So let me just say a few things about where we are in the syllabus and where we're going. We completed Cycle 1, which was devoted to the story of Holy Scripture and an introduction to interpretation and the redemptive historical overview of the Bible, the redemptive historical storyline of the drama of redemption. Today, we begin Cycle 2, which puts us focusing our attention on the intertestamental period between the testaments. We're going to look at history today, looking at the canon, the formation of the canon, particularly the New Testament canon in the next couple of weeks, and then apocalyptic literature, looking at Daniel and Revelation. as two pieces of apocalyptic literature that give us a bookend for God's old covenant and new, give us two bookends for God's old covenant and new covenant revelation that I will seek to begin to show you today. And so the second cycle will go through, let me see here, we're scheduled to go through November 8th, all right, November 8th, And then we will have the beginning of the kingdom fulfilled, the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Then we'll have another question and answer after Thanksgiving. So that'll be good. So write your questions down. I also, for today, I didn't really have time to get this handout ready for you for publication, but I have some highlights of the intertestamental period. that I'll share with you that you can use as part of your open book exam that Ms. Grace, Ms. Weitz will give to you at the appropriate time, okay? So we'll have something you can actually use, a handout that you can study. Here will be what we look at today. We're going to look at the intertestamental period. We're going to look at kingdoms and lords. I'm putting these under biblical, purposely under themes that are biblical, part of biblical imagery, so you can think about the intertestamental period as part of God's sovereign, providential outworking of history. So we remember that when we come into the New Testament era, we're looking for a kingdom and a Lord, and yet there have been kingdoms and lords. These dates will help us to put those on the historical map. Where are the prophets? So this will be the category dealing with the Word. And though this time period primarily is silent with prophetic revelation, it's just using prophets to focus on the Word. And so the interpretation of the Word, the sects of Israel, the different sects and groups devoted to the Word during this time. And then here are the priests. We'll look at the religion in the intertestinal period. And then the kings, we'll look at the rulers of the intertestinal period. And then we'll look at a few places and things that I think will be helpful for you to remember. And I think putting it In that way, as prophets, priests, and kings, and kingdoms, and lords, you can see that the emphasis is still on Israel's great expectation and anticipation for Messiah King, the Anointed King. to come and set up his kingdom. And hopefully this will continue to help us to keep focus on what this time period is about, is preparing ultimately in God's good history for the coming of Jesus Christ. All right? So let's look at our meditation verses today from Ephesians 1, 15 to 23. We'll say a few things about that, and then we will begin this class, the first class on the intertestamental period. or Second Temple Judaism. All right. Now, let's pray, and we'll read from Ephesians 1, 15 to 23. Our Father, my God, we thank you that this is your Word, and we have it open before you. We thank you that you're the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. We say be glory to you forever and ever. Amen. We're thankful, Lord, to come to you through our mediator, the Lord Jesus, our great King of kings and Lord of lords, our great prophet, our great priest. We're thankful that Jesus lives to ever intercede for us. He is our glorified King. He is the firstfruits of the resurrection. And we are already united to him by faith through the Holy Spirit. We're grateful, Lord. your presence with us, and we ask for your power, your pleasure, your presence, your peace to be upon us as we study together. We pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to fill us, to give us the strength to be led by you, to walk with you today. to know you as Abba Father, to have assurance of our faith, and to know the great riches and glories of our inheritance that we have in Christ. Now illuminate the scriptures that are before us and help us to understand them. In Jesus' name, amen. So in Ephesians 1, 15 through 23, this is a prayer of Paul. And I invite you to often turn to the prayers of Paul and pray them as you would the Psalms. They're very helpful for praying. Verse 15, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe? According to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Thus ends the reading of God's Word. Note two things. The prayer that Paul wants us to pray is, first of all, verse 18, that our hearts would be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that we'd have the illumination of the Spirit to understand something. He uses the know there to know that we may know that is an intimate knowledge verse 18 What is the hope and what is that hope it consists of three things Paul says number one? The hope we have is the immeasurable greatness of his power verse 19 to know that you have this immeasurable great power by the Holy Spirit that is Testified to us in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead We have this glorious inheritance in the saints, verse 18b, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. And third, that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Verses 20 and following that Jesus, verse 21, is seated far above all authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named. And notice Paul's structure here that he'll use elsewhere throughout his writings. under the inspiration of the Spirit, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. And that's what we've been learning together, is that eschatological structure that Paul has, that this present age is an age characterized by in Adam, under condemnation, is characterized by in the flesh, characterized by sin, characterized by corruption, characterized by the fall, But this present age, or the age to come, I should say, has dawned with the coming of Pentecost, with the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so the age to come has intruded upon this present age of sin and misery and brought us great hope and even the beginnings of resurrection because we're raised with Jesus Christ even now. Paul will often use this present age and the age to come. in this present age and the age to come. And that's a very important