God’s Plan For Israel’s Future, Part 2

Transcript

GR 1913
3/22/2015
God’s Plan for Israel’s Future Part 2
Daniel 9:24-27; Matthew 24-25; Revelation 12-20
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Daniel together and we are in the 9th chapter so if you want to turn there in your Bibles we are going to look a little bit further into some of the details related to this. I just want to be sure we are together on this crucial section of Daniel’s prophecy. It is crucial to understanding God’s plan and program for Israel and it is amazing to be studying this passage and you just look at what is going on in the world today. We don’t interpret the Bible through the lens of what is going on in the world but we do look at the world through what the Bible says is going to take place. These are awesome days and it is amazing when you see the focal point of the nation Israel.

I was watching an interview this week talking about the disagreements between the leader of our country and the nation Israel. The person interviewing said “Well Israel is going to have to understand United States is the major player and Israel is the minor player.” You just have it totally backwards. You don’t understand. Israel is the major player. United States is the minor players. Now that doesn’t mean there are not difficult times for Israel ahead.

We have been talking about in our study of Corinthians how the devil is opposed to the church and to us as believers because Christ has called us out of the world. You understand Satan, the god of this world, is absolutely opposed to the Jews whether they are believers or not because God has chosen them as a nation and appointed that they will someday have a kingdom that rules over the world and Satan is at war against that; so, amazing days, and here Israel. You just can’t get them out of the news. Things will adjust and move around, like the decline of the United States fits very possibly within what the Bible says because it is the revived Roman Empire that is the Western power as we come to end times.

Would you put that chart up that shows the empires? We keep reviewing this but you see where we are coming and this brings us to chapter 9. We started in chapter 2 with the four empires and I have to mention because I am reading different views of prophecy, not all taking it literally with historical, grammatical interpretation. Some say “Well, we have a lot of symbolism here so you just can’t be taking it literally.” But the symbolism always is connected to the literal truth. I mean it just doesn’t mean something we use all the time. We could say, “A tornado hit the town like a freight train.” Well you could say, “The tornado was a freight train when it hit the town.” Nobody thinks that the tornado changed into a freight train but the impact on that town was like getting hit by a freight train. You wouldn’t understand saying, having ice cream on a summer night was like getting hit by a freight train. You say, “Well, just what is the connection?” The symbolism has to be connected.

So in chapter 2 you had the different metals. They go down in quality as you move along an empire but they increase in strength. When you get to chapter 7 you have the same empires with different symbols but the symbols each convey things about that empire and you see the increasing strength and ferocity as you come to the last.

We are in the end of chapter 7 where we broke down the fourth empire into ten horns coming out of that empire and then a little horn coming out of the ten. So in chapter 2 we saw the four empires and he talked about the toes, a mixture of iron and clay, strength and weakness but it didn’t develop anything. We assumed there were ten toes but it didn’t make a point but when you get to chapter 7 you get additional clarity. It doesn’t change anything from chapter 2. It adds to it and clarifies. There are ten horns representing ten kings or kingdoms that will come out of that final empire which is Rome and out from those ten horns will come a little horn.

Now when we came to chapter 9 and we pick up with verse 24 we have the seventy weeks which have been decreed for the Jews, for your people, Daniel and for your city. Six things will be accomplished by the time we get to that end of that 70 week period and it is a seven year week, not a seven day week. Seventy 7’s and we looked at the different Scriptures that indicate clearly we are talking about a period of years here.

The six things: finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy and anoint the Most Holy Place. We will be at the kingdom. So this will complete God’s program with Israel so that now they can have the kingdom. It is for the Jews, for Israel.

Why don’t you put up that 70 Week chart if you would, Steve? We noted here, this is the way it goes. I can’t stress this enough. This colored area of the church age. It does not appear in Old Testament prophecy so we are talking about God’s plan for the Jews. So we come here and to events surrounding the cross and shortly after and we jump over to here. There is nothing in the Old Testament about this period of time. It’s not part of Old Testament prophecy. You could come into here with the destruction of Jerusalem but that is all part of this final rejection of Israel and God’s judging them. We are in the church age. So that just helps.

