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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.
Now something about Alexander. He really was pretty great. He stands out in history as one of the most remarkable military leaders, and these verses. Describe him. Perfectly.
In 332 BC, he seized the entire Persian Empire. Within 10 years, get this. Within 10 years, he was He conquered the world. He was king of the world by age thirty-three. He had conquered from Europe all the way to India.
And when he finally went to Babylon, his troops were exhausted, they couldn't go on any further. He was drunk one night. And he wept. 'Cause there were no more worlds to conquer. He'd done it all.
That was the night he died. And you'll notice what it says in verse 4: His kingdom will be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity.
Now Alexander the Great had a half-brother who was mentally retarded. He had an illegitimate son. And he had a baby born to him posthumously. That is, the girl was pregnant, then he died, then the child was born. All three of them were murdered.
He had no posterity. And as it says, the kingdom won't go to his posterity, but be divided toward the four winds. of heaven. What happened is a battle ensued, and an argument ensued, and they had to decide how they're going to divide up his kingdom.
So they divided the kingdom among the top four generals. Of Alexander the Great. Cassander, Lesimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus, the spelling's right there in that nice little outline I gave you. Let me tell you how it was divided, because this is important. Cassander took Macedonia and Greece.
the kingdom of Alexander's father. Licynicus took Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and the Thracian Empire. Seleucus took Syria and Babylonia. And Ptolemy, spelled with a P and then a T. Ptolemy, the fourth general, took Egypt, North Africa, and Arabia.
That's how the kingdom was divided.
So we have in chapter 11 The regions of Persia The ruler of Greece.
Now we come to the rivals north and south.
Now, if you'll look at your Bibles, beginning in verse 5, all the way to verse 20, is the longest section in the chapter. That's because The kings north and south are the kings that directly affect Israel.
Now, they all directly affect Israel because Alexander took over the world, the Persian Empire had taken over the world, so they all affect Israel because they were in charge of them. I mean directly affect Israel. Because we're dealing with the nation north and south of Israel. By the way, geography in the Bible is all relative toward Israel. When I was a kid, I remember in school, a teacher showed us a world map.
Map of the world. You know what what country was right in the middle? America, that's what we think of ourselves. We're right in the middle. We're it.
On God's map, Israel's right in the middle. In fact, he says as much. Ezekiel chapter 5, verse 5, God says, and I quote, See, I have set Jerusalem in the midst of all the nations that are around her. In other words, I put Israel right, smack, dab in the middle. That's why in the Bible, north, south, east, and west are always relative to the nation.
of Israel. That's why in Jewish writings like the Midrash and the Mishnah. There are sayings like this one: the land of Israel is at the center of the world. Jerusalem is at the center of the land of Israel. The temple is at the center of Jerusalem.
That's their way of saying the temple in Jerusalem at Israel is the naval or the epicenter of the planet.
So, because you have Israel here, and you have kings up here, and kings down here, and Israel is sandwiched in between and will get the brunt of all their battles.
So much is given in this section. Let's look at a snippet. Verse 5.
Now, another quick warning. You're going to read over and over again in this section, and we're only going to look at a few verses. The king of the north, the king of the south. King of the south, the king of the north. The king of the south.
And it goes on and on. It doesn't refer to one king necessarily, but a dynasty of kings. Whoever happens to be ruling in the north at that time is the king of the north. Whoever happens to be ruling in the south is the king of the south. It's a dynasty.
Yeah. Seleucus the general. Established the Seleucid dynasty. Syria, the north. Ptolemy established the Ptolemaic dynasty, Egypt down in the south.
Verse 5.
Also, the king of the south, that's Egypt, that's the Ptolemaic Empire. Shall become strong, as well as one of his princes, and he shall gain power over him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. And at the end of some years they shall join forces. For the daughter of the king of the south shall go to the king of the north to make an agreement.
But she shall not retain the power of her authority. and neither he nor his authority shall stand. but she shall be given up with those who brought her and with him who begot her. and with him who strengthened her in those times. Here's the deal.
The Ptolemaic dynasty down south grew stronger quicker. But not for very long. Eventually. Eventually the Northern Kingdom Syria became also very strong, and there was tension between North and South. To ease the tension, an alliance was made.