structure to keep in mind, especially when we get to Paul's writings. We'll look at this more in detail. So today, let's start by reminding ourselves of a few things. I've asked you to read the Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible, so I won't go over the things that you have read in that book. And most who have not read that book or are not reading that book have been introduced to this in the Old Testament class, I believe. If you remember, In the Old Testament canon, there's the Protestant arrangement of the canon which we have, which is from Genesis to Malachi. And it is arranged, if you will, with regard to the prophets, with regard to themes. You know, you have the Torah, and then you have the Psalms, the writings, the wisdom literature, and then you have the prophets all together. You have all the minor prophets as separate prophecies. In the Jewish canon, which I want to encourage you to get to know for this reason, Neither of the arrangements are inspired by God. Neither of the arrangements have, thus says the Lord on them. But the Jewish arrangement is helpful, especially when taking a biblical theology class, because the Jewish arrangement arranges it in Moses, the prophets, and the writings. And so the writings actually conclude the Old Testament canon, where we would look at our Old Testaments and see the end, which is Malachi. and we would then enter into Matthew, the Jewish canon ends with 2 Chronicles 36. And there's a reason for that. And I think what helps, and let's turn to 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles, I should say, 36 together. If you notice, these are placed where we would in the history books. They place it at the very end of their canon. And again, it's helpful when you're considering biblical theology to think about why 2 Chronicles was placed here. Another book that's placed in the writings that we place in what's called the major prophets is Daniel. Daniel. And so we're going to be looking at Daniel and Revelation together because I think the way that it's arranged by putting Daniel in the writings helps us to see the big picture and the drama of redemption, the story better. Why? Because the end of the Old Testament, the last word of the Old Testament, is in 2 Chronicles 36 that we're about to read. And Daniel, by putting it in the writings, gives us, if you will, God's future plan for history in a time of prophetic silence until he speaks again through John the Baptist. So Daniel is at the end of the Old Testament canon in the Jewish arrangement, so that Daniel continues the storyline after the exile, from the exile to after the exile, to tell us what God's plan is for the future history until the coming of John the Baptist. And that's why it's important to consider this arrangement. Consider this arrangement. Another very important reason to consider this arrangement is because in Luke 24, our Lord thought that this was the way our Lord understood the arrangement of the Bible as He was teaching. He started with Moses, the prophets, and the writings, and said they pointed to Him. So Jesus' Bible would have been laid out like this, if I could put it that way. So let's look at a couple things that are very important for the intertestamental time period that we want to go back and look at in 2 Chronicles 36 and then in a few places in Daniel. Now again, 2 Chronicles is the last word of the Hebrew Bible, the last word of the drama of redemption that I want to to focus your attention on for the time period, the intertestamental time period before the coming of Christ. And I want you to focus you on Daniel because Daniel gives us an outlay, a layout, an overview of the future history from the time of the exile to the time of the coming of John the Baptist. All right, everybody ready? So in 2 Chronicles 36, the last word of the old covenant canon is to tell us that Israel was taken off to exile. We're told in verse 10 of 2 Chronicles 36, in the spring of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, King Jehoiachin, with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck, hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. And so all the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem. Verse 15, the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers because he had compassion on his people. the prophets, the messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy. So the last words of the Hebrew story are the exile. It's a death. The promises of God to Abraham into his seat have not been fulfilled. And in fact, it seems like everybody's dead now Everybody's dead in exile under a foreign ruler. Where's Messiah? Where's the King of Kings? Where is the anointed King? Where is the kingdom that's promised? verse 17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, speaking of God. God brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or age. He gave them all into his hand, and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and his princes, all these he brought to Babylon, and they burned the house of God. and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels. He took into exile in Babylon those who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him, and to his sons, until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths, all the years that it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years." And here's the good news. Here's the resurrection hope, verse 22. In the first year, Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. And what word would that be, beloved, just to pause? It would be Jeremiah 29, where he says, I have plans for you, plans to prosper you, plans to give you hope, plans to fulfill my promises to you. So he says that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he's charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. So the end of the Hebrew Bible story is resurrection hope, that those who were in exile death would now experience through Cyrus Go back up to Jerusalem. The movement from death to resurrection. That's what our Lord Jesus says, starting with Moses and the prophets and the writings or the Psalms that he is pointing out to us, that the whole of the Old Testament is about death and resurrection. And so the saints are now being resurrected, restored. restored and resurrected to go back and complete what God had called them to do. And notice two things at the end of the story. One, Cyrus, the king and Lord, says, may the Lord your God be with you. He says, be with you. That's the hope of the old covenant. The hope of the covenant of grace is that God will be with his people. We will be he will be our God and we will be his people and go up and build. So it's most important when we're starting