Daniel in Exile Part 6

Let's pray, Lord Jesus. Again, as we open up your word, we ask through your

Holy Spirit to help us to rightly understand what you have revealed there. We recognize that some of what we're reading is very mysterious and difficult to interpret.

We pray that you would help us to rightly understand these texts so that we would not despair, but continue to have faith and confidence even in the face of persecution.

We ask in Jesus name. Amen. OK, let me do this real quick. I'm going to run through my pre -flight checklist of things to do here.

There we go. OK, we are in Daniel, chapter eight, and you'll note this is, like I said last week, this is an apocalyptic text and apocalyptic is all about revealing.

There's mysteries. There are word pictures in here that are just not the easiest things to understand.

But hopefully with a little bit of help, by slowing down, I'll show you how you can get at what these things mean and hopefully you'll find it to be edifying.

All right, let's see here. Daniel, chapter eight. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me.

Daniel, after that which appeared to me at first, I saw in the vision and when

I saw I was in Susa, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in the vision and I was at the

Ulai Canal. I raised my eyes and I saw and behold a ram standing on the bank of the canal.

It had two horns. Both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.

I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward.

No beast could stand before him and there was no one who could rescue from his power.

He did as he pleased and became great. As I was considering, behold, a male goat from the west across the face of the whole earth came from the west without touching the ground and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.

And he came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath.

I saw him come close to the ram and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns.

And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him.

And there was no one who can rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it, there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.

Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.

It grew great even to the host of heaven, and some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them.

It became great, even as great as the prince of the host, and the regular burnt offering was taken away from him and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown.

And a host will be given over to it together with a regular burnt offering because of the transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground.

And it will act, and it will prosper. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to one who spoke, for how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, the giving over of the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?

And he said to me, for 2 ,300 evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.

All right, clear as mud, right? I would note there is another reference to Alexander the

Great in there for sure. Okay, that four, that series of fours is a big deal.

But you're going to note, we're still kind of in the training wheel phase of learning how to read apocalyptic literature.

And God is going to be merciful and allow an interpretation, but then we're going to have to figure out what everything connects to.

Does that make sense? So like Jesus, when he taught his disciples how to understand parables, he explained a few of them so that when they went, ah, we now get it, right?

Same thing happening here. So when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it.

And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the

Ulai, and it called, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.

Okay, if you'd insist, okay, right, no, I'm sorry, that's Vincent, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong being.

Okay, so he came near where I stood, and when he came, I was frightened, and I fell on my face, which is standard procedure when you're in the presence of a holy angel, just saying, okay?

So note here, this one, the one who had the appearance of a man, how much you want to bet that might, we can kind of put this in the potential understanding here.

We might be dealing with an appearance of the pre -incarnate Christ, right? There's a good chance that that's what we're dealing with here.

All right, so let's see, he said to me, all right, so he came near where I stood, I was frightened, fell on my face, that's normal procedure.

But he said to me, understand, oh son of man, that the vision is for the time of what?

The end. Now note, there's some stuff that's in the immediate foreground that will be fulfilled.

And then there's something about the end here. So, and when he had spoken to me,

I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. He touched me and made me stand up.

He said, behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end.

Now, here's an interesting fact. All right, so have you ever stopped to think, from heaven's perspective, from the perspective of God and the angels, how do they refer to the state of the earth and humanity and everything that's going on right now?

Okay, so you would think back, go back in human history, that time from the time the

Nazis invaded Poland until the end of the world. Until the end of the war, that was referred to as World War II, right?

So we, that's a fixed period of history. Well, you'll note in the history of heaven, there was a before and after.

Well, there isn't an after yet. There was a before, and now we're currently in the middle of what could arguably be the longest running war in history, the war of Satan against God.

Which we are participants in, belligerents, because we disobeyed God and were put under the dominion of darkness.

But note here, Gabriel refers to the current state of affairs as the indignation.

That's a good name, by the way, the indignation. So in the world to come, okay, in the world to come, your great -great -great -grandchildren might ask, what did you do during the indignation?

