Daniel 10–12

We are in the book of Daniel, so open your Bible to Daniel Chapter 10 and we will get into these Chapters. With the Lord's help, we're actually going to finish the Book of Daniel tonight, and I know that means three Chapters. I had somebody ask me tonight if he should have brought a snack and that's always probably a good idea, but no, Chapters 10 and 12, frankly, are not that long, and they're kind of like bookends really for Chapter 11. And you'll see why Chapter 10 just kind of leads us into what is the crux of these chapters in Chapter 11. And then 12 is kind of the finish touch to this whole thing. Because what we're going to be, what we're going to be doing here is we're going to read about the final revelation that Daniel received as he lived the majority of his life in the Persian Kingdom as a young man, probably in his early teens, he was taken to the Babylonian Empire where he served the king of Babylon there. And now, here he's at the end of his life, he's probably close to 90 years old, and the Lord has been giving him a series of visions about the future of Israel, not only in the relatively near future, but also in the far distant future. And we're going to see some more of that tonight. So, let's begin here, just with a word of prayer, ask the Lord to open our hearts. Father, as we get into the Scripture tonight here in Daniel, these chapters that finish out the book, we pray for Your Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us in wisdom and understanding. It is, Lord, through Your Spirit that we're able to make sense of this and apply it to our lives. And I thank you, Father, for the insights that these chapters give us, not only about the last days, but about spiritual realities. So, we pray that You'd help us to really lay hold of these. And we ask you to guide us, Father, in wisdom tonight. In Jesus’ precious name, amen. Amen. Chapter 10, Daniel Chapter 10. It begins by dating this for us, and it says,

Now, this is an important note here in terms of the timeframe of helping us understand other events because when we turn to the Book of Ezra, we find a similar sort of a timeframe. Let’s put it up on the screen here. It says in Chapter 1, verse 1, that book begins by saying,

So, this happened. So, and he's talking about the command from Cyrus to go back and rebuild the temple in the city of Jerusalem, which of course was also in ruins. But we see here as we start, Daniel Chapter 10, that this is in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia. So, we know that it's been two years since Cyrus gave the word for the Jews to go back to their homeland, any who wanted to go and to be a part of rebuilding the temple. And so, you're probably thinking to yourself, why didn't Daniel go? Daniel stayed put. Well, there were a lot of Jews who stayed put in the Persian Kingdom. Now remember, Daniel is a very old man. Like I said, he's close to probably 90 years old. That sort of a journey would be very difficult for someone his age. And besides, he has lived the majority of his life serving the kings of Babylon and Persia, and he's continuing in that service to this day, no retirement plan here in the kingdom of Persia. So, he stays behind and he finished out his years there. But he begins in this section in verse 2 by telling us that,

And so, he's praying and he's, Daniel has been given incredible revelations about the nation of Israel, and they've troubled him. He lacks so much information related to these visions, and so, he's constantly praying and he's now in a time of mourning. And the reason he mentions mourning is because it helps us to understand that he is fasting during this time. Now, at the age of 90, you'll notice that he's altered the way he's fasting. Usually, typically, in the Bible, fasting is going without food, and even periods of time, without water. But in this case, you'll notice that Daniel has simply chosen to eat no delicacies, no fine foods, and what he means by that is the usual fair that the king might supply for him -- the meat, the wine, and so forth. ---

He says, I didn't eat any of that stuff, nor did he anoint himself, which was just kind of the regular way of taking care of your physical body, for a full three weeks. So, he's probably eating vegetables, drinking water, and keeping up his strength to some degree. And I'll tell you right now, there are some people that say, “well, that's not fasting, because typically biblical fasting is going without food altogether.” I've come to see in the Word of God that there are different shades of fasting. And I don't think you necessarily have to say, well, this is fasting and that isn't. I think anytime you go without something, whatever it may be, it can be a kind of fasting. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul encourages couples that when they come together for prayer, he assumes that they're going to withhold themselves from one another in a marital, maritally physical sort of a way. But then he reminds them, don't go too long, and make sure it's by mutual consent; and don't go too long because temptation might overcome one or the other person. So, be careful about that. But that's a form of fasting. And I think that there are lots of different forms of fasting that a person can partake in. I know some of you have told me in the past, I just, my blood sugar being what it is, I just can't go without food for very long. I kind of lose it. I become emotional or any number of other things, but I'd like to be able to fast in some way. Well, I think there's plenty of ways. And today one of the greatest ways to fast is either turn off the tv, turn off your computer, or social media. I've seen notes on people's social media page many times that say “I'm gone for three weeks. Just want to let you know. If you need to get a hold of me, you can call me, but I'm not going to be on social media and I'm just going to fast from this for a period of time, just to kind of clear my head and so forth.” There's a lot of ways I think that you can direct your attention to the Lord more fully by reducing the distractions of the world. And that's largely what fasting is about. It's about reducing distractions so that you can focus yourself in prayer. So, I would encourage you to ask yourself or think in your own life, what are some of the things that are most distracting to me that, potentially, I could fast from? So, we see here again in verse 3 that Daniel's fast went for a full three weeks. Now look at verse 4. This is very fascinating. He says,

