Daniel. War on Earth Chapter 11:2-35

Transcription

1 Daniel War on Earth Chapter 11:2-35 LIKE ALL BATTLES IN THE WAR IN HEAVEN this one too came to an end. The demon who strove to influence the throne of Persia had kept him from coming to Daniel with the vision. It had been three weeks earlier when he had been called by God, blessed be His Name, to appear before the throne in Heaven. He had been instructed by the Lord to carry a vital prophecy to Daniel, a response to a prayer that had just started coming up before the Throne. This shouldn t be a difficult task. All he had to do was fly down to the capital of Persia, find Daniel and deliver the message. But for some reason things are never as simple as they seem they should be. He sometimes asked himself, Why should serving God, blessed be His Name, be so difficult, so painful? As he drew near the palace, waiting for him was that vile demon who was constantly trying to interfere with God s plans. He knew the creature had previously tried to prevent the Jews from receiving permission to return to the land and begin the Temple s restoration. But he had prevented that from so now the demon was really furious. There was no way that abomination was going to let him get to Daniel with the Lord s message. And so for three weeks they fought back and forth and God s messenger struggled to get through to Daniel. But praise God, blessed be His Name, Michael arrived on the scene, and with the authority of the LORD and his high rank in the hosts of heaven, he had overcome the demon, opening the way for the messenger to finally come to Daniel with the word of the LORD. And so the angel had arrived bringing with him God s message to Daniel. Michael, had aided him in overcoming the demon, who stood next to the throne of the king of Persia. And now Daniel would hear the word of the Lord. And what was it? War on Earth! X Another Vision 3. From Daniel to Verses Antiochus Epiphanes Verses We now come to what Boice considers the most important prophecy in the book. This reason he feels this way is because first it is the longest and most detailed, which has by the way, also made it the most controversial for those that are inclined to reject the possibility of anything supernatural. The prophecy runs from chapters 10 through 12, the first and last which introduce and close the vision and eleventh, which takes forty-five verses 11:2 through 12:4 encompassing the vision itself. This passage, primarily chapter eleven, is highly technical in its recording of future history. And while we will not cover all of the specifics, simply touching on each section, you will

2 need to bear with some detail. What is most important here though is a clear realization that nothing that happens in the world political scene is unexpected by God. In fact, as we ve previously noted, God is in control. He either allows or puts in place all those in power. Second, it is clear all is in God s hand and that His primary concern here is Israel and by extension His bigger plan for our salvation in the past and the restoration not just of Israel but all creation in the future. One would hope that from this we can again take home the realization that we have nothing to fear in a world in which the Lord has final authority. Nothing happens outside of His will and as we walk in trust (faith) and depend on Him nothing will happen in our lives which is outside of His will either. Finally, we are given the opportunity to be one of the threads on the loom of history, that is to be included in God s over all plan. We are privileged to be some of the instruments by which His will is carried out in a world that, at least for the moment, is ruled by His enemy. And a world controlled by that enemy is one in which we will always find War on Earth! Oh one other point. I will be using the prophetic past tense quite frequently this morning for though much of this is yet to come, nevertheless it has already been established by God. Introduction: Boice notes, speaking of this fascinating section, the revelation has three parts. That fact helps us to understand the more difficult portions. The first part deals with the history of the Near East from the time of Daniel up to the appearance of Antiochus Epiphanes, whose coming has already been prophesied in earlier chapters. The second part concerns the career of Antiochus himself. Then there is a third part, which is the most difficult. It concerns either Antiochus, the early history of the Roman Empire, or, as I believe, events that are yet to come. 1 The other reason this passage is of such importance is because it is one of the most specifically detailed passages in prophecy. It drives the liberal crazy and they try to date its writing sometime during the time of the Maccabees, 165 BC because After all there is no way to know the future. They reject the supernatural. They reject God s intervention in space and time. What an empty world to live in and why deal with Scripture at all if God can t be found in its every word? For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7 ESV) 3. From Daniel to : As already noted, the first section deals with the period from the time of Daniel to Antiochus, verse 2 through 19. The second section goes on to describe the carrier of Antiochus. And the third will remain a mystery for the moment. Now remember we 1 Boice, James Montgomery, Daniel, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1989, pg Ibid. 3 Ibid., p Leupold, H. C., Exposition of Daniel, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1969, pg ) 120 (

