Mike Bickle explores the profound implications of the 70-weeks prophecy in Daniel 9, emphasizing the dual nature of the prophecy that encompasses both the first and second coming of the Messiah. He highlights the significance of the 490-year timeline, detailing the restoration of Jerusalem, the coming and death of the Messiah, and the subsequent destruction of the city and temple. Bickle explains that the prophecy reveals a period of suffering for Israel, culminating in the final week that will see the rise of the Antichrist and the ultimate restoration of Jerusalem. He encourages believers to understand the prophetic timeline and remain steadfast in faith amidst trials, as God's promises often come with challenges. The sermon serves as a reminder of the importance of being aware of biblical prophecies and their implications for the future.

Father, we come before you, and again, with thanksgiving. We are so grateful for the things that you make known to us from your heart. We ask you, Lord, for living understanding even now. In the name of Jesus, amen and amen. Well, we're looking at session eight, which is Daniel chapter nine, verse 24 to 27. Let's look at the overview. Just a quick review from, I mentioned this in the last session. This prophecy in Daniel nine is the only passage, these four verses, that presents the first and the second coming in the same passage, the death of the Messiah, the restoration of Jerusalem back in the day, in history, and the restoration of the temple, and both of their destructions, and the antichrist activity in the temple, his abominations, the desolations that fill the earth because of his abominations, his final judgment, and then the six blessings that come upon the nation of Israel and all of the body of Christ. So the whole story of the Messiah, in a very abbreviated way, from beginning to end, is told by Gabriel in four short verses here, so this makes this quite a significant prophecy here. Okay, let's look at paragraph C. Jeremiah, he had made clear that Israel would suffer under the Gentiles for 70 years, outside of the land. So Israel, the people of Israel, the children of Israel, they're in Babylon, they're outside of the land of Israel for 70 years suffering. Gabriel comes along and says, Israel's going to have opposition for 70 weeks inside the land. So there's this playoff of 70, 70 years in the land, outside the land, 70 weeks. It's this 490 year prophecy that they will be in the land when it happens, and so I just wanted you to put those two in contrast together. Okay, paragraph E. Gabriel revealed that God's answer includes sending the Messiah, so Daniel's crying out, restore Jerusalem, restore my people, and Gabriel says he is. He's going to restore Jerusalem and your people in the ultimate sense, and it's going to involve sending the Messiah. He will personally come. The man you saw back in Daniel 7 on the cloud, the Son of Man, is actually going to come to Jerusalem in person. That's intense. That man on a cloud is actually going to be walking on the streets of Jerusalem. Daniel must have been so excited, and he was explaining to Daniel that the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple that Gabriel was talking about is going to be vastly superior than what Ezra and Nehemiah would do, and it would be permanent, never ever to go backwards. There would be no relapse ever again, no judgment, no discipline, there would be no sin, there would be nothing negative at all in the process, so Daniel is excited by the tone of this. Paragraph E, or paragraph F, but there's a surprising development, is that he says in verse 26, he goes, here's one problem, Daniel, the Messiah's going to be killed when he comes. The man on the clouds of heaven, he's going to be killed. Daniel's like, how could, that's not possible. Number one, who would kill him, why would they kill him, and number two, how could he be killed if he's a man, a heavenly man on a cloud who has a face-to-face encounter with the ancient of days and inherits the nations. How could that man possibly ever die, and who would ever want to kill him? And the death of that man is going to lead, he says in verse 26, and we'll look at all this in a minute, I'm just giving you the story ahead of time, it's going to lead to the destruction of Jerusalem, Daniel's saying, wait, wait, I'm praying for the restoration of Jerusalem, and you said the people are going to be sent back, yeah, they're going to be sent back and they're going to restore it, but it's going to be torn down again. And the temple's going to be torn down again. I mean, this must have been so intense, I mean, this isn't just some kind of excited guy that's got a young, emerging prophetic ministry, this is Gabriel in person making this known. Paragraph G, so, Israel's 70 years of Babylonian captivity doesn't end her sin, her captivity to her sin goes on for, until the end of the 70 weeks. And so, this is a glorious revelation that there's going to be restoration, but it's got an asterisk, there's going to be a lot of pain and anguish before the restoration is full and the restoration is final, it's at the end of 70 weeks. Paragraph H, okay, now I want you to put your thinking caps on here. The 70 weeks, Gabriel divides it into three periods. Gabriel talks about 7 weeks, then he pauses, and then there's 62 weeks, what's 7 plus 62? 