Monthly Study

[0:00] Even though I always say this, usually at the outside of each session, it generally doesn't turn out that way, but I want you to know that I have the best of intentions. And that is, in the midst of my discourse, if you have something to say or a question to ask, feel free to interrupt me and we'll stop right there and hear what you have to say or entertain your question or whatever, because I think that that can very often be some of the most important content that we share.

[0:30] Having to deal with the questions that have arisen in the group and then some attempt made to give an answer to that. So keep that in mind, if you will, please.

[0:41] And if you insist on waiting until later, then maybe you want to jot down a couple of words, because if your memory is like mine, you may have forgotten what it is by the end of the session. So don't trust your memory.

[0:53] You are all familiar, I'm sure, how that the news media, usually radio and television and generally the magazines as well, always offer some kind of a recap of the year.

[1:11] Important events that took place during the previous 12 months and important people who may have passed on and are no longer with us, and they recap some of that. So I thought this being the end of the year, maybe we ought to do the same thing.

[1:26] But we won't be going back to the beginning of 2017. We'll be going back to the book of Genesis. And we are going to provide a fast-moving recap of, I guess you could say, the past and the present of planet Earth to where we are at this point in time.

[1:51] So needless to say, we will be moving rather rapidly because we'll be covering about 5,000 years in about an hour's time. So needless to say, hold on to your seats.

[2:03] And with that underway, let's go first of all to the first book of Chronicles. Seems like a rather unlikely place to begin, but actually Chronicles begins in Genesis.

[2:19] So if you will turn to Chronicles chapter 1, we read a very familiar name. And of these three individuals, we are all descendants.

[2:55] Every one of us has a parent in Shem, Ham, or Japheth. And it is, as most of you know, out of the line of Shem that the word Semitic comes.

[3:13] You just drop the H. Semitic, Semitic or Semite people are those who are descendants of Shem. That principally is going to focus upon those who will become to known as the Jewish people.

[3:30] If you think that you can make head nor tails or any kind of sense out of the Bible by eliminating the Jew, you've certainly got another thing coming.

[3:43] Because no one is as smack dab in the middle of civilization and humanity and the plan and program of God as much as is the Jew.

[3:55] And that includes the one, of course, that we might call the head Jew. That is, Yeshua HaMashiach. Jesus, the Messiah of Israel.

[4:07] An anecdote is told about Napoleon Bonaparte. It was said that during the late 1700s, early 1800s, when he was emperor of France and causing quite a ruckus throughout Europe, that one day he was reading the Bible and quite mystified by some of the content that was in it.

[4:27] And we are told that he called in his regimental chaplain and asked him, why should I believe these things I'm reading in this book?

[4:41] Would you please tell me? And his response was, the Jew, your majesty, the Jew. Well, he was right on, because the Jew is extremely strategic.

[4:56] And yet, no one has been on the receiving end of more ill treatment, more brutality, more persecution, more isolation than the Jewish people.

[5:09] And, of course, that has been heaped upon them by non-Jewish people called Gentiles. And the Gentiles have done that, by and large, out of two things.

[5:21] Ignorance and arrogance. Ignorance. Humanity has always had a goodly portion of both, ignorance and arrogance. It is a failure to understand the critical nature that God has built into the Jew and the Jewish people that leads people to all kinds of erroneous ideas about them.

[5:42] And I can go back to my own family. I remember my grandfather on my mother's side. We were living in Chillicothe, Ohio. And this was in the late 1930s.

[5:54] I guess that dates me a little bit. And my grandfather owned a coal yard. And this was before gas furnaces and electric heat and all of that good stuff.

[6:06] So everybody heated their homes with coal. Coal stoves, wood stoves, things like that in the 1930s. And I can still remember people coming in and buying a burlap sack of coal for ten cents.

[6:24] And my grandfather ran that coal yard, had big piles of coal all over the place. And we used to have a great time running up and down the coal piles, my cousin and I.

[6:35] And I overheard my grandfather talk one day. And he said, I'll do without whatever I need before I go down to that store and give that Jew one dime of my money.

[6:47] And that was a pretty common view held by a lot of people back then. And again, that is ignorance speaking. Because he had no idea.

[6:59] And you know, I am convinced that my grandfather and grandmother were both believers. I can still remember when I was a little taut, no more than four or five years old. I can remember my grandfather and grandmother on their knees in the kitchen, on that old linoleum floor, on their knees, praying and listening to the cable tabernacle out of Indianapolis, Indiana.

