After the Lion's Den, Dan, 9:24-27
Daniel 9:24-27 · Vern Peterman · Feb 17, 2002
Revelation (2001-03), No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262240453257

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Greetings and good morning. As a lot of you, well, some of you at least may know, because I know I've told some of you, but I can't remember exactly who. Nancy and I, when we first met each other back in the summer of 1970, a while back, we didn't like each other. I didn't like her, she didn't like me, and we were both happy. you know. But what was interesting was over time the Lord kind of changed that. Apparent, isn't it? Anyway, the Lord changed that and it came to a place where we actually stopped not liking each other. And we had rather strange courtship activities. We, you know, spent time, each one of us, at a different cow milking and things like that, milking the cows.

And we also spent some time actually, we got together regularly while this is before we were engaged, even just doing Bible study. So we get together and do a Bible study and, you know, pretty regularly. And one of the Bible studies I remember being real excited about was studying through the book of Daniel. And we went through, you know, the book of Daniel and I just were having a great time. We were talking about, you know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and fiery furnace, and talking about, here's Daniel in the lion's den, and just marvelous stuff. I mean, it was exciting to me, and we had a great time with that. And so this morning we'll be taking a look at just a small portion of Daniel, and I know that brings relief to a lot of you, because you're thinking, oh no, he's going to cover the book of Daniel this morning.

No. We're just going to take a look at just the four verses that Vin read for us, and the reason for doing so is that in those four verses is a prediction given about over five centuries before the birth of Christ. It's a prediction that says this is what's going to happen to Israel from here on out. And a lot of it is just amazingly accurate as to what has taken place already. And yet there are still some to come. And I think this is a valuable parenthesis, if you will, in our study of Revelation. Because as we go through the book of Revelation, we're going to see that what Daniel takes four verses to talk about, even less than that, Revelation spends 15 chapters on. But it's a good preface because basically, you'll see John expanding, as the Lord has revealed things to him, expanding on what has been laid out by Daniel now over 2,500 years ago. And amazing accuracy what's taken place.

So let's take a look at it. You've got a handout in front of you that's more than the usual number of pages. And that's intentional. It includes actually most of the overhead that I'm going to be showing you. And because while it's only four verses, there's a lot in it. But I want to make sure I don't lose anybody here. So we're going to step through each part of it carefully. And you're going to see most of these overheads, with the exception of just a few, right in front of you with a sheet that you'll also be able to take with you and ponder afterwards.

He starts off talking about, here's the 70 weeks that have been decreed, and he lays out these verses in front of these people he's writing for. continues to spell out what's going to happen, and what's amazing, and we'll see in just a minute, he's writing what's going to happen for centuries ahead of time. I imagine even Daniel was kind of amazed at, what am I writing? You know, just phenomenal to look ahead and see what's being revealed. In the next couple of verses there, you know, laying out Finally, here's this thing that is, as he writes, 70 weeks out. And as we'll find in a minute, it's not just weeks like we think of weeks. But for this long period ahead, some details are given.

And we're going to see those coming forth as we continue to walk through and pace our way through the book of Revelation. So I think there's value in us taking a look at that this morning. thing that you have in your handout, and it's here on the overhead. This is kind of the big outline of what we want to take a look at this morning.

Israel, at the time that Daniel was writing, is in captivity, has been in captivity. Daniel was one of those taken away from Jerusalem and hauled off to Babylon. So Israel has been in captivity during this time. But then there's a command to rebuild Jerusalem that takes place, and that's the first step. Seven weeks, and as we'll see in a little bit, meaning 49 years, seven weeks later, that rebuilding is done. That's this little tick here. And 62 weeks after that, it says the Messiah is cut off.

Then as we step our way through it, we find, you see this big area looks kind of cloudy? That cloud's there on purpose. A couple of reasons. This is the time that we call the Church Age. There's two reasons for the cloud. One is because this particular passage doesn't talk about it. Because this prophecy is about Israel. And the Church was a mystery. So that's one reason.

The second reason that the cloud's there is as believers, Ephesians 2.6 tells us we've been seated in the heavenlies. That's where we're at. Positionally, we're there now, even though this body is here on planet earth. Positionally, those who have placed their trust in Christ have been seated in the heavenly. So that's why this cloud is here in the middle. But there will come a time when this church age will end. Those who are of the church will be taken up to be with the Lord.