69. So there's a 69 week period, then there's a big 2,000 year gap, and then the final week, which is called the Daniel's 70th week. So let's say this all again, paragraph H, Gabriel's going to break down this master plan into three different periods, a 7 week program, which remember that's 7 units of 7 years, then into a 62 week period, which is 62 units of 7 years, 72 weeks of years, and then a final 1 week or 7 year period, there's this final 7 year period at the end of natural history. At the end of each one of these three periods, there is a significant event. At the end of the 7 weeks, which is 49 years, right, because 7 weeks means 7 weeks of 7 years. At the end of that, a significant event's going to happen, and that's going to be the restoration of Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. And I'm going to have all that data on the thing here, we're not going to spend a lot of time on the technical part of that, but after 7 weeks, the city of Jerusalem's restored, awesome. After 62 more weeks, in addition, the Messiah's coming, yay, but he's going to be killed. And the city's going to be destroyed, and the temple's going to be burned. But then a long period of time passes, and then after the final period of 1 week, which is 7 years, the Messiah's coming again, evil will be driven out, the desolator, the antichrist, the little horn, will be consumed with judgment and be gone forever. So, 3 periods, a 7 week period, a 62 week period, and a 1 week period. After 7 weeks, Jerusalem's built, back in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra, 62 weeks in addition, the Messiah comes, but then he's killed. Long gap, because now Israel's out of the land, and when Israel's out of the land, God's prophetic clock or calendar, pause, until 1948, until Israel came back in the land, it couldn't, the pause button could not be taken off, but I don't believe the pause button was taken off then, but God's fingers like over it, because they got to have the control of the city. That doesn't happen for 20 years after 1947, 1967. So God's fingers almost on the pause, but the temple has to be functioning before the pause button goes off. And so, some folks say, no, that temple stuff's not going to happen. No, that final 7 weeks won't happen until the temple is functioning, and the pause button is off, and then the final 7 weeks takes place. That's the, that's God's language through Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, who understands the significance of Israel in the land, in Jerusalem, with a functioning temple. Let's look at page 75. Now the Messiah's only going to come after the city's restored, and so right now, remember, they're in Babylon, the 50,000 Jewish captives that are going to be released, they don't arrive to Jerusalem for 2 more years, because that, that's when the 70 years is complete. They arrive in Jerusalem, and they start building the temple. So this is still 2 years ahead of time, Daniel's praying and fasting, and Gabriel says, hey, you're going to restore the, you got, you got to restore the city before the Messiah can come. The Messiah just can't come and just kind of walk through the nations, He's going to come to a city. You know, we always talk about the second coming of Christ, and what a lot of people inadvertently think of, the second coming of Christ, He's coming to the sky. Well, it is true, but that's not, that isn't, the second coming of Messiah doesn't mean He's coming to the sky. He's in the sky for a few moments, or whatever, for a little period of time. It's not just that He comes to the earth, He does. The second coming of Messiah means, from a biblical Jewish perspective, the second coming of Messiah to Jerusalem, specifically. That's what the second coming means, He's coming to Jerusalem for the triumphal entry a second time. So yes, He's on the earth, and He is in the sky for a little while, but His coming ends up in Jerusalem, or it's not the coming yet. And so think of second coming, and think of His feet landing on that throne in Jerusalem, then we have the biblical perspective of the second coming. So verse 25, Gabriel says, Daniel, know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem. Now Daniel's thinking, well there hasn't been a command, and Gabriel, just let me add to the conversation, just to kind of make it more kind of user friendly. Well there is no command to restore Jerusalem. Well that's coming down the road, don't worry, it'll be there in a little while. A king, a Persian king is going to give the command, which, well you'll see, it'll happen in time, and it didn't happen in Daniel's lifetime, it happened some years later. When that king gives, he says, Daniel, you just write the prophecy down, and the people of that day, they'll get it. When that king gives the command, then the Messiah is going to come after that. But he says this, there will be 70 weeks plus 62 weeks, there'll be 69 weeks total before the Messiah walks into Jerusalem. So Daniel says, okay, I'll write that down, 7 weeks plus 62. Now why 7 plus 62? Why didn't Gabriel just say 69? Was he giving Daniel a math lesson? No. He wasn't saying 70 plus 62, I'm trying to be creative just to kind of engage you Daniel, no. After 7 weeks, which means 49 years, right, the Jerusalem would be restored. That's what happens in history, that big event happens. Now Daniel doesn't fully get how it all works, he's just receiving it and then he's commanded to write this thing down so that the generations later would be able to review it. He said the streets of Jerusalem, is the idea, will be built, and it means more than just a few subdivisions built, it means the main street, downtown Jerusalem will be intact is really what he's talking about. The city will be functioning. And it's more than the city functioning, the wall of protection, protecting it from the Gentile armies around the enemies, it will be in place too. So in other words, it will be a functioning city that's protected with the military, with the government, and it will be happening, it will really truly be happening then. But he said, I got one thing to let you know Daniel, you gotta tell the people, because again it's a little bit, some years down the road before it happens, tell them there will be trouble when it happens. In other words, this is a really important piece of information because we think something as glorious as the restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah, I mean what greater promise could they be? I mean what greater promise could God say? The restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of Messiah, wow! But he says don't think just because it's a promise of God of glory that it's not going to have constant trouble contested by the enemy and the dealing