Daniel 11

Daniel 11:20-45

Spurgeon - sermon Knowledge Commended - Search the Scriptures. Do not merely read them—search them; look out the parallel passages; collate them; try to get the meaning of the Spirit upon any one truth by looking to all the texts which refer to it. Read the Bible consecutively: do not merely read a verse here and there—that is not fair. You would never know anything about John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress if you opened it every morning and read six lines in any part and then shut it up again; you must read it all through if you want to know anything about it. Get those books, say Mark or John; read Mark right through from beginning to end; do not stop with two or three verses, or a chapter, but try to know what Mark is aiming at. It is not fair to Paul to take his epistle to the Romans and read one chapter: we are obliged to do it in public service; but if you want to get at Paul’s meaning, read the whole epistle through as you would another letter. Read the Bible in a commonsense way. Pray after you have read it as much as you like. When you are reading it, if you come to a knotty point, do not skip it. You all have some Christian friend who knows more than you do; go to him and try to get the thing explained. Above all, when you have read any passage, and do understand it, act it out, and ask the Spirit of God to burn the meaning into your conscience till it is written on the fleshy tables of your heart. Talmage - The old archers took the bow, put one end of it down beside the foot, elevated the other end, and it was the rule that the bow should be just the size of the archer. If it were just his size, then he would go into the battle with confidence. Your power to project good in the world will correspond exactly to your own spiritual stature. Talmage - An exploit I would define to be a heroic act, a brave feat, a great achievement. There are three opportunities open to us that are grand, thrilling, far-reaching, stupendous and overwhelming. In these you may do exploits. The three greatest things on earth to do are to save a man, or save a woman, or save a child. During the course of his life, almost every man gets into an exigency, is caught between two fires, is ground between two millstones, sits on the edge of some precipice, or in some other way comes near demolition. There are exigencies in the life of a woman. The embarrassed and humiliated woman seems to cheer up in Christian confidence. And there is another exploit you may do. You may not only save a man, and a woman, you may save a child. William Jay - These words are found in a prophecy respecting Antiochus Epiphanes, the bitter enemy and persecutor of the Jews. I am not going to harrow up your feelings by a recital of his cruelties. Persecution has always served to enable us to "discern the righteous from the wicked, and him who serveth God from him who serveth him not." And so we find it here. The faithless Jews, by the promise of place and wealth and power, would be led to sacrifice their consciences; " And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall be corrupt by flatteries." Not so those who are "upright in heart." Their principles shall be unyielding and triumphant, "but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits." Consider three things with regard to the persons here spoken of. I. THEIR KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is the prerogative — the distinction — of humanity. The principal object of this knowledge must be God himself, whether we consider the perfections of his nature, or the various relations in which he stands to us. God in nature is God above us; God in providence is God beyond us; God in law is God against us; but God in Christ is God for us, and God with us, and God in us. We must know him in the person of his dear Son. This knowledge is not merely speculative, it is experimental. There is a great difference between knowing a thing only in theory, and knowing it in experienced by the confidence of the heart, the bias of the will, and the glowing of the affections. "Lasting" is very distinguishable from reading, and hearing, and talking about a thing. The true knowledge is ever accompanied with three things, confidence, affection and obedience. This knowledge is also appropriating. Where this appropriation is not actually realised, it is always desired. II. THEIR STRENGTH. "Shall be strong." Their strength is not natural. The fall has left us as much without strength as without righteousness. It is much easier to convince men of their guilt than of their weakness. Even Christians themselves acquire the knowledge of this weakness slowly and gradually. At first, they are found to rely much upon their convictions, purposes, and resolutions, and, perhaps, vows too; but their iniquities, like the wind, after all, carry them away. By their failings and falls, they are taught that they only are safe, "Who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation." Christians, by experience, learn more and more where alone their strength