Right? Think about it, okay? Because right now we're currently in the middle of it, okay?

Hopefully near the end, I hope. You know, Thursday's a good day for, if you ask me. But all that being said, you'll note that we have kind of an internal messaging here that we don't normally have information on.

And so the current state of affairs is known as the indignation. And then he'll note, then what the vision he saw deals with the appointed time of the end.

As for the ram that you saw, with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia, and the goat is the king of what?

Greece, Alexander the Great. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king,

Alexander the Great. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power.

And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise.

Now, you're going to note, there's a huge leap here. So from the end of the four kingdoms that were set up after the death of Alexander the

Great, one of them, one of the four kingdoms typifies the reign of the

Antichrist. And so you've got, and this is where we kind of have to pay attention here, that when we talk about Western civilization,

Western Civ, to go back to sixth grade, I still remember that old, dusty, crusty,

Western civilization textbook that I had to work through. And this is in the days when we had, you know, you guys remember overhead projectors?

OK, we had overhead projectors. We had, we didn't have video then. We had, we had real to real movies stuff.

OK. And you guys remember when, you know, your teacher happened to like spool the film through the, you know, like this, and it comes out the other end.

And they had to do the whole thing. And when they were done, they could rewind it. You remember those days?

OK. But all that being said, I remember the cradle of civilization was what?

Mesopotamia. The cradle of civilization was the land between the rivers. And then things kind of got really going with the rise of what?

Democracy in Greece. But then that gave way to a representative republic in Rome and their

Senate system. But here's the thing. Have democracy and representative republics and the

Greco -Roman worldview, have they left planet Earth? No.

And I would note the United States of America is intentionally a rehashing, a retreading, if you would, of Greek and Roman jurisprudence and governmental ideas.

And so you'll note then that these things will continue on until the end.

And so from heaven's view, what was started with those four kings who rose up after the death of Alexander the

Great, that still continues to this day. And it's not tied specifically to a region per se, but you're going to note that one of these four kings is going to be then the prototype, the archetype of the

Antichrist and what will come at the end. When the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise.

Well, good news is it's not me because I stink at riddles. Okay. Yeah, it really does.

It sounds like the esoteric Gnostic kind of stuff. Okay. His power shall be great, but not by his own power.

He shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints.

Remember last week I said, what's our job? We got the end. Our job's to die. Okay. That's our job.

We're, we're, let's go out and let's lose here, folks, because God has ordained for this to happen.

When this fellow arises, the best way I can describe him is, is that he's going to exemplify kind of Satan incarnate and he's going to basically take the whole satanic ideas that have their origin in the devil, which we've bought into and bring them to their logical conclusion in human history.

So we can never say, well, God, you, you kind of intervene too quick and it could have worked out if you'd just given it a little bit more time.

Okay. It's just not going to work out this way. All right. By his cunning, he shall make deceit prosper under his hand and in his own mind, he shall become great.

So no, truth is thrown to the ground. Deceit prospers. We're already starting to get, um, you know, in our day and age, have you noticed, we're starting to get the first waves of this stuff crashing in on society globally.

Now, deceit indeed is prospering, right? His own mind will become great.

Without warning, he shall destroy many and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes and he shall be broken, but by no human hand.

Okay. So think of it this way. Is there any point in trying to assassinate this fellow?

No, you just take that right off the table. Anybody who tries will fail.

Okay. And the vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal the vision for it refers to many days from now.

All right. Now, let me, let me, let me point this out. So here we got the first real rumblings, the real rattlings, the beginning of the revelation as it relates to the man of lawlessness.

Right. And I always say again, you got to get a good cross reference in here. So second Thessalonians chapter two, okay, section titled the man of lawlessness.

This is who we're talking about concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him.

We ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the

Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. That day will not come unless the rebellion, the apostasia comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed.

Now, by the way, as we're reading through Daniel here, does it sound like this man of lawlessness is a legitimate human being?

