Daniel's Great Prophecy, Part 2

All right, let's bow for a word of prayer, then we'll begin. Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight and the chance that we have to study the word of the Lord. We are a blessed people, and you've given to us your word that we might be able to understand not just the events of this day, but the events for all time. And we are grateful that you've given us this opportunity. So Lord, instruct us and teach us in the way that we should go, that we might leave here excited about the opportunities before us.

In Jesus' name, amen. Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 9, what is one of the most instructional, one of the most informational, and certainly one of the most inspirational chapters in all of the Bible. It informs you on how to pray and why prayer is so important. It instructs you on how to pray, and it inspires you to pray. Well, the same thing is true with the prophecy. Daniel's great prayer was followed by Daniel's great prophecy, the prophecy that would come to him immediately after he had prayed, because the Lord had dispensed to Gabriel to come and give him the answer.

And so chapter 9 of Daniel provides for us a great framework for us to understand not just how to pray, but the understanding of prophecy and God's plan for his people Israel. Now, having said that, remember Daniel realizes that as he reads the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 25 specifically, Jeremiah chapter 29, he realizes that 70 years of captivity are just about up. And what he realizes is that he goes to prayer in Daniel 9. He goes to prayer and realizes that because those 70 years are up, he's asking God to fulfill his word, which he will, because that's what God does.

But he wants God to fulfill his word, so he begins to confess his sin and then begins to confess the sins of Israel. And he does this for the Lord's sake, says in verse number 19, O Lord, here for your sake and for your name. So everything he is doing, he's doing it for the sake of God and for the name of God. And so as soon as he's done praying, God sends Gabriel to him to give the answer that he's asking. And the answer is not exactly what he's looking for. I'm not sure exactly what Daniel was looking for, except for the fact that he wanted the Lord to answer the prayer that 70 years were up.

Send your people back knowing that the captivity, the 70 years of captivity are soon to be over. And remember, they're in captivity for 70 years because for 490 years, they didn't keep the Sabbath, the sabbatical, the land sabbatical every seven years. And so for 70 years, they went into captivity. Second Chronicles 36, verse number 21 tells us that.

That's why they were in 70 years of captivity. But now it's around year 68, year 69, and Daniel is close to 80 or in his 80s and he's saying, this time is about up, Lord, please answer. And he confesses his sins and the sins of his people Israel. Well, Gabriel shows up and he reiterates to Daniel, you need to get this. You need to understand this. I'm going to give you an answer, an answer you're not necessarily expecting, but the answer I'm going to give you, you need to understand. And why is that so important?

Because it tells Daniel about Israel's future. It tells us that God is not done with Israel. It tells us that the church in no way, shape or form replaces Israel. Why? Because he's going to give a prophecy that encompasses 70 weeks or 77. The Hebrew word for weeks means sevens. And so it's 77, which is 490 years. And the reason he does that is because God is taking what was taken from him for those 490 years of rebellion. Remember, Israel has been in existence for about 800 years at this point. And 490 of those years, they were living in rebellion against God.

And God is saying, I'm going to make up all that by giving you a prophecy that entails 77 or 490 years. You think that 70 years of captivity was bad. You wait till you hear what I have to share with you this evening or as a result of your prayer to me, Daniel, that you might understand exactly what is happening. Now we need to understand at the very outset that God is not done with Israel. And how do we know that? How do we take from the scriptures that God is not done with the nation of Israel? Well, remember, the first point we gave you last week was the cause behind the prophecy.

Remember that? And there were three causes. And that was the sovereignty of God, the sins of Israel, and the setting up of God's kingdom. Those three causes are outlined for us in verse number 24. Seventy weeks have been decreed, have been cut out, specifically have been set out for Israel. It says 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city. So this only has to do with Israel and their holy city, Jerusalem. Daniel has no idea what the church is, right? That's not even been born yet.

