Twin Creek RV Resort, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Verses 5-35 of Daniel Chapter 11, cover history for roughly the next 158 years. If you find it all a bit confusing, just focus on the points that match God’s Word perfectly, as that’s the main point anyway. 😊
The king of the South (Ptolemy I Soter) will become strong, but one of his commanders (Seleucus I Nicator) will become even stronger than he and will rule his own kingdom with great power. ~ Daniel 11:5
Ptolemy I Soter and Seleucus I Nicator – Over time, these men and their descendants became known as The Ptolemies and The Seleucids’ who controlled the known world for the next 300 and 250 years, respectively. The Ptolemies reign ended following the reign of Cleopatra in 30BC (yes, that Cleopatra). The Seleucids rule ends in 64BC, when Pompey The Great made Syria a Roman province. By the way, Rome had been around since 625BC. Are you surprised? I know I was! By the way. All the Ptolemies and Seleucids use the same beginning to their names in succession – Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II, etc. To save time and confusion, sometimes I just use their actual name. I’m not sure if it’s their first or last name.
Ptolemy I Soter reigned over Egypt (thus “King of the South”)
- Ruled Egypt from 323-285BC
- Soter made Seleucus I Nicator an admiral over 100 ships. He later gave Nickator 800 men and sent him to conquer Babylon
- Nicator gathered more troops along the way and ended up with approximately 3,000
- Nicator eventually took the Middle East area away from Perdiccas, the former Alexandrian general awarded the area upon Alexander’s death
Seleucus I Nicator – Ruled over the Middle East area (thus “King of the North”)
- Nicator ruled 311-280BC
- He was assassinated by another Ptolemy (a brother of Ptolemy II) in an attempt to gain his own kingdom. It didn’t work
- Over the course of Nicator’s reign, he conquered all the areas of Alexander the Great, except Egypt making him “even stronger than (the king of the South)”
We headed off this morning into Smokey Mountain National Park to hike the Grotto Falls Trail. As we drove the twisty-curvy narrow road, our elevation mounted, and we began to see snow. I was soooo excited! By the time we reached our parking area, there was several inches mounded on branches and the ground all around us! I was over the moon!
The rest of our hiking party wasn’t quite as enthralled as I was, but I think I eventually won them over at least in part, because no one could deny the inexplicable beauty God chose to surround us with!
Brad learned later that the owners had parked here yesterday, then hiked to the lodge for the night.
They came back to this! 🙂
Actually, the guys crossed first.
I have no idea what Blaine was doing.
Maybe his head just had an itch. : )
You can’t really tell the difference much, can you? : )
We thought maybe they were ice crystals formed on spider webs, but we’re not sure because there were no webs anywhere and when I put some on my finger, the ice melted and nothing was left. Hmmm . . . .
Beautiful though, isn’t it?!?
We just chose one.
If memory serves, Blaine had to duck under the door frame, and I’m certain Brad did.
We hiked this lovely trail, enjoyed the waterfall, then dined on Reubens and burgers at Three Jimmies. Excellent food – and company! Thanks for sharing your fried mushrooms, Brad!