Daniel Lesson 46

Pawns of Satan – Daniel 11:4-17

The book of Daniel is a wisdom book; chapter 11 the outline of history given by God the Son in His preincarnate form to Daniel, an outline so complete that critics cannot believe and will not believe that this chapter of God’s Word is predictive, and therefore Daniel 11 has always been the battleground between the conservatives and the liberals over whether God’s Word is God’s Word or whether God’s Word just means something in the order of inspiring literature. Daniel 11 is so predictive of so many things and such a chaotic political process, a process involving assassinations, political deals and the usual turbulence with high political positions. This chapter is so chaotic and demonstrates such a chaotic area in man’s relations that certainly, argues the non-Christian critic, this cannot be predictive, even Christ Himself argues the critic does not have this kind of perfect sovereignty and knowledge. We, of course, affirm the opposite and say that such criticism is hanging in thin air; Jesus Christ, because of who He is and what He is can obviously give this kind of prophecy.

We have noticed in Daniel 11 that we are dealing with wisdom to the citizens who would face great persecutions and trials, from the year 586 BC on down through the era of the Romans there would be four great Gentile kingdoms that would compete for world domination. Believers would have to be trained to live under adverse conditions. And then, as now, you had many believers who disparaged Bible doctrine, who turned their backs on Bible doctrine, who always had an excuse to avoid Bible doctrine and yet it was only the Word of God that would give stability in this kind of adverse situation.

We’ve noticed several matters have been emphasized so far in chapter 11; one was the fact that God is in final control of chaos. If we look at the events and we see all of these chaotic things happening around, it’s true that as believers we only have a small sphere in those chaotic events which we could possibly influence our way. We stand as only one little person amidst millions and therefore our sphere of immediate influence is quite small indeed. So the believers being trained under Daniel would have to realize yes, you can influence to some degree; believers are king-priests but nevertheless they must understand that even the control of history is not wholly in our hands. History, from man’s point of view… from man’s point of view is out of control. And therefore either you accept ultimate chaos and chance or you accept a totally sovereign God; there is no middle ground.

And the appeal of Daniel 11 is God says “trust Me.” Trust Me with the assassinations, trust Me with the radical changes of administration, trust Me with the see-saw battles that will go on over the land of Palestine, trust Me! So the basis of stability for believers living in this kind of a thing is the long-range use of the faith technique which is hope, the technical word for enduring faith.

And then another matter that has been emphasize din Daniel 11 is there as the believer does have a limited area of responsibility, it’s true that history is out of his control, it is true either you have to rely on chance or you have to trust in God, the believer can act, to a degree, as a king-priest and this carries over in the New Testament to proper citizenship responsibilities for believers, as king-priests. As a king this means we have some limited sovereign and it means in those countries where Christians have the right to vote and the right to hold office and the right to direct their community, they ought to exercise their kingship. There’s nothing wrong with Christians doing this; what’s wrong with Christians is not exercising kingship when you’ve got the chance to do so. So kingship is one part of the believer’s package of responsibilities.

And also we are priests, we are king-priests and priests make intercession, and we found so far in the study of Daniel that as priests we can influence the angelic conflict. Our prayers in some way, unknown to us, track in the angelic realm. We don’t exactly know the link because God’s Word doesn’t tell us the exact link; all it does is announce that angelic beings, due to some strange way respond, and almost it seems like, depend upon believers for their intercessory prayer. We see therefore the actions of Michael and the actions of the other angel, strangely coterminous and synchronous with events going on here in history, downstairs in the realm of men. So that’s the second matter that has been emphasized; not only believers ought to trust God and not chance because history is out of control; not only are we to be believer king-priests and to exercise, but finally a third matter is, and that’s the topic for today in this section of Scripture.

The third matter for the believer wishing to exercise wisdom as a citizen is be careful that unintentionally you do not further satanic programs. Beware that through your own sincerity, your own desire to even apply the Word to a situation you don’t become a sucker and a casualty and wind up in the final analysis with the horrible sensation that you were the one that brought in a degeneracy socially. That matter will be taken up; this is a warning to believers in Daniel’s day.

