Kingdoms Rise and Wane

We’re going to read together from the Old Testament, from Daniel and chapter 11. One of the things that Paul instructs Timothy in is to make sure that he gives himself to the reading of the Bible, to the reading of the Word of God, and I take it that he means not only in his personal life but also in the public opportunities of ministry. And so we purposefully read the Bible together. And this morning, this chapter is a long chapter, but I’m going to read the entire chapter, and I encourage you to follow along if you have your Bible. It will make it easier, I think, if you are looking at the text.

Daniel 11:1:

“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

“And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.

“Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times.

“And from a branch from her roots one shall arise in his place. He shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the north, and he shall deal with them and shall prevail. He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, and for some years he shall refrain from attacking the king of the north. Then the latter shall come into the realm of the king of the south but shall return to his own land.

“His sons shall wage war and assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress. Then the king of the south, moved with rage, shall come out and fight against the king of the north. And he shall raise a great multitude, but it shall be given into his hand. And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail. For the king of the north shall again raise a multitude, greater than the first. And after some years he shall come on with a great army and abundant supplies.

“In those times many shall [a]rise against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail. Then the king of the north shall come and throw up siegeworks and take a well-fortified city. And the forces of the south shall not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no strength to stand. But he who comes against him shall do as he wills, and none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious land, with destruction in his hand. He shall set his face to come with … strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them. He shall give him the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom, but it shall not stand or be to his advantage. Afterward he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall capture many of them, but a commander shall put an end to his insolence. Indeed, he shall turn his insolence back upon him. Then he shall turn his face back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found.

“Then shall arise in his place one who shall send an exactor of tribute for the glory of [his] kingdom. But within a few days he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle. In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Armies shall be utterly swept away before him and broken, even the prince of the covenant. And from the time that an alliance is made with him he shall act deceitfully, and he shall become strong with a small people. Without warning he shall come into the richest parts of the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his fathers’ fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for plots shall be devised against him. Even those who eat his food shall break him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. And as for the two kings, their hearts shall be bent on doing evil. They shall speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed. And he shall return to his land with great wealth, but his heart shall be set against the holy covenant. And he shall work his will and return to his own land.

“At the [appointed time] he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before. For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.

“And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done. He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all. He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest [forces] with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price.

“At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train. But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.”

Amen.

May God bless to us the reading of his Word.

Father, we believe that when your Word is preached, that your voice is heard. We bow before the mystery of this. So “speak, O Lord, till your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory.”[1] We know one day it will be. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let me begin by asking the question that is posed in the Heidelberg Catechism as the first question of the Catechism: “What is your only comfort in life and death?” “What is your only comfort in life and death?” I’m going to presume that you have a mechanism for both explaining your life, dealing with your life, understanding the prospect of death, and dealing with it. “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”

The eleventh chapter of Daniel is second only, in length, to the second chapter of Daniel. And I read it in its entirety in order that we might understand its complexity and the challenge that is contained in it—not least of all in trying to read it without making a mistake, which I was incapable of doing, and of studying it, and of understanding it sufficiently to be able to teach it, and of teaching it in a way that it would be apparently of use and profit to those who are then the students along with the teacher. It is no small charge, and I have actually adjusted my view, whereby I said that the end of Daniel 9 was the most daunting part of the book. That was before I made a stab at chapter 11. I have now put 11 into first place as almost of paralyzing challenge.

One commentator, I was delighted to discover, said of chapter 11, it “might be treated in Bible classes,” but “we do not see how it could be used [in] a sermon or … sermons.”[2] At that point, I felt, “Well, that sets me free, and we can get straight into the Advent series.” But then I discovered that Calvin gave one hundred pages to chapter 11 in his commentary. Well, having spent the time in chapter 11, I want you to know that I’m closer to Leupold than I am to Calvin.

