Daniel's Last and Greatest Vision (Part 7)

We're getting close, really close.

I thought maybe I could get her finished tonight, but I don't think that's going to happen. But you're okay with that, right? We'll be it, and we'll get real close to it tonight.

You've got your notes there, just to kind of bring us up to speed in our thinking, so that we can kind of keep the ongoing outline and progress of this final portion of the Book of Daniel, so we can keep all that in our minds properly.

Let me just remind you that we are in the final section of this book, this prophetic book, one of the books of prophecy in the Bible, the Book of Daniel, even though some of it is not directly prophecy.

Certainly the last half of the book is. So we've come to the final part of that, which takes up several chapters here, all the way to the end. Again, I've named this his last and greatest vision.

We've looked at some of the preliminary things that prepared Daniel for this final vision, prophetic vision, as well as some portions of the prophecy or vision on the front end.

We've looked at all of that. And then getting into the vision itself, the prophetic part of the vision, we've looked at the prophecies concerning the Persian Empire and then the Greek Empire and then a segment of the Greek Empire, Egypt and Syria, or the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Seleucidic Kingdom.

All right. Two of the four divisions of the Greek Empire. So we've looked at prophecies concerning that, which is all of this just, it's progressive. These are the things that are going to take place chronologically to the Persians and the Greeks and then to these two divisions, Egypt and Syria.

And we've looked at the prophecies concerning the infamous king of the Syrian kingdom. And what was his name? It is funny how, you know, I guess I have stated his name, repeated his name.

I bet a hundred times since I got into this. And still we kind of stumble. It has kind of a rhythm. All right. So Antiochus, the fourth epiphanies. All right.

So we've looked at the prophecies concerning him. He's the Old Testament type of what person? Yet to come. The Antichrist.

And who will one day come into the world, as verse 40 says, at the time of the end. So we've, we're about, and have already started looking at that.

So we're looking then now at the fifth and final portion of the prophecy. And that is the prophecies concerning the end times. Or I guess we could say the prophecies concerning the Antichrist.

Although there are some elements to the prophecy that are in addition to just simply the Antichrist. So we'll just call it the prophecies concerning the end times. First of all, we looked at the context of the passage of the prophecy.

And then we got into the contents of the prophecy concerning Antichrist. And we had just kind of started to look at that last week under the heading of the tyrant to come.

The tyrant to come. And we saw, first of all, his evil character. And so now we're going to notice his extensive conquests.

That will, that's where your notes begin. His extensive conquests. That'll, that'll take up verses 39 all the way to verse 45.

Or the end of this chapter, chapter 11. I guess we could say, in short, that no world power will have a chance against the power of the Antichrist.

He will gain world dominion. And no kingdom of this world, individual kingdom, will be able to stand against him. All right, so the first thing we want to see is his rule.

His rule. Verse 39 says a little bit about that. And what I've chosen to do tonight is kind of approach this as a sort of a running commentary. So that we can kind of focus on certain phrases in some of these verses and, and give a little bit of an explanation about what they mean.

So his rule to begin with. Verse 39. And let me just read the verse. Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge.

That is, he'll acknowledge his foreign god. And advance its glory. Its glory. It doesn't say his glory, but it is reference to the foreign god. To advance the glory of this foreign god.

And he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain. So here is just a word about his rule.

The rule of the Antichrist. And so let's just pick this apart a little bit. And you have all of that right there in your notes. I may add a little bit to them, but basically you have all of it right there.

So let's take, first of all, this phrase, the strongest fortresses. He says, thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses. And that just simply speaks of the most powerful nations on earth.

Fortresses. Power. And peoples of power. So strong nations on the earth that will be in existence at the time the Antichrist appears and begins to gain world dominion.

And they will all fall to his conquering power. So the fortress, strong fortress, those will be the nations of the world. But he'll do this with a foreign god.

A foreign god. And that speaks of Satan. That's a reference to Satan. Now, how do we know that? Well, we do have to do a little bit of, I don't think guessing is quite the word I want to use.

But I kind of have to think about this. I mean, you know, with a foreign god, that phrase really does parallel a phrase in verse 38.

A god which his fathers did not know, remember? So this person, whatever his name will be, he's the Antichrist.

He will come to power and he will worship a god his fathers did not know. That was one of the proofs for us to know that this is not a continuing prophecy about Antiochus, the fourth epiphanies.

