and we are nearly done with the Old Testament in the Old Testament overview this is part 10 and I told you at the beginning we were shooting for 12 parts so we are getting very close to the end here And this is part 10, as I said, and we are continuing our discussion tonight of the major profits. And so this is part 10, part two, part 10, the major profits, part two. So we are continuing that discussion of the major profits because we didn't quite get through all of them. So tonight we're going to talk about some introductions, very, very brief introductions because we gave most of the introductions last week. And then we will get into Ezekiel a little bit. And then we will get into Daniel a little bit. And throughout all of this, we'll be talking a bit about the end times. Now, not as satisfactorily as you might hope. And as I might be tempted to go, as I said this morning, I trimmed quite a bit of material tonight because I didn't want to go too long tonight but perhaps we'll do a separate study sometime on just the end times and that's definitely something I would be looking forward to. The last time as I said we began to consider the major prophets and we said that these prophets brought us from the times of the pre-exile into the times of the exile. And so we have here on the screen Isaiah as a pre-exilic author. And then we have Jeremiah, who is also the author of Lamentations, Jeremiah and Lamentations, those two books. being written to the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the exile. And so he is alive at that time. He is writing at that time. Of course, Lamentations is a funeral dirge for the city as it is sacked there. And the final exile goes on because actually Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem a couple of times. But we have there the final time and the full-blown exile happening. A lot of the people are taken to Babylon, and that's where Ezekiel and Daniel are going to be writing from. And so they are also exilic writers, but they are writing on the other side as it were there. They are in exile and they are writing to the exiles for the most part. So that's the exile. Now, eventually, the people do come back after the 70 years in Babylon, the Babylonian captivity. They do come back. And so we do also have the post-exile and a lot of the 12 there address the post-exile. And so that's what we'll be talking about when we get to them. But for right now, let's talk about Ezekiel. And one of the verses that really stands out in Ezekiel is this one. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Why do I say it stands out? Because it's written 75 times in the book of Ezekiel. Then they will know that I am the Lord. There's a message that is trying to be conveyed here. There's a message that the Lord wants them to hear because they haven't been listening to the Lord. Have they? No, they have not. And so we have Ezekiel. He is writing to the exiles. As I said, his name means strengthened by God, strengthened by God. And he is a priest. And a prophet, of course, like Jeremiah, he was being prepared for the priesthood, and then the exile happened. And that really throws a monkey wrench into those kinds of plans. He is no longer going to be a priest, obviously, in the traditional sense of serving in the temple, because now he is among those who have been carted away to Babylon. How many were carted away? Well, at least 10,000, it appears. 10,000 captives were taken in the second siege of Nebuchadnezzar. Of course, others were taken in the first siege. This is 11 years before the final overthrow of Jerusalem. So he's actually taken before the final overthrow there. And he is going to be writing from roughly 593 BC to 571 BC. And so we can see that as we get to Ezekiel chapter one. And so, of course, that's after Jeremiah, after Lamentations, Ezekiel chapter one. We have their the it came about in the 30th year. This is verse one on the fifth day of the fourth month while I was by the River Chabar among the Exiles. So we see that that he's one of the Exiles the heavens were open and I saw visions of God. This is where he is first called and on the fifth month of the fifth year of King Jehoiakim's Exile the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest son of boozy In the name in the land of the chaldeans by the river kabar. This is this is uh him in babylon in that area. And there the hand of the Lord came upon him. And of course, this is where he begins to see the vision. And the chapter one continues on where he sees the wheel within a wheel and the and and the living beings. Guys, first of all, I know Some of you are up watching the History Channel at 3 a.m. This is not an alien spacecraft. As interesting as that may be, this is actually the Lord. This is a vision of the Lord coming down. And this is probably most likely a battle chariot that is ready to go out against the Lord's enemies. But the Lord's enemies are his own people at this point. The Lord is going after his own people. And this is why the exile is happening in the first place. And so so he sees this and he knows that the Lord is going to condemn them. And what what does he see in this book? What does the Lord reveal to him over these years? Well, condemnation. Condemnation, the Lord is rebuking his people. You say, oh, there it is. I guess that's it. The Lord is