The commentaries that say, “Well this is not just for the Jews, your people, your holy city. Daniel would understand it for him but today it is for the church” and all of a sudden you are just in a world of confusion.

So we know that at the end of this 490 year period so we had 69 weeks of years, 483 years and after that 69th week the Messiah will be cut off. We noted it didn’t say in the 70th week, in the 69th week. So we will have to see if this is the future yet. But we know that the kingdom will come in after the 70th week. All those six things will be accomplished that were in verse 24. Have they been accomplished? That’s why one of the a-millennial writers who wrote a book on Bible interpretation said, “If you take a literal interpretation of prophecy you must believe in a future for Israel.” Now he doesn’t but he said “If you are going to take a literal interpretation of prophecy, you must believe in a future for Israel, because those things haven’t happened for Israel.” But he doesn’t take a literal interpretation. He takes a literal interpretation of the Bible when it talks about how are you saved and what is the Gospel but for some reason he abandons that when he would take a literal interpretation of prophecies that have been fulfilled like at the first coming of Christ, the suffering and death of the Messiah, His resurrection and so on as the Old Testament prophesied but for some reason the prophecy that is yet to be fulfilled he said, “Oh, we don’t take that literally.” I know it makes sense. I am just not scholarly enough to understand it.

You see where we are here. At the end of the 70th week we will be in the kingdom. If you are going to take what he says about what will happen to Israel you have to say that hasn’t happened yet. Israel is not enjoying as a nation the forgiveness of sins, experience everlasting righteousness and so on, the establishing of a millennial temple.

So he broke it down into seven weeks and this is from the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem which was in 444 B.C. We looked at that in Nehemiah chapter 2, clearly given the date and the reign of the Persian king, seven weeks, 49 years and we had the construction, the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Then 62 more weeks and then we were told in verse 26: “After sixty-two weeks (which was after the seven, so after the total of 69 follow this) the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.” That’s what happened. He was crucified. No kingdom, nothing that’s promised to the Jews. “And the people of the prince who is to come (that’s not the Messiah, this is a coming prince who is to come) will destroy the city, the people of the prince who is to come.”

Come back to the previous chart if you would, Steve, showing the nations. You see on here the little horn; “the people of the prince who is to come.” Who are those people? Well we are in the fourth kingdom, the dreadful beast, that’s Rome. Where do the ten horns come out of? The dreadful beast in chapter 7. Remember they were on the head. In chapter 2 the toes were of iron and clay. They come out of the fourth and this little horn comes out of the ten which come out of the fourth beast, out of Rome.

So the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city. What people destroyed Jerusalem? Under Titus the Roman general in 70 A.D., the Romans. That coming prince will come from those people. That’s the little horn. That is who we are talking about here. He is the prince who is to come. He comes out of the people who destroyed the city, Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And then we go in. “Its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be desolations determined.”

Verse 27: “He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week?” Who? The prince who is to come, who comes out of the people, Roman, who destroy the city. I take it that would indicate he comes out of the Roman Empire, the revived Roman Empire. That’s why the toes were partly of iron and partly or clay here. That’s why the ten horns were on the head of the fourth beast and the little horn came out of the ten horns. It doesn’t seem that complicated if we just take it at what it says. I mean this was given for us to understand.

It is amazing the number of scholarly writers who write and say, “You know, prophecy is indefinite enough we are not expected to be sure.” I mean I read scholarly professors who have written commentaries on this and they say well we don’t know where the 70th week ended. Some here, in here, it just dissipates out and it was over. Why would you say that? Well, somewhere here seven years into here, Christ dies and then in here we just sort of, it ends. Well about the six things that are going to be accomplished? Oh there are being realized in the church. Now wait a minute. Is that what is says? Some of these people will argue to the death for interpreting the Gospel literally but they just turn to Jello when it comes to things that have not yet been fulfilled.

