Daniel 11:37
He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor for the one desired by women, nor for any other god, because he will magnify himself above them all.
Sermons
The Specious Success of a Bad MonarchJ.D. Davies Daniel 11:21-45
The Reign of the AntichristJoseph A. Seiss, D.D.Daniel 11:36-45














There is mystery in the fact that, under the administration of a righteous God, bad men should be elevated to highest rank. Yet, evil though it is, it would probably be a greater evil to employ mere force to prevent it. It is evident that God rules among men by moral agencies. This is one circumstance among the "all things" that "work together for the good" of God's elect.

I. BAD MEN ARE PERMITTED BY GOD TO CLIMB INTO IMPERIAL THRONES. There is a sense in which it is true that "God setteth up one, and putteth down another" Yet it is not true that God acts apart from men, nor is he responsible for any unrighteous act. Without his permission it could not be; but if power should interfere to prevent wrong-doing, this would be to make virtuous by compulsion - this would be to destroy virtue's essential nature. The people of Israel, in Samuel's day, clamoured for a king. God did not approve; yet, in anger, he permitted them to have a king. Nor would it have then availed for God to have furnished Israel with a king" after his own heart." The people would not at that time have tolerated such a prince. Very clear is it that God sets no high value on the highest earthly distinctions. The wealth and dignities and sceptres of earth are not deemed worthy to be rewards for his friends. Riches and sovereignties often fall to the lot of the vilest of mankind - clear proof this how God values such possessions. "That which is highly esteemed anong men is often an abomination in the sight of God." The wise men in God's kingdom will not envy any of fortune's favourites.

II. THE BOLD ARTS OF FRAUD AND DECEIT OFTEN FIND A PASSING SUCCESS. From the hour when Antiochus was liberated from Rome, until the hour of his death, he was studying the shrewdest arts of duplicity and treachery. If men wish to make a lie succeed, they must make it big enough and utter it boldly, and it will travel far and wide. So too any act of wickedness will best succeed if it is carried out with brazen effrontery. No consideration of truth, or duty, or feeling, or self-consistency, was allowed by Antiochus to stand in the way of vile success. To be rightly or wrongly a monarch over a large area - this was his one ambition, and to this evil deity everything was sacrificed. If lying, or reserve, or deceit, or tergiversation, would serve his turn, all were resorted to. No covenant, or treaty, or promise, issuing from him, was worth a groat. He was more a demon than a man; for all manly qualities had been parted with. To the eye of his courtiers and generals it would seem as if this course of life secured success; yet it was a very doubtful success and very ephemeral. Granted that it continued, more or less, through his lifetime; this was merely a period of eleven years. To estimate justly the success of a man's life, we must measure it, not by years, but by centuries - not by the fleeting hour's of time, but by its continuance through eternity. Posterity has long since reversed the judgment of this Syrian king's contemporaries. Scorn and detestation are his inheritance.

III. SUCCESSFUL WICKEDNESS ATTRACTS BAD MEN TO ITS SIDE. The majority of men are more fitted to follow than to lead. If only a bold and self-assertive leader appear, crowds of weaker men will attach themselves to his person; and if only something can be gained, be it earthly spoil or glory, the appetite of avarice will be sharply whetted. The public and faithful testimony of a good man will strengthen the confidence of feebler saints, and make the pulse of piety beat stronger. This has an effect in drawing righteous spirits more closely together, and, as a consequence, increasing their severance from the wicked. So it is also a fact that the public success of a bad man (especially if he be an opponent and persecutor of the Church) will serve to detach hypocrites and self-deceivers from the cause of truth and righteousness. The successful violence and blatant profanity of Antiochus separated the impious Jews from the pious. Then it was discovered that many who observed the sacred rites of Judaism were atheists at heart, and were more eager to share in the spoils of sacrilege than to defend their temple and their God. In days of prosperity and peace, multitudes are content with a superficial faith. But persecution is a sterling test, and well brings out the genuine and the spurious in character.

