- Today we're gonna dig into one
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of the most misread, misapplied
portions of the Bible.
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One that's
creating a lot of confusion
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in the world of
Western Christianity right now,
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especially as our world
keeps getting a little weirder.
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[upbeat music]
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[upbeat music continues]
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A lot of people in
the ancient Middle East
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felt the sting of
the Neo-Babylonian armies
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but nobody felt it quite as
keenly as the tribe of Judah.
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They'd been
warned by godly prophets
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that the
Babylonians were coming,
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but they had
foolishly chosen to believe
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that because they were
the covenant people of God
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and they had the temple
right there in their midst
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that nothing
could possibly go wrong.
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After all, wasn't
this God's sacred city?
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How in the world
could anybody think
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that God would allow a
group of profane gentiles
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to conquer
something as important,
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something as utterly pivotal,
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as the very center
of His religious system?
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The conquest of
Jerusalem would signal
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that maybe the Babylonian
gods were more powerful
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than the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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So they refused to believe it.
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There was just
one voice in the city
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that continued
to sound the alarm
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and that was the
prophetic nuisance Jeremiah,
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who was the only
person who still said
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the Babylonians
were going to prevail.
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Every other religious authority,
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every other so-called prophet,
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was pointing to the
magnificent structure
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on the Temple Mount
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as proof positive that nothing
bad could possibly happen.
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"Do not trust in
these lying words,
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Jeremiah warned them,
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"Saying, 'The
temple of the Lord,
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the temple of the Lord,
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the temple of
the Lord are these.'"
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The religious
authorities of that day
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were treating the temple
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as some kind of good
luck charm or talisman,
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figuring they could hide
behind it during an emergency.
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But of course, up to that point,
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they had utterly refused
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to abide by the
terms of the covenant,
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and now their desire to duck
behind the temple was pointless
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because the presence of God,
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the one who told them
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to build that
temple in the first place,
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well, He was no
longer in their midst
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and the stunning
structure built by Solomon
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was now just another building.
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It was pointless.
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The way the Bible phrases it,
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God's patience
with His wayward people
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had completely worn out,
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and according to 2 Kings 24,
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"He finally cast them
out from His presence."
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We find a
record of what happened
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when the
Babylonians pulled into town
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in the book of 2 Kings.
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This was not their first visit
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because they had been there
before to take people captive.
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But now they
really meant business
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because even though
the Jewish king Zedekiah
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had pledged
allegiance to Babylon,
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promising to be a
faithful servant to them,
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he was clearly lying.
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He'd been busy trying to
cobble together an allegiance
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with the Egyptians,
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hoping that by working together,
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they could
finally rid themselves
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of their Babylonian overlords.
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So in 588 BC, the
Babylonians pulled up
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outside the walls of Jerusalem
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and began to lay siege.
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By 587, they had
successfully taken the city,
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and they were not about
to leave any possibility
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for further rebellion.
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The city walls were
completely destroyed
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and they burned the
temple to the ground.
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Zedekiah, of course,
fled to the countryside
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but the
Babylonians caught up with him
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and dealt him a
humiliating blow.
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His sons were slaughtered
right in front of him
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and then he was
blinded so that his boys' death
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was the very last
thing he would ever see.
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He was chained up
like a common slave
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and deported to Babylon.
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On the landscape of everything
that happens in the Bible,
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the conquest of Jerusalem and
the destruction of the temple
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serve as a major,
major focal point.
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This is one of the big keys
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that helps you understand
the rest of the Bible.
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The vast majority of what
you read in the Old Testament
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covers a period of time
from the creation of the world
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down to the Babylonian exile.
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There are portions
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that refer to what
happened after the exile
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like Ezra and Nehemiah,
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which are books that describe
the restoration of Jerusalem,
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and we have a few other portions
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that take place
after Nebuchadnezzar,
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but the bulk of this
narrative takes us down
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to the destruction
of Solomon's temple
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where the dreams and
aspirations of God's people
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are suddenly shattered.
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Of course, the tribe of
Judah was not the only victim
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of Babylonian brutality.
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All of their neighbors
had also felt the wrath
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of Nebuchadnezzar's armies.
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But for the Israelites, it
was particularly humiliating.
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Their ancient father
Abraham was a Chaldean
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who migrated to the promised
land from the city of Ur.
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Abraham was promised
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that the entire region
now known as the Holy Land
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would belong to his descendants,
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who would be as numberless as
the grains of sand on a beach.
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Abraham's children were
considered to be the bride of
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God, as the
prophet Ezekiel explained
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after the Babylonian conquest.
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"When I passed by you
again and looked upon you,"
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God tells His
people through the prophet,
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"Indeed, your time
was the time of love.
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So I spread my wing over
you and covered your nakedness.
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Yes, I swore an oath to you
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and entered into
a covenant with you
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and you became
mine," says the Lord God.
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The relationship
between God and Israel
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was a love story quite
literally born in heaven,
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but the bride, who
originally hailed from Chaldea,
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proved to be unfaithful,
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so now she was being
returned in shame to her family.
