SRR #72 | Gabriel And The Leviticus 26 Protocol

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I do a podcast. I'm not interested in your podcast. The anathema of God was for those who denied justification by faith alone.
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When that is at stake, we need to be on the battlefield, exposing the air and combating the air.
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We are unabashedly, unashamedly Clarkian. And so, the next few statements that I'm going to make,
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I'm probably going to step on all of the Vantillian toes at the same time. And this is what we do at Simple Riff around the radio, you know.
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We are polemical and polarizing Jesus style. I would first say that to characterize what we do as bashing is itself bashing.
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It's not hate. It's history. It's not bashing. It's the Bible. Jesus said, woe to you when men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.
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As opposed to, blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is on.
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We're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, my name is
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Tim Shaughnessy and you are listening to Simple Riff around the radio. So first,
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I just want to say thank you for checking us out. And we are going to continue today in our series on eschatology.
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Now, we're going to be doing a number of episodes on this stuff because it is so in -depth.
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And, you know, this is by far the best and the most in -depth study in eschatology that I've ever participated in.
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And I just want to say thank you to Tim for putting this together. I'm letting him run the show.
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He's been going over this stuff for years. I'm learning a lot of this stuff and Tim is trying to challenge a lot of the traditional views in eschatology.
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So, there's a lot of work to be done here and we encourage people, download the episodes, get out your
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Bibles, check these things out. And, you know, if you have any questions or comments or whatever, you can contact us at semper .refermanda
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.radio at gmail .com. And I'd also like to recommend
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Kauffman's blog. It's whitehorseblog .com.
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So, check that out. And let me just, before we start, let me just go ahead and let everybody know what else is coming up with this podcast.
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So, we are going to bring on another member, probably in a couple of weeks, a gentleman by the name of Ryan Denton.
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And we've already interviewed Ryan. He's a street preacher. He has a ministry called
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Christ in the Wild. And he goes out to colleges and he goes out to other places and he preaches the gospel.
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He's an open air preacher. And Carlos and myself are actually going to be partnering with Ryan in our own city.
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And we're going to start a preaching series in the park.
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And I think we're going to be going over the Book of Romans. And the goal is to really just go out there and reach people by way of preaching.
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So, we are going to be partnering with him. He is in our local city. And we are going to be bringing him onto the podcast.
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As we've said before, Carlos is going to, his wife is going to give birth to twins in April.
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And so, he is going to be pretty busy. So, we're going to bring Ryan on and we're going to be partnering with him.
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We're also going to be partnering with Tom Giudotis from the Trinity Foundation. Hope to bring him on soon to do a couple of episodes.
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And I'd also love to, I'm reaching out to them. I've talked to a couple of individuals who are part of Richard Bennett's ministry.
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And I'd love to have these guys on the podcast. Now, they're from Ireland. Richard Bennett is an
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Irishman. And if you haven't heard his story, it's amazing. He is an ex -Roman
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Catholic priest turned Protestant. His story is just, it's incredible. And it's extremely encouraging to me, especially since I have so many family members who are
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Roman Catholic. I have an Irish background, heritage. My family comes from Ireland.
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So, it's really encouraging to me. I'm really excited about this. And we also are going to do an interview with Steve Matthews.
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He basically just put together the podcast for the Trinity Foundation. So, check that out.
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You can check it out at TrinityFoundation .org. Steve has a podcast and he has a book that he authored.
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And so, we're going to interview him about that. So, those are just some things coming up. We are going to continue with this series on eschatology for now.
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Because it is really, really good. I mean, get out your Bibles.
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Tim knows his stuff. He's studied this for years. And it is, it's really good.
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So, with that, let me, you know what Tim? You're just, you're kind of hanging off in the wings.
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But let me just go ahead and hand it off to you. This whole series, this whole message is basically you.
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I'm just going to get out of the way and let you take over and run the show. Alright? Okay.
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Thanks so much, Tim, for that introduction. It's always a pleasure to be here. Always a pleasure to continue the study in Daniel.
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We hope everybody is enjoying this series. And we're glad to be continuing it. I want to just make a comment at the beginning.