to talk about the intertestamental period, we get a theocentric eschatological view of history. That's what we're looking at today. The reason we open with 2 Chronicles 36, and then we're going to look at Daniel, is to get a God-centered eschatological history. Remember, we're wanting to be God-centered. We also want to remember God's purpose for history. So though God is silent, that is through the prophetic word, in these 400 or so years called the intertestinal mental period, he still has his purpose of history, and he's laid it out with great hope in 2 Chronicles and in Daniel. Now, how so Daniel? How so Daniel? I'm going to just have to summarize here. We'll look at Daniel more fully in one of these classes upcoming. But if you look at Daniel 2, in Daniel 2, and again, Daniel's in our section on the major prophets, which is not a bad thing, is it? But strictly speaking, Daniel's not a prophet. He's a statesman who has a prophetic revelation from God. And so he's not a prophet like Ezekiel or Isaiah, just to make that point, nor Jeremiah. And what Daniel's doing is, in chapter 2, He's part of the first group of people who've been deported to Babylon, who are serving under Nebuchadnezzar. And so the whole book of Daniel, really, is about how to live life in a strange land, how to live life faithfully as God's son in exile until the coming of Messiah. And in chapter 2, Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. that tells of the future kingdoms that will populate, that will rise and fall in the time between the Babylonian captivity, the exile, and the time of the coming of John the Baptist. That's what's so important about understanding, is that God gave us the map, historically speaking, of what the intertestamental period would be about. That's why I believe that when you jump to the New Testament, you have Simeon and Anna waiting for the redemption of Israel. You have people like Elizabeth and Zechariah still serving in the temple. It's because they believe these passages that Daniel gave, has given to the church under the inspiration of the Spirit, that lays out the history, that they know that the time of Rome is pregnant with fulfillment, and they're awaiting the consolation of Israel. particularly is spoken of by Simeon. In chapter 2 of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and as he dreams it, there is a vision of an image that Nebuchadnezzar sees that Daniel interprets. Remember, beloved, history is always a servant of God's revelation. And so God, as the Lord of history, is laying out for him four lords and kingdoms. And I'm going to lay them out in a moment on the board, but just for now, the image is in Daniel 2, the image of a statue. In Daniel 7, it's the image of four beasts, but they're all pointing to the same four kingdoms that God lays out and maps out for his people to take note of and understand. That in the time between the time of silence, between the exile, the restoration from exile, and the coming of Messiah, there'd be four kings. Number one, there'd be the Babylonian king, but his empire would pass away, like the chaff in the wind. And then there'd be the Persian Medes kingdom, the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Then there'd be the kingdom of the Greeks. And then there'd be the kingdom of the Romans. All right? And most all biblical interpreters agree on those four major kingdoms. Though there are some disagreements in the details, the majority of interpreters throughout the history of the church and up to today, particularly in our evangelical Bible-believing circles, are that those four kingdoms are just what I laid out. And I'm going to place them on the board in just a moment. But the point is that Daniel was placed in the writings so that he's this mediator, if you will, between those who are in the exile, those who've been sentenced to exile, and to show the hope that one day they'll be restored out of exile fully. But here's the catch, and this is the hard part for Daniel, it makes him sick. After the beginning of the restoration, they'll still be almost 500 years. before the coming of Messiah. That's laid out in chapter 9. And this is what makes Daniel a bit squeamish. It's like the promised Abraham. Abraham, I'm going to give you a place. I'm going to give you people. I'm going to be your presence. But Abraham, your people are going to be slaves in Egypt for over 400 years until my appointed time. The same thing's happening in Daniel, beloved, is Daniel's being told that, yes, the promises will continue. Yes, you will return from exile. But don't think Messiah will come immediately. Don't think the kingdom will be set up immediately. In fact, there will be. There will be. 490 years. In Daniel 9, Daniel's praying because why? He knows he's at the end of the 70 years. Now, again, God is Lord of history, beloved. Don't forget this. So what Daniel's doing is he's somewhere about 80 years old now. He's not only served faithfully in the Babylonian court, but he's now serving in the Persian court. All right? And he's writing, he's putting his writings down, and knowing Jeremiah's prophecy that the exile would last some 70 years, Daniel's praying and repenting for himself and for the people, expecting God to act. And that's when Gabriel comes to tell him the news of what to expect in the intertestamental period. Important to note that that's the Gabriel who speaks here at the end of the canon, the end of the Old Testament story, and then opens up with Daniel. And because the Protestant layout, our layout, is that the canon, he follows in the prophets, it's easy to overlook this. It's easy in an apocalyptic piece of literature to overlook that God's laying out these things very clearly. In the Jewish canon, the advantage is that it's at the end of the story. It's in the writings so that they're going, oh, I see. So there's a history that is believing Jews would see this as a history that's particularly laid out with Gabriel as the mouthpiece of God who gives this historical overview preparing the people for the coming of Messiah. And what we're told here, is verse 23, Gabriel comes and it's the time of the evening sacrifice. I think that's precious. There was no sacrifices going on at this time. The temple had been demolished, destroyed, but Daniel still knew when the evening sacrifice would have been offered. And he was praying at that time. And at that time of special sacrifice, God speaks through Gabriel. And so he says, at the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and I've come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision. So this is the angel Gabriel saying to him, you must understand this, Daniel. This is part of the story. You got to get this to understand what's about to happen. And so he says in verse 24, 70 weeks, or 70 weeks of seven, are decreed about your people and your holy city 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. And here it is, know therefore. These Verbal extenuations are also what our Lord says. Remember, when he's speaking of the future and he's referring to Daniel in Matthew 24 and Mark 13, he says, let the reader understand. So it's a verbal marker to say, this is what you've been taught in Daniel. Go back to the Old Covenant story and review if you need any more And we'll see this work out in just a second, but notice verse 24. 