The First 42 Months : 3 Series

The downfall of Egypt is also predicted elsewhere in the Old Testament prophetic book of the Bible. I found a very interesting prophecy in the book of Ezekiel that echoes these passages in Daniel even mentioning some of the other nations that will fall to the Antichrist in the end.

Ezekiel 30:1-5 (NIV), “The word of the Lord came to me: [2] “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Wail and say, Alas for that day!” [3] For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near – a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. [4] A sword will come against Egypt, and anguish will come upon Cush [upper Nile]. When the slain fall in Egypt, her wealth will be carried away and her foundations torn down. [5] Cush [Sudan and Ethiopia] and Put [Libya and northern Egypt], Lydia [Egypt] and all Arabia [Saudi Arabia], Libya and the people of the covenant land [Israel] will fall by the sword along with Egypt.” And then the prophecy continues on through verse 8 of that chapter.

Here we see that Ezekiel received almost exactly the same prophecy as Daniel. In the day of the Lord, which is a period of time that covers the Tribulation period and the Millennium, Egypt is going to fall by the sword. This means she will fall in battle. And I believe this is the sword of Islam under the control of the Antichrist. And her wealth is going to be carried away just as Daniel said in chapter 11:43. I also find in fascinating that the same countries are mentioned here in Ezekiel as falling to the Antichrist as Daniel mentioned: Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel (Dan. 11:24).

The Beautiful Land, The Holy Covenant

The last country that I want to talk about this morning as coming under attack by the Antichrist during the first 42 months of the Tribulation is the country of Israel. (This is where I had the most difficulty this week.)

Israel is called the Beautiful Land in verse 41, “He will also invade the Beautiful Land.” And in verse 28 it is called the holy covenant, “…his heart will be set against the holy covenant. He will taken action against it.…” When I first read these passages they through me for a loop, because always before I have been taught and have taught you that the Antichrist won’t take over Israel until halfway through the Tribulation when he gains control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, desecrates the Temple and sets himself up as God.

If that is true then how could he take control of Israel sometime during the first three and a half years of the Tribulation? And what about the peace treaty or covenant he signed with Israel?

I thought that maybe my whole interpretation of the timing of these verses all occurring during the first 42 months was wrong. And that is completely possible. I’m only human and extremely fallible. Of course, if my timing were off then everything we have studied for the past few weeks would likewise be off.

But before I completely abandoned this time frame, which I’m sure is correct, I went back to Daniel 9:27 and reread the main verse that talks about this peace treaty and covenant the Antichrist makes and began to realize a few things.