I want us to look tonight at what I'm calling, The Last Piece of the Plan. The Last Piece of the Plan and I want you to turn to Daniel 9. Our focus tonight is going to be on verse 27. But before we get there, we're going to look back at some of the verses that we studied last week. You know that the Jewish people have been in exile in Babylon. And we have followed the life of Daniel, who at this stage when Babylon has succumbed to a takeover by Persia, he is questioning what the future of the people of Israel will be. He's already seen in some visions and dreams, depiction of Gentile kingdoms and how they would unfold in the future. And Daniel, though certainly he understood that these visions that he decoded symbolized future Gentile nations. His concern was really not Gentile nations but Israel. And he is now in this time of transition between the powers under whom the Jews were subjugated. He's now crying out praying, pleading with God. Do you have a future for us as your people? Or are we stuck now? Having been brought here by Babylon now under Persian rule, what is your plan for us as your people? And in the midst of his humble and earnest cries to God, God dispatches the angel Gabriel from heaven to come down to earth, and to give Daniel, a prophetic revelation. And that's what we have been looking at here in the ninth chapter. We call this prophecy given by the angel Gabriel to Daniel God's servant. We call it the "70 Weeks" prophecy, because that's the terminology that was used by the angel. Now the "70 Weeks" prophecy in Daniel 9, belongs to a group of prophetic what we call Restoration Texts. God gave Restoration Texts to His people Israel through His prophets, both before they were taken away as captives. And during their time of captivity, I thought I would just show you a listing of these Restoration Texts for Israel. You can see they start in Isaiah, and then include Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel on the screen there. And you might if you can't take those down quickly enough. A lot of people when we're here in church, I'll see people pull out their phones and take pictures of the screen. If you're viewing from your phone, you can just do a screenshot when these different charts or lists come up, but this is in case you'd like to read through some of the promises that God gave to the people of Israel concerning their restoration after their time of judgment. Okay, the "70 Weeks" prophecy is not only a part of that group of Restoration Texts or passages from the prophets, from God to His people Israel. But this "70 Weeks" prophecy is the interpretive key that unlocks the understanding for us of some crucial New Testament passages. And I wanna put those up on the screen as well. The "70 Weeks" prophecy unlocks the meaning of Jesus' Olivet Discourse. And as you're looking at that, let me just explain what the Olivet Discourse is. The Olivet Discourse is the lengthiest passage or sermon that Jesus gave on prophecy. So it technically includes the 25th chapter, but the heaviest portion that pertains to Daniel 9 is Matthew 24. So Jesus' Olivet Discourse, give, it's called Olivet because He spoke it on the Mount of Olives. Then there is Paul's "Day of Christ" passage or writing in 2 Thessalonians 2. Just so you know, we're actually going to quote from both of these passages from Matthew 24. And from 2 Thessalonians 2 a little bit later. And then this "70 Weeks" prophecy here in Daniel 9 is the key to unlocking our understanding of the tribulation chapters of the book of Revelation 6-19, all of which have to do with what we refer to as the seven year tribulation. So if you're getting that what I'm telling you is by looking at Daniel 9, and this prophecy given by the angel Gabriel to Daniel to help Daniel understand that God has a plan for Israel. The "70 Weeks" prophecy is like a key that unlocks our understanding of what Jesus preached about in the Olivet Discourse, His sermon on prophecy when He stood on the Mount of Olives. What Paul had to say in 2 Thessalonians 2, about the "Day of Christ", and in particular, the man of sin or the Antichrist who comes before the day of Christ when Christ returns. And then, finally, the last book of the Bible, the bulk of the book of Revelation cannot be properly interpreted without understanding the Daniel 9 "70 Weeks" prophecy that Gabriel revealed to Daniel. When you map out this period of time, that is covered by what we call the "70 Weeks" prophecy. It covers the span from the time of Nehemiah, who asked the king of Persia under whom he served for permission to go back and finish the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which we believe happened around 445 B.C. This "70 Weeks" prophecy, it begins in the time of Nehemiah, but it reaches ahead in time through the time and we in which we live well into the future when Christ actually returns to set up His kingdom on the earth. So the "70 Weeks" prophecy covers a large swath of time. Now, what I want us to do is to start working back through the first comments that Gabriel made to Daniel when he was giving him the prophecy of the "70 Weeks". And what I wanna do is, I'm gonna put the verses on the screen for you. And then in