This morning, if you have your Bibles, it will turn to me, to Daniel. And I want us to take a look at Daniel 11, and we can also refer back to some of the previous chapters in Daniel, as we look at some amazing things that Daniel prophesied and God revealed that were going to happen. The songs we sang right before the message, one was like the woman at the well.
And the amazing thing about that account is that when Jesus came to the woman at the well, He knew all about her before she even said anything to Him. He knew her needs, He knew her problems, He knew her sin, and He knew what she was looking for. And that was the love that she could only find in having a relationship with her God.
Today, a lot of times, the second song that Jesus calls us over the tumult of life’s wild, tempestuous sea. We live in tempestuous times. It seems like there’s all kinds of craziness going on all over the world.
And sometimes people go, is God in control? The woman at the well was asking that question, because her life was out of control. If you read that account, you’ll find out when Jesus approached her, He asked her to go and get her husband, and she said, I don’t have one, and He said, you’ve spoken well, because you’ve had five and you’re living with one now. Her life was totally upside down, yet God came to give her living water and give her peace.
We live in a world that’s upside down, and how do we live in it? First of all, as Christians, and second of all, if you don’t know the Lord, how do you live in it then? How do you give answers to all that’s going on around you? It’s so crazy that there don’t seem to be any answers. But I want us to look at Daniel chapter 11, and I want you to know something amazing about God. Nothing surprises God.
Did what’s happening in Iran and the threat that are coming from Russia and China towards the United States even surprise the Lord? Did the fact that the church is being inundated with false doctrine, causing God’s people to not be grounded in His word the way they should be, surprise God? If you look at all of this, the answer is no, nothing surprised God. As a matter of fact, His word speaks about all of these things. And one of the amazing things about the book of Daniel, God gives Daniel prophecies that in one sense aren’t directly related to the four beasts that we’ve been looking at in Daniel, and the four kingdoms that were going to end up manifesting themselves in the last days as the last kingdom, which was the Roman Empire would re-manifest itself but in a different form.
These particular prophecies don’t directly correspond to that, but yet they do. Because they show the reality that God knows things, and He knows men’s intentions and hearts even before things happen. In Daniel chapter 11, a lot of people have said, couldn’t have been written by Daniel.
How would Daniel have been able to see specific events that would occur hundreds of years after he lived, down to how one king would attack another king, how he would try to usurp him through devious means, and that usurping would fail. And all of these things are recorded in chapter 11 of Daniel, because God revealed it to him. And if you stop and think about it, God knows the very thoughts and intents of men’s hearts.
Sometimes we have such a small view of God, even as Christians. And we look at a world where we can be filled with fear or discouragement. As you look in, I just heard that there are those pundits that are predicting this stock market is going to crash, there’s going to be this crash and that crash.
Do we have to fear that our finances could disappear? Do we have to fear that our freedom could disappear? The answer is no. Because the Bible tells us that those who love the Lord have been set free from fear. Let’s take a look at chapter 11 of Daniel this morning.
Now, an angel of the Lord had come to Daniel to encourage and strengthen him in chapter 10. Because there’s a spiritual battle that’s constantly raging. We don’t see it, we don’t understand it, because you can’t see the spiritual realms.
You see the impact in it in our lives daily. And Daniel didn’t get the answer to his prayer immediately, because there was a spiritual battle going on in the nation of Iran. There was demonic activity in Iran and they were preventing the angel coming from God to bring the answer to Daniel.
And so Michael, an archangel, came and helped the one who brought the message to Daniel. And he brings this message and it was a message of hope. And then in chapter 11, he shares some other things.
And I want to share this with you this morning.
Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.
2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. 3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. 4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.
5 And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion. 6 And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king’s daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times. 7 But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail: 8 and shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north. 9 So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land.
10 But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress. 11 And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand. 12 And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it. 13 For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.
14 And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall. 15 So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand. 16 But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed. 17 He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. 18 After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him. 19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.
20 Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle. Daniel 9:1-20
Prayer
Father, I pray that you would just help us as we look at your word. Lord, help us to understand that you know the beginning from the end. You are the Alpha and Omega. You are all-knowing.
You know the devices and schemes of men. And Father, I pray that you would just help us to understand this morning that even though they bring all kinds of schemes, you are the one that is ultimately in control. Speak to us through your word this morning, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The text we just read, probably you’re going, this king and that king. There’s basically two kingdoms that are dealt with in chapter 11, although they come out of one and there were four that came out of the one, but there’s only two that really are of any consequence.
In order to understand that, you need to go back to the first part of the book of Daniel where Daniel saw a leopard that went very quickly, that it defeated the leopard symbolizing the Greek Empire, and it defeated the Medo-Persian Empire, and it defeated it very quickly, even though the Medo-Persian Empire appeared to be greater at the time. That information is given to us again in the beginning of this chapter. It talks about the fact that there was four kings in the Medo-Persian Empire, and of these four kings that came in succession one to another, the last of these was the most powerful and the richest.
