1/01/06 - “The Longest Time Prophecy in the Bible – Part 4” 1L-FM
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Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today’s subject – “The Longest Time Prophecy in the Bible – Part 4”

Before we begin today’s program, shall we reverently seek God’s presence. Heavenly Father we ask for divine guidance as we open the word and continue to study the longest time prophecy in the Bible.  In Jesus name Amen.
I continue to keep my pledge to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are going against God’s Will.

Today, we're continuing to study the longest time prophecy in the Bible.  Last week we studied the first part of the 2300 year prophecy, the 70 weeks or 490 years applied to the Jews. We will continue now where we left off.
(Jeremiah18:7-11)     
“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
	And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
	Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; 
	Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”
So when God speaks good to a nation and gives them a promise, and they turn from God, is God obliged to keep His promise to them?  No, and that includes His chosen people. 
God's promises to Israel were conditional from the very beginning. For centuries, over and over again, they would sin and backslide and God would take them back again. There seemed to be no end to God's patience. They fell into idolatry. They fell into sin, and they broke their end of the covenant. That's why, at this point in history, their enemies have overtaken them. That's why Israel was in captivity to the Babylonian nation, because God is pretty upset with them at this point. 
God gives Israel a final ultimatum. What God is saying in this prophecy to Daniel is, "Listen, Daniel, I love my chosen people.  We have made a covenant together, but they're not sticking with it. So I'm going to give a final probationary period of time, of 70 weeks, or 490 years, to the Jewish nation and to the city of Jerusalem. 
	God is giving Israel a certain amount of symbolic time to represent a certain amount of literal time. The Jewish nation would have 490 years of opportunity or probation, a period of grace, to make things right with God, and finally accept their true Messiah.
Here we have 70 weeks cut off of the 2300 days.  Let's do a little arithmetic.  If we have 70 weeks, there are 7 days in a week, and you multiply it and it ends up equaling 490 days in 70 weeks.  
	So the angel is simply saying, "There are 490 days out of the 2300 days that we're going to deal with first."  We apply that well known principle of a day representing a year in Bible prophecy, (Ezek.4:6, Num.14:34) which results in us understanding the prophecy to be for 490 years.  
If we can find when this starts, we'll know when the probationary time for the Jewish people ran out. There must be an event or something that takes place to let us know when to start this prophecy, and that event is mentioned in the next verse. 
Daniel 9:25, "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build (what city?) Jerusalem... ."
Now here is our beginning event.  When the commandment goes forth to restore and build the city of Jerusalem, that's when all this is going to begin. When did that commandment go forth to restore and rebuild the city of Jerusalem?  To get the Bible answer, keep your finger here, but turn back a few books to the book of Ezra. 
	Ezra 6:14 "And the elders of the Jews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia." 
 	Here we have the prophecy about rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.  But it says there are three kings that gave decrees.  There was first of all Cyrus who gave the decree in 537 B.C.  Next was Darius in 520 B.C.  Then there's Artaxerxes in 457 B.C.  The first two decrees that were given by Cyrus and Darius resulted only in the reconstruction of the Temple, which was completed in 516/515 B.C. (Ezra 6:15-18).  The city was not rebuilt, therefore they don't meet the requirements of the prophecy. 
	In the third choice, found in Ezra 7, the command was completed in Artaxerxes. When Artaxerxes comes on the scene, he favors God's chosen people, the Jewish nation, and he gives the major decree, in which Ezra was given permission to reconstruct the city.  Artaxerxes command is the one Ezra concentrates on.  It was the most complete command because it was the one that allowed them to be established again as an independent nation. Much of the next chapter is dealing with this command.  
	Ezra 7:13  "I make a (what?) decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee." 
 He let everybody go that wanted to go back to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.  He gave a decree to Ezra the priest, reestablishing the governmental autonomy of Judah.  They began to rebuild the city, which took years.  
	It is clear in the Bible that the decree of Artaxerxes is the one that restored and rebuilt Jerusalem.  And you say, "When did it happen?"  
	Ezra 7:7 tells us this decree was issued "in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes," or 457 B.C.  According to all historical data, whether it be calendars, cuneiform tablets, records of the eclipses, etc., that decree went in 457 B.C. It's one of the most archeologically proven dates we have.   
	According to history, this decree went forth in the fall of 457 B.C. to restore and build Jerusalem.  
Now let's go back to Daniel, and with this knowledge, really get into the heart of this exciting prophecy.   Daniel 9:24
	The 2300 day/year prophecy is the longest stretching prophecy in the Bible.  But then part of that would be cut off and measured from the larger time period. Both these prophecies start together at the same time.  
	We start at our beginning date, 457 BC.  In Bible prophecy, one prophetic day equals a literal year.  Seventy prophetic weeks = 490 literal years. That part, which is cut off from the 2300 years is the 70-week prophecy or 490 years.  
If we begin in the autumn of 457 and count 490 years we come to the autumn of 34 A.D. when something happened that changed the course of history.  The 490 years of probationary time for the Jewish people came to an end. Christ's followers had remained in Jerusalem and preached to the Jews. The church was totally Jewish.  
But in 34 A.D. something happened that changed the emphasis of the gospel from going to the Jews. Let's read the story and see how this prophecy was perfectly fulfilled. Turning to Acts 7, we see this fulfilled, word for word, in Bible prophecy. 
Jesus had left the earth three and a half years prior to this.  And He told His disciples, "I want you disciples to preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Show them Bible prophecy.  Show them that I was truly the Messiah."  And the disciples pled with the Jewish people, especially the leadership of the day. But those leaders continued to harden their hearts and they continued to resist the Holy Spirit. Stephen was boldly preaching a sermon, and the Bible says they were convicted in the heart, but they got angry and bitter with Stephen and the Bible says they gnashed their teeth.
  They decided, "We're going to kill this guy.  We don't want to hear any more about Jesus Christ the Messiah."  Acts 7:59, "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
	The Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme council, passed a decree rejecting Christianity.  The signal event of this was the stoning of Stephen, a devoted follower of Christ.  And at that point they not only had killed Jesus, but began to kill His followers.  
	In 34 A.D. Stephen was the first Christian martyr and he died in the streets of Jerusalem, the rejection of the gospel by the Jewish leaders, ended their probation. And who was a main culprit behind that? Saul of Tarsus. 
  	Acts 8:1, "And Saul was consenting unto his death.  And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at (what city? The city of) Jerusalem."
	and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. 
	And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.  	
	Notice what happens in verse 3, "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
  	Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. 
	Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them."
That was the Samaritans.  The Jews hated the Samaritans—they wouldn't even talk to them. In fact, in the Bible they called them dogs.  But what happened here was Israel had used up their probationary time. God had been long suffering toward them. God
didn’t want to cut them off—through disobedience they cut themselves off. It was then time for the gospel to go to the world, and not just the Jewish people. 
The disciples had to leave God's former chosen people, and go out to the whole gentile world and spread the gospel to those that would accept it. Saul of Tarsus was converted and became Paul. His mission was to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.
  	
Time is up for this week, so be tuned in next week as we present “The Longest Time Prophecy in the Bible – Part 5”

Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.