[7:22] It came on Sunday afternoon at two o'clock. And I still have visions of that. And I have no doubt that I'll see both of them in heaven. But my dear grandfather, like so many people of his day and even of today, they simply do not understand God's purpose and plan for the world and how it is going to be principally accomplished through what is probably the most unlikely people in all the world.

[7:54] And that is the Jew. And you know the ironic thing about this is that for the most part, only with rare exceptions, even the Jew himself doesn't understand this.

[8:06] Doesn't appreciate it. Doesn't know it. And I suspect that many of them feel much like Tevye the milkman and Fiddler on the Roof. They say that we are your chosen people.

[8:21] Would you mind just choosing somebody else once in a while, you know? Because they were on the receiving end of so much brutality and persecution and so on.

[8:32] So if you even attempt to leave the Jew out of the plan and program of God, you are going absolutely nowhere. Here in 1 Chronicles, we read about Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

[8:46] And come down, if you would, to verse 17. Same chapter. Here. The sons of Shem, Elam, Asher, Arpachad, Lod, Aram, Uz, Hol, Gether, and Meshach, and Arpachad began the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber.

[9:08] The two sons were born to Eber. The name of the one was Peleg, and in his days the earth was divided. His brother's name was Joktan, and Joktan became the father of Almodan, and so on, and so on, and so on.

[9:18] And let's go down to verse 26. And Sarig, Nahor, Terah, Abram, that is, Abraham.

[9:29] Bingo. That's where so very, very much begins. With this man, Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham when he came into that covenant relationship with the Lord.

[9:42] And the sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael. And then, let us go, if we may, to chapter 2. Same book, 1 Chronicles.

[9:57] And these are the sons of Israel. Reuben. And by the way, when the text uses the word Israel here, these are the sons of Israel, be reminded that the words, the names Israel and Jacob are used almost interchangeably.

[10:15] Because when he was first born and grew up, of course, his name was Jacob and his brother Esau. But later, when he wrestled with God at the brook Jabbok and prevailed and the Lord changed his name from Jacob to Israel.

[10:35] So sometimes, even in the New Testament, you still read the name Jacob, but it actually often is not referring to the individual Jacob. It's referring to the nation of Israel.

[10:47] And yet, sometimes it is Jacob personally. So you need to keep that in mind. And he is, of course, very, very strategic because his sons are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah.

[11:00] And we make much of the fact of sons 3 and 4, Levi and Judah, because Levi will constitute the progenitor of the priestly line.

[11:12] The book of Leviticus is named after Levi. And it has to do with the ordinances assigned to the priests, their responsibilities, and so on. And then, Judah is likewise very, very strategic because that is the royal line.

[11:28] That's the line through which Yeshua HaMashiach will come. Jesus the Messiah. And he is described at least one place as the lion of the tribe of Judah.

[11:40] And then there is Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. These are going to multiply and reach a number of 70 individuals.

[11:57] And during this time of their attaining the number of 70 and what we would probably just call a clan at that time, there arose a tremendous famine in the land of Canaan.

[12:13] And they were unable to subsist and provide for themselves. And word got out that there was grain to be had in Egypt. So you know the rest of the story, how they were sent down to Egypt.

[12:26] And earlier, Joseph, of course, was sold into Egypt by his brothers. And that's part of the plot. But eventually, long story short, all 70 of them end up in the land of Egypt.

[12:39] And this, by the way, is the fulfillment of a prophecy that God gave to Abraham. Now, when we're talking about Jacob and the 70 coming from his loins, bear in mind that Abraham, by this time, is long since dead.

[12:57] He's passed off the scene. But before he died, the Lord told Abraham that not only was he going to give him multiple seed from his loins, and at the time he had no child at all, but he said, your descendants are also going to be in a land that is not theirs.

[13:21] They are going to live in servitude, slavery for 400 years. And after 400 years, I'm going to bring them back to this place where you are right now.

[13:32] And God was speaking to Abraham when he was there by the oaks of Mamre near Hebron in southern Canaan or southern Israel. And those 400 years, of course, were experienced by the children of Israel, multiplying, etc.

[13:48] You know the story. A pharaoh rose up that knew not Joseph and began persecuting the Jewish people because they perceived them as a threat. They had some warlike neighbors and they were afraid that if their neighbors came against them, these people that live in the land of Goshen, these Hebrews, may join with our enemies to defeat us.

[14:11] So what we'd better do is depopulate them. And they devised a wicked scheme to eliminate the males born into the family of Israel.

[14:23] And by the way, I don't want to go too far aside here, but this is very, very, very important to understand. That behind this whole thing, this whole evil scheme, there is the adversary.

[14:39] And Satan, who was formerly Lucifer, has his own agenda, and it is to defeat and to thwart the purpose of God in any way that he can at any time that he can.

[14:53] And he, as a fallen angel, has incredible powers and abilities. Thankfully, they are limited, but he is always afoot. 1 Peter 5.8 reminds us, be sober, be vigilant.

[15:06] Your adversary, the devil, walks about the earth as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And he has an extended lifespan. We do not know.

[15:17] Angels do not live 70 years and die like people do. But this fallen angel, Lucifer, who has become Satan, has been active and involved from creation on to this present time.

[15:31] And it started with their mother, Eve. And he has been about his nefarious business ever since. And he is an expert at it. His specialty is deception.

[15:42] His modus operandi is death. Because God is the giver and sustainer of life. The opposite of that is to take life however you can.

[15:54] I have no doubt at all, no doubt at all, that the adversary is deeply involved in the abortion program of the United States and Europe and every place else that's carried out.

[16:06] Because he is an adversary of life. And he is all about death. So, he plays a much bigger role than what we know. And we are told in the New Testament that we are not ignorant of his devices.

[16:21] Believers need to understand how he is about. So, out of these 400 years in Egypt, you know the story about them coming out through the instrumentality of Moses whom God raised up.

[16:34] And they are into the land of Canaan. Joshua succeeds Moses. We are moving along now very rapidly. Joshua succeeds Moses for some years.

[16:45] And he offered those tremendous lines in chapter 24, I think it is, maybe verse 15. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Whether the God our Father served on the other side, which was actually the other side of the river, and that's going back to Abraham and his moon worshipping.

[17:10] Because there were those who were involved in that. Or, the God who brought us out of the land of Egypt, and you choose whomever you wish. But as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.

[17:20] We've already made up our mind. Well, Joshua passed off the scene. The land of Israel is divided up and apportioned off to the various 12 tribes. Everybody except Levi.

[17:32] Levi didn't get any land because that was a priestly tribe. And the people who had the land were supposed to take care of the Levites with their firstfruits and so on. And when Joshua passed off the scene, a series of judges rose up.

[17:45] God-appointed judges. You're familiar with Gideon and Deborah and Samson and numerous judges.

[17:56] And they served in a kind of like a leadership capacity where they were judging the people of Israel and they would come to them to resolve arguments and disputes and so on.

[18:07] And some of them were outstanding and some of them left a lot to be desired. But nonetheless, they were ruled by these judges. Until 1 Samuel 8.

[18:18] And we won't take time to turn there, but just let me give you a little capsule of it, if I may. In 1 Samuel 8, things were going along pretty smoothly. Samuel was the judge.

[18:31] And he was by far and away the most competent and dependable and honest of all of the judges that Israel had. And one day, the Israelites came to Samuel and said, We want a king.

[18:47] And I can imagine the conversation that took place. Samuel would say, Well, what do you want a king for? Well, we want a king because all the other nations have kings. They all have kings. We're the only ones that don't have a king.

[18:58] Why can't we have a king? They've got kings. You know, it's just kind of a hissy fit. Complaining and griping. And Samuel says, You don't know what you're asking for.

[19:09] You don't want a king. He's going to conscript your people. He's going to levy taxes. He's going to go, No, no, no, no. We want a king. So Samuel went to the Lord and said, What am I going to do with these people? And the Lord said, Samuel, don't take it to heart.

[19:23] He said, Don't feel rejected because of this. It isn't you. It's me. They don't want me to reign over them. They want a king. So we'll give them a king.

[19:34] And the Lord gave them Saul from the tribe of Benjamin, the son of Kish. And he was a disaster all the way through.

[19:46] You know the story about the rivalry that existed between David and Saul. And finally, Saul and his son Jonathan were killed by the Philistines.

[19:57] And they hung their bodies on the wall. And at Gebeah, I think it was. And when David came in and found the bodies, they were nailed, literally pinned to the wall.

[20:17] And David had them taken down. And, of course, he mourned greatly for his friend Jonathan and gave them a decent burial. And then David became the king.

[20:32] Actually, he was king only over the tribe of Judah. Because the other tribes wouldn't accept his kingship. Kind of makes you wonder about how things are repeated.

[20:45] You know, how people will not accept things sometimes. But David was anointed king. And after seven years reigning over Judah alone, his own tribe, the other tribes came along.

[21:02] And they accepted him as king. So for the next 33 years, he ruled over the whole 12 tribes of Israel. And maintained the capital, of course, there in Jerusalem where the temple was.

