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Bro. Bill Nichols
We're going to go for the ah.
Are we ready?
Somebody said there's a job.
Ask my buddy Terry.
He's always wearing Hawaii shirts.
Well, this is almost.
It's a shorter one, isn't it?
There's another.
Stand back here a bit.
Adjust.
It probably does it.
It is not in my way, is that?
Okay.
I think we got too much.
Otherwise, I'll be listening to what I say.
And that is very distracting.
Yeah.
I don't.
Yeah, that's good.
I don't want to hear what I'm saying.
We're going to be looking at the book of Daniel, chapter 9, this morning.
But we're also going to look at Isaiah 45 and Ezekiel 30, the
30s.
I'm not exactly positive right now what the number is on that one.
But early on, it'll be Daniel 9 and
Isaiah 45.
Isaiah 45, but Daniel 9 first.
In Daniel 9, well, let's pray first.
Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this place where we might come together and study your holy word.
Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and giving you your word
that he may use it.
Thank you for all the things that you've given us, protect us, and keep us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
So the events of this chapter are going to take place in the first year
of King Cyrus' reign.
It's going to include the appearance of Gabriel to introduce in verse 24
and then to explain later the 70 years or the 70 weeks of years,
the 70 weeks of years that are famous from Daniel.
In the first year of Darius, the son of Asurerus, of the
seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first
year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of years whereof
the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish
70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Now, Daniel is studying the books.
They're scrolls, Old Testament scrolls.
The two he is looking at are Isaiah and
Jeremiah.
Isaiah and Jeremiah, my brain just totally went dead.
We're going to look at Isaiah 45 first.
And this is where we were last week.
We're going to take that passage, go just a little bit further into the passage in
order to lay out what it was that Daniel presented to
King Cyrus right at the very beginning of his reign.
King Cyrus, in the first year of his reign, this is when this happens, and Daniel is going to
present Isaiah 45 to the king.
And here's what he's going to say to the king.
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, to subdue nations before him, I will loose the loins of the kings,
to open before him the two -leafed gates, and the gates shall not be shut.
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight, I will break in pieces the gates of
brass, and cut and sunder the bars of iron.
He is going to make it easy for Cyrus to capture this impregnable city of Babylon.
And we talked about that last week.
Had Belshazzar been informed of this prophecy by
Daniel seven years earlier, he might not have been partying when the Persians were
invading.
But he wasn't, because that wasn't what the Lord had ordained.
Going on, he said, I will give to thee, now he's talking to Cyrus, I will give to thee the
treasures of darkness, and hidden riches in secret places, that thou mayest know that I am the Lord,
which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
So, Daniel is telling Cyrus that
in this book written about 200 years before Cyrus,
his name was written in the book, called out by name so that he would know
when he came that this was God that was speaking.
For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee
by thy name, I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
I am the Lord, there is none else, there is no God beside me, I girded thee,
though thou hast not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and from
the west, that there is none beside me, I am the Lord, there is none else.
He's just saying from east to west, the whole world will know that I am the Lord and there
is none else.
I form the light, I create darkness, I make peace, and I create evil,
I the Lord do all these things.
And that's where we left off this passage last week.
I want to skip down about five more verses and go to chapter, not chapter, but verse 12.
45, 12.
I have made the earth, and I created man upon it.
I even my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I have
commended.
I have raised him, now who's he talking about?
Who's the him that he's talking about?
Well, he could be talking about Jesus or the Lord, but right now he's talking about Cyrus.
I have raised Cyrus up in righteousness.
Cyrus didn't have any righteousness.
Is there anyone, John, that has righteousness?
Well, Jesus does.
But other than that, none of us have righteousness.
It has to be given to us.
And so he gave Cyrus righteousness, even though Cyrus didn't deserve any.
And I will direct all his ways, I'll direct Cyrus' paths.
And he, Cyrus, shall build my city.
And he, Cyrus, shall let go of my captives.
