Category Archives: Nature of Bible Prophecy

Keys to Prophecy: God Commonly Uses Types/Symbols/Parallels

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Part of the Problem is the Astonishing Nature
of Many Future Events.

In truth many things in history are astonishing. Who, ahead of time, would have ever believed that the tiny Greek army at Marathon, could ever have defeated the giant Persian army which was meeting them. The Athenian army numbered a mere 11,000 men. The Persian army is estimated to have been as much as 65,000 men. In normal military terms three to one odds means you will almost automatically lose. Six to one odds? It is almost unbelievable that you could win. And this is verified history. Astonishing!

Or take the Russo-Finnish War at the beginning of World War II. Who would have ever believed that tiny Finland could fight mighty Russia to a standstill? Where other small countries were smashed beneath Russian boots, Finland was able to come out of the war, not conquered, but with a negotiated peace. In ordinary human terms, and in ordinary historical terms, that was an impossibility. However, it happened, and that is verifiable history.

Also, both of these examples are astonishing things happening in history, and in theory, without the influence of an All Powerful God intervening! Or were they? Remember Scripture says,

“The horse is prepared for the day of battle;
But victory is with Yahweh.”
Prov 21:31 WEB

Actually astonishing things happen happen all the time, and we hear or see of them in news, but it only if it linked to an Almighty God that we are not supposed to believe it.

Many coming events will be so astonishing that it is difficult to communicate these things to us

So Scripture again and again uses symbolism, and parallels to teach about things we would otherwise have difficulty understanding or believing. How do you describe God when He literally comes to see us in the flesh! They were told He would be like Moses in many ways, like David, like Solomon, like a passover lamb, and so forth.

Or the secretive merchant intrigues which dominate
kings and nations of the Christian age?
Mystery Babylon the Great.

Revealing the Christian Age talks in detail Mystery Babylon the Great as religio-political-business entity.

How do you communicate what “she” is like, and how “she” operates?

“She” is like ancient Babylon, she is like the merchant empire of Tyre in Old Testament times. She is like ancient Rome. She is a rich and nasty whore. She is said to be a mystery religion, with which the ancients were well acquainted. (See previous posts on the mystery religions.) She foments conflicts and wars in order to make more money, and all the blood shed on the earth is in her, Rev 18:24.

And when the embodiment of Satan is worshipped
by all the earth?

He will be like the Caesars, like King Ahab of Israel, like Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Selucid Empire. He will be like a living/corpse idol.

And the end of this present world?

Noah and his sons act on those things they are told.

It will be like it was the days of Noah. It will be like just before Sodom and Gommorah were destroyed. It will be like the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD (read Josephus accounts of this war).

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: Subjects are Often Discussed in Relation to the End of All Things

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This is not an absolute law, but it is a common pattern seen in many Scriptures. So there are continual jumps in time from the present to the end and final judgment. Readers sometimes try to look for the end things in the history, but of course they are not there.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed
good seed in his field.” Mtt 13:24

But some enemy hated this farmer, and quietly planted weeds, darnel (the Greek is zizanion), among the wheat. The servants ask if they should uproot the weeds?

“29 But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel, you root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Mtt 13:28-30 WEB

Later Jesus explained. The one sowing the good seed was “the Son of Man,” Jesus Himself. The enemy sowing the bad seed is the devil. So what happens when we let bad things grow in us?

“40 As therefore the darnel is gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”
Mtt 13:40-42 WEB

So what we let grow in us has literally eternal consequences.

Or look at Isaiah chapter 24.

It after a series of oracles about the sins of various nations including Israel. Isaiah 13 and 14 is an oracle about Babylon and her sins. Isaiah 15 and 16 is an about the nation of Moab. Isaiah 17 is about Damascus, and so on. Then Isaiah 24 comes along and God says He will make the earth empty and waste, and turn it upside down, Isa 24:1. We are left wondering about how these judgments will come, and how literally we should take this. There are indications that much of this judgement is in history. But then we come to some of the clearer passages, as in Isaiah 24.

“19 The earth is utterly broken, the earth is torn apart, the earth is shaken violently. 20 The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall sway back and forth like a hammock; and the disobedience of it shall be heavy on it, and it shall fall, and not rise again. 21 … in that day, that Yahweh will punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.”
Isa 24:19-21 WEB

There is much more to quote in Isaiah 24. Clearly it is speaking of the end of the world and final judgement, as in many other places in these passages. Linking things soon to come with the end of all things.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: Prophesy is Not Always Sequential.