Now, the way alliances were made in those days, is one of the kings would give his daughter to the other king as a wife. Because now that's going to mean we're going to treat each other good, and you hope that works out.
Sometimes it would be more drama than it would be peace, but. That was the idea.
So that's what happens here. The guy down south, Ptolemy Philadelphus, gives his daughter Bernice to the king of Syria named Antiochus Thaius.
Now the only problem is the king of the north is already married. He has a wife.
Now he has given the daughter Bernice this young beautiful girl As his second wife. No problem, he's the king. He divorces his wife, marries her.
Well, his wife doesn't think too highly of that. Kills the new wife and her attendants and poisons her husband.
So the whole alliance falls apart. like this verse. Predict it.
Now The rest of the verses We're not going to be looking at We would be here for weeks and weeks and weeks unraveling all of these pieces and showing you how they fit historically. I think you get the gist of it. It covers about 150 to 200 years of history, but there's a couple of verses I want to show you why this is important. Verse 16: But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will. and no one shall stand against him.
He shall stand in the what? Glorious land. What land would that be? Israel With destruction in his power. Verse 20, there shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious.
kingdom, again a reference to Israel. But within a few days he shall be destroyed. but not in anger. or in battle. What I want you to see is the reason so much Is talked about here is because all of the intrigue, all of the conspiracy, all of the wars, all of the bloodshed.
Between north and south, Have Israel in between them.
So when one king wants to attack the other king, they have to go through Israel.
So for hundreds of years, Israel would be sandwiched. between the hammer and the anvil getting beat up, beat up, beat up. by these kingdoms.
Now this happens for years and years until Until One particular king, and he has written about. and given more space than any other single individual in this chapter. One northern king in particular, the eighth in that line, or that dynasty of the north. the eighth Seleucid king by the name of Antiochus the Fourth. Which takes us to the fourth and final division.
The rogue of Syria. Verse 21, look at this. And in his place shall arise a vile person. How would you like to have that as your introduction? A vile, despicable, wicked person.
To whom They will not give the honour of royalty notice, but he shall come in peaceably and seize the kingdom by intrigue. Verse 21 to 24 describes Antiochus IV's rise to power. He was an illegitimate king. He had no right to reign. He seized the throne by flattery.
In fact, that's how he kind of ruled. He would see cities he wanted or people he wanted, and he would come with all hearts and flowers and be sweet, always with the end game of taking them captive and being in charge. That's how he got to the throne. In fact, he called himself Ready? Theos Antiochus theos epiphanaeus, which means loosely translated.
I am God. Most glorious, manifest. He had no self-esteem issue, as we've said before. That's the name he gave himself: Theos Antiochus, Theos Epiphanaeus. Actually, he was Crepus Maximus.
He called himself Antiochus Epiphanes, the illustrious, glorious one. The Jews called him. Antiochus epimonides the madman. because of what he had done to them. Verse 25 through 28 describes his retaliation with Egypt.
A peace treaty was signed and it was broken. Both rulers actually broke it. But look at verse 29 now. Let's get into this. At the appointed time, he shall return and go toward the south.
So he's up north, moving south. But it shall not be like the former or the latter. For ships from Cyprus shall come against him. Therefore, he shall be grieved and return in rage against the holy covenant. And do damage.
And so he shall return and show regard for those who forsake. The Holy Covenants. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before today's message continues, there's a special offer for your family this Christmas. Hey, this is Nate Heitzig.
And if you're like me, one of the best parts of the Christmas season is gathering your kids to share the story of Jesus in a way that makes it come alive. That's why I wrote Christmas Under the Tree. A beautifully illustrated book and companion audio experience for families of all ages. My hope is that this story helps you and your kids connect the cradle to the cross and treasure the true meaning of Christmas for years to come. Christmas Under the Tree is yours when you give a gift of $25 or more to help more people discover God's word through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Request your copy at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922. Mm-hmm.
Now, let's get back to today's teaching.
Now by this time, the Ptolemies down south were so sick of Antiochus. that they called upon a new superpower looming in the West called Rome. to help them. Rome sent a fleet of ships from the island of Cyprus. Who met?
