I will refer to Daniel 10-12 as one chapter, as they tell one story, one prophecy. There should be no chapter divisions here, especially between chapters 11 and 12.
Daniel 8 tells of one whose ancestry goes back to Alexander’s kingdom and who later arises as the antichrist. Daniel 11 tells us that the ancestor and the antichrist are thesame man. Some preliminary details for study are in order for this chapter also.
First it will be necessary again to employ the “gap” thinking that we have seen in chapters eight and nine. Though a narrative unfolds and takes the reader from beginning to end, first time readers usually need to be told that somewhere in the story there is a huge gap in time. When they see it for themselves they are left with the problem that has had Bible students scratching their heads for centuries. Closing the gap is the object of this book. The explanation that is confirmed by reading the book of Revelation and picking up other clues here and there is not comprehensible by the human experience. I will still maintain that this is what the Spirit is saying to the churches in our time and forward. I believe that more and more people will see this as the time for His appearing draws near.
A second concept must be grasped before Daniel 11 can be understood. Put simply, history does repeat itself. We have seen it happen already in the discussions of this book. Consider the ways there have already been repeats of events, just in regards to Jerusalem:
Armies encircle the city. 163 B.C. and 70 A.D. to name only two times.
In those same 2 occasions, the Temple is desecrated, then destroyed.
The people of Israel are scattered to other nations, by Assyria, Babylonia, Rome.
An evil anti-Semitic king or emperor or dictator surfaces and wreaks havoc.
Someone seeks to kill all Jews: Haman, Raamses, Hitler, and others.
History does repeat itself. Consider also:
While a Father looks on, a Son climbs a hill carrying the wood on which he is scheduled to die: 2000 B.C., Abraham & Isaac. But also 33 A.D., Jehovah and Jesus.
A man climbs the ascent called the Mount of Olives, crying. His people have rejected him, and are trying to kill him and take away his throne. His best friend has just betrayed him. Yet many of the people walk along crying with him. 1000 B.C., David. 33 A.D., Jesus. Many events can come around to be replayed, proving that the first ones were only shadows and prefigures.
There is a section of chapter eleven that I have struggled with for some time. I am forced to believe that this small group of verses can only be explained in the light of repeated history. To me there is no question that at least most of that portion of the text has already happened. But there seems to be equally strong evidence to support the notion that it will happen again.
And thirdly, it is important for us to understand the concept of the preservation of life. All life is preserved, though most of it is behind the scenes. All human lives have an appointment with death, and then receive a new body that will be eternally with God or suffering apart from Him. You will recall perhaps that there are two men of the Bible account who never died, but have an appointment with death, and will return to the planet as prophets in the end time. Many say they are Elijah and Enoch, and they are prophesied both by Zechariah and John as future invaders of our planet. God is able to preserve lives, and cause them to re-appear. They will come, die, leave us again, to meet us in the air when Jesus comes back.
With Antiochus Epiphanes a similar principle is at work. He already died. But he is scheduled to receive a new body. It is with that glorified body that he returns. The pattern for all three of these men is not unusual, but the placement before our eyes is strange. All three die, then are hidden from us, then get a new body and re-appear.
Let’s look now at the last prophecy of the now 91-year-old man of God, Daniel the prophet, still following the lead of Jesus who told us that we are to be in search of the abomination of desolation mentioned by this man.
I have written in great detail about Daniel 10-12 in a book called The Last Message of Daniel. I will not be sharing all the specifics of the rulers and the intrigues that are brought out in prophetic manner by the prophet, but refer my readers to that earlier work for this. Here I will summarize a lot, to get us to the salient points of the prophecy.
One note to recall here: Daniel 10, 11, and 12, are all a part of one long prophecy. There is extensive preparation, followed by the prediction itself, then some follow-up questions to deal with.
10:1. We cannot get past the first verse without commenting on the phrase “the appointed time.” The Spirit wants us to know that the time of this fulfillment will be “long”. Later, the “time of the end” is re-introduced. All of this points us back to chapter eight and reminds us of the incredible unity in the plan of this book (See Appendix C).