brackets, I'm actually going to supplement the verse with either some interpretive material or some explanatory material. So what I'm doing is I'm just gonna go back to what we covered last week, do a little review before we land in the final verse, verse 27. So, the angel Gabriel is now speaking to Daniel, in response to Daniel's cry to God. Oh God, what is the future for us, your people Israel. Okay, in verse number 24, Gabriel says, "70 Weeks are determined." And remember, we talked about how the word week literally means seven units, and we're interpreting that as years. So 70 of those sevens would be 490 years. So Gabriel says 70 Weeks, which is 490 years are determined for your people. And your people would be the Jews and for your holy city, which is Jerusalem, the Holy Land. Okay, so the reason I wanted you to see that is so you could realize, and remember that this, this prophecy applies to the people of Israel. And the 490 years, if you'll remember, was the same amount of time on which the their failure to observe Sabbath years was calculated to determine their number of years in captivity. So for a period of 490 years in their past history, they had failed to let the land rest every seventh year or every sabbatical year. And if you add that up over 490 years, there were 70 Sabbath years, that they failed to obey God by letting the land rest. So God took every one of those neglected Sabbath years which total 70 years and He compressed that into their time that they would spend in exile in Babylon. So now, at the tail end of the 70 year exile, the angel Gabriel is saying there's another 490 years, which is what 70 weeks really mean. So isn't that interesting, that their time and exile was based upon a period of 490 years in their past. But the prophetic vision that God gives for His plan or program for Israel is based on a future 490 years, which is spoken of as the 70 sevens. Another thing I wanna draw out for you from that verse, verse 24, is that he says, this is the time appointed for your people, which would be the Jewish people and your city. And the reason I want to draw attention to that is because the people cannot be separated from their land when it comes to the covenant that God made Abraham, who is the father of the Hebrew people. God made it clear that in fact, the Bible refers to it as God swore an oath to Abraham. And of course, God repeated it to Isaac and to Jacob, that this land will belong to your offspring, who would be the Jewish people. So when Gabriel is giving this prophetic program for the future of Israel, in response to Daniel's earnest and desperate prayer, oh, God, what are you gonna do with us in the future? He says, there's 490 years in the future, but this applies not just to the people, but to the holy city, which includes the surroundings, which is God's covenant promised land to the people of Abraham. That cannot be overstated, especially in the times in which we live. So now what I want us to do is to go ahead and look at verse number 25. Where he says, "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem." Now you'll notice I have inserted there in brackets. When this was fulfilled, it was fulfilled in Nehemiah 2, we turned and read from that last week, when Nehemiah asked the king for permission to go back and help the Jewish people finish fortifying the broken down city, 445 B.C, that was the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. So from that time, until Messiah the Prince, and Messiah the Prince in this passage is a reference to Jesus. So think about it from the time that Nehemiah asked Artaxerxes for permission to go back to Jerusalem and Artaxerxes said yes, and also issued decrees authorizing his passage and commanding people to give donations of necessary supplies. Until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks, which is a period of 49 years, plus 62 weeks, which is a period of 434 years, which, if you add the seven and 62, that's 69 of the "70 Weeks", which is 483 years. He says, "The street is going to be built again and the wall even in troublesome times." And again, that prophecy was fulfilled when Nehemiah went back and completed the rebuilding of the city. So the reason I'm going back through this is just to review so you can realize the way Gabriel is unloading this prophetic plan into the mind and heart of Daniel. He's looking ahead in the future. And he's saying there is a 70 week clock that's going to start ticking. It's not going to start ticking until the command to restore and build Jerusalem. And that wasn't going to happen for another 93 or 94 years from the time that Gabriel was speaking these words to Daniel. Okay, let's keep on going. When you look in verse 25. We read this a moment ago, but I wanted to repeat it where Gabriel says, there shall be seven weeks that's the 49 years and then 62 weeks that's 434 years. But he goes on and says after those 434 years or 62 weeks, much Messiah shall be cut off but not for Himself. And last week we talked about how Messiah being cut off is a prophetic reference to the death of Jesus on Calvary and not for Himself. Look at that in prophecy. It is a theological statement about His substitutionary death for us, meaning He