[21:14] And everything was going along smoothly. And David died after reigning for 40 years. And his son came to the throne, Solomon.

[21:27] And Solomon, because David had succeeded in his military prowess, and he obviously was a military genius in many ways, because he had succeeded in subduing all of the neighbors, the whole area enjoyed a time of unprecedented peace and tranquility.

[21:51] And that provided the way for domestic things to boom. And that's exactly what happened, because Solomon didn't have to spend much of his treasury on military defense and everything like that.

[22:07] Like Israel does today, I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but the nation of Israel spends 90% of their income on security.

[22:19] Military security. 90%. And Solomon was able to take advantage of all of the victories that his father had gained. And there was a real boom in Israel, so much so that the kingdom rose to the heights that was just absolutely unimaginable.

[22:39] And this is what made the Queen of Sheba come to the area and said, we've heard far and wide of your accomplishments. And I just couldn't believe it. And I had to come and see for myself.

[22:49] And when I got here, wow, it kind of bowled me over. The half has not been told. So Solomon succeeded in raising everything that was just incredible. And Israel was the talk of the whole Mediterranean world.

[23:04] But Solomon died. And his son Rehoboam came to the throne. And Rehoboam said, you think my daddy did some great things? I'm going to outdo him.

[23:15] And the first thing I'm going to do is raise your taxes. And the people said, now wait just a moment. Let's talk about this.

[23:27] Rehoboam said, there's nothing to talk about. I'm the king. I'm in the driver's seat. I've raised the taxes. You pay them. And they got a little coalition together and it started growing.

[23:41] And the watchword came out, something to the effect of, to your tents, O Israel, what lot have we in Jesse? Well, Jesse was the name of David's father, grandfather.

[24:00] And they, of course, were associating that with David, who's descended from him. And that was their way of saying, we are bailing out.

[24:11] Don't include us in your union anymore. We are going north back home. And the ten tribes are going to become independent.

[24:22] We are seceding from the union. And they did. And that just left two tribes in the south. One was the tribe of Judah, from which David the king came.

[24:36] The other was the tiniest of all the tribes of Israel. And that was Benjamin. And Benjamin is the tribal area where Jerusalem is located.

[24:50] It's not in Judah, but it's in Benjamin. So the king remained there intact. The throne remained intact. The temple remained intact. And the priesthood remained intact. So this fellow, by the name of Jeroboam, had earlier been kicked out of the country.

[25:09] Solomon sent him packing. He exiled him. Because he was a troublemaker. And now that Rehoboam is on the throne, Jeroboam, don't get your bums mixed up.

[25:23] Rehoboam is on the throne of Israel. Jeroboam receives word. He's in Egypt. Exiled in Egypt. And they send word down to Egypt. And says, Solomon, the guy that kicked you out of the country, is dead.

[25:37] And his son's on the throne. And we are going to pull out of the union. And we want you to be our king. So Rehoboam came back.

[25:49] Or Jeroboam, I'm sorry. Jeroboam. He's referred to as Jeroboam, the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin. That's the way he's spoken of almost throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

[26:01] Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that made Israel to sin. And he led the nation of Israel into incredible idolatry.

[26:11] So much so, that God judged them for their idolatry. And by the way, this division of the kingdom took place in 931 B.C.

[26:24] So we're talking about 931 years before Christ is born. We have a division of the kingdom. And they set up their own monarchy.

[26:34] They set up their own priesthood. And none of them are from Levi. They're not legitimate priests. They're not a legitimate king. It's not a legitimate line. There's nothing legitimate about it. They established the capital of Samaria.

[26:45] And they engaged in all kinds of horrendous idolatry. And Baal worship. Remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal? That's what they were really into. And then in 722 B.C., a little more than 200 years after they pulled out of the union, 722 B.C., the Assyrians came in from the north and besieged Samaria.

[27:16] This is where people were reduced to cannibalism. Nothing got in and nothing got out of the city. And eventually the city fell. And they carried the people off. They left enough people behind to just farm the land.

[27:28] They carried the people off to the north. They became known as the lost ten tribes. But in fact, they never were actually lost. They were just assimilated. And these people are later going to be known as the Samaritans.

[27:43] They will be half Jew and half Gentile, half Assyrian. Meanwhile, the southern kingdom, two tribes, are having one king after another some of them wicked, some of them good, but all of them, without exception, all of them, a direct descendant, bloodline, of David the king.

[28:05] And then in 586 B.C. I know these numbers kind of rattle around in your head and are hard to keep in mind, but just keep in mind, about 600 years before the Messiah is born in Bethlehem, Nebuchadnezzar comes against Israel, sets up a siege, burns Jerusalem, destroys the city, breaks down the walls, tears up everything, and carries off the children of Israel into Babylonian captivity.

