King of the North
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Daniel
The Book of the
Prophet Daniel
“But you, Daniel, shut up
the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.”
Daniel
12:4
Chapter 11:1-35 King of the North
1. "And as for me, in the first
year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.
2. "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.
3. Then a mighty king shall arise, who
shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills.
4. 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.
5. "Then the king of the south
shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall
rule, and his authority shall be a great authority.
6. After some years they shall make an
alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of
the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her
arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her
attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times.
7. "And from a branch from her
roots one shall arise in his place. He shall come against the army and enter
the fortress of the king of the north, and he shall deal with them and shall
prevail.
8. He shall also carry off to Egypt
their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and
gold, and for some years he shall refrain from attacking the king of the
north.
9. Then the latter shall come into the
realm of the king of the south but shall return to his own land.
10. "His sons shall wage war and
assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and
pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress.
11. Then the king of the south, moved
with rage, shall come out and fight against the king of the north. And he shall
raise a great multitude, but it shall be given into his hand.
12. And when the multitude is taken
away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but
he shall not prevail.
13. For the king of the north shall
again raise a multitude, greater than the first. And after some years he shall
come on with a great army and abundant supplies.
14. "In those times many shall rise
against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift
themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail.
15. Then the king of the north shall
come and throw up siegeworks and take a well-fortified city. And the forces of
the south shall not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no
strength to stand.
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.
17. He shall set his face to come with
the strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and
perform them. He shall give him the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom,
but it shall not stand or be to his advantage.
18. Afterward he shall turn his face to
the coastlands and shall capture many of them, but a commander shall put an end
to his insolence. Indeed, he shall turn his insolence back upon him.
19. Then he shall turn his face back
toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, and shall
not be found.
20. "Then shall arise in his place
one who shall send an exactor of tribute for the glory of the kingdom. But
within a few days he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle.
In
the last chapter, we learned of the pre-incarnate Christ, revealing Himself to
Daniel. Judging by Daniel’s life and love for God, it was certainly not his
first encounter. The purpose of the prophet was to point his hearers and
readers to the Messiah of Israel, the only hope for Israel and all of mankind.
Therefore he wrote in Hebrew and Aramaic. In order that he might prophesy from
the heart, he needed to know Christ firsthand and give testimony of His power,
working in his own life.
Chapters
two and seven are similar because they both tell of four world empires from
Daniel’s day to the end of time. In both cases, the prophecies tell of the end
of man’s rule, through the introduction of the Kingdom of God upon earth. We
know, because of all the teaching of Scripture that, at the head of the Kingdom
is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He comes personally to destroy the
world’s kingdoms, which have challenged Him.
In
chapter three, He appears as the fourth Man in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace.
He is there with His faithful servants, who refuse to compromise or bow down to
earth’s gods or conform to earth’s systems. He is the triumphant Son of Man,
who cannot be defeated or destroyed. He refuses to burn, He walks on water, and
breaks the seal of the Roman Empire, rising from the dead. In chapter four,
Nebuchadnezzar experiences seven years of insanity, until he is able to see the
everlasting, sovereign rule of heaven and its appointed King (Ps.2:6).
In
chapter six, He delivers Daniel from the lions’ mouths and reveals to King
Darius the kingdom that “shall never be
destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end” (6:26). In chapter eight,
the Prince of princes is named, whom Antiochus Epiphanes challenged and by whom
he was destroyed (8:25). Then in chapter nine, He is the Anointed One, the
Prince (9:25), the Messiah, whose life will be cut short in 33 A.D., but who
will return to bring the desolator to his end. He will finish the
transgression, put an end to sin, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting
righteousness, fulfill the vision and words of the prophets and anoint a most
holy place (9:24). Daniel was a prophet of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.
We
continue now from 10:21, where Gabriel speaks of his warfare, united with
Michael, the angelic prince of Israel, against the prince of Persia. He
prophesies of a coming battle with the prince of Greece. He continues, speaking
of strengthening and establishing King Darius at the beginning of his reign.
However, we are still studying Daniel’s vision in the third year of Cyrus.
Chapter 10 was a prologue and now we have the content, which will tie us to the
end times in the last part of the chapter and continue through chapter 12.
In verse 2, Gabriel is evidently speaking of what is inscribed in the
book of truth (from 10:21). It is so dazzlingly accurate that those, who have
no God-given faith to believe, try to displace Daniel from his spot in history,
without any evidence to support their theory, to some place 400 years into the
future. In so doing, they make Daniel a liar, which, if they were right, would
disqualify him altogether from his prophetic office. By that time 400 years
later, most of what is written in this chapter has become history. So the false
critics deny the supernatural, discredit the word of God, insult the Author,
and are unfit to handle His word, but are sons of eternal damnation.
