Daniel 11:33 Commentary and Bible Study

It will be a time of intense persecution for the Jews. Little Judah will be dwarfed by the powers that are against her, and it seems that they are unrestrained and able to do all the evil that they wish against God’s people. Nevertheless, there will be a work of God, almost a miniature revival, and many nominal believers will be instructed concerning the ways of God, the coming Messiah, and the need to be faithful. Yet for the people who instruct them it won't be without price. They will fall by the Syrian sword. They will be punished and martyred ‘by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.’ The word ‘many’ is in italics and is supplied by the translators. This is the same time reference as in verse 20: ‘within few days he shall be destroyed.’ In the case of Antiochus Epiphanes, we know from historical records that the persecution can be dated from the time the sacrifices were stopped in 167 BC until the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 BC. It was during that period that the Maccabean revolt took place. The church must not cease to teach during times of persecution. Indeed it must teach all the more actively and earnestly, because the people need the word of God to get through this crisis. They may realise for the first time how much they need to be strengthened by it. But whether or not that is so, those who have understanding and are prepared by God to teach, should endeavour to brace God’s people against the many additional temptations that they will face at such a time. ‘And shall instruct many’ – there will be wonderful opportunities for those who have studied the word of God in advance, and who pray to God for courage to be used at such a time.The enemies of God know however that it is through the word of God that his people are strengthened and able to resist pressure to apostatize – which is what they aim at – and to remain faithful to their religion, and they therefore target the teachers first of all. They reason that if the teachers can be removed, the rest will collapse. ‘They shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.’ They must be ready to count the full cost of following Christ, and remember the baptismal exhortation: ‘Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life’ (Revelation 2:10). For strength to stand there must be much prayer and reflection on the God who cannot break his promises. They must continue to serve God’s people while he keeps open the opportunity, and accept his appointment when the times comes.‘Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help.’ When they – the instructors and the instructed – shall fall, not through sin, not fall from their adherence to the truth, but fall in the sense of being brought down by their persecutors; when this happens God will provide a little help to remedy this. The little help is thought by many to refer to the Maccabees. The father, Mattathias, who was a priest, had five sons: Judas and his four brothers. Their exploits are described in 1 and 2 Maccabees. Their father Mattathias triggered the rebellion by stepping forward and slaying an apostate Jew who was about to sacrifice to an idol. On the death of his father, Judas led the rebellion against the Seleucids, fought as a guerilla war. It is most likely that it is because of the small number of those involved initially that it is described as ‘a little help’. But although the initial motives for the movement were wholesome, it did not remain pure, and many who had a less noble outlook joined them when they saw their triumphs.‘And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.’ This means to try the whole body of Jews, so that they will see the nominal worshippers and the hypocrites who will cave in under the deaths and the terrors and the persecutions mounted by Antiochus. But it will purge that remnant body, and purify those who are true believers; and persecution always does purify.There is a kind of concluding phrase – ‘because it is yet for a time appointed’ – as though the prophecy, for the time being, has closed. That’s it. That is the end of the present prophecy: a purging in the time of Antiochus. That will go on, that kind of process to the end, to the time appointed. That 35^th verse is the end in the Bible of all Old Testament prophecy about things that will happen before Christ. When Antiochus died in 164 BC, that marked the end of Old Testament prophecy about what would happen in the Old Testament period. That’s as far as it goes: fairly near to the Messiah, but it stops.