Yes. Okay. I do not understand what, there's this weird ping pong match that happens within Lutheran theology.

And it's an interesting ping pong match to watch that you get one generation of Lutheran theologians who'll say, this guy is a legitimate person, he's coming.

And then you get the next generation says, no, this is archetypal. This doesn't have anything to do with a real human being.

It's just talking about the reign of Satan in general. Okay. And I, you know,

I've read through this ping pong match and I sit there and go, how can you say that this is just archetypal?

Daniel doesn't make it sound like this guy's an archetype at all. And you'll know it doesn't make any sense in what we just read, because as we were reading

Daniel, you'll note that the king of Greece, that's Alexander the

Great. The kings of media Persia. Those are actual human history people. Why then would we say that this guy, this king of bold face who has great power and understand riddles and will cause deceit to prosper under his reign, and he will wage war with the saints and have victory over them.

Why would we say that this is some kind of an archetype, some kind of a symbolic thing? Because the understanding, the interpretation of this vision is it, it demands that you interpret it based upon actual human history.

So you got real kings, real Alexander the Great, and then you have to have a real human being coming, right?

That's at least how, that's how I read it. And so I just don't understand how you end up saying that this is some kind of an archetype, right?

So the, the end will not come. Okay. Unless the rebellion comes first, the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.

And listen to this, who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called

God and object of worship. As we continue to work our way through Daniel, especially as we get into chapter nine, it's going to become very evident that, that who

Paul is writing about here in 2 Thessalonians 2 is exactly the same fellow as we just read about in 8 and who we will read about in 9.

So that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be

God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things, and you know what's restraining him so that he may be revealed in his time?

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.

Kind of an easy way of understanding this is that Satan is restrained.

He doesn't have a free reign like he had in the past. And as we get closer to the end, those restraints will be loosed.

Then the lawless one will be revealed. And remember what Daniel said, this person will not be destroyed by a human being, by no human hands.

The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

So we're talking about the ultimate, crazy, out of control, narcissistic, murderous dictator who thinks he's a

God will take over the entire earth and it will result in mass murders like you wouldn't believe.

The Holocaust will seem like a walk in the park compared to what this fellow is going to do.

Mighty ones and saints are going to be his target. He's going to go for it. And who's going to bring him to an end?

Christ. And Jesus is going to kill him with the breath of his mouth. I've said it before.

I'll keep saying it. This sounds like a wonderful bookend to human history. If you remember

Adam, when God formed him, there was his lifeless body and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living being, right?

Well, that means the very, very, very, very first thing that Adam saw was the face of God because there's

God breathing the breath of life into his nostrils and he takes his first breath and his eyes open.

And there's his God right there, right? Well, fast forward now to the end of human history.

I think this kind of hints at this idea that the man of lawlessness, since nobody can kill him, no single human being will be able to bring this guy to an end.

He will be the last guy standing. So on the day that Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, on that day,

Jesus is going to deal with this fellow directly. And he's going to bring him to an end and he's going to kill him in the exact same way he brought

Adam to life. Seems like a good bookend to me, right?

Let's see. By his cunning, he shall make deceit prosper, under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great, that warning he will destroy many, and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes, that would be

Jesus, and he shall be broken, but by no human hand. Cool. So when this guy shows up, best thing you could do if you want to be around for when

Jesus returns is disappear and do not leave a trace. Keep all your cell phones and electronic devices behind.

You don't want to be tracked. And make sure that you figure out how to avoid being detected by infrared by drones.

That's all I got to say. Good luck. Okay. That's pretty much it.

And if not, if you're too old and too tired, just sit still. They'll come and kill you. Okay. It'll be quick, right?

But you get the idea. This guy's going to wage war against the saints and he's going to win. All right.

So after this, Daniel says, I, Daniel, was overcome and I lay sick for some days.

You'll note that seeing this vision really took a toll on Daniel. This really, really churned in his spirit.

So then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision. I did not understand it.