He speaks of three more human kings over Persia before its downfall
begins. The fourth is Esther’s illustrious king, Xerxes or Ahasuerus (486-465
B.C.). He was a famed and powerful monarch and the book of Esther informs, he
reigned over 127 provinces, from Ethiopia to India (Est.1:1). Yet his campaign
against Greece failed and that failure was the beginning of the end of the
Persian Empire.
All of you, who (like me) have been academically lethargic and thought
that in Christianity you would get relief from serious study, are in for a
shock. God is the God of history and we are about to get an intense history
lesson. Of course, for Daniel these things were future, therefore prophetic.
Gabriel became Daniel’s professor, obtained his material from the book of
heaven, and gave all the detail that we will study, to Daniel.
We will notice that some of the same history is covered here that we
already learned in chapter eight. The mighty king of verse 3 and 4 is Alexander
the Great, who successfully conquered the Persians and all their territory. He
spread Greek culture over all this area, but as stated “as soon as he has
arisen, his kingdom shall be broken.” It was broken by his death in 323 B.C.
and he had no offspring, so his four generals fought over the divisions of his
conquests.
This prophecy concerns the north and south divisions, in relation to
Israel – principally Syria and Egypt. These were called the Seleucids (of
Syria) and the Ptolomies (of Egypt). The conflicts, related in verses 5-20,
cover almost two centuries. Their armies had to pass through Israel to gain
access to each other, which shows one of the reasons why Israel has been
involved in so many wars. It is because of its strategic position between
Africa and Asia. It is the only land connection between the two continents; it
is also the gateway into Europe though Turkey.
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| Cleopatra I Syra |
Very briefly, we will attempt to convey 200 years of history: For
political advantage, the daughter of the king of the south married the king of
the north, but she was murdered, along with her infant son and the king
himself, by his ex-wife (v.6). The political treaty ended, the brother of the murdered
Egyptian princess, Ptolomy III Euergetes, conquered Syria (v.7-8). A Syrian
attempt against Egypt failed (v.9), but the Seleucid descendants continued the
conflict over the decades (v.10). Between 222 and 203 B.C., the Egyptian army
gained an advantage (v.11-12), but another conflict emerged, when a great army
from Syria attacked Egypt (v.13). Even the Jews entered the war to gain freedom
from Egypt (v.14), but failed, and Israel, “the glorious land” fell into the
hands of the king of the north (v.15-16).
Here an ancestor of the famous Cleopatra, wife of Mark Anthony of Rome, enters
the story. In 192 B.C., she, Cleopatra Syra, was given by her father, Antiochus
III the Great, to marry the Ptolemy king, to be a spy against Egypt. However,
she turned against her father (v.17) and, at this point, Rome began to become
an important part of world history, as the fourth world empire. Antiochus III,
in an attempt against Greece, is accosted by the Roman commander of verse 18,
and returns defeated to his own land (v.19, 190 B.C.). The Romans demanded
tribute from the next Syrian king and, trying to raise a tax among his own
people to pay Rome, that king was poisoned (v.20).
21. In his place shall arise a
contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in
without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
22. Armies shall be utterly swept away
before him and broken, even the prince of the covenant.
23. And from the time that an alliance
is made with him he shall act deceitfully, and he shall become strong with a
small people.
24. Without warning he shall come into
the richest parts of the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor
his fathers' fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and
goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time.
25. And he shall stir up his power and
his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the
south shall wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army, but he shall
not stand, for plots shall be devised against him.
26. Even those who eat his food shall
break him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain.
27. And as for the two kings, their
hearts shall be bent on doing evil. They shall speak lies at the same table,
but to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed.
28. And he shall return to his land with
great wealth, but his heart shall be set against the holy covenant. And he
shall work his will and return to his own land.
29. "At the time appointed he shall
return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was
before.
30. 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.
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.
32. He shall seduce with flattery those
who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm
and take action.
33. 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.
34. When they stumble, they shall
receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with
flattery,
35. 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.
In the next verses, we again learn of Antiochus
Epiphanes, a very important figure in world history and in the history of
Israel, because he is a prototype of the end-time Antichrist, the final
anti-Semite. In chapter 8:9-14, and 23-25, he was called the little horn and in this chapter, we will see more detail
concerning his reign and his anti-Semitism. All the prototypes of the
Antichrist and the Antichrist himself alike share this characteristic.
The secret behind anti-Semitism throughout history and
up to the present time, is uncovered by Daniel, along with other prophets. I
remember seeing a political cartoon many years ago, depicting voices coming
from the United Nations building in New York. Various different issues were
raised, but the unifying voice that was raised over all the others was “I
propose that we condemn Israel”. Not too long ago, the prime minister of
Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the body of the United Nations, vocalizing
his wonder at the UN phenomenon of consistent opposition to Israel from its
very inception. At one point, he paused, and for about 40 seconds, said
nothing, but fixed his eyes on one representative after another, who sat before
him.
