Introduction
Before we
get into Daniel 11, I thought it'd be helpful to do a quick overview of where
we've been because we've covered a lot over the past couple of weeks. We
started in Daniel 2 with a dream by Nebuchadnezzar about a statue. And in that
dream, Daniel interpreted for him that the statue represented a bunch of
different empires, four of which were near future for Daniel in the next couple
hundred years or so. And the last one, Rome 2, we argued, was in the distant
future.
Next, we
covered Daniel 8, which was a vision that Daniel saw of a ram and a goat, and
out of that goat came four kingdoms and out of the one kingdom arose a ruler
that was very important for Israel history. And that ruler was Antiochus
Epiphanies who came out of the Seleucid Empire. This is all history that's been
verified. Again, these two visions were near future for Daniel.
And then
we went to Daniel 7, which was another vision that Daniel saw of four beasts,
again representing four different empires. And that final beast was the Empire
of Rome and also was related to that fifth empire at the end of time, Rome 2. And
related to that empire was the next really important ruler for world history
and for the history of Israel, and we talked about the Antichrist.
And so
you see that in these visions a lot of times what it has in Daniel 2 and Daniel
7, especially is the near future for Daniel and for Israel. And then it flashes
forward to the end of time. And Daniel 8 and Daniel 7 are related to each other
because we argued that the ruler in Daniel 8 (the small horn, Antiochus Epiphanies)
is very similar to and somehow related to the ruler that's going to show up at
the end of history, the little horn, the Antichrist. And so that's really what
we're going to be doing tonight in Daniel 11; we're going to be looking very
briefly at some of the near future history (as a little bit of a review) and
then flashing forward to the very end of time.
Daniel 11:1-35,
which is the first big chunk of the chapter. When I picked this teaching that I
wanted to do at CT, it's because I thought I got to cover these verses. And it
turns out we don't have time.
So let me
just tell you a couple of things about these first thirty-five versus of Daniel
11.
First of
all, the level of detail in these predictive prophecies totally explodes here.
They spend thirty-five verses talking about those two kingdoms that came out of
Alexander's empire, the king of the North and the king of the South, the
Seleucid and the Ptolemaic empires. About one hundred and thirty five fulfilled
prophecies in these thirty-five versus alone, which is incredible. If you read
through it, it's just talking about this guy and then this guy and then this
woman and then this guy, and then this marriage. And in a way that makes it
absolutely clear that this has to be from God.
About 40
of those prophecies are about Antiochus Epiphanies alone. And it would make
sense that it would spend 40 % of the time on this ruler that had such a
negative effect on Israel. Daniel 11 is yet another reason why people want to
late date the book of Daniel, because they think there's no way that anybody
could know this amount of detail ahead of time. So they say it must have been written
after the fact, that those who wrote Daniel just pretended that it was written
earlier and they called it prophecy. And perhaps you're a little bit like me
and you secretly love drama. But you know that you can't do things like watch
silly soap operas and so instead you get into politics, right? And you love following
politics. Daniel 11:1-35 has all the intrigue and scandal you could ever want.
You've got ex-queens murdering the new queen. You've got backstabbing, you've
got double-crossing, and you've got family members murdering one another. If
the Seleucids and the Ptolemy’s had Twitter, we all would have followed them
because we would have been like they say, what? So I wish we could go into it,
but we can't. If you're interested, you can email me afterwards and I can send
you a sheet that lists out all the historical details that correspond to these
prophecies in Daniel 11:1-35.
But we're
going to flash forward to the last little part about Antiochus Epiphanies just
to get a little bit of a review before we flash forward. So picking up in the
middle of Daniel 11, Daniel writes,
At the appointed time he will invade the
south again. But this time the outcome will be different from what it was
before.
And if we
had had time to read the previous verses, we would know that that he is
Antiochus IV Epiphanies.
Ships of the western coastlands will
oppose him and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and vent his fury
against the Holy Covenant. He will return and show favor to those who forsake the
holy covenant.
We
already talked about this in Daniel 8, the ships of the western coastlands.
That's when the Roman army showed up, when Antiochus tried to invade Egypt and
the Romans drew that line in the sand and said, ‘you can't step out of this line
until you agree not to make Rome your enemy.’ And Antiochus had been
humiliated. Then turned and vented his fury against the holy covenant. He
basically picked on somebody smaller than him. So as he was marching back
through Israel, that's really where he vented his fury. He unleashed terrible
persecution against the Jews.