All right. So far, so good, right? All right. Oh, man. I think I have some of Edie's cupcake in my beard here.

Yeah. Thank you, Edie, for being three, you know, I still can't believe she's three.

That's, that's wrong. Anyway. All right. All right. Daniel chapter nine. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, by descent, a

Mede who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign,

I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

Now here is an important concept because here we have a word, chorba in Hebrew, which is a super important word.

Have you heard of the abomination that causes desolation, right? We have a little bit of an interpretive key here.

When the scriptures talk about an abomination that causes desolation, what came to an end in Jerusalem as a result of Nebuchadnezzar's campaign against Jerusalem and Judah?

The sacrifices, the worship of God came to a halt publicly.

Okay. And as a result of Nebuchadnezzar's, you know, his campaign,

Jerusalem was left desolate. But it was a desolation that ended the daily sacrifices.

And this stands as a type and shadow of what's coming with the man of lawlessness in his murderous campaign against Christians.

He's going to bring an end to all public Christian worship.

He is the abomination that causes desolation. And so let's just put it this way.

When that guy shows up, the desolation will be so extreme and global.

We're not going to be able to meet here at Kongsvinger. I doubt we'd be able to meet on Zoom either.

That ain't going to happen. Right? You kind of, you see how this is coming down, right? So we're told about these desolations so we can expect them and act accordingly.

So if you want to publicly worship, you keep your groups tight, small, and secret.

Okay. That's what you got to do. Okay. So note, he was reading the prophet Jeremiah, which by the way, at the time that Daniel wrote,

Jeremiah was at this time, the newest of the books of the Bible. It's weird to think of the

Bible as a project that had new books coming to it. Right? But Jeremiah was the latest as well as Lamentations.

Jeremiah and Lamentations were the two fresh new books of the Bible. And you'll note

Daniel's reading it and he recognizes that Jeremiah is a true prophet and having read all of Jeremiah and worked through it, that's a big deal.

So I turn my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and please for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Now, let me see if I can find this cross reference here. Jeremiah 25, 12.

We're going to look and see if that's it. Hold on a second here. I need a Hebrew text.

Jeremiah 25. All right. Let's take a look at what he was reading and we'll put it in context.

So here's what Daniel's reading. Yep. I still have some of Edie's cupcake in my beard. Okay. I'm going to have to have this thing fumigated.

I'm not ending this part. My wife requires me to fumigate my beard once a year, whether I need it to or not, but that's a different story altogether.

All right. So here's what it says. Jeremiah 25. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

That was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

For 23 years from the 13th year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, the king of Judah to this day, the word of Yahweh has come to me and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.

You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear. Although Yahweh persistently sent to you all his servants, the prophet saying, turn now every one of you from his evil, his evil way and evil deeds and dwell upon the land that Yahweh has given to you and your fathers from of old forever.

Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands.

Then I will do you no harm. Yet you have not listened to me, declares Yahweh, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold,

I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares Yahweh, for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations,

I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing and everlasting desolation.

Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstone and the light of the lamp.

This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon, here it is, 70 years.

What did the false prophets of Jeremiah's time say? Oh, they're coming back soon. They'll be back next year.

You know, that didn't work out. Seventy years, and after 70 years are completed, then

I will punish the king of Babylon and the nation that the land of the Chaldeans, and for their iniquity, declares the

Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I've uttered against it, everything written in this book, which

Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations, for many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.

Whew. Okay, now let's come back here. So that's what he's reading, and then he does this.

I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer, and please for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

I prayed to Yahweh, my God, and made confession, saying, O Lord, the great and awesome

God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned, we've done wrong, and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and your rules.

We have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

To you, O Lord, belong righteousness, but to us, open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all of Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, and all the lands to which you have driven them because of the treachery that they have committed against you.

To us, O Yahweh, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

To the Lord, our God, belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, our

God, by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants, the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing, excuse me, refusing to obey your voice.

And the curse and the oath that are written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out upon us because we have sinned against him.

He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers, who ruled us by bringing upon us a great calamity.