Antiochus IV down just outside of Alexandria, Egypt. And they warned him strictly: if you go to battle against this kingdom, you're going to also go to battle with us, Rome. We're going to be allied with them and we're going to take you down. And then they drew a circle around him in the sand. They said, You better make your decision before you leave the circle.
So they publicly humiliate him. Oh, he's in a corner. Puts his tail between his legs and goes back home.
Now, he's going from south to north. If he's going back home from south to north, what land does he go through? Israel, what city does he go through? Jerusalem.
Now Verse thirty-one. Here it is. Antiochus, now humiliated, as it says, and enraged, heads toward home. Verse 31, and forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress. That's the temple in Jerusalem.
And they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place the abomination. of desolation there. There it is.
Now, every time from here on, when we read about the abomination of desolation, this is the primary reference. What Antiochus Epiphanes did is what someone else is going to do. coming in the future. The abomination of desolation. Here's what happened historically: Antiochus placed soldiers around the temple area.
Forbidding people to worship. Forbidding people to sacrifice, on one Sabbath, he sent his soldiers to the city of Jerusalem to kill as many babies as they could find. On another occasion, they went to the city of Jerusalem to kill as many women as they could find. He made idolatry mandatory, erecting a statue of Zeus. Killing a pig on the altar of sacrifice, forcing the Jewish priests to eat pork.
Sprinkling the juices of the pig all around the temple, desolating it, desecrating it. And then he made nudity Public. Taking what he called athletes and parading them nude in full view of the Temple Mount area. does totally in a filthy manner desecrating the temple. And verse thirty-two.
Those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery. Those are those who helped him do it, who were actually Judean Jews. But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. It's always been one of my favorite verses of scripture. I didn't really know what the context was until much later.
I'll tell you what it is in a moment. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many, yet for many days they shall fall by the sword and flame, by captivity and plundering.
Now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help. But many shall be joined with them by Intrigue. Those who aided with a little help. Those who trust their God and do great exploits. is a reference, I believe, to the deliverers who would come.
A group of Hashmanian priests led by Judas Maccabeus, who revolted against the Syrians and re-established proper worship in the temple. That is still celebrated to this day in the Jewish feast of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is all about driving out Antiochus Epiphanies and the Syrians and re-establishing worship on the temple.
So Poor Daniel. Man, he's like 86 years of age, and he's mourning and weeping because Israel isn't the glorious. Nation and capital, like it once was. The people have gone back, but only a few, and the work has stopped. And he's praying, and mourning, and fasting.
And the angel comes and goes. I've got your answer, Daniel. You're probably not going to like this. But the 70 years of captivity are up. But there are more conflicts yet to come.
Because after this 70 years will come a Xerxes. And then an Alexander. And then rivals between two kingdoms for a couple hundred years till eventually in Antiochus' epiphanies. who will utterly obliterate your people, and that will happen all the way to the end. Yeah.
By now, I hope you're wondering. Would God allow all that to happen? I know Daniel was thinking that. And so verse thirty-five tells us.
Some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them, purify them, and make them white until the time of the end, because it is still for the appointed time. Daniel, God is going to use this suffering. Would you agree that nothing is effective in driving people to God like suffering? Nothing gets our attention. Nothing drives our eyes upward.
I know we hate it. We'd all vote against it if we could eradicate suffering in all of its forms today. But God uses it. And that's why Peter said in the New Testament: the trials of your faith have come, so that your faith, more precious than gold, though refined by the fire. may be proved to be genuine.
Now I'm going to close with a question. Why the detail? You ought to understand, of all the chapters of Daniel, I was least excited about teaching this one. Until I got into it. Why the detail?
Why this king and that king and this? All these detailed events. Three reasons. Number one, to highlight the survival of the Jewish people. They shouldn't exist.
They have been hassled and hounded. They should be out of existence. But they exist. Jewish survival is miraculous. Here's just a sampling of history: 50,000 Jews were killed in Seleucia, 20,000 died in Caesarea by the Syrians.
Antiochus Epiphanes killed 80,000 on this event that I told you about, sold 40,000 as slaves, and took 40,000 as prisoners. In 70 AD, the Romans entered Jerusalem and killed 1,300,000 Jews. The Emperor Constantine outlawed Jews, killing them, cutting off their ears, dispersing them. In the fifth and sixth century, Jews were forbidden to hold public office in Europe. And over 60,000 were killed.
