Sermon Tone Analysis

There Was A Hurricane!

One day a man from Long Island NY satisfied a life long dream of buying a high quality barometer…when he unpacked the instrument, he was dismayed to find that the needle appeared to be stuck, pointing to the section marked “hurricane”.

After shaking the barometer vigorously, he wrote a scorching letter to the store where he had purchased it.

On his way to the office the next morning he mailed the letter.

That evening he returned to Long Island to not only find the barometer missing, but his house also…the barometer’s needle was right…there was a hurricane!

Truth is truth whether you want to believe it or not…with that in mind, please turn to Daniel 11.

Remember what we said last week about the last 3 chapters of Daniel…Daniel 10-12 are all part of one vision.

Last week we examined Daniel 10 as the preparation of Daniel to receive the vision…what we discovered was that God gave Gabriel the answer to Daniel’s prayer of wanting to know more…Daniel 10:12...

What Daniel saw that would help him understand what he would be told is that the present and coming Gentile nations and kings that would dominate Israel are going to be heavily influenced by heavenly beings as a result of the spiritual warfare being raged in the realm of the invisible world…

some of the kings would be favorable to God’s people, some were going to be cruel and evil because the last thing Satan wants to see is God’s people winning...

Unfolding of the Plan

What we have now in Daniel 11-12 is long and complex…it is God unfolding his plan for Israel from Persia to the time of Antichrist.

The first thirty-five verses of Daniel 11 were prophecy in Daniel’s time, but ancient history in ours.

There are a lot of forgotten historical characters with difficult names and complicated relationships filled with treachery and intrigue.

The remainder of the vision sweeps all the way from the history of spiritual conflict in Israel to the tribulation when Israel is delivered once and for all from all Gentile domination.

It takes us across the timeline from Daniel’s day to that of the Antichrist.

We said the outline for these last 3 chapters is

Preparation for the Vision — Daniel 10:1-11:1

Details of the Vision — Daniel 11:2-12:3

Final Instructions — Daniel 12:4-13

Today we want to break down chapter 11 even further..

Prophecies already fulfilled — Daniel 11:1-35

Prophecies yet to be fulfilled — Daniel 11:36-12:3

Both the near and distant future for Israel is going to be dark and hard and long, but stay faithful because God has a plan that is unfolding.

God is giving Daniel a greater understanding into His plans for Israel.

Main Point: Stay Faithful As God Unfolds His Plan.

God Unfolds His Plan In Fulfilled Prophecy (Daniel 11:1-35)

In this section of Daniel, God unfolds detailed revelations of what would happen to the nation of Israel in the centuries to come…if you like to write notes in the margins of your Bible here is how the chapter breaks down...

Daniel 11:1-2 — Prophetic history of Persia

Daniel 11:3-20 — Prophetic history of Greece

Daniel 11:21-35 — Prophecy regarding Antiochus Epiphanes

Daniel 11:36-45 — Prophecy regarding the Antichrist

Truth is truth whether you want to believe it or not…this particular section of Daniel has created many problems for the liberal theologians…their contention is that nobody could write in advance with so many accurate details about so many people and events.

They believe that Daniel was written at the time the events were happening or even later…the reason being is that in the annals of ancient history there is no doubting what Daniel says here is true...

In their “scientific conclusion” Daniel is a fraud…written centuries after the events and really is not prophecy at all.

To that we say that fulfilled prophecy is one of the proofs of the inspiration of the Bible because it is the very Word of the Omniscient God…Only He can know future events accurately and direct His servants in writing them down…truth is truth whether you want to believe it or not.

Believing in a great God means that it is no problem for us to accept this as prophecy, as truth predicted…sometimes in prophecy there is both a near and far fulfillment of prophecy…for example in the prophecy concerning Jesus in Isaiah 9:6 we see that a child will be born and the government will rest on His shoulders…near fulfilment in Jesus…far fulfillment in the millennial kingdom.

I know some of you can get bored with history and think a study of this chapter as a waste of time with no relevance for today...but remember that this was given to Daniel around 536 BC and began in 530 BC when the first of “three more kings” arose in Persia…Daniel 11:2 …Daniel 11:21-35 will be fulfilled in 150 BC…The end of Daniel 11 and the beginning of Daniel 12 won’t be fulfilled until some date in the future.

The prophecies in Daniel 11 concern five rulers who were yet to come…four of them are now history…the fifth is yet to come…they all start with the letter A…by looking at the reign of these men we will uncover the essence of what is outlined for us here.

