Ministry given through Brother Stephen Cohn
Richmond, Virginia — Monday Evening, August 5, 1974
Daniel 9:1-27
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, Alas, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping covenant and lovingkindness with them that love Him and keep His commandments: we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and from Thine ordinances. Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, who spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near and that are far off, through all the countries whither Thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against Thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses; for we have rebelled against Him. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law, even turning aside, that they should not obey Thy voice: therefore hath the curse been poured out upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God; for we have sinned against Him.
And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; so that under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet have we not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, that we should turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in Thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched over the evil, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth, and we have not obeyed His voice.
And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought Thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten Thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, let Thine anger and Thy wrath, I pray Thee, be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.
Now therefore, O our God, hearken unto the prayer of Thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name: for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies’ sake. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.
And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he instructed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.
Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Anointed One, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times. And after the threescore and two weeks shall the Anointed One be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.
Lord, we have read Thy Word. Now we turn to Thee and ask Thy Holy Spirit to quicken Thy Word to our understanding and to touch our hearts with Thy Word.
Through Thy Word, may we see Thee, love Thee, and be filled with Thyself, the living Word. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We mentioned last night that Daniel was a very special vessel in the hand of God when he was but a youth. The grace of God upon him was such that he continued to be in the hand of God until he reached an advanced age.
In the beginning, we find that God gave him understanding of visions and dreams, preparing him for the day when God should give the first king of the world empire—the first king in the times of the Gentiles, Nebuchadnezzar—a dream.
Daniel not only interpreted that dream, but also told the king what the dream was. We fellowshipped together on this already this morning, so we will not go into it again.
But this evening we would like to come to a time when Daniel was in his advanced age, in the first year of King Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was king over the Chaldeans.
So far as time is concerned, the first year of King Darius was almost seventy years—more exactly, sixty-eight, or probably sixty-nine years—after Daniel was taken into captivity.
He had remained in the land of captivity for almost seventy years. He had now reached an age perhaps of eighty-five to ninety years old, somewhere around that age.
But you find that even though almost seventy years had passed, Daniel was not in anything less alert before the Lord. On the contrary, you find he was as keen and alert as he was as a young man. Spiritually, he never grew old.
When he was young, he purposed in his heart not to defile himself, but to keep himself pure for God. And God honored that purpose. Even when he reached that advanced age, you can see the purity of that life.
He had lived through almost seventy years in a Gentile court, full of idols, full of wickedness, full of the luxuries and sins of this world, and the intrigues of the court. He lived through all these years, and when he came to that advanced age, you find he was as pure as he was in the beginning.
He was not contaminated in any way. God had kept him through all these years, under all these circumstances.
For all these years, Daniel was in the very center of world politics. He was the number-two man under King Nebuchadnezzar. Again, during the reign of Darius the Mede, under another dynasty of the Medo-Persian Empire, he became the prime minister of that empire.
Because he was in the center of world politics, no wonder God gave him understanding of the times of the Gentiles, of the whole plan of God’s working upon this earth, until the kingdom of this world shall become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. It was most fitting.
But in his heart, Daniel was a real Jew. Through all those years of captivity, he never forgot Jerusalem.
We remember how, even for the sake of Jerusalem, for the sake of God’s people, and for the sake of God, he even risked his own life during the reign of King Darius. He opened his window toward Jerusalem and prayed three times for the peace of Jerusalem. He prayed to God for the peace of Jerusalem, and because of that he was thrown into the lions’ den.
He was a Jew in his heart. He had the people of God in his heart. He had the holy city, Jerusalem, in his heart. Through all these years, busily occupied with world politics and managing the greatest empire in the world under two different dynasties, you find that in his heart he was thinking of God’s people and Jerusalem. He never forgot.
When he came to the first year of King Darius, one empire had fallen and another empire had come up. He read the books, and he found in the book of Jeremiah that God had promised that the children of Israel would be taken into captivity for seventy years.
By that time it was the sixty-eighth, or even coming to the sixty-ninth, year. King Darius was on the throne for about two years, and then King Cyrus came to the throne. In the first year of King Cyrus, you remember, he made a decree permitting the children of Israel to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of God.
So it was just within two years’ time that the seventy years of desolation would be over. When Daniel read the books—when he read the book of Jeremiah—and found out that it was only a year or two before the seventy years of captivity would be over, how rejoicing he must have been in his heart!