His armed forces will rise up to
desecrating the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they
will set up the abomination that causes desolation.
Again,
these are things that we've already talked about and how he tried to get the
Jews to stop worshiping the God of the Bible and instead worship Greek gods.
And so he went in and tried to (and did) defile the temple in Jerusalem in
order to force the Jews to go his way. This is all history. We know all of this
to be true.
With flattery he will corrupt those who
have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly
resist him. Those who are wise will instruct many, though, for a time they will
fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered.
And we
went into a lot of detail about the terrible, terrible things that he did
against the Jewish people during that time.
When they fall, they'll receive a little
help and many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will
stumble, so they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of
the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.
Is this a
reference to the Maccabean revolt? That was part of this uprising against
Antiochus. But then look what it says in verse 35. It says,
until the time of the end.
At this
point, the Bible is signaling that there's about to be a change in the
narrative. And so in 11:36 we see some significant differences. A new figure
arises, a new king who is similar to Antiochus Epiphanies, but different.
For one,
Daniel, 11:35, 40, tie the next several versus to the end of time. Like we just
read in 11:35 ‘until the time of the end.’
If
you look at verse 40,
at the end time, the King of the South
will collide with him and the King of the North will storm against him.
This is
the Bible's way of saying this is about the end times, the end of human
history. There's also the fact that in verse 40, it talks about the King of the
North storming against this new ruler, but Antiochus was the King of the North.
So this can't still be about him because the person ruling in his area of the
world is now moving against this new ruler that comes up at the end of Daniel
11. There's also the fact that Daniel 11:1-35 have been fulfilled. But Daniel
11:36-12:4 are unfulfilled.
Now,
people who don't believe that the Bible is the word of God have no problem with
this, they say, ‘vs. 1-35 were written after the fact and then they tried to
predict the future and then they got some details wrong because what are you
gonna do?’ Humans don't know the future and that would be fine, except for the
fact that I have very good reason to believe that the Bible is not written by
men, that it's the actual inspired word of God. And as such, God cannot err and
he knows the future. And so it's not OK to say, ‘well, God just got some
details wrong about what was going to happen.’ Instead if verses 36 and following
have not been fulfilled, what we need to think is they haven't been fulfilled
YET. In fact, what we're going to read about tonight, we're still looking for
the fulfillment of these versus so these are still future even for us.
There are
a few ways in which this ruler is similar to Antiochus Epiphanies, but
different. There are a couple details in
these verses that don't fit Antiochus like verse 37 says,
This ruler will show no regard for the
gods of his fathers.
Which is
exactly opposite of Antiochus Epiphanies. He worshiped the Greek gods of his
fathers, and that's why he unleashed the persecution against Israel that they
did, is because they refuse to worship those gods. And so, whoever this world
ruler is, it's not Antiochus. There's also what it says in verse 45, that this
ruler will come to an end in Israel. We're going to look at that detail
tonight. But we know from history that Antiochus didn't die in Israel. He died
in one of his palaces up in Persia. So that can't be him either. And so what
we're going to take a look at in verse 36ff is the last World War. And the ruler
that's going to be associated with it.
Now. It's
scary sometimes to think about the end of human history. I know that it can be
a frightening topic for some people, but there's a reason that God told us
about it ahead of time. And part of the reason is so that we know what's going
to happen so that we don't have to be scared. I'm not somebody who
deals well with a lot of suspense, like I can't watch horror movies. I think
partly because I get way too into it. I know that people don't really die, but,
they're like really difficult for me to watch. But I want to be culturally
relevant! So when that movie, I Am Legend came out, I avoided it for months
because I knew that movie as scary as anything. But I thought, ‘now everybody's
talking about this movie. It's a really good movie. You know, I like other
movies that Will Smith has been in. I'm going to go for it.’ I made the mistake
of trying to watch it by myself at night in my basement. And so I'm watching
the movie and I'm doing OK. Until that scene where he is trying to figure out
where all those mannequins are coming from and he gets caught in that trap that
has him dangling by his feet as the sun goes down. And my heart started beating
so fast that I actually thought I was going to puke. And I had to turn it off.
And I've never finished that movie. And I knew I knew in my head, ‘It's a movie.’