And after that time, we'll start this last week, this 70th week, seven years that will be kind of the last time of Israel's trouble before the millennial period begins when Christ will reign on the earth. So this is the broad outline you see here on the graphic in front of you. And we'll be kind of stepping our way through it.

Now, one of the things to note There are people who have gone through this and boy, they have tried to nail these dates down to this day, like March 30th, such and such year. But I noticed that among the various experts, they can't quite seem to agree. I'm not going to talk about all those March 30th and April 3rd and all these different dates because that doesn't seem to be real particular.

Nothing about anything that those various experts are quibbling over in fine detail makes any difference in the big picture of the prophecy. It's still talking about the Messiah. It's still talking about the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It's still talking about the same decree.

So we're not going to go into those details. Okay. Now, first thing I want to address here as we proceed is, what's this idea of weeks of years? Vern, what are you talking about? Okay? We want to take a look, where did that idea come up? In first place, it shows up in Genesis.

Here's Genesis 29.18. Here's Jacob. He agrees to work for Laban seven years for Rachel. But what does Laban do? He gives him Leah instead. That's quite a deal. The next thing. Laban asks Jacob to work for another seven years for Rachel.

And in these verses, the seven years are called Shabuwa. You can say that, of course. Shabuwa, right? And it just means seven. But it means it's used for a week. And so that's how you see it translated in a lot of your English versions. He basically says to Jacob, hey, work for a week for me. He's not talking about seven days. He's talking about years. Seven years. Shows up again at several different references in the giving of the Old Testament law.

Remember they would have their year of jubilees? The way that the Jews were told to operate is for six years, they were to work their fields, let it rest the seventh. For six years, they could deal with the debts. At the seventh year, they had to release the debts, forgive the debts.

So again, they would talk about these in terms of weeks of years. So in the Jewish understanding, as they come up to this passage, they look at it and they understand it perfectly well. This is weeks of years. So when Daniel writes it, this is a tradition of talking about things that have been going on for centuries. 1,500 years, roughly, before his time.

Now, the other question is, what about this time gap? Remember I talked about this cloudy period? Where's this time gap? Where's that in here? Well, let's talk about that, too. Is it normal to have a time gap in the middle of a prophecy? Especially where it doesn't say, and now after a period of time. Okay? Is that the norm? Well, there are some instances of that. Let's take a look.

Genesis 49.10 is one instance. Remember, we addressed this a few weeks back. Christ is the Lion of Judah here. His first coming is foretold. And that's where it talks about him actually being earthly descended from Judah. Okay? In his physical body. Then, without a break, it goes immediately into his second coming. So the gap is there, even though it doesn't show up in the verse. The same principle applies.

Take a look at Isaiah 61.1 and the first half of verse 2. This is where Christ, he was in the synagogue, he took the scroll of Isaiah and began reading the book of Isaiah chapter 61, first verse, and then into half the second, and then he stopped. Why? It's because right in the middle of the verse, it shifts from the first coming to the second coming.

The gap is not apparent in the direct reading of the text, but we know for a fact, especially from a historical perspective, we know for a fact that that gap is there. It also explains why Christ stopped reading in his first coming right in the middle of the verse. Similar kind of thing, Ezekiel 26 gives prophecies about the city of Tyre that are fulfilled actually with spaces of centuries between. And if you were to look that up and look up the history, centuries of gaps would exist between the various phases of the fulfillment of that prophecy. And there are other instances as well, but my point being that is this the norm that there's actually a gap in some place without some statement, hey, there's a gap in here? Frequently it shows up in scripture, and these are just some instances. Okay? Okay. And then, let's ask another important question. Has anyone else but Verne understood Daniel 9, 24 through 27 to mean that the 70th week was a separate seven-year period from the 69 weeks? Or is that something Verne just cooked up? Okay?

So let's take a look at that. Literal interpreters for the last few centuries, including several names you've probably heard of, Ironside, Ice, Price, numerous ones, have come to this conclusion. Most early church interpreters, including the very first commentary on Daniel that we have by Hippolytus, he concluded, yes, that we've got the 70th week, it's separate from the first 69 weeks. And then, interestingly, Orthodox Jews look at they are they are figuring on a seven-year tribulation period at the end of which the Messiah will come Okay, they look at this passage and they see it as well It's because the Orthodox Jews interpret scripture literally at least the Old Testament So let's take a look now that we've kind of had this as a preface. Let's take a look. We're going to go phrase by phrase Through this passage that's been read for us earlier. Okay, one phrase at a time Daniel 9.24a being the first part of it.

