Boker Tov! Good morning! Here we are, on the cusp of Rosh Hashanah, on the rabbinical calendar. Essentially, we together here on Jewish New Year’s Eve, Erev Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is a two-day celebration in some parts of the world and one in others. I hope you will eat delicious fruit with honey to “ring in” the new year, the Jewish civil new year, over the next couple of days. Tishri 1 is also the first of the 10 Days of Awe, culminating in Yom Kippur, at the conclusion. The teaching I did on these two high holy days, back on 9/11, has nearly 300 views on my YouTube channel. Go check that out if you missed it.
Now then, we are going on in our Daniel study. Last week I told you that the final two verses of chapter 10 really belonged stylistically to chapter 11, and that we’d take up with those final two verses when we re-convened. So, let’s start with those and proceed onward. Chapter 10, verses 20-21:
20 Then he said, “Do you know why I came to you? Although now I must return to fight the prince of Persia; and when I leave, the prince of Greece will come; 21 nevertheless, I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. There is no one standing with me against them except Mikha’el your prince;
11 however, I was already standing up to support and help Daryavesh the Mede in the first year of his reign. 2 What I am going to tell you now is true.
Have you ever heard of this “Book of Truth”? I’ll admit it was not something I’d ever heard mentioned in sermons. This appears to be a heavenly book, perhaps one that records all true events, both past, present and future. The angel is seeming to say that he will share from the contents of that book, in order to be able to tell Daniel what will happen to the Jewish people in the end times. And, as verse 2 of chapter 11 states, the angel’s words will be true because ... they come from the Book of Truth! Mikha’el is mentioned again as the prince, the angelic guardian and warrior, for the nation of Israel.
At the time of this vision, Persia was ruling over the Jewish people, i.e. the people of Judah. The people of the northern, Israelite, kingdom, had been dispersed, scattered over Asia Minor over 200 years earlier. Those were the people of the 10 “lost” tribes. I believe Mikha’el was and is the angelic prince over them also. Over all of Jacob’s 12 sons’ descendants.
At first, the people of the kingdom of Judah appeared to have escaped God’s judgment for their increasing rebellion. Under King Hezekiah, there was a brief period of revival, because God had spared the southern kingdom of Judah from the Assyrians. It did not last, however. About 150 years later, the Babylonians came along and toppled Judah. When Daniel 11 takes place, the 70 years of Jewish/Judean captivity were ended, because the Persians had conquered the Babylonians, and the Jews had begun to return the nearly 700 miles back to their homeland. (The northern kingdom, though, did not begin to return until the late 1940s CE.)
Daniel is about to hear from the messenger, the angel, about a parade of kings, and their future exploits. This chapter, chapter 11, is sort of an expansion of chapter 8. It gives additional details that weren’t included in the earlier chapter.
At any rate, the first thing the angelic messenger tells Daniel in these verses is that his, the angel’s appearance, signaled the waning of the Persian Empire, and that the Persians would be replaced by the Greeks. The only one holding the Greeks back at that time was Mikha’el and soon to be this other powerful angel, perhaps Gabriel, who was returning to the fight shortly. Of course, El Elyon, the Lord Most High, was directing them all, all the events.
On to chapter 11 : 2b now. We sort of stopped after the first part of that verse, didn’t we?
This is the real “meat” of the events of the vision. It is going to sound familiar, because, while it gives more details than previous visions, it is also closely related to previous visions from Daniel, i.e., King Nebuchadnezzar’s statue dream and the vision of the four beasts.
“Three kings will arise in Persia, followed by a fourth, who will be far wealthier than all of them; and when he has grown strong by means of his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.
Marvelously, world history has shown that these prophecies have been fulfilled. When we look at world history, during the last 500 or so years of the BCE period, who are these three kings, then? They were Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius 1 Hystaspes. These three ruled for a combined total of about 45 years.
As to the identity of the 4th king, this would be none other than Xerxes I, also known by the title Ahasuerus. If you did the Esther study with me here at Mishkan Katan, you will recognize that as the title used in that book for Esther’s husband, the king. Indeed, he was an extremely wealthy king, ruling over a Persian Empire of 127 provinces, an empire that stretched from Egypt to India, very vast. However, Ahasuerus/Xerxes became greedy. On the fringes of his empire, he became aware that the Greeks were beginning to flourish. He wanted to claim some of their wealth for himself. So, being the warrior and conqueror he was, he invaded that kingdom. Although he captured Athens and held it for a little while, he was forced to retreat. Later, he attempted this a second time, but was forced to retreat again. The Greeks became more and more powerful. Eventually, they decided to settle this old score with the Persians. They attacked and vanquished the kingdom. We’ve seen the foreshadowing of this battle in Daniel 8 - - the dream of the ram and the goat. Remember?
