Daniel chapter six, and this section here shows the incredible impact that Daniel's testimony had upon the emperor. Daniel chapter six, reading verses 25 through 28. Then King Darius wrote, to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and steadfast forever. His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues and he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. Though this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Amen. Father, we thank you how you are able to make your people prosper in even the most dire of circumstances. And I pray that as we dig into the book of Daniel, that each one of us would not only be encouraged at your sufficiency in our lives, but would be rejoicing and praising you for your greatness. You are God and there is no other. And we continue to worship as we look at your scripture in jesus name. Amen Well as many of you know I gave a verse by verse exposition through the book of daniel back in 1998 and i'm going to try not to repeat the things that I said in that exposition But there is one thing that I think does bear repeating or at least being summarized today and that is The reasons why this book has come under such intense attack from scholarship. Maybe you weren't aware that this is a book that has come under attack, but it has. Constant attack. R.J. Rushdune says that there are four things about the book of Daniel that make it extremely offensive to theological liberals. But these four things they hate are things we love. And I think this will form a great introduction to the book as a whole. First of all, theological liberals are offended because this book presents a God that cannot be manipulated. In contrast to man-centered religions and man-centered Christianity, this book presents God as absolutely sovereign, as totally self-sufficient, and as utterly not needing anything that man could contribute to Him. There is nothing that He owes us, nothing that we could contribute. He needs nothing. As Daniel 4, verse 35 words it, All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? So Daniel presents a message that humbles man's pride and that exalts God's glory. In fact, that is the purpose of the first half of the book. If you look at the outline, there's a double chiasm outline. I forget if it's on the first page or on the second side of it, but there is a double chiastic form. Well, if you look at the first part of the book, the heart of that chiasm is the humbling of Nebuchadnezzar and of Belshazzar. And the heart of the heart of that section is Nebuchadnezzar's testimony in chapter 4 verse 37, which says this. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all of whose works are truth and his ways justice, and those who walk in pride he is able to put down. Hallelujah. I mean, Daniel is a book that destroys man's pride and that exalts his glory. So it's the antithesis, really, of every form of man-centered religion, including There are man-centered versions of Christianity out there. The second thing that makes the book of Daniel so offensive to theological liberals is that it speaks very boldly about the presence of miracles. That makes them nervous. They can't scientifically explain that. It makes them nervous. Now, they're quite willing to use the language of the Bible, so they speak of miracles, but they redefine that term miracles. So, for example, they will speak, of the miracle of birth. Well, no, technically, birth is not a miracle. Or they will speak of the miracle of love. No, I'm sorry, love is not a miracle. But they love to use biblical terms, they will redefine them, and then they will try to make applications. That way it makes them look more sheep-like than wolf-like, and they're much more likely to be able to influence. But if you tell them, Now I really do believe in miracles. And you point out that you believe that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were literally thrown into a literal fiery furnace that was so hot that the men who threw them in there were literally killed on the spot. And yet here's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walking around in the flames, no hairs singed, nothing touching their fabric. And you say, no, I believe this was a miracle God did. They will question that. They redefine that as a myth. Now, of course, they wanna sound spiritual, so they say, but we're gonna learn spiritual applications from this myth. So we say, no, God is not just a concept. He is the maker and sustainer of the universe, and he continues to be a God who stuns people with miracles. Praise God. The third thing that makes the book of Daniel so offensive to theological liberals is its portrayal of providence as covering the minutest details of life, such as the growth of Nebuchadnezzar's fingernails and hair. You can't get more minute than that, right? God controlled that. And things like sickness and health and the outcome of every ungodly war and the raising up of both good kings and bad kings. It controls rumors that are false as well as legitimate news. Who will go insane and who will stay sane? Divorce and remarriage of kings. I mean, it controls, God's providence controls, you know, which people lions want to eat and which people lions don't want to eat, Daniel. God controls even the outcomes of ungodly wars. He controls all things. Now, To the true believer who is in submission to God, this is such a comfort because we know our God is not just all-powerful, but He loves us. He's got good purposes. But this makes man-centered Christians very, very uncomfortable. The fourth thing that Rushduni says makes this book offensive to liberals is that it is full of predictive prophecy showing that every moment of history is known by God long before it comes to pass. And why does God know all parts of history? There's Christians, so-called Christians, who deny God's foreknowledge, but why do we know He knows all forms of history? Because the Bible says He plans all of history and He controls all of history. And I hope to give you at least a foretaste of some of the incredible predictive prophecies in this book that span over 600 years of history. Now, do you know what the liberals do with some of those prophecies? Some of them they just reinterpret, but some of them are so crystal clear, they cannot deny that this is literal accurate history. Here's what they do. Liberals like Golden Gay, and Driver, and Montgomery, and Went, and some of the other liberal commentaries that I own, they say, well yeah, this is so accurate, so detailed in its fulfillment, that it had to have been a book that was written after those histories took place. See, they presuppose, nobody could possibly foreknow those kinds of things, and yet, Many of these same commentators, because they want Christians to buy their books, try to sound like, Daniel's such a wonderful book, and we need to learn from Daniel. They try to give an inspired view of Daniel, even though they question it. Here's the problem that I have. If you want to find out who is a closet liberal out there, and there are a lot of closet liberals that pretend to be evangelicals, just ask them when they think the book of Daniel was written. If they say the book of Daniel was written in the second century BC, they are a closet liberal, and I don't think you should trust a thing they have to say on this subject or any other subject, no matter how much they protest to the contrary. they are questioning God's Word. Now, why do I say that? It's because the book itself claims to have been written by Daniel over and over again in the 6th century B.C., and so we're saying this is a fraud if this was written in the 2nd century B.C., and we're saying Ezekiel was lying through his teeth when he claims that Daniel was a contemporary, and you'll see people denying that that was the case, And to make it even worse, we are calling Jesus Christ a liar when he said Daniel did indeed write