DANIEL 11-BAMAZING PANORAMIC HISTORY 3
‘The Latter Days’ ROME STARTS ITS FIRST RISE TO POWER: PAGAN ROME "For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches. And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall." Daniel 11:13, 14. After the King of the South retaliates on the King of the North, he makes his triumphant march back to Egypt, and tries to enter the Most Holy Place, but God prevents it. In time the King of the North returns, putting together a great army. That king of the South, later dies, leaving his son as heir of the throne, but his son is only five years old.
Verse 14, ‘In those times’, when the King of
the South is only five years old, he’s very vulnerable and the King of the North
is ready to retaliate against the King of the South. So ‘in those times, there shall many stand up against the king of the south:’ The people in Egypt stand up against the five year old child-king of the South, the King of the North stands up against him, Philip of Macedonia in confederacy with the King of the North stands up against him; also the ‘robbers of thy people’ shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall. Now let me address one phrase here. If you look at the history of Philip of Macedonia and his alliance to the king of the North to go ahead and attack the vulnerable five-year-old King of the South; they ultimately fall.
So this last phrase could be applied to them, ‘they shall fall’. ‘They were under discussion in this verse, it could apply to them. But the premier application of this ‘shall fall’ is that it is a characteristic of Rome. Rome is here introduced for the first time into chapter 11 as the ‘robbers of thy people’, and if you look at the history of Rome you can see why the term ‘robbers’ fits so well. The Italian peninsula at that time in History, was known to be where a band of robbers and thieves hid out and would strike out from their base there in Italy and not only steal gold and booty, but they were famous for stealing wives and women. And they were known throughout that area as thieves and robbers. They had come, mainly from Greek heritage, but it was basically a place for them to hide out.
SO when we see the term ‘robbers’ applied to them, it’s very fitting. The robbers of thy people. This is Rome coming into the prophecy. And it says that Rome shall exult themselves, certainly one of the characteristics of all these pagan powers in the book of Daniel, they exult themselves. But the premier power that exults itself is once again Rome. The most important phrase in these first fourteen verses in some ways, is that these people, ‘The robbers of Thy people’ that exult themselves, that they are the ones that establish the vision. This is one of the main focuses in Daniel 11, that this vision, whether it’s talking about Medes, Persians, Greeks, or whatever, the power that makes this vision stand is Rome; it is the point of reference. This is the truth that’s in verse 14, the focus of Daniel 10, 11 and 12, is that it is about Rome, these other kingdoms are the history that leads to Rome, and from verse fifteen onward, Rome is going to become King of the North and it will remain the King of the North until it comes to its end, until it falls, that’s what verse 14 says.
"And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall." Daniel 11:14.From verse 14 onward, Rome is the focus of this prophecy. There are three different identifications of Rome when you get to verse 29, you’re going to begin dealing with the history of how Papal Rome came to control the world. Then in verse 40 and onward, you have the third history of Rome illustrated, the history of modern Rome. And when you look at the history of Rome from verses 14-29 it’s the history of Pagan Rome and then verses 29- 40 is the history of Papal Rome, the first time around, and then you understand verse 40 and onward as modern Babylon, the Papacy of today. You’ll find a literary technique that Daniel uses in all three of those scenarios, is that he first describes how Rome comes to control the world and then he drops back into that same history and begins to describe how Rome dealt with God’s people during that time period. But if you remember in verse 13 it says “For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.”