I also knew even Will Smith's character can't die because this is not the end
of the movie and he's the only human I've seen so far. And he's also not dead
in real life. So I think this is going to turn out OK. And yet I just couldn't
do it because I didn't know what was going to happen next. And so here's what
God's saying, ‘I'm going to give you a basic outline of what's going
to happen next so that when stuff comes up, you don't have to be terrified the
entire time.’
Daniel 11:36
says,
Then the king will do as he pleases and he
will exalt and magnify himself above every God. And will speak monstrous things
against the God of gods.
So he's
going to be incredibly blasphemous. Like that little horn that we saw.
And he will prosper until the indignation
is finished for that which is decreed will be done.
So right
from the very beginning, gods like ‘it's going to look like things are going
well for him until they're not. And then it'll be done.’
He will show no regard for the gods of his
father's or for the desire of women. Nor will he regard any God, but will exalt
himself above them all.
This
matches what we already looked at in 2 Thessalonians 2 where it talks about the
Antichrist and displaying himself as being God. So he really wants people to
worship him.
Now this
idea of ‘he'll have no regard for the desire of women.’ Some people argue that
means he's gay. I don't think that's what it means. There are some world rulers
out there, even today, who are so intent on their power that they just never
get married or have a family. I think that's probably what that means. That's
the kind of guy he's going to be. Instead,
he will honor a god of fortresses, a God
unknown to his father's, he will honor with gold and silver, with precious
stones and costly gifts.
What is
he going to respect? He's going to think military might is what conquers everything.
And he's either going to spend a lot of his money or he's going to tax people
in order to build up his military.
He will attack the mightiest fortresses
with the help of a foreign God and will greatly honor those who acknowledge
him. He will make them rulers over many people and will distribute the land at
a price.
So if you
agree with him, that will go really well for you.
At the time of the end, the King of the South
will engage in battle and the King of the North will storm out against him with
chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries
and sweep through them like a flood.
The King
of the South and King of the North. Remember those because they are going to
come up in another passage that we're going to look at tonight.
Now here
it says they're going to storm out against him with chariots and cavalry, which
is a little tough because are we really going to see a big battle with horses at
the end?
Well, I
think there are a couple of options here.
One is
it's possible that this is a post oil society, that it's happened at a time
when we've just run out of fossil fuels. And so we really have gone back to an
actual cavalry. Who knows? I mean, that's the direction that things are headed
in. I guess it depends on when all this goes down.
The other
possibility is what's known as phenomenological language. And that's a big
fancy word. That just means the writer is using words that he knows to describe
something that he doesn't understand. You'll see this with little kids all the
time, that they'll try to describe what they're seeing, but they don't know
quite what the right word is. We had it happen with our son once where he was
pointing at my husband's hoodie and the zipper. And he's like that. ‘That's a
ladder, daddy. That's a ladder.’ And we were like, ‘well, no, it's a zipper.
But you don't know the word for a zipper.’ And actually, if you look at a
zipper, you could see why he thought it looked like a ladder. It goes up and
down, too. So it actually kind of fit pretty well. And so what could be
happening here is that Daniel is seeing an army moving towards him. Back then did
wear a lot of armor on them, too. And so he's seeing tanks or he's seeing other
things headed this way. And he's like, there's a huge army coming and some sort
of cavalry. Not really sure. I think either of those scenarios fit pretty well
with what we're seeing here.
It says
this world ruler,
will also invade the beautiful land.
That's
what the Bible calls Israel.
Many countries will fall, but Edam, Moab
and the leaders of Amon will be delivered from his hand.
This is
west and southwest of Israel. So if you're in Israel, when this stuff hits head
to like Jordan, because for some reason that's not involved with this military
campaign. I don't know why.
He'll extend his power over many
countries. Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold
and silver and all the riches of Egypt with the Libyans and Nubians in
submission,
So North
Africa falls to him. And apparently he takes a lot of their wealth.
But reports from the east and the north
will alarm him and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate
many.
Mark,
that we're going to come back to that, too.
He will pitch his royal tents between the
seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end and no one
will help him. Now, at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard
over the sons of your people will arise.
Michael,
the great archangel, the most powerful angel.
And there will be a time of distress, such
as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time,
your people, everyone who's found written in the book, will be rescued.