of sin, there's going to be trouble in the midst of the great blessing. The reason I say that, some of us when God promises us a blessing, we imagine the blessing and we're going to feel the power of it. And it's going to be like amazing, yay says the Lord, I will give you a voice to the nations, oh I do it, mom, mom, I'm going to make it, it's going to happen. Yay says the Lord, he didn't really say yay, but oh, yay says the Lord, you shall have a healing ministry. Yes! And they're picturing, you know, taking over Reinhard Bonnke's position in the nations and I will finally have a healing ministry. What God means is you're going to be hours a day visiting individuals in hospitals and a lot of people are going to get mad at you, family members when the guy doesn't get healed, the person you're praying for is going to get annoyed sometimes the way you're praying and your life is going to, the devil is going to attack you and your family members aren't going to like you going and spending time there. So you thought, ah, this is it, yeah, yeah, you got the healing ministry, remember years ago I told you, yay the healing ministry, well this is what it looks like. I was thinking I would, it would be amazing, I would walk in and command the devil out and the guy to rock and the whole hospital would say, praise Jesus and a little bit you as well. I just thought it would be amazing and the Lord would say, it is amazing, that guy got healed 10 percent, you're kidding, well the guy is mad at me and my family members are mad because I'm going and their family members don't believe in Jesus and like the hospital has banned me from coming in and he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how it works. My money isn't working right, well it will work right, you're not going to have the lifestyle you thought but the money is going to be there like, ah. When something is glorious as Jerusalem is restored and the Messiah comes, Gabriel says, tell them, so they don't live in idealism, romanticism, there will be trouble when it happens and we got to get out of the western, you know, American dream mentality that the blessing of God means no trouble and it feels awesome and the reason people need to get out of it, because while they're in the blessing, they're not grateful and they quit because they go, ugh, is this, is that, no thanks and the Lord says, that's my blessing to you. And if we have the right paradigm, then we stay steady, that's the point, I'm not trying to get people to embrace just, things are going to be rough all the time, I want them to embrace a paradigm that the blessing happens in the midst of trouble, that is really how it happens, even when the Messiah comes, it happens that way, I mean, that's a remarkable reality. Let's look at page 75, the streets and the city walls will be built. This is what Gabriel emphasizes and the word street there, some Bibles translated the open square, so again, it's not a few streets in a kind of a random subdivision, that's not, it's talking about the city plaza, meaning the government's in place, the city's functioning, commerce is going, that's what that means and the wall of protection from the enemy is in place, there's a military in place, there's a functioning government in place, there's a functioning economy, there's a downtown central that's going on, Jerusalem is restored in that sense that a city's restored in those days. Paragraph E, seven weeks plus 62 weeks, we've already looked at this a little bit and you have that graph right there to look at, let's go ahead and just put the graph up because I know I'm being a little redundant, repetition, repetition, repetition, but in a minute, I'm going to quiz you on it and so I'm going to have, at the end, I'm going to have you stand up and get in groups of three or four, I'm going to ask a question and then guy number one is going to answer it and then guy, I'm going to ask a second question and then guy number two, so, and you can get in the circle and then say, nah, pass, I, you know, I just don't want to show my knowledge right now, I just feel to, I feel to stay humble and hidden in my insight, so you can say a pass, but in a few minutes, I'm going to ask you, so this is a pop quiz that's not really a pop quiz because I'm actually telling you all the answers and the questions ahead of time, I'm going to ask you what, how many years is seven weeks and what happened at the end of seven weeks? And the answer is seven weeks is 49 years and Jerusalem was restored. Then I'm going to ask you, this is a little more complicated, how many years is 62 weeks? 434, say 434. 434, that's kind of the odd number, 434. What happened after 49 years plus 434 years? The Messiah came. What did they do to the Messiah? Well, we know that story well, but I want you to understand the six, the seven weeks plus the 62 weeks. So what's 49, seven weeks, plus 62 weeks, that means 69. So what's 49 years plus 434 years? Who knows? 483, good. That's going to be my next hard question. Because if you get those numbers down, and it's only a couple numbers, then the whole thing makes sense. If you don't get those numbers down, you're just kind of, you can just kind of say, I don't get it, it's too confusing, and just not read the chapter anymore. Get a few numbers down, two or three numbers, and this layout will make a whole lot more sense, it really will. It won't be so cryptic, and it's quite easy to get those numbers down. So get ready, get ready for the pop quiz, that I've already given you the questions, and I've already given you the answer. But that's how God does pop quizzes, you know that? He gives us the questions and the answers in the book, and He gives us a testing. He says, here's your test, you can have an open book test, you can even ask your neighbors, and if you fail the test, you get to take it again. So that's how the Lord does His test. Okay, let's move on. Okay, we can take the slide off. Let's look at paragraph H. The command. Now there's four different Persian, well it's the command from a Persian king, I'll just