Prophesy or History - Pt. II
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Help! Need understanding
Help! Need understanding
Daniel wanted understanding, to have knowledge of the vision and God sent a messenger with the answer to Daniel’s faithful prayer request. There is so much history found in chapter 11 of Daniel, this morning we are covering some 130 years or more.
Side note: there is opinion that this passage we are looking at has not been fulfilled yet. And I want to preempt this by saying this is not a salvation issue. This should not be a divisive issue. We will look at the passage and let that and history speak for itself.
Even in the midst of not understanding a troubling vision, Daniel was not swayed from his appointed task of serving the king.
Here is what we have seen thus far in chapter 11.
Daniel serves as encouragement and protection (Dan11:1)
1 “In the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him.
Taking Daniel’s example, we too can learn and serve even in the midst of troubling times of Covid-19 and social unrest and social injustice. In a world that is falling apart, the church that in large part is declining and is filled with apostasy (just as John stated in Rev2-3) the unchurched are rebelling against the church and it seems they are winning, we still need to serve our King, King Jesus. For we can offer truth that brings hope, we can offer truth that brings eternal protection and assurance of such.
(Transition) - last week we looked at a lot as I presented as history.
There have been many battles with Jerusalem stuck in the middle (Dan11:4-15)
We have seen the rise of an anti-christ, Antiochus Epiphanies IV (Dan11:16-35)
With the rise of Antiochus we have seen an abomination of desolation (Dan11:31) - this was the end of sacrifices for a period of time until the death of Antiochus.
We looked at a few views that some believe this was not fulfilled and this Anti-Christ was just a shadow of the anti-christ to come.
(Transition) as we look at this passage this morning may we come with open eyes, open hearts, trusting the scripture to define itself or at least to help us to come to some understanding, for isn’t that what Daniel wanted?
Keep into consideration Jesus words (Lk24:44-45)
44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
Notice it is Jesus speaking
Notice it says “all things written.” - so this is from the beginning, from the history, from the prophets until then
These words spoken - these are things Jesus spoke of while He was with them
He opened their minds to understand the scripture and went on to speak of the fulfillment
46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
From creation to captivity, from captivity to abomination of desolation, to restoration to rebirth, Christ fulfilled all things and pointed to end times, of the abomination to come (AD70).
God calls for us to have faith and to be faithful until the end
10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
And at the end we have the reward, the crown of life!
So, who is this king of the North, as mentioned there are several different views and we will look at a few, in general.
First we need to read the passage, then we can look at the views.
36 “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.
37 “He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all.
38 “But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures.
39 “He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will cause them to rule over the many, and will parcel out land for a price.
40 “At the end time the king of the South will collide with him, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen and with many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them and pass through.
41 “He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon.
42 “Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. 43 “But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels.
44 “But rumors from the East and from the North will disturb him, and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many.
45 “He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
I know it is a long passage, but I have to ask the question..
What did you see, what did you notice, what sticks out to you?
View 1 - Antiochus Epiphanies
View 1 - Antiochus Epiphanies
In this view, a historic view of the summary of the life, rise, fall of Antiochus Epiphanies IV.
A self pleasing king (Dan11:3; 16, 36)
3 “And a mighty king will arise, and he will rule with great authority and do as he pleases.
and then add
16 “But he who comes against him will do as he pleases, and no one will be able to withstand him; he will also stay for a time in the Beautiful Land, with destruction in his hand.
and from our passage today
36 “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.
Antiochus did what he pleased, including defecating the temple.
I agree Antiochus is a antichrist who wanted to turn the faithful to him and not to the God of Israel
Antichrists: This is something John wrote about too in his time (1Jn2:18)
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
Having said that about Antiochus, could he be the king of the North in our passage? Let me offer this history to you
King of the South never moved against Him (Dan11:40)
Antiochus was always on the offensive, not the defensive, so, seems that the King of the North cannot be Antiochus
Antiochus has no history of fighting against Egypt after 168BC (Dan11:40)
We can know he had been victorious before according to (Dan11:27-28) but was disastrous (v.29) so he was not victorious in what we see in (Dan11:40) so whoever this king is, does not seem historically possible to be Antiochus.
No history of Antiochus battles in Libya or Ethiopia (Dan11:40-45)
This one is a no brainer, there is no history recorded of any battles with Libya and Ethiopia, if it were so there would be some historical writings on this. So, again this is more evidence that it is not Antiochus as the king in our passage.
There is history of his death in poverty and his loss against the rising Roman Empire when trying to take the Greek Isles (Dan11:43, 18)
Antiochus died in poverty while trying to rob the temple and raise taxes (v.43) after taking heavy losses when he rose up against Egypt the 2nd time and when he came to meet the rising Roman Empire when he attempted to take the Greek Isles.