OK. So
that's Daniel 11’s coverage of this final World War, and so to understand what
he's talking about, there's another passage that covers it in even greater
detail that we want to turn to tonight. It's in Ezekiel 38 and 39. But before
we go there, there's one other prophecy that we have to talk about that's
really important to the end of human history. And it's directly before that
passage in Ezekiel 38 and 39, it’s Ezekiel 37. It's about the regathering of
Israel.
The Regathering of Israel
So let's
take a look at Ezekiel 37 where the Lord prophesies that he's going to bring
his people back into the land.
The hand of the
Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me
down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me
to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface
of the valley; and lo, they were very dry.
So he
describes this huge bone graveyard full of very dry bones. They'd obviously
been there for a very long time.
He said to me,
"Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, “O Lord God, You
know."
You know,
that's Ezekiel’s way of saying, ‘I don't know. What do you think?’ Always a
good answer when you don't know.
Again He said to
me, "Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord.' "Thus says the Lord God to these bones,
'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 'I will
put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath
in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.'"
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and
as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came
together, bone to its bone. And
I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered
them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man,
and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life."' So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an
exceedingly great army.
And so
clearly this predicts the regathering of Israel.
What?
I mean, I
guess maybe you could see what. Actually, no, you can't. I mean, some bones in
a valley and then they get put together into a zombie army that comes to life
and that's the regathering of Israel. I mean, this sounds like some sort of
Nostradamus Prophecy that if you take a quartet and you mix around some
numbers, boom, we have the future fulfilled. Is that what I'm doing to you
guys? Am I trying to pull the wool over your eyes? Have we finally found a
prophecy that I can make, say whatever I want? Well, what have we talked about
before with Bible prophecy?
If you
don't know what it means, you keep reading. And it turns out that after verse
10l there's verse 11. So good reason why you should bring your paper Bibles to
CT because you can track to see if the teacher is trying to pull one around
you. Check this out, though in verse 11,
Then he said to me, son of man, these
bones are the whole house of Israel, the whole. They say our bones are dried up
and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.
They've
been out of the land. They've been scattered for so long that they're thinking ‘there's
no way we're getting our land back. It's never going to happen.’ All
hope is dried up.
Therefore, prophesy and say them thus says
the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of
your graves, my people and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you
will know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and caused you to
come up out of your graves, my people. I will put my spirit within you and you
will come to life and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know
that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, declares the Lord.
So boom.
The Bible interprets its own prophecy for us that this is about Israel being
regathered to its land. Well, Israel was regathered to its land once. Is it
possible that they're just talking about when the Jews went from Babylon/Persia
back into Israel? Well, there's a couple there verses that are important. One
is vs. 21. Just a few verses down where God says,
"Say to
them, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel
from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from
every side and bring them into their own land;
So those
details indicate this can't be about the first return from exile, because in
that exile from Israel to Babylon and then back again, they went in one
direction and then they came back from that same direction and they came back
from only one country. Where is this they’re coming from? Multiple countries
and they're coming from all over the place, which exactly fits how the Jews got
back to the land of Israel when it became a nation. And in verse 24, he says,
“My servant David will be king over them,
and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and
keep My statutes and observe them.. . . and David My servant will be their
prince forever.”
Now, by
the time Ezekiel wrote this, King David, the historical King David had been dead
for a long time. But when the Bible talks about a King David in the future,
it's referring to his greatest son, which is King Messiah. So there's something
about the regathering of Israel that has to do with the end of time because
King Messiah has not come back yet. Remember, that's why people were so
confused when Jesus first showed up. They were expecting the King Messiah who
was going to rule. And he's like, ‘that's not why I'm here.’ And so they were waiting
for him to come and rule. (And he will come. That's what we're going to talk
about tonight.) But this passage here was saying Israel is going to be
scattered to the four winds and then against, all odds, he’s going to bring
them back. Now, if this were the only passage that we had, you'd think, well,
OK, yeah, maybe, except for the fact that this shows up in so many other places
in the Old Testament alone.
This is
about the regathering of Israel, not the one from Babylon, but the one that
happened in 1948. And so some people might say, ‘well, OK, maybe the Jews just
self-fulfilled this prophecy that they were reading Ezekiel 37 and they decided
‘we're going get our land back.’
If you
know anything about history, you know that's impossible, that's not the way
that it worked. First of all, what scattered people group has ever gotten a
nation back? If this happened all the time, why is it never happened to anybody
else?