And the approach that I want to take this morning to this chapter is what I’ve referred to somewhat humorously before, when I’ve been speaking to other pastors—namely, the principle of planned neglect. Of planned neglect. In other words, we’re not going to delve into all of the details of this chapter. To do so would be patently impossible in the time span that we have and would result, actually, in a fairly sustained series. I’m going to take the approach of my old art teacher at Ilkley Grammar School, whom I have mentioned to you before—Tommy Walker—to whom I used routinely go with my assignment: “Mr. Walker, I’m sorry, but you’ll need to help me with my drawing. I can’t draw this chair.” And you remember what he would always say to me: “Begg, I will get you started, but I am not going to do it for you.” And that comes to my mind routinely when I’m teaching, and certainly it has been uppermost in my thinking here in relationship to chapter 11. I am going to get you started, but I am not going to do it for you.

Chapters 10, 11, and 12 provide us with actually one unit. One of the reasons that I have not paused at the end of 10, in light of the onset of Advent, is simply because 10, 11, and 12 need to be taken together. If we fail to take them together, then we do a disservice to the way in which the material is provided and also to our understanding of it.

I hope you will remember that when we looked at 10, the intervention of the heavenly visitor had appeared to Daniel in order to enable Daniel, and in turn the readers of Daniel, to understand what is about to happen to them: “what will happen to you,” he said, “and to your people in the latter days.”[3] That’s 10:14. The reason for his appearing is not to create confusion in the mind of Daniel or in the mind of those who’d become the students of the book later on but is in order to make it clear to Daniel what the future actually holds.

And in chapter 10, we noted the fact that the way in which this is conveyed to Daniel is to bring, as it were, the corner of the curtain of eternity aside in order that Daniel then may actually get a glimpse into the heavenlies and realize that in the unseen realm there are kingdoms that are in conflict and that the battle of the world is in that arena, in which evil powers exercise their influence in the very thrones and governments and corridors of political power—so that when we read of the events of our own lives, the experiences of the rise and fall of nations, we do so in the awareness of the fact that the Bible charts, in some measure, the progress for us.

Now, what happens in chapter 11 is that what we have seen already in the earlier chapters—particularly in chapter 8, if you remember the ram and the goat (the ram, the Medo-Persian Empire; the goat, the rise of Greece)—what is there, if you like, in a more embryonic form is then flushed out in far greater detail here in chapter 11. And in that greater detail, we need to acknowledge that it is jolly difficult. At least I have found it so.

I’m greatly encouraged by the fact that at the end of the vision in chapter 8… You will perhaps recall the final sentence of chapter 8: “Then I”—that is, Daniel—“rose and went about the king’s business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.”[4] Good. In chapter 12—we’re going to go on into 12 next week, all being well. And what do we discover there? He says in verse 8, “I heard [these things], but I did not understand.” “I didn’t understand.”

I think it’s very important—and this is one of the things I hope has come across in our study of Daniel—it is very important to realize that there is no need to be ashamed when we do not understand. The people that you really ought to be most cautious about are those who can give you an explanation for every tiny detail of the Bible. And if you have the feeling as they do that they might just be wrong, the chances are they might just be wrong—that the endeavor is understandable, but not everything is perfectly clean, is it? We’ve quoted the Westminster Confession in this matter, and I do so again: “Not all things in Scripture are equally plain in themselves or equally clear to all.”[5] True.

Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly stated and explained in one place or another in [the Bible], that not only the educated but also the uneducated may gain a sufficient understanding of them by a proper use of the ordinary means.[6]

What a wonderful closing sentence that is! “A proper use of the ordinary means.” What are the ordinary means? The Bible! What is a proper use of the Bible? Read it! But don’t read it in a way that you don’t read any other book. It’s full of verbs, and pronouns, and adjectives, and similes, and metaphors, and various genres. Therefore, it is to be read in that way, if we would use it properly.

There is no need to be ashamed when we do not understand.

The reason that some of us do not benefit from our reading of the Bible is because we do not read it properly. When we think about the Bible being inspired, we assume that it is supposed to just inspire us. So we read it hoping for inspiration, and we don’t get any inspiration, so we look for another place. Well, I must tell you, reading 11 as I have done, not only in your hearing now but all throughout this past week or ten days, has been a reminder to me of just how daunting it really is. And I actually thought it wouldn’t be too difficult for me just to go immediately to Christmas, and then nobody would remember in any case, and eventually it would be January, and the people would just—we could move on and not worry about it at all.