That verse was describing a time period when Egypt’s king had died and he had left the kingdom of Egypt to his five-year-old son and also to his daughter Cleopatra. The next verses talks about Rome coming into the picture. Verse 14 says that there would many stand up against the king of the south in this time period. And not only was this happening immediately after the king died and left his kingdom to his children, but there was there a struggle in Egypt itself going on to try to take control, but Phillip of Macedon and the Assyrian kingdom, the king of the north decided they would come together and go in and take Egypt and divide up the geography connected with that kingdom among their selves. Verse 14 is just following in that scenario and says in this time period that the 'Robbers of thy people' will stand up and sure enough, historically during that situation, Rome had began to make moves to grow towards being a kingdom in the world. They had already been to some wars in northern Africa, and they accepted the responsibility of being the protectors of these children. They let it be known that if Syria, the king of the north and Macedonia were going to come after Egypt that they were going to have to deal with Rome as well. "So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand." Daniel 11:15.What that’s saying is the king of the north begins to make its march on Egypt, on the child king, and the protectorate of Rome that was managing Egypt during that time. He hired an army, and in verse 15 this is the ‘chosen people’, the protectorate of Egypt selected this army. And the king of the north came against them and he just wiped them out basically. There’s more details to the battling that went on there, but this hired army of mercenaries as we would call them today, those ‘chosen people’ couldn’t stand, they didn’t have any strength to withstand and they come almost all the way into Egypt but they don’t quite get there. Then we see verse 16:
"But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed." Daniel 11:15.This was Pompey. This verse here is saying that as the King of the North, Assyria decides to make its move on Egypt, even though the Romans had said, “leave Egypt alone”, Rome goes into battle against them and Pompey goes through Assyria and levels it. The technicality that we haven’t looked at closely yet about who is the King of the North and who is the King of the South; at this point in the first part of this verse, when Rome overcomes Assyria, Rome becomes the King of the North. Because the rule is the power that controls the geographical area of Egypt is the King of the South, and the power that controls the geographical area of Babylon is the King of the North.
The center of the Assyrian kingdom was Babylon, and when Rome in verse 16 came in and the Assyrians could not stand against him and they took control of that area by the rule established here in Daniel 11, they became the King of the North and they did that as they swept through Assyria they followed on in and they took the ‘Glorious Land’ of Israel as well. This is talking about the Roman army taking control of the country of Israel.
In page 247 of Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith; speaking about responding to a quarrel for power that was going on among the Israelites themselves, it talks about when Pompey comes back to Jerusalem to deal with these people that were resisting his power: “At the end of three months, the breach was made in the walls sufficient for an assault and the place was carried at to point of the sword. In the terrible slaughter that ensued 12,000 were slain. It was an affecting sight, observes the historian, to see the priest engaged at the time in the Divine service with calm hand and steady purpose pursue their accustomed work apparently unconscious of the wild tumult until their own blood was mingled with that of the sacrifices they were offering. “After putting an end to the war, Pompey demolished the walls of Jerusalem, transferred several cities from the jurisdiction of Judea to that of Syria and imposed tribute on the Jews. For the first time, Jerusalem was by conquest placed in the hands of Rome. That power which was to hold the Glorious Land in its iron grasp until it had utterly consumed it.” The point that I want to stress here that will have a bearing on the final verses in this chapter, is when Rome conquered the ‘Glorious Land’ in verse 16, they weren’t just overthrowing the religion of the Jews, or destroying the temple, they were taking control of the country of Israel, the Glorious Land. And we have to keep that in the back of our minds if we’re going to correctly divide the Word of God when we get to the end. "He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him."After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him."Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found." Daniel 11:17-19.What is described here initially in verse 17 is that Rome at this point determines that it’s going to use its strength to conquer the entire kingdom, and the entire kingdom in verse 17 is the entire kingdom of Alexander the Great. In other words Rome had already taken the kingdom of the North when Assyria fell, and then it’s taken the kingdom of the Glorious Land and now it decides it’s going to take the King of the South and when it does that, it will have taken the whole kingdom of Alexander the Great. 3 AREAS If you turn in your Bible to Daniel 8:9 it says, “And out of one of them came forth a little horn,” And this ‘little Horn’ has been correctly understood for years as Pagan Rome. “which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.” Rome had to overcome 3 geographical obstacles, before it would become the fourth kingdom of Bible prophecy. Daniel 11 is simply building upon that truth. Verse 16, it takes Assyria, to the east of Rome, and then it takes the Glorious Land or the Pleasant Land in chapter 8, and its next point of attack is the King of the South which in verse 17 is describing when Julius Caesar goes into Egypt.
Now historically the reason Julius Caesar was heading to Egypt was somewhere in this flow of History, he and Pompey, (who was also Roman) got crossways of one another and Julius Caesar was coming to deal with him. And when Pompey came into Egypt, the son that the Assyrians and the Macedonians were going to take advantage of, the son of the King of Egypt that was initially five years old, had reached an age where he was willing to struggle for his kingdom and he had Pompey murdered.