3 have previously learned Antiochus Epiphanes arises out of the Greek Empire and is the last major figure before the rise of the Roman power. This means we are once again moving from the Medo-Persian Empire into the divided Greek Empire after the time of Alexander. First the angel notes that there will be three more kings in Persia, after the time of Cyrus, followed by a fourth extremely wealthy king. These four are Cambyses, 529 to 523 BC, Gaumata, 523 to 522 BC and Darius the Great, 522 to 485 BC The fourth is Xerxes who reigned from 485 to 464 BC. 2 During this period the Persians attempted to take Greece and as a result Alexander rose up against the Persian Empire. It fell to him to defend Greece. So we move from the second Gentile kingdom into the third, Greece. Now there is nothing new here except that each vision encompasses more detail. God is spelling out the fall of Persia and the rise of Greece. Again we are told that, in spite of the great power of Alexander, he would not hold his empire together, nor would he be able to pass it on to any descendent. Instead it would be divided up by those that were to follow him. His empire would end up being ruled by his generals, Antipater, Lysimachus, Ptolemy and Seleucus. Up to this point we have been focusing on the great world powers. But now the vision tightens up a bit and moves into to an examination of the two powers that specifically effect the people of Israel. The two powers are Seleucus over Syria and Ptolemy over Egypt. The passage gets even more specific and it would take too much time to detail all of it here. But, for example, in verses 6 through 9 we read how Ptolemy II s daughter Bernice married Theos of Syria creating the alliance mentioned in verse 6. But because of the in fighting between the families Bernice was poisoned, avenged by her brother who attacked Syria and so, just as Daniel wrote many years before, the alliance between two of the powers was short lived. And war continued on between the two powers. So for a time Syria was brought low. 3 As the tide swings back and forth, in verse 14 we find the people of Israel caught up in the middle of it. After all the only reason for all this detail is because at some point it effects the Hebrew people. At a time when Syria again moved against Egypt the poor judgment of some of the Jews became self evident. They decided to also rise up against the Egyptian dominion under which they had fared relatively well. That uprising was headed by a certain Tobias. That undertaking was to bring trouble upon them, the trouble that had been prophesied in the visions of Daniel. This uprising on the part of the Jews proved abortive: 4 Now the important message to pick up from all of this isn t ancient history. It is first, all that is to come is already established in the hands of God and He knows all that is to be and directs the flow of history. This should be a source of great comfort and confidence for us. Second, world history, past or future, revolves around Israel not the church. All this was provided to Daniel because it effected Israel. And the reason for this central spot in history was 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., p Leupold, H. C., Exposition of Daniel, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1969, pg ) 121 (

4 because it was from the Hebrew people that Messiah would come. And it will be to the Hebrew people Messiah will return. History has two culmination points. The first has passed and that was Messiah s death and resurrection. The second is Messiah s return to establish His kingdom. And smack dab in the middle of all of this is Israel and the Hebrew people. Anyway, back to the text. Picking up at verse 15 we see some detail filled in from the previous two verses. Once again a marriage was set up to apparently create an alliance between Syria and Egypt. But that wasn t the true intent of the king of the North (here Antiochus III, not Epiphanes.) Instead he desired to plant an ally, his daughter Cleopatra, in the house of the king of the south, Ptolemy Epiphanes. And if you are familiar with history, you know that much to the chagrin of Antiochus, Cleopatra was faithful to her husband, not her father. 4. Antiochus Epiphanes: Also you might suspect, if Cleopatra is found here, history is moving into that period when the great power of Grecian empire finally collapses and Rome proceeds onto the scene. In this context, Syria and Egypt represent two of the four powers of the divided kingdom of Alexander and therefore are pictured as part of that Greek Empire. But before the final fall of Greece arises the one who foreshadows the Antichrist. So we move into the second part of the prophecy the section, 20 through 35, where we again see Antiochus Epiphanes, (The God Made Manifest), the persecutor of God s people. Now you can see all of this history had been included because of how the events affect the Hebrew people. And certainly there was no greater problem than that presented by this little horn. He was one who took his place on the stage of history, not by right, but by intrigue, trickery and false diplomacy. And it is in just this same way that Antichrist will move on to center stage in a future day. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things (Daniel 7:8 ESV). So Antiochus came to power using the tools of a politician, well at least a dishonest one. After a while he also built up his military strength and attacked Egypt. And for a time he was successful but eventually the Egyptians put up resistance and he had to return to his land in humiliation. But he had no intention of allowing his failure to stand. According to the vision this respite wasn t to last. Starting in verse 29 we find Antiochus again returned to Egypt and hoping that this time things would turn out different. Again he was turned back from Egypt, this time by the Roman authorities, not through battle. Well - enough is enough. So he had to take out his anger on someone. And because of his hatred of God and God s people, that someone was to be Jerusalem, the people, the temple and the sacrifice. His great sins against the Lord came out of his anger and humiliation over his inability to control Egypt and eventually go up against Rome. It isn t surprising one who has declared himself a god would hate the one true God, is it? But even here Antiochus would finally lose, for the Maccabees would rise up and, under the leadership of Judas Maccabee, a successful rebellion would be carried out, the temple would ) 122 (

