Studio Electives - Daniel's Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks with David Rosenthal

my name is Dave Rosenthal and I think most of you know me and I know you but it's a delight to to have you with us this evening we are looking for forward to a good time of study together and some fellowship tonight we're going to dive into what I would call the backbone or the framework of Bible prophecy Daniel chapter 9 gives us gives us a framework an important crucial framework without it we would be searching in the dark for answers as it relates to the last days but Daniel through his the vision that he received in the prophecy that is given we are enlightened in a significant way in terms of what's going to happen in the in the last days but before we get to that I want to I want to take you all the way back to the beginning because I want you to have the big picture I would call it the the view from 36,000 feet looking down looking down on human history because I'm a big believer in understanding context I think that the Scriptures are contextually a whole and it's so important to understand the flow or the narrative of human history and so just for a little while before we actually get to Daniel chapter 9 I want to take you back to the beginning but before we go there let's open with the word of Prayer our Heavenly Father we come to you in prayer so thankful that you are a good and gracious and loving God a God who desires to reveal himself to us you've revealed yourself through the pages of Scripture and we are truly grateful for all this contained therein and we are looking forward to this time of study together both now and in the next session we pray that you would communicate through me and that those that are in attendance would would understand and would benefit from their time spent here this evening we thank you so much for all of your blessings too numerous to mention we are truly grateful for who you are and what you have done for us we thank you and we pray that you would bless this time together in Jesus name we pray amen so this big picture narrative that I want to start you out with back in Genesis you have the fall Adam and Eve are in the garden they are solicited to sin by the serpent Satan and they capitulate and sin as an operating principle is now has entered center stage on planet Earth and humanity now faces a seemingly unsolvable problem sin death and eternal separation from God I mean this is at the core of everything that we're dealing with through through our lives through human history all of this goes back to the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and when that took place humanity as a whole faced a seemingly insurmountable problem sin death and eternal separation from God so that leads us to history's greatest question think about this for a moment if you will how can a holy righteous God who is perfect in every way redeem a lost and fallen humanity and still remain true to his nature and character think about that for a minute humanity fell we were we were created perfect Adam and Eve were created in a perfect environment by God all that God had intended but they chose and they fell sin entered the world as an operating principle the virus of sin infected all of humanity that time and the issue of the ages the dilemma so to speak not for God but from our human perspective is how can God stay true to his nature and his character of holiness of justice of righteousness and find a way to redeem his fallen creation that is the core question for all of human history and I would suggest to you that all of human history can trace its origins and movement to God answering this question and that is that God could find a way and did find a way he didn't find it he knew it all along to redeem a lost and fallen humanity and still stay true to his nature and to his character so what happened after the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden God curses Satan genesis 3:15 because listen to the wording because we're going to come back to this in a few moments because you have done this thing i will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel crucial verse and we learned something very important about God's plan to solve that great question that we just talked about how can God stay true to his nature and character and find a way to redeem a lost in sinful creation we gain very important insight into God's master plan for doing just that when we get to Genesis verse 15 because we learn about a seed we learn about actually two seeds one is the true seed of God himself through Jesus Christ ultimately and one is the seed or the progeny of Satan so right from the get-go in the book of genesis 3:15 we are exposed and given insight into how God is going to solve that crucial for us dilemma crucial dilemma of how he can redeem a lost and fallen creation and stay true to himself he's going to provide a seed and now the issue is how do we track that seed through human history what's with these two seeds one is the seed of God and one is the seed of Satan and now the rest of the Old Testament is taking us through this tract of these two seeds and as we move along in the Old Testament we get additional information of what God is doing but to start with God calls a man by the name of Abram from ur of the chaldeans today is modern Iraq and he says to Abraham follow me I want you to come to the promised