Pompey had been placed in the protector ship of the children, of Cleopatra and Ptolemy, and when Ptolemy had Pompey killed. then Julius Caesar continued his pursuit that began after Pompey, right into Egypt and he then takes the position that since Pompey is removed from the protectorate, he’s the protectorate and he starts to try to settle some of the dissent that going on in Egypt between whether Ptolemy is going to rule the kingdom or Cleopatra is going to rule the kingdom.
Even though they all identify this as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, according to what historian you read, they might tell you that Cleopatra was Julius Caesar’s mistress, some will say that he married her. Some claim that the royalty in Egypt was passed down through the female side of the family, and the reason that Julius Caesar, and later Mark Anthony married Cleopatra, was because that was making them the King of Egypt and that’s what they were seeking to do. If you take that understanding that the blood line passed down through the female side in Egypt, then this verse that says, “and he shall give him the daughter of women, (which the commentators will tell you is Cleopatra) corrupting her:” You can see it could have been Julius Caesar who was initiating this marriage to take control of Egypt, then he would be the corruptor of her. Because most of the commentators try to turn this around to where Cleopatra corrupted him and later on corrupted Mark Anthony, but that isn’t what the verse says. The most important theme through these verses is that Rome has come to control the world at this point, and as the Bible wants to be very clear about this sequence of leadership in Rome, Julius Caesar, then Caesar Augustus then Tiberius Caesar, this sequence of Caesars that is so clearly identified in these verses, is what places Rome as the only possible entity that could fulfill this type of prophecy and remember that this vision is about Rome. So there’s some very clear history set forth here.
What’s being described here is Julius Caesar coming into Egypt, finding all kinds of problems that he has to resolve and after he fought some of the battles there and seemed to have brought it under control then he turns to the islands in verse 18 and that’s describing his march through the Mediterranean where he very quickly brought those islands and sea-coasts that he attacked under the authority of Rome and by verse 19 he returns to Rome, the Hero, then he’s assassinated at the foot of the statue of Pompey. "Then shall stand up in his estate (after Julius Caesar is assassinated) a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle." Daniel 11:20.
Augustus Caesar here clearly is the raiser of taxes, that called for the taxes that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, one of the most easily recognizable events in the Bible and in these verses here in Daniel 11 more than anything else are saying that this is the history that can’t be mistaken and therefore the kingdom that’s under discussion here in these verses, we need to understand if we’re going to understand the Bible correctly, is Rome. This is the Pagan Roman Empire. After Augustus, the raiser of Taxes, dies in peace, then there is in verse 21: “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.” Daniel 11:21, 22.Tiberius Caesar, history says that he was the son of the wife of Augustus Caesar, he wasn’t Augustus’ son, and she had petitioned for Augustus Caesar to proclaim that he would be emperor when Augustus died. He refused that and he picked another person and that person died before Augustus did. Then Tiberius’ mother came back and pled with Augustus Caesar and he, in his old age, agreed to let him take control of the kingdom at his death. And this is how he took the kingdom by flatteries. But no one in Rome ever really had any respect for him and if you go thorough the history clearly set forth in many of these commentaries, he definitely was a vile man and finally died by suffocation from pillows as some of his own men executed him and that’s what verse 22 is symbolizing; that with all his wickedness, using his arms, his military power to work his own will and finally a revolt overthrows him.