giving up on the promised seed of Abraham. No, no, no, because that's not the only thing happening in this book. The Lord also gives consolation and restoration. Even all of that is being discussed in this book. And so the Lord is rebuking his people, but he always gives a word of good news to his people so that they will know. And as we go through the book, we see in chapter four that he predicts the siege of Jerusalem there. As we get on down, to chapters 9 and 10, we see him being taken in the spirit back to the temple, and he sees there the idolatry that's happening within the temple. This is the temple of God, and they have idols within the temple. And as he is being taken and he sees all of this, he sees the glory of the Lord departing from. Jerusalem. Even after the exiles come back when they rededicate the temple, it's not like when Solomon dedicated the temple and the whole place is just filled with the glory of God, there is no visible manifestation of God's glory that second time. And the people, the older people who are there, they weep. Bless you. They they they weep because they know they know what it means that the. The glory of the Lord is is being taken away, and you can even see that as you go through chapter 10 here, the glory of the Lord departing and no one says, wait, come back. They're too busy worshipping the sun and worshipping other things. They're not worshipping the Lord. And so Ezekiel sees exactly why there should be condemnation. But God also gives good news. But he has to give it through a lot of strange visions and a lot of strange signs. And being a prophet, he gives signs. But these are very strange signs because he is he is trying to communicate God's message to a stubborn people, people so stubborn that God had to remove them from the land and humble them in a foreign land to get their attention. And so the Lord has Ezekiel do these strange things. He gets shut up in his own home. He binds himself throughout the book. We see these these instances. He struck dumb at one point. You might remember he has to lay on his right side for so many days and then his left side for so many days. The total is about 430 days. That's over a year that he is just out in public, just laying out there because he's communicating a message. He ate bread that was defiled. It was prepared and cooked over human dung. That's not tasty. Well, I don't imagine it's tasty. I've never tried it. Now, some people do buy that Ezekiel bread. I don't think, though, that it's prepared in the same way. But I do think about that every time I see the Ezekiel bread at the store. Is it really the Ezekiel bread? But, you know, that's not that's neither here nor there. He shaved his head at one point and his beard and that was considered shameful because of course, as Charles Spurgeon said, it's quite manly and beneficial to have a beard. So the prophets shaving their beards is seen as a sign of disgrace. So he's giving all of these signs and the people are seeing this. At one point, he's he's digging in the wall with with the with the luggage of an exile. I mean, there's so many different things that he's doing and the people are coming up to. There's crazy Ezekiel again. What's he doing today? Well, these things are being done. Of course, some in our someone in our congregation is named Ezekiel, so What is crazy Ezekiel up to today? But in this case, it was due to prophecy, to revelation. Ezekiel. is doing this to give a message to the people. And it's a message that's very applicable today. For instance, in one place, we have a message for our social justice here. I think in our calls for justice, some people have grown or have gone askew. I guess I could put it that way. They've went a little too far. It says in Ezekiel 18, for instance, which is a very important passage that the soul that sins shall die. And of course, we don't have time to read all 32 verses there. But there he is saying it is up to you. It's not going to be the sins of the father. It's going to be your sins. You are responsible for your own sins. Now, a lot of folks today would like to charge the sons with the sins of the father. And that's just not right. That's not something that the Bible calls us to do. Now, you say, well, God does that. I think this is meant to be read in tandem. God, who is perfect, God, who is the just judge, can make his own judgments. But when it comes to us and making our judgments about one another, yes, we are sometimes called to judge. We're just called to judge with the righteous judgment. It is unrighteous for us to charge a son for the sins of the father. A father goes out and kills someone. And so we go and lock the son up. That's unjust. And so, of course, we don't do that. And that's something that I think we need to hear today. Each person is responsible. Of course, that has personal application as well. We must see the fact that we are each responsible for our own sins. And as I said earlier, we either bear our own sins or we allow the Lord to bear them. Those are the only two choices, because thankfully there is that full atonement for our sin provided in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we either bear our sins the soul that sins shall die, or we allow the Lord to bear those sins, and we call out to Him and ask for His forgiveness there. And that is forgiveness