Now Daniel 11 can be divided into certain subsections: verses 1-3 deals with the Medes and the Persians. From Daniel 11:4 on about half way through the end of the chapter we have age of the Greeks. So verses 1-3, the Medes and the Persians and from verse 4 on you have the age of the Greeks and Hellenization. This was an important age; it was an age in which men would be prepared by a common language to receive Christ. Yet on the other hand it would be also an age in which every member of the human race was tainted with some of the rationalism of the Greeks.

In Daniel 11:4, where we left off last time, we have the rise and fall of Alexander the Great. Verses 5-9 we have the dominion of the Ptolemies of Egypt, and verses 10-11 the domination of the Seleucids of Syria. We’re dealing with Palestinian politics of the second and first century and therefore we must turn to our maps and see if we can understand what some of these power spheres look like. This map shows the two areas of power, the two spheres of power; this is a chart of the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Throughout Daniel 11 we are going to be dealing with these two areas of political control. Up to the north is the Seleucids. When you read, from this point on in the text, “the king of the north,” this area of political control is what is meant. That is the king of the north, the Seleucid administration. They controlled at one time all the way west to this area of Turkey on the Aegean, that is from the area of Greece all the way east to India, a vast area under the dominion of the king of the north, the Seleucids. To the south, around the Nile delta of Egypt, all through Palestine, north of Palestine into what is now Lebanon, east into what is now Jordan and all the way west to Libya along the North Africa coast, this was all under the control of the Ptolemies of Egypt, the king of the south. Both these kingdoms together form Alexander’s old empire, but after Alexander died they split up and we’ll see that text later in this passage. But keep in mind the king of the north and the king of the south; this is what the text is talking about. The king of the south is along this area.

In prophecy when you see king of the south and king of the north you are referring to those areas. Whatever the country is, we may call the countries by different names, but from the Scriptural point of view that’s the king of the north and that’s the king of the south.

Daniel 11:4, we have the fall of Alexander. It says at the beginning of verse 4, “When he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken,” it could be translated, “as Alexander arises his kingdom shall be broken.” No sooner does Alexander conquer the known world but his kingdom falls apart because he dies; he dies as a drunkard and possible of syphilis, at a party in Babylon in 323 BC. Alexander was a man who was brilliant, he was a genius, he went up quickly and he came down quickly. The Jews are very much interested in Alexander because Alexander was a man who showed them great friendliness, and also a very strange thing happened when Alexander marched his armies into Israel. As he came down the coast to assume control of the Phoenician coast line, to take over the eastern end of the Mediterranean, he came to a place called Gaza; while at Gaza some of his men suggested that he go up to Jerusalem and accept the surrender of the Hebrew state. The Jews were willing to surrender to him, and this following event, narrated in Josephus, was said to have happened. Historians doubt the validity of it but probably mostly because they’re anti-supernaturalists at heart.

Here’s the event as Josephus records it, one of the strangest events of history and where the Bible touched a great man of history. The Bible never relates this event because the canon of Scripture was closed by the time this happened. But as Alexander came up to the city of Jerusalem he was met by the high priest. The high priest came out, and brought some of the Levites with him, and you have this glorious meeting between the young, great, Greek commander and his military party and coming down from Jerusalem the great high priest, the head of the state of Israel, and here’s what happened:

“For Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his mitre on his head, having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the high priest.” Now this was an astounding thing, everywhere Alexander as conqueror went he would accept people greeting him. But when he came to the state of Israel a strange thing happened and everybody who watched this knew something different had happened. Alexander came to the Jews and he greeted them first.

“The Jews also did all together, with one voice, salute Alexander, and encompass him about; whereupon the kings of Syria and the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done, and supposed him disordered in his mind. However, Parmenio alone went up to him, and asked him how it came to pass that, when all others adored him, he should adore the high priest of the Jews? To whom he replied, ‘I did not adore him, but that God who hath honored him with his high priesthood; for I saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians; whence it is that, having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under the Divine conduct, and shall therewith conquer Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all things will succeed according to what is in my own mind.’ And when he had said this to Parmenio, and had given the high priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him, and he came into the city. And when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God, according to the high priest’s direction, and magnificently treated both the high priest and the priests.”

Now, as we are studying the book of Daniel, listen to what happened next: after Alexander’s party went into the temple, and as they offered the sacrifice, then the priest came out and opened the scroll and turned to the book of Daniel.

