Daniel 11-12
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You’re lost in an unfamiliar location. Your phone is dead—no GPS. It’s a scary location, your car is starting to overheat, and its running on fumes.
You start to panic a little and everyone in your car is beginning to join in your fear. Then you hear a little voice from the backseat.
“It’s going to be okay, daddy!”
It’s cute. It might even be a little calming. But it’s not really definitive. You appreciate the relentless optimism. That might even give you a bit of steely resolve.
But let’s try a little different scenario. Still in that unfamiliar and scary location. Still with a dead phone and in a perilous situation.
But this time you hear another voice. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ve been here before. I know exactly where we are. The exit is right over there, and there’s a gas station, a charging port for your phone, and we can figure out why the car is overheating.”
Now, that’s going to be definitely calming, isn’t it. The expert in your car can get you to the exit. They’ve been there before.
We’re going to, Lord willing, finish Daniel today. Looking at chapters 11-12. I’m going to begin, though, by reading only one verse from Daniel 12.
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
Now what kind of a statement is this? Is this the statement of a relentlessly optimistic kid, who can’t really emotionally handle difficulty and so only knows how to say, “Everything is going to be okay”? OR is this the word of the expert, the one who has already been there, who can say, “Your exit is four blocks ahead.”
It’s the second one, for sure.
In fact that’s what we see in Daniel 11. It’s a really amazing chapter, really. I mean there are so many details in there and lots of history…and that’s kind of why I’m doing Daniel 11 and 12. They kind of have to go together, because the promise and the call to action in Daniel 12 is grounded by the history telling of Daniel 11.
Daniel 11 is really a summary of the next 400 or so years of human history—but there are little seeds there that also point to some level of future fulfillment. As we’ve seen a few times in Daniel some of what he’s saying is an overall story of those who oppose God and these rulers, and this little horn, have specific people in mind but also are the way of all history.
What do we find in Daniel 11?
This chapter provides a detailed historical account of the actions and conflicts of various kings. And it seems to particularly focus in on the Seleucid and Ptolemaic rulers that arise after Alexander the Great’s Empire.
They could at least get 7-8 seasons of an HBO historical drama out of this chapter. We’ve got all the stuff there. Political maneuvering, marriages and alliances, military campaigns, and territorial conquests. Daniel 11 predicts several rulers and wars and this insatiable quest of human leader to expand their territory—to see their glory spread to all the nations.
Particularly we think there are some specific human events that have been fulfilled here:
Wars Between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic Kingdoms: The chapter accurately describes the conflicts and shifting alliances between the Seleucid (North) and Ptolemaic (South) kingdoms, which were two of the Hellenistic successor states that emerged after Alexander's death.
The Rise of Antiochus IV Epiphanes: Daniel 11:21-35 provides a detailed account of the actions of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Seleucid king who persecuted the Jewish people and desecrated the Jerusalem Temple. These events align with historical records.
Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III: The chapter mentions these Ptolemaic kings and their respective campaigns and alliances, which correspond with known historical facts.
Cleopatra I and II: The prophecy mentions these Ptolemaic queens and their marriages to Seleucid rulers, which is historically accurate.
Roman Intervention: Daniel 11:30 mentions the involvement of Roman forces, which historically occurred as Rome expanded its influence in the eastern Mediterranean.
Maccabean Revolt: The prophecy references the resistance of the Jewish Maccabees against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a pivotal event in Jewish history.
That’s just a few, there’s also what we believe to Antiochus III's Defeat by Rome: Daniel 11:18-19 predicts the defeat of Antiochus III by the Roman Republic, which indeed happened in history during the Roman-Syrian War.
And then of course throughout is the persecution of the Jews predicted reaching its climax with Antiochus’ desecration of the Jerusalem temple.
But we must pause and ask a question. Why? Why is that here? Why tell Daniel this? Why have Daniel write it down…what is that doing?
It’s not there to be a type of crystal ball…in that regard it’s not entirely like our, “your exit is right up here”…it’s not meant for them to pick this book up and look for this ruler or that…or let me say that another way.