land the land of Canaan through a series of events and promises God makes Isaac is born and we're told that in Isaac shall thy seed be called Isaac is the Promised One that God promised to Abraham eventually of course we know through that lineage as Jesus Christ but God calls Abraham and one day he says to Abraham Abraham I'm gonna test you not tempt and some translate translations you may see tempt tests I want to test you and God tells Abraham to take Isaac to the place I will show the Mount Moriah and there I want you to kill him and Abraham follows the Lord's instructions perfectly he takes Abraham and I can't imagine the anguish that he must have felt inside but Abraham was a man of viii he knew that if God called him to take the life of his son that to be true to his promises God had to raise Isaac from the dead and we find that in the New Testament we actually are told that in Hebrews so Abraham takes Isaac to Mount Moriah he's about to kill him and at the last moment at the very last moment he says Abraham don't touch the lad for now I know that you have a reverent trust of me and Abraham passed the test of faith with flying colors and look at what God says to Abraham same phraseology that he uses when he's talking to Satan when Satan deceived Eve is it because you have done this thing I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed same introductory phrase because you have done this thing Abraham what thing did Abraham do he believed God he exhibited faith he was about to take the life of his son because he knew that God to be faithful to his promises would have to raise Isaac from the dead if he followed through with it he was stopped at the last moment and Abraham passed the test of faith and God says because you have done this thing in thee and in thy seed there it is again seed remember genesis 3:15 we have the introduction of how God is going to remedy the issue of mankind's fallen estates and stay true to his own nature and character and in genesis 3:15 we find there's an introduction of a seed two seeds God seed and the seed of Satan so we have to track those seeds through whom in human history now we're introduced Genesis 22 not that far removed Abraham passes the test of faith and God says because you have done this thing in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed so here we have more information about the seed that will be coming through Abraham the Old Testament and God's chosen people let's take a look if we can just for a moment in the Old Testament here we have creation okay we have the fall and a little later we have Abraham I'll put in a here for Abraham so here we're introduced to the concept of a seed two seeds Abraham and now we want to track that seed all the way through the Old Testament and I would submit to you all the way through over to the birth of Jesus Christ everything in the Old Testament all the history that you read in the Bible everything is about the people group through which God would bring the promised seed you can look at the entire Old Testament of course there are lessons to be learned of course when when Israel followed the Lord he blessed them when they disobeyed he punished them sometimes he punished them by sending them into captivity and we're going to talk about that a little bit later but the entire Old Testament is it is an explanation and a history and a detailed understanding of the people group through which God sovereignly chose through Abraham to bring the promised seed into the world if you're looking at the scriptures without that umbrella you're missing the major narrative of Scripture that's a crucial component it's the component for the narrative of Scripture all of human history is tied back to what God promised to Abraham and through Abraham Indian in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed the rest of the Old Testament gives us amazing insight into the people group through which God chose that eventually would give birth to the promised seed Gentile world powers now in that Old Testament time when as I mentioned when Israel would sin God punished them when they followed him he blessed them blessing and cursing but there are major world empires that took center stage throughout Israel's history and I want to just point some of them out to you here Egypt Assyria Babylon medo-persia Greece and Rome these are the major world empires that were all persecutors of Israel Egypt Assyria Babylon medo-persia Greece and Rome I want to point out to you a crucial component if at any time any of these world powers could have assimilated or annihilated the Jewish people in the Old Testament economy the promised seed the one that God promised back in genesis 3:15 the one who he promised to Abraham and in through Isaac shall thy seed be called the one of whom the prophets foretold if at any time throughout Israel's Old Testament economy these nations of Egypt Assyria Babylon medo-persia any of those if they had annihilated or assimilated the Jewish people the promised seed could not have been born as was prophesied all the way back in Genesis a crucial a crucial component so you have these nations these Gentile world nations now when we jump to Daniel chapter 9 because we want to be talking really about the framework or the backbone of Bible prophecy which is coming in the future a crucial component of that we find in Daniel chapter 9 and the prophecies in the vision that