was cut off, but it was not for sins He had committed, it was for sins that we had committed. So there you have a reference to Calvary. And the crucifixion of Jesus, as Gabriel prophesies it in this vision of God's plan for Israel. Now, I stopped with the first part of verse 26. But now I wanna pick up with the rest of verse 26. As he continues, Messiah has now been cut off He, Jesus has died. And the people that would be the Romans of the prince who is to come, and the prince who is to come, is the Antichrist, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Then I've inserted there that the Roman General Titus and his troops descended on Jerusalem in 70 A.D and destroyed it, which was a historical fulfillment of what the angel Gabriel told Daniel and Daniel 9:26. Then Gabriel continues, the end of it shall be with a flood, which means Jerusalem will be utterly devastated. And Gabriel says till the end of the war desolations are determined. All right, so that gets us from the beginning of Daniel's message that Gabriel is giving him to where we're going to focus tonight in verse 27, which is the final message of this prophetic program in response Daniel's prayer. Again, don't miss this. What is Daniel's prayer? "Oh, God, are you finished with Israel? Oh God, are you gonna leave us scattered across the earth? Oh God, please tell me that you have not cast us aside forever, that in your judgment which we deserve, please oh God give me some word of hope that you will still draw your people back to their land and back to their God." And that's why Gabriel is giving Daniel this prophecy. Now what I want you to do is to realize that when Gabriel started this revelation, he said 70 weeks are determined for your people and your holy city. Through verse 26, 69 of those 70 weeks have been accounted for. But there remains a final week or period of seven, which we call the 70th week. So if you have a 70 week timeline, and through verses 24-26, 69 of those 70 weeks have already been discussed, then surely in verse 27, we still have a final box to check which is that final week, we call the 70th week. Then here's the mystery in Bible prophecy. It's the mystery that Daniel could not see when this was revealed to him. It is the mystery that none of the prophets was able to see when they received their prophetic revelation from God. When there was a gap, or an initial fulfillment and a dual fulfillment, any type of interruption in the sequence of a prophecy, the prophets who received these messages and preach them or wrote them down, they were unable to see those interruptions and those gaps in the history when those prophet prophecies would come to pass. So what I want you to do is to mark between verse 26 and verse 27, the word gap, where the last phrase of verse 26 appears, draw a line between 26 and 27. Because there is a gap in how this prophecy will be fulfilled. And if you're just reading this, and not knowing there's a gap there, you just read right through it and you would not even understand that there is this huge interval of time that passes between when verse 26 is fulfilled. And when verse 27 is fulfilled. It's part of the mystery of prophetic revelation and it is how God works in prophecy. As a matter of fact, it's how God works in giving the Scripture. One of the principles by which God gave us the Bible as it was written is something we refer to as progressive revelation. Progressive revelation means that when God gave prophecies, He left certain details out. When God gave prophecies, not everything was included in the prophecy. When God gave prophetic revelation, and just so you know, when we refer to prophetic revelation, it not only has to do with future things, it has to do with the process of inspiring the Bible when it was being written. Progressive revelation, it means that God chose to reveal information and details over the course of time until revelation finally came to an end. And this is one of the things that distinguishes conventional Protestants from many charismatic Protestants and from Roman Catholics, and that is, we believe that when the Apostle John completed the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, that prophetic revelation as scripture ceased, so that in Scripture we have the completion of God's message to us. It is very dangerous therefore, when church authorities or when the hierarchy of a church or the leader of a church or the pastor of a church wants to make pronouncements as though those things have come from God, unless they are quoting the very words of Scripture. And many people have been misled and have been, have been deceived by men and women giving what we call extra biblical. Extra means outside of, extra biblical revelation, biblical revelation has come to an end. And in the 66 books of the Bible, 39 Old, 27 New, Old Testament, New Testament, 66 total, God has spoken in totality. But the way He revealed what we have in Scripture was progressively. And I only draw your attention to that because of this concept of there being this big gap that Daniel didn't know about, and could not have read into what Gabriel was saying, but you and I had the benefit of what we would call the fullness of Revelation. Even