All quotations from the Bible are from the King James Version except as noted.
Professor Rusk and his wife are both deceased. The current copyright holder has given verbal permission (via telephone) to put this book on the web. All copyrights are still in force. This book is excellent and well worth taking the time to read it carefully.
If you want a paper copy of this book, send a letter to the publisher:
Le Book Company
PO Box 866007
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Many people have made this book possible. My wife, whose chief contribution has been her patience, love, and confidence, has been my mainstay and helpmate. My son, Bob, has donated secretarial time of his office staff. This includes the endless hours of repetitious typing of Maryellen Hasten and Donna DeLozier, the latter having entered the entire work, after frequent changes, on a word processor. Special thanks are extended to Doe Barbee who painstakingly produced the calligraphic clock face. Finally, gratitude and thanks are given to Paul Cowell, publisher and friend, for his stimulating discussions concerning the possibilities of this work.
The Author
The Other End of the World is written for thoughtful Christians who have more than a superficial interest in prophetic scriptures. The hope is that the reader will take the time to personally evaluate the scriptural references, examine the appendixes, and prayerfully approach this unique presentation of prophetic scriptures.
Roger Rusk has spent sixty years in an aggressive pursuit of truth. As a college professor in the natural sciences and a Bible teacher, he has devoted his life to an examination and reevaluation of information passively accepted by those with less interest in life. Many of the chapters of this book were originally given as lectures. Much of this material and all the style is an adaption from oral presentation. Rusk's methods are inductive, not explicit. His desire for the hearer-reader to be in the thought process is essential to an understanding of this book. A clear understanding of this book will necessitate the reader's involvement with scriptures quoted but need to be read in context. Much is implied by the list of material in the bibliographies.
Although the views expressed in this book will seem new to modern readers of prophetic literature, the truth is that these views closely parallel those of the reformation fathers. Since the turn of the century most books on Bible prophecy have exploited current events and imposed future details on the reader that have simply not been Biblically based. In an effort to be interesting many books have erred to the side of sensational. Roger Rusk believes that our efforts to be predictive about specifics often produce a loss of credibility ten years later.
The reader will find the great themes of prophecy and an overview almost always lacking in modern presentation. The goal of the author is to give us comfort in the midst of unfolding current events because of an awareness of God's hand in it all.
It will be tempting to categorize Rusk's views and place him in some box of misunderstanding. Do not reject the material presented just because you disagree. Only disagree if an alternate view can be more clearly understood and substantiated.
Because some of these were independent papers given over a period of years there will be some lack of continuity and some repetition. The repetitions are sometimes deliberate in that a single passage fits into more than one context of thought. No effort has been made to popularize this material by providing easy answers or personal conclusion. Rusk's goal is to cause the reader to personally evaluate the weight of the material presented and arrive at a conclusion as a result of thought and prayer.
Paul Cowell
PROLOGUE
PART I FOREGROUND: AN INTRODUCTION
1. What In the World Is Going On?
PART II BACKGROUND: OLD TESTAMENT BASICS
2. The Charter of the Kingdom
3. Her Tent and My Tent
4. Figs and Figs
5. Who Is He?
6. Why Christ Died
7. Unfinished Business
PART III HIGH GROUND: A THEORY OF HISTORY
8. History and Prophecy
9. All One Body We
10. The Clock of Ages
11. Reformation: Part B
12. The Treasures of Joseph
13. 0! Rachel, Don't You Weep!
14. The Ecstasy of Pride
15. The Man of Kerioth
16. The Woman in the Sun
17. The City of Chaos
18. The Mobtown
19. The Bulwarks of Zion
A Personal Epilogue
PART IV PLOWED GROUND: APPENDICES
A. The Abrahamic Covenant
B. The Chosen Seed
C. The Divided Kingdom
D. Calendars and Time Cycles
E. Three Little Words
F. The Great Seal
What are you going to do tomorrow? What are your plans for next week-end? Where are you going? Are you certain that your intentions will be realized? Isn't it wonderful how wt can toy with the future as if we owned it? Yet, for each of us, there is no guarantee that there will be a tomorrow.
In additon to our concern for our personal lives, there is a concern for what is happening in our community, our nation, and the world. Some of us are very concerned about what may happen tomorrow, next week, or next year. There is a book which addresses future things. We call it the Bible. About thirty-five percent of the Bible is prophetic literature. There is also prolific secular literature today which concerns the future. Man has a deep-rooted, innate interest in what is going to happen to him.
Men are also turning to other guides. There has been a widespread revival of interest in astrology. We are encouraged to look at our horoscopes to see what may happen in our lives, to see what we should do. There is also an increasing interest in the occult, in psychic phenomena of various sorts, and in science fiction which attempts to portray future life in a world of space travel, encounters with beings from other worlds, and multi-dimensional existence. All these indicate man's interest in his own future. We are faced with the prospect of eventual nuclear annihilation.
Millions are currently experiencing starvation. New diseases stalk the earth. The nations of the earth are so heavily in debt that a world-wide financial disaster is assured. Incentives for increased productivity are not very effective in our culture. Can mankind continue to live as we have for centuries past?
Where are we going? Where are we now? Is there any way of being sure of any answers? A poll conducted a few years ago by U.S. News and World Report shows that the people of America are deeply concerned about their public life. They are convinced that something is wrong, but they do not know what it is. They are mystified by the activities of men in high places. They wonder if truth in government is lost forever.
We are plagued with a surplus of confusion and a scarcity of leadership. We have amassed mountains of knowledge, but generated only molehills of wisdom. Where do we go for understanding?
When you leave a public meeting that lasts an hour, you will be more than a million miles away from where you were when you came in. That is how fast the earth is traveling through space; more than a million miles an hour. Now Christians believe that this space ship -- Planet Earth -- came with a book of instructions called the Bible. This book tells us how to keep the ship operating, how to maintain order among the crew members and passengers, how to communicate with the Captain, and how to insure safe arrival at our destination. All these instructions and more are in this book.
Francis Schaeffer's book called He Is There and He Is Not Silent develops the idea that not only God Is, but He can do whatever pleases Himself. Not only CAN He communicate with His creation, He DID. Not only CAN He act in history, He DOES. And God continues to act in human history, dealing with men and nations. Then what on earth is God doing?
God isn't doing anything He did not tell us about. The prophet Amos wrote, "Surely the Lord will do nothing, but He revealeth his secret to His servants the prophets." He has told us what He is going to do. Through the prophet Isaiah, God makes it plain that He is the author of history. In verse after verse in Isaiah chapters 40 to 48, He shows that HE is bringing about whatever comes to pass. Our God is in truth the Sovereign Lord of history.
History can be rationalized according to at least three theories. One viewpoint is that history is open ended; it just goes on and on in an evolutionary manner, made up of human experience, but having no purpose. Goodness and human wisdom will lead us to some dreamed of Utopia, or our evil and folly will lead us to destruction. Either is possible and nature affords no preference. Another view is that history is cyclical; it just keeps repeating itself. Civilizations flourish and die. Nations come and go, and mankind never learns. Still another view is that history is climactic; we are living toward some great climax. There is a purpose, a designed goal, a destination. This view involves human responsibility. It involves an accounting for man's behavior. We read about such things as a judgment, a harvest, and a day when God triumphs. This is the Biblical view, the Christian view.
Since God has told us the story agead of time, which is a prophecy, we can follow His revelation by looking at history. An adequate interpretation of history and prophecy should include several considerations. We should study the selection of a people from out of the world to be God's servant. This is a continuing story we can trace throughout the Bible and in real history. We should include a study of the rise and fall of empires, which we find outlined for us in the second chapter and the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel, and in portions of the book of Revelation. An adequate interpretaion to history should take into consideration world powers, such as the Papacy, which exercised political domination over the nations of Europe for thirteen centuries; and Islam, which held sway over the Holy Land for thirteen centuries. It should take into consideration the mightiest nation this earth has ever known, the United States of America, as well as its modern enemies. It should take into consideration great movements, such as the spread of the early church, the Reformation, and the modern phase of world missions. Is it not significant that in about two hundred years the Gospel has been taken all over the world, and now about one half of the population of the world has shut its doors to Christian missions? And what of the great apostasy at the end of the age preceding the Second Coming of Christ?
An adequate interpretation of history should consider such subjects as the Church and the Kingdom of God, Israel and the Jews, and as Grattan Guiness said 100 years ago, if you have not yet learned the difference between Israel and the Jews, you are yet in your prophetic infancy. It should take into consideration the world system that goes under the name of Babylon in the Bible; Political Babylon, Ecclesiastical Babylon, and Economic Babylon, as described in the Old Testament and in the book of Revelation. It should take into consideration the continuing work of Satan, and the greater work of the Holy Spirit.
There are four general theories of the relationship between history and prophecy.
1. Prophecy is symbolic Literature. The prophetic scriptures teach us only spiritual truth, and although they use the phraseology of history for giving us that spiritual truth, these scriptures have nothing to do with actual history.
2. There is a Preterest theory, which states that the history about which the Scriptures speak happened back in the days of the Roman Emperors when the Christian were severly persecuted. It is all finished now, and we are not to look for anything else as a historical fulfillment of the prophecies except the developing world under the influence of the Church.
3. The Futurist theory of prophecy claims that the main events described by the prophets have not yet begun. They are postponed until the time of the Second Coming of Christ.
4. The Historicist view states that all of history is included in the messages of the prophets. There are no gaps, and the intervening centuries since Christ was here are all very much included in the prophetic messages.
Currently, there is a very popular view of history and prophecy in circulation among Christian people. In its present form, this general view is little more than a hundred years old. There are hundreds and even thousands of books written about it, and it is virtually the only study of prophecy which is available in Christian
involving Christians. It appeals to our spiritual vanity in that it sets forth the proposition that we will be removed out of the world before these prophetic events begin to happen. It presents us with an escape from persecution and reality. It denies the relevance of current world history as well as most of what happened in the 1900 years since the first century. It forgets the teachings of the giants of our faith in former generations, especially during the time of the Reformation. It consists of a system of inferences of questionable Biblical support. By calling for the removal of the Church before the world undergoes the greatest crisis of the ages, no reasonable test of the scheme is available to us in any meaningful way, such as the one we find in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy. This is the Futurist view of prophecy.
There is another view, an older view, the Historicist view, which was freely taught until the latter years of the nineteenth century. It is the Protestant view. It was recognized and developed by the men who opened the Bible after the Dark Ages and gave the Bible to all the people. This view is based on the teaching of Luther, Calvin, Huss, Wycliff, Knox, Latimer, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooker, Newton, and a host of others; many of whom were burned at the stake or beheaded in the 16th and 17th centuries. These men freely gave their lives for their beliefs rather than recant when they were accused of heresy. Their faith was tested in the literal fires of tribulation. The general system of prophetic interpretation which included the current history of their day was formulated by these men several centuries ago. Others today should account for their own loyalties to their favorite scholars, but this was their loyalty. This view might be called "The Other End of the World", because it is a story that church people do not hear about very often today. We have forgotten our Reformation heritage when it comes to teaching Bible Prophecy.