these prophecies. I think we need to put it into those bold terms because these people have been sucked up by Christians. They read them because they've written all these cool commentaries. No, we should reject what they have to say if they're calling Jesus a liar. And that's what it really amounts to. So E.B. Pussy was absolutely right when he said, the writer, were he not Daniel, that's a liberal's claim, must have lied on a most frightful scale, ascribing to God prophecies which were never uttered and miracles which were assumed never to have been wrought. Stephen Miller rightly says that if the liberals are right, they are hypocrites for speaking so highly of Daniel, since the prophecy therefore would be fraudulent. Now we love the fact that this book humbles man's pride and exalts God's glory. We love the fact that our God is a God of miracles. We've experienced some of His miracles in our lives. We love the fact that nothing is outside the control of His providence. That is an incredible comfort. We love the fact that He controls and knows the future and has written about it. Okay, enough by way of introduction. Let's take a look at the structure of the book. You know, I can't get away from structure. I've got it in your outline there. Daniel B. Wallace shows how it is almost impossible to miss the structure if you know the original languages. Chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 2, verse 4a, right in the middle of that verse, all the way up to that is written in Hebrew. And then there is a switch to Aramaic for the rest of chapter two through to the end of chapter seven. And then there is a switch back to Hebrew in chapters eight through 12. Why this switch in languages? Well, it's one of several clues that this book is divided up into three literary units. Chapter one is sort of like a Joseph story. And it introduces the main characters and the main themes in the book. And so it acts as an introduction, but its focus is upon the remnant amongst the Hebrews. But then chapters two through seven are written in Aramaic. Aramaic was kind of a trade language. It was the universal language that was used in the pagan empire back then. And certainly the stories of this section show that God rules over pagan nations, but I think the change in language also is a hint God cares about the whole world. By the way, this is one of the reasons why the New Testament was written in Greek, not in Hebrew. It's because God had busted the kingdom out of the nation of Israel and was now embracing the whole world. I mean, praise God, He has embraced us, us Gentiles, in His plan. So I think even the structural change in terms of Hebrew is one of a very cool technique of speaking to God's purposes. Then chapter 8 through 12. Return to the Hebrew language again, because it shows how God will preserve Israel for the next 600 years, and how Israel will end as a nation in AD 70. So the terminus of that section is the war against Israel in AD 70. And the Hebrew fits, you know, the purpose. God is gonna preserve this nation for the next 600 years. So I've included that as kind of a roadmap so that you can kind of interpret the book. Now, let me give you a little bit of background on the person, Daniel. He was born into nobility in Judah. And then he was taken captive into Babylon in 605 BC. And that, despite the fact that God three times in this book says that Daniel was greatly beloved. Do not interpret the hard things you go through in life, and the difficulties, and the lost jobs, or different things like that as an indication God doesn't love you, and He doesn't notice you, and He doesn't care about you. No, he loved Daniel. He says in chapter 9, verse 23, that he was greatly beloved by God. That's the angel speaking. Likewise, in chapter 10, 11, he says, oh Daniel, man greatly beloved. And again in verse 19, oh man, greatly beloved. Yet here he is in captivity at the age of 16 or 17. He was then instructed in university classes for three years. Much of which he obviously rejected because he didn't seem to live in terms of the wisdom of the Persians at all. He lives in terms of the wisdom of the Bible. In chapter one, he and his three friends covenanted together to not eat any food offered to idols, no matter how good or tasty it might have looked. And God honored that test of his faith and gave a huge promotion to all four of them. Daniel's whole life was characterized by faith, prayer, courage, consistency, boldness, knowledge of God's word, and an absolute refusal to compromise God's word. Ezekiel mentions Daniel three times in his book as an example of righteousness. Now, people who have been influenced by liberal scholarship say, ah, that had to have been a different Daniel. No, it was the same Daniel. And he lumps them in with Job and Noah. Very, very interesting. Now to give you an idea of how old Daniel was at various points in the book, you can take a look at the timeline that I've given on the back side of your sheets there. And I'll start with the age of his captivity, which was either 16 or 17. Scholars debate on that. I'm going to go with 17. If he was 17, then chapter one covers his years from 17 to 19, and probably even early into his 20th year. Chapter two has him interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream at the age of 19 or 20. That's in 603 BC. He was 37 years old when the fiery furnace testing happened to his three friends in chapter three. One year later, at the age of 38, he interpreted another dream for Nebuchadnezzar, the dream of the tree that was cut down and which predicted Nebuchadnezzar is going to go insane. He's going to eat grass for a few years. I mean, that would take a bit of courage to interpret that dream for the king, but he had courage in spades and he did so interpret. Then there's a gap of 29 years in which Daniel either didn't receive revelation or at least did not write it down, did not record it. There's nothing in scriptures that prophets had to receive. you know, revelations every year or all the time. It's God who sovereignly gives it anyway. 29 years later, at the age of 67, Daniel had his next vision, the amazing dream of chapter 7 in the first year of Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Two years later, he had the vision of Daniel 8, the vision of the ram and the goat. So he would have been 69 years old then. And you will notice that these chapters, some of them are out of order. And the reason for that is because these are arranged thematically, right? We've seen that in previous books. They're arranged thematically rather than chronologically. He gives the dates. So we clearly know when they were written. But chapter five actually occurs later than chapter eight. It occurs in 539 B.C. when Daniel was 83 years old. We know that because it says right there in the chapter, this was the last year of King Belshazzar. Now, though the Lion's Den incident is debated because the identity of Darius the Mede is debated, I believe it was later that year after Belshazzar was toppled, and so he still would have been 83 years old. Now that puts the story into a totally different light. If you look at some of the Sunday school books, sometimes they have Daniel as a pretty young guy when he's thrown into the—no, he was a gray-haired guy when he got thrown into the into the lion's den. The next year, he had the vision of the 70 weeks in Daniel 9 at age 84. And at the ripe old age of 87, he had the visions of chapters 10 through 12. And most people believe he finished writing the book of Daniel by the time that Cyrus had finished his reign. So Daniel outlived Nebuchadnezzar, evil Merodach, Nerigluser, Nabonidus, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, and he may have even outlived Cyrus the Great. That's astonishing that he worked for seven kings and he may well have outlived all seven of those kings. Now from the timeline in your handout, you