Lesson 21 - Revelation 10 & 11

[Music] [Music] as we left off in Revelation chapter 10 there was a mighty angel standing with one foot on the dry land another foot on the ocean and this was meant to symbolize his authority over the land and the seas that is over the entire earth and in one hand he held a small scroll and in the other hand he raised it towards heaven to swear an oath and that oath was there would be no more delay in carrying out the final acts of redemption for those who would believe and wrath upon those who would be destroyed in their rebellion against God now this mighty angel is very likely I think to be what in the Old Testament is called the angel of the Lord or more literally the angel of Yahweh this is another it's a different manifestation of God himself as opposed to a created angel now as of this point in Revelation all seven of the seal judgments have occurred as well as the first six of the seven trumpet judgments the seal judgments were given their name because the Lamb Christ took from his father's hand a scroll that had been secured with seven seals each seal represented a judgment although the first four of them really five were not judgments of God Supernatural wrath but rather they were judgments of an exponential increase in mankind's in humanity and evil against one another the trumpet judgments receive their name because each judgment was announced by one of seven angels who in turn blew their trumpet to inaugurate one of the seven judgments to which they had been assigned so just as earlier in Revelation when six seal judgments happen and then there's this interlude and then finally the seventh seal was opened it's the same thing with the trumpet trumpet judgments six of the trumpet judgments happen then there's this interlude and then the seventh trumpet judgment happens chapter 10 represents that interlude in the rolling out of those trumpet judgments well now we need to address the matter of that small scroll in the hand of that mighty angel so turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter 10 we're gonna reread the entire chapter since it's a very short one Revelation chapter 10 if you have a complete Jewish Bible you'll find it on page 15:41 1541 Revelation chapter 10 next I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven he was dressed in a cloud with a rainbow over his head his face was like the sun his legs like columns of fire he had a little scroll lying open in his hand he planted his right foot on the sea his left foot on the land and he shouted in a voice as loud as the roar of a lion and when he shouted seven thunderclaps sounded with voices that spoke when the seven thunders spoke I was about to write but I heard a voice from heaven say seal up the things the seven thunders said do not write them down and then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted his right hand towards heaven and he swore by the one who lives forever and forever who created heaven what's in it earth what's in it and the sea and what's in it there will be no more delay on the contrary in the days of the sound from the seventh angel when he sounds his shofar is trumpet the hidden plan of God will be brought to completion the good news as he proclaimed it to his servants the prophets next the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again and it said go take the scroll that's lying open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land and so I went over to the angel and I asked him to give me the little scroll and he said to me take it and eat it it'll turn your stomach bitter but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey well I took a little scroll from the Angels hand and ate it and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey but after I had swallowed it my stomach turned bitter then I was told you must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings now there's a disagreement among Bible scholars concerning this little scroll that lies open in the mighty angels hand is this the same scroll with the seven seals that the lamb had taken from his father's hand and the judgments that scroll commanded had already been carried out now in earlier chapters the same one or is it a different scroll all together that it is lying open well it could hint that this is the same scroll because indeed the scroll with the seven seals has been full opened by the lamb by this time and yet what the angel commands John to do with the scroll to eat it and the results of eating it well that hints that this is an entirely different scroll given for an entirely different purpose now perhaps it's the majority view that this scroll is the same one that Christ took from his father's hand the reason for this view is pretty Elementary a majority of Bible scholars say that this mighty angel is to be identified as Christ thus while Christ is still the Lamb they say he is also now this mighty angel therefore it is him who is holding that same fully open scroll of seven seals isn't it in his hand now why do they think that them this mighty angels Christ first of all because it's pretty clear that this angel is divine and not a regular run-of-the-mill angel second because of the rigid nature of the Trinity doctrine as it is generally practiced in our day and time a doctrine that says that God only manifests himself as Father Son and Holy Spirit then this angel has to be one of these three because there can be no other possibility by process of elimination it can't be the father because in New Testament times he never comes down from heaven in any kind of apparation or physical form and he only sits on his throne in heaven it can't be the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit never manifests himself as an operation or anything physical that leaves just one choice Christ and so all physical manifestations of God are said to be Christ what we have then is a circular argument operating at its best or maybe its worst a false reasoning is setup that demands we limit the possible answers to the identity of this mighty angel to something