Not for a price and not for a reward, saith the Lord of hosts.
He said, Cyrus, I called you by name so that you will know when you take control that the
first duty that you have is to let my people go.
Send them back and build their city.
Not only will he let them go, he'll build the city.
Thus saith the Lord.
Then he goes on to say, the labor of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabians, men of
stature, shall come over unto thee, Cyrus, and they shall be thine.
And they shall come after thee in chains they shall come over.
And they shall fall down before thee.
They shall make supplication to thee, saying, Surely God is in thee.
So he is informing Cyrus, not only am I going to give you Babylon, I'm
going to give you Egypt.
And I'm going to give you Ethiopia.
And the Sabians, all the strong countries around are going to
be given to Cyrus.
Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
They shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them.
They shall go to confusion together that are making of idols.
If you're worshiping idols, you're going to be totally confused and fail to understand what's going on.
But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation.
Well, you read that and you go all the way through and you see all the things that Cyrus is told, name
by name, 200 years in the past.
You can understand why Cyrus held Daniel in such high esteem.
You can also understand why his advisors didn't hold him quite in such high esteem.
Because Cyrus put Daniel, an advisor to the previous Babylonian empire,
in a position of authority, overseeing his own advisors.
It would be like taking the advisor of the previous administration and
putting him not just in your administration, but putting him over all of your advisors.
They didn't like that.
That's what led to the issue of the lions' den, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
So it's no wonder that Cyrus held Daniel in such high esteem.
Now, Isaiah prophesied the duration of the exile.
How long was it to be?
It was to be 70 years.
70 years.
In 2 Chronicles, we're told the actual duration.
Daniel prophesied that the duration would be 70 years.
In 2 Chronicles, we're told how long it was and we're told why it was the amount of time
it was.
Why was it 70 years?
Anybody know why it was 70 years?
I'm sorry?
Does anybody know why the duration of the exile was 70 years?
They didn't have the Sabbath year for 70 years.
For the land.
I think it was every 7th year.
Yeah, every 7th year they were supposed to set aside a year of rest for
the land.
And they failed to do that.
And they failed to do it for 70 years.
So they took their 70 years all at once.
So here's what it says in 2 Chronicles.
And then that had escaped from the sword.
Those that are not killed by Nebuchadnezzar in the conquest of Israel.
Carried he away to Babylon where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the
kingdom of Persia.
So that tells us when it's going to happen or when it happened.
To fulfill the word by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths.
For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath.
To fulfill 3 score and 10 years.
So, 70 years because that's how many Sabbaths they missed.
70 years because they failed to obey their
part of the covenant.
Remember when Moses came down from the mountain?
He said, if you follow the Lord, you do what he says to do, you'll be blessed, but if you don't,
you'll be cursed.
They didn't and they were cursed.
And that's what this is all about.
And it shall come to pass that when 70 years are accomplished, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,
saith the Lord.
For their iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans
immediately after the fall of Babylon to the Persians.
That's when the king will be punished.
And I will make it a perpetual desolation.
That didn't happen at the same time.
But punishing the king of Babylon and the destruction of Babylon did not make Babylon be
perpetual desolations.
Because Babylon, in fact, served as the capital for Alexander the Great's empire several years
later.
So, when will it be made perpetual desolations?
In the far prophecy.
Immediately after the fall of Antichrist to the Messiah.
This is a far and a near prophecy.
The far prophecy is after Antichrist's seven years.
The near prophecy, after Israel's 70 years of captivity.
And then back to Jeremiah 29, it said, For thus saith the Lord, that after
70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word
toward you in causing you to return to this place.
So, Jeremiah says that after all this 70 years is finished, I'm going to send you back
to Jerusalem.
And Cyrus is going to build your city.
And he's going to pay for building your temple.
This is the near prophecy.
The return of Israel to Jerusalem.
Now, we're close to the end of that.
By now, Daniel is almost 80 years older.
Maybe a little bit more than 80.
He came to Babylon when he was a teenager.