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The march back to
Babylon was a national disgrace,
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a very public announcement
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that the nation of Israel
was guilty of spiritual adultery
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and she was
being sent back home.
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And tragically, it
was not the only time
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the temple was left desolate.
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Roughly half a millennium later,
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another warning was sounded
in the city of Jerusalem,
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this time by Jesus.
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One day, as He contemplated
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what had become of
the faith of Abraham,
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He publicly mourned
the fate of the temple
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and made a rather dire
prediction found in Matthew 23,
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"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
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the one who kills the prophets
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and stones those
who are sent to her.
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How often I wanted to
gather your children together
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as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings,
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but you were not willing.
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See, your house is
left to you desolate."
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Of course, this
really bothered the disciples
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because it was a clear illusion
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to the Babylonian
destruction of the temple,
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when the sins of God's
people had become so egregious
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that the rituals at the
temple became meaningless.
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The religion was just a matter
of going through the motions.
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But now groups like the
Pharisees were working overtime
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to make sure
nobody even got close
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to sinning like
the ancestors did.
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Jesus, however, was underwhelmed
by the Pharisees efforts
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and openly condemned the
way they conducted themselves.
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"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites," He said,
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"For you are
like whitewashed tombs
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which indeed appear
beautiful outwardly,
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but inside are full of dead
men's bones and all uncleanness.
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Even so, you also outwardly
appear righteous to men,
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but inside you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness."
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It was all very
concerning to the disciples,
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who ironically began
to make the same plea
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as the false
prophets of Jeremiah's day.
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They appealed to the temple.
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Here's what it
says in Matthew 24
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right after Jesus predicted
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that the temple
would be left desolate.
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"Then Jesus went out
and departed from the temple
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and His disciples came up
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to show Him the
buildings of the temple.
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And Jesus said to them, 'Do
you not see all these things?
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Assuredly, I say to you,
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not one stone shall be
left here upon another,
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that shall not be thrown down.'"
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Of course, in hindsight,
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we all know that
Jesus was completely right.
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A few years later in AD 70,
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in the midst of a rebellion
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that the Romans
wanted to squash,
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one soldier pushed a
lit torch inside the temple
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and it lit the
entire place on fire.
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The temple burned to the ground
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along with the zealots
who were hiding inside,
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and when the
flames finally died down,
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the Romans disassembled
what was left block by block,
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essentially
creating the Temple Mount
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that you can
still see to this day,
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which is nothing
but a single wall
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where people come to pray.
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What's amazing about
this national tragedy
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is the way that it
was entirely predictable,
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and not just
because Jesus announced it
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just a few years
before it happened.
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The fate of the temple
had actually been predicted
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during the Babylonian captivity
00:09:09.44\00:09:11.71
hundreds of years in the past.
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I'll be right back after this.
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[air whooshes]
00:09:15.98\00:09:18.62
- [Announcer] Life
can throw a lot at us.
00:09:19.69\00:09:21.96
Sometimes we don't
have all the answers.
00:09:21.96\00:09:25.36
But that's where
the Bible comes in.
00:09:25.36\00:09:27.76
It's our guide to a
more fulfilling life.
00:09:27.76\00:09:30.80
Here at the Voice of Prophecy,
00:09:30.80\00:09:32.37
we've created the
Discover Bible Guides
00:09:32.37\00:09:34.54
to be your guide to the Bible.
00:09:34.54\00:09:36.14
They're designed to
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00:09:36.14\00:09:38.61
and provide answers to many
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00:09:45.98\00:09:49.02
- The Temple Mount in
Jerusalem is still one
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of the world's
most contentious spots.
00:09:50.89\00:09:53.36
Today it's controlled by Muslims
00:09:53.36\00:09:55.39
and it features
the Dome of the Rock,
00:09:55.39\00:09:57.16
a magnificent shrine that marks
the place where they believe
00:09:57.16\00:10:00.60
is the spot where Muhammad began
00:10:00.60\00:10:02.66
his miraculous night journey,
00:10:02.66\00:10:04.43
which he said was
a visit to heaven.
00:10:04.43\00:10:07.27
Now, today there's a
segment of Western Christianity
00:10:07.27\00:10:09.90
that believes that in
order for Christ to return,
00:10:09.90\00:10:12.87
the Jews must
reclaim the Temple Mount
00:10:12.87\00:10:15.08
and build a third temple,
00:10:15.08\00:10:16.95
which of course
poses a bit of a problem
00:10:16.95\00:10:19.45
because in order to do that,
00:10:19.45\00:10:20.95
you'd have to compromise one
of the holiest sites in Islam.
00:10:20.95\00:10:24.22
The potential for an
international incident
00:10:24.22\00:10:26.55
is absolutely massive.
00:10:26.55\00:10:28.62
All it would take to
spark a major conflict
00:10:28.62\00:10:31.19
is for one well-meaning zealot
00:10:31.19\00:10:33.09
to do something, well, radical.
