Other men see only a hopeless end... but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.
While Daniel the prophet braved the hazzards of the lion's den, Daniel the prophecy has faced the hostility of the modern critics' den, and both emerged from the ordeal unscarred and unscathed.
Today as we approach the close of the age, the message of Daniel is proving to be more reliable and relevant than ever.
I encourage you as readers and followers of God's Word to hide these truths in your hearts.. and to be on your guard. Watch for fruits of people you encounter and things you see around you. Take those things to God and rest knowing His plan is perfect!
Thanks for reading along with me... I enjoyed this study immensely!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
When God Writes "Finished" (Daniel Chapter 12)
In 1938 Orson Welles broadcast a drama depicting an invasion of earth by spacemen from Mars. Ths program was so realistic thousands of Americans thought the end of the world had come. Some lost their sanity; others committed suicide. Until the public realized it was only a fictitious melodrama, pandemonium broke loose.
Men have talked of doomsday and the end of the world for generations, but any Bible believer knows God has great plans for the world which forbid the end of the world until Christ has reigned on earth for a thousand years.
Doomsday will come at the end of the millennial reign of Christ when the earth and all that is in it will be burned up to prepare for an entirely different order in the new heavens and the new earth (II Peter 3: 10-13; Revelation 21:1).
Daniel talks often about the end of the age, but I don't think he meant an interplanetary invasion, a global collision, or a geological catastrophe on a universal scale. Rather, he refers to the termination of the times of the Gentiles, the end of the Russian aggression, the ruination of the European beast and his false prophet in Jerusalem, the end of wars and bloodshed, the end of Israel's dispersion, and the end of all Christ rejectors and God denying anarchists.
Part 1 (Daniel 12:1-9)
Michael's prominence (Daniel 12:1) should be associated with several factors:
Michael will assert himself in Israel's defense in that unprecedented hour of trial that will come upon the earth. There is a vast difference between "general tribulation" and the "great tribulation"--- in which God's fearful wrath will be visited upon earth dwellers.
General trouble has its source in the machinations of the devil against God's people; the great tribulation has its ultimate source in the wrath of God and is directed without abatement upon godless society. Despite the terrible severity of the tribulation judgments, many of Daniels people (the Jews) will be delivered (vs. 1).
They will survive the disasters and be alive at the time of the inauguration of the kingdom age. Those who see it through to the end of the desolation are declared to be "everyone that shall be found written in the book" (vs. 1)
We are assured from this expression and from countless other passages in the prophets only regenerate Jews will be left alive on the earth by the beginning of the Millennium. All of earth's population will greatly diminish and the total number of Jews will be reduced by one third.
Verse 2 contains the first hint in the Bible... that the notion of a general, all-inclusive resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked at the same event is false. "Many" will be raised, not all. Many will not be raised at that time.
Those who do arise from the dead at the end of the tribulation will be counted among those who participate in the first resurrection. Daniel calls it a resurrection "to everlasting life" (vs. 2). Jesus mentions it in nearly the same terms (John 5:29).
Those bodies which are not raised at this time but remain in their graves until the end of the kingdom age will be raised to appear at the great white throne judgment for shame and everlasting contempt, or as Jesus puts it, "unto the resurrection of damnation." The wicked dead will be raised but they will not have glorified bodies. Even after they are raised they are called "dead" (Revelation 20:12).
Neither Daniel nor Jesus mentions the 1000 year interval which will separate these two resurrections. But Paul leaves room for it in 1 Corinthians 15:23-25; John adds important details in Revelation 20: 4-6.
Daniel 12:3 alludes to a special group of saved Jews call the "wise." The fulfillment of the promises to Abraham requires the existence of a remnant of elect Jews who will be saved during the tribulation period and become the children of the kingdom.
In addition, there is to be distinguished a remnant within the remnant--a special group of 144,000 Jewish instructors, preachers, and teachers. They will be saved and sealed by the Spirit of God immediately after the church saints have been resurrected and raptured. They will be commissioned to take the gospel of redeeming grace--with special emphasis upon the imminence of the coming kingdom--to the world.
Their witness during the first half of the tribulation will result in the salvation of countless Jews and Gentiles. They will "turn many to righteousness," and during the millennial age they will enjoy a special prominence, shining "as the stars for ever and ever."
Some strange teachings have been based on Daniel 12:4. Commonly it's taught as a prediction of the jet age and the phenomenal acceleration of learning. Interpreting this verse in it's context would correct the popular notion. The angel told Daniel the book--the book of Daniel--will be a closed volume for unbelieving Jews from that time until the time of the end.
The Jews read Daniel and the other prophets without understanding. Today the nation suffers from spiritual blindness-- a condition which will not be altered until the event of the rapture of the church.
In the time of the end after the translation of church saints, judicial blindness will be lifted; Jews will search thoroughly ("run to and fro") the book of Daniel. The Spirit of God will illumine them, and they will at last increasingly understand the significance of these prophecies. "Running to and fro" I believe... refers to the action of the eyes in perusing a book; it has nothing to do with our travel-conscious age.
Implicit in verse 4 is an explanation of how people will become regenerate in the tribulation period. They will be saved in exactly the same manner in which believers of the church age are saved.
No dispensation theologian who is careful would ever suggest God saves men in different ways in different dispensations. The various dispensations are not different methods of salvation.
God the Holy Spirit is the divine agent; preachers of the grace of God are the human medium; the incorruptible seed of the Word of God is the instrumental means. No one in any dispensation ever got saved in any other way except by the grace of God through His faith in His promises. We are saved because we confess and believe in Jesus and His faith.
Part 2 (Daniel 12: 10-13)
At best we can only conjecture what may be the significance of the dates recorded in Daniel 12. Verse 7 puts the terminal point at 1260 days after the erection of the idol in the temple at Jerusalem.
This length of time is coincident with the reign of the European dictator-beast (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:5), the Gentile control over Jerusalem (Revelation 11:2), the ministry of the two witnesses (vs. 3), and the hiding of Israel in the wilderness, possibly at Petra (Revelation 12:14).
We can safely assume, then, at the end of 1260 days the empire of the beast will collapse and with it the beast himself and his Jewish ally.
Daniel 12:11 adds an extra month to the 1260 days. I wonder if this extra month represents a period of grace before Christ destroys the ungodly. I've heard others think it refers to the time required for cleaning up the worst of the debris of the war (although apparently this will necessitate much more time--see Ezekiel 39: 9, 12).
One guess is as good as the other. If the kingdom of the beast is destroyed by an invasion from the Far East, perhaps the thirty days represent the period of conquest by the Oriental armies and the marshaling of Western troops to confront them at Armageddon. Conceivably, Christ will personally return at the end of these 1290 days to slay the armies of the Oriental host.
Then we are faced with a third date of 1335 days or 45 days beyond the 1290 days. Some expositors have suggested this will mark the first celebration of the feast of tabernacles which will take place 45 days after the millennial age commences.
We can be certain the 75 days beyond the initial 1260 are essential as a period of preparation and conditioning for full kingdom blessings. They must indicate some kind of transition period between the tribulation and the millennium.
A transition period separates the Mosaic dispensation from the church dispensation, and we can expect some similar interval between the judgments of the time of trouble and the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).
Although the tribulation period will fulfill many purposes in the program of God, one of the chief purposes is the salvation and sanctification of a people to whom God can fulfill the covenant promises to Abraham, Moses and David.
What will God use to take away the dross and purify the people who are to become the residents of the millennial earth? God will use the fires of the tribulation. The prophets are filled with refrences to this refining process. During the tribulation many will be cleansed. God will regenerate them and work His own righteousness in them (Daniel 12:10).
Trouble has a way of bringing God's elect people to rely wholly upon the Lord. The tribulation judgments will have no cleansing effect, however, on the apostate Jews. The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. The wicked will not repent amid the outpouring of divine wrath; they will increase in their wickedness (Revelation 6: 16, 17; 9:20; 16:10, 11, 21).
A special benediction is pronounced upon those saved Jews who patiently wait for the Messiah to come to deliver them from the distresses of the hour of trial (Daniel 12:12). Those who survive until the 1335 days have passed will see the King coming in His glory to the Mount of Olives. They will enter into the millennial age with all of its prosperity, peace, righteousness, and joy.
They will be present at the wedding feast celebrated on earth that he beginning of the millennium. Christ and His bride have been joined at the wedding ceremony in Heaven, and now the ladies in waiting (Israel), the friend of the bridegroom (John the Baptist), and the servants (saved Gentiles) will all participate in the joy of the festive occasion.
The waiting regenerate Jews will be blessed because the ancient promises of a restoration of the kingdom to David will be fulfilled to them, and they will be delegated positions of jurisdiction in the kingdom government as a reward for their faithfulness to Christ during the terrors of the beasts' joint reign.
.... and they all lived happily ever after ;)
Men have talked of doomsday and the end of the world for generations, but any Bible believer knows God has great plans for the world which forbid the end of the world until Christ has reigned on earth for a thousand years.
Doomsday will come at the end of the millennial reign of Christ when the earth and all that is in it will be burned up to prepare for an entirely different order in the new heavens and the new earth (II Peter 3: 10-13; Revelation 21:1).
Daniel talks often about the end of the age, but I don't think he meant an interplanetary invasion, a global collision, or a geological catastrophe on a universal scale. Rather, he refers to the termination of the times of the Gentiles, the end of the Russian aggression, the ruination of the European beast and his false prophet in Jerusalem, the end of wars and bloodshed, the end of Israel's dispersion, and the end of all Christ rejectors and God denying anarchists.
Part 1 (Daniel 12:1-9)
Michael's prominence (Daniel 12:1) should be associated with several factors:
- He is the guardian of the nation Israel--their protector and preserver. He is responsible for the continuation of this ancient people who are the only nation to survive from antiquity.
- He is somehow involved in resurrection. Whenever a resurrection occurs, Michael is on hand to contribute (See Daniel 12:1; 1 Thess 4:16; Jude 9).
- He is the initiator of a great war in Heaven between his angels and the devil with his demon hosts. Revelation 12 puts this conflict at the midway point in the tribulation (vs. 7-12). Jesus alludes to the same event in Matthew 24:29.
Michael will assert himself in Israel's defense in that unprecedented hour of trial that will come upon the earth. There is a vast difference between "general tribulation" and the "great tribulation"--- in which God's fearful wrath will be visited upon earth dwellers.
General trouble has its source in the machinations of the devil against God's people; the great tribulation has its ultimate source in the wrath of God and is directed without abatement upon godless society. Despite the terrible severity of the tribulation judgments, many of Daniels people (the Jews) will be delivered (vs. 1).
They will survive the disasters and be alive at the time of the inauguration of the kingdom age. Those who see it through to the end of the desolation are declared to be "everyone that shall be found written in the book" (vs. 1)
We are assured from this expression and from countless other passages in the prophets only regenerate Jews will be left alive on the earth by the beginning of the Millennium. All of earth's population will greatly diminish and the total number of Jews will be reduced by one third.
Verse 2 contains the first hint in the Bible... that the notion of a general, all-inclusive resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked at the same event is false. "Many" will be raised, not all. Many will not be raised at that time.
Those who do arise from the dead at the end of the tribulation will be counted among those who participate in the first resurrection. Daniel calls it a resurrection "to everlasting life" (vs. 2). Jesus mentions it in nearly the same terms (John 5:29).
Those bodies which are not raised at this time but remain in their graves until the end of the kingdom age will be raised to appear at the great white throne judgment for shame and everlasting contempt, or as Jesus puts it, "unto the resurrection of damnation." The wicked dead will be raised but they will not have glorified bodies. Even after they are raised they are called "dead" (Revelation 20:12).
Neither Daniel nor Jesus mentions the 1000 year interval which will separate these two resurrections. But Paul leaves room for it in 1 Corinthians 15:23-25; John adds important details in Revelation 20: 4-6.
Daniel 12:3 alludes to a special group of saved Jews call the "wise." The fulfillment of the promises to Abraham requires the existence of a remnant of elect Jews who will be saved during the tribulation period and become the children of the kingdom.
In addition, there is to be distinguished a remnant within the remnant--a special group of 144,000 Jewish instructors, preachers, and teachers. They will be saved and sealed by the Spirit of God immediately after the church saints have been resurrected and raptured. They will be commissioned to take the gospel of redeeming grace--with special emphasis upon the imminence of the coming kingdom--to the world.
Their witness during the first half of the tribulation will result in the salvation of countless Jews and Gentiles. They will "turn many to righteousness," and during the millennial age they will enjoy a special prominence, shining "as the stars for ever and ever."