that fulfills a predetermined doctrine see this church doctrine says that every apparition every physical appearance of the divine is Christ therefore the mighty angel can only be Christ and since it's Christ and the little scroll that John eats must be the scroll same scroll that Christ opened I don't subscribe to this line of reasoning I also don't think the contents and purpose of this scroll matches what we learned of the scroll with the seven seals so I see this little scroll or book as a different one in fact the Greek word used for this little scroll scroll is Biblia Redang and it means very small book as opposed to the word used to describe the scroll with the seven seals which is simply bibley on I see this very small scroll that's that's the heat that's the Greek word very small scroll as a succinct specific Oracle of God that is being given to John the big picture is that John by John symbolically eating this little scroll he is ingesting the Oracle in order to prophesy about its contents as he was ordered to do in chapter 10 that is this is merely a figurative way to depict the Lord delivering to John a divine Oracle of truth that he used to tell others about which by the way is the main task of any profit however what is given to him is bittersweet in nature when he eats it his initial impression as it passes over his tongue is that it's delicious it tastes sweet as honey that is the scrolls content is something that at first John welcomes he feels good about it but then it quickly turns bitter in his stomach as he more fully digests the contents because the Oracle from God also can contain some ghastly news so as with the prophetic messages from other prophets in the biblical era a prophecy can be very complex it can be simultaneously literal and symbolic and also it can reveal something that is to take place now and yet again in a at a future time often the Lord will demand strange things of a prophet in order to create a living illustration of the divine message I mean Hosea comes to mind he's commanded to marry a prostitute and then to have three children with her each of them to be given a name that is symbolic of how God intends on dealing with Israel scripture in general but prophecy in particular can rightly be studied interpreted and interpreted on multiple levels Jews speak of these levels using terms like shot meanings plane and in literal or sewed meaning mysterious secret hidden using Western terms a God worshipper can look at a particular prophecy from a far view in which we kind of see an overall purpose of the message that's being delivered but without a lot of detail one can also look at a particularly particular prophecy from a near view in which we can find specific application and nuanced detail that is usually only apparent after that prophecies fulfilled and one can also look at a prophecy any particular prophecy from what I call a middle view in which we get not only some general understanding of the intent of the overall message but also a bit deeper spiritual understanding using the God principles behind why God is threatening to act as he is so from the far view this Oracle in the form of this little scroll given to John seems to be about the nature of sin in general the eating of the little scroll is symbolic of the sweetness of sin as we're acting it out and then the bitterness of the consequences of that sin which inevitably comes later in the Tanakh the Old Testament these sorts of symbolic illustrations that involves an action of some sort by a prophet is called an oat and oat it's a dramatic enactment of one kind or another sometimes pretty bizarre designed to make an emphatic point now we've already discussed about how god's oracle to hosea was dramatized by him being ordered by God to marry an unclean woman a prostitute cult is used especially by the prophet Ezekiel and Ezekiel's prophesies heavily influenced the book of Revelation in Ezekiel chapter 4 he must lie on one side for an extended period of time then in chapter 5 Ezekiel burns his hair in Ezekiel chapter 12 we find God order him to pack up hill of his belongings and move as symbolic of Judah going into exile but most closely connected was with this this bolt of John eating that little scroll from the taken from the hand of the mighty angel of Revelation 10 is that of Ezekiel 2 8 through 3 3 here it reads but you human being here what I'm telling you don't you be rebellious like that rebellious house open your mouth and eat what I'm about to give you and when I looked there was a hand stretched out to me holding a scroll and he spread it out in front of me and it was covered with writing on the front in the back and written on it were laments and urges and woes and he said to me human being eat what you see in front of you eat this scroll and then go and speak to the house of Israel so I opened my mouth and he gave me that scroll to eat and he said human being eat this scroll I'm giving you fill your insides with it and when I ate it it tasted as sweet as honey so you see where the context for this this this what John was seeing in the vision what he was asked to do by eating that scroll here in Revelation but this passage also closely relates to a passage found in the book of Job in job 20 12 through 15 wickedness may taste sweet in the mouth he may save her and roll it around on his tongue he may linger over it and not let it go but keep it there in his mouth yet in his stomach his food goes bad it works in him like snake venom the wealth he swallows he just vomits back up God makes him discord jizz it disgorge it I mean what an important God principle about sin this is to understand why do people sin why do people sin is it because we don't like to oh I wish that was the case is it because it tastes bitter and the doing or because it tastes sweet we sin because we like to sin we sin because it gives us pleasure to sin and when the world puts pleasure above all for personal fulfillment then sin becomes normal and usual as it excites our senses but when we realize our set and we repent and we become a believer then