Following his rapid and victorious Middle East campaign, in verse 44 “he” is troubled by news from
the east and the north. Following the pattern of the chapter the reference point for direction is
Israel, so east could be anywhere in the Middle East or possibly further afield towards China. In a similar way the North could refer to the region of Syria or further afield up towards Turkey or even Russia. However far these extend it seems that the same power involved in a large middle-east war
will then end up at war with these areas attacking them “with great fury and destruction”. Verse 44
goes on to suggest that “he” will be victorious, saying that he will destroy and annihilate many. This P a g e 30
may well be what gives rise to the saying in Revelation 13:4 where the world asks, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
TIMING, GEOGRAPHY AND PROTAGANISTS OF THESE WARS
In terms of timing there are two ways we could look at this passage. On the one hand it may shed
significant light on the wars that bring the beast (the final world empire) into a position of power over the whole Earth early in (or even before) the tribulation. This would fit with Revelation 6:2
where a war of conquest appears to occur right at the start of the series of end time events.
Matthew 24 also speaks of “nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom” as part of
“the beginning of sorrows”, though in the Matthew 24 passage it’s a little less clear how tightly
connected the timeframe of these events is with the seven year tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth
week of prophecy). On the other hand these wars may relate to the Antichrist’s rise to the fullness of his power part way into the tribulation. This may sound rather similar, but bear in mind that there are two reasons to believe that Antichrist’s full ascension to power occurs at a later stage than the coming into being of the world government itself. The first reason is that in Revelation 13 two
phases of the beast are given; the first with ten rulers and the latter with two. (One of these latter two is definitely the Antichrist, the other may be the false prophet). The second reason is that in Daniel 7:24 it says that the little horn (Antichrist) displaces three of the ten kings of “the beast”: The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings.
(Daniel 7:24)
There is no real mention of what happens to the other seven, however one thing we can pick out
from this verse is that his subduing of three kings suggests that all ten are reigning at the same time (not a succession of rulers). A common interpretation of prophecy concerning the ten kings is that
they represent a “ten nation confederacy”. While this is possible it is worth considering that should
“the beast” be a world empire (even in its first phase) then another possible fulfillment of the ten kings could be something more like a world council of regional presidents that collectively form the executive of a world government. If things do develop in this way then the existing European Union
(and EU president) may be looked back on as the forerunner of a larger process of regionalization.
P a g e 31
Although it’s hard to be certain of exact timing and circumstances, what the passage does make
clear about these wars is that they will start in the Middle East, result in the subjection of most of that region, (with Jordan remaining free and North Africa giving allegiance), and spread North and
East towards Russia and Asia respectively. This may even give a clue as to the power that is in
conflict with all these regions. If we subtract the Middle Eastern nations, Russia, Asia and northern Africa from the power blocks of today's world, the most significant remaining power block is what
one might call the 'Anglo-American led western empire’. This is of significant interest when you
consider that many of what we loosely call the ‘western’ nations are those that arose out of the
western arm of the Roman Empire, either directly in the case of the European nations, or via
colonization from Europe in the case of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. (Remember
that the Roman Empire is seen in Daniels’s prophecy as being somehow intrinsically connected with
the final empire.) At least being aware of this possibility balances the increasingly prevalent idea that the Antichrist arises out of the Muslim world and the east (based largely on the Middle Eastern
location of these wars and the prophetic connections we saw earlier with the Syrian king Antiochus
IV). Either is certainly possible; that the East rises to ascendancy over the West or that the nucleus of the final world empire could be some kind of ‘western alliance’ that ultimately succeeds in subduing the world through a period of terrible wars. Those of us living in the west need to be especially
aware of this latter possibility because it’s always easier to see the enemy outside the gates than the enemy within. In the movie Star Wars Episode III the “good” empire which was constantly fighting all the “evildoers” turned out to be secretly evil at its core and because of this actually became the “evil empire”, even as it finally succeeded in overcoming the evil it was fighting. This is analogous to one possibility of how the future of the world could shape up in end times. Of course it’s equally possible that the balance of power in the world could move to the east and that the existing ascendancy of
the west could crumble, so at this stage the important thing is just to be aware of all realistic
possibilities.