For under the whole of heaven, there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem, as it is written in the law of Moses.

All this calamity has come upon us, yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh, our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth.

Therefore, Yahweh has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us.

For Yahweh, our God, is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.

And now, O Lord, our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for yourself, as it is this day, we have sinned.

We have done wickedly. What a great prayer. We're not even done with this thing.

This is a great prayer. Notice his humility. Notice he's speaking the truth about himself.

He's speaking the truth about the wickedness of Judah. And he's entreating God to be merciful.

All of this because he read in the Bible that they were going to be there for 70 years.

O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city,

Jerusalem, your holy hill, because of our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers.

Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now, therefore,

O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy and for your own sake.

O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.

Oh, my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that is called by your name.

For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.

O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act.

Delay not for your own sake. O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.

You want a good model prayer of what it looks like to pray, to ask God for forgiveness and mercy, to humble yourself, not a whiff of decreeing or declaring here, right?

Today's wingnut wackerdoodles, had they been the ones in captivity, they would have read in Jeremiah and said, well,

I decree and declare those 70 years to come swiftly, to close. Weird stuff like this.

Yeah, they probably wouldn't have. All right, so God hears this prayer and sends

Gabriel again, and you're going to note, Gabriel makes a couple of appearances here in the book of Daniel, and then we don't hear from him again until Luke chapter one.

The angel Gabriel from heaven came, right? And so he's the one who spoke to the

Virgin Mary. He's the one who spoke to Zachariah. So while I was speaking and I was praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people,

Israel, and presenting my plea before Yahweh, my God, for the holy hill of my

God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man, so you know,

Gabriel appears in the form of a man whom I had seen in the vision at first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.

Ah, that's three in the afternoon. That's the same time that Christ died for our sins.

He made me understand speaking with me and saying, Oh, Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding at the beginning of your pleas for mercy.

A word went out and I have come to tell it to you for you are greatly loved.

Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision. Now stop for a second. Here's where we got to note the commonality that we have with Daniel.

We hear a response like this and we sit there and we go, well, God's never sent an angel to talk to me after I asked him for forgiveness.

Okay, you're wrong. You're wrong. And I'll explain why in a minute.

But you'll note that we read something like this and we go, well, yippee for Daniel. Hooray for him. Okay, we don't, we don't get that same treatment.

That's not true. It's not true at all. And it's important to note here that we see here that, you know, the inner workings of heaven when we ourselves ask

God for forgiveness. And you'll note that we, because of Christ, we are forgiven and it is true of us.

And if you do, if you need me to walk through the epistle texts that say this over and over again about all who are in Christ Jesus, you and I are also greatly loved.

And I would note that it is absolutely true that God has sent a messenger.

Now, let me explain. If you were attending a different congregation, it would be a different pastor.

But since you're attending here, you're stuck with me. Okay, which I understand is more like a consolation prize than the first prize.

But that being said, God has sent me as the angel, the messenger of Kongsvinger, so that when you confess your sins, you hear that your sins are forgiven and you are assured that you are greatly loved for the sake of Christ.

Okay, now granted, I am not even remotely as impressive as Gabriel. I mean, there's

Gabriel, and then there's the booby prize, Roseboro, but it still counts.

Okay, because in the book of Revelation, when John is given letters to dictate to the different churches, those letters are addressed to different angels.

We're not talking about angelic beings. We're talking about the messengers sent by God who are the pastors there.

To the angel of the church at Philadelphia, write. To the angel of the church of Ephesus, write.

To the angel of the church of, you get the idea, right? That being the case, it is important to note that pastors are indeed messengers sent by God.

We have been sent with words to preach. Now granted, you get to follow along with those words because you can read your

Bible. But all that being said, that when you pray for mercy, you get an answer from heaven. And the answer from heaven is that you are forgiven and that you are loved, that you are redeemed, and all of these things.

So we get those same comforts and assurances that Daniel does, but just not as impressively.

