Daniel 9

Daniel’s Vision Begins with Jeremiah’s Seventy Years

Things. Well, good morning. If that blows on you too hard, let me know. I turned it down. Okay. Andy, you know, you'll open us up with a word of.

Prayer.

Thank you for the time you give us. Let's open your word. Jesus has only words, thoughts, may we grow in the grace and the knowledge of the one soul of us that he gave himself for us in Jesus name.

All right, Daniel chapter nine. And we've been cruising right along. So we've had them hauled off into captivity. They made a Hebrew Yahweh diet on veggies and were delivered from area by Daniel. And interpreting a dream we have seen handwriting on the wall, we have seen Daniel in the lion's den.

So now we are actually coming to a section to where Daniel's no longer actually going to be conversing with any more kings. He's going to be getting direct revelation from God concerning things that are about to take place.

When I say about to take place, not like tomorrow, his time, but in the near future concerning God and his people. We're not going to get far in chapter nine, this morning, because there's a lot of background stuff that has to be laid before this can even be made clear understanding of my perspective.

So let me just read the first verse and we'll start there. It says in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. Okay, right there.

Does anybody's translation say something other than Ahasuerus? Anybody say Xerxes? Nobody says Xerxes, not even the King James? Interesting. What about you Jack? Did you ever say Xerxes? Verse one, chapter nine?

Well, who is if it's if Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, where do we know the word of Ahasuerus from? Esther, who was, who was Ahasuerus? Xerxes. Xerxes. So some translations and we're obviously the most everybody has a, it was the ESV.

Anybody got anything other than ESV, King James and New King James? What do you got? What does yours say? Oh, yours says Ahasuerus. That's what I got. That's the right one. So you go, okay, well, wait a minute.

If this is the son of Ahasuerus, and if Xerxes was in power, or who we know is Xerxes and Ahasuerus, that took place around 480 to 490. What time is this taking place? 539 BC. Okay, so we have to know who, where does Ahasuerus come in?

Ahasuerus is actually a, a title, as in Pharaoh or a distinguishing honorary name. It started with the Median descent. It started first and foremost with a guy by the name of Caesareus. He was the first Median king and then his son, Astagius, he came along, and let's see, Socrates was in 590, 530, 634.

594 came Astagius. And if you remember from a few weeks ago, Astagius was Cyrus the Great, Darius the Mede's grandad. So his name, that's why it says son of Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus was the title given to Astagius.

So that's how we know, once again, who this Darius is, because it's telling us he's the son of this person, leading us to that Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Great, once again, is the same person. Okay?

Now, it says, he was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign. I, Daniel, observed in the books, the number of years, which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

The Sabbath Year and the Jubilee in Leviticus 25

Okay. We got to ask the question, why 70 years? Why were they hauled off into captivity for this some 70 years? Take your Bible, turn to Leviticus, I think it's chapter 25. I'll start, I'll start right at the beginning of the chapter, because this deals with why this lays the foundation for why they were hauled off into captivity for 70 years.

This is, this is important. Why it was 70 years. And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai speaking, he said, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when you go into the land, which I have given you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the Lord.

Six years you shall sow your field, six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crops. And during the seventh year, the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyards, your harvest after growth, you shall not reap and your grapes and your untrimmed vines, you shall not gather.

The land shall have a sabbatical year. So I'll put it right here first. You had one to six days of creation. Seventh was the Sabbath, correct? We're right. Yeah. All right. In this case, he's saying you're going to now remember, there wasn't just one Sabbath according to the Mosaic legislation.

There was a number of Sabbaths. The first one being the seventh day, meaning the day of rest. And just to let you know, that's the sign of the Mosaic Covenant. Yeah. Or something might be on that. Oh, no.

That was the sign of the Mosaic Covenant. Well, now, you will every six years, you can sow, but on that seventh year, sabbatical land, got to lay dormant, nothing. Now how they did that, we believe that they rotated years on that, that the whole, not as if it was a whole year for all over the land that they didn't do anything.

We believe that they rotated crops. Don't have any, I don't have any evidence to back that up. But we would assume that they did that. That's how they were able to bring in crops the following year that that one, if you rotate your every, every field would have to have a Sabbath in the whole land of Israel.