Some strange teachings have been based on Daniel 12:4. Commonly it's taught as a prediction of the jet age and the phenomenal acceleration of learning. Interpreting this verse in it's context would correct the popular notion. The angel told Daniel the book--the book of Daniel--will be a closed volume for unbelieving Jews from that time until the time of the end.
The Jews read Daniel and the other prophets without understanding. Today the nation suffers from spiritual blindness-- a condition which will not be altered until the event of the rapture of the church.
In the time of the end after the translation of church saints, judicial blindness will be lifted; Jews will search thoroughly ("run to and fro") the book of Daniel. The Spirit of God will illumine them, and they will at last increasingly understand the significance of these prophecies. "Running to and fro" I believe... refers to the action of the eyes in perusing a book; it has nothing to do with our travel-conscious age.
Implicit in verse 4 is an explanation of how people will become regenerate in the tribulation period. They will be saved in exactly the same manner in which believers of the church age are saved.
No dispensation theologian who is careful would ever suggest God saves men in different ways in different dispensations. The various dispensations are not different methods of salvation.
God the Holy Spirit is the divine agent; preachers of the grace of God are the human medium; the incorruptible seed of the Word of God is the instrumental means. No one in any dispensation ever got saved in any other way except by the grace of God through His faith in His promises. We are saved because we confess and believe in Jesus and His faith.
Part 2 (Daniel 12: 10-13)
At best we can only conjecture what may be the significance of the dates recorded in Daniel 12. Verse 7 puts the terminal point at 1260 days after the erection of the idol in the temple at Jerusalem.
This length of time is coincident with the reign of the European dictator-beast (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:5), the Gentile control over Jerusalem (Revelation 11:2), the ministry of the two witnesses (vs. 3), and the hiding of Israel in the wilderness, possibly at Petra (Revelation 12:14).
We can safely assume, then, at the end of 1260 days the empire of the beast will collapse and with it the beast himself and his Jewish ally.
Daniel 12:11 adds an extra month to the 1260 days. I wonder if this extra month represents a period of grace before Christ destroys the ungodly. I've heard others think it refers to the time required for cleaning up the worst of the debris of the war (although apparently this will necessitate much more time--see Ezekiel 39: 9, 12).
One guess is as good as the other. If the kingdom of the beast is destroyed by an invasion from the Far East, perhaps the thirty days represent the period of conquest by the Oriental armies and the marshaling of Western troops to confront them at Armageddon. Conceivably, Christ will personally return at the end of these 1290 days to slay the armies of the Oriental host.
Then we are faced with a third date of 1335 days or 45 days beyond the 1290 days. Some expositors have suggested this will mark the first celebration of the feast of tabernacles which will take place 45 days after the millennial age commences.
We can be certain the 75 days beyond the initial 1260 are essential as a period of preparation and conditioning for full kingdom blessings. They must indicate some kind of transition period between the tribulation and the millennium.
A transition period separates the Mosaic dispensation from the church dispensation, and we can expect some similar interval between the judgments of the time of trouble and the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).
Although the tribulation period will fulfill many purposes in the program of God, one of the chief purposes is the salvation and sanctification of a people to whom God can fulfill the covenant promises to Abraham, Moses and David.
What will God use to take away the dross and purify the people who are to become the residents of the millennial earth? God will use the fires of the tribulation. The prophets are filled with refrences to this refining process. During the tribulation many will be cleansed. God will regenerate them and work His own righteousness in them (Daniel 12:10).
Trouble has a way of bringing God's elect people to rely wholly upon the Lord. The tribulation judgments will have no cleansing effect, however, on the apostate Jews. The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. The wicked will not repent amid the outpouring of divine wrath; they will increase in their wickedness (Revelation 6: 16, 17; 9:20; 16:10, 11, 21).
A special benediction is pronounced upon those saved Jews who patiently wait for the Messiah to come to deliver them from the distresses of the hour of trial (Daniel 12:12). Those who survive until the 1335 days have passed will see the King coming in His glory to the Mount of Olives. They will enter into the millennial age with all of its prosperity, peace, righteousness, and joy.
They will be present at the wedding feast celebrated on earth that he beginning of the millennium. Christ and His bride have been joined at the wedding ceremony in Heaven, and now the ladies in waiting (Israel), the friend of the bridegroom (John the Baptist), and the servants (saved Gentiles) will all participate in the joy of the festive occasion.
The waiting regenerate Jews will be blessed because the ancient promises of a restoration of the kingdom to David will be fulfilled to them, and they will be delegated positions of jurisdiction in the kingdom government as a reward for their faithfulness to Christ during the terrors of the beasts' joint reign.
.... and they all lived happily ever after ;)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Antichrist Faces an Emergency (Daniel Chapter 11 Continued)
What is the tremendous attraction in the Middle East world powers continue to grapple for possession of a relatively small strip of land called Palestine? For one thing, it's a land-bridge between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe.
Whoever holds this territory controls the destiny of billions of people. Europe gets two-thirds of its oil from the Middle East. The United States would be crippled without access to these oil reserves which are yielding millions of barrels each day. The Dead Sea is worth more than the total weath of the United States.
These natural resources make the Middle East a coveted prize for world leaders. If Russia could get uncontested control of this geographical treasure chest, she would have no serious contender for world power.
Part 1 (Daniel 11: 36-39)
Of all the wicked end-time personalities, which one should be called "the antichrist"? Nothing is more confusing than trying to harmonize all that has been written on this subject. Almost no two books on prophetic themes agree about who the antichrist is specifically.
Many are satisfied to pass lightly over the various characters who figure in the tribulation and call all of them "antichrist". Others writers are more careful in delineating precisely which of the leaders is really the antichrist.
John the Apostle is the only Biblical writer who employs the term "antichrist". In John's day many antichrists had already appeared (1 John 2:18). John treats the subject of antichrist as if it pertained to a spirit, a system, or a philosophy. But he also speaks of it as a person. The antichrist is foremost a liar and a deceiver (vs. 22; II John 7). His special mark of identification is his deceit and fraudulent claims to Messiahship.
The fact he is known especially for deceit point us immediately to II Thessalonians 2 where Paul is describing a deceiver and liar (vs. 9, 11). In the Thessalonian passage Paul calls the antichrist "the man of sin" because he is the epitome of all wickedness and lawlessness; he calls him "the son of perdition" because he is destined for eternal ruin (vs. 3).
Part of the antichrist's deceit involves pawning himself off on the Jews as the Son of God--The Messiah. Paul shows the antichrist will occupy the holy of holies in the restored Jewish temple in Jerusalem and demand divine honors and titles (vs. 4). His deceit also includes his ability to convince the Jews he is their Messiah by performing all kinds of wonders and miracles (vs. 9).
Who can read Paul's description in II Thessalonians without turning to Revelation 13:11-18 where we have practically the same description of the antichrist in the second beast? Vs. 13 speaks of the "great wonders" which he will perform.
Verses 14, 15 tell of the miracles which he will accomplish to authenticate his claims to be Israel's prophet and king. Antichrist is clearly an imitation christ, a false christ, the false prophet. In every respect he is a substitute christ--even to the extent of posing as a lamb (vs. 11).
The fact the antichrist originates out of the earth (vs. 11) suggests he derives from Israel--the earthly people. He's a Jewish king whom the nation will receive and own as their protector and friend in the tribulation period.
John 5:43 speaks of the antichrist who will come psoing as Christ. The Jews would not receive the real Messiah when He came, but they will embrace the false christ. It's unthinkable the Jews would own anyone but a Jew as their Messiah. And they would require credentials of the miraculous. They are expecting Elijah to come and perform miracles and when one greater than Elijah comes, they will receive him.
As a prophet, the antichrist assumes control of religion. Like the prophet Elijah who authenticated his credentials by calling down fire from Heaven, he will give dramatic evidence of his right to shape all religious policies.
As an economist, he will control world commerce so no one can buy or sell without his approval (vs. 16, 17). The antichrist will place a mark upon his followers (vs. 16). It's the visible proof they are worshipers of the antichrist's ally in Europe (vs. 17).
The antichrist is not the sole ruler of the future. He shares equally with the European dictator--the beast out of the sea (Revelation 13:1). The antichrist is not subordinate to the Gentile dictator in the West; "he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth..to worship the first beast" (vs. 12).
The antichrist will sit in the temple and work miracles to demonstrate he is God. At the same time, he will acknowledge the deity of the first beast and require the Jews to worship the first beast. He will be so ardent in promoting the worship of the European political and military dictator he will put a statue of the dictator in the temple (Matthew 24:15).
The relationship between the antichrist and the first beast, as defined in Revelation 13, is exactly the same as the relationship described in Daniel 11:36-39. In Daniel's account we learn once more of the antichrist's sovereign power in the expression "the king shall do according to his will" (vs. 36). Daniel and Paul are on the same page with regard to how the antichrist will exalt himself above every god (compare II Thes. 2:4 with Daniel 11: 36, 37).
Daniel sees the very same connection between the antichrist and the European dictator John analyzes in Revelation 13; the antichrist, for all his self-exaltation and claims to deity, nevertheless acknowledges another god (Daniel 11: 38, 39).
The "God of forces" is the first beast of Revelation 13-- is considered to be the Gentile dictator in Europe who promises military assistance to the antichrist in Palestine.
The antichrist secures sources of Palestine and sends them to his ally in Europe (Daniel 11:38). Not satisfied with that, the European dictator will insist upon a statue of himself being placed in the Jewish temple. The antichrist will comply and thus share the holy of holies with the image of the first beast. Moreover, the antichrist will dissect Palestine, donating pieces of ground to those Jews who do him favors (vs. 39).
Isaiah, Daniel, and John all introduce the antichrist abruptly and without a word of explanation. Isaiah and Daniel simply call him "the king". John calls him the beast out of the earth and later speaks of him as the false prophet. But the antichrist is both a king and a prophet. In this regard he is an imitator of Christ the prophet-king.
Part 2 (Daniel 11: 40-45)
Sometime after the Jewish antichrist has established himself in Palestine as Israel's Messiah, the armies of Egypt will make another attmpt to destroy the State of Israel. The humiliation of being defeated again will increase Egyptian hostility against the Jews. Thirst for revenge will drive this Arab nation to further aggression. Without a doubt, Egypt will use equipment supplied to her by Russia...
But Russia cannot afford to let Egypt gain sole control of the Middle East, and so as soon as Egypt marches northward, Russica will march southward. The Jewish antichrist will face an invasion on both fronts (Daniel 8:24; 11:40). The king of the North (Russia accompanied by Syrian troops) is obviously the victor. The northern armies will sweep through Palestine like a flood of waters.
Many other countries are included with the northern aggressor in his drive through the Holy Land (vs. 41). Ezekiel 38 tabulates many of the countries which will contribute their armies to the war effort. Isaiah connects the destruction of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Arabia with the northern invasion. In all likelihood Russia will add the armies of the conquered peoples to her gorwing military strength as she enters the Middle East.
We can only conjecture Egypt will eventually have a falling out with Russia, who has been supplying her with arms and technicians. It may be Egypt invades Israel without the sanction of Russia, and so the armies of the North intervene and take advantage of the situation to bring Egypt under Soviet mastery.
The Russian hordes will not stop until they have penetrated to North Africa (Daniel 11:42). Isaiah predicted this long before Daniel wrote. he said Egypt would capitulate to a king of fierce countenance (Isaiah 19:4; compare Daniel 8:23).
In chapter 20 Isaiah also forecast the destruction of Ethiopia by the Assyrian (the king of the North). Ezekiel concurs in his prediction Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya will be involved in the Russian invasion (Ezekiel 38:5). Now Daniel tells us plainly the king of the North will conquer Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia (Daniel 11:43).
After the Russians have subdued North Africa and have set up a military headquarters in Egypt, they will receive some disquieting reports from the Northeast (vs. 44). No one knows for certain what causes the concern, but possibly Russia will hear the European beast-dictator has brought the allied armies to Israel for the purpose of meeting military obligations and in an attempt to cut the Russian armies off from their home base.
Some expositors, however, think a report of an Oriental invasion startles the Russians. At any rate, Russia will make a frantic effot to retreat through Palestine to the North. En route Prince Rosh will decide to annihilate Israel.
He wants to make Israel pay for the necessity of his retreat. In this he resembles his ancient predecessor, Antiochus Epiphanes, who was thwarted in Egypt and took his wrath out on the Jews. (This I think is yet another indication that Antiochus Epiphanes is meant to illustrate the king of the North and not the Jewish antichrist.)
