Israel in Prophecy
(A Sermon Preached by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo at True Life BPC on January 11, 2009)
Dan 9:24-27: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
Israel is still God’s chosen nation. God had made a covenant with Israel and the covenant promises involve the people, the land, the temple, the throne of the nation Israel. Can God break or withdraw His covenant promises to Israel? The Lord said in Psalm 89:3, 34-37, “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations … My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.”
So, please do not think that God is done with Israel, that God has disowned Israel for crucifying their Messiah, and replaced her with the Church. The Apostle Paul would have us know that God is not unfaithful and will keep His promises to Israel—Israel shall be saved: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. … For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved” (Rom 11:1-2, 25-26). The fact that Israel remains alive and strong proves the truthfulness and faithfulness of God. Greater nations like the Hittites, Girghashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, have all gone extinct, but the Israelites continue to exist (Deut 7:1). This is due to God’s power and promises. That is why we are very sure that God can also preserve His Word to the jot and tittle and preserve His children until the very end, that none would be lost.
If Israel is still very much God’s chosen and covenant nation, and God still has a plan for Israel, then what is going to happen in Israel and to Israel? If we want to understand prophecy, we must first of all understand Israel. The Lord talked about the future of Israel in Daniel 9:24-27 and the future of Israel involves two periods, two princes, and two peoples.
Two Periods
Daniel 9:24 says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.” “Thy people” refers to the Jews and “thy holy city” refers to Jerusalem. Prophetically speaking, the “70 weeks” are weeks of years and not days, literally seventy sevens or 70 x 7 in Hebrew which is 490 years. These 490 years are basically divided into two periods. The dividing point is the cutting off of the Messiah: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off” (Dan 9:25). The Messiah is cut off when He is crucified. Know that at this time, the Jews were in exile in Babylon. The time will come when the Jews will be released from captivity and be allowed to return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem. From the command to rebuild Jerusalem to the time of the Messiah’s crucifixion are 483 years (7 x 7 = 49 years + 62 x 7 = 434 years).
The rebuilding of Jerusalem was accomplished in the days of Nehemiah and the Messiah—the Lord Jesus Christ—had already accomplished His redemptive mission on earth. These two important events have already been fulfilled. What remains is the final week of seven years: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan 9:27). Daniel’s 70th week is the period of Great Tribulation as described by our Lord, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt 24:15-21). Jeremiah calls it the time of Jacob’s trouble, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer 30:1-7).
Now this final week will involve two important figures—two princes—one is good, the other evil.
Two Princes
In Daniel 9:25 we have a mention of the Messianic Prince (note the capital “P”). He is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ—the Anointed Prophet, Priest and King who has come to save the world from sin, and to restore the nation of Israel to greatness once again. This will happen when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
Now, before the Lord Jesus Christ returns, there must arise another prince, and he is mentioned in verses 26 and 27 (note the small “p”). This false and wicked prince is the Antichrist, a counterfeit Christ. He will one day arise to usher in a false peace in Israel and later will try to destroy the Israel and set himself as God (2 Thess 2:4, Rev 13:8). This will happen in the last seven years of this present world’s history which is yet to come. The Antichrist will arise from a revived Roman empire (Dan 2:42-44), and he will make a peace treaty with Israel. This treaty once contracted will start the seven year period of great tribulation. Israel will go through a terrible time of suffering. This will happen when the Antichrist breaks his peace treaty at the middle of seven years (i.e. at the 3½-year point) by desecrating the temple (c.f. Matt 24:15) and demanding worship from the whole world (Rev 13:14-15). But the defeat and destruction of the Antichrist and his armies will come at the end of the seven years when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to fight the battle of Armageddon (Rev 16:12-16, 19:11-21).
Two Peoples
The battle of Armageddon will involve two groups of people (believers and unbelievers) under two different leaders (Christ and Antichrist). The believers can also be divided into two groups—the Church and Israel. The Church comprises all who have believed in Christ during this age of grace when many gentiles are being born again into God’s kingdom. When the covenant is made between the false prince and Israel and the seven-year tribulation period commences, the Church will be raptured or caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess 4:15-17). The seven-year tribulation period is called a time of wrath—God’s wrath. The Church is saved from the wrath to come (1 Thess 5:9 cf Rev 6:17, 11:18, 15:1). The tribulation is for Israel to enter because as already said, it is a time of Jacob’s trouble. Jacob is Israel. Despite the great persecution that will come upon Israel, the Lord will save Israel from out of it, as Romans 11:26 says, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” God will protect and preserve a remnant in Israel—a total of 144,000 who will be servants of God during that period (Rev 7:1-8).
The second group of people are the unbelievers who will bear the mark of the beast, his number which is 666 (Rev 13:16-18). The unbelieving will follow the Antichrist to war against the Christ “and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined” (Dan 9:26). At the end of the seven-year period, the Antichrist and his armies shall array themselves to fight against the Christ. Christ will come down with His saints to fight a war that would end all wars, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. … And the beast [Antichrist] was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Rev 19:15, 20).
Two periods, two princes, two peoples. Are you on the right side, the winning side? Make sure you are on the side of Christ! Make peace with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be delivered from the coming wrath and judgement of God.
