The Daily Audio Bible

Greece Will Conquer Persia

² ⌞The person who looked like a human continued,⌟ “What I am about to tell you is the truth. Three more kings will rule Persia. Then there will be a fourth, who will become much richer than all the others. As he becomes strong through his wealth, he will turn everyone against the kingdom of Greece.

³ “Then a warrior-king will come. He will rule a vast empire and do as he pleases. ⁴ But as soon as he is established, his kingdom will be broken into pieces and divided in the directions of the four winds of heaven. The empire will not be given to his descendants. It will no longer be like his empire, since it will be uprooted and given to others.

The Northern and Southern Kings

⁵ “The southern king will be strong, but one of his officers will become stronger than he is and rule a vast empire. ⁶ After a few years the southern and northern kings will make an alliance. The southern king’s daughter will go to the northern king to make peace. She won’t hold on to her power, and the alliance won’t last. She, those who came with her, and the one who fathered ^[a] and protected her will be given away.

⁷ “At that time a shoot will grow from her roots to replace her father. He will attack the northern army, enter the stronghold of the northern king, fight against them, and be victorious. ⁸ He will take the metal statues of their gods and their precious utensils of silver and gold back to Egypt. He will rule for more years than the northern king. ⁹ He will invade the southern kingdom and return to his own country.

¹⁰ “Then his sons will prepare for war. They will assemble a large number of forces so that they can overwhelm ⌞the enemy⌟ and pass through its land. They will return and wage war all the way to the stronghold. ¹¹ The southern king will be outraged. He will go to fight the northern king, who will raise a large army that will fall into the southern king’s hands. ¹² When that army is captured, the southern king will become conceited. Although he will dominate tens of thousands of people, he will not always be strong.

¹³ “The northern king will return and raise an army larger than the first one. After a few years he will invade with a large army and a lot of equipment. ¹⁴ In those times many people will rebel against the southern king, and violent men from your own people will rebel in keeping with this vision, but they will be defeated. ¹⁵ Then the northern king will come, build dirt attack ramps, and capture a fortified city. The southern forces will not be able to withstand him. Even their best troops will not be strong enough. ¹⁶ The invader will do as he pleases, and no one will be able to withstand his attack. He will rise to power in the beautiful land and it will be completely under his control.

¹⁷ “Then the northern king will decide to invade with the power of his entire kingdom, and some decent men will invade with him. He will give the southern king his daughter as a wife in order to destroy the southern kingdom. But this will not succeed or help him. ¹⁸ Then he will turn his attention to the coastlands and capture many of them. But a commander will silence the insults that the northern king makes and even insult him. ¹⁹ He will turn back toward the fortresses in his own country, but he will stumble, fall, and disappear.

²⁰ “Another king will take his place. He will have a cruel official go out in royal splendor. But in a few days the king will be destroyed, although not in anger or war.

²¹ “A contemptible person will take his place. He will not be given royal splendor. He will invade when people are feeling secure, and he will seize the kingdom using false promises. ²² He will overwhelm large forces and defeat them, including the prince of the promise.^{[b] 23} After an alliance has been made with him, he will act deceitfully and rise to power with only a few people. ²⁴ When people feel secure, he will invade the richest parts of the provinces and do something that none of his predecessors ever did. He will distribute loot and wealth to his followers. He will invent new ways of attacking fortifications. But this will last only for a little while.

²⁵ “With a large army he will summon his power and courage against the southern king, who will prepare for war with a large, strong army. But the southern king won’t be able to withstand him because of the schemes devised against him. ²⁶ People who eat the king’s rich food will ruin him. His army will be overwhelmed, and many will die in battle. ²⁷ The two kings will both plan to do evil. They will sit at the same table and tell lies. But they will not succeed, because the end must wait until the appointed time. ²⁸ The northern king will return to his country with a lot of wealth. He will be determined to fight against the holy promise. He will take action and return to his own country.

²⁹ “At the appointed time he will again invade the south, but this time will be different from the first. ³⁰ Ships will come from the west to attack him, and he will be discouraged and turn back. Angry at the holy promise, he will return, take action, and favor those who abandon the holy promise. ³¹ His forces will dishonor the holy place (the fortress), take away the daily burnt offering, and set up the disgusting thing that causes destruction. ³² With flattery he will corrupt those who abandon the promise. But the people who know their God will be strong and take action.

³³ “People who are wise will help many to understand. But for some time they will be defeated by swords and flames. They will be captured and looted. ³⁴ As they are being defeated, they will get a little help, but many who are not sincere will join them. ³⁵ Some of the wise people will be defeated in order to refine, purify, and make them white until the end times. But the appointed time is still to come.

⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you. Whoever does what God approves of has God’s approval as Christ has God’s approval. ⁸ The person who lives a sinful life belongs to the devil, because the devil has been committing sin since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy what the devil does. ⁹ Those who have been born from God don’t live sinful lives. What God has said lives in them, and they can’t live sinful lives. They have been born from God. ¹⁰ This is the way God’s children are distinguished from the devil’s children. Everyone who doesn’t do what is right or love other believers isn’t God’s child.

Love One Another

¹¹ The message that you have heard from the beginning is to love each other. ¹² Don’t be like Cain. He was a child of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain murder his brother? Because the things Cain did were evil and the things his brother did had God’s approval. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised if the world hates you.

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love other believers. The person who doesn’t grow in love remains in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates another believer is a murderer, and you know that a murderer doesn’t have eternal life.

¹⁶ We understand what love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers. ¹⁷ Now, suppose a person has enough to live on and notices another believer in need. How can God’s love be in that person if he doesn’t bother to help the other believer? ¹⁸ Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words.

¹⁹ This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be reassured in his presence. ²⁰ Whenever our conscience condemns us, we will be reassured that God is greater than our conscience and knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we can boldly look to God ²² and receive from him anything we ask. We receive it because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³ This is his commandment: to believe in his Son, the one named Jesus Christ, and to love each other as he commanded us. ²⁴ Those who obey Christ’s commandments live in God, and God lives in them. We know that he lives in us because he has given us the Spirit.

A song by David for going up to worship.