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 moats, but in a troubled time. And after 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 abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. The decreed end is, again, eschatological history. It's theocentric eschatological history, the decreed end of God's purpose in history. Now, there's some things that aren't clear about this passage. And we won't look at that today. But we will look at what is crystal clear that I want you to know. First is the 70 weeks that are decreed. The 70 weeks are 70 sevens of weeks. And what is 70 times 7? 490. So these weeks, Daniel would have understood through his understanding of Leviticus and the Feasts of Israel, that these weeks were sabbatical weeks. They were feast weeks, and they would be equivalent to years. Because every feast, you can look in further in Leviticus 26 particularly, but these weeks would have been defined as years. And so this 40, the 77 weeks or the 70 weeks, the 70 weeks of seven particularly are 490 years. So we're being told there's 490 years. Now people debate when that begins and when that ends. And the greatest debate is really on the last week, all right? The weeks are broken down that I'll show in just a moment. But what is clear as a bell is this, beloved, and this is what I want you to see, that the hope of the end of this period, all right, let's just use that general language, the hope of the end of this period is this, verse 24, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to anoint a most holy place. Those five things are what the Lord Jesus does in his person and his work. Those things are what he does in his ministry, in his life, his death, his resurrection, ascension. There's really no disagreement about that part. If there's disagreement, it's more in the layout toward the end. It's how that's going to come about after the coming of Jesus Christ. I would offer to you, with humility, the interpretation of the 70 weeks of Daniel that I would then encourage you to see connected with Revelation 21 and 22. that the 70 weeks of Daniel looks something like this. There's one week of sevens, then there's 62 weeks of sevens. This is the total 490 years. And then there's a week of seven weeks at the end. Now the disagreement that comes here, but most of the good interpretations still get the first part of this seven, even if the second part is debated. But what is clear is that the first week will simply be the time of 539 BC. That's where I'm going to date it. Some would dispute that, but from the time that the actual declaration of Cyrus was in 539 B.C. So I take that to be that the 70 weeks are decreed about your people in verse 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore. What we just read in 2 Chronicles, I take that to be 539 B.C. So Cyrus here, all right? And this then to the completion of the second temple. completion of the second temple. That was somewhere around 430s. Let's just do 433. Let's just do 430s. 430s under Ezra and Nehemiah, okay? But then this time in between that we're concerned about today, And we say this with all humility because, again, this is symbolic language. It makes sense of history. It fits with other scripture, I believe. I think it can be supported by scripture interpreting scripture. But because there are some who might disagree with this, I just say take this, take this. The first part, take it with the majority interpreters agree on this part. Again, take this part. as one where you're just thinking about it, okay? Because I don't want to be overly dogmatic about this second part of the seven weeks. But the 62 weeks is a time of tribulation. It's a time of trouble. It's a time that's characterized by more like though the Israelites have gone for, there's still a time period that's described as a troubled time in verse 25b. It's a tribulation or troubled time. And most Israelites during this time have felt that tribulation and that trouble of that time period called those 62 weeks. What's given in 25 is really the events of 30s AD, right? I don't think there's any dispute about that, really, that this is describing the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. I think this is why Daniel is so important with understanding the intertestamental period from a biblical standpoint, that it was laid out for us, that though there may be little disputes about how to fit this picture together, the truth, the clear truth is that God laid out the map. And God laid out the hope. So say you look at this and you say, nope, I don't buy it. I don't think that's the way it's going to work itself out. That's fine. But you should buy two things. You should buy. You should support two things. Number one, God's laid out history very clearly until the coming of Christ. That's clear as a bell. And number two, when Christ comes, he's going to atone for sin. He's going to bring in everlasting righteousness. So those things are clear. Now what's debated here is that the seven weeks are then split into three and a half and three and a half. And I think this is supportable, but it's not the day to try to do that. How this second part works itself out is where there can be disagreement. But what I'm asking you to consider as biblical is that this time period is described as a time of trouble. It's a time of tribulation. And I would argue that it's exactly the same language that the Lord Jesus is using when he talks about tribulation. That he's not using something new. That he's emphasizing that the time of trouble that was spoken by Daniel will continue until the full resurrection and consummation. So that would be that, just to be clear, that the tribulation begins with the time of the completion of the second temple in the 430s. And that begins the silence of the prophetic word. I need to write that down. Right here at 430 with Ezra Nehemiah, this begins what's called the silent, the prophetic silent period. And that will go on from the 430s until God is heard again through John the Baptist. So what I'd like you to see here is that the intertestamental period, the time between the