The Russian armies will have God to reckon with. God will not permit the utter annihilation of the Jews even though He brought the northern armies against them to chastise them for placing their hopes in the Jewish antichrist and His western confederate and for the permitting the introduction of idolarty to the land again.
Determinded now to liquidate Israel, the northern armies will set their sights on Jerusalem. They will get no farther than the mountains south of the city. There God will literally bury the armies of Gog and Magog. A terrific earthquake will cuase the ground to swallow up the infantry.
Ezekiel graphically describes the scene. Daniel only comments: "yet he shall come to his end, and non shall hlep him" (vs. 45). This harmonizes with what Daniel says earlier abou thte end of the king of the North: "he shall be broken without hand" (Daniel 8:25).
Joel supplements what Ezekiel and Daniel narrate by explaining what happnes to any who escape the earthquake. They will be driven down into the desert regions south of Israel and perish in the sands (Joel 2:20).
During the period of the millennium tourists will come across the parched bones of the army and remember God wrougth a great deliverance in the land (Ezekiel 39:15).
Whoever holds this territory controls the destiny of billions of people. Europe gets two-thirds of its oil from the Middle East. The United States would be crippled without access to these oil reserves which are yielding millions of barrels each day. The Dead Sea is worth more than the total weath of the United States.
These natural resources make the Middle East a coveted prize for world leaders. If Russia could get uncontested control of this geographical treasure chest, she would have no serious contender for world power.
Part 1 (Daniel 11: 36-39)
Of all the wicked end-time personalities, which one should be called "the antichrist"? Nothing is more confusing than trying to harmonize all that has been written on this subject. Almost no two books on prophetic themes agree about who the antichrist is specifically.
Many are satisfied to pass lightly over the various characters who figure in the tribulation and call all of them "antichrist". Others writers are more careful in delineating precisely which of the leaders is really the antichrist.
John the Apostle is the only Biblical writer who employs the term "antichrist". In John's day many antichrists had already appeared (1 John 2:18). John treats the subject of antichrist as if it pertained to a spirit, a system, or a philosophy. But he also speaks of it as a person. The antichrist is foremost a liar and a deceiver (vs. 22; II John 7). His special mark of identification is his deceit and fraudulent claims to Messiahship.
The fact he is known especially for deceit point us immediately to II Thessalonians 2 where Paul is describing a deceiver and liar (vs. 9, 11). In the Thessalonian passage Paul calls the antichrist "the man of sin" because he is the epitome of all wickedness and lawlessness; he calls him "the son of perdition" because he is destined for eternal ruin (vs. 3).
Part of the antichrist's deceit involves pawning himself off on the Jews as the Son of God--The Messiah. Paul shows the antichrist will occupy the holy of holies in the restored Jewish temple in Jerusalem and demand divine honors and titles (vs. 4). His deceit also includes his ability to convince the Jews he is their Messiah by performing all kinds of wonders and miracles (vs. 9).
Who can read Paul's description in II Thessalonians without turning to Revelation 13:11-18 where we have practically the same description of the antichrist in the second beast? Vs. 13 speaks of the "great wonders" which he will perform.
Verses 14, 15 tell of the miracles which he will accomplish to authenticate his claims to be Israel's prophet and king. Antichrist is clearly an imitation christ, a false christ, the false prophet. In every respect he is a substitute christ--even to the extent of posing as a lamb (vs. 11).
The fact the antichrist originates out of the earth (vs. 11) suggests he derives from Israel--the earthly people. He's a Jewish king whom the nation will receive and own as their protector and friend in the tribulation period.
John 5:43 speaks of the antichrist who will come psoing as Christ. The Jews would not receive the real Messiah when He came, but they will embrace the false christ. It's unthinkable the Jews would own anyone but a Jew as their Messiah. And they would require credentials of the miraculous. They are expecting Elijah to come and perform miracles and when one greater than Elijah comes, they will receive him.
As a prophet, the antichrist assumes control of religion. Like the prophet Elijah who authenticated his credentials by calling down fire from Heaven, he will give dramatic evidence of his right to shape all religious policies.
As an economist, he will control world commerce so no one can buy or sell without his approval (vs. 16, 17). The antichrist will place a mark upon his followers (vs. 16). It's the visible proof they are worshipers of the antichrist's ally in Europe (vs. 17).
The antichrist is not the sole ruler of the future. He shares equally with the European dictator--the beast out of the sea (Revelation 13:1). The antichrist is not subordinate to the Gentile dictator in the West; "he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth..to worship the first beast" (vs. 12).
The antichrist will sit in the temple and work miracles to demonstrate he is God. At the same time, he will acknowledge the deity of the first beast and require the Jews to worship the first beast. He will be so ardent in promoting the worship of the European political and military dictator he will put a statue of the dictator in the temple (Matthew 24:15).
The relationship between the antichrist and the first beast, as defined in Revelation 13, is exactly the same as the relationship described in Daniel 11:36-39. In Daniel's account we learn once more of the antichrist's sovereign power in the expression "the king shall do according to his will" (vs. 36). Daniel and Paul are on the same page with regard to how the antichrist will exalt himself above every god (compare II Thes. 2:4 with Daniel 11: 36, 37).
Daniel sees the very same connection between the antichrist and the European dictator John analyzes in Revelation 13; the antichrist, for all his self-exaltation and claims to deity, nevertheless acknowledges another god (Daniel 11: 38, 39).
The "God of forces" is the first beast of Revelation 13-- is considered to be the Gentile dictator in Europe who promises military assistance to the antichrist in Palestine.
The antichrist secures sources of Palestine and sends them to his ally in Europe (Daniel 11:38). Not satisfied with that, the European dictator will insist upon a statue of himself being placed in the Jewish temple. The antichrist will comply and thus share the holy of holies with the image of the first beast. Moreover, the antichrist will dissect Palestine, donating pieces of ground to those Jews who do him favors (vs. 39).
Isaiah, Daniel, and John all introduce the antichrist abruptly and without a word of explanation. Isaiah and Daniel simply call him "the king". John calls him the beast out of the earth and later speaks of him as the false prophet. But the antichrist is both a king and a prophet. In this regard he is an imitator of Christ the prophet-king.
Part 2 (Daniel 11: 40-45)
Sometime after the Jewish antichrist has established himself in Palestine as Israel's Messiah, the armies of Egypt will make another attmpt to destroy the State of Israel. The humiliation of being defeated again will increase Egyptian hostility against the Jews. Thirst for revenge will drive this Arab nation to further aggression. Without a doubt, Egypt will use equipment supplied to her by Russia...
But Russia cannot afford to let Egypt gain sole control of the Middle East, and so as soon as Egypt marches northward, Russica will march southward. The Jewish antichrist will face an invasion on both fronts (Daniel 8:24; 11:40). The king of the North (Russia accompanied by Syrian troops) is obviously the victor. The northern armies will sweep through Palestine like a flood of waters.
Many other countries are included with the northern aggressor in his drive through the Holy Land (vs. 41). Ezekiel 38 tabulates many of the countries which will contribute their armies to the war effort. Isaiah connects the destruction of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Arabia with the northern invasion. In all likelihood Russia will add the armies of the conquered peoples to her gorwing military strength as she enters the Middle East.
We can only conjecture Egypt will eventually have a falling out with Russia, who has been supplying her with arms and technicians. It may be Egypt invades Israel without the sanction of Russia, and so the armies of the North intervene and take advantage of the situation to bring Egypt under Soviet mastery.
The Russian hordes will not stop until they have penetrated to North Africa (Daniel 11:42). Isaiah predicted this long before Daniel wrote. he said Egypt would capitulate to a king of fierce countenance (Isaiah 19:4; compare Daniel 8:23).
In chapter 20 Isaiah also forecast the destruction of Ethiopia by the Assyrian (the king of the North). Ezekiel concurs in his prediction Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya will be involved in the Russian invasion (Ezekiel 38:5). Now Daniel tells us plainly the king of the North will conquer Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia (Daniel 11:43).
After the Russians have subdued North Africa and have set up a military headquarters in Egypt, they will receive some disquieting reports from the Northeast (vs. 44). No one knows for certain what causes the concern, but possibly Russia will hear the European beast-dictator has brought the allied armies to Israel for the purpose of meeting military obligations and in an attempt to cut the Russian armies off from their home base.
Some expositors, however, think a report of an Oriental invasion startles the Russians. At any rate, Russia will make a frantic effot to retreat through Palestine to the North. En route Prince Rosh will decide to annihilate Israel.
He wants to make Israel pay for the necessity of his retreat. In this he resembles his ancient predecessor, Antiochus Epiphanes, who was thwarted in Egypt and took his wrath out on the Jews. (This I think is yet another indication that Antiochus Epiphanes is meant to illustrate the king of the North and not the Jewish antichrist.)
The Russian armies will have God to reckon with. God will not permit the utter annihilation of the Jews even though He brought the northern armies against them to chastise them for placing their hopes in the Jewish antichrist and His western confederate and for the permitting the introduction of idolarty to the land again.
Determinded now to liquidate Israel, the northern armies will set their sights on Jerusalem. They will get no farther than the mountains south of the city. There God will literally bury the armies of Gog and Magog. A terrific earthquake will cuase the ground to swallow up the infantry.
Ezekiel graphically describes the scene. Daniel only comments: "yet he shall come to his end, and non shall hlep him" (vs. 45). This harmonizes with what Daniel says earlier abou thte end of the king of the North: "he shall be broken without hand" (Daniel 8:25).
Joel supplements what Ezekiel and Daniel narrate by explaining what happnes to any who escape the earthquake. They will be driven down into the desert regions south of Israel and perish in the sands (Joel 2:20).
During the period of the millennium tourists will come across the parched bones of the army and remember God wrougth a great deliverance in the land (Ezekiel 39:15).
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Invasions Sweep the Middle East (Daniel Chapter 11)
Mastery of the Scriptures forces any man of God to become a student of many other disciplines, especially of ancient history. There is no special merit in being able to recite the succession of Jewish, Persian Greek, or Syrian Kings. Nevertheless, God never condemns the acquisition of true knowledge.
It's discomforting to know we, as children of God, are ignorant of the facts of history and have a narrow range of interests both secular and sacred. The Book of Daniel is a taxing exercise in ancient history, particularly the later chapters.
In my opinion...it's God's Word, and His story; therefore, it is worthy of our examination!
Part 1 (Daniel 11: 1-20)
The angel Gabriel first outlined the immediate successors to Cyrus. The book of Ezra identifies them as Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, and Darius. Secular historians call them cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes respectively. They were followed by Xerxes, a king of vast resources who raided Greece in 480 B.C.
A lapse of time occurs in Daniel 11 between verses 3 and 4. The Spirit of God is silent about the successors to Xerxes because they have no bearing on the condition of the Jews. The mighty king of verse 3 was Alexander the Great, whose sprawling empire was divided at his death among his four generals because he had no heir (vs. 4).
The kingdom of Greece gradually wasted away and was finally "plucked up" by the Romans in 31 B.C.
Verses 5-20 focus the spotlight upon the northern and the southern divisions of Alexander's territories. The king of the South represents the several Ptolemies of Egypt. The king of the North refers to the many rulers of Syria.
The passage presents an amazing and detailed summary of the campaigns which Syria and Egypt waged against each other. In the military invasions northward and southward, Palestine usually became the battlefield of the warring factions and suffered the brunt of their revenge.
The prince of verse 5 was Alexander's Syrian general Seleucus 1 Nicator, who found it necessary to accept asylum in Egypt when Antigonas--an early Phrygian contender for Alexander's empire--routed him from the NOrth.
The king of the South was Ptolemy Lagus. With Ptolemy's helps, Seleucus regained his authority and subsequently increaded his domnions until his territories exceeded Ptolemy's.
Several years later an attempt was made to cement alliances between Egypt and Syria. Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt prevailed upon Antiochus II of Syria to marry his daughter Berenice. Antiochus put away his own wife Daodice and prounced her children illegitmate.
When Philadelphus died, Antiochus II took Laodice back, and she promptly murdered Berenice and her children. Later she poisoned her husband and put her son Callinicus on the throne of Syria. The marriage alliance proved an utter failure (vs. 6).
Berenice's brother, Ptolemy III Euergetes, then invaded Syria in order to avenge his sister's death. He captured Antioch without opposition. Civil disorder erupted through Egypt, and Euergetes hastened home with a tremendous plunder (vs. 7-9).
The sons of Callinicus wanted revenge against the attack of Euergetes. The first son, Ceraunus, reigned only two years. He was succeeded by his brother Antiochus III the Great. Antiochus III and his armies poured out of the North like a flood and deluged Palestine (vs. 10).