It says you are, this is now in still in Leviticus 25 verse, all you shall have in verse six, all of you shall have the Sabbath products of the land for food, yourself, your male, your male, your female slaves, your male slaves, your hired man, your foreign residents, and those who live as aliens with you, even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all of its crops to eat.

You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths, namely 49 years. So then you're gonna take seven of these, right?

They follow me. Seven of these comes to what by the text? What's that? 49. This is important, too. And it says this, verse nine, you shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the 10th day of the seventh month.

So on this 49th year, the 10th day, seventh month, I think it's anyway, it's the seventh month, you will sound a horn. On the day of atonement, you shall sound a horn and all of your land and you shall thus consecrate the 50th year to proclaim a release throughout all the land and all of its inhabitants, it shall be a Jubilee for you.

Each of you shall return to his own property. Each of you shall return to his family. You shall have the 50th year as a Jubilee. You will not sow, you will not reap its aftergrowth, nor gather anything from its untrimmed vines.

For it is a Jubilee, it shall be holy to you and you shall eat of its crops out of the field. On this year of Jubilee, hey, listen to how the Lord provides if they just do what he says do, okay? I'm going to summarize this so I don't have to continue to read through the whole chapter.

Listen to what he says. On that seventh year that you're going to let this lay dormant. He says on that sixth year, I'm going to provide enough food for you. If you just do what I tell you to do, that you're not going to have to worry about any food or any reaping or sowing for nearly three years.

Okay? He says you only have to worry about it until the ninth year, which means if this lays dormant, you're not even going to be able to sow until when? Eighth year, which means when you're going to get the produce?

The ninth year. So that means from here to the ninth year, you see how God has provided for them? If they just do what he tells you to do, just be obedient. Just be obedient. That's what he says. Now, turn over to Jeremiah.

Covenant Curses and the Seventy Years of Captivity

Oh, actually, before we do that, go to Leviticus 26. I'll start in verse 14. But if you do not obey me, and you do not carry out all these commandments, if instead you reject my statutes, if you abhor, my soul abhors my ordinance, so as you do not carry out all my commandments, and you so that you break my covenant, I in return will do this to you.

I will appoint over you a sudden terror consummate consumed by that which is a fever, it will lay waste to all of the eyes that cause the soul to pine away. Also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat you up.

I will set my face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies, and those who hate you, they will rule over you. You will flee when no one is pursuing you. If also after these things, you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven more times for your sins.

You see what he says? Look, I'm going to do bring this thing to chastise you. And if you don't listen to me, then I'm going to punish you seven times more. He said, I will also break down your pride of power, I will also make the sky like iron, your earth like bronze, your strength will be spent uselessly for the land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield its fruit.

If then you act with hostility against me, and are unwilling to obey me, I will increase the plague on you seven times more according to your sins. I will lose among you the beast of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle, reduce your number so that the roads lie deserted.

And you continue to read on, he continued to get pestilence, sore, disease, all these things if you don't obey him. Then in verse 34, he says this, then the land will enjoy, he gets, and let me back up, hold on.

Yet if you despise this, in verse 27, yet if you despise this, you will and you do not obey me, but you act hostility to me again, I will act with wrath and hostility against you. I even I will punish you seven more times for your sins.

Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons, you will eat the flesh of your own daughters, and I will destroy your high places, I will cut down the incense altars, keep up the remains and the remains of your idols for you, for my soul shall abhor you.

I will lay waste to all of your cities, as well as make your sanctuaries desolate. I will not smell the soothing aromas of your sacrifices. I will make the land of desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will appall you.

You however, I will scatter among the nations and withdraw you out, a sword after you, as the land becomes desolate and your cities will allow waste. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath all the days of its desolation.

While you are in the land of your enemies, then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbath all the days of its desolation. It will be observed and the land will get its rest, which it did not get when you were told to observe the Sabbath.

So what is God saying? What is he saying? If you don't obey him, he's not he said, okay, specifically saying you don't obey my sabbatical land Sabbath, I'm going to bring all of these things upon you.

It's gonna be pestilence, disease, sword, and he says, I'm gonna and then I'm going to use that to chastise you. And if you don't do it, then finally, I'm going to take you out of the land until I get these back.