Daniel listening to this from the lips of an angel sent from God in heaven did not have the insight you and I have today. Having placed in our having had placed in our hands the New Testament of Jesus Christ, we have greater insight into the future of Israel than Daniel had listening to the angel Gabriel. That oughta humble us, that oughta thrill us that we live on this side of the completed revelation of Scripture. So by the way, why would there be this gap? Well, it's because that in God's plan and program for Israel for this prophecy to come to pass, when Nehemiah obtained the decree from our desert season 445 it was like God pushed play on the remote control. And the 70 weeks started playing out. All the way until the time that Jesus died and when Jesus died, guess what? That was the end of the 69 weeks or the 483 years and God pressed pause. So you following me? The 70 weeks started rolling. When Artaxerxes told Nehemiah go rebuild Jerusalem. But when Jesus died on the cross God pressed pause. And what God did in pressing pause is, He placed aside His people Israel. And about 40 years after Jesus' death, God allowed the Romans to destroy Jerusalem to completely wipe the Jews out of existence as a national entity. And they were wiped into the far reaches of the earth, and appeared to be in a state of oblivion for 2000 years. All of this helps us to understand that God pressed pause on His plan for Israel when Jesus died because the Jews are the ones who cried out for Jesus death, He came unto His own, His own received Him not. And God brought judgment upon them. So we have this gap of time where 69 weeks has played out Jesus dies, and God presses pause. And guess what? God's finger is still on the pause button. It's not until God hits play again, that the 70th week, the last seven years on this timeline Gabriel gave Daniel will resume. Do you know what happened when Jesus died on the cross? The Bible says the temple veil was torn from the top to the bottom, which symbolized that the entire system of blood sacrifice and the need for human priestly representation in the temple was brought to an end, because Jesus went before God on our behalf, and He became the once for all time sacrifice for sin, no more need for animals to be slaughtered, no more need for a high priest to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, on the Day of Atonement, once a year, Jesus did away with all that, and the veil of separation was torn. And that was when God pressed pause on His program for His covenant people Israel. Jerusalem is destroyed 40 years later, and the Jewish people disappear as a people. So let's look in verse 27, now, verse 27, is where God pushes play. The word then just visualize a play button, where now the timeline resumes. "Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring it into sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate." So what I want us to do is we're gonna break down verse 27. And I believe with all of my heart that this is gonna make sense to you tonight. I believe that I don't believe you're gonna have to go back and look at this again, although I hope you will. I believe this is gonna crystallize in your understanding as we walk through it. So the first thing that I want you to write down as it pertains to verse number 27 is, the 70th week is the 7-year tribulation period. You got that? The 70th week Remember, this is a this is a program of 70 weeks, 490 years, the angel Gabriel is giving this to Daniel, around 539 years Before Christ. And the 70th week of those 70 weeks is what you've always heard of, as the tribulation. Obviously, we determined that week in this prophecy means a period of seven years. Before verse 27, 69 of those weeks was accounted for, verse 27, brings to bear that last unaccounted for period of seven in the 70 weeks, the 70th week. So this is the tribulation period. Now, here's the amazing thing. You have the tribulation period, summarized in one verse, verse 27, But it is elaborated on, expanded on in Revelation 6-19. So what Gabriel summarizes here in one verse is revealed to the Apostle John years later, in what we now know to be 6-19 of the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Here's the second thing I want you to write down. The central figure of the tribulation is the Antichrist. This verse introduces to us this man we refer to as the Antichrist and he's already been referred to in the prophecy, but we're gonna focus intently on him in what we look at tonight. So we just read together the verse, verse 27, but what I wanna do is the same thing I did with those previous verses, I wanna display this with some explanatory comments inserted in brackets beside the different expressions in this verse, so look at this on the screen. All I'm doing is restating word for word. What Gabriel said in verse 27. Then that's when God pushes resume play. Then he who is he, the pronoun he refers back to the one who was mentioned in verse 26, as the prince who is to come so right now while we're talking about this, underline he in verse number 27. And if you wanna just draw a line in the margin, pointing back to verse 26, where it refers to the prince who is to come, do you see that? Go ahead