By this time Ptolemy Philopator had come to the Egyptian throne, and he repelled the northern invader at the battle of Raphia in 217 B.C. (vs. 11). His military successes went to his head. He failed to follow through with his victory; consequently, Syria and Egypt settled down to a kind of cold ward for 13 years (vs. 12).
Antiochus III the Great launched another campaign as soon as Philopator died. He managed to build an even larger army than he had before (vs. 13). Antiochus secured the assistance of King Philip of Macedon and of the apostate Jews in Palestine who were glad to be free of Egyptian control (vs. 14).
Antiochus was frustrated in his plan to conquer Egypt by the interference of Rome. He thereupon decided to take diplomatic measures by giving his duaghter Cleopatra to Ptolemy Epiphanes, heir apparent to the Egyptian throne.
Antiochus dpended upon Cleopatra's allegiance. The tables were turned when Cleopatra repudiated her father and supoorted her husband (vs. 17). Antiochus the Great then contented himself with plundering the coastlines and islands of the Mediterranean until Rome drove him out of Greece and later defeated him at Magnesia in 190 B.C. (vs 18, 19).
After his defeat...Antiochus was ordered to pay the highest indemnity known to antiquity--15,000 talents. Upon his death, Antiochus' son, Seleucus Philopator, had to increase the tribute money which Rome exacted of his father. He was poisoned shortly after he sent Heliodorus his treasurer to pilfer the temple treasures at Jerusalem (vs. 20).
Part 2 (Daniel 11: 21-35)
Obtaining the help of King Eumenes II of Pergamum, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the younger son of Antiochus III the Great, put down the legitmate heir to the Syrian throne and took the status of king. The kingdom really belonged to Demetrius, Antiochus IV's nephew. Antiochus IV pretended to be Demetrius' friend and took the regency while his nephew was hostage in Rome.
"Vile" is an appropriate epithet for Antiochus IV. Some of his subjects called him "Epimanes" meaning "Madman". He, very early, won the affections of the people by his democratic ways, by the liberality which he displayed in the cities of Syria, by "his capricious fits of generosity," and by his able administration (Daniel 11:21-24).
When Antiochus heard the Egyptian forces were preparing to invade Coele Syria, he forestalled them by crossing the frontier in 169 B.C. and drove them to Pelusium. He continued to Memphis where he concluded a treaty with Ptolemy Philometor. He had every intention of establishing an overlordship at Alexandria, but the people of Alexandria would not tolerate it. (Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 322 B.C. and it became a great center of culture and one of the three largest cities in the Roman empire).
They repudiated Philometor and proclaimed his younger brother, Ptolemy Euergetes (usually called Physcon--"Pot Belly") as king (vs.26).
Antiochus was obliged by the lateness of the sesason to withdraw his troops. His operations had cost him enormously. He had to raise revenue, and so en route to Syria he sacked the tmeple at Jerusalem.
In 168 B.C. Antiochus pushed his forces against Egypt again, but Ptolemy Philometor and Physcon had solved their differences by this time and reigned jointly with Cleopatra (vs. 27).
Antiochus ravaged the Egyptian temples and sent his troops to beseige Alexandria, hoping Rome would be too busy in Macedonia to take much notice. About a week before; however, Rome had concluded the Macedonian war with tremendous victory.
The Roman senate sent Lucius Popillius Laenas with an ultimatum to Antiochus to leave Egypt alone. Antiochus reluctantly bowed to Rome and was frustrated in his endeavor to conquer Egypt the second time (vs. 30a).
The Jews in Palestine had to suffer the brunt of his wrath. He outlawed the Jewish ritual, the Sabbath observances, the dietary laws, and the rite of circumcision (vs. 30b). He erected a new altar in honor of Zeus and burned offerings of swine flesh upon it.
What followed was a thorough-going comapaign of persecution, because the pious Jews refused to submit to Antiochus---regardless of the penalties he imposed upon them for resitance (vs. 31).
Chief among the resistance were a priest called Mattathias and his sons. They were strong and did exploits (vs. 32). Insurgents gathered around Mattathias who demolished pagan altars, killed apostate Jews, and circumcised boys whose parents had feared to carry out the Mosaic legislation.
Verse 33 summarizes in general the results of Jewish defiance during Antiochus' time and in the centuries which followed.
It's discomforting to know we, as children of God, are ignorant of the facts of history and have a narrow range of interests both secular and sacred. The Book of Daniel is a taxing exercise in ancient history, particularly the later chapters.
In my opinion...it's God's Word, and His story; therefore, it is worthy of our examination!
Part 1 (Daniel 11: 1-20)
The angel Gabriel first outlined the immediate successors to Cyrus. The book of Ezra identifies them as Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, and Darius. Secular historians call them cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes respectively. They were followed by Xerxes, a king of vast resources who raided Greece in 480 B.C.
A lapse of time occurs in Daniel 11 between verses 3 and 4. The Spirit of God is silent about the successors to Xerxes because they have no bearing on the condition of the Jews. The mighty king of verse 3 was Alexander the Great, whose sprawling empire was divided at his death among his four generals because he had no heir (vs. 4).
The kingdom of Greece gradually wasted away and was finally "plucked up" by the Romans in 31 B.C.
Verses 5-20 focus the spotlight upon the northern and the southern divisions of Alexander's territories. The king of the South represents the several Ptolemies of Egypt. The king of the North refers to the many rulers of Syria.
The passage presents an amazing and detailed summary of the campaigns which Syria and Egypt waged against each other. In the military invasions northward and southward, Palestine usually became the battlefield of the warring factions and suffered the brunt of their revenge.
The prince of verse 5 was Alexander's Syrian general Seleucus 1 Nicator, who found it necessary to accept asylum in Egypt when Antigonas--an early Phrygian contender for Alexander's empire--routed him from the NOrth.
The king of the South was Ptolemy Lagus. With Ptolemy's helps, Seleucus regained his authority and subsequently increaded his domnions until his territories exceeded Ptolemy's.
Several years later an attempt was made to cement alliances between Egypt and Syria. Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt prevailed upon Antiochus II of Syria to marry his daughter Berenice. Antiochus put away his own wife Daodice and prounced her children illegitmate.
When Philadelphus died, Antiochus II took Laodice back, and she promptly murdered Berenice and her children. Later she poisoned her husband and put her son Callinicus on the throne of Syria. The marriage alliance proved an utter failure (vs. 6).
Berenice's brother, Ptolemy III Euergetes, then invaded Syria in order to avenge his sister's death. He captured Antioch without opposition. Civil disorder erupted through Egypt, and Euergetes hastened home with a tremendous plunder (vs. 7-9).
The sons of Callinicus wanted revenge against the attack of Euergetes. The first son, Ceraunus, reigned only two years. He was succeeded by his brother Antiochus III the Great. Antiochus III and his armies poured out of the North like a flood and deluged Palestine (vs. 10).
By this time Ptolemy Philopator had come to the Egyptian throne, and he repelled the northern invader at the battle of Raphia in 217 B.C. (vs. 11). His military successes went to his head. He failed to follow through with his victory; consequently, Syria and Egypt settled down to a kind of cold ward for 13 years (vs. 12).
Antiochus III the Great launched another campaign as soon as Philopator died. He managed to build an even larger army than he had before (vs. 13). Antiochus secured the assistance of King Philip of Macedon and of the apostate Jews in Palestine who were glad to be free of Egyptian control (vs. 14).
Antiochus was frustrated in his plan to conquer Egypt by the interference of Rome. He thereupon decided to take diplomatic measures by giving his duaghter Cleopatra to Ptolemy Epiphanes, heir apparent to the Egyptian throne.
Antiochus dpended upon Cleopatra's allegiance. The tables were turned when Cleopatra repudiated her father and supoorted her husband (vs. 17). Antiochus the Great then contented himself with plundering the coastlines and islands of the Mediterranean until Rome drove him out of Greece and later defeated him at Magnesia in 190 B.C. (vs 18, 19).
After his defeat...Antiochus was ordered to pay the highest indemnity known to antiquity--15,000 talents. Upon his death, Antiochus' son, Seleucus Philopator, had to increase the tribute money which Rome exacted of his father. He was poisoned shortly after he sent Heliodorus his treasurer to pilfer the temple treasures at Jerusalem (vs. 20).
Part 2 (Daniel 11: 21-35)
Obtaining the help of King Eumenes II of Pergamum, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the younger son of Antiochus III the Great, put down the legitmate heir to the Syrian throne and took the status of king. The kingdom really belonged to Demetrius, Antiochus IV's nephew. Antiochus IV pretended to be Demetrius' friend and took the regency while his nephew was hostage in Rome.
"Vile" is an appropriate epithet for Antiochus IV. Some of his subjects called him "Epimanes" meaning "Madman". He, very early, won the affections of the people by his democratic ways, by the liberality which he displayed in the cities of Syria, by "his capricious fits of generosity," and by his able administration (Daniel 11:21-24).
When Antiochus heard the Egyptian forces were preparing to invade Coele Syria, he forestalled them by crossing the frontier in 169 B.C. and drove them to Pelusium. He continued to Memphis where he concluded a treaty with Ptolemy Philometor. He had every intention of establishing an overlordship at Alexandria, but the people of Alexandria would not tolerate it. (Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 322 B.C. and it became a great center of culture and one of the three largest cities in the Roman empire).
They repudiated Philometor and proclaimed his younger brother, Ptolemy Euergetes (usually called Physcon--"Pot Belly") as king (vs.26).
Antiochus was obliged by the lateness of the sesason to withdraw his troops. His operations had cost him enormously. He had to raise revenue, and so en route to Syria he sacked the tmeple at Jerusalem.
In 168 B.C. Antiochus pushed his forces against Egypt again, but Ptolemy Philometor and Physcon had solved their differences by this time and reigned jointly with Cleopatra (vs. 27).
Antiochus ravaged the Egyptian temples and sent his troops to beseige Alexandria, hoping Rome would be too busy in Macedonia to take much notice. About a week before; however, Rome had concluded the Macedonian war with tremendous victory.
The Roman senate sent Lucius Popillius Laenas with an ultimatum to Antiochus to leave Egypt alone. Antiochus reluctantly bowed to Rome and was frustrated in his endeavor to conquer Egypt the second time (vs. 30a).
The Jews in Palestine had to suffer the brunt of his wrath. He outlawed the Jewish ritual, the Sabbath observances, the dietary laws, and the rite of circumcision (vs. 30b). He erected a new altar in honor of Zeus and burned offerings of swine flesh upon it.
What followed was a thorough-going comapaign of persecution, because the pious Jews refused to submit to Antiochus---regardless of the penalties he imposed upon them for resitance (vs. 31).
Chief among the resistance were a priest called Mattathias and his sons. They were strong and did exploits (vs. 32). Insurgents gathered around Mattathias who demolished pagan altars, killed apostate Jews, and circumcised boys whose parents had feared to carry out the Mosaic legislation.
Verse 33 summarizes in general the results of Jewish defiance during Antiochus' time and in the centuries which followed.
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Invisible World of Spirits (Daniel Chapter 10)
Our mighty God rolls the planets in their orbits around the sun and sunstains with unwearied arms the circuits of stellar space, but it is an infinitely great work for Him to lift up us poor, weak creatures and replenish our sagging spirits.
When we were without stregth, Christ died for us, and now we can do all things through Him who makes us strong. Daniel knew what it was to be strengthened by God's might in his inner man. He had realized the truth of the promise found in Isaiah 40:29..."He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."
Part 1 (Daniel 10: 1-9)
The Holy Spirit who moved Daniel to record his experiences must have wanted to convey to us the value of definiteness, for Daniel invariably began with dates, names, and places (Daniel 10:1). The name "Belteshazzar" accompanied the name "Daniel" as if to give further identity to the man.
This is the very same Daniel who was taken captive as a youth, brought to Nebuchadnezzar's court, and given a pagan name years earlier. he had continued his administrative work until the first year of Cyrus' reign (Daniel 1:21) and now in semi-retirement in the third year of Cyrus (535 B.C.), Daniel could say with the Apostle Paul, "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue until this day, witnessing both small and great" (Acts 26:22).
Daniel had been overcome with grief and gave himself to mourning for three weeks. More than two years had passed since Cyrus had issued the command which permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem. You would think Daniel would have been singing praises... but he wasn't. Why?
I think the sorrows of the prophet derived from his knowledge that only a relatively small number of Jews (49, 897) had returned to the homeland.
The great majority, including princes and priests, had preferred their comfortable homes and positions in Babylon's beauitful environment to the desolation of Palestine and the hardships that awaited them there.