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It has been said that prophecy is generally conversational in nature. A conversation between God and his children. You and I will often have to pay close attention or we may not notice when the conversation suddenly goes in new directions.

In “Prophecy Principles” Psalm 22 was used to
Illustrate these points.

For instance, look at the death of Jesus as prophesied in Psa 22:14-18. You can read what actually happened about a thousand years later in the Gospels, and see that Psalm 22 was very accurate, but it still was not a rigidly chronological discussion. Nor are few prophecies.

Some speak of this trait as being almost
intolerable.

Some say this is something weird and strange and unknown about Scripture and prophecy. Actually much writing and much history is not always sequential.

Take Will Durant’s “The Age of Reason Begins.”

This is Durant’s history of these things from 1558-1648, a mere 90 years. Is it rigidly sequential? It is divided in to three books:

Book I, The English Ecstasy: 1558-1648

Book II, Faith Fights for Power: 1556-1648

Book III, The Tentatives of Reason: 1558-1648

Similarly, even within these “Books” it is not rigidly sequential, nor can it be. In fact in this case it is a series of parallel accounts. This is common especially in books of history. However, Scripture is sometimes unjustly criticized for not being sequential.

Psalm 22 for instance is generally sequential,
but not rigidly so.

The subject, Jesus death, is announced in the first verse,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Psa 22:1 WEB

Such announcing of the subject at first, is also common in historical accounts. Finally the Psalm ends with all men having to bow before Jesus.

“… All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him,
Even he who can’t keep his soul alive.”
Psa 22:29

So it is generally sequential, much as with a good history, but not rigidly so.

Similarly, Matthew chapter 24 is generally sequential,
but not rigidly so.

Matthew 24 clearly talks about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD (some 40 years into the future), and also talks about the end of this world (very clearly in Mtt 24:36 and the verses following). Evidently, the destruction of Jerusalem is symbolic of the end of this world. However, look at verse 6. It is in the early section about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.”
Mtt 24:6 WEB

Many quote this of the end of this world, and they are right. Wars and rumors of wars are not a sign of the end of the world! However, “wars and rumors of war,” ARE A SIGN OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM IN 70 AD! You see Jerusalem was destroyed in a Roman invasion of Judea to suppress the Jewish revolt!

So at the start of the discussion of 70 AD is a verse about the end of the world. Generally sequential, but not rigidly so.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: Prophecy is Typically Conversational

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Some want to impose styles which
are not there.

They may try to make the prophecy to only speak of things which a man of that time could know, or see, or think. Without saying so, they are assuming that God is not real, or He would never care about or communicate with His creation, and would never reveal the future to us. That, all in all, is tall group of assumptions about a God whom we can all clearly see exists from His creations. Compare Rom 1:19-20, and Psalm 19.

Others, of many stripes, want to insist that God only speak this way or that way, but indeed, God the Maker of All, can speak any way He wants.

Think about how ordinary human conversations work.

People may meet each other, ask how the other one is doing, ask about our relatives or friends or mates. They may bring up some big goings on at the time, drop back to talk about the weather, or the crops, or the financial markets, then come back to bring up their mates or their children again. Then they remember what the weather man said about next Tuesday, and talk about a worrisome financial report that some supposed experts put up, or the problem with a child or a mutual friend. Such conversations may go on for a few minutes, or a few hours, in living room, a park, a bar, or a street corner, all with no precise format or structure.

Prophecy often has a conversational syntax.

Sometime we may try to impose some rigid structure that we think it surely must have, but when we look at details we know about here or there, we often have to acknowledge that it is not a rigid format, even though it may irk us. Assumed subjects, dropped verbs, are everywhere.

An easy overall illustration is Isaiah 9

Isaiah 9:1 starts by speaking of the darkness in the land of Zebulun and Naphtal, and then says they will see a great light. That is when they see Christ some 700 or so years later. Then it says all the armor and weapons and garments soaked in blood will be burned, Isa 9:5. When did that happen? Has it happened to “all,” even yet? Then it speaks in dazzling terms of the Christ coming as a child in Isa 9:6-7. Then it drops back to discuss mess in Jacob in Isaiah’s day. Such is common.

Another common technique

is when the topic under immediate discussion, is related to the end of this world. For instance in the letters to the seven churches of Asia in Revelation. The letters start by speaking of where these churches were in the first century of our age, and end up saying something like, “He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.” Rev 2:26 WEB. Thus in time it jumps, how far? Over 2,000 years! All with little or no notice. It is easy to see such in the letters, but really that is a common device all through prophecy.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: Not all Prophecy has Been Fulfilled!