His name was Xerxes, and in the time of Esther, he’s called, I’m going to get the correct pronunciation here, in the time of Esther, he was referred to as Ahasuerus, and he was Esther’s husband. You’ve probably seen movies on TV with the great ships that sail against Greece that are sent by the Medes and the Persians, that was Xerxes. It appeared that he had an army that would defeat them very easily, however, they were defeated by Alexander the Great, and rather quickly.
Alexander the Great, as we saw in the earlier part of Daniel, defeated all of those that stood in his way, and he defeated very quickly, and then he had no more to defeat, and he died. His death is uncertain, some people believe he was poisoned, other people believe he died of a disease, but he died rather young, he had young children, he had a wife, but as we see here, what his kingdom was left, was not left to his sons. His family was killed by his own generals.
His own generals killed his family, so that they could inherit his kingdom. And he had four generals. One of the generals took the land that would be towards Italy, another one took the land that would be what is referred to during the time of Paul as Asia Minor, or the Macedonia area.
Another king, another general, took the land that would be Syria, and to the north of Syria in that area, and the fourth general took the land of Egypt to the south. The two generals that took land to the west really became inconsequential. Their kingdoms never really grew, they never really had any great impact on world events other than regional, but the two kings that went, or the two men rather, that went south and north and got inherited those areas of Alexander’s kingdom became very consequential.
And these are the two that said, the one says the king of the south and the king of the north in this reference, in this text. Initially, they were together, but very quickly they divided and went apart, and they became at war with one another, as it says here in the scriptures. You can go and read in great detail all the things that are highlighted in this book, in historical accounts, and you will find exactly what the Bible is saying prophetically about these kingdoms happened.
They were constantly seeing who could defeat the other, and at one time the southern kingdom would be stronger, the next time the northern kingdom would be stronger, and then there was all kinds of interplay between the two. As you saw in the text, a daughter was given from one kingdom to the other kingdom for marriage, and the whole purpose of that was so that the kingdom that had the daughter figured, if I give her to Mary, it will stop him from attacking me, and it will also give me an inside to that kingdom. But it didn’t work, because when she got there, as the scripture says, she destroyed the whole plot, and didn’t follow what she was instructed to do.
There was a number of other times that these kingdoms, and we can take a look, it says, and the king of the south shall be strong in one of his princes, and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion, and his dominion shall be great dominion, even within the kingdoms. They had things happening where there would be those that would attempt to overthrow the generals, and take over the kingdom for themselves. You’ve probably seen movies that are made about this stuff.
But what’s amazing, and the reason I wanted to read this, and just share an overview, is so that you know God knew these events hundreds of years before they occurred, down to the fact that one king wouldn’t be killed by others, and he wouldn’t have his kingdom be overtaken, yet he would die. And the one who would take over that kingdom would raise the taxes tremendously. That’s the last king we saw.
To the point that the people would rebel against him, and he would be destroyed because of the way that he handled his kingdom. Yet Daniel wrote this hundreds of years before it happened. How could that be? Well, I want you to understand, the very things that Daniel saw, and that were going to occur in the day in which we live, he was seeing.
And I just want you to go back again to Daniel chapter 9. And I want you to take a look at the 70 weeks of Daniel, the 70th week. And in the 70th week of Daniel, interesting things occur. And they occur right before it happens, and Jesus talked about it in Matthew chapter 24 as well.
Let’s pick it up at chapter 9 verse 26.
And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, for the people of the prince that shall come to destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and into the end of the war of desolations are determined.
And that was speaking again of the 62 weeks of years, or after 483 years, the Messiah would appear, enter Jerusalem, but he’d be cut off, not for himself, but for you and me.
He went to the cross, not for himself, but for us. And so we see that that happened, just as God said it would happen. Then I want us to take a look at verse 27.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.
Now, who is he? He is the prince to come. He is the prince to come.
The prince to come, in reference here, would be the Antichrist. Would be the one in the word anti, which is used, the term Antichrist is used by John in his letter to the church. It says there’s a spirit of the Antichrist.
The word anti in Greek means opposite of or in place of. That’s the double meaning of that word. And this man really wants to take both meanings.
He wants to come in place of the true Messiah, and he stands in opposition to the true Messiah. And Daniel saw that this man was coming, and this last week of years would begin when he does a covenant with the nations. Now, there’s a lot of interesting things happening in our world today.
Daniel, if you go back even further, to Daniel where he sees the beasts. And whenever you see in Daniel’s prophecy the beasts, that’s God looking at the world. He views the world and the kingdoms of the world as beasts.
When men are looking at it, they look at it as kings and men. God looks at it as beasts. Because these kingdoms have been really raised up by Satan in rebellion against God.