Daniel had heard those who were in Jerusalem had met with the opposition of the Samaritans. Some of the people had fallen into indifference, and others were depressed and discouraged. The feeble remnant had actually ceased their labors on the temple, and these facts were enough to bring Daniel to his knees.
The aged prime minster took no interest in food, wine, or anointing (Daniel 10:3). He could not interrupt his intercession before God long enough to refresh his languishing body.
But gloom was transformed to glory by the appearing of "A certain man clothed in linen" (vs. 5). Debate continues about the identity of the heavenly visitor. But the sevenfold similarity between the description in verses 5, 6 and the description in Revelation 1: 13-16 is rather convincing evidence Daniel was face to face with a Christophany--an appearance of Christ in His preincarnate form.
The linen speaks of Christ's perfect righteousness, His absolutely sinless humanity. The golden girdle is an emblem of His deity and glory. It signifies His permanence, preciousness, and purity. The word "girded" denotes His sovereignty and strength.
His body was like beryl (Daniel 10:6). No one is certain about the meaning of many of the gems of the Bible, but beryl is probably either a yellow topaz or a blue-green stone like the emerald.
If the topaz is meant, it suggests His glory. If the emerald is in view, it intimates His grace. The lightning recalls the dazzling brilliance and suddenness of His arrival. Lightning is the precursor to a storm, and there it may speak of the approaching judgment.
His eyes were like lamps of fire. This depicts His omniscience and severity. Like burning X rays, His eyes can penetrate to the very marrow of the bones. His feet were like the color of brass--another emblem of judgment. The voice like thunder refers to His omnipotence and authority. The dead will hear the voice of omnipotence and rise from their graves.
The reaction of Daniel to the vision corresponds to John's reaction in Revelation 1:17 and to Paul's response in Acts 9:4. Only Daniel actually saw the Lord and heard His words.
His companions probably were dazzled by the light and deafened by the thunderous tones. They fled the scene in terror (Daniel 10:7). Paul's companions had much the same experience on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:7).
Daniel was left alone in the divine presence. He had an experience similar to that of Moses, who was covered with the glory of the Lord upon Mount Sinai. Moses reported "the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire" (Exodus 24:17). The presence of God in His holiness had the same effect upon Daniel that it had upon Isaiah, who sensed his own leprous corruption (Isaiah 6:5).
Like Ezekiel, Daniel collapsed on the ground (Daniel 10:9, Ezekiel 1:28). Nothing but an appearance of Deity can account for Daniel's prostration in Daniel 10: 8,9.
Part 2 Daniel 10: 10-21
For the second time Daniel felt an angelic touch. The Lord of glory is not the subject of verses 10-14; instead, Gabriel--a subordinate and servant of the Lord--ministered to Daniel, helped him to a crouching position, assured him of the divine favor, and encouraged him to get to his feet (vs. 11).
The trembling Daniel listened while Gabriel explained the reason for the delayed answer to his prayer (vs. 12, 13). The angel had begun his journey to earth 21 days earlier when Daniel first abandoned himself to grief and prayer, but the angel was intercepted en route by the prince of Persia, and was able to continue his flight earthward only after the archangel Michael came to his defense and released him from the clutches of the adversary.
Here the veil between the physical and spiritual world is lifted momentarily. Only on rare occasions does the Scripture take us behind the scenes of world events to the invisible world of spirits. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on the ladder staircase to Heaven (Genesis 28:12). On his return from Haran, Jacob was met by "God's host" --angelic guardians.
Elisha's servant saw the heavenly warriors hovering over the impending battle at Dothan (2 kings 6:17). Jesus gave us a glimpse of the unseen world in Luke 16 where He described the conditions of the wicked and the righteous after their death.
Jesus promised the authorities of the invisible realm would never overthrow the church (Matthew 16:18). He did not correct the devil's boast that he had the power to give Jesus the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:8,9).
The Apostle Paul reminded the churches Satan is the prince of the power of the air. The airways above earth seem to be the special theater of his activity. Christ in His ascent through the air and after His resurrection encounterd principalities and powers which He defeated victoriously (Colossians 2:15).
Believers are called upon to wrestle with these principalities and pwoers "in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" (2 Corinthians 10:4)
The writer of Hebrews makes a special point of calling the reader's attention to the fact that Christ passed through the heavens (Hebrews 4:14), as if to suggest the hostile territory through which He must pass. Christ will come into the air rather than to allow the church to traverse the devil's territory alone (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
The Word of God gives us every reason to think demonic intelligences govern world powers behind the scenes. Paul calls them "rulers of the darkness of this world" (Ephesians 6:12)--literally, "World-rulers of this darkness."
Daniel 10 is the first reference to the fact the empires of earth are influenced by satanic personalities in the demon world. Human government is subject to demon manipulation. Satan has assigned certain fallen angels to political activities among the nations so Satan's program can be carried out in an organized and systematic way. The devil is not omnipotent or omnipresent; therefore, he has to depend upon agents who are accountable to him.
We are given to understand also the holy angels act on behalf of the affairs of men and nations. Michael, particularly, is the guardian and protector of Israel. He is responsible for preserving the people through generations of dispersion and persecution. Michael and his angels are engaged in an unremitting war--a war to be climaxed in the tribulation--against the devil and his angels (Revelation 12:7).
Michael engaged in a dispute with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 9). An angel will lay hold of Satan and cast him into the abyss for 1000 years (Revelation 20:1-3). Gabriel expected another assault from the tutelary demon prince of Persia on his Heavenward fight. He intimated also the time would come when he would fight with a principality who was responsible to influence the Greek government (Daniel 10:20).
"Tutelary" pertains to the exercise of authority and guardianship. Everything points to the fact that each nation is directed in its evil purposes by mastermind--Satan--who appoints demon princes over the world system. As soon as the Greek empire would come on the scene, it too would be influenced by demon power.
The whole effect of the information and the angelic speech combined to stupefy and strip Daniel of his strength (vs. 15, 16). The identity of the being in verses 16, 17 has not been settled to everyone's satisfaction. At any rate, Gabriel is evidently in view in verses 18, 19 because he touches Daniel and addresses him as the "man greatly beloved" as he did before (vs. 10, 11).
The work of calming, consoling and caring for God's people is certainly the work of angels. Both Jesus and Daniel knew the keeping power of angels (Psalm 91: 11, 12). The angels are chiefly characterized by wisdom and strength.
Their special ministry to the saints is to assure their physical safety and well-being. Angels calm men's fears (Luke 1:30) and stand by their side to strengthen and cheer them on (Acts 27: 23, 24).
Nothing in Daniel 10: 18, 19 is incompatible with what we read elsewhere in Scripture about the duties of angels. The final word of Gabriel to Daniel was that he had come to show DAniel "The which is noted in the scripture of truth" (vs. 21).
The events that will come to pass are already written in the decrees of God and therefore are sure and final. The course of events cannot be altered.
Daniel was thus strengthened to receive the forthcoming details of end-time events--matters which concerned his own people in the latter days (vs. 14). The last two chapters of the book unfold these momentous events.
When we were without stregth, Christ died for us, and now we can do all things through Him who makes us strong. Daniel knew what it was to be strengthened by God's might in his inner man. He had realized the truth of the promise found in Isaiah 40:29..."He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."
Part 1 (Daniel 10: 1-9)
The Holy Spirit who moved Daniel to record his experiences must have wanted to convey to us the value of definiteness, for Daniel invariably began with dates, names, and places (Daniel 10:1). The name "Belteshazzar" accompanied the name "Daniel" as if to give further identity to the man.
This is the very same Daniel who was taken captive as a youth, brought to Nebuchadnezzar's court, and given a pagan name years earlier. he had continued his administrative work until the first year of Cyrus' reign (Daniel 1:21) and now in semi-retirement in the third year of Cyrus (535 B.C.), Daniel could say with the Apostle Paul, "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue until this day, witnessing both small and great" (Acts 26:22).
Daniel had been overcome with grief and gave himself to mourning for three weeks. More than two years had passed since Cyrus had issued the command which permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem. You would think Daniel would have been singing praises... but he wasn't. Why?
I think the sorrows of the prophet derived from his knowledge that only a relatively small number of Jews (49, 897) had returned to the homeland.
The great majority, including princes and priests, had preferred their comfortable homes and positions in Babylon's beauitful environment to the desolation of Palestine and the hardships that awaited them there.
Daniel had heard those who were in Jerusalem had met with the opposition of the Samaritans. Some of the people had fallen into indifference, and others were depressed and discouraged. The feeble remnant had actually ceased their labors on the temple, and these facts were enough to bring Daniel to his knees.
The aged prime minster took no interest in food, wine, or anointing (Daniel 10:3). He could not interrupt his intercession before God long enough to refresh his languishing body.
But gloom was transformed to glory by the appearing of "A certain man clothed in linen" (vs. 5). Debate continues about the identity of the heavenly visitor. But the sevenfold similarity between the description in verses 5, 6 and the description in Revelation 1: 13-16 is rather convincing evidence Daniel was face to face with a Christophany--an appearance of Christ in His preincarnate form.
The linen speaks of Christ's perfect righteousness, His absolutely sinless humanity. The golden girdle is an emblem of His deity and glory. It signifies His permanence, preciousness, and purity. The word "girded" denotes His sovereignty and strength.
His body was like beryl (Daniel 10:6). No one is certain about the meaning of many of the gems of the Bible, but beryl is probably either a yellow topaz or a blue-green stone like the emerald.
If the topaz is meant, it suggests His glory. If the emerald is in view, it intimates His grace. The lightning recalls the dazzling brilliance and suddenness of His arrival. Lightning is the precursor to a storm, and there it may speak of the approaching judgment.
His eyes were like lamps of fire. This depicts His omniscience and severity. Like burning X rays, His eyes can penetrate to the very marrow of the bones. His feet were like the color of brass--another emblem of judgment. The voice like thunder refers to His omnipotence and authority. The dead will hear the voice of omnipotence and rise from their graves.
The reaction of Daniel to the vision corresponds to John's reaction in Revelation 1:17 and to Paul's response in Acts 9:4. Only Daniel actually saw the Lord and heard His words.
His companions probably were dazzled by the light and deafened by the thunderous tones. They fled the scene in terror (Daniel 10:7). Paul's companions had much the same experience on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:7).
Daniel was left alone in the divine presence. He had an experience similar to that of Moses, who was covered with the glory of the Lord upon Mount Sinai. Moses reported "the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire" (Exodus 24:17). The presence of God in His holiness had the same effect upon Daniel that it had upon Isaiah, who sensed his own leprous corruption (Isaiah 6:5).
Like Ezekiel, Daniel collapsed on the ground (Daniel 10:9, Ezekiel 1:28). Nothing but an appearance of Deity can account for Daniel's prostration in Daniel 10: 8,9.
Part 2 Daniel 10: 10-21
For the second time Daniel felt an angelic touch. The Lord of glory is not the subject of verses 10-14; instead, Gabriel--a subordinate and servant of the Lord--ministered to Daniel, helped him to a crouching position, assured him of the divine favor, and encouraged him to get to his feet (vs. 11).
The trembling Daniel listened while Gabriel explained the reason for the delayed answer to his prayer (vs. 12, 13). The angel had begun his journey to earth 21 days earlier when Daniel first abandoned himself to grief and prayer, but the angel was intercepted en route by the prince of Persia, and was able to continue his flight earthward only after the archangel Michael came to his defense and released him from the clutches of the adversary.
Here the veil between the physical and spiritual world is lifted momentarily. Only on rare occasions does the Scripture take us behind the scenes of world events to the invisible world of spirits. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on the ladder staircase to Heaven (Genesis 28:12). On his return from Haran, Jacob was met by "God's host" --angelic guardians.
Elisha's servant saw the heavenly warriors hovering over the impending battle at Dothan (2 kings 6:17). Jesus gave us a glimpse of the unseen world in Luke 16 where He described the conditions of the wicked and the righteous after their death.
Jesus promised the authorities of the invisible realm would never overthrow the church (Matthew 16:18). He did not correct the devil's boast that he had the power to give Jesus the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:8,9).
The Apostle Paul reminded the churches Satan is the prince of the power of the air. The airways above earth seem to be the special theater of his activity. Christ in His ascent through the air and after His resurrection encounterd principalities and powers which He defeated victoriously (Colossians 2:15).
Believers are called upon to wrestle with these principalities and pwoers "in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" (2 Corinthians 10:4)
The writer of Hebrews makes a special point of calling the reader's attention to the fact that Christ passed through the heavens (Hebrews 4:14), as if to suggest the hostile territory through which He must pass. Christ will come into the air rather than to allow the church to traverse the devil's territory alone (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
The Word of God gives us every reason to think demonic intelligences govern world powers behind the scenes. Paul calls them "rulers of the darkness of this world" (Ephesians 6:12)--literally, "World-rulers of this darkness."