Alright, so this prince who is to come, who comes out of the fourth empire in its final phase, the ten horns “will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.” There is a definite beginning of this 70th week. So there is a reason why is said, “After 69 weeks the Messiah is cut off. And this coming prince who will come out of the fourth empire, he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.” That marks the beginning.

So we had indication the Old Testament doesn’t unfold the church age but it gives indication of a break here. It wasn’t in the 70th week. The 70th week has its beginning. There is indication of a break here. “He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.” The “many” in the context would be Israel. He makes a firm covenant with the nation Israel. That’s why they get significant. The decline of the United States, the decline of the involvement of the United States with Israel, the turning. Where will Israel look? Ultimately it will look to the revived Roman Empire and there will arise out of that ten nation confederacy as it will finally be formed, a man who will sign a covenant with Israel on behalf of that alliance to guarantee the security and safety for the nation and that will go on until the middle of the week. In the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrificing grain offering, little indications. Somewhere in here or before here but we know that during the first three and a half years there has been sacrifice and offerings going on. That means the temple has been rebuilt. To have the sacrifice and offerings you have to have the temple. This is just one indication. There will be further in a moment but the temple will be rebuilt. I don’t see how that could happen today. What amazes me, everything else that is going on who would think there would be a turnaround in events they are going on these days. And we are preparing for a man to rise. That is why we shouldn’t be frustrated. What is our president doing? What is wrong with him? Turn off the news. Give me an antacid. I can’t take it. Why? I mean it’s exactly what we say, here it goes. I don’t know if the Lord is coming next week, next month or in 100 years but I also don’t want to be blind to what He says is going to take place.

Isn’t it amazing that we have a revived Roman Empire so to speak with their own currency and they are their own power? They have their own court. Things are going on I know with this confederacy. I shared with you the article I clipped out of Time Magazine many years ago about the European Union in the nations. If we could find a man who could unite us, we would follow him if he were the devil himself. Give them time. He’s coming. You are going to get exactly what you hoped for.

So in the middle of the week. We are going to split this week into two periods. What’s half of seven? Three and a half. He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. It must be going on. “On the wing of abominations comes one who makes desolate.”

And we are just going to walk through some Scriptures. Come over to Matthew 24, Matthew 24. “On the wing of abominations comes one who makes desolate.” And we come to Matthew 24 and we were here. I realize we are reviewing. Jesus telling His disciples what will be the sign of His coming and of the end of the age, the end of verse 3. So in Jesus’ discussion He is not talking about the Church Age. The disciples are clueless about the Church Age. They have no way of knowing about this period of time here. When we get to Acts chapter 1 remember they asked Christ, “Is it now you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” That’s what we have been looking for, Messiah will come. Now we understand what the Old Testament said. You had to be crucified and buried and raised from the dead. Now we can have the kingdom. It doesn’t say, no, you are in it. You just don’t need to know. So He is talking to them about what will happen leading up to His return to establish the kingdom and He talks about these things and then in verse 15 He focuses on this middle period when Daniel said, “In the middle of that seven year period He will put a stop to sacrifice and offering.” Verse 15: “When you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place.” You see Daniel’s prophecy still hasn’t been fulfilled. It will be fulfilled in the future. “Let the reader understand.” So Antiochus Epiphanes the IV could not have fulfilled this because he’s been dead for many years. We will come back to him when we move a little further into Daniel again. We saw him in chapter 8. He can’t be the fulfillment. Some of what he did gave a picture of something of what it will be like in the tribulation but he wasn’t the fulfillment and he talks about the judgment to come.

Verse 21: “Then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world,” this last three and a half years. This man signs an agreement with Israel at the beginning of the week. In the middle of the week he breaks the agreement. Now it literally becomes hell on earth for Israel. All the forces of the devil are poured out in one last attempt to destroy the nation and prevent the prophesied kingdom from becoming a reality.

