Expect Purifying Persecution

Daniel 11 promises persecution and shows us God’s good purpose in it

The recent assassination of thirty-one year-old Charlie Kirk, who challenged the church to stand up bravely for Jesus, has caused many to rethink their life and faith.

As we step up and forward, Daniel teaches us to expect persecution and shows us God’s good purpose in it.

Daniel 11 tells the vision that floored the prophet with such fear and distress for three weeks (chapter 10), when Jesus comforted him with a vision of himself and strengthened him with a touch and those powerful words: “Do not be afraid!” “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.”

What disintegrated Daniel? The vision of a war, a terrible two-hundred-year war which began in the fourth-century BC between “the Kings of the North and the South,” the empires of Greco-Macedonia and Persia.

Daniel saw that God’s people would be the meat in the sandwich of this war, that they would be threatened on all sides with violence, apostasy, and constant temptation to forsake the LORD.

In fact the war and the suffering of God’s people would be a snapshot of the Last Days, the time between Jesus’ ascension and return in final judgment, the time that we live in right now. The physical war between Greece and Persia is a picture of the spiritual warfare that we endure today.

The vision of war in Daniel 11 teaches three things about the time we live in:

1. Godless powers will come and go under the sovereign governance of God.

2. Godless powers will attack the Church.

3. God will purify and deliver His Church.

1. Godless powers will come and go under the sovereign governance of God

Daniel 11 is a vision of the Persian “kings of the south” like Darius, Cyrus the Great, and Xerxes; and of the Greek “kings of the north” like Alexander the Great and the so-called Diadochi, his four successors: Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Seleucis, and Cassander.

We saw these two empires already in chapter 2 in the silver torso and bronze thighs of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, in chapter 7 in the lopsided bear and the winged four-headed leopard, and in chapter 8 in the ram with lopsided horns and the shaggy goat with four horns.

These kings are repulsively proud, arrogant, godless, greedy, cruel, and deceitful. They abuse their strength to conquer, oppress, and enrich themselves.

They more-or-less represent the character of almost every earthly tyranny, whether those who rule over empires (like the Roman Caesars, Genghis Khan, the Ottoman Sultans, the Spanish Conquistadors, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin); over oppressive state colonies (like the British in the Caribbean, the slave states of the U.S., the French in Vietnam, Leopold II in the Congo); over nations (like Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, Saddam Hussein, Bachar al-Assad, the Ayatollahs, the Kim family); or over cities and suburbs (the Mafia, the Triads, the drug cartels, Hamas, Hezbollah).

We must never hitch our wagon to earthly powers, neither must we fear or be overawed by them. For many years Napoleon seemed unstoppable. For decades the Soviets overshadowed everything. Ten years ago Wokedom appeared indomitable, as though it would reign for centuries. But deep fissures are opening. Such powers will come and go at God’s command.

Our LORD promised:

Matthew 24:6–7 You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Until Christ returns the world must groan under some measure of earthly chaos, tyranny, and conflict. But never outside of God’s perfect plan and governance.

2. Godless Powers will Attack the Church

In his vision Daniel sees that the heart of the king of the North “will be set against the holy covenant,” that he will “vent his fury against the holy covenant,” and will “show favour to those who forsake the holy covenant.”

The Holy Covenant (ברית קדשׁ, berit qodesh) refers to the Covenant of Redemption in its cumulative iterations: the Abrahamic, Sinaitic, and Davidic covenants of the Old Testament.

God cut a holy covenant to redeem a people to himself, who would bear his Name, who would be blessed and be a blessing, and who would be ruled by a universal and eternal King from the line of David. This covenant would be fulfilled in a New Covenant, when the Messiah would write his law on the hearts of his people (Jer. 31).

Earthly tyrants have never liked the existence of a people who give their ultimate allegiance to the Heavenly Sovereign, the King of kings.

A particularly grotesque example of this was the Seleucid king Antiochus IV, who ruled over Syria and Palestine in the mid-second-century BC. He called himself Epiphanes, “The Manifestation of God,” and tried to crush Judaism and impose Hellenism – Greek religion and culture – within his domains. He forced his way into the Most Holy Place of God’s Temple, stole the gold and silver, slaughtered swine on the altar, and tortured to death those who resisted.

This is probably what Daniel foresaw here:

Daniel 11:31–33 His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him. Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered.

Such earthly tyrannies are but the tip of the iceberg, the tiny physical manifestation of a gigantic spiritual battle that rages unseen but relentlessly against the church:

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Matthew 24:9–11 You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Until we die, or until Christ returns, we must expect one degree or another of spiritual attack.

But these wicked spiritual powers are done for. That’s why the demons shrieked before Jesus, “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” And Paul affirms that “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2:15).

3. God will Purify and Deliver His Church

The attack upon the church is not purposeless.

First, God will use it to sift the church: “With flattery the king of the North will corrupt those who have violated the covenant” (Dan. 11:32).

This is the enemy’s first weapon: why frighten God’s people when you can seduce them away from God. Be on your guard against those who teach what our itching ears want to hear.

His second weapon is physical persecution: “For a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. . . . Those who are not sincere” will leave (Dan. 11:33–34.

Temptations and persecutions separate the wheat from the chaff, the hypocrites from the faithful: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Mat. 24:12–13).

Suffering will sift, strengthen, and purify the church.

Daniel 11:35 Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end.

The wise (שׂכל, sākal) are those who give effort and close attention to understanding God’s revelation, ways, and laws. The enemies’ attacks may bring them to their knees, but this will only triply refine them:

tsāraph (צרף) refers to the goldsmith smelting and purifying gold in the fiery crucible;

bārar (ברר) means cleansing, polishing, and making bright and sharp like a new arrow (Jer. 51:11)

lāban (לבן) means to be made white (Psalm 51:7).

Persecution and suffering will strengthen God’s people:

James 1:2–4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

If you step forward to contend for the faith then expect Satan to come with fire and sword. Remember that “the people who know their God will firmly resist him” (Dan. 11:32). Know that the LORD will use your suffering to sift, purify, and strengthen you “until the time of the end”, until he returns.