can see that his ministry overlapped that of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, later that of Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah, and Ezra. I like you guys to have those visuals so you can see how these different books relate to each other. Now, the Christ of Daniel is pretty cool. Christ's priestly ministry is emphasized in Daniel 9, verse 24. His kingly ministry is emphasized in the next verse. His work as a judge is in the next couple of verses, and really in a lot of these chapters you see that. His kingdom was predicted to start off as very, very tiny in the first century. That's in chapter two. There is this tiny stone cut without hands that smashes the image at the feet, grinds the whole image to powder. It blows away. And it's cut without hands because it's emphasizing the fact Christ's kingdom did not originate in this world. That's what he told Pilate, right? My kingdom is not from this world. It's from heaven. But what does his kingdom from heaven do? It invades the earth. It transforms the earth. It eventually replaces all of these pagan kingdoms until at some point in history, there will be no memory of humanism, it'll be a distant memory. That dust of the image is gonna be blown away, and they're gonna be Christ and His word only that remains. Fantastic, glorious trajectory for history. Now in several of the visions, Christ's kingdom was predicted to start during the time of the fourth empire, Rome. And I think you need to understand this. If you're debating with dispensationalists particularly, I think that chapter two, verse 44, is the key verse of the whole book. It says, and in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Hallelujah. Fantastic words. In chapter 7, The divine being that is like the Son of Man ascends on the clouds to the right hand of the Ancient of Days, to the Father, and He begins His kingdom during a time of tremendous tribulation, persecution, opposition. And it also predicted that these would be the last days of Israel and of the Old Covenant, but even though it comes during troubled days, it says, hey, this beast that's gonna persecute them is going to be destroyed, and Christ's kingdom will expand nonstop after 80, 70. So it really is a marvelous trajectory, again, for Messiah's kingdom. Now I'm not gonna go into the vision of the 70 weeks in Daniel 9, this morning because it's rather complex, but it does give an incredible timeline, a countdown from year one of Cyrus all the way up to the Messiah, the prince, and it predicts that the Messiah will be baptized, will minister, that will be cut off on behalf of his people. The prophecies of chapter nine, I think, are just astonishing. Now let me give you an overview of this amazing book, and you'll probably want to be looking at the double chiasm outline as I go through this. Chapter one is chock full of lessons on leadership, character, faith, testing, how to serve in politics, and God's providences. It also gives amazing background information on the four characters who are going to be bringing God's word to bear on this evil empire in the rest of the book. So it acts as an introduction, and then the rest of the book, so you've got chapter one as the introduction, the rest of the book's gonna be divided up into two chiasms. It's a double chiasm. Now the first chiasm is chapters two through seven. There's also many chiasms and other fun structures in the Hebrew, I'm definitely not gonna get into. But if you look at the first chiasm, you will see a symmetry there that is very obvious, very deliberate, and the parallel portions of the chiasm help to interpret each other. So let me walk you through that. The two A sections, that's chapters two and seven, Remember, it's kind of like the ABC, CBA poetry. That's why I put those in there. So the two A sections, chapters two and seven, parallel each other with visions that describe the exact same four empires that will take place from the time of Daniel all the way up to the Messiah. Now those four empires are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, okay? And there is, very, very clear evidence, especially when you're paralleling the two, that Messiah's kingdom is going to come during the time of that fourth empire, Rome. There is no way you can have a future resurrected empire of Rome sometime in the future that Messiah's gonna bring his kingdom in, as dispensationalism says. No, it comes right during the fourth kingdom And I don't think there's any escaping the conclusion. Christ's kingdom began in the first century. Now my sermon series goes into great detail on those two A sections. I'm not going to say a word more about them this morning. The B sections deal with the trial of the remnant and the testing of their faith. And it's interesting, God allows his people to be tested. We think if God loves us so much, surely he's not going to put us through pain and testing. No, testing helps prove our character. It helps us to grow. In chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are tested on whether they're going to bow down before this image as the king commands. And live and apparently there were other jews who must have bowed down to that image But they're standing there and it must have been really really hard the peer pressure. They're standing up like sore thumbs And as punishment they are cast into the furnace of fire And in chapter 3 verse 25, we have a theophany. That's a a visible appearance of the son of god The king says look He answered, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt. And the four form of the fourth is like the son of God. It appears that Jesus went with them into the fiery furnace. I love that imagery. God does not make us go through trials alone. He goes with us. He doesn't always spare us from the trials, but he goes with us and he gives us grace that is sufficient. Now, even if God had not delivered them, they were prepared to die in the arms of Jesus rather than to compromise their faith. Now, in the second B section, we have another parallel testing. This time it's Daniel who was tested. The decree goes forth that no one may pray to anyone other than to the king for 30 days. And again, it appears like some of the Jews compromised. They just felt it was not worth it. to resist this. But Daniel opened his windows. In other words, he's not going to hide behind closed windows. He opened his windows so that it would be obvious, no, I'm not going to obey this unlawful, ungodly decree. And he prays to the God of heaven. And there are so many lessons related to civics in that passage, including the lesson of civil disobedience. You've got to know from the scripture when it's appropriate to disobey the civil government and when it's not appropriate to disobey the civil government. There are lessons in the Bible that relate and impact our lives on a regular basis. But our God is a God of miracles, and He shut the mouths of lions. If I had time, I could tell you some stories of how wild animals' mouths were shut on friends of mine in a remarkable way, really remarkable way. But anyway, God rescues Daniel and had his enemies destroyed by the same lions. And in the meantime, because of Daniel's faithful testimony, Darius, King Darius, proclaims his faith in God to the whole empire. Now, before he went into the trial, Daniel might have thought, Lord, why are you? Things are going along so well, and I'm having so much influence. Why are you letting me be thrown to the lions? But he trusted God, and in hindsight, there was so much to praise God for. Was it not worth it to bring this emperor to a saving knowledge of the Lord? So this is a book that in many ways foreshadows the universal kingdom that Christ is going to have. God gives foretastes of what that's going to be. God is a God who's eventually going to claim all of the world. Now the two C sections of the first chiasm are stories that show how