Intro:

We are in Daniel chapter 11, which is a vision of future events, given to Daniel by an Angel, that covers a span of several hundred years and then jumps thousands of years into the future.

Most of what is listed in this chapter, even though it was all future events for Daniel, has now become historical events for us, with the exception of the portion that deals with events that won’t occur until the End Times.

Many leaders would rise and fall within the span of time that this chapter covers. however there are 5 leaders, or 5 Kings, that prominently stand out in this chapter and they are the ones that we are focusing on as we make our way through it. 4 of the Kings are historical for us and the fifth one has yet to be revealed on earth.

5 Kings: Pt. 2

We opened this chapter 2 weeks ago and saw the first two Kings…

1. Ahasuerus - v.2

And then...

2. Alexander the Great - vv.3-4

I ended that sermon with this map…

Map

The green section, the southern portion is where the Ptolmaic line of kings originated from and the yellow section, or the northern portion was the Seleucid Empire…

And as we get to our passage today, we are going to see that these two kingdoms could not get along and they were constantly battling with each other… and of course, Israel is caught right in the middle…

Now, I want you to keep this in mind as we read through our passage… You will notice repeated references to "the king of the south" and "the king of the north" throughout many of these verses. These terms refer to a series of different rulers within the Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties. However, with the specific information given we can see exactly who these verses are talking about.

With that in mind, lets look at our passage for today and then we can get into how accurately it was fulfilled.

Daniel 11:5-19

Meat:

There’s a multitude of things happening in these verses… and we are going to try and shed a little light on exactly what the Angel is telling Daniel will happen…

Now, I know that I said the main focus of this chapter would be the 5 Kings… However, there is roughly one hundred years between the 2nd King (Alexander the Great vv.3-4) and the 3rd King (who comes on the scene in v.10)…

And I have eloquently dubbed this period of time as…

An Ancient Soap Opera - vv.5-8

We can see this soap opera in vv.5-8…

And I call it a soap opera because there is…

- Constant Fighting

- Love Affairs

- Broken Relationships

- Family Feuds

- Jealous Revenge

(make a slide with full list)

This list could go on…

Daniel 11:5–8 “5 “Also the king of the South shall become strong, as well as one of his princes; and he shall gain power over him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion.

6 And at the end of some years they shall join forces, for the daughter of the king of the South shall go to the king of the North to make an agreement; but she shall not retain the power of her authority, and neither he nor his authority shall stand; but she shall be given up, with those who brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times.

7 But from a branch of her roots one shall arise in his place, who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king of the North, and deal with them and prevail.

8 And he shall also carry their gods captive to Egypt, with their princes and their precious articles of silver and gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the North.”

The angel tells Daniel that Initially, the king of the south will grow strong, but one of his commanders will become even stronger and establish a great dominion.

Following this, an alliance will be formed through marriage, but it will not endure. The daughter of the king of the south will be given in marriage to the king of the north to seal the agreement, but she will not retain her power, and neither will he.

Instead, she, her attendants, her child, and her supporter will be given up and then Eventually, a member of her family line will rise to take her place and will wage war against the forces of the north, capturing their fortress and seizing their gods, metal images, and valuable articles, carrying them back down to Egypt.

Seems like a very specific order of events for this ancient soap opera…

Now, before we get to far into this, I want to give you the words of Warren Wiersbe, as I think they are spot on…

Wiersbe says “All of these people and events may not be interesting to you, but the prophecies Daniel recorded tally with the record of history, thus proving that God’s Word can be trusted”

As we look back in history… After Alexander the Great died and his empire is divided into four different parts… The Ptolemaic dynasty (the southern kingdom) starts out a little more powerful than the north… but it doesn’t take very long until the north becomes more powerful as the expansion of the Seleucid Kingdom develops.

Finally the two realized the tension that’s existing, and so in verse 6 it says they’re going to make an alliance. And how do they do that?…

Well… Back then, it was done through marriage. The king of one kingdom would give one of his daughters to marry the king of the other kingdom as a way to make a treaty with them, in hopes that that it would help build a lasting relationship between the two kingdoms.

In this case it was the king of the north (whose name (not on your outline) is Antiochus II or as he liked to be called Antiochus Theos(which ought to explain his attitude about himself right there) who desired to make a treaty with the king of the south, Ptolemy II.

