Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Frankly, I don’t know where to start with this passage today.

It has been the hardest passage to deal with for preaching, not because the content is so obscure or confusing, but because it seems so irrelevant and unimportant to us here today in 2021.

Why do we care about all these details of ancient kings and their wars?

Well, I have here this morning three important lessons that arise from this chapter of Daniel, and they are echoed by Jesus’ teaching in Matt 24.

Recap/Context

If you don’t remember, or perhaps you’re new here, last week we were in Daniel chapter 10.

We’ve been making our way through the book of Daniel chapter per week and observing the main message of the book resounding loud and clear.

That message is: the Lord God is faithful to his chosen people even while they are in exile.

God had punished Israel & Judah for their misdeeds and rebellion by sending them into exile.

Including the young bloke Daniel.

But despite being away from his home country most of His life Daniel does not give up his faith in God.

In fact he sticks out like a sore thumb because of his loyalty to the Lord God.

In these last few chapters we have been looking at some of the visions that God showed Daniel of the future.

Despite the circumstances of Judah being in exile, the temple of God in ruins and strong powerful nations oppressing them, God was still at work.

God knew the future and God had plans for restoration, despite the circumstances of Daniel’s day..

We’re in the last vision of the book right now.

Daniel 10, 11 & 12 form the “penultimate” vision of the book.

It is the last one, and the one that has the most detail.

We looked at the introduction to the vision in Daniel 10 last week where we focused in on the spiritual aspects of what is going on - there is a spiritual war going on around Daniel with princely spiritual beings at war with one another.

The Bible variously describes the powerful leaders in the spiritual realm as Princes, Sons of God, or even ‘gods’ (small ‘g’ gods).

Like humans, some of them were given positions of authority that they misused and abused.

Daniel’s been depressed by the state of God’s people and world events, and so he’s been praying and fasting.

On the ground it could look to him like the gods of Babylon and Persia have triumphed over the God of Israel.

So while Daniel was mourning God dispatched a spiritual being to come share some insight with Daniel about what was going on in the world and what was to come.

That fella was delayed by the spiritual Prince of Persia, but the Prince Michael helped the messenger out of a tight spot so he could get to Daniel.

He summarized to Daniel what’s going on:

Daniel 10:20–21 (NIV)

So he said, “Do you know why I have come to you?

Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth.

So this unnamed angel is on his way to the next battle, but before he goes he needs to tell Daniel a message.

It is a message from the “Book of Truth.”

It is something that is set, and unchangeable.

Despite what you may have heard, truth does change.

There is no such thing as “my truth” or “your truth”.

There is only truth, and the source of that truth is God.

He is truth.

We can have different experiences in life, but our subjective experiences and feelings must be interpreted through the light of truth.

I’m sure Daniel felt crushed by his subjective experience,

crushed by being a captive in a foreign land,

crushed by having friends and family who were not fired up to go home and rebuild the Jerusalem temple,

crushed by being a stump of a nation and wondering how God could possibly be at work when everything looked so bad.

So God sent Daniel this message to prepare him and the people who would read this book for the future events of history.

Although there is an incredible amount of detail in the prophecies of Daniel 11 I think there are three important lessons that Daniel would have needed to understand, and they are three important lessons that we need to understand too.

1. Nation will Rise against Nation

The first lesson is that there will be ongoing geopolitics.

Nation will rise against nation.

Empires will rise and fall.

There will be the ebb and flow of armies and policies.

There will be intrigue and plots and treachery.

We already know from earlier chapters about the succession of empires to follow on the heels of Babylon.

But here we get an HD look at how that will related to God’s people:

If you’ve been following along in Daniel, this should sound pretty familiar.

The message from God verifies that the Persian empire will give way to the Greek empire.

In this case we get the specifics, that there’s three kings after Cyrus and then it’s all over.

This was of course fulfilled in history.

While it was Daniel’s future, it is now our past, and we can look back and see the fulfillment.

<map> There were indeed three kings to follow Cyrus.

There were a couple kings who had very brief reigns, insignificantly short, but three kings who reigned for any decent amount of time.

Then, Alexander the great swept through like lightning and took over the persian empire.

But before he could enjoy his conquest, he dies and his vast empire is parceled out to 4 leading generals divided into 4 kingdoms.

All of them greek and (in theory) able to just mind their own business, but it comes as no surprise to find out that they quickly descended into rivalry and plotting for expansion.

Of particular relevance to us is the Selucids and the Ptolmys to the north and south (respectively) of Jerusalem.

At that time this is the center of their faith as the place where the temple had been, and it was the capital of their homeland given to them by God.

So, as this vision is relayed, these directions are given with reference to Jerusalem.

Now, with the arrival of these 4 kingdoms, the angel relates all the details about what will happen from the perspective of God’s people in Israel.

I’m not going to read the whole lot, but lets get a sample:

You get the picture!

After the Greek kingdoms come, there will be wars and intrigue and the like.

The 70 years of exile for Jews was over when Daniel is receiving this vision, but the sad reality is that there is no return to the glory days of King David and Solomon on the horizon.

Israel will be caught between two warring powers that will be pushing against each other.

This is the the physical embodiment of the spiritual wars that are going on in the background.

There are spiritual forces at work trying to assert dominance and fight against God.

It results in endless wars and jostling for position.

It results in haughty blasphemies as people and angels try to set themselves up as God.

It results is misery for those who have to live through those times.

Daniel is presented with what is a rather gloomy picture.

We’re not out of the woods yet.

The road home to the messianic kingdom is a lot longer than the initial 70 year exile.

Despite the fact that the Jews were freed from Babylon, they would still be subjugated by foreign powers for years and years to come.

But as we shall see, there is an end in sight.

It is just a long way away through tumultuous times.

Daniel and his readers were being prepared for a long slog.

They knew God’s promises of restoration, but God was sharing that there is a long way to go, much more than they thought.

The nations would rage around them, but the people of God would have to wait.

And wait,

and wait,

as the tussle for power raged around and through their homeland.

Their exile would end eventually.

God sent a messenger who would once and for all overpower the spiritual leaders who oppose God and oppress humanity.

His name is Jesus the Messiah.

He came to claim the crown of David, and draw the people of God in from Exile.

He ended the exile on Pentecost (more of that some other time).

Jesus claimed all authority over nations and powers and principalities.

But even then, he warned us that there was still and endgames.

We wouldn’t be out of the woods yet.

He had staked his claim, and he was restoring his people, but there was still a ways to go, even then.

There would be more wars and political games:

God’s promises of Restoration stand firm, but God’s timeline is not our own.

Daniel was shown that God’s plan was being played out across history and generations.