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Because, and I say this each week since we've been in Daniel chapter 9. That I understand that I'm swimming against 2 ,000 years of tradition on Daniel chapter 9.
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And the assumption that it is a messianic prophecy. And I understand and appreciate that I'm in the minority on that.
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I respect a lot of great teachers who have taught that it is a messianic prophecy.
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And it is hard to make a case. Or at least it's hard to propose that Daniel chapter 9 is in fact a
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Mosaic prophecy. Not a messianic one. And I pause to correct myself there. Because it actually is easy to make the case.
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But it is hard to swim against tradition. And that's what we're going to be doing. We're swimming against tradition.
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And I want to just throw this out there for consideration. Because this is going to be the focus of today's episode. But it's hard to say we should be rethinking our approach to Daniel chapter 9.
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Because it's a Mosaic prophecy and 2 ,000 years of tradition has been wrong. But there's a different way to say it that I hope will register with the listeners.
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And that is, what if Daniel told us that Daniel chapter 9 was written in a construct based on Leviticus chapter 26.
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And that to understand the prophecy we should read Leviticus 26 to understand it.
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What if Daniel said that and we ignored him and said, It doesn't matter Daniel, we already know what the prophecy is about.
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So don't bother us with the details. We just want to get to the exciting part, which is
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Jesus coming. Now, I'm couching it that way intentionally because I'm trying to get the attention of the listeners.
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If Daniel had actually said, this entire vision takes place in the construct of Leviticus 26.
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And you should read it accordingly. Everybody would actually say, yes, we should study
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Leviticus 26 first. And then dive into the prophecy to see if we can understand it.
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What we'll find as we go through today's episode is that, in fact, Daniel argues throughout this.
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That this is all based on Leviticus chapter 26. And Gabriel responds in accordance with Leviticus chapter 26.
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And both of them are basically telling us, Please don't read and interpret this passage until you've read
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Leviticus chapter 26. And what we're going to do today is focus on Leviticus chapter 26. But although Daniel and Gabriel do not explicitly state,
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You need to go read Leviticus chapter 26 first. Both of them appeal to Leviticus chapter 26.
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And Daniel actually shows us that everything about the 70 year exile prophecy.
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In fact, Jeremiah even shows us that leading up to the exile,
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It was Leviticus chapter 26 that all this was based on. And then Daniel appeals to Leviticus chapter 26.
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And Gabriel answers in terms of Leviticus chapter 26. And what I'm saying is that I believe that historically we've made a mistake to ignore what
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Jeremiah, Daniel, and Gabriel have been telling us about Leviticus chapter 26. And the meaning of Daniel chapter 9.
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And we have instead rushed to the end of the chapter to see if we can find out how it relates to Christ and His coming.
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So, with that said, I'm ready to dive in if you are, Tim. You ready to jump forward on the
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Leviticus 26 protocol? As always, yes I am. Let's do it. Okay, well, let's go ahead and do this then.
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Last week we spent a lot of time studying Daniel 9. But mostly discussing the fact that Daniel had been reading from the book of Jeremiah about the prophecy of the 70 year exile for the
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Jews. When he set his heart to understand and sought wisdom from the Lord. The angel
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Gabriel was sent by the Lord to give Daniel understanding. And instead of answering Daniel's question about 70 years,
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Gabriel instead spoke of 70 weeks of years for the coming Messiah, the Prince, who will be cut off, but not for himself.
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And he will confirm the covenant to make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring about everlasting righteousness.
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The early church writers who addressed this prophecy took it to be a messianic prophecy, as did the reformers, as do most modern schools of Danielic eschatology.
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We focused a little more on Calvin because he criticized the Jews for thinking that the 70 week prophecy of Daniel foretold even more punishments and tearing down for the
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Jews, while Calvin believed rather that God was perfectly satisfied with the 70 years of punishment and that the 70 weeks prophecy foretold only grace and the building up of the
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Jews and foretelling the arrival of Christ. As I noted in our previous episode,
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I do not believe the 70 week prophecy in Daniel 9 is a messianic prophecy, but is rather a
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Mosaic prophecy that has long since been fulfilled under a Mosaic construct, more than a century before Christ's birth.