lies, and they are led to trust in the Lord only. Two things with regard to this strength you must remember. The supplies of it are communicated seasonably. And it is obtained by the use of means. Some have a stupid notion that we should not engage in the exercises of religion, unless we feel in a suitable and lively frame for them. If we are in a bad frame, we need to come to God by prayer, and in the use of the means he has appointed, that we may get into a good and lively frame. III. THEIR EXPLOITS. Exploits are rare, difficult, curious, marvellous, illustrious acts anal achievements. There are many important things belonging to real religion, which are not deemed worthy of the name by the men of the world. A man who "walks by faith, not by sight," will be led to the conclusion that there is nothing really great but what relates to the soul, or eternity, or God. We are not to confine these exploits to particular ranks and conditions of men. View Christians under six characteristics, as scholars. As merchants. As helpers. As travellers. As sufferers. As Soldiers.Christians are no ordinary characters. They are a "peculiar people," they are men "wondered at." They profess, and they do, more than others, and you should glory in their characters. Adrian Rogers - During a long, bitterly cold winter, a man tried crossing the frozen Mississippi River on foot. He was confident he could do it; the ice looked crusty and thick enough. But part of the way across, his confidence faltered. He dropped to all fours, trying not to put too much weight on any one place. Soon, his fears rising, he began squirming across the ice on his belly. Just then, he heard a roaring noise, as if the ice was cracking. The roaring grew closer until he finally saw what it was—a man driving a team of horses, hauling a wagonload of cut logs up the river. One man knew only the "strength" of his faith; the second man knew the strength of the ice. John Bennett - THEY THAT KNOW THEIR GOD No more detailed record of the period from the Persian monarchy until Daniel’s own day is found in Holy Scripture than Daniel chapter 11. The personages in the chapter were mostly evil men, whether kings or those aspiring to kingship. Among them are the vile, the deceitful and the corrupting, vv. 21, 23, 27, 32. Liars and lawless men are featured, vv. 27, 32. But shining like a jewel against such a dark backcloth is a company described as ‘the people that do know their God’. What pleasure they must have brought to God! The chapter includes those that fight, those that fall and those that flatter. But the Spirit of God does not ignore those that are faithful. Two companies may be described, one in respect of their knowledge, the other of their wisdom, vv. 32, 33, 35. The first company is marked by knowledge and exploits, the second by wisdom (AV ‘understanding’) and endurance even unto death. Most identify the companies with the Maccabees and those that followed thereafter. We mark with interest that whilst others were caught up with those whose ambitions were greed and power, these lived and died for nobler reasons. This first company is described in terms every Christian should cherish: they are ‘the people that do know their God’, v. 32. How well do we know our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Like those honoured in our verse, we know that our Redeemer lives, Job 19:25. Like them, we know whom we have believed and, in a sense they could not, each of us know that ‘he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day’, 2 Tim. 1:12. But that company of our verse knew God in a personal, vital way. Do we know our God and His Son as a present, conscious reality? To know God is the very essence of eternal life for all who have heard that holy Supplicant speak to His Father, ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent’, John 17:3. It demands much, says Paul, ‘that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings’, Phil. 3:10. But O what recompense, for they that know their God do exploits! (Day by Day: Bible Promises) A silver egg was once presented to a Saxon princess. On opening the silver by a secret spring, there was found a yolk of gold. The spring of the gold being found, it flew open and disclosed a beautiful bird. On pressing the wings of the bird, in its breast was found a crown, jewelled and radiant. And even within the crown, upheld by a spring like the rest, was a ring of diamonds which fitted the finger of the princess herself. Oh, how many a promise there is within a promise in the Scripture, the silver around the gold, the gold around the jewels; yet how few of God’s children ever find their way far enough among the springs to discover the crown of His rejoicing or the ring of His covenant of peace! The Power of Knowledge - Charles Haddon Spurgeon: Daniel 11:32 INTRODUCTION: Knowing God is the highest and best form of knowledge. It is the Spirit’s work to lead us into all truth and to foster our faith. Knowledge Strengthens Love. It paints a portrait of Jesus, and when we see that portrait, we love Him. The more