Second of
all, if you know the history of modern Israel itself, you know this is not what
happened. Who's the father of modern Zionism? Theodor Hertzel. He was an
atheist Jew. He wasn't looking to fulfill anything about the Bible. He just
wanted the Jews to have a place where they weren't being mistreated all the
time. So in 1800’s, he's the one that came up with the idea of having a
country. And he's like, ‘what about the old one that we had way back in the
day?’ What was the spark that lit the fire that got everybody to vote in
recognizing Israel as a nation? It was after World War 2. Everybody felt really
bad about what happened. And so, if you were going to argue that the Jews
masterminded getting a nation back so that they could fulfill Ezekiel 37 you
would have to argue that they somehow manipulated the Holocaust. I don't think
they were going that direction. And even when it came time for the vote to be
cast in the U.N., nobody thought it was going to pass. You read any stories
about that night as people were running around trying to talk to different
ambassadors, to different countries, because each world ruler had to cast a vote
whether or not they were going to recognize Israel as a country. In May of
1948, nobody thought it was going to work. And then vote after votes started
coming in. People voting yes, including atheist USSR (who through one vote,
could have blocked the entire thing) and they voted yes. So no, Israel could
not have self-fulfilled this. Obviously, this was a work of God. And guess
what? He predicted it ahead of time. He said, ‘I'm going to do something that
you have never seen before. My people are going to be scattered for almost 2000
years, and then I'm going to bring them back and I'm going to give him a
country again.’
The Last World War (Ezekiel 38)
So from
there, we go into Ezekiel 38, which is more information on the last World War.
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of
man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal;
prophesy against him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am
against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
And so
all those countries together or areas or regions, wherever you want to call
them, they kind of are summarized under this one ruler, Gog.
If you
read biblical and post biblical history the way those regions are named,
Josephus and others say that these are the Scythian people, which are people
that lived around the Black Sea, which is really the area of Russia and north
of there. So is this the king of the North that we read about in Daniel 11? I
think there's good reason to believe that it correlates to that. God says,
I will turn you around, put hooks in your
jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully
armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing
their swords.
So
there's that phenomenological language again. And notice this idea. I'm going
to put hooks in your jaws. God’s like, ‘you think it's your idea to do
anything. I'm the one directing every step along the way here.’
Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets,
Now
Persia, we know that's Iraq/Iran area. Kush and Put is more down in the Egypt
area.
This
is probably the King of the South. Consider history of modern Israel. The
countries up in the Iran/Iraq area and the countries down in the Egyptian area,
these are countries who multiple times in the past 50 years have allied
together to try to wipe Israel off the face of the map. A lot of them
don't even recognize Israel as an official country even yet today. So is it
that hard to believe that these people who have already tried to go to war
against Israel would not be more than happy to join up with a country like
Russia to try to do them in finally?
So you've
got the King of the North and the King of the South,
also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth
Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you. . .
So just
to put this on a map.
You got
Israel in the middle and then we can identify with pretty good certainty where
most of these regions are. North of Israel and south of Israel. That's why we
call him the King of the North and the King of the South.
After many days you will be summoned; in
the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the
sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains
of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out
from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them.
It is
true that as the Jews were moving back into Israel in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, that
a lot of the land was not being used and they have turned it into incredibly
productive farmland. This idea that its people are living securely; it's hard
to know if that's been fulfilled yet. On the one hand, Israel is in a constant
state of alertness. They know that they could be attacked at any moment. On the
other hand, I was in Israel six months ago and I felt totally safe the entire
time that I was there. Of course, part of the reason I felt safe where there
were soldiers with AK 47s all over the place. So you kind of knew whatever
happens, I'm going to be OK. So they're kind of living securely, kind of not.
But if
you go on to the next couple verses, it says,
On that day… You will say, “I will invade
a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all
of them living without walls and without gates and bars…”
Well,
that doesn't describe Israel yet, because if they're on constant state of
alert, then they're not unsuspecting. Based on other passages that you can look
at, what might happen is that the antichrist is going to be coming to power and
he's going to broker some sort of peace deal so that Israel feels like it's
finally safe at last and is able to put its arms down, which leads to really
disastrous consequences for them.
“Therefore,
son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In
that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice
of it? You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations
with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud
that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land,
so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before
their eyes.
It's not
going to be pleasant what's going to happen. But in the end, people will see
who God is.
