The Blueprint of Empire: God's Control Over History Text: Daniel 11:1-4
Introduction: History Written in Advance
We live in an age that prides itself on its alleged sophistication. Modern man looks at the Bible, particularly a chapter like Daniel 11, and sees one of two things: either a hopelessly obscure and irrelevant relic, or a forgery written after the events it purports to predict. The liberal scholar, choking on his naturalistic presuppositions, cannot allow for genuine predictive prophecy. For him, God is not allowed to speak into history before it happens, and so Daniel must be a fraud, a Maccabean-era novel masquerading as ancient prophecy. But for the Christian, this chapter is a stunning display of the absolute sovereignty of God over the affairs of men. It is not a crystal ball for satisfying idle curiosity; it is a declaration that history is not a random, chaotic drift. History is a story, and God is the author. He does not just know the end from the beginning; He writes the end from the beginning.
Daniel 10 set the stage. We saw the cosmic spiritual warfare that undergirds all of history, the battle between angels and the demonic princes of Persia and Greece. Now, in chapter 11, the angel pulls back the curtain on the earthly stage to show Daniel the script that has already been written in "the Scripture of Truth" (Dan. 10:21). This is not a vague, foggy prediction that could mean anything. This is a detailed, precise, and historically verifiable blueprint of the next several centuries. God is demonstrating to Daniel, and to us, that He is not a distant, hands-off deity. He is intimately involved in the rise and fall of kings, the clash of armies, and the destinies of empires. He moves the great kings of the earth like pawns on a chessboard, all to accomplish His ultimate purposes.
The secular historian sees only the interplay of economics, military might, and political ambition. He sees Xerxes' pride, Alexander's genius, and the squabbling of his generals. But the Christian, with the lens of Scripture, sees the hand of God orchestrating it all. This detailed prophecy was given to Daniel so that the saints, living through these tumultuous times, would not lose heart. They were to know that their God was in complete control, even when pagan empires were raging. And it is given to us for the same reason. We are to look at the astonishing accuracy of this prophecy and conclude that the same God who governed the transition from Persia to Greece is the same God who governs our world today. He who wrote this history in advance is the same one who is bringing all of modern history to its appointed conclusion: the glorious, global reign of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Text
"Now I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood to strengthen and to be a fortress for him. So now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to stand in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them; as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the kingdom of Greece. And a mighty king will stand, and he will dominate with great domination and do as he pleases. But as soon as he stands, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his own descendants, nor according to his domination with which he dominated, for his kingdom will be uprooted and given to others besides them."
(Daniel 11:1-4 LSB)
Angelic Support and Divine Truth (v. 1-2a)
The chapter begins with the angel recounting his role and stating his purpose.
"Now I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood to strengthen and to be a fortress for him. So now I will tell you the truth." (Daniel 11:1-2a)
The angel, likely Gabriel, first gives us a brief look into his past activity. He mentions that in the first year of Darius the Mede, he was there to strengthen and support him. This is a remarkable statement. While earthly kings and rulers believe they are acting autonomously, the Bible reveals a hidden reality of angelic and demonic influence. Here we see a holy angel acting to uphold a pagan ruler in order to fulfill God's sovereign purposes, which at that time included the stability of the Medo-Persian empire for the sake of God's people who had just been released from Babylon. God uses all sorts of means, including the unseen ministry of angels, to steer history exactly where He wants it to go.
After this glimpse into the spiritual realm, the angel makes a simple, profound statement: "So now I will tell you the truth." This is not speculation. This is not a collection of possibilities. This is a direct report from the war room of heaven. The angel is about to read from God's script for the future. This is the foundation for our confidence. The Bible does not give us guesses; it gives us God's revealed truth, and that truth includes His absolute and meticulous plan for the future. When God speaks about what will be, it is as certain as what has been.
The Pride of Persia and the Rise of Greece (v. 2b)
The prophecy proper begins with an astonishingly accurate summary of the next phase of Persian history.
"Behold, three more kings are going to stand in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them; as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the kingdom of Greece." (Daniel 11:2b)
From the time of this prophecy, given during the reign of Cyrus, history records exactly what is predicted here. The three kings who followed Cyrus were Cambyses II, a false Smerdis (a usurper), and Darius I. But the prophecy highlights a fourth king. This was Xerxes I, the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. History confirms that Xerxes was immensely wealthy and, in his arrogance, gathered a colossal army and navy from across his empire to invade Greece. This foolish and pride-fueled expedition, which took place around 480 B.C., is one of the most famous events in ancient history. Though he had overwhelming force, Xerxes was famously defeated by the Greeks at Salamis and Plataea.