So Antiochus II sent word to the southern King, Ptolemy II, that he desired to make a treaty. Basically asking Ptolemy for permission to marry his daughter, Berenice… But here is the kicker… Antiochus was already married to woman named Laodice… …

Not a big deal back then right…?? … Every pagan king had multiple wives… … Well, this is where the soap opera starts to get juicy…

Ptolemy demanded that Antiochus divorce his wife Laodice in order to marry his daughter Berenice… and so that is exactly what happened…

Antiochus divorced Laodice and married Berenice… and Laodice, from that day on, had the fury of a scorned woman.

v.6, talking about the new wife of the northern king… The northern king being Antiochus and his new wife being Berenice… v.6 says this about Berenice…

“...but she shall not retain the power of her authority, and neither he nor his authority shall stand; but she shall be given up, with those who brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times.”

In other words, everybody involved is… not going to last very long. And that is exactly what happened.

Remember Laodice?… The scorned ex-wife… she wasn’t thrilled about the whole situation and so she killed Berenice, she killed all of Berenice’s attendants, and then she poisoned Antiochus to death.

I am telling you… this has soap opera written all over it…

Stay with me now… v.7 “But from a branch of her roots (Talking about Berenice, the wife who was murdered…) one shall arise in his place...” This would be the place of her dad, Ptolemy II. Ptolemy II died about two years after Berenice married Antiochus.

And so another member of her family, I believe one of her brothers (Ptolemy III), takes his place… and v.7 goes on to say “… who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king of the North, and deal with them and prevail.”

So Ptolemy III comes, from the south, to avenge his sister’s death… A mission that he succeeds at and then as he leaves to head back to Egypt… v.8 says “8 And he shall also carry their gods captive to Egypt, with their princes and their precious articles of silver and gold…”

Which happened… Ptolemy III brought back to Egypt four thousand talents of gold, forty thousand talents of silver, 2,500 idols and their sacred vessels, including many that had been captured and taken from Egypt some 300 years earlier.

Lets get even more specific… v.8 ends with...

… and he shall continue more years than the king of the North”

And I believe v.9 is part of this as well… “Also the king of the North shall come to the kingdom of the king of the South, but shall return to his own land.”

Ptolemy III did not kill the current King of the Seleucid Empire. In fact, after admitting defeat, the Seleucid King and Ptolemy III entered into a truce agreement… which seems to have lasted for about ten years… and then the northern king tried to invade Egypt, but he failed miserably and, just as predicted, he returned to his own land and ended up dying after he fell from his horse… which then sealed the prediction of the southern king continuing more years than the northern king.

Just like in a soap opera, when one character is no longer needed, they are usually killed off by some freak accident…

Again… I know this is a lot of information to process and a history lesson may not be your cup of tea… but this just proves how, spot on, accurate God’s Word truly is…

Let’s move on to King #3…

3. Antiochus The Great

We’ve seen Ahasuerus, we’ve seen Alexander, we just got done looking at an ancient soap opera… and now we come to Antiochus the Great.

Again, even though these names are not specifically mentioned in our passage, there is such specific details given here that it cannot be anyone else.

As we come to verse 10, the king of the south is the one who currently has control, due to defeating the northern king multiple times, the last of which was when the norther king tried to invade Egypt, but basically went home with his tail between his legs and then fell off his horse.

and then v. 10 says “However his sons (the sons of the one who fell off his horse and died) shall stir up strife, and assemble a multitude of great forces; and one shall certainly come and overwhelm and pass through; then he shall return to his fortress and stir up strife.”

One of the sons died and the other became the new King of the North… that king was Antiochus the Great.

He…

3.1 Reigned from 223 B.C - 187 B.C.

The Angel said that he would “assemble a multitude of great forces”…

Antiochus the Great had…

3.2 A Great Army

History tells us he had 75,000 soldiers. And I believe it was in 218 B.C. that he marched through Israel and came to attack Egypt… which of course the southern King was super excited about…

v.11 “And the king of the South shall be moved with rage, and go out and fight with him, with the king of the North, who shall muster a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into the hand of his enemy.”

The southern king is mad… and rightfully so… he’s being attacked… and according to this verse, the south goes up against the great army of the north and the south wins…

The southern king will “go out and fight with him, with the king of the North, who shall muster a great multitude; but the multitude (the great army of the north) shall be given into the hand of his enemy (the south).”