And so he has no idea what that means. But he does know who the people of Israel are. He does know what the holy city is. And so 70 years have been cut out to deal with Israel and the city of Jerusalem. And so the whole cause behind the prophecy deals with the sovereignty of God, and they list the sins of the people and what's going to happen. And it tells you, we have it on your chart. If you want to look on your chart, you can see it. It's right down here. These things right here tell us what's going on.

These three here deal with the sins of the people, and the next four, five, and six deal with the setting up of God's kingdom. All that is in verse number 24. And so what God is doing is showing them these are the sins of your people, and we got to deal with those things, and we got to set up the kingdom of God. But listen, none of this happens until at the end of the 70 weeks. You can see that on your chart. He tells them 70 weeks have been set aside for your people, Israel, to deal with their sins and to set up the kingdom of God.

But all that's going to happen at the end of the 70 weeks. Now Daniel doesn't understand all that right now, but that's exactly what happens when you deal with all the sins of the nation itself. Okay? And so we realize that God is not done with his people, Israel. We understand that because of, listen to what the Bible says way back in the book of 1 Samuel 12, verse number 22.

For the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for himself. The Lord made it very clear that his name is at stake, and he will not abandon his people. Well, if you read on and go to Psalm 89, you had the Davidic covenant, and it says in verse number 33, I will not break off my loving kindness from him, that is David, nor tell falsely or deal falsely in my faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of my lips.

Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever and is thrown as the sun before me. It shall be established forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful. So within the Davidic covenant comes a promise to the nation of Israel that God will not abandon his people. Well, over in the book of Zechariah, we know that Israel is saved, Zechariah 12, verse number 10. I will pour out on the house of David and on the heavens of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

Then chapter 13, verse number one, it says in that day, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for iniquity.

In other words, all this is going to happen at this point right here, revelation, I mean Zechariah 12, verse number 10 is when that takes place. Now we know that the sins of Israel were atoned at Calvary. We understand that because that's where atonement was made. That happens after the 69 weeks at Calvary. It happens in between the 69th week and the 70th week. There's a gap that's there. And that's not a problem because I'm going to show you tonight where there are many gaps in scripture to show you that there could be a gap between week 69 and week number 70.

So the 490 years are not consecutive years. The first 483 years, the first seven weeks, the next 62 weeks, 483 years, they are consecutive.

But, it goes up to that point that the Messiah, the Prince, will arrive in Jerusalem. But, it says after the 62nd week, that's the 62nd week plus the 7th week, after the 69th week, Messiah will be cut off. So that happens after the 69th week. So Messiah is cut off in between the 69th and the 70th week. That's when Messiah is crucified. That's where sin is atoned for. But it's not applied, it talks about atoning for the wickedness of Israel, right? This is where it happens. It's not applied until the end, Zechariah chapter 12, verses 10 and 11.

Because they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. So, the cross of Calvary is something that was foolishness to them. Although, the prophecy of Daniel teaches the death of the Messiah. Don't want to get ahead of myself here. But, the Bible does say these words over in Romans chapter 9, excuse me, Romans 11. Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel will be saved. Just as it is written, that the deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.

God is going to take away Israel's sins. He is going to save the nation. Now, when it says all Israel is going to be saved, listen carefully. When you see the word all, all is defined by context. All is defined by the scripture. It doesn't mean that every Jew that's ever lived is going to be saved, right? When it says all Jerusalem was coming down to the Jordan to be baptized, it doesn't mean that every single man, woman, boy and girl was coming down to the Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist, right?

It's an all-inclusive term, but it doesn't mean that every single person is. Well, we know that not every single Jew is going to be saved, because Paul says in Romans 11, all Israel will be saved. We know there's a distinction to that, because Zechariah 12 tells us that two-thirds of the nation will be refined or purged out, and one-third he will keep for himself.

One-third will be saved. So we know from Zechariah 13 that the one-third of Zechariah 13 is the all Israel of Romans 11 when Paul says all Israel will be saved.

