God, we are thankful tonight to call you our God and call you our Father. We are thankful that you have made us your children through the shed blood of your Son, Jesus. We have hope in Him and in Him alone tonight. I pray that we'll be refreshed in our faith as we open up the Word and study it, try to understand better your message to Daniel these many thousands of years ago. and how no matter how different Christians may interpret what's going on in this chapter, help us to see the big picture of how the majority of what happened or what was prophesied has happened. We can at least agree on that. The majority of it has happened, Lord, demonstrating your faithfulness to keep your promises and to fulfill your prophecies. So I pray that we will be encouraged to know that what we are experiencing in this life is a part of the bigger picture of your redemptive work throughout history. And that our challenges and difficulties, our suffering and our pain are not wasted and they are not fruitless. for you are preparing us for greater glories forever with Jesus. It's in His holy name we pray tonight. Amen. All right, so Daniel 9, verses 20-27. We'll finish the chapter. Last week we looked at Daniel's prayer of repentance on behalf of himself and the nation of Israel, specifically Judah and Jerusalemites, if you will. And we know Israel, the nation, They were destroyed by the Assyrians even way before Judah went into exile under Babylon, but nonetheless, for the prayers of his people. And so, we pick up here in Daniel 9, verse 20, because this is where it gets hairy. This is a difficult passage. It's one of the most difficult passages in the Bible, okay? So we're going to take a stab at it tonight, and hopefully we'll get close to interpreting it correctly, okay? So I'll read, I'll tell you what, let's read We'll begin with verse 20, and I'm just going to read the first few verses there to start off, okay? So, while I was speaking, Daniel says, and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision so before he gets into to the vision Gabriel appears and before he gets into that vision he Shares this with Daniel. So notice first of all God's response to our prayers So last week was pretty much Daniel praying and then we get to verse 20 and we see how God responds so number one God responds with mercy and He says, as soon as you started praying for mercy, the word went out, God sent me. God was already answering the prayer before you, and I want you to know, and maybe you've experienced this. There are times when God has already answered your prayer before you even start praying. Sometimes He answers your prayer as you're praying. Sometimes He answers your prayer after you've prayed, maybe a few minutes, a few hours, a few weeks, a few months, or sometimes years or decades. But God answers prayer, right? That's the point of the passage. God is faithful, and so He answers our prayers with mercy. Daniel's praying for mercy, God sends mercy, and he answers prayers with further revelation and or illumination, insight, understanding. And so I use the word revelation for Daniel because Daniel gets revelation. And so by revelation, here's what we mean theologically. We mean that there was a time when we didn't know much anything about God, but over time He reveals Himself so that we know more and more and more and more. And we get to the New Testament, and the New Testament says the revelation, the canon of Scripture is closed. We know everything that God's going to tell us about Himself and about the plan of salvation. When we pray now, it's not as though God reveals a new truth that's never been known to any human being on the planet. Rather, God's going to illuminate his word. He's going to shine a light on his revelation and go, here's an answer to your prayer based on my word. So it's not like, whoa, this is a new truth. It may be new to you, right? It may feel like revelation. But it's really illumination. So I share that because there's this crazy theology out there in the world. You see it on television really prevalently where people say, I've got a word from God, I've got a word from God and I'm going to speak it to you. That's dangerous talk. That's dangerous talk. Again, I think I know what a lot of those people mean. And I think a lot of those people may be innocent, but maybe they need to rethink how they're phrasing that a little bit. Does that make sense? We gotta be really careful about talking that way. Because the false teachers that talk that way, they know exactly what they're doing. They're telling you, I got a message from God. I died and went to heaven and came back and I wanna say something to you now. I'm like, no, you keep that to yourself. That's what I would say to them. But nonetheless, Number two, notice in verse 23, God answers our prayers because He greatly loves us, greatly loves us. The Hebrew there for great, greatly loved, describes something, as you might imagine, describes something or someone that is desired or counted precious. To greatly love something is to put a high value on that, according to this Hebrew word. Translates over to English very well as greatly loved. And so the point is, God sees you and I as His children, as His treasures. Okay, we're His treasures. And Christ came to save