Because he certainly worshipped the gods of his fathers. But the Antichrist will come, this person will arise, whose god his fathers did not know.

Or he will conquer the nations of the world with a foreign god. A foreign god. Foreign just means he'll be foreign to his fathers, his lineage, his people.

And it's Satan. It's a reference to Satan. We know that of the Antichrist, don't we? Which he shall acknowledge and advance its glory.

And it means, I think, of course, that Satan is the source of Antichrist's power. As well as the object of his worship. He will worship Satan.

And Satan will give Antichrist his power and his success. He will be a tool in Satan's plan to conquer the world.

Really be the god of it. And he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain. And that is simply a reference to many of these nations that he will conquer.

And a reference to how he will reward them for their allegiance. They'll be able to rule over.

He will conquer some of these kings and give them rulership over certain segments of his, quote, kingdom. And he will divide the land for gain.

So they will profit by this. Revelation 13, 4. I don't know if I printed the verse there for you. I don't think I did in your notes. But in that passage, the world, the people of the world are going to say of Antichrist one day.

I mean, when he comes to power, they're going to say this of him. Who is like the beast? Who's like him? Who can make war against him? So this speaks of his rule.

Next, his rivals. His rivals. He will have rivals. They won't be able to stand against him, but he will have those who will attempt it. And so, verses 40 to 43.

Let me go ahead and read the text. At the time of the end. That tells you when this is going to be. Not a date. But this is the very last thing before Christ comes.

At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him. And the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships.

And he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the glorious land. And many countries shall be overthrown.

But these shall escape from his hand. Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries. And the land of Egypt shall not escape.

He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.

All right, so let's pick this apart a little bit here. In verse 40, first verse in this section. The king of the north. Who is that?

Well, there is a lot of debate about that. Well, I don't know about debate. It's not such a big issue that really causes heated debates. But there are differences of opinion, interpretation.

But I think it's the Antichrist. The king of the north is the Antichrist. There are those who say the king of the north and the king of the south are two separate entities.

And they've both come to do battle against the Antichrist. The Antichrist is the king, but he's not the king of the north. I believe the king of the north is a reference to the Antichrist.

And it seems to be a logical interpretation since he is the antitype of the type, the Old Testament type. And the Old Testament type is Antiochus.

All right, so Antiochus is the type of the Antichrist. And who was Antiochus? He was a king of the north. The king of the north of the Seleucid Empire or the Syrians.

And so it seems to figure, it seems to connect there. The king of the north would be a designation for Antichrist. And the king of the south seems to identify not perhaps one king, although it may be one king who is kind of over several nations.

There may be a confederation of nations to the south of Israel that will exist in the last days. And that would be Egypt and other countries.

Egypt will be brought up again a little bit later in the prophecy. So, you know, we're talking about north and south. All that's in relationship to Israel. So we're talking about some nations to the north.

Israel and northward, that would be the Antichrist. The south, a confederation of nations that are going to oppose the Antichrist at the last of days.

And they shall attack him. And, of course, that refers to a rebellion against Antichrist. Him, in that case, would be Antichrist.

And then the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind. All right, that can't refer to someone other than Antichrist. Especially when we read what happens after that.

But when it says the king of the north shall come against him, him there refers to this confederation or this king of the south. So it refers to Antichrist's retaliation against this southern confederation of nations.

And he's going to, what's he going to do? He's going to enter those nations, overwhelm them, and pass through them. Kind of like a flood.

Just completely overwhelming them. That signifies Antichrist's defeat. Defeat of them. Utter defeat of these nations, these countries.

Then you get into verse 41, the glorious land. We've seen that already. Actually, twice in Daniel. And it's a reference to Israel. It's a reference to Israel.

Antichrist will also invade the land of Israel. Or, maybe in a larger sense, Palestine. Not maybe necessarily Israel as it exists today.

But as, in the sense of all of the promised land. We would call it Palestine. So he will also invade that area. And many countries shall be overthrown.

Not just Israel, but other countries that are part of this region. That's called Palestine. But these shall escape. So there will be three that escape.

And it just means that these three countries, and the countries that are mentioned here, kind of southeast of Palestine. What would be modern-day Jordan today.

Edom, Moab, and Ammon. And how they will escape, we're not told. We're the prophecy. Maybe they have an allegiance with the Antichrist.

Or maybe they're just kind of out of the way. He didn't have them in his sights. We're just not told. But they will escape this time. Verse 42, the land of Egypt shall not escape.