And now they have spent 70 years in captivity.
So, he's got to be in his mid -80s.
That's probably the reason that he didn't take charge of the rebuilding of the temple
and left it to Nehemiah.
Since the end of that span was near, Daniel prayed to God to go through with
his next move in behalf of Israel.
And what would that be?
To return Israel to the land and to restore the temple.
That would tell you why Daniel brought this passage to the attention of Cyrus in the first place.
To let Cyrus know that now is the time to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
So, now we're going to go back to Daniel 9.
In the first year of Darius, son of Asher -Harris, of the seed of the Medes, which
was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.
Now, that Darius is probably not a name.
It's probably a title.
And it refers to Cyrus, who was made king by God.
Why was Cyrus made king by God?
To act as the mechanism by which Jerusalem would be rebuilt and the temple would be restored.
Cyrus was the first monarch of the Medo -Persian Empire.
And all of this happened in the first year after the death of Belshazzar, when Babylon
fell.
Now, I want to read the next portion of Daniel.
And as I read the prayer, beginning at verse 3, it's a prayer.
Consider these things.
The first thing.
The prayer is in response to the Word.
Look back at verse 2.
In the first year of Darius, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of years whereof the
Word of God came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in
the desolations of Jerusalem.
And I set my face to the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with
fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
This is characterized by intensity.
In verse 3, I set my face to seek by prayer and
supplication with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes, and self -denial.
Verse 4.
And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said,
O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, to
them that keep His commandments.
It's identified by being with
God's people.
In verse 5.
Strengthened by confession.
We.
Who?
All of us.
We have sinned and committed iniquity.
We have done wickedly.
We have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and Thy judgments.
Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants, the prophets, which speak in Thy name to our kings,
our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
It's dependent upon God's character.
Look at verse 7.
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of
faces, as at this day.
Lord, You are righteous, we are not.
We don't even know why You do what You do.
To the men of Judea and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel that are near
and that are far off, to all of the countries where Thou hast driven them, because of their
trespasses, and they have trespassed against Thee.
O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of faces, to our kings, our princes, and to
our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.
To the Lord our God belongeth mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled
against Him.
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us
by His servants, the prophets.
Yea, all Israel have transgressed the law, even by departing, that they might not
obey Thy voice.
Therefore the curse is poured out upon them.
The oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have
sinned against Him.
And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us and against our judges, that judges us,
bringing upon us great evil, for under the whole heaven hath not been done, as has been done
So He's saying, we are suffering what we're suffering, because we
blatantly disobeyed God's commandments.
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, and yet we had not our prayer
before God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Thy truth.
They didn't pray while they were doing it, that they would understand what He wanted them to do.
They just kept doing it.
Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it to
us.
For the Lord our God is righteous in His works, which He doeth, for we obeyed not His voice.
But now, look.
And now, O Lord our God, Thou hast brought Thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, once
before You brought us out, and has gotten Thee renowned as at this day.
We have sinned and done wickedly, and it has as its goal God's
glory.
O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be
turned away from Thy city, Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain, because of our sins,
and the iniquity of our fathers.
Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
Now therefore, O God, hear our prayers.
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.
O my God, incline Thine ear in here.
Open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name.
For we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness.
After all, we don't have any.
But for Thy great mercies, of which He has plenty.
O Lord, hear.
O Lord, forgive.
O Lord, hearken and do.
Defer not for Thine own sake, O my God, for Thy city and Thy people are called
by Thy name.
That's his prayer.
It's a prayer of supplication.
It's a prayer begging for the Lord out of His mercy to forgive
Israel and bring it back into its former glory.
And while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and
presenting my supplications before the Lord, my God, for the holy mountain of my God,
yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel,
actually the angel Gabriel, appearing as a man, it was
Gabriel the angel in the form of man that is appearing to Daniel,
whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly,
touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
That was the second lamb that was offered of the day, one earlier, and this one about three o 'clock, the time of
prayer in Jerusalem.