us as His treasure. You're special. You're not run-of-the-mill. You are special. You are valuable. Greatly loved. Okay? So, that's the response to this prayer. And by the way, one phrase in there that says, the man Gabriel appeared to me. Gabriel is not a human. He's an angel. But this is the Bible's language of describing how he appeared to him. So just like in the New Testament, Gabriel appears to to Zachariah and then also to Mary in the form of a man, right? We see the angels at the empty tomb appeared, the Bible calls them men, even though they're angels. And so they're not men, but they have the appearance of a man, because that's how they revealed themselves in that moment, okay? So that's what's going on with that word, just wanted to clear that up in case there were any questions. Anybody have any questions before we get into the easy stuff tonight? Okay, very good. Chapter nine then, look at verse 24, and we'll finish the chapter. And we'll try to go back, and honestly, this lesson's gonna extend to next week. We're gonna address the major issues tonight, but then we're going to next week specifically talk about how Christ fulfilled the 70 weeks, okay? So verse 24. 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, to anoint a most holy place, Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, built but in a troubled time. And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. Okay. Anybody wanna get up here and teach this tonight? Take over for me, because this is not easy, right? Some of it is kind of easy, parts of it, thankfully. Other parts are not so easy, okay? So the 70 weeks of Daniel, you've heard about them probably here or there, the 70 weeks, and it can be sort of confusing. So the first thing I want us to talk about is to ask the question, and Christians will differ on what I'm about to say. So if you differ from my interpretation, I still love you and we can get along, okay? Pastor Don and I would disagree on some of the stuff I want to say tonight. We would agree on a lot though, a whole lot. Is the 70 weeks to be taken literally, literal number, or is it to be taken symbolically, okay? And so, that's the question I'm gonna try to answer, and we'll go with my answer tonight, of course, for sake of, you know, just flowing well. But let's talk about what it means, first of all. Number one, what are the 70 weeks? Well, everybody agrees, every Christian theologian, whether you take it symbolically or literally, agrees that the 70 weeks equal 490 years. Now, you'll notice on this sheet, I gave you guys more notes than I usually do because it's complicated, and I'm gonna say it all these dates and times and stuff, and I thought, just give it all to you here, and it might be helpful. So, 70 weeks equals 490 years. The phrase in Hebrew is literally 77s, Okay, if we spoke Hebrew, it would sound like that to us. So in English, it's 70 sevens. Now, the word sevens could be 70, could be interpreted 70 days or 70 weeks, 70 sevens, okay? But most everybody, again, I don't know of any Christian theologian in Christian history that would say otherwise. They would say it's 70 weeks. So, and each week equals seven years. So, 70 times seven equals 490 years. All right? Is that fairly clear so far? Yeah. So the 70 weeks is 490 years. Number two, so let's talk about a literal interpretation. If you're going to interpret this literally, I would say it has difficulties associated with it. Is it literally 490 years from the time the decree goes out to the desolation of Jerusalem? Is it literally 490 years or is it symbolic? So I would say it has many difficulties. For example, to make the first seven sevens, 49 years that is, fit literally, you have to say the beginning is Ezra's or Nehemiah's rebuilding efforts and ends with Ezra's or Nehemiah's building efforts, their completion of the work. And the problem with that, I would say, is this. So, let me back up. If you've heard of the pre-tribulation view of the rapture of the church, the seven-year tribulation period at the end, that viewpoint, that's a very, well, I'll say very, it's a more literal understanding of what's going on here, okay? But I would say part of the problem is, to be literal, again, you have to start with either Ezra or Nehemiah's beginning of the work. And here's the problem. Look at verse 25. 70 weeks, so the first 49 years of this 490 years. The first 49 years are decreed about your people and your holy city. Sorry, let me back up. 70 weeks is the 490 years. I'm confusing myself and now you guys. They are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put it in. So he goes on, verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. So the first 49 weeks, first 49 years of the 490, verse 25 says, starts with the going out of the word, okay? So I would say the literal beginning point is when the word went out. Now, do y'all remember who sent the word out? The Bible tells us who sent the word out for allowing for the Jews to go back to Jerusalem to resettle it and begin to rebuild it. Do y'all remember? He's a king, not Babylon, but of Persia. It was the Persian king, Cyrus. Okay, so King Cyrus made this decree in 538 BC. So I would say the literal interpretation must start with the decree of Cyrus, not 100 years later, almost, when