I Dare You: Remember! - Part A

What we have in Daniel chapter 11 is the marvelous demonstration that history is merely his story, and that for God, telling the future isn't any harder than knowing the past.

Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitig. Today, Skip dives into Daniel 11 to show you how what God told Daniel came to pass just as he said it would. Then, after the message, we'll hear from Skip and Lenya as they share about how history proved God's Word to be true. For a lot of the things to happen like the Bible says they have to happen, there has to be an Israel. It talks about a war in the last days with Gog Magog against Israel. It presupposes Israel will exist. Well, that didn't happen until May 14th, 1948, so it's pretty recent.

So that's one mega confirmation that things could happen. Now, here's an offer that'll strengthen your marriage as you grow closer to your spouse and God. Great marriages are made, not born. God wants you to have a strong, thriving, and fun marriage. The Marriage Devotional, 52 Days to Strengthen the Soul of Your Marriage by Levi and Jenny Lesko, is designed to help your marriage not just survive, but thrive. You want to understand God's secret, the secret for fruit in your marriage, in your family, in your parenting. If you feel overwhelmed because your marriage is a long way from where you feel like it should be, or if you feel discouraged and excluded today because divorce is in your story. And here you see God's plan for flourishing, and you've disqualified yourself because of what's in your past.

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That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, let's go to Daniel 11 as we get started with Skip. I had a history professor who loved to quote that famous George Santayana quote. You know, the one that says, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And I think my history professor, like almost every class would say, those who failed to learn from history, and we all go, are doomed to repeat it.

We all knew it very well. But I think it happens to be true. And I think it it happens with just about every generation. Have you noticed that every generation thinks that they're like the most unique singular generation that has ever lived. And they're going to do things so totally different than their parents did it. And then they grow up and they have kids. And often those patterns are repeated over and over again. A girl came up last night after church, a teenager with a tie dye t-shirt.

And I'm thinking, I should have kept that tie-dyed t-shirt from the 70s. It's just funny how things sort of circulate over and over and over again. Well, sadly, that can happen with national history as well. One author wrote what he called a bird's eye view of the cycle of men and cultures.

Listen, if this sounds familiar. Typically, cultures go from bondage to spiritual faith. And then from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and then from dependency back to bondage. No wonder God told his people in the Old Testament to remember what he had done. Deuteronomy, God said, and you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these many years. Daniel chapter 11 is to us historical. Most of it has already happened.

The last 10 verses are yet to happen, but for us, it's pretty much we're looking backwards. We're remembering what has happened in history. And it's about wars and oppressors, most of whom you have never heard of before unless you have studied these periods of history.

Otherwise, you're going, huh? It's like the kid in school who was getting bad grades in history and his buddy said, how come you're flunking history? And he said, because the teacher keeps asking us about things that happened before I was born. Yeah, that's what history is. Now, these things are all history to us, but for Daniel, they were all yet future.

Now, let me just sort of catch you up here. As you recall, and I'm so glad that you've been following us in our study on Daniel, because a lot of this won't be new, you'll get it. Daniel had been reading the prophet Jeremiah, which said that Israel will be captive by the Babylonians for 70 years. And the 70 years was up, so he dropped to his knees, and Daniel prayed that they would return and be strengthened and rebuilt and become a glorious city once again.

But it never really happened. Yeah, they returned, but just a small group returned, less than 50,000, the Bible tells us. The great majority of the children of Israel remained back in Babylon. They had become so complacent, so comfortable, so paganized, they didn't want to disrupt their lifestyle and go on a mission trip to the Holy Land, so they stayed. And those who went were unsuccessful.

They didn't reestablish the monarchy. And the work came to a screeching halt, so Daniel, once again in chapter 10, hits his knees, and he mourns, and he prays, and he fasts for three weeks. And finally, the answer comes.

The answer comes, and it wasn't an answer that he expected. The answer is, Daniel, 70 years, being captive in another place has been very, very difficult, but the chastening of Israel will not end with the 70-year captivity ending. There's gonna be more pain, and suffering, and sorrow, and purging all the way through history, up to the very end, in fact, all the way up until Messiah's kingdom.