But in the last phrase there it says “yea, also the prince of the covenant”, would be broken during his period of reigning in Rome. And this is not Daniel 9:25-27, the Prince of the covenant will be cut off in the midst of the week. This is information in these verses that are attempting to clearly identify this kingdom that in verse 14 is going to establish the vision, this kingdom that is called the ‘robbers of thy people’, the kingdom that will exult themselves and ultimately fall, as Rome. In verse 23, Daniel drops back into the history of Rome, that he’s just covered from verses 13,14-22, he drops back into that history to a time period when Israel was under constant attack by Syria, and Israel entered into a league with Rome in order to get some protection from Rome. If you’re going to understand these verses clearly, you need to take them in sections. “And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.” Daniel 11:23, 24.These two verses are giving us the starting place of the league with the Jews that Rome made in 161, so it places us back in the history of the previous verses. Then it begins to describe the characteristics of Rome. And the characteristic of Rome earlier in the book of Daniel. is that this fourth kingdom would be different. And one of the differences is that Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece conquered through their military might and Rome conquered through it’s military might as well, but Rome also conquered through what I’ll call ‘politics’. They formed ‘leagues’ and it starts here in verse 23 with the league they formed with the Jews. They made agreements with countries to be their protector, like they were watching over Egypt, we see earlier, to protect the young King of Egypt; they formed a league with Greece to protect Greece from the Macedonians and the Assyrians. They took control of countries through politics and military might and this was one of the ‘differences’ of this fourth kingdom and it becomes ‘strong with a small people’. (They originated the concept of the 'protection racket'.) They began as a small people, but also, if you’re going to conquer a country by signing a truce with it, a peace treaty that ultimately brings that country under your control, you don’t need a large army, you just need a diplomatic core. And of course, this is some of the characteristics of the fourth kingdom that carry on in the second phase of the fourth kingdom. But in verse 24 it’s simply carrying on this description, ‘he’ll enter peaceably upon the fattest places of the province’. Some of the places like when it took control of Greece it was through peaceable measures and ‘he’ll do what his fathers have not done or his father’s fathers’. This is saying, Alexander the Great, or the Medes and the Persians or Babylon, being the ‘fathers, the grandfathers and the great grandfathers’, never conquered this way. The never conquered through politics, they conquered through warfare. ‘He shall scatter among them the prey and the spoil and riches’, and this was one of the characteristics of Rome when they conquered a place, the booty was divided between the members of the participating army also some of the countries that would come along with them and form the treaties, they were also given initially some of the riches. Ultimately they came under the slavery-type dominance of Rome, but one of the techniques was to share the wealth as they took the wealth and this is the technique that historians clearly identified with the Roman power as it rose to conquer the world. Now if you look at the last couple phrases of verse 23 it says that Rome shall ‘forecast his devices against the stronghold’. It can be understood that Rome will forecast his devices ‘from’ his stronghold, for this seems the clearest understanding of this verse because the stronghold, that Rome forecast it’s devices from was the city of Rome and in the same setting where it’s saying this, it says ‘even for a time’. What it is saying is that Rome would prosecute its taking control of the world from the city of Rome for 360 years. 31 BC - 330 AD Rome rules from Rome So when you have a starting point at 31 BC and you put this time prophecy into play and the time prophecy comes to a conclusion in 330, you’ll find that in 330 the capitol of the Roman Empire was moved from the city of Rome to the city of Constantinople. And this is a truth that’s directly related to the understanding here that in the beginning of the Roman Empire, they were going to forecast their devices from the city of Rome for 360 years and when the 360 years was up, this stronghold of Rome was no longer going to be a stronghold. “And 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 a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.” Daniel 11:25.Verse 25 is describing the final conquering of Egypt which included the battle of Actium in 31 BC and the King of the South at this time in verse 25 isn’t one of the lineage of Ptolemy, it’s Mark Anthony, who had come together with Lepidus and Caesar to form a triumvirate, a three-party rule in Rome and one of the purposes they came together was to avenge the assassination of Julius Caesar and they all three began to go after things in their own ways. Ultimately, Mark Anthony ends up in Egypt and depending on which point of historical testimony you want to believe, he either falls in love with Cleopatra in such a way that he can’t control himself, or perhaps, if you take the reasoning set forth by some that the monarchy in Egypt was passed down through the female side; he may have realized, ‘Well, if I marry Cleopatra, then I become the king of Egypt.’ There’s a logic to that, which seems to make sense. But at this point in verse 25, the King of the South that the king is going to come against is Mark Anthony and verse 26-27 just builds upon this story. “Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain. And both these kings’ hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.” Daniel 11:26, 27.What is being described here is that the Triumvirate, the 3 man rule in Rome that was set up after Julius Caesar; Lepidus, Augustus Caesar and Mark Anthony, had come together to accomplish their task of controlling the world and working revenge against Julius Caesar’s enemies. They sat at the same table and talked about doing mischief together, but they were lying to one another and their lies weren’t going to prosper.