although we may sometimes still sin it no longer tastes so sweet like it used to it's almost immediately bitter the sweetness of sin though our old self still seeks it out is lost to the believer and you know what happens we feel miserable when we knowingly disobey God I've said before that perhaps the saddest people I've ever met are believers who remain carnal and regularly continue seeking earthly pleasures they get no sadist action from it anymore but they continue seeking it and they're utterly miserable you know I'm hardly the first to recognize this reality at least from the far view and the bitterness of sin or the bitter sweetness of sin is really what this passage in revelation chapter 10 is about the church father occu mineus and his commentary on the book of Revelation that was written around the 10th century he says this when it says I took it and I ate it and it was sweet in my mouth but after eating it was bitter to my stomach then the Blessed evangelist John saw and heard how bitter and abominable are the transgressions of people that are brought forth to God that are brought to God he is therefore commanded to eat it and as though by taste and a sort of spiritual experience of the bitterness of sin that comes through his vision he found that what had been sweet to the mouth was after eaten bit bitter to the stomach afterward for such it is with every sin it's sweet in the doing bitter in this consequences but now let's take a middle view we just took the far view big general view now let's take a middle view of this same prophetic eating of this little scroll in Revelation 10 and in order to do so however we must start by remembering that Jenna that John was a Torah observant Galilean June got a start there that's who this man was his only Bible was the Tanakh the Hebrew Old Testament it's all he had one can only imagine how much he studied it even more while Christian certainly can gain from reading the Scriptures without understanding very much about Hebrew society this entire set of visions has been given to John and revelation were set in a Jewish context that necessarily meant that certain Old Testament God principles laws Torah Commandments history this was all foundational in its construction and therefore in its meaning you know Jewish children from the age of five or six were taught to Torah in John's day so this is the backdrop that we modern believers must not only view it in but also recognize that this is the context within which John would certainly have viewed it see there's just too much symmetry too much similarity between what John was asked to do eat that scroll and then it becomes bitter in the stomach and a somewhat infamous controversial Torah law that we find in the Torah in numbers chapter five it is the law of testing a woman accused of adultery by means of the ordeal of drinking bitter water fascinating and I claim quite insistently that the famous story of Jesus and his encounter with the woman accused of adultery in John chapter 8 is based on this same law of testing for adultery by means of the ordeal of bitter water let me say it again so that the connections apparent where in the New Testament is this story of Christ and the woman used of adultery located where is it it's in the Gospel of John the same John that is being told to eat this little scroll it's the same guy we must also remember that at the bottom of God's wrath is Israel's infidelity to him see Israel is as an adulterous wife to Yehovah this was also demonstrated in the book of Hosea so very briefly the water ordeal for the woman who was accused of adultery went like this first the local court would question her and if she wouldn't confess then she was sent to the eastern gate of the temple there a priest often it was the high priest would perform this ceremony that's found in numbers chapter 5 and at the gate she was shamed and she was publicly humiliated a special offering of barley the food of animals of the very poor was given to her the high priest then took dust from the temple floor he mixed it in a cup of water taken and that water was taken from the Laver where the the priests and the Levites would wash their feet in hands before performing their temple duties it sounded pretty good a curse upon her is then written on a scroll along with God's name and then the ink is washed off into this cup wormwood and some other bitter herbs are added to the mix and then the priest had the woman we're an oath then she drank that bitter water that concoction if she was guilty then her belly would swell up if innocent nothing bad happened to her of course the effects of the ordeal weren't immediate in fact it could take years for the results to become clear so while we may not find these exact steps in Revelation chapter 10 with John eating the scroll and it turns bitter in his stomach all the same principles are there and many Jews would have picked up on this allusion to it immediately let's face it what good is symbolism or a living illustration an oat if the people God's intended God intends it for don't even understand it we are all products of our immediate culture and it is our particular cultural background within which we understand and interpret things that's just human nature thus it was within the confines of his Jewish culture that John wrote all of this down as part of his apocalypse and it became what we call the book of Revelation it was circulated among congregations of believers mostly still led by Jews at this time and they could help the Gentiles understand so to end chapter 10 the final words to John are you must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings see this is important because it is directly connected to the first words of chapter eleven which starts out I was given a measuring rod like a stick and told get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and count how many people are worshiping there so the idea is that even though the bitter aftermath of eating that little scroll had mostly to do with the infidelity of Israel towards God the next thing John is to prophesy