And it is going to be so bad, verse 22, that “unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved.” It’s the kinds of catastrophes that billions of people are going to die. We talk about the next crises, water shortage. You think the Lord withholds the rain and the snow, how long would it be before you’ve got a major crisis and all of this?

We were watching a locust plague that hit the United States in past years and everybody says, “Where did they come from? You see that, well it wasn’t just the United States. They went from all the way down to the lowest part of the United States, all the way up to the northern border. How many trillions of locusts would have been there? All of a sudden, trying to figure it out, well they came. Now those locusts don’t exist anymore to we are moving toward the tribulation. Note where we are going. If they tell you Christ has returned and He is over in Israel now and so on. Don’t believe it.

Verse 27: “Just as a lightning comes from the east, flashes to the west so will be the coming of the Son of Man. After tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon and the stars fall” and so and “then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. All the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”

We go back to Daniel chapter 7. We are going to the kingdom. So he tells them “When you see these things taking place, the things going on here, you know that His return is near.” You come to chapter 25. You have the series of parables here. They are given in the context of the second coming of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom.

Verse 31 of chapter 25: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him.” He will divide them, the sheep and goats. We call this the sheep and goat judgment. This is a judgment of the living nations when Christ returns to the earth. It’s going to determine who among those living when He returns to the earth are going into the kingdom and those who are not going into the kingdom.

So verse 34: “The King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom.’” How can people say we are in the kingdom? It tells us this will happen in the future. If someone tells you we are in the kingdom that has been prophesied, don’t believe it. If someone tells you Christ has returned to earth, don’t believe it. How clear can the Scripture be? When He comes to set up His kingdom you won’t have to tell anyone. Everybody is going to know it and then He will set up His throne. He will say to those as He’s divided the nations, the right hand side, those are the believers, you inherit the kingdom. To the others, verse 41: “He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’” And this is on the basis of you gave a cup of cold water, you fed the hungry. So people, churches, they come to this and say, “Well, you know that is what we are to be doing, see, because we are going to be judged.” I mean we just ignore the context. This has to do with how you treated the Jews and believers during this period of time. Anybody doing an act of kindness to the Jews and any other believers there will be Gentile believers as well as you see here, puts their life at risk. Only true believers will understand and function accordingly. This has nothing to do with us. I am not saying you can’t do good deeds today but you can’t base it on Matthew 25. If we don’t interpret Scripture correctly we are running around thinking we are doing what the Lord said. It’s not enough to believe in the inspiration of Scripture you also must interpret correctly. And when you don’t interpret correctly you are running around quoting verses. I can’t tell you how many writers write in there, Matthew 25. Well that’s not what Matthew 25 is talking about.

It’s talking about treating believers a certain way right here and Christ is here now determining who goes into here. That’s the division and there will be a division and those closed out of the kingdom are going to an eternal hell. Verse 46: “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Okay, come over. We saw the middle happens here. The same thing when Daniel tells us in the middle of that week that’s when the abomination of desolation will stand in the holy place.
Come over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and now if you come to the end of 1Thessalonians Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about the event. We are not talking about the rapture of the church here. The church began in Acts chapter 2 following the resurrection of Christ. We are in the church age. The church will be removed here when Christ comes in the air and calls the church to meet Him in the air and then right around that time shortly afterwards, the leader of the western world powers will sign that agreement with Israel. It could be a period of weeks. You know, we don’t know but I take it that it won’t be long because it wasn’t long after the death and resurrection of Christ the church was established so I would take it that it won’t be that long here after the church is removed, the anti-Christ signs the agreement here. The church is gone.

So in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 16 he is comforting those regarding believers who had died. Enough time has gone by. Some, the church at Thessalonica who had placed their faith in Christ experienced physical death. What happens to them? Paul is saying, “We don’t grieve as those who have no hope.” Verse 14: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.” And we are told, “We who are alive when Christ returns in the air won’t go to meet Him before those who have died.”