Old and the New Covenant, is a time that's laid out clearly in Daniel, at least in the first part, at least to the coming of Christ. And then there can be some ongoing discussion about that, those last, the last seven weeks. All right. How that lays itself out. We won't get into that today. though I do have a position on it, and you're welcome to ask me what it is. But the intertestinal period, I've asked this, that some people call this also Second Temple Judaism. Now, why do you think that it's called Second Temple Judaism, the same time period, from the 430s to, well, to about 70 AD, till the destruction of the temple? Why would it be called Second Temple Judaism? Yes, sir? Good. In contrast to the Israelite religion. Good, good, good, good. Yeah, there's a secularization of Judaism that goes on, and even a synchronization of the religion of Israel that begins in this time period. Second Temple Judaism also says that the Jews are people waiting for an end of a story. They don't believe we have a testament, so they wouldn't call it an intertestamental period. But the term is fine. It's very helpful. And it's used a lot today, even in Christian circles, because it's helpful to describe the time period between what we'd call Malachi and either the destruction of the temple in 70 AD under Nero and Titus. What's his name, Titus Vespasius, Flavian Vespasian or something. He's a pretty cool name. You got to have a cool name like that. Titus Vespasian, Flavius Vespasian, something like that. Anyway, we call him Titus. So the structure of the temple under Titus in 70 AD, or some people say 135 AD, which is the final rebellion of the Jews against Rome that ends in a great defeat. and ascending the Jews further scattered from Rome, which has consequences on Christianity as well, as you can imagine. So Daniel and Revelation, I want to propose to you today, and I'll say more about this as we do this cycle too, is that Daniel and Revelation serve as apocalyptic bookends, that both of them, and we'll look more at what apocalyptic means, so we don't need to define it necessarily right now, It's essentially history given through symbols. It is the heavens open up to bring an unveiling of what is to come, usually through angelic messengers. So that's something we'll look at more fully. But just for now, I want you to see that Daniel works as, at the end of the Old Covenant canon in the writings, as laying out what history is to be, what we're to expect from the God of history for the next 400 or so years, especially after the restoration or the return from exile and the beginning of the building of the temple. Connected with Revelation, it is this, that In this verse here, 25, we're told that know and understand, what was that? No, verse 24, that your holy city, that part of what is to be expected is to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, that's all about the cross, right, and the resurrection, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and notice, to seal both vision and profit. to seal both vision and prophet tells us that there will be further revelation. And the book of Revelation ends with the warning that this is the canonical capstone, that this is the final word, and no one is to add to it. And so that's why I'd like you to say, and I'll say more about it, but that's why I'd like you to see Daniel at the end of the Old Covenant, see, right here. And Revelation at the end of the New serves as apocalyptic bookends to finish the story in Revelation 21, 22, and to give an unveiling of what we're to expect in history, even to the consummation, even to the revealing of all things. It's quite interesting, isn't it? I think what we have here is that we have in this phrase here to seal both vision and profit, also teaching, letting us know that there will be further vision and profit and it will be sealed. It will be complete. It'll be given to the people of God. And so it's important, I think, to note, especially when we're talking about the canon, is that there is to be a final canon, a final word. And we understand that much better now. We understand what this passage means much better now. So let's talk about some of the highlights of the intertestamental period. We want to remember, again, that this period God's purpose and so we always want to have a three theocentric eschatological history now the dates I'm about to lay out for you. I have begun to Make a chart for you that I will try to get to you within the next few days that I hope will be helpful But for now, let's do it on the board. Okay? Any questions so far before we move on and try to get an overview of this time period that's been prophesied So here we have kingdoms and lords because we're expecting a kingdom. That's part of the Old Testament expectation. We're expecting an anointed king, right? Here we have dates. Here we have prophets. Now, I don't mean they're necessarily inspired prophets, but I've used that category to show those who would be about focusing on God's Word. The priests, we have the religion, what will go from being a faithful Israelite religion to, unfortunately, Judaism, which is a religion of works. By the way, Roman Catholicism, particularly of the time of Reformation, is basically an old Jewish religion, just reenacted. It's just with different people and things and population, but basically it's the same old religion of Judaism. The kings are the rulers of this time period, and then our placings and things we'll talk about. So let's talk about, first of all, when Daniel gives his prophecy, it starts with Babylon in 605. The first deportation to Babylon happens in 605. And the destruction of the old temple, the first temple, and Jerusalem happens in what year? All right, so you have the deportation to Babylon. Again, it's worth noting, how does the New Testament open in Matthew's gospel, which has a particular interest to connecting the Old Testament with the New? It opens with the genealogy laid out with regard to the exile. The deportation of the exile. So again, it makes sense that Matthew is also trying to point our attention to the fact that he's been reading his Daniel. That he's continuing what's already been started in Daniel. Alright? That he's laying out new revelation. And so the first era is the Persia, the Persian era. We'll put the Medes and the Persians. Again, these are all given to us in Daniel 2 and 7. One time is a statue, and the second time is four beasts. But they're the Medes and the Persians. And their dates are 539 to 331 BC. Now, this was a time that the Jews enjoyed somewhat of a time of peace. in the time of the Medes and the Persians. And you can see that during that time period, what happened but the rebuilding of the temple. So Cyrus's