that's available. Again, Ezekiel talks about this with the promise of the New Covenant. Now, who else talked about the New Covenant? We just talked about this last week. Who else talked about the New Covenant? Hmm. Jeremiah did. And so between Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we get this picture of the new covenant that God is about to bring in, and he will bring it in in Jesus Christ. See, Israel cannot just keep the law externally. If there's one thing that the history of this much of the Bible has taught us, it's that man cannot just simply obey God in the flesh. Right. And if we think of our own lives, Lord, I promise I will do that. And then we don't always do that right. And let's do our shame, but we can't just in our flesh keep the commandments of God. It's not that his commandments are burdensome. It's just that we suffer from a condition known as sin. And we like our sin more than we like righteousness. And that's what it comes down to. And so just like Israel, we need a new heart. They needed a new heart. And this is what God is teaching them in the exile. You have sinned. You continue to sin despite repeated calls. Here's the problem. You're sinners. But sinners can receive grace. You can receive a new heart. Yes, your heart is full of sin. That's why you love to do sin. But I can take that heart out of you and give you a new heart. This is part of the promise of the new covenant. And so they can get a new heart. Let's take a look at Ezekiel 36 for a moment. Of course, the Lord gives many prophecies against the Gentile nations. And then also it gives words to the people. Of Israel of Judah. But. This is the word that we are most pressed with today. Most personally, and that's Ezekiel 36, we have that promise of the new covenant. And starting in verse maybe we could start in verse 22. Let's start in verse 24 for I will take you from the nations gather you from the lands and bring you into your own land. This is God promising this to Israel. We're going to get into that in just a few moments. What does he mean? He's going to gather them from the nations and bring them into their own land. We'll talk about that. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will become clean. And I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. That's a good thing. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I like to describe it as someone having a hard heart toward God, and God says, I'm going to take that heart of stone from you and give you a heart of flesh, a heart that beats for God. I will put my spirit within you and will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances and you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers. And he continues on from there. There are elements of the new covenant that are not yet fulfilled. And we talked about that last week, but there is also this promise here that is already being fulfilled. Jesus said, Take and drink for this is the blood of the new covenant, which I am pouring out for you. He is establishing that new covenant and he did establish that new covenant when he died on the cross. That's what we remember at communion. And of course, next week we'll have communion and we'll have the Lord's table and we can remember that together. But the Lord says, I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart. I will put my spirit within you. These are precious promises before this. Yes, the people of Israel could experience regeneration by the Holy Spirit, but they had to go to the temple to experience that. And the Holy Spirit didn't necessarily remain with them after they left the temple. The only times we read about the spirit coming upon a person is with kings. Like David, and David even prayed, don't remove your spirit from me when when he sinned. Kings experiences the presence of the Holy Spirit. Prophets experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, but that's it. The regular people, they didn't experience the presence. And even those who experienced the presence didn't experience the permanent presence of God. This will change everything. This is the promise that he gives. I will put my Holy Spirit within you. Then you will know my statutes. This is where we actually have this internal change. And this is what he promises of Israel as well. This is the new covenant. And so of all the covenants here, this is perhaps the most precious and most present to us. And it does have future implications that we'll get into in a little while. But but it also has a very present implications. And that's why I love to talk about the new covenant, because it's something that's so personally applicable to each one of us. And it's applicable right now. Well, what's an outline of the book? I could have given this first, I suppose, but we have that condemnation and that's the condemnation of Israel and of the nations and in chapters now versus chapters one through 32. That would be like the wrath portion of the book. Okay, the bad news portion of the book. There's bad news. And then there's good news. The consolation section chapters 33 through 48. That's restoration restoration restoration of what well restoration of Israel, for instance, God says he's going to restore Israel and restoration. of the millennial temple. First of all Ezekiel gives us yet another clue as to the true enemy