we know Him, the greater our love. Knowledge Strengthens Hope. How can we hope for something if we do not know it exists? The more we know of the things of God, the more we will anticipate them. Knowledge Supplies Reasons for Patience. How can we have patience unless we know something of the sympathy of Christ and understand the good that comes from trial? CONCLUSION: Every Christian grace will be perfected by knowledge. How important it is to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. F B Meyer -Daniel probably refers to the great persecution under Antiochus, when the followers of Judas Maccabaeus, knowing their God, and keeping loyal to Him amidst the general defection, refused to bow before the idols of Syria. These were strong in God’s strength, and did exploits never surpassed in the annals of those who have suffered for the truth. There are many ways of knowing God—through the Bible, in solitary meditation, and pre-eminently in the person of Jesus; but we also come to know Him by the daily experience and intercourse of life. Those who live with you in the same house know and read you in an intimacy of knowledge which no other method can rival. Learn to live with God! Summer and winter with Him! “Abide in Him!” In the Epistle to the Ephesians there are three prayers, which the apostle was wont to offer for his converts. First, that they might know; next, that they might be strong; lastly, that they might watch unto prayer. All our knowledge of God should be turned to practical use. Few things injure us more than to seek knowledge for its own sake. Know, that you may do. Then you will be strong to do exploits. When a man is sure of his base of operations; sure that those in the rear of his march will back him up; sure that a strong and wise friend behind him is pledged to his support—his heart is at peace, he can concentrate all his attention and energy on the work that is on hand. He has no care, the Greek word for which means division. When we really know God, and understand how utterly faithful He is to those who venture forth in faith, we can do what others dare not attempt. D L Moody - PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF CHRISTIAN WORK Daniel 11:32: “The people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” I SHOULD like to go on talking about Daniel. We find in the ninth, and tenth, and eleventh chapters that three times a messenger from Heaven came to him, and told him he was beloved of the Lord. He might have been unpopular on earth, but he was very popular in Heaven. But I must call your attention to the matter of Christian work, and, in doing so, we will take a text out of this same book of Daniel, the twelfth chapter, the second and third verses: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” This was the angel’s comfort to Daniel, and a great comfort it was. The fact with all of us is, that we like to shine. There is no doubt about that. Every mother likes her child to shine. If her boy shines at school by getting to the head of his class, the proud mother tells all the neighbors, and she has a right to. But it is not the great of this world that will shine the brightest. For a few years they may shed bright light, but they go out in darkness; without an inner light supplying the brightness, they go out in black darkness. Where are the great men who did not know Daniel’s God? Did they shine long? Why, we know of Nebuchadnezzar and the rest of them scarcely a thing, except as they fill in the story about these humble men of God. We are not told that statesmen shall shine. They may for a few years or days, but they are soon forgotten. Look at those great ones who passed away in the days of Daniel. How wise in council they were, how mighty and victorious over hundreds of nations; what gods upon earth they were! Yet their names are forgotten and written in the grave. Philosophers, falsely so-called, do they live? Behold men of science—scientific men they call themselves—going down into the bowels of the earth, digging away at some carcass, and trying to make it talk against the voice of God. They shall go down to death by and by, and their names shall rot. But the man of God shines. Yes, he it is who shall shine as the stars forever and ever. This Daniel has been gone for twenty-five hundred years, but still increasing millions read of his life and actions. And so it shall be to the end; he will only get better known and better loved; he shall only shine the brighter as the world grows older. Of a truth, they that be wise and turn many to righteousness shall shine on, like stars, to eternity. And this blessed, thrice blessed happiness, like all the blessings of God’s kingdom, is for every one. Even without the first claim to education or refinement you can shine, if you will. One of you sailors there can shine forever if you only go to work for the kingdom. The Bible don’t say the great shall shine, but they that turn many to righteousness. A false impression has got hold of many of God’s people. They have got the idea that only a few can talk about God’s