But notice: not because it was in the book, and not because God had promised that it should be so, did Daniel simply wait passively for that day to come.
Now, we might say, “If God has promised, surely He will do it. So what can you do? What do you do? Nothing. The whole promise is that He Himself will perform it. All you need to do is sit back and wait.”
That seems to be the natural thing to do. But, dear brothers and sisters, if you know God, you know that is not the thing to do.
The right thing to do is this: if you are given the promise of God, then God expects you to rise up in your spirit and actively cooperate with Him.
God does not want us simply to sit back passively. The reason He should, at this moment, reveal His promise through the Book to Daniel was to give him an incentive to give himself to God in prayer and intercession, claiming the promise of God by faith and standing with God for the fulfillment of His promise.
And Daniel did just that.
When Daniel read the Book and, by computation, knew it was only a matter of a year or two, immediately you find that he set himself aside to seek God’s face.
He sought the Lord with prayer, with supplication, with fasting, with sackcloth, and with ashes. In other words, he took the position of a sinful nation.
He confessed the sins of his fathers and the sins of his people before God. Daniel was without blemish, and yet he took the position of the sinful nation.
How he glorified God in his prayer! He said, “Lord, You are righteous. Whatever You have done, You are right. It is because we are unfaithful. You have told us beforehand by Your Word, in the law of Moses, and we did not listen. You sent prophets to our kings and to our people, and we did not listen.”
“We are now dispersed all over this world. We have become a disgrace and a shame. It is all because of our unfaithfulness. You are righteous.”
Then he pleaded for God’s mercy. He said, “We do not deserve anything, because we have no righteousness at all. But because of Thy great name, and because of Thy manifold mercy, Lord, hear. Lord, do it.”
Brothers and sisters, it was through the prevailing prayer of Daniel that the promise of God was finally fulfilled in the first year of King Cyrus.
Do you want the promise of God to be fulfilled? Why should God tell us His promise? Why should God reveal His mind to us?
The reason He shows us His mind and tells us His promise is that He is waiting for us to rise up in our spirit, lay hold of His promise, plead before Him, and cooperate with Him so that His promise may be fulfilled.
God needs man to cooperate. It is true that it is God Himself who does the work, but still He needs cooperation from those who know Him. If He cannot find anyone on earth of one mind with Him, His hand is held back.
Prevailing prayer is the secret of releasing the promise of God.
In the Word of God, you have many promises, but you cannot take these promises mechanically or technically. You cannot say, “Now it is in the Bible; therefore, I will just sit here and wait.”
If you do that, you will be surprised. You will wonder why God’s promise does not come to pass. It is not because God’s promise is untrue; it is because God is waiting for you to rise up and claim it by faith, to cooperate with Him, and to be of one mind with Him.
When God’s people begin to pray according to His will, then heaven will be opened and God’s hand will be stretched out.
Even at this moment, when Daniel was in his old age, almost ninety years old, physically he might not have been as strong as he was as a young man, but spiritually he had grown stronger. His spirit was strong before God.
For a person to pray prevailing prayer, his spirit must be strong. There is nothing that will exhaust your strength more than prayer. You may be able to stand at the pulpit for three hours, but to be on your knees for one hour drains your strength physically and spiritually more than preaching for three hours.
It requires great strength. Here you find Daniel, a man with great spiritual strength. Almost alone, he was pleading with heaven, and heaven heard him. Prevailing prayer.
Of course, we know it was not only the prevailing prayer of Daniel that, after one or two years, when the seventy years of desolation were fulfilled, allowed the children of God to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house. No doubt, when the Medo-Persians overcame Babylon, they must have heard of Daniel.
It was Daniel’s interpretation of the writing on the wall just before Babylon fell. When Darius came to the throne, Daniel, though he had been a captive in the Babylonian Empire, immediately became one who was very close to and favored by King Darius.
This continued until King Cyrus. Why did Cyrus issue such a decree, allowing the children of Israel to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house? No doubt Daniel must have shared with Cyrus the prophecy of God concerning him in the book of Isaiah.
Hundreds of years before, God had already prophesied through Isaiah that He would raise up a servant by the name of Cyrus, and that Cyrus would serve His purpose in allowing His people to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the house.