And the men that are really selling their souls to Satan to be in control of these kingdoms are beasts. They have nothing that God would be of the character of God in their character. And that’s why God views them as beasts.
As you go back earlier in Daniel, you see that when in chapter 8, it’s talking about a precursor to the Antichrist, which he refers to as the Little Horn. But he’d have the character of the one that would come. In chapter 11, we’re going to see that person is Antichus Epiphanes, a Greek general who really possessed the character of the Antichrist.
Well, as you look at earlier, when Daniel first describes the beast that comes out of the Roman Empire, he says that this beast has 10 crowns upon its head, which represent 10 kingdoms. But then he says that of these 10 crowns, 3 of these kingdoms will be taken away by this one who comes to power, which is the Antichrist. These 3 kingdoms will be in opposition to him and he will take them away.
He’ll take their power and authority away and they’ll no longer be represented as a kingdom. But there’s 10. Now, it’s interesting to look at, as you look at what’s happening in our world today.
A number of years ago, shortly after World War II in the early 70s, there was a group of high-ranking world leaders that got together and met in Italy and they called themselves the Club of Rome. The Club of Rome was really founded by a man whose name you’ve heard, Klaus Schwab, who was the head of the World Economic Forum. Why do I want to mention the Club of Rome? It’s not in the Bible.
Well, what the Club of Rome did is in the Bible. The Club of Rome said that their goal was to establish a one world government. At the heart of this one world government, in order to be able to rule it properly, they would divide the world into 10 different regions.
These 10 regions would all be governed by one king, president, ruler. Sounds an awful lot like what the Bible said was going to happen in the last days. One of these kingdoms, one of these regions, was the North American region.
In the Club of Rome, it was region 1. On their original maps, which you can go and you can Google Club of Rome, 10 regions of the world, and you’ll see the original map had Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Greenland. That was the North American. You’ve been hearing a lot in the news lately about how Greenland should become part of the United States.
According to the Club of Rome’s map, Region One includes North America. But it also includes a small sliver of Central America, including Panama. Then it goes down and takes over the northeastern corner of South America—which just happens to be Venezuela. Fact? Fiction? Circumstance?
The Bible talks about ten regions. A few years ago, the European Union joined together all the nations of Europe—Western Europe and Eastern Europe—into one consolidated group. That is another area on the Club of Rome’s map.
The third area is the Middle East. The Middle East is to be one region, and if you look at the Middle East, there are some interesting things happening there. Our own president put forward his “Board of Peace” in Gaza, and all the nations of the world were to sign on to this Board of Peace.
But what does it mean for the nations of the world to sign on?
The real problems between the Arabs and the Israelis go all the way back to Islam—Edom, or Esau—and the other sons of Abraham by Keturah, and the descendants of Lot. They have always warred against Israel. Read it in Scripture. The problem there cannot be solved by men. It can only be solved by transformation of the heart.
Whether you’re Arab or Israeli, the heart can only be changed by giving your heart to the Messiah of the Jews.
I remember going on a tour in Petra and asking the tour guide, “You’re all relatives over here. Why can’t you get along?” And he said, “Well, it’s a matter of the heart.” And they do have a different heart. The only way the heart can be changed is through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
So right now, you’ve got our president over there saying that Gaza should be ruled by the world, and that the Board of Peace should be transformed into this wonderful resort area. But it’s part of Israel. God said it’s part of Israel.
Let me tell you something interesting that happened the last time Gaza was split off from Israel. They said, “Give us Gaza, and we’ll be at peace with you. Give us our own little strip of land, and we’ll be at peace with you.”
Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister of Israel. He thought it was a good idea, even though he had always been against giving land for peace. He gave up Gaza. There were many Israeli settlements in Gaza. The Israelis had built schools, hospitals, power plants, and water plants. The Israeli government came in and moved all of their own people out of Gaza.
And you saw the final results of that.
The people who took over that strip of land wanted it so they could have a base from which to attack Israel and kill Israelis. Their whole desire is “From the river to the sea, let Palestine be free.” And what they mean is that Palestine would take over the whole thing.
There is no such nation as Palestine.
What they mean is the Arabs who are against Israel, and that is happening today. When Sharon gave that land over, shortly thereafter he suffered a severe stroke, lay in a coma for a long period of time, and died. God is serious about what He says. He does not want His land parted.
So you look at these events happening around the world. Then you turn on the TV and hear that the banking system is on the verge of collapse, and that they want to introduce a new electronic banking system and get rid of cash.
They’re already selling it through companies like Amazon and others, where you don’t even need credit cards anymore. You just carry your Amazon account, walk through the store, and they scan you when you walk in. When you walk out, it scans what you’ve taken and charges your account.
China has a totally electronic, socialized economy. They give you social points, and they can take away money from your account if you don’t do what they want you to do.
