Do you struggle to understand scripture passages like the prophetic visions in the Old Testament book of Daniel? Does God intentionally keep us guessing to reward the clever or diligent few who can figure things out? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg considers God's purpose in giving Daniel and us insight into the future. We're going to read together from the Old Testament, from Daniel. and chapter 11.
One of the things that Paul instructs Timothy in It is to make sure that he gives himself to the reading of the Bible, to the reading of the Word of God. And I take it that he means. not only in his personal life, but also in the public opportunities of ministry. And so we purposefully read the Bible together. And this morning this chapter is a long chapter, but I'm going to read the entire chapter.
And I encourage you to follow along if you have your Bible. It'll make it easier, I think, if you are looking at the text. Daniel chapter 11, verse 1. And as for me in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him. And now I will show you the truth.
Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia. and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven.
but not to his posterity. nor according to the authority with which he ruled. for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these. Then the king of the south shall be strong. But one of his princes shall be stronger than he, and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority.
After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure. But she shall be given up and her attendants, he who fathered her. and he who supported her in those times. And from a branch, from her roots, one shall arise in his place.
He shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the north. and he shall deal with them and shall prevail. He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold. And for some years, he shall refrain from attacking the King of the North. Then the latter shall come into the realm of the king of the south, but shall return to his own land.
His sons shall wage war and assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress. Then the king of the south, moved with rage, shall come out and fight against the king of the north. And he shall raise a great multitude. but it shall be given into his hand. And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands.
But he shall not prevail. For the king of the north shall again raise a multitude greater than the first. And after some years, he shall come on with a great army and abundant supplies. In those times, many shall arise against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves up in order to fulfil the vision. But they shall fail.
Then the king of the north shall come and throw up siege works and take a well-fortified city. and the forces of the South shall not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no strength to stand. But he who comes against him shall do as he wills, and none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his hand. He shall set his face to come with strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them.
He shall give him the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom. But it shall not stand or be to his advantage. Afterward, He shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall capture many of them. But a commander shall put an end to his insolence. Indeed, he shall turn his insolence back upon him.
Then he shall turn his face back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall and shall not be found. Then shall arise in his place one who shall send an exactor of tribute for the glory of his kingdom. But within a few days he shall be broken. neither in anger nor in battle. in this place shall arise a contemptible person.
to whom Royal Majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Armies shall be utterly swept away before him and broken, even the Prince of the Covenant. And from the time that an alliance is made with him, he shall act deceitfully. and he shall become strong with a small people.
Without warning he shall come into the richest parts of the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his fathers' fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army. But he shall not stand.
for plots shall be devised against him. Even those who eat his food shall break him, his army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. And as for the two kings, their hearts shall be bent on doing evil. They shall speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed. and he shall return to his land with great wealth.
but his heart shall be set against the holy covenant. and he shall work his will and return to his own land. At the appointed time, he shall return and come into the south. but it shall not be this time as it was before. for ships of kittim shall come against him.
And he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged, and take action against the Holy Covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant.
but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. and many shall join themselves to them with flattery. And some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.
And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished. For what is decreed shall be done. He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women.
He shall not pay attention to any other God, for he shall magnify himself above all. He shall honour the God of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honour with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest forces with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honour.
He shall make them rulers over many, and shall divide the land for a price. At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him. But the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind with chariots and horsemen and with many ships, and he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. He shall come into the glorious land. and tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand.
Edom, and Moab, and the main part of the Ammonites. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train. But news from the East and the North shall alarm him. And he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction.
And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet He shall come to his end. with none. to help him. Amen.
May God bless to us the reading. of his word. Father, we believe that when your word is preached, that your voice is heard. We bow before the mystery of this.
So speak, O Lord, till your church is built and the earth. is filled with your glory. We know one day it will be. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Let me begin by asking the question that is posed in the Heidelberg Catechism. as the first question of the catechism. is your only comfort. in life. and death.
What? is your only comfort in life and death. I'm going to presume that you have a mechanism. For both explaining your life. dealing with your life.
understanding the prospect of death. and dealing with it. What is your only comfort. in life and the death. The eleventh chapter of Daniel is second only in length.
to the second chapter of Daniel. And I read it in its entirety. in order that we might understand It's complexity. and the challenge that is contained in it of studying it. and of understanding it sufficiently to be able to teach it.
and of teaching it in a way that it would be apparently of use and profit to those who were then. the students along with the teacher. It is no small charge. and I have actually adjusted my view. Whereby I said that the end of Daniel 9 was the most daunting part of the book.
