Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: Daniel 11
**Pastor Dennis Tuuri**

We can see reflected in this psalm we just read responsibly and sung probably we could see some references eventually to what we’ll be talking about from Daniel 11 today. Herod the Great, an Edomite who sought to take over the land of God very distinctively in our text today and against whom God did indeed bring judgments and curses upon him. Everyone despised him at the end, even the Romans.

Before we read the sermon text today, I wanted to remind you of what we focused on from Daniel 10.

Remember Daniel 10-12 is one big section, so it’s all together. And in Daniel 10, we saw that Daniel had set his heart to understand and come now to the most difficult portion of the book of Daniel to understand. So as we read it, I’ve done something a little bit unusual. I don’t normally do this. I’ve put in some section headings as we go through chapter 11 to help you see what I think is a proper understanding of the flow of the text in terms of historic personages.

So but I would just exhort you at the beginning of this sermon to set your heart to understand what’s happening here in this text and its implication for us today as we engage in prayers of malediction against those who particularly those churches denominations who encourage young women to kill their children while yet in the womb.

Psalm 148 that we sang as the processional. I’m so thankful we have a version of 148 in which the actions of the church to bring judgments against the nations is not edited out of it. We sang those things, a sharp two-edged sword in our hand. We’ll move toward the use of that sword in the prayer of the church, united together today and with many other Christians across the world that God would bring us particular judgments against those involved in this horrific death that’s resulted since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

So that’s what we do today. Psalm 149. Did I say 14? We had amen 149. We’ve come together to worship. We celebrate him in our dance, our liturgy, our movements, and we celebrate him by use of the two-edged sword.

Today’s sermon text is Daniel 11. And I’m going to read the entire chapter. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

**Daniel 11**

Also in the first year of Darius the Mede I even I stood up to confirm and strengthen him. And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia. The fourth shall be far richer than them all. By the strength through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise who shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will. And I may just add there parenthetically. That’s an obvious reference to Alexander the Great.

When he is arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled. For his kingdom shall be uprooted, even for others besides these. I may just mention here as well that in addition to the stapled handouts, there is in each pew a big 11 by 17 sheet in which the next three sections are laid out in parallel form. And we won’t be referencing that really today, but that’s for your own personal study and for your binders you may be keeping on this.

The next sections seem to move in the same basic sevenfold structure with a pivot at the middle. Also, the king of the south shall become strong as well as one of his princes. And he shall gain power over him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. And at the end of some years they shall join forces. For the daughter of the king of the south shall go to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the power of her authority. And neither he nor his authority shall stand.

But she shall be given up with those who brought her and with him who begot her and with him who strengthened her in those times. But from a branch of her roots, one shall arise in his place, who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king of the north, and deal with them and prevail. And he shall also carry their gods captive to Egypt with their princes and their precious articles of silver and gold.

And he shall continue more years than the king of the north. Also, the king of the north shall come to the kingdom come to the kingdom of the king of the south that shall return to his own land. However, his son shall stir up strife and assemble a multitude of great forces, and one shall certainly come and overwhelm and pass through. Then he shall return to his fortress and stir up strife, and the king of the south shall be moved with rage, and go out and fight with him with the king of the north, who shall muster a great multitude.

But the multitude shall be given into the hand of his enemy. When he has taken away the multitude, his heart will be lifted up, and he will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not prevail. For the king of the north will return and muster a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come at the end of some years with a great army and much equipment.

Now, in those times, many shall rise up against the king of the south. Also, violent men of your people shall exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they shall fall. So, the king of the north shall come and build a siege mount and take a fortified city, and the forces of the south shall not withstand him. Even his choice troops shall have no strength to resist. But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and no one shall stand against him.

He shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his power. He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him. Thus shall he do, and he shall give him the daughter of women to destroy it, but she shall not stand with him or before him. After this, he shall turn his face to the coastlands, and shall take many. But a ruler shall bring the reproach bring the reproach against them to an end, and with the reproach removed, he shall turn back on him.

Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall and not be found. There shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom, but within a few days he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle. And in his place shall arise a vile person to whom they will not give the honor of royalty, but he shall come in peaceably and seize the kingdom by intrigue.

With the force of a flood, they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant. And after the league is made with him. He shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. He shall enter peaceably even into the richest places of the province. And he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers. He shall disperse among them the plundered spoil and riches, and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time.

He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army. But he shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him. Yes, those who eat of the portion of his delicacies shall destroy him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain.

Both these kings hearts shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table, but it shall not prosper. For the end will still be at the appointed time. While returning to his land with great riches, his heart shall be moved against the holy covenant. So he shall do damage and return to his own land. At the appointed time he shall return and go toward the south, but it shall not be like the former or the latter. For ships from Cyprus shall come against him. Therefore, he shall be grieved and return in rage against the holy covenant and do damage.

So He shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant and forces shall be mustered by him and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress. Then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolations. Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery. But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.

And those of the people who understand shall instruct many. Yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame by captivity and plundering. And when they fall they shall be aided with a little help. But many shall join with them by intrigue. And some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them, purify them, and make them white until the time of the end because it is still for the appointed time.

Then the king shall do according to his own will. He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished. For what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the god of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, for he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses, and a god, which his fathers did not know, he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.

Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god. But he shall acknowledge and advance its glory, and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain. At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack with him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, and with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through.

He shall also enter the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown. But these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasuries of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also, the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels, but news from the east and the north shall trouble him.

Therefore, he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate them, and he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.

—

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. May your spirit, Lord God, give us clarity to understand and articulate what we have here in your holy scriptures and help us father to see the relevance of it to today and to our lives. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

If you were to travel to Sacramento to Church of the King today and drove, we’re actually meeting a little north of Sacramento in a town called Roseville. If you were to go there today, you would at another church in Roseville see on their lawn a whole bunch of crosses. You would see 927 crosses dotting the lawn of this church. Each of these 927 crosses commemorates 50,000 deaths.