That doesn't mean that Jews are not saved today. They are saved. They're saved individually. But we're talking about a national salvation of a group of people who look upon the one whom they have pierced, and they weep for him, they mourn for him, and then they give their life to their Messiah. And that's what happens in Zechariah 12. So we know that God is not done with his people Israel. God has a plan for the nation. That's why he has decreed, he has cut out, he has predetermined 70 weeks. 70 weeks.

490 years. 77s. We know it's not 77s of days or weeks or months, because that doesn't even get us to the birth of the Messiah, let alone the death of the Messiah. So we know it's 77s, meaning 77s of years. 490 years. And so we know that as you look at your outline on the back of your chart, point number one was the cause behind the prophecy, and point number two is the command that began the prophecy.

How do you know where to begin the prophecy? Well, the Bible tells you. Daniel chapter 9. It says very clearly. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. So what was the decree or the command that began the prophecy? Well, we know that the Bible tells us in Nehemiah chapter 1 and Nehemiah chapter 2 that there was a decree given by Artaxerxes.

We know that there were four of them. But three of the four deal with the rebuilding of the temple. Only one deals with the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the walls around the city and the moat and the plaza, the streets, that kind of stuff. That was in Nehemiah chapter 2 with Artaxerxes, which happened on the 14th of Nisan 445 B.C. So we know the exact date of when the 70 weeks of the prophecy begins. That's very simple. That's not hard to understand. And so that's how you come up to that.

We know there are four of them, but there's only one that really fits the timeline, and it's this one, because it deals with the building of Jerusalem, not the building of the temple. But it takes seven weeks or 49 years to finish everything, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the streets. The wall only took 52 days according to the Book of Nehemiah. But to finish all that, it took seven weeks. That's why there's a division between the seven weeks and the 62 weeks, which equals 69 weeks.

Why? Because when this is done, right, everything is done, and now they're going to wait, and they're going to wait, and they're going to wait for the arrival of the Messiah. And you have those 400 silent years between the Old Testament and the New Testament before Christ comes. So they're in anticipation mode. They're waiting for their Messiah to come. And so as you read on the text, it tells us, then, the coming of the Messiah, the prince is point number three.

And it tells us these words. It says, So Messiah, the prince, the arrival of the Messiah, a formal arrival of the Messiah, which we know he arrives, according to Zechariah 9, verse number nine, how? On the backside of a donkey. Remember Zechariah 9, verse number nine? He tells us how the Messiah is going to come. It says, So we know there's coming the Messiah. Zechariah's prophecy tells us, all right? And he's going to come at a very particular time. And that time is going to be, according to the triumphal entry of Christ in Luke chapter 19, which, according to the date, April 6th, A.D.

32, and down here is a proof as to how you know that's the exact day, 173,880 days, for the time of March 14th, 445 B.C., until A.D., April 6th, 32 A.D. So that's how you know the days. And so we talked about that last week. So it's a very precise prophecy. It's a very detailed prophecy. It all comes together exactly as the Lord said. And so that's what happens. Messiah comes, but then it says these words, Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. So after the 62 weeks, Messiah's cut off.

So it doesn't say anything about the 70th week, 62 and 7, 69. But after this time period, Messiah is cut off. We know there's a week left. That week's going to come later in the prophecy. But this is not that week. So after the 69 weeks, Messiah dies. He's cut off. It's a term, karath, which deals with the killing of a criminal. And we know our Lord died as a criminal between two thieves. Messiah died. You see, it's very important to realize that the Old Testament teaches the death of the Messiah.

Now think about this if you're Daniel, right? You know, as Daniel, Psalm 22, which teaches the death of the Messiah. As Daniel, you know Isaiah 53, which speaks of the death of the Messiah. Okay? Now listen.