And that's the answer that we're getting here in chapter 11. Now, let me give you a lens with which to view this chapter. And again, I'm glad you've been with us so far in Daniel, because you'll remember Daniel chapter 9 and the whole prophecy on Daniel, 70 weeks. But the answer is, Daniel, where the angel said, 70 weeks of years are determined for your people and for your holy city. Chapter 11, verse 1 through 35, are prophecies that fit within the first 69 weeks of years, or the 483 years that we've already told you about. The last part of chapter 11, verse 36 through 45, deal with events, conflicts that will happen in Daniel's 70th week, or the great tribulation period.

Now, I just wanna give you a note here, sort of a warning. It's a very detailed chapter. In fact, get this, in 35 verses, there are 135 predictions that have been fulfilled. 135 very detailed, minute, unbelievably detailed prophecies that have already been fulfilled. Now, because of this, because of that fact that I just said, this is why the book of Daniel has been attacked by the critics, because the critics came along and still come along, and this is what they say. Well, there's no way that anyone could know that kind of detail before it happened, so it must have been written after it happened.

After all those things were fulfilled, that's when it was written, because the critics can't figure out any other way. They certainly can't believe in a God who writes the Bible, or who knows all things. They certainly can't believe in the integrity of Daniel, who had impeccable character, and now they have to discredit Jesus Christ, who called Daniel a prophet. So they're making Daniel a liar, Jesus a liar, and they're saying there's no way this could happen. What we have in Daniel chapter 11 is the marvelous demonstration that history is merely his story, and that for God, telling the future isn't any harder than knowing the past. Now I'm gonna give you a crop duster view of this chapter.

We're gonna fly over and just top some of the trees, but talk about a soap opera. This chapter is it. Now I've given you in your worship folder today an outline with dates and names, because I know that nobody's gonna remember all these names or dates, so it's here for you, and if you want to go and do all the incredible detail and research on your own, have at it. I want to give you a crop duster's view, because otherwise we'll be here for weeks, but I have divided up this chapter of what I'm going to give you this morning into four sections, four sections based upon four different peoples or people groups. Number one, regents of Persia. It's not in your outline.

I'm giving it to you orally. Regents of Persia, or the kings of Persia that are mentioned. Number two, the ruler of Greece, the ruler of Greece, which is Alexander the Great. Number three, rivals north and south, and finally the rogue of Syria.

Those are the four sections that we'll briefly look at. Let's begin with Persia, because that's where the chapter begins in verse one. Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I, even I, stood up to confirm and strengthen him. And now, this is the angel speaking to Daniel, and now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all.

By his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. Now, we typically don't think too much about angels in our daily lives. We don't think about them protecting us or ministering to us. We don't give angels really much of a thought. I do. Because I married one.

But other than that, we typically don't. But the truth is, scripture tells us that God, Hebrews chapter one, sends angels to those of us who inherit salvation to serve us, or as it says, to serve or minister to those who inherit salvation, Hebrews chapter one. Did you know in the Bible, out of 66 books, 34 books mention angels? 17 in the Old Testament, 17 in the New. They're spoken about 103 times in the Old Testament and 165 times in the New Testament. And we have already seen last week that there was this conflict in heaven between demons and angels that affect what happens on the earth.

We should think about that more often. A pastor was preparing a sermon for his small congregation, and someone said to him, why do you work so hard when your message will be heard by so few? And he said, ah, you underestimate how large my audience will be if angels are looking.

Nothing that is done is trivial. I'm doing it for the glory of God and in the presence of all those witnesses. Well, verse one and two tell us that there's gonna be three kings followed by a fourth who's gonna be very wealthy. Truth is, there were more than four Persian kings, but the angel is picking out a section of four at a very crucial key period of time.

And then it focuses on the fourth. The first king that is predicted is a guy by the name of Cambyses, who was the son of Cyrus. The second king was named get this, Pseudosmertas, because he was an imposter. He looked so much like Cambyses, he actually made people believe that he was him, and that's how he got on the throne.