“And when the Book of Daniel was showed to Alexander, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended. And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present; but the next day he called them to him, and bid them ask what favors they pleased of him; whereupon the high priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers, and might pay no tribute on the seventh year.” This is so that they could observe the Torah and they wouldn’t have to produce their crops to make the tax for the seventh year. “Alexander granted all the Jews desired. And when they entreated him that he would permit the Jews in Babylon and Media to enjoy their own laws also, he willingly promised to do hereafter what they desired. And when he said to the multitude, that if any of them would enlist themselves in his army, on this condition, that they should continue under the laws of their forefathers, and live according to them, he was willing to take them with him, many were ready to accompany him in his wars.”

So we have Alexander coming, giving obeisance to the Word of God and gathering many believers in his army. And as Alexander’s armies then moved eastward we know that probably thousands of believers were soldiers in this great Greek army. And this verse, verse 3, is the one the high priest showed Alexander on that day when he visited Jerusalem, “a mighty king shall stand up and shall rule with great dominion, and do according to His will.” We don’t know whether he read the fourth verse to him or not but at least he read the second and third verses.

So the Jews are favorably impressed and one of the reasons they were impressed by Alexander, and this is the setup I’m giving you for what’s going to happen in the next few verses, the setup is this: the Jews enjoy the Torah, they enjoyed following the Word of God in the details of life and they have a favorable administration. Now you’re going to see what happens and from this we’ll get a wisdom principle.

Daniel 11:4, as Alexander stood up, “his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.” “Those” refers to his sons. Alexander had a brother by the name of Philip. This guy, Philip, was a halfwit, Alexander was a genius; you have a halfwit and a genius. So Philip, upon the death of Alexander, wasn’t what you would consider prize throne material. Now Alexander had a beautiful wife by the name of Roxanna, and she was pregnant on the last campaign and bore a son after Alexander died, and she named her son Alexander, a different middle name so it wasn’t Alexander Junior. But it was the son who would be the legitimate heir. Now Alexander also had a very possessive mother called Olympia, and she realized the danger when her son died, that Philip, this nut, would take the throne, so Olympia had a little poison squad worked out and she took care of the idiot and eliminated one heir. The plan was that Olympia and Roxanna together would hold the throne together until this boy would grow up to be the age of a king. However, Alexander’s generals had other plans, and they got a plan together and they killed Roxanna, Olympia and Alexander Junior and that was the end of Alexander’s heirs. And so the prophecy comes to pass that Alexander’s kingdom would be divided but not to its heirs.

By 275 BC the kingdom had three great divisions. These men were called the epigone, and it means the heirs, three of them. Only two are of direct concern to us in the Bible. We have a man by the name of Antigonus, Antigonus ruled over Macedonia, finally when the dust cleared, there was many years of struggle, but by 275 BC things had settled down so there was three great spheres of influence in Alexander’s Empire. First, over Macedonia and the existing area of Greece proper, Antigonus. And then over Syria Seleucus, his reign was over Syria and Babylon, Lebanon and eventually Turkey, what is now Turkey, Asia Minor then. So you have Seleucus, the second man, the second line that starts to take over the kingdom. And then you have over Egypt and North Africa, Ptolemy. So those are the three men, it was four originally and one of them got knocked off so it wound up with three, but prophecy was definitely fulfilled that there would be four, as in verse 4.

Now verses 5-9 give us the first phase of this Hellenization period. From verse 5 to 9 we have the dominance of the Ptolemies. For all intents and purposes the Word of God ignores Antigonus, for the obvious reason that the Word of God looks at history through the eyes of Israel at this point and is only concerned with those that are directly contiguous to the nation.

Daniel 11:5, “And the king of the south shall be strong,” the king of the south in the Ptolemaic line, so the Word of God predicted long before it happened that when the chaos of the disintegration of Alexander the Great’s administration occurred, out of the dust and debris would arise primarily the line of the Ptolemies. The Ptolemies would dominate the scene from 323 BC to 200 BC, from 323 BC, the death of Alexander, on down to 200 BC with the battle of Panias, But this would be 123 years, it would be equivalent of one administration in our country from 1850 to the present day, so that’s a pretty long time and over this period of time the Ptolemies ruled Israel. This is the second point of setup for the situation we’re working on here in the text. Remember we said that Alexander was lenient toward the believers; he allowed them to apply the Word of God in all the details of life. When the Ptolemies took over Palestine, they too were tolerant to the Jews, extremely tolerant to the Jews as invaders go. So you had again a friendly administration. Now you’re going to see how stupid believers blew it.