Does that make sense? Don't get hung up on the fact that, you know, it's Roseboro instead of Gabriel.

That doesn't matter. We're both sent by God because pastors are indeed called by God and placed into the pastoral office.

Okay, so here he goes on. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision.

And here's where it's going to get really, really complicated.

Okay, this is one of the tougher visions to crack.

Seventy weeks, seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city.

Now, pay attention to the details. To finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness.

Now, I'm going to stop right here. Atone for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness. Sometime in the future from Daniel, when in human history was iniquity atoned for and everlasting righteousness brought into humanity?

Christ's death on the cross. Christ's death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave, his ascension into heaven.

So you're going to note that these 70 weeks are pointing to a time frame that when they are completed will also include the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

Watch the details to seal both vision and profit. Over and again,

I get told that I am an evil, false teacher because I am a cessationist.

Okay, Daniel was told that in the 70 weeks prophecy would be sealed.

And I'm going to say this right now and you'll see it when we when we work it out, the 70 weeks are completed.

There are no prophets on planet Earth today. Everyone claiming to be a prophet today is a false prophet because prophecy is sealed.

I know it's a big statement. You'll see it. To anoint a most holy place. Know, therefore, and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build

Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one. Let me help you with the word there from the coming of Hamashiach, an anointed one, a prince.

There shall be seven weeks. Now, this this anointed one is probably referring to somebody like Nehemiah.

Okay, because you'll note kings are also anointed a prince. There shall be seven weeks.

Then for 62 weeks, it shall be built again with squares and a moat, but in a troubled time.

And after 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. Here we go again.

Hamashiach shall be cut off and have nothing. I know a

Hamashiach who was cut off and had nothing. Yeshua, right? Okay.

And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

Its end shall come with a flood and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week.

And for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.

And then on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.

Now, that last part's a little hard. So we're going to invoke help. Help. All right.

And here's where we're going to go for some help. So let me do this. I'm going to, first of all, open up the book of Daniel chapter nine in my

ESV in Lagos. And let me get to the 70 weeks.

And you're going to note this chart that I'm going to show you is also available in the

Lutheran Study Bible. Okay. So we're going to look at a good commentary, the

Concordia commentary on Daniel. And let's get past the Hebrew textual notes.

And let me see if I can scroll down and find how do we understand the 70 weeks.

Okay. And there is a wonderful chart that's going to help us out here. Okay. And we're going to look here, the traditional messianic interpretation.

And this interpretation is the one that goes all the way back.

You can find this in the writings of the church fathers going all the way back.

So we're not talking about a literal 70 weeks.

In apocalyptic literature, timeframes are not keyed to earthly timeframes.

Weeks are not literal weeks. Weeks are periods of time. You have to kind of get that.

So numbers and times are basically symbolic. So from Cyrus's decree in 358

BC until Nehemiah, the first of the anointed, the first one anointed one, okay.

Cause he's going to be your governor then of Judah. Okay. From that, in the first seven weeks,

Jerusalem is rebuilt and everything is reestablished, but in troubled times.

Okay. Then you have during the 62 weeks, a guy by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Antiochus Epiphanes. And if you want a little bit more information on the history of this, read the book of Maccabees. Okay.

Read the Maccabees in the Apocrypha. It'll help you at least get your head around this and also read

Josephus' Jewish history. It'll help you out a little bit. Antiochus Epiphanes is the guy who you'll see later in Daniel is the, is the type and shadow of the

Antichrist himself. He will be the one who really, really typifies the Antichrist.

So in keep in mind, Antiochus is a guy who desecrated the temple of God in Jerusalem, sacrificed a pig on the altar.

I mean, we're talking gross stuff here, right? So during that 62 weeks, you have

Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 desecrating the temple. But then at the end of the 62 weeks, you have one week left and that's going to be, that week is going to begin with the birth of Christ in roughly 2

BC. Okay. Then you have Jesus's life, his crucifixion, his, his, uh, resurrection and ascension, and then you have a little bit of time left.