And that may refer, again, to a coalition of Arab nations. Which would be Muslim. Muslim nations. They are today. And we can only assume that they will be in the end times, in the last of days, when the Antichrist comes.

And they'll stand against Antichrist, but they'll be defeated. All right? They'll be defeated according to the verse here. So, if you think about it, both of the monotheistic nations will be opposed to Antichrist.

What would those nations be? Well, the Muslims. They're monotheistic. They believe in one God. He's not, of course, the God of the Bible. But they believe in one God.

And the Jews. Israel, of course, monotheistic. Those are the only two. And someone might say, Well, what about the Christian nations? Well, they won't be here then. The Christians won't be.

Now, there'll be many people saved during the tribulation. But the church won't be here. And it's caused some to speculate as to why it seems that our nation is somehow absent from all the prophecies.

And maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. I don't think I could be too dogmatic about that. But can you imagine what will happen to America when all the Christians are raptured out of here?

Of course, I guess maybe 20 years ago, I would have said, Boy, the whole nation will collapse. I'm not so sure today, actually. All right. Then getting on into verse 43.

He shall have power over all the precious things of Egypt. Now, it said gold and silver. And then this phrase, all the precious things of Egypt. And that may refer to oil, rich oil reserves of this region.

This designation of Egypt, we're not to think of that in the sense of the nation as it's defined today. Egypt as it's defined today, but very likely a term that represents the Arab bloc nations that are very wealthy with oil.

And so the Antichrist will have access to all that. All right. So the extensive conquests of this tyrant to come, his rule, his rivals.

And then third, his rage, his rage. And that comes right out of the text. Not necessarily the word that's used in the New King James Version, but the word is there.

Verse 44. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him, trouble the Antichrist. Therefore, he shall go out with great fury.

Fury. Actually, it's the word that means rage. Great rage to destroy and annihilate them. All right. So what is this about? What is this going to refer to?

Well, the news, this news from the east and the north will be news of approaching armies coming to challenge Antichrist's authority.

To defeat him. Great armies. Vast armies. East, that would be, I think, a reference to the far east. Would be China.

And some of the other nations in the far east. Japan, I think, would be included. Korea. The far east nations will come together, forming a vast army.

They will come to where the Antichrist is to challenge him. So we've got news of that. The north? Well, some have said that's Russia. It probably is.

I think it would include all the former Soviet Union nations to the north of the land, as well as some regions of Asia, like Mongolia, Tibet, and some of those countries to the far west of what's now called China.

And so armies from that area, armies from China, armies from the north, armies from the east. Therefore, he shall go out with great fury. So he gets news that they're on the march to come and challenge him, to defeat him.

And he gets news of that. And so he goes out, not by himself, but with his armies. And he goes out with great rage to annihilate him.

That's his desire. And that sets the stage for the last battle, if you can call it a battle, on planet Earth.

We know it as the Battle of Armageddon. Battle of Armageddon. And this great battle will take place, we'll go back to verse 40, at the time of the end.

Not just in the end times, but at the time of the end. Or the end of the age, this age, the end of it, which will be just before what great event?

The second coming. The second coming of Jesus Christ. All right, so that leads then to his ruin. His ruin, the ruin Antichrist will be defeated.

Verse 45. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end. And no one will help him.

All right, so he'll plant the tents of his palace. What is that? Well, it's just, I think, he's got his huge army. The army's coming to meet him.

He has his army. And, you know, he's the captain of his host. And he has established his kind of pavilion or his headquarters there near the battlegrounds.

And it's located between the seas. So in that region of the world. The two seas would be the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. In between them, but also another geographical reference, the glorious holy mountain.

That would be Mount Zion or Jerusalem. So it could be anywhere between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea, probably in Jerusalem. Set up his pavilion there to, you know, be the captain of his army.

And so the location then of the Battle of Armageddon will be in the Valley of Megiddo. Megiddo, that's what the Bible tells in Revelation 16, 16.

And so here is where the two armies will meet. There are other references to that. Not by the name Megiddo, but other references to this valley, this place where these great armies will meet.

And you can see those references there. And what's the outcome of this? Well, Daniel's vision really only gives us the ultimate fate of the Antichrist.

And it will give us a lot of details here. It says, yet he, the Antichrist, shall come to his end. Pretty brief description.

No one will help him. He'll get help from no one, which includes his armies. But I think, read between the lines. And the implication is, he's not going to get any help from his God either.