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
Are you not the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of
Israel? At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against
them.
He's
like, ‘wow, you're so powerful, you're so great. I've been telling people for
years, for centuries, for millennia exactly what you were going do. Who's
great? Who's powerful?’
This
is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot
anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath
I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of
Israel. The fish of the
sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves
along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at
my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and
every wall will fall to the ground.
Yeah, that
fits what we read about in other passages about the end times that earthquakes
are going to continue to increase in size in severity until one final one, that's
just cataclysmic.
I will summon a sword against Gog on all
my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against
his brother. I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will
pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and fire and brimstone on him and on his
troops and on the many nations with him.
It seems like stuff is going to start falling from
the skies. That's going to annihilate these armies. Hailstones and fire and
brimstone maybe or maybe bombs and missiles, which we know get more deadly by
the day.
Chapter
39,
I will bring you from the far north and
send you against the mountains of Israel. Then I will strike your bow from your
left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand.
I'm just
going to smack them out of your hand because compared to me, you are nothing.
On the mountains of Israel you will fall,
you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to
all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals.
You ever
see movies or documentaries of war? It's pretty atrocious. What happens to the
human body as a result of terrible attacks?
You will fall in the open field, for I
have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. And I shall send fire upon Magog and
those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the
Lord.
Just because
they stayed out of the fight doesn't mean they're innocent.
“‘I will make known my holy name among my
people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations
will know that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel. It is coming! It will
surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord. This is the day I have spoken
of…”
So,
again, an incredible amount of detail that he's going into as to what this
final time is going to look like. And part of what he's doing is he's saying, ‘I
know ahead of time and also I'm in control of the whole process.’ On
the one hand, God, in his masterful wisdom, lets rebellion play itself out. And
yet in a way where he is completely directing it so that people will know in
the end that he alone is God and that he alone can be trusted.
The Last World War: Correlating
Daniel 11-12 and Ezekiel 38-39
Want to
take some time to try to synthesize these two different readings to get a feel
for what it is we're looking at with these battles?
OK,
Israel is that tiny little dot there in the middle and you've got the King of
the North (Gog and Magog), and you've got the King of the South through Persia,
Cush, and Put moving against Israel.
And it
says Daniel 11:40, he (the Antichrist) will invade
many countries and sweep through them like a flood. So the beast, the
Antichrist, the little horn, this new king, whatever you want to call him, he
starts moving and he mobilizes his military strength because he wants to be
ruler and not these other kings who are vying for power. And it says he'll also invade the beautiful land. So
he uses this as an opportunity to move right into Israel.
Why? Because
all Satan can ever do is counterfeit what God has already done. So God says, ‘Israel
is my land and I'm going to rule from Israel.’ And the Antichrist says, ‘actually,
how about I make it my land and I rule from there.’ And so he does. It wasn't
his idea, though. No, he's just copying the really good idea that God already
had.
So he
moves into Israel and that's when Ezekiel says,
I shall call for a sword against Gog and
Magog on all my mountains, declares the Lord God. Every man's sword will be
against his brother. And with pestilence and with blood, I shall enter into
judgment with him and I shall reign on him and on his troops and on the many
peoples who are with him, a torrential rain with hailstones, fire and brimstone.
And we
just talked about that. There's probably something unleashed in terms of
military might. That is incredible. Unlike anything the world has ever seen. In
fact, Jesus himself said ‘unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life
would have been saved’ (Mark 13:20). If nuclear weapons are still available
like they are today, we know that there's the nuclear capability to wipe out
every single human many times over. And perhaps that's some of what is being
unleashed here. In Daniel 11:42 it says that,
he [the Antichrist] will extend his power
over many countries, Egypt will not escape.
So he's
expanding his territory that he's ruling from.
But rumors from the east and from the
north will disturb him east and north.
Well,
pulling in some versus from Revelation, which also talks about the end of the
world. God says,
Release the four angels who are bound at
the Great River Euphrates and the four angels who had been kept ready for this
very hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
The number of the mounted troops was 200 million. I heard their number (Revelation
9:14-16).
So some
vast army is headed towards Israel or in Revelation 16,
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the
Great River Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the
kings from the East
(Revelation 16:12, 14, 16).