5 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. 7 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves+. So, here's Daniel, just out on the Bank of the Tigress, and suddenly he beholds this vision of this incredible awesome being. Now you'll notice that he gives us a pretty thorough description of this person describing what his body was even like, his face, his eyes, his arms and legs, how this being literally was gleaming and how his words sounded like the sound of many voices, like a crowd of people all talking in unison. Pretty incredible, pretty awesome. What's interesting is that if you compare this description with John's description of the resurrected and glorified Jesus, you're going to find that it's almost right down the line very similar, which has led some people to believe that Daniel is beholding a pre-incarnate vision. We would refer to it as a theophany or a Christophany, more specifically, of Jesus, prior to His incarnation. But there are reasons to doubt that. There’re also reasons to believe that this is just a very powerful angel, and we'll get into some of those reasons as we get into the further verses. Either way, it doesn't necessarily mean anything one way or the other because the message is from the Lord. You'll notice that he says he alone saw the vision, but the people or the men that were with him, all they got out of it was a panic attack. And they ran and hid themselves because they were literally trembling with fear. So, very similar to the vision that the apostle Paul had on the road to Damascus when he beheld the Lord, and the men who were with him simply were afraid. Verse 8, he goes on and says, 8 “So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, (and that's a fancy way of saying I became deathly pale) and I retained no strength. (Remember, he's an old man by this time.) 9 Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground."

Can you imagine this angelic being, we’ll assume for a moment, begins to speak to Daniel and he face plants right down to the ground and falls into a deep sleep. He literally can't keep himself awake. Verse 10, 10 “And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard,” I want you to take note of that. Daniel's words were heard in heaven. Right away he says, from the first day that you began to pray, your words were heard, and he says, “and I have come because of your words." So, we can tell that Daniel was praying for insight, wisdom, and understanding. And so, when he began to pray, this messenger, this angelic messenger was dispatched in answer to his prayer, all right? I want you to notice though, we get this incredible sneak peek into the spirit realm as we keep reading, verse 13, 13” The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” All right, we need to stop there for a moment, and we need to look into these verses a little bit and see what's going on because we've been told something fascinating. We've been told something that we wouldn't be able to know had we not been told it or had we not, had it not been revealed to us. And that is this messenger tells Daniel that from the very first day that he set his heart to pray and seek wisdom, God dispatched the answer. But notice that this being, this angelic being tells Daniel that the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me or resisted me, if you will, for 21 days. Now, how long had Daniel been praying? Well, he told us very early on there -- He'd been praying for three weeks with 21 days, and so Daniel was completely unaware of what was going on. But we need to ask ourselves the question, who is this prince of Persia? I mean, I thought for all we know about is the king of