[28:44] All because of the same reason, the north. Idolatry. And God raised up prophets for both the north and the south. By the way, the north is going to maintain the name Israel.

[29:00] Probably because they had the majority of the people, ten tribes. And the south is going to adopt the name Judah. They're all Jews.

[29:12] They're all descendants of Abraham. And Judah is going to provide the basis for the name Jew.

[29:23] It will become shortened. And the Judahites, when they're carried into captivity in Babylon, where they're going to be for 70 years, there they will become known as Jews, meaning they're from Judah.

[29:37] And one of the principal characters who is in that exile is a young boy, probably a very young teenager, maybe not even a teenager yet, but the name of Daniel.

[29:49] And he is going to have enormous impact in our story regarding the Jew. So if you will turn to Daniel chapter 2 and verse 31, this is some of the most significant information that we have in all of the Bible.

[30:10] And I cannot overestimate its importance. Daniel, the book of Daniel, is so very, very critical to the plan and program of God that we just could not make any sense without it.

[30:26] So, Daniel is in captivity as you read his book. And it is in Babylon, this strange land.

[30:38] They are going to be there for about 70 years. and I am not going to recount the drama that took place regarding the King's forgotten dream, except to say that Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and it troubled him, it kept him awake.

[30:58] It was, the dream was from God. It was a God thing from the beginning. But Nebuchadnezzar didn't know that and he couldn't figure out what in the world this dream meant, what it stood for.

[31:09] And it really bothered him. They called all of his experts together. They all pooled their resources and they were unable to interpret the dream. And you'll recall if you read the story, and we'll take time to read it, but he not only wanted them to interpret what the dream meant, but he demanded that they tell him what the dream was.

[31:32] And they said, well, nobody can do that, you know. Nobody can tell you what you actually dream. You tell us what you dreamed, and then we'll interpret it for you. And the sly old fox that he was says, listen, if you are able to really accurately interpret what the dream means, then you ought to know what the dream was.

[31:55] And he ordered their execution. He thought they were conning him. He was going to have them all put to death. And Daniel got word of it, and he said, he had prayed, and he sent word to the king, you tell the king to give me an audience and I'll interpret the dream for him.

[32:15] And that's exactly what happened. And we read in verse 31 of chapter 2, Daniel's interpretation of the dream. And I cannot tell you, I've already told you that I can't emphasize too much how important this is.

[32:28] I really mean that. This is one of the most significant passages in all the Bible because we find here all of world history taking place from the time that Daniel is speaking as he is a captive of Nebuchadnezzar.

[32:43] You, O king, verse 31, he's talking to King Nebuchadnezzar, you were looking and behold, there was a single great statue. That statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you and its appearance was awesome.

[33:02] And I can just see the wheels in Nebuchadnezzar's mind turning, hey, this guy is good. That is exactly what I saw.

[33:15] He is on to something. And he is very much impressed. So go on. And Daniel says, the head of that statue was made of fine gold.

[33:29] Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, it was. It was. Its breast and its arms of silver. Yeah. Its belly and its thighs of bronze.

[33:42] His legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. And you, Nebuchadnezzar, you continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.

[34:07] And Nebuchadnezzar is just dumbfounded. He said, yeah, man, that is exactly what happened. That, that, what, what, what does it mean?

[34:18] What does it mean? Daniel goes on. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at the same time by this stone, this single stone that was cut out of a mountain without hands.

[34:34] It just seemed to come out of nowhere and it came right down and hit the feet of that statue and the whole thing just crumbled and fell apart. It became like chaff from the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found.

[34:58] But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

[35:10] Wow. This was the dream and Nebuchadnezzar is just awestruck. That is exactly what I saw and exactly what happened.

[35:24] Now you can imagine the kind of credibility that Daniel has already established in the minds of this king. He is right on.

[35:35] There is no reason to stop believing him now. What does it mean? What's the interpretation of it all? This was the dream.

[35:45] Now we shall tell this interpretation before the king. You Nebuchadnezzar O king are the king of kings. That means you are the dominant individual on the planet right now.

[36:03] There isn't anybody that could contest you. You are top dog. Undisputed. You rule and reign over the earth.

[36:14] And the earth as they looked at it was their environs primarily of the Mediterranean basin. Didn't include North America and Canada and South America and Africa. That was their world then.

[36:28] And you are the head of that. You are the one to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom.