The
Euphrates is drying up. This river existed before humans were created. What do
you mean it's just drying up? Well, it turns out it's drying up. From Time
magazine 2009,
The
Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq's neighbors,
Turkey and Syria…
because
the headwaters are up there up in Turkey and then it flows to Syria down into
Iraq. So the further up you are on the river, the better access you have to
that water because you can just cut it off and then everybody downstream from
that loses.
The
river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials
worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.
And this
was written in 2009.
The
shrinking of the Euphrates, a river, so crucial to the birth of civilization
that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end
times,
Time is
like, ‘whoa, weird’
has
decimated farms along its banks, has left fishermen impoverished and has
depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.
Campbell Robertson, “Iraq Suffers as the
Euphrates River Dwindles.” Time. July 13, 2009.
Here's a
map.
There's
the Euphrates River. Up in Turkey, flowing down through Iran and Iraq. Daniel says,
But rumors from the east and from the
north will disturb him.
Well, how
far east and north? What do we got?
All we
got China and we got India and we got Russia. Do you know that Moscow is
actually directly north of Jerusalem? Remember that number that it gave us in
Revelation? An army of 200 million men? Is it really that hard to picture India
and China being able to call up an army of that size?
So the
waters are drying up,
and [demons] go out to the kings of the
whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty… And they gathered them together to the place,
which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon (Revelation 16).
Paul,
Benware in his book Understanding End Times Prophecy says,
“It's
not a single battle [that they're gathering for,] but rather a whole series of
conflicts that culminate with the Second Coming of Christ. The Greek word
polemos, translated “battle in Revelation 16:14, signifies a war of campaign...
[This] indicates that Armageddon is really a campaign made up of numerous
conflicts among a number of nations over a period of time at the end of the
tribulation.
Benware, Paul. Understanding End Times
Prophecy (Moody: Chicago, 2006) p. 315.
If you
break down the words Har-Magedon; ‘har’ means mountain and ‘magedon’ means
Megiddo, so the hill of Megiddo or the mountain of Megiddo? And so they're
gathering everyone up in this area, Megiddo is up north near the Sea of
Galilee.
It's a
really fertile plain up there. That's where most of Israel's crops are grown.
And this is what it looks like if you go up on the hill of Megiddo.
Of
course, they built a church there now. When you look out, this is what you see,
this vast plain.
Eric
Cline and professor of archeology says,
“Napoleon
supposedly looked over the Jezreel Valley, [which is another name for the
Valley of Megiddo,] and said, ‘All the armies of the world could maneuver their
forces on this vast plain.. There is no place in the world more suited for war
than this… It's the most natural battleground of the whole earth.’”
Napoleon
loved battles. He was always looking for a place to have his next battle, and
he looked at the valley of Megiddo. He's like, ‘well, this place is awesome for
war.’ You can you imagine how many troops could be gathered in this. And no
matter which direction you turn on this mountain, this is what you see, plains
as far as the eye can see.
But rumors from the east and from the
north will disturb him and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and
annihilate many.
And so
the Antichrist decides, you want me? Get at me.
And so
here come the Kings, they're all ready to fight him and destroy him.
And in
verse 45, it says,
He'll pitches royal tents between the seas
at the beautiful Holy Mountain. He's gonna stake his headquarters in
Jerusalem. And he's going to run his campaign from there.
Yet he'll come to his end and no one will
help him.
So who
gets The King of the North and the King of the South, after they finally defeat
the antichrist in this huge battle?
Revelation
19 John writes,
And I
saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful
and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a
flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has
a name written on Him, which no one knows except
Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name
is called The Word of God.
Why is it
dipped in blood? Well, because the first time he came, he died.
And the armies,
which are in heaven, clothed in fine
linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From
His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the
nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He
treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
That
sharp sword. It's symbolic. It's the truth. He speaks the truth in such a way
that he defeats all his enemies
And on His robe
and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF
LORDS.”
You think
you're a king? You think you're a ruler while I am over you. I'm the King of
all kings. I'm the Ruler over all rulers.
This makes
me think of that scene in Return of the King, when Gondor is under attack and
it looks like they're going to lose, right? They have all the forces of evil lined
up against them. And then Theoden shows up and what's he do? He leads the whole
charge in and he's right in the front. Now, it doesn't totally work because (spoiler
alert) Theoden dies. He doesn't make it through the battle. He helps turn the
tide, but he doesn't completely defeat the evil forces. And yet, do you ever
tear up when you watch that scene? Because it's like he's here and he's willing
to make the sacrifice.
