parashah toledoth (generations), genesis 2:4-3:21

We study the Torah according to the triennial cycle every Sabbath. (Why?)

We must understand the paragraph divisions in Torah, which are inspired by the Spirit and preserved by Moses and the Jewish scribes (but discarded by the English translators), are key to help us understand what God is trying to tell us. He wants to be understood, and has provided these helps to aid us! We must also understand how the Spirit teaches through Torah by common theme.

Today is the 2nd Sabbath of the triennial cycle: parashah (Torah portion) Toledoth / Generations, Gen 2:4-3:21. (Read at Bible Gateway or the Hebrew Bible in English.)

Additional readings for this week:
Prophet: Eze 28 / Psalm: Ps 2 / History: Job 3-4 / Gospel: Mat 4:1-11 / Apostolic: Rom 5

The first teaching device which the Holy Spirit placed in Torah are His paragraph divisions! In Torah scrolls, copied without change from the original which Moses wrote on Sinai, there are two different types of paragraph divisions - a strong division and a weak division. Last week we learned about the first paragraph division, the strong paragraph division. This week we will learn about the second paragraph division, the weak paragraph division, marked by the Hebrew character stumah. (I mark the ends of these paragraphs in my English Bible with a penciled- in “s”.)

Gen 2:4-3:15 ends with a parsha (paragraph) stumah, a weak paragraph division.

Every portion of Scripture that ends in a stumah division indicates a continuation of a theme or topic.

That such a long passage ends with a stumah, means that God considers the entire passage from Gen 2:4-3:15 a single paragraph with its own main idea - and that the paragraph is a sub theme of a greater topic.

Gen 3:16 ends with a stumah.
This means God considers this single sentence its own paragraph, teaching its own sub theme of a greater topic.

Gen 3:17-21 ends with a parsha p'tuchah, a strong paragraph division.
This means that God considers this section to be its own paragraph with its own sub theme; furthermore, that the entire passage from Gen 2:4-3:21 is teaching an overarching theme, with three sub themes (as the end of Gen 2:3 was where the last p'tuchah was found).

Right away in the beginning of this Torah portion, there is the establishing of a new pattern, which is different from the pattern established in the previous section. In last week's Torah portion, every time God is mentioned, the Hebrew word used is Elohiym, a masculine plural noun meaning Supreme Being; i.e., He who created the heavens and the earth. This name reveals Elohiym’s plurality of being, His might and creative power, and His character of righteousness, justice, and sovereignty.

But in this week's Torah portion, in almost every place that God is mentioned, it is translated as LORD God. The Hebrew for this is YHVH Elohiym. We are introduced to the four letters, the tetragrammaton, the personal name of Elohiym, meaning “I AM,” the self- existent One; also He was, He is, and He will be, or the eternal One. The personal name of Elohiym is pronounced Yehovah or Yahweh.

So why the change? Last week we saw that the second teaching tool God uses in order to instruct us is to establish a pattern in His Word (the first tool is the paragraph divisions of p'tuchah and stumah). This week we see a third teaching tool God uses in His Word - breaking a pattern previously established. Whenever we see a break in a pattern, we should ask ourselves, “Why the change?” Because the change is there deliberately; God is trying to tell us something!

My theory is that there has been a change of author. In Gen 2:4, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth,” the word “account” is the Hebrew toledoth, meaning generations, or history, or even, book. That this section of Genesis is a very ancient written record, and not an oral record until the time of Moses, has been proven by clues embedded in the Torah scroll. Who was the one who wrote it down? Well, the only man alive to witness the events recorded in this section was Adam. He is the author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (thus it still remains the Word of God).

That begs the question, then who wrote last week's Torah portion, from Gen 1:1-2:3? The answer must be, logically, the only one alive to witness the events recorded therein - God. He gave the history from Gen 1:1-2:3 to Adam, and Adam, beginning in 2:4, added his own eyewitness account, or toledoth. This is why the creation account in Gen 2 seems to differ from the creation account in Gen 1. They are not contradictory, but just the same events witnessed from two different perspectives. God relayed His account chronologically; however, Adam relayed his account according to a different criteria - thematically. We get in trouble when we expect every narrative in Scripture to be chronological. Understanding this eliminates half the charges of contradictions in the Bible out there. :)

Back to the paragraph stumah from Gen 2:4-3:15. What is the point of this paragraph, the main idea? Whenever we are faced with a section of Scripture bounded by the Lord's paragraph markers, we should ask ourselves, “Why is this section a single paragraph?” What is the point God is trying to get across, by including all these verses (or limiting to these verses) in this paragraph? There is no right or wrong answer. The Holy Spirit will reveal things to us as we seek Him and ask (Joh 16:13).

The topic that I came up with, is that Disobedience to YHVH's Command is the definition of Sin. For it is this incident, the Fall of Man, by which Sin is introduced into God's perfect Creation (as we can see by reading the Apostolic portion of Scripture that accompanies this Torah portion). Notice that God does not end the paragraph, however, until He has given the promise of the Seed of the Woman, who will crush the head of the serpent! Even now, at man's worst moment, God is extending grace and hope to him!

The theme of the paragraph stumah from Gen 3:16 is the curse on the woman. The theme of the paragraph from Gen 3:17-21 is the curse on the man. The word translated “pain” for the woman in verse 16 and the word translated “toil” for the man in verse 17 is the same word in Hebrew: itstsabon. They received the same curse as a result of their sin: toil, or work. The woman's work, I believe, is moreover lifelong, just as the man's is. Her work is in not only bearing children, but rearing them, in making the home for her and her husband and her children to dwell in. His work is in provision - he goes out from the home, and procures by toiling the food (or material things) necessary to sustain himself and his family.

Notice that in the woman's curse, she is also placed in submission to her husband. In Torah portion Bereisheet, both the man and the woman were given equal dominion over the creation. Neither of them were subservient to the other. Now God creates a hierarchy: man, then woman, then creation. Creation is still subject to the man and the woman, but woman is now subject to her husband (not just any man). Who is the man subject to? YHVH, and all mankind and creation is also subject to YHVH through the man's dominion. He exercises dominion in order to bring his wife, his children, and the creation into obedience to YHVH.

The men and women (and children) who understand God's authority, order, and plan, and who order their lives in cooperation with Him and not in opposition to Him, will bring blessings upon themselves (see Psalm 1 from last week)!

