The Word of God - A Survey of the Bible - Part Twenty-One - A Jul 12, 2020 by: John Herbert | Series: The Word of God - A Survey of the Bible Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T024_20200712.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Da 9:20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel........ Today we will begin to look at the prophecy given to Daniel by Gabriel. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday July 12th 2020 The Word of God A Survey of the Bible – Lesson 21A The Remains of the Day 1). Ex 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. We have come to know and to believe that God’s purpose for creating Man is for a Man and a Woman to rule the earth together in a marriage relationship in the 7th Day in the place of Satan and his angels. a). And we have come to know and to believe that the first man, Adam, and his wife were disqualified from rulership because of the introduction of sin as the result of the Woman having been deceived. And in order to redeem fallen Man and the material creation ruined with him, God would work for 6 days, 6000 years, in order to fulfill His purpose for the 7th Day. b). And we have seen in the last few weeks that, following the flood of Noah, as God works within the 6000 years, 6 days, to fulfill His purpose, He chose to work through the lineage of Shem, the only one of Noah’s sons to have God – Ge 9:26 And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, Through Shem’s lineage we came to one man, Abraham, to whom the promises concerning God’s purpose for the 7th Day were given – Ge 22:15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” The descendants of Abraham who ‘shall possess the gate of their enemies’ in fulfillment of God’s purpose, are to come through the son of promise, Abraham’s son Isaac, and through Isaac’s son Jacob and his 12 sons. c). And it was in Abraham’s grandson Jacob that God brought about a new creation, the nation of Israel, a nation adopted as God’s firstborn son, a nation that would also be His wife; a nation that would be completely separate from the kingdom of Satan and the nations under his control, in order to rule those nations within a Theocracy. d). But we have also seen how national Israel’s continued harlotry among those same Gentile nations that they were supposed to overthrow and be separate from, eventually led to God ending the Theocracy and divorcing His harlot wife. e). And in accordance with what God had told the nation through Moses both in Leviticus Chapter 26 and Deuteronomy Chapter 28, He removed the nation from the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob taking them into captivity in order to bring them to repentance – De 28:64 “Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. The captivity began when the northern 10 tribes of Israel were carried away by the Assyrians about 722 BC. Then, something over 100 years later, the remaining southern 2 tribes of Benjamin and Judah were also taken into captivity, this time by the Babylonians, beginning about 605 BC, in three stages that lasted about 19 years, until 586 BC. f). The Babylonians had conquered the Assyrian empire and with the final removal of the southern 2 tribes from the land, the Theocracy was at an end, and the times of the Gentiles had begun. A time when the Gentile nations and not Israel would hold the scepter of rulership, a time that continues and will continue until national Israel is brought to repentance. g). And it is with the Babylonian captivity, marking the complete removal of the Jewish people from their land, within the overall context of the 6 days of work and God’s purpose for Man in the 7th Day, that Daniel enters the picture. 2). Da 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god. 3 Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, 4 young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. Daniel was one of the ‘young men’ taken to serve in the king’s palace, and it was to Daniel, while in captivity, that God revealed the full scope of the times of the Gentiles, and the specific timeframe within His 6000 years of work, in which He would bring Daniel’s people, the nation of Israel, to repentance with a view to rulership in the 7th Day. a). But before we look at that specific timeframe, we need to set the context with respect to the scope of the times of the Gentiles as the timeframe for it and the scope of it are inextricably connected. Repentant, restored Israel and the end of the times of the Gentiles go hand in hand. Da 2:1 Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. 2 Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. 3 And the king said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.” It was to Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan, Gentile king, the world ruler of his day, in whose lands the Jewish people were held captive that God gave a dream that revealed the complete scope of the times of the Gentiles that began with him. b). But although the dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar, a Gentile ruler, the interpretation of the dream could only be given through a Jewish prophet, Daniel – Ps 147:19 He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. 