00:10:33.09\00:10:37.33
Right now, as it stands,
00:10:37.33\00:10:38.63
non-Muslims are not
even allowed to pray
00:10:38.63\00:10:40.74
on the Temple Mount,
00:10:40.74\00:10:42.04
which is admittedly a
hard thing to enforce.
00:10:42.04\00:10:45.04
But the regulation is there.
00:10:45.04\00:10:46.51
The Muslims are determined
that this spot belongs to them.
00:10:46.51\00:10:50.08
Now, just before the break,
00:10:51.05\00:10:52.48
I said that the
destruction of the second temple
00:10:52.48\00:10:54.08
was actually predicted
during the Babylonian captivity,
00:10:54.08\00:10:57.69
and right now I'm
gonna demonstrate that.
00:10:57.69\00:10:59.39
So you might wanna
grab a copy of the Bible
00:10:59.39\00:11:01.36
and follow along
00:11:01.36\00:11:02.72
because we're going
to look at a passage
00:11:02.72\00:11:04.63
from the Old Testament
00:11:04.63\00:11:06.09
that, in recent times, has
been taken out of its context
00:11:06.09\00:11:10.07
to make it say things it
was never intended to say.
00:11:10.07\00:11:14.30
I'm talking about Daniel 9,
00:11:14.30\00:11:17.37
which a lot of modern
Western Christians assume
00:11:17.37\00:11:20.48
is talking about
a last day scenario
00:11:20.48\00:11:23.41
in which the antichrist
starts to make trouble
00:11:23.41\00:11:25.78
for the entire planet.
00:11:25.78\00:11:28.12
But that's a
relatively modern understanding
00:11:28.12\00:11:30.59
that would come as a surprise
00:11:30.59\00:11:31.82
to roughly 1,800
years worth of Christians
00:11:31.82\00:11:35.12
who didn't read it that way.
00:11:35.12\00:11:37.46
Let me show you what I mean.
00:11:37.46\00:11:39.19
At the beginning of Daniel 9,
00:11:39.19\00:11:41.03
we find the prophet asking God
00:11:41.03\00:11:42.66
to help him understand
the fate of God's people
00:11:42.66\00:11:45.53
who were living in Babylon.
00:11:45.53\00:11:48.00
Jeremiah had predicted
00:11:48.00\00:11:49.40
that the Babylonian
captivity would last 70 years,
00:11:49.40\00:11:53.11
and that time was
drawing to a close,
00:11:53.11\00:11:55.88
and that would mean that
Daniel himself is now an old man
00:11:55.88\00:11:59.25
because he was
among the people captured
00:11:59.25\00:12:01.48
when the temple was sacked.
00:12:01.48\00:12:03.35
So here's what it says
00:12:03.35\00:12:04.59
beginning right at
the top of Daniel 9.
00:12:04.59\00:12:07.92
"In the first year of
Darius, the son of Ahaseurus,
00:12:07.92\00:12:12.16
of the lineage of the Medes,
00:12:12.16\00:12:13.66
who was made king over
the realm of the Chaldeans,
00:12:13.66\00:12:16.60
in the first year of his reign,
00:12:16.60\00:12:17.97
I Daniel understood by the books
00:12:17.97\00:12:20.00
the number of the years
specified by the word of the
00:12:20.00\00:12:23.57
Lord through
Jeremiah the prophet,
00:12:23.57\00:12:25.47
that He would
accomplish 70 years
00:12:25.47\00:12:27.74
in the
desolations of Jerusalem."
00:12:27.74\00:12:30.81
Now, you see
that word desolations?
00:12:30.81\00:12:33.11
A lot of modern books
about prophecy like to suggest
00:12:33.11\00:12:35.92
that the, quote,
"abomination of desolation"
00:12:35.92\00:12:39.35
represents the work of
some kind of latter-day dictator
00:12:39.35\00:12:42.56
who openly opposes
the Christian faith.
00:12:42.56\00:12:45.73
And that understanding
is partly understandable
00:12:45.73\00:12:48.90
because the Bible kind
of uses it in that sense
00:12:48.90\00:12:52.40
when it uses the
destruction of the temple
00:12:52.40\00:12:54.74
as an illustration
00:12:54.74\00:12:56.30
for what the church
would go through in the future.
00:12:56.30\00:12:58.77
But in its primary sense,
00:13:00.04\00:13:02.01
the abomination of desolation
00:13:02.01\00:13:03.88
is talking about the
wickedness of human kings.
00:13:03.88\00:13:06.98
At the very end of 2 Chronicles,
00:13:06.98\00:13:08.82
it lists a number
of very wicked people
00:13:08.82\00:13:10.75
who committed what the
Bible calls abominations
00:13:10.75\00:13:14.79
and it says that led directly
00:13:14.79\00:13:16.42
to the
Babylonians sacking the temple
00:13:16.42\00:13:18.73
and leaving it desolate.
00:13:18.73\00:13:20.56
In other words, it's
not the sins of an outsider
00:13:20.56\00:13:22.70
that this term is addressing.