Psalm 22 was written 1,000 years before the death of Christ. 1,000 years. Isaiah 53 was written 700 years before the death of Christ. Book of Zechariah talks about the death of the Messiah, Zechariah 12, 10. It was written 550 years before the death of the Messiah that he would be pierced, a word dealing with crucifixion. Why is that important? Because Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Zechariah 12, all teach the death of the Messiah as being pierced, meaning that he'd be crucified, and there had never been a crucifixion yet.

There wasn't a crucifixion until 500 B.C. First recorded crucifixion was in 500 B.C. by the Persians. It wasn't even perfected until 63 B.C. by the Romans. That's when they perfected it. And yet, 1,000 years before our Lord was crucified, it was prophesied that he'd be crucified. 750 years, Isaiah 53. 700 years. 550 years, Zechariah 12, verses 10 and 11. That is so important to realize this, that all that was being taught before anybody had ever thought of a crucifixion before, because the Lord had determined in eternity past that he'd be the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

Now remember, when Christ rides into Jerusalem in Luke 19, he laments the fact that they did not know the day. And he calls it what kind of day? The day of their visitation. This is so good. This is worth the price of admission, okay? Because you're going to find out something before anybody else on Sunday finds out about it. The day of your visitation. Why is that so important? Because there was a day that Messiah was going to visit his people Israel. And that day had been prophesied in Daniel chapter 9.

But it really goes deeper than that. It goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, to the very last chapter in the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis begins with creation and ends with a grave. The book of Genesis is a fabulous study. But in the book of Genesis, I want you to realize what it said. It says these words. Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die. But God will surely, listen carefully, visit you. God is going to visit you. So he tells them. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you.

And you shall carry my bones up from here. Now think about this. All the way back in the book of Genesis, 50th chapter, Joseph, one of the patriarchs, believes and understands the importance of the land of Canaan. When Jacob died, he told Joseph, take me back to the cave of Mephillah and bury me. Joseph did. But Joseph dies and Joseph says, don't take me back. Not when I die. But I want you to take my bones back. Meaning that there'd have to be a decaying of the body. It's not going to be right away.

It's going to be a while. Why? Because there's something about those bones that's going to be very instrumental in the well-being of the nation of Israel. So it's not till Moses, 400 plus years later, carries the box of bones out of Egypt and takes them. And Joshua will then bury them some 40 years later in the land of Israel. So here's Moses. We know that Israel wants to take all the spoils of Egypt with them, right? And they were well-endowed with the spoils of Egypt and Pharaoh gave it to them.

And they left with them. But what did Moses take? The bones of Joseph. Why? Because you can almost hear the bones singing, can't you? Right? Thigh bone said to the hip bone, you know, because there's something about the bones that speak. That's very, very important. Why? Because they were all telling the story about how God will visit his people, Israel. It was all in preparation of where would he visit them? In the promised land, the land of Israel. And he was going to come and he was going to visit them.

And he did. He did come. But they didn't recognize the day of their visitation, did they? So in Luke 19, when he arrives, you didn't recognize the day of your visitation. It's almost as if he says, you know what? Way back in Genesis, Joseph told you that his bones would be a symbol, a memorial of my visitation to you. I even gave you a prophecy that would give you the exact day in which I would ride into Jerusalem. 173,880 days from Nisan 14, March 14, 445 BC. You still missed it. You were completely blinded to it.

But you should have known. This is so important to realize that the whole Bible connects one verse upon another, always consistently speaking the same truth and showing you how it all comes together to point to one person, that person being the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he's done for us. And so you've seen the cause behind the prophecy, the command that began the prophecy, the coming of the Messiah, the Prince, then the cutting off of Messiah, the Prince, and then point number five, the completion of the destruction of the city, the completion of the destruction of the city and the sanctuary.

Listen to what it says. Daniel chapter nine says these words. Messiah will be cut off and have nothing and the people of the Prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with the flood. Even to the end, there will be war. Desolations are determined. Okay? So now, not only do you have a crucifixion that happens at the end of the week, of the 69th week, when this is at the end of the 69th week it comes and then after that week is over, Messiah's cut off, some 40 years later you have what?

The destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So you see now the gap is widening, is it not? From just a few days, four days, to now 40 years in 70 AD. And we know that's exactly what happened. Now, the text says these words. It says the people of the Prince who is to come. Who's the Prince to come? Notice it's a little P, not a big P, right?

The Messiah of the Prince is the Messiah that we all know and understand to be the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Prince who is to come is the anti-Messiah who is the anti-Christ. But it's the people of that Prince that are going to destroy the city in 70 AD. Now remember, Daniel doesn't know the time frame. He just knows that after 69 weeks, Messiah's going to be cut off. But that's even got to be something going on in his brain. Why? Because the last time he had a prophecy about the Messiah was Daniel 7.

And in Daniel 7, what does he see the Messiah doing? He's coming in clouds of great glory, right? That's how he sees the Messiah coming. So when you come to Daniel chapter 9, Messiah now is cut off. How does the King coming in great glory now all of a sudden die? How does that happen? And so now he's trying to think through all the situation concerning the coming of the Messiah. Because in Daniel 7, he came and set up his kingdom. But in Daniel 9, Messiah the Prince is cut off. He dies. So you think you're confused.

Just think how confused Daniel would have been thinking, wait a minute, how does all this come together? Because you see, remember, they don't understand the church age. They don't know what that means. That's why Ephesians 3 talks about it being a mystery. It's something concealed in the Old Testament but revealed in the New Testament. They had no idea about the church age. Except it was all part of the plan of God. But the 70 weeks had nothing to do with the church. They had everything to do with Israel and Israel only and its holy city.

You've got to keep that in mind. And so, the people of the Prince, who are the people of the Prince? Well, we know from Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, there are four world empires. We know that. We know the first one was Babylon, the second one was Medo-Persia, the third one was Greece, the fourth one was Rome, right?

Okay. And Rome would be in power when the Lord, of course, himself would arrive in the incarnation. But, okay, the people of the Prince who is to come has to be Rome because the Antichrist, as we saw from Daniel 7, rises out of ten-nation confederacy which is based in Rome. So, we understand Daniel 9 to be a fulfillment of 70 A.D. when the city was completely destroyed. That's why Christ says in Luke 21 these words.

Luke chapter 21. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city because these are days of vengeance so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Now remember, the times of the Gentiles began when? Daniel 1, verse number 1. That's when the times of the Gentiles began. That's the time in which the Gentiles dominate the land, and they dominate Israel. And that continues until the end. Okay? So the times of the Gentiles doesn't really end until this time right here at the end of the tribulation, at the end of the 70th week because that's when God saves Israel. And they now rule and reign with their Messiah in the millennial kingdom. So Messiah, the prince, I mean, the prince who is to come, the Antichrist, his people are going to destroy the city.

And of course, 70 AD, you can read about it, Josephus in his book, The History and Antiquities of the Jews, and realized all about the destruction and how 1.1 million Jews were crucified, and they ran out of wood with all the forest surrounding Jerusalem. They cut down every tree that they possibly could because they were crucifying every Jew they could find. They slaughtered them. And the times of that desolation would continue as a determined time. That's what it says in Daniel chapter 9. It says, even to the end there will be war.

Desolations are determined. There will be much war, much war. And then, and then, you got your point number six, the covenant of the future prince. That happens in verse number 27. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. There's your 70th week. So we know that there's a week. It's one week. We know that after 69 weeks, Messiah's cut off. He's not cut off during the 69 weeks. He's not cut off in the 70th week. He's cut off after the 69th week. The city's destroyed after the 69th week.

But then there's going to be a covenant made with Israel, confirmed with Israel for one week. That's your 70th week. Now remember, there are 70 weeks that have been determined, cut out for Israel and the holy city Jerusalem. Not the church. The church was not in the first 69 weeks of the prophecy.