Daniel 10 is the first reference to the fact the empires of earth are influenced by satanic personalities in the demon world. Human government is subject to demon manipulation. Satan has assigned certain fallen angels to political activities among the nations so Satan's program can be carried out in an organized and systematic way. The devil is not omnipotent or omnipresent; therefore, he has to depend upon agents who are accountable to him.
We are given to understand also the holy angels act on behalf of the affairs of men and nations. Michael, particularly, is the guardian and protector of Israel. He is responsible for preserving the people through generations of dispersion and persecution. Michael and his angels are engaged in an unremitting war--a war to be climaxed in the tribulation--against the devil and his angels (Revelation 12:7).
Michael engaged in a dispute with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 9). An angel will lay hold of Satan and cast him into the abyss for 1000 years (Revelation 20:1-3). Gabriel expected another assault from the tutelary demon prince of Persia on his Heavenward fight. He intimated also the time would come when he would fight with a principality who was responsible to influence the Greek government (Daniel 10:20).
"Tutelary" pertains to the exercise of authority and guardianship. Everything points to the fact that each nation is directed in its evil purposes by mastermind--Satan--who appoints demon princes over the world system. As soon as the Greek empire would come on the scene, it too would be influenced by demon power.
The whole effect of the information and the angelic speech combined to stupefy and strip Daniel of his strength (vs. 15, 16). The identity of the being in verses 16, 17 has not been settled to everyone's satisfaction. At any rate, Gabriel is evidently in view in verses 18, 19 because he touches Daniel and addresses him as the "man greatly beloved" as he did before (vs. 10, 11).
The work of calming, consoling and caring for God's people is certainly the work of angels. Both Jesus and Daniel knew the keeping power of angels (Psalm 91: 11, 12). The angels are chiefly characterized by wisdom and strength.
Their special ministry to the saints is to assure their physical safety and well-being. Angels calm men's fears (Luke 1:30) and stand by their side to strengthen and cheer them on (Acts 27: 23, 24).
Nothing in Daniel 10: 18, 19 is incompatible with what we read elsewhere in Scripture about the duties of angels. The final word of Gabriel to Daniel was that he had come to show DAniel "The which is noted in the scripture of truth" (vs. 21).
The events that will come to pass are already written in the decrees of God and therefore are sure and final. The course of events cannot be altered.
Daniel was thus strengthened to receive the forthcoming details of end-time events--matters which concerned his own people in the latter days (vs. 14). The last two chapters of the book unfold these momentous events.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
God's Timetable for Israel (Daniel Chapter 9)
I'm always amazed by how people of our generation go about their daily routine completely indifferent to the trends and perils of our time. Why do our diplomats sit in solemn counsil vainly trying to bring about national and international peace? Why do presidential candidates promise a new and glorious era ahead for democracy?
As sincere as their intentions may be, they nevertheless reach false conclusions and indulge in misplaced optimism because they are not students of the prophetic Scriptures. Therefore, they cannot see history is running in the mold of prophecy and it is moving in the direction of totalitarianism and turmoil.
The only safe place to cast an anchor is in Christ. He will never disapoint our hopes (1 Peter 2:6).
Daniel 9 illustrates the fact that human history is the outworking of a divine program for Israel. The events of the calendar all contribute in some way to God's purposes for them.
Part 1 (Daniel 9: 1-19)
A study of the prophetic Word inscribed by the pen of Jeremiah motivated Daniel to prayer and penitence. He was turned to sorrow by what he learned about the future of his people. The Apostle Paul felt the same intense sorrow for the unbelieving nation (Rom. 9: 2, 3; 10:1).
The time of the events of Daniel 9 occurred in "the first year of Darius" (vs. 1). Darius is identified as the son of Ahasuerus , racially a Mede and royally a king whom Cyrus appointed to manage the affairs of Babylon.
Sometime during Darius' first year of rule (between 538 and 537 B.C.) Daniel was studying the prophecies of Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:10. He was a prophet himself but he was not above a diligent investigation of the written Word. I love Daniel's example here because he proves no one outgrows his need of daily study of the Word of God.
Furthermore, Daniel had no objection to studying the writings of another prophet (vs. 2). Daniel learned from Jeremiah the captivity would last for 70 years. The Jews had not observed the 7th year Sabbath rest for 70 years, and so God sent them into exile and caused the land to lie desolate for the equivalent number of those unobserved Sabbath years.
Knowing only a few months remained before the fulfillment of the prophecy struck, Daniel with mingled grief and gladness. The Jews in captivity were in no condition of heart to receive the fulfillment of the promise. Unbelieving and disobedient people can never expect the blessing of divine promises and provisions.
Daniel set himself to a prayer of adoration, confession, intercession, and petition (vs. 3-19), for he knew this was a condition that had to be met before God would return the people from the land of their exile.
Daniels' prayer is a perfect model, for it begins with a recognition of God's person and power. Daniel worshiped the great and awesome God. He continued with testimonies to God's character: God is faithful not to break His covenant with Israel; He is the merciful God (vs. 4). Daniel then spread the sins of the nation, including himself, before the Lord. They had run the gamut--iniquity, wickedness, rebellion, departure, and defection (vs. 5).
Israel had neither heeded nor hearkened to God's servants, the prophets, who repeatedly tried to recall them to repentance (vs. 6). Daniel vindicated God for what followed Israel's sin (vs. 7-14). They deserved all the confusion, calamity, and curses which had come upon them. God had carried out His threat against the nation in faithfulness to His word.
It is significant that Daniel refers to the Mosaic covenant rather than to the Abrahamic covenant (vs. 11, 13). The people had broken the conditional Mosaic law, but Daniel did not believe for a single moment as a consequence the nation had forfeited forever the promise it would rule for God as a kingdom of priests. Daniel was still looking for a fulfillment of theocratic blessings on the basis of the Mosaic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants.
I think its important to note, the nation will be punished...but God will not revoke or invalidate His promises... Pslam 89 reinforces this.
In my opinion, the fulfillment of the convenants does not depend ultimately upon Israel's faithfulness but on God's faitfullness. Israel didn't deserve anything from God. The nation was responsible for a breach of covenant and earned forfeiture of all the glorious privileges of kingship over the nations, but Daniel pled God's forgiveness and mercy (vs. 9, 18, 19).
Daniel's prayer is a foreshadowing of the repentance and prayer of the nation at the end of the tribulation when the people will mourn over their sin and call upon their long rejected Messiah to come and save them (Zechariah 12:10).
Of course, God cannot fulfill the provisions of His covenant promises while they continue in their sins, but the tribulation judgments are designed by God to bring the nation to its knees, and this is precisely what will happen.
Part 2 (Daniel 9: 20-27)
Daniel's prayer moved Heaven to immediate response. Gabriel was dispatched with information about the nation's future. Flying swiftly, he reached the praying prophet at the time when the evening oblation was formerly offered at Jerusalem. For nearly 70 years the Mosaic rites had been discontinued, but Daniel evidently observed the morning and evening offerings in the only way he could--in prayer facing the beloved city.
With an admonition to Daniel to consider the vision, the angel began to unfold a chronology of events pertaining exclusively to Daniel's people and Daniel's holy city (vs. 24).
Daniel 9: 24-27 gives a schedule of a segment of Israel's national history during which God will carry out the six purposes of verse 24. The history is restricted to 70 -7 year periods... or 490 years. This period has a specific point of beginning and ending.
It commences with the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. (The decree was issued in 445 B.C. see Nehemiah 2:3,5,8. Earlier edicts are spoken of in 2 Chronicles 36: 22,23; Ezra 1:1-4; 6:1-5, 8-12; 7:11-26.) The earlier edicts of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes do not qualify as a starting point for this 490 year history because none of them related to the city; they only provided for the rebuilding of the temple.
The 490 years are divided into three segments, and the angel indicates what activites will transpire during these three parts. During the first 7 weeks (49 years) the city with its streets and wall will be rebuilt; then 62 weeks (434 years) will be added to the 7 weeks before the Messiah arrives.
From the commandment to Christ the King, then, a total of 483 years will expire. The termination of these 483 years came on the day of the triumphal entry in March-April A.D. 30, when Jesus Christ, for the first and only time, presented Himself officially as Israel's Prince and Messianiac King.
At the end of the 69 weeks (483 years) the Messiah is "cut off" (Daniel 9:26). Instead of entering int the era of His kingly reign, He receives nothing. Israel rejected His regal claims to the throne of David and sentenced Him to a criminal's death.
The six divine purposes which God intends to accomplish in the nation in the course of the 490 year period were deferred to the last week (7 years). Between the 69th and the 70th week we have an indeterminate period, during which Jerusalem suffers from a flood of invaders. The 70th week did not follow the 69th week successively.
"The" transgression has not been finished; in fact, Israel's final apostasy is still ahead. God has not made an end of the nation's sins; the people are still nationally blinded and continue in their unbelief. The nation has not entered into the provisions of reconciliation; neither has it experienced a practical righteousness.
The prophecies regarding the nation have not been fulfilled, and the temple has not been anointed at the end of the 69 weeks.
All of these promises will be fulfilled to Israel during the course of the 70th week (the 7 year period of the tribulation). During the long interval between the 69th and 70th week Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus (in A.D. 70), and this destruction has been followed by a continual succession of Gentile rulers who have trampled the city and the land under foot. This desolation will continue through the entire present church age and right on into the tribulation era.
The angel told Daniel what would happen in the last 7 years of the seventy weeks. A Roman prince will appear who will guarantee Israel military protection from the "flood" of northern armies. A treaty will be ratified which pledges to Israel territorial sovereignty for 7 years (vs. 27). It assures her of peace with her Arab neighbors.
Israel will rebuild the temple and reintroduce the Mosaic sacrificial system. She will depend upon her national representative and king--the Jewish antichrist--to secure her borders by his diplomatic relations with the roman prince of Europe.
At the middle of the seven-year period the European beast-emperor will ban the Mosaic ordinances and instruct the Jewish antichrist to place an idol in the Holy of Holies. In order to get continued military protection, the apostate Jews will comply with the demand.
Many saved Jews will refuse to worship the image and will not receive the mark of the beast. Their lives will stand in jeopardy. The erection of the image of the European beast is the signal for these saved Jews to flee the city, for on the heels of idolatry will come God's avenger--the northern destroyer.
"Overspreading" pertains to military protection. "Abominations" refers to idolatry. The world "desolate" should be rendered "desolator." God will respond to a new and unprecedented outbreat of idolatry in Israel by sending the king of the North into Palestine to chastise Israel.
The northern armies (The Assyrian) will devastate the land until God has accomplished His purpose, and then the fearful desolator will meet his doom on the mountains of Israel by a divine judgment on the armies. During the northern assault the antichrist has apparently fled, and the European beast has failed to live up to his treaty obligations with Israel.
A moment's reflection on Isaiah 28:14-18 will help to clarify the situation that will prevail during the 70th week. This passage relates the boasting confidence of the people of Israel who will enter into a diabolical alliance with death and Hell (vs. 15). They will place their hopes for political and religious security in lies and falsehood.
They will listen to the lies of the false prophet--the antichrist. He will deceive them into thinking they are safe. God calls the treaty a covenant with Hell because the European dictator and the Jewish deceiver are both energized by the devil (Rev. 16:13).
The Jews imagine these two fiends will protect them from the "overflowing scourge"--the northern desolator. Their confidence, however, is pinned on the wrong object. Military agreements with the west will not save them from the king of the North. The armies of the North will descend like a flood of waters, and God will use the desolator to annul the East-West alliance (Isaiah 28:18).
At first the armies of the West will not retaliate. They will simply deliberate and call for a withdrawal of the troops (Ezekiel 38:13).
As sincere as their intentions may be, they nevertheless reach false conclusions and indulge in misplaced optimism because they are not students of the prophetic Scriptures. Therefore, they cannot see history is running in the mold of prophecy and it is moving in the direction of totalitarianism and turmoil.
The only safe place to cast an anchor is in Christ. He will never disapoint our hopes (1 Peter 2:6).
Daniel 9 illustrates the fact that human history is the outworking of a divine program for Israel. The events of the calendar all contribute in some way to God's purposes for them.
Part 1 (Daniel 9: 1-19)
A study of the prophetic Word inscribed by the pen of Jeremiah motivated Daniel to prayer and penitence. He was turned to sorrow by what he learned about the future of his people. The Apostle Paul felt the same intense sorrow for the unbelieving nation (Rom. 9: 2, 3; 10:1).
