““Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself and will consider himself above any god, and he will speak horrendous things against the God of gods, yet he will succeed until the period of anger is finished, for what is determined will be done.” (Daniel 11:36, LEB)

Up until this point in Daniel 11, the reader has been reading a prophecy of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, at vs. 35 many Bible commentators think that there is a change and Daniel looks into the distant future and sees the time of a new king.  This new king “will do as he pleases.”  He “will consider himself above any god,” and even “speak horrendous things against the God of gods.”

This king is a worshiper only of himself.  He is arrogant, authoritative, and unwilling to submit himself to the kingship of Jesus…and he gets away with it.  He will “succeed until the period of anger [The Great Tribulation?] is finished.”

God, for his own wise purposes and own unstated ends, will allow evil to run rampant and to appear to be beyond anyone’s control…but only for a limited amount of time [Consider the Nazi regime].  However, evil is always under the authority of the King of kings.  Notice that the text doesn’t say that “he will succeed forever,” this evil succeed for a limited period of time.

Horrendous things are under the authority of the King of kings, just like everything else is.  It obeys him.  It must submit to him, and it will eventually end at his command.