of our souls. It is sin within us, but he also gives us clues as to Satan's origins and the fact that he is working behind the scenes to affect this world in a negative way. He's not the only one. Isaiah also gives this in Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14 and there we have it not only a description of of Satan and I do believe it is Satan. We have an address to the king there, but the but who is the force behind the king? Who is the prince who is who is impacting the king as we read this? It seems like we are address or we not we but but the Lord he is addressing the devil. And so we have the five. I will save us. I will ascend into the heavens. I will be like the most high. These are the words of Satan himself, or we see you see him. Exalted in his pride. Well, in Ezekiel 28, we also see a description of Satan again, a reference to the force behind the king here. because he is always working behind the scenes with governments, with powers, with all of that. I always remember this because it's Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. And so 14 plus 14 is 28. So that makes it a little easy for me. And I remember which one's which, because Isaiah comes before Ezekiel. So Isaiah has the lower number and Ezekiel has the higher number. So that's That's my complicated mnemonic there, but maybe that'll help you if you want to remember where the where the devil passages are, I guess. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel, Ezekiel 28. But but there he is speaking to to the to the to the king. And and he gives that's the king of Tyre. And and He says, you had in verse 12, the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect and beauty. Now, watch this. You were in Eden, the garden of God. And those are the same words that we find in Genesis, the Garden of Eden. Now, when was the king of Tyre in the Garden of Eden? He wasn't. Unless we want to delve into some kind of like deep conspiracy rabbit hole that maybe they knew where the Garden of Eden was. I don't really buy into some of that right there. I don't even think that they were able to access it because it was wiped out in the flood. But you are in Eden, the garden of God. This is if it's not referring to the king, it must be referring to the power behind the king, the power that was there. Satan was the one who tempted Adam and Eve or specifically Eve in the garden. And so he's talking to Satan. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. The ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, the jasper. He goes on to talk about just how beautiful he was. The workmanship of your settings, sockets was in you on the day you were created and you were prepared. You were the anointed cherub. And so here he's calling him a cherub. He's one of the cherubim. Cherub would be singular, cherubim would be plural. This is talking about the devil. You were the anointed cherub who covers. What does that mean? He was a cherub who had authority. He was the top cherub. And by the way, I use that word cherub and I have to cut through The cultural morass, these are not the little winged baby cutesy things, right? Cherubs were fierce, angelic warriors. Very different image, just like I was talking about this morning. Sometimes we have the wrong images in our heads. He was the anointed cherub who covers he had authority and I placed you there. The Lord says you were on the Holy Mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you're created until unrighteousness was found in you. This is when He chose to engage in those I wills. This is when He chose to sin. And I think, as I look at all of this and I just gathered the evidence together and bring it together, I think it's when He saw the creation of Adam and Eve that He decided to fall. Why? Because He realized at that moment that for all of His glory, He wasn't the ultimate creation. Man was. And so he then decided, oh, I'm going to ruin man. And so he tempted Eve and she ate and he's like, aha, see, I've destroyed God's creation now. I've got them to sin. I've got them to rebel. Of course, he's rebelling in that moment. Of course, a lot of that is based on on my theory, based on what the scripture says, but I think I think a case can be made for that. He was there, he was perfect until iniquity, until unrighteousness was found in him. And the Lord then cursed him in Genesis 3 along with Eve and Adam. You say, when did Satan fall? I think that that was the cursing there in Genesis 3. I think that's when that happened. Revelation 12. gives us a summary of Satan's attempts to thwart the plan of redemption. And we see that where we have the woman, we were just talking about this, the woman with the moon, the 12 stars. We have there a picture of Israel about to give birth to the Messiah. Satan is persecuting her. He's waiting for the Messiah to be born. He wants to devour the Messiah. He doesn't stop. He can't stop the Messiah from being born. And so he tries to destroy the Messiah, but the Messiah is taken up into Heaven. And so he just goes after the woman and after her seed. This is a reference to to the devil's attempts to thwart everything and they continues on to give an in times and in times view of him trying to go after Israel as well. But God promises that Israel will have a restoration as he killed 27. Yes, we're kind of going