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‘No Peace for the Wicked Ones’The Watchtower—1987 | July 1
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A Rivalry Begins
6. Outline the historical background of today’s superpower rivalry.
6 The truth is, today’s superpower rivalry is not a new thing on the world scene. It is, rather, a continuation of something that began a long time ago. After the collapse of Alexander the Great’s world empire toward the end of the fourth century B.C.E., two of his military leaders took power in Syria and Egypt. A lasting rivalry that ultimately led to the superpower rivalry of today sprang up between them and their successors—spoken of as the king of the north and the king of the south because they were situated to the north and south of the land of God’s people. The historical development of this rivalry was revealed in advance to the prophet Daniel through an angel.
7. (a) How do we know that there is an unseen, spirit dimension to human affairs? (b) Who, originally, were the king of the north and the king of the south, and how did their rivalry get started?
7 The angel first describes how he, supported by Michael, had been fighting against the spirit ‘princes’ of Persia and Greece. (Daniel 10:13, Dan 10:20–11:1) This glimpse into the spirit realm confirms that national conflicts involve more than mere humans. There are demonic forces, or “princes,” behind the visible human rulers. But from ancient times, God’s people have had a “prince,” Michael, to strengthen them against these demonic powers. (Ephesians 6:12) Then the angel focuses our attention on the rivalry between Syria and Egypt. He begins: “And the king of the south will become strong, even one of his princes.” (Daniel 11:5a) The king of the south here was Ptolemy I, ruler of Egypt, who captured Jerusalem about 312 B.C.E. The angel next refers to another king who “will prevail against him and will certainly rule with extensive dominion greater than that one’s ruling power.” (Daniel 11:5b) This is the king of the north in the person of Seleucus I Nicator, whose kingdom, Syria, became stronger than Egypt.
8. What does the remarkable accuracy of the first part of the angel’s prophecy about the king of the north and the king of the south mean for Christians today?
8 The angel goes on to prophesy many details of the continuing rivalry between successive rulers of Syria and Egypt. (Daniel 11:6-19) These prophecies were so accurate that some feel that the book of Daniel must have been written after the fact.a For Christians, though, the remarkable accuracy of these prophecies strengthens their faith in those parts of the prophecy yet to be fulfilled during “the final part of the days.”
The Prince of the Covenant
9. How did the action of the king of the north lead to Jesus’ being born in Bethlehem?
9 It is not to be expected that the angel would cover every individual ruler from Ptolemy down to “the final part of the days.” Rather, we understand that after Da 11 verse 19 the prophecy jumps to the years immediately preceding our Common Era, when we read: “And there must stand up in his [the king of the north’s] position one who is causing an exactor to pass through the splendid kingdom.” (Daniel 11:20) By now, Syria is a province of Rome, and the king of the north is represented by the Roman emperor Augustus. He is the one who ordered the census that resulted in Jesus’ being born in Bethlehem rather than in Nazareth.—Luke 2:1-7; Micah 5:2.
10. What other connection between the king of the north and the Messiah did the angel draw to our attention?
10 After Augustus came Tiberius, a disgusting man described by the angel as “one who is to be despised.” (Daniel 11:21) During his reign, a dangerous mutiny on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire was controlled and the frontier itself pacified, fulfilling the words of the prophecy: “The arms of the flood, they will be flooded over on account of him, and they will be broken.” Furthermore, during his reign Jesus was killed by Roman soldiers in fulfillment of the angel’s prophecy that “the Leader of the covenant” would be broken.—Daniel 11:22; 9:27.
At “the Time Appointed”
11. (a) In 1914, what was the identity of the king of the north and the king of the south? (b) What prophecy was fulfilled “at the time appointed”?
11 Eventually, the prophecy brings us down to “the time appointed,” in 1914. (Daniel 11:27; Luke 21:24) By now, there has been a change in the identity of God’s people. Since fleshly Israel rejected the Messiah, Jehovah’s chosen people has become spiritual Israel, the congregation of anointed Christians. (1 Peter 2:9, 10) The identity of the two kings has also changed. Britain, with its political partner the United States of America, has evidently become the king of the south, while the king of the north is now Germany. World War I was foretold in these words: “At the time appointed [the king of the north] will go back, and he will actually come against the south; but it will not prove to be at the last the same as at the first.” (Daniel 11:29) The king of the south won that war. The situation was thus different from what was true “at the first,” that is, when all-conquering Rome was king of the north.