[36:40] So this is an insert here that indicates that Nebuchadnezzar this wasn't all of your doing. I mean there was somebody a lot bigger than you who was behind all of this who gave you this kingdom and the power the strength and the glory and whenever wherever the sons of men dwell or the beasts of the field or the birds of the sky he this God of heaven has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all you Nebuchadnezzar you are the head of gold in that statue that represents you and he probably feeling a little puffed up now well yeah I am top dog and I am pure gold and all this you know he got an ego too and by the way God is going to address his ego later when he reduces him to animal like behavior you are the head of gold and after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you inferior in the same way that silver is inferior to gold everybody who's watched the olympics knows that you want the gold medal not the silver and if you get a gold medal you're not going to have it bronzed either are you no and he says the third kingdom of bronze which will rule over all the earth then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron in as much as iron crushes and shatters all things so like iron that breaks in pieces it will crush and break all these in pieces and in that you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron and of course everybody knows that clay and iron will not mix it becomes very brittle and very insecure it will be a divided kingdom but it will have in it the toughness of iron in as much as you saw the iron mixed with common clay and and and and as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle and in that you saw the iron mixed with the common clay they will combine with one another in the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another even as iron does not combine with pottery these are the ten toes that represent the ten kingdoms that we've looked at already in the book of the revelation that we won't take time to go into now but here he is giving

[39:25] Nebuchadnezzar an overview of what is going to happen when he passes off the scene and who is coming after him and he as the king of Babylon will be that head of gold and Medes and the Persians will be those that follow as silver and these are the two arms and the chest this is the Medes and the Persians they are united and then the next will be Greece and Greece will be further down the totem pole yet and it will be headed by Alexander the Great this will be the Grecian empire this is going to follow and by the way this is fascinating for a long time liberal scholars took the position that Daniel was not a book of prophecy at all and the reason it wasn't is because the accuracy with which these things were stated in there was something that

[40:32] Daniel could not have known well of course he couldn't have known it that's what makes it divine that's what makes it prophetic that it was God revealed Daniel didn't notice stuff and they were concluding that Daniel was actually written not as prophecy but as history Daniel was written after these things all happened well given time the archaeologist spade kept working and they kept digging and they kept finding things and long story short the early date of the book of Daniel has been pretty much authenticated and just no longer disputed like it once was indicating that these were all future items when Daniel revealed them the only one that wasn't future was the present thing that Daniel was living at the time with Nebuchadnezzar but everything afterwards was going to be exactly as was prophesied and it was written well in advance so someone has said that prophecy is nothing more than history written in advance and that's exactly what this is so we've got all of these here and the one that we want to have foremost in our mind is that which happens in verse 44 of chapter 2 and in the days of those kings and these are the ten kings the ten toes which we believe is yet future which will never be destroyed in the days of those kings the

[42:18] God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed and that kingdom will not be left for another people it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms but it will itself endure forever this kingdom will never be destroyed okay maybe it will never be destroyed but we have to deal with the reality that it has never been established either kingdom still doesn't exist where are we now we're between these kingdoms we're between these kingdoms and the one that will come that is never going to be destroyed and it's never been established that is a really curious thing what about this kingdom and let me tell you something this kingdom is what everything is all about

[43:29] I said this kingdom is what everything is all about this is where the world is going it's this kingdom this is the kingdom that is found in the oft repeated prayer that is called the Lord's prayer which we take dispute with but it is a prayer for thy kingdom come thy will be done why do we want the kingdom to come because when the kingdom comes God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven if you think it is now you're looking at a different kingdom than I am we're told in 2nd Corinthians 4 that the god of this age is Satan he's the same one that was involved in this stuff way back in Genesis and he's still active so this kingdom is the kingdom this is the kingdom that

[44:33] John the Baptist was preaching when he said repent the kingdom of heaven is at hand he's not saying repent because the kingdom of heaven is here he says it is at hand which means it's nearby it's close what does he mean by that the reason the kingdom of heaven was near is because the king is coming looking here he comes the lamb of God takes away the sin of the world he is the king and the king is going to bring the kingdom with him and in this kingdom everything is going to get fixed everything that is broken and ruined and shattered is going to be fixed and when Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is among you he was the personification of the kingdom and wherever he went he brought kingdom conditions with him he caused the lame to walk because in the kingdom a lame man will leap like a deer he gave sight to the blind because there won't be any blind people in his kingdom remember things are going to get fixed things that are wrong and broken are going to be fixed and he will give life to the dead everywhere he went he authenticated his person and his mission by the miracles that he performed they were his calling card