70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city. So the 70, as we put these numbers together, we'll find it's the 7, and then 62, and then one more. You get your total of 70. Those 70 weeks of years is the total time allotted here for the nation of Israel and these people. But notice what the focus has been decreed for. Your people. And who's Daniel's people? It's the Jews. This is specifically relating to the Jews. And it says your holy city. And that's Jerusalem. So this is all about the Jews and Jerusalem.

Now, here we have then the time gap for the church. It doesn't mention the church explicitly. Why? Because that's not brought up and revealed until later in the scripture when Paul brings it up. But what is included in those 70 weeks is described in the rest of what we see in these four verses. So let's move on to that.

The rest of Daniel 9.24 has got six points for us to take a look at. This is what's going to be accomplished in those 70 weeks. Point one. To finish the transgression. This is to end the rebellion of the Jews. You see, the Jews have been put in exile and captivity. Why? Because they've been rebellious. And you know what's going to happen? They've got more of it. But that'll put an end to it. That'll put an end to their rebellion and their rejection of God. Then to make an end of sin. See, the sin problem will come to an end with the Messiah.

The Jews have a, they call it a holiday, but it's a bit more than that, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, and it's a day when they very seriously consider, you know, their standing before God. There will come a time when it will have a whole lot more significance than it has now, especially when they're looking at the Messiah. They will recognize this is the Messiah. This is the one.

This is the one that's promised, and we've been rejecting Him all along. To make an atonement for iniquity, Christ the Messiah provided for sin on Calvary. The day of atonement was then fulfilled. The next thing, to bring in everlasting righteousness. It's literally the righteousness of the ages.

Christ will set up His millennial reign on earth. it will be over the Jews, over the land of Israel, centered in Jerusalem. This pertains to your people, okay, the your people phrase in here, and the holy city, Jerusalem. The next part, to seal up vision and prophecy. You see, there's prophecy in the Old Testament, there's prophecy in the New Testament, but basically, when Christ the Messiah comes, there'll be no need for more, it'll be fulfilled. It'll be ended, terminated. It'll all be sealed up. It'll be done.

And then finally, to anoint the Most Holy Place, there's going to be two more temples. There's going to be a temple during the Tribulation period, as we'll see, and then there's going to be a temple during the Millennial Kingdom. And that'll be an enhancement of the one that will be built during the Tribulation period. it will be put into service. It's real interesting, we might think, well, didn't Christ come and die and that's enough? The first temples were put in anticipation of God's sacrifice. The temples to come will be memorial sacrifice, especially the Millennial Temple, pointing back to the sacrifice.

Now, then the next thing. You see in here a command to rebuild. This is this first little tick mark here. Daniel 9.25. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That set of phrases there.

Nehemiah 2.1-8 describes this very event. Here's Artaxerxes issues a decree to go and rebuild Jerusalem. This took place around 445, 444 BC, somewhere in that time frame.

And it fulfills this Daniel 9.25. It basically, it starts the clock. From that time on, everything else is moving according to the prophecy. So what he's doing is he's saying, okay, once that clock starts, the rest of what I'm giving in this prophecy is going to unfold just as it was laid out. Okay? He's starting the clock on this prophetic process. Everything is timed off of that decree. And again, slight variations in trying to figure out exactly what the date is really don't matter. We know that it took place. Historically, it's clear that it happened. And so we won't worry about the specific date. Okay. The next step in this, the next tick in this Here is the actual rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Daniel 9.25b, until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. That is, seven weeks of years, so forty-nine, and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Jerusalem will be rebuilt, right, based on the decree? So you add the 7 and the 62, and that gives you 69 weeks of years from the decree of Artaxerxes, that we have recorded in Nehemiah 2 there, to the time of the Messiah. And we'll get more details on what it means, that time of the Messiah. The rebuilding includes both, it says plaza and moat in some translations here. The idea is the plaza, this is streets and the market area, this is the commercial operations. are able to resume. And then the moat is the defenses. And you say, wait a minute, Jerusalem didn't have a moat? I've seen pictures and it doesn't have a moat around it.

Here's what that's talking about. To build the walls in those days, they didn't want to build a wall and just put it on some soil, because then somebody could dig under it and attack, or they could just dig under it to undermine. And then the wall would collapse there, right? So what they would do is they would dig a trench to bedrock all the way around. So that was the moat. That was the trench that they would put all the way around it. Then they would build the wall on top.