and draw that connection. Because the he in verse 27 is referring to the prince who is to come mentioned in verse 26. And that he is the Antichrist. What is he going to do? He shall confirm a covenant. Another way to translate the word covenant is peace treaty. Are you following this? So the prince, the political ruler, who is to come the Antichrist, is going to sign a peace treaty with many, who are many? Many, most probably refers to a collective group of leaders in Israel, the leadership of Israel, it could be the Knesset, their house of parliament, their legislative body, whoever, with many, and look how long it he will he will establish this treaty. It will be intended for one week, what is one week? Seven years. So, remember that one week is that 70th week of the 70 weeks prophecy, it is the 7-year tribulation and this is the period of time that will be characterized by the Antichrist, a world leader signing a peace treaty with the people of Israel. Look at what Gabriel then says, but in the middle of the week, and what is one half of seven years? Three and a half years, in the middle of that 7-year period, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering and stop and think about this. They're not sacrificing and offering animals and worshiping on the holy mountain. Right now, this suggests to us that if the Antichrist during the tribulation at the halfway mark, if he's going to bring an end to sacrifice an offering, does this not suggest that a temple will have been reconstructed by the halfway point of the tribulation? So that there's a lot right there, but I hope you can see the details that are given to us in one verse about the tribulation, about a peace treaty, about the tribulation being divided into two parts, because halfway through that something is going to change at the three and a half year mark, and then how the offerings and sacrifices are going to be brought to an end, which suggests some type of activity in the temple of Jewish worship, indicative of the time before they were destroyed in 70 A.D. Does this fascinate you as much as it fascinates me? I hope it does. Now we've called attention to the antecedent of he, in verse 27. It says, he shall confirm a covenant and the antecedent is in verse 26, the prince who is to come, but what I want to do is I wanna show you the contrast between the prince who is to come and another who's already been mentioned? Notice on the screen, Messiah the Prince was mentioned in verse 25. That is the Christ. The prince who is to come, who's mentioned in verse 26, is the Antichrist. So in this vision, or this prophetic revelation from Gabriel to Daniel, you have revealed Jesus, you have revealed to Daniel, the person of the Antichrist. And then in verse 27, the Antichrist is mentioned again as the one he shall confirm a covenant. So what do we say? That the central figure of the tribulation is the Antichrist. Now I want you to write this down. The tribulation is going to intensify at the halfway point. It's going to intensify at the halfway point. The halfway point is the three and a half year mark, that comes right out of verse 27, that we just looked at. So I want to put a, what I'm calling the timeline of the Antichrist from verse 27. There you see it. What's he gonna do? He's gonna sign a treaty with Israel, probably a treaty that says, I got your back. I'm going to protect you. A lot of people hate you, but you can count on me. But he's going to break his promise to provide protection and cover for them after three and a half years. At that point, they're gonna realize that he is not a friend rather he is a foe. He has deceived them. He is going to at that point from the halfway mark through the final three and a half years unleash satanic hatred against Israel. And he is going to blaspheme God through self-deification. What is self-deification mean, it means he is going to proclaim himself as God and demand that people worship him. All right, so all of this is taken from one verse. Now I want us to look at the next part of verse 27, where Gabriel says, "And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate." Now notice underlined there abominations and desolate. In the book of Daniel. The, this has turned into a phrase later that is called the abomination of desolations. And that phrase abomination of desolation. It appears in a different form here in verse 27, where it says on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate but the phrase abomination of desolation appears in Daniel 11:31. And Daniel 12:11. We're gonna get to that. I just wanted you to know this, this combination of words abomination desolation, as a phrase appears two other times in Daniel's prophecy that we'll get to. Now what is an abomination? An abomination has to do with blaspheming what is holy, and desecrating what is sacred. So when Gabriel says to Daniel on the wing of abominations, many Bible scholars have speculated about what this could mean, what does it mean to say that we're talking about the Antichrist on the wing of abominations shall cause people to become desolate, and we're speaking here of the Jewish people and of Jerusalem. One possibility in interpreting on the wing of abomination is