about has to do mostly with Gentiles now so we're switching subjects from Jews now to Gentiles when we turn to chapter 11 so open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 11 Revelation chapter 11 page 1542 if you have a complete Jewish Bible I was given a measuring rod like a stick and I was told get up and worship the temple of God and the altar and count how many people are worshiping there but the court outside the temple leave that out don't measure it because it has been given to the we'll get to what that means Gentiles or your Bible may say nations and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months also I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1,260 days dressed in sackcloth these are the two olive trees and the two menorah standing before the Lord of the earth if anyone tries to do them harm fire comes out of their mouth and consumes their enemies yes if anyone tries to harm them that's how he must die they have the authority to shut up the sky so that no rain falls during the period of their prophesy also they have the authority to turn the waters into blood to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want and when they finish their witnessing the Beast coming up from out of the of this will fight against them overcome them and kill them and their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the great city whose name to reflect its spiritual condition is Sodom in Egypt the city where their Lord was executed on a stake some from the nations and tribes and languages and peoples see their bodies for three and a half days and do not permit the corpses to be placed in a tomb the people living in the land rejoice over them they celebrate this send each other gifts because these two prophets tormented them so but after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them they stood up on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them then the two heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them come up here and they went up into heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them and in that hour there was a great earthquake a tenth of the city collapsed seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake the rest were awestruck and they gave glory to the God of heaven the second woe has passed the third row woe is coming quickly the seventh angel sounded his shofar and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and His Messiah and he will rule forever and ever the twenty-four elders sitting on their Thrones and God's presence fell on their faces and they worshiped God saying we thank you odd and I God of heavens armies the one who is and was that you have taken your power you have begun to rule the or the nation's raged but now your rage has come the time for the dead to be judged the time for rewarding your servants the prophets and your holy people those who stand in awe of your name both small and great it's also the time for destroying those who destroy the earth then the temple of God and heaven was opened and the Ark of the Covenant was seen in his temple and there were flashes of lightning voices peals of thunder and earthquake and violent hail now this chapter gets into complex matters that have in modern times fascinated evangelical Christians elicited the writing of countless books on the timeline of the end times and of course have been interpreted variously by different denominations by different Bible scholars almost entirely based on particular man-made doctrines they each have adopted now some believers have given up entirely on trying to figure out how to understand the words of this chapter others believe that they have it down pat and there's no need to examine the Scriptures any further in this regard now I'm not sure I can offer anything particularly new but what I can offer is a reading of these passages based on what we've learned so far and what they actually say as opposed to the introduction of allegory that substitutes for fact see part of the problem here is separating the literal from the symbolic because we have a difficult mixture of both occurring in this chapter and yet in my years of studying prophecy and and and looking back historically into the Bible times to see how the Jewish people seemed to have missed so much of what their prophets predicted I have learned one valuable lesson that I want to pass along to you it is that in times past and now the real danger for God's people has not been in miss understanding biblical symbolism but rather in not taking the prophecies literally enough the vast majority of Jews in Christ a mist who he was because they did not take the Messianic prophecies literally enough their Messiah is to be human and divine that's impossible he is going to come from Nazareth nothing good comes from Nazareth he's going to give Israel freedom yet he's gonna be hanged on a tree he's gonna be cursed by God he's gonna be pierced with a Roman spear that's preposterous Israel's Savior will be a lamb and a lion all at the same time absurd but in hindsight the precision of these prophecies is astonishing and they were anything but symbolic so with that thought in mind let's begin the first two verses deal with the Temple in Jerusalem and God instructs John to measure it so the first question we might ask is which temple see the Temple in Jerusalem didn't exist any longer in John's day it was destroyed a couple of decades earlier by the Romans while of course there was the greatest hope for a new one to be rebuilt once the Gentile occupiers were ejected from the land and the Jews had reinstalled a Jewish king the reality is that to this day 2018 no temple has been rebuilt on the Temple Mount site and none is in the works although some private groups have done such things as build musical instruments fashioned priests League are Armand's even set up training for future priests and and Levite temple workers now since by the calculations of most academics and rabbis that it was the second temple that was destroyed by Titus then it would seem to be a third temple that