say it that way. Why a Persian king? Because Israel is under the government of the Persian Empire, because the Persians just defeated Babylon. They were under Babylon for 70 years, now they're under Persia, because they're the superpower in the earth. They're the only superpower in that Middle East Mediterranean area. From the command of that king, of a Persian king, now Daniel doesn't know which Persian king, he just knows he's going to be one of them. And the reason we know it's a Persian king, is because only a king has the authority to give that command. I mean, a local governor in Persia can't give a command to restore Jerusalem, they don't have the authority to. It has to be the king, because they couldn't give a command of that magnitude. From the Persian king's command to restore Jerusalem, until the coming of the Messiah, that'd be 483 years. So that brings us right to 2627 AD. And the reason I say 2627, because the ancient calendars, when you get two or three, four sources, there's about a one year deviation between many of them. Some of them say, I mean, the calendars are not perfectly in sync, and so we have to give this little bit of room when we're calculating, because we don't know which calendar is the most accurate. They all claim to be the most accurate, but there's, so it's 2627 AD is when most, I mean many scholars, I'll say it that way, agree with that. So Gabriel number one, paragraph H number one, made clear, a king is going to give a decree to build Jerusalem. Now that's pretty strange right there, as it is, because for the king of Persia, which is Iran, imagine Jewish captives in Iran, and the king of Iran says, I'm not only going to liberate you, I'm going to actually pay the bills and help you build the city. I mean, that's not very likely. Well, that's what happened. I mean, that was a pretty remarkable to us, because it's a fact of history we know, we think, hey, that's kind of cool. That was remarkable that the king, that the president of Iran would release the Jewish people, command to build the city, help pay to build the temple. Like, what? I mean, again, don't get so used to that that you lose the marvel of that event. Paragraph two, this is important. That 483 years, God, Gabriel was telling Daniel, seven weeks plus 62 weeks, 49 years plus 434 years. Again, get those numbers down, and I realize you might not have them yet. In 483 years from the command, the Messiah will walk into Jerusalem. Gabriel, thus says the Lord, Gabriel says, he will walk into Jerusalem. 483 years later, Jesus of Nazareth walks into Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders have this prophecy. They know how many years it is from that command. There's no accident about it. They kill the Messiah, and they have the timing right in their prophecies. You think, how could they? Well, let's upgrade this now. Matthew chapter 24, I don't have this on the notes, verse 33, Jesus tells the whole body of Christ, I've given you many prophecies in Matthew 24. One of them studied the abomination of desolation, and he says in Matthew 24, verse 33, when you see these things, know the time is near, but most the body of Christ is almost as illiterate of those prophecies, or equally illiterate, let's say it that way, as some of the people were in Jesus' day of that 483 years. Jesus walks into Jerusalem right on schedule. These events at the end of the age will happen on, the events will happen just like the Lord says it. There'll be a seven year period in the middle of the abomination of desolation, but many in the body of Christ will just be completely oblivious, going, I don't know what's going on, I'm all confused. We don't need to be. And Israel was disciplined for it. Look what Jesus says in Luke 19. He says, the Roman armies are gonna bring God's judgment on you because you did not know. Jesus could have said, the prophet Daniel told you I would walk into Jerusalem 483 years after the command of the Persian king. Here I am, you're in trouble because you did not know it. Beloved, the body of Christ will be in trouble if they don't understand the Matthew 24, 33, I just quoted, when Jesus says when you see all of these signs, well I don't know many believers, they don't even know what the signs are to see. They go, well, you know, just take care of itself. It won't take care of itself. You know, one guy says, well I don't know if it's pre-meal or post-meal or on-meal, I'm a pan-meal, that's all gonna pan out in the end. It won't, it will pan out, but it won't pan out good for you if you don't have understanding in that day, or your children, or your grandchildren. It won't just take care of itself for you. When Jesus gave this information, he held Israel responsible for it, in the same way the body of Christ globally is responsible to know the information that Gabriel appeared and gave the human race. I mean, this stuff is, this is not just kind of, well I'm into prophecy so I'm gonna go to that conference and study it. This is the Bible. This is the story of Jesus returning to take over the planet. This is not some superfluous, peripheral kind of subject that kind of eccentric people are focused on, like it doesn't make any sense. Beloved, this stuff has consequences if we don't understand it. It's Gabriel. It's Messiah. It's the transition of the planet to the age to come. This is massively important in the Bible. Turn to the top of page 76. Well, there was four Persian commands. Look what it says there in Ezra 6. Cyrus gave one command. Darius gave another. Artaxerxes gave two. Well, which is it? Is it Cyrus's, Darius's, or Artaxerxes's? Which, or he gave two commands. He gave one to, one to Ezra and one to Nehemiah. Well, the right date, so we're, we're, you know, you're left with four, but that's God's way, isn't it? He says, just a little bit of paying attention, you can get it. So the right dates are understood by comparing it to the historical events. The main events, Jerusalem restored, Messiah enters Jerusalem, or there you have it. Those are the big events. So which, what happened 49 