And then I read my dear brother and good friend, Sinclair, who said this: “It is always important to cover passages of Scripture that contain material that is difficult to follow.”[7] (“Oh,” I said. “Oh no, come on!”) “Because it underlines the biblical teaching that studying Scripture is hard work.” “That studying Scripture is hard work.” That’s why Paul says to Timothy, “Study to shew [your]self approved unto God, a workman [who doesn’t need] to be ashamed, [who is] rightly dividing the word of truth.”[8] It’s work. It’s work! It’s not something you can do in five minutes on the back of an envelope. It’s not something you can do sitting around waiting for a blessed thought to pass on. If what you want to do in teaching the Bible is just come up with half a dozen illustrations and two funny stories and a little bit of the Bible, then you can do that. You’ll never need to study again in your entire life. But if you’re going to set yourself the task of doing the second half of Daniel, then you’d better get at the business. Because there are certain passages of Scripture that are just hard to understand.

You say, “Okay, well, you’ve made the point.” Well, I wanted to make the point. And I was helped also by Joyce Baldwin when she said unless the readers are actually serious students of ancient history, most of the allusions in Daniel 11 will completely baffle them.[9] And since I am not a serious student of ancient history, I am here to acknowledge the accuracy of her assessment and the wisdom conveyed in the fact that she suggests that if you want to get serious about this—and this is homework for all of us—if you want to be serious about it, then a secular history read alongside Daniel 11 will both help to understand the unfolding of secular history and will help to understand the vision that is conveyed in the eleventh chapter. For example, The Cambridge Ancient History, volume 8, Rome and the Mediterranean 218–133 BC. You can get it on Amazon, and you can have a wonderful time over Christmas working your way through it.

Now, I say all of this because the only way that we can adequately handle doing something with this chapter—and we will come back to the hardest part of it tonight—is to deal with it from thirty thousand feet. I know that some of you will be disappointed by this. I freely acknowledge that. But I think it is still in our best interest.

What do we know? We know that the exiles have been freed to return home. The first year of Darius the Mede was the year when they were set free as a result of a policy of repatriation. They have been allowed to go home. But the news that is filtered back from Jerusalem is that it isn’t really going very well. In fact, they are confronted by opposition. And within relatively short order, the rebuilding project is going to come to a crushing halt.

And Daniel is given an insight by God into what’s really going on. And in chapter 10, he is taken, as it were, behind the scenes, into the unseen realm, to get a flavor for the fact that there is a battle that rages in the heavenlies—what Paul later on writes about: that “we do[n’t] wrestle against flesh and blood, but against … spiritual [wickedness] in the heavenly places.”[10] And so Daniel in chapter 10 is just absolutely destabilized by the immensity of what he discovers: that behind all of the ebb and flow and the topsy-turvy of life for them in their exile, and now in the restoration, and in looking to the future, there is this battle in the heavens.

Made aware, then, of the fact that these terrible battles are ensuing, it needs to be understood that that which is taking place unseen in the heavenlies is inevitably being worked out in the seen world of history on the ground, as it were, as it unfolds. And so, for example, in verse 2: “And now I will show you the truth,” or “I’ll tell you what’s going on: Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, a fourth will be richer than all of them. He’ll become strong, stir up all against the kingdom of Greece, and then a mighty king shall arise.”

Well, if you want to do your own cross-referencing, you realize that as you read that, it takes you back to 8:22—the arrival of a Greek warrior king whose kingdom is split into four parts. He would like to think, perhaps, that when it goes from him, that it will go into his posterity, but it doesn’t. And as a result of that, Alexander finds that his experience is a short-lived one, despite his might after all. So, that is a reference to that period.

Then when you get into verse 5 and following, with the king of the south and then the kings of the north, and so on, I can take you through this. I can take you through it. We’d go part by part. We’d go through the empires: the Seleucid Empire, the Ptolemaic Empire, the arrival of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and so on. All of this is actually here in this eleventh chapter. If you go and look for it, the thing that will strike you is, it is absolutely amazing that six centuries BC there should be such a detailed, prophetic outworking of what was going to take place in the drama of world history.