declaration to rebuild was 539 BC. The temple is rebuilt by the 430s or so under Ezra and Nehemiah. So that's one thing that will happen in this time period between 539 and 331 BC. The prophets of that time were inspired. And they were. Can someone give me the three prophets of the Persian period, particularly of the Second Temple period, before everything goes silent? Okay, Nehemiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, who were the three main prophets of the time? There's Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. And Malachi's final prophecy is right around 430 BC, so some 400 years the people wait on... I don't want to put that here, that looks confusing. So in the time of the Medes and Persians, you have Haggai, Zechariah. In the priesthood, you have Zadok. The priest, you see this especially in the story of Joshua and the high priest. You see this beginning of the merging. You see this in David and Solomon as well, but you see this merging in the prophecy that's in Zechariah 3 between Joshua, the high priest, and the king of that time. So you have Zedek and Joshua. I'll just put those names down for both of these. I'll put Zadok and Joshua for both the kings and the rulers of this time. But of course, we would also be mentioning the Persian rulers that I won't name by name. And of course, there'd be Nehemiah because he was a statesman. All right. So that's important to understand that part. Then there's the Greek or the Macedonian period. That would come from 331 to 164. That would begin with the great military conquering of Alexander the Great in 331, and would continue after Alexander died somewhere around 320s. His kingdom was split up between four of his generals, And the rulers of that time period would have been, there would have been four generals, but we'll put, we'll focus on two because we're concerned primarily for the people of God, would have been the Ptolemy kingdom, Ptolemaic, Ptolemy group. This was in Egypt and then the Seleucid dynasty. in Syria, or north of Israel. So we had, in the Greek and Macedonian time, Alexander. You've got the beginning, in this time, you have the writing of the Septuagint. The Septuagint, often with Roman numeral LXX, because legend has it that there were 70, probably 72, scribes who translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. So the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. You have other writings of this period called Apocryphal. You have Apocryphal writings. You have Pseudepigrapha. The apocryphal writings were 14 or 15 books that we don't consider canon. And even those who do put them in their Bible usually will mark them as deuterocanonical, though they're not consistent with their claiming deuterocanonical status because often some of their dogmas and teachings are based on the teachings of these books that are not found in the 66 books of our canon of Holy Scripture. So you want to be careful there. The Apocryphal books are very helpful for history, very helpful to understand this time period. And these books were written, the Pseudepigrapha were where there were Old Testament characters who gave names to the writings to interpret events. One of the best of the Pseudepigraphical writings would be First Enoch. I highly recommend it just for understanding apocalyptic literature. We'll read some portions of it, I think, when we get to that part of our class. But again, these are not considered inspired, the Apocrypha or the Pseudepigraphas. Pseudepigraphas made up of, I have two volumes of Pseudepigrapha in my study, many writings. I would imagine there's over 50, maybe even 100, I can't recall. But these are non-canonical writings, helpful for history, helpful as pseudepigrapha, particularly helpful for understanding a genre called the apocalyptic genre, like the second part of Daniel or the book of Revelation. In the Greek era also comes, I can rely on the longer history that you have in the books, but what happens is the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt allows Israel to be Israel. So from about 331 to 198, Israel enjoys great peace. But with the Seleucid dynasty in Syria, There's particularly a man you want to be aware of named Antiochus Epiphanes, or Antiochus IV Epiphanes. And he desires the Hellenization. That is, he desires for Greek culture. Greek culture, language, art, philosophy to be the requirement of all people, of all people under his rule. Now, Alexander the Great was the one who wanted to lay down a foundation of Hellenization in Greek culture originally, when he took over as the king of the empire. And God used it powerfully. It united the kingdom together with a common language. It gave the opportunity for the Old Testament to be translated into the Greek. Greek became the lingua franca, it became the common language of everyone. And then when we come into the New Testament, of course, Greek, Koine Greek, Common Greek, is used for the writing of the New Testament Bible. So Greek served a wonderful purpose. You see, during this time, beloved, the Hellenization, as it's called, The Jews tried very hard to resist the temptation to assimilation. And they were constantly being threatened. They were now dispersed all over the kingdom during this time period. They weren't in Palestine. They weren't in Jerusalem. And they had to resist the worldliness and the draw of Greek culture and language, art, philosophy, belief system. They were fine under the Ptolemies, but when the Seleucid dynasty, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes became the ruler in about 175 BC, he demanded for the Jews to be Greek, to be assimilated, no questions asked. There was a law against having Bibles, If men were forbidden to circumcise their sons, you had to be Greek. You had to accept the Greek culture at the Fourth Epiphany. And what that led to was a rebellion, a rebellion of the Jews that brings us into the next period. The next period is called the Hasmonean or Maccabean period. And another reason why the Apocrypha is helpful is because it has the books of the Maccabees. It tells us about the Maccabean revolt. And in the Hasmonean Maccabean period, you have a man named Mattathias and his five sons, who are excellent guerrilla warriors. And they fought against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus had the audacity to come and to offer a pig in the most holy place. to Zeus and to commit idolatry against Israel. And the Maccabee, the Hasmonean time period, the Maccabean family, Mattathias and his five sons, they took up arms against Antiochus and revolted against him, pushed him out of the land, and then they took up rulership until the time of Pompey in 63 It was a remarkable, remarkable feat that they