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Further Revelations Concerning the Future
v. 21. And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, a despicable and morally contemptible character, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, who seized the royal power and authority against the will of the nation; but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries, that is, come in unexpectedly; while men thought that the rightful heir would succeed to the throne, Antiochus Epiphanes obtained the kingdom by dissimulations and deceitful behavior, so that he was in possession of the throne before men really realized it.
v. 22. 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, literally, "and the overflowing armies will be submerged from before him and broken, and princes of the covenant as well"; that is, even if men would come against him with great armies, his own forces, still stronger, would overthrow them, so that not only his enemies, but his confederates as well would feel his heavy hand; for his idea was to be the sole and only ruler of the entire realm.
v. 23. And after the league made with him, after he had caused a conquered enemy to accept his terms, he shall work deceitfully, make use of further clever ruses; for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people, his smaller force being sufficient for his purposes, because he used it so cleverly.
v. 24. He shall enter peaceably, while no one was expecting him to act with such quick decision, even upon the fattest places of the province, where the greatest wealth was to be found; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done nor his fathers' fathers, deviating from the more humane practices of his predecessors; he shall scatter among them the prey and spoil and riches, by squandering the plunder which he had made and causing the provinces to become impoverished; yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds, even for a time, namely, until the time fixed in the counsels of God would be reached.
v. 25. And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the South with a great army, summoning all his energy and making use of his great wealth in staging a successful campaign; and the king of the South shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, in trying to repel the invasion; but he shall not stand, for they shall forecast devices against him, his own associates making use of treachery in aiding the invader. This was fulfilled when Antiochus Epiphanes overthrew Philometor of Egypt, some of whose most trusted advisers espoused the cause of the enemy.
v. 26. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, the very members of the Egyptian royal household, the king's ministers, becoming guilty of such treachery, and his army shall overflow, but without accomplishing anything for him, and many shall fall down slain.
v. 27. And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, in feigning friendship and thus trying to harm one another, and they shall speak lies at one table, all their protestations of high regard to each other being invented for the sake of playing politics; but it shall not prosper, neither one succeeding in carrying out the particular designs which he had in mind at this meeting, of which no accounts are found in secular history; for yet the end shall be at the time appointed. The prophecy looks forward to the time in which the oppression exerted by these kings in wronging the children of God's people would reach its climax, but incidentally, with the overthrow of these enemies, their oppression would be brought to an end.
v. 28. Then shall he, the king of the North, return into his land with great riches, with much booty, chiefly secured in Egypt; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, against the divine institution of the Jewish theocracy, the Jewish people in their country, as representing the visible Church of God at that time; and he shall do exploits and return to his own land, accomplishing his wicked intentions by committing atrocities of various kinds while marching through Judea, as the books of the Maccabees relate.
v. 29. At the time appointed he shall return and come toward the South, in another campaign against Egypt and the countries tributary to it; but it shall not be as the former or as the latter, that is, the triumphs of the other expeditions were not repeated.
v. 30. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him, a fleet coming from the direction of Cyprus, that is, from the west, in this case a Roman embassy with a number of ships, the Roman emissaries landing in Alexandria in order to prevent the Syrian king from conquering Egypt; therefore he shall be grieved and return, retracing his steps in discouragement and anger on account of being foiled in his design, and have indignation against the holy covenant. So shall he do, venting his spite on Judea, accomplishing his displeasure in acts of rapine and plunder; he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant, that is, he observed such apostates from the Jewish religion, he fixed his attention upon them, he made them his favorites and established an idolatrous religion with their assistance.
v. 31. And arms shall stand on his part, armed forces sent by him, and they shall pollute the Sanctuary of strength, the Temple, as the fortress of Jehovah, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate, the reference being to an altar of idolatry erected on Jehovah's altar of burnt offering. "Antiochus, on his way home from Egypt, sent Apollonius with 20,000 men to destroy Jerusalem, two years after its capture by himself. Apollonius slew multitudes, dismantled and pillaged the city. The soldiers then, from a fortress which they built commanding the Temple, fell on and slew the worshipers, so that the Temple-service was discontinued. Also, Antiochus decreed that all, on pain of death, should conform to the Greek religion, and the Temple was consecrated to Jupiter Olympus. Identifying himself with this god, Antiochus with fanatical haughtiness wished to make his own worship universal. "
v. 32. And such as do wickedly against the covenant, namely, the apostate Jews, shall he corrupt by flatteries, inducing them to return to heathenism by flattering promises of earthly gain, of worldly advantages; but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits, that is, they would resist all his blandishments and adhere to the covenant.
