"And now I will show thee the truth," said the heavenly visitor to Daniel. By "the truth," is meant the Divine interpretation of the symbolic visions. (See Dan. 7:16, 19; 10:1, 21.) The vision, of which this is the interpretation, is not given. But manifestly Daniel had had some great vision, and his three weeks' fast and prayer (Dan. 10:2ff) was for the purpose of obtaining the "truth," i. e., the interpretation of it. (Dan. 11:12, 14.) It concerned Daniel's people, the nation of Israel; and, like all the former visions, it referred chiefly to "the latter days," the end-time of Israel's career, the things leading up to and including her glorious restoration. (Dan. 2:28, 29; 7:22, 27; 8:17, 19, 26; 9:24; 10:14.) It is important to keep in mind this oft-reiterated fact, namely, that Daniel's prophecies concern his people, and that his prophecies all focus upon the time of the end.

      At a world-exposition the visitor could see a "Cyclorama" picture of the battle of Gettysburg. In the foreground were actual fields and fences of real soil and material. This led up to a picture landscape in the distance; and so skillful and realistic was the arrangement that it was difficult to tell where the real foreground ended and the painted picture began. Prophecies of Daniel in like manner, always [111] begin with the foreground of Daniel's time, and the immediate future; but swiftly they pass on to the distant times and events, which form the real point of interest of the prophecy. There is just enough of the near things given to establish a continuity and relation with the far future. Such is the case here. There is a foreground of things of Daniel's time and of the near future events; then the prophecy passes on to the latter days and the time of the end.

      "Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and when he is waxed strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece." (v. 2).

      This is a bit of immediate foreground of Persian history. The student of history will at once recognize in the fourth Persian king, the famous and fabulously rich Xerxes, who sought to conquer Greece, but failed in the attempt. Then the prophecy leaps forward to "Alexander the Great"--who once already has figured in Daniel's vision (Dan. 8:21)--"a mighty king--that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will" (v. 3). This great king's sudden end, and the division of his empire into four parts "toward the four winds of heaven," but "not to his posterity nor according to his dominion wherewith he ruled," has also been spoken of before. (Dan. 8:21, 22.)

      Here begins the record prophetic of a great warfare between two of those four kingdoms into which [112] Alexander's empire was divided--the king of the South (Egypt, which fell to Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals); and the king of the North (Syria, which had come into the possession of Seleucus, another of Alexander's generals). The conflict between these two contending kingdoms takes up the greater part of our chapter. The prophetic forecast requires close examination that we may get a clear picture of the events foretold.

      Here the tenor of the prophecy changes. All intervening history is passed over, and the struggle between the king of the North and the king of the [114] South as renewed in "the time of the end" now comes into view. The spotlight falls on an evil king of the last days--the great anti-type of the wicked ruler of vs. 21-32--who prospers till "the indignation" is accomplished. (The "indignation" is the time of Israel's rejection and chastisement, Dan. 8:19; Isa. 10:5; 26:20.) The conflict portrayed in vs. 40-45 is to take place "at the time of the end."

      But before we examine this portion, let us go back to consider the significance of the great warfare up to v. 36. Has that part of the prophecy been fulfilled, wholly or in part? Or is its fulfilment yet future? The judgments of prophetic teachers differ on this point: some hold that from verse 5 on all is future; others that all, at least so far as v. 35, has been fulfilled. The evidence is strongly in favor of the latter. Gaebelein among others, ("Daniel," pp. 167-177) traces in minute detail an exact historic fulfilment of this part of the prophecy, in the ancient wars between the kingdom of the Ptolemies (Egypt) and the Seleucidae (Syria), up to the appearance and reign of the wicked king of Syria, the "king of the North," first mentioned in v. 21, whose blasphemous, God-defying deeds are spoken of in vs. 30-33. This vile being is known in history as "Antiochus Epiphanes." The correspondence of the predictions in vs. 2-35 with the known facts of history seems to be perfect, and to compel the conclusion that this part of the prophecy has been fully fulfilled.¹ However there is yet a word to be said about [115] this. The wicked Antiochus Epiphanes was surely also the type and foreshadowing of a greater one who was to come--the great wicked one of the end-time, who bears all the features of "the man of sin," of 2 Thess. 2, and who answers to the description of the Beast in Rev. 13.

      It is after the manner of prophecy to begin with things present, or just at hand, and to pass, by sudden, or hardly noticeable transitions to the greater things and events of like sort in the future. Thus, for example, the locust plague in Joel issues in a vision of the judgment of the great and terrible day of the Lord. The limited commission of Christ to the twelve (Matt. 10) widens out into the world-wide scope of later-days; the predicted destruction of Jerusalem of A. D. 70 in the Olivet Sermon turns into a forecast of another, greater, calamity of like kind in the end-time, to wit, the Great Tribulation, which immediately precedes the Lord's return in glory. (Matt. 24:15-31.)