And I
think it's because it resonates with something deep inside us. Which is what
the Bible talks about, that Jesus himself is going to show up and he's going to
lead the charge. But it's not going to be a clash of armies. There's not going
to be soldiers on the good side that falls. What's going to happen?
And I saw the beast and the kings of the
earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse
and against His army. And the beast was seized and he was thrown alive into the
lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the
sword, which came for the mouth of him who sat on the horse... (Revelation
19:19-21)
So Jesus
shows up and he's like: DONE. You guys are over. This is it. Time's
up. You had your chance. You missed it.
And so
when he shows up, it's complete annihilation of these evil armies, including
the Antichrist, the beast. If you think about it, it could feel a
little anticlimactic, right? You want the big battle. And there are some books
that end this way where you're wondering ‘what's going to happen, what's going
to happen.’ I just recently finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And the
whole book is: Is Captain Nemo going to let Professor Pierre Aronnax and Ned
Land and Conseil go? Or they're going to be prisoners on the Nautilus forever? And,
you know, you're wondering, wondering, wondering... And they try to escape so
many different times. And then the last three pages of the book, you're like. ‘Oh,
really? That's it?’ I won't give it away in case you want to read it.
Or you
think about the book The Lord of the Flies when anarchy just grows and grows
and grows until Ralph, the final one who's standing for good, is running down
the beach, convinced he's going to die because of all the boys that are going
to kill him. And he falls. And when he looks up, there's just a guy standing
there. And it's a naval officer who'd come from a ship because he'd seen some
smoke on the island. And then the boys are rescued. And you're like, that's it?
That's how it ends? Which is honestly kind of part of the point of that book,
because it was a human that rescued other humans. And it turns out that they
were no different.
What we
have here is not anticlimactic. This is the Lord Himself coming back because
the experiment of a rebellion against God has played itself out. He has let it
go to its final conclusion, proving that humans left to themselves will destroy
themselves. And he steps in before that happens so he can save anybody who's
willing to turn to him.
Conclusions
So
summary of what we've covered tonight.
There
will be a final world ruler who will be the catalyst for a final world war.
That if Jesus did not step in to end, it would kill everyone on Earth. We also
see that Israel needs to be regathered as a nation, which turns out is
completed, so that part has already happened. And the final World War should
destroy humanity. But Jesus himself puts a stop to it. Praise God. This is what
we're looking forward to, when those heavens open up and he comes back.
In
summary, why is this important?
1. The
human race needs another solution. Humans seem to think that if they could just
get the power balance right, if they could negotiate correctly, if they could
get world rulers to agree with each other, then maybe we can get it to work out
and maybe we're headed in the right direction. And it turns out that a
political solution is not the answer because it's humans trying to solve
humanity's problem. Humans are actually desperately sick. And the cancer runs
too deep. God is going to let things get worse before he fixes things. That's
what good cancer treatment does, isn’t it? It really makes the symptoms worse
until the final solution is applied.
2. Jesus’s
Second Coming will rescue us from ourselves. But part of what we need to
realize is that his First Coming was to save us from our sins. When he came the
first time, he said, ‘I didn't come to judge, I came to save.’ And he could
have installed himself as a world ruler at that point because he had the right
and the authority to do so, but instead of establishing himself as king, he
decided to go to the cross and willingly lay his life down. Why? Because he
knew every single human being. Because of that sin that deep cancer is
separating us from God. And we are actually under God's judgment, and yet
because God loves us, instead of leaving us in our predicament, he came to fix
the problem himself. So instead of us paying for our sins, Jesus said that he
willingly did that for us. And he extends that offer of reconciliation to God,
of forgiveness for sins for anyone who's willing to admit that they need it.
For anyone who's willing to approach him, to humble themselves and ask for
God's forgiveness and ask for a relationship from him.
3. This
passage means we have no need to fear anything about the future. Things are
going to get worse, and yet God has told us ahead of time what is going to happen.
And the reason he told us that was to let us know he's in control. So there is
nothing that we have to worry about. Anyone who is reconciled to God through
Christ knows we're on the winning side. And no matter what happens to us
physically or temporally, we know where we're going. We know that our King is
showing up. And so we know that we get to rejoice with him when he comes back
to set up his kingdom.