Persia and his name is Cyrus. His name was given to us as we dated this chapter in the very beginning. So, who is this prince of Persia? Well, this is not a human king at all. This is an angelic, or if you will, a demonic being who resisted the message that God dispatched to Daniel and was able to hold it up for 21 days. For 21 days, and eventually he even goes on to say that I was left there with the kings of Persia, and it was Michael, one of the chief princes, who by the way, in the next, later on in this chapter, and later as well, we will see in the last chapter that Michael is mentioned as a prince of Israel. Now, what are we talking about here? We're talking about angelic beings that are over countries or regions, and you're saying, “now, wait a minute, pastor Paul, that's ridiculous. Where else would the Bible make reference to angelic beings or demonic beings that have some kind of authority that would cover a particular area or a nation or country or something like that?” Well, actually we read about it in several places, but one of the most illuminating is given to us in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Ephesians, let me show you this on the screen, Ephesians 3:10, he talks about the fact, Ephesians 3:10 (ESV) …so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. So, all we know from this verse is there are rulers and authorities in heavenly places, all right? And then later on in Ephesians Chapter 6, he goes on to say this, Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So, we find out that this is a reality. Now, this is something that we wouldn't even be aware of without the Lord revealing it. We don't see the spirit realm. We are physical beings for the most part. We are made alive in the spirit, but we are mostly physical beings in our five senses. Pretty much control our lives, what we can see, and hear and feel, and so forth. The spirit realm is a hidden reality, but a reality nonetheless. And we learn that there are powers, principalities, rulers in the spiritual realm, or if you will, in the heavenlies. And this is what Daniel is being told, that from the very first day he set his heart to pray and seek understanding concerning the revelations that God had been giving him, the message had been dispatched, but it had been held up for 21 days. So, somehow there's this demonic prince over Persia that withheld or withstood the messenger of the Lord. And you might say, “well, how's that possible?” Well, there's a lot of things we don't know about the spirit realm, but the Persian Kingdom was a pagan kingdom. They were, it was filled with paganism. And so, for some reason it had given this stronghold, if you will, to these demonic overseers, these demonic powers to have an entrenched authority where they can actually hold back the answers from the Lord. This is amazing stuff. Well, one of the questions that we have to ask ourselves is, what if Daniel had stopped praying after 20 days? What if he had stopped praying after 19 days? I have heard so many times from Christians, I prayed, but I didn't get an answer. And sometimes I get an opportunity to ask them, “how long did you pray?” And when somebody says to me, “I prayed, but I didn't get an answer.” What they're telling me without saying the words is, “I should have gotten an answer, but I didn't.” In other words, they set a time limit. And God's lack of answer exceeded their time limit, whatever it was, whether it was 24 hours, 24 days, or 24 months doesn't really matter. They, personally, without being told by God, and by the way, there's nothing in the Bible that says that there's a time limit on God getting back to you. I just want you to know that there's nothing in the Word that says, I'll get back to you within this amount of time. And if not, then we obviously have a disconnect, the phone's off the hook. Boy, that dates me, doesn't it? By saying that there's no hooks anymore, but you guys know what I mean. There's nowhere in the Bible that explains how long we should wait. You know what the Bible does say? It's just persevere in prayer. Keep praying. Jesus said, keep praying. You think Jesus knew something we didn't when He told us to keep praying that maybe there are spiritual powers that are invested in these things both positively and negatively? Some, to bring you the answer that you're seeking and some to withhold that answer from you, you think maybe that's a possibility? This is called spiritual warfare in case you needed to put a title to it. But that's what we're talking about. We're talking about things going on in the spirit realm that we would otherwise be oblivious, concerning, and yet what that God has revealed to us here in His Word. So, the answer has finally come. Verse 15, look with me in your Bible.

You guys know, remember this is kind of a side note, but you remember that statue that Nebuchadnezzar dreamt about in the very first part of Daniel, we saw in that statue the succession of world powers going from Babylon to Medo- Persia to Greece. Now, Medo-Persia is in control. They are the world power right now, but Greece is on the horizon, and notice that there's this buildup of spiritual demonic activity already in Greece. And this angel is telling Daniel that not only is he going to have to fight against the prince of Persia, but the prince of Greece is going to come, and he says in verse 21,

Now, the reason we believe that Michael is a prince over Israel is because he is referred to here as your prince. We don't believe he's Daniel's prince. We believe that whenever it speaks of your people, it’s speaking of the Jews, the Israelites. And so, this is one of the reasons, and we'll see this more clearly as we get further into these chapters, all right? Chapter 11, now this is a challenging chapter to read, but we'll just jump in here. It says, and really, I think verse 1 of Chapter 11 probably should have been connected to the previous chapter because it says,

2 “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." Now, we know, we can look back in history, we can see all these things. We know that there were three more kings after Cyrus. We know that there was another fourth king that came. We know his name. He was Artaxerxes, or also known as Xerxes. And we also know he just had it in for Greece. He hated Greece, and he even amassed allies from other nations to come with him and attack Greece. But a very young leader in Greece pushed back against the attack of the Persian army along with their allies, and he overcame Persia, and that young leader in Greece we know was Alexander the Great. And he was like in his twenties or like 20 years old at the time. He was a very young man. And he's the one that Daniel now sees or hears about in verse 3. Look with me there,