Daniel 11:5, “The king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.” Notice it switches from the singular here of the king of the south to another singular, “one from among his princes,” one from among his captains. Now what happened was that this third man, Antigonus, and other people involved in that general area, made things hard for Seleucus. In fact, they took over Babylon and Mesopotamia and Seleucus had to come down and be very, very friendly with Ptolemy. In fact, he had to worm his way into Ptolemy’s administration. And so Seleucus I comes down for a while and serves under Ptolemy, and not only does he serve under Ptolemy, Ptolemy thought he was so great that he made Seleucus I his admiral, the admiral of the Egyptian fleet. Seleucus served in this area and he managed to control the eastern end of the Mediterranean for some years. One of his princes, in verse 5, one of the sarim historically was Seleucus I. It shows that Seleucus I who would ultimately rule in the north, came out of the south; originally he held a military post under the Ptolemaic administration. So “one of his military generals; and he shall be strong above him,” that means that Seleucus will leave the south, eventually go north and Seleucus’ kingdom will start to compete with the king of the south; Syria will start to have ascendancy over Egypt, “his dominion shall be a great dominion,” I just showed you the map and the area, that was the great dominion. And you notice on the map his area covered far more than this area, once again vindicating the accuracy of the prophecy of verse 5.

Daniel 11:6, “And in the end of years they shall join themselves together;” now “the end of years” or after several decades there had been at least two Syrian-Egyptian wars and the two power spheres competed, you have the eastern end of the Mediterranean, you have Syria up here and you have Egypt down here, no different than today, the same concept, and there’s a tug of war going on between both of them and Palestine is caught in the middle. So you have “at the end of years,” there were two Syrian wars, one was from 274BC to 271 BC and the second was from 260 BC to 253 BC. And these wars took their great toll on human life, it involved much suffering and of course deficit financing. And so the kings sought a way for peace, and this verse predicts one of their great peace breakthroughs.

“And in the end of years they shall join themselves together, for the king’s daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make a treaty [an agreement]” now in the ancient times nations, to seal treaties because there was no such thing as international law and there was no such thing as world government, nations had to stabilize treaties, so in effect they would exchange political hostages by intermarriage. So you would have a daughter of a king; a king would have many daughters and he’d just raise these daughters for future negotiation. And he’d ship his daughters out to various kings that he made treaties with it. It was not a love marriage, that’s American style; in this case it was an arranged political marriage. And it was for the sake of stability.

So one of the daughters of Ptolemy II, by this time years have gone by, you have Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II, Ptolemy II is known because in history in tradition he was supposedly the one that authorized the Septuagint. He had a daughter by the name of Bernice, and she was one of his negotiating daughters and you just raised crops for production and raised daughters for treaties. And so Bernice’s turn came up and at the time they wanted to solve this problem of war between Syria and Egypt, so he said Bernice, I’ve got news for you, you’re going to be married to Antiochus II. And she said “yes daddy,” and went north and married Antiochus II who at that time was king. There’s only one problem; Antiochus II was already married to another woman by the name of Laodice, and this obviously created a little problem.

As the saying goes, the Chinese symbol for trouble is two women under the same roof, and it was valid here because Laodice was the kind of woman who was very vindictive and she wasn’t about to take this thing passively. She was going to fight. And one of the most famous episodes or scandals of the ancient world occurred with this woman when she managed to poison her X and she already had borne a son by Antiochus and she wanted him to be heir and his name was Seleucus II. So Laodice is over here and she says all right, my son, Seleucus II is going to be the one who reigns on the throne and I don’t’ want Bernice having any babies to take over the throne. So she arranged the poisoning for her husband and if that wasn’t enough she also poisoned Bernice who by this time had become pregnant and delivered and had a son. So Laodice in a great scheme of assassination destroyed her X and destroyed his wife and her son, leaving, obviously her own son, Seleucus II.