So if God’s Word is correct… then Antiochus the Great…

3.3 Loses the First Battle

According to Ancient historian Polybius, the southern army killed 10,000 footmen, 300 cavalry, and five of Antiochus’ elephants… yes, they were early versions of tanks…

And just as the last part of v.10 says… Antiochus (the king of the North) “returned to his fortress and stirred up strife.”

The southern king thought that he had won… but in reality this embarrassing defeat just enraged Antiochus all the more.

v.12 “When he (the southern king) has taken away the multitude (the northern army), his heart will be lifted up; and he will cast down tens of thousands, (he will be happy with his victory)... but he will not prevail.”

Oh… so his victory doesn’t stand??… v.13 “For the king of the North (Antiochus) will return and muster a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come at the end of some years with a great army and much equipment.”

And so this predicts that Antiochus…

3.4 Returns with a Bigger Army

Not right away, but “at the end of some years”

Well… it would be 13 years later when Antiochus would return to do battle with this southern King… and he came with many more troops and many more elephants… Just as the Angel had said…

v.14 gives us an interesting little tid bit…

“Now in those times many shall rise up against the king of the South...” which is true… Antiochus had recieved help from neighboring nations who also wanted to see the defeat of the southern king… but it is the next phrase that sticks out to me…

“Also, violent men of your people (whose people?… Daniel’s) shall exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they shall fall.”

The Angel tells Daniel that as all of this is going down, there are going to be some rebellious Jewish men that will recognize that these events are exactly what have been prophesied and being motivated by a selfish desire for possible recognition of taking part in the fulfillment of the prophecy, they will join the army of the northern king… … Unfortunately for them, it will be to their own demise… as the Angel states… those men will fall.

v.15 tells us how the battle went down…

“So the king of the North shall come and build a siege mound, and take a fortified city; and the forces of the South shall not withstand him. Even his choice troops shall have no strength to resist.” In short… the North won…

v.16 “But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and no one shall stand against him(Antiochus). He shall stand in the Glorious Land with destruction in his power.”

Antiochus stands in the midst of Israel, basically holding her captive under the threat of destruction if anyone tries to make him leave… Why Israel??? … location, location, location… From Israel he can easily keep an eye on the northern part of the kingdom and on the southern part, as they were still 2 separate entities.

But at some point he decides that it would be better to have someone on the inside of the southern portion… and he tries to make a deal with the southern King, by offering him his daughter as a wife.

v.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 he shall give him the daughter of women to destroy it;”…

This name may sound familiar to you… Antiochus gave his Daughter to the southern King… His daughters name was Cleopatra.

I believe his plan was to plant a spy in the southern kingdom, however that is not how it worked out.

The end of v.17 says “... but she shall not stand with him, or be for him.” Cleopatra did not stand with her father. Rather she stood with her new husband and Antiochus’ plan failed… which is a perfect description of the end of Antiochus’ life… As His…

3.5 Life Ends in Failure

v.18 says “After this he shall turn his face to the coastlands, and shall take many. But a ruler shall bring the reproach against them to an end; and with the reproach removed, he shall turn back on him.”

He turned his face to the coastlands… which would have been the Mediterranean Islands… There He would be soundly defeated by a special commander, from the people of Rome… and he would be forced to turn back to his own country… once again his plan has failed…

But it doesn’t stop there…

v.19 “Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.”

Antiochus had basically hit rock bottom as he made his way back home and when he got there he tried to plunder the temple in his own land and steal all the treasures from it; and the people got so mad they killed him on the spot. He wasn’t found anymore.

Closing:

As you review the history of the relationship between Egypt and Syria, and the family relationships among the Seleucids, you can’t help but realize that human nature hasn’t changed over these thousands of years.

The ancient world had its share of intrigue, political deception, violence, greed, and war. The lust for power and wealth drove men and women to violate human rights and break divine laws, to go to any length to get what they wanted.

They slaughtered thousands of innocent people, plundered the helpless, and even killed their own relatives, just to wear a crown or sit on a throne....

It is still the same today… Name smearing… Long drawn out trials… lies about what is really going on in the world… all to be in a position of power…

However, there will come a time when the greatest King will rule this earth, a King whose reign will be marked by justice, peace, and righteousness.

In that future kingdom, there will be no more deceit, no more violence, and no more suffering. Every tear will be wiped away, and the brokenness of our world will be healed.

Until that glorious day, let us strive to live as citizens of that coming kingdom, embodying the love, mercy, and grace of our Sovereign Lord... Jesus Christ.

Prayer: