SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/25/2013 10:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Instruction: Discovering God’s Timetable PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel
9:25-27
Message of the
verses: In Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary he has broken up the 490 years into three different sub-points and
we will try to look at each one of these in today’s SD.
Period # 1—49 years (Daniel 9:25): “25 "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
I can remember the first time that I heard the
explanation of this verse while visiting a friend in Florida in January of
1974. I was listening to a series of
taped messages by a man named Hal Lindsey who had recently written a book, “The
Late Great Planet Earth” which was a book about prophecies from the Word of
God. As I look back on that time I
remember that this was the time that the Lord Jesus Christ saved me from my
sins as He used the tapes on prophecy to draw me to Himself as each message had
the clear gospel presentation at the end of it.
Daniel 9:25 gives us the starting point of when this 490
years will begin, and since there were three different times in which the Jews
were told that they could leave Babylon there has been much disagreement as to
when this time period would begin. The prophecy is about the city
and the temple, for that is what Daniel was praying about, along with,
of course, having the Jewish people return to the city of Jerusalem. Sir Robert Anderson has written a book in
which he entitles “The Coming Prince” and this book is about the 490 year
prophecy from Daniel nine. He believes
along with many people that I have respect for believe that the decree that is
spoken of in Daniel 9:25 is given in the second chapter of the book of
Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a cup bearer to
the king of Persia and when you have that job you better not look sad in his
presence or you could lose your head.
Nehemiah had spent much time in prayer over what was going on in
Jerusalem for there had been Jewish people already living there for almost 100
years and the city was still not complete.
Nehemiah’s prayers were answered in chapter two, which was 445 BC and we
read about it in Nehemiah chapter two: “1
And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,
that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his
presence. 2 So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad though
you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart." Then I was very
much afraid. 3 I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad
when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have
been consumed by fire?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What would you request?"
So I prayed to the God of
heaven. 5 I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your
servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild
it." 6 Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him,
"How long will your journey be, and when will you return?" So it
pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time. 7 And I said to
the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given me for the
governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass
through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s
forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress
which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I
will go." And the
king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.” With this statement the 490 year prophecy
began.
When you read through the book of Nehemiah you see that
there was much trouble in rebuilding the city walls as the people who were
working on the walls had a sword in one hand and things to rebuild the wall in
the other hand, and this is just as Gabriel said would happen, that it would be
done with trouble.
Period # 2—483
Years (Daniel 9:26): “26 "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and
have nothing, and the
people of the prince who
is to come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood;
even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”
The math is like this 49 + 434 = 483, so there are 483
years from the time that the decree was given in Nehemiah chapter two until the
cutting off of the Messiah. Four hundred
and eighty-three years from 445 BC puts you into 29/30 AD. We know what happened then, for Jesus was
turned down as the King of Israel and was thus killed, but not for
Himself.
I have studied this prophecy for many years off and on
and I believe that the exact time that this prophecy began was in March of 445
BC as I have already stated and it goes until when Jesus rides into Jerusalem
on what is commonly called Palm Sunday, and it is then that He is rejected as
their King. In Luke chapter nineteen we
see this take place: “37 As soon as He
was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of
the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the
miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting: "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 Some
of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your
disciples." 40 But Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these become silent,
the stones will cry out!’” Why did Jesus
say that if this was not said that the rocks would cry out with these words? These words were to be said when Messiah came
and the Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus goes on to say a bit later on “"If
you had known in this day, even you, the
things which make for peace! But
now they have been hidden from your eyes. ‘” This day was the end of the
483rd year that is written in Daniel, and it stops the prophecy with
seven years left on it. In Sir Robert
Anderson’s book he figures out the different calendars and changes the Jewish
calendar, which is a lunar calendar to our Julian calendar which has 365 days
in it, while the Jewish or lunar calendar had 360 days in it. He figures out how many days were involved
even to the point of having three leap years deleted because one has to delete
a leap year every so many years, and at the end he comes up with the day that
Jesus rides into Jerusalem to offer Himself as King of Israel and is rejected and
then killed a few days later, 173,880 days.
Period # 3—7 Years
(Daniel 9:27): “27 “And he will make
a firm covenant
with the many for one week,
but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain
offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate,
even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the
one who makes desolate.’
The book that I mentioned by
Sir Robert Anderson “The Coming Prince” does not speak of the prince as the
Lord Jesus Christ, but the prince that is spoken of in Daniel 9:26 and referred
to as “he” in verse 27. The text says
that this prince will come from the people who destroyed the city and the
sanctuary which was Titus and his Roman Legion.
Herod’s temple was a beautiful building that Titus did not want to
destroy, but there was gold in between the huge limestone blocks and the only
way that they could get the gold out was to tear down the building. Jesus told the people that this would happen,
that not one stone would be left on another:
“43 "For the days will come
upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround
you and hem you in on every side, 44 and
they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will
not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time
of your visitation (Luke 19:43-44).’”
What prince then is the text speaking of? It is none other than Antichrist and this
last seven years of this prophecy will begin when this prince who comes out of
the territory of the old Roman Empire will come on the scene and make a
covenant with the nation of Israel for seven years. This period is known as the “Tribulation
Period” and what happens during this period is described in verse twenty-seven
of Daniel along with chapters 6-19 of the book of Revelations, along with
Matthew 24 and 25. This event is still in our future, but as we look at one key
element that happened in May of 1948, and that is that Israel became a nation
again, we know that this time is not too far off. I have never made it a practice to set a date
as to when these events will take place, and I firmly believe that the Lord
Jesus will return to the clouds over the earth to take His bride home to be
with Him before these events take place.
This event we know as the Rapture of the Church and are described in 1
Thes. 4:13-18 along with in 1 Cor. 15:51-54.
Our world is much smaller than it used to be, that is because modern
technology and modern weapons where enemies can now be many thousands of miles
away from us and can still kill us. We
have weapons that can actually destroy the entire earth, but this will not take
place for at the height of global war as described in the 19th
chapter of Revelations the Lord Jesus will return to planet earth riding on a
white horse with His army with Him and this will end the last day of Daniel’s
490 year prophecy.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The Apostle Peter
writes of how this world will be completely destroyed, which will take place
after the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on planet earth which begins right
after His glorious return and the reason for Peter’s writings is to say that if
we know all of these things are going to take place then what kind of people
should we be, and what should we be doing to tell others about these events
that will take place? Well I believe
that I should be a loving person, ready to tell others of the hope that is
within me, and that I should be a person who is in love with my Lord and who
follows the things that the Holy Spirit leads me to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am reading a book that is entitled “War of
Words,” and this book has convicted me of how I use my words. I want to use words that are the kind of
words that are pleasing to the Lord.
Memory verses for the
week: 1 John 5:13a; Titus 3:5a; and
Hab.1:13a
These things I have
written…that you may know that you have eternal life.
Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us.
Thou art of purer eyes than
to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity (sin).
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “The arc angel” (1 Thes.
4:16).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who met the baby Jesus in the
temple when he was 40 days old?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/25/2013 11:43 AM
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