Ahasuerus — Daniel 11:2

The first part of the prophecy deals with Persia…it says three will arise and then a fourth...

(Cyrus’ son) Cambyses (529 - 522), Pseudo-Smerdis (522-521), Darius the Great (521 - 486), Xerxes — the Ahasuerus of Esther.

Esther tells us that Ahasuerus “reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia.”

The scope of his wealth was seen in his ability to hold a lavish 180 day feast for all his officials and servants (Esther 1:1-7)… it is also said that he commanded one of the largest armies in ancient history…he set off to invade Greece with 2,641,000 men.

Alexander — Daniel 11:3-4

The description of a mighty king here fits Alexander the Great down to the smallest details…We saw him earlier in Daniel 2 as the section of bronze, and we saw him again in Daniel 8 as the great horn of the goat.

He was one of the great men in history…he did reign with great authority and did whatever he pleased…by the age 32 he had conquered the entire known world from Europe to India.

He was defeated and his kingdom divided — when he had reached the apex of his career, he died…he had no heirs who could legitimately assume the throne so his kingdom was divided among his four generals…history confirms what Daniel prophesied.

Divided Kingdom — North & South

After a chaotic power struggle that involved assassinations and a succession of wars as well as intrigue, two of the four divisions rose to dominance…Egypt and Syria.

These would be called the Kings of North and Kings of the South because of their location in relation to Israel…Egypt was South, Syria was North…the fighting between these two empires would impact Israel for years to come.

Daniel 11:5-20 prophecies years of fighting between these to nations and it is remarkable how accurately these prophesies were fulfilled.

Read Daniel 11:6

History records that King Ptolemy II of Egypt gave his daughter Berenice to Antiochus II of Syria in order to seal an alliance between them…But in time, Antiochus’ first wife, the evil and power hungry Laodice, poisoned Antiochus, murdered Berenice and her son…all in fulfillment of Daniel 11:6.

Read Daniel 11:7-8

To avenge the murder of his sister Berenice, Egypt’s Ptolemy III attacked and defeated Syria, carried their gods and other valuables back to Egypt, and executed Laodice.

Antiochus The Great (Antiochus III) — Daniel 11:10-20

Our first introduction to this ruler tells us that his wars against Egypt were marked first by a series of defeats followed by a series of victories (Daniel 11:10-16).

Read Daniel 11:17

Many of you would know the story of Cleopatra…Antiochus III gave his own daughter, Cleopatra, believed to be around 11 years old, to Ptolemy V of Egypt, a boy of 12, in a marriage Antiochus hoped would help him gain victory over Egypt with her loyalty to him.

However, she sided with her husband and defeated her father’s plans.

We also learn from history that Antiochus III tired to attack Egypt’s coastal cities but was rebuffed by the rising armies of Rome…in anger, Antiochus would return home and plunder his own land…He attacked the temple of Jupiter to steal its treasures and his people rose up and murdered him…his body was never found…Read Daniel 11:18-19

Seleucas IV, the son of Antiochus III inherited his father’s war debts, so he sent a tax collector to plunder the Temple in Jerusalem…Read Daniel 11:20…history tells us that this tax collector, Heliodorous, poisoned Seleucas…perfectly fulfilling the prophecy that he would “be shattered, though not in anger nor in battle”.

Antiochus Epiphanes (Antiochus IV) — Daniel 11:21-35

Daniel 11:5-20 covers a period of nearly 150 years and involves a long line of succession of rulers.

In this next section, the pace slows and we have record of one ruler from 175 to somewhere around 164 BC.

We met Antiochus Epiphanes earlier in Daniel and many biblical scholars consider him to be a foreshadow of the Antichrist to come in the Tribulation period.

He was one of the worst and most wicked men to ever live…He had no claim to the Syrian throne, but he deceived and corrupted many people to get to the throne by using a “distribute the wealth” policy…Read Daniel 11:24…he would even corrupt some Jews to forsake God…Read Daniel 11:30 (show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant)

Read Daniel 11:27…he stirs up a battle against Egypt but he couldn’t win it on the battlefield and so the stalemate ended with an agreement to a peace treaty, which both kings quickly broke.

Read Daniel 11:30, 31…after yet another failure, and not wanting to go to war with Rome (ships of Kittim was a Roman fleet from Cyprus that sided with Egypt) Antiochus vents his frustration and anger on Israel…he invades Jerusalem, raping and murdering women and slaughtering children on sight…He erects an image of Zeus in the Jewish Temple and demands Jews worship it…He stops all Jewish sacrifices and then sacrifices a pig on the altar, flings its blood throughout the Temple and force-fed pork to the priests…this is the abomination that makes desolate…no Jew could go there because Antiochus Epiphanes had made it an abomination…Jesus would speak of this as only a for taste of what the Antichrist will do (Matt.