Notice the engine of this conflict: riches and strength. Xerxes becomes strong "through his riches," and this strength leads him to hubris. This is the pattern of godless empires. They trust in their wealth and their might, and in their pride, they overreach. God gives them riches, and they use that gift to puff themselves up and defy the limits of their station. But in provoking Greece, Xerxes was unwittingly fulfilling God's script. His arrogant invasion planted the seeds of a deep-seated animosity in the Greeks that would, over a century later, bear fruit in the form of a conqueror who would come back the other way. Xerxes, thinking he was displaying his own glory, was simply setting the stage for the next act in God's great drama.
The Mighty King and His Fleeting Glory (v. 3)
Just as the angel predicted, the Persian aggression eventually provoked a Hellenistic response, personified in one mighty king.
"And a mighty king will stand, and he will dominate with great domination and do as he pleases." (Daniel 11:3)
There is no question among historians, whether Christian or secular, that this refers to Alexander the Great. About 150 years after Xerxes, Alexander of Macedon exploded onto the world stage. He was indeed a "mighty king." In a whirlwind campaign of just over a decade, he conquered the entire Persian Empire and more, creating one of the largest empires of the ancient world. The text says he would "dominate with great domination and do as he pleases." This perfectly describes Alexander's career. He was a military genius, an unstoppable force who swept aside every army that stood against him. He was the embodiment of human will and power, a man who seemed to bend reality to his own desires.
But the phrase "do as he pleases" is dripping with biblical irony. From a human perspective, Alexander was the master of his own destiny. But from a divine perspective, he was simply an instrument, a tool in the hand of the God of Israel. He was "pleasing" to do exactly what God had ordained for him to do. His great ambition was nothing more than the fulfillment of a paragraph in God's book. This is the biblical view of all the great men of history. God raises them up, uses their ambition and their talents for His own purposes, and then sets them aside. They think they are building their own kingdoms, but they are merely contractors building a scaffolding for the kingdom of Christ.
The Shattered Kingdom (v. 4)
Alexander's glory was as brief as it was brilliant. His end, and the fate of his empire, were also written down centuries in advance.
"But as soon as he stands, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his own descendants, nor according to his domination with which he dominated, for his kingdom will be uprooted and given to others besides them." (Daniel 11:4)
Here we have four distinct and remarkable predictions. First, at the height of his power, "as soon as he stands," his kingdom would be broken. Alexander died suddenly in Babylon at the age of 32, at the very peak of his success. His work was not slowly eroded; it shattered.
Second, his kingdom would be "parceled out toward the four winds of heaven." After his death, his empire was not inherited by one successor but was torn apart by his generals, the Diadochi, in decades of conflict. Eventually, it stabilized into four main Hellenistic kingdoms, roughly corresponding to the four points of the compass: Cassander in Macedonia and Greece (west), Lysimachus in Thrace and Asia Minor (north), Seleucus in Syria and the east, and Ptolemy in Egypt (south). The prophecy was fulfilled with stunning precision.
Third, the kingdom would not go "to his own descendants." This is also historically exact. Alexander had a son, Alexander IV, and an illegitimate son, Heracles, but both were murdered in the power struggles that followed his death. His lineage was cut off, and his dynasty ended with him.
Fourth, the resulting kingdoms would not possess the same power and authority ("nor according to his domination") that he had wielded. None of his successors ever managed to reunite the empire or command the same level of authority. The unified empire was "uprooted" and given to others, just as God had decreed.
Conclusion: The Unshakable Kingdom
What are we to do with such a passage? First, we must reject the cowardice of the liberals who, because they refuse to believe in a God who can do such things, must invent theories about late dating the book of Daniel. This is not scholarship; it is unbelief masquerading as scholarship. We should see this detailed, fulfilled prophecy as a rock-solid confirmation of the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture.
Second, we must learn the lesson God intends to teach. The kingdoms of this world, no matter how rich, mighty, or glorious, are temporary. They rise, they boast, they strut on the stage of history for their appointed hour, and then they are gone. Persia, Greece, and later Rome, which Daniel also foresaw, have all been broken and scattered. They are dust. Their pride is a cautionary tale. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).
But Daniel's prophecies do not end with the rubble of fallen empires. All of this history, this rise and fall of nations, was preparing the world for the coming of a different kind of kingdom. It was preparing the world for the stone cut without hands that would strike the great statue of human empires on the feet and shatter it, a stone that would then grow into a mountain and fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:34-35). That stone is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that mountain is His kingdom, the Church.
Alexander's kingdom was broken and given to others. But of Jesus' kingdom, the angel Gabriel told Mary, "He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:33). The history written in Daniel 11 is a history of kingdoms that do not last. But it is written to give us confidence in the God who is building the one kingdom that will never be uprooted, that will not be given to another people, and that will never be shaken. Therefore, let us serve God with reverence and awe, for we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28).