SRR #72 | Gabriel And The Leviticus 26 Protocol

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Jesus said, Woe to you when men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way, as opposed to blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

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All right, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tim Shaughnessy and you are listening to Semper Rifframanda radio. So first, I just want to say thank you for checking us out. And we are going to continue today in our series on eschatology.

Now we're going to be doing a number of episodes on this stuff because it is so in depth. And, you know, this is by far the best and the most in depth study in eschatology that I've ever participated in.

And I just want to say thank you to Tim for putting this together. I'm letting him run the show. He is. He's been going over this stuff for years. I'm learning a lot of this stuff. And Tim is is trying to challenge a lot of the traditional views in eschatology.

So there's a lot of work to be done here. And we encourage people, download the episodes, get out your Bibles, check these things out. And, you know, if you have any questions or comments or whatever, you can contact us at Semper .Rifframanda .Radio at gmail .com.

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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. And we've already interviewed Ryan. He's a street preacher. He has a ministry called 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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As we've said before, Carlos is going to his wife is is going to give birth to twins in April. 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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I'd love to have these guys on the podcast now. They're from Ireland. Richard Bennett is he's an Irishman. And if you haven't heard his story, it's amazing. He is an ex-Roman 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 Roman Catholic. I have a Irish background, heritage. My family comes from Ireland.

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, who he basically just put together the podcast for the Trinity Foundation.

So check that out. You can check it out at Trinity Foundation dot org. Steve has a podcast and he has a book that he authored. 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, because it is really, really good. I mean, get out your Bibles. Tim knows his stuff. He's studied this for years and it is it's really good.

So with that, let me you know what, Tim, you're just you're kind of hanging off in the wings. But let me just go ahead and hand it off to you. This whole series, this whole message is is is basically you.

I'm just going to get out of the way and let you let you take over and run the show. All right.

OK, thanks so much, Tim, for that introduction. It's always a pleasure to be here. Always a pleasure to continue the study in Daniel. We hope everybody's enjoying the series and we're glad to be continuing it.

I want to just make a comment at the beginning, because and I say this each week since we've been in Daniel, chapter nine, that I understand that I'm swimming against 2000 years of tradition on Daniel, chapter nine, and the assumption that it is a messianic prophecy.

And I understand and appreciate that I'm in the minority on that. I respect a lot of great teachers who have taught that it is a messianic prophecy and it is hard to make a case or at least it's hard to propose that Daniel, chapter nine, is in fact a Mosaic prophecy, not a messianic one.

And I pause to correct myself there because it actually is easy to make the case, but it is hard to swim against tradition. And that's what we're going to be doing. We're swimming against tradition. 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 nine, because it's a Mosaic prophecy in 2000 years of tradition has been wrong. But there's a different way to say it that I hope will register with the listeners.

And that is, what if Daniel told us that Daniel, chapter nine, was written in a construct based on Leviticus, chapter 26, and that to understand the prophecy, we should read Leviticus 26 to understand it.

What if Daniel said that and we ignored him and said, it doesn't matter, Daniel, we already know what the prophecy is about. So don't bother us with the details. We just want to get to the exciting part, which is Jesus coming.

Now, I'm couching it that way intentionally because I'm trying to get the attention of the listeners. If Daniel had actually said this entire vision takes place in the construct of Leviticus 26, and you should read it accordingly, everybody would actually say, yes, we should study Leviticus 26 first and then dive into the prophecy to see if we can understand it.

What we'll find as we go through today's episode is that, in fact, Daniel argues throughout this, that this is all based on Leviticus, chapter 26, and Gabriel responds in accordance with Leviticus, chapter 26.

And both of them are basically telling us, please don't read and interpret this passage until you've read 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 you need to go read Leviticus, chapter 26 first, both of them appeal to Leviticus, chapter 26, and Daniel actually shows us that everything about the 70-year exile prophecy, and, in fact, Jeremiah even shows us that leading up to the exile, it was Leviticus, chapter 26 that all this was based on.

And then Daniel appeals to Leviticus, chapter 26, 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 Jeremiah, Daniel, and Gabriel have been telling us about Leviticus, chapter 26 and the meaning of Daniel, chapter 9.