Well again, we can look to history and we know that Alexander the Great, who by the way, was an alcoholic, really struggled with alcohol, died at the young age of like 32 or 33 years of age. He died after a drunken party. And who knows, probably alcohol poisoning or something in his blood, but after his death, His empire was divided among his four generals, and that's exactly what Daniel is told in these verses. By the way, I'll tell you this as an aside, liberal scholars really struggle reading the Book of Daniel because it is so specific and so right on to what we know as history that they don't believe Daniel wrote it beforehand. They believe that someone wrote it after the fact. It is so precise. But in that case, liberal is just another word for unbelief. So, we get back to these four generals who took over for Alexander the Great when he died, and their names were Antigones, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Seleucus. Now, they covered different areas of Alexander's land. I'm going to put a map up on the screen here for you to kind of look at for just a little bit.

You'll notice there's a key there with colors and the ones that we're really going to take note of are the two kingdoms that are listed in that key on the top, the kingdom of Seleucus, and the kingdom of Ptolemy. And the reason that we're going to talk about these, and really the rest of this chapter is a running narrative about those two kingdoms. And they are going to be referred to as the king of the north, which is the kingdom of Seleucus and the kingdom of the south, which is Ptolemy. And the kingdom of the south essentially is Egypt and some other portions. And then the kingdom of the north is essentially Syria, although it extended beyond Syria as well. And the reason we're going to focus, this vision focuses on those two kingdoms from Alexander's kingdom is because Israel is right in the middle, and they constantly are going to get caught up in the battles and skirmishes between these two kingdoms, all right? And by the way, you're going to be hearing that kingdom of the south and kingdom of the north over and over again. So, look with me now. Well, let's just leave that map up there for just a little bit and let's begin reading again in verse 5, it says,

shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority.” So, we can see that this we're being told here that the kingdom of Seleucus is going to be the greater of the kingdom. And once again, this squares with what we know from history. Let me show you what I found online from a website that has just, it's just a quote from a history website. It says, Of the four, (and that means the four generals that took over after Alexander died) Seleucus was arguably the most successful in that he accomplished what Alexander had set out to do: the creation of a multi-national empire which merged eastern and western cultures harmoniously. The Seleucid Empire, at first, was marked by religious and cultural tolerance, efficient bureaucracy, lucrative trade and expansion through military campaign, creating a realm stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus Valley. (And the Indus Valley is what is today, essentially southern India and portions of Pakistan.) - worldhistory.org And so, this is right from, and this is a secular world history website that's telling you information that the Bible has told you ahead of time that this Seleucid Empire is going to be the stronger of the two. And by the way, these battles between the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Empire lasted for like 130 years. And this is how long Israel is in the hotspot between these two warring factions, all right? And that's really what the remainder of these verses are about. And they get into a lot of detail. It says in verse 6,

Now again, we look into history, and we know what happened here and it reads like a really bad soap opera. The king of the south, king of Egypt sent one of his daughters to go and marry into the king of the north, which is the Seleucid Empire. But the problem was the king of the north was already married. And so, in order to take this wife to make this pact between their two nations, he had to divorce his previous wife. Well, she's the jilted wife now, and guess what she does? She murders his new wife, she poisons her and has, and along with all of her attendance, all of her women who followed her there, she has them all killed. And then to make matters really soap opera like, the king of the north remarries his ex-wife, and then she kills him. This is crazy. It's like, dude, that was really stupid. And that's why we're told here that this new wife noticed, we read that in that she shall be given up and her attendance and we're told of the king of the north that he and his arm shall not endure. And that's because they all died in this rather terrible exchange. Verse 7,

So, in other words, he marches the brother of this woman who was given in marriage and then killed along with her attendants, he wants to retaliate against this thing when he comes to power. So, he gets his army together and he attacks the king of the north, which is Syria and beyond and he takes the city, and by the way, their capital city is Antioch, which is really where the New Testament church flourished the most in the early 1st century. But right now it's just simply the capital of this northern kingdom, this Seleucid Empire, and it tells us here, “and he shall deal with them and shall prevail.” So, again, he's successful in taking the city and retaliating. It says,

So, after he successfully went to Antioch, took the city and took a lot of their stuff, he then backed off and just kind of chilled for a while, didn't come out and make any other war.

So, the king of Syria now, or that Seleucid Empire says, we're going to go and we're going to get back at those guys down in Egypt. And they start to come against them, but they return to their own land without really doing any kind of an attack at all.