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The reason Calvin and the Jews both got it wrong is that they were neither reading the prophecy of Daniel 9 in the context of Jeremiah, which is the book
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Daniel had been reading, and the book from which Gabriel gave his answer, nor in the context of Leviticus chapter 26, to which
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Jeremiah, Daniel, and Gabriel all invite our attention. Regarding the prophet Jeremiah, before he ever introduced the 70 years of exile as punishment, the
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Lord revealed to him in a vision of two baskets of figs that he had separated the
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Jews into two baskets, one basket of good figs, for which the 70 years of exile would be for their good, and another basket of figs, for whom the 70 years of exile would be to scatter them for their hurt.
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In fact, the Lord ordained to accomplish two purposes by a single punishment, to build up the good figs and scatter the bad figs.
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The two baskets vision matters to our discussion greatly, first because it is the context in which
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Daniel was asking his question in Daniel 9, and second because in Daniel's other visions he foresees further punishments for the
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Jews to try them and to purge them and to make them white, that's Daniel 11 .35. But during the same time period,
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Daniel foresees further punishments to scatter the power of the holy people, that's Daniel 12 .7.
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In other words, baskets of figs were still in view in Daniel's visions of the future of the
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Jews under the Greek Empire. And in fact, two baskets of figs were also in view in Daniel 9, because the chapter deals both with building up and restoration under the same punishment that destroys and scatters the others.
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As we mentioned last week, one of our main emphases in this series is the fact that the Lord had indignation against the
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Jews during those 70 years, that's Zechariah 1 .12, which was the reason they were sent into the 70 years of exile in the first place.
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Another is that Daniel has two kinds of end times visions, one that focuses on the sins of God's people and ends abruptly with the abomination of desolation and the indignation under the
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Greek period, and another that focuses on the righteousness of God's people and ends with them rising to rule and reign with Christ at the very end of all the empires.
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As we've noted, Daniel 9 is one of the first kind of end times visions, since it focuses on the sins of the
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Jews and ends abruptly with the abomination of desolation and the end of the indignation.
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Just as important as the prophecy of the 70 year exile, the prophecy of the 70 weeks includes aspects of building up and aspects of tearing down, which is to say that it deals with the same two baskets of figs identified in Jeremiah 24, which was the chapter that served as a prelude to the 70 year exile.
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So the 70 year exile was designed to scatter the bad figs and build up the good figs through the same punishment because of the
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Lord's indignation against his people. And that exile occurred under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the
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Babylonian period of Daniel's prophecy. So the questions before us, and in fact the questions that will occupy our contemplations for the rest of the series in Daniel, are these.
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Why is it that the Lord's indignation continued beyond the 70 year exile under the Babylonian period?
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And why is it that the time has continued forward all the way to when the Jews are under the period of Greek rule in Daniel's visions before we ever get to the end of the indignation?
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That is, what took so long and why was the 70 years not enough? Well, the answers to all those questions are in the law of Moses and the solution to the
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Jews' problem of rebellion was in the law of Moses too. The reason we can know this is that Jeremiah implores the
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Jews to repent in accordance with the law. And when they did not, he said that God would punish them with a 70 year exile in accordance with the law.
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And when Daniel confessed the sins of his people, he agreed that the punishment God had sent upon them was in accordance with the law.
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And when Gabriel responded to Daniel's questions, he responded in accordance with the law and said that the extension of punishment was in accordance with the law and prophesied that the punishments would finally end when the
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Jews repented in accordance with the prescriptions of the law. All of this is contained in the passage under review and we will demonstrate it to anyone who cares to listen.
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In fact, we will not only show that the problem and the prescribed and prophesied solution were fundamentally mosaic, but also that all of the key phrases in Daniel 9 that have typically been interpreted as messianic, like Messiah the
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Prince, shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself, to seal up the vision of prophecy, make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, and to anoint the most holy, all point to a mosaic fulfillment of the prophecy.