years after one of these king's decrees, where Jerusalem's restored, the streets and the walls? And what event happened, I mean, which, 483 years after which one of those decrees did the Messiah enter into Jerusalem? Because the decrees, we find the historical realities of the restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah, and we go back the years that Daniel's, that the Gabriel told Daniel, and then we locate which one of those decrees it is. Does, does the date, do the dates correspond with the building of Jerusalem and the coming of Messiah? Paragraph J, this is my, I believe the most convincing. There are some arguments for, for different of these commands, but this to me is the most convincing one. The command of King Artaxerxes to Ezra in 458 B.C. 483 years added to that is 26, 27 A.D. And many scholars believe that's when Jesus entered Jerusalem, because it's most believed Jesus was born, not 0, you know, 0 A.D. He was born 4 B.C. because we have the, the, the calendar of, of the different kings in, in, in the Roman Empire, and it's pretty clear He was born 3 B.C., 4 B.C., 5 B.C., what, you know, again, there's a, a year or two deviance between one calendar versus the other. And so approximately 26 A.D. or 27 A.D. He comes in, He gets crucified 29 or 30 A.D. So the idea He was born at 0 and, and then at, then died at 33 A.D., that's not, that doesn't add up to historical facts. That's kind of how Christian tradition is, but that's not exactly how it happened. Okay, let's look at middle of page 76, paragraph 2. The completion of Ezra and Nehemiah's rebuilding work in Jerusalem. This is my guess. This is to me the, the best guess that I can see among all the options. The significant development of 49 years after the, the decree, 49 years after the decree brings us to 409 B.C. What happened in 409 B.C.? What does history tell us? Well, there's not a lot of history to look at. So we're, you know, we, we kind of look back and say, what happened? But there is a historical document that says, Nehemiah, he resigned from being governor and a new governor was put in in 407. So we know something happened that Nehemiah's work was done, so much so that he turns the governorship of Jerusalem and the area over to a new man. There's a historical document that says that. That's two years after 409. 409 is the 49 years after the, the decree of King Artaxerxes in 458 B.C. I realized that, what? You just said too many numbers in one sentence. You lost me. But it's all here. If you want to work on those numbers, my point is, there's a convincing dates and events that correspond with what Gabriel said. And I, and I lay out what I think is the most convincing in an abbreviated form, of course, this is Daniel 101 here. And so I believe that in 409, something did happen. The streets and the walls were completed enough for Nehemiah to, to then resign from his governorship, enough for in 407 them to put a new governor. I can't imagine this zealous man of God, almost done, just says, you know, I'm a little weary and burnt out. I think I'm just going to check out for a while. Nehemiah, we're just a few years away. No, you know what? It's been a tough life and I deserve kind of a little side time, a little private time by the beach here for the last few years. I believe he saw Jerusalem to completion. That was his life mandate. And so I believe that's what happened in 409 B.C. Now I realized the last five minutes I lost some of you, but some of you were paying attention. I mean, some of you were tracking. I mean, you're all paying attention. But my point being, study this and you will, you could find these dates and it's only a few dates. Again, there's four or five dates to get and you got the whole thing. So don't kind of get a brain glitch and say, it's too complicated. It's four or five dates. How many years is seven weeks? How many years is 62 weeks? 434, that's right. What is seven plus 62? Seven plus 62, 69. How many years? That's what you're answering. 483. Add one more year to that. I mean, one more week of seven years. How many do you have? You're brilliant. Page 77. Now Gabriel is moving on. Verse 26. He goes, I told you what's going to happen after the events that are relating, leading up to the 69 years. Now I'm going to tell you what's going to happen after the 69 years. This has got to be one of the most disturbing words that Daniel hears in his entire life and he hears them from the mouth of Gabriel. This is shocking. This is opposite of everything. He knows the little horn is going to persecute because he's seen that back in Daniel seven and Daniel eight. But here in Daniel nine, I don't think he has any way to be prepared for what Gabriel is going to say in chapter nine, verse 26. The saddest sentence undoubtedly he heard in his entire life. He said after the 62 weeks, the seven plus 62. So therefore after the 69 weeks, the Messiah will be killed. See Daniel going, excuse me? Yeah. The Messiah, the son of man on the cloud who's going to walk on the streets of Jerusalem will be killed. How? Well that's not for now. He will be killed. Who? That's not for now. How could he die? I'm just telling you what I'm told to tell you. He will be killed. I'm injecting my personality into Daniel. He might not have said any of that. He might have just said, yes, I'm listening. But he won't be killed for his own self. In other words, it's a substitutionary death. He's dying for others. Isaiah 53 and the print and the people, here's a, here's a interesting kind of hard phrase to kind of get your mind around. But the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Well, let's not worry about the people of the princes to come right now. Let's think of the, of the point that Gabriel says the city is going to be destroyed. What? The city is going to be destroyed. You just said it was going to be rebuilt. It is. Why would it be rebuilt? That's what I'm praying for the building of Jerusalem. And you said it's going to be destroyed. He goes, yeah, they're going to cut off them. They're going to kill the Messiah