Okay? So that's what that's talking about. It's restoring Jerusalem so that it has commerce and transportation taking place and activity. Restoring Jerusalem so that it has defenses. Okay? That's what it's talking about. So after that seven weeks of years, 49 years, then Jerusalem would be rebuilt. That's completed.

And that did take place. And it's recorded further in Nehemiah. It says, in times of distress, and if you read through Nehemiah, you'll get the details on all the difficulties they had trying to rebuild the wall. Because they had lots of people all around who didn't want it to take place. And it did happen, exactly as was foretold.

Here is the wall of Jerusalem at the Eastern Gate. This is a portion of the good section of wall that was rebuilt at that time. We'll look at a picture of this gate a little bit more, once more, because there's a lot of significance to it. But we can't get to it all right now. So we'll get back to it.

The next part, it says the Messiah It's cut off. That happens in here, okay? Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. 62 weeks of years after the time the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt, the Messiah will be cut off. Now, what does cut off mean? The Hebrew word for cut off is used for execution. It has the meanings to smite, to strike, to punish with death. So the Messiah will be executed, will be smitten and stricken, will be punished with death. So that's the prediction.

And guess what? Here, Daniel was writing more than five centuries before the birth of Christ, and he says, there's going to be this, from the time of Artaxerxes' decree until the time when the Messiah is cut off, executed, would be these 490 years. And guess what? It happened just like that. The Messiah was cut off. Jesus was executed 490 years later, after the decree. Just like Daniel prophesied well over a century before the decree was put out.

The last part there, it says having nothing. It literally means having nothingness. He was rejected of men. See, rather than being received and saying, here's our Messiah, they rejected him. And so not only his execution after 490 years after the decree, but his rejection was also prophesied.

Centuries ahead of time. Centuries ahead of time. I talked to one fellow who is of Jewish background and is a Christian, and he said, the rabbis don't want the people looking at this. because it's so plain and ordinary and specific that they'd rather not talk about it. They've got various ways they juggle around it, but if you look at it honestly, it points to Jesus. It just plain, pure and simple does. The next part that comes out of this, we'll see here in just a minute, is right after that, by just a few decades, the Romans suppressed a Jewish rebellion.

You remember among the twelve disciples was Simon the Zealot? Those zealots were people who were very zealous for Israel and were willing to even take up acts of violence to carry that out. And Simon was, at least up until the time of his calling as a disciple, was actually one of these people. So anyway, this Jewish rebellion came to a head here in 70 AD And the Roman 10th Legion came in and suppressed it. And they went in and caused great destruction to the city of Jerusalem.

It was foretold here in Daniel 9.26.

And then again by Christ himself just a few decades before its occurrence in Matthew 24.15. So let's take a look at that.

Daniel 9.26.

And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood, even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined. Let's step one phrase at a time through that. The people of the prince who is to come, this is the Roman Tenth Legion. The Antichrist, he is the prince to come, and we'll read more about this as we continue studying in Revelation. The Antichrist will reign over a restored Roman Empire. That's why it uses this phrase. Notice it doesn't say the Antichrist does it. It's the people of the prince who is to come. Of that same Roman government line.

The next part, and he will destroy the city and sanctuary. And that's exactly what the Romans did. They came in and totally destroyed the city. They took the temple and as Christ said, left not one stone upon another. Just totally disassembled it. Broke it apart. And then it says, and its end came with a flood.

The attacking armies are referred to in various places, including several places in Daniel, in the Old Testament. They were referred to as a flood. The idea of the flood would come in kind of like, I remember back in Nevada we'd have these flash floods. You'd just get a flood and it would come rushing through. They would come rushing through, it was quickly damaging, and it was overwhelming. So that's why this figurative language, the flood, is appropriate here, and it's one that was used for attacking armies in those days. That's why it says, come in with a flood to the end.

That is the time when Jerusalem was overcome. There will be war, which took place from 66 to 70 AD, and the desolations are determined. Now, what's interesting here is that we're determined. This was not a historical accident, what occurred. This is something that God set in place. God says, I am going to establish this. I have determined it. It's going to take place. This is a challenge to folks who believe in what's becoming more popular these days, what's called open theism, where, you know, God doesn't really know everything and he's not omniscient and omnipotent. And here this says, no, centuries ahead, it's determined.

It is going to take place. God is sovereign. He is omniscient. He is omnipotent. It will happen. God has said it will take place. The flip side of that is we can rest in that, can't we? God is sovereign. God's in charge. We may think we've had an accident, but the truth is there are no accidents. God's in charge. He's sovereign.