A little bit of that one week left. You have Titus destroying the temple in AD 70, but if you know your

Roman history, you're going to note that even with the destruction of the temple, the Jews were still allowed to stay in Judea.

And they continued to be a problem to the Roman empire. So finally in 135

AD, Hadrian, he, he comes in, wages a full out war against the

Jews in Judea, those who survived. He literally forbade them to ever come back.

He changed the name of Judea to Syria, Palestinia, and they were kicked out of there forever until they returned in 1948.

Right. But all that being said, the 70 weeks they're here, they've, they've, they're done, there is no remainder on the 70 weeks.

In fact, one of the, one of the, uh, one of the apologetic works I read maybe about 15, 20 years ago, um, one of, uh,

Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Faith, I think it might've been, uh, they, you know, one of the major Christian apologists that he interviewed was discussing the 70 weeks.

And here's the implication is that the prophecy of the 70 weeks is a really important one as it relates to who the

Messiah is, because everything has already been fulfilled in the 70 weeks.

If Jesus isn't the Messiah, ain't nobody the Messiah. I mean, kind of let that sit in.

The true Messiah has to appear in this timeframe. The one promised throughout the, all of the old

Testament has to appear during the 70 weeks, because if he doesn't appear during that time, there is no

Messiah, and that I think is a very, very compelling argument, but coming back then for the implication then, as it relates to us and some of the other things, so let me come back here and listen again to the details of the 70 weeks, 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish transgression, put an end to sin and atone for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness.

That's talking about Christ at the end of the 70 weeks, prophecy and vision are sealed.

Now let me point to something kind of like objective that we can all point to since the book of revelation has been written.

How many new books of the Bible have been added? Zero, zero.

And for the past 1800 years, how many prophets have we had in the church?

None. It might be depending on who you ask, but at the end of the day,

I want you to consider this, okay, if I were to write a book, the great apostles and prophets of the 7th century, which names come to mind?

Eighth, ninth, tenth, all right?

Now come to the present day that we live in. My wife and I were in the latter reign of the

Roman Empire in the 7th century. Roman movement when prophets were said to have been restored to the church and it was in the late 80s and there was nothing glorious about it and the prophetess that we were under was a complete wacker doodle and cult leader and control freak.

Okay? And she doesn't stand as one who's like a true prophet. Any of the prophets

I cover on Prophecy Bingo or any episode of Fighting for the Faith, do they strike you as people who are sound in mind, solid in theology and clearly sound, lucid voices for God?

No, not at all. So we're going to note that in the prophecy of the 70 weeks, we have the clearest statement that you can go to that says that prophecy is ceased.

And this bears out in the history of the church. There have been no prophets until recently and the current crop of them, that's a bad crop, man.

That's a bad crop. It's like trying to make bread from weeds.

It doesn't make any sense. So when you consider then how this all plays out, this 70 weeks prophecy is,

I think, one of the clearest texts that cessationists can go to. And what's interesting here is that concurrent with the time frame, the conquering of Jerusalem in 135

AD, that's also concurrent with really where we see in the writings of the church fathers, prophecy falling off.

Now, a little bit of a note here. So from the time of Christ, death, burial, resurrection and ascension and Pentecost.

So we'll say roughly 33 -ish AD, right? From 33 AD until the death of the final apostle,

John. John probably dies in the 90s or in the early 100s. It's a little unclear as to when he dies.

But one of the things we do see very clearly in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, is that there were people whom

God gave the gift of prophecy to, but they only received that gift by the laying on of hands by an apostle.

And there was a fellow who was a Christian martyr by the name of Polycarp.

Familiar with this fellow? He's a martyr. He was martyred as an octogenarian in his 80s.

And he, if you read, there's one way to interpret what he writes, is that he was actually legitimately baptized as an infant by the apostle

John. He was discipled in the Christian faith in Ephesus by the apostle John.

And he received the gift of prophecy by the laying of hands by the apostle

John. And when you read the writings of the early church fathers, he's like one of the last guys who you can point to who can legitimately operate in the gift of prophecy.