backwards a little bit, but but we have that vision there of of the restoration of Israel. And he gives he gives that that image there. Is it 27? Oh, I might I might have put the wrong thing there. I think actually. Let me let me take a quick peek over here. Aha, it's 37, not 27. I didn't think that sounded right. It's 37 with the valley of the vision or the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. There we have that vision of the restoration of Israel, where they are being brought back to life in the flesh. the bones get up, they move, you see the sinews and the flesh all being regenerated on the bones and God there demonstrates that He can bring life back from the dead. Now, that could we look at that. We say our resurrection. We see an image of eternal life there. We see that he can take us who are spiritually dead and make us spiritually alive. We see all of that. But we also see in its direct application there a picture of God restoring Israel itself. He can take the nation, which has been removed from its own land and been scattered. He can take those bones and reconstitute the nation. He can recreate the nation. And that's what's what image is being given there. Of course, it's being breathed with with life in the spirit in any. And again, Isaiah also talks about this Isaiah 1111. Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover. The second time with his hand, the remnant of his people. The first time is in the Babylonian captivity wins the second time. Well, the people went into exile again after the Babylonian captivity. Now, we have to think about that. When was that? Was that during the intertestamental period, the period between testaments? No, they were still in the land. They were there with Jesus. So when was it? It was after that. It was actually the year 70 when Titus came in and he sacked Jerusalem and the Jews were eventually taken from the land. I think that happened a little while later. They were all taken from the land. Those who didn't die, they were taken from the land. They were brought into the dispersion and there they remained for like 1800 years. But what happened after that? Well, if we know a little bit more recent of history, we know that there was a conflict, World War I. That brought an end to a powerful empire in the Middle East known as the Ottoman Empire. At that point, the British came in and they divided up the Middle East along new lines, and they kept an area of Palestine, which they called the Palestinian Mandate, or what they called the Palestinian Mandate was a promise that they would eventually give it to the Jews. And so you had a Palestinian people that was living there, no or who were ethnically Jewish. And this is something that's not talked about in the news right now with the with the conflict between the Palestinians who are actually Arabic and the and the Jewish people who are in the land. There were actually already Jewish people living there who are begging the British government to grant them the the covenant that had been given that they would have this nation. But there was a lot of delay. It didn't happen. There's a lot of history there. I could get into some of that modern history. But as you know, World War II eventually happened, and that really thrust the world forward into saying these people need their own land. It was land that had already been promised to them. That's why when people are calling the nation of Israel an occupying nation, they are mistaken. That is their land. It's historically their land, and it was their land after World War I. that just hadn't been officially ratified yet. It was officially ratified in 1948, May of 1948. And so that was the second time when God brought his people together from the nations. Now, That's not a full fulfillment because today, even today, a lot of the Jewish people, you know, we don't want to idolize the state of Israel. A lot of the Jewish people there do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't even believe in God. There's a lot of atheists in the modern state of Israel. And there's a lot of Muslims, of course, in in the in the Knesset and And a lot of other beliefs that are there and there are some Christians. But there is coming a day when the Lord says that he will fulfill all of his promises concerning Israel. We're just seeing the start of that right now. Can't wait to see what happens in the future. It's coming. It's coming. So we continue as we continue this, as we continue looking at Ezekiel before before all those promises are fulfilled, there is coming an invasion, the Magog invasion. And oh, boy. So I said this morning, there's a lot I've been cutting out of here. Who are Magog and Magog? There's a lot to talk about with all of that. But I thought, how can I sum this up? This is supposed to be an overview. So I'll just say this. This is this is the Antichrist. This is a reference to Armageddon. And this is a reference to his armies that are coming into the valley of Megiddo to in the shadow of the mountain of of Megiddo, Har Megiddo, the mountain of Megiddo. That's Armageddon there. And the passage appears to anticipate the use of nuclear weapons. I just had to throw that in there because it just it's fascinating to see the talk about how how how flesh will melt, how how whenever they are doing cleanup, they have to put a