v. 33. And they that understand among the people, those who know the Lord and walk in His fear, shall instruct many, making every effort to keep them in the right way; yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, many days, these words evidently prophesying the uprising which took place at the time of the Maccabees, when the faithful among the Jews, although with great losses to themselves, overcame their oppressors.
v. 34. Now, when they shall fall, in sacrificing themselves for the sake of their religious principles, they shall be holpen with a little help, for the theocratic kingdom was retained as a result of their efforts; but many shall cleave to them with flatteries, hypocritically casting their lot with the victorious party of the Jews in order to save themselves.
v. 35. And some of them of understanding shall fall, death and various attendant tribulations taking their toll, to try them and to purge and to make them white, even to the time of the end, for all these afflictions would serve as trials in separating the dress from the pure metal, because it is yet for a time appointed, that is, the period of tribulation would extend until then. Thus the enemies, in trying to harm the believers, succeed only in contributing to the purifying of God's people, in the great process of winnowing out the real from the false, the hypocritical from the true. It will readily be seen that the entire description of the career of Antiochus Epiphanes shows him to have been a bitter opponent of the true God. By an ignoring of the factor of time, now, which is peculiar to prophetic utterances, the following section is devoted to a description of Antichrist, of whom Antiochus was a type.
v. 36. And the king, the Roman Antichrist as foreshadowed by Antiochus Epiphanes, shall do according to his will, arbitrarily asserting his power and authority; and he shall exalt himself, in the pride of his heart, and magnify himself above every god, arrogantly and blasphemously setting aside gods of every kind and description, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, making statements beyond reasonable comprehension, which would be unexplainable in the case of a normal human being, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, until the wrath of God upon His people would be fully carried out, until His punishment would accomplish its purpose; for that that is determined shall be done, it cannot be recalled, it must be executed.
v. 37. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, thereby breaking with the true worship of his nation, the proper service of God as it had existed in the Christian Church, nor the desire of women, denying and rejecting the natural inclination of man toward woman, as implanted in the sexes by the Creator, nor regard any god, it being characteristic of him that he will set aside all reverence and all natural feeling, including that of the natural knowledge of God; for he shall magnify himself above all, both divine and human, in a challenging supercilious arrogance.
v. 38. But in his estate shall he honor the god of forces, literally, "and the god of fortresses in his place shall he honor," that is, he would make war, the application of force, his god, would extend his power by means of force; and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things, the most costly jewelry, sacrificing all his wealth for the attainment of his ends, for the spreading of his power.
v. 39. Thus shall he do in the most strongholds with a strange god, literally, "he will do toward the fortified places with the aid of the strange god," that is, he will pursue a definite course against them; whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory, rather: "to them who will acknowledge him, he shall make the honor great"; and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain, as a reward to those who accept his claims. This has ever been the policy of the men who sat on the throne of Antichrist, to reward their henchmen with the spoils gained by their political intrigues.
v. 40. And at the time of the end, namely, that of the present age of the world, during the Messianic era, shall the king of the South push at him, and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships, with the aid of powerful forces; and he shall enter into the countries, the king of the South carrying forward his campaign with all energy, and shall overflow and pass over.
v. 41. He, namely, Antichrist, shall enter also into the glorious land, the land of Palestine, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon, these ancient enemies of the people of God being representative of all the forces opposing the Lord, and therefore, from the beginning, allies of Antichrist, whom he would not need to overthrow.
v. 42. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, namely, in order to take possession of them; and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
v. 43. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, the possession of which was ever one of the chief objects of Antichrist, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians, representative of the southernmost people of the world, shall be at his steps. We have here, in a few bold strokes, and in terms taken from the campaigns of the antichristian forces in the third and second centuries before Christ, a picture of Antichrist in the development of his power. Although he suffered temporary reverses on account of the secession of the Greek Orthodox Church and the rise of Mohammedanism, he still managed to subjugate one country after the other, so that his strongholds were found throughout the world.
v. 44. But tidings out of the East, setting forth the extent of the Oriental secession, and out of the North, when the era of the Reformation began, shall trouble him, for what he had at first considered an empty quarrel of idle monks soon assumed alarming proportions; therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many, in the Counter-reformation, by means of the inquisition and through the efforts of the Jesuits.
v. 45. And he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, literally, "between seas, over against the mountain of the glory [or ornament] of holiness," so that his palace was intended to be a rival of the ancient seat of Jehovah's power in the midst of His holy people; yet he shall come to his end, his true nature being exposed and realized by at least some of those who read the signs of the times, and none shall help him. The Reformation dealt the Roman Antichrist a blow from which he has never fully recovered, although he will continue his campaign of deceit until the end of time.