3 “Then a powerful king will appear who will rule a vast kingdom and do whatever he pleases. 4 But once he appears, his kingdom will be broken up and divided to the four winds of heaven. It won’t be inherited by his descendants, and it won’t be ruled with the power he had, because his kingship will be uprooted and will pass to others than his own posterity.
Who do we have here, this “powerful king”? I’ll bet you’ve already figured this out. Yes, it’s Alexander the Great, who died at age 32, leaving no heirs. The reference here to the “four winds of heaven” aligns with the four generals serving under Alexander who “inherited” his Grecian Empire. These four included the Seleucids, who ruled over the area known as the Promised Land, for a while.
5 “The king in the south will be strong, and one of his princes will gain power over him and have dominion; his domain will be a great dominion. 6 After a number of years they will form an alliance. The daughter of the king of the south will approach the king of the north to make an agreement, but she won’t retain her power; and he and his power won’t last either. Rather, she will be surrendered, along with her attendants, her father and the one who supported her during those times. 7 But another branch from the same roots as hers will appear in her father’s place. He will attack the army of the king of the north, enter his fortress and succeed in conquering them. 8 He will also carry off as booty to Egypt their gods, their cast metal images and their valuable gold and silver vessels. Then for some years, he will refrain from attacking the king of the north.
Allright, now, this section is not quite as clear. But, honestly, aren’t you just struck by how accurate this vision/prophecy was? In fact, it is SO accurate that liberal theologians have for centuries tried to use it to prove that it was not written by Daniel, in his time, but was actually written after the events played out many years later! That’s nonsense, of course.
So, I have already mentioned the Seleucid Empire, headquartered in the Promised Land and in Syria. One of the other four generals that succeeded Alexander was Ptolemy I Soter, who ruled in the area of Egypt. Egypt is, of course, southwest of Israel and Syria. Therefore, you now have your two key players in this historical drama, the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. For years, they had had minor skirmishes, but nothing major. They finally decided (vs. 6) to make an alliance with each other. By this point, the Egyptian Ptolemaic king was Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and the Syrian/Seleucid king was Antiochus II Theos. They decided that the best way to seal this alliance would be to seal it with a kiss, that is, to have an arranged marriage to unite both powers. Ptolemy II’s daughter, Berenice, was awarded the great privilege of marrying Antiochus. However, Antiochus already HAD a wife, named Laodice, and she was not going to just “take one for the team”, so to speak. She had contacts and resources, which she harnessed to have Berenice killed. And, not long after that, Antiochus was murdered by poisoning. This left Ladoice in control of the Seleucid kingdom. She placed her son, Seleucus II Callinicus on the throne.
Meanwhile, back in Egypt, (vs. 7) Berenice’s brother, Ptolemy III Euergetes, set out to avenge the wrong done to his sister. His army invaded Syria and killed Laodice. Then, he carted off to Egypt many spoils of war.
9 “Afterwards, the king of the north will invade the kingdom of the king of the south, but he will retire to his own land.
In response, Seleucus II Callinicus launched a campaign to try to get his valuables back, but failed. He died prematurely, about 15 years later, which caused Ptolemy III to outlive him by several years.
The saga continues in vs. 10-14.
10 His sons will rouse themselves to muster a large and powerful army, which will advance like a flood passing through. In another campaign, it will march on the enemy stronghold. 11 The king of the south, enraged, will set out to do battle with the king of the north, who, in turn, will muster a large army; but this army will be defeated by his enemy 12 and carried off. The conqueror will grow proud as he slaughters tens of thousands, yet he will not prevail. 13 Rather, the king of the north will again muster an army, larger than the first one, at the end of this period, after a number of years; it will be a large, well-supplied army. 14 Those will be times in which many will resist the king of the south; and the more violent ones among your own people will rebel in order to fulfill their vision; but they will fail.
Succeeding Seleucus II Callinicus was his 18-year old son, Seleucus III Soter. But, he could not “cut it”, in the eyes of his generals. So, he was killed off by them. Afterwards, they placed his brother, Antiochus III, on the throne. It is this man who is described in vs.10.