he's given so where is that in the scope of these Gentile world powers through the Old Testament Egypt Assyria Babylon right so we're right in this section right in here so when we're talking about Daniel chapter 9 this is where we are okay right in this section now we get to Daniel specifically Daniel chapter 9 I'm going to give you context and setting for what's going on what's taking place because the setting the context is critically important to really get the most understanding out of Daniel chapter 9 at that time period you had of course this is a modern day map but we can show you where some of the ancient locations are on this map but at that time period you had Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians they had come in to Jerusalem and they came three times in 606 in 597 and in 586 okay well we'll show you that just a moment so you had from this region over in here which is the area of ancient Babylon okay you had Nebuchadnezzar coming over the Babylonians coming over they didn't just come straight across here this was desert area you've heard of the Fertile Crescent which is a curved area this way which is a much safer way to travel more fertile so easier for caravans to travel so when Nebuchadnezzar came over in those three and those three times and those three dates came to Jerusalem and when he captured Jerusalem each time it was there was more involved in each one of the successive campaigns that came against Jerusalem but in the first one in 606 605 606 BC Daniel is taking captive so he has taken most likely up this way through the area of Damascus up to the Euphrates and probably came along the Euphrates River over to the area of Babylon okay so that is the setting Daniel is in captivity with Judah in the area of Babylon 606 597 and 586 again scholars debate but that's a very close proximity to the dates of the Babylonian captivity so when the Jews are exiled to Babylon again there are three campaigns by Babylon Daniel is taken in this first one in 606 BC so that's the context of where Daniel is located as he is getting the prophecy in Daniel chapter 9 now Daniel chapter 9 Daniel is in prayer he is an old man he's about 83 years old most likely he is familiar with the writings of Jeremiah the Prophet which when you think about it is amazing here's Daniel the prophet and in context he's referring back to the writings of Jeremiah in Daniel chapter 9 and he knows as an old man of 83 he's in Babylon he's he's sad because his nation is in exile he knows that there's punishment that they're dealing with because of their disobedience to God in Jerusalem they've been sent into exile and there in Babylon he and his people but Daniel is a man greatly beloved by God and the Scriptures tell us that especially in Daniel chapter 9 but he's grieving and he's praying and here's the reason he's praying because his heart is moved by what he reads in Jeremiah that 70 years 70 years is the timeframe in which God will send his people back to Jerusalem and he knows that he's getting close they're approaching that 70th year and he reads the prophecy in Jeremiah that the 70 years is now just about up and Daniel pours out his heart to God in one of the most beautiful prayers that you will ever read in Daniel chapter 9 just a little bit of what he says in verse 20 now while I was speaking praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people and presenting my supplication before the Lord my god for the holy mountain of my god yes while I was speaking in prayer the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly reached me about the time of the evening offering and he informed me and talked with me and said Oh Daniel I have now come forth to give you skill to understand at the beginning of your supplications the command went out and I have come to tell you for you are greatly beloved there it is therefore consider the matter and understand the vision so here is Daniel in exile the seventy years that were prophesied by Jeremiah are almost up and Daniel seeks the Lord and says what's going to happen to my people and Daniel if you notice in this text and if you read the whole chapter it's clear he associates himself with the sin of his nation even though he's a man who follows the Lord and is greatly beloved by the Lord we're told he identifies with the sin of his nation he grieves for the sin of his nation he pours out his soul he he connects with them in identifying with the sin of his people and he understands completely why he and his nation are in exile being punished by God in Babylon but now the end of that time it looks like it may be up because Jeremiah's prophecy tells us that 70 years it's up so daniel pours out a prayer to God what's going to happen to my people whose people who were his people exactly exactly so look at what's told in told to us in verse 24 of Daniel nine seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city now get this seventy weeks are determined for who your people and for your holy city where is his holy city Jerusalem exactly to do six things to finish the transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy now clearly some of those things we know as we look back did not and could not and have not taken place in Jerusalem but that's what we're told in the prophecy that seventy sevens of weeks are determined upon thy people Daniel to accomplish these things well we know today in retrospect when