It was the time when Daniel was caught praying, a caught praying, was seen praying, as he
always did, at three o 'clock in the afternoon, facing Jerusalem that led him to be cast into the lion's
den by this same Cyrus.
And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee
skill and understanding.
And in the beginning of thy supplications and commandments came forth, I am come to show you, for thou
art greatly beloved.
Therefore, understand the matter and consider this vision.
Seventy weeks.
Now that literally means seventy sevens.
It would be used very much like today we would use seventy dozen.
If I said, I want to give you seventy dozen eggs, you would know that you could make a large omelet.
If I told you I would give you seventy grains of sugar, you would have enough to maybe
sweeten your coffee.
But seventy dozen is a number.
This is seventy sevens.
Seventy sets of seven.
So that would be seven sets
of seven years each.
Seventy sets of seven years.
Are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city to finish transgressions, to make
an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision of the prophecies, and to anoint the most holy.
Some of these things have been done.
For example, when the Lord was crucified, the price was paid for all of our
sins.
But some of these things have not yet been fulfilled.
No one would claim that sin is finished.
Paid for, but not finished.
There are sins left in front of all of us.
The most high has not been anointed yet.
Verse 25.
Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and three
score and two weeks.
And the streets shall be built again and the wall even in troubling times.
Sixty nine weeks of years.
And then the crucifixion of the Messiah.
And after the three score and two weeks, which is really after the seven and then the three score and two,
to make it three score and nine,
the Messiah would be cut off.
One week of years left.
The Messiah should be cut off, but not for himself.
And the prince of the people...
I'm sorry, I read that backward.
The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end
thereof shall be with a flood and until the end of the war desolations are determined.
So we know who destroyed the city and the sanctuary.
That was the Romans.
It wasn't any particular Roman.
The prince that shall come will be a prince of the Romans, the Roman
Empire.
Now the Roman Empire had two pieces.
It had an eastern part, Asia Minor, and
it had a western part, Europe.
Almost all commentators take the Antichrist to come out of Europe.
You read hundreds of commentators, I haven't read hundreds, but of the dozens that I've read, they all
seem to think that Antichrist is going to come from Europe.
Personally, I don't think that's so.
Personally, I think...
You better remember Acts 27 and 11.
Check and be sure.
I think he will come from the eastern leg of the Roman Empire, the one that outlasted the
western leg by a thousand years.
I think he will come from Assyria, what we now call the Kurds.
That is the corner of Iraq and Iran.
Kind of in the news today, isn't it?
Now, you keep finding things to...
If you're looking for things to support your precept, you keep finding.
I found a new thing today.
Actually, last night.
Turn to Matthew 24, 7.
24, 7 is talking about the return of the Lord.
And this is the one that every eye sees, Brother David.
This is not the one that comes in secret.
For as lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west,
so shall we see the coming of the Son of man be.
So where is he coming from?
He's coming from the east.
He's coming from the heavenlies.
He's coming out of the air like a bolt of lightning coming from the east going to the west.
That's the Messiah coming out of heaven from the east.
Now, I want you to consider Antichrist.
If I were to name or characterize Antichrist, I would call him the counterfeit
Messiah.
If I had a dollar bill and a counterfeit dollar bill, the first thing I would notice is they look alike.
And if I look at enough counterfeits and enough real dollar bills, I see the difference.
There are differences between the two, but they're a lot alike.
Things will be alike.
So, if you think about the Antichrist as being a counterfeit Messiah, wouldn't you think he would be coming
out of the east rather than out of the west?
But would he be coming out of the heavenlies?
No, because by this time, he has been confined to the earth.
So he'll be coming out of the earth.
Not quite the same, a little difference, but some the same.
I don't know if that's proof, but I would say this.
Antichrist, the counterfeit Messiah, coming from the east like the true Messiah, but earthly
rather than heavenly.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.
And in the midst of this week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.
And through the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation,
and that be determined, shall be poured out upon the desolate.