God is in the business of humbling the pride of arrogant kings. In chapter 4, you have the arrogance of Nebuchadnezzar completely humbled as he is given a form of insanity that you can see even in the big psychology manual, you can see documented today. I think it's a form of demonism. It's not just a psychological phenomenon. Out in Ethiopia, we've seen demon-possessed people eating grass for years. It's all they ate and he said, well, how in the world could they survive on that? But somehow the demon does miracles in their lives as well. But in any case, he thinks he is a cow or a bull or something. He's out there eating grass like a bull. When his sanity finally returned to him, he gave a beautiful testimony of faith and tells the entire empire. This shows humility. He tells the entire empire his sordid story and how God had humbled his pride. The second C section shows the arrogance and pride of Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar, with the miracle of that hand writing on the wall. So the heart of the first half of the book is that all kings must submit themselves to God's laws and serve him unconditionally or they will perish. It's a beautiful testimony, it's beautifully structured. If I was doing a sermon series, I'd keep coming back to this and showing how well this is presented. Well, having given that powerful message in the first half, the second half of the book will once again give prophecies that history is going to lead up to the Messiah who is going to fulfill this purpose of God that even in the preliminary way was fulfilled in the Old Testament. The Messiah will guarantee that eventually all kings will be humbled and all kings will serve King Jesus. But until that happens, he is going to preserve and protect his faithful remnant. You'll see that the second half is constructed like a big chiasm as well with many chiasms inside that I won't get into. Now let me at least give the broad contours of the second half. The A sections of the chiasm, that's chapters 8 and 11. Both outline very specific details of the history of the second and the third kingdoms, okay, with the last part trailing off into the fourth kingdom. But the focus is on the second and third kingdoms. The two B sections, chapters nine and 10, cover Daniel's prayer for deliverance of his people. This is a recurring theme in history, and there are remarkable lessons in those chapters that we won't have time to get into. The central C section shows the arrival and the purpose for Messiah's kingdom, and how it would end the importance of Jerusalem and Israel in God's preparatory plans. So temple and people were only intended to prepare for the Messiah, and once Messiah came, there was no more need for the temple or the city, and so both are destroyed. And because of how complex chapter nine is, I'm not gonna give an exposition of it this morning, tempted as I am. I kept resisting the temptation to put that in there. But it's an amazing, fantastic prophecy that completely undermines Roman Catholic dogma and false views of canon and dispensationalism and other errors of today. At least my audio series of Daniel are still available on the Dominion Covenant Church website. Now I decided what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna finish the sermon this morning by giving you a cursory overview of the first 35 verses of chapter 11. And I'm picking chapter 11 for three reasons. First, it illustrates the kind of prophecies that you see throughout this book. Second, there is no way that liberals can explain away the predictive prophecies of chapters 11 through 12, because many of these were fulfilled even long after their latest date for the dating of Daniel. Third, almost no one preaches on chapter 11. Just do a search on the web and you will see almost everybody skips over chapter 11. In fact, I have a commentary that says, hey pastors, don't even bother trying to preach on chapter 11. So, you know, I'm a contrarian. I'm gonna do it. Beginning at chapter 11, verse one. So the angel says in verse one, also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I, even I, stood up to confirm and strengthen him. I love the theology of angels in this book. It's got a rich theology. Angels are constantly at work. In humbling nations, protecting and displacing kings, it is a very comforting thought. Now, I think it was probably this angel and all of the troops that were underneath him that were in part responsible for Darius the Mede coming to faith. Verse 2. And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia. Every detail of scripture is truth. We cannot neglect any portion of it. The next three kings after Darius would be Cambyses, Smerdus, and Darius Histaspis. Verse two goes on, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all. By his strength through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of grief. 50 years before Xerxes came to the throne, Daniel was told of his incredible power and wealth and of the fact that he was just a master, an absolute master, at manipulating nations into doing his will. Now here it's specifically showing his dastardly work, much like some modern nations do with other countries, but his dastardly work of getting and manipulating other nations to fight against Greece. And I won't give you a lot of the details this morning because I've given those in the sermon, but I do want to just give a few highlights. In verses three and following, the focus is on the Greek Empire that overthrew the Persians. Now, in the earlier visions in the book, he gave a great amount of information about Alexander the Great, the great king of Greece that he mentions here. Here he's very brief. He's only going to focus upon the fact that this king is now going to lose his empire, he's going to die early, and it's going to be divided up into four parts. Verse 3, then a mighty king shall arise who shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will. And when he is arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be uprooted even for others besides these." When Alexander died at the age of 32, his kingdom was indeed divided up into four parts. None of his children inherited anything, just as this indicates. Previous visions had given a lot more detail about this part of the history, but the four generals that took over the kingdom were Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy. And Ptolemy is spelled P-T-O-L-E-M-Y, and I'm deliberately mispronouncing it. You don't pronounce the P in the Greek, you just say Ptolemy, but people won't know what I'm talking about, so I'm gonna say Ptolemy. I mispronounced it. So many lessons that we must skip over, but one lesson is that God is in the habit of breaking nations that insist on doing their own will rather than doing God's will. No earthly kingdom will last forever That would make it to be divine if it lasted forever. Do not think that America is going to last forever. That would make America divine. Only Christ's kingdom lasts forever. And this is especially true when rulers make their own will the rule of a nation like Alexander did. President George Washington said, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. President Andrew Jackson, whatever other problems he had, he said publicly, the Bible is the book upon which this republic stands. I think it's scary to see how far we have come because we resemble Greece far more than we resemble early America. In verses five through 35, we have details of the wars between two parts of this four-part former empire, We've got the Ptolemies and then the southern kingdom of the Seleucids. Verse five, also the king of the south shall become strong as well as one of his princes, and he shall gain power over him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. The Ptolemy I Soter was the general who ruled over Egypt. from 323 to 285 BC. And this passage not only says that the first