Count the Days
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License and Registration
License and Registration
This is me. My Driver’s License. Anyone spot any problems?
Picture. Address. Weight.
Expired license. There is a time limit… at which point the cops will pretend they don’t know who I am.
The airlines won’t let me board. In fact, I’m in the last month, I’m already there.
There is a deadline looming… and whether or not I have my ID up to date is about to become a big deal.
Fortunately, in this case it’s pretty easy to do the math. I have just over two weeks to get this sorted out… though I may already be past the point where they can get it out to me in my hand in time.
There is another deadline looming. The Apocalypse and the Tribulation, the end of days, the end of time.
Now, I don’t think that is happening tomorrow… but it sure could happen soon. So it’s good to know what we can know and make sure that we are ready.
And God gave Daniel some inside info.
Daniel - the Final Vision
Daniel - the Final Vision
“Seventy 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, and 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 sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
And after the sixty-two 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.”
Seventy weeks? Seventy Sevens, more literally.
Maybe this is leading up to the first coming of Jesus, and the beginning SUPER fits. In fact, it is pretty close.
This first “seven” of sevens, 49 years, would be around the right timeframe from the the command to Nehemiah to rebuild the temple and the successful completion.
What’s more, the next sixty-two sevens, if they are years, that is 434 years.
It’s very close to the revelation of Jesus, the Messiah, anointed at his baptism, declared and celebrated in the triumphal entry as the Messiah, the Son of Man… and then but off.
It’s hard to make the math quite perfectly fit though, it seems about 20 years off. Some folks have done some creative calendar math to make it work but…
There’s a bigger question on the final week. Because (verse 27) he makes a strong covenant (Jesus presumably)… which fits with many coming to faith, and there’s the abomination of desolation, and the the “decreed end.”
That sounds like end of the world stuff… but that didn’t happen seven years from Jesus crucifixion.
Some have proposed a “gap” theory, that there is a 2000+ year gap between the first 69 weeks and the 70th, God was focused on the Israelite people, for around 2000 years, then the Gentiles, and then back to restore and save Israel in the final seven years and then… game over.
But scholars have worked over these numbers over and over with a goal. Understanding… and maybe predicting the end.
On to Daniel 12.
The end of the same dream he had in the third year of Cyrus. After verse 11 reads like the history of life and times of Antiochus…
The near fulfillment of this prophecy of anti-Christ… but a shadow of the one to come. In Daniel 12 it becomes clearer that there is an end fulfillment.
This part gets a bit weird. A message to the folks in the midst of this tribulation.
Daniel asks the glowing guy (Gabriel):
Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream.
And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?”
And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished.
This phrase gets used a bunch in revelation. A time, times, and half a time. “Time” was used with Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2 to mean a year. So… maybe 3.5 years? That’s kind of how John uses it. And then the end.
What’s more:
I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?”
He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.
Almost, don’t worry about it, this part is for those people in the final days.
Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.
And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.
Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days.
1,290 days is like 13 days past 3.5 years. So maybe a more precise number than before… or a call to really press through.
Then 1335 days, now we added another 45 days. Like the BEST blessing is even just a little bit past. And folks speculate, maybe that’s the inaugural day of Jesus 1000 year kingdom, and it takes him a bit to get the government set up??? I don’t know.
But I don’t think these numbers are for us… they are for those in those days.
If I ever enter those last days, and I get through 1,290 days… man I am going to be SO pumped for those final 45 days. The hardest part is over… here comes glory. Because the beginning of chapter 12 is the BEST part of all of it.
This is the part that speaks to Daniel, that speaks to you and me. This is PURE gospel - good news.
The Good News
The Good News
You and I are not in the final days. Not in those last 3.5 days. Is there persecution against either Christians or Jews “not since ever Israel was a nation?”
Nope!
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
Revelation captures this as a war in the heavens, Michael vs. the great Dragon.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
Clearest indication in the whole OT of bodily and eternal resurrection from the dead. What the Pharisees and Sadducees argued about? This was the best proof text. There are other supporting ones.
This was always God’s plan, more fully revealed through Jesus and his apostles… but always the plan from day 1.
But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
Because who’s going to most need this information? People in the midst of it all.
But he says this to Daniel at the very end, the last words of the book of Daniel:
But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”
Name in the Book
Name in the Book
Daniel is given this assurance: he has his allotted place. I’m going to assume, in the tone, that it’s the “good place.” Ie: Daniel’s name is in the Book of Life.
This metaphor comes from the “Book of Citizens.” If you’re name is on the “membership rolls” of the city than you get all the privileges of a member. If not, you don’t.
Daniel’s in his 80’s, and in a period of history not famous for long life spans. He’s likely very interested, and rightly so, in where he’s at. He’s about to “go to sleep.” This is his last vision.
Is he headed to “awake to everlasting life” or to “shame and everlasting contempt?”
The Ancient of Days is on the throne.
Jesus wins.
You win too.
Is your name in the Book? How do you know?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Or, as Jesus told his disciples:
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Earthly power? Temporary.
Spiritual or even magical power? Temporary.
The most important thing: is your name written in the Book of Life? Does Jesus know your name?