5 be cleansed and the sacrifice restored. And all this was in preparation for the appearance of the Messiah. But wait! The vision isn t quite finished! The balance will have to come next week. Conclusion: God is in control and all history, all nations, all political activity is eventually directed to fulfill His program, His plan, HIStory. History isn t circular but is directed to the fulfillment of that plan. For example, the entire Roman nation was turned upside down with a world-wide census, simply so an insignificant Jewish couple would have to return to the town of Bethlehem at the time of the birth of their child. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. And all went to be registered, each to his own town (Luke 2:1, 3 ESV). It isn t a coincidence today much of world chaos still centers around the Middle East. While we can t say the current situation is directly related to prophecy, we do know there is a tension in that area which will always influence world affairs until Christ comes to restore Israel and establish His kingdom. Nations have risen and fallen based on how they have treated Israel. And if we are once again supporting her, we may find for a time that we back off from the edge of the cliff. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:3 ESV). Yes, as we see the Middle East becomes the focus of the world, as we see the world fall into physical and moral degeneracy, we may be seeing the handwriting on the wall. We actually may be living in the final seconds of the age of the Gentiles. But, whether or not we are, we can praise the Lord that we have Him to depend on and have the chance to serve Him in the midst of the chaos. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, There is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5:1 11 ESV). ) 123 (

6 Now Daniel s awareness of what was to come certainly had no effect on its outcome. And our understanding of prophecy does not affect either when or how it will be fulfilled. Our awareness that the Lord can return at any time and these events can come to pass soon should motivate us to reexamine our focus, our priorities in how we live. Time is running out, whether for the present world, or simply because one day we will die. Therefore our primary motivation for living should be first to obey God, to keep the two great commandments, loving Him and then as a result loving those around us. And out of obedience to these commands we should desire to make disciples of all those around us. As we have already seen the panorama of prophecy should be a foundation on which we build our awe of God, our faith in His promises, and our desire to be part of a program that started at the Garden of Eden and will end in an eternity of peace, joy and fellowship with our God, our Savior. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:13 20 ESV). How many people today realize they can contribute to a work that will last forever? So many get excited about being in on the ground floor of a fast rising stock, or a new earth shaking product, or a program that will change the world and latter find all of this was meaningless. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits (James 1:9 11 ESV). But how many of us really get excited about the fact we are involved in a life that encompasses all that has occurred in history and all that is still to come? How many of us grieve and then get excited for when we look at the pain of those around us we know we have the answers they need? How many of us share the joy with those that the Lord places in our path about the fact that we have a family that loves the Lord and are privileged to see Him work in our midst? Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates ) 124 (

7 with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations (Psalms 100:1 5 ESV) Think about the person who is currently driving you nuts, and realize the issue isn t their affect on you, it s the need for the Lord s affect on them. You may be the one whom the Lord has chosen to reach out to them. We know the truth. We know what is to come. We know those around us are living empty lives and are facing an eternity of suffering because they aren t willing to come to the Lord. We know the truth they need. Let us pray for the boldness of the Holy Spirit to completely forget about ourselves and instead to give out the agapé of the Lord to those that need that love more than anything else they could ever imagine. So. the purpose of prophecy isn t to cause us to become fearful about the future. And it isn t to be a guide by which to read today s headlines. No, it is to cause us to rejoice in the marvelous God who we serve and to motivate us to desire to serve Him the more. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30 ESV). We are to desire God to be the center of our lives. But we often allow ourselves to become so overwhelmed with the real world we move Him off stage without even realizing it. Nevertheless we can prevent this from occurring by constantly spending time with God, seeking His will and the work He would have us do. Praise the Lord that He has placed so many opportunities around us, that is if we will only be open to seeing them. And praise Him that as we are obedient to Him in all we do, in all we suffer we realize all we experience is a blessing to us and through us. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:1 5 ESV). Let us walk daily seeing those around us through His eyes and loving them with His love. Let us truly be willing to love the unlovable, to touch the untouchable. Today we walk with Him in the Spirit; tomorrow we will walk with Him on streets of gold. And while the streets of today oft times seem more like dark alleys in the wrong part of town, we never need be afraid. ) 125 (

8 Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go; Anywhere He leads me in this world below; Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade; Anywhere with Jesu I am not afraid. Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone, Other friends may fail me, He is still my own; though His hand may lead me over dreary ways, Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise. Anywhere with Jesus over land and sea, Telling souls in darkness of salvation free; Ready as He summons me to go or stay, Anywhere with Jesus when He points the way. Anywhere! anywhere! Fear I cannot know; Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. 5 5 Pounds, Jessie, stanzas 1, 2; Helen C. Dixon, stanza 3, The Hymnal for Worship & Celebration, Anywhere with Jesus, Word Music, 1986, # 467. ) 126 (

9 Daniel War on Earth Chapter 11:2-35 X Another Vision 3. From Daniel to Verses Antiochus Epiphanes Verses Introduction: (Amos 3:7) 3. From Daniel to :

10 4. Antiochus Epiphanes: (Daniel 7:8) Conclusion: (Luke 2:1, 3; Genesis 12:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:1 11; Hebrews 6:13 20; James 1:9 11; Psalms 100:1 5; Mark 12:30; Romans 5:1 5)