The End Will Go Through Israel Series

Which country would you say is most influential in the world today, Israel, Peru, or The Philippines??

Now which country do you think has the most people??

The Philippines – 101,834,000 people

Peru – 29,250,000 people

Israel – 7,474,000 people

And here’s a map of Haiti. Which do you think is larger in area, Israel or Haiti? Haiti is bigger in area compared to Israel! You can fit Israel in Florida!

Why is Israel, such a small country, so significant in the world? Israel is the home of God’s Chosen People!

We will learn today from Daniel 9 that the end of the world will go through Israel! And we have noted this before; Israel did not become a country again in the Middle East until 1948! We are the future whom God speaks about in Bible prophecy. Let us listen to God through His Words by looking at Daniel 9:15-27……..

God chose a people, Israel, to reveal Himself and provide salvation from sins! God chose Abraham and gave him a promise: “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” Please turn to Matthew 1 for a moment.

We see the history of God’s Chosen People……

We note that something happened in the middle of the list; God’s Chosen People became slaves to the Babylonians!

Now back to Daniel 9, we see at the end of v16 why they became slaves………

Daniel prayed to God while God’s Chosen People were slaves! What did Daniel pray for? Daniel prayed for God’s people and Jerusalem!

God answered Daniel’s prayer in v24-27:

Look again at v24…….

And look with me briefly to Daniel 10:16-17…….

Why was Daniel so anguished? You see, Daniel knew what 70 “sevens” meant! Daniel knew that “seven” meant 7 years in the Jewish calendar. And as noted in the beginning of Daniel 9, Daniel learned that the Babylonian enslavement would be 70 years; but then Daniel heard from God that the judgment on Israel was going to be an additional 70 times 7, which means another 490 years!

And when will the 490 years start and is there verification?

Daniel 9:25-27 explains the time of God’s judgment on Israel: What can we note? The 490 years of God’s judgment will start when the decree to restore Jerusalem is issued. Can we know when the decree was issued? God’s Word and history gives us the answer. Turn with me to Nehemiah 2; Nehemiah was the man, the engineer, called by God to rebuild Jerusalem. Nehemiah 2:1-8…….

Wow! Is there anything impossible with God? God used secular King Artaxerxes to start the clock which will end the world as we know it! The decree to rebuild Jerusalem through Nehemiah was issued by Artaxerxes, King of Persia from 465-424BC. Scholars can easily tell us that the issuance of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem occurred in March 444BC!

What else can we note? Daniel 9:25-26 tells us that there will be seven “sevens” and sixty-two “sevens” between the decree and the Anointed One. We can calculate how long that is by answering the question, “Who is the Anointed One?” One clue is in the passage, the Anointed One will be cut off and have nothing! Any guesses who this Anointed One is written about over 2500 years ago??

Turn with me to Acts 4:18-26…..

According to Peter and the other disciples, Jesus Christ is the Anointed One! When was Jesus Christ cut off and had nothing? Around what year??

According to Scholars, Jesus Christ died March in 33 A.D.

Are you ready for some math?

What is the time span between March 444 B.C. to March 33 A.D.? = 476 years

But this 476 years is based on the Gregorian Calendar of 365 days per year with leap years! When this 476 years is translated to the Jewish Calendar of 360 days/year = 483 years! And what is 483 years divided by 69? = 7 years!

Therefore, a “seven” or a “week” is 7 years in the Jewish Calendar! Now, how long was the “judgment” on Israel to last? – Daniel 9:24 = 70-7s = 490 years!

What does this all mean?

There are 7 years of judgment left on Israel after Jesus Christ died!

The question is, has that final judgment on Israel happened already?

In v25-26, God tells of a ruler along with the Anointed One. Look again at the end of v26, “The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” What does this refer to? We already noted that after Daniel, Nehemiah will coordinate rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple of God, the Sanctuary; but in the future, the Temple will again be destroyed by the people of the ruler. Was the Temple of God there when Jesus walked Jerusalem?? Jesus pointed the Temple to His disciples!