accomplished. And so the Maccabean time period, the rulers of that time period would be the Maccabees or the Hasmonean dynasty. So this Maccabean period, they also restored the temple and consecrated it again to the true God in 164. And that became what's known as the celebration of Hanukkah. So the Hasmonean Maccabean dynasty would go through 63 BC. During this time period, under the priests of the religion would be the Sadducees. The Sadducees were formed. And under the prophets of the word I'm running out of space here under the prophecy. No, I've put that under the wrong place I've got a handout that'll help this a little bit. All right All right, so Sadducees would have been this time period under the Hasmonean under the prophets who focused on the word would have been the Pharisees Pharisees and the scribes Teachers of the law All right. And then because of a dispute over who was the true ruler, the Hasmoneans basically ruled from this time period as priest rulers, as priest rulers over Israel and were in their country. And there was a debate over who was to be the next priest. And so they called in Pompey of Rome to come settle this dispute that they had. And they got more than they bargained for, because that brought in the Roman era. The Roman era was when Pompey came and decided to make Palestine Judea, make it a Roman province, and eventually placed his own king, King Herod, and his sons there. So in the Roman era, we could say much, but we'll focus just on Herod the Great and his sons, Herod the Great, and his sons, the ones he didn't kill, his family members. I've run out of space. Also in this Roman era would have been the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin. So you can see that there's a great deal that happens during this time. With Herod the Great, there was even this rebuilding of this, or not rebuilding, but the adding to and enlarging of the Jerusalem temple. And this building project went on from really somewhere around 20 B.C. through the time of the Jews up to really it was continuing through 30 or 40 A.D. So it was quite a building project. You know, Herod was known for his massive building projects. Herod the Great during that period enlarged the Jerusalem temple. I think 20 BC and Pastor William, do you remember up until what time it was finished? Was it 40? So up to about 40 AD. If you remember the question that's asking John, too, about Jesus saying that, tear this temple down and on the third day I'll raise it. And he says, this temple's already been being built for many years and you're going to raise it on the third day? And he said, the temple that I'm speaking of is my body. That's what we're to understand. So I think by laying it out this way, I hope this is, this is a bit messy, isn't it? It's hard to see this, but what we want to get, and I'll send you a handout that's much cleaner, but what we want to get, what we want to take away here is first and foremost that God's the sovereign Lord of history who maps out and gives an overview, okay, of history from the time of the exile to the time of Messiah. Okay, that's the first thing. Okay, everybody clear on that? That's the first thing. That's very important. That's quite clear, isn't it? All right. The second thing we want to know is that Israel's expecting a king and a kingdom. So we want to think about the kingdoms and the lords that Israel had to live under, the governments that they lived under until the coming of Jesus in the Roman era. from Babylon to Persia, the Medes and the Persians, to the Greeks and the Macedonians, to the Roman era. Those are primary. Note the Hasmonean Maccabean just because of the things, the particular religious things, the religious sects or groups that arose during that time. Then, the third thing we want to note is that they were waiting for the prophetic word. And you can see God spoke the prophetic word through these final prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. He used them to rebuild the second temple. Then the Old Testament is translated from the Hebrew into Greek so that many of the Jews who now spoke Greek could read it. That was a wonderful thing. They could have their own Bibles. And many people who didn't speak Hebrew from all over the world who did speak Greek could enjoy reading about the story of redemption. The Apocrypha gives more understanding of the word in the sense of giving more of a historical background. The Pseudepigrapha helps us to understand the word in that it gives us this apocalyptic literature that was very common and read during that time. And then these groups that were dedicated to the word were the Pharisees, the scribes, and the teachers of the law. The priests and the religion of that time really devolved to the Sadducees. The Sadducees were an aristocratic priestly group, basically, that had great ties with Rome, to the power structures of the day. They were always connected to the power structures. They only accepted the five books of Moses. They didn't believe in the spiritual world. They didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead. The kings and the rulers we want to remember during this time are just that there were some that God gave favor from Daniel, Nehemiah, Zadok, Joshua of this time period, but mostly the rulers were foreign to the king who was expected, the Lord Jesus. And then there are many things we could put under places and things, but I think if you can remember these two things mostly during this time period is the temples rebuilt in expectation, the walls of Jerusalem are rebuilt, and there's what's called Hellenization. There is an influence of Greek culture, language, art, and philosophy. So the Jew during this time had to resist assimilation and apathy. Be careful that they were, you know, in times of peace, they would have to resist the temptation to be apathetic, but to let the reader understand, to remember the importance of knowing that Daniel is pointing to a time when there will be what? To finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit, and to anoint a most holy place. You know what I'd like to do is, we're going to start Canon next, but as we do Canon, I'd like to say more about the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots. We just don't have time today. They are in your reading, so I'm grateful for that, but I think it's worth spending a little bit more time on them, and I'd like to do that. Let's turn to Luke chapter one to close. to Luke chapter 1. Oh, and of course, in the Roman era, beloved, you have the kings and rulers who were, of course, the Caesars. And that's on your handout. You have Augustus Caesar, followed by Tiberius, followed by Gaius Caligula, followed by Claudius, and followed by Nero. Those