YAHWEH’S PROPHETIC DETAILS FOR HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL
ARE FOUND IN DANIEL CHAPTERS 8-12
PART 5: EVENTS PROPHESIED AND BATTLES OVER THE
LAND OF ISRAEL DURING THE KINGDOMS OF
MEDO-PERSIA AND GREECE UP TO
ANTIOCHUS IV EPIPHANES
Daniel 11:1-20
As taught by Dave Lindstrom
I. The spiritual and physical battles over the land of Israel during the years of about 538 B.C. to about 323 B.C. (Daniel 11:1-4).
A. There are spiritual battles carried out by angelic spiritual beings over the kingdom plans of Yahweh concerning Israel ’s future (verse 1).
1. The angelic messenger of Daniel 10:4-21, possibly Gabriel, explains that a battle was going on in heaven for the things that were happening in the land of Israel against an anti-Yahweh angel heading the nation of Persia .
2. This Yahweh angelic messenger either strengthened Darius the Mede (539- 538 B.C.) the assigned ruler of Medo-Persia, the arch angel Michael in his spiritual battle, or both.
B. The Medo-Persian Empire ruled from 539-331 B.C. with 11 or 12 kings. However, after the first four kings, Greece gained significant victories and progressively grew stronger (verse 3).
1. The four kings after King Cyrus (559-530 B.C.) were Cambyses (530-522 B.C.), Pseudo-Smerdis (522-521 B.C.), Darius I (521-486 B.C.), and Xerxes I (486-465 B.C.).
2. Xerxes I is also known as Ahasuerus, the king found in the book of Esther.
During his reign the kingdom became extremely rich due to its expansion and empire building. After reducing Athens to ashes with his million man army, Xerxes navy was defeated in an embarrassing fashion by the Greek navy and forced to retreat back to Asia . Yahweh sovereignly delivered His Jewish people from vile Haman, during Xerxes I reign through Esther and Mordecai (Esther 3:13 ; 7:3-6; 8:11 -16).
C. The kingdom of Greece ruled from 331 B.C. to approximately 168 B.C. It was conquered by Alexander the Great in under three years from 333-331 B.C. (verse 3). However, in 323 B.C. he died without children and four of his generals battled it out and claimed their right to rule the kingdom of Greece :
1) Cassander- Massedonia and Greece ; 2) Lysimachus-Thrace and Bithynia ;
3) Ptolemy-Egypt and Palestine ; and 4) Seleucus-Phrygia to the Indus River (verse 4, also previously discussed in Daniel 7:6; 8:5-8).
Thought: Yahweh is faithful in protecting His people through the ages and giving them prophesy in advance through His prophets and eventually His New Testament apostles. Hallelu-Yah!
II. The spiritual and physical battles over the land of Israel during the years of about 323 B.C. to about 175 B.C. (Daniel 11:5-20).
A. The king of the south (Egypt etc.) is the line of rulers in Greece under Ptolemy and the king of the north (Syria etc.) are the line of rulers under Seleucus in reference to the land of Israel (the Beautiful Land of verse 16).
B. Daniel 11:5-20 gives the reader of Scripture a prophesied partial history of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kings, the Seleucid control of Palestine ( Israel ) leading up to the “contemptible” Seleucid king of Antiochus IV Epiphanes which will start at verse 21.
1. Palestine ( Israel ) was originally under Ptolemaic control but was a battled over area. Ptolemy I (south) 323-285 B.C. became strong but Seleucis I who was originally a commander in his army ended up becoming the main commander and eventual king of the north in Syria and Phoenicia in 310 B.C. (verse 5). After years of warring, Antiochus II (262-246 B.C north) married Berenice the daughter of Ptolemy II (285-246 B.C. south). However, Antiochus II had already had a wife Laodice whom he divorced and exiled. She was able to successfully have Berenice assassinated and Antiochus II poisoned and took over power as Queen Regent until her son Seleucus II could reign (verse 7). Ptolemy III (246-221 B.C., south) avenged his sisters death with a war that pillaged the northern capital city Antioch (verses 7, 8). Seleucus II (246-227 B.C., north) fought back and regained control of Syria and Phoenicia around 230 B.C. but was unsuccessful in Egypt (verse 9). His sons Seleucus III (227-223 B.C. north) expanded the kingdom in Asia Minor before being killed on a military campaign and Antiochus III (223-187 B.C. north) gained total control of the land of Palestine (Israel) forcing the southern forces to the southern border of Palestine (Israel) (verse 10). Then Ptolemy IV (221-204 B.C. south) initially held off Antiochus III larger army killing thousands. However, when an even larger army returned after Ptolemy IV died, a young
Ptolemy V (204-181 B.C. south) was defeated all the way down to the fortress of Gaza in 201 B.C. (verses 11-13). Philip V of Macedonia , pro- Seleucid Jews (zealots), and Antiochus III were all against Egypt at this time. In this revelation and vision, Daniel wrote to worn the Jews not to align themselves but without success because they did not put these words into practice (verse 14). The fortified city is probably Sidon in 203 B.C. (verse15).
2. In 199 B.C., the Seleucids (north kingdom) controlled the Beautiful Land ( Israel ) (verse 16).
3. Antiochus III the Great desired to unite the kingdom of Greece under his authority and bring back the glory of the original Alexander the Great’s kingdom but failed to do so (verses 17-20).
a. He gave his daughter (Cleopatra) in marriage to the young 12 year old ruler Ptolemy V (204-181 B.C.south) in Egypt . He did this in hopes of them having a son to unite the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. However, Cleopatra ended up becoming completely sympathetic with her husband. Antiochus III died in 187 B.C., her husband died in 181 B.C., and she became the queen regent when her son Ptolemy VI (181 – 145 B.C., south) took over (verse 17).
b. He then started trying to conquer Pergamum and Rhodes which were part of the Roman kingdom. After going into a battle at Magnesia with 70,000 troops against 30,000 Roman troops and being defeated, he was forced to sign the Treaty of Apamea in 188 B.C. In the treaty, he had to surrender any of his claims to Europe and most of Asia Minor, the entire elephant brigade, all his navy, twenty selected hostages (which included his second son Antiochus IV), and a large yearly payment to Rome. He returned to his own country where he died a year later (188 B.C.) (verses 18, 19).
c. Antiochus III oldest son became king by the name of Seleucus IV (187 – 176 B.C. north). He sent out a special fund raiser named Heliodorus to collect funds to continue to pay the Roman treaty bills and run his kingdom. There is a report that Heliodorus was going to rob the Jerusalem temple and plunder it but had a vision of mighty angels flogging him and so he did not do this (2 Maccabees 3:7-40).
Seleucus IV was poisoned by Heliodorus in 176 B.C. and died.
Thought: As New Testament believers, what Scriptural revelation has been spoken into our lives that we are not obeying or not fully applying to our daily experiences?
Look at what Jesus said about this in Matthew 7:24-27.
