Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Dan. 11: 27-35 Oct. 20, 2024

Message: “Wars and Rumors of Wars!”

by Pastor George Gnade

Intro.: 1. Jesus warned us that in the last days “there (would be) wars and rumors of war.” While Jesus was talking about the future, this verse would be the easiest way to describe Daniel 11. It is all about wars and rumors of war.

2. In Dan. 11: 3, God told Daniel about a “mighty king” who would rule “with great power.” This is a description of Alexander the Great from Greece who conquered the Persians and captured the world of his day very quickly. 

a. But when he died rather unexpectedly, his four generals took over and attacked each other. The most important two are called the king of the north and the king of the south, representing Syria and Egypt.

b. Daniel 11 describes the many wars they had to-gether. This was important because Israel was located right between the two.

3. Both sides used all the schemes they could think of and all the power they had to destroy each other. Read vs. 5-23 for some good examples of this. 

a. They made alliances and treaties that they never planned to keep and made deals in order to gain control of each other. But they would break these promises as soon as it was convenient.

b. Riches were used to buy power (vs. 24). Flattery was used over and over again (vs, 21, 32). Meanwhile, thousands were slaughtered (vs. 12).

4. I share this with you because our own world is a lot like this in our day. Satan always creates and uses these kinds of conflicts to try to destroy God’s people (vs. 16, 28, 30).

a. He seeks to destroy what is not his (vs.28), to rob what does not belong to him (vs. 31, 43), and to kill those who belong to the Lord (vs. 33).

b. So we must be careful not to blame the Lord for the work of the devil.

A. But in the midst of all this evil, please remember that God is still at work.

1. In Rom. 8:28, the Bible says: “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord…”

a. The story of Joseph in the O.T. is a good example of this. He told his brothers: “You meant it for evil, but God used it for good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20).

b. That certainly also happened on the cross where Jesus died for us, and it keeps happening even though we do not always know how.

2. Jesus does it through love. That is why God commanded us: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12: 21).

B. Antiochus Epiphanies was one of the most wicked and powerful of the kings of the north. 

1. He used Jews who were not faithful to the Lord to make a treaty with him. His plan was to make all the Jews into good Greeks.

2. When they didn’t cooperate, he killed thousands of them. Then he entered the temple and desecrated it, offering unclean animals on God’s altar. It became known as the “abomination that made it desolate” (Dan. 11:31). 

3. But God still used all of this for good.

a. In Dan. 11: 32, Daniel prophesied “that the people who know their God will stand firm and take action.”

b. Some did yield to flattery and went with the flow, but those who truly believed in the Lord took a stand for the Lord. Trouble often separates the sheep from the goats. 

4. In I Peter 1:6-8, Peter taught us that trials test the genuineness of our faith. 

a. Those who truly love the Lord will overcome and keep on loving the Lord. 

b. If you think about it, Peter himself was a good example of this. At first he denied the Lord, but in the end, he became one of the greatest apostles of all time. 

c. Thank God, sometimes we make mistakes like Peter did, but Jesus knows how to bring us back to Him.

5. As someone put it, God uses our trials to “polish us like silver and to purify us like gold”(See vs. 35).  That is what happened in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes. In the midst of all the evil, good people stood up and stood out. In fact, in vs.33, it says: “Those among the people who are wise shall make many understand.”  

C. Thirdly, God overcomes evil with good by doing miracles when we least expect them.

1.   While Antiochus had attacked Egypt many times and won, in Dan. 11:30, we are told how “Ships from the western coastlands will oppose him, and he will lose heart.” That is when the Romans began to rise to power. That is why Antiochus lost the war with Egypt.

2. In Dan. 11:33-34, it says: “Those who are wise … will fall by the sword, or be burned or captured… When they fall, they will receive a little help!” 

a. In the days of Antiochus, God raised up the Maccabees- one family against an army! But then God multiplied “the little help” until it also grew into a powerful army that actually defeated one of the most powerful kings of that time.

b. In the process, Jerusalem was recaptured, the temple cleansed, and sacrifices restored. 

3.  Finally, while this was happening, the war with Egypt was followed by a war with the Parthians. In fact, that is one reason why the Maccabees were so successful. Antiochus could not be two places at once.

a. Angry because he was defeated by the Parthians and enraged by the news from Israel, he swore he would go back to Israel and kill all the Jews. 

b. But according to the Book of Maccabees, as he tried to return to Israel to destroy it, he developed an unexpected illness on the way and fell out of his chariot. Severely injured, he had to return to his own country where he died. 

In conclusion: 1. That is how God delivered His people. That is how God often delivers us. The details will obviously be different but it is amazing how God can work behind the scenes to help us too. The world calls this a coincident, but God’s people know in their hearts that God helped them overcome.

2. There are very good reasons to compare the stories about Antiochus with our present age. That is because Antiochus is used in Daniel to be a picture of the anti-Christ who is to come.

3. Many Christians believe those days are rapidly approaching. So we would do well to learn from the past how God will also help us in the present. 

4. We can claim the same promise God gave the godly Jews back then, that when we least expect it, God will send us “a little help” when we need it the most.  As this election approaches, that is my prayer for America. Amen!