that that word wing could refer to the wings on the cherubs or the cherubim that are mounted to the mercy seat, which was the lid on the Ark of the Covenant. And so let's just assume that maybe it is at the commencement of the seven year treaty that the Antichrist makes with Israel, that, like other Gentile rulers, who allows them to rebuild and it gives them the resources to rebuild their temple. Maybe that's what the Antichrist is going to do. So that by the three and a half year mark, the temple will have been reconstructed during the tribulation, including even an Ark of the Covenant inside the Holy of Holies, on which there are gold cherubs with their wings facing one another. And this is a very sacred symbolism, because those cherubs on the seat of the, on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, they symbolize the cherubs that surround the throne of God in heaven, these creatures that were made by God just to cry out His Holiness, His worth, His glory 24/7. For instance, in Psalm 80:1, the writer says, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!" See, God is referred to as the One who dwells between the cherubim. Again in Psalm 99:1, it says, "The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He dwells between the cherubim; let the earth be moved!" So stop and think about it. If God Himself dwells in heaven between the cherubs or in Hebrew. The suffix I am, denotes plural. That's why cherubim means more than one cherub. God in heaven is surrounded by these winged creatures who give Him glory. When He gave Moses, the details for constructing the Ark of the Covenant that was to be kept inside the Holy of Holies. He instructed him to build these winged cherubs, because that symbolized as it is in heaven. So it is on earth that in this Holy of Holies, where God's presence is going to dwell, there will be a symbol of the same winged creatures who give Him glory without fail. So God dwells between the cherubs. Could it be, that when the Antichrist turns on Israel, he is actually going to walk to the newly constructed temple, walk into the Holy of Holies and sit down on the mercy seat between the cherubs inside the temple that he most likely facilitated, being rebuilt. Well, the reason that we might speculate, again, what why are we going into all of this? Because Gabriel said, verse 27, on the wing of abomination, what must wing mean? Perhaps wing means the abomination between the wings of the cherubs on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant and in the Holy of Holies. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2, he said, "Let no one deceive you by any means for the Day of Christ will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition." Who is that? The man of sin, the son of perdition, that's the Antichrist. What is the Antichrist gonna do? According to Paul who wrote this, he will oppose, oppose God and he will exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that this is what the Antichrist is gonna do. Paul said, he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So with that prophecy, made by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2 about the Antichrist going into the temple and proclaiming that he is God and exalting himself above God, maybe that's what Gabriel was referring to, as the Antichrist doing on the wing of abomination. But guess what? I told you that this reference to abomination of desolation was referred to in Daniel 11, Daniel 12. But Jesus referred to it. Remember, I told you about that The Olivet Discourse, the prophetic sermon Jesus preached on the Mount of Olives. This is what he said Matthew 24:12, he says in the last days lawlessness will abound and I don't you think for one moment, that we're not living there. Lawlessness will abound you. And let me just say this before I move on. When people say, well, you don't understand the anger and you don't understand the frustration. Hey, I'ma tell you something. Lawlessness is lawlessness is lawlessness, don't justify it. God have mercy on you for justifying lawlessness. But Jesus said, lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. But notice what Jesus says in Matthew 24:15. "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken up by Daniel the prophet." Doing what? "Standing in the holy place, whoever reads let him understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Now, do you see what Jesus said? Jesus prophesied when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, does not all of this line up with Daniel 9:27 and with 2 Thessalonians 2, and now Jesus preaching in the Olivet Discourse, the abomination of desolation spoken of in Daniel 9, 11, 12. This is a big deal folks. The Antichrist is the one who commits the abomination of desolation. This last three and a half years is when this takes place, when he breaks his treaty when he turns on the Jewish people, and when he enters the temple to be worshiped. This is an important distinction for you to make. That the whole seven year period is called the tribulation. But the last three and a half years of that seven are called the Great Tribulation. You got that? The tribulation is all seven years, but the Great Tribulation is the