By this time, vs. 11, the Ptolemaic ruler was Ptolemy IV. He was attacked by Antiochus III, the king of the north (vs. 13), and he was joined at this time by some pro-Seleucid Jews. However Antiochus III and the Jews did not succeed against Ptolemy IV.
15 “Then the king of the north will come, set up siege-works and capture a fortified city; the forces of the south will be insufficient defense, even his elite troops will not be strong enough to resist. 16 The invader will do as he pleases; no one will be able to withstand him. So he will establish himself in the Land of Glory, and he will have the power to destroy it.
Despite the failure of the previous campaign, Antiochus began to “dig in” in the land of Judah, to establish siege-works there, etc. Judea was now a willing partner in the Seleucid Empire. That is what is meant in verse 16 by “the land of Glory”.
17 He will determinedly advance with the full force of his kingdom, but he will make an agreement with the king of the south and give him a daughter in marriage. His object will be to destroy him, but the agreement will not last or work out in his favor.
Next, in the category of “it failed once, so let’s try it again”, the power players agreed to another political marriage between the kingdoms. This time, it was a Seleucid treaty-wife and princess named Cleopatra I (not the one you are probably thinking of - - that one came along about 150 years later). Cleo I was to marry Ptolemy V. By now, it was around 200 years before the birth of Yeshua. Surprise, surprise, this marriage failed too. However, Antiochus III had “bigger fish to fry.” He had set his sights on conquering the coastlands of Greece. Verses 18-19
18 Next, he will put his attention on the coastlands and islands and capture many, but an army commander will put a stop to his outrages and cause his outrages to come back upon him. 19 After this, he will put his attention on the strongholds in his own land; but he will stumble, fall and not be seen again.
Just as these scriptures predicted, Antiochus III was not successful in his Aegean Islands campaign, because the Romans, who were just getting started, joined with the Greeks of that area to repel the attack. Shortly thereafter, Antiochus III was killed. His son, Seleucus IV Philopator, took his place. He is spoken of in verse 20. Let’s take a look.
20 “In his place will arise one who will send a tax collector through the Glorious Kingdom; but within a few days, he will be broken, though neither in anger nor in battle.
This king inherited a lot of war debt from his father, and in order to mitigate those debts, he levied unreasonable taxes on the Jews. However, after 9 years, he was assassinated by one of his officials. Next on the scene, “a vile person”, according to some translations.
21 “There will arise in his place a despicable man not entitled to inherit the majesty of the kingdom, but he will come without warning and gain the kingdom by intrigue. 22 Large armies will be broken and swept away before him, as well as the prince of the covenant. 23 Alliances will be made with him, but he will undermine them by deceit. Then, although he will have but a small following, he will emerge and become strong. 24 Without warning, he will assail the most powerful men in each province and do things his predecessors never did, either recently or in the distant past; he will reward them with plunder, spoil and wealth while devising plots against their strongholds, but only for a time.
The anti-hero spoken of in these verses is none other than Antiochus IV “Epiphanes”, whom you were introduced to back in chapter 8, verses 23-25, as “the little horn”. Let’s look at those verses again.
23 “‘Now toward the end of their reign, when the measure of transgressions is completed, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise. 24 His power will be mighty, but it will not be by his strength alone. He will cause extraordinary devastation, and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy both the powerful and the holy people. 25 By his cunning he will cause deceit to prosper under his hand and he will consider himself superior. He will destroy many, taking them unaware. He will even stand up against the Prince of princes, yet he will be broken, but not by human hands.
History records that Antiochus IV began his ignominious career by usurping the throne of his young nephew. Thus, the reference in Daniel 8:23 and 11:21 that he was a master of intrigue. Not long after Antiochus IV took power, the Egyptians, the Ptolemies, decided to poke the bear. It was not a good decision on their part. In response, A IV dove down into Egypt and thoroughly plowed them down (vs. 22 of chapter 11). On his way back north, he went through Judea, where he removed the “prince of the covenant”. Who would that have been, you might ask? Well, it was the high priest at the time, Onias III, a very shrewd politician who had been sort of a communist. He had redistributed the wealth and was very loved by the lower classes.. Antiochus meddled further in the Jews’ religious affairs by auctioning off the office of high priest to the highest bidder!
Well, things rocked on, with little love lost between the Jews and A IV, as you might imagine. A few years later, A IV again went to attack Egypt again.