Okay, means he's gonna get all of his Sabbath back. Listen to what Jeremiah says about this. Now go to Jeremiah seven, that's 25. Look at verse eight. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, because I will now send and take all the families of the north declares the Lord, I will send to you Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who is my servant and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all the nations roundabout, and I will utterly destroy them make them a horror and a hissing and everlasting desolation.

Moreover, I will take from them the voice of the joy, the voice of the gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone, and I will take away the light of the lamp.

This whole land will be a desolation and a horror to the nations in which they will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. Then it will be that when the 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and the nations declares the Lord for his iniquity in the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make him and its kingdom an everlasting desolation.

So, the 70 years of captivity have to do with their inability and lack of wanting to obey God for the Sabbath years. One more place and then we'll try to get back into go to 2nd Chronicles chapter 36.

And I'll start in verse 11 and read through the end because that gives you the context of when they were about to be, Jerusalem was about to be destroyed. Now, Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear allegiance by God, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel.

Hey, do you remember how many times did Jeremiah tell Zedekiah, look, dude, if you'll just put your neck under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar and do what he tells you to do, God will be graceful to you. God will be graceful to you.

God will take care of you. Just do what God tells you to do. Nebuchadnezzar is God's servant at this time. Serve him, do what he tells you to do. And he did not. And what wound up happening to Zedekiah?

His sons, when he fleed like a coward, and he left the city of Jerusalem, they ran out to the plains of Jericho. Him and his sons were caught. They were gathered. They lined up the sons in front of him.

They killed all of the sons right before his eyes and then gouged his eyes out. So for the last thing he ever saw with his eyes in this life was the slaying of his own sons, because he did not obey what God told him to do.

Furthermore, all the officials and the priest and the people were very unfaithful. Following all the abominations of the nations, they defiled the house of the Lord, which he had sanctified in Jerusalem.

The Lord, their God, their father, I'm sorry, the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.

With verse 15, it says,. And the Lord, their God, their father sent them time and time again by his messengers. Who was that? Who were the messengers? The prophets. And what were the prophets job? Call the people to repentance.

The message of the prophets was repent and come back to fidelity to God. Remember, the prophets were covenant prosecutors. They would come along and say, this is how you have violated God's law. This is how you make right with God.

Repent, go back to the works in which he required of you, which was covenant fidelity and worshiping him in the way that he required, not in the way that you want to. He says, Indeed, they did it time and time again, and they would not listen.

And because, because he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place, but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of God, until I'm sorry, to the wrath of the Lord arose against his people until there was no remedy.

Look, he's saying, I sent prophet after prophet, after prophet, after prophet, after prophet, after prophet. And, uh, they warned you and you did not listen. Now they are now broken to the point that they're irreparable.

God says, then I'm going to pour out my wrath on you. Therefore he brought against them, the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword, the house of the sanctuary. He had no compassion on either young men or virgin old men or infirm.

He gave them all into his hands, all the articles of the house of God, great and small, all the treasures of the house of the Lord, all the treasures of the king and his officers. He brought them all to Babylon.

Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all of its fortified buildings with fire. They destroyed it. And all of its articles, those who had escaped from the sword, he carried away to Babylon and they were his servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord come by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah until here it is.

The land had enjoyed its Sabbaths all the days of its desolations. The land kept it Sabbath for 70 years. So based on this number here, how many years have the prophets come and call them to repentance?

And they would not listen. 490 years. Tell me God was a patient. Tell me God was a patient. Seven times 7490 years and they would not listen. And God finally says, I'm done with it. I've had my fill of it.

You have now filled up the measure of my wrath for your disobedience and I'm going to dump it out on your head. Now, the crazy part of this is if you go, well, how long I started thinking, man, if it's been 490 years, okay, that they had not obeyed the Sabbaths.

This was somewhat surprising to me of how long their disobedience continued. If the first deportation was 60. Well, I'll do this just to appease some, because somebody's gonna say I'm wrong about this, I'm sure.

605 to 603 is when we believe the deportation, first deportation happened. Somebody got a calculator? I know you do on your phone. Add 490 years to that. Tell me what it is. Either one of those, it doesn't matter.

Add 490 years. What was it? 1095. If you know anything about 1095 BC or anywhere close to that time, this would have been around the time of Samuel. You understand that? This is about a time around Samuel coming onto the scene.