You will find this story first of all in the Bible; all of it, not just a few selected passages. The Bible presents us with a series of covenants, or contracts. Some of them were freely given by God to man without any conditions. Some of them were entered into by mutual agreement between God and man, with conditions guaranteeing blessings or penalties. As in all contracts there is a great amount of fine print. We need to read carefully in order to see just what it is the Lord is presenting to us in the Bible, not only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also in the prophetic passages dealing with history.
Older commentaries and church histories exhibit this view. You will find it when you study the lives of the martyrs of the church. You will find it in the writings of Wycliff, and yet the new Wycliff Bible Commentary takes a view different from that of Wycliff. You will find it in the older printings of Halley's Bible Handbook, but the new printing omits it or alters it. You will find it in some of the historical notes in the old Scofield Reference Bible, but those have largely been eliminated, or edited in such a fashion as to be hardly recognizable in the New Scofield Bible. You will find it by careful study; in the Bible, in the libraries, and in the literature that has long standing.
The Gospel is so simple a child can understand it, yet the prophetic scriptures are so complex that a satisfactory understanding does not come from superficial reading. It comes only by careful reading and thoughtful study. Scripture presents three purposes of prophecy. Soothsaying and annual predictions are not the purpose of the prophetic scriptures.
1. The first purpose is to show that God is the author of history. This is set forth plainly in Isaiah.
2. Another purpose of prophecy is to give enough evidence to condemn disbelievers by the Word when the historical events do occur.
3. Still another purpose is to give comfort and understanding to believers as history unfolds. As it happens, you will understand, not before.
Understand what? We are commanded to WATCH. What does watch mean? It means to be aware of what is going on about us. There is an interesting passage in the latter part of the 12th chapter of Ezekiel. It is summed up in the last two verses, which read, "Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; There shall none of my words be prolonged anymore, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God." In other words, the time has come for God's promises to be fulfilled. The day is NOW.
This is the most exciting generation since the time of Christ. More than 15,000 people in the United States are at least one hundred years old. They have lived more than one half of the life of this nation. Isn't that amazing? Some of us have lived more than a third! This has been the most exciting third, and the excitement builds. Yes, this is truly the most exciting generation on earth since Christ was here.
Will civilization as we know it survive? This has now become a legitimate question among thoughtful people. Let us read something from the Gospel of John, in the 12th chapter. "And there were certain Greeks among them that came to worship at the feast: They came to Philip, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." What kind of an answer was that? Here were these Greeks who asked to see Jesus. Soon there would be Italians, Germans, Frenchmen, and others. Do you realize that in His incarnation God limited Himself? Jesus could be in only one place at one time? But if He died and resumed His eternal nature, without the limitations of this frame of flesh, He could be everywhere at once. Then He could see these Greeks, and the Italians, Germans, Americans; everywhere.
In this situation, Jesus was speaking of His own death. But isn't this true for each of us, that in order to be born again, we must first die? Paul says, "I die daily". We die unto self and live more and more unto Him. In the spiritual order of things, death precedes life.
Are we to achieve a great society of peace and righteousness throughout the world by man's efforts alone? If we could, who would get the credit? There are many of the prophets that speak of the day that is fast arriving. The world as we know it cannot continue, even on a physical basis. Must this civilization die, in order to be born again as the Kingdom of God? Think about that for a little while. Today, we see raging the most vicious spiritual warfare this world has ever known. It seems that this is Satan's last attempt to take over the active control of the nations of the world, in order to thwart the return of Christ. It would be easy if it were not for certain people; you, and you, and you, who are the Christians in the United States. Of course there are Christians in many lands, in many places, but the headquarters for the Christian enterprise on this earth is now in America. We are being attacked as perhaps no other people have ever been attacked in recent history; in our churches, in our family life, in our government, in our morals, in our faith, and in the very foundations of our society. There is one certainty about Satan attacking us; we can counterattack! And our weapons are spiritual weapons, if we would but use them.
There is increasing tension and competition among nations for the dwindling natural resources of the earth, as we move toward a period of real shortages of energy and materials. Is there enough human wisdom for our problems and perplexities? The issues of society are fast becoming the issues of a total society, a world society; they are fast becoming issues of the Kingdom of God on earth. The Club of Rome, in presenting its report, The Limits to Growth, offers a solution. Let the scientists find the level at which human life can be sustained on earth, and let the governments get together, and provide us with a beneficent dictatorship to enforce all the rules and regulations devised by the scientists for continuing life. The Bible has much to say about such an arrangement. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is going to rule this planet earth, according to his laws. The King is coming! How long will it be? How soon? When? When we BEG Him to come. When we cry out for help in our troubles. When human effort and human wisdom are exhausted. When we have endured sufficient chastisement.
There is an increasing separation of God's people from the world around them, with increasing difficulties that accompany such separation. In this gathering storm our faith and patience will be tested. Just who do we think we are, that we should escape any tribulation? Christians in other lands have endured much suffering, even death, in this century; then why should we be spared? "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth." Other generations of Christians have gone through the fire; why not us? What are our false gods today? Are they not gods of the good life, gods of affluence, gods of our possessions? Do we think too highly of these things? Then in our chastisement, will not God touch us right in the middle of our materiality?
One of the Ten Commandments says, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." That word "take" means to take up, to bear aloft as on a banner, to lift up as a standard, to wear as a label. We have been called a Christian nation throughout the world. We have borne the name of Christ; but in vain? We may be in for a bit of a spanking, and we may be already half way to the woodshed. When it comes, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. We have a sure rendevous with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are going to have a great prayer meeting one of these days; a great prayer meeting. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land." When we meet that requirement, God will surely deal graciously with us.
1. Beegle, Dewey M. Prophecy and Prediction. Ann Arbor. Pryor Pettengill Publisher.
2. Lindsey, Hal. The Late Great Planet Earth. Grand Rapids. Zondervan Publishing House. 1971.
3. Sargent, H. N. The Marvels of Bible Prophecy. London. The Covenant Publishing Company LTD. 1938.
4. Shaffer, Francis A. The God Who Is There. Downers Grove, Illinois. Intervarsity Press. 1968.
S.Toffler, Alvin. Future Shock. New York. Bantam Books. 1970.
6. Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. New York. Bantam Books. 1980.
7. Wilkerson, David. The Vision. Old Tappan, New Jersey. Fleming H. Revell Company. 1974.
God touches human history occasionally with great events. After the creation, the first such significant event was the sin of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Eden. As men multiplied, they became corrupt, so God destroyed all but one family and human history began anew after the flood. Again, men multiplied and became corrupt and vain, building a tower in Babel to reach to heaven. God judged them, scattered them, and divided them by languages.
Men still would not obey and glorify God. In the first chapter of Romans, Paul tells us what happened. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God unto an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves."
At that time, God initiated a program of reclamation, a program of bringing men who would trust him into an everlasting fellowhip with himself. An older catechism teaches us that "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever". God could have accomplished this purpose in any way he chose. He chose to attain this end by a program operating through history, that he might "bring many sons to glory". God could have ended human history at any time he chose. Since he did not, then he must have had some purpose in continuing it.
God's purpose in history is manifest again with the call of Abram, whose name he later changed to Abraham. We do not know how populous the world was in those days, but there were many tribes of people, small kingdoms of people, living all over the Fertile Crescent. This would include the countries surrounding the Persian Gulf, up the Euphrates Valley towards the mountains of the Caucasus and sweeping down through Syria toward the eastern shores of the Mediterranean all the way into Egypt. Out of all that mixture of people, God chose just one man; Abram. With the call of Abram, God was reducing the number of those who would be involved as his servants in carrying out his whole plan of salvation.
The declared purpose of God is conveyed to Abram as a set of intentions or promises, usually introduced by the words "I will". Nowhere will you find an "if. There are no contingencies and no conditions. God did not say, "Abram, IF you do so and so, then I will do such and such". God simply announced his purpose to Abram in a succession of completely unconditional promises. All these together we consider as God's covenant to Abram. Notice that it is a covenant to Abram, not with Abram.
The Scriptures contain many covenants or contracts, and like any contract, there is a great amount of fine print in them. Few people read all the fine print in these covenants and therefore miss some important points. It is in the fine print, that is, the detailed clauses, that we find the real intent of the covenant. At times the examination of these highly important small points will show that the whole program hinges on them.
We find the first mention of the promises to Abram in the twelfth chapter of Genesis. "Now the Lord said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed".
In response, Abram left Ur of the Chaldees and moved up the Euphrates River to Haran into what is now Syria. When his father Terah died, he moved southwest with his nephew Lot into the land of Canaan, to a place called Sichem, or Shechem. Here, God appeared to him again and repeated his promise of the land.
After a short interlude in Egypt, Abram spent the rest of his life along the highland ridge running north and south between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley. This high ground controlled the trade routes of the region, as well as providing a pasture land for flocks and herds.
In Genesis 13, look at verses 14 to 18. "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, lift up thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise and walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron and built there an altar unto the Lord." What do we look for? Small tribes somewhere? If this thing comes to pass, we should look for many people.
In Genesis chapter 15 we read that the Lord appeared to Abram and Abram complained. In paraphrase, "You promised me a great many seed and you haven't even given me one child." In chapter 15, verse 4, "And behold the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, This shall not be thine heir (that is, Ishmael); he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: so shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord: and he counted it to him for righteousness." In the next verse, Abram raises a question. "And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And Abram said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" He asked 'for a sign. So the Lord said, "All right, Abram, get some sacrificial animals, a ram, a goat, a heifer and two birds. Divide them into two parts and lay the pieces along two lines. Of the birds, put one on one side and one on the other." What was all this about? This was the most serious, sacred, oath-taking ceremony we find anywhere in secular or sacred history in that part of the world. It was a symbolic way of passing through death, "The sun was going down and a deep sleep fell on Abram and a horror of a great darkness fell on him, and the Lord said, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and serve them that shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the inquity of the Amorites is not yet full." (The two chief constituants of the Canaanites were the Amorites and the Hittities.)
"And it came to pass, that when the sun went down, the Lord asked Abram to get up and walk between those pieces." No! The account does not say that. "And it came to pass that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces." The Lord God himself, not Abram, walked between those pieces signifying, "Abram, I am going to keep my word if I have to die". And he did! On the cross. This shows the unilateral feature of the covenant. Abram was not asked to do a thing. God himself promised, and pledged his very life as a guarantee.