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And the historical record actually shows that fulfillment. But first, let us pick up where we left off at the very end of last week's episode and take a look at Leviticus chapter 26, which prescribed exactly what
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Jeremiah said and required exactly what Gabriel prophesied. It is the only place in all of the
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Mosaic law that required desolations for the sins of the Jews, and Jeremiah, Daniel, and Gabriel all referred to it.
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Daniel said in chapter 9, this is verses 2 to 4, In the first year of his reign
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I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet.
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That he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the
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Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the
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Lord my God. Then he continues in Daniel 9, verses 17 and 18,
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Now therefore, O God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the
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Lord's sake. For, O my God, incline thine ear, and hear, open thine eyes, and behold our desolations in the city which is called by thy name.
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We are now focusing on the desolations of the sanctuary and the people in the city, all of which Daniel acknowledges have come upon the people in accordance with the law of Moses.
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He said in Daniel 9, 11, The curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
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And then in Daniel 9, 13, As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us.
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Jeremiah focuses on the desolations as well. This is Jeremiah 25, 9 -11, and verse 18 as well.
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Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, Because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the
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Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
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And this whole land shall be desolation, and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years, to wit,
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Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, and hissing, and a curse, as it is this day.
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So, before I go much further, I wanted to just point out all the words that are used for desolation in Jeremiah.
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When he talks about making them an astonishment, he uses the word shamim. And when he talks about desolations, he uses korba.
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And when he talks about desolation, he uses the word korba. And then again, in the last verse,
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Jeremiah 25, 18, the last verse I quoted, he again uses the word desolation, which is korba.
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The question we ought to ask is, where in the Law of Moses do we find that desolations are prescribed for Israel's sins?
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The answer is in only one place, Leviticus chapter 26, alone. It is there, and there alone, in the
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Law of Moses, that desolations are prescribed for the Jews when they violate God's laws. So, let us now turn to Leviticus.
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I'm just going to read through all the places in Leviticus that refer to desolations for the sins of the
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Jews. Leviticus uses shamim, and korba, and shemama, but three different words for desolate in this chapter.
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And it's the only place in all of Mosaic Law that the words are used to describe punishments for the
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Jews as a consequence of their sins. So, this is Leviticus chapter 26, 22, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 43.
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So, just listen to every time the Lord says to the Jews that he's going to bring desolations upon them for their sins.
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I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate.
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And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.
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And I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
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And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate in your cities waste.
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And then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate. And you be in your enemy's land, even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths.
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As long as it lieth desolate, it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when you dwelt upon it.
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The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them.
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And they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity, even because they despise my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
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So there you go. Twelve times in Leviticus chapter 26, desolation is promised as a punishment for the sins of the
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Jews. Notably, Moses uses this language almost exclusively in Leviticus chapter 26 to describe what
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God would do to the Jews. He uses korba twice in Leviticus 26 and nowhere else.
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He uses shemem nine times in Leviticus 26 to describe what God would do to the Jews. And he uses shemema in Leviticus 26 to describe what
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God would do to the land because of the Jews' disobedience. Now, Moses used shemem one other time, that is in Numbers 21 -30, to describe what the
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Jews did to the Amorites. And he used shemema once in Exodus 23 -29 to describe how
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God would prevent desolation of the land of Israel. But the only place in Mosaic scriptures, therefore, that desolations are determined upon the
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Jews for their disobedience is in Leviticus chapter 26. The whole of Daniel 9 is simply pregnant with the
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Mosaic significance of that 26th chapter of Leviticus. The significance of that Mosaic curse in his reading of Jeremiah was not lost on Daniel.
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He acknowledged the connection explicitly. All of these desolations had come upon the
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Jews according to what Moses had written. But what were the specific sins for which the Jews would receive the punishment of desolations?
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There were three in particular. Worshipping idols, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary.
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Those are the three sins identified in Leviticus for which the Jews would receive desolations. So, reading from Leviticus chapter 26 verses 1 -4.
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He shall make no idols, nor grave an image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it.
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For I am the Lord your God. He shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the
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Lord. If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
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From that point forward, God provides details of all the blessings they will receive if they obey.