we look back they haven't all been accomplished yet they must still be in the future but let's keep reading know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build jerusalem until messiah the prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks how much is seven and sixty to sixty nine so you have 69 sevens of years so let's write that down you have sixty-nine and what are we told when are we starting that from the command to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem okay so we're going to say rebuild walls so from the command to rebuild the walls we have 69 sevens of years until what what's it say in the text until Messiah the Prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks this street shall be built again in the wall even in trouble sometimes and after the sixty-two weeks which is added to the seven earlier weeks for seven for sixty-nine total weeks Messiah shall be cut off so what is what are seventy sevens of weeks in years how many years seventy sevens seventy sevens of years 490 so what we're dealing with is a total that was 490 years okay that's the total number that we're dealing with seventy sevens of weeks and in the context when it's saying weeks it's it means years seventy sevens so 490 so where's the starting point for we're counting is the call to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem to restore and build until Messiah the Prince there should be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks the street shall be built again in the wall even in trouble sometimes and after the sixty-two weeks which is added to the seven Messiah shall be cut off so to the sixty-nine the 69 sevens of years to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ right there's the 69 sevens of years 483 years got it now here's the issue and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary the end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week the he in this context is the Antichrist now remember we're going all the way back to genesis 3:15 two seeds the seed of Satan and the seed of the true Christ so here and throughout the Old Testament were given glimpses of that of those seeds but here the he is the Antichrist the seed of Satan the progeny of Satan then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week or one series of seven years here we have a total prophesy seventy sevens of weeks are determined upon thy people Daniel so to complete to bring history to a proper consummation for Jesus Christ to come back to defeat Satan to defeat sin to defeat iniquity to judge the nation's to rule the world from Jerusalem the time frame that were given is seventy sevens are determined from the passage on thy people is this around the world or is this on thy people Daniel whose people Israel and thy holy city seventy sevens to accomplish all of these things so you have 490 total years seventy sevens of weeks we know from the text that the sixth the first 69 start with the call to rebuild the wall with Nehemiah and run until the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that's 483 years so how much do we lack if we start if we know the total prophesy is 490 and so far we have 483 seven years so this is where when we get to verse 27 then he the Antichrist shall confirm a covenant with many for one week and it goes on to describe what he will do in the middle of the week and that's a that's a lesson for another time but what we have is a sixty-nine period of weeks of years and as final seven years that is still hanging out there somewhere so I want to draw you for you something that I think will be helpful for you again you have the walls be rebuilt 69 weeks of years Jesus crucifixion here 69 that seven-year period is still hanging out there somewhere and do you know the Old Testament prophets didn't know something that we know today and that's the mystery of the church the church age they didn't know that there was a large period of time that came after those first 69 weeks before a final seven-year period of human history so I'm gonna draw you something else that I think will be helpful for you here we have the 69 weeks here we have the church age the gospel is preached throughout the world and we have another final seven-year period of human history that still is out there the question is when will that seven-year period take place we know from Scripture he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week so the Antichrist will confirm a covenant with the many who are the many Israel Israel so the Antichrist will establish some sort of a covenant that will essentially trigger the start of that final seven-year period of human history that still awaits out in the future where are we living today and I would submit to you and again if you come back for further studies we're gonna dive into a lot of the prophetic texts to get a real sense of where we are in the scope of human history I am convinced that most people in America sitting in churches really don't have an idea of where we are living in the scope of human history and how close we are to the end I would submit to you and I I can't get into the details now but based on the scriptures I would submit to you that we are somewhere somewhere right in here right in here and it is tragic to me that we have people sitting in our churches that really don't understand the urgency of the hour of human history in which we're living we