Seleucus II ascends the throne and now we’re in trouble. And this is what the prophecy is in verse 6. “…but she,” that is Bernice, “shall not retain the power of the arm;” that doesn’t mean she lifted weights, that means that she had certain royal authority and she could not exercise that royal authority, she didn’t have it left, “neither shall he stand, nor his arm,” that is the king of the south, which I will add a footnote to at this point, it’s going to become very confusing as we work through these verses to find out the antecedent of personal pronouns and possessive pronouns. You’ll see he, he, his, his, his, and the only way you can figure this out is from the context, trying to plug different things in; that’s just the way prophecy is, it’s vague like that. So Bernice shall not retain her royal authority. The Bible doesn’t predict how or what’s going to happen to her but we know from history what did happen. “…neither shall he stand, nor his arm,” and during this point, Ptolemy II died. See, he died in 246 BC. So here you have Ptolemy II who’s watching this and very unfriendly to the whole situation and he kept Laodice in check, she didn’t dare pull this little deal off until the old man down in Egypt died, and he died in 246 BC, she said goodie, and mixed up her little brew and took over.

“…but she shall be given up, and they that brought her” that is her Egyptian entourage, oh, I forgot to add, when Laodice had her X killed she also arranged a little party of swordsmen and they went in and they not only killed Bernice and her son but they also killed all her Egyptian bodyguards. So “they that brought her and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times.” So everybody goes down, her son, her father dies down in Egypt, and those that brought up, her Egyptian bodyguards and entourage, they’re all murdered. So you have political violence predicted. This is the flavor of Daniel 11, it’s chaotic. It’s tremendous upheavals inside the administrations.

But in Daniel 11:7, “But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate,” now we’re studying this because we have history to verify how this prophecy worked out and then we can become familiar with the language. Now that little phrase, “branch of her roots,” is nothing more than what we would call the family tree. And in prophecy now and in the rest of Scripture when you see branch and roots always think in terms of a family tree. It’s used in Romans 10 and 11, about the Gentiles and about Israel, same concept, it’s a prophecy of the branch of Jesse, that Jesse’s the father of David and so on, it’s a common illustration. “Out of a branch,” “a branch of her roots,” notice it doesn’t say out of her branch and this is the accuracy of Bible prophecy because Ptolemy II, her father, had Bernice and he also had a son who became later Ptolemy III. So this predicts that out “of her roots,” her roots would be her father and her mother. “Out of her roots,” there’s another branch that comes, who is Ptolemy III. And he “shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail.” This is Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt from 246 BC to 221 BC and he started the third Syrian war. Remember there had been two Syrian wars contained in the verse “in the end of years” of verse 6; that little phrase encompasses two wars that were unfruitful. Now verse 7 depicts the third Syrian Egyptian war, Ptolemy III invaded all the way to Babylon. This is the peak of the strength of the king of the south. This is when Egypt was at her strongest.

Ptolemy goes north, he invades all the way up into Babylon and his troops get into Babylon, the city is in disarray, there’s no law and order and so his troops are looking around for something to do and so one of his reconnaissance officers comes to him and says, hey, Ptolemy, you know we were just inspecting the temple over there and we noticed that temple has fantastic things, in fact, a lot of the temple goods that are stored in there are ours, they were taken years and years ago by the Medes and the Persians from Egypt. So while we’re here and have nothing to do, how about lets clean out the temple. So Ptolemy III thought that was a great idea, he needed some gold, so he brought back all the idols, and when he brought these idols back and the gold back that the Medes and the Persians had taken from Egypt years and years ago, he was then called Ptolemy III the Benefactor, showing that as late as this time in history the Egyptians still worshiped idols in a primitive way. They thought so much of this great man, Bernice’s brother, for bringing them back all of their idols.

And then it says in Daniel 11:8, this continues the point I just made, “And shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods,” he not only took his own but he took theirs, “with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north.” So in other words, there will be stability, political strength and stability in the south.

Daniel 11:9, “So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom,” now that’s translated wrong in the King James, it should be, “he will come into the kingdom of the king of the south, but shall return into his own land.” And that was a weak counterstroke by Seleucus II, it didn’t amount to anything, he chased Ptolemy III back, sort of a little rear guard type action, never amounted to anything. So verse 9 ends the phase when Egypt had clear dominance. Remember up to verse 9 you have had friendly pro-Semitic policies on the part of the government. And this is of great concern to Jesus Christ in preparing believers for things to come because Christ, when He speaks to Daniel must emphasize certain things that will give stability and direction.