So that means under King Saul, under King David, who greatest king to ever live, with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ, Solomon, you see how they were unfaithful? That should be alarming to you.

Because here it is, this David being one whom God had chosen to be the king of Israel. Remember, this was the one of God's own, of the man's choosing, not God's. Remember, God says, I'm gonna choose a man after my own choosing.

And that was this guy. This is the one that the people wanted. And the people got what they wanted. And what did he do? He did whatever he wanted. He thought, wait a minute, God, we want just like, just like the nations around us.

God said, okay, he's gonna do what? He's gonna take your vineyards, he's gonna take your wives, he's gonna take your wheat and your bakers, he's gonna do whatever he wants. And that's exactly what he did.

But even when David comes along, David didn't enforce the Sabbath years of the land. That was disturbing to me. That was disturbing. So God said, I'm done with it. He sent prophet after prophet after prophet.

Now, we can give some his conquest, trying to subdue the land. Okay, I try to try to sanitize some of it, trying to do the land. He is without excuse. Because he lived in a time of peace. He didn't he was no conquest.

He was building this palace building this the temple doing what what God had prepared for him to do before David. He was not a man of blood nor man of war. His daddy was certainly without excuse. Now, we can say, if you remember what happened with him, God torn the kingdom from him because of his idolatry.

And it went to Rehoboam and Jeroboam. That means even when the northern kingdom split off, they didn't obey the Sabbath lands either. So even even when this kingdom separated from to the northern kingdom in Judah, they still did not obey.

Even when God hauled off after them seeing Jeroboam get hauled off into by the Assyrians in 722, the northern kingdom, and he God says, Look, I'm making an example out of your sister for your disobey their disobedience.

I'm going to I'm going to make them nothing. There's not anything on me left of them. And you did not even see the example that I did to them and they continued in their unbelief. And then in 722, he hauled them off.

And God said, You know what, it worked so good for them and 722 and 586. I'll do the same thing until my land gets 70 years worth of Sabbaths. God says my land will get its rest. God will get his what he determined.

Daniel’s Prayer of Corporate Confession

Now, let's go back to Daniel. Remember that this whole chapter sets within a covenant context, I even say the whole book of Daniel sits in a covenant context, because they were hauled off into captivity because they broke the covenant agreed.

Agreed. Specifically, what covenant have they broken? The Sabbaths, the Sabbaths, the Sabbaths, the Sabbaths. So now when we get to Daniel chapter nine, it sits within a context of a covenant context of breaking God's Sabbath and how he is now going to restore them.

Now that the fall of Babylon has come. He said, I Daniel observed in the books, the number of the years which had been revealed as the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the prophet, that the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

One, it's mind boggling to me is how did Daniel get a scroll of Jeremiah? Anybody think about that? I.

Mean, he was connected to, you know, the leadership of the kings. You know, they could grant him. Sure, but very good.

Possibility. But we can say this, we know this, he was definitely a student of the word. He was a student member, he has already when he is praying, we go through his prayer here, starting next week, we're going to see he prays the exact way that God gave Solomon instructions to give to the people when you are hauled off to captivity.

Man, God's telling this to Solomon. He's saying, look, when your people are hauled off into captivity, this is what they were going to do a medium. If I'm Solomon, I'm going, what, man, this is the this is the golden years.

This is the great. How are these people going to be hauled off into captivity? It's because they're going to be disobedient. And when they did that, what did Daniel do? He remembered what they said, and he prayed the way because he he was a student of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, he was a student of Isaiah.

And he remembered also the writings of Solomon from kings. Understand? He was a student of the word. So he now says, Oh, the Babylonians are now gone. And he knew from the Colossus, that Babylon was the head, right?

What was the next person coming in? Persians? Yeah. And who just took over? Yeah, Darius Cyrus. So he now knows, wow, this means this is over. At least that part is over. And if he understood what Jeremiah was saying, Jeremiah also said there was gonna be a time of restoration.

So would not Jeremiah have been? I mean, Daniel have been happy at this point. Look, this is over. The desolations over the time of God's judgments over for 70 years, we can go back to the land or somebody can.

He said, so I gave attention verse three of chapter nine. So I gave my attention to the Lord to seek him by prayer, supplications and fasting sackcloth and ashes. Was was fasting commanded in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law one time, and it was for the Day of Atonement.