sign whenever they find certain things. No one can go near that for a certain period of time. It is fascinating to see what's actually there in these chapters. But after that, there is then coming this complete restoration, chapters 40 through 48 that we read about, including the new temple. And what is this temple? Well, this is the Millennial Temple part of the Millennial Kingdom. The scripture does not describe the length of the kingdom until Revelation. Revelation is where we finally read about the 1000 years. But Revelation isn't the only place that talks about the Millennial Kingdom. That's talked about in all of these prophetic passages. It's just Revelation gives us the period of time. That's why we call it the Millennial Kingdom. And we have there the Millennial Temple. Of course, some people say, well, it might be symbolic, and it might be possibly, but there is quite a bit of description that's given there, and it's highly detailed, so it's also possible it's not symbolic. Seems like there's given detail of the size and dimensions of it as well. The nations will all gather there to worship. And there does seem to be a reinstitution of offerings and sacrifices. And this is difficult for us because we do believe that Jesus is the ones for all sacrifice. So what are these sacrifices about? Well, they can't be for continued atonement of sin. They have to then be. A memorial of what Christ has done. And I think it's going to be performed in much of the same way that we perform. Of course, the details are different, but the same reason that we engage in the Lord's Supper. We remember that the Lord's body is broken for us. We remember that He bled for us. These sacrifices will be a memorial for what He has accomplished on the cross. And I think that it will also play into an ongoing wedding feast of the Lamb that will be happening. I think there's evidence to say that that wedding feast will continue on throughout the entirety of the millennium. It's very, very interesting. We're supposed to be talking about Old Testament stuff. So let's get back to that. And we'll talk about Daniel for a moment. Daniel, Daniel. I don't know why I didn't put a verse from Daniel here. This is from Jeremiah, and it doesn't have anything to do with Daniel. That's all right. And sometimes when I'm copying and pasting that, that happens. Daniel. is named Daniel in the Hebrew. That's nice and easy for us. And his book is about God's sovereign plan for Israel, Israel's prophetic panorama. And it's written from 605 B.C. to 536 B.C. And so so Daniel is written there and he sees he sees right up to that point where they are about to return or they are going to return to the land. And an outline of this book, we have the personal history of Daniel, him being taken from the land. He and his friends, they were probably all young men being taken. He was probably the oldest of them, but they were probably all roughly teenagers being taken, maybe even younger teens. because they were being groomed for the court prophetic plan of the Gentiles is what we see next in chapters 2 through 7. We see that God is in control in those in those chapters. And then finally we see the prophetic plan for Israel in chapters 8 through 12, you know that as they're taken from the land, it's It's pretty grim to see what they did to some of the people from castration to renaming to everything else. Of course, the renaming is what's highlighted in Scripture. We see Daniel, whose name means God is my judge, being renamed to Belshazzar, meaning Prince of Bel. which is a false God. And so they take the name of the youth of the captured exile, and they say, okay, now you're not gonna be known by the name your parents gave you. You're gonna be known by the name of our gods. This is where they're trying to replace their identity. And so he's known as Prince of Bel now. Hananiah, the first of his friends, which means beloved of the Lord. His name is changed to Shadrach, which means illuminated. By the sun, God. Then we have Mishael, who is God, whose whose name renamed Meshach or Meshach, who is like unto the moon, God. I mean, Azariah, the Lord is my help, is renamed Bendigo, the servant of Nago. Now, I don't know what shows you guys have watched. These are their names. Some have said maybe their names were Shadrach and Benny, and I don't think that was quite it. I don't think that they had to eat or bow down to a giant chocolate bunny. Some of, you know, the reference I'm referencing here, but a little bit of a different idol that they had to face. There's quite a bit in this book. We're just not going to have time to talk about it all. Daniel two through seven, though, it's fascinating that those chapters which are addressing the the the future prophecies of the Gentile peoples, they are written in Aramaic, not in Hebrew. Hebrew is the language of the Jewish people. This is written intentionally in the Gentile language. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the day, just like English is today. And so it's almost as though it's written in the language before for the rest of the people to hear. And God so superintended that because he says the time of the Gentiles has now come in and that time will continue on until Romans 11 talks about this until there's going to be an until here. And it's going to be at that point that the Lord will change this. But Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel chapter two, which predicts world history. And you guys might remember the aspects of the dream with the golden head. And it goes down and describes a statue there. The statue prophetically describes the rise of Babylon, which is the golden head and Nebuchadnezzar there. Then the rise of Persia. Then the rise of Greece, the rise of Rome. And the book so perfectly describes these things that skeptics have said, this has got to be written after the fact. Of course, no, God is predicting this ahead of time so that we know what's happening. And it doesn't end there. It ends with the feet of the statue, which appears to be some kind of revived Roman Empire. And we could get into the details of that. But we also know that the statue is ultimately destroyed by the rock, which is cut out without hands. The rock which will fill the earth is a rock, of course, being Christ and his kingdom. Christ's kingdom, the millennial kingdom will overshadow all of this. Will overshadow all of this. Now, as we get into this, we get to Daniel 9, Daniel 9, 24 through 27, specifically there, there's 70 weeks of prophecy. It's decreed on Jerusalem for the people. In fact, let's take a quick peek over there, Daniel 9. Daniel 9 24. He says 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and on your sit and your Holy City. Who's Daniel's people the Jews, which is Daniel's Holy City. Jerusalem. So so this is decreed upon the Jews in Jerusalem what to finish the transgression. Well, the transgressions continuing today. So this has so this isn't fulfilled yet to make an end of sin. We can say yeah Christ on the cross, but there's still more to come. to make an atonement for iniquity that definitely has been fulfilled in Christ, to bring in everlasting righteousness that definitely has not been fulfilled yet, to seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place. And so you are to know and to 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. That is 69 weeks, 69 weeks of years. It will be rebuilt again or it will be built again with plasmode even in times of distress. And then after 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. That's the death of the Messiah. The people, the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with a flood. Even to the end, there will be war. Desolations are determined and he will make a make a firm covenant with the many for one week, for seven years. These are the final seven years of the prophecy, the final week of the prophecy. But it will or in the middle of the week. He will put a stop to sacrifice in the grain offering and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction. One that is decreed is poured out on one who makes desolate. There's a lot we can say with all of this, but we do know when the commandment to was issued forth to restore Jerusalem that was in 445 BC. We take the 69 weeks we count for leap years and all that according to biblical accounting that brings us right up to the triumphal entry in 32 AD. Now, I could take time to go through all the math. Unfortunately, we don't have time. By the way, this was all predicted ahead of time, and we know because it's been translated in the Greek Septuagint, and so that gives us a very solid time to see, okay, this was predicted ahead of time. This wasn't something the Christians just threw together later on for proof. This is something that is in ancient documentation, so we can throw that together or so that we could see that right there. And Jesus even said in Luke 19 in the triumphal injury. That there are going to be desolations that are brought on you because you didn't know the time of your visitation, you should know that this was coming. You should know that this was coming. And so and so he does predict this. I've been saying 69 weeks, it's a prophecy of 70 weeks. The final 7 weeks of years is still to come. There is an interval. between the death of the Messiah and the coming prince who will wage war on the people of God. There is coming a time when he will make that covenant for one week. That's seven years. Now, that sounds like something in prophecy, a seven year tribulation period, right? And halfway into that period, he will break his covenant and he will desecrate the temple. That means that there has to be a temple there. That's not the millennial temple, but that is a temple that will be there. And so the 70th week has not happened yet. It has not happened yet. We're still waiting on it. This is when we will see the Gog and Magog invasion. We'll see the Antichrist. This is when all of these things will happen. That's all still future. That's all still on the horizon. How soon will it happen? I'm not wearing a watch. But it wouldn't tell me anyway, right? It could be at any moment that we could see this beginning to happen. But Daniel 11 and 12, they predict these things. We're going to get into this next time or in a couple of weeks when we talk about the intertestamental period. But God proves that he knows what he's talking about. Let's go ahead and wrap this up here. Next time we'll talk about the minor prophets, the 12. And then we will get into the final writings, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther as well. And then we will finally get into that intertestament.