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Blessings upon blessings for the Jews, if they will honor his Sabbaths, reverence his sanctuary, and not worship false gods.
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And he concludes that section of Leviticus 26 in verses 11 -12, saying, And I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you, and I will walk among you, and I will be your
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God, and you shall be my people. But what was going to happen, according to Leviticus 26, if the
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Jews did not obey? This is where it picks up with the curses that come in the law if they do not obey him.
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Leviticus 26, 14 -17 But if you will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall despise my statutes, and if your soul abhor my judgments, so that you will not do all of my commandments, but shall you break my covenant,
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I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning agh that shall consume the eyes, and shall cause sorrow of heart.
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And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies.
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They that hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when none pursue with you. Now, I only quoted verses 14 -17, but it goes on and on like that throughout the chapter.
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And as noted earlier, this is where all the desolations come in. Leviticus 26, 31 -33
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And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors, and I will bring the land unto desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
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And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
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So, you just can't miss the desolations of Daniel chapter 9 when you're reading it.
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And this is where the Law of Moses prescribes desolations in Leviticus chapter 26. But what we should also not miss is the fact that the desolations of Leviticus 26 were prescribed for three specific sins that Jeremiah had also convicted the
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Jews. Worshiping false gods, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary. Here is
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Jeremiah's testimony of the Jews that essentially connects the 70 -year exile to Leviticus chapter 26.
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In Jeremiah 8, 19, Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country.
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Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with strange vanities?
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Reading from Jeremiah 17, 21 -23, Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the
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Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the
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Sabbath day. Neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
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But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.
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And then in Jeremiah 7, 9 -14, Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incest unto
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Baal, and walk after other gods, whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say,
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We are delivered to do all these abominations. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the
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Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not.
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Therefore I will do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which
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I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. So, here we have three different sections of Jeremiah where it shows that the
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Jews were guilty of worshipping false gods, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary.
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So, those are the sins of the Jews that Jeremiah called them out for. Now, let's return with that in mind and read the first two verses of Leviticus chapter 26.
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He shall make no idols, nor grave an image. Ye shall keep my Sabbath, and reverence my sanctuary. That's what the
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Lord prescribed in Leviticus chapter 26. He said that there would be blessings if they obeyed, and that there would be punishments, specifically desolations, if they did not obey.
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So, let's take stock. Jeremiah took Israel to task for the sins of idolatry, violating the
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Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary. And Daniel is reading the books of Jeremiah, the prophet, asking about the 70 years of desolations as prescribed in the law of Moses.
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There's only one place in all of the Mosaic law that prescribes desolations for the sins of idolatry, violating the
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Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary, and that is Leviticus chapter 26. Let me therefore ask a rhetorical question to the listeners.
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Do you think Leviticus 26 might have some bearing on Daniel 9, and possibly shed some light on it?
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Well, the answer to that rhetorical question is yes, of course. That is the context in which Daniel frames his appeal to the
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Lord in Daniel 9, and as it turns out, that is the context in which Gabriel answers. Now, what makes
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Leviticus 26 even more important to our understanding of Daniel 9 is that we know from the scriptures, as we showed last week, that even during and after the 70 -year exile, the
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Jews had not fully repented, and they were still in their sins. Daniel testified of this in his prayer in Daniel 9.
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Jeremiah testified of this in the latter chapters of his book, and Zechariah testified of this in Zechariah 1 .12,
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and also in chapter 7. Listen to Jeremiah now, as the Lord criticizes the wickedness of the
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Jews, even in their captivity. This is just to draw out the point, and again, it's to correct what
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Calvin was thinking, is that Daniel chapter 9 is only about God's mercy and grace because he was satisfied with a 70 -year punishment.
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This is Jeremiah chapter 44, well into the punishment of the
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Jews. It says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Ye have seen all the evil that I brought on Jerusalem and upon the cities of Judah, and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein.
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Because of the wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, and that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.
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That's Jeremiah 44, verses 2 -3, and then in verses 10 -11, he says, They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
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Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all
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Judah. Now, clearly, the Jews were not getting the message from the 70 -year exile, and did not get the message throughout that captivity, and did not repent.