Daniel showed us the spiritual forces behind the world
empires, ambassadors of Satan to the nations, who demonstrate their hatred for
the Creator by opposing His national people. Nothing has changed; we see it
with our own eyes in the 21st Century. We can easily show that Egypt,
Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, had the common goal of oppressing
Israel. Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich ideology
followed the model of Charlemagne’s Holy
Roman Empire, thereby demonstrating an attempt to revitalize the Roman
Empire. Hitler’s ultimate solution, his
attempt to wipe out the Jewish race by murdering six million Jews in concentration
camps, makes him well-qualified to be considered a prototype of the Antichrist.
Many criticize those in his day, who thought that he was the Antichrist, but they
were not far from the truth. Certainly, they were closer to the truth than
those who ridiculed them.
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| Antiochus Epiphanes |
This is the reason that Antiochus IV Epiphanes plays
such a significant role in the book of Daniel. He is the cruelest of the kings
of the north, the “contemptible person to whom royal
majesty has not been given”. He seized power, “by flatteries”, before the son
of the former Seleucid king could take the throne. In his victory over the
Egyptian armies, the same Hebrew word is used in verse 22 as in 9:26, “by a
flood”. It refers to a powerful military onslaught (In 9:26, the prophecy
concerns Jerusalem, which was inundated militarily in 70 A.D.), over the
Ptolomies, and “the prince of the covenant”, the Jewish high priest, Onias, was
killed in the war by his brother, who defected to Antiochus. Terminology
concerning Israel and the Jews stands out in these prophecies... i.e. the
prince of the covenant, the glorious land, an anointed one.
While
many competed for power in Antiochus’ day, he seemed to side with minorities
and deceitfully gained power in Syria and in Egypt, from Memphis to Alexandria.
He negotiated in ‘peaceful’ ways, feigning friendship and giving gifts, and
thereby he gained more territory than any of the other kings of the north had
done. He defeated and made captive, the opposing king of the south, Philometer,
betrayed by his own counselors, who fell in a mighty battle. Antiochus divided
the Ptolomies’ power, but they eventually reunited.
With
all the deception of Antiochus and all the manipulation in Egypt, nothing can
upset the Lord’s timetable… “the end is yet to be at the time appointed”. God
is sovereign Lord over all. As the Seleucid king returns with great spoil to
Syria, he passes through Israel, and again, the terminology tells us that God’s
people become involved… “his heart shall be set against the holy covenant”. At
this point, the travesties studied in chapter eight take place in Jerusalem. He
killed 80,000 Jews, took 40,000 prisoner, and sold 40,000 as slaves.
“At
the time appointed”, he again marches into Egypt, but this time he is not
successful. The ships of Kittim are Roman and they are allied with Egypt.
Antiochus is afraid to confront Rome. He aims his hatred against Israel, joins
with apostate Jews, who also hated the system and worship. His soldiers
desecrated the temple, as we learned in chapter eight. They attacked Jerusalem
on the Sabbath, slaughtering men, women and children. They stopped the sacrifices,
banned circumcision, and sacrificed a pig on the altar. On December 15, 167
B.C., they placed a statue of the god Zeus in the temple. This was called “the
abomination that makes desolate” by the Jews and yet, there is more to come.
Apostate
Jews violated their covenant with God and made a covenant with deceitful
Antiochus, but, as in Isaiah’s time, so at this time, there is a remnant among
the Jews, who are faithful to God. The pattern will be the same in the end times.
These are Jews, who “know their God” in personal relationship and they could not
deny Him. They stood firm and were not afraid to preach truth against dangerous
opposition. They bucked the trends of their day, reasoned with the hearts of
the people and were wise enough to be able to turn many to truth and to the God
of truth. Our mission is the same in this day of apostate mentality.
God
may also call us to confront persecution, as it was in this inter-testament
period before the first coming of Christ. There was sword, flame, captivity and
plunder. Not all the wise were 100% faithful, and, I suppose, in these days we
can expect the same. They stumbled, the word reveals, but they belonged to the
Lord and He turned their failure into success. He worked sanctification into
their lives, in spite of their imperfections, refining, purifying, and making
them white!
Still
there is an “appointed time” ahead. Daniel saw the events, of which he will now
write, as end time events, and Jesus spoke of an “Abomination that Makes
Desolate”, still future in His day. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians, chapter two, saw a
great deceiver, who would arise in the end times. John wrote Revelation after the fall of Jerusalem in
70 A.D. and therefore wrote of a tribulation still to come in the future. It is
still future to us, as we live in this 21st Century.
However, at this point, we must end
this article, because the history lesson has been lengthy. We will finish
chapter 11 in the next article and proceed from Antiochus Epiphanes to the Antichrist.
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