00:13:22.70\00:13:24.53
It's the sins of
God's own people,
00:13:24.53\00:13:26.87
which becomes obvious when
you read the lament of Jesus
00:13:26.87\00:13:29.64
over the city of Jerusalem.
00:13:29.64\00:13:31.47
He's broken-hearted
because His people
00:13:31.47\00:13:34.11
had once again strayed
from the purpose of the faith.
00:13:34.11\00:13:37.15
And so now He tells them
00:13:37.15\00:13:38.68
that, once again, their house
was going to be left desolate.
00:13:38.68\00:13:43.02
Then looking
ahead to the dark moment
00:13:43.02\00:13:44.95
when the Romans would
begin their military crackdown,
00:13:44.95\00:13:47.66
Jesus says this,
"Therefore, when you see
00:13:47.66\00:13:50.63
the abomination of desolation
00:13:50.63\00:13:52.69
spoken of by Daniel the prophet
standing in the holy place,
00:13:52.69\00:13:56.53
whoever reads,
let him understand,
00:13:56.53\00:13:59.17
'then let those who were in
Judea flee to the mountains.'"
00:13:59.17\00:14:02.17
Read it really carefully
00:14:03.00\00:14:04.27
and you'll see Jesus is tying
00:14:04.27\00:14:06.37
the future
destruction of the temple
00:14:06.37\00:14:07.94
to the prophecies of Daniel,
00:14:07.94\00:14:09.81
which takes us
again back to Daniel 9.
00:14:09.81\00:14:13.72
There's a brief prophetic
passage at the end of this
00:14:13.72\00:14:16.72
chapter that some people
call the 70-week prophecy.
00:14:16.72\00:14:20.06
And that's what I
wanna look at right now
00:14:20.06\00:14:22.26
because, well, it doesn't say
00:14:22.26\00:14:24.79
what a lot of
people think it says.
00:14:24.79\00:14:27.96
These are the words
of the angel Gabriel,
00:14:27.96\00:14:30.03
who's trying to help Daniel
understand God's future plans
00:14:30.03\00:14:33.20
for the nation of Israel.
00:14:33.20\00:14:34.70
And it says this, "70 weeks
are determined for your people
00:14:34.70\00:14:38.91
and for your holy city
00:14:38.91\00:14:40.21
to finish the transgression,
00:14:40.21\00:14:42.14
to make an end of sins,
00:14:42.14\00:14:43.95
to make
reconciliation for iniquity,
00:14:43.95\00:14:45.98
to bring in
everlasting righteousness,
00:14:45.98\00:14:48.22
to seal up vision and prophecy,
00:14:48.22\00:14:50.05
and to anoint the most holy."
00:14:50.05\00:14:53.02
Now, there's a lot in
that passage we need to unpack.
00:14:53.02\00:14:55.89
So let's just
start with the number 70,
00:14:55.89\00:14:58.13
which is the number of
years Jeremiah predicted
00:14:58.13\00:15:00.86
for the Babylonian captivity.
00:15:00.86\00:15:03.20
It represented 490
years of disobedience,
00:15:03.20\00:15:07.24
and in 2 Chronicles 36:21,
00:15:07.24\00:15:10.37
we discover that in particular
the nation had refused
00:15:10.37\00:15:13.11
to keep the seventh day Sabbath,
00:15:13.11\00:15:15.58
which of course
represents 1/7th of the time
00:15:15.58\00:15:19.01
they were in rebellion.
00:15:19.01\00:15:20.32
Here's what it says,
00:15:20.32\00:15:22.02
"And those who
escaped from the sword
00:15:22.02\00:15:24.85
he carried away to Babylon,
00:15:24.85\00:15:26.62
where they became
servants to him and his sons
00:15:26.62\00:15:28.86
until the rule of
the kingdom of Persia
00:15:28.86\00:15:31.29
to fulfill the word of the
Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
00:15:31.29\00:15:34.63
until the land had
enjoyed her Sabbaths.
00:15:34.63\00:15:37.70
As long as she lay
desolate, she kept Sabbath,
00:15:37.70\00:15:40.37
to fulfill 70 years."
00:15:40.37\00:15:43.44
So the land was quiet
00:15:43.44\00:15:45.07
to make up for every
single Sabbath that was missed.
00:15:45.07\00:15:48.21
So what we have is
70 years of captivity
00:15:48.21\00:15:51.15
that represent
490 years of apostasy.
00:15:51.15\00:15:55.22
Now, as the
nation is getting ready
00:15:55.22\00:15:56.85
to go back to the promised land,
00:15:56.85\00:15:58.55
God tells Daniel they're
gonna get another group of 70,
00:15:58.55\00:16:02.62
70 weeks to be exact.
00:16:02.62\00:16:04.69
And of course, 70
weeks is actually 490 days.
00:16:04.69\00:16:09.63
And that's
really, really important.
00:16:09.63\00:16:13.17
Christians have long
understood that these 490 days
00:16:13.17\00:16:16.81
represent 490 years
00:16:16.81\00:16:19.24
because it's so obvious that
this is a parallel time span
00:16:19.24\00:16:23.21
with the 70 years of captivity
00:16:23.21\00:16:25.28
that represent 490
years of rebellion.