king would be very powerful, but that one of his princes would become more powerful than he. And then you read later in the chapter and you realize, no way to shake, this is weird. One of his princes, but this prince was made a king at the same time that Ptolemy was made a king. How on earth does that work out? Well, here's how it happened exactly as written. Seleucus, one of Alexander's four generals, received the kingdom of Babylon. That's up north. At the same time, Ptolemy received Egypt. And so they did indeed start off as kings at the same time. But Antigonus of Babylon seized the kingdom. Seleucus fled for his life to Egypt. Now when in Egypt, Ptolemy welcomed him, strangely, but welcomed him with open arms. made him a prince, put him in charge of his armies. He stayed down there for four years, fighting on his behalf. And then in 312 BC, in a battle at Gaza, he defeated Antigonus, who had robbed him of his kingdom. He then took over his former kingdom. And at that point, he starts growing in power so much that he becomes a threat to the very person who was a patron to him. Ptolemy down south, we're talking about every verb, every noun, every phrase of the book of Daniel being fulfilled precisely. The more I study the book of Daniel, the more it sends shivers down my spines. I love this book. Verse five says, he shall gain power over him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. So despite the enormous kindness of Ptolemy to Seleucus, Seleucus became greedy, started intruding into Ptolemy's territory. and gaining more and more power over him. His kingdom became the largest of all of the divisions of the Greek empire and he posed a threat to Ptolemy until the treaty mentioned in verse 6. And at the end of some years they shall join forces for the daughter of the king of the south, and that daughter is a reference to Berenice. Ptolemy II's daughter, so it says, the daughter of the king of the south shall go to the king of the north to make an agreement. Now the idea was that Berenice would marry Antiochus II to seal an alliance between the two kingdoms. Her son was then to become the heir to the Seleucid throne. But things get real dicey as the next verse goes on to describe. It says, but she shall not retain the power of her authority. Why? Because Antiochus divorces Berenice and remarries Laodice. And so Berenice is no longer queen. She loses, does not retain her authority. But the next phrase indicates, hey, this divorce did not work out so well for Antiochus. And neither he nor his authority shall stand. Antiochus too would lose his kingdom and his life. But so would Berenice. The text goes on, but she shall be given up. with those who brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times." So Berenice was given up to death, her entourage was also killed, her father who begot her, Ptolemy, would die unexpectedly, and the one who strengthened her for a time to the position of queen, that would be her husband, Antiochus would be given up to death. Now those are incredible details given 285 years before they occurred. Here's how it all transpired. Thinking that he could consolidate more power, Ptolemy II, after years of bitter fighting with Antiochus, negotiated an alliance between the two kingdoms by giving his daughter in marriage to Antiochus, stipulating the offspring of the marriage would inherit the kingdom. Well, that sounded juicy to Antiochus. After all, Ptolemy is kind of an old guy. Going to knock off here soon. This is a great idea. So he jumps at it. I saw a tremendous advantage. But here's the fly in the ointment. Antiochus was already married to a very powerful and influential woman by the name of Laodice. So as a condition for the marriage, Ptolemy forced Antiochus to divorce Laodice and to promise that the child of Berenice and her child alone would be heir to the throne. So the treaty was struck, they did it. And you can imagine how happy this made Laodice. And after Berenice's father Ptolemy died, unexpectedly two years later, Laodice succeeded in getting Antiochus to divorce Berenice and to remarry her. Why? Because Ptolemy's no longer alive, so we're not bound by his conditions, are we? We can get things the easy way, right? So he remarries her, but there's a wrinkle in these plans too. Once Laodice was married to Antiochus and was now the queen, she was in a position to get even, and she, very strange story, I won't get into it, but she murdered her husband Antiochus, murdered Berenice, murdered her entourage, and murdered her child, Berenice's child. Then Laodice ruled side by side with her own son, and he was underage, so she was the queen regent until he was old enough to take the throne. So can you imagine All of the sordid details of this soap opera that just seems impossible, inconceivable that all of these things would happen, yet they were unraveled years and years, hundreds of years before they were fulfilled. What kind of applications can we learn from this? I'll only touch on one, just one. Modern politicians, and for that matter every one of us, must learn to put principle ahead of pragmatism. Why do people follow pragmatism? because they want to get their way, and they're going to get their way whichever way works. That's what pragmatism is. You're following the path of least resistance that will make something work. Well, here's a story that shows that pragmatism doesn't work all the time. There are things down the road that will come back to bite you, and they definitely backfired on him. History moves on, and verses seven through nine, we have the history of Ptolemy, three Eurigates, and Seleucus to Callinicus. Verse seven says, and from a branch of her roots, one shall arise in his place. Now this is very precise language. Notice it doesn't say that one of Berenice's children would arise, because her only child was murdered. It says this king would be a branch of her roots, not her offspring, but her roots. Her roots would be her father and mother, and a branch that comes forth from her parents would be a brother of Berenice. And of course, that's exactly what happens in history. Berenice's brother Ptolemy, three Euergetes arose in his father's place to retaliate for the murder of his sister. Verse seven goes on to say, who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king of the north and deal with them and prevail. Now that war lasted from 246 to 241 BC, a period of five years. And the Ptolemaic king not only conquered Syria, Cilicia, and all of Asia, but he actually captured and looted the Seleucid capital, Antioch, putting the evil queen regent, Laodice, to death, but leaving the young Seleucus, too, on the throne. Seleucus had already been made king the moment his dad was murdered. And so he was king, just like the text says, but his mom was calling the shots to a large degree. But once she died, he alone reigns. Verse 8 describes the results of this conquest. And he shall also carry their gods captive to Egypt with their princes and their precious articles of silver and gold, and he shall continue more years than the king of the north. Also the king of the north shall come to the kingdom of the king of the south, but shall return to his own land." Now it's a matter of history. Ptolemy plundered Wealth of the nation taking 40,000 talents of silver. That's about 36 million ounces of silver He also took a lot of other plunder including 2,500 sacred idols because those people trusted those idols right to 2,500 sacred idols into Egypt and I'll skip over some of the details verse 10 however His sons shall stir up strife and assemble a multitude of great forces and one shall certainly come and overwhelm and pass through. Then he shall return to his fortress and stir up strife. Now the king of the north in verse nine was Seleucus II and his sons Seleucus III and Antiochus III did indeed stir up enormous strife. Both sons are mentioned in the first clause