30 Oct. Daniel is told the Persian Empire will be overthrown
“In the first year that Darius the Mede was king, I stood up to support [the angel] Michael in his fight against the prince of Persia.”
“'Now then, Daniel, I [Michael] tell you the truth: three more kings will rule in Persia, and then a fourth king will come. He will be much richer than all the kings of Persia before him and will use his riches to get power. He will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.’”
“’Then a mighty king will come, who will rule with great power and will do anything he wants. After that king has come, his kingdom will be broken up and divided out towards the four parts of the world. His kingdom will not go to his descendants, and it will not have the power he had, because his kingdom will be pulled up and given to other people.’”
“’The king of the South will become strong, but one of his commanders will become even stronger. He will begin to rule his own kingdom with great power. Then after a few years, a new friendship will develop. The daughter of the king of the South will marry the king of the North in order to bring peace. But she will not keep her power, and his family will not last. She, her husband, her child and those who brought her to that country will be killed.’”
“’But a person from her family will become king of the South and will attack the armies of the king of the North. He will go into that king’s strong, walled city and will fight and win. He will take their gods, their metal idols and their valuable things made of silver and gold back to Egypt. Then he will not bother the king of the North for a few years. Next, the king of the North will attack the king of the South, but he will be beaten back to his own country.’”
(Daniel 11:1-9)
In today’s reading, Daniel is given a long and detailed prophecy by the Archangel Michael (it continues to verse 45).
At the beginning of this prophecy, Michael predicts the overthrow of the Persian Empire by a mighty king from Greece (Daniel 11:3), and the subsequent break up of his empire into four parts (Daniel 11:4).
The Persian Empire had reached its zenith under Darius I and Xerxes I, with 127 provinces stretching from India to Upper Egypt (see Esther 8:9). Darius built a splendid new capital at the old Achaemenid city of Susa and started another palace at Persepolis.
Xerxes I (486-465BC) succeeded his father on his death in 486BC. His luxurious palace at Persepolis, where he built the magnificent colonnaded audience hall whose ruins can be still be seen today, was similar to Darius’s earlier royal palace at Susa - the glorious setting for the Biblical story of Queen Esther (see Esther 1:1-8).
Having quelled rebellions in Babylon and Egypt, Xerxes proceeded overland to mainland Greece where he defeated the Greek army headed by three hundred Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC, occupied Athens, and carried off the religious treasures from the sacred buildings on the Athenian Acropolis.
This sacrilegious act was avenged a hundred and fifty years later, in fulfilment of Michael’s prophecy (see Daniel 11:2-4), when the Greek King Alexander the Great of Macedon conquered Persia in 331BC and Persepolis was burnt to the ground.
In accordance with the prophecy given to Daniel, Alexander’s kingdom was subsequently divided between four of his generals when he died in 323BC. Ptolemy became King of Egypt (the “King of the South”), Seleucus became King of Syria and Babylonia (the “King of the North”), Cassander ruled in Macedonia, and Lysimachus in Thrace.
The photo shows a relief of Alexander the Great at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul.
You can read more about the Persian Empire @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/34-exile-in-babylonia-amp-the-journey-back-to-jerusalem/daniels-vision-of-the-son-of-man/