Now, let’s pause for a minute and acknowledge that those who are opposed to the Bible, who see the Bible as just a ragbag of material that someone has cobbled together over time, that has bits and pieces in it that is worthwhile and other parts that you can ignore—those kind of individuals operate from the basis that it couldn’t possibly be that this is prophecy. So when you read those commentaries, they’ll tell you that this is actually history dressed up to look like prophecy. And so all of this is written, now, in a period of time where all of chapter 11 has already taken place, and then it is written in such a way as to suggest that it is about to take place. I’ve always found that kind of thing a lot harder to swallow than the real story. The argument is that no man could possibly know what was about to take place. Well, of course! Who’s saying anything about any man knowing about everything that is to take place? “Well,” you say, “Daniel knew.” Yeah, but how did he know? Because God disclosed it to him.

We’re going to come to the story of the arrival of the wise men: “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? … We[’ve] seen his star in the east, and [we’ve] come to worship him.”[11] “Are we at the right place?” And Herod got together his wise men and the folks that read the big books of the magi, and he inquired of him where this king was to be born, and he said, “In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet[s].”[12] God speaks. God unfolds. God reveals.

Now, when you go through this on your own, as I’m sure you’re just keen to get out of here and get started on it, then you will find that the drama that unfolds changes, if you like, in its descriptive dimension from a kind of top-down view of it to a view of it that’s a bit like when you’re watching soccer on TV: every so often, they’ll give you the whole field, and then they will go down to a camera that is right in the middle of the action. Well, the camera here comes right down into the middle of the action. The perspective is that of “the glorious land,” or the beautiful land, that you’ll find in the text. And the beautiful land, the people of God, where God has revealed his glory, is squeezed, if you like, between the warfare that comes from the north and from the south. They’re in the middle of this great unfolding battle and drama which has ensued throughout history.

God speaks. God unfolds. God reveals.

Now, you must trust me on this, and then you can prove me wrong later. But if you take, for example, from verse 2 all the way to verse 20, what you actually have here is essentially a period of time, of 355 years, from 530 to 175 BC. It is the period of time that covers from Cyrus to Antiochus. Check and you’ll find out. When you go beyond that, from 21 to 35 (verses 21–35), you’re dealing with 175–163, only 12 years. And 355 years are given nineteen verses, and 12 years are covered in fifteen verses.

Now, remember what we’ve said: that there’s no underlining in the Bible. There’s no changing the font size or putting circles around it. So one of the ways you understand emphasis is when the pace slows and the extent of the information is compacted and then conveyed in this kind of way. Well, what is it that there’s a preoccupation on here? Well, the answer is in the period of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who was a major monster; who, in endeavoring to destroy the people of God, established his own ideologies; he sought to bring unity to his kingdom by imposing this particular ideology (and you can read it within the text and the extent to which he went in order to shut things down for the people of God); and as a result of that, Antiochus is, if you like, the prototype of many leaders who come after him.

You know, I just bought a book in England a couple of weeks ago on Mussolini, ʼcause I don’t know much about Mussolini. I thought, “I want to find out about Mussolini.” And I haven’t really found out much yet, because I haven’t had a chance to read much of it. But the little bit that I’ve read of it, I said, “This sounds a lot like Antiochus.” But actually, Hitler sounds a lot like Antiochus. Mao Tse-tung sounds a lot like Antiochus. The regime of North Korea has got a lot of Antiochan developments and perspectives in it.

Now, why would this ever be? Because this character here in Daniel 11 is, I suggest to you, a virtual prototype of everything that is ultimately anti-God. He doesn’t embody it in its fullness. One of the challenges of the chapter is: Is he still the one in focus as you get to the end, or is he simply giving us an indication of this great monster that will come—“the man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians[13]—and the antichrist in its embodiment? That’s one of the challenges of interpretation. But when we think about this, what we discover is that the events of the chapter lead us to the end, when there is a description that transcends, if you like, the ability of anybody to make sense of it all, pointing us to the one who will then oppose the people of God.

But the fact is that even with all of that, it is only going to be for a time. And I want just to make a number of observations that I hope will send you back to the text and in doing so will help you in your study of the text. These kings of the north, kings of the south—all of this material here, which rages throughout this particular period of time—all have finitude written into them. The affairs of politics are ephemeral. Ultimately, the affairs of politics are actually futile. When you think about it, all of the endeavors that have gone into raising up great empires—where are they today? The British Empire. What amazing amount of effort! How could a tiny little bunch of islands in the middle of the North Sea have such a control over the world? How could they control three-quarters of the world’s oceans? And where are they now? They’re barely a whimper in the European Community, barely able to keep themselves alive in the battle for autonomy.