We know that Sarah was disappointed that she did not have a child. She gave Abram Hagar, her Egyptian handmaid, as a concubine, and of that union came Ishmael. Hagar's son, Ishmael, inherited some of these general promises given to Abram, such as the multiplicity of seed. Ishmael is the father of the Arabs. The Arabs are a Hebrew people; they are a Semitic people; they are descended from Abram. Please remember who the Arabs are when considering problems of the Mideast.
In chapter 17 Abram was ninety-nine years old. "The Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect. I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly." And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee." Abram means exalted father. Abraham means a father of a multitude. We call him Abraham from now on. "I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come of thee." Nations. There is one word in the Old Testament for "nations". It is Goyim. It is translated nations, heathen, people, gentiles; all one and the same Hebrew word. "I will make gentiles of thee and kings shall come of thee." There were not anything but gentiles in his day. Not too appropriate, is it? "I will establish my covenant with thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. I will give unto thee and thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God." God then introduced the rite of circumcision as a sign of this covenant.
In chapter 18, verses 18 and 19, in view of the impending doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, God appeared again to Abraham. "And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? for I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment: that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." In chapter 17, verse 18, Abraham was hopeful about his son Ishmael, but Sarah was going to have a child. In Genesis 21:12 we read, "And God said unto Abraham let it not be grievious in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Besides these two, Abraham had other children, but these he sent back into the east countries, away from Ishmael and Isaac. He also had six sons by his second wife Keturah, whom he married after the death of Sarah. "But in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Of all the descendants of Abraham, only those coming through Isaac will be the principal part of this mainstream of covenant relationship. In 22:15-19, "And the angel of the Lord came unto Abraham out of heaven the second time. And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore: and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: And in thy seed (singular) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." In thy one seed shall all the nations or gentiles of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice. Paul quotes this in Galatians. The New Testament presents to us the one seed which is Christ.
When Isaac became a young man he went back to the east country and found Rebekah for a wife under unusual circumstances. To Isaac and Rebekah were born two sons: Esau and Jacob. Here is another covenant detail. Before the children were born, so that it would not be dependent on anything they would ever do, God made a choice (see Romans 9:10-12). The story is in Genesis 25. "The elder shall serve the younger." You know what happened. Esau was born first, all red like a hairy garment, so they called his name Esau, which means hairy. After that his brother came out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was called Jacob, since the name Jacob means heel.
Esau was the first born, and had the birthright, which was the right to inherit the father's worldly goods. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. The birthright was his to sell, so in exhaustion he sold it to Jacob. Imagine Jacob teasing Esau with a bowl of good stew until Esau sold him his birthright. The birthright is the right of inheritance of all the material possessions that the father owned. Someone may think that there was also a connotation of spiritual leadership in the family associated with the birthright. There was no inherent spiritual blessing involved. This was largely a material blessing, the birthright in the natural, legal sense.
In addition to the birthright there was indeed a special spiritual blessing that passed from generation to generation. This was transmitted by a kind of last will and testament spoken orally. Rebekah knew that Jacob was to have preeminence and she connived with Jacob concerning a plan to get this blessing from Isaac. Rebekah helped Jacob dress up with goat skin so he would feel hairy to the touch, because Isaac was going blind. Jacob went in to Isaac and deceived him into thinking he was Esau. Consequently Jacob received the blessing from Isaac that Isaac intended to give to Esau. But once spoken it was binding. This was an irrevocable legal act. Jacob not only bought the birthright from Esau but received the blessing from Isaac, their father. Therefore, Jacob was now in line for those covenant blessings which would be his, down through his life and beyond. The story is in Genesis chapter 27.
In the first five verses of Genesis 26, the Lord appeared to Isaac and promised some of these same blessings he had given to Abraham. Verse 5 is very significant. "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." This was 430 years before Mt. Sinai. What kind of laws did they have then? The law was from the beginning. Else why find fault with Cain for slaying Abel? There is a special way in which the law fits in with the covenant at Sinai which we will present in a later chapter.
Jacob went back to the east country to his Uncle Laban and worked 22 years for his wives and his flocks and herds. He had 12 sons. Joseph was sold as a slave by his brethen into Egypt and later rose to power there; becoming vice-pharaoh of Egypt. In Genesis 48, Joseph had a visit with Jacob his father. Joseph could not come back into that shepherd family. Joseph had become the vice-pharaoh of Egypt. Jacob did not expect Joseph to take off his regalia of authority and quit his office of administering the economic affairs of Egypt just to become the young boy in a family of shepherds that had come out of Canaan. In paraphrase, Jacob said, "Now you have these two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh. I am adopting them. Since I cannot take you back into the family, they are going to be mine just like Reuben and Simeon and Levi and my other sons. If you have any other children they are yours, but these two are mine." So Jacob adopted Ephraim and Manasseh, therefore making 13 sons for Jacob. This adoption was purely a unilateral affair on the part of Jacob and the boys did not even have to be present. But then Joseph brought the two boys to Jacob. Jacob said, "Who are these?" Jacob's eyesight was failing, like his father Isaac. "These are my two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh." "Well, bring them over here." Jacob, called by his name Israel on this occasion, and speaking under inspiration, crossed his hands, put his right hand on the younger boy's head and his left hand on the older boy's head and pronounced a special blessing upon them. We find it in chapter 48, verse 15. Joseph objects,"You put your right hand on the younger boy's head." "I know what I'm doing." "And so he set Ephraim before Manasseh", (Ephraim being the younger son.) This passage presents the adoption of the two boys, the blessing of the two boys, with regard to the multitude of seed, and other blessings. The next chapter contains Jacob's last will and testament, spoken orally, in which he said something about each of his sons. In chapter 49 of Genesis, two sons are predominant. Judah is likened to a lion. Here is the beginning of the association of the symbol of the lion and Judah. Also to Judah is given the scepter, the right to rule, the kingship. A number of these sons are symbolized by animals which were later used as signs in the camp of Israel. We have studied the story of Jacob and Esau in Sunday School lessons repeatedly. Discerning students realize the difference between the birthright, which Esau sold to Jacob, and the Blessing, which Jacob obtained from his father Isaac by deceit. What happened to the Birthright and the Blessing in the next generation? Look very carefully at Jacob's prophecy concerning Joseph in Genesis 49:26. It reads, "The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethen."
Here, in Genesis 49:22-26, Jacob transfered the blessing to Joseph with a most unusual statement. In verse 26, who is "thy father"? Is it not Jacob, who is speaking? Who are "my progenitors"? Are they not Jacob's father Isaac and grandfather Abraham? Then the passage can be read, "The blessings which I, your father, Jacob now pronounce upon you, Joseph, shall greatly exceed the blessings which I received from my father Isaac and my grandfather, Abraham." What a blessing! If there is any place in all of the Scripture where a particular family of people were designated as a special recipient of God's special blessing, it is here in verse 26.
Not only did Jacob confer upon Joseph these special blessings, but the Birthright also was given to Joseph after Reuben disqualified himself. Joseph was the oldest son of Jacob's beloved wife Rachel. Just as the circumstances of life brought both the Birthright and the Blessing to Jacob, so, likewise, did Joseph receive them both also.
Here in the closing passages of the book of Genesis, Jacob prophesied concerning his sons, about 400 years before the Old Testament (Mt. Sinai) and over a thousand years before there ever was a Jew. Let it be emphatically stated that none of the descendants of Joseph are ever called Jews in the Bible.
A few hundred years after Jacob's death, the people fell into slavery and God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt in the Exodus. When they arrived at Mt. Sinai, something very strange happened. The ceremony at Mt. Sinai was a wonderful wedding ceremony. In it there is a courtship, a proposal, an acceptance, a period of getting ready, and a presiding minister. The Lord spoke his vows, the people of Israel spoke spoke their vows. The people became very nervous with some bridal jitters during the ceremony. They even ran away for awhile. There was music, a wedding feast; the whole ceremony is complete. It was a wonderful ceremony when God married Israel at Mt. Sinai. This is a covenant, a contract; but a highly conditional one. God said, if, if, if, right on down the line. And the people accepted those conditions.
First of all the law is given and written for them as part of the marriage contract. With no other people did God ever enter into contract on the basis of that law like He did with Israel on that day. And that law is more than the Ten Commandments. After hearing the Ten Commandments, the people ran away. That is all they heard. But in Exodus 21, 22, 23 there are more laws and judgments. All are a part of the contract.
Later, the Lord added something, knowing that the people of Israel could not keep the contract. He added a whole set of laws called ordinances in which there would be a symbolic atonement and forgiveness of sin. He set up a priesthood within the tribe of Levi, from among all the descendents of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Aaron and his sons were to be the priests to administer the ordinances whereby the people should be mindful of their sin, and in ceremony the people would seek to atone for their sin. Without understanding how God would do it, these ceremonies looked forward to the time when God would make full provision for their sins and forgive them. The whole arrangement is highly symbolic. This is treated in detail in the Book of Hebrews which you should read concerning the priesthood. The ordinances were the part of the law which Jesus nailed to the cross, as mentioned in Ephesians 2:15. That is the law which Jesus completed. He did away with the whole system of animal sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood. Jesus took care of sacrifice for sin by his death on the cross as our high priest.
Your attention is now called to Deuteronomy 33, where Moses blessed the tribes very much as Jacob had blessed his sons. Here, Levi received a large portion because of the priesthood. To Levi was entrusted the administration of the ordinances given at Mt. Sinai. Notice particularly verse 7, which sounds as if Judah is going to be in a little trouble at sometime. In verse 12, we read, "And of Benjamin he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him." Is Jesus the beloved of the Lord? Were the Galileans Benjaminites?
Beginning with Deut. 33:13, there is a long passage dealing with Joseph. The blessings of Israel to Joseph are repeated and augmented. The people of Joseph are to become wealthy and militarily strong. Joseph is likened to a bullock and a unicorn. This word unicorn is properly a wild ox, and is so translated in some versions. These are special blessings to Joseph, including the birthright.
In summary, the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, declared a covenant relationship with one man, Abraham, and his progeny through whom he initiated a program of reclamation for his disobedient and sinful creatures. This program includes the selection and multiplication of a family of people to be his servants in this program. Not only was there a people, but a land, laws to govern life, priests, and kings. What is this combination of king, laws, land and people, but a kingdom? In God's proposal to Israel, in Exodus 19:6; God said, "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." Yes, the promises to the fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's sons were nothing less than the charter for God's kingdom on earth, the kingdom into which all men of faith would come. The life, teachings, work of redemption, and coming reign as king of Jesus Christ are inherent within these promises which comprise the framework and purpose of God in human history.