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. So, with that said, I'm ready to dive in if you are, Tim. You ready to jump forward on the Leviticus 26 protocol?

As always, yes I am. Let's do it.

Daniel 9 in the Context of Jeremiah and Leviticus 26

Okay, well, let's go ahead and do this then. 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 Jews when he set his heart to understand and sought wisdom from the Lord.

The angel Gabriel was sent by the Lord to give Daniel understanding, and instead of answering Daniel's question about 70 years, Gabriel instead spoke of 70 weeks of years for the coming Messiah, the Prince, who will be cut off, but not for Himself, and He will confirm the covenant to make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring about everlasting righteousness.

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. 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 Jews, while Calvin believed rather that God was perfectly satisfied with the 70 years of punishment and that the 70-week prophecy foretold only grace and the building up of the Jews and foretelling the arrival of Christ.

As I noted in our previous episode, I do not believe the 70-week prophecy in Daniel 9 is a Messianic prophecy, but is rather a Mosaic prophecy that has long since been fulfilled under a Mosaic construct, more than a century before Christ's birth.

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 Daniel had been reading and the book from which Gabriel gave his answer, nor in the context of Leviticus chapter 26, to which Jeremiah, Daniel, and Gabriel all invite our attention.

Regarding the prophet Jeremiah, before he ever introduced the 70 years of exile as punishment, the Lord revealed to him in a vision of two baskets of figs that he had separated the 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.

In fact, the Lord ordained to accomplish two purposes by a single punishment, to build up the good figs and scatter the bad figs. The two baskets vision matters to our discussion greatly, first, because it is the context in which Daniel was asking his question in Daniel 9, and second, because in Daniel's other visions he foresees further punishments for the Jews, to try them and to purge them and to make them white, that's Daniel 11 .35, but during the same time period, Daniel foresees further punishments to scatter the power of the holy people, that's Daniel 12 .7.

In other words, baskets of figs were still in view in Daniel's visions of the future of the 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.

As we mentioned last week, one of our main emphases in this series is the fact that the Lord had indignation against the 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.

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 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.

As we've noted, Daniel 9 is one of the first kind of end times visions, since it focuses on the sins of the Jews and ends abruptly with the abomination of desolation and the end of the indignation. 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.

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 Lord's indignation against his people. And that exile occurred under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the 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. Why is it that the Lord's indignation continued beyond the 70 year exile under the Babylonian period?

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? 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 Jews' problem of rebellion was in the Law of Moses too. The reason we can know this is that Jeremiah implores the 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. 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.

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 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. 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 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.

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 Jeremiah said and required exactly what Gabriel prophesied.

It is the only place in all of the Mosaic law that required desolations for the sins of the Jews, and Jeremiah, Daniel, and Gabriel all referred to it. Daniel said in chapter 9, this is verses 2 to 4,.

In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed unto the Lord my God. Then he continues in Daniel 9, verses 17 and 18,. 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 Lord's sake.

For, O my God, incline thine ear, and hear, open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name. 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.

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, and then in Daniel 9, 13, As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us.

Jeremiah focuses on the desolations as well. This is Jeremiah 25, 9 to 11, and verse 18 as well. 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, sayeth the 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 in hissing and perpetual desolations.

And this whole land shall be desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years, to wit, 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.

So, before I go much further, I wanted to just point out all the words that are used for desolation in Jeremiah. When he talks about making them an astonishment, he uses the word shamim, and when he talks about desolations, he uses korba, and when he talks about desolation, he uses the word korba, and then again in the last verse, Jeremiah 25, 18, the last verse I quoted, he again uses the word desolation, which is korba.

The question we ought to ask is, where in the law of Moses do we find that desolations are prescribed for Israel's sins? The answer is in only one place, Leviticus chapter 26, alone. It is there and there alone in the law of Moses that desolations are prescribed for the Jews when they violate God's laws.

So, let us now turn to Leviticus. I'm just going to read through all the places in Leviticus that refer to desolations for the sins of the Jews. Leviticus uses shamim, and korba, and shemama, but three different words for desolate in this chapter, and it's the only place in all of Mosaic law that the words are used to describe punishments for the Jews as a consequence of their sins.

