Daniel 11:1 Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.
2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.
3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.
4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.
The Medo-Persian Empire was in
power when Daniel received this prophecy. Two kings of this empire
were Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. Daniel tells us that he
prospered during the reign of these two kings.
Daniel 6:28 So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
The angel who was speaking to
Daniel stated in verse 1 that he “stood to confirm and strengthen”
Darius the Mede, who conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. as recorded in
Daniel 5:31.
Daniel 5:30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
31 And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.
Although
it was Cyrus who actually conquered Babylon, he allowed
the credit to go to his uncle, Darius the Mede, who reigned for two
years after Babylon fell. But we learn from today’s passage that
the victory
of Darius over Babylon had angelic assistance from heaven.
Commenting on this fact Matthew Henry wrote:
“Note, We must acknowledge the hand of God in the strengthening of those that are friends to the church for the service that they are to do it, and confirming them in their good resolutions; herein he uses the ministry of angels more than we are aware of. And the many instances we have known of God’s care of his church formerly encourage us to depend on him in further straits and difficulties.”
The
angel announces
to Daniel that his mission was to show Daniel the
truth.
Everything
in the prophecy that follows is infallible prophetic truth that has
been fulfilled exactly as it was stated.
The
passage we are considering today shows us that in
addition to Darius the Mede there would arise four more kings in
Persia. Those four kings were Cyrus, who reigned alone after Darius,
Artaxerxes or Cambyses, Ahasuerus or Darius Hystaspes, and Xerxes.
These are the kings of importance whose dealings had a direct bearing
on Israel.
Xerxes,
the
last of these four kings,
was far
richer than the
other Persian kings. Xerxes attempted
an invasion of Greece
with a huge army fulfilling this prophecy: he
shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.
However, he was shamefully defeated. The
following is a citation from The
World Book Encyclopedia, 1974, that
expounds what happened in this invasion.
“Then he (Xerxes) devoted himself to the conquest of Greece to avenge his father’s defeat at Marathon. Xerxes also wanted to punish the Greeks for their part in the Ionian rebellion. In 483 B.C., he collected perhaps the largest army that had ever been assembled. It included over 180,000 men drawn from all parts of the empire. Xerxes set out with an immense fleet that the Phoenecians had assembled for him. He used a double line of ships to form two bridges across the Hellespont, and cut a canal through the isthmus of Mount Athos Peninsula. In 480 B.C., Xerxes sent his warriors across the Hellespont and invaded Greece. ¶Xerxes won a victory at Thermopylae. He entered Athens and burned all the houses and temples. But in 480 B.C., his fleet was crushed at the Battle of Salamis. Xerxes feared that his supply line would be cut. He returned to Persia, but left a force in Greece under his brother-in-law, Mardonius. The next year, the Greeks defeated Mardonius at Plataea.”
The defeat of Xerxes
paved the way for the downfall of the Persian empire and the rise of
Greece. The
mighty
king
that stood up and would
rule
with great dominion
was
Alexander the Great of Greece. Alexander conquered Persia and
incorporated it into his empire. Alexander did according
to his will
conquering wherever he went and bringing Greek culture to the
countries he conquered. At the height of his power Alexander’s
dominion extended from the Ionian Sea (the sea separating Italy and
Sicily from Albania and Greece) to northern India. So
it was a great
dominion indeed.
At
the zenith of his power, when he stood up, Alexander died in
323 B.C. at
the age of 32 and his kingdom was broken so that it did not continue
according
to the dominion which he ruled.
Rather
than being left to
his posterity,
Alexander’s kingdom was principally divided among four of his
generals and
so it is described as being divided
toward the
four winds of heaven.
The
events
prophesied in these first four verses of
Daniel 11 were
reported in greater detail in the vision given to Daniel in
Daniel 8:1-8,
19-22. I
cite verses 19-22.
Daniel 8:19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.
20 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.
In this passage we have it
clearly set forth regarding the destruction of the Medo-Persian
empire by Alexander the Great of Greece and then the break-up of the
Grecian empire into four kingdoms after the death of Alexander.
So in these first four verses
of Daniel 11 we have a succinct overview of the history of the world
from 539 B.C. to 323 B.C., a space of 216 years, given in advance to
Daniel by an angel sent from God. Indeed, the Holy Bible is the word
of God!
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