20 He has not dealt thus with any [Gentile] nation; And as for His judgments, they [Gentile nations] have not known them. Praise the Lord! The dream given to Nebuchadnezzar was of ‘a great image’ consisting of 4 parts, seen standing in Babylon, representing the 4 stages of the Babylonian kingdom, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar, that together encompass the full scope of the times of the Gentiles – Da 2: 31 “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 “This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king…….. The head of gold then, pictures the Babylonian kingdom under Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar, from 605 BC until the conquest of the kingdom by the Medes and the Persians in 538 BC. c). The breast and arms of silver picture the same Babylonian kingdom under the Medes and the Persians from 538 BC to its conquest by the Greeks in 330 BC. d). The belly and thighs of bronze then picture the same Babylonian kingdom under the Greeks from 330-323 BC when Alexander, the Great, died. Following Alexander’s death in 323 BC, the kingdom of Babylon, still under Greek control, was divided among Alexander’s 4 generals. And following this division the kingdom of Babylon gradually faded from the scene as a world power. The kingdom of Babylon was not conquered by another empire, it just became dormant, so to speak, awaiting the time of its reemergence yet future. e). And it is the reemergence of the kingdom of Babylon yet future, as the center of world power once again, that is pictured in the 4th part of the great image, the legs of iron and feet part of iron and part of clay. This will be the final form of the kingdom of Babylon under its worldwide ruler, Antichrist. f). Now, there are a few things we will want to pay attention to with this. The great image shown to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream stands only in Babylon and therefore concerns only one kingdom, the kingdom of Babylon. Both the Medes and the Persians and the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, all ruled their ‘worldwide’ kingdom from Babylon. g). Since the division of the kingdom of Babylon after Alexander’s death, no subsequent world empire has ruled from Babylon. h). The times of the Gentiles began with the Babylonian kingdom and will end with the overthrow of the final form of that same kingdom. i). And finally, we need to view the chronology of the events, pictured through the great image, as God views them. It is the nature of Western thought to view history as a linear chronology, but hopefully it has not escaped our attention that Scriptural ‘history’ has been revealed within the context of ‘Eastern’ thought, which does not deal so much with linear chronology as with the succession of significant events. j). The most obvious example of this is found at the very beginning of Scripture – Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Scriptures present all the events in these 2 verses together, as if there is no time gap between them. In reality though, there is an unspecified time gap between when God created the heavens and the earth and when the earth became formless and void. And there is another unspecified time gap between when the earth became formless and void and the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. k). The focus then, from a Scriptural perspective, is to show the significance of the succeeding events, not the linear chronology that joins them together. l). Now, if we take this back to Daniel and what God revealed to him about how He will deal with Israel during the times of the Gentiles, we see that the 4th part of the image immediately follows the 3rd without any kind of time gap being shown. And this is because following the fading away of the Babylonian kingdom the next significant event the Jewish people needed to know about is the reemergence of the Babylonian kingdom under Antichrist. The final form of the Babylonian kingdom that will bring Israel to repentance. 3). This then is the context in which Daniel found himself as a captive in the Babylonian kingdom. a). And if there would be one thing those in captivity would want to know, it would be when would their captivity would come to an end. b). And Daniel thought he had found the answer to this as he studied the Book of Jeremiah the Prophet – Da 9:1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And this is what Daniel read – Jer 29:10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. Daniel realized that the 70 years were almost ‘completed at Babylon’ and therefore he began to call upon the Lord in line with what he had seen in v12-14. c). The time period, 70 years, gives us 7 X 10, revealing 2 numbers of completion, and consequently it was in Daniel’s mind that at the completion of this time God would not only restore Israel to the land, but also restore Israel to the Theocracy. And the complete 70 years of Israel being removed from the land made this a possibility, but only if national repentance would take place – Jer 25:11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation. However, at the end of the 70 years there was no national repentance and apart from a remnant that returned to the land, the majority of the nation had settled down within the Babylonian kingdom and remained there. d). For national repentance to be accomplished, allowing a complete return of the entire nation to the land, a time period beyond the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity would have to come into view, with the 70 years then providing a foreshadowing of the extended time period that was still to come. e). And this is what the angel Gabriel was sent to reveal to Daniel – Da 9:20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision: 24 “Seventy weeks [Lit ‘sevens’] are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. The translation of the Hebrew word ‘shabua’ as ‘weeks’ is not really helpful as the word itself literally means ‘sevens’ and what the ‘sevens’ refer to is determined by the context. It could refer to ‘sevens’ of weeks, ‘sevens’ of days or ‘sevens’ of years. Translation issues, like this, can often lead to confusion. f). But if we keep the word as ‘sevens’ and allow the Scripture to determine the time referred to by the use of the word, there should be no confusion at all. g). Let’s remember that the focus here for Daniel has been the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity. In those 70 years is seen a complete period of time in which Israel could have come to national repentance but didn’t. Despite the punishment of the captivity the nation remained unrepentant and disobedient. h). Now, do we remember what we had looked at last time from Leviticus Chapter 26, concerning how God would respond to Israel’s continued disobedience? – Le 26:19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. 