John is envisioning that would mean this is not the temple the same temple that Ezekiel envisions in Ezekiel chapters 40 to 48 see that temple is an idealized one that will stand during the millennial reign of Christ and this third temple is either heavily modified or more likely once again destroyed as we approach the end of the reign of the Antichrist now about this Third Temple of John's vision pre-tribulation dispensationalist most evangelical Christians see this temple as built in standing standing during the time period that they label as the tribulation a time period that I hope I've proven to you doesn't exist by that name in the New Testament and was essentially invented by John Darby in the early 1800s so they see this as a literal not symbolic temple they also see believing Jews Christian Jews to coin a really bad term as those worshippers that God once counted and then unbelieving Jews who are said to occupy that outside court it's not to be counted so those who hold to a different doctrine called the preachers preach eros doctrine also see this as literal and not symbolic the temple that is but because they believe that the events of revelry speak of a time before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD then for them the Temple John is measuring his Herod's temple the second temple then this other group the modified futurist doctrinal viewpoint is that this is not a real temple John is measuring but rather it's just symbolic of those Jews within Israel who receives salvation at the end of history thus measuring means to count the Jewish population to them now first of all you're gonna notice that the pre-tribulation dispensation review the standard very standard evangelical Christian view goes against the plain reading the shot of the scripture passages and it assigns areas of the Temple Mount and the various courtyards according to their doctrines and - neither what the scriptures say nor according to the traditional layout of the temple in Christ era for instance whereas in Revelation 11:2 it explains that the outer Court is not to be measured because it's for Gentiles code you start out chapter 11 we'll start out talk to switch talking about Jews it won't stay there it's gonna either Gentiles it's going to start out with Gentiles okay and this outer court it's not to be measured because because it's for Gentiles the pre tribulation folks say the outer court is for unbelieving Jews and while they also say that the inner court that is being measured is for Christ believing Jews none of this is mentioned in this passage it's just simply not here there's no reason to believe that regard who is at the helm of building this third temple whether it's the Antichrist or whether it's the UN or whether it's the Israeli government or Orthodox Jews or that they would construct it in any other way than the model and the pattern of the second temple the one that would just one that was destroyed 2,000 years ago Herod's temple so the read or the rod that John is told to use to measure with this is Evan of an undetermined length there's been many guesses as to how long this measuring device might be but all we can know for sure is that this Reed or rod essentially serves as a surveyors rule the closest thing that we have in the Bible to go on is Ezekiel's measuring rod in chapter Ezekiel chapters 40 to 42 and that rod is around nine feet long all right and I doubt that Ezekiel's and John's measuring rods should be compared what John is asked to measure is not the temple rather only the sanctuary portion of the temple and the altar area that is the holy place and the Holy of Holies and the altar of burnt-offering that is at the front of the entry to the sanctuary the Greek word often erroneously translated as temple is Mouse and it only refers nose only refers to the inner sanctum nowhere else not the entire temple complex so the altar of burnt-offering has historically now been located in the court of the priests because they're the only ones authorized to serve at the altar and I presume it is the same with John's temple in the time of the Second Temple again also known as Herod's temple male worshipers would assemble and what was called the court of Israel women worshippers would assemble in the court of women to be clear in all three of these courts I've mentioned the priests of Israel of women the only people permitted to meet there were Israelites Gentiles were excluded therefore there is no reason to assume it's going to be any different with this Third Temple then of course there are the actual words averse to this specifically says that John is to leave out measuring the court outside the sanctuary because it's reserved for Gentiles it actually says it it's not for unbelieving Jews the words used by the complete Jewish Bible and a few other English translations that say the court outside the temple can be a little bit confusing because it makes it sound as though the court of the Gentiles is right next to the temple sanctuary just outside rather the correct translation is not the court outside the temple it's simply the outer Court and historically the outer Court always refers to the area of least sanctity it's the furthest away from the holy sanctuary and it's where Gentile visitors can come and observe and we're told in verse 2 that Gentiles are going to trample over the holy city for 42 months now trampling is a good translation because it indicates something negative it means to be contempt to us to defile even to destroy so it means that the Gentiles have some control over the temple area and the city of Jerusalem that's less than ideal now one of the interesting by that I mean really messy issues to deal with is that time periods that are presented to us for instance in verse 3 we read about two witnesses for God who are gonna prophesy for 1260 days it is commonly said stay with me the best you can this is gonna get messy it is commonly said that 30 days is the standard Hebrew lunar month and therefore if we multiply 42 months times 30 days we end up with 1260 days so the 42 months of verse 2 