      In like manner the picture of these conflicts between the kingdoms that sprang up from Alexander's empire, culminates in the manifestation of a wicked king; and then like a dissolving view, turns into the revelation of the greater monster that is to come in the time of the end. The nearer events form the foreground and foreshadowing of the [116] greater final vision. It was indeed Antiochus Epiphanes who set up "the abomination of desolation," even as the apocryphal book of Maccabees declares. But he was only an understudy and not the king (the real subject of the prophecy) who is to set up the "abomination of desolation," and thereby will usher in the great tribulation. That king had not yet come, and that prediction was still unfulfilled even when Christ spoke of it (Matt. 24:15); and it is still unfulfilled. The vision belongs to the end-time. We may not find any sharp line of demarkation where the prophecy passes from the more immediate to the remote future; but presently we perceive that we have passed beyond the nearer things of the prophet's time and are moving amidst the events of the end-time. At verse 36 the evil king of the end-time comes into view. He is neither the king of the South, nor the king of the North; but "at the time of the end" both the king of the South and the king of the North will attack him (v. 40); but before his superior power both are utterly defeated, and all opposition is swept from before him.² Only a few countries ("Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon," v. 41) will be delivered out of his hand.

      Several things are told concerning this king. (1) He shall do according to his will--that is, he will recognize no higher law than his own will: [117] therefore he is a "lawless one." (2)"He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god." Verse 37 adds: "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." (3) He "shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods." (4) He shall be a bitter persecutor of the Jews. (5) He "shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished."

      But though he exalts himself above every god, there is nevertheless one god whom in his place (or "in his office") he acknowledges--"the god of fortresses"; a god "whom his fathers knew not," a "foreign god"--whom he honors with offerings of "gold and silver and precious stones and pleasant things" (v. 38); and by the help of this god he is enabled to deal with the strongest fortresses (v. 39); that is, he will be able to break down any and every resistance. Who is this god? If it were only the "god of fortresses" we might think it would be the personification of brute force (as in Hab. 1:11, 16 "whose might is his god"; and "he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag"). But the statements in Dan. 11:38, 39 point to an actual "god," an evil power from whom he obtains his power and success: "whosoever acknowledgeth him he will increase with glory." And "he" (either the wilful king is meant, or his "god") "shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price"--i. e., he will auction off portions of the land to them at a price.

      This is the picture of the wicked king of the [118] end-time; and no doubt, it has brought to our minds what we found before in the prophecies of Daniel--the "little horn" of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 who "shall speak words against the Most High." (vs. 8, 11, 20-25); the little horn of Dan. 8 (vs. 9-12) symbolizing a king of the latter day, a "king of fierce countenance," "understanding dark sentences," whose power shall be mighty but not by his own power," who shall "destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and do his pleasure," and "shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people." (Dan. 8:23-25.) The correspondence between this person and "the man of sin" in 2 Thess. 2:3-8, and the Beast of Rev. 13, is perfect, as to the time of manifestation, the source of his ruthless power, his world-wide sway, his pride, self-exaltation, and blasphemies against God, and his wicked deeds. Our space will not allow the working out of all the parallel; but it will be an interesting and profitable task for the student to trace the comparison between this dark personage of the last days, and his "god," with the description given in the Thessalonian epistle of the "lawless one," and in Rev. 13, of the beast.

      But there is ever a fly in his ointment--several in fact. Though this king has world-wide sway, it is not perfect nor is it undisputed. Like our modern dictators, with all Satanic power to help him, he cannot quite hold everything, nor subdue everybody, nor have everything his own way. He does gain smashing victory over the king of the South and the king of the North, and all that shall come against him in the time of the end "like a whirlwind" [119] (striking description of modern warfare!), "with chariots and with horsemen, and with many ships"--for he defeats both and overruns their lands (comp. Dan. 7:23); invades the land of Palestine also, and many countries are overthrown by him (vs. 40, 41). But several smaller lands--Edom, Moab, and the main parts of Ammon--shall be delivered out of his hand; how and why we are not told. But Egypt with all her treasures, Ethiopia, and Libya will fall to him. But from the East and out of the North will come tidings of revolt; and again he rushes forth with terrible force, "with great fury, to destroy, and utterly to sweep away many"; and "he shall plant his tent between the sea and the glorious holy mountain"--that is, in the coastal plain between the Mediterranean and Jerusalem. "Yet"--despite all his victories and overwhelming and irresistible power--"he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." Not even his mighty ally, the devil, will deliver him from his fate. Comp. Dan. 7:11, 26; 8:25--"he shall be broken without hand"; and 2 Thess. 2:8; Rev. 19:20.

      The twelfth chapter of Daniel stands in close sequence to the eleventh. But we must reserve it for another lesson.

[LOD2 111-122]