Now in the next passage, from verses 10-17, we have the shift of power from the south to the north, from Egypt to Syria, and as this power shift occurs believers must be warned of a very, very important thing, because believers always have a habit of jumping in first and thinking second. And Jesus Christ is going to warn Daniel, He’s saying I want you to tell believers this: when you start to see the power shift, don’t you aid that power shift. It is going to look, says Christ, as though your great moment of freedom has come; it is going to look that yes, we had freedom under Alexander, yes we had freedom under the king of the south, that was good, but wow, the king of the south is weakening, now we’ve got our chance, let’s go into this in an alliance with the king of the north and fairly defeat the king of the south. Let’s attain the millennial conditions. Believers always have a tendency in history to do this, wanting to bring in the perfect social order right now, and they will leap into the middle of revolutions, often times, to try to do this. Misguided clergymen do this all the time, getting in this cause, that cause and another cause.

So this is a warning ahead of the fact that believer, when you see the king of the south start going down, you’d better not be there with a shovel at the funeral, because you are not to rejoice in this destruction of the southern administration. Here’s why: Daniel 11:10, “But his sons shall be stirred up,” whose sons? The antecedent of verse 9, the one who will return to his own land, who is Seleucus II; Seleucus II had two sons, one very imaginative name, Seleucus III and the other one, Antiochus III. Antiochus III modestly entitled himself “the great” because he thought he was going to reconquer all of Alexander’s domain. Seleucus III lasted for about two years and then the rest was Seleucus III and in this verse 10 you see the prophecy again being very accurate, “But his sons,” plural, “shall be stirred up,” that’s Seleucus III and Antiochus III, “and they” plural, “shall assemble a multitude of great armies [forces]; and one shall certainly come, and [one] overflow,” so the verb shift from the plural to the singular, a very fine point but I’m pointing this out to you so you will realize that prophecy is extremely accurate and only the fool ignores the details of prophecy. “…one shall certainly come,” who, not Seleucus III because he died after three years; he was a great man but he died in battle; Antiochus III took his place.

So the “one” of verse 10 now is Antiochus III. Why is this man important? He’s the father of the man who in history is singled out to be the worst ruler of all time, Antiochus IV, Antiochus Epiphanes. So as the text starts to go, and some of you who think along political lines now can anticipate what’s happening here. You have a shift of power that’s the forerunner of the antichrist. It is going to look to believers who live in the middle of all this, why this looks so great, it’s an innocent power shift. And Christ warns them ahead of time, hun-un, when you start to see the political flag blow in the direction from the north, know that something bad and something very evil is coming and don’t have anything to do with it.

“His sons … shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through,” now that is the fourth Syrian Egyptian battle, he tried to go down and invade Egypt. By this time you have a man by the name of Ptolemy IV on the throne. So it’s Antiochus III versus Ptolemy IV and Ptolemy IV begins the decline of Egyptian power. This guy had two hobbies, he chased women and he liked art. His art tastes were fitting with his other hobby of women chasing. So Ptolemy IV had his little operation and he wasn’t concerned with defending the country too well, so Antiochus III thought that would be a great time to go down and take it away from him. So Antiochus III, according to this prophecy, would develop a vast army and he would penetrate all the way down the coastline, just south of Gaza and a place called Raphia, he would move 70,000 troops down there and Ptolemy IV was out with all his girlfriends and his 70,000 troops and in some miraculous way Ptolemy IV defeated Antiochus at Raphia, it was the debacle of Raphia of Antiochus III. So this is why the end of verse 10 says, “then shall he return,” in other words he shall return form the defeat at Raphia, “and be stirred up, even to his fortress,” that means he’s upset because of the loss.

Now at this point a doctrine of war has been violated. Ptolemy IV has defeated the enemy in a stunning blow at Raphia, and one of the principles of war and engagement in battle is that when you have defeated your enemy strategically, which he potential has done, it’s a tactical defeat but it has strategic implications, the next thing you are to immediately do is pursue your defeated foe until he’s destroyed. And so what Ptolemy IV ought to have done is move rapidly northeastward and wipe them out. But he failed to do so. When you defeat your enemy slaughter them so then you won’t be bothered with them again. So in verse 10, “he will be stirred up, even to his fortress,” he shall rearm.