This is God telling them…here is what is going to happen. It’s not like what Jonah says to Nineveh---40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed....unless you repent. This isn’t him saying, “Watch out for these bad dudes. If you want good to prevail, you’re going to need to stop them.”
No, this is meant to tell us something about God. It’s that God is omniscient and He is omnipresent. How does he know what is going to happen? How can he so accurately predict what will happen with Alexander, what will come of the kingdom, how the temple (the one which bears his name) will be destroyed? Because He has been there before…God, and this will make your brain smoke, is outside of time and fully present in each moment of history.
Now, what is this meant to do? It’s meant to give us comfort. It’s meant for us to be able to trust the Word. To trust these prophecies of Daniel. But more than anything to place our trust in God.
It sounds like one of those coffee mug sayings, or on a bumper sticker, turned into a trite little phrase…but it’s true and it’s powerful:
I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow.
Part of what is happening in Daniel 11-12 then is to show us that God knows the future. God knows what is going to happen and so when he says in Daniel 12:1
Daniel 12:1 (ESV)
And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
But there is something else which is supposed to happen as we interact with Daniel 11-12. It’s still telling us how to live in exile…because, friends, even though they went back to their homeland…they, and we, are still in exile. We aren’t back to the Garden yet.
We aren’t yet home. God hasn’t yet restored everything.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Or as Jesus said John 18:36
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Or Peter spoke
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
So Daniel is telling people how to continue to live in exile. We see this in Daniel 12:2-4
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
As history marches forward what is going to continue happening is that the wicked are going to act wickedly as it says in v10. And they won’t understand…that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to know the Bible prophecy secrets that we might know…it doesn’t mean that they won’t be able to read future events.
No, what it means is that they don’t know the story. They don’t know the metanarrative.
I was listening to a podcast the other day, Radiolab, secular people—don’t have a Christian worldview—but it’s incredibly interesting. They were talking about this study that people did were they would give them moral dilemmas and then they would track their brainwaves. What they found was that there seems to be some type of morality written into the fabric of our being…it’s not something that just arises out of the places in our brain that are shaped by our upbringing. There is something innate. Something where we just know that things are wrong.
And what did they chalk it up to? They said, isn’t it amazing that our ancient ancestors had this and we have hundreds of thousands of years of conditioning for us to have moral instincts?
So, were’d our primal ancestors get this? Why’d they develop morality? If it explains why it exists for US…what explains why it exists for THEM…I hear that story and I think of Romans 2:15
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
Look at that…they are finding in science what God said to us 2,000 years ago. Eternity is written on the hearts of men. The law is written on our heart. We have a conscience…though it may be seared or even deadened.
And so what Daniel is saying there about “shall not understand” it means that they don’t know the story.
Creation-Fall-Redemption-Glory.
God created us. God is in charge. God sets the rules. We’ve gone astray. We are under the curse. But He sent His Son to redeem us…to lift us out of the curse…and that’s exactly what He does. And in glory we’ll live forever restored.
Or you can highlight some other threads in Scripture. You can talk about how humanity was created for a place…we were created for rest…that innate longing for home. We were created to have a home with the Creator…to walk in the cool of the Garden…PLACE is a desire that is just rumbling around in your heart...
And it explains so many human actions. It explains why what is happening in Daniel is happening…why are the Ptolemy’s and the Seleucids, and the Greeks, and the Romans, and thew Jews, and later the Huns, the Turks, the Brits, the Americans, the Russians, the....on and on and on....why are there all of these wars.
Place.
Why do we war even with one another in inner-personal relationships. Place. We want to feel home…someone else is threatening our feeling of home…or we feel that if we can just attain this or that…we’ll be home.
It explains all human conflict. James 4:1-2
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
We want a kingdom. But all the while Luke 12:32 is speaking playing in the background:
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
You could pick up a similar thread with our desire to rule…to have a purpose…to have meaning. Again, those that Daniel 12:10 is speaking of…the worldview is saying...
Here is how I have meaning in life. Here is what will make me happy. Here is what will give me purpose. Here is how I’ll be fulfilled…and the result is self-centeredness. Putting self at the center....
