THE KING BECOMES "DEJECTED" IN A WAR

"At the time appointed he [the king of the north] will go back," the angel foretold," and he will actually come against the south; but it will not prove to be at the last the same as at the first." (Daniel 11:29)  God's "time appointed" to end Gentile domination of the earth came in 1914 when he set up the heavenly Kingdom. On June 28 of that year, Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian terrorist in Sarajevo,  Bosnia.  That was the spark that touched of World War I.

Kaiser Wilhelm urged Austria-Hungary to retaliate against Serbia.  Assured of German support, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.  But Russia came to Serbia's aid.  When Germany declared war on Russia, France (an ally in the Triple Entente) gave support to Russia. Germany then declared war on France.  To make Paris more readily accessible, Germany invaded Belgium, whose neutrality had been guaranteed by Britain.  So Britain declared war on Germany.  Other nations became involved, and Italy switch sides.  During the war, Britain made Egypt her protectorate in order to prevent the king of the north  from cutting off the Suez Canal and invading Egypt, the ancient land of the king of the south. 

"Despite the size  and strength of the Allies," says The World Book Encyclopedia, "Germany seemed close to winning the war."  In previous conflicts between the two kings, the Roman Empire, as king of the north, and consistently been victorious.  But this time, 'things were not the same as at the first.' The king of the north lost the war.  Giving the reason for this, the angel said:  "There will certainly  come against him the ships of Kittim, and he will have to become dejected." (Daniel 11:30a)  What were "the ships of Kittim?

In Daniel's time Kittim was Cyprus.  early in the first world war, Cyprus was annexed by Britain.   Moreover, according to the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, the name Kittim "is extended to include the W[est] in general, but esp[ecially] the seafaring W[est] ."  The New International Version renders the expression "ships of Kittim" as "ships of the western coastlands."  During the first world war, the ships of Kittim proved to be mainly the ships of Britain, lying off the western coast of Europe.  

As the war dragged on, the British Navy was strengthened by more ships of Kittim.  On May 7, 1915, the German submarine U-20 sank the civilian liner Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland.  Among the dead were 128 Americans.  Later, Germany extended submarine warfare into the Atlantic. Subsequently, on April 6, 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared war on  Germany, Augmented by U.S. warships and troops, the king of the south-now the Anglo-American World Power, the king of the north became "dejected" and conceded defeat in November 1918.  Wilhelm II fled into exile in the Netherlands, and Germany became a republic. But the king of the north was not finished.

Next time: THE KING ACTS "EFFECTIVELY"

From the book: PAY ATTENTION TO DANIEL'S PROPHECY! 1999