And it's actually coined by the statement of humble yourself. That was normally how it was one time a year, they were supposed to fast and it was to the Day of Atonement. It was a nationwide fast. That's what they were supposed to do.

He says here, he was fasting and sackcloth and ash, which means he was doing what? What was sackcloth and ashes? Morning. Yeah, take even when when Andy was teaching in Job. I mean, would the job go sit down in a pile of ash?

Well, some of that might have been because he was trying to get the boils from not hurting. But yeah, but otherwise, he was mourning, he lost everything he had, except for his wife. And, and his skin was hanging off of him.

And he was a mess, but he was mourning. And it says that he was making supplication. Well, what is supplication? What's the difference between prayer and.

Supplication?

Supplication is more intercessory.

And appealing? Yeah, yeah. It can be for yourself or you can enter, you can intercede for yourself, Lord, help me. I mean, we saw that last week. You know, Psalm 119, where, which I believe that was Daniel that wrote that we're out how many times have we read where he said, just save me.

Just help me. Just do something for me. You know, I've been faithfully to help me. So here it is, he's praying. And his prayer certainly would consist of, of praise. Anytime it says that Daniel would go out last week, before he was thrown in the lion's den, he was said three times a day, he would go up, he would open up his door chambers, he would pray towards Jerusalem, and he would pray.

Well, he was raising his hands in praise to the Lord, praising him. So here it is, he is praising, and he is interceding, like you said, Stephen for his people, and we're going to see that he is interceding for his people when we get into his prayer.

With sackcloth and ashes, meaning probably had ashes on him. He said, I prayed to the Lord, my God, and confessed and said, alas, oh, Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

What does that say about the character and nature of God? Okay, what else? He is faithful. He's very, we saw a long suffering there. Long suffering for 490 years. Yep. What else? There's great and awesome.

Does awesome mean like we think of awesome? That's it. Yeah, that is it. Some may say terrible. Yeah, so when we think of awesome, we see something, we go, oh, man, that was awesome. Like, in awe, sometimes in beauty.

That's not how the Bible uses the word awesome. Awesome is used fearful, terrible, knee knocking, trembling, messing your pants like Belshazzar, got kind of fearful stuff. Okay? Yeah. So he is saying, look, you're great.

Certainly he's great. He's the creator of all things. He called all things into existence by absolutely nothing. And he is fearful. Why should he be fearful? Why should they be dreadful and terrible? Because he keeps his covenant.

And what was his covenant? You break my covenant, I'm gonna smash you. I'm gonna smash you. We forget that even when they came before they crossed the Jordan River, and I think it's in Deuteronomy 26, 27, and 28.

They get one gets on the Mount Gerizim, Mount Ebal. And you remember what they hollered back and forth to one another? It was before they come into the land. Moses told them, look, if you go into the land and you do this, this is what God's going to do.

You do good. This is the blessing. You do bad. This is the cursing. So each one went back and forth as they collared back and forth the blessing and cursing, meaning God's going to keep his oath. He's going to keep his word.

He's not going to break his covenant. And part of that covenant is punishment, is punishment. It says in his loving kindness, was loving kindness is certainly long suffering. Very patient. There is tenderness that comes with that.

Was this not an act of God's tenderness to let the time of desolation come to an end? What's that? Sure. Yeah, I mean, God didn't have to. God could have said, you know what? I'm gonna continue on. He reserves the right to do that.

But he didn't. It says in his loving kindness for those who keep him and keep his commandments. So there it is, again, there is blessing and kindness to those who keep his commandments. And then it says, we have sinned, committed iniquity, and acted wickedly and rebelled.

Sin, Iniquity, and Rebellion in Daniel’s Confession

Let me see if we got time to do this real quick. If not, we can pick up right there. Next week. He makes some distinctions here. What's a sin? What's a sin? There you go. What's an equity?

That's gonna be a little tricky. Because we got to get when you.

Think about it, you go, I know what it is. But how do we how do we explain it?

Kind of doing your own thing when God says to do it this way.

That that is partially Yeah, this is just continual, open, rebellion, knowingly, okay, knowingly. Now, there's a part of sin. That is, we don't know. Okay, wait a minute. We don't know. How many times do we sin a day and we don't know?