That was before I made a stab at chapter 11. I have now put 11 into first place as almost of paralyzing Challenge. One commentator, I was delighted to discover, said of chapter 11, it might be treated in Bible classes. but we do not see how it could be used in a sermon or sermons. But then I discovered that Calvin gave 100 pages.
to chapter 11 in his commentary.
Well, having spent the time in chapter 11, I want you to know that I'm closer to Leopold than I am to Calvin. And the approach that I want to take this morning to this chapter is what I've referred to somewhat humorously before when I've been speaking to other pastors, namely the principle of planned neglect. of planned neglect. In other words, we're not going to delve into all of the details of this chapter. To do so would be patently impossible in the time span that we have and would result actually in a fairly sustained series.
I'm going to take the approach of my old art teacher at Oakley Grammar School, whom I have mentioned to you before, Tommy Walker, to whom I used routinely go with my assignment, Mr. Walker, I'm sorry, but you'll need to help me with my drawing. I can't draw this chair. And you remember what he would always say to me, Beg, I will get you started, but I am not going to do it for you. And that comes to my mind routinely when I'm teaching.
And certainly it has been uppermost in my thinking here in relationship to chapter 11. I am going to get you started, but I am not going to do it for you. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 provide us with actually one unit. One of the reasons that I have not paused at the end of 10 in light of the onset of Advent is simply because 10, 11, 12 need to be taken together. If we fail to take them together, then we do a disservice to the way in which the material is provided and also to our understanding of it.
I hope you will remember that when we looked at 10, the intervention of the heavenly visitor had appeared to Daniel. in order to enable Daniel and in turn The readers of Daniel To understand what is about to happen to them. What will happen to you, he said, and to your people in the latter days. That's verse 14 of chapter 10. The reason for his appearing is not to create confusion in the mind of Daniel or in the mind of those who become the students of the book later on, but is in order to make it clear to Daniel what the future actually holds.
And in chapter 10, we noted the fact that the way in which this is conveyed to Daniel is to bring, as it were, the corner of the curtain of eternity aside in order that Daniel then may actually get a glimpse into the heavenlies and realize that in the unseen realm, there are kingdoms that are in conflict. And that the battle of the world is in that arena in which evil powers exercise their influence. in the very thrones and governments and corridors of political power.
So that when we read of the events of our own lives, the experiences of the rise and fall of nations. We do so in the awareness of the fact that the Bible charts in some measure the progress for us.
Now, what happens in chapter 11? is that What we have seen already in the earlier chapters, particularly in chapter eight, if you remember the ram, the goat, the ram, the Medo-Persian Empire, the goat, the rise of Greece. What is there, if you like, in a more embryonic form is then flushed out in far greater detail here in chapter 11. And in that greater detail, we need to acknowledge that it it is jolly difficult. At least I have found it so.
I'm greatly encouraged by the fact that at the end of the vision in chapter 8, you will perhaps recall the final sentence of chapter 8. Then I, that is Daniel, rose. and went about the king's business. But I was appalled by the vision. and did not understand it.
Good. In chapter 12, we're going to go on into 12 next week, all being well. And what do we discover there? He says in verse 8, I heard these things, but I did not understand. I didn't understand.
I think it's very important, and this is one of the things I hope has come across in our study of Daniel, it is very important to realize that there is no need to be ashamed when we do not understand. The people that you really ought to be most cautious about are those who can give you an explanation for every tiny detail of the Bible. And if you have the feeling, as they do, that they might just be wrong, the chances are they might just be wrong. And the endeavor is understandable. But not everything is perfectly clean, is it?
We've quoted the Westminster Confession in this matter, and I do so again. Not all things in Scripture are equally plain in themselves or equally clear to all. True. Yet Those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation. Are so clearly stated and explained in one place or another in the Bible.
That not only the educated, but also the uneducated, may gain a sufficient understanding of them. By a proper use of the ordinary means. What a wonderful closing sentence that is. A proper use of the ordinary means. What are the ordinary means?