So now that we have main ideas for the weak paragraphs, let's see what the main idea is for the strong paragraph, from Gen 2:4-3:21.

Gen 2:4-3:21 ends in a p'tuchah.
a. Gen 2:4-3:15 (stumah) Sin is disobedience to God's command.
b. Gen 3:16 (stumah) The curse on the woman - work (painful toil).
c. Gen 3:17-21 The curse on the man - work (painful toil).

What comes to my mind for the main idea of the entire section is that Sin Brings the Curse of Work. Can it be that sin brings the curse of works on mankind as well - working in order to earn righteousness before God? And here is another instance of the Lord's grace: He established the seventh day as a day of rest, holy to YHVH, before sin, the curse, or work ever entered God's perfect world. Yes, we have been cursed with work as a result of our disobedience. But every seventh day, God lifts the curse of work on our lives, and allows us to rest from our painful toil, as we remember that YHVH is our gracious and loving Creator, to whom we owe worship; to whom we bow the knee!

Finding Messiah in Torah

This week Messiah leaps off the page. He is the Seed of the Woman promised in Gen 3:15, who crushes Satan's head and restores mankind to the perfection, communion with God, and rest we experienced in the Garden before the Fall of Man. He erases the effect of sin on His perfect Creation! There is an entire book in the fact that God chose to represent Messiah as the seed. In fact, my Hebrew teacher, Brad Scott, did write a book about it: The Principle of the Seed. It is fascinating and life- changing and I recommend it!

how we celebrate passover

Even though we have celebrated Passover for ten years now, we are still very much learning how to celebrate the Passover. We do not celebrate it exactly as the Jews do; we try to excise the traditions of men and include the fulfillment of Jesus (Yeshua). So we are developing our own way of celebrating the feast to fulfill its purpose of a memorial for ourselves, and to teach the children. It is subject to change as the Lord continues to teach us. But the following is what we have done so far. This is our understanding to date, subject to change as God reveals more from His Word to us. I encourage everyone to search out the Scriptures for themselves do as the Word reveals!

This feast is the only one where part of the menu is commanded: roast lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread (Exo 12:8-9). Before the Feast of Firstfruits, we do not eat fresh produce, but stored (Lev 23:14). Therefore our appetizers, sides and desserts for Passover are made with root vegetables, frozen or canned vegetables from the previous harvest, and dried or stored fruits (such as apples).

Now the 15th day is a High Holy Sabbath – the 1st day of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6-7). It can fall on any day of the week, not necessarily a Saturday. It is always a day of rest. The 14th day is the Day of Preparation, to get ready for the rest on the High Holy Sabbath. I do my deep cleaning beginning with the sighting of the new moon (so that I can remove the crumbs thus swept up on the 15th day, which is the 1st day of Unleavened Bread; Exo 12:15); I spend the 14th day cooking the Passover meal that night, and prep work for the next day, the 1st day of Unleavened Bread.

We have our Passover meal of roast lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread at sundown or in the evening of the 14th day, the Day of Preparation.

Passover is about our deliverance and redemption out of one kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, which is the spiritual Egypt (Rev 11:8), of slavery to sin (Col 1:13-14, Rom 6:14), so that we can be brought in to another kingdom, the kingdom of heaven (Mat 4:17), where we live in freedom (Gal 5:1 - not freedom from righteousness, which the Law defines, but freedom from sin, Rom 6:18-19). It is about changing citizenship (Phi 3:20-21, Heb 11:13-16, 12:28)! The history telling and Scripture reading which follows is designed to remind us of this.

Begin while the food finishes cooking. Mom lights the seven candles, and Dad pours the wine, blessing it, and breaks the unleavened bread, blessing it. As we begin our meal with wine, bread and appetizers, Dad reminds us that the Last Supper which instituted Communion was a Passover supper, and that when we eat the bread and drink the wine tonight, we will be partaking in the body and blood of our Lord. Dad notes to everyone that the bread is striped and pierced, just as Jesus was for us (Isa 53:5, Psa 22:16) - He is the true Bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (Joh 6:32-35)! – and that the wine is the cup of the New Covenant in His blood (Luk 22:15-20). Dad warns us (1 Cor 11:23-29) not to eat or drink without examining ourselves. The two weeks we just spent examining the house and cleaning every scrap of leaven out of it (Exo 12:15) is an object lesson from God for us, His children, that we are likewise not to let the leaven of sin find a foothold or a home in us, but to diligently sweep it all away.

Mom brings the food to the table. Dad blesses the food; and everyone eats.

During the meal, Dad reads (or tells, or has the family take turns reading) the Exodus story from Exo chapter 12, then the story of Jesus’ crucifixion from Joh chapters 18 and 19. He reminds us that Jesus is our Passover Lamb (Joh 1:29, 1 Cor 5:7), who has delivered us from the angel of death (Joh 11:25-26) and has set us free from slavery to sin (Rom 6:14).

Mom gets the dessert ready to serve. Dad explains that by the blood of Jesus, we have been adopted as sons into God’s family (Gal 4:4-5); we have changed our citizenship from the world to the kingdom of heaven (Phi 3:20-21, Col 1:13-14), where Jesus is not only Savior, but also King (Rev 17:14). Now that God has redeemed us, or bought us back, we are no longer our own, since we have been bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20). God is at work in us every day, through His great love and grace, to accomplish our sanctification (Phi 1:6, 2 The 2:13), or set-apartness from the world and all its ways.

Can we just stop at this moment and break down into tears of joy for all that God has done for us? And then we eat dessert!

We conclude our meal looking forward to the coming kingdom of Yeshua when He will eat and drink the Passover with us (Luk 22:15-16).

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Then following supper, it is my dream that we can leave our timidity behind and spend the evening praising and worshiping the Lord together for the great deliverance He has wrought for us, in song and dance, just as Israel did when God delivered them through the Red Sea (Exo 15:1-20). Let the joy of our salvation break forth, and overflow! Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so (Psa 107:2)! And not just in a church service!

Passover menu recipe index

when we celebrate passover

“On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.” Lev 23:5

It seems fairly straightforward, but there are as many as twelve different calendars in use among the Jews and Messianic believers in Yeshua to complicate things! We do not have to worry about calendars; all we have to do is find out from Scripture when the first month is; and then when the first day of the month is; and by counting, we can always know with certainty when the fourteenth day of the first month is!

“Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”” Exo 12:1-2

What month is “this month”? The month that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, as can be clearly seen by reading all of Exodus chapter 12. This is the same month in which God was pouring plagues out on Egypt, culminating with the Passover, the 10th plague, in which all the firstborn of Egypt died on that night. The 10th plague, we know, took place on the 14th day of the first month, at about midnight. It just so happens that God built in an unalterable time clock into the narrative, so that no matter who tries to change the calendar, God's people would always know when the first month arrived.

Two weeks before the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn, the 7th plague was being poured out on Egypt, which was the plague of hail. The entire story of the plague is told in Exo 9:13-35. What is interesting, though, is this detail which Scripture records:

“Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head, and the flax was in bud.” Exo 9:31

When the plague of hail was poured out, the barley was in its head. The Hebrew word for this is aviv (or abib in some translations) - which just means, “ripening.” It wasn't in bud, nor was it fully ripe and ready for harvest - it was in the head, or ripening. That the month of ripening barley is the first month of the year for the Israelites, is confirmed over and over again in Scripture:

“On this day you are going out, in the month Abib.” Exo 13:4

“The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.” Exo 34:18

“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.” Deu 16:1

So, when the first day of the month occurs, in which the barley is ripening, or aviv, that month is declared to be the month of Aviv, and the Passover is kept 14 days later, at twilight. This means that no one knows for sure when the first month is going to be. It will be in the spring, all right - but you cannot print a calendar for 10 years from now and know whether that month will begin in March, or April - you have to be watching and paying attention. And the theme of watching for the (feast) day(s) of the Lord - His appointed time - appears all throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation.

Now when is the first day of the month? From ancient days and throughout Scripture, the first day of the month was reckoned from the sighting of the new moon. The Jews themselves declare this to be the case, and the way they have always determined when the biblical months begin. The day following the sighting of the new moon was always celebrated as a feast day in ancient Israel (Num 29:9; 1 Sam 20:5; 2 Kin 4:23; Isa 66:23).

Furthermore, David shows us that the three set feast days fall at the full moon, which occurs 14 to 15 days following the sighting of the new moon:

“Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day.” Ps 81:3

It just so happens that the feast days of Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles (the three feast days in which the men were commanded to appear at Jerusalem) all fall on the 14th or 15th day of the month, at the full moon - which shows that the first day of the month was reckoned by the sighting of the new moon.

If you have ever watched the moon in its waxing and waning through the night sky, you know that the first sliver of the new moon appears on the western horizon after the sun sets, but then it sets too, anywhere from an hour to a few hours afterwards. The next night it rises 45 minutes to an hour later so that it sets an hour later - and 14 to 15 days later, when it is full, it rises in the east just when it is dark, so that for a few nights every month, the moon illuminates the night as the sun illuminates the day. But then it rises 45 minutes to an hour later every night, so that when it is waning, there comes a time when the moon is not seen in the night sky at all. It is mirroring the rising and setting of the sun, which means the brightness of the sun completely blocks out any chance of seeing the moon during the day. The next time the moon is seen after its waning - it is a sliver again, a "new moon" - really the old moon appearing to be "renewed," which is its meaning in Hebrew.

This is why I have the moon calendar on the sidebar of this site - so everyone can determine what month it is, according to God's timetable.

why we celebrate passover

Passover is coming up next week on Wednesday March 31.

We celebrate all of the Lord's seven annual feast days because by doing so, we bear witness of Jesus our Messiah until He comes!

Passover is the first annual feast day of the seven. We celebrate the Passover because it is an eternal commandment to do so (Exo 12:17-18) for all the generations who join themselves to the God of Israel (Lev 24:22, Eph 2:11-13) through Israel’s renewed covenant (Jer 31:31-34, 1 Cor 11:25). Israel's covenant has been extended to all Gentiles through the shed blood of Jesus! The opening of the covenant from just one nation, Israel, to every nation, does not then negate that covenant (Gal 3:15-18)! God's Word is eternal, even the Word He spoke in Exodus (Isa 40:8). (If God spoke this, then what is true of God's Word is true of Exodus and the other books of Torah as well!) Even Jesus said not one jot or tittle of God's Word would pass away, even of Torah (Mat 5:17-19)!

On top of that, it is prophesied in Scripture that in the kingdom of Messiah all nations would celebrate the Lord's feast days (if the vision Ezekiel sees in chapters 40-48 - especially see Eze 45:21 -is of the millennial kingdom, and since some of its description is repeated in Revelation, many think it is). And, at the Last Supper (a Passover supper), Jesus told His disciples He would eat the feast with them when He comes in His kingdom (Luk 22:15-16)! God has not developed an objection to His holy days.

Because of this, Paul exhorted the Gentile believers in Jesus to celebrate the feast (1 Cor 5:8)! The Corinthians were Greeks, not Jews.

Since Jesus was crucified on the day of Passover - He is our Passover Lamb (Joh 1:29, 1 Cor 5:7) - celebrating this feast is a significant way, for us, that we can commemorate this most important day every year. Not only that, but it is an object lesson, a visual aid God commanded fathers to employ to teach their children about God's deliverance and redemption (Exo 12:24-27). It is a God- ordained way to pass the faith, so to speak, from the generation of the parents to the generation of the children.

And that, dear family and friends, is why we celebrate the Passover every year (it is not to obtain salvation by works of the Law, just to put your mind at ease). We are grateful to our Redeemer and Deliverer!

parashah bereisheet (in the beginning), genesis 1:1-2:3

We study the Torah according to the triennial cycle every Sabbath. (Why?)

We must understand the paragraph divisions in Torah, which are inspired by the Spirit and preserved by Moses and the Jewish scribes (but discarded by the English translators), are key to help us understand what God is trying to tell us. He wants to be understood, and has provided these helps to aid us! We must also understand how the Spirit teaches through Torah by common theme.

Today is the 1st Sabbath of the triennial cycle: parashah (Torah portion) Bereisheet / In the beginning, Gen 1:1-2:3. (Read at Bible Gateway or the Hebrew Bible in English.)