How would Cyrus know this if he had not learned it from Daniel? You find, then, that the return of the children of Israel to rebuild the house was, in a very large measure, the work of Daniel. God used Daniel to fulfill His promise and to get His people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house. What a vessel Daniel was in the hand of God!
Even though we have no record that Daniel ever returned to Jerusalem, no doubt his heart was in Jerusalem. He would have been in Jerusalem if it had been possible. Probably because he occupied such a high position in the court, he did not have the liberty to go to Jerusalem.
We have no record that he ever visited Jerusalem. But even so, he was an instrument of God for the recovery of God’s testimony on earth. Now, that was Daniel.
Daniel gave himself to prayer, pleading with God for the promise of God to be fulfilled, that the children of Israel might return and the holy city might be rebuilt.
While he was speaking in prayer, he continued the whole day. At the time of the evening oblation—of course, at that time there was no evening oblation because the temple was destroyed and there was no sacrifice—Daniel evidently kept the morning prayer and the evening prayer.
He probably prayed from morning until evening, until the evening oblation. He spent a whole day before the Lord. At the time of the evening oblation, Gabriel the angel came to him.
Gabriel informed him and talked with him, saying, “Daniel, I am now come forth to make thee skillful of understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the word went forth, and I am come to declare it, for thou art greatly beloved.”
To whom will God reveal His secret? To those who are His, to those who live close to Him, to those who have one heart and mind with Him.
“Therefore consider the word, and have understanding in the vision.” On that day God gave Daniel a vision. It is a vision of the seventy sevens.
Now, of course, the word weeks there in the original is simply sevens. Because seven days constitute a week, the translators put it as seventy weeks. But actually, in the original, it is seventy sevens.
God gave him a vision of the seventy sevens:
Seventy sevens are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city.
Daniel’s heart was concerned with his people and with Jerusalem, the holy city. Because Daniel’s heart was concerned with that, God sent His angel to him and said, “Now seventy sevens are set apart for thy people and for the holy city, Jerusalem.”
When Daniel was praying, he had an immediate concern. The seventy years were almost fulfilled. Now God’s children and God’s city had an opportunity to return and rebuild. When Daniel prayed before God, he was thinking in terms of a year or two—the immediate return and the immediate restoration. That was what he had in mind by reading the book of Jeremiah.
But God answered him far beyond anything he ever sought, thought, or dreamed of. That is the way God always answers prayer.
Daniel was only thinking of the seventy years of captivity, now almost over. He asked God to fulfill His promise and allow the children of Israel to return and rebuild. But God sent His angel to Daniel and said, “So far as I am concerned, I am concerned with something far more than that—not just the return, but the ultimate purpose for your people, the children of Israel, and for the holy city, Jerusalem. I have set apart seventy sevens.”
In Daniel 2, God revealed to Daniel the times of the Gentiles, beginning from King Nebuchadnezzar until the time when the Antichrist and his kingdom shall be smashed and destroyed by Christ when He returns. This is roughly the time of the Gentiles.
God deals primarily with the Gentiles during this period. The children of Israel—the nation of Israel, as Paul said—were temporarily set aside. Not that God forgot His people altogether; they were only temporarily set aside. God’s dealing in this world was mainly with the Gentile nations. That is why we call this period the times of the Gentiles.
But within that time of the Gentiles, God cut off a portion of time: seventy sevens. In those seventy sevens, God has His special dealings with Israel and with Jerusalem.
So, brothers and sisters, remember this: the time is the time of the Gentiles, but God cut off a portion of that time for His special dealings with the children of Israel and with the holy city of Jerusalem.
The seventy sevens are primarily concerned with Daniel’s people and the holy city, Jerusalem.
Why did God apportion this time for Israel and for Jerusalem? Here you find that seventy sevens are apportioned upon thy people and upon thy holy city. God set apart that time to do six things for His people and for the holy city, Jerusalem.
God was to do six things:
After seventy years of captivity, Daniel was concerned only that the people might return and rebuild. That was Daniel’s concern. Unfortunately, even though they were allowed to return, only a remnant returned.
But God’s concern for His people was far greater. God said, “It is not only that My people shall return from captivity or even rebuild the city. My concern with My people is that the people whom I have chosen shall be fully restored to Me. That is My concern.”
