Daniel 11:28-3528Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land. 29At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. 30For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. 31And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. 32And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. 33And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. 34Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. 35And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed. (Daniel 11:28‑35)
Verse 28: The king of the north whose exploits we ban to read in verse 21, Antiochus Epiphanes, returned, as here foretold, from his war with the king of the south greatly enriched. His heart was “against the holy covenant”, against the Jews who lived in the land God promised to Abraham and gave to their fathers. A poor and feeble people, they had learned in the sorrows of the captivity that the one true God who kept His covenant with them was more worthy of their confidence than the hosts of idols they had worshiped; not since the seventy years spent in Babylon have the Jews been idolaters.
The name of “Epiphanes” taken by Antiochus, means “illustrious”, but he was the opposite,—a degraded, morally abominable man, given a place in the prophetic Scriptures because of his cruelty to the Jews, and that he foreshadowed future enemies, including the king of the north, who will come up against them in the coming day of trial.
Verses 29-32: Antiochus was not long at rest in Syria; his ambition and his former success in humiliating Egypt, led him forth again with his armies, but now “the ships of Chittim”—Rome’s navy and soldiers—came against him, as in verse 18, an earlier check was put by the Roman legions upon his predecessor. The Roman consul came to Antiochus and forbade his going further with his plans of conquest, and even drew a circle round him when he delayed giving his promise, insisting on a reply before the king stepped over the line.
Humiliated and filled with rage, Antiochus returned to Syria, and found in the defenseless Jews, a people upon whom he could vent his wrath, for a time at least, without hindrance. First, he got advantage over them by flattery and deceit, making friends with the apostate Jews; later he resorted to violence. He was determined to stamp out the worship of the true God, and to substitute heathen worship, especially that of Jupiter Olympus. Because they stood in the way of his success, Antiochus treated the Jewish leaders with great cruelty, degrading them (see chapter 8:9-14). He enforced idolatry in the temple itself, stopping-the daily sacrifices under the law. of Moses, and setting up an image even in the holy of holies, —the “Abomination of him that desolates”, as the expression in verse 31 may be rendered. All the Jews who resisted Antiochus were put to death.
Verses 32-35. “The people that do know their God,” led by the Maccabees and others, were able at last, with some help from the Romans, to drive the oppressor out of their country, the temple was cleansed and the Jewish worship was resumed. However, the trials of the Jews did not end with the departure of this wicked king, for a long period of sorrow and trouble followed with the Romans at last taking over the government of the country, as it was when the Lord Jesus was on earth.
The prophecies of chapter 11 to this point (verse 35) have been fulfilled. What follows belongs to the future, not now far distant.
ML 08/23/1936