Kings of the Empires
Chapter 10 and 11 record how Daniel had further revelation
concerning the Empires. He was reminded that the Medes and Persians
had displaced Babylon according to prophecy and four Kings of
Persia would then come (history shows these to be Cambyses,
Guatama, Darius I and Xerxes I). As Daniel was told, the fourth,
Xerxes, would stir up Greece, and though he lived in luxury, it was
the end of the Persian Empire as the chief world power, because
Greece would begin to rise. This was fulfilled through Alexander
the Great (Chapter 11 verse 3). After Alexander, the Greek Empire
was split into four and the prominent rulers then discussed in
Chapter 11 are of two of these four areas of the Greek Empire,
namely Syria (The North) and Egypt (The South). The Kings of the
North and South are the Seleucids and the Ptolomies. Chapter 11 is
hard to follow without careful study of history. Even there,
historians disagree. Somewhere between Chapter 11 and Chapter 12,
the latter of which gives a view of the distant future, there is a
break of history, the same as there is a break in the prophecy of
the 70 lots of 7 years. It is debatable where this occurs, and it
may be that God has deliberately made it so that the past merges
into the future in our concepts. The theologian Jerome, who lived
in the late fourth and early fifth century AD, made a detailed
study of the Greek world and, referring to the ancient historian
Porphyry, he gave accurate and plausible accounts of who the Kings
of North and South were right up to Daniel 11:33. There was
conflict in the countries to the North and South of Israel that
included the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, who came to power, set
out to destroy Jewish identity in Israel, was resisted by the
Macabees, slaughtered pigs on the Temple altar and also set an
image of the Greek God Zeus on the altar (verse 31). This is a type
of the antichrist of the future who will also bring an end to
sacrifice and offering and set up his abomination (Jesus Himself
referred to this Matthew 24, and it is also in the picture of the
end times in Daniel 9 and 12). The character of the future is
typified by the character of the past. Antiochus shows us a shadow
of the coming antichrist at the end of time.
Verse 33 of Daniel 11 takes us from the past to the future when
kings will arise again and bring in their warring and their
oppression, which for Israel will be a time of trouble such as has
never been before, but out of which many will be saved.
Though there is much detail in Daniel 11 and 12, there is a simple
and important key to understanding, and it is as if God has woven
the prophecy together in such a way that the shadows of the past
merge with the details of the future. The 70 weeks determined for
Gods specific attention to Israel are woven together as if
continuous but with a break of about 2000 years (as we can now see
it) while the Gospel went out to the Gentile world. It is not easy
to notice it in Daniel 11 because, for Israel, there is a
continuity of Gods specific dealings over the period of 490 years
(7 times 70), and the time of the Gentiles is not mentioned, thus
ignoring the break between the 69th and 70th week. What happened to
Israel between Daniels prophecy and the first coming of Messiah is
a shadow and contains the same key events that will occur in the
last seven years of history, prior to the return of the
Messiah.
The countries mentioned towards the end of Chapter 11 are presently
dominated by Islam, but it is most likely that a different form of
New Age religion will encompass the world by the end, going back to
the worst of Babylon, Egypt and other ancient mystery religions.
This system will fall without help, just as we saw when the rock
struck the feet of Nebuchadnezzars statue in his dream. Islam and
many other ideologies and nations will fall before that time, and
in their fall, many people will be saved through faith in Jesus the
Messiah. This could be soon.