Tapestry

 

   Turn to Daniel 9.  In a previous, lesson we looked at a period of time described in verses 24, 25 and the first part of verse 26 as a total of 69 (out of 70) consecutive seven-year “weeks” which culminated with Christ’s first coming and specifically His entrance into Jerusalem while being hailed as King. (see Luke 19:38).

   Therefore, one seven year period remained.  But what is the cause of the disconnect?  Why is this last ‘week’ separated from the first 69?

   Let’s look again at the passage.  In verse 26, the Messiah is “cut off” or killed and then the “people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.”  This part was clearly fulfilled exactly as Christ Himself prophesied in Mat 24:1,2 saying that the stones of the temple buildings would be thrown down.  In 70 AD, four Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

   “The prince who is to come” may, as many scholars assert, point to the coming Antichrist who we are shown in other prophecies arising to power in the ‘revived’ Roman Empire (more on that in another study, Lord willing) and so the “people of the prince…” would speak of the Romans just as was fulfilled.

   Now, the next part of the 70 week prophecy says, “The end of it shall be with a flood and till the end of the war, desolations are determined (or decreed).”  So, during the period of time between the Messiah being cut off and the last week we have a war and some decreed desolations all culminating with a flood. 

   What is this war?  What is this flood? And what are these desolations? 

   This war is that which has been going on since the time Messiah was cut off.  It is a war between Israel and the Lord.  A conflict in which Israel has stubbornly continued to reject the gracious covenant of God through Christ’s atoning blood.  But the war will end.  Isaiah writes, “’Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’ says your God.  ‘Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.’” (Isa 40:1,2)

   And what’s this “flood” spoken of in Daniel’s prophecy?  Well, this isn’t the ordinary word used in the Bible for a flood.  This word literally means a “cleansing overflow” and refers to that which is spoken of in the following three passages (as well as others):

   “In that day, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” (Zech 13:1)

   “Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.  Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, Who will help you:  ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant…for I will pour water on him who is thirsty and floods on the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring;’”    (Isa 44:1-3)

   “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”  (Zech 12:10)

   Now, the desolations – according to Lev 26:31,32, they would be to the cities, the sanctuaries and to the land.  Concerning the land, Josephus who observed the Roman conquest wrote, “The Romans, though it was a terrible struggle to collect the timber, raised their platforms in twenty–one days, stripped the whole area in a circle around the town to a distance of ten miles.  The countryside, like the city, was a pitiful sight; for where there once had been a lovely vista of woods and parks, there was nothing but desert and stumps of trees.  No one – not even a foreigner – who had seen the old Judea and the glorious suburbs of the city, and now set eyes on her present desolation, could have helped sighing and groaning at so terrible a change; for every trace of beauty had been blotted out by war, and nobody who had known it in the past and come upon it suddenly would have recognized the place; when he was already there he would still have been looking for the city.”

   Even the writer Mark Twain who toured the area in the late 1800’s described it as an unbelievable desolation.

   As for the cities, Jerusalem was demolished on four occasions during the time we call the church age.  

   Concerning the temples or sanctuaries, the Romans dismantled the temple Herod built stone by stone.  In addition, we know from prophecy that the antichrist will desolate the coming tribulation temple (see Mat 24:15 and Dan 12:11) so then it’s clear that two temples (plural) will be desolated during this period. 

   However, even as desolations came upon God’s cities (people), land and the second temple, in Christ, He was building another matching, complimentary set – He made a new people who were not a people, bringing new birth to individuals all around the world – the mostly gentile church. (see 1 Peter 2:9,10).  Also, He began preparing a new place or land for them – heaven (see John 14:1-3).  And, He began forming a new glorious temple or tabernacle by joining together all genuine believers (see Eph 2:19-22).

   That is, God began a new age of grace and freedom.  Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”  We commonly call this the Church Age.  It’s history is prophetically spelled out for us in Revelation chapters two and three wherein Jesus addresses seven churches each representing three things – a historical city and its early church congregation, an era during the nearly 2000 year church age and then the characteristics of individual believers. 

Historically, the seven church eras during the church age are:
1.  EPHESUS   The Apostolic Church    30 AD - 100 AD.
2.  SMYRNA  The Suffering Church      100 AD - 313 AD.
3.  PERGAMOS  The Compromising Church    313 AD - 606 AD.
4.  THYATIRA  The Idolatrous Church      606 AD - Today
5.  SARDIS  The Reformation Church     1517 AD - Today
6.  PHILADELPHIA  The Revival Church     1750 AD – Today

7.  LAODICEAN  The Lukewarm Church      1900 AD – Today

 

In Revelation, Christ presented admonitions to each of the seven churches to overcome something:

Ephesus - this overcoming was/is keeping the heart set on Christ and a deep love relationship with Him.

Smyrna - this overcoming was/is holding on to faith through all the circumstances of this life.

Pergamos - this overcoming dealt/deals with searching out the truth of God’s word and expecting Him to feed your soul.  In addition, it’s about the humble nature of serving.

Thyatira - this overcoming was/is an uncompromising one – to have no mixture but rather pure religion and undefiled.

Sardis - this overcoming had/has to do with stoking the fire of faith.

Philadelphia - this overcoming had/has to do with the need to ‘keep on keeping on’.

Laodicea - this overcoming is singular in nature, and uniquely, Jesus says that it is the same type of overcoming He did Himself.