IV. SUCCESSFUL WICKEDNESS SERVES TO FORTIFY THE COURAGE AND FAITH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. The tyrannic violence of Antiochus drove good men nearer to God; it led them to examine the foundations of their hope; it brought them to the fount of Divine strength; it disposed them to inflame each other's zeal. Though the pious in Jerusalem were a little band, they resisted with heroic fortitude the profane invader; and if they were not at once successful, their devotion to the Jewish cause soon developed sufficient martial skill to defeat and drive out the foe. Out of evil came good. Had it not beer for the violence and sacrilege of Antiochus, the Jews would have borne the yoke of the Syrian monarchs. But now a Jewish hero - Judas Maccabaeus - is brought to the front, who resolves on the bold enterprise of Jewish independence. If vice can he bold and fearless, much more ought virtue to be.

V. ATHEISM AND SUPERSTITION GO HAND-IN-HAND. It is instructive to observe how the mind of this usurping king vacillates on the matter of religion. He who sought to dethrone the true God from his seat in Jerusalem, and to overturn his altars, sought also to enthrone the mythical idol Jupiter, and to erect an altar for this imaginary deity. Man must worship somewhat. His religious faculty cries out for some exercise. If the true God be rejected, some counterfeit god must be invented. Well did the leaders of the French Revolution affirm, "If there be no God, we must make one" But, in truth, Antiochus believed in nothing save himself. The world existed for him. Armies existed for him. Men's lives, or family happiness, or national weal, or religion's temples, were counted as nothing, if seemingly opposed to his advantage. He was simply a monster of egotistic selfishness. He might have said truly, "Syria? it is I! The world? 'tis only for me!" If it seems to serve a passing caprice, a temple is erected for some Roman deity. If money is wanted for war, he will strip every temple of its treasures. The only deity his soul worshipped was force - vulgar power.

VI. WICKEDNESS AND TYRANNY HAVE AT LENGTH TO YIELD TO A DIVINE RULE. Even good men are sometimes impatient to see the progress and the success of villainy. In their anguish they often cry out, "How long? O Lord, how long?" But God does not move, in his administration of the world, with premature haste. "The time is appointed' when iniquity shall cease to be successful, and when complete retribution shall overtake the unrighteous man. A royal tyrant may as well knock his head against a granite wall - and better - than to work against God, or to fling himself on the bosses of the Almighty's shield. In the midst of apparent success, such a man feels ofttimes that fate (as he calls it) is against him. Strangely are his ends defeated, as were Napoleon's by a snowstorm. The mightiest warrior is working, with his blustering noise, within a very tiny circle; and all imperial and martial events are embraced within the supreme purpose and administration of God. Let appearances be as they may, "God has prepared his throne in the heavens;" "His kingdom ruleth over all." At last, reward and retribution shall be distributed by royal and impartial hands. Every one shall "receive the due reward of his deeds." God's end may be far off, humanly speaking, yet it shall "surely come." Though it tarry, childlike faith will wait for it. - D.

And the King shall do according to his will.
We Christians look for an Antichrist yet to come. Apart from revelation, it is, in itself, in conformity with human nature, and the laws of things, that, as good intensifies to a grand consummation of good, so will evil also intensify the grand consummation of evil. The world is made up of light and shadow, the one always accompanying the other; and as the light increases the shadows deepen; till, when the king of glory comes to crown and establish the good, he will be confronted with the King and head of all wickedness, wrought up to the summit of lawlessness and blasphemy at which its doom shall come. In the Old Testament, wherever we look we find some image and fore-intimation of this great evil power, running parallel with the predictions and promises concerning the seed of the Woman, and the Messiah of the chosen people. It was the firm belief of all the Christian Fathers that there is yet to come a development and impersonation of Antichristianism more dreadful than has ever yet been seen on Earth, and which shall be destroyed only in the great day of God Almighty. This Antichrist is described in the passage of Daniel now before us. Whoever this King may be, or from whatever quarter he may come, he is the last representative of the bestial world power that ever bears rule upon earth. Whoever he is, he is some individual person. Antichrist indeed exists at all times, but only as a working spirit which has not yet come to its final development and concentrated embodiment. Wilfulness will be his characteristic; and magnifying himself, and irreligion. We everywhere and in all circles and teachings, hear about the "Coming Man." He is the man of sin, the lawless one, the Antichrist.