Let's take a quick side trip here. This is excavations when they went in to kind of clean up the area next to the temple. Have you ever heard of the Western Wailing Wall? This is the way it was when they first started cleaning it up. See the rubble there? That's leftover blocks from the temple. Because what happened is they took the whole temple apart and they just shoved all the pieces of it off the edge and that's what you see piled up along the wall there. Some of the rubble and jumble from it.

And the thing that they also found was that the block, many of them, if you look closely, were burned. The Romans burned it and then tore it apart. And one of the reasons they tore it apart is when they burned it, a lot of the gold melted and they had to tear the blocks apart to get at the gold. So what Jesus said, not one stone will be left upon another, came precisely true.

Anyway, interesting piece of history there. Now, the next thing. And this is us. The church dispensation. This is this gap in between. See that there on your chart? This church dispensation, this is the time that we're in right now. It will end at the time the rapture takes us home and takes us out. The church is, as I mentioned before, not explicitly mentioned because this whole prophecy is about Jews, it's about Israel, and it's about Jerusalem. It's not about the Church. But this is the time period in which the Church is existing, but the Church is completely absent from the prophecy.

But here's the gap. Paul the Apostle talks and explains why all of a sudden does this gap show up. because it was given to him to reveal this mystery. A mystery is not something that remains mysterious. The New Testament usage of it is something previously unknown, previously not revealed, but is now disclosed, now made plain.

See the difference there? Previously it was clouded. Previously it was obscure. Now it's made plain. We can see now, because of what Paul has revealed to us, what Daniel could not see. He didn't see what was taking place in there because it was not yet to be revealed. We now have it. It's been revealed, and the mystery has been unveiled. Now, the next thing for us to take a look at. Now we've marched along, the church has been taken up, and now we're ready to step into the 70th week, the last week.

This is the time that, again, here's Daniel speaking of it in a few brief verses, And we're going to be studying the book of Revelation for 15 chapters. A real contrast there. We're going to get detail coming out of it. But Daniel has an insight here that helps kind of give us an outline. This is the big picture that we want to take a look at.

The first step there is the Antichrist makes a treaty. That starts the Tribulation. The Antichrist makes a treaty. When he's making a treaty about it, he sets up a treaty that appears to resolve this huge conflict going on in the Middle East. We wrestle with it now, don't we? Constant. We hear about things in the newspaper. There's more things that go on than we hear about. But that constant conflict will have apparent resolution.

It will look like the Antichrist is some political genius. How did he pull this off? It will be amazing. It will be a seven-year treaty, but what this passage makes clear is in the middle of that seven-year treaty, the Antichrist himself will step in and break it. He's going to be the one that violates it.

So the middle of that 70th week, that's three and a half years. So you'll notice an equivalency here in the chart. Half a week, half a week in quotes, half a week of years, three and a half years, 42 months, 1260 days. We'll see in the second half of that 70th week, the book of Revelation is going to make reference to that and is going to talk in just those terms where it will say, this so many months, so many days. And it will make it very clear what this is talking about.

So as we step in through the book of Revelation, we're going to see these time periods laid out. of years is therefore 360 days long. See the equivalence here? 360 days long, which is also how those first 490 years are measured. Then, we'll also see if you look in Genesis 7 and 8, the verses there confirm the same understanding of a 360 day year.

Now, one of the things that we mentioned is the Antichrist is going to set up a treaty. Along with that, we see here, there is also a tribulation temple, which I mentioned. Now, is there a temple there now? No, it's not there. So how is that going to happen? Well, first of all, there are some people over in Israel who are very anxious to see that take place.

I get their email regularly, and it's both amazing and amusing sometimes to see what they're up to. But this is what I got from their website. And they spell this out. And this is just a quote, so if something looks a little strange, that's not my statement, it's theirs.

It is the view of the Temple Mount and land of Israel faithful that the redemption will proceed according to an orderly fashion, according to... And see, they're not allowed to say God. So what do they do? They put a dash in the middle. They can't say God's name. According to God's plan.

First is the foundation of the modern state of Israel and the miraculous victories that God gave the people of Israel in the wars against 22 Arab enemy states. That's already happened, hasn't it? The national Israel has been created and has been there for some 50 plus years now. The second is the regathering of the people of Israel from all over the world to the Promised Land, and that's still in place.