Ezra and Nehemiah fulfill the decree, if that makes sense. The only way you can come close to making the 490 years literally come true is if you start with either Ezra or Nehemiah. And even that's uncertain. Which one do you go with? Right? Which one do you go with? Well, I think it's Ezra. Well, I think it's Nehemiah. We still don't know, literally, when it begins. Technically, but that is the common interpretation. My teacher that wrote the book on it, he's pre-tribulation, literal 70 years. I studied his commentary this week. That's literally what he said. It was either Ezra, Nehemiah, and I'm going, verse 25 says, from the time the decree goes out, which is in 538 BC. Okay, anyway, number three. A symbolic interpretation of the 490 years has no problems whatsoever. I don't believe that. I can never say that. So I would say the 490 years has difficulties too. I still scratch my head about it, go, this is where I'm at, but I don't understand everything. I still struggle. And I would say a literal interpreter, they should at least be honest enough to say, I struggle with this too, hopefully. They're not like, hey, I got all the answers. Unfortunately, sometimes you meet some, they're like, well, this is the way it is. I'm like, oh, well, you might be right, and if I'm wrong, okay, but I think we need to be a little more open-handed with each other as Christians on this issue. So I would say overall, it does fit the overall theological themes of the Bible more accurately, okay? So, for example, it avoids the subjectivity of interpreting the weeks according to our best educated guesses. I gave you an example of that a moment ago. It is an educated guess to say, well, the 490 years literally began with Ezra, or it began with Nehemiah. Because the Bible doesn't say which it is. The Bible says from the going out of the declaration. That's what the Bible says. And so what we're doing is disagreeing on how to interpret that. So there's a little bit of subjectivity to that if we're not careful, okay? So let's talk about the 70 weeks more specifically and taking them symbolically and what that means exactly. So number one, The number 70 first appears in chapter 9, verse 2. If you remember from last week, back in verse 2, it says, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. 70 first appears there. It really doesn't have anything directly to do with the 70 weeks, right? They're separate things going on. That's where it can get confusing. But the 70 years, what does it have to do with? It has to do with the captivity of Jerusalem, the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. So Jeremiah says, from the time that Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem and the people, the Jews, and carries them away into captivity. From the time that Babylon comes and does this to the time when Babylon is destroyed by the Persians, we know now, will be 70 years. Okay? So Daniel said there'd be 70 years, but that depends on the dates that you go with. Notice there in the paragraph I gave you. What dates do you go with? Do you go with 605 BC? That's when Babylon took the first exiles out of Jerusalem, but they hadn't destroyed Jerusalem completely yet. Is that when it began? Or did it begin in 586 BC whenever they put the final nail in the coffin on Jerusalem and destroyed Jerusalem? Or it could be most any year in between there, if there's already exiles being taken out, Babylon's already coming and beginning to crush. I would personally argue for maybe the 586 date for the beginning of it, but nonetheless. And then on the end date, even that, there's a year difference. We could say, did the decree go out in 538 or 537? There's a little bit of uncertainty. So if you're gonna go the literal route, 70 years, literally, on the dot, first of all, that rarely happens in the Bible, on the dot. Most of the time, it's rounded numbers, either rounded up or down. And sometimes, it'll be a very, very rounded number, and we call that symbolism, symbolic. Does that make sense? So if these are just rounded numbers that are literal, You know, maybe I'm wrong, okay. But I tend to lean toward the idea that they are sort of rounded numbers, but they're pretty wide-span rounded numbers that mean they're symbolic. So in this case, for example, the literal fulfillment could range from 48 to 49 or 67 or 68 years, but none of them are literal 70 years, unless there's a detail, historical detail that we don't know about, which there may be, but again, that's sort of the idea of what's the big deal about, it has to be literal if we don't even know what the literal timeframe marker is. Yes, Bruce. Well, there's actually been some debate on that as well. There have been some commentators that have tried to argue that the Jews were using more of a lunar calendar at this time, so that would be about a 360-day year, but there have been several good works that have been done, research works that have upheld the traditional interpretation or understanding that the Jews were using more of a Roman calendar or at least a 365 calendar at this time. But you bring up a great point. We're trying to look back and interpret all these numbers literally But part of the problem is they didn't always, even when they used a 365 calendar, things still got