After a period of sorrowful fasting over some unknown issues, probably longing to know more of the plan of God (verse 12), Daniel sees a vision much like John will about 600 years later on the island called Patmos. The first person he sees seems to be the Son of God. Mixed in with messages from this Person are those of the angel Gabriel, who tells Daniel that once more he has been sent to him, but was involved heavily in spiritual warfare with demons controlling Persia and Greece, the two nations that were the subject of chapter 8! This latter piece of information points us to Gabriel as opposed to Jesus. As in Revelation, there is some confusion about who is being seen, who is talking.
But whoever is talking, it seems as though this message to Daniel is being opposed in a mighty way. After all, if Daniel receives this message and passes it on, the Enemy’s plan will be exposed for the whole world and church to see. But although the angel prevails, and the message is recorded, the book of Daniel has been hit so hard by “scholars” that in many circles it is totally discredited. Those who do believe it is the very word of God find that most churches just aren’t interested. After all, merely to read the book is to name names of people and nations. It is not politically correct to preach from it. Those who take it seriously have relegated all its prophecies to the past, making it true but irrelevant. We have the word of angels to the contrary, but thus will the book remain “sealed” until the time is upon us (12:9). What wisdom of God! How the Enemy must have thought he had ripped this book from the Collection. But he will be exposed in due time!
In the remaining verses of chapter 10, Daniel is encouraged, strengthened, so that he can take in the predictive details of the following message, nearly every one of which certainly happened in history. But it is the way that history blends into prophecy that is the fascination of this message. Before you have heard it all, you too may need time to regain your strength. Are you ready for this?
11:2-4 is nothing more than chapter 8:3-8 retold. We should be ready now to understand Daniel’s style. He starts with familiar ground, and leads into greater detail. Remember Persia? It shall rise. It shall be great. A Persian king (we call him Xerxes) will stir up trouble with Greece (remember the push west?). Indeed the march of Xerxes’ armies westward was rivaled in history only by the subsequent eastward march of Alexander the Great, mentioned here in verse 3. Verse 4 then tells of the breaking up of Alexander’s Kingdom among his four generals (not among family members, adds this chapter’s vision). All known facts, right?
11:5-20 . The Spirit then travels ahead to the kingdoms that arise from Alexander’s heritage. He lets us know that they have been established now, and are in competition. But his focus has narrowed already from four to only two. Later it is one that will be at center stage, the one from whence comes “the little horn.” For this is where the angel is leading us…
Verses 5-20 are about two of the horns, one in the North, one in the South. Let us look at the South first. Here is where Alexander’s general Ptolemy arrived and over the years got himself entrenched with the Egyptian people and other nations of that region. “Ptolemy”, at first a family name, soon came to carry the same weight as “Pharaoh”, a title of honor given to all the following rulers of Egypt for many years.
Egypt proper was never satisfying enough a territory to rule, and the Ptolemies, kings of the South, were forever reaching north, sometimes as far as Syria, but nearly always to Israel, for more ground. In doing this they were in constant conflict with the king of the North, originally General Seleucus, who considered his domain to be from Israel and Syria to points east. And of course, Egypt, if he could manage it. Sometimes he actually did, either by force or marital intrigues.
Sixteen verses tell, ahead of time, the actual details of this tug of war between North and South, the jockeying for power, the shifting loyalties of Israel in the middle. But lest we think that the Spirit is only interested in giving us a history lesson, in verse 21 there is a zooming in on the reason for all this lineage being shared. In Daniel 11:21 we are introduced to a vile man who inherits the throne by deceit. He was not next in line to receive it, he surely was not fit for it. Some say he was mad. And the writer of Daniel’s prophecy never once calls him “the king of the North.” His name is Antiochus Epiphanes. Epiphanes, the manifested one. Later Antiochus himself would add the term “Theou…” A manifestation of God. That’s blasphemy. In his very name. Many of his subjects referred to him as “Epimanes” , the mad one.
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