[46:09] Jesus had great compassion on people but that's not why he healed people he healed people to authenticate his claims and at least twelve were convinced and they followed him and we know thousands of others did as well in the feeding of the five thousand and on so here we need to go fast forward to Matthew chapter one Matthew gospel chapter one and bear in mind that from the time the old testament closed to the time the new testament opens there's about four hundred years and in verse one it is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham that is really really important because genealogy and bloodline meant a great deal to the Jewish people and that had to be established and 18 of the same chapter the birth of

[47:09] Jesus Christ was on this wise as follows with his mother Mary as betrothed Joseph and so on and here is where he arrives on the scene and what we have done is we have just fast forwarded about 500 years from the time Daniel was talking to Nebuchadnezzar and all of these kingdoms are in the past and the one that is writing his gospel is the last one and that's Rome okay so all of these things are coming together and now we need to go to Matthew chapter 3 and I'm skipping a lot of things here for continuity sake but Matthew 3 1 we've already identified this in those days John the Baptist came preaching so if we go from if we fast forward 500 years from

[48:13] Daniel talking to Nebuchadnezzar we come to the birth of Christ in Matthew chapter 1 now fast forward with me again if you will 30 years and 30 years we open in chapter 3 in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying repent and the reason you should do so is because you are a wicked nation that is disobedient to the Lord and you need to get your act together because the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the king is coming and you're in no condition to meet him so you better get your act together and to prove that you are on the right side you need to be identified with him by being water baptized in his name so you are identified with this king who is coming and that is their message and that is what John is preaching now if you will please let's go to

[49:14] Matthew 21 and we'll try to keep you all in the same ballpark here Matthew chapter 21 and verse 33 you've already fast forwarded 30 years to the birth of Christ now let's go another three years to where we are nearing the end of Christ's earthly ministry which lasted about three to three and a half years and in verse 33 we read listen to another parable there was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and rented it out to the vine growers and went on a journey and when the harvest time approached he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his produce and the vine growers took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first and they did the same thing to them but afterward he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son but when the vine growers saw the son they said among themselves this is the heir come let us kill him and seize his inheritance and they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him well why do you suppose why do you suppose he gave them this parable at this time well we have to leave this gospel and go to

[51:13] Luke Luke chapter 12 now Luke isn't as far along in his gospel but chronologically he's in about the same place and in Luke 12 and verse 32 and by the way let me just insert here if I may for clarification sake that the reason Jesus gave the parable that he did that we just read about going away about the land owner going away and being gone for a period of time he was talking about himself he's the land owner what's the land he owns he owns the whole land of Israel and he's going away and that will be his death burial resurrection and he's going away and eventually he's coming back and the reason he gave this parable at this time we are told is that as they were nearing

[52:24] Jerusalem Jesus gave this parable because the disciples thought that the kingdom of heaven was going to be established it was going to come when Jesus got to Jerusalem where was he at the time he's just outside of Jerusalem this is Palm Sunday and he's going to Jerusalem and he'll be received by the crowds and when he gets there he's going to establish the kingdom that was what was in their mind as they near Jerusalem they thought the kingdom of heaven was going to be established right then and there Jesus knew he wasn't going to Jerusalem to establish a kingdom he was going to Jerusalem to hang on the cross they did not know that at all he told them earlier he told them that was exactly what was going to happen Peter said no it's not we wouldn't let that happen that's not going to happen to you and when he went into town on the back of that donkey and the people were waving the palm branches and shouting

[53:30] Hosanna blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord I can just see Peter turning to Jesus and saying they love you they love you this this is about being crucified and ill treated it's not going to happen to you but of course we know differently that is exactly what was going to listen there are two things that have to occur absolutely have to occur before the kingdom of heaven can be established on earth and you really need to know these things the first is payment has to be made to satisfy the judicial demands of the holy God regarding the issue of sin and when Christ died for the sins of the world he purchased the right to rule and to reign in Israel over the whole earth Christ was the sacrifice for the sins of the whole earth he made that payment he balanced the moral scales of the universe when he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that's item number one that has to be taken care of first it has been the second thing that has to occur is that

[54:55] Israel as a nation must embrace their Messiah whom they earlier rejected we will not have this man to reign over us crucify him and in the end time right before this stone not made with hands cut out of the mountain is going to smash all of those right before that happens Israel is going to have its back to the wall and be on the verge of annihilation you know you know historically numerically it's well established that during world war ii the nazi regime succeeded in eliminating one third of the world's jewish population murdered them one third of them during this time this tribulation time two thirds of the world's population of jews are going to be eliminated one third will be the remnant and they will be in petra where christ will return to that we'll be studying sunday morning when we get back to that probably sometime in january and when israel has their back to the wall is on the brink of extinction final extinction they will look up and their redemption will draw nigh and here he comes and he's going to fight for his people as he fought in days of old and