21 “Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. The nation’s failure to repent at the end of the 70 years would be met by God’s response of a seven times intensification. The 70 years of the Babylonian captivity would be intensified seven times – 70 years X 7 = 490 years - 24 “Seventy sevens are determined For your people and for your holy city, Power Point – Slides 1-2 And it is through this intensification, through the completion of the ‘seventy sevens’, the completion of the full 490 years, that Israel will be brought to repentance and restored. And this is exactly what Gabriel revealed to Daniel - To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. There is one last piece we need to add to our understanding of the word ‘sevens’ – Le 25:3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. Le 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest— for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. 2 Ch 36:20 And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years. According to Leviticus Chapter 25, every 7th year the land of Israel was to enjoy ‘a sabbath of solemn rest’, it was to be ‘a sabbath to the Lord’, when no work was to be done on the land. This will echo the collection of the manna in the wilderness. So, 6 years of cultivation followed by a sabbath rest of one year = 7 years = 1 ‘seven’. Power Point – Slide 3 i). Leviticus Chapter 26 shows us that Israel did not do this, they failed to keep the sabbaths of solemn rest for the land and the Lord had promised He would scatter the Jewish people among the Gentile nations so that the land could ‘enjoy its sabbaths’ that the people had not kept. j). Then in 2 Chronicles Chapter 36 we see how this all connects with the Babylonian captivity, where the Jewish people removed from their land enabled to land to enjoy its sabbaths for a complete period of time – 10 X 7 years = 70 years = 10 sets of ‘sevens’. Power Point – Slide 4 k). But because of Israel’s failure to repent, therefore still remaining disobedient to observing the sabbath of solemn rest for the land, they would not be returned to the land as a complete nation for a period of time intensified by seven allowing the land to continue to enjoy its sabbaths – 70 sets of ‘sevens’ = 490 years. Power Point – Slide 5 We will continue with this next time – If the Lord is willing. The Word of God - A Survey of the Bible - Part Twenty-One - A Jul 12, 2020 Speaker: John Herbert Series: The Word of God - A Survey of the Bible Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T024_20200712.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Da 9:20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel........ Today we will begin to look at the prophecy given to Daniel by Gabriel. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday July 12th 2020 The Word of God A Survey of the Bible – Lesson 21A The Remains of the Day 1). Ex 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. We have come to know and to believe that God’s purpose for creating Man is for a Man and a Woman to rule the earth together in a marriage relationship in the 7th Day in the place of Satan and his angels. a). And we have come to know and to believe that the first man, Adam, and his wife were disqualified from rulership because of the introduction of sin as the result of the Woman having been deceived. And in order to redeem fallen Man and the material creation ruined with him, God would work for 6 days, 6000 years, in order to fulfill His purpose for the 7th Day. b). And we have seen in the last few weeks that, following the flood of Noah, as God works within the 6000 years, 6 days, to fulfill His purpose, He chose to work through the lineage of Shem, the only one of Noah’s sons to have God – Ge 9:26 And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, Through Shem’s lineage we came to one man, Abraham, to whom the promises concerning God’s purpose for the 7th Day were given – Ge 22:15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” The descendants of Abraham who ‘shall possess the gate of their enemies’ in fulfillment of God’s purpose, are to come through the son of promise, Abraham’s son Isaac, and through Isaac’s son Jacob and his 12 sons. c). And it was in Abraham’s grandson Jacob that God brought about a new creation, the nation of Israel, a nation adopted as God’s firstborn son, a nation that would also be His wife; a nation that would be completely separate from the kingdom of Satan and the nations under his control, in order to rule those nations within a Theocracy. d). But we have also seen how national Israel’s continued harlotry among those same Gentile nations that they were supposed to overthrow and be separate from, eventually led to God ending the Theocracy and divorcing His harlot wife. e). And in accordance with what God had told the nation through Moses both in Leviticus Chapter 26 and Deuteronomy Chapter 28, He removed the nation from the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob taking them into captivity in order to bring them to repentance – De 28:64 “Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. The captivity began when the northern 10 tribes of Israel were carried away by the Assyrians about 722 BC. Then, something over 100 years later, the remaining southern 2 tribes of Benjamin and Judah were also taken into captivity, this time by the Babylonians, beginning about 605 BC, in three stages that lasted about 19 years, until 586 BC. f). The Babylonians had conquered the Assyrian empire and with the final removal of the southern 2 tribes from the land, the Theocracy was at an end, and the times of the Gentiles had begun. A time when the Gentile nations and not Israel would hold the scepter of rulership, a time that continues and will continue until national Israel is brought to repentance. g). And it is with the Babylonian captivity, marking the complete removal of the Jewish people from their land, within the overall context of the 6 days of work and God’s purpose for Man in the 7th Day, that Daniel enters the picture. 