and struggles, let us glorify
God in the pain that we have in our lives. Of
course. Of course we can pray and ask God for
grace. We can ask God for wisdom in our suffering.
And we may even ask God for deliverance from
it if it be His will. But the point is, if it's
not His will that we be delivered, then let us
suffer to the glory of God. He tells us if we
suffer with Him, We may then also be glorified
together with Him. We have known little suffering
for our faith in our own nation because of the
constitutional freedoms of religion. But it is
interesting how all of this is changing. And
the change seems to be picking up speed as we
get into the 90s. Whereas the 80s was called
the age of the evangelical, I believe that the
90s will be something much different than that.
And it will be, I think, that by the end of this
decade, those who choose to be obedient to the
Word of God will in fact, in our own culture,
be suffering some kinds of persecution. Now that
happens occasionally now. But I think it will
become more the general rule as time goes on.
That's simply the direction of things toward
the end of the age. And so as we suffer, let
us glorify God in our suffering. Let us honor
Him as Christians. Those who follow a Savior,
who left us an example in His own suffering,
and did not complain, but glorified His Heavenly
Father. My final point of application today is
this. I want to urge you to believe that your
life today is under the control of a sovereign
God. That he is arranging the circumstances in
your life in order that he might fulfill his
ultimate purpose for you. He is. I don't know
the struggle you may be facing. I don't know
the questions that are coursing through your
mind even as I talk about this whole subject,
but today you and I can know that our hands,
our lives are in the hands of a sovereign God.
Believe me, if he can control the destiny of
empires like Persia and Greece and Rome and Babylon,
It's a very little thing for him to control the
destiny of your life and mine. And he is. And
we need our eyes open to see it. Glenna Oldham
has written these words, High and marvelous are
the mysteries in our Almighty God. His ways are
far beyond our understanding. Nothing is done
by mere chance or happenstance. And should it
seem so in my sight, O Lord, then surely blindness
has come upon me. Although we might lift up our
eyes and see him who dwells in the heavens and
know that all is well because he reigns. Just
as you're seated there, that struggle that you're
going through, that question mark that hangs
in your life, perhaps even that resistance or
that anger against God. Will you give it to Him?
Child of God, understand that He is in control
in your life and He loves you. Not only does
he mean you no harm, in the end he will bring
good and blessing to you. Believe him. Father
God, may we today rejoice afresh in the confidence
of our faith. And may our eyes look up and see
you, the one who dwells in the heavens and rules
over the earth. And though we may be in the midst
of war, or pain, disappointment, or lack of understanding,
may we be at peace because you reign sovereignly.
In Jesus' name, amen.