Some of these crosses are white. Some of these crosses are red and some are blue. The blue crosses represent the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. That is three crosses, 150,000 people roughly. 24 of the crosses which are red represent all the Americans killed in combat since the days of the American Revolution. So over 200 years of American history, all Americans killed in combat, represented by 24 of these crosses painted red, representing 1.2 million Americans killed in combat over the last 220 some years.

The rest of the crosses are painted white. There are 900 of these crosses. Three for the tsunami victims, 24 for all those killed in combat. 900 crosses representing all the babies that have been killed through the imposition on their lives of abortion since 1973. The decision of Roe v. Wade, 900 crosses, each one representing 50,000 deaths.

Now, we mourn the loss of life in the tsunami. We mourn the loss of life of Americans in Iraq. But clearly, we have a staggering situation that has developed in our country over the last 30 some years. The group that are doing this, they call themselves Project 33. Project 33. The reason why they call themselves Project 33 is 33 is a third of a 100 roughly 33%. And this represents a third of all the babies that should have been born over the last 30 some years being killed by abortion. So two-thirds of babies have been born, one-third have been killed before they were able to be born.

So it shows the horrific nature of this situation.

Churches have for a number of years now celebrated Human Life Sunday, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. And this is a good thing and it’s a very important Sunday. It’s a this period of a week or so commemoration of this is one in which we and many other churches support the work of the president pregnancy resource centers and others. Today’s alms contributions, offerings will be given to the PRCs work and I would strongly encourage you to give and give generously to that work.

I know you have in the last 12 months given quite a bit to that organization and we greatly appreciate that. We’re so happy that there are several of our young women particularly that are working with the PRC and that this church supports it financially as well. And we want to continue to stress that part of our response to this is certainly reaching out to young women who are being counseled to abort their children and to help them to bring those babies to term and then to raise them in a godly fashion.

And so we’re very happy to do that and to stress you know to some you know I guess Sanctity of Human Life and human life is important but really that what we’ve tried to do at our church for the last 30 some years 21 years rather since we began in ’83 this will be the 22nd year I guess is to call this service anti-abortion day of the Lord you know in the scriptures Lord’s day, the day of the Lord. There’s no difference grammatically in the New Testament.

And we think of the day of the Lord as a time when God comes to judge in the Old Testament, but the Lord’s day, we kind of think of in a softer way, but it isn’t. It’s a time of God coming to meet with his people and judge us. Going to take the table here. You’re not supposed to not take the table. You’re supposed to take the table. And through the table, God will judge you if you’re in unrepentant sin.

So, the idea is not to refrain, but to come forward and be judged by God, evaluated, inspected. He demands us to come before his presence and God deals with us. And then the judgment that begins here moves out over the face of the earth.

And what we are is anti-abortion. We are anti-killing. The commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.” It’s put in the negative. Our culture wants us to see everything in the positive, but no, we think it’s very important to stress that we’re against certain things like killing. So, anti-abortion day of the Lord.

And one thing we do in this service is to, you know, give the hand of benevolence to women that are being tempted for various reasons to abort their children. The other side of what we do though is we stress the sharp two-edged sword in our hand to bring forth the wrath of God against his enemies. And we pray imprecatorily, a big word, it just means we pray that God would bring physical temporal judgments against those who participate in this.

And today, and I’ve made this point for a while, the stress for today will be in our thinking at least and the preaching of the word will be those churches, those pastors who name the name of Jesus Christ and yet counsel women in their congregations to abort their babies, to kill their own babies. And I will not have specific names, but we know that the Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church denomination are both heavily involved in political work to maintain the right of women to kill their children.

And in many of these churches, women are counseled to commit abortions. Now, it’s not always the case. I believe the United Methodist Church, for instance, here in Oregon City is conservative and wouldn’t do that, but in general, those two denominations, you know, we’re looking for God to judge them and their leadership for supporting the murder of pre-born infants.

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon is a kind of a clearing house for some of these churches. And I’m sure there are things they do that are good and proper in Salem, but one thing they don’t do good and proper is to advocate for continued freedom for women to kill their own children. So judgment begins in the house of God and we know this as a general truth of the scriptures. Churches are more responsible.

You know the providence of God. This is also the same week this same period of time is the week in which ecumenicity is celebrated. The national council of churches and the world council of churches. This is church unity week for all the churches not to look at their differences so much but what we have in common. And yet the scriptures certainly that’s important and true. But on the other hand, what we’re doing today is say there are things we have so much not in common that really we’re asking for God’s judgment on churches and upon ministers who would counsel women to give up their children to abortionists.

And so what we’re doing today is setting that’s the context as we come to this difficult passage in Daniel 11. Not so difficult really, but you know, it kind of has a sense to it of being a little difficult and a lot of details going on. And so, it’s a little hard. And so, again, as we begin a consideration of how this text reminds us that really our imprecatory prayer should be aimed primarily at those apostates who confess the name of Jesus Christ.

We look at this passage in Daniel chapter 11. And we remind ourselves again this week of what I said before I read the scriptures. Daniel had set his heart to understand. And this is the stuff that the messenger of God will tell Daniel in specifics. And this is the stuff that Daniel had set his mind to understand. And so we want to set our minds to understand this. Hopefully when you came through the doors of the sanctuary, you set your minds to understand the word of God today.

You try to put aside diversions. You try to wake yourself up, pinch yourself, get some coffee before you came in here. Whatever it is, hopefully you went to bed at a decent hour last night. Hopefully you see that all of this is setting our minds to understand the word of God as it’s preached in the context of Lord’s day worship. So, you know, gird up your loins now, okay? We’re going to deal with a long tricky passage, but it’s what the Lord God has set in front of us. So, we give him thanks for it as we grab a hold of it and I’ll try to break it up a little bit and understand it.