Daniel 11:11, Ptolemy, “the king of the south” finally decides he’s going to do something, “shall be moved with anger, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand.” This is a little after action from Raphia. [12] “And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it.” This is the follow up from Raphia. But, verse 13, “For the king of the north shall return,” Antiochus makes the fifth Syrian war and this is the penetration which eventually results in the complete destruction of the king of the south. “The king of the north shall return and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much equipment,” not riches, much military equipment.

What happened is that the king of the south, came up to a place Panias, just north of the Sea of Galilee; there’s a cultic thing, if you went there it’s a place where the ancient cults gathered together to worship and it’s interesting because water just comes out of a rock and this place is just in the middle of a dry area and it’s all very well-watered and very green. You can imagine people who worshipped the fertility gods would naturally gravitate to Panias. In fact the word Panias comes for “Pan,” the Greek God. So at Panias the Ptolemies tried to make their last stand and it was their last stand. Antiochus came down, defeated them and chased them up here to a place called Sidon, a city of defenses and finally wiped them out in the year 200 BC. So that’s what verse 13 is talking about. We’ll skip verse 14 because I want to come back to it.

Daniel 11:15, “So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities,” the “most fenced cities” is literally a city with many defenses, and that is Sidon in the year 200 BC, “and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people,” that is the elite force of the Egyptian army, “neither shall there be any strength to withstand. [16] But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will,” that is, Antiochus III, “he that cometh against him,” and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed.” Now to understand verse 16 and that last kind of code, almost, the secret message, we must go back now to verse 14 and understand a very, very stern warning to believers.

Daniel 11:14, “And in those times,” that is, during the times when the Seleucids in the north and the Egyptians in the south are vying for power, and the power is shifting from the south to the north, when Antiochus III, great military commander versus playboy Ptolemy IV, when all this is going on it’s quite obvious what’s happening to all people watching, that there’s a very marked shift of influence, Christ warns believers through this passage. “And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south,” in other words there’ll be many people trying to take advantage of the king of the south’s weakness; even though he’s a playboy, there will be many people who try to take unlawful advantage, according to God, of this man, “also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall.”

Now who are “the robbers of thy people” in verse 14? This means literally Hebrew rebels, or we would say extremists. He says there are going to be believers in that day who are going to think why, Alexander gave us some freedom, the Ptolemies gave us some freedom, but now we’re going to take advantage of it and they’re going to bring in “the vision.” What’s “the vision?” “The vision is the millennial kingdom, the vision of the fully restored Hebrew state. And so this radical party of zealots will plot a revolution, they will have guerilla raids against the king of the south’s supply lines; this is one reason, at the battle of Panias in 200 BC, this is one reason why the Egyptians lost, they had to hold so many soldiers to guard their logistics against Jewish raiders that they were unable to man the lines and hold at Panias, and Christ said you believers are going to think you’ve done yourself a favor, you’re going to think from your own finite understanding of the political process that you’ve brought about freedom for yourself and I tell you what you’ve done is you have just set up the worst dictatorship you have ever seen; believers with sincere motives and stupid understanding will result in the destruction of freedom. “…but they shall fall.” It means that the vision not only failed, not only do these believers not bring not in the millennial kingdom, but they do worse than that, they destroy what little freedom they had. At least they had some with the king of the south; they’re not going to have any with the king of the north. And that’s why at the end of verse 16 it says now Antiochus III “shall stand in the glorious land.” Now the land is being trod under the mighty feet of the Syrians, cruel, heathen, unbiblical, forerunners of the antichrist, they now control the glorious land. Why? Because stupid believers went out and tried to bring in absolute and total freedom before it was the time in history to do so.

Daniel 11:17, “He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do,” and it says in the concluding part of verse 17, “and he shall give him the daughter of women,” what’s happening there? At the end, after Antiochus III came down, he comes down, he controls Palestine now, this is now under Syrian control, Egypt is down here; you have Ptolemy IV who dies and leaves his son, creatively named Ptolemy V, who at this time is ten years old. Well, Antiochus got a little nervous now, because his eyes begin to look northwest and when his eyes look northwest he sees an ugly development; he sees the development of the Romans and he looks over at the Romans and he says I have to make peace with the Romans, because the Romans like this center of learning down here in Alexandria and I can’t offend the Romans too badly, so even though I’ve clobbered the king of the south, I’ll pacify him.