12. Describe features of world events since 1914 that were foretold in the angel’s prophetic words to Daniel.
12 The angel goes on to tell of the competition between the two kings since 1914 and, particularly, of the way that both would oppose Jehovah’s people. He also prophesies the appearance of “the disgusting thing that is causing desolation,” which exists today as the United Nations organization. (Daniel 11:31) The setting up of the UN was a political effort in which both kings cooperated to bring peace. But it is doomed to fail because it is in opposition to God’s Kingdom.b (Matthew 24:15; Revelation 17:3, 8) Finally, the angel directs our attention to “the time of the end.”—Daniel 11:40.
“The Time of the End”
13. (a) To what does the expression “the time of the end” refer in this part of the prophecy? (b) Who have fulfilled the roles of the king of the north and the king of the south since the end of the second world war?
13 What time is this? Sometimes the expression “time of the end” refers to the time of the end of this system of things, from 1914 to Armageddon. (Daniel 8:17, 19; 12:4) But events in the year 1914, “the time appointed,” were foretold back in Dan 11 verse 29, and the angel’s prophecy has brought us far beyond that.c Hence, “the time of the end” here in Dan 11 verse 40 must refer to the final stages of the 2,300-year-long struggle between the king of the north and the king of the south. We read on, then, with great interest, since we now learn of events to take place in the near future. By now, shifts in power on the world scene have led to further developments in the identity of the two kings. Since the collapse of the Nazi-Fascist powers at the end of World War II, we have witnessed rivalry between two superpowers, one represented as the king of the north, dominating a mostly socialistic bloc of nations, and the other represented as the king of the south, dominating a largely capitalistic bloc.
14. How does the angel describe the king of the north?
14 The disposition of the latest king of the north is well described in Dan 11 verses 37, 38: “And to the God of his fathers he will give no consideration . . . But to the god of fortresses, in his position he will give glory; and to a god that his fathers did not know he will give glory by means of gold and by means of silver and by means of precious stone and by means of desirable things.” Can anyone fail to recognize this description? Today’s king of the north officially promotes atheism, rejecting the religious gods of previous kings of the north. He prefers to trust in armaments, “the god of fortresses.” This has contributed to a frantic arms race for which the two kings must share responsibility. Yearly defense spending by the king of the north alone reached almost 300 billion dollars in 1985. What a huge sacrifice of ‘gold and silver and precious stone and desirable things’ to the insatiable god of armaments!
15, 16. (a) How will affairs develop between the king of the north and the king of the south? (b) What will this mean for God’s people?
15 So, what finally happens between these two kings? The angel says: “And in the time of the end [the end of the history of the two kings] the king of the south will engage with him in a pushing, and against him the king of the north will storm with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships.” (Daniel 11:40; Matthew 24:3) Clearly, summit conferences are no solution to the superpower rivalry. The tensions caused by the ‘pushing’ of the king of the south and the expansionism of the king of the north may go through more or less intense phases; but eventually, in some way, the king of the north will be provoked into the excessively violent action described by Daniel.d
16 These final days are especially difficult for God’s people, who during this century have been persecuted by both kings. The angel warned that the king of the north “will also actually enter into the land of the Decoration, and there will be many lands that will be made to stumble.” “The land of the Decoration” is symbolically the land of God’s people. The angel’s words must mean, then, that as well as conquering many nations, the king of the north attacks the spiritual estate of Jehovah’s people. (Daniel 8:9; 11:41-44; Ezekiel 20:6) In Dan 11 verse 45, the prophecy adds: “And he will plant his palatial tents between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration.” In other words, he positions himself to make a final assault against their spiritual paradise.