2). Da 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god. 3 Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, 4 young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. Daniel was one of the ‘young men’ taken to serve in the king’s palace, and it was to Daniel, while in captivity, that God revealed the full scope of the times of the Gentiles, and the specific timeframe within His 6000 years of work, in which He would bring Daniel’s people, the nation of Israel, to repentance with a view to rulership in the 7th Day. a). But before we look at that specific timeframe, we need to set the context with respect to the scope of the times of the Gentiles as the timeframe for it and the scope of it are inextricably connected. Repentant, restored Israel and the end of the times of the Gentiles go hand in hand. Da 2:1 Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. 2 Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. 3 And the king said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.” It was to Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan, Gentile king, the world ruler of his day, in whose lands the Jewish people were held captive that God gave a dream that revealed the complete scope of the times of the Gentiles that began with him. b). But although the dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar, a Gentile ruler, the interpretation of the dream could only be given through a Jewish prophet, Daniel – Ps 147:19 He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. 20 He has not dealt thus with any [Gentile] nation; And as for His judgments, they [Gentile nations] have not known them. Praise the Lord! The dream given to Nebuchadnezzar was of ‘a great image’ consisting of 4 parts, seen standing in Babylon, representing the 4 stages of the Babylonian kingdom, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar, that together encompass the full scope of the times of the Gentiles – Da 2: 31 “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 “This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king…….. The head of gold then, pictures the Babylonian kingdom under Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar, from 605 BC until the conquest of the kingdom by the Medes and the Persians in 538 BC. c). The breast and arms of silver picture the same Babylonian kingdom under the Medes and the Persians from 538 BC to its conquest by the Greeks in 330 BC. d). The belly and thighs of bronze then picture the same Babylonian kingdom under the Greeks from 330-323 BC when Alexander, the Great, died. Following Alexander’s death in 323 BC, the kingdom of Babylon, still under Greek control, was divided among Alexander’s 4 generals. And following this division the kingdom of Babylon gradually faded from the scene as a world power. The kingdom of Babylon was not conquered by another empire, it just became dormant, so to speak, awaiting the time of its reemergence yet future. e). And it is the reemergence of the kingdom of Babylon yet future, as the center of world power once again, that is pictured in the 4th part of the great image, the legs of iron and feet part of iron and part of clay. This will be the final form of the kingdom of Babylon under its worldwide ruler, Antichrist. f). Now, there are a few things we will want to pay attention to with this. The great image shown to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream stands only in Babylon and therefore concerns only one kingdom, the kingdom of Babylon. Both the Medes and the Persians and the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, all ruled their ‘worldwide’ kingdom from Babylon. g). Since the division of the kingdom of Babylon after Alexander’s death, no subsequent world empire has ruled from Babylon. h). The times of the Gentiles began with the Babylonian kingdom and will end with the overthrow of the final form of that same kingdom. i). And finally, we need to view the chronology of the events, pictured through the great image, as God views them. It is the nature of Western thought to view history as a linear chronology, but hopefully it has not escaped our attention that Scriptural ‘history’ has been revealed within the context of ‘Eastern’ thought, which does not deal so much with linear chronology as with the succession of significant events. j). The most obvious example of this is found at the very beginning of Scripture – Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Scriptures present all the events in these 2 verses together, as if there is no time gap between them. In reality though, there is an unspecified time gap between when God created the heavens and the earth and when the earth became formless and void. And there is another unspecified time gap between when the earth became formless and void and the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. k). The focus then, from a Scriptural perspective, is to show the significance of the succeeding events, not the linear chronology that joins them together. l). Now, if we take this back to Daniel and what God revealed to him about how He will deal with Israel during the times of the Gentiles, we see that the 4th part of the image immediately follows the 3rd without any kind of time gap being shown. And this is because following the fading away of the Babylonian kingdom the next significant event the Jewish people needed to know about is the reemergence of the Babylonian kingdom under Antichrist. The final form of the Babylonian kingdom that will bring Israel to repentance. 