affairs. Nine-tenths of people say, if anything is to be done for the souls of men, “Oh, the ministers must do it.” It doesn’t enter into the hearts of the people that they have any part in the matter. It is the devil’s work to keep Christians from the blessed luxury of winning souls to God. Any one can do this work. A little girl, only eleven years old, once came to me in a Sunday-school and said: “Won’t you please pray that God will make me a winner of souls?” I felt so proud of her, and my pride was justified, for she has become one of the best winners of souls in this country. Oh, suppose she lives three-score years and goes on winning four or five souls every year; at the end of her journey there will be three hundred souls on the way to glory. And how long will it be before that little company swells to a great army? Don’t you see how that little mountain rill keeps swelling till it carries everything before it? Little trickling streams have run into it, till now, a mighty river, it has great cities on its banks, and the commerce of all nations floating on its waters. So when a single soul is won to Christ you can not see the result. A single one multiplies to a thousand, and that into ten thousand. Perhaps a million shall be the fruit; we can not tell. We only know that the Christian who has turned so many to righteousness shall indeed shine forever and ever. Look at those poor fishermen, Jesus’ disciples, how unlettered. They were not learned men, but great in winning souls. So not a child here but can work for God. The one thing that keeps people from work is that they don’t have the desire. If a man has this desire, God soon qualifies him; and what we want is God’s qualification; it must come from Him. I have been thinking what shall be done the next thirty days that I continue to preach here. If I should just put it to vote, and asked all Christians who wanted prayers to rise, all of you, I know, would rise. There are at least three thousand Christians here. Now, is it too much to ask that three thousand Christians will each lead one soul to Christ this coming week? The Son of God died on the cross for you. Right here in this Tabernacle you can tell those weeping over their sins about God and Heaven. How many times I have watched, just to see if Christians would speak to these sorrowing ones. If we only had open-eyed watchers for souls, there wouldn’t be a night but five hundred or a thousand inquirers would crowd into the inquiry-rooms. These anxious inquirers are at every meeting, just waiting to have warm-hearted Christians bring them to Christ. They’re timid, but will always listen to one speaking to them about Christ. Suppose each one of you now prayed: “Give me some soul this week for my hire;” what would be the result? This room would not hold the multitude sending up shouts of praise to God and making Heaven glad. Where there is an anxious sinner there is the place for the Christian. A little bed-ridden boy I knew kept mourning that he couldn’t work for Jesus. The minister told him to pray, and pray he did; and the persons he prayed for one by one felt the load of their sins and professed Christ. When he heard that such a one had not given in, he just turned his face to the wall and prayed harder. Well, he died, when, by his little memorandum, it was found he had prayed for fifty-six persons daily by name, and before he was buried, all of them had given their hearts to Jesus. Tell me that little boy won’t shine in the kingdom of God! These little ones can be used by God. I remember a good many years ago I resolved I wouldn’t let a day pass without talking to some one about their soul’s salvation. And it was in that school God qualified me to speak the Gospel. If we are faithful over small things God will promote us. If God says, “Speak to that young man,” obey the word, and you will be given by and by plenty of souls. I went down past the corner of Clark and Lake streets one day, and, fulfilling my vow, on seeing a man leaning up against a lamp-post, I went up to him and said, “Are you a Christian?” He damned me and cursed me, and said to mind my own business. He knew me, but I didn’t know him. He said to a friend of his that afternoon that he had never been so insulted in his life, and told him to say to me that I was damning the cause I pretended to represent. Well, the friend came and delivered the message. “May be I am doing more hurt than good,” I said; “may be I’m mistaken, and God hasn’t shown me the right way.” That was the time I was sleeping and living in the Young Men’s Christian Association rooms, where I was then president, secretary, janitor, and everything else. Well, one night after midnight I heard a knock at the door. And there on the step leading into the street stood this stranger I had made so mad at the lamppost, and he said he wanted to talk to me about his soul’s salvation. He said, “Do you remember the man you met about three months ago at a lamp-post, and how he cursed you? I have had no peace since that night; I couldn’t sleep. Oh, tell me what to do to be saved.” And