Additional readings for this week:
Prophet: Isa 40 / Psalm: 1 / History: Job 1-2 / Gospel: Joh 1:1-28 / Apostolic: Col 1

The first teaching device which the Holy Spirit placed in Torah are His paragraph divisions! In Torah scrolls, copied without change from the original which Moses wrote on Sinai, there are two different types of paragraph divisions - a strong division and a weak division. This week we will learn about the first paragraph division, the strong paragraph division, marked by the Hebrew character p'tuchah. (I mark the ends of these paragraphs in my English Bible with a penciled- in “p”.)

Gen 1:1-5 ends in a parsha (paragraph) p'tuchah, a strong paragraph division.
Every portion of Scripture that ends in a p'tuchah division completes teaching an overarching theme.

Gen 1:6-8 ends in a parsha p'tuchah.
Gen 1:9-13 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 1:14-19 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 1:20-23 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 1:24-31 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 2:1-3 ends in a p'tuchah.

Notice that in today's reading, each p'tuchah, each strong paragraph division, occurs at the end of each day of creation.

The chapter divisions and verse divisions in our English Bibles were added many thousands of years after the Holy Spirit set His paragraph divisions into the text. The chapter and verse divisions were added by medieval Catholics with an anti- Torah bias. Here we see the bias in play as the seventh day, the Sabbath, is cut by the chapter division from the first chapter outlining creation week, where it belongs. It was added to the second chapter of Genesis, which was held to be allegorical in the Middle Ages. This allowed the Church to ignore the command to celebrate the Sabbath without feeling guilty about it. The Protestant church inherited its anti- Torah bias from the Catholic church!

The paragraph divisions which the Holy Spirit has set into the text are the first device God uses to teach His Word to His people. Since each day is set into its own strong paragraph, we understand that God is teaching us that each day of creation is significant. Each day has its own work, its own purpose, and its own completion. He is the doer of the action of creating, in each day. All the paragraphs taken together reinforce that YHVH is God, the Almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth. And since He is our own Creator, He is our own God, and no other. This is the historical understanding that we humans need in order to bow our knee to Him in submission to the 1st Commandment.

Something else that becomes apparent as we look at each section divided into its paragraphs: the days of creation are significant. There are Hebrew words for other lengths of time, such as years or eons, if those units of time were meant. But God chose the Hebrew yom - “day” - the regular 24 hour day. It sometimes comes as a shock to people that a day as a unit of time, is one of the few that do not depend on the sun or moon for marking it. Anyone can look up in any second- grade science textbook and see that a 24- hour day is the time it takes for the earth to revolve on its axis one revolution. No sun or moon is needed, even a light source is not needed - although God provided one (we are not told what it is; perhaps it was Himself and His Word? Psa 119:105). He created light (energy) on the first day. He also created the earth (matter), the day (time), and the heavens (space) on the first day - the building blocks of our physical universe.

Another thing which becomes apparent as we look at each section divided into its paragraphs: each day begins with the same phrase, “Then God said,” day after day, exactly the same. (This illustrates the second device the Lord uses to teach us His Word - patterns and repetition, to draw our attention to the pattern!) So we see that God brought into being, that which did not exist, by His Word.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,” 1 Cor 1:27-28

How does God bring a thing which is not, into being, so that He might bring to nothing that which is? He speaks His Word, and it happens. What was in Gen 1:2, when God began, was formlessness, nothingness, darkness, even vanity - one translation of the word “void.” He brought those things to nothing, by bringing into existence the things which were not: form, light, matter, energy, time, space, and life. He did this by speaking His Word.

What “is not” in our lives? Is there a reality that we wish was brought to nothing? We must speak God's Word to it. When God was faced with darkness, He said, “Light.” When He was faced with formlessness, He said, “Form.” When He was faced with emptiness, He said, “Life.” If we are faced with unbelief, we must speak the Word of God of faith to it. If we are faced with fear, we must speak the Word of God of love and peace. If we are faced with lack, we must speak the Word of God of provision. We must not let that which counters God's Word cross our lips! And the things which are not will bring to nothing the things that are.

Finding the Messiah in Torah

When we read the Gospel reading for this Torah portion in Joh 1:1-28, we discover that the Word that God spoke to create light and every other thing, is Messiah. It is through Messiah Yeshua that God the Father made every thing that has been made (Col 1:15-17) and He continues to uphold the universe by the Word of His Power, Messiah Yeshua (Heb 1:3)!

Admittedly, some of these things are mysteries. How can a person be a word and a person at the same time? But God is showing us, that He is what comes out of His mouth; that what He speaks is what He is and who He is. Words cannot be divorced from persona or character, because “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” (Luk 6:45). So when someone tells a lie, or speaks a curse, or mocks or ridicules, they are really shedding some light on the condition of their heart - which would be at best mixed with dross, unrepented sin, or impurities, and at worst completely unregenerate!

daniel 12, the abomination of desolation, part six

Previously: definition of abomination of desolation

Read Daniel chapter 12 at Bible Gateway.

Daniel's final reference to the abomination of desolation is in Dan chapter 12:

“At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever. 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.” Dan 12:1-4

“At that time, Michael shall stand up.” At what time? At the time when the king of the north comes to his end, Dan 11:45. The angel is still on the same topic. There has not been a break in it just because we have had a chapter division. So “At that time” links this passage with the passage in Dan 11 about the king of the north, who, we saw, was fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes in every particular.

But this passage also makes it clear that the events being discussed take place at the time of the end. So what is going on? Antiochus Epiphanes lived over 2000 years ago.

One possibility comes from a principle well established in Scripture, that the history of the patriarchs and Israel is history, but also prophecy. In Gen 22, God called Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Whoa, Isaac was not Abraham's only son! But the history prophesies of the Father sacrificing His only Son, the Promised Seed, the Seed of the woman (Gen 3:15). How about the history of Pharaoh taking Abraham's wife, resulting in plagues on Pharaoh's house, so that his wife is restored to him and he is sent out of Egypt laden with the riches of Egypt (Gen 12:10-20)? This history prophesies of Pharaoh enslaving Israel, the wife of YHVH the Father (Jer 31:32); which resulted in plagues on Egypt, so that Israel was restored to YHVH and sent of out Egypt laden with riches (Exo 1-12). And this history continues to prophesy, when we realize that Egypt is a type of the kingdom of darkness from which YHVH is delivering the Bride of Messiah! And there are so many examples of this recurring cycle of history as prophecy through the Old Testament.

So this means that Antiochus is a type, and that this history of Israel prophesies of another like him, and the history of the king of the north will repeat. And at that time, Michael will stand up, and the events of this chapter will be fulfilled.