All right, big context. I’ve given you a new view of doing this. Probably shouldn’t have done this. I’ll talk about this again in a couple of weeks when we look at Daniel 12.

**Seven Days of Creation and Three Falls**

We’ve looked at Daniel these 10 sections. Chapters 10 to 12 are one section. So we’ve got 10 sections in the book and this goes through the ten commandments is one way to track it. Another way to look at it is the first seven chapters seem to be linked to the seven days of creation and then the last three sections kind of remind us of the three falls in Genesis.

There was a fall of Adam in the garden. And then there was a second fall of Cain, so to speak, when he strikes out and murders his brother outside of the garden in the land, specifically related to the cities that Cain and his descendants would build. And then there’s the third fall in Genesis when the sons of God married the daughters of men. The Sethites, the godly men in the context of the world now, intermarry in a bad way.

And we’ve talked about this before, but three falls: Garden, city or land, and then in the world and the three last three sections of Daniel can be thought that way. Chapter eight, ram and goat rather sheep and goat rather so sacrificial animals the idea of the garden sanctuary is the focal point and then in chapter nine Daniel’s focus is the city being rebuilt. You know when Nimrod built the Tower of Babel it says there was a tower and a city right. So the worship produces a culture. And so stress in the sin in the garden and then sin in the culture, but it begins with sin in the garden.

So Daniel 8, sin in the context of those who are worshiping at the temple produces then downstream problems and the city now is torn apart. So Daniel now prays in terms of the city in chapter 9. In 10 to 12 here we have kind of worldwide picture going on beginning with the great empire of Alexander the Great. So another way to think of this these 10 sections are the seven days of creation and then the three falls.

**Zooming In on Chapters 10-12**

Zooming in again on this 10th section, chapters 10 to 12 are one last section and it’s complicated. You know, we just read a whole bunch of stuff, but it’s pretty easy from another perspective. And you look at, you know, when you take up, you believe guys who have studied this out and thought it through and you can go and read these commentaries and listen to these tapes of different men. Really, it’s pretty straightforward forward in another way.

You know, it begins with Daniel in chapter 10 dying, so to speak, going into deep sleep, being raised up. In chapter 12, we’ll see the same thing. We’ll see Michael, I think, I think is Jesus, and then Daniel, the last man standing. So, either book end, you have kind of death and resurrection. And we’ll link that death and resurrection in chapter 12, back to the original prophecies that started all this up in chapter 7.

Remember, talked about the ancient of days and one like the son of man coming and receiving the kingdom, right? And we said the ancient of days isn’t the father, it’s Jesus. And one like the son of man is Daniel. Like Ezekiel, the son of man, it’s the church. And the text goes on at least to tell us that whether we have that specific identification. And if you believe me or not, the text goes on to talk about Jesus getting the kingdom and then the saints receiving it from him.

All this happening in AD 70, that’s the way this prophecy will end. So this 10th section covers from Cyrus on through Alexander the Great and covers the next, you know, 300 years after 330 years after Alexander the Great up to the coming of Jesus and the concluding him giving the kingdom to his saints in AD 70. So that’s the flow of this section. It’s just a bunch of historical stuff covering that section, but it begins and ends in rather a simplistic, you know, easy to understand way.

What’s going on here? The old world is being done away with, the new world is coming in the form of Daniel. And in the middle then, this stuff we just read, there’s a lot of details of history. You know, the section we’re going to deal mostly with today is the last third of chapter 11 dealing with Herod the Great. And we’ll talk about that in a minute. But the first two-thirds of the chapter, it is so accurate to historical activities that actually occurred after the break up of Alexander’s kingdom.

Okay, that liberals think that it was written after the event. They think that the first two-thirds it was so accurate and lines up so clearly with all a bunch of historical details we know that it’s because it was actually written well after the events were occurring. Now, the point of telling you that is this. There’s really not a lot of controversy with the first two-thirds of this chapter.

You can pick up, I think, a Geneva study Bible in the back. I think we’ve used the notes that Mrs. T’s had in our world history class to talk about this period of time. You know, Alexander the Great takes over from the Persians. And then as the text told us, his kingdom is broken up. He dies young. And then we have what are referred to as the Diadochi kingdoms. Big fancy word. Diadochi just means successor kingdoms.

What happens after Alexander dies? Well, nobody takes it over. It’s not his children who get it or anything. He’s got a bunch of generals. And these generals divide it up and they each kind of take a section and for a period of time, for a short period of time, that’s just what they’re doing. And then they start calling themselves kings and then they start fighting one another.

**The Successor Kingdoms**

Now, the text tells us in the very first couple of verses all about this, that Alexander’s going to die and his kingdom be broken up toward the four winds of heaven. Now, that doesn’t mean east, north, south, and west. We saw earlier in Daniel’s visions that the four winds of heaven are you. We’re the zephyrs, right? Make his zephyr where the winds of God the people of God were spread out into the world in the captivity for the purpose of stirring up the nations creating these nations who would guard God’s people till the coming of Jesus and those nations themselves would at least the first couple particularly become converted.

So the four winds of heaven Alexander’s kingdom is broken up in reference to the people of God and the only two kings we’re we it’s important for the people of God and for history which is centers on the people of God are you know one of his successors in the north and one in the south it’s really you king of the north kings of the south well there were a whole bunch of kings up north and there were a whole bunch of kings down south and these were men who were Greeks the one in the south was Ptolemy first one who called himself a king was Ptolemy the first Soter Savior and he ruled over Egypt. Ptolemy dynasty wasn’t Egyptian. He was Greek. He was a Greek ruling Egypt. And up in the north, the first ruler up there, one of Andrew Alexander’s generals, the general who took over Syria. Syria in the north of Israel. Right? So north and south has to do with reference to the Holy Land. North of it is Syria. And the guy that took over power up there, the general was Antiochus or actually Seleucus was the name first. Seleucus. And he called himself Nicator conqueror.