25 “He will summon his power and courage against the king of the south with a great army, and the king of the south will fight back with a very large and powerful army; but he will not succeed, because of plots devised against him. 26 Yes, those who shared his food will destroy him; his army will be swept away; and many will fall in the slaughter. 27 These two kings, bent on mischief, will sit at the same table, speaking lies to each other; but none of this will succeed; because the appointed end will not have come yet. 28 Then the king of the north will return to his own land with great wealth; with his heart set against the holy covenant, he will take action and then return home.
And, then, yet another time, the Seleucids went south to attack the Ptolemies.
29 “At the time designated, he will come back to the south. But this time, things will turn out differently than before; 30 because ships from Kittim will come against him, so that his courage will fail him. Then, in retreat, he will take furious action against the holy covenant, again showing favor to those who abandon the holy covenant.
Kittim is the ancient biblical name for Rome. Unbeknownst to A IV, there was a contingent of soldiers from Rome which the Egyptians had “in their back pocket”. Thoroughly cowed in realizing he was outmanned, A IV turned tail and retreated to the north. THIS time, when he journeyed through Judea, he took his anger and humiliation out of the people there.
31 Armed forces will come at his order and profane the sanctuary and fortress. They will abolish the daily burnt offering and set up the abomination that causes desolation. 32 Those who act wickedly against the covenant he will corrupt with his blandishments, but the people who know their God will stand firm and prevail. 33 Those among the people who have discernment will cause the rest of the people to understand what is happening; nevertheless, for a while they will fall victim to sword, fire, exile and pillage. 34 When they stumble, they will receive a little help, although many who join them will be insincere. 35 Even some of those with discernment will stumble, so that some of them will be refined, purified and cleansed for an end yet to come at the designated time.
All the years of battle and hatred had begun to affect the mind and heart of Antiochus IV, or perhaps he was this way from the beginning. One of the first things he did, vs. 31, was to abolish the daily sacrifices in the Temple. I guess he could not bear to see the acts of worship be made to a higher God. Selfishness and extreme ego are certainly antithetical to sacrifice. The word “blandishments” was one I had to investigate. It means flattery. Antiochus IV found himself some Hellenized, secular Jews in Judah who were back-slidden, and therefore susceptible to his flatteries. The extra-biblical book of First Maccabees states that these Jews (of a sort) banded together with him, and as verse 32 states, they were a-Torah (against Torah, without Torah). These were “Jews in name only”, much as are many liberal Jews today. The enemy of souls used the technique of “infiltration.” If HaSatan cannot defeat us outright, he will infiltrate and attempt victory through an “inside job”. This is what happened in Ezra chapter 4, for instance.
These Jews stood in stark contrast to the people of God who still had discernment, about the evil, disgusting actions of Antiochus IV, concerning the Temple. The tzaddikim, righteous ones, knew their God, and therefore were unswayed by the evil one’s blandishments. According to Josephus and other historians, this madman conquered Jerusalem, looted it and killed thousands, over 80,000, if you’ll remember from one of my recent teachings on Daniel 8. He was a true psychopath. The most egregious things he did were:
To attempt to persuade Jews to not circumcise their sons and
Sacrificing pigs on the holy altar, which Yeshua referred to as “the abomination of desolation.”
If that were not enough, he erected a statue of the Greek false god, Zeus, in the Temple and then held a dedication ceremony to dedicate the building to Zeus! Antiochus IV’s desecrations are what led the Maccabees to start their revolt and to overpower the rule of the Seleucids in the Promised Land. The Maccabean dynasty lasted until the Romans came and conquered the area. But, the biggest outcome of the war called The Maccabean Revolt was that the Temple was reclaimed and thoroughly purified.
In Daniel’s day, of course, the prophecy about Antiochus IV and his forerunners was in the future. He likely did not realize that this prophecy would have a dual fulfillment. In Yeshua’s day, Antiochus IV had been dead for around 200 years. However, Antiochus IV was a forerunner, a type of the Antichrist, the False Messiah, as we studied in chapter 8 of Daniel.