The angel goes to explain that at that time, there shall be a time of trouble for the people of Israel, greater than any time of trouble before it, but that Israel will be delivered from it. Not all Israel will be delivered, though - only those whose names are found written in the Book. And then, those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, to either everlasting life or everlasting death.

The angel is still giving Daniel event markers. The time of trouble, the great deliverance, but only of those whose names are written in the Book of Life, and the resurrection - these are the event markers. So we can speculate all day long, but the truth is, we won't know for sure what these event markers are until they come to pass. Prophecy is not so much a crystal ball into the future, as a verifier that God's Word is true, in which He spoke the end from the beginning. But these visions are sealed until the time of the end - that is, they won't be understood. But at the time of the end, they will be - by those who are wise and who understand - because they have to do with the time of the end.

Now I do have a theory. And that is, that Hitler also fulfills some of these prophecies concerning the king of the north. Did he set up an abomination of desolation? YES - he sacrificed the Jews as an olah, a whole burnt offering, in the ovens of the concentration camps. The definition of olah, remember, is a holocaust - the ascending up of the smoke. I myself keep in the back of my mind the possibility that the Holocaust was Israel's prophesied time of trouble, which was unequaled by anything in history before it. The Holocaust certainly fits that criteria. And a remnant of Israel was delivered, and he has been returned to his own Land with a great deliverance. But is that THE time of trouble? We will not know for sure until history of this age has finished.

“Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?” And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.” Dan 12:8-12

This is the final reference to the abomination of desolation in Daniel. If, as we saw in Daniel chapter 11, it was Antiochus Epiphanes who took away the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination in the Temple (and he did do that), then from that date to another significant date, there will be 1290 days. So I did some math. Guess how many days are in 3-1/2 years, more or less? 1290.

There is one school of interpretation that says that every reference to 3-1/2 which is in prophecy, is referring to the same event in historic time. I don't agree. I think 3-1/2 is a significant number which occurs throughout Scripture (like 7 and 40 do), but nowhere does it say that every reference to it must be to the same event.

Certain spiritual events which take place in historic time seem to occur in the same time frame. It rained for 40 days and nights during Noah's Flood; Jesus fasted and was tempted for 40 days, and Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Just because all of these things were “40,” does not mean they all refer to the same event in historic time. It just means, 40 means something signifiant in the spiritual realm. And likewise I think 3-1/2 means something significant in the spiritual realm, but that does not mean everything 3-1/2 must refer to the same event.

Case in point: we saw in Dan 9 that 3-1/2 years after Messiah was anointed, He was cut off; and then 3-1/2 years after that, He confirmed the covenant with many. This event took place in real historic time. In our passage above, we see that 3-1/2 years after the abomination of desolation, something significant will happen.

Something significant did happen: 3-1/2 years after Antiochus set up the abomination in the Temple, Judas Maccabees and his forces (those who knew their God and who did exploits, Dan 11:32) retook Jerusalem and the Temple, and purified it. Antiochus set up the abomination in 167 BC, and Judas retook Jerusalem and the Temple in 164 BC, toward the end of the year. This is the event that Hanukkah celebrates every year.

So what does the 1335 days refer to? I don't know - we are given no details about it, other than it seems to be a blessed event.

On one level, it appears that the abomination of desolation passages have already been fulfilled, before Jesus was even born. But then, we realize that Jesus referred to the abomination of desolation as a future event in Mark 13. We saw previously, that a second instance of an abomination of desolation occurred, that was future to Jesus' time: when Caligula tried to set up his statue in the Temple in 39 AD, and did set up his statue in synagogues throughout the Empire, which ultimately brought about the desolations perpetrated on the Jews and on Jerusalem in 70 AD and 135 AD.

Bunny trail: 70 AD is 20 x 3-1/2 years from the time that Jesus was born, more or less. And 135 AD is 40 x 3-1/2 years from the time that Jesus was born, more or less. Not sure if that means anything, but what an interesting bit of trivia.

On yet another level, the angel linked the historic events surrounding Antiochus to the time of the end in this chapter. Does that mean that Israel is in for yet another go round? Well, we saw that Israel has already been through the Holocaust. But if that was Israel's time of trouble, Dan 12 makes it clear that the end is the next event on the stage of world history. And so we seem to be entering into it.

The case can be made that the prophecies in Daniel concerning the abomination of desolation have already been fulfilled. And the case can be made that they have been fulfilled, not just once, but several times, and may be fulfilled yet again. Only God is so great, that He can tell what will happen in the future, and from that same passage, we can see it fulfilled in exact detail not only once, but in layers upon layers. Truly He is the great and almighty God and there is none like Him!

definition of abomination of desolation

Previously: Daniel 11, the abomination of desolation, part five

Just what is an abomination of desolation, anyway? We have seen two historic examples, with the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BC, and the Roman emperor Caligula, in 39 AD. In each case, an idol, an object of false worship, was set up or was sought to be set up, in the place where the Lord caused His name to dwell (Deu 12:5, Eze 43:6-7). Of course, one difference between the Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth, and idols, is that the Lord does not dwell in houses made with hands (Act 7:48), for heaven and earth cannot contain Him. But, in the case of the Temple in Jerusalem, He voluntarily caused His name, His presence, His shekinah glory, to rest there.

The second half of the abomination equation, is the sacrifice. In the Temple in Jerusalem, there was an altar which had been built according to the Lord's specifications, dedicated to the Lord, and upon which sacrifices to Him were made. Sacrifices to Him were not just made willy nilly to try to garner His favor. They were offered for a specific purpose: to atone for sin, to express thanksgiving, to reaffirm YHVH as the One deserving of and receiving worship. Sacrifices began with Adam and his family, and from the beginning, there were acceptable sacrifices to a Holy God, and unacceptable sacrifices to a Holy God (Gen 4:3-5). The fact that every pagan religion also made sacrifices on altars to their gods shows that paganism is a twisted copy of the true worship of the One True God which was from the beginning.