So we’ve got a series of guys in the north, kings, Seleucuses and Antiochuses, and a series of kings in the south, all named Ptolemy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and these guys aren’t content with their own kingdom. They want to make war against each other. So, chapter 11 from one perspective, it’s just pretty easy stuff. It’s mostly about warfare between these people to the north of Israel and the people to the south down in Egypt.

And back and forth they war and every time it’s kind of bad for God’s people because warring troops are going back and forth. So you can actually, you know, just think of it that way that it’s history between Alexander the Great and the warring going on over Israel leading up to the coming of Jesus. Now there’s some big things going on that we’re going to talk about, but very it’s pretty simple stuff. And if you want to get to the details, you can get yourself a commentary or look at a Geneva study Bible or a lot of study Bibles or ask me for notes and it’ll take through the first two-thirds of chapter 11 say this is Antiochus III, this was the 1, this was Ptolemy I back and forth this is Cleopatra the first. It’ll tell you the historical personages that are being alluded to with quite amazing accuracy. No controversy about any of that.

So really chapter 10 is or chapter 11 or the whole section rather is pretty straightforward. Death and resurrection history from Cyrus to Jesus. And even more simply put, as my outline shows, you can look at it as focusing. Now, it’s talking about it says king of the north. It’s always not an individual necessarily. King of the south. These are the rulers of Syria, rulers of Egypt. They’re historic personages. All of whom are referred to by the name king of the north. Different guides. But there’s a focal point.

There is a three-fold movement. And the first two-thirds can be divided in two. And the first one, as on your outline, is what can be called the triumphant king Antiochus III starts off with the south being stronger but then the north becomes dominant remember well I don’t not remember in your handout today the text what does it say it says in verse five or four rather broken uprooted then in verse five the king of the south shall become strong as well as one of his princes so it begins with Ptolemy down in Egypt being dominant and one of his princes is the other one that becomes the general or king up in Syria and that’s Seleucus.

So it begins in the south having dominance but the first section of Daniel 11 deals with Antiochus III primarily getting influence and power. He’s victorious over the south. He’s triumphant and Antiochus III. So it’s mostly about him coming to power and then him losing power. The second section is about what some people have called the angry king. Antiochus IV Epiphanies. And we’ve talked about this a little bit.

This was a later successor to Antiochus the first the slaves. This is Antiochus Epiphanes, the one that’s always associated with the abomination that brings desolation. And then after him, what I what I believe is that then we have an ungodly king, Herod the Great, the Edomite. So you can break it up into very specific sections as another way of thinking. What is this about? You got death and resurrection in 10, death and resurrection at the end.

Church is going to reign and in the middle you know couple of Syrian kings of the north dominant and then finally the focus becomes Herod the great who is the great counterbalance or counterfoil the antichrist the antichrist of his time. So pretty simple in the general movement.

**Thematic Overview of Chapter 11**

Now that I’ve made it simple I can make it more complicated and I don’t want to do that but I did promise you and so I provided here on your outline thematic overview of chapter 11. So let me just run through this very briefly. there are layers to understanding the scriptures and if you look at the right hand column of those three columns right the right hand column We begin with a reference to Cyrus and then to Alexander the Great, a united Greek kingdom. Then as the chapter 11 unfolds, we have a divided kingdom. And the two areas that are specifically alluded to, there are many others, but the two are the north and the south.

And then comes along apostasy in Israel in the context of Antiochus Epiphanies. Remember, we’ve talked about this before, but what really happens to make things horrible is not Antiochus the Epiphanies IV. It’s the apostate Jews who want to be just like the Greeks who kick out the high priest Onias III and then later kill him. They cut off the chief of the covenant, the success of the guy who’s supposed to be high priest and they put in their own high priests and then the problems go downhill from there.

So in the context of what’s the flow is here, united Greek kingdom, divided Greek kingdom and in the context then in Israel, what happens is horrible sin. The Jews want to be like the Greeks and they get rid of the legitimate high priest and there’s never another legitimate high priest until Jesus comes as a high priest. That’s it. So, and that’s all the sin of God’s people. Jason was this guy’s name who decided to take over the priesthood and then Menelaus after him they killed the legitimate high priest.

After that the history details in chapter 11 that there are these protomacabees first the Maccabees don’t like all this stuff going on they the conservatives take over for a while but then they become liberal and then the Pharisees come up so there’s internal battles you know God judges Israel after this horrible sin of kicking out the high priest and Israel is sort of like north and south they just continue civil warfare on and on and on and on and on and what finally happens is they say well we’re not what can we do here the war is getting we can’t get things straightened out and Rome now has become a dominant power and they say Roman Senate, you help us straighten out who should run Israel.

And the Roman Senate decides to impose a king from outside. Although he’s a Jew, he’s been circumcised. Edom has been converted. But Herod the Great is then inserted as king over Israel. He’s Jewish, but he’s an Edomite. This is where the Herods come from. From the internal warfare in Israel, from the sin and apostasy of the Israelites. This is what produces the kind of horrible, wicked king. Herod the Great who he is and this is kind of the point today.

It’s apostasy in the church. It’s apostate confessors of Yahweh who produce horrible things that produce then a culture of the killing of children. Okay. So that’s the flow here. Antiochus is is in the context of this but the focus is on God’s people. So after these protomacarabees to kind of calm things down for a bit yet comes Herod the great and then finally after that chapter 12 verse one in those times comes Michael who I believe represents Jesus Christ.

So Herod is the last guy the great picture of the apostate man who is there prior to now the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So see it just spans history from Alexander the Great or Cyrus really down to Jesus. And what I’ve given you in the other two columns is a way to think that this sort of looks like other periods of time in the Old Testament. I mean, you can’t hardly think of king of the north and king of the south without thinking of the divided Israelite kingdom, right?

So, the middle column you had David first united kingdom. Then the kingdom after Solomon is divided up, a divided kingdom happens, right? And then Ezekiel has told us that in the context of that divided kingdom, the temple in Jerusalem is just like Egypt. In Ezekiel 8-11, he says that there were Egyptian hieroglyphics on the side of the temple. Not literally, but the church had become apostate. See, this is what led to the Babylonian captivity.

