the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Daniel 11:10-28
This chapter announces and relates in detail the rivalry between two of the four dynasties which were to share between them Alexander’s Grecian empire. In this king of the North we can identify the dynasty of the Seleucids, governing the countries situated to the north of Palestine: Syria, Asia Minor; whilst the kings of the South are the Ptolemies, in possession of Egypt. Between these two competing powers would alternate wars and peace treaties, accompanied by human flatteries, blackmail and threats, diplomatic marriages and assassinations. Relationships between the nations have hardly changed since then, and the history books present but a sad reflection of what the human heart contains: greed (v. 8), violence and crimes (v. 14), immorality (v. 17), deceit (v. 23), corruption (v. 24), treachery (v. 26), lies (v. 27).
These conflicts over the land of Israel (v. 16) kept these proud monarchies at odds for a few years, but after two thousand years how futile the conflicts appear.
International politics in the time of the Ptolemy and Seleucid kings are described here beforehand in such a precise manner that some unbelievers, who could not understand this, have done all they can to try to demonstrate that this chapter could only have been written after the happenings it foretells.
