Daniel 11:1-35
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TALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS
Detailed Prophecies That Have Been Fulfilled Quite Literally
BACKGROUND NOTES
DOCTRINAL POINT(S)
Daniel’s final vision revealed the coming Persian and Greek kings.
Daniel’s final vision revealed the coming Seleucid and Ptolemaic kings.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Remember, God knows and cares about all the future details of your life.
QUESTIONS
How do critics handle the book of Daniel?
How can we respond to these claims?
Outline this section of Persian and Greek history as prophesied in verses 2-4.
Who were the kings of the South and the kings of the North in history?
If God knew all the intricate and involved details of the intertestamental period, does He know all the intricate details of your future? Does God care about all the future details of your life?
ANSWERS
Critics of the Bible don’t like fulfilled prophecy, because it shows the accuracy of the Bible and supports the fact that the Bible is the Word of God. They move the date of Daniel forward so that the author was writing history and not prophecy, but he made it sound like prophecy.
One response is that the book of Daniel was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are dated conservatively to at least 150 B.C. These copied manuscripts indicate that the original writing of the book of Daniel was much earlier. Many of the prophecies of Daniel were fulfilled after 150 B.C. – prophecies concerning the Roman Empire and the coming of the Messiah.
Verse 2 – Three Persian kings arose after Cyrus: Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, and Darius I. A fourth Persian king arose who was rich and powerful: Xerxes I, who was Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther. Xerxes I was defeated by the Greeks Verse 3 – The mighty king of the Greek Empire was Alexander the Great. He not only brought down the Persian Empire, he conquered most of the ancient world. Verse 4 – After Alexander’s untimely death, his kingdom was divided into 4 divisions – north, south, east, and west. The Greek Empire was not passed on to Alexander’s sons, but was eventually divided between four of his military generals. (Remember the four heads of the leopard in Daniel 7 and the four horns of the goat in Daniel 8.
The kings of the North, or Syria, were the Seleucid kings. The kings of the South, or Egypt, were the Ptolemaic kings.
Of course He does!
DISCUSS/CONSIDER
Discuss the detailed fulfillment of these prophecies concerning the involved conflicts between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms. How do you respond to these amazing fulfillments? Do they leave you in awe of our awesome God?
CHALLENGE
Just as God was using all the intricate and involved details of history to refine, purge, and purify His people (verse 35), so He uses all the details of your life to sanctify you, make you, and mold you to be more like Christ (Romans 8:28-29).
KEY VERSES
“Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity.” Daniel 11:3-4
“Also the king of the North shall come to the kingdom of the king of the South, but shall return to his own land.” Daniel 11:9