Because for the first two years, both were very involved in raising up armed forces. But the second clause is in the singular in Hebrew, because by the time they were able to invade the Egyptian empire, Seleucus III was murdered and his brother Antiochus the Great was left. Again, there are no details of prophecy that were not entirely perfectly fulfilled. Verse 11, and the King of the South shall be moved with rage and go out and fight with him, the King of the North, who shall muster a great multitude, but the multitude shall be given into the hand of his enemy. So Ptolemy V, who was the king over Egypt, launched a counterattack with 70,000 infantry 5,000 cavalry, 73 elephants, and he won a resounding victory and captured the entire army of Antiochus with Antiochus barely escaping with his life by fleeing into the desert. And so the prophecy of a multitude of the Syrians being given into the hands of the Egyptians was fulfilled. Verse 12 goes on, taken away the multitude His heart will be lifted up and He will cast down tens of thousands but He will not prevail. He not only killed 10,000 Syrians but His pride made Him start slaughtering the Jews. Now how on earth did that happen? Because previously Israel had most favored nation status with Him. Well here is how it happened, after this resounding victory He had kind of a celebration, a victory tour of all of the eastern Mediterranean provinces. And while he was in Jerusalem, his curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to see what was in the Holy of Holies. And so he tried to force his way into the Holy of Holies. He was stoutly resisted by that. And as a fun story that goes with it, including God actually paralyzing him for a period. He was hugely offended, and so he revoked all special privileges to the Jewish nation, and he started killing people. Many thousands died. Verse 13 tells us, though, that he would not prevail. Four, the king of the north will return and muster a multitude greater than the former and shall certainly come at the end of some years with a great army and much equipment. Now, I just see this as all so cool. God used Egypt to keep Syria from being an undue burden to Israel, and now he's using Syria to keep Egypt from being an undue burden upon Israel. God sometimes protects his people by having the humanists fight against each other. I just love this, praise God. He even uses the ungodly wars to protect his people. Verse 14 describes how Antiochus had help from rebels in Israel under the Ptolemaic Empire, and actually it was both Macedon and Israel. Now in those times, many shall rise up against the king of the south, also violent men of your people, that would be Jews, right? Violent men of your people shall exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they shall fall. I want you to notice that they exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision. Even the pride of men is controlled by God's providence. It was a fulfillment of prophecy. And how did that happen? Well, there were revolutionary Jews who convinced the people of Israel to secede, to overthrow the yoke of Egypt and to assist Syria in its conquest of Egypt. However, even though they picked the winning side, there's pragmatism for you, right? Even though they picked the winning side, they ended up being totally destroyed. How did that happen? Well, This remarkable prophecy, given 337 years beforehand, was fulfilled when Scopus, the Egyptian general, utterly crushed the Israelite rebellion before he himself was defeated by Antiochus and before he was forced to flee to Sidon. So yes, the Jewish revolutionaries picked the winning side, but they got toasted before the win happened. Verse 15 describes that siege of Sidon. which led to Scopus's surrender in 198 BC. So the king of the north shall come and build a siege mound and take a fortified city, and the forces of the south shall not withstand him. Even his choice troops shall have no strength to resist. Choice troops were the troops of three Egyptian leaders, Eropus, Menocles, Demianus. They were unable to rescue the besieged Scopus from Sidon. Verse 16, but he who comes against him shall do according to his own will and no one shall stand against him. He shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his power. At this point, Antiochus becomes the dominant power in Israel and basically nobody can resist him. Verse 17 indicates that Antiochus wanted the entire kingdom of Egypt and he began a further invasion of Egyptian territory. I mean, talk about greed and failure to be satisfied. He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom and upright ones with him, thus shall he do." So he was successful in getting into Egypt, but the rest of the verse indicates suddenly he makes this treaty with the king of Egypt. Before this prophecy was fulfilled, people probably wondered, why on earth, when you just defeated somebody, are you making a treaty with him? And why, when they're vulnerable, are you making a treaty that makes this person less vulnerable? You know, ahead of time, it doesn't make a lick of sense. Hindsight makes total sense. History tells us that because Rome was threatening to attack Antiochus, he suddenly found it necessary to become an ally with Egypt. whom he had just been attacking. Now, he didn't do it with pure motives, obviously. There was nothing pure about his motives. Look at the second sentence in verse 17. And he shall give him the daughter of women to destroy it, but she shall not stand with him or be for him. Antiochus gave his daughter Cleopatra in marriage to Ptolemy, five, to bind an alliance, but his purpose was to undermine Egypt's policies and eventually take over. He wanted to destroy the kingdom of Egypt through it. She was kind of like a Trojan horse. OK, so he's given her all of these instructions. You go in here, you do this and that. She's going to be his Trojan horse. Well, it all backfired because Cleopatra fell in love with Ptolemy five and faithfully sided with her husband against absolutely everything that her dad was asking her to do. So you can read all about those details in the history books. But God writes all of this hundreds of years before the history happened. Verse 18 describes further reversals as he began to conquer Asia Minor and Greece, and then was conquered by the Roman consul, Lucius Scipio Asiaticus. After this, this is verse 18, after this, he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall take many, but a ruler shall bring the reproach against him to an end, and with the reproach removed, he shall turn back on him. Now, what's the reversal of the reproach? Well, Antiochus had treated the Roman ambassador with contempt and humiliation, telling Rome that they had no part in Asia. Rome did not take kindly to that approach, and so part of their reversal of reproach was that they forced Antiochus to give up all of the territory west of the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor, and to stay out of Europe, and to pay an annual indemnity of 15,000 talents. That's equivalent to $30 million a year. And to guarantee this payment, 12 high ruling members of the Syrian nobility were given into captivity as indemnity, insurance. This totally ruined the ruling house. And verse 19 says, then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land. Now, why in the world would he attack his own temple fortress in his own land? Well, it's because he was bankrupt and he decided to steal everything in that pagan temple in order to replenish his finances. But verse 19 goes on to say that while stealing wealth from a temple he was killed we know from history He was killed by a mob and then disappeared verse 19 says but he shall stumble and fall and not be found now I just enjoy reading how perfectly history was written ahead of time by God and But God rules history, not men. And as much as it may look like things are out of control, God