00:16:25.28\00:16:28.32
It's using days
to represent years,
00:16:28.32\00:16:30.89
which, if you look
through the Old Testament,
00:16:30.89\00:16:33.12
is a very
common prophetic motif.
00:16:33.12\00:16:36.22
So what exactly does it mean?
00:16:36.22\00:16:38.33
The people of God had
been violating the covenant
00:16:38.33\00:16:40.66
for 490 years
00:16:40.66\00:16:42.80
and now they were
gonna get another 490 years
00:16:42.80\00:16:46.07
that served as a
probationary period.
00:16:46.07\00:16:48.80
This was a
special time set aside
00:16:48.80\00:16:50.64
for Daniel's people, it says,
00:16:50.64\00:16:52.61
and Daniel's city.
00:16:52.61\00:16:54.64
Daniel's people, of
course, were the Jews
00:16:54.64\00:16:57.51
and Daniel's city was Jerusalem.
00:16:57.51\00:17:00.22
So this is really
pretty easy to decipher.
00:17:00.22\00:17:02.92
The prophecy
continues now in Daniel 9:25
00:17:02.92\00:17:06.09
and it starts to
get a little technical,
00:17:06.09\00:17:08.19
but stick with
me for a few minutes
00:17:08.19\00:17:09.79
because this
really will be worth it.
00:17:09.79\00:17:12.83
It says, "Know
therefore and understand
00:17:12.83\00:17:15.80
that from the going
forth of the command
00:17:15.80\00:17:17.60
to restore and build Jerusalem
until Messiah the Prince,"
00:17:17.60\00:17:20.97
and, of course,
that would be Jesus,
00:17:20.97\00:17:23.27
"There shall be
seven weeks and 62 weeks.
00:17:23.27\00:17:26.51
The street shall be built again,
00:17:26.51\00:17:27.81
and the wall, even
in troublesome times."
00:17:27.81\00:17:30.71
Now, this is why this
passage captures the attention
00:17:30.71\00:17:33.78
of so many Christians,
00:17:33.78\00:17:35.02
because it makes
specific reference
00:17:35.02\00:17:37.29
to the appearance of Messiah
00:17:37.29\00:17:39.15
and it says that He would
appear seven weeks plus 62 weeks
00:17:39.15\00:17:43.49
after the command
to rebuild Jerusalem.
00:17:43.49\00:17:46.23
And this is where
the passage really defies
00:17:47.36\00:17:49.20
a lot of skeptics
00:17:49.20\00:17:50.43
because it works out
to be precisely right.
00:17:50.43\00:17:53.94
Even though a
number of Persian royals
00:17:53.94\00:17:55.87
indicated their support
for the return of God's people,
00:17:55.87\00:17:58.57
it was in 537 BC
00:17:58.57\00:18:00.81
that we get this
specific command from Artaxerxes
00:18:00.81\00:18:04.18
that not only
commands the work to done,
00:18:04.18\00:18:07.12
but it actually
provided resources
00:18:07.12\00:18:09.18
from the Persian royal treasury.
00:18:09.18\00:18:11.62
You can find the wording
of that command in Ezra 7
00:18:11.62\00:18:14.82
and it provides one of the
most important anchor points
00:18:14.82\00:18:17.96
in the history of the Bible.
00:18:17.96\00:18:19.93
And I'll be right back
after this to show you how.
00:18:19.93\00:18:23.47
[air whooshes]
00:18:23.47\00:18:26.47
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- Some people wonder why
the prophecy of Daniel 9:25
00:18:56.70\00:19:01.10
gets broken up into two parts,
00:19:01.10\00:19:02.90
as in seven weeks plus 62 weeks,
00:19:02.90\00:19:06.21
instead of just saying 69 weeks.
00:19:06.21\00:19:09.28
Well, it's really pretty simple.
00:19:09.28\00:19:11.08
At the seven-week mark,
which would be 49 years,
00:19:11.08\00:19:14.25
the
construction project was done
00:19:14.25\00:19:16.18
and it's one more
way of letting us know
00:19:16.18\00:19:17.89
that we're on the right track.
00:19:17.89\00:19:19.75
The entire
prophecy, the 69 weeks,
00:19:19.75\00:19:22.36
totals 483 prophetic
days or literal years,
00:19:22.36\00:19:26.06
which takes us
to the year AD 27.
00:19:26.06\00:19:29.63
Now, if you're
doing the math at home,
00:19:29.63\00:19:30.87
you might find
that a little confusing
00:19:30.87\00:19:32.57
because 483 added
to 457 should take you
00:19:32.57\00:19:36.50
to 26 AD instead of 27.
00:19:36.50\00:19:39.37
But of course, there's no
such thing as a year zero.
00:19:39.37\00:19:43.18
1 BC was
immediately followed by 1 AD,
00:19:43.18\00:19:45.61
so you've got to account
for that when you do the math.