off. For example, I'll throw you a nice one. There is good evidence that Jesus was not born at 0 AD. He may have been born at 4 BC because the guy that kind of put the calendar together later on was off a little bit. Now, does that wreck my faith? No, because my faith is what? In this. My faith is in the word of God, not in men who put calendars together, right? So, anyway, does that help a little bit answer your question? Yeah. Do you have another question? But yeah, I mean, that is definitely a part of the equation as to how do you interpret something literally when we're not even sure the calendars, you know, we have to be careful. So, all this to say, I would say that it's reasonable to conclude that the 70 weeks of Daniel are being used symbolically. Now, you guys may study this and come to a different conclusion. That's fine. I get it. But I would say there's reasonable evidences for it. So 70 first appeared earlier, giving us, seems to be symbolic. So Daniel's 70 weeks are probably symbolic too. Number two. So let's get into it a little more deeper. The seven sevens, the seven weeks, the Bible says, 49 years, is symbolic of the time frame between Cyrus' decree and the restoration of Jerusalem. We read that earlier, twice already now. It says from the time that the decree goes out. So I'm taking that literally. So if you think about it, I'm being more, even though I'm symbolic, see this is where it gets tricky. Well, you're literal and I'm symbolic. Well, everybody, everybody as Christian interpreters, there are things that we interpret literally and there are things that we interpret symbolically. The question is, when and why do we do that? So I literally believe it started with Cyrus's decree. not literally with Ezra and Nehemiah. But I believe that because I think the number is symbolic. So literally, this took up to 94 years, not 49 years. So his decree was 538, 537 BC approximately. If you go with Ezra's fulfillment or Ezra's completion of his work, which was mainly on the temple, that'd be 515 AD. or B.C., excuse me, if you go with Nehemiah's finishing up the walls, that would be 444 B.C. Again, you say, which is it, Jeremy? That's one reason I like the symbolic view. I don't have to say, I don't know, because it's symbolic of a period of time. From the decree going out to Jerusalem being restored is 49 years, okay? Number three? The 62 sevens, 62 weeks, or 62 sevens, equals 434 years. I would personally say these are symbolic of the timeframe between the restoration of Jerusalem. So you have the 49 years ends, Jerusalem restored, and then starts the 62 sevens from the restoration of Jerusalem until the coming of Christ. I would argue that that fulfills the 62 weeks, or 62 sevens. Literally, this took between 440 and 470 years. It depends on what event you mark in the life of Christ. Even in this commentary from my professor from school, he was saying, and rightfully so, he was saying different Christians have done different things. Some, it's been his birth, his baptism, his presentation, Palm Sunday presentation, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his, what's next, ascension. So people did different marks, and each of those are different time frames. Some, you know, the birth is, you know, it may be 4 BC, or it could be zero, you know, Depending on when he's born affects when he dies. Traditionally, Christians have said either A.D. 30 or 32 or 33. Those are the three main, sometimes you'll hear someone say 31 or 28 or 29. Most likely 32 or 33 A.D. But we don't know, we don't know. When does that end if that is the date? Again, with the symbolic view, doesn't matter because it's from the time Jerusalem is destroyed to the time Christ comes. It doesn't have to be a specific event per se, okay, in my view. So this timeframe was characterized by Jerusalem being built again with squares and moats, but in troubled, a troubled time, Gabriel says. So do y'all remember, y'all were probably like me, you probably haven't read Ezra and Nehemiah closely lately. They're thick to get through. They're very historical. They're great, but they're very historical books. So both Ezra and Nehemiah, what did they experience when they were rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the walls? You all remember? What's some of the stuff they experienced, the trouble? Anybody, anyone? Does anybody remember? Just don't wanna speak up. from their fellow Jews, sometimes, or from the enemies. There's one phrase in particular, I think it's in Ezra. The enemies of Judah and Benjamin, which is the southern kingdom, came up and began to cause trouble. You can't do this. You shouldn't be building this. Who gives you the right to do this? King Cyrus made the decree. I don't believe it. It happened 100 years prior. Almost 100 years. And so they get into this political debate. Send a letter to the king. And the king has to say, hey, cease the work for a time. We've got to look into this. I mean, it's a big mess, with trouble. So Jerusalem is rebuilt, but with trouble. And then last, two weeks ago, we talked about another troublemaker for the Jews. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, you remember him? He was a huge troublemaker. He was a persecutor of the Jews, and he rebuilt the temple, and it's beautiful, and everything's great. And he comes in and makes all this trouble for them. Terrible amount of trouble that he created. So, I would argue that those would probably fulfill that prophecy of, it was rebuilt, and the idea of a moat, and what was the other word? I can't see, I need glasses. Squares and moats, it's just telling you it was complete. It wasn't half done, it was finished, but in a time of great trouble, okay? And then number four, then you have the final seven, which is the seven years, the final week. The final seven equals seven years, I would say is symbolic of the time frame between Christ's coming or Christ's crucifixion, specifically, and the destruction of Jerusalem, physically destroyed Jerusalem. I'll give you a little teaser verse. This is the kind of stuff we're gonna do next week. Jesus was accused of saying, He said that He will destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days. And then the gospel writer gives us an explanation, not knowing that he was referring to what? His body, you remember that? Jesus was saying, you destroyed this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days. So there was a foreshadow of a dark cloud coming over the literal temple in Jerusalem. The book of Hebrews picks it up and goes, yeah, they're still sacrificing over there in Jerusalem, in the temple. but it's nothing, it's meaningless. It's all gonna come to an end soon. And when did that happen? When did it come to an end? Physically. Jesus already put an end to it spiritually at the cross. When was it made desolate physically? When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, they burned the temple with fire and AD 70 destroyed it. And it is not, it is no more. There's no temple there now, there's no sacrifices going on for over 2,000 years now. And so, giving you a little bit of a preview into next week, and we'll go into more detail than that, other things too. So the final seven is symbolic of this period of time. Many Christians in the last 200 years have believed these last seven years are yet to come, namely, they would call it the Great Tribulation. And if that's where you're at, fine. If it's where you're at because you've never studied anything opposite, I encourage you to at least study something else, but I'm not here to shake people's foundations on things like this per se, just get you to think about it. And it's important to know that this view is only about, like I said, only about 200 years old in Christian history. Out of 2,000 years of Christian interpretation, it's only been around 175 to 200 years. So that's something to think about. It's new, in other words. So they would call this the Great Tribulation, that there's a seven-year period between the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ. So Jesus comes back, but not all the way to earth. It's not his second coming. He comes back, he raptures the church, and the church is with him, and then God's dealing with Israel for seven years, and then Jesus comes back and puts an end to everything, okay? And that's what I used to hold to, but again, that's all I ever was taught growing up. I didn't know anything different. I didn't know there were other views. I would say there's no reason to take the 490 years as anything but consecutive, with no pause in the timeline. I would say the problem with this view is, in the Old Testament, you have 49 years, or 49 weeks, so the 49 years. You have the 62 weeks, or 434 years, consecutive, consecutive. Why aren't the last seven consecutive? There seems to be no indication in Daniel that there's a break, there's a pause there. The only way you can get that pause is if, you don't get it from Daniel, you have to get it from Revelation, or maybe 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, maybe Matthew 24 be your only hope. And I would say that's a misunderstanding of those texts, of course. But nonetheless, I think they're consecutive fulfillment, they keep it going. Okay, so we make a suggestion. So hopefully you're open to suggestion on this. I suggested symbolic interpretation. This is actually fairly new to me, not fairly, very new, this week new. I hadn't thought about it this way before, but I'm pretty much convinced, or at least pretty, this is kind of what I would say. Number one, the 70 weeks may be, I'm not gonna claim it is, but this is my take, may be symbolic of a 10 times supreme jubilee, ultimate jubilee for God's people. Do y'all remember in the Old Testament the teaching on jubilee? You can find it in Leviticus chapter 25. So God's people, God says, you're gonna work and you're gonna work hard for 49 years. If you're a slave and you're enslaved for a certain amount of time, you're in debt, and you got debts, you owe people, that's the reality of life. You're gonna work, you're gonna work hard, year end, you're gonna take your Sabbaths, you're gonna let the land rest every so many years, right? But you're gonna do that for 49 years. But on the 50th year, what's gonna happen? Jubilee. Jubilee, work, it's not that it ceased completely, but you didn't plant and you didn't harvest. You lived on the blessings of God that had built up over the years. If you were a slave, you'd be set free. If you had debts, boy, this sounds good, if you had debts