Daniel 11:1–2

We have a quick survey of what was about to happen to Israel in the last days. The speaker here is the same as in Daniel 10. Three more kings are still to rise in Persia. There we have the line of Persian rulers after Cyrus. Scripture does show us who these were, although their names are not given here.

The angel sent to Daniel had already been used to confirm and strengthen Darius the Mede. This may throw great light on why Darius was so kind to Daniel. Daniel 6 gives us the outward history. Daniel 10 and Daniel 11:1 show us the spiritual conflict behind that history. We now learn that the hostility of Daniel's enemies came out of spiritual wickedness working behind the scenes. In the same way, the favour Darius showed Daniel came from God's angelic messenger, who confirmed and strengthened the king. Neither Daniel's enemies nor his friends knew that these spiritual beings were at work.

Anyone reading Daniel 6 is struck by how eagerly Darius took up Daniel's cause, and how he tried to save him from the schemes of his enemies. The secret behind it is now uncovered. It shows that God holds the hearts of all men in His hands, and turns them wherever He wills to carry out His purposes… Darius did not know it. But we are now told that a divine influence was working in secret. It confirmed him in a certain course and strengthened him against those who were plotting against God's witness in the king's court. Let us learn from this to look away from all lesser causes. We can rest in this: God is working in silence towards the end He has set, through all the apparent confusion of human plans, and in the face of all the power the enemy has shown.

This is very instructive to us, for God always governs the world. While the throne of God was at Jerusalem, He governed the world directly — not only Israel but the world, and this according to the good or bad conduct of Israel. After that He did not stop governing everywhere. But already in this book, with Israel in captivity, He is acting by the secret springs of His providence. He is not acting by the direct working of the revealed rule of His law, as He did among His people.

The angels are mentioned here in connection with God's providence. Angels are the great instruments of providence, and God carries out His unseen working through them.

Daniel 11 gives us the most extraordinary and detailed prophecy in the whole Word of God. It prophesies the reigns of kings, royal marriages, wars, victories, defeats, plots, treaties and assassinations. This is striking and unanswerable evidence that God knows the future. Who but God could write down such detailed prophecies? They have all come true except one. That one exception is still future, and it will certainly come to pass.

The opening verses of chapter 11, and indeed most of the chapter, give us predictions that were clearly fulfilled long ago… Only when we reach verse 36 does the prophecy move on to the time of the end, and to the last days.

We have a rapid survey of what was about to befall Israel in the latter days. It is the same speaker here as in Daniel 10... There we have the succession of Persian monarchs from Cyrus. Scripture does show us who these were, although their names are not mentioned here. I would refer you to Ezra 4, where these very three kings are mentioned.

First we have Ahasuerus, the unworthy son of a great father, here (Ezra 4:6) called Ahasuerus, or Cambyses as he is named in ordinary history... Darius Hystaspes became king through the revolt that set aside the false Smerdis; and he is the king of Persia who confirmed the decree of Cyrus... This Darius Hystaspes is the third in Daniel 11:2 — that is, the third after Cyrus the Great.

This famously rich king of Persia was Xerxes, who tried to follow his father's hostility to Athens... How exact and terse is the prophet's sketch! "When he has become strong through his riches." It was not skill or force of arms, but wealth that gathered his vast armies of foreign troops. But his enormous armies, far greater than those of his father Darius, were useless... While they pushed their territory through Western Asia, God in His providence was with them. But when they reached for the sea and Europe by rushing into Greece, they laid the foundation of the hostility that later broke out in Alexander the Great.

This confirms a point made earlier: the goat rushed against Persia with such fury in return for the Persian attack on Greece. Xerxes was the man who made that great attempt. His riches are famous, and no event made so deep an impression on the world of that day as that expedition against Greece and its consequences.

Four kings of Persia were still to arise, and "a fourth shall be far richer than all of them." Ezra 4 mentions the first three: Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, and Darius. The fourth was the famous Xerxes, who became "strong through his riches" and stirred up "all against the kingdom of Greece." The prophecy passes over the overwhelming defeat of his mixed army, and the later invasion and conquest of his kingdom by Alexander. These are facts well known to every reader of history, and Daniel 8:7 alludes to them.

Daniel 11 gives us the most extraordinary and detailed prophecy in the whole Word of God. When we remember that it prophesies the reigns of kings, royal marriages, wars, victories, defeats, plots, treaties and assassinations, it gives striking and unanswerable evidence of divine foreknowledge. For who but God could write down such detailed prophecies, which have come true with one exception? The one exception is still future, and awaits a fulfilment that will surely come to pass.

Even the sceptical Gibbon says: "The four empires are clearly outlined: the expedition of Xerxes into Greece, the rapid conquest of Persia by Alexander, his early death without descendants, the division of his vast monarchy into four kingdoms... Daniel's prophecies describe all this as plainly as the histories of Justin and Diodorus. From such a perfect resemblance the clever unbeliever would infer that both were alike composed after the event." In a word, he was too exact for a prophet, and too fabulous for a contemporary historian.