Ultimately when Caesar comes into Egypt to deal with Mark Anthony, he is destroyed and when he is destroyed, he has his army in place to battle against another Roman army, they’re both Roman armies, but he also has the Egyptian army of Cleopatra with him and as they see the folly of fighting with Mark Anthony, one by one the Egyptian army and his army itself switches over to the other Roman army and the Egyptian army fled and Mark Anthony is totally wiped out, and this is what’s being described in verse 25. He’s not able to stand.
When Caesar comes back to Rome with all the booty from Egypt and all the human trophies, he would have had Cleopatra, but in at this time here, Cleopatra commits suicide. So she isn’t carried back into Rome. In verse 26 it says ‘they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him’, it’s talking about how Mark Anthony’s army turned on him so that his troops that he was going to get to come to his aid, when they saw the position he was in, they switched over back to Rome and that’s what’s being discussed in these verses. And the reason these verses are significant in this flow of events is this battle where the king of the south, Mark Anthony, is finally dealt with, is the Battle of Actium 31 BC, the starting point of the ‘time’ of verse 24, of the 360 years that Rome would rule the world, and verse 27 is just a concluding thought to this time prophecy, where the concluding phrase says, ‘yet the end shall be at the time appointed’.
In any case, up to verse 27, that’s what’s been described of Rome; it’s going to be different from other powers that have come to control the world; they’re going to use politics as well as military might; that they’re going to rule the world for a ‘time’ from the stronghold of Rome for 360 years and the starting point for this ruling the world is the battle where Mark Anthony and his supporters are overthrown and the end will be at the time appointed. Let’s move on to verse 28: "Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land." Daniel 11:28.Then Caesar comes back to Rome after this battle of Actium, and he has all the booty that he has taken from Egypt and he parades it through the streets of Rome. Historians testify this is just what he did. “and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.” There are two ‘returnings’ in this verse. The first ‘returning’, is when he returns from conquering the king of the south, when he returns from being established as the king of the earth, the fourth kingdom of Bible prophecy, in the year 31 BC.
Then it says, his heart shall be against the holy covenant and he shall do exploits and return to his own land; and this ‘returning is the returning from the next conquest, that military campaign that Rome undertakes which is going down into Israel and ultimately destroying Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. This is why his heart is against the holy covenant, after he conquers Egypt, becomes the king of the world his next military campaign ends up in Israel and his heart is against the holy covenant in the sense that he’s going to destroy the temple and Jerusalem and the people that formerly had been God’s people. "At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter." Daniel 11:29.Now the ‘time appointed’ jumps forward in history because verse 27 says ‘the end shall be at the time appointed, and verse 27 says that Rome would forecast its power from the stronghold of the city of Rome for 360 years. The next couple verses are describing the starting point, 31 BC. Verse 27 is letting us know that the end of this time period of verse 24, the end of the 360 years, will be at the ‘time appointed’, and verse 29 is carrying this thought forward saying ‘at the time appointed’, in the year 330, he shall return and come towards the south, but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.’ What it is saying there is the ‘time appointed’ is the end of the time prophecy of the 360 years and in 330 when the capitol of the Roman empire was moved from the city of Rome to Constantinople by Constantine, that was the end of the supremacy of Rome, the 360 years of prophetic time had come to it’s close and from that point on the ability of Rome to control the world at will through its military might and its political prowess ceased. So in verse 29, it says at the time appointed, in 330 AD, and when he moved the capitol, then all the problems begin for Rome. It was immediately divided into east and west and the western empire immediately comes under attack from the barbarians out of the north. The islands of the Mediterranean that Rome had formerly controlled now become the launching points for some of the powers that were designed by God to bring Rome down and contribute to the environment that needed to be developed for Rome to turn into the ten horns and then the three horns removed as in Daniel 7. The point we want to make here is that in verse 29 it says ‘At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.’ The ‘former or later’ means this; when Rome attempts to defend itself and maintain its authority from Constantinople, the capitol of the kingdom has changed, he won’t have the ability to be successful in his military campaigns from that point on. It won’t be as the former; it won’t be like when he went into Egypt and dealt with Mark Anthony and had such great success, nor will it be as the latter; when he went into Judea and destroyed the temple in AD 70 and wiped out Israel. He had success then, but in 330 from this point on his military successes just weren’t going to be the same as the former or the latter.
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