we just fell down on our knees, and I prayed; and that day he went to the noon prayer-meeting and openly confessed the Saviour, and soon after went to the war a Christian man. I do not know but he died on some Southern battle-field or in a hospital, but I expect to see him in the kingdom of God. Oh, how often have I thanked God for that word to that dying sinner that He put into my mouth! And I have just been engaged in this personal work all my life. God’s business is not to be done wholesale. Think of the Master Himself talking just to Nicodemus; and then how He talked to that poor woman at the well of Samaria. Christ’s greatest utterances were delivered to congregations of one or two. How many are willing to speak to tens of thousands, but not to speak to a few. I knew a man who was going to get rich and do large things for God, but he never did anything; he wouldn’t do little things—that was the secret. Oh, be willing, Christians, to be built into the temple, as a polished cap-stone, or just a single brick—no matter just how, but somehow. Say to yourself in your homes, in your Sunday-school classes, in your daily rounds, “I’ll not let this sun go down till I lead one soul to Christ.” And then, having done all, shall you shine as gems in the great white throne forever and ever. I want to tell you how I got the first impulse to work solely for the conversion of men. For a long time after my conversion I didn’t accomplish anything. I hadn’t got into my right place, that was it. I hadn’t thought enough of this personal work. I’d get up in prayer-meeting, and I’d pray with the others, but just to go up to a man and take hold of his coat and get him down on his knees, I hadn’t yet got round to that. It was in 1860 the change came. In the Sunday-school I had a pale, delicate young man as one of the teachers. I knew his burning piety, and assigned him to the worst class in the school. They were all girls, and it was an awful class. They kept gadding around in the school-room, and were laughing and carrying on all the while. And this young man had better success than any one else. One Sunday he was absent, and I tried myself to teach the class, but couldn’t do anything with them; they seemed farther off than ever from any concern about their souls. Well, the day after his absence, early Monday morning, the young man came into the store where I worked, and, tottering and bloodless, threw himself down on some boxes. “What’s the matter?” I said. “I have been bleeding at the lungs, and they have given me up to die,” he said. “But you are not afraid to die?” I questioned. “No,” said he, “I am not afraid to die, but I have got to stand before God and give an account of my stewardship, and not one of my Sabbath-school scholars has been brought to Jesus. I have failed to bring one, and haven’t any strength to do it now.” He was so weighed down that I got a carriage and took that dying man in it, and we called at the homes of every one of his scholars, and to each one he said, as best his faint voice would let him, “I have come to just ask you to come to the Saviour,” and then he prayed as I never heard before. And for ten days he labored in that way, sometimes walking to the nearest houses; and at the end of that ten days every one of that large class had yielded to the Saviour. Full well I remember the night before he went away (for the doctors said he must hurry to the South), how we held a true love-feast. It was the very gate of Heaven, that meeting. He prayed and they prayed; he didn’t ask them, he didn’t think they could pray; and then we sang “Blest be the tie that binds.” It was a beautiful night in June that he left on the Michigan Southern, and I was down to the train to help him off. And those girls, every one, gathered there again, all unknown to each other; and the depot seemed a second gate to Heaven, in the joyful, yet tearful, communion and farewells between these newly-redeemed souls and him whose crown of rejoicing it will be that he led them to Jesus. At last the gong sounded, and, supported on the platform, the dying man shook hands with each one and whispered, “I will meet you yonder.” Some of the very best, most constant teachers I had, before going to Europe, were converted at that time, and they in their turn have gathered many sheaves, and I myself was led by this incident—this wonderful blessing of God on individual effort—to throw up my business and give my whole strength to God’s work. Shall not that young man have a high place, a place very near the Saviour of men, in the day when He makes up His jewels? Oh, friends, if you want to shine in the kingdom of God, work for Him to-day. Shall not every one go out of this building saying, “I will try to bring one soul to Christ to-day?” Daniel 11:33 THOSE WHO HAVE INSIGHT AMONG THE PEOPLE WILL GIVE UNDERSTANDING TO THE MANY, YET THEY WILL FALL BY SWORD AND BY FLAME, BY CAPTIVITY AND BY PLUNDER FOR MANY DAYS. Insight: Da 12:3,4,10 Isa 32:3,4 Zec 8:20, 21, 22, 23 Mal 2:7 Mt 13:11,51,52 28:20 Lk 24:44, 45, 46, 47 Acts 4:2, 3, 4 11:26 14:21 2Ti 2:24,25 Yet: