God’s Word for You

Daniel 11:37 The desire of women

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, January 23, 2026

37 He will not respect the God of his ancestors, or the desire of women. He will not respect any god, for he will exalt himself above them all.

When the Antichrist denies the salvation offered and given by “the God of his ancestors,” what is left that he would not deny, trample on, and treat with contempt? If he withdraws salvation through faith in Christ, and forbids people from believing it, then there is nothing left for his followers, confused and duped into following him without question—nothing left for them except to put their faith in him, and in him alone. “He does not respect any god,” the Angel tells Daniel, let alone the true God, and “he will exalt himself above them all.” He will end up saying that there is no salvation outside the church—his church.

His is “the supreme outward monarchy of the whole world in which the pope (the Roman pontiff) must have unlimited power beyond question or censure. He establishes articles of faith, abolishes the Scriptures by his leave, institutes devotions and sacrifices, enacts whatever laws he pleases, excuses and exempts men from any laws, divine, canonical, or civil, as he wishes. From him the emperor and all kings have received their power and right to rule, and this he says is at Christ’s command… therefore the pope must be lord of the whole world, of all the kingdoms of the world, and of all public and private affairs. He must have [absolute] power in both the temporal and the spiritual realm. This is the definition of the pope’s kingdom in Daniel 11:36-39” (The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, VII and VIII:23-24).

Another sign of this enemy of the Church is that he will not respect “the desire of women.” This phrase was correctly translated by the King James Version: “Neither shall he regard… the desire of women.” When the Revised Standard Version and the NIV leaned toward “the one desired (or beloved) by women,” they ignored the grammar of the passage, perhaps in an attempt to interpret the verse as pointing to Christ (?), or to echo the famous prophecy by Haggai, “the desired of all nations will come” (Haggai 2:7). But here “desire” is a noun (chemdah), not a passive verb. The Antichrist will attempt to circumvent the natural desire that God has given to men for women.

Marriage gives glory to God because it was instituted by God. This was in the Garden of Eden, before man fell into sin. It is the only time in the creation account that anything is said to be “not good” (Genesis 2:18), and it is the idea that a man would be without a wife: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is a suitable partner for him” (Genesis 2:18).

God showed Adam that he had a need for a mate; that this was common to all creatures God had made (except for the angels, Mark 12:25). It is God’s will that everyone, with very few exceptions, should seek out a spouse and be united to them for life. Paul says; “Each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:2). Paul himself had the gift of not desiring a wife (1 Corinthians 7:7), but he acknowledged that this was a rare gift, and while it would be good if someone could follow his example, the simple truth is that there is “so much immorality,” and that abstaining from marriage is not the same as having no desire for sex, which can only lead to immorality and sin.

In the Roman Catholic Church, in recent centuries (but not since the beginning, for this was not always the case) the clergy are forbidden from getting married, and even the lay people are taught that staying unmarried is a holier state than being married. Pope John Paul II said, “Those who choose matrimony do well, and those who choose virginity or voluntary abstinence do better.” At the time of the Lutheran Reformation, clergy who were married were tortured, forced to abandon their wives and family, and in some cases were even executed for the crime of obeying God’s will concerning marriage. Our Augsburg Confession states: “Now men, and even priests, are cruelly put to death… for no other cause than marriage. To prohibit marriage is called a doctrine of demons by Paul. This can be readily understood now that the prohibition of marriage is maintained by means of such penalties” (Article XXIII:22-23). The verse of Paul is 1 Timothy 4:1,3, “In later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons… They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, both of which (marriage and food) God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” But the Holy Spirit says, “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22).

To say that the opinion or will of one man, or even of one group, or that even the will of the church is above the will of God is outrageous and blasphemous. “A more bloated pride could hardly be imagined.” For if man’s will in any form and from any source is declared to be higher than the will of God, then it is inevitable that God will be declared the one who sins against that man. This means that by placing his will above God’s, the Antichrist declares God to be the sinner, and who will atone for God’s sins against the Antichrist, who is the pope? What atonement would be enough to satisfy his holiness for these sins of the Holy One? Do you see where this goes? Where this takes us?

Let us turn away from these twisted and maddening ways; this mysterious path of what madmen claim for themselves over against the simple truth of God’s holy word. “Do not wander in that labyrinth; where Minotaurs and ugly treasons lurk.” God’s will is supreme, and all who violate the will of God sin, for that is the definition of sin.

Our sins are covered by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7). The damage of sin in us is so complete that it can’t be recognized by human reason, but only from the Word of God. In the same way, the forgiveness of Christ is so complete that it, too, cannot be imagined or recognized by rational human beings apart from the Word of God. Only by being told and shown by the Holy Spirit that our sins have been removed “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12) do we begin to understand the eternal comfort and reassurance that God gives: Your sins are forgiven. You are at peace with God.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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