Antiochus first built an altar to Zeus on top of the Lord's altar in the Temple in Jerusalem, then sacrificed to Zeus, not to YHVH, a pig on it. The Lord had declared pigs one of a class of unclean animals (Lev 11), and even from the beginning, the difference between clean and unclean animals was known (Gen 7:2). Sacrificing something unclean to YHVH was an abomination. YHVH is holy and separate, set apart. Those things which are His are also holy, separate, and set apart. His holy people are set apart from the other peoples of the earth. His holy day is set apart from the other days of the week. His holy name is exalted higher than any name which is named, in heaven, on earth, or under the earth. His holy Word is set apart from words uttered by men. And on and on. Those things which have to do with Him, are clean, or need to come into a state of cleanness by purification. Their cleanness reflects His holy nature and His sinlessness. Those things which are not clean, cannot be associated with Him, because they do not reflect His holy nature and His sinlessness.

(People can be brought from a state of uncleanness to cleanness through purification. If someone desires to worship YHVH, but hesitates because of their uncleanness, they do not need to despair. The blood of the Spotless Lamb purifies every spot, wrinkle, or any such thing, and brings a person from a state of uncleanness to cleanness.)

Pigs are fundamentally, intrinsically unclean. They cannot be brought into a state of cleanness or acceptability through purification. There is just no way to make a pig a fit animal as either a sacrifice to the Holy God, or to consume as food. Therefore, they are an abomination as a sacrifice and as a foodstuff. If you go through the Torah, God calls a few other things abominations as well. Not everything that is unclean is an abomination. But those things which are an abomination, cannot be made clean by ritual purification. They can only be repented of and turned from altogether.

Only clean or acceptable sacrifices can be offered to the Holy God. The book of Leviticus describes in detail the difference between clean and unclean, set apart and common, and the processes of purification required to bring something from a state of uncleanness to cleanness, and likewise, what can happen to bring something clean into a state of uncleanness. The first sacrifice described in the first chapter, is the olah - the whole burnt offering (Lev 1:3). If you look this word up in a Hebrew dictionary such as Strong's, this is what you will read:

a step or (collectively stairs, as ascending); usually a holocaust (as going up in smoke): - ascent, burnt offering (sacrifice), go up to.

Let's just remember when Strong's was written. It was first published in 1890.

So an abomination of desolation is not only an idol set up in the place where God has caused His name to dwell forever, but also, an abominable sacrifice, burnt whole, whether to the Lord or to another god, is also an abomination of desolation.

To sacrifice a pig on an altar to Zeus, in the one place on the vast earth where YHVH chose to place His name, is an abomination of desolation. It is a deliberate, intentional, malicious slap in the face to Him who created heaven and earth.

Caligula, as well, wanted to set up a statue to a false god - himself - within the Temple, and have sacrifices offered to it. That is an abomination.

Today, a temple to another god stands on the one place on the vast earth where YHVH chose to place His name. That too is an abomination.

Tuck this info in the back of your brain, because we will need to pull it up and look at it again when we examine the next and last place in Daniel where he speaks of the abomination of desolation ...

daniel 11, the abomination of desolation, part five

Previously: Daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part four

Read Daniel 11 at Bible Gateway.

We find the next mention of the abomination of desolation by Daniel the prophet in Daniel chapter 11. This entire chapter is a vision, a prophecy, of what will transpire in the kingdoms of the world, the four kingdoms which Nebuchadnezzar saw when he had the dream of the statue with the head of gold (Dan chapter 2); the same four kingdoms which Daniel saw when he saw the vision of the four beasts (Dan chapter 7).

The dream of the statue with the head of gold, and the vision of the four beasts, are telling the same information in two different ways. There will be four kingdoms, which are kingdoms of man, kingdoms of this world. The first kingdom is Babylon. Babylon began at Babel (Gen 11:1-9), the first time a kingdom of man exalted itself in rebellion against the kingdom of God and against God's commands. Babylon, we must remember, is the head of gold (Dan 2:37-38). Upon Babylon, the final plagues, the seven bowls of God's wrath, are poured out, which destroys the head of gold and the kingdoms of this world (Rev 16-18), and ushers in the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, who shall reign for ever and ever (Rev 19-20)! Amen! Come, Adonai Messiah!

Nebuchadnezzar reigned as the head of gold (605-562 BC). Shortly after him, the second kingdom arose: Media- Persia, which became the sole kingdom of Persia. Persia overthrew Babylon. The detail in the prophecy of Dan 11 is so accurate, that most scoffers believe it was written down by the Jews after the events transpired. Of course, Daniel, the author, held positions of authority in the Babylonian and Media-Persian Empires from 604-538 BC, so the vision necessarily dates from that time. It is also true that the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which includes Daniel in its entirety, was made between 283-246 BC, before the main events of this prophecy transpired on the stage of history; so the scoffing of the scoffers is easily refuted.

The third kingdom is Greece, and the fourth is Rome. Rome, in fact, still reigns, in our worldviews of Western Civilization, in our civil laws and political institutions which all come from Rome. (Ancient Rome: How it Affects You Today by Richard Maybury will help bring historical clarity to understand how Rome still rules the kingdoms of this world today).

Daniel is told in vs. 2 that the fourth king of Persia will be by far the richest, who will stir up the kingdom against Greece. Cyrus is the first king of Persia; Cambysus his son is the second; the third is the usurper; and the fourth is Darius the Great, not of Cyrus' family, who overthrew the usurper and restored Persia to lawful rule. This is the Darius who instigated the war against the Greeks beginning in 492 BC.

After the fourth king, will rule a mighty one, whose kingdom will be broken up to the four winds (Dan 11:3-4). This mighty one is Alexander the Great, who overthrew Persia in 330 BC. Alexander's kingdom broke up into four kingdoms, north, south, east, and west. These four were headed by four of Alexander's generals, in regency for his infant son, but that didn't last long. The infant son and his mother were soon killed, and before long the four generals and their descendants proclaimed themselves kings over their territories, and spent a great deal of time in warfare with each other. None of Alexander's descendants or his family ever reigned in any of the four kingdoms.

The kingdom of the south was Egypt, ruled by the descendants of Alexander's general Ptolemy. Egypt controlled Israel for a long time. The kingdom of the north was Asia Minor, ruled by descendants of Alexander's general Seleucus, and this kingdom was constantly at war with Egypt in one way or another for a long time. Dan 11:5-28 provides many intricate details of this long war, all of which are historically accurate.