Verse 16: “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel. And with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” That’s different than when He comes to the earth in clouds of glory that all see Him and He sets up His throne on the earth. Then He sorts out those for judgment. Here they are caught up to meet Him in the air, taken with loved ones that meeting in the air to the presence of the Lord. And we come to the second letter of Paul to the Thessalonians. The suffering of the Thessalonian church was intense enough they thought maybe they were in the tribulation. What’s happened? Paul says you are not in the tribulation. See what the correction is, explain Scripture properly.

In chapter 2, verse 1: “We request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him.” That’s what happens here. When He comes and we are gathered together with Him. We will meet Him in the air. Don’t be shaken, either by a spirit, a message, a letter from us saying the day of the Lord has come. The day of the Lord is a reference to this period, the day of judgment prominent in Old Testament prophecies. You are not in the day of the Lord. Persecution may be tremendously severe but no, you are not in the day of the Lord. You have not missed the rapture.

“Let no one deceive you, for it will not come the day of Lord, unless the apostasy comes first. The man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” That is who we are talking about here, this little horn. The little horn is the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction. He’s the one under the guise of being the savior, a messiah has signed an agreement with Israel. He’s the one in verse 4 “who opposes and exalts himself above every so called god or object or worship.” Now note this, “So that he takes his seat in the temple of God.” What happened? Well the temple has been rebuilt. That’s exactly what we found in Daniel chapter 9, right? When he puts a stop to sacrifice and offering and he sets himself up in the temple. There is a statue of himself to be worshipped. We will see that in a moment. He displays himself as being God. This is the only one who will be allowed to be worshiped. This is Satan’s false Christ, the anti-Christ, the man of lawlessness because he is totally opposed to all of God’s laws. He is the son of destruction. This is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.

Paul said, “Don’t you remember that while I was still with you I was telling you these things.” “The one who restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed.” There is a restraining ministry going on. What’s happening in the world? Everything is moving toward God’s appointed climax but there is a restraint because it cannot happen except on God’s timetable. “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” Something that could not be understood without revelation. We as believers understand what is going on in the world. We are not wringing out hands. We are not anticipating the next election so we can get things right and all that. We understand the mystery of lawlessness. The whole world is descending into chaos in its rebellion against God, a worldwide rebellion against God. They will delight to have Satan’s man to lead them. “Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed.” I take it the restrainer; go back to the other one, Steve. When the rapture occurs what happened here on the day of Pentecost at the establishing of the church, shortly after the ascension of Christ to heaven, Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came.

Now the Holy Spirit was always present. I mean in Genesis chapter 1 at the creation the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep but He came in a unique way in Acts chapter 2, in unique ministries. One of those ministries is to restrain the development of evil so you don’t get to this point ahead of God’s time. So what is keeping the world from descending completely into chaos? Well here at the rapture the Spirit will be removed in the way that He came. So now God’s final phase of His program with Israel to prepare for the kingdom can come about and you will note that it won’t happen until the restrainer is taken out of the way.

Then verse 8: “Then that lawless one will be revealed.” So it wouldn’t surprise me if this happened tonight because, we say well there is a lot to change in the world but once the Spirit’s restraint is removed the devil now has added liberty to accelerate his program. We’ve seen things happen with remarkable speed in the world. We have seen the collapse of the Soviet Union’s empire and the reassembling. That’s all in some of our lifetimes. Amazing how quickly things happen.

So you understand the restraint. This is where we are. So do I know who the anti-Christ is? No, and no one does because he won’t be revealed. He is a little horn within the Roman Empire, that revived alliance that’s developing, that final form of that and then his appearance that will take place after the rapture of the church when the restrainer, the Holy Spirit is removed and note this. “Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.” So here’s where his end will come when Christ comes. That is the end of Revelation 19 and he is cast into hell. Could Scripture be any clearer? It’s just beautiful if we just stay with our principles of interpreting Scripture literally, historically, grammatically just like we do with the Gospel, just like we do with the events of the first coming of Christ, just as was fulfilled when God promised captivity for the northern ten tribes and for the southern kingdom. It happened just as He said. The 70 years of Babylonian Captivity that led Daniel into this revelation of the final days. Let’s just all take it as God says it.