(Transition) so View 1, the life, rise, fall summary of Antiochus Epiphanies IV as the King of the North, I think we have historically eliminated that view.
View II - Herod the Great
View II - Herod the Great
This is Herod I, aka Herod the Great lived from 73-4BC. Here are some historical facts to consider on if Herod could be the king of the North mentioned in our passage.
Herod ruled in Judea from 34-4BC
He was the first of the Herod’s who demanded to be worshipped as a god, not worshipping a god or the god.
Herod was responsible for the temple improvements to the Jewish temple in trying to keep peace. The temple was then known as Herods temple.
Herod is also the one who ordered the death of all male children in Bethlehem (see that in Mt2)
When considering if it is Herod, historically here is what we can know.
No historical evidence of Egypt coming against Herod
Herod wanted worship of himself. He wanted it in a peaceful way, he wanted to keep the peace in the region for did not want the attention of Rome. He was already an outcast with them in an outline region. To appease the Jews he added to their temple. Remember this is the temple, 2nd temple you can read about in Ezra, and in Nehemiah and it was smaller than the original temple.
So, in turn no history of Herod going after Egypt
As I just mentioned Herod for the most part was a peace maker and there is no historical evidence that this peacemaker went after Egypt. Surely if it would have happen Josephus would have recorded it.
Herod did not conquer Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia
Further evidence that this king of the North could not be Herod the Great is lack of historical evidence of him going after not only Egypt but Libya and Ethiopia too.
(Transition) So I think we can safely eliminate the king of the North in our passage is not Antiochus Epiphanies IV nor is it Herod I, aka Herod the Great.
View III - Dispensational millennialism
View III - Dispensational millennialism
This view takes into account that there is “the” Antichrist and it relates Daniel 11 and Daniel 7 “the little horn.”
I think I will give a Wikipedia definition, brief one of what is dispensational premillennialism
Dispensational premillennialism generally holds that Israel and the Church are distinct entities. It also widely holds to the pretribulational return of Christ, which believes that Jesus will return to take up Christians into heaven by means of a rapture immediately before a seven-year worldwide tribulation.
This particular view has “the” Antichrist that will come at some future undetermined date and uses portions of scripture found in Revelation to build on this view.
Time period jump?
The time period of the “last days” or “time of the end” for the dispensational view would be extended to some future date that we have not seen yet, whereas everything before this was specific and fulfilled. So would God jump 21 centuries suddenly?
Visions conclusion ends with the breaking in pieces of the power of the holy people at the end of time
The breaking of pieces of the power of the Holy people happened at the end of time, end of age, end of the Jewish age AD70 when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by Rome.
The scope of chapter 11 points to Rome, to the Roman world rule (27BC -476 AD)
Historically speaking Roman empire as first laid out back in Dan2 and I believe shown here was date specific. And has been fulfilled and not the rise of Roman Empire again some date in the future.
(Transition) - Some more thoughts about it being Rome and being fulfilled.
King of the North being Rome stays closer to the entirety of the visions and the book of Daniel
Remember that the book was written to Jews in Captivity because of disobedience and what was going to happen in their future
This view deals with the “latter days” or “end times” be the end of the Jewish age (see Mt24:21)
21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.
If you want to read more about the great tribulation that Jesus is speaking of, of the escapable judgment read Mt24:15-31 I know when we studied Mark we looked at both the escapable judgment (AD70) and the inescapable judgment (judgment of God through Christ on the last day; that great and dreadful day).
If you were to read some Roman history you can see that this view here as the king of the north being Rome goes with the roman policy and character as seen in the Battle of Actium and the battles of Raphia and Panium.
(Transition) I think there is just a little more information we should look at and consider this morning.
Consider this
Consider this
A few more facts for us to consider
Whoever the king is, he will magnify himself (Dan11:36-37)
36 “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.
37 “He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all.
Whoever the king is we now will enter Jerusalem (Dan11:41)
41 “He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon.
Anyway about it, may we remember God is control and controls the end (Dan11:45)
45 “He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
God will always have His way (Dan12:6-7)
Before giving you another verse to consider, know this
All times and all seasons are in God’s hands (Ecc3:1)
There are no trends that surprise Him
No national polices that shock Him
No movements that come unexpectedly
God will always have his way. God allowed kingdoms to prosper until He was done with them, then the Lord will bring judgment upon them. Consider these verses before close
6 And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be until the end of these wonders?”
7 I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed.
There was no question if these events were going to be completed, they were going to be, and we will look more into these verses next week, so go ahead read Dan12 for next week.
and until then
13 “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.
We may not know everything, we have looked at several ways to look at the passage and many a discussions, debates have come from it, what we do know is the day of judgment is coming and we need to know and be prepared for it, so may we continue to be simply Christians studying God’s Word together, knowing God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through knowledge of Him.
(Prayer slide) prayer (exit slide)