Not from Satan. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8. And then the lawless one will be revealed. That's the Antichrist. He'll be revealed.

Whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth. And destroy with the brightness of his coming. And that will take place.

The armies have come together. And they're about to do battle. And the Lord will come. One theologian described it.

At that moment, the heavens will open. The Lord Jesus will come. Backed by the armies of heaven. So he'll have his army with him too. Backed by the armies of heaven.

That would be the angels. But also accompanied by his blood-bought bride. Who's that? The church. And that will be us. He'll come.

Invincible and omnipotent. Sweeping all before him. He will descend. The sword will flash forth. And the battle of Armageddon will be over in a moment.

The twinkling of an eye. And it's not going to be any kind of struggle. Between the armies of the earth against the armies of heaven. Not going to last long.

It will be over in the twinkling of an eye. And the Antichrist will come to his end. All right. So that's the tyrant to come. Second, the trouble to come. The trouble to come.

Chapter 12, verse 1. At that time, Michael shall stand up the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.

That is, your, Daniel's people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered.

Every one who is found written in the book. So at that time, of course, alludes to really the entire period of time described in the preceding ten verses.

So it's not saying after these things happen, then this happens. But at this time period, at this time period, during Antichrist's reign of terror on the earth, during that time period, Michael, the great prince, that's how he's described in this passage and where prince is used in other places too to describe Michael, and identifies God's archangel.

So it kind of distinguishes Michael from all other angels. He's an archangel. The great prince, who's assigned, his assignment, and we've already seen this, saw this earlier on in the prophecy.

He's assigned to watch over Daniel's people. That would be Israel. And the time of trouble, reference to the great tribulation. So at this time, the time of this tyrant's reign is terrorizing on this planet.

At that time, during that seven years, it's the great tribulation. At that time, your people shall be delivered. Your people. Daniel's people. That means the Jews.

So it speaks of Israel coming to salvation at the end of the tribulation. He had a couple of references. Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. I gave you the reference, but let me read the verse.

And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then that spirit is capital S spirit, this Holy Spirit of grace and supplication.

Then they, it is the Jews, will look on me whom they pierced and they crucified. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for his firstborn.

Their eyes will be opened. Romans, probably the passage that we are more familiar with. Romans chapter 11, verses 25, 27. Blindness, Paul said, blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Now, I misunderstand. That doesn't mean that every Jew that has ever lived is going to be saved in that time.

It's just a reference to all Jews alive at that time. At the time of the coming of Christ. And their eyes will be opened. They'll look on him. And they had pierced.

They had crucified. They had rejected. And by the spirit of grace and supplication, they'll be saved. They'll be saved. He said, I will take, this is my covenant with them.

I will take away their sins. So they will be saved. And then the last phrase, everyone who is found written in the book. It is a, you make a distinction between the identity of these people and the identity of those people in the phrase just before.

This is not just talking about Jews. This is all others. It refers even to Gentiles who will be saved in the great tribulation.

Those whose names were found written in the book. All right. So the content of the prophecy, that's what we're talking about here. The tyrant to come, the trouble to come.

Third, the triumph to come. We'll just quickly read these verses. Two wondrous things that will take place when Christ comes. First of all, resurrection.

I call it resurrection of the sleepers. I'm just using the word sleep from the text. But we're not talking here about people who are just taking a snooze. You know, sleeping.

We're talking about people who've died. The Bible often refers to death in the sense of sleeping. Because the body remains, you know, in the grave until the resurrection.

And it's in that sense, sleeping. So verse 2 says, And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth. It means they're buried. Physically dead.

They shall awake. Some to everlasting life. Some to shame. And everlasting contempt. So it's not hard to tell, you know, resurrection.

Saved. Everlasting life. The unsaved. The unbelieving. Those who rejected Christ. To everlasting shame. Contempt. Helm. And then second, rewards.

Rewards for the saints. So resurrection for the sleepers. Rewards for the saints. And then it, verse 3, zeros in on those who are raised to everlasting life.

Verse 3 says, Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament. Those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

Now wise doesn't mean those who are intelligent. Those smart people. No. You know, it's the word of God that makes us wise unto salvation.

It's wise unto salvation. Those who are saved. They will be rewarded. All right. Well, just that leaves us with one last section. And that's Daniel's special instructions.

And the remainder of the chapter. Remainder of the book. I'll give Daniel some pretty important instructions. And some instructions that, the implication of these instructions, good for us to know and understand.