In 633 AD, with the rise of Islam, In the Arabian Peninsula, Jews were slaughtered even to this day. The Crusades of the eleventh century, the Christian Crusades. The motto was, kill a Jew and save your soul. Many of them were slaughtered in the name of Christ. In 1350, the Black Plague in Europe happened.
Jews were blamed for it, and half of them were killed because of it. In 1492, In Spain, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, 80,000 Jews were pushed into the sea. Most of them died by exposure. World War II, the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi regime exterminated 6 million Jews in a Holocaust. There is no reason they should exist.
But they exist. Because of this angelic keeping that goes on in heavenly places. Queen Victoria asked her Prime Minister, Show me one thing that proves the Bible is true. The Prime Minister said, the Jew. Madam.
The Jew. Second reason the detail is given is to highlight the similarity of the Antichrist. You're going to read next week in the last 10 verses of this chapter about somebody else who is coming. And Antiochus Epiphanes is the prototype of that Antichrist. That's the second reason.
Here's the third reason, and I close with this. Because it highlights the sovereignty of God. I love it when the Bible shows. off God's track record. And we see 135 predictions fulfilled.
That are mentioned in 35 verses. That's God's trademark. In fact, so often in the Old Testament, God says, to the false gods, I can do what you can't do. I'm going to predict this, this, this, and that. Can you do that?
Uh no. Can any of your false gods make the kind of predictions I can make? Uh, no.
So, every time God fulfills a promise that He has made or a prediction that He has made, it should cause us to well up with faith. Every tomorrow has two handles. Handle of anxiety, the handle of faith. Most of us like to grab the handle of anxiety. I don't know what's going to happen.
I don't know what's going to happen. Okay, so you don't know what's going to happen.
So what? Every time God fulfills a promise that He makes, it should move us toward that handle of faith. Because the thinking person will say this. If 135 prophecies that verifiable are found in 35 verses. then I think the rest of what he says is also going to happen.
Like Jesus is coming back, and like the kingdom age is going to come, and heaven is a real place. That's what it should make us think. And yet, some will say, yeah, I've heard this before. I've heard these warnings for years. Jesus is coming.
The end of the world is coming. My grandmother used to think that.
Well, baby, your grandmother was right on. It is coming. It is happening. There was a man who Wanted A barometer that he saw in a store, beautiful wood and brass, and he thought it would look good on his mantle, so he ordered one, had it shipped to his home. He unpacked the barometer.
He looked at it, he was so disappointed, he thought it's defective because the needle. was stuck on the section of the barometer reading Hurricane. He goes, ah, this stupid thing. It doesn't work. Put it back in the box.
Had to go to work, so he wrote a quick letter. He was going to mail it on the way to the city where he worked. When he drove home that night, The barometer was gone. Not only the barometer was gone, his house was gone that had the barometer in it. Yeah, I was right.
A hurricane Cain. Yeah. The angel who spoke to Daniel, his needle was right on. Storm after storm after storm would hit Israel. and there is a storm yet to come on the horizon.
Talked about in the last section of this chapter that makes everything we have briefly considered this morning. Nothing more than child's play. What Jesus said is the worst period of time that has yet to hit planet Earth. Here's my question. Yeah.
Can you come to church week after week and sit sermon after sermon, week after week, and see God's power demonstrated in His Word like this? and remain unmoved. Cause if you can, I pity you. When you see such verifiable evidence of the omniscience and power of God in prophecy. It's absolutely amazing.
It should cause us to bow and worship and relinquish control. to this sovereign world. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skiff Heitzig. Before you go, don't miss your chance to request Christmas Under the Tree, the beautifully illustrated book and audio experience by Nate Heitzig that helps your family see the Christmas story with fresh wonder and excitement. It's yours for your gift of $25 or more to help reach more people with biblical teaching through Connect with Skip.
Call 800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com slash offer. And don't forget to sign up for the free weekly devotional for encouragement from Pastor Skip right in your inbox. Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection. Shouldn't never Stop food.
Of the crisis. A castle burning. And so Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