In fact, right before he was martyred, he had a prophetic vision that he interpreted that he was going to be burned at the stake, that he was going to be burned to death.

And it went down exactly the way he said it was going to go down. And you can see this. But here's the thing, from Polycarp afterwards, true prophets?

No. Now, that doesn't, and here's where we're going to make a big distinction, okay, is that when we talk about certain gifts of the spirit ceasing, we have to be clear what we mean by this.

So, for instance, I do not believe that miracles have ceased.

But I do not believe that there's a single miracle worker on planet Earth. Okay? So, you know,

I think of Julie, you know, how many years ago was it that she went into the hospital with sepsis?

I mean, she was this close to dying. She was in a really bad space, went and prayed for her, and I offered up a super simple, humble prayer for her.

God, have mercy on her. Please heal her. Don't let this be her demise. And she had a really bad case of sepsis.

I mean, she was in a bad spot. And she cleared up. I mean, she got better, like, in, like, two or three days.

And I can only describe her healing as miraculous because the doctors were not giving her a good prognosis at that point.

I do believe that God still answers prayer, and miraculously so.

But just because I prayed humbly for somebody who was miraculously healed, does that make me a miracle worker?

No, not even close. Believe me, if I was a miracle worker, my wife would be having me do a lot more house chores and stuff like this and get things tidier around the house a lot easier, right?

But I'm not. I'm not a miracle worker. So the idea then is that there are no prophets on the earth today, but we still hold out this idea that if God wants to speak something, he can.

But legitimately, finding where God has spoken since the close of the New Testament, since the closing, since the finishing of the 70 weeks, it's hard to find any legitimate place that you can say was certainly

God has spoken since then. Right? And that's to be expected.

So the traditional messianic interpretation, I think, is the correct one. And then we know then within the time frame of the 70 weeks, vision and profit are sealed.

There are no prophets today, none. And anyone who comes to us claiming to be one, you can just write them off as false.

Anyone comes to you, says the Lord told me to tell you, you can just say, no, he didn't. Yeah, right, exactly.

Now, let me check questions here. Let's see here. Karen asked a great question.

So Karen Goodwin asked, is it not wrong, is it to be looking forward to watching the Lord kick that guy's butt?

It's the opposite of praying for your enemy. So in this particular case, you're going to note something here.

Whoever this fellow is going to be, his demise has been chosen for him and no prayers are going to result in his repentance.

OK, and with his death, then you can legitimately say from the moment of his death,

Christ reigns uncontested on planet Earth for eternity. He's the last of the evil politicians of this

Earth. And so there's no prayer that's going to save him. His demise has been chosen for him.

So I do get the feeling that when this occurs, whether you be dead or alive, we're going to be going, woohoo, huzzah,

Hosanna to the king. We're praising and glorifying God and the great multitude of heaven will be rejoicing exceedingly.

So, Karen, I suspect that you're going to have an opportunity to look forward to and rejoice at his butt being kicked.

So in the name of Jesus. OK. OK, is that God's way of showing mercy by destroying him completely instead of him burning for all of eternity?

Jeff, OK, so the Jennings family, keep this in mind. After that, he does burn eternally.

Christ will bring his life to an end, but he will also spend eternity in the lake of fire.

OK, and the torment, you know, the smoke of his torment will go up forever and ever. So he's not he's not going to cease to exist.

He will just cease to be alive at that moment and then face the judgment like all the rest of the dead. OK, OK, let's see here.

We're very grateful to the Lord for you, Pastor. I'm honored to be able to serve you all. OK, ask the

Catholics. They have 73 books of the Bible or ask the Mormons. Yeah, I would note that you'll that I do not put any stock in a single single scripture from the

Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants or the Pearl of Great Price. They're all from a wingnut, wackerdoodle false prophet who is just a mess.

So I get the idea. All right. This is where we're going to end today. We'll talk more about the 70 weeks and finish out chapters probably nine and 10 next week.