   In considering this age, we can easily conclude that if not for the grace and mercy of God in Christ, the church would be without hope.  It’s clear that no self exaltation is warranted!

   Unfortunately, about 300 years or so into this age, the leadership of the church did just that and began teaching that God was through with the Jews and that the promises of the scripture belonged only to the church.  This became a pervasive teaching and led to much persecution throughout the age.  It persists even today and is called substitutionalism.

   Nevertheless, the gentile church is not a replacement for the Jewish people.  The church is not Israel of prophecy.  Israel is the Israel of prophecy.  When the “fullness of the gentiles” has come in, the age will be ended – a wrap, done, finito (see Romans 11:25).  But that’s not the end of God’s plan!  The scripture says that Jesus will come for His bride (that’s us who believe!) and will take her home.  In this, there is a wonderful alignment symbolically even with the old Jewish wedding practice. 

   You see, it used to be that when a man would desire a woman for his own, he would come to the house of her parents and pay the price for her.  He would then return to the home of his father and would prepare an addition to his house for himself and his new bride.  Meanwhile, as the bride to be did not know when her bridegroom would come back, she would wait eagerly for him, prepared for his imminent return.  Even the bridegroom did not know the day of his return for it was his father who would finally say that the new dwelling place was finished.  When he did, the bridegroom would come for the bride accompanied by all his friends.  He would take her then to himself and bring her back to his home where a grand wedding feast would be held.  Then she would be intimately cared for in her new home away from the public eye for one week.  After this, they would both emerge and she would be publicly displayed as his new bride.

   This parallels perfectly the great anticipation of the church as the bride of Christ.  Christ did come and paid the fantastic price for us with His own blood.  He then returned to the Father where He is preparing our new home in heaven.  The time in which He has been gone has been the Church Age in which He said He would be with us in the Spirit always (see Mat 28:20).  When He returns to take us home, there will indeed be a glorious wedding feast and we will spend the next seven years (or ‘week’) on a rapturous honeymoon!  After this, we will return with Him to earth to save the remnant of His people and conquer planet earth.

   But while we who believe are gone to heaven, that is, during this week of heaven, there’s a week of hell back on earth.  This is the 70th week of the Daniel 9 prophecy – just as with each of the first 69 weeks, a seven year period.  You see, the church was not present during the first 69 and will not be present on earth for the 70th – specifically, it’s called the time of “Jacob’s trouble” (see Jeremiah 30:7).

   And the church age is about to close.  From Abraham to Christ was approximately 2000 years and so also with this present age – a perfect balance if you would.  It’s no accident that the entire church, Hebrew and gentile believers in Christ, is called the dwelling place of God.  In fact, it is perfectly and prophetically pictured in the wall of the original tabernacle was a beautiful type and symbol of this. 

   In Exodus 26:1-8, we see that the tabernacle’s walls were made of ten curtains – grouped specifically in two sets of five each (five is the number of grace in the Bible!).  The two groups of five were then joined together by 50 gold clasps.  Now, 50 is the number of jubilee in scripture (refer to Lev 25:10) and when you read about it you recognize that of course, Jesus Christ is our Jubilee.  And so, pictured here in the design of the curtain walls of God’s dwelling, we are shown to be saved by grace and mercy and joined together in Christ – Jew and gentile believers.

   To the Jews, He said,   And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD [is] a God of judgment: blessed [are] all they that wait for him.  Isa 30:18

   To the church, He said,   For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.  For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.  Rom 11:30-32

   For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Eph 2:14-16

   And to confirm our picture of the curtains in the tabernacle (temple), Paul continues:

   Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints [the Hebrew believers] and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Eph 2:19-22

   But the 70th week is designed to prepare the Hebrew bride for her Husband.  She has not yet accepted His Spirit (typified frequently in scripture by oil).  Consequently, she is not ready for his appearing.  Jesus may have spoken of this when in Mat 25 after describing the Great Tribulation and the unexpectedness of the rapture, He speaks of five (remember the tabernacle walls above?) wise (or saved) virgins and five foolish (or as yet unsaved).  The latter couldn’t get in to the wedding feast without the oil of His Spirit – that is, without being saved.  (Note: both the mostly gentile church and the Hebrew people are called virgins in scripture – see Isa 37:22; Jer 14:17; 2 Cor 11:2)

   However, the 70th week, like the first 69, is for them.  “One day the Jews will realize their blindness and folly. They’ll accept Jesus Christ, and the glorious national restoration of these people will bring in the Kingdom Age.” (Smith)  During this time, God will complete the tapestry of the spiritual tabernacle if you would.  And it’s right around the corner.  Are you ready?  If so, you can say, “Maranatha!  Come Lord Jesus!”

 

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why did Jesus stop in the middle of the prophetic passage He was reading in Isaiah?
  2. How many weeks or seven year periods are given in the prophecy of Dan 9:24-27?  How many have seen their fulfillment?  How many remain?
  3. Who are the “people of the prince” spoken of in this passage?
  4. What is the war that is prophesied?
  5. What is the flood? 
  6. What are the desolations?
  7. Does the gentile church replace the Jewish people in prophecy?
  8. When will the “church age” conclude?  What does Romans 11:25 say?
  9. If the “church age” is about 2000 years long, will it balance with the time God spends working through the Jewish people?
  10. How many curtains made up the wall of the tabernacle?  How were they grouped?  How were they joined together?  What is the symbology?
  11. How might the ten virgins of Christ’s parable in Mat 25 be a picture of the gentile and Jewish church?