God said, “I am going to do six things during those seventy sevens.” The first three are negative; the last three are positive.
First, God will finish transgression. This people transgressed the law, and because they transgressed the law of God, God took them under discipline.
God said, “One day I will finish the transgression.” The word finish signifies, “I will restrain it. I will put it aside, so that they will no longer transgress against My law.”
What grace for people who were so imbalanced, so sinful, and proved again and again to be a hopeless people! If you read the history of the children of Israel, you see that it is a hopeless people. Yet God, in His great longsuffering and patience, dealt with them and is dealing with them until one day God says, “I will finish the transgression. They will not transgress My law anymore.”
Second, He will make an end of sins. In another translation, you find, “to seal up sins.” When something is sealed up, it means there is no more.
It is the very word used when Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den. The king sealed the den—shut it up. In other words, no more; you cannot come out anymore. It is contained, sealed, finished, shut up.
Here God said, “I will seal up sins.” For people who sinned against God again and again and again, one day God said, “I will seal up sins. They will not sin against Me anymore.”
Third, He will make expiation for iniquity. In other words, this means to make reconciliation, to atone for all their iniquities, so that they are considered justified before Him.
Now, of course, dear brothers and sisters, all these are very practical. No doubt it is upon the cross of our Lord Jesus that He bore our sins—not only our sins, but also the sins of the children of Israel. He bore our sins upon the cross, and there He made atonement for us.
He is the reconciliation of the world and of the nation of Israel. No doubt about that. But what is meant here is the practical application.
Not only has Christ already completed the work of redemption on the cross, but all that He accomplished on the cross, though rejected by the nation of Israel, will one day be received by them.
One day a fountain will be opened, and the nation of Israel shall be washed. You find that in Zechariah 13:1. God promised that.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is what God will do for His people. Once God has chosen a people, God never gives up. Even though temporarily they may be set aside for thousands of years, yet God says, “I have set apart seventy sevens just to bring them to a place where they will no longer transgress the law, sin against the law, and where they will be washed white as snow.”
What mercy of God! This is the work that He would do, and He is doing it during that period of seventy sevens.
The last three move to the positive. God said, “I will bring in everlasting righteousness.”
In other words, God will make a new covenant with the children of Israel—not like the covenant He once made with them when He took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They did not keep His covenant; therefore, it was abrogated.
But one day God said, “I will make a new covenant with the children of Israel.” In that new covenant, you find God said:
I will put My law into their heart, and I will write it upon their mind.
I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
No one need tell his neighbor, “Know the Lord,”
because from the smallest to the greatest of them, they all shall know Me.
I will forgive their sins, and I will not remember their iniquities anymore.
Brothers and sisters, one day the new covenant will yet be established with the nation of Israel. Today, we who are in the church already enjoy the good of the new covenant, but that does not deprive the nation of Israel of that new covenant. One day God will yet establish a new covenant with the nation of Israel.
God will put them under a new covenant. Everlasting righteousness shall be brought in to that nation.
Then, “to seal up vision and prophecy.” Why does God give vision and send His prophets? Because the children of Israel had not been faithful.
But when that day comes, vision and prophecy shall pass away, because all that God has revealed and all that God has prophesied shall be fulfilled. There will no longer be the need of vision or the need of prophecy. That is the very consummation.
Finally, “to anoint the most holy.” This is the most difficult point to interpret. There are various interpretations concerning this.
Some say that the most holy does not mean a literal temple to be built with a holy of holies in that temple. They say it means Christ—a person, Christ, as the most holy.
But some people say, “No, it is the holy of holies. One day, in the millennial kingdom, a temple will yet be built in Jerusalem.” Which is it? I do not know.
But one thing we do know: when Moses built the tabernacle, on the day that he set up the tabernacle, the tabernacle was anointed.
That was the first and the only occasion where the tabernacle or the temple was anointed. The temple built by Solomon was not anointed. Neither was the temple built by the remnant anointed.
But here you find God says, “to anoint the most holy.” In other words, one day there will be a temple, and that temple shall be anointed. No wonder Haggai said, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former glory.”
Whether it refers to a person or whether it refers to a place, we do not know. But one thing we do know: one day God will return to His people in such a way that His presence shall be far more glorious than His presence with them in the old days.
In other words, God set apart seventy sevens to do these works—to bring His people back to Him, to such a privileged and glorious position. That is just like Him. That is the purpose of the seventy sevens.