If we would take a look at some of these kings and rulers…focus in…look at their life…we’d see the same thing that if we’re honest we see beating in our own chest at times…the desire to rule, to get what we want whenever we want it. To be in charge. To call the shots. To make the world beat to our drum…they just were more successful than we.
But there’s another story playing along the whole time…the story that says we made shipwreck of our humanity, we forfeited our purpose. But God is restoring that. You’ll never find meaning in stuff…you’ll never find purpose in all those things you’re striving for…It’s only found in Christ.
Or relationship—a people that God is creating. Again we see the world is telling us another story of this…keeps trying and trying to make it work without God…but they never do. Square block in a round hole.
But there is another story…a better story being told…of God giving relationship…restoring our relationship with Himself…with one another.
You see here is what Daniel is doing for us in Daniel 12. He’s saying there are two ways we live in each moment of history. We live with and in and motivated by God’s story…or the other story…the story of Babylon, the story of Greece, of Rome, of whatever fallen human kingdom is telling the story in that moment.
We actually see a reference to Daniel 12 in Philippians 2. And that’s how I know we’re reading this text rightly…applying it the way the Spirit wants us too…because this is how the Spirit uses it in the New Testament.
Remember Daniel 12...”The righteous will shine like stars...” Now hear Paul
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
What he’s been doing in Philippians 2 is outlining the way of Christ v. the way of the world. And that’s why he says in v12…work out your own salvation…what he’s saying throughout Philippians is essentially this…live like the gospel is precious, live like you’ve been redeemed…live like you’ve been changed.
And what does that look like…not grumbling or disputing…but Daniel 12…shining like stars.
What Paul is doing here is showing how believers with new hearts are doing what Israel failed to do in the wilderness. God has redeemed our hearts through Jesus. And so we are shining. Something different is taking place.
Grumbling is consistent with rebellion. It’s consistent with the fall. But redemption is telling a sweeter story. What can cause a man to be “poured out like a drink offering” and to do it joyously? And then have the gall to invite others into the fire with him? Only those who’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Only those who believe the better story.
You want to see this practically…
You’re at the gas pump. Pushing $4 a gallon again. I hate that…grrr....but what is going on there. Why do I not want to spend $4 on gas? Because I want to spend it on something else…Having to pay that $4 is interfering with my rest…my place…it’s keeping me from other joys.
And so what do I do with that! Grrrr!!! Awful president, awful politicians, fat-cat oil refineries, and Big Gas companies…like Taco Bell…I must stop this…no matter what compromises we have to make, we need to get someone in power to get fuel down to at least $2 a gallon.
And our heart is unsettled at the gas pump. We’re getting filled with anger. Maybe a mix of fear. Just all sorts of unsettling things. Why?
We’re not shining like stars. We’re kicking the garbage can in anger just like the guy who is right next to us…we’ve forgotten the bigger story.
Now, that doesn’t mean we’re just okay with $4 gas…doesn’t mean that we don’t talk about justice and pursue justice…but it means that we are telling a different story. The price of gas isn’t the key story here…the key story is the guy pumping gas next to me…the key story is what is happening in my own heart…my own desires…what am I trusting in…what do I win if I get gas down to .97 a gallon but it took a million compromises in morality to get it there?…am I storing up treasures on earth?
We can do this with every single issue we face. It impacts every relationship…everything we do at work…how we watch television…how we vote…how we live in this world.
What story am I telling? Am I shining like a star? Am I trying to get rest through Babylon?
And now we get to come full circle with Daniel. They were in exile and then brought back home…but not fully home…and so we’re always living as exile.
We’ll close here similar to how we closed the first sermon on Daniel…with the words of Jeremiah. We become part of Babylon but Babylon can’t be a part of us.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Seek the welfare of Babylon. Redeem the place where the wild things are…live there…love there…because...
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
God is leading you back home. The only way back home is through the Lord Jesus. Is this the story you believe? Is this the story you are living?
—come to Christ for the first time.
—repent of living for the fallen kingdom…repent of grumbling...
—ask God to help you shine like a star
Or simply drink in hope. Daniel ends with these words
English Standard Version Chapter 12
13 But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”