We have considered the wonderful promises that God made to Abraham and what happened to them. Abraham had several descendants at that ancient time and God had promised many, many descendants later on. We saw that the various wonderful promises given to Abraham were divided by Jacob among his twelve sons. Actually there were thirteen sons, because he adopted the sons of Joseph in the place of Joseph. Joseph could not come back into the little family; he was Vice-Pharaoh of Egypt, a foreigner. We have examined Moses' blessings of the tribes. There are two chief divisions here: the throne and the kingdom, the scepter and the birthright, if you please. Now we want to explore the paths along which these two divisions of promise flowed throughout the Old Testament. Moses included a number of promises set aside for the tribe of Levi. Moses was a Levite, and at Mt. Sinai, when God made the law a written part of the contract with the people of Israel, he added a system of ordinances administered through the Levites having to do with sin and the atonement for sin. These are the laws that the New Testament tells us were nailed to the cross; they were finished with the work of Christ on the cross. Christ did not do away with "thou shall not murder"; he did not do away with these ten commandments at all. We must understand, when Paul is referring to the law, which law he is talking about.
During the period of the judges, the tribes were struggling more or less single-handedly against their Canaanitish neighbors. Nothing of covenant importance happened nationally until the time of Samuel, who is called the last of the judges and the first of the prophets. Samuel did not write a book of prophecy, but the historical record shows that he spoke prophetically of many things. During the days of Samuel, the people clamored for a king. They wanted to be like their neighbors who had visible rulers. Samuel warned them it would cost them much more if they did that. The people wanted a king anyway, and Saul was crowned. David endured much under the reign of Saul. After the death of Saul, David was chosen king over the tribe of Judah only. David took the hill of Zion, the city of the Jebusites, which later became Jerusalem. Jerusalem'was really in the tribal territory assigned to the tribe of Benjamin. It was always counted as part of the tribe of Judah because David took it. The men of Judah crowned David king, not in Jerusalem, but in Hebron. David reigned as king over the tribe of Judah only for seven years.
Through all the bickering between the sons of Saul and the people of Israel of the various tribes, the people of Israel finally got together and decided that they would like to have David rule over them as well. David was crowned king of all of Israel for another 33 years, making a total reign of 40 years.
David established a strong kingdom over all the territory that we can imagine the language of the Old Testament would give to Abraham. It extended from the Sinai desert all the way to the Euphrates River, and from the Gulf of Aquaba south of the Dead Sea all the way north to Mt. Hermon. He was on friendly terms with the Phoenicians and with the kings of Tyre and Sidon. Everything was in good order.
Having attained a great kingdom and established peace, David wanted to build the Lord a house of worship. The Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David. Beginning with II Samuel 7:8, we read the message. In verse 11, Nathan said, "Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee a house", and in verse 13, "He (David's son) will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." This is God's covenant to David in which God established a perpetual throne. This initiated the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham, "kings shall be of thee." This also was in line with the promise to Judah that the "scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come, and unto him (that is, Shiloh) shall the gathering of the people be". Here was an earthly king with a heavenly charter. David's throne would endure forever, as long as the sun shines and the moon shines, as long as the stars shine, as long as the earth remains, David's throne will be there. God promised David a perpetual throne.
David died, and Solomon became king. Solomon continued the great wealth and influence of the kingdom of Israel. However, Solomon disqualified himself. He married strange wives, and went after their gods. Although he had prayed for wisdom and the Lord gave him wisdom, Solomon was very unwise regarding strange women, hundreds of them. He brought in all their idols and began to worship them. In I Kings 11:11, God promised to tear the kingdom away from Solomon.
At this point we are introduced in I Kings 11 to a strange man, Jeroboam. He was not of the tribe of Judah; he was of the tribe of Ephraim. In I Kings 11:28, Jeroboam is identified as belonging to "The house of Joseph", not the tribe of Joseph. The tribe of Joseph is used in one place where it means "Manasseh". In another place, where the tribe of Joseph is used in the Bible, it means, "namely, Ephraim". In other words, the tribes of Ephraim and Manesseh became the progeny of Joseph. But, in I Kings 11 this is not the Tribe of Joseph, it is the House of Joseph.
If we go back into the book of Samuel we find that David had trouble with his son Absalom. Absalom rebelled and wanted to become king, but David would not touch him. In fact, rather than punish his son Absalom with military forces, although Absalom was running around with his own soldiers, David left the country. He went across the Jordan River to the East. As he was going away from Jerusalem one of the followers of Absalom named Shemei cursed David. David did not reply, and went on across the Jordan.
Shemei was of the tribe of Benjamin. After the news of Absalom's tragic death, David began his journey back to Jerusalem. As the king returned he came to Jordan, and the men of Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and conduct him over the Jordan. Shemei, the son of Geru, a Benjamite, hastened and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David. This is the same man, the very fellow, that cursed David when he left. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him. Shemei fell down before the king when he was come over Jordan, and said unto the king, "Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem that the king should take it to his heart. For thy servant doth know that I have sinned. Therefore, behold I am come the first this day of all the House of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king." So here was a Benjamite claiming to be in the House of Joseph.
What is the difference between the tribe of Joseph and the House of Joseph? Ephraim became so dominant among the other tribes, being the birthright tribe, that the 11 tribes were known as "Ephraim" or the House of Joseph. They became the "dominion" over which the tribe of Judah ruled in the days of David and Solomon. The people of all the 11 tribes were called "Israel", "the House of Joseph" in contradistinction to Judah. Throughout the Old Testament, in all the numberings of the soldiers, the men of Judah were always considered separate and apart from the rest of Israel. We are getting into the proposition that the people of God, the descendants of Abraham, the children of Jacob, were considered to be two people. In Psalm 114:1-2, we find, "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language, Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion." There was a difference between Judah and Israel. Judah was the locale of the throne, the sanctuary and the theocracy, administered by the Levites who were the lawgivers. Judah was in the center of the government, of the whole theocracy of Israel. We have already read from I Chronicles that the birthright was Joseph's, and the genealogy pertained to Judah, that is, the genealogy of the king. The birthright belonged to Joseph; the scepter belonged to Judah.
Look further at I Kings chapter 11. Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, into the countryside, and Ahijah the Shilonite, a prophet, found him. Jeroboam was clad in a new garment and the two of them were alone in the field. Ahijah caught the new garment that was on Jeroboam and tore it into 12 pieces. He then said to Jeroboam, "Take thee 10 pieces. For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give 10 tribes to thee. But he (Solomon) shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel." How many pieces does that make? Eleven. Where is the other one? There were 12 pieces. The twelfth piece represented Judah, the tribe of the king, and that was not a part of the kingdom, the "dominion" over which the king with Judah ruled. The king and the tribe of Judah are identified here. The kingdom consisted of the 11 tribes; not 12, not 13, but 11. And so the prophet told Jeroboam that God was going to give him 10 of these 11 tribes and that Solomon (or his son) was going to keep one "for David my servant's sake", because the Lord had promised David that he should never want a man to rule over the house of Israel. Not Judah, but Israel. There had to be somebody from Israel there in contradistinction to Judah for the Lord to keep his promise to David.
When Soloman died, Rehoboam, his son, inherited the throne. In I Kings 12:6, Rehoboam asked the old men, who had served his father, for advice, and they counseled moderation. Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men, and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him. They advised more drastic measures and increased taxes. Rehoboam then announced, in verse 11, "And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." No wonder the people of Israel complained.
There are several places in the Bible where the term "all Israel" means Israel in contradistinction to Judah. It does not include Judah, because there is also "all Judah" which means Judah excluding Israel. It is a peculiar expression, but do not think that "all" means everybody. It means "all the people of ten&V" utd "all tte \>eo$le of Judah". Itv vetse 16 "All Israel" means these 11 tribes. They rebelled. "What portion have we in David?" We are the birthright people. We do not belong to that scepter bunch. "Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse."
Who is the son of Jesse? David. These people had no inheritance in the scepter; they had inheritance in the birthright of Joseph. "To your tents, 0 Israel." What does that mean? A call to arms, a war cry. "Now see to thine own house David." So Israel departed unto their tents. "But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. They started fighting over this affair! Hold on. Look at verse 20. They made Jeroboam king over all Israel, not including Judah, but all Israel.
Jerusalem was originally in the tribal territory of the tribe of Benjamin, but because David took it, Judah claimed it. Benjamin occupied a strip of land just north of Judah. They were next door neighbors. In the middle of verse 21, we read, "all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin". In other words, Israel rebelled and ran away with the kingdom. Rehoboam was the king over Judah alone. But here was Benjamin, a piece of the kingdom, that came with Judah. Who divided the people? God did! "This thing is from me." What God hath put asunder let no man join together! God brought about this division for a purpose to be worked out in history. The birthright people were to have a different history and a different destiny than the scepter people. That is the theme we are going to be following.
From then on there were two kingdoms. The kingdom of Israel in the north whose capital city finally became Samaria. The kingdom of Judah in the south with the capital city of Jerusalem. Only kings from the line of David ever ruled in Judah. In Israel it was first one king then another, first from one family, then another.
Now there is a further division of tribes when this split came about. Jeroboam became disturbed. In I Kings 12:27, Jeroboam said, "if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah." What did he do? He built two golden calves, and he said, "Behold your gods, 0 Israel." The calves were the symbol of whom? Joseph, Ephraim; they made calves which were idols to themselves. The Levites were sprinkled in cities throughout all the tribes, since they did not have any tribal territory. The Levites did not want to minister to the worship of two golden calves, which became a great sin. Then Jeroboam made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of people which were not of the sons of Levi, and maneuvered the Levites out of a job. As a consequence, Levites moved from all their cities throughout all the tribes of Israel to Judah. A new group of people came into being, which included the king, the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, and the tribe of Levi. This new grouping became known thereafter as the kingdom of Judah. The Levites had no tribal inheritance in the land, no farms. The Levites were still a part of the theocracy, the civil servants, but only one family of them administered the ecclesiastical system of the land, namely, the priests of the family of Aaron, who were just a small portion of the tribe of Levi. The Levites taught the people the law; the Levites were the school teachers. The Levites were the tax collectors; they were the ones who collected the tithe, and they gave a tenth of the tithe to the priests. The Levites moved into the kingdom of Judah. From then on it was Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. This kingdom of Judah lasted for several hundred years.
Judah had good kings and bad kings but in Israel they were all bad kings. Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, is repeatedly called, "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," by worshipping the golden calves. They worshipped the golden calf, and they worshipped Baal, and they worshipped all kinds of idols. But they had no official worship for the Lord God anymore. Occasionally there would be an individual here and there who was faithful.