Verse 25:
Know therefore and understand, from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince, are seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. The street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times.
Here you find that God showed Daniel when the seventy sevens would begin. When would it begin? It would begin at the time when the decree went forth to restore and build the city, Jerusalem.
“To restore and to build Jerusalem”—that was the beginning of the seventy sevens. God shows us very clearly when they begin: with the decree to restore and build Jerusalem, when its streets and moat would be rebuilt.
In connection with royal decrees for the return and rebuilding, altogether in the Bible you find three separate decrees.
The first decree was given by King Cyrus, in Ezra 1. Cyrus issued a royal decree saying, “All you people of God, you may go back to Jerusalem.” To do what? To rebuild the temple, not the city.
Therefore, this cannot be the beginning of the seventy sevens.
Then you find a second royal decree concerning the return and rebuilding. It is found in Ezra 7. In the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, he issued a decree to Ezra, permitting Ezra to go back to Jerusalem. To do what? To beautify the temple.
So it cannot be that decree, because it was only to beautify the temple, not to build the city.
Then we find the third one in Nehemiah 2. The same Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the twentieth year of his reign, issued a royal decree, sending Nehemiah back to Jerusalem to be the governor of the Jews and to rebuild the city and the wall.
So, brothers and sisters, we know that the beginning of the seventy sevens was with this third royal decree. Nehemiah was sent back to rebuild the wall. That was when the seventy sevens began.
From the time when the command was given to restore and build Jerusalem to the time of Messiah—Messiah, of course, is Christ, Christ the Messiah—there were altogether sixty-nine sevens.
These sixty-nine sevens were divided into two: seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. But even though they were divided, they were not separated. In other words, the time continued.
From the time of the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, in his twentieth year, for Nehemiah to go back and rebuild the wall, to the time of Messiah, altogether there were sixty-nine sevens, or 483 years.
Historically, this was fulfilled. Why divide it into seven sevens and sixty-two sevens? Seven sevens is forty-nine years. Why divide it into forty-nine years and then sixty-two sevens? We do not know. Probably it took forty-nine years for Jerusalem to be fully restored and fully rebuilt in troublous times.
But anyway, when you study history, you know that from the time of Nehemiah’s return to the time of Christ was 483 years.
Some people compute it to the very day. But, of course, we do not need to do that, because chronology in ancient times is not too accurate. The dates are not too accurate. But approximately, we know this is what happened.
We who believe in the Word of God do not need to be exact to the very day. We know that this is what happened.
At the end of sixty-nine sevens, Messiah shall be cut off. The word cut off in the original means that He is violently cut off.
When was Christ openly announced as the Messiah? It was when He entered into Jerusalem for the last time. He was acclaimed as the Messiah, but only a few more days later He was crucified on the cross. The Messiah was cut off and had nothing.
Nothing, so far as the nation of Israel was concerned. Even today they do not acknowledge Christ Jesus as the Messiah. The Messiah had nothing—absolutely nothing—so far as Israel was concerned.
But then you find that something is inserted between the sixty-nine sevens and the final one seven. The sixty-nine sevens and the one seven are separated. There is something in between.
After the sixty-two sevens shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
Then it says:
The end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined. And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one seven.
Here you find that interposed between the sixty-nine sevens and the final one seven, there is something else.
Now, when you come to things that are still in the future, things not clearly defined, you cannot be dogmatic. You can only try to find what seems most satisfactory. We can never be dogmatic with these things; there are margins, and we have to be open.
Some people think that after the Messiah was cut off, the people of the prince that shall come destroyed the city and the sanctuary. Some people believe this was fulfilled in A.D. 70, when the Roman soldiers under the Roman prince Titus besieged Jerusalem and finally broke into it.
They destroyed the city. Even though Titus gave a command to preserve the temple, his soldiers perhaps did not hear. They threw fire into the temple, and the temple started to burn.
What Christ had said about the temple—not one stone upon another—was literally fulfilled in A.D. 70. Jerusalem, the city and the sanctuary, were destroyed.
But that was not the end. That was not it. You find, “the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined.”
That was only the beginning, not the end. Time will go on and on toward the end, and all the while there will be wars and desolations until, finally, there will be an overflow. In other words, everything will be intensified, so far as desolation is concerned.