“So he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” Dan 11:30b-31

Then in 198 BC, a descendant of Seleucus, Antiochus the Great, the king of the north, wrested Israel away from Ptolemy. In 168 BC, his son, Antiochus Epiphanes, arose to the throne. His title “Epiphanes,” in fact, means, “the manifest god,” i.e., god incarnate in flesh. He is a type of antichrist. In the course of his wars with the Ptolemies, he set up an abomination of desolation in the Temple: he had an altar built on top of the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed a pig on it to Zeus. He forbade the keeping of the Law: resting on the Sabbath, celebrating the feast days, offering the sacrifices, and circumcising the baby boys on the eighth day. He sought to establish Greek paganism throughout Israel.

The family of the Maccabees, of the line of Aaron the priest, revolted against this turn of events, and, with a small band of followers, fought a guerrilla war against the Greek king's forces until they had retaken Jerusalem, purified the Temple (in 165 BC; this event is celebrated at Hanukkah every year), and freed Israel from Grecian rule. Thus the people who knew their God were strong, and carried out great exploits!

“At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with any ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.” Dan 11:40-45

Now in 170 BC, the king of the south, the regents for Ptolemy VI who was still a minor at the time, demanded from Epiphanes a return of their Israelite province. Epiphanes responded by attacking Egypt with a great army, and overcame all; only allowing the Ptolemies to continue ruling as puppet kings through the intervention of Rome. Thus, even though he did not technically conquer Egypt, Epiphanes gained power over all Egypt's treasures of gold and silver.

Then, being preoccupied with Egypt, and the revolt of the Jews in Israel, the Parthians, to the east, rebelled against Grecian rule (167 BC). Antiochus Epiphanes left the Judean war in the hands of a general, and went east himself to quell the rebellion, but succumbed on this campaign to a mysterious disease, and died, in 164 BC. Thus news from the east (and north) troubled him, yet he came to his end, and no one helped him.

daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part four

Previously: Daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part three

Last time we saw that the seventy weeks' prophecy is tied to the first coming of the Messiah by the rebuilding, beginning in 538 AD, and destruction in 70 AD, of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. Continuing on:

“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” Dan 9:27

The big question is, who is “he”? I know many Bible teachers teach he is the prince of the people who is to come; but I don't believe he is. It is a grammatical principle that if a pronoun is used, then it must refer to a noun which has already been introduced, and furthermore, the pronoun must match the noun it refers to in gender, case, and number. Since the pronoun used is “he,” not “it,” or “them,” we know that the noun to which it is referring is singular and masculine.

There are two singular masculine nouns in the previous passages: Messiah the Prince in vs. 25, and the prince of the people who is to come in vs. 26. And I believe “he” is referring to Messiah the Prince, because of the grammatical construction of the sentence. Let me explain.

The subject of the one doing the destroying of the city and the sanctuary, is people, not prince. The Hebrew says, The people shall destroy the city, not the prince. The prince is only in the sentence to clarify which people are being talked about. “People” is a plural noun. The pronoun referring to it would be “they,” a plural pronoun, not “he.” So if the “he” was to refer to the destroyer of the city and the sanctuary, which is the assumption many Bible teachers make - leaping to the conclusion of the antichrist - then the Hebrew would properly read, Then they shall confirm a covenant with many.

I just believe God knows His own language and uses it accurately so as not to be confusing or to be misunderstood. It is not His fault that English is not taught properly in schools anymore. But it is incumbant upon us that we do know exactly what is being said and are careful to read exactly what the Scripture says and no more, not injecting our biases into the text, if we want to be found to be not mistaken, not knowing the Word of God (Mar 12:24).

So if “he” refers to Messiah the Prince, then what is this sentence in Dan 9:27 saying?

“Then Messiah shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week Messiah shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.”

In my NKJV, they even captitalized the second “He,” understanding the pronoun to refer to Messiah! But they leave the first “he” lowercase, because the bias of the Church at present is that the first “he” is referring to the prince of the people who is to come! But the Hebrew and the English of the sentence is most simply understood to mean that the two “he”'s are referring to the same antecedant - Messiah the Prince!

How does Messiah confirm a covenant with many for one week, and how, in the middle of the week, does Messiah bring an end to sacrifice and offering?

One week refers to a seven- year period which follows the 69 weeks. The 69 weeks takes us up to the Messiah's anointing, His being marked as Messiah. The subject of the one week is the same as the subject of the 69 weeks, as the angel shows by saying 70 weeks in the opening sentence of this discourse (vs. 24) - which is the first coming of the Messiah, and His mission in that coming, to make an end of sins, and to confirm vision and prophecy. The rebuilding and destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple are event markers so that Daniel's people would know with certainty when Messiah came the first time.

How does Messiah confirm a covenant with many over the course of one week, or seven years? Going back to Jeremiah, we read:

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jer 31:31-34

I looked up the Hebrew for “new,” as in new covenant (vs 31). Because if the covenant Jesus makes is new, as in never been seen before, then what covenant is being confirmed? What vision and prophecy is being confirmed? Only something that is pre-existing can be confirmed.

In order to understand the Hebrew word for new, we have to understand something about Hebrew. It is an incredibly beautiful and versatile languge. Every Hebrew word can be used as a verb, to mean an action; as a noun, to mean a concrete object; or as an abstract concept, which the verb and the concrete object help to explain. For example, the Hebrew word which means the abstract concept of “faith” is also the Hebrew word for the concrete noun of a tent peg. Do you see the beauty? Faith is to our relationship with God, as the tent peg is to our house - the thing which secures it in place.

The concrete noun, then, for the Hebrew word for the abstract concept of "new" as it is used in this verse, is the new moon. The first sliver of the moon that is seen after a period of darkness lasting three nights, when the moon is looked for in the sky to see if the new month has begun or not. This is not referring to something that has never been seen before; but rather, to something which was old and waned (Heb 8:13), and which has now been renewed; which has been freshened or restored.

And we can see, in Jeremiah, God does not in fact abolish the Law which He established with Israel in the making of the first covenant, the Law which He called the covenant (Deu 4:13); His covenant which they broke. But when He renewed the covenant, He changed the place where the Law is written - that is what is new or renewed about the new or renewed covenant. Instead of the Law being written outside the man, on tablets of stone, as in the first covenant; in the renewed covenant, the Law is written inside the man, on the tablets of his heart.