The church will not be in the 70th week of the prophecy. Why? Because it's not for the church. It's for Israel and their holy city. And then it says very clearly that he, that is, the prince who is to come will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. What's he going to do? He is going to confirm every treaty that Israel has. That's why in Revelation 6, verse number 2, I think I got that up there, right? Revelation 6, verse number 2, he comes on the back of a horse having a bow with no arrows because he comes in peace.

He makes peace. We've already talked about Ezekiel 38, remember? When Russia comes against Israel and the Antichrist leads Israel against Russia and defeats them. And all that does is increase his hero status. He becomes not just the prince of some semblance of peace for Israel because Ezekiel 38 says they live in unwalled cities. What does that mean? There's no fear of anything happening to them because they're at peace. And it says, these words, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice in grain offering.

When does that take place? That takes place in a temple. That means there has to be a temple during the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy because he's going to put an end to the sacrifices. He's going to put an end to the offerings. Well, for that to happen, there has to be a temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. And so they're going to build, Israel's going to build a temple for their anti-Messiah. And there will be peace. Yes, there will be wars and rumors of wars, and there will be difficulties all throughout the whole tribulation period.

But at the very beginning, when he confirms a covenant with Israel, it will be a covenant of peace. And that covenant will allow him to rule in Israel, and he will be their anti-Messiah. But then it says, these words, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice in grain offering, and on the wing of abomination will come one who makes desolate. This is what Christ referred to as the abomination of desolation. How do you make the temple in Jerusalem an abomination? Through idolatry.

And what is the idolatry? He sets himself up as king to be worshipped. We read that when we went through our study of 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse number 4 says these words. It says, God, or object of worship, said he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. And so the false prophet, the Babylonian harlot, who has helped him come to power, he destroys her, according to Revelation 17, as well. Why? He's going to destroy Israel's worship. He's going to destroy the false church's worship, because he will be the only one who can be worshipped.

He sets himself up to be God. That's the abomination of desolation. So, Daniel hears all this. Daniel's listening. That's why Gabriel says, get it. Heed it. Understand it. There are 70 weeks, Daniel, 70 weeks that have been decreed, have been cut out of the entire time of the world, specifically dealing with the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. He says, I'm going to tell you when they begin. Okay? With the decree of Artaxerxes, March 14, 445 BC. This is exactly when it's going to begin.

He doesn't know that yet. It's going to happen. Right? He's just letting everybody know when it's going to begin, so you know the timeframe of the 70 weeks of Daniel's prophecy. In those first seven weeks, the city will be rebuilt, the wall will be rebuilt, the infrastructure will be rebuilt, everything will be taken care of in those first seven weeks, and then there will be 62 weeks.

That will be after the book of Malachi, and there will be a time of 400 silent years. They don't know this yet. They're just waiting and waiting and waiting for Messiah to come. And when he finally gets there on the day, A.D.

32, April 6, on the day of visitation, that they should have known, they did not know, because this is when Messiah was going to visit them, and they missed it, right? Well, after those 69 weeks, Messiah will be cut off. The city will be made desolate. That was 40 years later. So you have a gap, right? Then you have the church age. It's been 2,000 years. Well, he would have never known that. But the Bible's filled with gaps. Let me show you this.

Isaiah 9. You know Isaiah 9, right? Let me read it to you. Verse 6, For a child will be born to us, a son will be given, and the government will rest on his shoulders. See the gap? The child was given, the son, the child was born, the son was given, right? But the government was up on his shoulders in the incarnation. There's a gap that's there. And it says, His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom.

That hasn't happened. There's a huge gap there. To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord the host will accomplish this. There's coming a king. He is a son that's given. He is a child that's born. He is called the Mighty God because he's God in the flesh. He is El Gabor. He is the Prince of Peace. He's the Everlasting Father. That government, that rulership will be on his shoulders. But it didn't happen when he arrived the first time.