This is why Daniel is in Babylon because God had judged his people. They had acted abominably and he had left desolated the temple. So, this has already sort of just happened. What’s going to happen is a redux, a redo, another look at what kind of already happened in actual Israelite history leading up to this after that captivity. Then the Egyptian Jews, Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, you know, a little help comes and gets things a little better.

But then along comes Belshazzar, a wicked king after Nebuchadnezzar is converted. And that leads up to Cyrus. And Cyrus sort of delivers them again, right? and he sends them back to their home. So there’s this flow from David to Cyrus that’s kind of now being repeated as we move from Cyrus to Jesus. Okay. So this is throughout the history chapter 11 from Cyrus to Jesus but it’s very much like the history from David to Cyrus.

And if we wanted to we could profitably and you may want to do this in your home and with your children we would probably reflect on the fact that this has been seen even prior to that. We had Abraham in the land but a land kind of dominated by Egypt and then there was the Egyptian captivity after that. Then they were delivered from Egypt in the Exodus, right? And then Eli and his sons acted abominably and God left the tabernacle.

Abomination that brings desolation or emptiness. Samuel was a little bit of help, a little recovery from that. But then we had a wicked ruler, Saul. followed by David. So really we have here Cyrus to Jesus, but it’s really has all kinds of overtones of how we got from David to Cyrus and from Abraham to David. So it really can be seen from that historical level as well. And I promised you that I give you that there and we’ll just move on from that.

But it’s a it’s a reflection that this text deals with history specifically.

All right. So that’s kind of an overview of the section and we want to move now to a more specific looking at the section on Herod.

**The Triumphant King: Antiochus III**

So now pick back up your handout from the text, the text itself and we’ll look at this very quickly and then draw some lessons. Well, we may not be real quick, but we’ll look at this fairly quickly.

So we began again the first section in Daniel 11. Daniel 11, the first few verses. We have a movement from Cyrus to Alexander the Great verse three and then the Diadochi the successor kingdoms are talked about in the next couple of verses and then in verse five the first one of these Diadochi kingdoms that’s stressed or that has the preeminence is Antiochus the first the victorious king. So verse five kind of begins talking now about kings of the north kings of the south and the South has dominion at the beginning of the text.

These are laid out in sevenfold structures with a pivot at the middle. And if you were to take that 11 by 17 sheet or the other sheets I’ve given you, look at those middle points, you’ll see that the middle is always a transition. Antiochus the first is going to become dominant. He’s kind of a good guy. He’s favorable to Jerusalem and a couple of his successors are as well. But it’s going to transition away from him.

Then at the very center and each one of these centers of these narratives also has a reference to the emerging power of Rome. By the end of 11, Rome becomes more and more important in the context of Herod. Remember that what you know what we’ve got here is more detail of what we’ve already had. Chapter 2, four a big statue, four elements of him, right? And then chapter seven, four beasts, right, that come up, you know, Babylon and Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Chapter 8 stressed Greece and Persia and Greece, but it also alluded to Rome as well. And here in this vision, it’s a more of an articulation. So, this has been one consistent theme throughout the book of Daniel. We’re talking about beginning with Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Rome. So 11 focuses on the Greek period, but it shows the emergence now of the fourth beast, the Roman period. So and that’s kind of pictured at the center of each one of these.

Okay. So the after the introduction, we then have a stress on Antiochus, the victorious king. And we won’t go through that, but it’s it’s important to recognize that as I said at the middle of this section there is the invasion, the battle back and forth between the north and the south and there is so to speak an exodus of God’s people in a transition. so I believe that this is primarily focusing upon Antiochus the first who is victorious.

one thing I should I should note there for you in text in verse 16 of that section. It says, “No one, let’s see, verse 16, he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and no one shall stand against him. He shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his power.” The idea is not that he’s there to destroy Israel. The idea there is he has great power and authority, but this particular man that’s being talked about here, Antiochus III, actually was quite favorable to the Jews.

Gave a permanent exemption for taxation for all the Levites. Gave all of Israel exemption from taxation for 3 years. So it shows a man standing who was favorable to the Jews. and that’s what’s that’s what’s indicated there. So it’s it’s just to make sure you understand the translation. And then if we move down to verse 20, verse 20, at the end of verse 19, he shall stumble and fall and not be found there.

will arise in his place. One who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom. So see this is a series of Assyrian rulers. And this last one that’s mentioned here imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom. Within a few days though he’s destroyed but not in anger or in battle. This guy’s name was Seleucus IV. But the point is that you’ve got a series of Syrian rulers here in this first section. Antiochus I is the big beginning of it all, the victorious one over the south.

But then they go back and forth and terms of how they treat Israel. So that’s the first section.

**The Angry King: Antiochus IV Epiphanies**

The second section, one we’re a little more familiar with is with Antiochus, the fourth Epiphanies, the angry king. And verses 21 talks about he’s vile. He gets his rule by intrigue and the prince of the covenant is broken. You see that in verse 22. In verse 22 and Antiochus IV was not the next legitimate successor to Antiochus III or actually to Seleucus IV.

He wasn’t the next guy who was supposed to get the kingdom. But what he did was he used speech and flattery and political intrigue to become ruler of Syria. And what’s important here is that this seems to be a summary statement of what will follow about him. And the summary statement tells us that with the force of a flood, they shall be swept away from before him and be broken. And also the prince of the covenant The prince of the covenant is a reference to the one who will become the high priest Onias IV.