“This one who is coming, (this anti-Christ, verse 9) is the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan with all power, signs and false wonders. With all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false.” The time of the fullness of the Gentiles is over. That doesn’t mean Gentiles won’t be saved but the whole world is going to go for the deception of the devil because God turns them over. Just like in Romans 1, they didn’t see fit to keep God in their minds so God gave them over to their sinful desires. Here they would not receive the love of the truth. Therefore He allows the deception of the devil now to roam free and have a greater impact than ever before. That’s all in order that the wicked would be judged but we give thanks to God because we anticipate His salvation.

Come over to Revelation chapter 13. In Revelation chapter 6 to 19 are all about this period of time. We start with the seven seals. We have the seven trumpets, we have the seven bowls. That will move us through this seven year period. That culminates God’s plan and program to bring in the kingdom and Revelation 6 we begin with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse in the beginning seal judgments.

We come to Revelation 19 we have Christ returning to earth, casting the man of lawlessness, the prince who is to come, into eternal hell and in chapter 20 we have the kingdom. It’s just, you know, not so complicated.

So in chapter 12 the chapter opened up “A sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet.” Roman Catholicism says this is Mary. It’s not. If you go, we won’t go there because of time. Genesis 37 verse 9 and 10 when Joseph had one of his dreams he saw this family under this picture and his father recognized you are talking about us. Are we going to bow before you? This is a picture of the nation Israel and out of the nation comes the Messiah. She gives birth to the Messiah.

Then verse 3 you have the “dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.” These are kingdoms and the final one has ten horns, the final phase of these Gentile kingdoms. “His tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven.” He is standing waiting to try to devour, to destroy the child that will be born. Remember Herod? What did he do? Sent out a decree to destroy all the baby boys born within the certain time from Bethlehem. We have to destroy this child. He’s unsuccessful and then he has him crucified in the plan of God of course.

Verse 5: “She gave birth to a Son who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Her son was caught up to heaven to His throne.” That is not a spiritual kingdom. That is a delay. “Then the woman fled into the wilderness (that is Israel) where she had a place prepared by God. There she would be nourished for 1, 260 days.” We looked at this. Here we are, the last half of the seven year period. What have they been doing in the first half? They have been under the supposed protection of the anti-Christ. They have their temple, their sacrifice and then all of a sudden overnight everything changes. The abomination of desolation is set up. There can be no more sacrifice and then an all-out attempt to destroy every Jew from the face of the earth along with every other believer in Christ breaks out. So there is war in heaven, Michael with his angels and the dragon, the devil. “The great dragon was thrown down” in verse 9. Now what is this? This is mythological. You know dragons. Well it’s all a picture of the same personal individual, the serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He is thrown down to the earth. Where has he been? He operates in the heavens and he still has access to heaven.

Remember Job, the opening chapters? There came a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and the devil came among them but now he’s closed out of heaven and that’s an indication we are on the brink of the establishing of the kingdom. When that happens here in the middle of the seventieth week we are only three and a half years away from the establishing of the kingdom. So then you have a celebration in heaven. Now the salvation, the power, the kingdom of God, the authority of his Christ had come for the accuser of our brethren has been cast down.