In the 17th chapter of II Kings we find that the empire of Assyria was spreading out and making contact with Egypt. The Kingdom of Israel was in the way. This Assyrian campaign against Egypt lasted many years. By this time the people of Israel had lost their power. They were fragmented. They did not have strong armies and they did not have a good economy. Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, besieged Samaria for three years. The city fell, and Hoshea, the king of Israel, was taken captive. This brought to an end the kingdom of Israel in Old Testament times. The kingdom of Judah in the south continued for another 130 years.
The Assyrian invasion of Israel began about 745 B.C. and Samaria fell about 721 B.C. This invasion is recorded on the cuneiform inscriptions of the Assyrians. These people on the coast that were in the way of their invasion of Egypt were called the house of Omri, who was one of the Kings of Israel. They were also called Bit-sak by the Assyrians, which is the same as the Hebrew Beth Sac, which simply means the "house of Isaac". It is carved in stone in the museums today, stones which have been dug out of the ruins of the Assyrian empire. This kind of thing is not in the history books, but in books of the archeology of Assyria.
We find a summary in II Kings 17 of all the sins of the people of Israel. And the Lord kept on testifying against them through his servants the prophets, but they would not listen. Notice in verse 16 of chapter 17 ... "and worshiped all the host of heaven, And served Baal." What does that mean? The constellations; astrology. They caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which is part of Baal worship. That would be burning them up, would it not? They did not have abortion in those days; they just waited and pitched unwanted babies into the fire, as part of their religious worship. They "used divinations and enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord and provoked him to anger, therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only." This is a reference to the southern kingdom of Judah. Neither did Judah keep the commandments. Look at verse 21. "For... unto this day." When is that? The day this was written or edited, which was some time later. Days of the Chronicles?
What happened next? "The King of Assyria brought men from Babylon, from Cutha, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities there." There were some of the people of Israel, the country folk, the hillbillies, the small farmers, who did not get collected and shipped off to Assyria; the invaders did not take every single man. So these Cuthians and others that were brought in, foreigners who were from beyond the Euphrates, were settled in the land, and in due course of time they intermarried with the poor of Israel that had remained in the land. What did this mixture become? The Samaritans. In the days of Jesus, the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. When men went back and forth from Judea to Galilee, they had to travel along a route east of Jordan. About double the walking time.
The Assyrians did not stop with taking people of the 10 tribes. One of the Assyrian inscriptions has a story of lining up 200,150 men of Judah, and marching them to Assyria with the people of Israel. Another item tells us that one of the kings of Assyria besieged all the fenced cities of Judah and took them. Later, Jeremiah tells us the name of the three that were not taken. They were Jerusalem, Lachish, and Azekah. The Assyrian inscription says they took 46 fenced cities. In other words, by adding to the Biblical account which is accurate, some of the details furnished by the Assyrians, the whole story fits together.
Now let us look for the demise of the kingdom of Judah. We will find that in the last chapter of II Kings. By then we have another empire which has risen to take the place of Assyria, namely, Babylon. We enter a period of time called the Babylonian captivity of Judah. Not Israel; Israel was not there. The Babylonian captivity of Judah. This invasion extended from 604 B.C. down to 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzer took the field of battle in 606 B.C. as head of the armies of his father Nabopolasser. His father died. Nebuchadnezzer had to go back to Babylon to assume the office of the King of Babylon. It was not until two years later that he returned to the field of battle, headed toward Egypt, and found Judah in his way. There were three principal captures of Jerusalem; one was in 604 B.C., one in about 598 B.C., and the final one in 586 B.C. Now the first was not much more than a capture of loot; not many people. The second one in 598 B.C. included the king, a young king named Jechoniah, or Coniah, or Jehoiachin. Here is one man that has three names in the Bible. The Babylonians set up Coniah's uncle as king in his place, a man by the name of Zedekiah. In II Kings 25 we begin to read about this. The King of Babylon would be Nebuchadnezzer. In verse 21, he smote the people of Jerusalem and slew them. "So Judah was carried away out of their land." There was a small group of the people of Judah left, which was not carried away. We read of it in verse 22. This group got into a little trouble and these people that were left killed Gedaliah, the appointed governor. They became afraid of the King of Babylon and fled to Egypt.
Where were the children of Israel during this time? We are not told in the Scripture. Archeologists tell us some things about. They settled in the cities of the Medes in the country between the Caspian Sea and the Black sea, northern Media, south of the Caucasus Mountains. Now there are some stories to the effect that when the Babylonians rose up and shook off the power of Assyria that many of these people of Israel said, ''Let's get out of here". And they went through the narrow passages of the Euphrates River, and got into the country north of the Black Sea. That is another story we will get into a little bit later. We find that story in the books of the Apocrapha which we do not consider inspired scripture and it has a history whose reliability may be in question. But there is one thing not in question; the books of the Apocrypha represent Jewish thought at that time.
The people who went into Assyrian captivity were never called Jews. What does the word Jew mean? Little Judah. It is a diminutive. The difference is explained if you transfer the letters from the Hebrew directly into English. If you go by letters, you have Yehuda for Judah, and Yehudi for Little Judah, which is the word we translate "Jew". There cannot be a little Judah unless big Judah is gone. Yehudi means a remnant of Judah. After the Assyrians took Israel and parts of Judah away, that which was left of the house of Judah could be called little Judah or Jews. But it was not used generally until the time of the Babylonian captivity when Jeremiah used it several times. Some of the other prophets of that era used it. We are going to see that it was used officially for quite some period of time after the return from Babylon.
Look at Jeremiah, chapter three. Many of the prophets spoke concerning these two people, Israel and Judah. In the Appendix there is a list of scripture in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea and other prophets that speak of Israel and Judah. Micah begins with "The word of the Lord that came to Micah which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem", Samaria being the capital city of Israel, Jerusalem being the capital city of Judah. Micah saw things concerning these two kingdoms. Jeremiah lived at the time of the Babylonian invasion. He saw the judgment that God was pronouncing on Judah and advised them to bow their heads and accept it. They did not like that and inflicted all kinds of hardships upon him, that we learn about when we read the personal history of Jeremiah.
In Jeremiah chapter 3 beginning with verse 6, Jeremiah accuses the people of Israel with spiritual harlotry. Harlotry or adultery in the words of the prophet means spiritual unfaithfulness. God had married all of the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. When the people worshipped other gods, they committed spiritual adultery. This had happened a hundred years before the time of Jeremiah, but it is Jeremiah who announced that a just God had given the nation of Israel a divorce. Israel, but not Judah. Nowhere in the Bible does it ever say that God divorced Judah. This lesson in Jeremiah 3 is a lesson to Judah about Israel. The object lesson is plain since Jeremiah speaks of the people "to the north". Israel was located north of Judah, and when Israel was carried into Assyria, they were sent even farther north.
The invitation to return is spoken by Jeremiah to the people of Israel while the kingdom of Judah was still in the land. What kind of return is promised? A representative one, because these people of northern Israel carried with them the covenant promise of a multitude of children. Therefore, the return would be "one of a city and two of a family", not a mass return. Also, the House of Israel and the House of Judah would be together when this return occurs, according to Jeremiah 3:18.
In Jeremiah 31:31 we read, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." If there is to be a new covenant, it will be new with respect to a covenant which is old. What is the old covenant? The covenant of marriage of Mt. Siani which the people broke by committing spiritual adultery, when "I was a husband unto them". The old covenant was made in terms of the commandments, statutes, and judgements, with the addition of all the ordinances regarding disobedience and atonement for sin. The ordinances were to be administered by the priests and Levites. The day would come, when there would be a new covenant, not like Sinai, administered by a new priesthood, not in the line of Aaron. This story is the subject of the book of Hebrews.
The book of Genesis comes before the book of Exodus. The covenant which God made to Abraham precedes the covenant which God made with the people at Mt. Sinai. The promises precede the Law. The covenant at Mt. Sinai is within the framework of the promises made to Abraham. The new covenant also will be within the provisions of the promises made to Abraham. See Luke 1:54,55 and Luke 1:72,73.
The adulterous behavior of the people of Israel under the name of Jerusalem is described in the indictment we find in Ezekiel Chapter 16. Some of this language is rather extreme and raw, so the chances are that this chapter has not been studied in Sunday School classes. In the end, however, God promises a future restoration of his people to a covenant relationship.
In retrospect, the people of Israel are regarded as two separate and distinct people in Ezekiel chapter 23 where their sinful character is again related. Here, the language is very indelicate, and this chapter is rarely discussed openly. Read it yourself. It is a parable of two sisters, Aholah, and Aholibah, which are names for Samaria, the capital of the House of Israel, and Jerusalem, the capital of the House of Judah. The temple in Jerusalem replaced the tabernacle, a tent which covered the ark of the covenant in the wilderness. This was the place God had chosen to manifest his presence to the people of Israel. The place of God's presence was in the holy of holies in the temple. Therefore, Jerusalem is referred to as Aholibah, which means "my tent is in her". The people to the north, however, had broken away from the worship of the God of Israel from the days of Jeroboam and established calf worship and idol worship. God was not present among them. Therefore, Samaria is Aholah, or "her tent". God had brought about the division of the people into two kingdoms, but the God of Abraham had no place in the worship of the northern tribes. God cut them loose and divorced them. The two peoples were called "my tent" and "her tent". There were two people, two daughters of one mother, two sisters, two wives, two sheepfolds and two adulterous women. This duality is recognizable all the way through the prophets and Old Testament history.
As nations fall and others rise in the course of history, careful observers might possibly notice that one particular change in political power is of more importance than others. Such was possibly the case when Daniel the prophet and prince of Israel experienced the turnover of sovereignty from Belshazzar the Babylonian to Darius the Mede. Although Daniel had interpreted the handwriting on the wall to Belshazzar, there was still the question in Daniel's mind concerning the significance of the momentous events to the people of Israel. So in the very first year of Darius, Daniel sought a better understanding of the meaning of that day and found it in the writings of Jeremiah the prophet, who had sent a letter to the captives of Judah in Babylon, among whom was Qaniel himself.
A copy of this letter is in the 29th chapter of the book of Jeremiah. However, it is addressed to a particular portion of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried into Babylon, and the entire captivity is portrayed in figure in the 24th chapter of Jeremiah. In order to better understand the message of the ninth chapter of Daniel, it will be advantageous if we first become familiar with the contents of these two chapters in Jeremiah.
In the 24th chapter of Jeremiah the prophet had a vision in which God showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs; one of good figs, one of bad figs. This vision occurred after the time that Jeconiah the king with his princes and ten thousand of the people of Judah had been taken to Babylon. Read Jeremiah 24:1, 29:16-19, and II Kings 24:8-17. This vision occurred during the reign of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, and the very last in the line of David to reign in the Old Testament.