So, this is Leviticus chapter 26, 22, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 43. So, just listen to every time the Lord says to the Jews that he's going to bring desolations upon them for their sins. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate in your city's waste.

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. As long as it lieth desolate, it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when you dwelt upon it.

The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them. And they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity, even because they despise my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

So, there you go. Twelve times in Leviticus chapter 26, desolation is promised as a punishment for the sins of the Jews. Notably, Moses uses this language almost exclusively in Leviticus chapter 26 to describe what God would do to the Jews.

He uses korbat twice in Leviticus 26 and nowhere else. 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 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 Jews did to the Amorites. And he used shemema once in Exodus 23 -29 to describe how God would prevent desolation of the land of Israel.

But the only place in Mosaic scriptures, therefore, that desolations are determined upon the Jews for their disobedience is in Leviticus chapter 26. The whole of Daniel 9 is simply pregnant with the Mosaic significance of that 26th chapter of Leviticus.

The significance of that Mosaic curse in his reading of Jeremiah was not lost on Daniel. He acknowledged the connection explicitly. All of these desolations had come upon the Jews according to what Moses had written.

But what were the specific sins for which the Jews would receive the punishment of desolations? There were three in particular. Worshipping idols, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary. Those are the three sins identified in Leviticus for which the Jews would receive desolations.

So, reading from Leviticus chapter 26 verses 1 -4. 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, for I am the Lord your God.

He shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the 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.

From that point forward, God provides details of all the blessings they will receive if they obey. Blessings upon blessings for the Jews if they will honor his Sabbaths, reverence his sanctuary, and not worship false gods.

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 God, and you shall be my people.

But what was going to happen, according to Leviticus 26, if the Jews did not obey? This is where it picks up with the curses that come in the law if they do not obey him. 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, 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. 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.

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. And as noted earlier, this is where all the desolations come in.

Leviticus 26, 31 -33. 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.

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. So, you just can't miss the desolations of Daniel chapter 9 when you're reading it.

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 Jews.

Worshiping false gods, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary. Here is Jeremiah's testimony of the Jews that essentially connects the 70-year exile to Leviticus chapter 26. 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. 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?

Reading from Jeremiah 17, 21 -23,. Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day.

Neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

And then in Jeremiah 7, 9 -14,. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incest unto 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,.

We are delivered to do all these abominations.

And now,.

Because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not. Therefore I will do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which 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 Jews were guilty of worshipping false gods, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary. 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. He shall make no idols, nor grave an image. Ye shall keep my Sabbath, and reverence my sanctuary. That's what the 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. So let's take stock. Jeremiah took Israel to task for the sins of idolatry, violating the 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. There's only one place in all of the Mosaic law that prescribes desolations for the sins of idolatry, violating the Sabbath, and profaning the sanctuary, and that is Leviticus chapter 26.

Let me therefore ask a rhetorical question to the listeners. Do you think Leviticus 26 might have some bearing on Daniel 9, and possibly shed some light on it? Well, the answer to that rhetorical question is yes, of course.

That is the context in which Daniel frames his appeal to the Lord in Daniel 9, and as it turns out, that is the context in which Gabriel answers. Now what makes 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 Jews had not fully repented, and they were still in their sins.

Daniel testified of this in his prayer in Daniel 9. Jeremiah testified of this in the latter chapters of his book, and Zechariah testified of this in Zechariah 1 -12, and also in chapter 7. Listen to Jeremiah now, as the Lord criticizes the wickedness of the Jews, even in their captivity.

This is just to draw out the point, and again, it's to correct what Calvin was thinking, is that Daniel chapter 9 is only about God's mercy and grace because he was satisfied with the 70-year punishment.

This is Jeremiah chapter 44, well into the punishment of the Jews. It says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, You 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, 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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, He will multiply their punishments sevenfold.

This passage of Scripture is of such profound significance to interpretation of Daniel 9, that I'm going to read it here in its entirety. 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 Jews if they fail to repent of those sins.

This is Leviticus 26, verses 14 to 39. And if you 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, 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.

And if you walk contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 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.

And if you will not be reformed by me by all these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then 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.

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. 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.

And if you 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 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.