Because there's a gap. And that gap is the church age. Between the crucifixion of the Messiah until the rapture of the church. That's why we believe in the rapture of the church before the tribulation. Because the tribulation period, the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy, the church is not mentioned in the book of Revelation. Why? Because they're not a part of the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy. Why? Because they're not a part of the time of Jacob's trouble. Jeremiah chapter 30 verse number 7. See? It's not for the church.

It's for Israel. It's the purging out of Israel. Zechariah 13. Two-thirds will die. One-third will be saved.

That's the all of Romans 11 that goes into the kingdom. So there's a gap in Isaiah 9. There is a gap. Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord, God, is upon me. Now remember, this is read by Christ in Luke chapter 4 in the synagogue in Nazareth. Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God. But there's a gap.

Because when it says to proclaim the favorable year of our Lord, the Lord closes the scroll. It says today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing. Every rabbi said one day it's going to be fulfilled. On this day, this rabbi said it is fulfilled. Why? Because it wasn't the day of vengeance. What is the day of vengeance? Oh, the day of vengeance is right here. See? So there's a gap between verse 2A and verse 2B. Now, if I'm a Jew and I'm reading this, I don't see the gap. Why? Because it's a mystery.

It's a mystery. But in Daniel 9, there is a gap. There's a gap between the 69th week and the 70th week, because Messiah has to die, has to be cut off, the city has to be destroyed. But there's nothing mentioned in the church because that's a mystery in the Old Testament. So you go on and you read Luke 1. Luke 1. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. And he will be great and be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

See the gap? Say, no, I didn't see the gap. Yeah, it's right there. You missed it. How'd you miss it? Angel Gabriel talking to Mary. Behold, you will conceive in your womb. She did. Bear a son. She did. You'll call him named Jesus. She did. He will be great. He was. He'll be called the Son of the Most High. He was. Gap. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. See the gap there? The Bible's filled with gaps. So when you read Daniel chapter 9, and you see this gap that's there after the 69th week, and then there's one week where, which is the 70th week, where the Antichrist confirms a covenant with Israel for that period of time, which is seven years.

Why? It's 77. Seventy years of seven, which is 490 years. Well, you only have 483 years in these 69 weeks, so you've got seven years left. That takes place in the one week, which we call the tribulational period, where in the halfway in between that tribulation period is the abomination of desolation, where the Antichrist is worshiped and wants to be honored as king, as God. That's not where it ends. You've got to read on. So go back to Daniel 9. It says, Even until, here's the good news, a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

So there is a decree that's been predetermined that the one who makes desolate will be destroyed. And when does that happen? It happens when the king returns at the end of the tribulation, Revelation chapter 19, and the beast and the false prophet are bound for a thousand years before they're let loose at the end of those thousand years and then cast into the lake of fire because it has to happen that way because this is when Israel has the forgiveness of sins. This is Zechariah chapter 12. Their sins were atoned for at Calvary, but they didn't believe that Jesus was their Messiah.

But when they look on him whom they have pierced, they'll realize that they killed their Messiah and they'll repent of their sins. He'll put an end to sin, right? And he will finish the transgression and then he'll bring in an everlasting righteousness. He'll seal up what? The vision of prophecy. What does that mean? Towards the last week, he puts an end to the vision of prophecy. What are the visions of prophecy? The visions of prophecy deal with the judgment upon the nation of Israel. He brings it into that.

Why? There is no more. It's done. All Israel now is saved. And what's the last point? What's that say right there? I can't read it. I have my glasses on. Yeah, see, there you go. See that? And so he establishes his kingdom and he rules and reigns. Why? Because the government must be upon his shoulders. He has to sit on the throne of his father, David. When is he going to do that? He doesn't do it until this time, during the millennial age for a thousand years where he rules and reigns for all eternity.

See, we know more than Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and everybody else because we know what Daniel 9 says. And we can read the Bible. We know how it's all going to end because it's been very clear.