And it says, 10 “His sons (and that refers to the sons of the king of the north or the Seleucid Empire) 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. 11 Then the king of the south, (we're back to the Ptolemy’s) 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. (in other words, the king of the north will be defeated temporarily) 12 And when the multitude is taken away, his (the king of the south) heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, (and what that means is he will murder thousands of people in the northern kingdom) but he shall not prevail. 13 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. So, you can see this. It's just going back and forth. War here, war there. One gets stronger, then the other one gets stronger and they're warring. But remember, Israel is between these two warring factions. They literally have to pass through Israel to attack one another, okay? And this is why this is being given to Daniel because it has to do with his people. Now, verse 14, 14 “In those times many shall rise against the king of the south, (meaning Egypt, and look at this) and the violent among your own people (meaning the Jews) shall lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail.” And that means that some of the Jews are going to join with the king against the king of the south. And you'll notice that these are the people who are violent, the violent among your people. By the way, we know from history that the Godly Jews refuse to get involved in this issue between Egypt and Syria. They just refused, but the violent among them were just looking for reasons to kill people and they got involved in the skirmish, but we’re told that they failed. Verse 15, 15 “Then the king of the north (again, that's Syria and beyond) shall come and throw up siegeworks 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. 16 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, (that is Israel) with destruction in his hand.”

Now, get ready because here we're going to come to one of the kings of Syria, who we've talked about before, a man named Antiochus Epiphanes, from the Seleucid Dynasty that Syria, northern kingdom and beyond. And the reason we need to take note about this is because as we saw in a previous chapter, Antiochus Epiphanes is a foreshadowing of the antichrist who is going to rise to power during the Great Tribulation. And so, what we're about to do once again, is to embark upon the Law of Double Reference as it relates to prophetic Scripture. Let me put up the definition again. We talked about this in Chapter 8, but we'll do it again. The Law of Double Reference is the tendency of Scripture prophecy to sometimes refer to two events or people simultaneously -- one relevant to the general time of the prophecy and the other relating to the distant, far-off future. So, Daniel is going to be given a vision of battles and persecutions that are going to affect his own people, Israel, that are going to happen in the relative or general future. But those battles and persecutions are going to foreshadow the great battles and the great persecutions that are going to happen to Israel during the Great Tribulation. And just as Antiochus Epiphanes came down into Israel, and we know this from history, and spewed his hatred for the Jews and all that they believed in, so also we know from Scripture that the antichrist will do the same thing, but on a much larger scale during the Great Tribulation. Now, let's keep reading. Verse 17, 17 “He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them. (and this is offering terms to the king of Egypt) He shall give him the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom, but it shall not stand or be to his advantage. 18 Afterward he shall turn his face to the coastlands (and that would be the area of Tyre and Sidon or as we refer to it as Phoenicia) 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. 19 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.” Verse 20 is important, 20 “Then shall arise in his place one who shall send an exactor of tribute (that's another fancy way of saying a tax collector) for the glory of the kingdom. But within a few days he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle. 21 In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom (and that's referring to the Kingdom of Israel) by flatteries.” Now, this is talking about Antiochus epiphanies who comes into power even though he is not of royalty, who invades Israel largely through flattery and so forth, and intrigue, and this closely corresponds to the antichrist who is going to do largely the same thing. He's going to enter into a covenant with Israel, we know. And it'll be a seven-year covenant and it'll largely be entered into through flattery and intrigue. And it is my belief that this covenant, that the antichrist enters into with Israel will enable them to rebuild the temple and will supply them with a sense of safety against terror attacks. And this is just my opinion. But what we do know for absolutely certain is that the antichrist will go back on his agreement halfway through. It'll be a seven-year agreement, but three and a half years into the agreement, he will renege on his promises, and he will do all kinds of terrible things. Notice what it says in verse 22,