You find this in Matthew 24. I think it is from verse 4 onward:
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray.
For many shall come in My name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for these things must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places.
But all these things are the beginning of travail.
Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all the nations for My name’s sake.
And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another.
And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray.
And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.
But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let him that readeth understand.
Probably this is the period that is not set apart. You see, seventy sevens were set apart, cut off from the time. But between the sixty-nine sevens and the last seven there is a time that was not set apart for Israel and for the city.
On the one hand, so far as the world is concerned, it is simply the time of the Gentiles. The situation will become worse and worse and more intense, as we find in Matthew: wars, rumors of wars, pestilences, persecutions, and so on. But the gospel shall increase.
On the other hand, this is the time of the church. God is gathering unto Himself a people out of every nation, every tongue, every tribe, and every people. God has gathered them together into a holy nation, a people for His own possession—His church.
Here you find God is working quietly, gathering unto Himself a people. That time is neither for the Jews nor for the Gentiles, but for the church.
Outwardly, the times of the Gentiles go on, and the children of Israel and the holy city seem to be set aside again because they rejected the Messiah. This will go on until the end.
When the end shall come, there will be another seven—another seven.
He shall make a firm covenant with many for one seven.
Now, who is this “he”? It refers back to the prince that shall come. The prince that shall come is the Antichrist.
Christ said, “I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”
So far as the nation of Israel is concerned—remember, brothers and sisters, this is related to Israel—one day there will be a man, a prince as it were, who shall come and make a peace pact with the nation of Israel for a seven-year period.
All these things are coming. The nation of Israel, in a sense, after the Second World War—you remember after the First World War there was the Balfour Declaration. The British government guaranteed that the Jews could return to their homeland, but at the same time they promised the Arabs the same land. Finally, they restricted the return, and you know the story.
After the Second World War was finished, the nation of Israel was established. But look: the little nation Israel lives daily under, as it were, a death threat. They are never secure—never secure.
This will continue on until one day one man, a prince as it were, the head of a great power or confederation, will say, “I will guarantee your security. Let us sign a pact, a peace pact, for seven years.”
Those who do not know God will jump at this offer. The nation of Israel will make a pact with the Antichrist for seven years. They think they can make use of that man; of course, that man makes use of them too.
But in the middle of the seven years, he will break his promise. He will tear that covenant to pieces. He will cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.
As you read in the book of Revelation, you find that he has established himself so firmly in this world that now he begins to show his real face. He will abolish all religion. He will ask people to worship him, and him alone.
He will put his image—the image of the beast—in the holy place in Jerusalem. That is the abomination of desolation.
At that time comes the time of Jacob’s trouble, the three and a half years of the great tribulation. So far as the children of Israel are concerned, it is Jacob’s trouble. So far as the world is concerned, it is the great tribulation.
Those godly Jews will suffer during that time. In detail, you can read about these things in Revelation, in Zechariah, and in the different prophets. This will continue on until the consummation, and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolator.
In other words, then Christ shall come. He shall destroy the kingdom of the Antichrist. He shall destroy the Antichrist and put the Antichrist into the lake of fire.
Then Israel shall once again be fully restored to God and become the head of the nations on earth during the millennial kingdom.
Brothers and sisters, this is God’s dealing with the children of Israel. So far as God’s dealing with the Gentile nations is concerned, we see that in Daniel 2. Now, in Daniel 9, you have God’s special dealing with the children of Israel, with the nation of Israel.
But it all comes to one thing: one day God shall establish His kingdom upon this earth, and Christ shall rule over this earth.
With whom will Christ rule? Christ will rule with those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth today. They shall reign with Christ for a thousand years.
Brothers and sisters, this is God’s plan concerning the nation of Israel and the church.
May the Lord use these words to help us to be watchful and to be faithful unto Him, so that when He shall come back, we shall not be put to shame.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast a great plan for Thy Son and for those whom Thou hast chosen.
Even though Thy people may be unfaithful, Thou dost remain faithful to the very end. Oh, how we praise Thee and worship Thee.
Lord, we as Thy people today just look to Thee for Thy mercy. O Lord, we ask Thee that we may be faithful, that we may follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest, that when Thou shalt return, we may be with Thee in Thy kingdom.
And to Thee be all the praise and the glory, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.