The prophecy of Daniel 11: (I am redoing this for two reasons, one: I incorrectly labeled Darius the Median as an unbeliever when his decree recorded in Daniel 6 gives respect for the Lord in the same sense that Nebuchadnezzars decades earlier had done- how I missed that, I cant quite figure- and I got one of Alexanders successors wrong. Cassander ruled Greece and defeated Antigonis, not the other way around. My apologies for the error. Everything is presented here accurately now.) Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.- Daniel 11: 1 - The chapter starts off with the angel of the Lord continuing his discourse with Daniel that took up Chapter 10. Whereas Chapter 10 was focused on Daniels vision alongside the Tigris River after his three weeks of mourning and then of the angels arrival and description of his struggle with the prince of Persia, a demon who sought to prevent him from meeting Daniel with the response to Daniels mourning, in which he needed the assistance of Michael the Archangel. Now he begins to describe to Daniel what is noted in the scripture of truth. This refers to Gods understanding of all things, a part of which was to be revealed to Daniel at that time. An interesting fact is that most of the prophecies with which Daniel was concerned were in fact different descriptions of the same thing- the rise and fall of empires and Gods control over all of them. From Nebuchadnezzars dream in Daniel 2 of the giant statue to Daniels own dream over fifty years later in Daniel 7 in which the Lord revealed the coming history of the world powers that would feature prominently in Gods prophetic program. The head of gold in Daniel 2 and the lion in Daniel 7 represented Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. The lion being given the heart of a man representing Nebuchadnezzar after the Lord humbled him in the seven years he spent in the wild. The arms and chest of silver of Daniel 2 and the bear standing on one side with three ribs in its mouth in Daniel 7 represented the Medo-Persian alliance. Their empire was formed by two peoples that became one, hence our reference to it as the Persian Empire. The three ribs represent the kingdoms conquered by the Persian Empire: Lydia, Babylon and Egypt. After this in Daniel 2 came the waste of bronze and in Daniel 7 the leopard with four heads and four wings. This represented the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great. Alexanders conquests were speedy, taking over the known world in eight years and vanquished the Persian Empire. His empire was split into four Hellenistic Empires after his death. The legs of iron and toes of iron and miry clay in Daniel 2 and the beast of iron in Daniel 7 represent the Roman Empire. In Daniel 2, the rock representing the Kingdom of God shows up and strikes the statue in the area representing Rome and in Daniel 7 the little horn that shows up among the ten horns, representing the Antichrist and ten kingdoms that come from Rome, is judged by the Lord himself. Jesuss favorite title for himself, Son of Man, is a direct reference to Daniel 7. The Kingdom of Gods imminent coming was also announced in the Lords first coming during the reign of Tiberius and he ascended to heaven after the resurrection where he sits on his throne as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Daniel 11, however, is a prophecy concerning primarily the four Kingdoms that are represented by the leopard of Daniel 7. The Angel tells Daniel that he had been sent to strengthen Darius the Mede, who according to the age given for him in Daniel 5 at the time of Babylons fall in 539 BC was likely the father in law of Cyrus the Persian, known in other sources of the time as Cyaxeres. This brings up an interesting note: of the rulers who will be mentioned in Daniel 11, only Darius the Median can be called in any sense a believer in the Lord, given his decree after Daniel was spared from the lions den (see Daniel 6). Cyrus mentioned that God had made him ruler over the world when allowing the Jews to return home but it was his policy to do this with all conquered peoples and he restored all the shrines for pagan gods worshipped in the area that had been taken by Babylon and Assyria. This shows that God is not some passive, distant creator but is rather quite intimately involved in his creation, using whomever he wills, whether they be believer or unbeliever to accomplish his purpose.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 23:27:27 +0000
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