Sermon Central
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The Backbone Of Bible Prophecy Series
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Jan 30, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: Understand this and the rest is much more clear. Jesus said to turn back to Daniel and see the 70 Weeks of Years - the most amazing prophecy in the Bible! Link inc. to formatted text, audio, and PowerPoint.
The Backbone of Bible Prophecy
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Backbone.html
Jesus tells us to turn back to Daniel, so we’d better do what we’re told! It is the skeletal structure of all prophecy, so it can be a great help in our study of the end times.
v. 24-27
The Period of Time
v. 24
70 weeks of years, not days. In the original language the word week is the word ‘seven’. The word week here is used like we use the word ‘dozen’ to describe a category of 12.
Ex.: if we said ’70 dozen are determined’ we could ask, ’70 dozen what?...is it 70 days, years, millennia? In this case it is years.
Another example:
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
We’ll reveal the 70 weeks in pt. 2 [scroll down] But first, it’s good to lay more groundwork...
The People
v. 24 ‘thy people’ = the Jews = a God ordained, God decreed, God conceived, and God protected nation.
For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
• A prominent people-they represent less than .4% of the world’s population, and yet you can write all of human history around the names of just 6 Jews: Moses, Paul, Marx, Freud, Einstein, and Jesus Christ. In the information age about 1/3rd of Nobel Prize winners have been Jews.
• A blessed people- Genesis 12:3
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
I can preach tonite because of the Jewish race, who gave me a Savior, and the Word of God.
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
What good is it to be a Jew? He asks this question because back in chapter 2 he just pointed out that a person isn’t saved just because they are a Jew. They still have to accept their Messiah and be born again. So what advantage is there to being a Jew?
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
God used them to write the Bible!
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
God deposited His wisdom and knowledge into His people to share w/ the world.
And God still has a wonderful plan for the future of the nation of Israel!
Prominent, blessed...
• Indestructible- Psalms 89:27-37
27 Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. 28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. 29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. 30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; 31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; 32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. 36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. 37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
They have endured unspeakable atrocities under the likes of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Titus, Nero, Adolf Hitler, and the former Soviet Union...and yet they exist today in their native land! The Nile river could not drown the Jews, nor could the Red Sea. Jonah’s whale could not digest a Jew! Haman’s gallows could not hang a Jew, a fiery furnace could not consume them, the nations of the world could neither assimilate them nor annihilate them!
The Period is 490 years, the People are the Jews...
The Place
v. 24 Jerusalem, like no other place on the face of the earth. But there will never be peace on earth until there’s peace there, which only the Prince of Peace will truly bring. The West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, etc...they will never be resolved issues until Jesus resolves them. The 35 acres that make up the Temple Mount is the most disputed tract of land on the planet! It will be center stage for the countdown to Armageddon.