Now, this is where we talk about both Antiochus Epiphanes and the antichrist,

Notice his heart will be set against the holy covenant. In other words, he hates the Jews. And all they stand for 29 “At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before. 30 For ships of Kittim (which is the Western coastlands) 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. (In other words, he's going to befriend those Jews who are willing to, because of fear, forsake the covenant of their God) 31 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.” Now, I want you to really remember that phrase right there, “the abomination that makes desolate.” Because Antiochus did all of these things, and so will the antichrist, and the abomination that makes desolate is what Antiochus did -- he set up the altar of Zeus or an image of Zeus in the Holy of Holies, he sacrificed a pig, as we said before, sprinkling its blood on the altar, and then forcing the Jews to eat the meat of the pig, which for them was an unclean animal and forbidden for them to eat. But here's the question we have to ask ourselves -- How do we know that these events foreshadow another series of events that go beyond Antiochus Epiphanes? In other words, how do we know that the law of double reference applies to these verses? Because what we're saying also is true of the anti- Christ, hasn't happened yet. So how do we know? How do we know we're talking about a dual fulfillment related to these prophecies? Well, the way we know is because Jesus came along. He referenced, quoted Daniel, and spoke of the very things that Daniel makes reference to after Antiochus Epiphanes. Remember something, Antiochus Epiphanes rose to power in that period of time that we called the Inter-Testamental Period. In other words, there's about 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's where Antiochus Epiphanes lived, reigned and did his worst. So, this is before the birth of Christ these things took place. But I want to show you what Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 24.

He's making reference here to the, literally using the same words Daniel did about the abomination of desolation, which we know is going to be accomplished by the antichrist. So, let's keep reading on, we've got some territory yet to complete. Verse 32 says, 32 “He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. 33 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. 34 When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, 35 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. 36 “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 (or if you will be successful) till the indignation (and that word also could be translated till the wrath is accomplished) is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done.” And so referring to the antichrist, it's telling us that he will continue and be successful to persecute and even kill those who have come to faith in Christ during the great tribulation until God's wrath is poured out on him. Verse 37, 37 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. Antiochus Epiphanes did that, the antichrist will as well we’re told in the book of Revelation. 38 He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. 39 He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price. 40 “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. 41 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. 42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 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. (meaning they will be in submission to him) 44 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. 45 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. All right, now, Chapter 12. This is, again, a fairly short chapter and this is really the concluding statements now given to Daniel from the angel.

And what you're given there in the first three verses is just a very broad statement of the events that are going to take place in the last days. It's very broad. It does not have a great deal of detail to it at all.

Are we in a time of the world when knowledge is increasing? We are. Not wisdom, knowledge. That's an important distinction.

And a time is a year, times is two years, and then a half a time, of course, would be a half of a year. In other words, three and a half years, or if you will, the latter three and a half years of the period of the Great Tribulation. “and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished.” Because, of course, that is when Jesus returns to the earth as we speak of this related to the antichrist, and now Daniel says,

And what Daniel's asking is what's going to happen to the Jews? That's what he's concerned about. Daniel's not given any information about the church. There is no information given in the Old Testament about the church. He's interested in what's happening to his nation, and here's the answer. It's not one he wants.

And by the way, this is also how we know that these prophecies are touching on the Law of Double Reference because they referred to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and they also are referring to the time of the end, right? And that's why Daniel is told to shut up and seal the vision. Verse 10,

And I really believe that many who are refined during the time of the Great Tribulation are going to turn to the Scriptures. And they're going to look at these things in detail, and they're going to understand, it's going to make perfect sense during the time of the Great Tribulation, and they will understand.

--- That's another rough figure for three and a half years, referring again to the latter half of the Great Tribulation up to the return of Jesus. And then in verse 12, it says,

So, what this is doing is this is tacking on an additional 45 days to this latter half of the Tribulation, and we don't know why. It apparently has something to do with the Jews during that time. But honestly, we don't know. We would just be guessing to even try to say. Verse 13 says,

So, incredible, huh? And so, with that, we come to the end of the Book of Daniel. Such incredible prophecies given in this latter three chapters of Daniel. And it's amazing that God has given us insight into understanding these things far greater than Daniel had because we have the Book of Revelation to go along with the Book of Daniel, which gives us tremendous insight, actually they kind of shake hands together in terms of understanding each. So, anyway, let's close in prayer. We've got about five minutes before the kids are done. So, Father, thank You so much for giving us this time tonight to get into the Word. Thank You, Father, for the prophecies that are spelled out for us in the Book of Daniel. Thank You, Lord, for Daniel, his heart, his desire to know and to persevere in prayer so that these visions might be made known, and give us clarity and insight into the last days. I thank You, my Father, for the revelation of these things, and I thank You, Lord, that You know and have a plan, and Your plan is unfolding exactly as You said it would, and these things will take place, and that is our hope, Lord, that everything you have said will come to pass. Thank You, Father, thank You for giving us forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank You for taking our penalty on the cross on our behalf, and we praise you, Lord, for doing what we could not do, and that's paying the penalty of our sins. We praise You and rejoice in you, Lord, and we ask that you'd continue to fill our hearts with wisdom and grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. ---