So the prince is the is the guy who’s learning to do the high priest’s job. And so and in the days of Antiochus IV Epiphanies he will break the prince of the covenant. It’s in his time that the high priests legitimate high priests will be cut off and no longer maintained. until Jesus comes. So that’s what’s going on in that first section. And most of what goes on in the rest of this all has to do with the reign of Antiochus Epiphanies.

verse 28 I should mention while returning to his land with great riches his heart shall be moved against the holy covenant. What does that mean? It means that at various times Antiochus Epiphanies in his warfare against Egypt and going back north, he’ll go against the holy covenant, the people of God, Jerusalem, and he’ll tax them and take plunder of them for his purposes of making war on Egypt. So, he’s he’s not, you know, he doesn’t it’s not that he’s striking out of Judaism.

He’s plundering a nation to enable him to wage war against another nation. And then we read in verse 30, ships from Cyprus shall come against him. And here that’s a reference to a western power to emerging Rome that now defeats Antiochus Epiphanes and in the context of that it says that he shall rage then against the holy covenant and do damage and he returns to Jerusalem.

So historically what happened was Antiochus Epiphanies was waging war against Egypt. Egypt made an alliance with Rome. Rome came and stopped Antiochus. He got very angry. That’s why we call him the angry king. And on his way back to Syria, he stops at Jerusalem and takes out his vengeance against the Jews there. So that’s what’s going on here, the historical events.

**The Emergence of the Apostate Church**

And now we come to a very important part of the text that leads us up to Herod. And looking then in verse 30, he will show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. And then at the end of that text in verse 32, that section rather, those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery. Okay, so he shows regard for those against the covenant. He flatters those who act wickedly against the covenant.

The middle section then is identified not with the acts of Herod or Antiochus directly but with the Jews who are showing no regard for the covenant. These are apostates that Antiochus is in league with. He shows regard for apostate confessors, those who forsake the holy covenant. forces shall be mustered by him. These forces are these men, these apostate confessors. These are the ones that are alluded to here in this verse. These apostate confessors, Jason, Menelaus, these Jews who wanted to be Greeks shall defile the sanctuary fortress.

They shall take away the daily sacrifices and they shall do the abomination of desolations. So what’s important here is that what leads up to Herod are the events of Antiochus Epiphanies but Antiochus Epiphanies is not the bad guy. The bad guy is the apostate church in Jerusalem. The ones who don’t have regard for the holy covenant. Antiochus will work with them. But all he is he’s the he’s the rod that God brings against his sinful people. Right?

The northern kingdom sins. God raises up the rod, you know, of the Assyrians to come and take them away and kill them all into the Assyrian captivity. But the problem isn’t the Assyrians rather, the Assyrians, the Babylonians later. That’s not the problem. The problem is God’s people are sinning and they’re being taken into captivity because of their sin.

So the problem with abortion is not bad judges. The bad judges are there as God’s judgment against apostate churches who haven’t stood up on this issue to speak forth the word of God and who want to be so much like the Greeks around us, the culture around us that we want to let women make up their own minds as to whether they should kill their own children or not.

You see, so it’s very important to get this right. The problem wasn’t the Philistines. The problem was Eli and his wicked sons. You see, the problem wasn’t the Babylonians. The problem were the priests who really were Egyptian in their thinking and mindset even while ministering saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of Yahweh is this. They said they flattered him with their lips but their hearts were far. Their hearts were in Egypt. You see, so the problem the abomination isn’t Antiochus.

We could have, you know, some horrible person come in here, rip the stage apart, rip apart the church. It hasn’t defiled our church. The church is the people of God. It’s only those who name the name of Christ that can defile the church in this sense. Okay, in the temple the birds that lived in there would you know the dogs would run through do that didn’t defile the temple.

What defiled the temple was the sins of the people and the abomination that happens here is the cutting off ultimately then of the priestly line by these apostate Jews. So do you understand very important you know in his rage he does cooperate Antiochus does with the godless people but is the ones who forsake the covenant, who are the forces as it were, working for Antiochus, who defile the sanctuary, taking away the daily sacrifices in reality and placing there the abomination of desolations, getting rid of the high priest.

These are the ones who work with Antiochus. So, Antiochus is just the rod that God brings against apostate confessors who are still naming the name of Yahweh, but really have become Egyptian and horrible in their rejection of him. So that’s that’s what leads up to the situation with Herod. All right.

**Herod the Great: The Ungodly King**

So now let’s look at the final section then. This is what we’re kind of wanted to look at today primarily and we have you know we have this in front of us. It’s really not that difficult. Then verse 36 then this is in the in the Hebrew this means as a consequence of what has gone before. And what has gone before is the apostate nature of the Jewish church then appealing to Rome, give us a king. And Rome then installing Herod an Edomite in the context of but a Jew nonetheless converted, circumcised, but an Edomite.

So this is this is why apostate church produces this godless king. Then the king shall do this king shall do according to his own will. He shall exalt and magnify himself, but every other god speak blasphemies. against the God of gods shall prosper till the till the wrath has been accomplished. For what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the god of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any god. He shall exalt himself above them all.

I’ve given you some formatting here to show you the kind of brackets that move into this center. Okay? And this is now this as you read through 11. When we got to this section, you probably noticed something’s different here. We’ve had a lot of talking about kings of the north, kings of the south, and some vague references to the covenant and whatnot. But now this ruler is one who very self-consciously has set himself against God. So this is an ungodly king. This is a godless king. This is an apostate confessor as it were. Okay?

And the other thing I mentioned here before but I’ll mention it again here. The word God being in bold print is to remind us that whenever you see it in this text, God in bold print, it’s not the normal word for God. It’s the Edomite word for God. Another reason to understand that this is talking about Herod the Great, who was an Edomite. So, he doesn’t regard the God of his fathers. Who were his fathers?

Well, his fathers were Job and believing Edomites. Job was an Edomite. And in the book of Job, you’ll find this same Edomite name for God used throughout the thing over and over and over and over. 90% of the occurrences of this word is in the book of Job because it’s an Edomite name for God. and so and so he doesn’t he’s the first thing it tells us about him is his whole nature. He is antichrist. He is anti-good. He is explicitly speaking blasphemies against the God of gods.

