Daniel 11:29-39

c. PERVERSITY

TEXT: Daniel 11:29-39

29

At the time appointed he shall return, and come into the south; but it shall not be in the latter time as it was in the former.

30

For ships of Kittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and shall return, and have indignation against the holy covenant, and shall do his pleasure: he shall even return, and have regard unto them that forsake the holy covenant.

31

And forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continued burnt-offering, and they shall set up the abomination that maketh desolate.

32

And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall be pervert by flatteries; but the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

33

And they that are wise among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, captivity and by spoil, many days.

34

Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall join themselves unto them with flatteries.

35

And some of them that are wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed.

36

And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods; and he shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done.

37

Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.

38

But in his place shall he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things.

39

And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god: whosoever acknowledgeth him he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.

QUERIES

a.

What is the time appointed?

b.

Who are those who do wickedly against the covenant?

c.

When and what is the indignation that shall be accomplished?

PARAPHRASE

At the time appointed in the providence of Almighty God, the king of Syria will make a third military expedition against the kingdom of Egypt. But he will not have success on this expedition, because a fleet of warships shall come against him from the West. This will cause the king of Syria great vexation and on his return to Syria he will vent his rage on the covenant people and there will be no one in Palestine able to resist him. He will make influential associations with apostate Jews and use them to his advantage while at the same time he will station a garrison of Syrian troops in the citadel. They will defile the Holy Sanctuary of the Jews by forbidding all the temple services and by erecting an abominable idol inside the temple. And by deceit and flattery the king of Syria will encourage the wicked Jews to commit even more wickedness and apostasy. But those who believe in Jehovah and remain loyal to Him will show themselves to be people of courage accomplishing many valiant deeds in His name. The spiritually wise and understanding leaders of the covenant people will also cause many others of the people to appreciate and understand spiritual things of God. But many of these valiant ones will lose their lives in terrible persecution and slavery which shall continue for a long time. They will have very little help in these terrible times; as a matter of fact, many of those who appear to be of their number will be false loyalists. The terrible suffering of the faithful shall serve to purify God's people and purge them of the ungodly among them. This painful, purifying process will continue to the end of the troublous times of the Jewish dispensation, just as God has appointed and predicted it before. During this time the king of Syria will appear to be able to do whatever he wishes to do. He will be so audacious as to elevate himself above every man-made god and will viciously and blatantly blaspheme the God of heaven and he will not be hindered until God's righteous indignation against His covenant-breaking people is fulfilled, for it will be fulfilled even as it was prophesied long before. This egotistical maniac will renounce the gods of his ancestors, the favorite gods of other nations, and will exalt himself above everything, whether divine or human. He will give allegiance to no god but war and to that he will devote great treasures of gold, silver, jewels, and other treasures. The strongest fortresses will call forth his most ardent love for warfare. He will confer honor on those who, like himself, love warfare and elevate such to rule over territories which he shall apportion to them for their loyalties.

COMMENT

Daniel 11:29 AT THE TIME APPOINTED HE SHALL RETURN. INTO THE SOUTH. There is no question among exegetes that from Daniel 11:29 through 35 Daniel is predicting the future of Antiochus IV. At Daniel 11:36, however, some would have Daniel begin to predict the Antichrist to come supposedly at the end of the Christian age. We shall deal with this problem later.

Daniel means at the time appointed within the providential schedule of God. God knows the future of all history and whatever happens God uses to serve His purposes. This third expedition of Antiochus IV against Egypt in the spring of 168 B.C. ultimately served the Divine purpose toward the Jews. Antiochus-' efforts against Egypt did not fare as well on this third campaign as before. In fact, he was humiliated. In Egypt the two brothers, Ptolemy Philometor and Ptolemy Physcon, were no longer at odds with one another. Their sister, Cleopatra, had succeeded in persuading them that their interests lay along the same lines, and that any efforts to allow Antiochus to control the situation for them was pure folly. Besides these brothers had sought the support of the Romans. Because of this Antiochus decided to attack.

Daniel 11:30 FOR SHIPS OF KITTIM SHALL COME AGAINST HIM;. Kittim is Cyprus but to those of Palestine Cyprus (Kittim) referred not only to the island but to all the regions that lay beyond it to the westtherefore Rome. Those who translated the LXX understood this so well that they rendered his verse, And the Romans will come, etc.