Mt 10:21 20:23 24:9 Jn 16:2 Acts 12:2,3 1Co 4:9 2Ti 1:12 4:6 Heb 11:34 Rev 1:9 2:13 6:9 7:14 13:7, 8, 9, 10 17:6 Daniel 11 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Those (Jews) who have insight among the people (Jews) - This description refers to Jews who understood what was happening in Israel, because they knew and believed God's truth. As an aside, one wonders if some of the insight of these Jews was obtained from these prophecies of Daniel written over 250 years earlier. If so, these Jews would have had Biblical insight into the anti-Semitic acts of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Give understanding to the many ( = the Jews) - Those who understood the truth instructed others in the truth of the Scriptures. The implication of this statement is these wise Jews appealed to their less knowledgeable Jewish brethren to place their hope in the covenant keeping God, Jehovah, and not in the anti-God teaching associated with paganism and Hellenization. Yet they will fall by sword and flame - The God fearing Jews who took a stand of God's Truth for the sake of righteousness paid dearly for their faith, suffering persecution and even death at the hands of the rabidly anti-Semitic king Antiochus. 1Maccabees says that… many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. 63 They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. 64 Very great wrath came upon Israel. (1Macc 1:62-64) Gleason Archer records that… The fulfillment of these predictions came in 168BC, when the standard of revolt was raised by Mattathias, the leading priest in the city of Modein, located in the hills of the tribe of Ephraim. After killing the officer of Antiochus who had come to enforce the new decree concerning idolatrous worship, Mattathias and his five sons (John Gaddis, Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabeus, Eleazar Avaran, and Jonathan Apphus) led a guerrilla band that fled to the hills (1 Macc 2:23–28) and attracted many adherents from various other cities in the Judean province. A large number of these original patriots died in their first engagement with the king’s troops because they refused to fight in their own defense on the Sabbath, the day on which they were attacked (1 Macc 2:38). But revising their policy after this tragic slaughter, they decided they would fight even on the Sabbath, if compelled to do so. Then they engaged in vigorous attacks on all their fellow Jews who had bowed to Antiochus’s ordinance and forsaken their God. Not long afterward Mattathias died, whether from illness or wounds, after entrusting the leadership of the Israelite forces to his own capable sons. Judas Maccabeus (for it was originally he alone that received this title of “Hammer,” rather than the family as a whole) assumed the military leadership and gained a brilliant victory over the forces of Apollonius, whom he slew in battle. Judas’s second triumph involved routing an even larger army under Seron. A third army of formidable proportions came down from Syria under Lysias, Antiochus’s deputy, equipped with a fearsome elephant corps. Thanks to the heroism of Judas’s brother Eleazer, who managed to plunge his sword into an elephant’s chest before it fell on him and crushed him to death, even this mighty host was put to flight by the Maccabean forces. So the Maccabees fulfilled the predictions (cf. Mic 4:12, 13 [Payne, Biblical Prophecy, p. 403] and Zech 9:13; 10:8, 9 [Payne, Biblical Prophecy, p. 449). (Expositor's Bible Commentary) Daniel 11:34 NOW WHEN THEY FALL THEY WILL BE GRANTED A LITTLE HELP, AND MANY WILL JOIN WITH THEM IN HYPOCRISY. They will be: Rev 12:2, 3, 4, 5, 6,13, 14, 15, 16, 17 13:1, 2, 3, 4 Join: Mt 7:15 Acts 20:29,30 Ro 16:18 2Co 11:13, 14, 15 Ga 2:4 1Ti 4:1,2 2Ti 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 4:3 Titus 1:11 2Pe 2:1, 2, 3,18,19 1Jn 2:18,19 4:1,5 2Jn 1:7 Jude 1:4 Rev 2:20, 13:11, 12, 13, 14 Daniel 11 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries They will be granted a little help - This passage is somewhat difficult to interpret dogmatically but presumably refers to other Jews who came alongside the Maccabean rebels in their fight against Antiochus. Many will join them in hypocrisy - This appears to refer to Jews who will join with the Maccabean troops but who in actuality are only pretending loyalty. 1Maccabees records…Then there united with them a company of Hasideans, mighty warriors of Israel, all who offered themselves willingly for the law. 43 And all who became fugitives to escape their troubles joined them and reinforced them. 44 They organized an army, and struck down sinners in their anger and renegades in their wrath; the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety. 45 And Mattathias and his friends went around and tore down the altars; 46 they forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised boys that they found within the borders of Israel. 47 They hunted down the arrogant, and the work prospered in their hands. 