No, you see, all of these things come to an end. I want you just to notice how this comes again and again. For example, in verse 24, concerning this one who will “come into the richest parts of the province” and do all these things, and he’ll “devise plans against strongholds.” But notice the end of verse 24: “but only for a time.” Verse 27, again: “As for the two kings,” and “their hearts,” and all these things, and yet it is only for a little while, and it is “to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed.” Verse 29, you have the same thing: “At the time appointed he [will] return …, but it shall not be this time as it was before.” Verse 35, I think it comes again: “And some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.”

Now, what do we need to get from this? Because we can’t just stay here all morning. Let’s affirm the fact that we’re accepting that this is actually prophecy. Let’s affirm the fact that we’re dealing here not in the realm of fiction but in the realm of fact itself. The times and the seasons are appointed by God. When Paul addresses the intelligentsia in Athens, he’s unashamed in this. They invite him to come and speak to them. They regard him as a bit of a birdbrain. That’s the word they use. He’s a “babbler.”[14] He apparently is able to put on a pretty good talk, and so they invite him to their gathering of the brightest and the best. And as he comes to meet them, as it were, in the academy, he says, “First of all, I can see that you’re a very religious group of people. I was walking around, and I saw that you have various statues and idols and so on. Well, what I want to proclaim to you is the answer to the one statue that I noticed you have: a statue, there, to the unknown god. Well, what I want to do,” he says, “I want to tell you about the God that you don’t know.”[15] And how does he begin? He doesn’t start off and say, “You know, God is very nice, and he’d like to give you some very nice things, and he is quite charming, and he’s a very amenable…” No, he doesn’t start with any of that drivel. He starts, “The God who made the world and everything in it…”[16]

So, we’re not talking about a cosmic principle. We’re not talking about an idea. We’re talking about God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Before there was time, before there was anything, there was God. And as he goes on in that speech in Athens there (which we have simply as a summary, I’m sure, because it’s over in about three minutes, if you read it; therefore, I can only assume it went on for longer), what does he say? He says that this God who made the world established the habitations of men and women. He established where nations were set. He established both the geographical boundaries, and he established the periods of history.[17]

You see how alien this is to the idea that somehow or another, God is whatever we want God to be. No! So, what we have to do is allow Daniel to help us to this end—namely, to view history, the unfolding drama of history, from the perspective of Scripture; to learn to read our newspaper through the lens of Scripture rather than the other way around; to bring to bear upon the daunting challenges of our day and the reading of history what we’ve affirmed in our song and what the Bible tells us is true. Isaiah 40:12: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand[s] …?”[18]

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
 and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
 … he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.[19]

Who can do this? Only God!

You see, we don’t believe in God. We don’t believe in God! You see, if you believe in God, then everything else falls into line. But we don’t believe in God. We believe in God insofar as he meets our expectations, or as he fulfills our designs, or as he accomplishes our purposes. But a God who takes away our children in their infancy, a God who takes us through deep, dark valleys, a God who allows his people to be carried away into degradation for seventy years and when they’re returned is faced by the most animosity that they could ever imagine, a God who allows his own Son to be crucified on a cross and who raises him on the third day—we don’t believe in that God! No, we have a God who is a cosmic principle, who’s an idea, who’s around if you need him. No, this is the God who sets up kings and authorities, proud empires, all the people that gathered in Paris this past week. There they are in all of their finery, all of the dignities, all of the cars, all of the limousines, all of the everything, as they all sat there while the world is going crazy underneath them. The pomposity of it all!