00:19:45.61\00:19:48.95
That way, 483 takes
you to the year 27 AD,
00:19:48.95\00:19:52.49
which is the 15th
year of Tiberius Caesar,
00:19:52.49\00:19:55.76
which is exactly the
year that Jesus was baptized
00:19:55.76\00:19:59.33
and began His public ministry.
00:19:59.33\00:20:01.50
In other words, Messiah
showed up exactly on time.
00:20:01.50\00:20:05.77
I mean, haven't
you always wondered
00:20:05.77\00:20:07.24
why Jesus just stayed in the
background until later in life?
00:20:07.24\00:20:11.01
Why not start His
public ministry earlier?
00:20:11.01\00:20:14.31
Well, at the age of 30, He
would've had a lot more clout,
00:20:14.31\00:20:17.01
but there's another
reason, it just wasn't time yet.
00:20:17.01\00:20:20.32
In AD 27, the prophecy of
Daniel 9 was coming to pass
00:20:20.32\00:20:24.15
and it was time for God to
announce His son to the public,
00:20:24.15\00:20:27.52
which is exactly what
He did at Christ's baptism.
00:20:27.52\00:20:31.56
The Bible tells us
00:20:31.56\00:20:32.96
that the Holy Spirit
descended on Christ that day
00:20:32.96\00:20:34.86
and a voice from heaven said,
00:20:34.86\00:20:36.36
"This is my beloved son,
in whom I am well pleased."
00:20:36.36\00:20:41.17
It happened right on time,
right according to schedule.
00:20:41.17\00:20:45.11
This is why so many
people find this so compelling
00:20:45.11\00:20:48.01
and why skeptics
tend to skip past Daniel 9
00:20:48.01\00:20:51.81
because it's really
hard to explain this away.
00:20:51.81\00:20:54.68
And if this was the only
thing that prophecy got right,
00:20:54.68\00:20:57.12
that'd be worth
paying attention to,
00:20:57.12\00:20:58.52
but it's really
just getting warmed up.
00:20:58.52\00:21:00.86
Here we go onto verse 26,
00:21:00.86\00:21:03.43
where it says,
"And after the 62 weeks,
00:21:03.43\00:21:06.66
Messiah shall be cut
off, but not for Himself."
00:21:06.66\00:21:10.73
Now, remember, back
in the previous verse,
00:21:10.73\00:21:13.23
it was seven plus 62 weeks,
00:21:13.23\00:21:15.44
and what it's telling us
00:21:15.44\00:21:16.91
is that after that whole
period of time is finished,
00:21:16.91\00:21:18.97
sometime after 27 AD,
00:21:18.97\00:21:21.81
Messiah was going to be
cut off for other people,
00:21:21.81\00:21:25.45
which is obviously what happened
00:21:25.45\00:21:27.18
after three and a half
years of public ministry.
00:21:27.18\00:21:29.25
Jesus was crucified.
00:21:29.25\00:21:31.79
Then it
continues, "And the people
00:21:31.79\00:21:34.42
of the prince who is to come
00:21:34.42\00:21:35.89
shall destroy the
city and the sanctuary.
00:21:35.89\00:21:38.43
The end of it
shall be with a flood
00:21:38.43\00:21:40.66
until the end of the war
desolations are determined."
00:21:40.66\00:21:44.40
Now, for some strange reason,
00:21:44.40\00:21:47.44
modern Christians
tend to take this verse
00:21:47.44\00:21:49.70
and stick it way
off in the future,
00:21:49.70\00:21:51.81
in what they assume
will be the last few years
00:21:51.81\00:21:54.54
of this earth's history.
00:21:54.54\00:21:55.81
But when you see what Jesus said
00:21:56.81\00:21:58.61
about the abomination of
desolation in the Book of
00:21:58.61\00:22:01.72
Daniel, it becomes
really, really obvious
00:22:01.72\00:22:03.75
that this is
referring to the sack
00:22:03.75\00:22:05.35
of the city and the
temple by the Romans,
00:22:05.35\00:22:08.26
when "not one stone shall
be left here upon another."
00:22:08.26\00:22:12.29
This really has nothing
to do with final events,
00:22:12.29\00:22:15.30
except maybe in the way
that it foreshadows them.
00:22:15.30\00:22:18.63
What it's telling us is
that after Jesus was crucified,
00:22:18.63\00:22:22.74
somebody was going
to come and destroy
00:22:22.74\00:22:24.37
the city and the temple
00:22:24.37\00:22:25.77
the same way
the Babylonians did.
00:22:25.77\00:22:28.08
And of course, that
was clearly the Romans,
00:22:28.08\00:22:30.91
who did that in AD 70.
00:22:30.91\00:22:33.72
And if that's not
incredible enough,
00:22:33.72\00:22:35.42
let's keep
pushing on to verse 27.
00:22:35.42\00:22:38.22
Now, I know this is a
lot of nitpicky detail,
00:22:38.22\00:22:40.69
but this is important
00:22:40.69\00:22:41.89
because, again,
today this is easily
00:22:41.89\00:22:44.13
one of the most
misused, misread passages
00:22:44.13\00:22:47.50
in all of scripture.