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Why does that matter to us? It matters for a very simple reason. In Leviticus chapter 26, the law of Moses states over and over and over that if God punishes the
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Jews for their specific sins of idolatry, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary, and they still do not repent of the evil that they have done,
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He will multiply their punishments sevenfold. This passage of Scripture is of such profound significance to the interpretation of Daniel 9 that I'm going to read it here in its entirety.
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And as I read it, I will ask our listeners to hear how many times the Lord promises that He will multiply sevenfold the punishments of the
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Jews if they fail to repent of those sins. This is
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Leviticus 26, verses 14 to 39. But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant,
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I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning agh that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart, and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
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And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you, and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
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And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass.
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And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield her fruits.
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And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
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I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate.
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And if ye will not be reformed by me by all these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then
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I will also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant.
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And when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the land of the enemy.
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And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight, and ye shall eat and not be satisfied.
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And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury, and I, even
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I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat, and I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you, and I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors, and I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
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And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
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Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbath as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemy's land, even then shall the land rest and enjoy her
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Sabbath. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your Sabbath when you dwelt upon it.
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And upon them that are left alive of you I will send faintness of their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when none pursueth.
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And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth.
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And ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies, and ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
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And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemy's lands, and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
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Okay, so that's a pretty long passage. It's Leviticus chapter 26, verse 14 to 39.
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But I hope its significance is not lost. Here and here alone, the law of Moses prescribes desolations for the three sins we identified.
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And in addition to that, sevenfold multiplication of punishments if the Jews do not repent of their idolatry,
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Sabbath violations, and sanctuary profanation. And may I just throw in one more gratuitous observation?
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Did anyone notice that in Leviticus chapter 26, one of the purposes of the punishments was to break the pride of your power, in verse 19, and to scatter you among the heathen, in verse 33?
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Break the pride of your power and scatter you among the heathen? Does that sound familiar to anyone? It should.
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It's what Gabriel told Daniel was the purpose of the punishments of the Jews until the end of the indignation in Daniel 8, 24.
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That is, to destroy the mighty and holy people, which is to say, as it was reiterated to Daniel in chapter 12, verse 7, to scatter the power of the holy people.
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Can you see a connection between the 70 years, the 70 weeks of years, and the end of the indignation?
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Can you see the building up of one basket of figs and scattering of the other, breaking the pride of the power of the
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Jews and bringing them to repentance? We'll come back to that in a few minutes, but for now, let's just think through the situation faced by the
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Jews. If the Jews were guilty of idolatry, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary, and would not heed the prophet, and they were sent into captivity for 70 years for the sins of idolatry, violating the
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Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary, and even then they still did not repent, what did the law of Moses require?
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It is very simple. The law of Moses required that their punishments be multiplied sevenfold.
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And what do we see in Daniel chapter 9? Daniel confesses that even as the 70 years were drawing to a close, the
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Jews still had not repented. We see this in Jeremiah 44 as well, and also in Zechariah chapters 1 and 7.
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It shows that the Jews had not repented during those 70 years. Nevertheless, Daniel inquires after the
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Lord regarding the 70 years to accomplish the desolations of Jerusalem, and what does Gabriel say in response?
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He says, sorry Daniel, but we're going to have to invoke the Leviticus 26 protocol. You asked me about 70 years, but I'm going to answer you in terms of 70 times 7.
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And what does Leviticus 26 prescribe? It prescribes even more desolations. Now I'm paraphrasing
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Gabriel there. That is not exactly what it says in that passage. I'm going to read it to you now, and I want you to remember the three times that Gabriel says that there are desolations in their future.
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He uses the word Shemem each time, which comes from Leviticus chapter 26, which is the only place in the law of Moses that desolations are prescribed for the sins of the
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Jews. This is Daniel 9, 26 and 27, reading the sections about desolations. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood.
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And unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate.
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So Gabriel responds to Daniel, saying even after the 70 years of desolations, even more desolations are determined.