What was the Day of Atonement set up for? Does anybody remember right off hand? The Day of Atonement was for a specific reason and covered only a specific type of sin, unintentional unknowing, they didn't know, ignorant, sins done in ignorance, they had no idea.

You can go read a book of Hebrews and it talks just about that very thing. It says when they went in one time a year, and it was for one group of people, it was for the covenant people of Israel, no proselyte, no Canaanite, no Gergashite, none of that.

They went in one time a year into the Holy of Holies to atone for one group of people for one type of sin. It was the sins that were committed in ignorance. So he's saying not only these, the transgression of the law, this would be the ones that they had done in ignorance and willful.

But hey, under the willful sins, under the Mosaic legislation, did not God put grace with inside the Mosaic legislation for them to take care of those willful sins? Yeah, the sacrificial system, they could go bring a goat, lamb, bullet, whatever it required, take it to the priest, lay it down on the butcher table.

Not only did the priest do that, you were as the worshiper there, hey, you were actually there cutting the lamb and doing that there with him. It wasn't like me going, hey,.

You know what I send here, buddy? Yeah, it wasn't like.

That. They actually had to take part in the shedding of the blood to see what had taken place. But the iniquity now, this deals with more of Israel's problem. They had for 490 years had prophet after prophet after prophet, and they would not listen.

And that would continue on too with Christ. How many of these say, hey, man, the prophets and prophets came and came and came, and you would not listen. And now that I'm here, you ain't going to listen to me, and you're going to kill me.

And he says now, once again, he says the same thing that Jeremiah told you, your house is going to be left desolate. Okay, their continual iniquity of open, blatant rebellion against God. Then he says this.

He adds, acted wickedly and rebelled. How did they act wickedly? What's that? Worshipping? Yeah, okay. You had, not only did you have idolatry, but you had, they were killing the prophets. How many prophets had they killed?

Jesus said a bunch. Jesus said a bunch. There was so many they had killed that Jesus even said on the last time he was inside the temple that Wednesday before he was crucified, he said, your fathers had killed the prophets.

And you even admit that your fathers killed the prophets, because what you're doing is you're going out there and you're whitewashing all their tombs saying, hey, if we'd have been like, we'd have been here, we wouldn't have done that.

Jesus said, no, no, no, no, no. You'd have been just like them because you're fixing to kill me. And now you're going to, now you're going to, you're going to heap up the measure from not only from the time of Abel, but to the son of Berechiah, Zachariah, who you killed between the altar and the temple.

So look, they were continually killing the prophets. That's how they were acting wickedly, doing whatever they wanted to do. They were going off into idolatry, doing with the Baals. And even when they would come back into somewhat time of fidelity to God, we'll even take for the, even the time of Malachi, once they came back to Malachi's time, what did Malachi have to rebuke them for?

Was their worship, were they doing the acts of worship the way that God required? They were doing their acts correct, but they were bringing wrong sacrifices. So were they doing, were they, quote, go with the sacrifice, were they going to church?

Yes, they were going to church. Were they reading Torah? Yeah. Were they coming and doing their feast days? Yes. But what was the problem when they came to their sacrifices and giving what they were supposed to to the Lord?

They were giving him the lame and the one, the one eyed, no tooth, speckled, whatever, bad toenails, teeth, whatever. Remember, they had to be perfect. I mean, they would bring that goat or that lamb, that priest would set it on that butcher table.

He would then begin to do a fine inspection if he found one freckle on its gum. Got to go. No good. No good. A blemish on its toenail. Got to go. A chipped tooth. Got to go. It's got to be perfect. And they didn't care.

They did it their own way. And then it says, and even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. So, because they continue to sin willfully, that, if you continue to sin willfully, it sears the conscience, which leads to ongoing iniquity, which meaning you continue to do it willfully and you don't care, which leads to idolatry, more in-depth idolatry.

I can just look for the progression that would happen from the time they came into the land. It started with little sins. Then it came to continual sin, which led to idolatry. Then to killing the ones that actually warned them of the dangers of not repenting.

To now, they don't even, you know what, we don't even care about your ordinances or your laws. And that's exactly what happened. And he says, look, this is what we have done. This is what we have done.

We got two minutes for questions, comments, disagreements. Anyone? Yes, sir.