are the ones we want to look at. And when we get to Acts, we'll look at those more in detail. But let's note a few things that's happening at the beginning of Luke 1. that we want to take note of. Verse 5 of chapter 1 says, in the days of Herod, king of Judea. So it opens up this historical book telling us that there is a priest named Zechariah. He's still of the division of Abijah. He's still part of the old religion. And he even has a wife from the daughters of Aaron. But very significantly, it's the days of Herod. king of Judea. There is no Messiah seated on the throne at this point. And at this time, as he's offering prayer, verse 11, an angel of the Lord came to him and and told him that the Lord would speak again to Israel. In fact, he tells him in verse 16 that this prophet that will come powerfully, supernaturally from God's power, from Elizabeth's womb, will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. to sound the alarm that the kingdom of God is at hand. That after all of those years that Daniel had prophesied about, the time of atonement, the time of bringing in the everlasting righteousness, the time of tribulation, the time of trouble, would begin to end with the inauguration of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It would begin to end with the inauguration of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Now, notice in chapter 1, verse 26, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David." So very significantly, he's of the house of David, and that ties him to the covenantal promise that God has made to David and to his son. And he says, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. And then he tells Mary, verse 31, behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there'll be no end. Well, where do we hear about that kingdom that was everlasting that had no end, not only in the covenant promise that God made to David, but particularly in Daniel, chapters 2 and 7. The same place where God laid out the future history or intertestamental literature was also the promise that a kingdom was coming, the kingdom would come, and that it was a king who would reign everlasting on a throne. And here we have, in the opening of the New Testament with Luke, you have Gabriel, the same Gabriel, telling more revelation, because history is about to move forward and advance in a way that it had never known before, because God is going to be Emmanuel. He's going to become flesh and dwell in our midst and fulfill all the covenant promises through his own righteousness. Verse 35 says, the angel said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy. the Son of God. Notice, if you will, in Zechariah's prophecy at the end of chapter 1, in verse 68, Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit. And after all this time of trouble and tribulation from Babylon, Persia, Greek, and Romans, he cries out through the Holy Spirit, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. He has visited and redeemed his people. And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all of our days. And then in chapter 2, verse 1, Caesar Augustus is the ruler. He's the one ruling and reigning. And right under his rule and reign, this reign of peace that he has given to all the world in his empire, is a declaration of another angel, of the angels I should say, angel of the Lord appearing in verse 10 of chapter 2. The angel said to them, fear not for behold I bring you gospel good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Augustus was known for giving peace. The one prophesied who would be the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, and the prince of peace. And it was into this history that God came. The Son of God united to our humanity in permanent, personal, hypostatic union so that he could live and die, be raised. And the intertestamental period is significant so that we would have that same hope now. as we live still in exile awaiting the coming of Christ, awaiting his second coming, not his first one, that we would learn from Israel's mistakes and remember their temptations. The two temptations were assimilation of the culture, that the culture would make them something they were not before, that the culture would bring worldliness into their hearts. That's assimilation, losing one's holy identity before the Lord. And the second was the apathy. that in times of peaceful rulers, Israel could grow weary of waiting and grow apathetic concerning their religion. So let's pray that that not happen to us. Next week, Lord willing, we'll start thinking about the canon and the formation of the canon. And again, I do apologize. I wish my writing was a little clearer. I think this gets at it. But I have a handout that I'll send you by this afternoon Lord willing I give me a couple days might be and then also a little handout that says more about how to interpret this period with regard to What God was doing and the main point is that God was disciplining Israel to prepare them for the king All right. Let's pray Our Father and our God, we thank you so much that you are the king of kings. You're the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. We thank you that, Lord, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are your judgments and your paths beyond tracing out. For who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor, who has given to him a gift that he should repay him? For from you and through you and to you are all things. To you be the glory forever and ever. We come to You, O Heavenly Father, thanking You that You have given us Jesus Christ as a Savior from sin, that He is the King, He is the Ruler, He is the true Prophet who speaks Your Word, the Priest who lays down His life for us once and for all and atones for sin. the one who puts an end to transgression and sin, the one who lives to pray for us and intercede for us, and the one who is our king, who subdues our hearts, and who through his shepherd, as shepherd king, takes his staff and comforts us and protects us. We thank you. Lord Jesus, send your Holy Spirit upon us. Help us to understand these important truths, these things we've learned, and keep us walking in sync with you according to your word in great humility. You oppose the proud, but give grace to the humble. And so we pray that as we walk with you today, you'd help keep us, Lord, from any kind of assimilation by the culture. And keep us from worldliness. Keep us holy and humble and honest before you. And keep us from apathy, from growing weary in our task or just not loving the things we ought to love as much. Give us a refreshment of our love for you because we have understood more of your love for us. We pray in Jesus' name and all the church said, Amen.