Boy, I would love to have given a speech there. I would like just a little time, just an opportunity. And this is what I would read to them. I’d have said, “Listen:”

“He … sits above the circle of the earth,
 and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
[he] stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
 and [he] spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
[he] brings princes to nothing,
 and [he] makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.”[20]

“Well, that’s not very nice. You’ll never get invited back if you do that once.” I know that, but just once would be enough. I’d like the chance to make it clear that God is not a passive bystander in the world that he has made. He controls the details of human history. He accomplishes his eternal purposes, and he definitely will. And it is to the people of God that he gives this vision, both in terms of the unseen world of the heavenlies—which modern man says is a joke, and yet goes to see the spooky lady in the center of Chagrin Falls, and yet goes on the internet and tries to find out about his future, and says bizarre things when he goes to the funeral of his friends, but he doesn’t believe that there is actually kingdoms in conflict, that there is a world beyond. Yes he does! Yes he does! But it is a disaster to assume that this God, who’s engaged in that realm, would come and step down in this way. Think about it.

God is not a passive bystander in the world that he has made. He controls the details of human history. He accomplishes his eternal purposes.

We used to sing it in Scotland as a boy. I’m so glad of my… The longer I live, the more I thank God for the providence of God in my life, and it’s why I’m so exercised about what we’re doing with our children—not only in buildings but in every dimension. You cannot quantify the benefit of instilling in their young hearts and minds these truths. How can I pull stuff back at sixty-three the way I do? Because of what I enjoyed when I was three.

Kingdoms may rise and kingdoms may fall,
Nations refuse to heed God’s call,
But the Word of the Lord endures forevermore.

Put your trust in Jesus.

I’m quoting now:

Put your trust in Jesus,
He will be your friend.
He will guide and keep you
Till your journey’s end.

Kingdoms may rise, kingdoms may fall,
Nations refuse to heed God’s call,
But the Word of the Lord endures forevermore.

Now, you’ve got to understand: this is 1957, 1958. We on the school bus are still singing, “Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves! Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.” Our little voices on the bus, singing it like crazy: “We rule the world! We’re the champions of the world! We’ll come one, come all.” Then we go to Sunday school: “Kingdoms will rise, kingdoms will fall. Put your trust in Jesus.” I get it. Do you get it?

Let me end where I began: “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” What do you have as the answer to the big question? The big question. One: “Where did I come from?” Two: “What am I?” Three: “Where am I going?”

If your—if I may say so kindly to you—if your view of the world does not give you a sufficient answer to those questions, you need a new view of the world. And I’ve got it right here for you, in Daniel 11. God is on the throne, and comes from his throne to a manger, and from a manger to a cross and to a borrowed tomb, and to the throne, and from the throne, to those who in answer to the question “What is my only comfort in life and in death?” are able to say, “My only comfort is that I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and death, to my Savior Jesus Christ.”[21]

I wonder: Can you say that today? I wonder: Will you consider what it might mean for you to bow down and acknowledge God as God?

Father, thank you that in the midst of all of this we might have our hearts and minds attuned afresh to you, the living God. We think big thoughts of ourselves and small thoughts of you, and we wonder why our lives are upside down. We fill our lives with every kind of substitute, even though you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.[22] We go down just about every other pathway. Some of us are here this morning, and we don’t have a decent answer to the question. We may be unbelieving in relationship to Daniel 11. It just seems totally nuts, far-fetched, craziness. Lord, open our eyes, and grant that we might find in Jesus all that we long for. For we pray humbly in his name. Amen.

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[1] Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, “Speak O Lord” (2005).

[2] H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1969), 525.

[3] Daniel 10:14 (paraphrased).

[4] Daniel 8:27 (ESV).

[5] The Westminster Confession of Faith, Modern English Study Version, 1.7.

[6] Confession 1.7.

[7] Sinclair B. Ferguson, Daniel, The Preacher’s Commentary 21 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2002), 214.

[8] 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV).

[9] Joyce G. Baldwin, Daniel: An Introduction and Commentary, The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1978), 184.

[10] Ephesians 6:12 (ESV).

[11] Matthew 2:2 (KJV).

[12] Matthew 2:5 (KJV).

[13] 2 Thessalonians 2:3 (ESV).

[14] Acts 17:18 (ESV).

[15] Acts 17:22–23 (paraphrased).

[16] Acts 17:24 (ESV).

[17] See Acts 17:26.

[18] Isaiah 40:12 (ESV).

[19] Isaiah 40:15 (ESV).

[20] Isaiah 40:22–23 (ESV).

[21] The Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 1. Paraphrased.

[22] Augustine, Confessions 1.1.1.