In the vision, the good figs are a symbol of the people who had already gone into captivity (verse 5), and the bad figs are a symbol for the people who were still remaining in the land of Judah (verse 8). The bad figs are yet to be carried into captivity, and this was to be a longlasting captivity among "all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt", just as some of the people of Judah and most of the people of Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrians more than a hundred years previously. The House of Judah had been reduced to Jerusalem and its environs, and only two other fenced cities. Compare Jeremiah 29:17 with II Kings 17:523. Since that earlier captivity, this remnant of the people of the Southern Kingdom of Judah had been known as Jews, a name which means simply "little Judah". The vast majority of the people of Israel and Judah had been driven from the land before the name Jew was applied to this remnant. Does the Bible ever use the word Jew to mean all the people of Israel? According to Jeremiah 3:11, Ezekiel 16:46-52, and Ezekiel 23:31, this remnant of Jews was more deserving of punishment than all of Israel before them.
The good figs are to go into exile in Babylon for a limited time of only seventy years. They are to be brought back to the land of Judah for their good and for the good purpose of God. They are not to be misled by the false prophets among them who claim they are to return in a very short time. They are told to settle down and live normally in Babylon, for it will be a long time, 70 years, before any of them or their children would return to Jerusalem and Judah. Upon their return, these good figs are to enjoy the blessings of God in a renewed spiritual fellowship with him. Is there any other promise of any other group who are to go into captivity and return at that time? If so, where is the Scripture? Daniel refers to this group alone as the basis for his consideration in Daniel 9:2.
All this history is inherent in the messages of Jeremiah which Daniel read. When Darius conquered Babylon, we can imagine that Daniel asked himself, "Is this the time when the promise of a return will be fulfilled"? Daniel seeks his answer from God. Daniel understood by books the time. Is it necessary to be a Daniel, especially chosen and prepared by God, before anyone today may understand by books (the prophets, including Daniel) the significance of our own times, or may any devout Christian understand by searching the Scriptures? If not the latter, then why were they written? This may bring up the problem of placing confidence in various prophetic teachers who have all the outward marks of devotion and sincerity, but whose predictions just do not fit subsequent history.
The prayer of Daniel is a wonderful prayer and serves as a model for the intercession of a ruler for his people. This is not a prayer of personal penitence. Daniel is not personally responsible for all the past sins of his people. Yet Daniel identifies himself with the sinful people, because he is racially and nationally their pre-eminent representative before nations and before God. This is primarily an intercessory prayer, although Daniel was not a priest. This was most appropiate, for Daniel was probably of the royal line of David as one of the princes mentioned in II Kings.
The admission of sin is complete. It can only fully be understood if we read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 in connection with Daniel 9:5-15. In these passages we see that disobedience to the commandments of God and disregard for all teachings and warnings of the prophets are responsible for the punishment of the people. Daniel names the transgressors as the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel. Daniel confesses the sin of all the people of Israel, regardless of their present circumstances wherever they are. Judah and Jerusalem were the special subjects of Jeremiah, but all Israel were already entered into the time of their punishment before the time of Jeremiah. Here, Daniel is looking backward, and sees all Israel had been driven from the land over a hundred years before the Babylonian exile began. All Israel is included in the prayer of confession, because Daniel is at the last end of the transgression as predicted by Moses.
As pointed out, the eminence of Daniel in the courts of Babylon and Medo-Persia was such as to make him the foremost representative of Israel. In this sense he could pray for "my people". But all Israel was never captive to Babylon, and in no other passage is there any indication that Daniel ever prayed in behalf of all of Israel.
Now we come to Daniel's prayer of petition in verses 16-19. It is a very remarkable prayer, for in it Daniel seems to sense the limits of what he can pray for according to God's purpose as Daniel understands it. The secret of the meaning of God's answer lies within this prayer of petition.
First, let us consider what Daniel did not pray for. He did not pray for a restoration of all the people of Israel who had sinned. He did not pray for all the land of Israel which had been cursed, nor for the removal of the curses on the people which had been pronounced by Moses so long ago. He did not pray for God to restore the throne of David by setting up a new king. He did not pray for the return of the people of Israel from their Assyrian captivity. He did not pray for the reunion of the House of Israel and the House of Judah as foretold by other prophets.
Then what was included in Daniel's prayer of petition? He asked for only two things: the city of Jerusalem and the Sanctuary. Nothing more. He prayed for Jerusalem in verse 16, and for the Sanctuary in verse 17. There is no further request. The people of Israel and Judah had profaned the name of God. Daniel was bold enough to make these two requests because the city of Jerusalem was the place that God chose "to put his name there," as mentioned so often by Moses. Daniel prayed that God would uphold his own name by doing something about the city and the sanctuary that would bring honor to God's Holy Name. The answer to Daniel's prayer is not long in coming. It comes in the person of the angel Gabriel, whom Daniel "had seen in the vision at the beginning". What vision? There is no vision recorded in the 9th chapter of Daniel. Gabriel? Vision? Where is this combination found? In only one other place in Daniel: in the 8th chapter.
This vision in the 8th chapter of Daniel is a vision concerning the Sanctuary. It occurred in the third year of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon, which would be followed immediately by the first year of Darius. The interval between the vision of the 8th chapter and Daniel's prayer in the 9th chapter was at most a matter of months. It could have been several weeks, but it is not impossible that it was a matter of only a few days.
In this vision of the Sanctuary, an evil person called a "little horn" is to rise up out of one of the remnants of the "goat" empire (the Greek) who is to desecrate the Temple. Some think this was fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes about 175 BC who sacrificed a pig on the altar in the temple at Jerusalem and killed many of the Jews. However, the language of Gabriel in the interpretation of the vision in verses 23-25 implies that the desolating personage will be manifest just prior to the coming of Christ in judgment. If taken literally, the 2300 days of verse 14 would last only about 6 years, and we know there was no cleansing of the Sanctuary in that period of history. If, however, we consider the time as 2300 years, a very accurate lunar-solar time cycle, we must consider that the vision pertained to something that would happen after a very long time.
The passage is difficult. Gabriel is commanded "make this man to understand the vision," but Gabriel's interpretation is not clear to Daniel. Gabriel did not complete his mission, for Daniel closes chapter 8 by stating that none understood it, which would include Daniel himself. Gabriel's mission is never completed unless it is completed in chapter 9. After Daniel became concerned with the status of the Sanctuary, Gabriel is sent again to give Daniel wisdom and understanding, and the implication is strong that Daniel did indeed understand. In Daniel 9:23, we read, "therefore understand the matter and consider the vision". We can expect, then, that Gabriel's message in chapter 9 will be both an answer to Daniel's prayer and a more complete revelation concerning the vision in chapter 8. One thing becomes certain. Both chapters concern the Sanctuary.
The content of God's answer to Daniel's prayer as conveyed by Gabriel is contained in 9:24-27. This is one of the most controversial passages in all of prophetic Scripture, since it has become one of the chief points of dispute between those of the futurist school of interpretation and the adherents to the historical interpretation which was followed by most of the Reformers. In working through this passage, the question should not be how does this fit into our preconceived notions, but rather what does it say and what does it establish?
The first statement to be examined concerns the time. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city." The wording is simply "seventy sevens". The word for seven, SHABUA, in ordinary weeks would be 490 literal days, approximately 1 year and 4 months. Nothing of significance to the Sanctuary happened in such a short interval of time in that era of history. All agree that the statement is symbolic and refers to a much longer period of time. Taking a year for a day, the time is 490 years. This would be seven times as long as the captivity period of seventy years endured by the Good Figs of Jeremiah 24 and 29. So a sevenfold period of time is announced for the restoration of the Sanctuary.
Following is a list of six purposes for the seventy weeks, six objectives to be accomplished in this time span. Each should now be examined in turn.
A. To Finish the Transgression
What transgression is unfinished? Did not the people go the limit in rebellion against God and in the pollution of the land? Did not Daniel just finish a great prayer of confession for all the transgressions of his people? But the one great and awful crime was not yet done -- the bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman -- the slaying of the Son of God, the anointed one, the Messiah. The greatest of all transgressions is to take place in this seventy week period, and not until this act is accomplished is the transgression of the people complete. The cup of iniquity must be completely filled.
"Is there anything more ghastly than the failure of the Hebrew people from the beginning to the end? They were always failing and they never failed more disastrously than when they wanted a king "like the nations." In that act, as God said to Samuel, they had rejected him from being king. It had gone on through the ages, and the last thing the Hebrew people did to prove their ultimate and appalling catastrophic folly and sin was to crucify the Son of God." This quotation is from Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, Parables and Metaphors of Our Lord, page 316.
In Acts 2:33, Peter says, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Again, in Acts 3:14,15 Peter declares, "But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God has raised from the dead; whereof ye are witnesses." In Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, he gave a lengthy review of God's dealings with his people in the Old Testament, and ended his testimony in Acts 7:51, 52 by exclaiming, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers." In 1 Thessalonians 2:14, 15 Paul is plain-spoken and says, "-for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men."
Thus we see that the "thy people" of Daniel included those who were responsible for the death of Christ. What else is there left to do in the way of transgression? This purpose was certainly fulfilled within the seventy weeks.
B. To Make an End of Sins
The verb, "to make an end of," is CHATHAM, which is used also to mean finish, complete, seal, seal up, perfect, accomplish. The principal use is seal or seal up. The same word is used in Job 14:17, "My transgression is sealed up in a bag." The meaning is not that men will no longer sin, but that sin will be taken care of. This does not say that all sin shall cease. This idea is borne out by the following Scriptures. Romans 10:4: "For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth." II Corinthians 5:21: "Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him." Hebrews 9:26 "But now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 1 Peter 2:24: "Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins might live unto righteousness." I Peter 3:18: "For Christ hath also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." This purpose was accomplished by Jesus the Messiah.
C. To Make Reconciliation for Iniquity The word for "make reconciliation" is the Hebrew word used most often for "make atonement". The word "atonement" is used only once in the New Testament, in Romans 5:11, but the Greek word is the same one used for "reconciled" in the previous verse. Now read this and other verses.
Romans 5:10,11: "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." In II Corinthians 5:18, 19: "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hast given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Hebrews 2:17: "Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
Who else has made an effectual reconciliation for iniquity? Surely this is the distinctive work of Jesus the Messiah. D. To Bring in Everlasting Righteousness
Another such promise is also in the Old Testament, for in Isaiah we find, "-but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation." Also in Isaiah 61:11 we read, "For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." The following New Testament references indicate the fulfillment of this promise. Romans 3:21, 22: "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." Romans 5:17,19, 21: "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 10:3, 4: "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believeth." 1 Corinthians 1:30: "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifiction, and redemption." Ephesians 4:24: "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Philippians 3:9: "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." 2 Peter 2:24: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness."