matches with the 1260 days a verse 3 now while the math is correct the true definition of a Hebrew lunar month is not 30 days on the Hebrew calendar including in John's day the length of monks alternated between 29 days and 30 days one month is 29 days the next month is 30 days the next month is 29 days the next month is 30 days so on why why is it that way because a true lunar cycle is 29 and 1/2 days it's impossible define to define a month using 1/2 days but if one month is 29 days and the next is 30 then guess what average those two months together you get twenty nine and a half so what true lunar year meaning 12 lunar months is 354 days not 360 and 29 and a half days times 42 months equals 1240 not 1260 that we find in verse three you like in this stinks doesn't it it's hard however it is only Christian Bible commentators speculation that says that the 42 months of verse 2 must equal to or even occur simultaneously with the 1260 days of verse 3 there's nothing in the passage that says those two vent two events are necessarily connected now it's commonly thought that the forty two months mentioned here is related however to Luke chapter four verse 25 when God through Elijah brought judgment upon the land with a three-year and six-month drought others including me tribute many pre-tribulation dispensational adherents see the 42 months of revelation 11 is directly related to Daniel chapter 7 verse 25 where it says he will speak words against the Most High and try to exhaust the Holy Ones of the Most High Most High he will attempt to alter the seasons and the law and the Holy Ones will be handed over to em for a time times and half a time so their assumption is a time equals 1 year x equals 2 years half a time equals half a year so add it all together 3 and 1/2 p 1/2 years perhaps but we have various methods of expressing time in the biblical era and the era of Daniel is six centuries before the era of John six hundred years and they didn't count time in exactly the same way in both of those ears there's also another tough reality to deal with it is that the striving for precision of time that we have in modern days simply did not exist in biblical times they were more concerned with lunar observations and and and the changing of seasons because that's what mattered to their society because most settled societies depended on agriculture for their food source exactly to the minute how long a day or a month was was simply not as important as determining a season yes day and month and season did matter as when to celebrate certain biblical feasts but on the other hand even going back to Daniels day the Hebrews were already adjusting their lunar calendars to yearly Sun cycles otherwise you could have eventually the fall feasts falling in the summer time or in the late winter so here's what we need to take from this close is good enough for now close is good enough for now I just don't believe that it was ever intended in the Bible that we get completely hung up and in times matters as to extreme precision as regards days and month even today there is no agreement among various Jewish groups is concerns calendars how to calculate God's appointed times therefore I think that what what we have given to us in Revelation are for lack of a better term round numbers a 30-day lunar month is close enough to 29 and a half actual days 42 lunar months equals three and a half years provided we don't start adjusting the calendar for solar years and therefore 42 months equals three and a half years equals 1260 days and I have no doubt I'm gonna get a ton of emails from various folks who still want to debate about what they see is the correct Hebrew scientific calendar calculations but the truth is that exactly at what points in time in biblical history that the way of calculating months and years evolved among the Jews is completely steeped in mystery and as the exile exiles various exiles from the land happened we know that there was a certain level of adaptation depending on where certain pods of Jewish religious authorities might relocate to even if I'm wrong about this so be it right but I doubt we're gonna know for sure until these events of Revelation actually happened after all if the exact precise timing of all these sorts of things was so terribly critical then for example one would reason we would have a biblical record of the exact day month and year that Christ was born or at least the year of his death but we don't and the debates persist and it probably always will until you schewe comes again any straightens us out see here's the final thing to consider before we end today's lesson I believe that the most important element of what the time period of forty two months or three and 1/2 years represents is that it is only half of seven that's the point C seven is the ideal number it is the divine number of wholeness of perfection of completion half of seven indicates something that's not complete it's not whole therefore 3 and 1/2 means something that has not achieved its final goal and rather the process has either been arrested or it's only partly done and by the way that in no way means that the three and a half years necessarily continues until seven years is achieved I mean bear in mind for instance that in the mid 167 Theotis epiphanies began when he set up a statue to himself in the temple from that time to the retaking of the temple by the Jewish Maccabees and rededicating the altar was 3 and 1/2 years that's recorded history nothing of note regarding the temple was completed with the passing of a another three and a half years so that seven would finally be achieved that is the three and a half years was not in that case a halfway point you couldn't mark it that way say up three and a half got the halfway point nope rather it just simply indicates that wholeness and perfection were never achieved I think we're gonna end it here today will continue with chapter eleven next time [Music] you

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Length: 59min 53sec (3593 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018