up to your eyeballs, you were released from your debts. Your creditors could not force you to finish. I mean, it's like declaring bankruptcy, but it's not, it's jubilee. And this would happen every 49 years, or the 50th year, of course, would be the fulfillment of that, okay? So you'd endure the tough realities of life, 49 years, and then jubilee would come, okay? I would say that this language, well, we know that this language is a foreshadow of Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Why is the teaching on Jubilee a foreshadow of what Jesus would do? What does Jesus say at the end of Luke's gospel on the road to Emmaus? What does he say about the Old Testament scriptures? Moses and the prophets and the writings. What does he say, do you remember? He says, Go and read those things. It literally says, he opened up the scriptures, he spoke of them with the scriptures, and showed them how it all referred to him. I'm paraphrasing that, I'm doing a poor job at it. But he showed them from the scriptures that everything was about him, spoke of him. Just as Paul talks about the water coming from the rock in the wilderness, he says that rock was Christ. There's a place in the New Testament where the ark is referred to as Christ, right? No, the ark is a boat, it's not Jesus, but what is it a picture of? It's a picture of Jesus. He's our only way of salvation, right? The water coming out of the rock is a picture of this, the wellspring of water, of living water coming out. Christ is the living source of life, right? And so, Jubilee, and we can take the Ten Commandments. Christ, He fulfilled the law of God perfectly, so it refers to Christ. Man, it's just everything, the mercy seat, it's Christ. The serpent, the brazen serpent raised up in the wilderness. Jesus himself said, just as the serpent was raised up in the wilderness, so shall the son of man be lifted up. The snake on the pole was Christ. It was their only hope of salvation in that moment from the snake bite. And so in the same way, Jubilee is a picture of Christ. It's a picture of the coming of Christ. 49 years, and then there's a 50th jubilee year. Gabriel, I would say, is saying, 490 more years, God's people, and Messiah is coming. That's 10 times jubilee. 10 times 49 is 490. 490 years, not literally, symbolically, Christ is coming, and He's going to deliver His people. He's going to fulfill, I'm probably going to say this in a moment too, He's going to fulfill the six purposes of the 70 weeks we see in verse 24. Okay? Let's just read them briefly. To finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Jesus did all those already. Those are not future things. Those are done. He said, well, there's still transgression and sin in the world. Not for the Christian. He said, well, I'm a Christian and I still sin. Yes, but that's not who we are. We're delivered from that. Ephesians chapter 1, Paul says we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, right now. That's an amazing thing. So anyway, so I would say it's a foreshadow of the eternal freedom and rest that Christ will bring his people. Number two, this is basically what I just said, because I forgot where I was bringing this into the lesson. Jesus accomplished God's six purposes for the 70 weeks, I just read. These 70 weeks symbolize the fulfillment and completion of God's covenant promises and the transition into the new covenant through the blood of his son, Jesus. Kind of a side note, did I put this, I think I put this on your notes about Cyrus, okay? I would say it's interesting to note that Cyrus, chapter five, verse 31, we're told, was about 62 years old when he conquered Babylon and issued his decree. Now, some people say, well, that's just coincidence. Maybe. I tend not to think so. Cyrus was 62 years old when he delivered Israel from captivity underneath Babylon. And what followed that deliverance was 62 sevens, 62 sevens of Israel being back in their land. Yes, they endured hardship, the text says, through hard times, through troubled times. Antiochus IV Epiphanes comes along and does all that. Then Rome comes along, and yes, Rome occupied them, but they're still in their land. They still have their temple, they can sacrifice in their temple. The Jews had much freedom, a lot of freedom under the Romans. There was troubled times, the text says there will be, through troubled times. But they're in the land, they're God's people. 62 years, Cyrus is a type of Christ. Remember, Jesus says everything in the Old Testament is about me. Pharaoh was a type of Christ. Nebuchadnezzar is a type of Christ in some weird kind of ways. Cyrus is a type of Christ more clearly than the others, I would say. Specifically, In Isaiah 44, God says, He is my anointed vessel. I think that God even uses the word shepherd of Him. He is my chosen shepherd. To do what? To deliver my people. To save my people out of exile to Babylon. He's going to deliver them. For the 62-year-old man is gonna begin a deliverance that will last 434 years, literal, symbolic, whatever, 62 sevens, but is Cyrus's deliverance of God's people enough? Is that what they really need? What do they need most? They need deliverance from their Messiah, Jesus Christ. So Cyrus is a picture of what Jesus is gonna come do to the ultimate level, maximum