The time of the events of Daniel 9 occurred in "the first year of Darius" (vs. 1). Darius is identified as the son of Ahasuerus , racially a Mede and royally a king whom Cyrus appointed to manage the affairs of Babylon.
Sometime during Darius' first year of rule (between 538 and 537 B.C.) Daniel was studying the prophecies of Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:10. He was a prophet himself but he was not above a diligent investigation of the written Word. I love Daniel's example here because he proves no one outgrows his need of daily study of the Word of God.
Furthermore, Daniel had no objection to studying the writings of another prophet (vs. 2). Daniel learned from Jeremiah the captivity would last for 70 years. The Jews had not observed the 7th year Sabbath rest for 70 years, and so God sent them into exile and caused the land to lie desolate for the equivalent number of those unobserved Sabbath years.
Knowing only a few months remained before the fulfillment of the prophecy struck, Daniel with mingled grief and gladness. The Jews in captivity were in no condition of heart to receive the fulfillment of the promise. Unbelieving and disobedient people can never expect the blessing of divine promises and provisions.
Daniel set himself to a prayer of adoration, confession, intercession, and petition (vs. 3-19), for he knew this was a condition that had to be met before God would return the people from the land of their exile.
Daniels' prayer is a perfect model, for it begins with a recognition of God's person and power. Daniel worshiped the great and awesome God. He continued with testimonies to God's character: God is faithful not to break His covenant with Israel; He is the merciful God (vs. 4). Daniel then spread the sins of the nation, including himself, before the Lord. They had run the gamut--iniquity, wickedness, rebellion, departure, and defection (vs. 5).
Israel had neither heeded nor hearkened to God's servants, the prophets, who repeatedly tried to recall them to repentance (vs. 6). Daniel vindicated God for what followed Israel's sin (vs. 7-14). They deserved all the confusion, calamity, and curses which had come upon them. God had carried out His threat against the nation in faithfulness to His word.
It is significant that Daniel refers to the Mosaic covenant rather than to the Abrahamic covenant (vs. 11, 13). The people had broken the conditional Mosaic law, but Daniel did not believe for a single moment as a consequence the nation had forfeited forever the promise it would rule for God as a kingdom of priests. Daniel was still looking for a fulfillment of theocratic blessings on the basis of the Mosaic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants.
I think its important to note, the nation will be punished...but God will not revoke or invalidate His promises... Pslam 89 reinforces this.
In my opinion, the fulfillment of the convenants does not depend ultimately upon Israel's faithfulness but on God's faitfullness. Israel didn't deserve anything from God. The nation was responsible for a breach of covenant and earned forfeiture of all the glorious privileges of kingship over the nations, but Daniel pled God's forgiveness and mercy (vs. 9, 18, 19).
Daniel's prayer is a foreshadowing of the repentance and prayer of the nation at the end of the tribulation when the people will mourn over their sin and call upon their long rejected Messiah to come and save them (Zechariah 12:10).
Of course, God cannot fulfill the provisions of His covenant promises while they continue in their sins, but the tribulation judgments are designed by God to bring the nation to its knees, and this is precisely what will happen.
Part 2 (Daniel 9: 20-27)
Daniel's prayer moved Heaven to immediate response. Gabriel was dispatched with information about the nation's future. Flying swiftly, he reached the praying prophet at the time when the evening oblation was formerly offered at Jerusalem. For nearly 70 years the Mosaic rites had been discontinued, but Daniel evidently observed the morning and evening offerings in the only way he could--in prayer facing the beloved city.
With an admonition to Daniel to consider the vision, the angel began to unfold a chronology of events pertaining exclusively to Daniel's people and Daniel's holy city (vs. 24).
Daniel 9: 24-27 gives a schedule of a segment of Israel's national history during which God will carry out the six purposes of verse 24. The history is restricted to 70 -7 year periods... or 490 years. This period has a specific point of beginning and ending.
It commences with the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. (The decree was issued in 445 B.C. see Nehemiah 2:3,5,8. Earlier edicts are spoken of in 2 Chronicles 36: 22,23; Ezra 1:1-4; 6:1-5, 8-12; 7:11-26.) The earlier edicts of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes do not qualify as a starting point for this 490 year history because none of them related to the city; they only provided for the rebuilding of the temple.
The 490 years are divided into three segments, and the angel indicates what activites will transpire during these three parts. During the first 7 weeks (49 years) the city with its streets and wall will be rebuilt; then 62 weeks (434 years) will be added to the 7 weeks before the Messiah arrives.
From the commandment to Christ the King, then, a total of 483 years will expire. The termination of these 483 years came on the day of the triumphal entry in March-April A.D. 30, when Jesus Christ, for the first and only time, presented Himself officially as Israel's Prince and Messianiac King.
At the end of the 69 weeks (483 years) the Messiah is "cut off" (Daniel 9:26). Instead of entering int the era of His kingly reign, He receives nothing. Israel rejected His regal claims to the throne of David and sentenced Him to a criminal's death.
The six divine purposes which God intends to accomplish in the nation in the course of the 490 year period were deferred to the last week (7 years). Between the 69th and the 70th week we have an indeterminate period, during which Jerusalem suffers from a flood of invaders. The 70th week did not follow the 69th week successively.
"The" transgression has not been finished; in fact, Israel's final apostasy is still ahead. God has not made an end of the nation's sins; the people are still nationally blinded and continue in their unbelief. The nation has not entered into the provisions of reconciliation; neither has it experienced a practical righteousness.
The prophecies regarding the nation have not been fulfilled, and the temple has not been anointed at the end of the 69 weeks.
All of these promises will be fulfilled to Israel during the course of the 70th week (the 7 year period of the tribulation). During the long interval between the 69th and 70th week Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus (in A.D. 70), and this destruction has been followed by a continual succession of Gentile rulers who have trampled the city and the land under foot. This desolation will continue through the entire present church age and right on into the tribulation era.
The angel told Daniel what would happen in the last 7 years of the seventy weeks. A Roman prince will appear who will guarantee Israel military protection from the "flood" of northern armies. A treaty will be ratified which pledges to Israel territorial sovereignty for 7 years (vs. 27). It assures her of peace with her Arab neighbors.
Israel will rebuild the temple and reintroduce the Mosaic sacrificial system. She will depend upon her national representative and king--the Jewish antichrist--to secure her borders by his diplomatic relations with the roman prince of Europe.
At the middle of the seven-year period the European beast-emperor will ban the Mosaic ordinances and instruct the Jewish antichrist to place an idol in the Holy of Holies. In order to get continued military protection, the apostate Jews will comply with the demand.
Many saved Jews will refuse to worship the image and will not receive the mark of the beast. Their lives will stand in jeopardy. The erection of the image of the European beast is the signal for these saved Jews to flee the city, for on the heels of idolatry will come God's avenger--the northern destroyer.
"Overspreading" pertains to military protection. "Abominations" refers to idolatry. The world "desolate" should be rendered "desolator." God will respond to a new and unprecedented outbreat of idolatry in Israel by sending the king of the North into Palestine to chastise Israel.
The northern armies (The Assyrian) will devastate the land until God has accomplished His purpose, and then the fearful desolator will meet his doom on the mountains of Israel by a divine judgment on the armies. During the northern assault the antichrist has apparently fled, and the European beast has failed to live up to his treaty obligations with Israel.
A moment's reflection on Isaiah 28:14-18 will help to clarify the situation that will prevail during the 70th week. This passage relates the boasting confidence of the people of Israel who will enter into a diabolical alliance with death and Hell (vs. 15). They will place their hopes for political and religious security in lies and falsehood.
They will listen to the lies of the false prophet--the antichrist. He will deceive them into thinking they are safe. God calls the treaty a covenant with Hell because the European dictator and the Jewish deceiver are both energized by the devil (Rev. 16:13).
The Jews imagine these two fiends will protect them from the "overflowing scourge"--the northern desolator. Their confidence, however, is pinned on the wrong object. Military agreements with the west will not save them from the king of the North. The armies of the North will descend like a flood of waters, and God will use the desolator to annul the East-West alliance (Isaiah 28:18).
At first the armies of the West will not retaliate. They will simply deliberate and call for a withdrawal of the troops (Ezekiel 38:13).
Saturday, October 31, 2009
The Northern Destroyer (Daniel Chapter 8)
The eyes of the world are riveted on the Middle East. Newscasters repeatedly declare it is the strategic center of the world. Almost daily, Arabs, and Jews exchange hostile words and raids. Nations outside the Middle East are anything but neutral. Everyone seems to agree the Middle East constitutes one of the most potentially explosive areas in the world.
The Middle East- the center of world attention--commands a center stage position in Daniel Chapters 8 through 12. Chapter 8 mentions Israel's sacrifices and sanctuary, her crime and chastening. Palestine will explode with invasion, and I think this chapter introduces us to it.
Part 1 Daniel 8: 1-14
Daniel consistently gives the time, place, and circumstances of the divine revelations which came to him. The Biblical writers take special pains to link all events to calendar dates and geographic places. Time and history are thus connected to eternity.
God intervenes in history; God acts in history. In the Scriptures we have a history of redemption and a history of the future kingdom. The time of the vision is the third year of Belshazzar's regency; the place is Susa in Persia, not Babylon; and more specific than that, Daniel stands (in vision) on the banks of the Ulai, a river on which Susa was built (vs. 1,2).
Daniel saw a ram standing on the side of the river, about to begin a westward assault in which it would crush every opponent in its path. The angel Gabriel interpreted the meaning (vs. 20).
The ram signifies the dual kingdom of the Medes and Persians. The shorter horn (vs. 3) is a fit emblem of Media because the Medes did not continue in power after Darius. The longer horn which came up later pictures the ascendancy of the Persians over the Medes under the leadership of Cyrus.
While Daniel was reflecting upon the ram, he saw a goat coming from the opposite direction and moving with great speed toward the East. The animal had a single horn protruding from its head, and with that fearful horn the goat charged into the ram in a blind fury, knocking the ram to the ground and tramping upon it.
The goat became mighty in power; but at the zenith of its strength the horn was broken, and four other horns came up in its place.
Gabriel gave the meaning of these details, too (vs. 21). The horn is the king of Greece. We know his as the famous son of Philip of Macedon--Alexander the Great. The Persians had invaded Greek territories and had infuriated the Greeks by their treacherous and bloodthirsty deeds.
With the newly devised army Alexander cut to pieces the Persians and with phenomenal success expanded his empire until it reached India. It is reported Alexander wept because no territories were left to be conquered.
Alexander died at the age of 33 of a condition brought about by a dissolute life. He simply didn't have the resistance to throw off a tropical fever. he had no heir, and so his four generals divided the vast empire between themselves. This is the meaning of the four horns (vs. 8).
It's easy to follow the majority of Bible expositors and think the little horn of Daniel 8 is identical to the little horn of Daniel 7. But this is a hasty conclusion in my opinion. I've learned an important rule of interpreting prophecy is that similarity is not necessarily identity. One needs to distinguish things that differ....
Many students of prophecy (especially American writers I've noticed) believe chapter 8 is a clarification of chapter 7 and chapter 8 pinpoints the geographic area from which the antichrist will come. They are confusing three separate and distinct end-time leaders and making prophecy even more complicated than it already is I think.
Careful study will show neither the little horn of Chapter 7 not the little horn of chapter 8 is the antichrist; and the little horn of chapter 7 is an entirely different person from the little horn of chapter 8. About the only similarity between them is both persecute Israel, but this is not enough to equate them in my opinion.
The little horn of Daniel 8 had his initial historical fulfillment in the person and performances of Alexander's divided empire. Antiochus swept down from the North and inflicted terrible atrocities upon the Jews. He marched his armies through Palestine to Egypt. His northern connection, his Egyptian campaign, and his destruction of the land of Palestine make him the ancient predecessor of the coming king of the North, NOT of the emperor-beast in Europe.
Daniel described Antiochus' activities in verses 10-14, and in many of these details Antiochus resembles the future Assyrian whom God will use to chastise Israel. Antiochus elevated himself to the stars of heaven and magnified himself as the equal of any god (vs. 10, 11). The Assyrian of old boasted in his own strength (Isaiah 10:13), magnifying himself above all others (vs. 15).
"The transgression" plays a prominent part in Antiochus' activities (Daniel 8:12, 13, 23). Likewise, God will employ the services of the Assyrian to punish Israel for "the transgression," which represents a return to idolatry.
