Daniel 11:44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
The antecedent to the pronouns
him and he are found up in
verse 40, where we read that the king of the south (Egypt) would
“push at him,” referring to Herod the Great. This is not the
first time that a few verses separate the pronouns from their
antecedent requiring one to reason to whom the pronouns refer (see
Psalm 105 for examples of this).
The tidings out of the east
that troubled Herod were the report of the birth of the king of the
Jews by “wise men from the east.”
Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
According to Matthew’s
account, when Herod “saw that he was mocked of the wise men,” he
“was exceeding wroth.” As a result of this he went forth with
great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many when he
issued the decree to have slain “all the children there were in
Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and
under” (MAT 2:16).
The tidings…out of the
north that troubled him were the news from his eldest son
Antipater, then in Rome, that Herod’s two other sons had
calumniated him to Caesar. Antipater was actually the one aspiring
to seize Herod’s throne and even plotted to have him poisoned. This
plot was discovered and resulted in Antipater being imprisoned and
put to death near the end of Herod’s life. Near his death Herod
was so enraged that he called together the leaders of the Jews and
confined them with the order to have them slain when he died so that
there would be a lamentation at the time of his death, for the Jews
despised Herod and would certainly not have lamented his death. Thus
again he went forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to
make away many. However, this order was not carried out.
The next and last verse of
Daniel 11 concludes this prophecy of Herod the Great.
Daniel 11:45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
Jerusalem,
being located on Mount Zion, was situated between the Mediterranean
and the Dead Seas. Herod placed his palace in the upper city of
Jerusalem. Thus, he planted the
tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy
mountain.
At his
end
Herod died of a loathsome and painful disease which no physician
could help. Thus, there was none
to help
him.
So
Herod “the Great” died a miserable death as a helpless man. So
much for his greatness. In
this was fulfilled the words of the mother of our Saviour
when she magnified the Lord saying:
Luke 1:51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
I
hope this series of meditations on Daniel 11 has blessed my readers
in some way. I would be pleased if you would let me know. I
trust you marvel with me at the exact fulfillment of these
prophecies. Thanks be to God for the preservation of records of
history that can be compared with these prophecies showing their
fulfillment. Thus
is our
faith confirmed
in
the word of our omniscient God Who declares “the end from the
beginning, and
from ancient times the things that are not yet done” (Isaiah
46:10). And just as surely as the prophecies of Daniel 11 have been
fulfilled, so shall every other prophecy of events in the future be
fulfilled. The culminating prophecy of the future which we fondly
anticipate is the prophecy of the second coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ of Whom the angel spoke
when Jesus was seen ascending in heaven:
Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
The fulfillment of this
prophecy will mark the end of this earth’s history and the ushering
in of a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness” (2Peter 3:13). Nowhere in that new earth will
tyrants like Antiochus Epiphanes or Herod the Great rear their heads
in defiance of Israel’s God. It is this hope that inspires the
concluding prayer of the Holy Scriptures of truth:
Revelation 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