last half. This is what Jeremiah prophesied in 30:7, where the Lord said, through Jeremiah, to the people of Judah, "Alas! for that day is great. There is an unlike it, it is the time of Jacob's distress or Jacob's trouble, but he will be saved from it." So here's what I'm saying to you. The last three and a half years. That's Jacob's trouble or Jacob's distress. That's the Great Tribulation, that's when the abomination of desolation will be committed by the Antichrist. But back to what Gabriel was saying to Daniel in verse 27. He says the abomination that makes desolate. Desolate is a word that refers to judgment. So even though the Jewish people have suffered desolation, it is a reference to judgment from God for rejecting His covenant. And we know living in the time in which we live, for rejecting their Messiah, His Son who was sent unto them. If you'll remember when Daniel consulted back in 9:1-2, he consulted the prophet Jeremiah's letter that had been written to the exiles. We have that in our copy of Jeremiah chapter 25:11, where Jeremiah said, "This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years." So even in Jeremiah's prophecy, desolation was used to refer to God's judgment on the people. So this word desolations refers to sorrow, grief, agony, and even judgment against the precious Jewish people. Here's the last thing I want you to write down the tribulation ends with the destruction of the Antichrist. The destruction of the Antichrist, would you agree? That's good news. Now in verse 27, Gabriel said that the one who makes desolate, the one who on a wing of abomination will make desolate that that reached that he the Antichrist reaches a consummation point beyond which he will not return. Verse 27, in the new American translation puts it this way. "Even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate." See, the wording there makes it clear that the Antichrist at the height of his wrath against Israel, betrayal against Israel, persecution against Israel, aligning all the nations under his umbrella against Israel at the height of his power, arrogance, pride, blasphemy, sacrilege. He will be destroyed, utterly, swiftly, beyond remedy. This lets us know that his days will be numbered. And just as the 70 weeks for Israel are decreed, so the destruction of the Antichrist is decreed. One of the most exciting things to do when you're studying the Bible is to start seeing how all the Scriptures fit together. And even though Gabriel's prophetic plan for Israel ceases at this point, you can just borrow from all the other prophets. You can borrow from the New Testament to fill in the blanks about how the Antichrist is going to meet his end. In Zechariah's prophecy Zechariah describes how all the nations of the earth are going to be gathered together in a field of battle against little old Israel. Little lonely Israel, everybody in the world and Israel. And by the way, some people have said, where is America in prophecy? We're not. There only two forces in prophecy, the nations of the world and Israel, you get that? And so what that means is there's gonna come a time when our nation unravels. I certainly don't wanna be a part of that. I hope you don't. That's why we should pray hard for our country. As imperfect as it is, the people who are fighting within our country right now are seeking the utter up ending of our country because of its flawed foundations. They may have their way, because people of courage are being very silent. That being said, in the prophetic outline, there are only two forces, the nations of the world and little bitty Israel. And in Zechariah's prophecy just before Israel is wiped out. Zechariah tells us in 14:3, "Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fights on a day of battle. And in that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives." That same Mount of Olives by the way, where He preached on prophecy in Matthew 24. "The Mount of Olives which is in front of Jerusalem on the east side and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley so that half the mountain will move towards the north and the other half toward the south." And you get down into verse nine of this chapter. And Zechariah says, "And the Lord will be King over all the earth, and that day the Lord will be the only one and His name the only one." And so does Zechariah not fill in the blanks for us. That the way the Antichrist is destroyed is because the Lord Jesus is going to descend from heaven just when Israel is about to be eradicated. Jesus Christ is going to breathe destruction and death on the Antichrist so that he parishes and he is going to bring judgment and wrath against all the nations of the earth, who had been lured into the Holy Land to wipe out the people of Israel. Folks, I'm telling you, the Antichrist will meet his maker And he'll be banished to eternal flames. This will mark the completion of the 70 weeks. And at the completion of the 70 weeks, Jesus will have returned. And it's at that time that He will establish His kingdom on earth for 1000 years. And you know, from this, you know, the city from which He's going to reign and rule over the earth. It's not Washington. It's not Moscow. It's not London. It's