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It is not very hard to find unfulfilled prophecies in Scripture. Now some have misinterpreted, for instance, Luke 24. Jesus is explaining what has happened after His resurrection from the dead.

“26 Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” 27 Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Lk 24:26-27 WEB

Some have gone a little beyond what it says here, and claim that Christ fulfilled (past tense) ALL of prophecy.

Some do the same with Acts 3.

So they quote,

“But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.”
Acts 3:18 WEB

So they say, see! Christ has already fulfilled all prophecy. But it does not say that. Rather it says that the prophecies about what “Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.” That is much different.

Further, they tend to completely ignore the very next three verses.

“19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.”
Acts 3:19-21 WEB

So there are “times of restoration” verse 21, and Jesus must stay in heaven until these times, and God spoke of these things long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets. So there are prophecies which have not yet been fulfilled. It even goes further than this a few verses down, where it says,

“Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.”
Acts 3:24 WEB

Some of this is anti-prophecy material

Many have a vested interest in our not understanding the prophets. They are pertinent not only to us, but to the entire Christian age.

Peter tells us prophecy is the lamp of our age.

Peter tells us that prophecy is the lamp of our age, but MANY do NOT believe that, even of those who consider themselves solid Bible believers. Did Peter lie? Or are we mixed up?

“We have the more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day star arises in your hearts:”
2Pe 1:19 WEB

That itself tells us that much is yet to be fulfilled. And in context Peter is talking mainly about Old Testament prophecy as a “lamp shining in a dark place” for the Christian Age. For he says,

“20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. 21 For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.”
2Pe 2:20-21 WEB

Someone is mixed up!

Either Peter is mixed up when he calls prophecy the lamp of our age … or you and I are mixed up.

The rest is common sense, and carefully looking at the passages we are reading.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: God Does Act in History!

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No! This is not about the confused issues of “miracles.”

Some think that anything that God does is a miracle but that is not so. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines “miracle” as,

“a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency: the miracle of rising from the grave.”

The rest of the story is that God does not always operate outside of “natural or scientific laws.” Mankind always operates within “natural or scientific laws,” and can do many things that way, and so can God!

Job comments of God’s actions, and points out that,

“11 Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him.
He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
12 Behold, he snatches away; who can hinder him?
Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’”
Job 9:11-12 WEB

And this is all the time, not just every now and then.

In Psalm 104 it talks in detail about God working in what we would probably call “nature.” It speaks of God as being the one who feeds all the creatures on both land and sea. Further it comments,

It is not just the big events of history, such as the Tower of Babel, where God works, but also in day to day things.

“28 You give to them; they gather.
You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.
29 You hide your face: they are troubled;
You take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.
30 You send forth your Spirit: they are created.
You renew the face of the ground. ”
Psa 104:28-30 WEB

It pictures God as intimately involved in all that goes on.

The same is true for the big events of history.

“The horse is prepared for the day of battle;
But victory is with Yahweh.”
Prov 21:31 WEB

“He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding;”
Dan 2:21 WEB

Or again,

“All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or tell him, What do you?”
Dan 4:35 WEB

Man can want/will to do something, but God often overrules

“The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh.”
Prov 16:1 WEB

“There are many plans in a man’s heart,
But Yahweh’s counsel will prevail.”
Prov 19:21 WEB

And if your ways please God? God will help you,

“When a man’s ways please Yahweh,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Prov 16:7 WEB

And,

“Commit your deeds to Yahweh,
And your plans shall succeed.”
Prov 16:3 WEB

And when God needs something done, what does He often do? God will put it into the hearts of men to do it, just as in Rev 17:17

This is not a complete discussion of God’s workings.

But it is a sampler of His working everyday in many ways.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Judah in Trouble and Three Prophecies, Part V of VI

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So Isaiah gave Ahaz a sign anyway.

“Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isa 7:14 WEB

The World English Bible (WEB) is correct here: “the virgin shall conceive.” The Hebrew word for a virgin is almah, and it describes an unmarried “maiden,” who would in normal circumstances would be a virgin. The word also occurs in Gen 24:43, Ex 2:8, Psa 68:25, Prov 30:19, and Song of Solomon 1:3, 6:8. Jewish translators around 200 BC when translating the Old Testament into Greek, choose to translate the word as the Greek parthenos, which is unequivocally a virgin.