48 They rescued the law out of the hands of the Gentiles and kings, and they never let the sinner gain the upper hand. (1 Mac 2:42-48) Archer explains that "because one Seleucid army after another fell before their onslaught, the Maccabean troops were able to intimidate many of their fellow citizens who had previously held back from the conflict. Particularly when the Hasidim began to round up those who had collaborated with the Seleucids and put them to death (1Macc 2:42) and Judas himself (Judas Maccabeus) hunted out those (Jews) in the various cities who had deserted scriptural standards (“the lawless,” as Maccabees calls them), goodly numbers of insincere followers attached themselves to the patriot cause, hoping to save their own skins. Such supporters as these, however, proved to be of more help to the enemy than to the cause of freedom when later invasions were launched against them by the successors of Antiochus Epiphanes after his death in 164. (Expositor's Bible Commentary ) Daniel 11:35 SOME OF THOSE WHO HAVE INSIGHT WILL FALL, IN ORDER TO REFINE, PURGE AND MAKE THEM PURE UNTIL THE END TIME; BECAUSE IT IS STILL TO COME AT THE APPOINTED TIME. Some: Da 11:33 8:10 Mt 16:17 26:56,69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75 Jn 20:25 Acts 13:13 15:37, 38, 39 Refine, etc: Da 12:10 Dt 8:2,3,16 2Chr 32:31 Pr 17:3 Zec 13:9 Mal 3:2, 3, 4 4:1, 2, 3 Jas 1:2 1Pe 1:6,7 Rev 2:10 Because: Da 11:29,40 8:17,19 9:27 10:1 12:4,11 Hab 2:3 Rev 14:15 17:17 Daniel 11 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Time: ~164 BC Some of those who have insight will fall - Some of the Jews who understood the significance of Antiochus' anti-Semitic actions would die (presumably in war with Antiochus' troops). To refine (KJV = "try"), purge, and make them pure (KJV = "make… white" - for more discussion of "white" as a wonderful metaphor of salvation see notes on Da 12:10) - This identifies the purpose of God's allowing Antiochus to persecute Israel and is a foreshadowing of the greatest conflict (cf Da 10:1-note "great conflict"), the future time of distress (Da 12:1-note) at the end time, the appointed time when… Many (Jews) will be purged, purified and refined (cf Zech 13:8, 9); but the wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand. (Da 12:10-note) As John MacArthur phrases it…The gracious design of such suffering was to sanctify them. Until the end time ("the time of the end" NIV, NLT, NET, ESV) - This time phrase signifies that the persecution of Israel will continue until the final period of time in the future, the time which God has appointed. This time will only come to an end, at the end of the "time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7 "but he will be saved from it" or rescued Da 12:1-note), the Great Tribulation (Mt 24:21), the last half of the Seventieth Week of Daniel. In other words, anti-Semitism and overt Jewish persecution will continue until the Messiah puts a stop to it at His Second Coming. The tragic History of the Jews bears out the veracity of this prediction, whether in the Spanish Inquisition (See The inquisition of the church against the Jews 1481-1834), the "Crusades" (see Persecution of Jews in the First Crusade)", the Pogroms, [meaning to destroy, wreak havoc or demolish violently] Hitler's Holocaust, etc. There are a number of relatively similar time phrases in the eschatological section of Daniel Da 8:17-note = the time of the end Da 8:19-note = the appointed time of the end Da 8:26-note = pertains to many days in the future Da 9:26-note = even to the end there will be war Da 10:14-note = in the latter days… pertains to the days yet future Da 11:27-note = the end is still to come at the appointed time Da 11:35-note = until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time Da 11:40-note = at the end time Da 12:4-note = until the end of time Da 12:6-note = until the end of these wonders Da 12:9-note = until the end time Donald Campbell…The approximately 135 specific prophecies in the first 35 verses of this chapter have been fulfilled with amazing accuracy, as would be expected of a divine revelation. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that the remaining proph­ecies of the chapter will have the same precise and literal fulfillment in the future. Dr. E. Schuyler English once told of a man on Long Island who was able to satisfy a lifelong ambition by purchasing a very fine barometer. When he unpacked the instrument, he was dismayed to find that the needle appeared to be stuck, pointing to the section marked "Hurricane." After shaking the barometer vigorously, the man wrote a scorching letter to the store from which he had purchased the instrument and, on his way to his office in New York the next morning, mailed the protest. That evening he returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer missing, but his house also. The barometer's needle had been right-there was a hurricane! (BORROW Daniel God's Man in a Secular Society - aka "Daniel: Decoder of Dreams".) Daniel 11:36 "THEN THE KING WILL DO AS HE PLEASES, AND HE WILL EXALT AND MAGNIFY HIMSELF ABOVE EVERY GOD AND WILL SPEAK MONSTROUS THINGS AGAINST THE GOD OF