24:15).

Before we move on to the last ruler there is something significant in this text that we could miss if we didn’t observe the text carefully…this is a major implication of this text...

God Always Has A Faithful Remnant That Will Stand Against that which is Unholy.

Read Daniel 11:32…the Jewish compromisers in Daniel 11:30 stand with Antiochus in the persecution of fellow Jews…however there was a group of Jews, known as the Hasideans, led by Judas Maccabeus (“the Hammer”), who led a revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes…there is a collection of books known as the Apocrypha, that contains other writings that were not considered to be Scripture, that reveals details of this revolt that we do not have in our Bibles…those books are known as 1 & 2 Maccabees…those are historical accounts of this time period… 1 Maccabees 1:62-63 sates “Many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food.

They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die” Stephen R. Miller, Daniel, vol.

18, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 302.

We get a glimpse into this revolt in Daniel 8:14 when Daniel asks how long will the temple lay desolate…the answer given to Daniel was 2,300 days…2,300 repetitions of the evening and morning sacrifices will be polluted by this madman.

The historical date for the restoration and cleansing of the Temple under Judas Maccabeus was December 14, 164 BC…we know this date on the calendar as Hanukkah…a word that means dedication…

Associated with Hanukkah is the Menorah, the Temple candlestick…during the revolt, when the Maccabean warriors finally recaptured the Temple and cleansed it from the abomination of desolation, they wanted to light the Menorah but they could only find a small flask of oil required for use in the Temple…there was barely enough to keep it lit for one day…According to tradition, the oil miraculously lasted for eight days, which gave them enough time to obtain a new supply of the purified oil to keep the menorah burning.

To commemorate this deliverance and the Temple’s rededication, the Jews established the perpetual feast of Hanukkah…also known as the Feast of Dedication or the Festival of Lights…today they celebrate Hanukkah on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev (November/December on our calendar) by placing the menorah in a window or doorway where it’s visible from the outside…each day during the eight-day celebration, in late afternoon, one candle is lit until on the eighth day, all eight candles are burning.

I say all that to you to tell you this...

In the darkest of times, even in the face of severe persecution, God still has people who will stand up against that which is unholy and that stand will have an impact on the generations to come.

Will you be like the ones who “forsake the covenant” by turning your back on God or will you be counted among the faithful?

We are guilty of forsaking the covenant of God when we think and act in ways that are selfish and motivated by our own pride…we know the right things to do, we know the right ways to think, we know the right ways to speak, we know what God says about marriage, we know what God says about parenting, we know what God says about our responsibilities as members of the church, everything that we need to know about life and godliness has been revealed to us…

when we step aside from obedience to the Scripture, we are going the path of forsaking the covenant we made with God in salvation…when we get off the path, there must be repentance and change…this is known as progressive sanctification…

the longer our time on earth this side of heaven, the more we have to progressively become like Christ, forsaking attitudes and deeds of the flesh and putting on attitudes and deeds of the righteousness of God in Christ…Eph 4:22-24

Read Daniel 11:33 — those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many…those who believe and know the truth will instruct others in the Scriptures…even while they are suffering continued persecution…every generation needs to listen to those who have gained insight from the Word of God…every generation that has gained insight from the Word of God needs to be teaching that truth now.

Until God is completely done with His program for Israel, and until God is completely done with His plan for the church, He will always be faithful to bring about His plan for His people, and there also will be people who are faithful to follow Him.

Is that you?

God Unfolds His Plan in “Yet to Be Fulfilled” Prophecy — Daniel 11:36-45

The “end time” and “appointed time” in Daniel 11:35 are a reference to the end of Antiochus’ terrorism…

So when you pick up the rest of the chapter we see a different person with different exploits…this is the fifth king we mentioned earlier, the Antichrist.

Antichrist — Daniel 11:36-45

Daniel 11 is more about his career than his character…rather than exploring every verse let’s make a list of what we see (thankful for Dr. David Jeremiah for this list in Agents of Babylon, pg.

303-304).

He will do what he desires — Daniel 11:36

He will deify himself — Daniel 11:36

He will defy the true God — Daniel 11:36

He will disregard all religion — Daniel 11:37

He will devote himself to the military — Daniel 11:38

He will declare war against foreign powers — Daniel 11:39

He will defend himself against other nations — Daniel 11:40