The Rise and Fall of Kingdoms: God Will Deliver You

There are two central themes from the two chiastic structure in the book of Daniel? The first is that God is judge over all nations and peoples; the second is demonstration of humbling oneself to God because of His authority over all. Chapter 11 is the second to the last movement of that second chiasm and demonstrates God’s authority and power over the nations. No matter how much the nations and kings resist what God is doing, no matter how hard they try to do as they wish, no matter how much they try to hold onto their power and influence, all they are able to accomplish is chaos and ruin. Reading through the chapter it is easy to see how Daniel painted a picture of chaos as he moves back and forth between the Seleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt. j

There is so much controversy over the masculine personal pronouns throughout the chapter and to whom they refer. It is a strategic literary device to reinforce the chaos and confusion that is created by these leaders. The more they try to control their influence and rule, the more chaotic and confusing life becomes. Although there are years and decades that pass by from one ruler to the other, to have this history recorded selectively the way Daniel does reinforces the feeling of futility for these leaders. This leads this to a central theme of the entire chapter.

No matter how loud the circumstances of life screams at you, you can count on God. He meticulously appoints the course of all sin-enslaved mankind’s history to His determined and glorious end, for your good and His glory.

You cannot trust you own wisdom or that of those around you. No matter how much one has experienced, one does not have sufficient experience and understanding to explain or show you all you need to know; give you all the pieces of life’s puzzles so that you might find resolution; provide reasonable understanding for why things are happening the way they are. No one is able to show you all you need besides the Lord. God alone is able to and will show you all you need.

I. God alone shows you all you need vv. 1-20

The world gives lots of answers, but its answers are never complete, they never satisfy.

A. God shows you all you need

The world wants you to think it shows you everything

B. God does not always show you everything

C. God will always prove His faithfulness

Missionary statesman Hudson Taylor had complete trust in God's faithfulness. In his journal he wrote: “Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning...He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all...Depend on it...”

“...God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.” Hudson Taylor in Our Daily Bread, May 16, 1992.

The world’s answers raise more questions than it answers, causes more confusion than it resolves, and causes fear and hopelessness rather than overcoming it.

No matter how loud the circumstances of life screams at you, you can count on God. He meticulously appoints the course of all sin-enslaved mankind’s history to His determined and glorious end, for your good and His glory.

II. God alone will see you through vv. 21-35

A. God reminds you to depend on Him

The world tells you that you must depend on fellow man, for the resolution to the challenges of life reside within the intellect of mankind himself.

1 Cor. 3:19

B. God alone will see you through what is coming

Notice v. 27, “…but it will not succeed, for the end is still to come at the appointed time.”

v. 29, “At the appointed time he will return...”

v. 35, “…because it is still to come at the appointed time.”

v. 36, “…for that which is decreed will be done.”

v. 40, “At the end time...”

v. 45, “…yet he will come to his end...”

12:1, “…found in the book...”

No matter how confusing life might be, how difficult its circumstances, God wanted Judah and now you to know that nothing happens outside His appointed time and purpose. Like v. 36 says, “that which is decreed will be done.”

C. God alone gives purpose in the circumstances of your life

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world. Eric Hoffer, Bits & Pieces, May 1990, p. 1.

No matter how loud the circumstances of life screams at you, you can count on God. He meticulously appoints the course of all sin-enslaved mankind’s history to His determined and glorious end, for your good and His glory.

III. God alone rules the course of history vv. 36-12:3

A. God constantly reminds the world to surrender to Him

Remember Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius? In different ways, God taught each one that they could not avoid God’s sovereign determination. All 3 experienced the inescapable hand of the omnipotent (all-powerful) God. Here again, God is reminding Judah and all of us that He is in control and simply asks us to surrender to His power and love. Interestingly, whether these powerful kings ever decided to surrender willingly to God or not, they eventually had no choice but to surrender to His determined will.

B. God alone rules the course of history

God's wonderful works which happen daily are lightly esteemed, not because they are of no import but because they happen so constantly and without interruption. Man is used to the miracle that God rules the world and upholds all creation, and because things daily run their appointed course, it seems insignificant, and no man thinks it worth his while to meditate upon it and to regard it as God's wonderful work, and yet it is a greater wonder than that Christ fed five thousand men with five loaves and made wine from water.

Martin Luther, Day by Day We Magnify Thee.

C. God alone has a planned ending that makes it all worth it

Notice the description of how the course of human wisdom will go in 12:4, “…until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.”

Daniel (1) Instructions to Preserve the Message (12:4)

In the ancient Near East the custom was to “seal” an important document by impressing upon it the identifying marks of the parties involved and the recording scribe. A sealed text was not to be tampered with or changed. Then the original document was duplicated and placed (“closed up”) in a safe place where it could be preserved.

Many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase, but no matter how much both these things are true, God’s sealed Word is the only answer to present time and circumstances. It is the only thing that has the answer to how we got here. God’s Word is the only thing that can give us the ability to trust our purpose in life. God’s Word is the only thing that explains where we are headed. God’s Word is the only things that tells us how to get through to the end.

No matter how loud the circumstances of life screams at you, you can count on God. He meticulously appoints the course of all sin-enslaved mankind’s history to His determined and glorious end.