What happened is a famous historical episode that has often been retold. C. Popillius Laenas headed the Roman embassy at the time when it encountered Antiochus, who was besieging Alexandria. The Roman appraised him of the demand of the senate that he quit the land. Antiochus hesitated and sought to gain time. With his staff the Roman drew a circle about the king and curtly told him that his decision must be reached before he stepped outside of the circle, or else he would have to meet the Romans in war. Antiochus, having lived in Rome as a young man for many years, well knew the strength of the Romans and, above all things, wanted to keep them appeased, and so, though thoroughly vexed and agitated, he had to give his word that he would withdraw from Egypt immediately.
The rage he was unable to vent on Egypt is now turned against the people of Palestine. If Egypt was to remain unconquered by him and a rival power, Antiochus found it more necessary than ever to retain his hold on Palestine. He dispatched Appolonius, his general, to occupy the city of Jerusalem. In a Sabbath attack, when he knew that the orthodox Jews would not fight, he slaughtered large numbers of the Jews. The city walls were destroyed, and a new fortress, the Akra, was built on the site of the citadel. Antiochus-' forces were assisted by Menelaus and his apostate followers, Antiochus had regard unto these that had forsaken the holy covenant.

Daniel 11:31 AND FORCES SHALL STAND ON HIS PART. The Akra was garrisoned by a large force of Syrian soldiers which was expected to keep the Jews in submission to the policies of Antiochus. One of Israel's darkest periods began. A systematic attempt was made to Hellenize the country by force. An edict demanded the fusion of all the nationalities of the Seleucid empire into one people. Greek deities were to be worshipped by all. An elderly Athenian philosopher was sent to Jerusalem to supervise the enforcement of the order. He identified the God of Israel with Jupiter, and ordered a bearded image of the pagan deity, perhaps in the likeness of Antiochus, set up upon the Temple altar. The Jews spoke of this as the Abomination of Desolation. Syrian soldiers and their paramours performed licentious heathen rites in the very Temple courts. Swine were sacrificed on the altar. The drunken orgy associated with the worship of Bacchus was made compulsory. Conversely, Jews were forbidden to practice circumcision, Sabbath observance, or the observance of the feasts of the Jewish year, upon penalty of death. Copies of the Hebrew Scriptures were ordered destroyed. All of this can be obtained from the historical record of I Maccabees.

Daniel 11:32. BUT THE PEOPLE THAT KNOW THEIR GOD SHALL BE STRONG, AND DO EXPLOITS. Those Jews who had followed Menelaus in welcoming the paganization of their religion and society were encouraged by the deceit and flattery of Antiochus-' representatives to become even more degenerate and apostate. On the other hand, the pious Jews suffered extreme tortures but they left examples of courage and faith in their wake. The laws of Antiochus promulgating Hellenism and proscribing Judaism were enforced with the utmost cruelty. An aged scribe, Eleazar, was flogged to death because he refused to eat swine's flesh. A mother and her seven children were successively butchered, in the presence of the governor, for refusing to pay homage to an image. Two mothers who had circumcised their new-born sons were driven through the city and cast headlong from the wall. But such loyalty to God's laws in the face of suffering only served to fan the spark of freedom in the hearts of the pious Jews. This spark would later ignite and burn into a flame in the Maccabean family.

Daniel 11:33-35 AND THEY THAT ARE WISE AMONG THE PEOPLE. It is now revealed to the prophet that in the midst of all the paganizing of the covenant people in the centuries to come there will be a faithful remnantthe wise ones. In the book of Maccabees they are called the godly onesHasidim, (cf. 1Ma. 2:42). These godly ones will teach others the faithful way of God, but many of them shall suffer much for their faith. It is possible that Hebrews 11:32-40 may have reference to these times.

The little help they receive probably refers to Judas Maccabees whose efforts were valiant enough but he was never able to put an end to all the distresses of the people (cf. 1MMalachi 3:1 ff; 1Ma. 4:14 ff). Many Jews who did not really believe in the Maccabean cause played the hypocrite and joined it for fear of being classified as an apostate.

The suffering this remnant had to endure for its faith, however, would have a purging, purifying effect. It did not take long to separate the hypocrites from the true godly ones. And this purging process was to last until the end, because it is yet for the time appointed. God has appointed the exact time within which these troublous times shall occur. They will end! We believe their end will come with the end of the Syrian domination and the occupation of Palestine by Rome. In other words near the end of the Jewish dispensation and the coming of the Messiah. This would parallel the predictions concerning the 70 weeks of chapter 9 where the beginning and end of the troublous times are shown to be, respectively, the restoration under the Persians and the coming of the Messiah. Chapter s 10 and 11 are, after all, simply amplifications of Chapter s 8 and 9.

Daniel 11:36. THE KING SHALL DO ACCORDING TO HIS WILL. There are numerous speculations as to who the king is here: (a) Constantine the Great; (b) Omar ibn -El-Khat-tab; (c) The Eoman empire; (d) the little horn of Daniel 7, who is an apostate from Christianityhe establishes his palace in Jerusalem, from which time runs the Great Tribulation, the last 3½ years of Daniel's 70th week (SRB); (e) the Antichrist, a Jew who in the midst of the Jewish people will assume kingly honors, being recognized by the Jewish postate as the Messiah-King, and by the Christian apostates as the Antichrist. In the middle of the 70th week he will come and take his seat in the Jerusalem temple and will claim divine worship (Gaebelein); (f) The pope of Rome and the Papal System; (g) Herod the Great; (h) The Antichrist of the so-called traditional interpretation of the Christian Church.