[56:42] Zechariah 12 10 says that israel will look upon him whom they pierced and they will mourn they will be a massive repentance of the nation of israel and it will be this remnant that will be spoken of as so all israel shall be saved and they will be the surviving remnant and they will go into that kingdom and when jesus was here he told he told the scribes and the pharisees the religious establishments the guys that had all the clout all the power all the money all the everything and he said the kingdom of heaven is going to be taken you think you would be the recipients of it no it's going to be taken from you and given to another and then when we come to luke the other is identified when jesus turns to his little band of twelve apostles and says fear not little flock for it is the father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom of heaven and you who have followed me in the regeneration you will sit upon the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of israel and christ will be seated on the throne of david and he will be judging the entire world for that millennial period of one thousand years while satan is incarcerated and at the end of that time he is loosed and humanity has multiplied there will be untold millions born on the earth without regenerated bodies and they will once again rise in a final rebellion against the lord led by satan himself this is revelation chapter twenty and it will be no contest there will simply be fire come down from heaven and devour them and that will be the end of it and then the eternal state is established in chapters twenty one twenty two of the revelation that's where we're going so that's not only a recap of the past but that's a little bit of a peek into the future and it's going to be something going to be something okay you probably have some questions comments or something you'd like to add and we would like to hear what might it be yes oh we were in Luke 12

[59:27] I was in Luke 12 yeah Luke 12 verse 32 do not be afraid little flock for your father is chosen gladly to give you the kingdom and he's talking to fellow believers there okay any other thoughts questions comments feel free I know we're a little over a time but Susie I just think it's amazing how this Bible it all ties in together Genesis with Revelation Exodus with Revelation and it continues you're right you know that's one of the most exciting things to me and it's one of the most verifying things of the word of God and as I've often said and continue to say everything in the Bible is connected to everything in the Bible and when you and when you begin seeing how the dots connect it really really gets exciting because this thing is going somewhere and you can see it becomes very very obvious that there is a single divine mind behind this whole thing that threads it all together otherwise there is no way that this thing could come together there is no way that this thing can be presented the way it is without an incredible creative and able mind behind it all and just bringing it together even in minute detail and I am satisfied there are so many things in this book as much as I've been studying it for 50 years

[61:11] I am embarrassed I am embarrassed by my ignorance of this book and the only thing that gives me any consolation is I'm also convinced that that it is a book that has no bottom to it so why should I feel bad that I haven't found one there is no bottom to this book it's it's the infinite word of God amazing any other thoughts or ideas yes I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't hear repeat it'll be at the conclusion of Armageddon yes Armageddon will be a will be a campaign it will not be just a battle it will be a protracted engagement that will last for some period of time

[62:18] I don't know exactly how long but then it will be consummated and this is when the blood flows to the horses bridles in the valley of Jehoshaphat the Kidron Valley right out in front of Jerusalem them and it will be the armies the armies of the world will have massed and the plain of Megiddo they will march southward Christ will return to his people there's a verse in Isaiah that speaks of and we'll be looking at this Sunday mornings that speaks of God coming from Teman T-E-M-A-N that's one of the ancient cities in southern Jordan down close to where Basra is in the land of Petra and that's where

[63:25] I believe and many others believe that Israel is going to be holed up from the Antichrist remember in Matthew 24 when the Lord says when you see when you see the abomination that desolates that's the Antichrist he will be the abomination and he will desolate or desecrate or defile the temple of Israel which of course requires that there be one rebuilt which does not now exist and Jesus says when you see the abomination that contaminates or defiles the most holy place spoken of by Daniel the prophet when you see him stand in the holy place he will declare himself to be God then you head for the hills get out of town right now because they're coming after you and you head for the hills and the hills they'll be headed for are southern Jordan where Petra is there they will be holed up the antichrist will not be able to get to them and God himself is going to preserve them with food and water and sustenance in an absolutely miraculous way just like he did the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt

[64:43] I don't know that it'll be manna I don't know what it'll be but he'll meet their needs supernaturally and they will be preserved anything else we just covered a whole bunch of material today and you know as I've often said not only did we not scratch the surface we didn't even scratch the scratch on the surface there's just so much more there thank you for your kind attention and we will plan on being here good Lord willing and the creek don't rise for the last Tuesday in January and I don't know what it'll be I just haven't looked that far ahead but there will be one