and the city will be destroyed and the temple will be destroyed too. Both of them. Messiah cut off the city burnt and the, and the temple destroyed. I mean, it must have knocked the wind out of him. Gabriel won't tell him who's going to kill the Messiah or how he dies, but he will tell him who the people are who burned the city and burned the temple. He said it's the people of the prince who is to come. So Daniel, who's that? And Gabriel could have said, well, it goes back to one of those four empires. I'm not going to tell you the answer right now, but it's one of those four empires. And so Daniel doesn't know, I assume who the people of the prince to come, the prince to come is the antichrist. Daniel's going, well, which people? He says, well, it's the ones that burned the city and the temple. You'll know that's the people of the antichrist. Well, like Daniel's about 500 BC approximately. So 500 years later, then 70 AD, the Romans burned the city. So we know that the people of the antichrist, it's the Roman empire. That's how they deduce it from that sentence. Now the tricky part, is it the West part, the European end of the Roman empire, or is it the Eastern part, which is now the Islamic end of the ancient Roman empire? Which end of it are the people who will represent the, I mean, who the antichrist will come from? Well, we don't know for sure. There's a bit of mystery to it, but there's other verses that give us insight on it. He says, and the city will end with a flood of violence. That's what it means. There will be a flood, I mean, of violence come against the city. I mean, Daniel's thinking this, again, verse 26, it has to be the most negative, painful sentence that Daniel heard in his entire life, because he's not just hearing bad news from a person down the road that came and said, hey, guess what happened? He's hearing this from Gabriel directly. I mean, face to face to Gabriel, he hears this sentence here. I mean, there's so many negatives. The Messiah cut off, the city destroyed, the sanctuary, which means the temple, sanctuary and the temple is the same, cut off, not just kind of barricaded for a while, destroyed with a flood of violence. And he said, there will be a war around the city of Jerusalem, and it won't end until the desolations God has determined on that city come to pass. In other words, years later, the Roman army, I mean, the Israeli armies, they were fighting Rome. And some of the people undoubtedly said, Daniel said, there's going to be a flood of violence until the judgment on Jerusalem is completely complete. In other words, God was not going to deliver the Israeli army in 70 AD. Daniel said, God determined you're going to lose. Now, this is similar to what happened with Jeremiah. Jeremiah's back in Israel, in Jerusalem, before the Babylonian armies came. And this is, again, this is 70 years before this vision here. Jeremiah's back in Jerusalem, before the captivity began, before the 70 year captivity. The captivity is going to begin real soon. And he's saying, Babylon's coming and God's not going to help us. Give up and give in and go to captivity or you'll get killed fighting. And the locals said, get rid of that prophet. They tried to put him in prison. They tried to kill him. They go, that's an act of treason. You're telling the nation just to give up. He goes, you are. It's right. God's already determined it, this one. So a lot of people died unnecessarily because they threw off Jeremiah's word and they fought. Well, the same thing happened in 70 AD. Many of the Israeli military and the people were mobilized in war. But Gabriel told Daniel, there is no point in resisting this one because the determination of desolation is already determined by God. And so a lot of the Jewish armies were fighting and fighting and fighting. And they obviously, many of them were slaughtered in the process. Of course, they were fighting with patriotic zeal and they were wanting to be like the Maccabean period where there was a glorious divine help in the military resistance. But that wasn't going to happen according to Gabriel. Now again, I realize a few of you, you think, I just lost that five minutes too. Okay, but let's move on. But some of you followed that. Paragraph C, the Messiah is going to be cut off. Okay, let's go paragraph D, but he's not going to die for himself. He's going to die for the sins of others is the idea. Paragraph E, the city and the temple, which is the sanctuary, is going to be destroyed. Jesus prophesied this too in Matthew chapter 24, verse 2. Jesus said there won't be one stone left on another. He's prophesying Daniel 9, 26. I mean, Jesus is the one that gave it to Gabriel who gave it to Daniel. It didn't start with Gabriel. It came from God, the people of the prince. Well, we don't know who the people of the prince, who is to come, which is the Antichrist. Daniel, again, I'm repeating what I said a few minutes ago. Daniel didn't know who the people of the future prince, who is the Antichrist. Daniel doesn't know who that person is. But history lets us know it's the Roman Empire. History clarifies it for us. Paragraph 2, under F. Now, a lot of people say, yeah, but Jerusalem has been destroyed a bunch of times. I mean, over 20 times since Jesus died. How do we know it's that one? Because there's only one time Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was burnt and the Messiah was killed all in proximity to one another. There's only one time that all three of those came together. So that was right here in verse 26 from the mouth of Gabriel. He said it's not just when Jerusalem is destroyed or invaded. It's when they're destroyed, the temple destroyed, the Messiah is killed. One, two, three, there is no mistake. And the reason I'm telling you that, because again, some Bible teachers, they want to put this event in some other place in history where it's not about Jesus and this storyline. And this, if we just read the text and take it at face value, it's quite clear this is 70 A.D. when all this happens. Paragraph 7, I mean, top of page 78. Well, this