are we are right up against it now again this is going to be an in-depth study for another day however there are some who have observed this kind of a chart and they say aha this proves pre-tribulation ism now if you study the scriptures and you understand the notion of a tribulation and that we are that that some people take the view that we will be raptured as believers before the tribulation takes place right well some people say we'll see here's the first 69 weeks only dealing with what people principally Israel and then when Jesus Christ is crucified on the cross now it starts the church age so to wrap it up in a nice little package they say AHA when we get over here the church is raptured right here and we have a nice clean cut seven years where God is once again dealing with Israel and the Jewish people right sounds nice and tidy but the truth is and the reality is that there is nowhere in scripture that that shows us or tells us or demonstrates in any way that the church will be raptured out of here before this final seven years commences I would submit to you that the church age began here God will once again deal with Israel but the church will still be here for a large portion of that final seven-year period of human history and there are lots of evidences that we can share with you in future studies to demonstrate that to you and to show you from Scripture one of the key components is that people automatically assume that that final seven years is the wrath of God they say well there's a final seven years out there we know God's gonna wrap up human history he's gonna judge the nations he's going to re-establish himself as king over Israel and over the world so if he's going to do all those things and it kind of makes sense just naturally to say well it's since there's that final seven years still hanging out the we know the anti-crisis going to be involved and he's establishing a covenant at the beginning with the Jewish people here at the beginning of the seven year period to kind of start it and kick it off again it must all be the wrath of God so they have superimposed a word on this time timeframe called the tribulation they've taken words that are in Scripture used specifically for to identify other parts of the seven years and they've superimposed a word on that whole seven years and they call it the tribulation well it's not a big jump to say well if that's the tribulation then it sounds bad it must all be the wrath of God but I am here to tell you that there are clear indicators from the Old Testament Scriptures throughout the Old Testament in the Book of Psalms believe it or not Isaiah Jeremiah Joel there are and of course the book of Revelation and Matthew chapter 24 there are many passages which clearly tell us that the wrath of God is signified or saina fide that it is about to commence by something called cosmic disturbance the Sun will be darkened the moon will not give her light the stars shall fall from heaven cosmic disturbance and the Sun the moon and the stars indicates that the day of the Lord or the wrath of God is about to commence and I would submit to you without getting into further detail on this that that transpires sometime in the second half of this seven-year period and that believers that have lived through this church age will move into this time period to encounter the Antichrist but be raptured because as believers we're told we are not appointed unto wrath right we're not we're not appointed to escape from the wrath of the Antichrist we're appointed to escape from the wrath of God himself and so we know that the Antichrist arises at this point because he signs a covenant and then at the midpoint something else important happens which we'll get into at another time so I would submit to you that the church does move into this time period so I wanted just to leave you with that for today sorry about the scribble up there but I hope that that helps to convey you so what we are doing is we are tracking the seeds and Daniel chapter 9 gives us crucial information in terms of that final seven-year period so I encourage you to go back to study it carefully to look at the heart of Daniel as he offers that amazing prayer to the Lord and how the Lord reveals to him this framework of end times Bible prophecy for that final seven-year period of human history and in that 70th week there's going to be a clash of two seeds goes all the way back to genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed and you have a conflict going on between God and Satan and between their seeds the progeny of Satan and the true Christ Jesus himself and you parallel those through human history when you get to Daniel chapter 9 when he's in the Babylonian captivity in the Old Testament we gain great insight from Daniel chapter 9 to understand the framework for how it's all going to end at a final time seven years will consummate human history when Jesus Christ will judge the nations and will rule and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years thank you so much I appreciate your time [Applause] you you

Channel: Zion's Hope

Views: 12,821

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Keywords: Daniel, 70 weeks, 70th Week, Tribulation, Prophecy, Prophetic, Zion's Hope, Rosenthal, Studio, Jesus, Return, 2nd Coming, Electives

Id: HdlQqm9TpE0

Length: 37min 25sec (2245 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2018