Surely, Jesus the Christ, ushered in everlasting righteousness. E. To Seal the Vision and Prophecy
This is somewhat obscure. Literally, it says, "And seal up the vision and prophet". What vision? What prophet? Or prophecy? Do we await the second coming of Christ for this "sealing up" or is that the time when all things shall be revealed? Surely this purpose is to be attained between the time of Daniel and the coming of Christ in glory at the end of the age.
Jesus was the Great Prophet of whom Moses and the prophets spoke. Jesus prophesied. Paul prophesied. So did Peter, James, and John. Since the apostles fell asleep, we do not consider any of the writings of Christian teachers as true prophecy in the sense of additional direct revelation of God to His people. Although much of the Revelation of Christ to John is in symbol, and contains things that are sealed, the intent is "revelation", for in Revelaion 22:10 we read "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand."
Christ himself is sealed, for in John 6:27 we read "for Him hath God the Father sealed". So whether it be prophet or prophecy, Jesus the Messiah fulfilled this purpose also. F. To Anoint the Most Holy
The expression is used in the Old Testament for holy things, holy places, and holy persons. Aaron and his sons were anointed to the office of the priesthood. The tabernacle was anointed by Moses in the wilderness. All the things in the tabernacle were anointed, which would have included the holy things in the Holy of Holies. David was anointed king. The same word for anointed which is used in Daniel 9:24 is also used in Isaiah 61:1. This is translated into the same Greek word in both the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 61:1 and in the quotation in Luke 4:18. When Jesus quoted Isaiah, he claimed that "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears". Jesus was anointed by water, by the Holy spirit, and by the voice of the Father when he was baptized by John.
The demon in the man in the synagogue at Capernaum exclaimed "I know thee who thou art; the holy one of God". Peter calls Christ the Holy One and Just in Acts 3:14. In Acts 4:27, Jesus is called "-thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed". In Peter's opening of the Gospel to the gentiles in Acts 10:38, he says, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power". In Hebrews 1:9 there is a quotation of Psalm 45:7, which says, "-therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows". Certainly Jesus is the Most Holy Person ever to be anointed.
In Hebrews 9:11-14, we read, "But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come-by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God"? Further, in verses 24 and 28 we read, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. -So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many-".
It would be profitable to read the entire passage in Hebrews 9 and 10 at this point. Surely, by entering into the most Holy Place, into the very presence of God, through the veil of his own flesh and by the offering of his own blood, Jesus has made it possible for us with "Boldness to enter into the holiest by a new and living way".
In summary, it has been shown that each and every one of these purposes of the seventy weeks involves sin and the atonement for it. Each of these purposes was achieved by Christ at his first advent. Is there any one of them left unfinished or unfulfilled? They all have to do with the Sanctuary, in which Christ serves as our great high priest, and not with the Throne on which he will sit in judgment when he returns in power. These six objectives deal not with judgment, but with sacrifice.
We have examined the purposes of the Seventy Week period which God ordained for the people of Daniel and the Holy City Jerusalem. We are now ready to look at the fulfillment in history of those purposes.
In Daniel 9:25, we read, "know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times."
The intention is for Daniel to understand the message. Since Daniel wrote it down, can it also be said that it is intended to be understood by others as well? Is it not the purpose of the word of God to transmit understanding to God's people in other times than the particular time in which the message was first received? Verse 23 ends with "therefore understand the matter and consider the vision." What vision? There is no account of a vision in the ninth chapter of Daniel.
The ninth chapter of Daniel concerns the Sanctuary; so does the vision in the eighth chapter. Gabriel is the heavenly messenger in both chapters. Concerning the vision in the eighth chapter, Daniel said, "but none understood it". In the ninth chapter, Gabriel said, "Understand... and consider the vision," referring to the vision of the Sanctuary.
Continuing in the reading of the 25th verse, we see a division of time into 7 weeks and 62 weeks, a total of 69 weeks, extending "unto Messiah the Prince". This passage introduces the chronological problem of establishing some dates. There are two ways of approaching the problem. The first involves finding a beginning point and counting forward, and the other an ending date and counting backward. It will be gratifying if we can find two schemes which agree.
Before examining this problem, consider the possible relationship of the 70 weeks to the 2300 days of the sanctuary vision in chapter eight. If the 2300 days are literal days, either already fulfilled, or yet to come, how can the 70 weeks (490 years) be considered as measured off or cut off out of the 2300 days? Does not the "cutting off imply that 490 years is a shorter span of time than the 2300 days? Since it is a concensus that the 70 weeks is symbolic of 490 years, does this not demand that the 2300 days must be a larger period such as 2300 actual years? Is not this relationship strongly implied by the common elements "sanctuary" and "Gabriel" in both chapters?
There is apparently little disagreement that the rebuilding program occupied 49 years or the first 7 weeks of the 70 weeks period. The only disagreement would be concerning the particular 49 years of history which correspond. We need to find a satisfactory over-all chronology.
When did the 70 weeks begin? Which commandment is the reference point? The commandment of Cyrus, or that of Artaxerxes, or some other? Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim, king of Judah, captive in 604 B.C. In 598 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin, or Coniah, king of Judah, captive into Babylon. A number of people from Jerusalem who were leaders and of the nobility, probably including Daniel and his three friends were also taken to Babylon at this time. This group of people were symbolized by the "good figs" of Jeremiah 24:5 and 29:2. In 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar captured Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, and the remaining people in Jerusalem and destroyed the city. These were the "bad figs" of Jeremiah 24:8 and 29:16-19. Note again that the "good figs" are to return after 70 years of captivity, but the "bad figs" are to enter their long-term punishment at that time.
If the 490 year period began immediately following the first 70 year period after 598 B.C., then 490 years did not reach the Christian era. There must be some other way to consider it. Any of the captivity dates result in dates too early for the 70 weeks period. It should be noted that the Protestant commentators of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are almost unanimous in their agreement on 457 B.C. as the date of the commandment of Artaxerxes to build Jerusalem. This commandment is the only one quoted verbatum in the Bible, recorded in Ezra 7:11-26. In all, there were four commandments. They are:
(1) The decree of Cyrus for the rebuilding of the House of God 536 B.C. Ezra 1:1-4.
(2) The decree of Darius for the resumption of the same work in 519 B.C. Ezra 6:1-12.
(3) The decree of Artaxerxes to Ezra (recorded in Chaldee) in 457 B.C. Ezra 7.
(4) The commission to Nehemiah from the same king in the 29th year about 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 2). The first two are too early for 490 years to reach Christian era.
Which Commandment? Consider the following points:
(1) Nehemiah's commission was verbal only. There was no written document.
(2) Work was already well under way. Nehamiah's commission was to augment or carry to completion this work. Nehemiah's work of building the city was done in 52 days.
(3) No new phase of work was committed to Nehemiah. The decree to Ezra included all previous commandments and more.
(4) Ezra believed his responsibility was to consumate the purpose of God. Ezra's prayer is of great significance. Read Ezra 9:5-17.
(5) Counting from the time of Nehemiah, 445 B.C. or 444 B.C., 490 years takes us to 40-50 A.D., too late for Messiah and unmarked by any significant historical event.
(6) Prideaux (Connexion, Vol. I., p. 332) says: In the 15th year of Darius Nothus, ended the first seven weeks of Daniel's prophecy. For then the restoration of the church and state of the Jews in Jerusalem and Judah was fully finished, in the last act of reformation which recorded in Neh. 13:2331, just 49 years after it had been commenced by Ezra in the 7th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus. This was 408 B.C.
(7) Ezra himself considered the series of decrees as "the commandment". Ezra 6:14 "and they builded it, and finished it, according to the commandment of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia." The 3 decrees were steps or stages of the "commandment", which was made complete in the recorded decree of Artaxerxes.
"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself (Daniel 9:26). Notice that it says "after" and not "at the end of the 69 weeks. To think that the cutting off of Messiah happened immediately as the 69 weeks are finished is not consistent with the general sense of the rest of the verse. The verse seems to look beyond the scope of the 70 weeks just enough to show the relation to the longer period of Israel's punishment already begun in Assyria and Babylon.
The word for "cut off is KARATH: it means to be cut down or cut off. Its most frequent means to "make covenant", which is accompanied with the cutting of sacrificial animals. How appropriate, since the "cutting off of Messiah established a new covenant with his people. He was cut off, not for himself, but for the sins of his people.
"The people of the prince that shall come" are obviously the Romans, who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It was an event, like the cutting off of Messiah, which came sometime "after" the 69 weeks. The destruction of the "city and the sanctuary" is pronounced. Why apply this to some far distant invasion of the sanctuary when the primary and obvious fullfillment is so evident? When did the 69 weeks end? "Unto the anointed one the Prince." When did Jesus become the Messiah? If you say at Christ's birth, then the 70th week ended when He was 7 years old. What about Luke 2:11? What about Gabriel? If you say at his Baptism or beginning of his ministry, then you must admit that at least the first 3V£ years of the 70th week elapsed before his death. If you say at his death, where is the scripture? And how do any such scriptures compare with the following:
(1) John 1:41 - Andrew said, "We have found the Messiah".
(2) Matt. 16:13-20 - The disciples knew him as Messiah.
(3) Luke 4:41 - Demons knew him as Messiah.
(4) John 4:25,26 - Jesus claimed to be Messiah.
(5) Mark 14:61,62 - He admitted to the high priest that he was Messiah..
All these events happened before his death.
If you say that there is a gap or parenthesis in Prophetic time because the Jews are now under Gentile rule, then how can the 70th week ever take place under the rule of a persecuting antichrist? The Israelis became an independent nation on May 16, 1948. Did the 70th week begin then? It should have ended in 1955! What are we waiting for? Or did it begin with the 6 day war in 1967? More than 7 years have gone by since then.
The second approach may be more simple and more satisfying. Just when did Jesus become the Messiah? When was the Messiah manifested? When did he assume the office and function of Messiah? When was the "annotated one" introduced on the stage? When he was anointed! Acts 4:27 - "Whom thou didst anoint" When? Acts 10:38 - "God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power." Luke 4:18 - "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; He hath anointed me to preach..." Already done at Jesus' appearing in the synagogue. Jesus said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled." Luke 3:21,22, "Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, "Thou art my beloved son; in thee I am well pleased." Jesus was thrice anointed at his baptism:
(1) By John with water;
(2) By the Holy Spirit;
(3) By the Father with words "This is my son" - a prince.
Is there any other event in the life of Jesus which could possibly be the anointing? If so, what scripture would support another annointing? Conclusion: Jesus was introduced as the anointed one - the Prince - at his baptism and opening of his ministry.