thing that Gabriel says, tell the people. I mean, again, it's 500 years plus ahead of time. Write it down in the prophecy. Jerusalem is going to end with a flood of violence. And until the war is over, God-determined desolation. So tell Jerusalem, like in the days of Jeremiah, don't fight and die unnecessarily. This is a God-ordained discipline on the nation. Well, Israel didn't listen in the days of Jeremiah, and they didn't listen, some did, undoubtedly. Some of the godly remnant always are listening to the prophets. And in 70 A.D., I'm assuming the majority, but certainly many did not listen. Paragraph H, till the end of the war, desolations are decreed. Until the end of the Jewish-Roman war, I have it right here, 66 to 70 A.D., until the end of that war, desolations will keep happening year after year, setback after setback, until the nation is, the city is burned down. All of that was laid out by Gabriel ahead of time. Turn to page 78. Let's go to the final verse now. I mean, now there's, the Messiah is killed, the city is burned, the temple is burned, or destroyed, either or. The Jewish people are driven out of the land, so now the prophetic clock stops. God puts pause, they're not in the land, they're not in Jerusalem, the temple's not functioning, stop. The clock is now stopped. And it actually stopped with the killing of the Messiah. It's over now. Pause. But there's one more week to go. There's one more seven year period that's determined in God's master plan of salvation history. So 2,000 years, plus or minus a few years, go by. And there's going to be a man who's going to make a, confirm a covenant with many, with many nations, Gentile nations and with Israel, and when that covenant is confirmed, because Israel's already in the land, they already are, have jurisdiction over Jerusalem, that covenant's confirmed, the temple now functions, the clock pause button is off, and the seven years begin again. I mean, with incredible precision, these things have happened, verse 25 and 26 have happened in history, and we have the confidence with the same precision, verse 27, the final seven years will happen with the same precision. Well let's read what happens. Then he, a man, an unnamed man, he shall, we know it's the Antichrist now, but I mean, just as it stood, a man will confirm a covenant with many, and I believe it's with many nations, not just with Israel, and he'll confirm the covenant for one week. Now if you only read verse 37, you might think it's seven days, but when you read it in context, it's obviously, it's a week of years, it's a seven year period. But in the middle of the week, here's that three and a half year period, what is the middle of seven years? Three and a half years. This man will break the covenant, he'll pull his mask off, he will masquerade as a man of peace, but he is a hater of God, a hater of the covenant that God has with Israel, and a hater of Israel. I mean, he's the most demonized man to ever walk the planet. And he, at the middle of the covenant, at the middle of seven years, he will say, nope, I'm betraying the covenant, it's over, you're not going to have sacrifices anymore, you're going to worship me, none of this Jewish religion stuff, that's all foolishness to me, all religions are foolishness, you're going to worship me and only me. And on the wing of abominations, this is this abomination of desolation, that is the Antichrist stopping the sacrifices and putting his image in the temple, demanding the whole world to worship him as God, that's what we're talking about. There is, here's another definition of the Antichrist, there will be one who makes desolate. How would you like to have that prophetic name in the scripture over your life? The one who makes the nations desolate. He makes Jerusalem desolate, he makes the nations desolate. Even until the consummation, the fullness of judgment determined on this man is poured out, the judgment's going to mount upon him until the fullness of it is poured out upon this man. And the desolator will be desolated, if, I don't know if those are the right words, but the desolator, the Antichrist, will be desolated. He will be fully destroyed. And that's how the prophecy ends. The bad guys over the son of man, the only one that can destroy him, the implications, it's not said straight forward, but when you put the other passages together, it's the son of man that takes care of this period. Okay, let's go just a few more moments and we'll bring this to an end. There's a gap of two, paragraph B, there's a gap of two thousand years, from, or plus, you know, we don't know exactly, from the end of the 69 weeks to the beginning of the 70th. The 70th week has not begun yet, it begins when the Antichrist makes the covenant. It's this, it's the period between the first and second coming of Jesus. The reason I believe Gabriel doesn't mention the 70 year gap is because the prophetic clock pauses when the Jewish people are not in the land functioning with the temple. And so if you have that paradigm, it makes sense why Gabriel doesn't mention. Some theologians say, he doesn't mention it, we're just putting that gap in. But if you know how God reckons time, He reckons time for the whole planet related to what's happening in Jerusalem. Then at the end of this 70th week, at the end of verse 27, when all the events are over, then the six blessings of verse 24 in our last session, those will be fully manifest on the earth. Matter of fact, even this, the difficulty of the abomination of desolation, which when it says that the one who makes desolate are the wings of abomination, that's referring to the abomination of desolation. Remember that even that negative event that brings desolation to the earth, that's even part of the answer Gabriel's giving Daniel. Daniel's in fasting and prayer, restore Jerusalem, restore Jerusalem. Gabriel appears and says, here's the six blessings, but let me tell you, verse 25, the city's going to be built, the Messiah's coming. Verse 26, the Messiah's going to get killed, the city's going to get