is in control and prophecy proves that that is the case. If God rules history, we can have total confidence in the future. God's plans will never be annulled. A second application is that the battle belongs to the Lord, not to the strong. There were battles that were won by far weaker forces against all odds. A third application is that anger stirs up more anger, and bitterness stirs up more bitterness, and retaliation stirs up more retaliation. The Seleucids were said to be angry because they'd been defeated by Ptolemy III. But Ptolemy III was angry because he was simply avenging the murder of his sister, who had been married to the king of the north. And the reason that Berenice was murdered is because Laodice was hugely offended that she had been divorced, and now she was no longer a queen. And as you go from verses 5 through 19, you see one non-ending reason after another of why nations hate each other and why kings are offended and they go to war against each other. The anger of one country's leader in verse 10 leads to the rage of the other country's leader in verse 11 and so on. See, this is exactly what's going on right now in Somalia and Bosnia and Middle East. Strife is stirred up when people refuse to cover over a transgression. I like using these kinds of passages, there are many passages like this, but I like using these kinds of passages to teach our kids when they were growing up that they must repent of anger and bitterness and hatred and desires to get even. It just gets worse and worse and our hate will stir up the other person's hate. We can apply this in the church. Hebrews 12, 15 warns us, beware lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled. So it's not just in the Middle East that this can happen. It says your bitterness, when it is not dealt with by the grace of God, will cause trouble, will rub off on other people. By it, many people can be defiled. And just as God's grace and Christian forgiveness is the only solution to the powder keg, of the Middle East, only God's grace can enable you to forgive and promote peace when you have been hurt. Paul's admonition is, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you. Teach these things to your children. This is a beautiful passage to teach these things. How to get rid of anger and malice and hate, and if you don't, you're in trouble. Proverbs 15, one says, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Anger just leads to more anger. These kings may have seemed powerful because of their wrath, but Scripture says, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city, Proverbs 16, 32. It takes a lot more than military genius to control your spirit, right? It's so hard to control our spirits. We just lash out and we say, no, God, we need to, God, would you please help me to tame my spirit and have it under control? and takes grace, and grace is the foundation for peace. Okay, verse 20. There shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom, but within a few years he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle. God hates taxes, and if you don't believe that, I would encourage you to read Dr. Fugate's book on taxes. Seleucus IV, Philopator, reigned from 187 to 175 BC. And it is a matter of record that Seleucus did indeed impose higher taxes on Israel than any other of the countries. He even came to rob the Temple in Jerusalem. And the story of how he was stoutly resisted and a few days later miraculously died is a fabulous story. You are going to have to read it for yourselves it is in 2 Maccabees. But this summarizes by saying, within a few days he shall be destroyed but not in anger or in battle. Why? He is supernaturally destroyed. So that's a perfect prediction of what happened. And all of this was predicted 362 years before the events of verse 20. Verse 21 and following deal with a wicked man named Antiochus Epiphany, a man who even secular history paints as ridiculously evil. And in his place shall arise a vile person to whom they will not give the honor of royalty, but he shall come in peaceably and seize the kingdom by intrigue. Now, Heliodorus was supposed to have the throne, but he was underage. He was young, and Antiochus came into the capital pretending merely to be the guardian of his brother's children and meaning no harm. No one suspected a thing. But through flattery, promises of high gain, and playing one power against another. Antiochus had already secretly managed to negotiate support for his attempt to hijack the throne away from his nephew. He got support from the king of Pergamos, key Syrian figures, and Rome. So when he came to Antioch and he suddenly laid out his guards, Syria was not able to resist. And so they caved in. But this Antiochus Epiphanes was a kind of antichrist who saw himself as God manifested the flesh. Continuing in verse 22, with the force of a flood, they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant. And after the league is made with him, he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province, and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers. He shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches, and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time. So even though he started off with very little support Antiochus Epiphanes became very strong swept away all opposition in Syria, in Israel, and in Egypt and he became kind of like a Robin Hood. He would pillage where he could pillage and then he would distribute to key people to gain support for himself. The Prince of the Covenant that is mentioned there that would be Annias the High Priest who ruled over Israel. and who sided with Egypt at that time. But the deposing of the high priest in 175 B.C. and his later assassination in 171 B.C. marks the beginning of massive interference of the secular state into the church. We're gonna rush through the rest of this. Reading verses 25 through 28. He shall stir up his power and his courage against the King of the South with a great army, and the King of the South shall be stirred up to battle with very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him. Yes, those who eat of the portion of his delicacies shall destroy him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. Both these kings' hearts shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table, but it shall not prosper, for the end will still be at the appointed time. Now there's a ton there I can't comment on, but Antiochus sought to manipulate Philometer and the young Philometer Let his uncle think that he was being manipulated but in the process he was telling lies to manipulate his uncle I just see Washington politics written all over this paragraph, but I'm also blown away at with how perfectly the psychology, the broken treaties, the lying, the manipulation, the wars, the backstabbing were all perfectly predicted hundreds of years before the events unraveled. I deal with that in a couple sermons in my Daniel series, so won't touch on it here. Verse 29, at the appointed time, he shall return and go toward the South, but it shall not be like the former or the latter, 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. In 168 BC, Antiochus invaded Egypt again, but this time he was not successful. These ships from Cyprus are the specific Roman fleet that came to Alexandria from their base in Cyprus at the request of the Ptolemies. Now why was Antiochus so ashamed and so grieved? Well, as the Syrians were moving to besiege Alexandria, the Roman commander, Gaius Papilius Leonis, met Antiochus four miles outside the city and handed him a letter from the Roman Senate that said, leave Egypt or we're going to war against you. And Antiochus said, well, give me some time to think about it. And the general got a stick and kind of carved a circle around him in the sand and said, you decide before you step outside that circle. And knowing that he could not fight Rome successfully, he, after a brief interval of silence, agreed to the demand, and he withdrew in utter humiliation. Well, Antiochus turned his humiliation and his anger against the Jews. He had already had run-ins with them, because they resisted the new priest that he put in place, the high priest. But verse 31 says, and forces shall be mustered by him, they shall defile the sanctuary fortress. Now he defiled it by sacrificing a pig on the altar as a sacrifice and then commanding that no further sacrifices could be offered. And so the text goes on to say, then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation. He placed a substitute altar, a statue of Zeus in the place that the brazen altar used to be. He then commanded all of the Jews to worship this idol of Zeus. And if they didn't, they'd be put to death. If they would worship it, he would flatter them and praise them and even elevate them to positions. Oh wow, it was a horrible time. Verses 32 through 35, and we'll end with these verses. 