We believe the king is none other than Antiochus Epiphanes. (a) It is contrary to all sound principles of contextual exegesis to suppose that, in a continuous description, with no indication whatever of a change of subject, part should refer to one person, and part to another, and that the king of Daniel 11:36, should be a different king from the one whose doings are described in Daniel 11:21-35; (b) There would be no purpose served for Daniel to predict for the Jews of the captivity the machinations of some Antichrist whose deeds 2500 years hence would have no relationship whatsoever to their present predicament or their future hope for a Messianic deliverance; (c) the king cannot be the little horn of Daniel 7 which grew out of the fourth world empire (Rome) because this king very evidently grew out of the he-goat (Greece); (d) this king is the same as the little horn grown great out of the four notable horns from the he-goat of Daniel 8. Lange writes, The king can be no other than the one hitherto represented, the antitheistic persecutor of Israel, the king of the north, Antiochus Epiphanes. It is therefore not. the N.T. antichrist. all of which interpretations contradict the context, and arbitrarily interpose a hiatus of centuries between Daniel 11:35 and the closing verses of the chapter.

Antiochus, in his proud imagination, conceived of himself as the only god. He caused to be inscribed the following words: Of King Antiochus, God. Manifest, Victory-bearer. Antiochus magnified himself above every god plundering temples at Jerusalem, Elymais and other places. He commanded that all national religious systems under his power should be united in one which he himself had decreed. He blasphemed the name of Jehovah in word and action.

One other scriptural parallel which ties the king of Daniel 11:36 to Antiochus IV is the phrase the indignation. One need only refer to Daniel 8:19 to see that the indignation belongs contextually to the time of the successors of the he-goat (Greece). Thus, the king of Daniel 11:36 is none other than Antiochus IV. The power of the king to do according to his will shall continue until the God-determined end of the period of indignation, which is the end of the troublous times of Daniel 9:25.

Daniel 11:37 NEITHER SHALL HE REGARD THE GODS OF HIS FATHERS. Antiochus, who had lived some years at Rome, had learned to despise the Syrian gods, and to prefer Jupiter Olympius and Xenias of the Romans and Greeks. But secretly he had contempt for all religion except a religion of military power as Daniel 11:38-39 show.

The desire of woman is a title applied to one of the pagan goddesses such as the goddess of nature, Astarte, Artemis and Nanaea. It is expressly reported of Antiochus that he inflicted a gross indignity on the worship of the great goddess by attempting to plunder a temple of Artemis or Aphrodite in Elymais.

Daniel 11:38-39. IN HIS PLACE SHALL HE HONOR THE GOD OF FORTRESSES. It is not so much a particular god whom Antiochus honors as it is his tendency to trust in and worship fortifications and war in general. He will regard no god, but only war; the taking of fortresses he will make his god. To this end he will devote great treasures, gold, silver, jewels and all sorts of treasurerseven people.

All strong fortresses and strategems of war shall receive his adoration and worship. All who worship warfare and fortification will receive his support and he will elevate all such to positions of rule.
Antiochus IV was, without doubt, a mad man (Epimanes). He arrogantly defied every god known and unknown, except military power (Rome). He blatantly blasphemed even Jehovah-God of the Jews. He worshipped war. He attempted paganization of the world. He was crafty, deceitful, and capable of any treachery to serve his own purposes. There were many such haters of God and lovers of self before him. There have been many like him since (Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, etc., just to name a few in our own century). But this section is no more a prophecy of The Antichrist than any other such person in the Bible or subsequent history like him is. The apostle John plainly indicates that there is no one individual who is The antichrist, but there are many antichrists. In fact, Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is the anticrist, even he that denieth the Father and the Son, and even now have there arisen many antichrists; (cf. 1 John 2:18-23). Antiochus, like the great image, the four beasts, the ram and the he-goat, is simply a personification of the enemy of God, the devil, as chapter 10 indicates when it speaks of supernatural powers at work in these world powers.

QUIZ

1.

What were the ships of Kittim and how did they stop Antiochus?

2.

Which campaign against Egypt is this for Antiochus?

3.

What did he do to the Holy Land on his way back to Syria from Egypt?

4.

How did the terrible things which came upon the Jews serve to purify them?

5.

What evidence is there that Daniel 11:36 ff is not speaking of The Antichrist?

6.

What god did Antiochus revere the most?

7.

What relationship does Antiochus have to other ungodly men who have come upon the world since him?