Now let us examine very carefully Daniel 9:27.
(1) And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week;
(2) And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease;
(3) And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation;
(4) And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Who is "He"? Here is one of the greatest stumbling blocks in
all prophetic scripture. The position we take with respect to this personage determines in the main the entire structure of a system of interpretation including many other prophetic scriptures. Futurists and historicists alike attach much significance to the proper identity of this "he" but arrive at quite different answers. Seldom does so much depend upon the proper exegesis of a single word. However, "he"is not there!
The word does not even appear in the original language of the textl
"He shall confirm" is one word. It is the 3rd person singular of the future tense of the verb "to confirm". It is usual in many languages for the personal pronoun to be included within the verb form.
Therefore it becomes necessary to search for the antecedent subject of the verb, "he shall confirm".
Read the passage again (verses 24-26). Verse 24 refers to the works of Messiah. Messiah is the primary person discussed in verse 25. Messiah is the primary subject of verse 26. Analyze verse 27 by any set of grammatical rules you wish and in any language you wish, English, Greek, or Hebrew. Parse it, diagram it. Who is He?
Messiah is He! He is Messiah!
Is there any way of making "the people of the prince that shall come" the subject of "he shall confirm"? How can the prince be the subject of anything but the verb "shall come" in a subordinate clause? "To confirm" means to make firm or strengthen something already in existence. The Hebrew word is translated "strengthen" elsewhere. It nowhere connotes the creation or bringing into existence of something new. Why no "karath", to cut a covenant? "The covenant" is which covenant?
Many current prophetic teachers claim that the "he" is a reference to some far distant antichrist that will appear on earth in the future. This interpretation calls for a gap or parenthesis of more than nineteen hundred years between the 69th week and the 70th week. Was there a gap between the 7 weeks and the 62 weeks? A long interval simply cannot be induced from the language here. The idea must be part of the presuppositional base applied to the passage. In other words, it must first be assumed and then the passage interpreted to fit the assumption. If the Romans are the people who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. how can they be the people of a prince who has not yet appeared after 1900 years?
How can Messiah be the subject of verse 27? Which covenant is to be confirmed? The Mosaic covenant is a highly conditional one; it cannot be confirmed, it can only be fulfilled by obedience. The Abrahamic covenant is unconditional. All of its provisions are by promise. It can be confirmed by restating the promise or executing these promises.
The announcement of Gabriel to Mary was considered as carrying out the promises to Abraham, for in Luke 1:54,55 Mary explains, "He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever".
When John the Baptist was born, the tongue of his father Zechariah was loosed and he prophesied concerning what the Lord God of Israel was doing. Among the words, we find, "to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenants; the oath which he swore to our father Abraham." (Luke 1:72,72). Paul declares, in Romans 15:8, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." In Galatians 3:16-19, we read, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the Law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator."
The 70th week, therefore, began with the baptism of Jesus when the anointed one was anointed and ended on schedule 7 years later when the Sanhedrin officially rejected the Gospel, stoned Stephen, and drove the church from Jerusalem. During this week, the covenant which God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was confirmed by the ministry, works and death of Jesus Christ and by the Gospel preached by His disciples. Every major speech by the apostles to the leaders of the Jews proves this point. (Acts 2:14-40; Acts 3:12-16; Acts 4:8-12; Acts 5:29-32; Acts 7:1-60. Note that Paul did not offer the gospel in Acts 23, but did to the people in Acts 22).
The new covenant is not of such a nature that the bodily presence of Messiah is necessary before it can be confirmed. In Mark 16:20, we read, "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." The "cutting off of Messiah is an essential part of the "confirming", and the preaching of the efficacy of the "cutting off was the message of confirmation to the people. In this connection, read also Hebrews 6:13-20; 9:11,12; 9:15-17.
Admittedly Daniel 9:27 is a difficult passage. However, let it be emphasized that it is not made any easier by trying to force it to say something it does not mean. There have been many variations in the translation of this verse in recent times, but none of these should alter what has been said about the identity of "he" as Messiah, particularly in view of the purposes of the 70 weeks as set forth in Daniel 9:24, all of which refer to the sanctuary and the work of the Messiah as the high priest of the sanctuary.
Continuing in Daniel 9:27, we read, "And for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even unto the consumation." The people of Israel were guilty of all manner of abominations. In Jeremiah 7:9-11, we read, "will ye steal, murder and commit adultery, and swear falsly, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord." The word for "robbers" in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, is exactly the same one as used by Jesus when he says, in Matthew 21:13, "My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves". In Ezekiel 16:2, we read, "Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations." There follows a picture of Jerusalem showing the vile and base immorality into which the people of Jerusalem had sunk. No wonder Jesus should lament and exclaim "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... Behold your house is left unto you desolate". Yes, Jesus pronounced desolation upon Jerusalem for the overspreading of the abominations of the people.
"And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Just what is determined? Jesus said, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." He announced the utter destruction of Jerusalem which was accomplished in 70 A.D. by the Romans.
The long term punishment of the people of Israel is foretold in Leviticus 26. Most of the people had been banished from the land of promise many years before New Testament times. The few who returned from the exile in Babylon, the good figs, were given a temporary respite for the purpose of bringing forth Messiah, the seed of David from the tribe of Judah. This purpose being accomplished, there was no reason these people should not join their brethren already in their punishment among the nations. Therefore, the punishment determined by a righteous God was now in order, and Jesus pronounced it so by saying "Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
In Daniel 9:27, we find "he shall confirm", "he shall cause the sacrifice to cease", and, "he shall make it desolate". Each one of these actions was accomplished or declared by Jesus the Messiah. The entire passage in Daniel 9 concerns the person and works of Jesus the Messiah. Surely "HE" is Messiah.
Why did Christ die? There is a little verse in Mark that does not receive the attention it deserves. Immediately following the account of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we read, in Mark 11:11, "And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about on all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve." This sounds rather innocuous, doesn't it? But examine this closely. Jesus had taken his last journey from Galilee, declaring to his disciples that he was going down to Jerusalem to be killed. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he went into the temple, the sanctuary, and "looked round about on all things". He could see much of the city from the hill on which the temple stood. At the end of the day, he went out to Bethany, perhaps to the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
The time had come for the greatest event of human history, the central event of human existence, the consummation of God's purpose with respect to the reclamation of sinful humanity. This was a real drama, not an acted drama. These were real participants, not just actors. Jesus himself was the author, the producer, the director, and the principal figure in this great drama. He was both the villain and the hero. He was the victim and the victor. He already knew the entire scenario. The whole drama concerned his own person and his work.
Now, at last, everybody was in town. Each would play his part. Each would say what he had to say; each would do what he had to do. Jesus himself would provide every cue. The high priest was provoked to take the action he did by what Jesus said. Pilate was like putty in the hands of Jesus; he had no escape.
Just why did Jesus die? There are several reasons. First of all, who killed Jesus? Oh, a squad of Roman soldiers executed him. Were they responsible for his death? No. They were merely carrying out the orders of Pilate. Concerning the Romans, Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." However, we can say that the Romans killed him. In a sense, the world killed him; the world of sinful flesh, the world system. The Jews killed him. It was a crowd of Jews in Jerusalem who cried out "Crucify him." It was the high priest of Judaism who pronounced the death sentence upon him for the crime of blasphemy. Because of our sins, you and I killed him. Finally, he killed himself. Every Gospel writer says that he cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. He willingly and willfully died for the sins of the world. Who killed Jesus? The question has many answers.
But why?
There are various reasons.
In Isaiah 51:4, we read, "Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, 0 my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust." Continuing in verse 9, we read, "Awake, awake, put on strength, 0 arm of the Lord; awake, as in the days of old." In Isaiah 52:10 we read,"The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."
"Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" What is this mighty arm of the Lord? The mighty arm of the Lord is Jesus on the cross. The suffering servant, who was led as a lamb to the slaughter. He who bore our iniquities, who was chastised for our sins. The entire 53rd chapter of Isaiah reveals that the mighty arm of the Lord is the mighty work of God in taking care of man's sin problem. The death of Jesus on the cross is the mighty arm of the Lord. There is a verse, Psalm 89:13, which says, "Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand."
Included in the revelation of the angel of the Lord to Joseph in Matthew 1:18-23, we read, "And thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." Jesus, Yeshua, Yehoshua, God is Salvation. In Luke 1, the angel repeats to Mary, "-and thou shall call his name Jesus." Simon, in Luke 2, says, "-for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." My eyes have seen your Jesus.
It is generally believed that the beginning of the Gospel in the Bible is in Genesis 3:15, where we read that God spoke to Satan and said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." There is another early mention of the Gospel. In the 5th chapter of Genesis there is a genealogical list of names that makes boring reading. Few people ever read it twice. However, the list will bear close scrutiny. The meaning of the name SETH is given as APPOINTED in Genesis 4:25. What do these other names mean? We can find out by looking them up in Bible Dictionaries, Concordances, and other Bible helps. The following list was compiled as a result of such a search.
| NAME | MEANING |
| Seth | Appointed |
| Enos | Mortal |
| Cainan | Sorrow |
| Mahalaleel | Blessed God |
| Jared | Come down |
| Enoch | Teacher or teaching |
| Methuselah | When he dies, it shall come, or his death will bring it |
| Lamech | Despairing |
| Noah | Comfort |
Now put them all together. MORTALS ARE APPOINTED TO SORROW, BUT THE BLESSED GOD CAME DOWN TEACHING THAT HIS DEATH WILL BRING COMFORT TO THE DESPAIRING. The Everlasting Gospel is in these names! In these names, God promises to DIE in order to reclaim the human race. And he did.
Why did Christ die? To keep faith with Abraham.
Do you know the story of that awesome oath-taking ceremony when Abraham divided the sacrificial animal pieces into two rows? The story is in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. God had just told Abraham that there would be an heir of his own through whom the promises of the many seed and the inheritance of the land would come. Then Abraham questioned God asking, "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" (vs. 8). Then God gave Abraham the instructions for the sacrificial ceremony. Such a ceremony is mentioned in Jeremiah 34.18. It was the most solemn of all oaths, because it symbolized death. The contracting parties pledged their very lives as surety for whatever agreement they entered into.
The sacrifical animals were divided and the parts arranged into two parallel rows. The parties to the agreement then walked up and down between the two rows of pieces signifying they would pass through death if necessary to fulfill the promises made. This was the ceremony for which Abraham prepared.
Then a strange thing happened. Abraham passed into a trance, or sleep, in great darkness. The Lord appeared to him and told him of the things to happen to his descendents after Abraham's life would end. In Genesis 15:17 we are told, "And it came to pass, that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smo