00:22:47.50\00:22:49.23
People have been ripping this
out of its immediate context
00:22:49.23\00:22:52.17
and transporting it
2,000 years into the future
00:22:52.17\00:22:55.14
and making it about antichrist.
00:22:55.14\00:22:57.67
But read it very carefully
00:22:58.64\00:23:00.14
because the language and
the context speaks for itself.
00:23:00.14\00:23:03.04
This is clearly
about Messiah the prince,
00:23:03.04\00:23:05.01
who would be Jesus.
00:23:05.01\00:23:06.55
And what it tells us
is when we should expect
00:23:06.55\00:23:09.42
to see His appearance
00:23:09.42\00:23:10.72
and that He would be
cut off for other people
00:23:10.72\00:23:12.92
sometime after that.
00:23:12.92\00:23:14.56
But then it continues
00:23:14.56\00:23:16.06
with what might just be
the most breathtaking part
00:23:16.06\00:23:18.26
of this whole thing, verse 27.
00:23:18.26\00:23:21.13
"Then He shall confirm a
covenant with many for one week,
00:23:21.13\00:23:24.70
but in the middle of the week,
00:23:24.70\00:23:26.17
He shall bring an end to
the sacrifice and offering."
00:23:26.17\00:23:29.10
Now, this is the part that
gets a lot of people confused
00:23:29.10\00:23:31.27
because what we've done,
especially in recent years,
00:23:31.27\00:23:34.18
is make this about
some last day antichrist.
00:23:34.18\00:23:36.81
And people say he's
going to appear in Jerusalem
00:23:36.81\00:23:39.31
and make a
covenant with the Jews
00:23:39.31\00:23:40.78
and then break it
after three and a half years.
00:23:40.78\00:23:44.15
But here's what
you need to know.
00:23:44.15\00:23:45.55
That is not how Christians
00:23:45.55\00:23:46.79
have
historically understood this.
00:23:46.79\00:23:48.69
Remember, the subject is the
second 490 years of probation
00:23:48.69\00:23:51.99
for Daniel's people
00:23:51.99\00:23:53.40
and the subject is
the appearance of Messiah.
00:23:53.40\00:23:56.53
Jesus' ministry lasted
three and a half years,
00:23:56.53\00:23:58.90
which is half of seven.
00:23:58.90\00:24:00.54
It's half of a prophetic week.
00:24:00.54\00:24:02.20
And what He did with that time
00:24:02.20\00:24:03.71
was confirm the covenant
with God's chosen people.
00:24:03.71\00:24:06.84
In fact, He ratified the
new covenant at the cross
00:24:06.84\00:24:10.35
where He certainly brought an
end to sacrifice and offering.
00:24:10.35\00:24:13.45
I mean, the veil in the
temple was ripped in two
00:24:13.45\00:24:15.82
at that very moment.
00:24:15.82\00:24:16.85
Why?
00:24:16.85\00:24:18.09
Because the death of
Christ suddenly makes
00:24:18.09\00:24:19.89
all the animal sacrifices
completely unnecessary.
00:24:19.89\00:24:23.89
Then his disciples
continued to work in Jerusalem
00:24:25.16\00:24:27.20
until Stephen the deacon
was suddenly martyred in AD 34,
00:24:27.20\00:24:30.80
three and a half years
after the death of Christ.
00:24:30.80\00:24:33.97
And at that point, the famous
martyr makes one last plea
00:24:33.97\00:24:37.17
to the religious leadership,
00:24:37.17\00:24:38.74
after which they
put him to death.
00:24:38.74\00:24:40.84
And who was sitting there?
00:24:40.84\00:24:42.31
Saul, who later became Paul
the missionary to the Gentiles.
00:24:42.31\00:24:47.05
The 490 years was
over now, right on time,
00:24:47.05\00:24:50.52
and that's why the
prophecy ends the way it does.
00:24:50.52\00:24:52.92
It says, "And on
the wing of abomination
00:24:52.92\00:24:55.76
shall be one who makes desolate,
00:24:55.76\00:24:57.96
even until the consummation,
which is determined,
00:24:57.96\00:25:00.70
is poured out on the desolate."
00:25:00.70\00:25:03.33
So what's that a reference to?
00:25:03.33\00:25:05.33
The abomination of desolation,
00:25:05.33\00:25:07.04
the sack of the
temple by the Romans.
00:25:07.04\00:25:10.04
What we have in
Daniel 9 is a literary device
00:25:10.04\00:25:12.81
known as a parallelism.
00:25:12.81\00:25:14.81
Verse 26 mentions
the work of Messiah
00:25:14.81\00:25:17.28
and then says
the Romans will come
00:25:17.28\00:25:19.01
and destroy the sanctuary.
00:25:19.01\00:25:20.75
Then verse 27
repeats that pattern,
00:25:20.75\00:25:22.88
talking again about
the sacrifice of Messiah,
00:25:22.88\00:25:25.79
after which the
Romans would come
00:25:25.79\00:25:27.69
and leave the temple desolate.