level, and that's exactly what we see. So if you go back to Isaiah, if you think about Isaiah, so chapter 44, he says, I'm gonna send Cyrus, he's gonna save my people, he's gonna deliver them. But then what do we see strewn, like a string of pearls, strewn throughout Isaiah? We get these messianic prophecies of the suffering servant, right? Isaiah 53 is probably the most popular, where he's despised and rejected, man of sorrows. He was stricken, we esteemed him not. He was bruised for our, you know, all this language of torture that the Messiah is gonna go through. And so here's Cyrus, the earthly deliverer, but my heavenly deliverer is gonna come and give you eternal salvation. And so only in the final seven years do we see God's six purposes fulfilled. Now the literal crowd would say, well, there's a break in the timeline, so there was 49 years, then 434 years, but then Christ come and the timeline pauses, and there's seven years more yet to come. One of my arguments against that would be, yes, but the six purposes have already been fulfilled. And the six purposes are fulfilled within that, in that last seven years. It's already done, in other words. So that kind of, it's kind of my stopping point to go to next week, to be honest. Because I could keep going, but we will get into next week's lesson, and I don't want to give too much away on that. But I am open to questions. Y'all feel like you've been hit with a machine gun a little bit? Well, welcome to my world, studying this week. I opened up going, oh yeah, that's right, we're doing 70 weeks of Daniel this week. I was panicking a little bit on Monday, and I kinda got some headway yesterday, and I felt pretty good about it. So hopefully I haven't abused you too much. but maybe we need like a chart. Charts help, right? Yeah. So if you're going the literal route as a Christian, then you're gonna say there's, you got the seven sevens, so you have 49 years, consecutive 434 years, and then there's a pause, and we're still in the pause right now, and that sometime in the future, the last seven years will kick in. And what will start that timeline is Jesus coming back for the rapture, he'll rapture the Christians, and then he's gonna deal with Israel for seven years, and then Jesus comes back the second time, okay? But pretty much the other two or three major views would say all those years, the 409-year consecutive. So you got The first literal, for the most part, literal and symbolic are okay on the first two phases. The seven sevens and then the 62 sevens. But where I would differ would be when Jesus came. Notice the text said, let me see. I think I have to get glasses. Verse 26. After the 62 weeks, an anointed one, I think I skipped something in there that was important. Did I talk about the anointed one in my notes somewhere? Maybe I'll put that on next week's lesson. Oh yeah, yeah, back on page one, I knew I skipped something, because this is important. I'm glad we got a little extra time. Under number two, it says 70 weeks, literal or symbolic numbers, Under number two, says a literal interpretation of 409 years, as many difficulties associated with it. Look at the second paragraph that starts off about the first 49 years. Okay, and move toward the middle. I'm just gonna read, this seven sevens then continues without pause into the next 62 sevens, which ends with the coming of an anointed one, a prince, that's verse 25. So, you got the 49 years, then you got the 434 years. That 434 years, the text says, ends with the coming of an anointed one, a prince. Based on the context, the identity of this anointed one is the same person that's also mentioned in verse 26, whom we know is Jesus Christ. Look at verse 26. How do we know this is Jesus? And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. An anointed one shall be cut off. Every Christian viewpoint, the literal and the symbolic, agree on who this person is in verse 25 and 26. And who is it? Who's cut off? Jesus Christ. We see that from, for example, Isaiah 53, talks about him being cut off from the people. He was cut off from the land. Same language, I don't know if it's the same Hebrew verb, but it's very similar, if it's not the same. And so, Jesus Christ is this anointed one cut off. So my view would say, Jesus comes at the end Anointed One comes toward the end of the 62 weeks, and after the 62 weeks, so when you start the seven weeks, He's cut off. You see the timeline. Not, there's a pause, and then He's cut off seven years later. No, He's cut off after that 62 weeks. I don't know if that helps. So, questions now. I know, I'm sorry. It's difficult. Yes. Yes. And that's normal. Norma, that's very normal. This is not easy. This is not easy. I'm post trip. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Post-trib typically is more symbolic and it's an understanding, but not everybody. You can't paint anybody into a corner on these things. Paint them with the same brush stroke. Just like I can't paint a pre-tribulation with the same, they don't all agree on everything. We have to be careful about that. Yeah. I mean, I would argue that we are in tribulation. We have been for 2,000 years. Different times, phases, is greater and less than other times. But overall, it's growing more and more intensely throughout time. It's easy for us Americans to say, tribulation? What are you talking about? Go to North Korea as a Christian. That's some tribulation right there. Well, that's just local persecution. that's what don't worry you can go home and Don will tell you the right way right he'll tell you the right way yeah yeah it the answer is it depends if you ask me what I believe the Bible says no I don't think the last seven years is the great trip I mean I think yes it is the Great Tribulation but it's it's already happened It has, but it hasn't. I know that's, so either you have it, but see, that's the beauty of the symbolic view, is that's the, yeah. It has happened, it has happened. There is nothing preventing Jesus from coming back right now, second coming. Oh, second coming, you're saying right now. What about the, what about the second coming? Second coming can happen at any moment. Jesus says, you know, no man knows the day or the hour the Son of Man comes back. But see, the pre-tribulation view says that's referring to the rapture, not to the second coming. I think he's talking about the second coming. So if you ask me, has the great tribulation happened, I would say yes it has, it has, but I also believe in what's called, what's the word I'm looking for? Well, cyclical, there's another word, multiple fulfillments of prophecy. So in other words, just because the Great Tribulation has happened, doesn't mean that there's not gonna be another similar great time of tribulation toward the end before the second coming. I'm okay with saying that, and I think that's part of where the confusion comes in. is because if I'm right about that, that would create confusion as, well, has it happened or has it not happened? Literally, has it happened, not happened? Whereas we go, well, it has literally happened, and it's literally gonna happen again, because that's the way God does things a lot. Yeah, that would be my answer. Whereas, say, a Don's answer would be, no, the Great Tribulation has not happened yet. It will be future, only. Great Tribulation will be after the rapture, correct, yeah. Whereas I would say, read 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, read it closely, don't read it fast, and don't read it assuming you know what it already says, that's key. Because if you read it from a post-tribulation mindset or a pre-tribulation mindset, you're already skewed. Let the flow of thought come from Paul. And what I believe Paul is saying is, He is telling the Thessalonian believers, He's saying, you are enduring tribulation right now. But when Jesus comes back, He is gonna pour out wrath on those who are tribulating you. He uses a verb form of the word, tribulate, to cause you trouble. God is gonna pour out His wrath on those causing you trouble. But don't you worry, you'll be safe from the wrath that is to come. And he says, don't worry, that day, Paul says this, don't worry, Christians, that day will not come as a surprise to you. What day? The day when God delivers us from tribulation and pours out wrath on the unbelievers. He's talking to the church when he says that, not to Israel, a nation of people. He's talking to the church, to the Thessalonian church. He's Thessalonian church. That day will not surprise you. God's gonna take those who have been tribulating you and he's gonna give them wrath. But the pre-tribulation of you says, that happens in the seven years over here. Anyway, in a lot of ways, I believe first and second Thessalonians can clear up the mud as much as anything. I really do. And if you can see that, that's one place I would go. It can really help a lot. I think, and I know it can. The other thing is to, when Chad and I talked about this during the membership class, it kind of shook him a little bit when I said this. In Matthew 24, the other one, and I'll be done for this. Matthew 24, Jesus says, two will be in the field gathering, one will be taken, one will be left. Two will be at the mill, one will be taken, one will be left. And many, many Christians assume that those who are taken away are who? Raptured the church, Christians. But what does Jesus, in context, remember, we gotta read the Bible in context. Jesus says, as in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. Just as the people in the days of Noah were living and drinking and living life, and the floodwaters came and took them away, so it will be in the day of my coming. There will be two in the field, one taken, the other left. Based on Noah and the flood, who are those that are taken at Christ's coming? You don't have to agree with my view, but context, what is he saying? Those who are taken are the unbelievers. They're destroyed, is the idea. Wrath comes. You have to go back and read it. Oh, go back and read it, yeah. Yeah. I'll pray about it a little bit. Yeah. I've read and studied both sides of all that. Oh, yeah, yeah. I get it, I get it totally. I love when Jesus said, and it's in Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel both, if I remember correctly. He talks about the abomination. We're gonna cover some of this next week, so I'll stop, because we were actually almost done early tonight, and now I've blabbed on, and we're past time, just about. Anyway, any other burning questions for tonight, though?