This is the culmination of all those prophecies we talked about from chapter 2, chapter 7, chapter 8. We saw these general references that we knew would be the Herods eventually. But now we have a very specific person being talked about, Herod the Great, who strikes out at Jesus.

**Verse 38: Herod’s Temple**

Verse 38, in their place, he shall honor a god of fortresses. He establishes a god with a fortress is what it means. This is a reference to Herod’s building, the temple. Herod the Great began the construction of the great and beautiful temple. Now, he made other temples to other gods, but he created the temple that we always think about in Jerusalem that was there that Jesus went into. This is Herod’s temple.

There was an eagle sign of Rome on the temple but it was Herod’s temple. Okay. And he built this placed there. It means he laid on its foundation. Now in Zechariah 5, we see a picture of a temple being built on on a foundation like this word that’s used here, a foundation. Herod creates a temple on a foundation. And in Zechariah 5, we see a prophecy that there’ll be this box with a lead plate on it with a woman who is placed in it with ostriches carrying it away from the temple and it will be placed on a foundation and a temple will be erected around it and it is placed in the land of Shinar.

Shinar Babylon mystery Babylon In the Bible, Nimrod built Babylon. And then Nebuchadnezzar ruled the second Babylon. And Herod’s temple is the third Babylon. You see? And in Revelation, mystery Babylon is in Herod’s temple. That’s what this is describing. He builds a temple for his anti-God, so to speak. Now, the temple could be used for good. You could go in there. Jesus did. The apostles did and use it for good or you could use it wickedly.

The church has the same capability. When the church of Jesus Christ, as some churches in the United Methodist Church and the church of Christ do promote the destruction of children in the womb, they have become antichrist. They are mystery Babylon. They’re the third Babylon. What was found in a specific identification of the temple of Herod? The idea is that the church itself can be Babylon.

In the medieval period, the Roman Catholic pope was talked about as the antichrist or the vicar of Christ. When he spoke truth and for the kingdom of Christ, he was the vicar of Christ. And when he spoke against God and was a horrible guy, he was the antichrist. And so the idea is that in the scriptures, Antichrist is never a specific personage. But Antichrist is the capability of any Christian church. When we pray for God to judge liberal apostate confessing Christian churches. We’re praying for God to judge a new Babylon and ultimately to bring it to conversion or remove it from off the face of the world.

All right, so that’s verse two. Verse three, he shall acknowledge and one other thing about this, a god of fortresses. Herod worships a god of power, pure power. He doesn’t worship Yahweh. He worships a god of power. And whenever a people worship, you know, practicality, pragmatism, a god of power, we are Herodlike when we do that. So then he advances its glory and he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for grain.

God apportions the land, gets it ready on day three. And in the third section of this narrative, Herod is now exercising his sovereignty. He’ll give the land to whoever he will. You see, he builds an anti-temple. He’s an anti-God. He builds an anti-temple. firmament and now he is giving the land out as the anti-distributor of dominion over the world. This was Herod the great at the time of the end.

**The Emergence of Rome**

The term is time the king of the south shall attack with him. The preposition here is different. It doesn’t mean attack him. It means to attack with him. The king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, with many ships and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them and pass through. He shall all Now, now here’s what’s happening here before we continue the reading. In this center section, Herod exalts himself above God. But here, this new power Rome is going to be shown to be Herod’s master.

So in this fourth section, there’s always a transition in these three fourth sections. And the transition here is that while Herod rages as if he is God, in reality, historical events show he isn’t. What’s being described in these verses is the fact that Herod the Great took the side of the queen of the south, king of the south, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra VII. And at the war of Actium, the battle of Actium, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian Caesar who had renamed himself Augustus Caesar.

Well, Herod at first sides with Egypt. See, Rome has established itself by taking over Syria, and it has influence in Egypt at this point in time. So, the king of the north now is Rome and the king of the south is Cleopatra Mark Anthony who really they’re still Roman. Mark Anthony is Roman of course and all they want is a view of a Roman empire that’s more like a republic and Octavian wants an empire.

So Herod chooses the wrong side. He attacks with the king of the south but the king of the north comes against them and Octavian Caesar decisively defeats Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. They commit suicide. And now the Roman Empire, that fourth beast, has fully come to bear. What’s being described in this section, all the heavens, is referring to the king of the north. The king of the north shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, pass through.

The king of the north shall also enter the glorious land. Many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape from his hand, Edom of Moab and the prominent people of Ammon. The king of the north, that is Octavian Caesar, shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. Mark Anthony and Cleopatra be defeated. He shall have no power or he shall have power rather over the treasuries of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt.

And the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. So in this fourth section, it’s the emergence of the Roman Empire, Augustus Caesar. But news from the east and the north shall trouble. Trouble who? Well, this is the king of the north. So it’s not him now. Now we’re back to Herod. Herod is troubled by news from the east. east and news from the north. And in the New Testament, what do we read? We read that men from the east, magi, came to Herod, Matthew chapter 2, and Herod becomes troubled.

And Herod strikes out against children. A quotation really from this section of Daniel’s prophecy. News from the east troubles him. And that’s what’s being referred to, the news that comes from the magi that Jesus has been born. And news from the north troubles him, too. from Rome, the power of the north west really. What happens as I mentioned earlier I’m not maybe I didn’t his three sons are in Rome one of his sons says your other two sons are plotting against you he kills them then Herod does and then his other son he finds out actually told him that just so that he could plot against Herod and he kills him so troubling news from the Roman Empire of his own sons leads him to kill them and the next few months or years of his life are just spent in him killing all kinds of people, burying people alive, doing horrible, wicked things.

Herod goes crazy here and this is being described. Therefore, he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. The slaughter of the innocents is described here as well as others. He shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Dead Sea, the Holy Land, and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end. No one will help him. So, the beginning he’s declaring himself to be God, not having regard for the God of his father Job, not having regard for the God of the scriptures, and at the end he’s killed and no one will be there to help him.