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What on earth is Gabriel talking about? Well, he is obviously talking about the desolations of Leviticus chapter 26, the only place in the law of Moses that speaks of desolations for the sins of the
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Jews. Daniel had asked about a Mosaic punishment that was imposed on the Jews in accordance with Leviticus 26.
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And Gabriel answered in terms of a prolonged Mosaic punishment in accordance with Leviticus 26. Desolations are determined.
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Desolations are determined. It is Leviticus 26 that determines that desolations are for the sins of the
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Jews. And this is not happy news for Daniel and the people of Judah. But more importantly, it is clear that Leviticus 26 is the key passage that sheds light on the prophecy of Daniel.
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And I bring this up for two reasons. First, it is important to show from the Scriptures that even though the
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Lord will honor his covenant with Israel and will not forget them, and therefore there is a message of hope and rebuilding in the prophecy of Daniel 9, nevertheless, the prophecy of Daniel 9 draws us to the terms of the covenant oath with the
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Jews, specifically the Leviticus 26 protocol that requires that the punishment of the
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Jews be extended sevenfold. It is important to point that out to counter Calvin's interpretation that the prophecy of Daniel 9 could only be about grace and mercy.
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Clearly from the Scriptures that simply cannot be the case. And that leads to my second observation here.
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I have never read a commentary on Daniel that actually pauses to reflect on the one passage of Scripture that can actually shed light on Daniel 9.
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And yet Daniel, Gabriel, and Jeremiah all point us to it. That passage is Leviticus 26.
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But instead of reading Leviticus 26, which is the context in which Jeremiah and Daniel wrote and Gabriel prophesied, we have historically run ahead of them and concluded in advance that the prophecy was a
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Messianic one about Jesus, and we could just start interpreting the prophecy accordingly. That assumption has clouded our understanding of Daniel and has cloaked its meaning.
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And I'm just as guilty as anyone. This is exactly where I started in Daniel 9, trying to figure out how it relates to Jesus and as it turns out, it doesn't.
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I'm not going to condemn anyone for doing what we've all been doing for 2 ,000 years, but I'm going to suggest that our listeners consider reading
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Leviticus 26 as the backdrop and the foundation of the whole discourse in Daniel 9.
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That would be a good place to start, even if you don't accept my conclusions, because Daniel points to the
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Law of Moses and it's the Law of Moses that prescribes desolations for the three sins that Jeremiah had highlighted before he announced that they would have 70 years of captivity in accordance with Leviticus chapter 26.
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And it's in accordance with Leviticus 26 that the punishment has to be multiplied sevenfold if the
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Jews do not repent and Daniel was confessing that they had not repented. So that's
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Leviticus 26, which is the mosaic backdrop of the entire discussion that Daniel has, and Gabriel comes to explain to him.
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And historically, we have ignored Leviticus 26 when we studied Daniel chapter 9.
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That's why I asked the rhetorical question, kind of a rhetorical question, it's more like a profound question for contemplation at the beginning of the episode.
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What if Daniel said we should read Leviticus 26 so that we can understand Daniel 9?
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Would it be a mistake to just run forward to Daniel 9 and ignore Leviticus 26? Well, as it turns out, he actually kind of did say that.
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You look at what he's saying, he's pointing to Leviticus 26 and Gabriel's answering in accordance with Leviticus 26.
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Now, that said, and I hope I've made the point, I know I've been beating it pretty hard, but it's important for us to think through the context of Daniel 9 and perchance to run through it now with the light showing us the way so that we can understand what
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Daniel was asking, why Jeremiah said they had to go into captivity in the first place, why
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Gabriel said their punishment has to be multiplied. Now, with that said, we'll need to wrap up the episode here.
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But in conclusion, I want to anticipate the questions that have certainly been in the minds of our listeners since we first started diving into Daniel 9.
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And those questions are pretty simple and entirely justified. So here's one for example. Even if Leviticus 26 somehow sheds light on Daniel 9, how can you continue to maintain that the prophecy is mosaic when it speaks of finishing the transgression, making an end of sins, and making reconciliation for iniquity, and bringing in everlasting righteousness, and sealing up the vision of prophecy, and anointing the most holy?