The armies of the Assyrian Sennacherib were used by God to chasten Israel for idolatry, and God will raise up a successor to the Assyrian in the future who will punish Israel for entering into an alliance with Western Allies--a treaty held together by the erection of an idol in the Jewish temple. God will use the Assyrian of the future to disannul the diabolical compact (Isaiah 28: 14-18).
"Desolation" is associated with Antiochus (Daniel 8:13), and it's the northern invader of the end-time whom God will use to devastate Israel's land. "The abomination of desolation" refers to the ruination the northern invasion will cause in Palestine on account of the idolatrous connection between Israel and the kingdom of the beast of Europe.
In my opinion the return of Israel to the land and the marvelous restoration of the land is preparatory to the destruction the nation will experience when the armies of the North reduce it to waste and ruin. God is conditioning His people.
Antiochus will tread the people under his feet (vs. 13). Again this is the same language that is used of the Assyrian in Isaiah 28:18, where God warns the Jews they will be trodden down by the overflowing sourge of the northern army. A careful study of all the passages that pertain to the king of the North and to the Assyrian will show that Antiochus is more akin to him than to the western dictator. (Read the following passages for more information: Isaiah 10:24,25; 14: 24-27; 30:31-33; Joel 2; Micah 5:1-6; 7:12)
Part 2 (Daniel 8: 15-27)
Daniel 8 is perfectly clear about the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy about the little horn. It will be consummated in a period just short of 3 1/2 years (vs. 14), at a time when the Jewish temple has been rebuilt and the Mosaic ritual restored, at a time of God's indignation--in short, at the time of the end (vs. 17, 19) and in the latter time of Israel's transgression (vs. 23).
Nothing can be more certain than that Antiochus did not totally fulfill the content of these prophecies. A double fulfillment is in view here--a fulfillment to occur at the end of the times of the Gentiles, as well as fulfillment in Antichus' time. "The time of the end" marks the period immediately before Christ returns to set up the kingdom of David.
It is the period of the seven year tribulation. The time of the end is appointed (vs. 19)--that is, fixed in the eternal counsels. And that time is especially designed by God to complete His whole work in Israel before bringing the nation into the era of Messiah's earthly reign.
The moment the image of the beast is erected in the temple, God will bring the northern king of fierce countenance against the land of Israel (vs. 23). Daniel begins his description of the invader in verses 23-25 and continues it in Chapter 11, verses 40-45.
The "fierce countenance" implies his impudence and shameless disregard for God and man. he is unmoving in his feelings and pursues a cruel course without reluctance. "Understanding dark sentences" means he knows how to use falsehood and dissimulation. he says one thing and means another. He phrases his words in such a way as to deceive. In his own right he is powerful enough, but in addition to that, he is upported by another government (Daniel 8:24).
The king of the North is a confederate of Prince Rosh (Ezekiel 28:2, 4-6). The armies of the extreme North combine with the king of the North and other countries to invade Palestine. The results of the invasion are devasting; many Jews suffer death. Others escape the area before the invasion and flee to the mountains in obedience to the instructions of Jesus in Matthew 24: 15-22.
Others make their perilous journey through Jordan to the rose red city of Petra (Isaiah 16:1-4). But these details belong to the other prophets; space and time forbid a study of all these events now.
The king of the North will make the Jews think they are safe, and while they are saying, "peace and safety," sudden destruction will come upon them from the North. The peace mentioned in Daniel 8: 25 is probably equivalent to the era of peace that will immediately follow the rapture of the church (Rev. 6:2-4). Ezekiel gives the same conditions. He puts the invasion of Prince Rosh and all his confederate armies at a time when the Jews think they are perfectly secure (Ezekiel 38: 8, 11, 14). Israel is not really safe; she only imagines it.
She is depending upon the western dictator to defend her, and she has been listening to the "dark sentences" of the king of the North who has deceived her into trusting him. But the northern aggressor goes too far (Daniel 8: 25); he contests the authority of the Messiah and meets his doom by a supernatural intervention of God.
"Broken without hand" indicates no human hand or army will defeat the king of the North and the armies backing him. The prophets and John the revelator concur in their explanation of this destruction. The ground will literally open and swallow up the king of the North and the armies. Joel informs us that some will escape to the desert region where they will parish in the burning sands.
Ezekiel suggests a sixth of the army will return to its place in the North. The future Assyrian, king of the North and successor to Antiochus, is prominent on the prophetic page; in fact, much more space is given to him than to the emperor-beast in Europe or to the Jewish antichrist in Palestine.
The Middle East- the center of world attention--commands a center stage position in Daniel Chapters 8 through 12. Chapter 8 mentions Israel's sacrifices and sanctuary, her crime and chastening. Palestine will explode with invasion, and I think this chapter introduces us to it.
Part 1 Daniel 8: 1-14
Daniel consistently gives the time, place, and circumstances of the divine revelations which came to him. The Biblical writers take special pains to link all events to calendar dates and geographic places. Time and history are thus connected to eternity.
God intervenes in history; God acts in history. In the Scriptures we have a history of redemption and a history of the future kingdom. The time of the vision is the third year of Belshazzar's regency; the place is Susa in Persia, not Babylon; and more specific than that, Daniel stands (in vision) on the banks of the Ulai, a river on which Susa was built (vs. 1,2).
Daniel saw a ram standing on the side of the river, about to begin a westward assault in which it would crush every opponent in its path. The angel Gabriel interpreted the meaning (vs. 20).
The ram signifies the dual kingdom of the Medes and Persians. The shorter horn (vs. 3) is a fit emblem of Media because the Medes did not continue in power after Darius. The longer horn which came up later pictures the ascendancy of the Persians over the Medes under the leadership of Cyrus.
While Daniel was reflecting upon the ram, he saw a goat coming from the opposite direction and moving with great speed toward the East. The animal had a single horn protruding from its head, and with that fearful horn the goat charged into the ram in a blind fury, knocking the ram to the ground and tramping upon it.
The goat became mighty in power; but at the zenith of its strength the horn was broken, and four other horns came up in its place.
Gabriel gave the meaning of these details, too (vs. 21). The horn is the king of Greece. We know his as the famous son of Philip of Macedon--Alexander the Great. The Persians had invaded Greek territories and had infuriated the Greeks by their treacherous and bloodthirsty deeds.
With the newly devised army Alexander cut to pieces the Persians and with phenomenal success expanded his empire until it reached India. It is reported Alexander wept because no territories were left to be conquered.
Alexander died at the age of 33 of a condition brought about by a dissolute life. He simply didn't have the resistance to throw off a tropical fever. he had no heir, and so his four generals divided the vast empire between themselves. This is the meaning of the four horns (vs. 8).
It's easy to follow the majority of Bible expositors and think the little horn of Daniel 8 is identical to the little horn of Daniel 7. But this is a hasty conclusion in my opinion. I've learned an important rule of interpreting prophecy is that similarity is not necessarily identity. One needs to distinguish things that differ....
Many students of prophecy (especially American writers I've noticed) believe chapter 8 is a clarification of chapter 7 and chapter 8 pinpoints the geographic area from which the antichrist will come. They are confusing three separate and distinct end-time leaders and making prophecy even more complicated than it already is I think.
Careful study will show neither the little horn of Chapter 7 not the little horn of chapter 8 is the antichrist; and the little horn of chapter 7 is an entirely different person from the little horn of chapter 8. About the only similarity between them is both persecute Israel, but this is not enough to equate them in my opinion.
The little horn of Daniel 8 had his initial historical fulfillment in the person and performances of Alexander's divided empire. Antiochus swept down from the North and inflicted terrible atrocities upon the Jews. He marched his armies through Palestine to Egypt. His northern connection, his Egyptian campaign, and his destruction of the land of Palestine make him the ancient predecessor of the coming king of the North, NOT of the emperor-beast in Europe.
Daniel described Antiochus' activities in verses 10-14, and in many of these details Antiochus resembles the future Assyrian whom God will use to chastise Israel. Antiochus elevated himself to the stars of heaven and magnified himself as the equal of any god (vs. 10, 11). The Assyrian of old boasted in his own strength (Isaiah 10:13), magnifying himself above all others (vs. 15).
"The transgression" plays a prominent part in Antiochus' activities (Daniel 8:12, 13, 23). Likewise, God will employ the services of the Assyrian to punish Israel for "the transgression," which represents a return to idolatry.
The armies of the Assyrian Sennacherib were used by God to chasten Israel for idolatry, and God will raise up a successor to the Assyrian in the future who will punish Israel for entering into an alliance with Western Allies--a treaty held together by the erection of an idol in the Jewish temple. God will use the Assyrian of the future to disannul the diabolical compact (Isaiah 28: 14-18).
"Desolation" is associated with Antiochus (Daniel 8:13), and it's the northern invader of the end-time whom God will use to devastate Israel's land. "The abomination of desolation" refers to the ruination the northern invasion will cause in Palestine on account of the idolatrous connection between Israel and the kingdom of the beast of Europe.
In my opinion the return of Israel to the land and the marvelous restoration of the land is preparatory to the destruction the nation will experience when the armies of the North reduce it to waste and ruin. God is conditioning His people.
Antiochus will tread the people under his feet (vs. 13). Again this is the same language that is used of the Assyrian in Isaiah 28:18, where God warns the Jews they will be trodden down by the overflowing sourge of the northern army. A careful study of all the passages that pertain to the king of the North and to the Assyrian will show that Antiochus is more akin to him than to the western dictator. (Read the following passages for more information: Isaiah 10:24,25; 14: 24-27; 30:31-33; Joel 2; Micah 5:1-6; 7:12)
Part 2 (Daniel 8: 15-27)
Daniel 8 is perfectly clear about the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy about the little horn. It will be consummated in a period just short of 3 1/2 years (vs. 14), at a time when the Jewish temple has been rebuilt and the Mosaic ritual restored, at a time of God's indignation--in short, at the time of the end (vs. 17, 19) and in the latter time of Israel's transgression (vs. 23).
Nothing can be more certain than that Antiochus did not totally fulfill the content of these prophecies. A double fulfillment is in view here--a fulfillment to occur at the end of the times of the Gentiles, as well as fulfillment in Antichus' time. "The time of the end" marks the period immediately before Christ returns to set up the kingdom of David.
It is the period of the seven year tribulation. The time of the end is appointed (vs. 19)--that is, fixed in the eternal counsels. And that time is especially designed by God to complete His whole work in Israel before bringing the nation into the era of Messiah's earthly reign.
The moment the image of the beast is erected in the temple, God will bring the northern king of fierce countenance against the land of Israel (vs. 23). Daniel begins his description of the invader in verses 23-25 and continues it in Chapter 11, verses 40-45.
The "fierce countenance" implies his impudence and shameless disregard for God and man. he is unmoving in his feelings and pursues a cruel course without reluctance. "Understanding dark sentences" means he knows how to use falsehood and dissimulation. he says one thing and means another. He phrases his words in such a way as to deceive. In his own right he is powerful enough, but in addition to that, he is upported by another government (Daniel 8:24).
The king of the North is a confederate of Prince Rosh (Ezekiel 28:2, 4-6). The armies of the extreme North combine with the king of the North and other countries to invade Palestine. The results of the invasion are devasting; many Jews suffer death. Others escape the area before the invasion and flee to the mountains in obedience to the instructions of Jesus in Matthew 24: 15-22.
Others make their perilous journey through Jordan to the rose red city of Petra (Isaiah 16:1-4). But these details belong to the other prophets; space and time forbid a study of all these events now.
The king of the North will make the Jews think they are safe, and while they are saying, "peace and safety," sudden destruction will come upon them from the North. The peace mentioned in Daniel 8: 25 is probably equivalent to the era of peace that will immediately follow the rapture of the church (Rev. 6:2-4). Ezekiel gives the same conditions. He puts the invasion of Prince Rosh and all his confederate armies at a time when the Jews think they are perfectly secure (Ezekiel 38: 8, 11, 14). Israel is not really safe; she only imagines it.
She is depending upon the western dictator to defend her, and she has been listening to the "dark sentences" of the king of the North who has deceived her into trusting him. But the northern aggressor goes too far (Daniel 8: 25); he contests the authority of the Messiah and meets his doom by a supernatural intervention of God.
"Broken without hand" indicates no human hand or army will defeat the king of the North and the armies backing him. The prophets and John the revelator concur in their explanation of this destruction. The ground will literally open and swallow up the king of the North and the armies. Joel informs us that some will escape to the desert region where they will parish in the burning sands.
Ezekiel suggests a sixth of the army will return to its place in the North. The future Assyrian, king of the North and successor to Antiochus, is prominent on the prophetic page; in fact, much more space is given to him than to the emperor-beast in Europe or to the Jewish antichrist in Palestine.
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