Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Back in 1872 Dwight L. Moody heard a minister say these words, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to God’s will.” Moody bowed his head and he prayed and he said, “By the power of the Holy Spirit, I will be that man.”

And you know what happened? God honored him with a ministry that in spite of his human frailties and the lack of a formal education, and all of the things that with which so many have been blessed, God honored that man. Might you, too, follow in the footsteps of surrender to God’s plan and purpose for your life?

As a reminder, in these verses, Daniel 8:23-26, you were introduced to someone who is going to make a covenant with the Jews. Daniel 8:23-26 describes him, The Antichrist, who is yet to come.

Daniel 8:23-26

²³And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. ²⁴And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practice and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. ²⁵And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. ²⁶And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.

In verse 26 instructions were given to Daniel.

In our text there are two princes. First of all there is the Messiah, the Prince. There’s no doubt about His identity and then there’s the prince that shall come and the prince that shall come is just another name for The Antichrist. It’s the Little Horn spoken about in Daniel 7.
It’s the King of fierce countenance; it is the man of sin; it’s the beast; it’s the same person all rolled into one and The Antichrist is going to make a covenant with the Jews for seven years. After the seven years, Jesus will return to earth to rule and reign for ever.

Back to history: King Alexander the Great of Greece became concerned about the inability to have access to his great and many kingdoms because there was a language barrier, so he educated his leaders in a language. Not his intention, but before Jesus came to earth as a Baby there was a common language in which the Gospel could be written and preached!

Alexander the Great of Greece sent his men throughout his kingdom to build roads. Later, though not King Alexander’s intention, the missionaries would travel with greater speed for their day, and there would be a culture/common language which would be understood by the people. God used King Alexander of Greece to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus Christ and the future promotion of the Gospel.

Jesus and Alexander both died at 33, but what a contrast in character. Alexander died for self. Jesus died for you and me. Alexander died on a throne. Jesus died on a cross. Alexander shed a whole world’s blood. Jesus gave His own. Alexander won the whole world and lost it all in death. Jesus lost His life to win the whole world’s faith.

Alexander made all men slaves; Jesus made all men free. Alexander built his throne on blood. Jesus built His on love. Alexander was born of earth. Jesus was born from above. They both died at 33 but Jesus is the greatest and there’s no person here, who has walked with the Lord Jesus for one day, who would debate that issue for one moment.

There came to power a man called Antiochus Epiphanes (an ti uh kuhs) (i PIF uh neez). He was called the mad -man. While passing by Jerusalem, he attacked the city and desecrated the Temple by putting a pig, an unclean animal, on the altar of sacrifice and closed the Temple for six years.

He is a prototype of The Antichrist but The Antichrist will be an even more treacherous ruler who shall come to power in the future and desecrate the Temple, but he will make the people believe that he is God and will demand that they worship him.

THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE (“Jacob” meaning Israel)

After the Church Age is finished, then the Rapture of the Church (the Church meaning those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour) will take place, and after that, The Tribulation Period, which will last seven years. It will be a holocaust. In the 9th Chapter of Daniel, look at verse 27. This is speaking of The Antichrist who will rule and reign for seven years.

Daniel 9:27

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

No more, after the 70th week that is mentioned in the Book of Daniel, will the Jews be in rebellion again. Throughout all history the Jews, as a nation, have been in rebellion against God, but God is going to purge that rebellion out of the Jews during The Tribulation Period.

And when the kingdom comes, and the King, Jesus Christ, is in residence, sin and iniquity and transgression will be past history for the Jews. At the close of The Tribulation, our Lord, on the basis of His sacrifice, will reconcile His chosen people to Himself. The Bible says in Romans 11:26 …”And so all Israel shall be saved.”

Romans 11:26-27

[New Testament – Jacob is Israel.]

²⁶And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁷For this is my covenant* unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (* agreement/covenant)

Isaiah 59:20-21

[Old Testament – The Covenant of the Redeemer, Jesus] The LORD is speaking . . .

²⁰And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. ²¹As for me, this is my *covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever. (* covenant/agreement)

Jeremiah 31:31-34

[Old Testament] The LORD is speaking . . .

³¹Behold the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah (See 2 Corinthians 3:6 and Hebrews 8:6 below.) ³²Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband to them, saith the LORD: ³³But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. (See Romans 11:27 and Hebrews 8:10 and Hebrews 10:16 below.) ³⁴And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

New Testament

2 Corinthians 3:6

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Hebrews 8:6

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Romans 11:27

For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Hebrews 8:10

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.

Hebrews 10:16

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.

Hebrew 8:10-13

¹⁰For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. ¹¹And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. ¹²For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. ¹³In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Daniel had been captured when he was a teenager. The 70 year period of captivity is coming to a close. Daniel had been studying Jeremiah’s prophecy about the “70 Years”. It is about time that the Israelites will be given the opportunity to return to their own land.

Daniel was worried about Antiochus Epiphanes. He would abuse Daniel’s people. All of this caused Daniel great concern.

Jeremiah 29:10

For thus saith the Lord that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

Daniel is down on his face before God. He recognizes the attributes of God. He called Him “my God”. Daniel acknowledges that God keeps covenant and mercy to them that love Him. He not only makes promises, but He keeps them. God is faithful.

He is also a God of mercy. It was through His mercy that the nation of Israel had been preserved. It is by His mercy that you and I have been brought to this present moment. It is by His mercy that He saves us.

And in that period of time which is yet future, “the reign of peace”, Jesus Christ is going to be the King and the Temple, where worship will be carried on by the Jews, in all the beauty of the Jewish worship, it will be reestablished in that Millennial Temple.

And it will be a Temple like none that has ever existed though it will not be as big as Solomon’s Temple. It will be a glorious, glorious Temple. In Ezekiel 40-48 read about this Temple in God’s Word and understand how it is going to be built. Even now, the Jews in Israel have prepared and are preparing items for the New Millennial Temple. Those items can be seen at the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.

The “7-weeks of Daniel” was not written to confuse us. It was given to us by God in Heaven, that we might comprehend the end from the beginning, and God’s wonderful plan for His people, the Jews.

Daniel identifies himself with his people back home, there in the land of Israel, when they rebelled against God, which resulted in their captivity, and he labels each sin. The people refused to hear and obey the instruction of God’s prophets.

The people of Israel were scattered but there are no lost tribes. Notice in Scripture how Daniel contrasted God’s goodness with Israel’s sin.

Daniel 9:18 (Daniel ‘s prayer)

Oh my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteounesses, but for thy great mercies.

This is Daniel’s petition and plea. He recalls how God led Israel out of Egypt. God did it because of His righteousness, not because of theirs. God saw their misery and He gave them His mercy.

When the future “Babylon” falls there is going to be weeping and wailing. They are going to be heartbroken over the collapse of The Antichrist’s system. The Word of God prophesies ultimate doom and also prophesies the success of the One of whom he, The Antichrist, is so jealous, Jesus Christ.

When we study about the determined effort of Satan, we need to understand, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, that we not be ignorant of his devices.

1 Peter 5:8-9a

⁸Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: ^9aWhom resist stedfast in the faith…

Choose Christ Jesus. Choose redemption of your soul. There is a future! It is eternal.

Christ Jesus vs. The Antichrist