The Bible. What is a proper use of the Bible? Read it. But don't read it in a way that you don't read any other book. Is full of verbs and pronouns and adjectives and similes and metaphors and various genres.
Therefore, it is to be read in that way, if we would use it properly. The reason that some of us do not benefit from our reading of the Bible is because we do not read it properly. When we think about the Bible being inspired, we assume that it is supposed to just inspire us.
So we read it, hoping for inspiration. And we don't get any inspiration, so we look for another place.
Well, I must tell you, reading 11, as I have done, not only for you in your hearing now, but all throughout this past week or 10 days, has been a reminder to me of just how daunting it really is. And then I read my dear brother and good friend Sinkler, who said this: It is always important to cover passages of Scripture that contain material that is difficult to follow. Oh, I said, oh no, come on. Because it underlines the biblical teaching that studying scripture is hard work. That studying scripture is hard work.
That's why Paul says to Timothy: study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, who is rightly dividing the word of truth. It's work. It's work. It's not something you can do in five minutes on the back of an envelope. It's not something you can do sitting around waiting for a blessed thought to pass on.
If what you want to do in teaching the Bible is just come up with half a dozen illustrations and two funny stories and a little bit of the Bible, then you can do that. You'll never need to study again in your entire life. But if you're gonna set yourself the task of doing the second half of Daniel, then you better get at the business. Because there are certain passages of Scripture that are just hard to understand. You say, okay, well, you've made the point.
Well, I wanted to make the point. And I was helped also by Joyce Baldwin. who when she said Unless the readers are actually serious students of ancient history. Most of the illusions In Daniel 11, will completely baffle them. And since I am not a Syrian student of ancient history, I am here to acknowledge the accuracy of her assessment.
And the wisdom conveyed in the fact that she suggests that if you want to get serious about this, and this is homework for all of us, if you want to be serious about it, then a secular history. read alongside Daniel 11. will both help to understand the unfolding of secular history and will help to understand the vision that is conveyed in the 11th chapter. For example, the Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 8. Rome and the Mediterranean.
218 to 133 BC. You can get it on Amazon. and you can have a wonderful time working your way through it.
Now, I say all of this because The only way that we can adequately handle doing something with this chapter, and we will come back to the hardest part of it tonight. is is to Deal with it from 30,000 feet. I know that some of you will be disappointed by this, I freely acknowledge that, but I think it is still in our best interests. What do we know? We know that the exiles have been free to return home.
But the news that is filtered back from Jerusalem is that it isn't really going very well. In fact, they are confronted by opposition. And within relatively short order, the rebuilding project is going to come to a crushing halt. And Daniel is given an insight by God into what's really going on. And so Daniel in chapter 10 is just absolutely destabilized by the immensity of what he discovers, that behind all of the ebb and flow and the toxic turvy of life for them in their exile and now in their restoration and in looking to the future, there is this battle in the heavens.
Mm-hmm. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. Tomorrow we'll hear his interpretation of Daniel's vision. As we are finding out, it can be challenging to study Scripture, to figure out the timeline and how these stories all fit together, especially in the Old Testament. And that's why today we are recommending to you a book that takes you through the entire storyline of the Bible.
It's called The Story of God and Us. This is an engaging book that tells the grand story of the Bible from creation to restoration, from Eden to eternity. The author is Jonathan Murphy, he's a pastor and seminary professor, and he navigates you through all of Scripture using easy to read language. Like a great storyteller, he weaves in contemporary examples to highlight important lessons along the way. This overarching sweep through the Bible focuses on how God remained faithful even when his people turned from him, And how Jesus fulfilled all that God promised as the long-anticipated king, the ultimate servant.
Priest and Saviour. You will trace God's relentless purpose through history to redeem a people for Himself and restore a broken world, and you'll come away with a deeper gratitude. for God's love and faithfulness. Importantly, you'll see more clearly how you fit into this story of salvation. Ask for your copy of the book The Story of God and Us when you donate to Truth for Life.
Go to truthforlife.org slash donate online or call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lepine. Thanks for listening. At the end of today's message we were left with the image of a deeply troubled prophet, Daniel. His glimpse of the spiritual battles that rage behind the scenes destabilized him, and perhaps you as well.
to morrow we'll consider our only comfort. in life and death? The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