destroyed. Verse 27, the Antichrist is coming. All of these are part of the answer for a permanent restoration of Jerusalem. Daniel, these are all necessary for Jerusalem to be restored forever in blessing. So even verse 27 is part of the answer to his prayer to restore Jerusalem. Paragraphs of page 79, the Antichrist is referred to in two ways. He's called the prince who is to come, and he's called the one who makes desolate. Paragraph F, his activities in verse 27, he confirms a covenant with many, it's a false covenant, it's a peace covenant. He stops the sacrifices, he establishes the abominable practices, and he makes the nations, and even Israel and the nations, desolate by the things that he institutes and insists on at the pain of death. Roman numeral five, I have the taking away the sacrifices, we covered this a little bit under the abomination of desolation, so I'm not going to cover it again, but here's the idea. Some Bible teachers say Jesus is the one that made the covenant, and he's the one that removed the sacrifices. And Jesus did make a covenant, not a seven year covenant, and he made an eternal covenant. He didn't make a seven year covenant, and yes, he did, his death on the cross satisfied the penalty of the law against us, and so the animal sacrifices that were foreshadowing his death were no longer needed. That is true, that he was the fulfillment of that, but Jesus didn't take away the sacrifices, the Roman armies did forty years later. And the man that takes away the sacrifices in all four times in the book of Daniel, where the abomination of desolation is mentioned, all four times, it's an evil man who takes away the sacrifices, it's a man who makes the abomination that brings desolation to the nations, it's not Jesus. In context, it's an evil man. My point of saying that to you, because most of you already believe that, is that when you leave this place, and another guy says, just throw all that away, it's all symbolic, and Jesus made the covenant, he took away the sacrifices, and I'm just giving you a little bit of answer for your own heart, so you don't just give up all that you're learning from this chapter by just some clever PhD who says, you don't even get it, it all took place, so just forget it. And you go, gee whiz, that was an intense couple days of learning, I guess that wasn't worth anything. Don't do that. Hold on to the truth. I don't care if he's got a PhD, there's a whole lot of other PhDs who see it the way that I'm saying it right now. The fact that he's smart, and knows a few languages, don't, it's like one guy said, don't be so open-minded, your brains fall out. Hold on to the truth. So, you know, because I've seen some young people with a bold, with a bold leader with a PhD, they go, oh, I guess it's just all figurative, it's all past, that Israel's forsaken, and oh, okay, I guess, I guess, I guess. No, have a little boldness about the Word of God, you don't have to go there, you don't have to give in to that intimidation. So I just want to strengthen your resolve about that. Top of page 80, he'll make a covenant for seven years. Now notice, now I always, I say it wrong so often, he does not make a covenant, that's not what it says, he confirms a covenant, there is a difference. And I think that difference matters. He confirms a covenant that is already in existence. Now I think it's strange that a man would make a covenant for seven years, like we will be friends for seven years, and then what? Well, we'll take it from there, we'll just be friends until. I mean, that's an odd, but somehow people buy it. That just seems like an odd way to have a relationship with another nation. We will be nice for seven years and then we'll go from there, but that's what they do. Paul the Apostle refers to this in 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, at that time, and it says they, and the they is speaking of just the nations in general, the kind of the banner statement being set around the nations, peace and safety. World peace and safety. The echedon, the terrorist threat is now settled, there's peace in the nations, there's not just peace in the Middle East, the whole tension is now relieved. Ah, Paul said when they say that, don't buy it. Right after that happens, that man will pull his mask off, he'll step into the temple to call himself God, and sudden destruction, the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation will break out on the earth. Don't buy the cry and the rejoicing of peace and safety when that man makes that covenant because it's not real. Paragraph H, the forerunner messengers will be, will be proclaiming ahead of time, there's a man who's going to be raised up somewhere in the Middle East. He's going to make a covenant with Israel. When he makes that covenant with Israel, he's going to even allow them to build the temple. And when he makes that, they build the temple and the dome of the rock issue is going to be somehow settled. And then he's going to allow them to make the animal sacrifices. And then we're going to add nine months later he's going to do something that gives a hint of his betraying heart, but that's from the last session. But we'll be able to declare these kinds of things. The body of Christ will be. We'll be able to do that. Okay, let me see. I have in paragraph K a few more. I just say what I've already said, that it's the Antichrist making the, putting it into sacrifice, not Jesus. And again, you don't have to lose your confidence on that and therefore relegate this prophecy to the past. Page 81. Now the one who makes desolate, that's the Antichrist. And what God is, Gabriel's promising is the man that makes desolate, he, that God has determined that judgment will consume him. Don't worry about, I mean, don't, take the man seriously, but know this. He has three and a half years. His doom is already written. God has determined it as clearly as he's determined the seventy week plan. Okay, I think that's it. Let me see. I'm skipping a few more pages. Amen. Let's just end with that. No, no, let's go to paragraph.