God’s Word for You
Daniel 11:25-26 A liar and a thief
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, January 17, 2026
25 He will stir up his power and courage against the king of the South with a great army. The king of the South will wage war with a large army, a very powerful one. But he will not succeed because of plots that will be devised against him. 26 Those who eat the special royal food will break him, his army shall be swept away, and many shall fall slain.
The king of the South here is the legitimate king, Ptolemy VI, known as Philometor. Born in 186 BC, he was still a child when his father died in 181. His mother Cleopatra I was regent for the young king until her death a few years later. As he was coming of age (around the summer of 170) he and Antiochus went to war. This time, the Syrians under Antiochus seized a great deal of land except for the city of Alexandria, and then Antiochus was pushed back. This is the account at the beginning of 1 Maccabees:
“He invaded Egypt with a strong force, with chariots and elephants and cavalry and with a large fleet. He engaged King Ptolemy of Egypt in battle, and Ptolemy turned and fled before him, and many were wounded and fell. They captured the fortified cities in the land of Egypt, and he plundered the land of Egypt” (1 Maccabees 1:17-19).
The problem that the young Pharaoh Ptolemy faced was not the size of his army, nor his own personal bravery, which did not falter despite his young age (he was about 16). It was the “plots devised against him” by the treacherous and contemptible Antiochus, who used bribery and empty promises to turn some of the Egyptian commanders away from battle at key points, so that Ptolemy’s command was undermined, and the wicked king of the North was able to plunder the breadbasket of the ancient world.
Verse 26 reveals that some of the key traitors in this were the young king’s own nobles and courtiers, “those who eat the special royal food.” Much like our Lord Jesus, Ptolemy was betrayed by his friends. David had gone through the same thing, and he also foresaw this about the Savior: “Even my close friend, whom I trusted; he who shared my bread, has lifted up his hand against me” (Psalm 41:9).
In young Ptolemy’s case, the conspiracy led to many fine Egyptian warriors falling, pierced and dying, in the Nile Delta. The Hebrew text says that many fell “pierced” (chalal), a word used for the wounds of arrows, darts, swords, and spears, and to be slain in any such manner (Joshua 11:6). Once again, the Nile ran red with blood, but this was not a miracle, only a plague of deception and treachery.
“My child” said a pastor of the ancient church, “don’t be a liar, for lying leads to blasphemy, nor a lover of money, and don’t be vain. For from all of these are spawned thefts.”
Such lying teachery is a kind of foreshadowing of one of the marks of the Antichrist, that there will be a falling away from the truth through his false preaching (2 Thessalonians 2:3). This is not exactly the point of our verse, but it is not wrong to remain vigilant and to notice even those things that are similar to the signs of the great enemy of the church, shadows that remind us of his treacherous work. The most important difference is that the lies of the Antichrist are so much worse than those of a secular enemy. A worldly ruler who lies, who grabs for power that does not belong to him or to his nation, does not deserve to govern or rule, and should be removed if possible. Yet a country may have to live under his rule for a time as a cross that they bear.
But Antichrist will say things that will deceive the people of God, denying most of all and more than anything the power of the Gospel to save souls. As John said, “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist” (2 John 1:7). “To fix one’s thoughts on the wisdom of God is perfect understanding, and the one who is vigilant on its account will soon be free from care.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.