And so he gives a very famous daughter called Cleopatra to this ten year old kind, Ptolemy V, and he gives Cleopatra to the king of the south hoping that his daughter, Cleopatra will maneuver. See, these kings weren’t stupid, not only did they train their daughters to be married off in treaty deals, but they also taught their daughter how to arm-twist their men. And these daughters would go through training schools, how to manipulate men. They still do… but they had this worked out so that they’d compete apparently and the king would go through and say okay, who’s got the highest grade in manipulating men? Oh, you do, okay Cleopatra you’re selected. And so he sent Cleopatra down to try to manipulate the administration of the king of the south. See, Solomon got manipulated, 1 Kings 11 is the story of that one. And Cleopatra went down there but here daddy had a big surprise because after his daughter was shipped down south and he expected all these new change of events, he expected the king of the south to align himself… to kind of get off the Roman connection a little bit, weaken that so he could control all of Africa and Asia, it turns out that Cleopatra goes against her father and she gets down there and completely becomes anti-Syrian, and Cleopatra is responsible for all sorts of fraternization with the Romans, as you know from history, a few extra curricular activities of Cleopatra and these are all predicted in verse 11.

Verse 17, “…and he shall give him the daughter of women,” Cleopatra, “corrupting her,” now who’s corrupting her? Well, “corrupting her” apparently is an action that she corrupts herself against her father’s policies, “but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.” He trains her but it falls apart at the seams and Cleopatra fails as far as Antiochus III is concerned.

Now we’re going to stop at verse 17 and conclude with a passage in the New Testament to illustrate this wisdom principle. We’ve looked at wisdom principles from Daniel for the Christian citizen. We’ve found: (1) trust in the Lord for the whole control, because this stuff is so complicated, history is too complicated. Every once in a while you get some conservative group that think they’ve got the key to history. David Rockefeller and the Jews meet in Brooklyn and they decide how the world is going to go in the 20^th century. Nobody meets and controls the world, except the angelic council. Many conservatives are Satan worshipers and I say this accurately. You’re a Satan worshiper if you believe in the ultimacy of conspiracies by men. Now we’re not denying that the Rockefellers and the Jews and the communists and someone else might meet together; we’re not denying that people try, but… but the testimony of the Word of God is that no human conspiracy carries history, God carries history. So the first wisdom principle is anti-conspiracy, we do not follow the conspiracy view of history.

The second wisdom principle we’ve gotten so far from Daniel has been the king-priest thing that we introduced, our obligations where we are kings to exercise kingship; and the priests, the intercession.

Now to conclude come to Matthew 26:24, a third wisdom principle we can learn. God the Son warned Daniel that the kingdom of man must come to pass. It must come, antichrist must come, the world government must be united on a satanic basis. All of this, God said, must come to demonstrate what evil looks like in history. If God cut off and He’s going to stop history right here in 1975, it’s all over, no Second Advent, no world government, no total incarnation of the antichrist, I’m going to stop all that and I’m going to stop it right here, I’ll blow the whistle, the game’s over. Now if God did that we would go into eternity and never see where evil presuppositions lead. And so God very graciously waits and He says okay, you people want to be autonomous, you people want to run the world, I am going to let you try because I want you to see where evil presuppositions lead you. And there will be a full historical demonstration of that point.

On a small scale that’s what happens between 200 and 100 BC. In the ancient world there arose an incarnation of the kingdom of man in a micro scale with Antiochus IV and the reign of the kings of the north over Palestine. It was to demonstrate where evil presuppositions lead politically and socially, and all of that had to come to pass for reasons known really only to God. But God is anxious that believers not further that, even though it must come to pass, believer, don’t be a sucker that greases the tracks and makes it come to pass faster.

So the warning is given again in Matthew 26:26, this time about Judas. “The Son of man goes as it is written of Him;” in other words Christ is saying I must be crucified, just like the kingdom of man must come to pass, “but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born.” And this argues that though history is sovereignly certain, responsibility is held for all actors in the drama. And Christ says you’d better not be in the actors on the bad side; it’s true, I must be crucified but don’t you be the one that takes the role to crucify Me. And so in Daniel it’s the same concept, don’t you be the one who is the one who is going to bring about the kingdom of man; don’t try to bring “the vision” about yourself, woe to those! Next week we’ll show what happens as a result of foolish believers that aided the fall of the king of the south.