And what will happen with this child born of
a virgin?

It seems to speaking in the immediate context of Ahaz and Judah’s dilemma. It seems to speak of child to born soon. This child will eat curds and honey (KJV) and before the child is old enough to refuse the evil and choose the good (just a small number of years) the land of the two kings who are fighting against Ahaz, will be abandoned,
Isa 1:16!

In other words, Isaiah confirms what he told Ahaz earlier, that Israel and Aram will not be able to overcome Judah … without the interference of any foreign powers.

It is widely debated who the “almah” is.

There is further analysis of Isaiah 7 in Prophecy Principles.

Some say it was a wife of Ahaz. In Prophecy Principles, in the section called “We Sit,” I discussed the prophecy as if it had reference to Isaiah’s wife having a baby, and how that would be analyzed. Other also have done the same or similar things. Clearly Isaiah is telling Ahaz that he should NOT enter treaties with pagan powers, but that he should trust in the Lord, and everything will be alright. This would be the first prophecy.

But as we have already seen, trusting God or believing God, is not in Ahaz vocabulary.

But STILL there is the implicit contradiction of a
virgin (rather “the virgin”) having a baby.

Isaiah has one of his sons with him when he meets Ahaz, Isa 7:3. She is sometimes represented as one of Ahaz’s wives or whoever. But still … how can you call them a “virgin.” That is the implicit tension in the prophecy. These are signs of a type, when something does not really fit.

And of course there is still to be considered
Isaiah’s master subject: the Messiah.

He was to come as a child, and to be “Mighty God, Eternal Father” in Isa 9:6 WEB as discussed in Part III of this series.

So how does “THE virgin” conceive a child?

The answer of the angel is,

“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.”
Lk 1:35 WEB

Of course this would be no big trick with the God who made heaven and earth and everything they contain. This would be second prophecy, and the true anti-type of whoever had a baby in the eighth century BC.

Your answer may depend on whether you decide to a priori rule out God as working in history!

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Out of the North, Part III of III

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Not all the references to the North seem to have an earthly reference. When Ezekiel has a vision of God, it seems it comes out of the North.

“I looked, and, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness round about it, and out of the midst of it as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire.” Ezek 1:4 WEB

Then there follows a dazzling vision of God and of the four living creatures which surround him.

God? From the North?

There are other references, which could be taken more than one way.

“Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion, on the north sides,
The city of the great King.” Psa 48:2 WEB

The KJV and the New King James Version says “on the sides of the north.” The New American Standard Bible, 1995 edition, and the English Standard Version say “Mount Zion in the far north.” Taken this way it would seem to say that the “true” Mount Zion is in the far north, and earthly Mount Zion is only symbolic of the true Zion in heaven!

The Hebrew word is yerekah, and can mean the side of something, the flanks, or can mean the extremes or far parts of something. None of the translations are entirely satisfying. Mount Zion on the North sides? Well, maybe, but look at some maps. Mount Zion in the far North? Mount Zion is not really in the North at all, of anything. Perhaps we should come back to this.

Or again, where does exaltation come from?

“6 For neither from the east, nor from the west,
Nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.
7 But God is the judge.
He puts down one, and lifts up another.”
Psa 75:6-7 WEB

Here is another enigmatic passage. Exaltation is clearly from the Lord, but look how it states this. Exaltation is not from the east or the west or south, … but it leaves out the North, and says exaltation is from God, and seems to imply that His throne is in the North!

When Isaiah writes of Satan’s revolt
against God in Isaiah 14, it says.

“You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit on the mountain of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;” Isa 14:13 WEB

This is a far plainer passage about where “heaven” is. Further this word “uttermost” is again that word yerekah. If you take the KJV on this passage, then heaven is “in the sides of the north,” “above the stars of God“!

Where does God come from?

The book of Job of course far precedes those later times when Assyria and Babylon are such powerful entities. But Job speaks of the North in more than one place.

“Out of the north comes golden splendor;
With God is awesome majesty.”
Job 37:22 WEB

Other translations are more explicit.

“He comes from the north as golden splendor;
With God is awesome majesty.”
Job 37:22 New King James Version

Putting them together, it does seem to suggest that heaven is North of our earth, and that God will come out of the North.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Out of the North, Part II of III

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So as mentioned, invasions of Israel tended to come out of the North. Isaiah talks of a ruler whom God has raised up to trample evil rulers underfoot.