“All the Way to His End”
17. What unexpected development will provoke the king of the north?
17 But by then something will already have happened that neither the king of the north nor the king of the south foresaw. The angel prophesies: “But there will be reports that will disturb [the king of the north], out of the sunrising and out of the north, and he will certainly go forth in a great rage in order to annihilate and to devote many to destruction.”—Daniel 11:44.
18. (a) What is the source of the “reports” foretold by the angel? (b) What will be the final outcome for the king of the north?
18 What will these reports be? The angel does not specify, but he does reveal their source. They come “out of the sunrising,” and Jehovah God and Jesus Christ are alluded to as “the kings from the rising of the sun.” (Revelation 16:12) These reports also come “out of the north,” and the Bible speaks symbolically of Mount Zion, the town of the grand King Jehovah, as being “on the remote sides of the north.” (Psalm 48:2) Hence, it is “reports” from Jehovah God and Jesus Christ that send the king of the north on his last great campaign. But the results will be devastating to him. The end of Da 11 verse 45 tells us: “He will have to come all the way to his end, and there will be no helper for him.”
19. (a) What will be the different outcomes for this world and for “upright” ones? (b) What questions remain to be answered?
19 Indeed, there will be “no peace . . . for the wicked ones.” (Isaiah 57:21) Rather, the history of the king of the north will be marked by warfare right up to the end. But for His faithful servants, Jehovah promises: “The upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. As regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth.” (Proverbs 2:21, 22) What, though, will happen to the king of the south when the king of the north ‘comes all the way to his end’? What will happen to Christians when the king of the north ‘plants his palatial tents’ in a menacing position against them? (Daniel 11:45) How will peace finally come to the earth? Jehovah, through his angel, has answered these questions, as we will see in the following articles.
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Michael the Great Prince Stands UpThe Watchtower—1987 | July 1
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1. What future course of world events is foreseen in the Bible, and what question arises about God’s people because of this?
JEHOVAH has given fair warning: There will never be peace on earth as long as the rivalry between the king of the north and the king of the south continues. These two powers would always have conflicting interests. Moreover, at the climax of their enmity, the king of the north will threaten the spiritual estate of God’s people before he ‘comes all the way to his end.’ (Daniel 11:44, 45) Will God’s people survive the assault? And what happens to the king of the south when his great rival comes to his end?
2, 3. (a) What prophecy do we find in the book of Ezekiel that helps us to understand the prophecy about the king of the north and the king of the south? (b) According to Ezekiel’s prophecy, what will be the outcome of the great final attack on God’s people?
2 A prophecy by Daniel’s contemporary Ezekiel helps us to answer these questions. Ezekiel, too, was inspired to speak about “the final part of the days,” and he warned of a coming attack of ‘Gog of Magog’ against the land of God’s people. (Ezekiel 38:2, 14-16; Daniel 10:14) In that prophecy, Gog pictured Satan, and his armies pictured all of Satan’s earthly agents who would make a last, desperate attempt to wipe out God’s people. Since this attack, like that of the king of the north, takes place in the final part of the days, it is reasonable to conclude that the king of the north’s ‘planting of his palatial tents between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration’ is in support of Gog’s attack. (Daniel 11:40, 45) Will the attack succeed?
3 Ezekiel prophesied: “‘It must occur in that day, in the day when Gog comes in upon the soil of Israel,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘that my rage will come up into my nose. And I will bring myself into judgment with him, with pestilence and with blood; and a flooding downpour and hailstones, fire and sulphur I shall rain down upon him and upon his bands and upon the many peoples that will be with him.’” (Ezekiel 38:18, 22) No, the attack will not succeed. True Christians will be rescued, and Gog’s crowd will be destroyed.—Ezekiel 39:11.
4. Will the king of the south survive the end of the king of the north? What other prophecies support this answer?
4 Evidently, then, the time of the end of the king of the north is the time of the end for Gog and all his crowd, including the king of the south. This harmonizes with other prophecies in the book of Daniel. For example, we read that after God’s Kingdom was established, it would “crush and put an end to all these kingdoms [including both the king of the north and the king of the south], and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” (Daniel 2:44)
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