It was all by trickery, it was all by being an imposter. Third is a guy by the name of Darius the first, Hystaspis, and fourth is somebody you know, King Xerxes or Ahasuerus. You're looking at me like, I know him? Well, you know him if you've ever read the book of Esther. He's the king that is featured prominently in the book of Esther, the one that he brings Esther into his company with. That's King Ahasuerus or Xerxes, very wealthy and had the largest army in the ancient world. He masked an army of two and a half million men plus naval ships, and with that he attacked Greece.

History tells us. He crossed over the Hellespont and at the Battle of Thermopylae waged war against the Grecian Empire. He lost the war.

He lost the battle. But it so angered the Greeks that they waited and waited and waited for revenge. A hundred and fifty years later, they got their wish. Verse three. Then a mighty king shall arise. Now he's waging war, verse two, against Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise who will rule with great dominion and do according to his will. And when he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be uprooted even for others besides these. Virtually every Bible commentator will say this refers to Alexander the Great. Now we've already seen him highlighted in previous studies on Daniel in chapter seven. The Grecian Empire was represented by the leopard with four wings.

In chapter eight by the goat that came from the west rapidly coming with a notable horn which broke off and four horns grew in its place. So we're familiar with this kind of prophecy. This is the king. So we have the regents of Persia followed by the ruler of Greece. Now something about Alexander.

He really was 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 sees the entire Persian Empire. Within 10 years, get this, within 10 years he conquered the world. He was king of the world by age 33. He had conquered from Europe all the way to India and when he finally went to Babylon and his troops were exhausted they couldn't go on any further. He was drunk one night and he wept because 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 four. 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. Cassandra, Lysimachus, 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. Lysimachus 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 five all the way to verse 20 is the longest section in the chapter. That's because the kings north and south are the kings 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 but 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 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 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. 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. That's Skip Heite with a message from the series I Dare You.

Find the full message as well as books booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskipp.com. Now let's go in the studio with Skip and Lenya as they share how God's hand is still at work in powerful people today. You know Lenya Daniel saw things in his visions that God gave him that took centuries or even more to get fulfilled but they did happen they were fulfilled.

So there are examples of what God gave to his people that confirmed that God has a plan for the future. One of them is the nation of Israel. The Bible says that Israel will be in existence even though Israel in 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed.

The Romans destroyed it. There was a diaspora. They got out of their land. Eventually they came back and that's what I call one of the mega signs of modern day prophecy is that for a lot of the things to happen like the Bible says they have to happen there has to be an Israel. It talks about a war in the last days with Gog Magog against Israel. It presupposes Israel will exist.

Well that didn't happen till May 14th 1948 so it's pretty recent. So that's one mega confirmation that things could happen. You know there are other things like the Bible talks about men going to and fro and knowledge increasing in the last days and there's a lot of different ways to look at it but when you look at modern times you can see a pretty vivid fulfillment of what the Bible predicts when it comes to events of the future that were futuristic back then but are very contemporary. I think Pastor Chuck and you have often said you can read the newspaper and the Bible side by side and it's often that you can see the fulfillment of something a prophecy that God has made and we just need to be waiting and watching.

I just want to add a word of caution because sometimes people claim they can do that but they extrapolate what's there they they kind of read things into it almost like tea leaves and some people's whole ministry is built upon the next prophetic utterance and it's a blood moon or it's a festival or it's something that and then it doesn't quite happen like they say it's going to happen and we all get discredited so keep an eye looking at these things but always pray for discernment as you go forward. Thanks Skip and Lenya. We hope this conversation inspired you and helped you know Skip and Lenya better. You can join them in connecting others with the life-changing gospel of Jesus with a gift to keep these Bible teachings going strong on the radio, on television, and online. Would you give a gift today to expand the reach of Connect with Skip in the new year and get these broadcasts into more major American cities? Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give generously and share God's love with others. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for changing lives. Join us again tomorrow as Skip concludes his message and encourages you to be filled with faith as you see God's prophecies revealed. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.