GODS; AND HE WILL PROSPER UNTIL THE INDIGNATION IS FINISHED, FOR THAT WHICH IS DECREED WILL BE DONE. Do: Da 11:16 8:4 Jn 5:30 6:38 exalt: Da 7:8,20,25 Isa 14:13 2Th 2:4 Rev 13:5 17:3 God: Da 2:47 Dt 10:17 Jos 22:22 Ps 136:2 Until: Da 7:20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 8:19 12:7,11, 12, 13 Rev 11:2,3 12:14 13:5 For: Da 4:35 9:26 Job 23:13,14 Ps 33:10 Pr 19:21 Isa 46:10 Acts 4:28 Rev 10:7 17:17 Daniel 11 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries A LEAP IN TIME Seiss (writing in 1879) introduces his discussion of Daniel 11:36-45 writing This prophecy applies entirely, as all expositors unanimously agree, to the Antichrist… That this Seleucid tyrant (Antiochus IV Epiphanes) and despoiler of the Jews is embraced in the description may be readily admitted; but the relation of Antiochus to "the king," upon whom the emphasis here falls, is no more than that of Cyrus to Christ, or that of the destruction by the Romans to the end of the world. The one is simply the typical forerunner of the other. Identity or the confinement of the portrait to Antiochus is never once to be thought of, unless we can arrange to transfer him down to the still-pending period of the resurrection of the dead (Ed note: Da 12:2-note continues the prophetic vision, chapter 12 being a poor chapter break), to which the time of this monster is so specifically assigned." Whoever this king may be, or from whatever quarter he may come, he is the last representative of the bestial world-power that ever bears rule upon earth. The terms of the angel's description, particularly as continued in the succeeding chapter, establish this beyond mistake. He is to "prosper till the indignation is accomplished" -- till God's angry visitations on the Jews for their sins are finally and fore ever exhausted and ended (Ed: cf the summary statements dealing with transgression, sin and iniquity in Da 9:24-note)--- which is manifestly not yet the fact. In the ninth chapter the angel had said that "desolations are determined" (Da 9:26-note)-- desolations which "make desolate even until the consummation (Da 9:27KJV-note)" and he here says that this king shall prosper for the doing of "that which is determined (Da 11:36KJV)." His prosperity must therefore run to the consummation. And so in the next chapter (Daniel 12) the time of his doings is specifically noted as contemporaneous with the period of the Great Tribulation -- the period when the woes of the prophet's people are to reach a perpetual end --- the period when every one written in the Book shall be delivered -- the period when the many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall be exhausted by fulfilment (Da 12:2-note) -- "the time of the end" (Da 8:17, Da 11:35KJV-note, Da 11:40KJV-note, Da 12:4KJV-note, Da 12:9KJV-note) -- "the end of the days," when Daniel shall stand in his lot (Da 12:13KJV-note). The character assigned to this king, and the manner in which the angel introduces him as "the king," identifies him with the little horn which comes up after the ten kings in the first vision (Da 7:23, 24, 25, 26-note)… and with "the prince that shall come," who makes a covenant with the many for seven years, and in the midst of the seven breaks it and desecrates the temple with abominations, as stated in the third vision (Da 9:26-note, Da 9:27-note). But the power spoken of in each of those instances extends to the termination of all mere human rule on earth -- to the sitting of the judgment --- to the time when transgressors are come to the full (Da 9:24-note) -- "even until the consummation (Da 9:27KJV-note)." He must therefore be the very last of this world's powers. (Joseph Augustus Seiss - Voices from Babylon or The Records of Daniel the Prophet - Daniel 11:36-45. Pages 285-287. Published in 1879) THE FUTURE KING: THE ANTICHRIST Then (See expressions of time) - When? At the appointed time (God's perfect timing which indicates His complete control of history), the time which is still to come. While not everyone agrees, as explained below, at this juncture it appears that Daniel describes events that take us into the future at "warp speed", so that between Daniel 11:35 and Daniel 11: 36, there is a gap of at least over 2160 years. Notice that if one carefully follows the pronouns describing the "king" in Da 11:36, this king proves to be the same one designated "him… him… he" in Daniel 11:40-note (which cannot be Antiochus because this verse says the King of the South comes against this other king - Antiochus cannot be both the "king of the north" and "him… him… he" in this verse!). Continuing this same line of reasoning, the king of Da 11:36 is the same "he" who will "come to his end" in Da 11:45-note, which in turn is clearly linked with the future "time of distress", rescue of the Jews in Daniel 12:1-note and resurrection in Daniel 12:2-note (none of which has yet occurred!). In sum, if one interprets Daniel 11:36-12:3 literally, the king of Daniel 11:36 is clearly not Antiochus IV Epiphanes but another king who has all the "pedigree" of the future Antichrist. David