3). This then is the context in which Daniel found himself as a captive in the Babylonian kingdom. a). And if there would be one thing those in captivity would want to know, it would be when would their captivity would come to an end. b). And Daniel thought he had found the answer to this as he studied the Book of Jeremiah the Prophet – Da 9:1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And this is what Daniel read – Jer 29:10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. Daniel realized that the 70 years were almost ‘completed at Babylon’ and therefore he began to call upon the Lord in line with what he had seen in v12-14. c). The time period, 70 years, gives us 7 X 10, revealing 2 numbers of completion, and consequently it was in Daniel’s mind that at the completion of this time God would not only restore Israel to the land, but also restore Israel to the Theocracy. And the complete 70 years of Israel being removed from the land made this a possibility, but only if national repentance would take place – Jer 25:11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation. However, at the end of the 70 years there was no national repentance and apart from a remnant that returned to the land, the majority of the nation had settled down within the Babylonian kingdom and remained there. d). For national repentance to be accomplished, allowing a complete return of the entire nation to the land, a time period beyond the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity would have to come into view, with the 70 years then providing a foreshadowing of the extended time period that was still to come. e). And this is what the angel Gabriel was sent to reveal to Daniel – Da 9:20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision: 24 “Seventy weeks [Lit ‘sevens’] are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. The translation of the Hebrew word ‘shabua’ as ‘weeks’ is not really helpful as the word itself literally means ‘sevens’ and what the ‘sevens’ refer to is determined by the context. It could refer to ‘sevens’ of weeks, ‘sevens’ of days or ‘sevens’ of years. Translation issues, like this, can often lead to confusion. f). But if we keep the word as ‘sevens’ and allow the Scripture to determine the time referred to by the use of the word, there should be no confusion at all. g). Let’s remember that the focus here for Daniel has been the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity. In those 70 years is seen a complete period of time in which Israel could have come to national repentance but didn’t. Despite the punishment of the captivity the nation remained unrepentant and disobedient. h). Now, do we remember what we had looked at last time from Leviticus Chapter 26, concerning how God would respond to Israel’s continued disobedience? – Le 26:19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. 21 “Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. The nation’s failure to repent at the end of the 70 years would be met by God’s response of a seven times intensification. The 70 years of the Babylonian captivity would be intensified seven times – 70 years X 7 = 490 years - 24 “Seventy sevens are determined For your people and for your holy city, Power Point – Slides 1-2 And it is through this intensification, through the completion of the ‘seventy sevens’, the completion of the full 490 years, that Israel will be brought to repentance and restored. And this is exactly what Gabriel revealed to Daniel - To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. There is one last piece we need to add to our understanding of the word ‘sevens’ – Le 25:3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. Le 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest— for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. 2 Ch 36:20 And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years. According to Leviticus Chapter 25, every 7th year the land of Israel was to enjoy ‘a sabbath of solemn rest’, it was to be ‘a sabbath to the Lord’, when no work was to be done on the land. This will echo the collection of the manna in the wilderness. So, 6 years of cultivation followed by a sabbath rest of one year = 7 years = 1 ‘seven’. Power Point – Slide 3 i). Leviticus Chapter 26 shows us that Israel did not do this, they failed to keep the sabbaths of solemn rest for the land and the Lord had promised He would scatter the Jewish people among the Gentile nations so that the land could ‘enjoy its sabbaths’ that the people had not kept. j). Then in 2 Chronicles Chapter 36 we see how this all connects with the Babylonian captivity, where the Jewish people removed from their land enabled to land to enjoy its sabbaths for a complete period of time – 10 X 7 years = 70 years = 10 sets of ‘sevens’. Power Point – Slide 4 k). But because of Israel’s failure to repent, therefore still remaining disobedient to observing the sabbath of solemn rest for the land, they would not be returned to the land as a complete nation for a period of time intensified by seven allowing the land to continue to enjoy its sabbaths – 70 sets of ‘sevens’ = 490 years. Power Point – Slide 5 We will continue with this next time – If the Lord is willing.