So this section tells us about Herod and it puts in context Herod’s slaughter of children in the context of the immediate judgment that God sent upon his people when they sought help from Rome instead of the scriptures to establish who they were. The horrific actions of the Jewish civil magistrate are founded ultimately in the apostasy of the Jewish church and God raises up judgments against them but ultimately the problem is not those that God raises up to judge us.

The problem is the apostate confessing church. Okay.

**Lessons from Daniel 11**

So then quickly lessons from Daniel 11. Herod the great represents fallen apostate and the fullness of transgression. We’ve said all along that there is a new creation coming and the seven-fold outline of Herod the Great was a anti-creation. It was him attempting to establish himself and ultimately Herod is the successor to the apostate Esau. But really that’s just a picture of fallen man.

So all of fallen man, the whole old order is summarized then in this career of Herod the Great. And I’ve given you some references here from the other prophecies of Daniel. He’s been, you know, in 2:7 and 8, we saw he’s coming. He’s coming. And now we have a lot of detail given about a specific personage, Herod the Great. And he is shown there to be the fallen apostate man, the fullness of transgression.

a reference back to Daniel chapter 8.

Secondly, here is the result of not the cause of religious apostasy. It wasn’t that he made people apostate. He’s the result of a religious apostasy. The judges that we have in America are the result of religious apostasy. If the church of Jesus Christ spoke with one united voice to the abortion issue, things would be different. But half the church of Jesus Christ, the liberal denominations speak that it’s okay that this isn’t really children.

And if they are, women can kill them. And so that’s our problem. Our problem ultimately is the church of Jesus Christ. confessing apostates. The slaughter of the innocents is the wicked fruit of Judas priests. Priests who are not really priests, priests who are confessors, but are really selling out the truth for their own purposes.

For we should use the weapon of prayer against modern-day confessing apostates. We don’t believe in taking up the sword physically, but the church is a praying community, and it’s appropriate for us to pray that God bring particular temporal judgments of upon apostate confessors in the United Methodist Church, the Church of Christ and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon because ultimately is those apostate confessors. That is the central problem of what we have to do with here.

Five, we should renew our own commitment to root out our own hypocrisy. When we come to this, the finger gets pointed back at us ultimately, not at them. We don’t want to point ultimately at Supreme Court justices. We want to point at ourselves. and the Christian church. And we don’t want to go into praying for apostate confessors who sin in this way without rooting out our own hypocrisy as well. I mean, Herod, the Jews, and Ezekiel’s day, they all said, “Oh, yeah. This is the temple of Yahweh, and we’re gathered together.

Are we here as mystery Babylon, or are we here as the church of Jesus Christ? Are you here consistently dedicating yourself to root out hypocrisy in your own life, or not? Are you going to take the table of the Lord and receive death and damnation because you’re here hypocritically or are you going to receive the blessings of God from that table? You see, that question stands in front of you here today.

And the answer is not to not take it. You think God is limited? Do you think his arm is shortened somehow? That’d be just be further sin not to come to the table. He says, “Come forward. I’m going to evaluate you. I’m going to judge you.” Yes, we’re going to speak words of judgment and ask God to strike out at UMC and Church of Christ and EMO. But when we’re doing the same thing with ourselves. We’re saying if we’re rooted in hypocrisy, if we’re not willing to turn right now from our sins against Jesus Christ to confess them before him when he commands us to come forward for evaluation, we’re the ones he’ll strike out against.

See? So, it involves a renewed commitment for us to root out hypocrisy in our lives. And while I don’t have it on the outline, I’d say finally we know that the end result of all this is that Herod in the last verse is no more. No one can help him. And in the very next verse in chapter 12, now comes Daniel in these time. Not no now comes Michael in these times. Now come Jesus Christ to establish his perpetual kingdom.

We pray that God would judge us and other Christians in sin against him. People that name the name of Christ. Christ confidently, knowing that indeed the Lord’s day is about the destruction of apostate man pictured in Herod and the establishment of the new man, Jesus Christ, Michael, and then Daniel, the last one standing at the end of Daniel 12.

I know we’ve looked at a lot of material here. I know it’s probably a little confusing. I’ve tried to make it sort of simple. It’s just about history. And very importantly, it’s about the history that culminates in an apostate Jewish king who is there because of a church that wanted to be more like the world around it than it did like a peculiar people committed to the holiness of God. It’s really quite simple.

And the quite simple lesson is it’s the visible church of Jesus Christ that wants to be like the Greek culture around us and as a result counsels and allows women to abort their children. This is why the judgment of God is falling on our nation. This is why his hand is upon us for judgment. This is why there are all those crosses down there on the lawn of that church in Roseville. This is why if we’re astonished and saddened by the tsunami or by American military deaths, why it should be to us a thing of outrage and horror that so many children have been murdered in the land of the free, whose goal is to provide liberty and democracy for everybody supposedly.

Now, And here we stand, you know, with millions upon millions of dead babies. May the Lord God deliver us. May he bring those judgments that we pray for today. May he root out hypocrisy in the liberal churches that surround us and in this church as well. And may he raise up a people who are anxious to speak forth the crown rights of King Jesus and to defend the fatherless.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord God, for the assurance that word gives us of the destruction and judgment of those who cling to the old humanity, to the gods of power as opposed to you, Lord God of grace and love and mercy. We pray, Father, that you’d bless us as we come forward now and offer ourselves to you. We pray you’d receive our tithes and offerings. Help us to be generous today to be gracious and compassionate to women who are being tempted by the authorities in their lives to give up their children to murder.

Help us, Lord God, to be moved with financial compassion and gratitude and benevolence rather and generosity to you and give you Lord God money that you might use to help defend these children. We cry out for the fatherless today because they have no voice. You’ve commanded us Lord God to cry out for them and you’ve promised that you will answer those prayers. Answer them Lord God as we come before you.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.