Daniel 11:29-45
29 "At the appointed time he shall return and go toward the south; but it shall not be like the former or the latter. 30 For ships from Cyprus shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and return in rage against the holy covenant, and do damage.
"So he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. 31 And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. 32 Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. 33 And those of the people who understand shall instruct many; yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering. 34 Now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help; but many shall join with them by intrigue. 35 And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify them, and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time.
36 "Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. 37 He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. 38 But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. 39 Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.
40 "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. 41 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. 42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 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. 44 But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. 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.
The North and South continue to wage war, but the king of the North takes over. In a rage against God’s covenant, he blasphemes God and encourages those who also turn against Him in leaving behind the covenant made with them by the LORD. When they take away the daily sacrifices in the temple to show their disdain against worship of God, they then replace the sacrificial system with the ‘abomination of desolation’. This abomination leading to destruction was an altar to the pagan god Zeus set up in 167 B.C. by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but it also is a shadow of another abomination that Jesus predicted would be erected (Matthew 24:15, Luke 21:20). The worship of a false and lifeless god instead of worship of the true and living God whose house and its sacrifices were His alone made the sacrilege all the more heinous and led to spiritual desolation by destroying the relationship with the LORD. This act also made reconciliation through atonement impossible and destroyed those worshippers of one not God, just as in the last days when this is re-enacted by satan and his antichrist minion. History then was a foreshadowing and forewarning of what will come again before the final judgment. Matthew 24:21-22 warns the believers in Christ who endure such tribulations at the end to notice when the abomination begins in the temple and to get away from it, but also to hold to the hope that as God’s chosen they will find it passes quickly. There is no promise of being caught up out of it as some teach, but that they will endure that time of tribulation by God’s preserving grace. Even here in Daniel 11:32-33 we find the faithful chosen (Revelation 17:14) ones will be strong and not deceived by flattering words (Jude 1:16-17) but work the truth of God in their words of the gospel and righteous deeds in those pressing times, boldly teaching others of the true and living God and not the abominations of worshiping any other to save their physical lives. Just as back then, some will be weak and fall for a while but will get back up to continue following their Lord as they are refined and made pure in the tribulations and trials they walk through with Him. They wait patiently until the end according to God’s appointed time (James 5:11) which is hidden from us as Matthew 24:36 tells us. We should be more concerned with the work of the Lord than consuming our days trying to calculate the day and hour of His return and not flippantly leaning on a hope to be taken up out of the suffering and trials to come for His glory. We see Daniel warning of the king of the North then as a foreshadowing of one to come at the end as well, one who lifts himself above God to claim and demand worship for himself instead. In his blasphemy he assembles a mighty army as if that could overpower God Himself, and will face opposition in God’s land to destroy many. But in the end he is utterly defeated, just as when our Lord returns and destroys with the sword of His mouth as the Word of God, King of all kings and Lord over all lords (Revelation 17:14, 19:11, 13, 15-16). There is no victory for the enemy of God and no defeat for His called, chosen, and faithful ones. This is hope in and through great tribulation. The blasphemy will come to an end as we endure tribulation and we will be victorious in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). We endure tribulation as God ends the enemy’s self-worship and attack on God and His own. Amen!
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