God’s Word for You
Daniel 11:7-8 A war with little elephants
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, January 8, 2026
7 “A branch from her line will rise up in his place. He will come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the North, and he will do something against them and prevail. 8 Even their gods, with their cast idols and their precious vessels of silver and gold, he will carry off to Egypt as spoils of war. For some years he will leave the king of the North alone.
The new man here, “a branch from her (Bernice’s) line,” was her brother, not her son. His name was Ptolemy III Euergetes, and he was the one who killed Queen Laodicea (who had a hand in murdering this new king’s sister). He waged a war against the king of the North (Seleucus II) and his brother Antiochus (“Hierax”). The fighting was so decisive that their temples, gods, and other treasures, were plundered and carried back to Egypt. Since gods were regarded as a nation’s protectors, this was a heavy blow.
The prophecy in verse 7 is rather vague. After entering “the fortresses” (or strongholds) of the king of the North, “he will do something against them and prevail.” He occupied Antioch in the far north and even Babylon. According to an inscription found at Adoulis on Persian Gulf, Ptolemy III “led a campaign into Asia with infantry and cavalry and a fleet. There were both Troglodytic elephants and Ethiopian elephants.” Troglodytic elephants, now extinct, were small elephants from the Red Sea coast of North Africa and were often used for work enlarging caves. Ethiopian elephants were what we call African elephants today, larger and more powerful than the smaller Indian elephants and even smaller Troglodytic (cave) elephants.
During this war (the Third Syrian War, 246-241 BC), the “king of the South” (Ptolemy) also lost his last stronghold in the north, which was the archipelago or island-group known as the Cyclades, the islands eat of Greece, north of Crete. Otherwise, the war was an overwhelming victory for Egypt. This war placed Ptolemaic Egypt at the very height of its power. He prevailed, indeed.
In these verses we see more examples of law and gospel being preached, but the obvious focus of Daniel’s attention is the theft of the Syrian gods that were carted back to Egypt. The LORD began his Ten Commandments with the words, “I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods” (Exodus 20:2-3). The Greeks and Egyptians were no more excused from this, the simplest and most basic of all the Commandments, than anybody else. The majority of the Bible’s poetry is simply a study of having no other gods. As Luther says, “What is the whole Psalter but meditations and exercises based on the First Commandment?” (Preface to the Large Catechism, §18). The First Commandment draws the clearest line between God’s people and everyone else in the world. For a pagan or an atheist or a Deist like our American founding fathers can almost sound Christian in their morality and generous use of the word “God” when they write, but never once meaning Christ when they say it. Yet they can make good laws, useful regulations, and govern a nation in peace. But they will burn in hell shoulder to shoulder with the devil because they reject Christ. And these Greek princes who were sitting on golden chairs in Egypt and Antioch and Babylon were nothing but frightened pagans trying to keep their heads on their shoulders long enough to die in bed, but few of them ever died peacefully. That should have been a warning to them, just one warning among many. They made their gods out of their own ideas, dreams and wishes that they had about the true God. But they were never right; never even close. They could never imagine that the Creator of the universe was not the head of a gang of gods, a chief bully among bullies, but one God alone, by himself, who loved all of mankind so much that he was willing to give up his only Son as a man to die for their wretched sin and guilt. But this is the God we worship, the God who has truly revealed himself to us. This is the God who has promised us with words that we can understand that we will live forever with him in heaven.
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.