(Joseph A. Seiss, D.D.)..

And at that time shall Michael stand up.
It is a little unfortunate that this chapter has been severed from what immediately precedes it. Here we learn:

1. That the time of the Antichrist will be a time of unexampled distress. The trouble will be more or less upon all people then living upon the earth.

2. The time of the Antichrist is the time when Michael, the great prince over the Children of the prophet's people, shall stand up in their behalf. Some think this is the Lord Jesus himself.

3. The time of the Antichrist is also a time of blessed resurrection.

4. Then shall men receive their eternal rewards.

(Joseph A. Seiss, D. D.)

People
Ammonites, Cushites, Daniel, Darius, Ethiopians, Habakkuk, Javan, Kittim, Nubians
Places
Edom, Egypt, Greece, Kittim, Moab, Persia
Topics
Attend, Beloved, Desire, Desired, Exalt, Fathers, Gods, Heed, Magnifieth, Magnify, Regard, Respect, Women, Yea
Outline
1. The overthrow of Persia by the king of Grecia.
5. Leagues and conflicts between the kings of the south and of the north.
30. The invasion and tyranny of the Romans.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Daniel 11:36-38

     5786   ambition, negative

Daniel 11:36-45

     9115   antichrist, the

Library
The Syrian Persecution.
"The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air, and the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the land."--Ps. lxxix. 2. The history of Antiochus the Great is foretold in the 11th chapter of the prophet Daniel, from the 14th to the 19th verse. On the death of Ptolemy Philopator, this king entered Palestine with a great army, and easily obtained from the time-serving Jews the surrender of Jerusalem. Some of them who had forsaken their Law to gain the favour
Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People

Questions.
LESSON I. 1. In what state was the Earth when first created? 2. To what trial was man subjected? 3. What punishment did the Fall bring on man? 4. How alone could his guilt be atoned for? A. By his punishment being borne by one who was innocent. 5. What was the first promise that there should be such an atonement?--Gen. iii. 15. 6. What were the sacrifices to foreshow? 7. Why was Abel's offering the more acceptable? 8. From which son of Adam was the Seed of the woman to spring? 9. How did Seth's
Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People

Some General Uses from this Useful Truth, that Christ is the Truth.
Having thus cleared up this truth, we should come to speak of the way of believers making use of him as the truth, in several cases wherein they will stand in need of him as the truth. But ere we come to the particulars, we shall first propose some general uses of this useful point. First. This point of truth serveth to discover unto us, the woful condition of such as are strangers to Christ the truth; and oh, if it were believed! For, 1. They are not yet delivered from that dreadful plague of
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Watching the Horizon
"Thy Kingdom Come." "Thou art coming! We are waiting With a hope that cannot fail; Asking not the day or hour, Resting on Thy word of power, Anchored safe within the veil. Time appointed may be long, But the vision must be sure: Certainty shall make us strong, Joyful patience must endure. "O the joy to see Thee reigning, Thee, my own beloved Lord! Every tongue Thy name confessing, Worship, honour, glory, blessing, Brought to Thee with glad accord! Thee, my Master and my Friend, Vindicated and enthroned!
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Of the Matters to be Considered in the Councils.
Let us now consider the matters which should be treated in the councils, and with which popes, cardinals, bishops, and all learned men should occupy themselves day and night, if they loved Christ and His Church. But if they do not do so, the people at large and the temporal powers must do so, without considering the thunders of their excommunications. For an unjust excommunication is better than ten just absolutions, and an unjust absolution is worse than ten just excommunications. Therefore let
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

A Discourse of the House and Forest of Lebanon
OF THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. That part of Palestine in which the celebrated mountains of Lebanon are situated, is the border country adjoining Syria, having Sidon for its seaport, and Land, nearly adjoining the city of Damascus, on the north. This metropolitan city of Syria, and capital of the kingdom of Damascus, was strongly fortified; and during the border conflicts it served as a cover to the Assyrian army. Bunyan, with great reason, supposes that, to keep
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

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