“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun one who calls on my name: and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.” Isa 41:25 WEB

Notice how strangely Isaiah speaks of this one. He is “raised up … from the north,” yet he has come “from the rising of the sun,” which is actually East. Yet it says this is “one who calls on my name”? It doesn’t sound like a pagan ruler. We will have to come back to this reference. Others are clearer.

Jeremiah is preaching to an evil nation,
one that deserves punishment!

He starts off saying that punishment is coming, and is coming from the North.

“The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, What see you? I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face of it is from the north. Then Yahweh said to me, Out of the north evil shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says Yahweh; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls of it round about, and against all the cities of Judah.” Jer 1:13-15 WEB

It is time for them to run for their lives, Jeremiah says.

“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction.” Jer 6:1 WEB

A people will come from the North. It is clearly implied that it is the Lord who is stirring them up.

“Thus says Yahweh, Behold, a people comes from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.” Jer 6:22 WEB

And it is clear it is God Himself
who is doing this.

“behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Yahweh, and I will send to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.” Jer 25:9

Even Babylon, though she is God’s chosen instrument for vengeance for the sins of Israel and others, when it comes her time, it will still come from the North.

“For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; … ” Jer 50:9 WEB

But not all of the references to the North
fit this mold.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Out of the North, Part I of III

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Directions are a normal thing in almost anything of a historical nature, and that is also true of Scripture. The orientation of things or borders are mentioned in the accounts, and much of this is very ordinary citation of directions, but sometimes directions go beyond the ordinary.

Some of the directions relate to how Israel
was situated in the Middle East

For instance the Kings of the North and the Kings of the South in Daniel chapter 11. The Persians came to rule the East, and Daniel’s other visions seem to indicate that the Greeks will come next (Dan 8:21). Daniels visions indicate a powerful “first king” of a Greek empire, which obviously refers to Alexander the Great. Even though Alexander conquered a considerable empire, reaching all the way to India, he died young. His empire then was split between four of his leading generals. They are represented by four horns of Dan 8:8, 22; or four wings of Dan 7:6.

This map shows part of the original division of Alexander the Great’s empire after his death. The Kings of the North of Daniel 11 are the Seuleucid kings who were North of Palestine, who ruled Syria, Mesopatamia, Armenia, etc. The kings of the South in Daniel 11 are the Ptolemaic (the initial “P” is silent, much as in the English word “psychology”) kings Egypt. This map show that initially the Ptolemies ruled Palestine, but this changed when the Seleucids conquered Palestine in 198 BC.

The immediate point of reference in Daniel 11 seems to be Judah herself in the land of Palestine. In the times of the Greek rulers, North of Judah was the powerful Seleucid empire of the Greeks, and South of Judah was the powerful Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt.

An image from a coin, of Seleucus I Nictor (Victor), the first of the Seleucid “kings of the North” of Daniel 11.

Seen from this point of view, the Kings of the the North, and the the South of Daniel 11 begin to make some sense. We even know a great deal about these two powerful dynasties. The very first King of the North was Seleucus I Nictor (Victor), and we have images of him through ancient statuary and coins. They were the immediate winners in these contests and came to rule Palestine. The first king of the South was Ptolemy I Lagi Soter (Great Savior) and we also have images of him.

Ptolemy I Lagi Soter (Great Savior), the first of the “kings of the South,” rulers of Egypt. The last of the Ptolemies was the famous Cleopatra of the first century BC, who formed a fatal alliance with Mark Anthony.

I said that Daniel 11 began to make sense, and it does, but only to a point. Then the last part of Daniel 11 doesn’t match anything we know of ancient or modern times. It is almost as if the Lord changes the subject, which in fact I think He does. It is a colloquail syntax that is often used in prophecy, with unannounced swithching back and forth between subjects, much as in a human conversation. Such is common in Biblical prophecy, with the known part being symbolic of that which is yet to come. Those of a liberal persuasion often treat these things as failed prophecies, never considering a switch of subjects, or the immediate being symbolic of things yet to come. There is a more complete discussion of Daniel 11 in Prophecy Principles.

And there are other factors concerning the North.

In ancient times it came about that Egypt was no longer the first-rate power she had been. Far stronger were the great land powers of Assyria, Babylon and Persia. But if they wanted to invade Israel or Egypt, they could not consider a direct approach. A direct approach would take these powers across logistically impassable deserts to the East of Israel. So to invade they first had to go North to the region of Haran, and then go South toward Israel or Egypt.

So after a certain point, invasions of Israel, and retribution from foreign powers tended to always come from the North.