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Those simply can only be messianic functions, right? After all, Jesus is the most holy and he's the spirit of prophecy and he's the only one who could possibly be in mind, right?
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Well, the answer to those questions is found in the scriptures and we will show next week how everything that was just described is exactly what the
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Lord explicitly intended to accomplish through the punishments. What we will find next week as we dig further into this is the intent of the
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Leviticus 26 protocol was to bring about an end of the offensive behavior and also bring about reconciliation between God and his people as an explicitly intended outcome of the
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Leviticus 26 protocol. We will see that Jeremiah prophesied reconciliation between God and the
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Jews if they would repent before there was ever a 70 -year exile and then said that there would be reconciliation if they would repent during the 70 -year exile and now
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Gabriel is saying that there will be reconciliation after the 70 weeks if they would repent. It is all in accordance with the
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Leviticus 26 protocol in the Law of Moses. What is more, when Gabriel says that the objective of the
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Leviticus 26 protocol is to bring in everlasting righteousness, the word for everlasting is actually what is translated as perpetual in the
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Mosaic covenant. And as it turns out, the three offenses identified at the beginning of Leviticus 26 were violations of perpetual statutes according to the
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Law of Moses. It's the same word. Therefore, true repentance on behalf of the
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Jews would bring a return of those perpetual statutes in accordance with the Mosaic order and thus a return of perpetual righteousness that is prophesied in Daniel 9.
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And what is more, God explicitly told the Jews during the captivity that if they were truly sorry for their offenses, they would rebuild the temple and sanctuary according to the pattern that was shown to them and according to the
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Law of Moses. And if you read the Law of Moses and what it says about the temple, the last thing that is done when rebuilding and rededicating the temple or sanctuary is to anoint the
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Holy of Holies and all of its contents from top to bottom. In other words, the last step in repentance and restoration of the perpetual statutes was to anoint the
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Most Holy. That is not a reference to Christ, but a reference to what Ezekiel told the Jews in captivity that would be necessary to demonstrate true repentance.
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So that is what we'll cover next week. Reconciliation was to be brought about by ending their transgressions against the
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Lord, His sanctuary, and His Sabbath in accordance with the Leviticus 26 protocol. Perpetual righteousness would be restored by honoring the perpetual statutes identified in the
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Leviticus 26 protocol. And the final step would be to restore the temple in accordance with the pattern shown to Ezekiel, and that would require that the entire
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Holy of Holies be anointed from top to bottom. In other words, everything Gabriel prophesied was strictly mosaic.
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And we have evidence from the historical record not only that the Jews finally did exactly what Ezekiel prescribed, but also that God honored
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His promise, namely that He would gather back in those who had been scattered. We will be covering all of this in the coming weeks.
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Now, some of our listeners will ask, but what about all the references to the Messiah being cut off?
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What about the coming of Messiah the Prince? Well, we're going to get to that too over the next few weeks.
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At the very least, we hope that we may have inspired our listeners to study Leviticus 26, which we believe is the key to Daniel 9.
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Whether anyone actually believes us that Daniel 9 is a mosaic prophecy or not, we've got weeks of episodes forthcoming to prove that point.
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We hope that our listeners will at least look into Leviticus 26, the passage Jeremiah, Daniel, and Gabriel all used as the basis for what they were revealing to us.
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A very critical passage indeed, and it simply cannot be avoided if we are to arrive at a proper understanding of Daniel chapter 9.
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So, we'll end the episode there, and we'll sign off. Thank you to all of our listeners.
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We promise that we are going to deal with the passages that talk about everlasting righteousness and reconciliation, anointing the most holy, and the coming of Messiah the
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Prince, and the Messiah being cut off, but not for himself. All of these things can be shown to have happened during this period, and we'll address them specifically starting next week, talking about bringing about reconciliation and restoring everlasting righteousness, which is, in fact, literally perpetual righteousness, which points us to those three sins identified by Leviticus 26 and highlighted by Jeremiah before the
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Jews ever got sent into their 70 years of exile. So, appreciate everybody's attention, and we'll pick this up next week.
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Have a good one. All right, Tim. Once again, thank you, and we will check everybody next week.