00:25:27.69\00:25:29.39
This passage has nothing to do
00:25:30.26\00:25:31.93
with the final
seven-year tribulation,
00:25:31.93\00:25:34.10
even though I suspect
there are people right now
00:25:34.10\00:25:36.16
who are furiously
flipping through their Bibles
00:25:36.16\00:25:38.13
because, well, that's
what they've always heard.
00:25:38.13\00:25:40.94
And if it's there, by
all means, have at it,
00:25:40.94\00:25:43.14
continue to believe it.
00:25:43.14\00:25:44.77
But as a good preacher
friend of mine once said,
00:25:44.77\00:25:47.48
"If the plain
sense makes good sense,
00:25:47.48\00:25:50.25
seek no other sense,
or you'll get nonsense."
00:25:50.25\00:25:53.45
I'll be right back after this.
00:25:53.45\00:25:56.05
[air whooshes]
00:25:56.05\00:25:59.42
- [Announcer] Dragons,
beasts, cryptic statues.
00:25:59.42\00:26:03.69
Bible prophecy can be
incredibly vivid and confusing.
00:26:03.69\00:26:08.26
If you've ever read
"Daniel & Revelation"
00:26:08.26\00:26:10.43
and come away
scratching your head,
00:26:10.43\00:26:12.20
you're not alone.
00:26:12.20\00:26:13.64
Our free Focus on
Prophecy guides are designed
00:26:13.64\00:26:16.40
to help you unlock
the mysteries of the Bible
00:26:16.40\00:26:18.67
and deepen your understanding
00:26:18.67\00:26:20.28
of God's plan for
you and our world.
00:26:20.28\00:26:22.74
Study online or
request them by mail
00:26:22.74\00:26:25.18
and start bringing
prophecy into focus today.
00:26:25.18\00:26:28.18
- Well, all I've
really managed to do
00:26:29.25\00:26:30.59
is just crack
the seal on Daniel 9,
00:26:30.59\00:26:32.62
and I'm gonna leave it to
you to dig a little deeper.
00:26:32.62\00:26:35.82
But I guess my
big point is this.
00:26:35.82\00:26:37.73
We often
overcomplicate the Bible
00:26:37.73\00:26:39.69
by trying to make it fit
what the current culture says.
00:26:39.69\00:26:42.76
And as a result,
we've kind of lost track
00:26:42.76\00:26:44.90
of one of the most elegant,
00:26:44.90\00:26:46.37
one of the most
convincing passages of the Bible
00:26:46.37\00:26:48.87
when it comes to demonstrating
00:26:48.87\00:26:50.34
that Jesus really was
the long-awaited Messiah.
00:26:50.34\00:26:54.04
We've tragically sliced up
00:26:54.04\00:26:55.58
a perfectly
coherent section of the Bible
00:26:55.58\00:26:57.61
and inserted a gap of 2,000
years which doesn't make sense,
00:26:57.61\00:27:02.22
not when there's
nothing in the text
00:27:02.22\00:27:04.05
to suggest that
you should do that.
00:27:04.05\00:27:06.55
And there's a really
big lesson in here for us.
00:27:06.55\00:27:09.29
The book of Hebrews tells us
00:27:09.29\00:27:10.83
that we still have a high
priest, and that's Christ.
00:27:10.83\00:27:13.50
He serves in a
heavenly sanctuary.
00:27:13.50\00:27:15.90
So there's still
an application for us.
00:27:15.90\00:27:18.33
And it turns out
it's not the buildings
00:27:18.33\00:27:20.17
that God was most interested in.
00:27:20.17\00:27:22.30
It was the hearts.
00:27:22.30\00:27:23.81
It's not the forms
and rituals that save you,
00:27:23.81\00:27:26.31
and just going through
the motions doesn't help.
00:27:26.31\00:27:29.44
The God of the Bible
is radically different
00:27:29.44\00:27:31.51
from the gods of other religions
00:27:31.51\00:27:32.95
in that He's not
looking for ritual;
00:27:32.95\00:27:35.38
He's looking for
you, and that's it.
00:27:35.38\00:27:38.59
Maybe you've left that
part of your life desolate.
00:27:38.59\00:27:41.46
Your heart is in
tatters because of the past
00:27:41.46\00:27:43.56
and there's a void where maybe
there used to be something.
00:27:43.56\00:27:46.53
Maybe there's a reason
00:27:47.83\00:27:49.23
you can't seem to
scratch that spiritual itch
00:27:49.23\00:27:50.77
with mere rituals.
00:27:50.77\00:27:52.17
So maybe it's time
to have another look
00:27:52.17\00:27:54.60
at this old, old book,
00:27:54.60\00:27:56.07
which goes to great lengths
00:27:56.07\00:27:57.27
to tell you you have
another chance with God.
00:27:57.27\00:28:01.08
I'm Shawn Boonstra.
00:28:01.08\00:28:02.34
This has been "Authentic."
00:28:02.34\00:28:05.15
[upbeat music]
00:28:05.15\00:28:07.78
[upbeat music continues]
00:28:17.73\00:28:21.20