Verse 13: “When the dragon saw he was thrown down to the earth he persecuted the woman (Israel) who gave birth to the male child” but she fled into the wilderness, nourished for a time, times and a half time, the 1,260 days of verse 6. The forty-two months of chapter 13, verse 5. We had chapter end in verse 17, the dragon was enraged with the woman, making war and we think things like Nazi Germany, the Holocaust. This is a world-wide holocaust. We are going to hunt down every Jew wherever they may be and further more we will hunt down every one who will not worship the anti-Christ so you come to chapter 13. You have the beast with the ten horns, seven heads, and ten diadems on his horns. Then you have the beast and one of his heads and here you have the anti-Christ being depicted as he comes. You see what happens. He has a fatal wound. He’s healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed. Something happens. Perhaps in a conflict in solidifying his power he seems to be killed but he is back to life.

You see, this is Satan’s false Christ. We saw him. He is dead but he is not dead, he’s alive. The whole earth is amazed, following after the beast. They worshipped the dragon. They worshipped the beast. Then you worship Satan just like when you worship Christ you are worshipping the Father. When you worship the anti-Christ you are worshipping the devil.

So when his image is set up in the temple and all must worship him, it is the worship of the devil which he so craves.

“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.” You note, “it was given to him.” It is repeatedly emphasized in verse 5, the beginning of the verse, the ending of the verse.

Verse 7, the beginning of the verse, “it was given to him,” the end of the verse, “was given to him to make war with the saints, to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.” How did the devil bring this all about? He is the god of this world. Do not underestimate him. Now God is sovereign ultimately over all but the devil we will see this as we move along in Daniel and you know the angelic powers associated with nations. Satan calls them to bring their nations into line and all of a sudden all the nations are lined up under the anti-Christ and we have world-wide worship.

Remember when we were back at the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 10? What did they want to do? To make a tower the top which would reach to heaven which would be a worship center and so we won’t be divided. We will be united. That is why God divided the earth into nations and so on because when they come together in their rebellion against Him it will be united around the worship of the devil.

Verse 8: “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, every one whose name has not been written in the book of life.” And then there is another beast and “he comes out and he has two horns like a lamb, (verse 11) and he spoke as a dragon. He has all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.” What do we have? We have the satanic trinity. You have the devil, you have his Christ, who supposedly dies and is made alive and then you have this second beast who imitates the ministry of the Holy Spirit because this second beast’s whole ministry is to direct the worship of the world to the first beast just like the Holy Spirit now moves to draw people to Christ and worship Him. “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven in the presence of men. He deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs it was given.” You ought to go through here if you don’t that have marked. Each time it says “it was given” because this is a reminder God is sovereign. This is where we are in His time table. “Given to him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. It was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast.”

Think about it. They make this image in honor of this man who is now ruler. They set it up in the temple and this false prophet as we note is called the second beast calls that image to life. Who else but God can give life? Any wonder the unbelieving world falls in admiration and worship. He gave life. We made a statue of marble and gold or whatever and he stood in every camera and YouTube and whatever the world has is on it and he calls it to life. He called down fire from heaven. The devil has supernatural power. It is amazing.

Verse 16: “And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark,” and here we have the mark identifying you as a committed worshipper of the anti-Christ.

Come over to Revelation 17. In Revelation 17 and we have been here you have again the woman, same images so if we just stay with our consistent interpretation and you have here a woman, verse 3, she is “sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names having seven horns, ten horns.”

How many times does God have to tell us? We have the nations here. John, as we have seen, goes back and includes Egypt and Assyria as the nations who have to do with Israel. Daniel started with Babylon. John went back to the two nations preceding Babylon, important in Israel’s history, Assyria who carried the ten northern tribes into captivity in Egypt where Israel was developed as a nation in slavery. We come on down, verse 7: “And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I shall tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.” I want to explain it to you. Wonder will people say, “Well, you know, the book of Revelation how are we supposed to understand it? Well I guess we are.

“The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast that he was and is not and will come.” He’s the beast that was there. He died, he’s alive. It’s the anti-Christ.

“Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings.” These are not the “seven hills of Rome” as they are known. It is identified, “the seven heads are seven mountains,” verse 10, “are seven kings.” The heads, the mountains both symbolism of kings. The seven heads are seven mountains are seven kings. “Five have fallen.” We went through these. “One is, (that’s Rome, the one that is when John is writing) the other has not yet come.” That is the ten nation confederacy, still future as John is writing. Don’t go to seed on our literal interpretation. We just take it as it says. It’s not yet here. “The beast which was and is not, is himself an eighth, and is one of the seven.” Perfect description of what Daniel said in chapter 7. There are the ten horns and out of the ten horns comes a little horn. So he is different enough to be called an eighth but he is part of the seventh kingdom which was the ten nation confederacy, so pretty clear.

And he goes to destruction. “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour” because he’s part of them to start and he comes out of them. “They have one purpose. They give their power and authority to the beast.” That is Satan’s goal. Remember when he tried to lure Christ with the temptation in Matthew chapter 4. “If you fall down and worship me I will give You all the kingdoms of the earth. It is a short cut. You don’t have to go to the cross to have Your kingdom but You do have to worship me.” Christ did not bow but Satan has not given up. Here we are and he goes on and explains further the vision.

Verse 16: “The ten horns which you saw, and the best, these will hate the harlot” burn her and so on. That’s the false religious system that was represented earlier in chapter 17 because there is no worship system now anywhere in the world except the worship of the anti-Christ and you can’t get anything to eat or drink unless you have a mark identifying you and you know we used to think well we would run and hide but now we find where do you hide in the world? How do you go to the store and buy something? What do you do? I mean how do you survive?

Verse 17: “God has put it in their heart to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled.” So where are we? We go over to chapter 18 you will have the destruction of Babylon. You come to 19 you have the return of Christ to the earth and what happens? Down in verse 20 of chapter 19 with the return of Christ, “The beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image, these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.” The same thing Daniel said, the culminating end. Same thing Jesus talked about in Matthew 24 and 25.

You know if we just stay with our principles of interpreting the Scripture it all falls together. The angel said, “I am going to tell you the mystery that which needs revelation to understand. I want you to understand” because Jesus at the end of the book says, “There is blessing on those who study and live in light of these truths.” So be encouraged when you turn on the news in the morning. I have given up morning news somewhat because I haven’t yet adjusted to be able to handle it.

We do see the hand of God at work, right? I say, “Thank You, Lord, Your purposes are accomplished.” What are we to be about today? Not being frustrated about the news, carrying the Gospel to the lost. These are days of opportunity, days of salvation. It is the plan of the devil to distract the church and the people of God from what God has called them to do to what the world should think they should do. We come to bring the message of life. These are exciting days. If you knew Jesus Christ was coming this week and this is the last week you have how many people would you want to tell the Gospel? How would that alter our lives? That’s the way we are to be living. This may be the last week, maybe the last opportunity. Who will I meet, who will I come in contact with? Who could I go tell about the Gospel? Maybe some of you would have to say, “You know, there is something I have been wanting to talk to you about for a long time and I have been concerned, reluctant but it’s so important I can’t put if off any longer.” And we tell them the Gospel. We are to be living expecting the return of the Lord.

Put that up, the last thing we want to look at, the seventy weeks chart if you would. We might be right here, we don’t know. You know if the Lord is coming at the end of the week it could be sooner but what do we need to be about? The church gets all caught up in acting like we are bringing in the kingdom over here. We are not. We are here doing what Paul says we are to be about, being lights in the darkness, speaking what we believe so that people might have opportunity in the day of God’s grace to believe the Gospel and be saved.


Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the plan that You have unfolded, for Your people Israel and You are not done. Every detail will come to pass as You have promised and ultimately all Israel will be saved and the Savior who is their Messiah will come to earth to establish the kingdom that You have promised. And we as the church who have been caught up to meet our Savior in the air and we will return with Him in glory to share in that kingdom reign. Lord may we seize every opportunity in these days as we see so much of the lawlessness and rebellion against You spreading in open ways around the world. May we be bold with the message of life and light that men and women might hear and by Your grace believe we pray in Christ’s name, amen.