God said there’s going to come a man who will have total control of the world’s economic systems, and he will be able to control the people of the world. How do you do that? The Bible tells us in the book of Revelation that you cannot buy or sell without the government’s permission—without his permission.
Electronic currencies sound like a great deal, but the Bible says it’s going to be used for evil.
Why am I bringing all this up?
A number of years ago, we had a friend named Dave Hunt. He said, “A lot of people don’t want to believe in Jesus. They don’t believe Jesus came. They don’t believe He died on the cross. They don’t believe He was buried and rose again from the dead. They don’t believe what the Bible says about the need of a Savior. They don’t believe any of that.”
He said, “One of the ways I show them the Bible is true is by showing them all the prophecies God has fulfilled—and is in the process of fulfilling.”
God is not a liar. Men are liars. Politicians are liars. Religious leaders can be liars. But God is not a liar.
This whole book was given to us to reveal Jesus—from Genesis through Revelation—to show our need of a Savior, to show God’s means of salvation, and to show that God desires that no man would perish, but that all would be saved.
Look for things in the news, and then look at what Jesus told His disciples on the Mount of Olives in Matthew 24. Look at what Daniel prophesied about the last kingdom—about the last of the four kingdoms that would come. It would really be the fifth kingdom, because it would come out of the fourth. And then there would be the sixth kingdom, which would be the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
But look at what Daniel says about that kingdom. Look at what the book of Revelation says about that kingdom. It talks about the fact that everything is lining up just as God said.
There is a whole other series of things we could look at. There are people who want to rule the world—technocrats—and they want to rule by technology. And they are real.
Did you know that our current president has surrounded himself with technocrats—billionaires of this world? Many of these people have technology and believe they can change man, and their whole goal is to live forever by technology.
The Bible talked about them. It says men would look to themselves and their means, and believe lies instead of believing God.
So back to Daniel chapter 11: if Daniel could foresee hundreds of years in advance the northern kingdom of the Seleucids and the southern kingdom of the Ptolemies—descendants of the generals—and could see how they would interact, what would happen in battles, and the intrigue of how they would try to take kingdoms through lies, deceit, and war…
And then, as we’re definitely going to go verse by verse next week, when we come to Antiochus Epiphanes—the type of the Antichrist—everything Daniel foresaw about that man came true.
If God knows all these things, why would He lie to us about our salvation? Why would He lie to us about the only thing that can give us true joy, peace, and hope?
Why did Jesus pick the woman at the well—a Samaritan, an outcast from her own culture because she had lived with so many different men? Yet He chose her. He specifically went out of His way to go to her, because in her heart she was crying, “Where do I find God?”
Why are people being saved in Iran where there are no preachers, no churches, no evangelists, and no evangelistic services? It’s against the law to have a Bible. Yet people are being saved there because they are crying out, saying, “God, if You’re really who You say You are… Jesus, if You’re really who You say You are… show me.”
And He is showing them.
In America, the Bible is the number one selling book—or at least it has been. We have Christian literature, Christian DVDs, Christian authors, freedom to meet in church, freedom to go out and talk to people about the Lord.
Yet what do people do? They don’t take advantage of the privileges God has given us.
To a large extent, the church in America is a sleeping church. People grew up in church, and I’ve heard some of them say, “Well, I’ll get serious about God when I get into my 70s or 80s.”
But you don’t know if you’re going to make it to your 70s or 80s.
So why don’t we get serious with God now, when we see that He is who He says He is, and He is talking to us today?
Why don’t we understand that as you pick up the news and begin to discuss the events going on, instead of wringing your hands and saying, “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?”—realize God knew all of this was going to happen before it even began. And He is there to give you peace, comfort, and joy in the midst of tribulation.
Daniel was greatly troubled when he began to see these visions, because God was showing him things about the last days that were not pleasant. But God told him not to be troubled—that these things had to come about for the Messiah to establish His kingdom.
So the question today is: does prophecy mean anything?
I think it does—especially when I see my president up there wanting to buy Greenland, wanting to establish control over North America, just as the Club of Rome said needs to be one of the ruling ten kingdoms of the coming one-world government.
And I see struggles to do the same thing in other portions of the world. And I see the reality of the truth of this Word being lived out every day.
It’s time to get serious with God.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, I pray that You would help us to understand this. Lord, as we look at Your Word and we look at current events, help us to realize that You said Israel would be critical in the latter days. It is the nation You established to bring redemption through, to bring Your Word through, and to bring salvation to the whole world.
You said You would use that nation as a timepiece for all men to look at, to see where we are in the last days. It’s not Islam. It’s not Muhammad. It’s not Buddha. It’s not the Hindu Gita.
It’s Your Word. It’s Your nation. It’s Your people. It’s Your Messiah.
Lord, help us to get serious if we claim to be Christians—if we claim to walk with You and believe what we read. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.