The Prophecies of Daniel - Part 1

The Prophecies of Daniel – World Leaders/Empires

1. Nebuchadnezzar II – King of the Babylonian Empire (Significant Dates: 606 BC, 597 BC, 586 BC) – In 606 Neb. first took the city of Jerusalem taking several thousand Israelites with him back to Babylon. In that first group was Daniel, who at the time was just a teenager. After Israel revolted he had to come back a second time and take the city, change the leadership, and take 50,000 back to Babylon as slaves. After another revolt, Neb said enough was enough and in 586 BC he completely destroyed the city, the temple and everything else and brought the remainder of the Israelites back to Babylon. We looked at Jeremiah 25:11-12 to see that even though they were taken into captivity, it would only last 70 years and that Babylon would eventually get what was coming to them.

2. Nabonidus – Last King of Babylon – He was often preoccupied with his hobby which was archeology. As he went on digs for months at a time, he left his son Belshazzar in charge.

3. Belshazzar – Last Prince of Babylon (Significant Date: Oct. 12th, 538 BC) – Critics of the book of Daniel always wondered why, in Daniel 5:29 that it claims that Belshazzar offered Daniel the 3rd place in the kingdom for reading the ‘handwriting on the wall’. If he was king, wouldn’t he offer Daniel the 2nd place in the kingdom. Critics will also claim that Nabonidus was the last known king. This was a hard thing to prove until archeologists discovered the Nebonidus Cylinder which spoke of his travels and his naming Belshazzar ruler in his absence. It turns out that Belshazzar could not offer Daniel 2nd place in his kingdom, because Belshazzar himself was 2nd. So the best that he could do was to offer Daniel the 3rd spot. Belshazzar was in power at the time that Cyrus came to take Babylon.

4. Cyrus the Great – Founded the Media/Persia Empire – He took Babylon and pretty much the rest of the known world. He respected others religious beliefs and practices and you can read at the beginning of the book of Ezra where he lets the Israelites return to build their temple in the land of Judah. Little does he know, that he is just doing God’s will.

5. King Darius – Reigned from 522 – 486 BC – Greatly Expanded the Empire

6. King Artaxerxes I Longimanus– Reigned from 465 – 424 BC – Artaxerxes issued a decree that would allow the Israelites to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This can be found in Nehemiah 2. Little did this king know what pivotal role that he was playing in God’s grand scheme of things. We’ll look closer into that when we look at Daniel 9.

7. Alexander the Great – Greek Empire – Reigned from 336 – 323 BC – Over a 10 year period Alexander conquered everyone and everything. He swept across the land with such power and speed, there was nothing that could stop him. Alexander captured Babylon in 330 BC. After 10 years of fighting, his military leaders grew weary of war and they asked if they could return home. They had all the money they could ever want. They had gone from Greece, down into Egypt, and east all the way to present day India. He found Babylon so beautiful that he made it his home. History says that when he returned he sat on his bed and wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. He died shortly after his return on June 11, 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar

8. The 4 Generals: Lysimachus, Cassander, Ptolemy, Seleucus – Alexander’s Greek Kingdom was divided among his 4 generals. There was no heir at the time of his death. Once the kingdom was divided it is no surprise that there was internal fighting, the majority of which was between the Ptolemic Empire and the Seleucid Empire. They often fought around the area of Israel which is where their two borders met.

9. Seleucid Empire: Seleucus I Nicator, Antiochus I Soter, Antiochus II Theos, Seleucus II Callinicus, Seleucus III Soter, Antiochus III the Great, Seleucus IV Philopator, Antiochus IV Epiphanies…in the Seleucid line comes Antiochus IV, and this was one rotten dude. I won’t get into the whole story right now because it will be revisited when we look at Chapter 9 in Daniel, but after getting stood up by a Roman Legion on his way to fight the Ptolemic Empire again, he took out his anger on the Israelites, the city of Jerusalem and the holy temple. He sacrificed pigs on the alter. He killed all the priests. He erected a statue of himself and made everyone bow to it and worship him as God or face the sword. He gave himself the surname of Epiphanies which means ‘God made manifest’. You can find the story of Antiochus IV and his ultimate defeat in the first and second book of Maccabees. Judas Maccabeus led the revolt. The cleansing of the temple is still celebrated today with the festival of lights, or Hanukkah.