not Beijing. It is Jerusalem. And that is because the kingdom is going to be restored to Israel during the millennial reign of Christ. I love the question that the disciples asked Jesus just before He went back to heaven. It's recorded in Acts 1:6, where they said, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" You see, even back then they were anticipating the kingdom being given back to Israel. And what I believe is going to happen is that Israel is going to be completely restored in fellowship with the God of her covenant, through a relationship with the Messiah, when He comes back and rescues them from complete eradication. Well, you see, we got a lot more to talk about as we move forward to this. But I thought before we sign off tonight, I just show you a few little rough sketches of some things. First of all, I want you to see the picture of this highway. This is what I want you to imagine if Daniel were driving a car and the Gabriel Angel Gabriel said, you've got this many miles to drive to understand the plan for the people of Israel. Looking down at highway all you see is a big mountain at the end, you can't tell there's a bridge up. But I want you to notice this. This is the rough sketch that I told you about. Yeah, I told you it was rough, right? Looking down that highway, you can't see where there's a bridge. And you can't see the breakdown of the miles. But think about instead of the 490 years, think of it as seven stretches of seven miles, 490 miles. So from the time that Artaxerxes gave the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah, there's at 483 miles of the trip. And then you still have seven miles left before the kingdom comes and Messiah comes to Earth. But notice what happens in the way it's actually fulfilled. The bridge is out on the next slide. And there is that gap where the church age was hidden from the prophets of old. So Messiah is cut off where the cross is that was 433 miles into the journey. Then there's this gap with seven miles left. And that last seven miles will be driven under the reign of the Antichrist on the earth after the church age. Then I want you to notice it in terms of looking up a mountain. Prophets like Daniel, we're looking up a mountain range. And if you've ever been to the mountains, you know that you can't see every crevice and valley when you're looking up a mountain ridge. So from the ground level, as Gabriel gave Daniel, this timeline, 69 weeks are the 483 years, there was that timeline looking up the mountain to the cross, and then in that valley, there was the church that was hidden. And then I wanted you to see this chart of Israel 70 weeks from the time that Artaxerxes gave the decree to restore and build Jerusalem. That's the first black dot on the line. And then there were 49 years, which were the seven weeks plus 62 weeks. And in that first 49 years that could refer to Nehemiah's ministry, the reconstruction of the temple. And also in that 49 years, it could refer to the completion of the Old Testament. And then in that next 434 years, or 62 weeks, that's what we call the Intertestamental period, the dark years when God was silent, there was no prophetic revelation. When you add those up, you get the 483 years of the 69 weeks and that cross is when Messiah was cut off. The dot behind the cross is when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And then you see the red perforated line, that's the church age, when Jews and Gentiles are merged into one body that was not revealed in the Old Testament. It was a mystery. And then if you'll notice, before the 70th week, which is the 7-year tribulation, the church is taken out, or lifted up, we call that the Rapture. And you see the devil man there, that's the Antichrist. That dot has a whole lot in it, the rapture of the church, the revealing of the Antichrist, the signing of that peace treaty. And then you see halfway through the tribulation, that dot that's when he turns on Israel, breaks his word, and starts persecuting them, demanding that people worship and even making his base of worship the very Temple of Jehovah God. But at the culmination of the seven years, the last three and a half years and with the return of Jesus Christ, from heaven to the earth, that's the man in gold to establish His kingdom. Well, that is a lot of information. And the reason I wanted to give you those graphs tonight, those little pictures and charts is just to kinda put it in visual form all of the things that we've talked about tonight. Here's what I am very pumped about. Some of you are getting this, here's what I'm even more pumped about. More of you will get this as you study it, as you review it, as you go back and watch and listen, and you are going to become an expert in Bible prophecy during what we can officially call these last days. Father, thank you for giving us insight into Your Word. Thank you for helping us to understand that the future of Israel has to do with the future of the whole world. Therefore, we must be inquisitive and curious about these matters. Give us a hunger to dig deep. Give us a desire to know more. And Lord help us to be rooted and grounded in the eternal truth of Your precious Word, in Jesus name, amen.