Verse 35 is an interesting verse. Sadly, in the Body, some of us have the idea that Tzaddikim never “stumble”, or, as the Hebrew word puts it “totter”. This is the process of sanctification or of refining in our spiritual walk. We should expect that tests and challenges will come and then allow the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, to flame up within us so that we triumph in Him. Remember that Philippians 4:13 encourages us that we can do all things through our Mashiach, who gives us the strength. That is supernatural strength. Perhaps you can think of a recent trial that the Ruach HaKodesh used to draw you closer to Father Yahweh, or that was used to help you root out some bad habits, or to become more like the example of our Mashiach Yeshua. Personally, I am going through one of those currently, and have been since the beginning of the summer. I can tell you that what HaSatan meant for a curse, to take me “off the shelf”, our loving Divine, Majestic Mystery has used to refine me. I am grateful for that, despite the pain involved. All glory to our Elohim!
The following verses in chapter 11 pertain to that still-future False Messiah, to come. The history lesson has ended, and we are now to the portion that is still for us ‘prophecy.’ So, we will be making some conjectures here, as these future events are not as clear.
36 “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt himself and consider himself greater than any god, and he will utter monstrous blasphemies against the God of gods. He will prosper only until the period of wrath is over, for what has been determined must take place. 37 He will show no respect for the gods his ancestors worshipped, or for the god women worship — he won’t show respect for any god, because he will consider himself greater than all of them. 38 But instead, he will honor the god of strongholds; with gold, silver, precious stones and other costly things he will honor a god unknown to his ancestors. 39 He will deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. He will confer honor on those he acknowledges, causing them to rule over many and distributing land as a reward.
40 “When the time for the end comes, the king of the south will push at him; while the king of the north will attack him like a whirlwind, with chariots, cavalry and a large navy. He will invade countries, overrun them and move on. 41 He will also enter the Land of Glory, and many [countries] will come to grief, but these will be saved from his power — Edom, Mo’av and the people of ‘Amon. 42 He will reach out his hand to seize other countries too. The land of Egypt will not escape — 43 he will control the treasures of gold and silver, as well as everything else in Egypt of value. Put and Ethiopia will be subject to him. 44 However, news from the east and north will frighten him, so that he moves out in great fury to ruin and completely do away with many. 45 Finally, when he pitches the tents of his palace between the seas and the mountain of the holy Glory, he will come to his end, with no one to help him.
The apostle Paul wrote about this ruler in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12. There he calls him the “lawless one” or a better translation is “one without torah”. In other words, this man will be godless, in that he will not worship the one, true God. Instead, he will serve a god unknown to his ancestors. What does that mean, do you think? Well, it could be that he would serve a false god that had not been invented yet. Think about the Muslim religion, for instance, or Mormonism, or the Jehovah’s Witness religion, and so forth. In Paul’s day, these religions did not exist. So, that could be what is meant in Daniel 11:38 that the False Messiah would worship a god his ancestors did not know. Of course, all false gods have their origin in the kingdom of HaSatan, the Satan. Paul says in the Thessalonians passage that the coming of this False Messiah will be according to the working of Satan, or according to Satan’s plan, so to speak. Satan will underwrite and undergird him. Like Antiochus IV, this demon-fueled madman will be ruthless. His reach will be widespread.
We learn elsewhere in Scripture that the FM will rule from the Land of Glory, many believe his headquarters will be in Jerusalem. HaSatan’s diabolical plan will be to try to prevent the return of Mashiach. He could not prevent His first coming, nor could he prevent His sacrificial atoning work from being completed. Yet, in his egotistism, he still believes he can be victorious over the one, true God. So, HaSatan’s plan will reach a fever pitch when the False Messiah comes onto the scene.
However, the Deceiver should have known he cannot win. In the end, Mashiah WILL return and will be victorious. The False Messiah will meet his end as it’s stated in vs. 45 in a battle that will take place between the seas and the mountain of holy Glory, on a plain called the Jezreel Valley, near a mountain called Har Megiddo, or in the English, Armageddon.
This brings us to the end of today’s teaching, aka “history lesson”. I don’t want you to lose sight of the fact, though, that is was not history when it was revealed to Daniel. Have you grasped the magnitude of the details given in this chapter, and the amazing correlations to what actually occurred hundreds of years later?! Who could do such a thing? Only the One and Only, bless His holy name forever!
As we close, please continue to pray for Israel, and also for the USA, as we have trials and challenges of our own here in the States. I will be glad when we are well into November. Keep seeking the Lord in everything. These are dark and challenging days. I am looking forwrad tonight to sharing apples and honey with my husband’s weekly discipleship group, as we enter into the beautiful holiday of Rosh Hashanah!
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