So what does that say?
He's going to come, and he's going to be in power for it, yes.
One week is seven years.
Yeah, the first, it's 490.
420, but there's another set earlier.
There's a, I forgot what it is now.
The 69 weeks was broken into two pieces.
67 and two, or maybe 62 and seven, I believe, is the way it was.
I lost track, but it's a full 490 years.
But there's a gap.
There's a gap between the first numbers and the last seven, and we don't know how
long that gap is.
We do know this.
We're in the gap right now.
I don't think we're,
in the reign of the Antichrist yet, because the covenant has not been signed.
But if you look at what's happening over in the Middle East right now, you might see
movements underway that would lead a
moderate, agreeable,
westernized Iranian to make peace with Israel.
That might be a clue.
The last seven years will be divided into two equal three -and -a -half -year segments.
We will only know for certain that we're in the last week of years when it's half over.
So the question is, where are we now?
I don't have time to do all of Ezekiel.
There are three chapters that I would advise you to
read.
There's 37, 38, and 39.
And there's a whole lot of stuff in there.
I am going to read 37, part of it, and look at what's going to
happen to Israel, part of what has already, I believe,
happened.
Part of 37 has already been fulfilled, but not all of it.
And you'll see as we go through what I'm talking about.
So turn to Ezekiel 37, verse 1.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set
me down in the midst of the valley.
Now I'm going to tell you right now what I believe the valley is, and I believe this because it's going to tell us a little bit later in
this same passage what it is.
So this is not just me this time.
The valley represents the world area into which the Israelites have been scattered.
Right now, well, let's go back to 1945, 1943, 1942.
The Israelites were scattered all over the world.
That's the valley, which was full of bones.
Those bones were the Israelites.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley,
which was full of bones.
And caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very many
in the open valley.
There's a lot of Israelites scattered throughout the world.
And lo, they were very dry.
They were a dead nation, lifeless, scattered, and bleached.
This is a picture of a dead nation, which only God can bring to life.
Now, during the past 50 years or more, there's been a partial gathering,
but God has not yet given them life.
Verse 3,.
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
And he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say to them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of God.
Thus saith the Lord God to these bones, Behold, I will call breath into you,
and you shall live.
I shall lay sinew upon you, and I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a great noise.
And behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them all, but
there was no breath in them.
Now, where they are now, a lot of them are back in Israel,
but the Spirit of the Lord is not in them.
There's no breath in them yet.
Then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind,
prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O
breath, breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came unto them, and they lived, and stood upon their
feet, an exceedingly great army.
Not quite alive yet.
An exceedingly great army, but I'll say this, a great army that's not going to fight.
That's the case with all of these great armies that the Lord raises to stand and watch him do all
that needs to be done.
Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
That's how I know from before what the valley represented.
These bones are the whole house of Israel.
Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost.
We are cut off from our parts.
Therefore prophesied, saying to them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open
your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel, and you shall know
that I am your Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
and shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live.
We're not there yet.
In the course of history, I think right now, we're at the place where there's a large number of Israelites in
Israel, but the Spirit of the Lord is not in them yet.
But it will be.
And I shall place you in your own land.
They're going to be back in Israel.
And then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord.
Now that's what's going to happen to the Israelites.
They'll be put in the land.
The Spirit of the Lord will be back in them.
They will be God's people in God's land.
They'll be dwelling peacefully in unwalled cities.
And they'll be ripe for the evil alliance that's going to be formed.
Go to 38 verse 10.
And I think this is about as far as I'm going to be able to get.
Thus saith the Lord God, it shall come to pass that at the same time
shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought.
And thou shalt say, I will go up into the land of the unwalled villages, and
I will go to them that are at rest, that dwelleth safely, all of them dwelling without walls,
and having neither bars nor gates to take spoil, and to take prey, and to turn thine hands upon
the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon people that are gathered out of the nations.