That's still happening, isn't it? It's a process still kind of building up. The next two things are future. And notice the last one. They are actually anticipating the coming of the Messiah. They just don't know who he is. Do you see that? They're looking for Messiah Ben David. Ben means son. Messiah, son of David. They are looking for the Messiah's coming. It's just they don't know that it's Jesus Christ.

Amazing Now this same group that's looking to rebuild this temple It's interesting. They build a model of the temple. They've got a kind of museum where you can go and see this model they have In it's visible. You know they have a kind of museum you can walk through and they actually have all the temple equipment ready, and it's sitting there in this building there in Jerusalem, waiting to be transferred to the temple that they're building.

They already have the cornerstones cut out. Okay. And this is Gershon Solomon, who is the fellow who's leading up this group, and he sends out a constant barrage of emails and letters and things of that sort on the subject. These guys are ready. They're anxious to set it up. So it's not a matter of something, you know, just wishful thinking. This is something they're chomping at the bit, and they have applied numerous times to start building. So far, they've been held off.

But the end of that holding off will come, and it's likely the agreement with the Antichrist that's going to initiate that. So then, let's take a look at each part of this. makes a treaty. Daniel 9.27a, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for a week. See, the Antichrist is going to pull off this amazing thing.

We've had years, decades of conflict. One war after another, and now it just seems like constant terrorist and retribution activity. He's going to pull off this thing which will seemingly resolve the conflict. And I'm not sure how he's going to do it.

But the Bible says he will. The Jews are going to fall for the scam because it's going to be a satanic scam, and it's going to be a trick. But they will fall for it, it says. But even though it's going to be a contract, a commitment for seven years, the Antichrist himself will break it. He will not stand for the contract to go through its fulfillment. In the middle of that seven years, he himself will break it. And that's the next part there.

In the middle of Daniel 9.27, in the middle of the week he'll put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate.

This is the Antichrist. He breaks the treaty with Israel, and as Christ says in Matthew 24 there, the abomination of desolations will be set up in the Holy of Holies. This is in the middle and most holy part of the temple. He will step in. and do, and it doesn't give us explicit description, do something that is completely repulsive, nauseating to any Jew who values the Temple.

This is the midpoint of the 70th week, the midpoint of this seven-year time frame. This will start the last half of the Tribulation, which will become an ominous and horrible time. It isn't good before then, but at that point in time it gets really bad. And we'll be taking a closer look at that as we proceed here. The last part, and the part we should especially take note of because we'll be a part of it, Christ returns to reign.

In the last part of Daniel 9.27, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate. At the end, finally, Christ as revealed in both the Old and the New Testaments, will come, he will return, he will put down the rebellious forces of the Antichrist, and he will do it in the exact same way that the world was created, by the word of his mouth. He will speak and it will be done. Those who have been raptured with him, taken up prior to this 70th week, will return with him to reign, to be here on earth.

See, I think that's one of the things, when you see the word with Christ, that means with Christ. We will be with Him. Wherever He is, that's where we will be. We will have new bodies though. It won't be just us coming back down to the same old earth, living the same way. Now, I want to finish up, I want to return to this picture here.

Ezekiel 44 and 43 says that this eastern gate that I showed the picture of before, that's where He's coming. is going to go through there. But you know what it also said? It also said over a thousand years ahead of time that it would be sealed up. So sometime between now and the time that he's coming again, it'll be opened up. That's the gate that he'll walk through. Right there. Amazing, huh? And what is phenomenal is as surely as it was sealed up according to prophecy over a thousand years ahead of the time that the prophecy a thousand years after the time prophecy was given, as surely as it was sealed up, He will go through it again. He'll walk through that eastern gate. And we can count on that, because He's a faithful God.

But I think to be remembered in this entire thing is the prophecies we read about this morning are focused around Israel. And a lot of what we'll be reading in the book of Revelation as we proceed will focus around Israel. We won't be here, folks. We will not be entirely unaware of what's happening, but we will be with Christ. And we will come back with Him, return with Him, but be ever with Him when our condition matches our position in the Lord.

Okay? Let's pray. Lord, we do give You thanks. As we've walked through this prophecy here this morning, We see that you have not dropped a stitch, that everything is quite clear. You know what is going to take place. We can count on that. We can depend upon you. Lord, even as we can look at things happening historically exactly as you have said, we also count on where you have placed us and where you have seated us, that we will ever be with you. Thank you for that. Thank you for the hope, the unique hope that we have. In Jesus' name, amen.