Two Prophesied Great Kings
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God gave Daniel this prophecy during the third year of the reign of Cyrus, the king of the Persian Empire (Dan 10:1). Daniel recorded that two powerful kings (actually competing kingdoms) would play a large role in Middle Eastern events, until the time of the end. These kings set the stage for the unfolding of vitally important future events, which culminate before Christ returns!
Two key verses set the stage. In Daniel 10:21, the archangel Gabriel speaks to Daniel: “But I will show you that which is noted in the scripture of truth.” Chapter 11 introduces the time setting. Dan 11:2 continues, “And now will I show you the truth.” When God foretells events, He speaks the truth! They are certain! They will happen! Since no scripture can be broken (John 10:35), neither can any verse of this prophecy!
Consider the following verses: “Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will” (Dan. 11:2-3).
Who are these four kings—where the last is greater than the first? And who is the “mighty king”? Daniel was speaking of kings Cambyses, Smerdis and Darius of Persia as the first three, with Xerxes being the greatest and richest of the four. It was Xerxes who “stirred up” war with Greece.
We must now study several verses in Daniel 8:1-27. Alexander the Great’s father, King Philip of Macedonia, created a master plan to conquer and defeat the Persian Empire with a Greek army. But Philip died before he could execute his plan. His son invaded Persia in his stead, and Alexander the Great’s army fought the Persian army at the famous Battle of Issus in 333 B.C. (Daniel 8:2, 5-6).
Two years later, in 33l B.C., in a second battle at Arbela, Alexander completely defeated the Persian Empire. Having already conquered Egypt shortly before this, he followed this battle with the destruction of everything from the Middle East to India. This happened precisely as prophesied!
Daniel 11:4 says this of Alexander the Great: “And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.”
Numerous historical authorities acknowledge that Alexander died suddenly, at age thirty-two, when he was “Cut off unexpectedly in the vigor of early manhood, he left no inheritor, either of his power or of his projects” (Rawlinson’s A Manual of Ancient History, p. 237). Alexander’s kingdom did break into four separate kingdoms, because he had no son to take his place. Prophecy was fulfilled just as God foretold.
The following four of Alexander’s generals represent the “four winds of heaven”—or directions to which his kingdom was divided: (1) Lysimachus ruled Asia Minor, (2) Cassander ruled Greece and Macedonia, (3) Seleucus ruled Syria, Babylonia and all regions east to India and (4) Ptolemy ruled Egypt, Judea and part of Syria.
From this point, the prophecy tracks two of these four kings or divisions of territory. The Syrian kingdom represents the “king of the north.” The Egyptian kingdom represents (Dan 11:5) the “king of the south,” because Egypt is generally south of Jerusalem. (Jerusalem is the central focus of all prophecy and, therefore, directions are always established by identifying locations in relation to this city.) These two kingdoms often fought back and forth across Palestine—the Holy Land and Jerusalem—with possession of this area constantly shifting, depending on the outcome of the last battle.
Ptolemy I, named Soter, established Egypt as a far greater, more dominant power than when Alexander was alive. Seleucus also became very strong. By 312 B.C., he had established an equally powerful kingdom in Syria. These two kingdoms became and represent, respectively, the “king of the south” and the “king of the north,” mentioned throughout this prophecy. Daniel 11:5 states, “And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.”