What was once dry bones scattered throughout the nations are now those who inhabit Israel,
which have gotten cattle and goods that dwell in the midst of the land.
Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art
thou come to take spoil?
Hast thou gathered thy company to take prey, to carry away silver and gold, and to take away cattle
and goods, and to take great spoil?
Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to God, Thus saith the Lord God, In that day
when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt
thou not know it.
And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou and many people with thee, all of them riding upon
horses, a great company, a mighty army, and thou shalt come against my people as a cloud to
cover the land.
And it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know
me when I shall be sanctified in thee, O God, before their eyes.
Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou he of whom I have
spoken in the old time by my servants and prophets, which prophesied in
those days, many years, that I would bring thee against them?
And it shall come to pass at the same time, God shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my
fury will come up in my face, for in my jealousy and in fire of my wrath I have spoken.
Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel, so that the fishes of the sea and the fowls of
the heaven and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep in the earth and all the men that are in the face of the earth
shall shake at my presence and the mountains shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall.
And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord.
Every man's sword shall be against his brother.
And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood.
And I will rain upon him and his bands and upon many people that are with him an overflowing of rain with great
hailstone and brimstone and fire.
Thus will I magnify myself, sanctify myself, and be known in the eyes of many nations, and they
shall know that I am the Lord.
Now, who's going to do it?
Is it the mighty army that we saw in the last chapter of the
people of Israel, or was it God that did it?
It's God.
It's God that did it, but he used the weapons that he chose to use.
This is Armageddon.
It's the battle at the beginning of the... at the
end of the tribulation period, at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.
It is not the final battle at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, which is an even
greater destructive battle than this one.
This one is the one at the end of the tribulation, at the end of the seven years.
If we...
Go ahead.
It will be done in Israel.
It will not necessarily be done in Megiddo, no.
In fact, it will be, I think, spread out all over.
I believe that it will involve an exchange of nuclear weapons, and the reason I believe that is what it
says is going to happen in the next chapter.
If we looked ahead, we would see that after
the battle, there's several interesting things that are going to happen.
They're going to have fuel to burn for seven years, and
they're going to find bones scattered out everywhere, and when they find the bone, they're not going to
bury it.
They're going to put a flag bite, and they're going to send for professionals to come and bury it, and they're not just going to bury
it where it is.
They're going to bring it to a certain valley east of
Jerusalem over in the desert areas, windward, so
that the breeze would go away from Israel and bury the...
If they were people that were killed by radiation, that's
probably what you would do.
Anyhow, I guess we'll do that chapter next time, and then we'll go back to the
next chapter of Daniel.
Any other comments or questions?
I rambled a lot, I know.
I think it's talking...
My personal belief is, I think there's going to be a resolution to this issue in
Iran right now, and I think the Iranians are going to
not lose their hatred, but lose their aggression, and they're going to try
to mollify, and they're going to put
a person of lesser hostility, a person that appears to
be reasonable, and I think they will
form a covenant with Jerusalem and tell them they can worship in their temple forever,
and after three years, it's going to break.
So I think we're close to the end times, but that's just me thinking.
That could totally be all wrong.
I've been wrong many times.
Every time I think I know the answer, it turns out that I'm wrong.
But that's the way the Lord said, isn't it?
It seems to be.
I can visualize a person coming up from the Syrian
part of Iraq and Iran, Iran particularly, and taking control
and saying, I am a more reasonable person.
I think peace is available to us all.
I think he'll be a rich oil man, and he will say, we will make
a covenant with Israel that they can worship as they wish, and they can worship in their temple, and they
can build their temple.
We'll even have them build it.
I can see that happening.
We know it's going to happen somehow, sometime, some way, and we know that there's going to be
great destruction, but that's all we really know.
Anything else?
Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this time, and thank you for all the many blessings.
Thank you for allowing us to live in this time, maybe the most exciting time
of all of history, except the time when the Lord walked
on the earth as a man.
Bless us and keep us.
Protect us.
Go through the services of the day.