Key: Dan.4:17, 25; Ps. 22:28
THE CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE KINGS OF THE SOUTH AND OF THE NORTH, THE PTOLEMIES AND
SELEUCIDÆ—ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES. DAN. 11:5- 45.
- 11:33-35. “And they that understand Lk. 24:44-47—who know and keep the truth
of God (Isa. 11:3, shall instruct many—in their duty to God and the law, not to
apostatize. yet they shall fall by the sword—as, Two women, who circumcised
their infant boys, were cast down with their babes headlong from the wall: seven
brethren and their mother submitted to a cruel death amidst torments, rather than
deny their faith: the third said, in dying, to the king, ‘Thou takest us out of this
present life, but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for His
laws, unto everlasting life,’ (2 Macc. 6:18, &c.) They shall be sorely persecuted,
even to death, (Heb. 11:35–37; 2 Macc. 6. and 7.)” Fausset A. R. - “That they shall instruct many, 2Tim. 4:1-2, v. 33. They have learned themselves
of the difference between truth and falsehood, good and evil. Note, those that
have the knowledge of God themselves should communicate their knowledge to
others, and they must instruct many … In trying times, those that have knowledge
ought to make use of it for the strengthening and establishing of others. They
ought to do what they can to bring others to understand; for knowledge is a talent
that must be traded with. Or, they shall instruct many by their perseverance in
their duty and their patient suffering for it.” M. Henry (2.) “They shall fall by the
cruelty of Antiochus v. 33 they fall (die) by persecution; in v. 35 they fall
(spiritually) for a time by their own weakness. and by flame—in caves, whither
they had retired to keep the Sabbath. Antiochus caused some to be roasted alive
(2 Macc. 7:3–5, ‘The first of the seven brothers, after his tongue and extremities
had been cut off, was fried to death in a heated pan’). many days—rather,
“certain days,” as in ch. 8:27. Josephus (‘Antiquities,’ xii. 7, vi. 7) tells us the
persecution lasted for three years (1 Macc. 1:59; 4:54; 2 Macc. 10:1–7.
‘Maccabeus and his company made another altar, and striking stones, took fire
out of them, and offered a sacrifice after two years, and set forth incense … Upon
the same day that strangers profaned the temple, upon the very same day was it
cleansed again, even the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is
Casleu. And they kept eight days with gladness, remembering that not long afore
… they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts’). 34. Now when they
shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help. The liberty obtained by the
Maccabean heroes for the Jews was but of short duration.” Fausset A. R. “Judas
Maccabaeus, and his brethren, and a few with them, shall make head against the
tyrant, and assert the injured cause of their religion; they pulled down the
idolatrous altars, circumcised the children that they found uncircumcised,
recovered the law out of the hand of the Gentiles… 1 Mac. 2:45,” Henry M. - It shall be to try them, and to purge, and to make them white. They needed these
afflictions themselves. Mal. 3:2-4, Jas. 1:12, Rev. 2:10 The best has their spots,
which must be washed off, their dross, which must be purged out; and their
troubles, particularly their share in the public troubles, help to do this; being
sanctified to them by the grace of God. They try them, as silver in the furnace is
refined from its dross; they purge them…and they make them white. See 1 Pt.
1:7. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