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. And those are the people who understand shall instruct many yet for many days, they shall fall by sword and flame by captivity and flundering. Now, when they fall. They shall be aided with a little help, but many shall join with them by intrigue, and some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them, purify them, make them white until the time of the end, because it is still for the appointed time." This was really, this is the time of the Maccabees, absolutely horrific. Circumcision was forbidden, Jews were forced to eat pork, Bibles were burned, Jews were forced to desecrate the Sabbath in so many different ways. Antiochus showed a demonic hatred for anything that God stood for and multitudes died. But this was also an encouraging time because it shows that defeat is not inevitable before a superior power. The Maccabean leaders, and I sure wish there would be a good movie made on the Maccabees. It would be tremendous. But the Maccabean leaders led a godly revolt And over and over again, their tiny, tiny forces defeated the Syrians against overwhelming odds. God was with them. But verse 29 says that even this demonic persecution was allowed by God and it could not come one day earlier or one day later. It happened at the appointed time. I don't have the time to outline the five reasons God gives in this text as to why he allows his people to be persecuted, but it really is for their good. And nor do I have the time to go through the rest of the exciting history, at least for me it's exciting history, in chapter 11 into chapter 12 that leads year by year all the way up to AD 70. But I think I've given you enough this morning that you can have a confidence, yes, if you've got the right eschatology, everything in these books fits together beautifully. There is absolutely, I'll just comment on one thing that just irritates me, irks me when commentators do this. There is not a shred of evidence that you need to insert 2,000 years between verses 35 and 36 as premillennialists are forced to do and as many amillennialists are forced to do if they're a futurist kind of amillennialist. It's just absolutely ridiculous to do that. Every word of every phrase in the book of this book perfectly leads us year by year all the way up to 80, 70 at the end of the book. In fact, chapter 12 gave first century believers the precise number of days that they could expect after the temple was burned for Jews to be killed throughout the empire. It's 1290 days. So there's a seven year war. There's first half is 1290 days. Then there's another 1290 days throughout the empire. But then he says, Blessed is he who doesn't come back too soon, basically. He warns them, don't come back into Israel until 1,335 days have transpired. Why? That is the exact number of days from the burning of the temple to the fall of Masada. And if they came back before that time, they would have been conscripted into slave labor. The day after Masada fell, Rome just disappeared, it was perfectly safe to come back into Israel. So again, everything perfectly fulfilled. You don't have to place all of this way off into the future. Now you can see why liberals don't like prophecy and try to misinterpret these prophecies. These prophecies show the hand of a supernatural God who is in sovereign control over all of life. But in addition to valuing Daniel's prophecies, I think it's very, very important that we learn how to apply Scripture in our lives. And there's a bazillion applications we could make. I'm gonna end with three, three. First, God knows how to frustrate the conspiracies of men and kingdoms. Starting in verse four, all the way through to verse 45, you keep seeing this word, but. Men have great plans, but God throws a monkey wrench into their works and they can't succeed on their plans. Seventeen times it says somebody tried to do something, but, and then it mentions a problem. First Corinthians 119 says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters, politics is no challenge for God. He's much more interested, though, in the holiness of the church than he is that we get our politics right in America. In fact, he's gonna use politics as a spanking stick for his people as things get worse and worse. If the church was right with God, God has plenty enough butts in his arsenal to frustrate the humanists. But if the church continues in its backslidden condition, God's gonna use those butts to bust our butt. I mean, he's going to really use these frustrations against the church itself. Second, the evils of these chapters are themselves God's judgments upon nation. People don't often think that way. Don't be thinking, oh, God's gonna start judging our nation with all the evils. No, no, no, Romans 1 says this is a judgment. He's given us up unto a reprobate mind. And Romans 118 says, the wrath of God is present tense, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The tough times that are mentioned in Daniel chapter 11 are God's judgments on nations who could care less. And when Israel was backslidden, they're God's judgments on Israel as well. We grossly misinterpret history. If we think that God's wrath is not being revealed in history right now against all ungodliness, dispensationalists, even many amillennialists say, now we've got to wait for the final day of history before any judgments start returning again. No, no, no, no. That is absolutely false. Read Romans 1 carefully and you will see that God's wrath is presently being seen in our nation. The last application, I'm just going to look at that one phrase. Israel is called the glorious land or literally the beautiful land in verse 41, not because it was so beautiful in terms of topography. It was not. There are many places in the world that are far more beautiful than Israel. The reason it was glorious and beautiful was because of God's glorious presence in its midst. This is what makes all the difference in a nation, in a church, in a family, in an individual. We are not beautiful in ourselves, but if God's glorious presence is within us, he makes them beautiful despite themselves. Unless you are united to Christ, You've repented of your sins. You have believed Jesus. You've received Him. There is no beauty in you. It is only ugliness, damned to eternity. It is a call from the Scripture. If you want the beauty of the Lord, you must embrace Jesus by faith. May each one of us benefit as we seek to take to heart and apply the lessons of Daniel. Amen. Father God, I thank You for Your Word. We love it. We're so grateful to You for it, and I pray that as we Learn lessons of how to dig into your word, how to apply it in our lives, that you would cause each one of us to keep growing and growing in you. Bless this, your people, I pray, with increased holiness, increased wisdom, increased ability to advance your kingdom. And I pray it in Jesus' name, amen.