Obedience to the Law has not been done away with in the renewed convenant (Mat 5:19), but obedience as a means of salvation, and as a religious obligation through fear of punishment, has been done away with (1 Joh 4:17-18). In the renewed covenant, obedience flows with joy from a heart which is in love with the One whose will the Law expresses (Joh 14:15, 1 Joh 5:3)!

So Messiah confirms the covenant (by renewing it) with many for one week, or seven years. In the middle of that week, i.e., at the 3-1/2 year point, He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.

In fact, when Jesus was anointed as Messiah at His baptism, it was in the late summer, on the first day of the 6th biblical month. The first day, or new moon, of the 6th biblical month, in biblical culture, is followed by 40 days of teshuvah, or repentance. Thirty days following the 6th month new moon is the 7th month new moon, the first day of the 7th month, the Feast of Trumpets. Ten days after that, for a total of 40 days, on the 10th day of the 7th month, is the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting and repentance for sins, in which the high priest made atonement by entering the Holy of Holies on only this day in the entire year.

Five days after Atonement, the seven- day Feast of Tabernacles begins, a joyful time of feasting and celebration. Israel was in fact commanded to celebrate and rejoice before the Lord for His goodness during this time.

Now because it was the month of teshuvah leading up to the Day of Atonement, this is why so many were coming out to John the Baptist in droves, to be immersed in a mikvah - the running water of the Jordan River, to wash away uncleanness. Knowing as we do, that Jesus fulfilled the Law in every particular, and knowing that immediately after His baptism He spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting (Mar 1:9-13), we know that His fasting had to be over before the Feast of Tabernacles. And I believe the 40th day of fasting and the day of His great temptation, coincided with the Day of Atonement, the only holiday of the Lord's which is a day of fasting and affliction and not feasting and rejoicing.

He was anointed as Messiah at His water baptism and baptism in the Spirit, on the first day of the 6th month. This is why John was told that the One on whom the dove would descend and stay, would be the One Israel was looking for (Joh 1:32-34). Jesus was given the title “Messiah” at His baptism.

He was cut off or crucified 3-1/2 years later at the Feast of Passover, which is always in the beginning of the spring. Passover is in fact 6 months, or a half year, following teshuvah and the fall feasts in the 7th month every year. And we know from reading the Gospels that He ministered for three years. So His crucifixion occurred 3-1/2 years after being anointed Messiah.

Once His blood had been offered, once for all, no more animal sacrifices and offerings were necessary (Heb 9:12). In the middle of the week, after 3-1/2 years, Messiah brought an end to sacrifice and offering. So we understand how Messiah confirms the covenant with many for the first half of the 70th week, and how, in the middle of the week, He brings sacrifice and offering to an end. But what about the last half of the 70th week?

Do you realize that the incident with Peter and Cornelius, which is recorded in Acts 10, takes place 3-1/2 years following Pentecost recorded in Acts 2? Up until that day, the only people who could benefit from the death and resurrection of Messiah, to bring an end to their sins, were the Jews. But on that day, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles as well. So at the exact end of seven years, Messiah confirmed the renewed covenant with many.

“And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

This is the last sentence in the discourse on the first coming of Messiah and the destruction of the city and the sanctuary which accompanied it. It follows the 70th week of the Messiah. In real historical time, the abomination of desolation in 39 AD, instigated by the Roman emperor Caligula as we saw yesterday, followed the outpouring of the Spirit on the Gentiles by only a few years. The prince of the people who is to come, the prince of the Romans, was the one who made desolate on the wing of abominations. And we recounted some of the abominations and some of the desolations that he perpetrated on Daniel's people and on Daniel's holy city yesterday. Just file in the back of your mind, that in the seventy week prophecy passage at least, the abomination of desolation had to do with the first coming of the Messiah, and the destruction of the city and the Temple which followed. But chapter 9 is not the only place in Daniel where he prophesies of the abomination of desolation ...

daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part three

Previously: Daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part two

Last time we saw that 69 weeks, or 69 x 7 which is 483, were to transpire from the going forth of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, until the coming of the Messiah. We discussed that this refers to 483 years, and the adjustments that need to be made to our BC calendars, for the years alloted to the Persian kings are too many. We are still on track for the entire seventy weeks prophecy to concern the first coming of the Messiah, and the events which immediately surround His coming. Continuing on:

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.” Dan 9:26

The angel told Daniel that from the time of the decree, to Messiah, there would be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. In other words, a 7 x 7 or 49 year period would first transpire, in which work would begin on rebuilding the Temple and the city, and then a 62 x 7 or 434 year period would follow it, in which work would begin on rebuilding the walls and the city.

The traditional chronology has Cyrus issuing the decree to rebuild the Temple in 538 BC, and the first return of the exiles under Zerubbabel following shortly after. They finished and dedicated the Temple in 515 BC. According to the traditional chronology, a second decree to rebuild the walls and the city was issued by Artaxerxes in 458 BC. This expedition was led by Ezra, with Nehemiah appointed as the new governor of Judea leading another shortly after. This would put the time between the two decrees at ~80 years rather than the ~49 years told by the angel.

We already have seen that there are too many years for the Persian kings, and that the Persian chronology, beginning with Cyrus at 538 BC, is inflated. The time between Cyrus' decree and Artaxerxes' decree is a prime example. I believe that in fact 49 years separated these two events, rather than 80, and this is one place where the Persian chronology can be shortened.

So when the angel says that after 62 weeks, Messiah will be cut off, I believe he means Messiah would be cut off after the completion of the 62 week period, which followed the completion of the 7 week period. He does not mean 62 weeks from the going forth of Cyrus' decree.

The angel has given Daniel several significant events to use as time markers. First, the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Second, the coming of Messiah, at the end of the 62 weeks, followed by His cutting off, but not for Himself. I think almost all Bible scholars believe the angel is talking about Messiah's execution, which, from Heaven's perspective, was not for Himself. He was crucified for the sins of the world, not His own sins.

It is not necessary for Messiah's execution to take place exactly in the 483rd year from the decree. It just means, after the 62 weeks have been completed, Messiah will be cut off. That will be the next event marker. There was a reason Judea was in great expectancy for the coming of Messiah all through the lifetime of Jesus and the apostles, as Josephus records. They knew Daniel, they knew when they returned to Jerusalem, and they knew what year it was.

The next event marker is the destruction of the city and the sanctuary, by the people of the prince who is to come. Messiah was cut off or crucified in approximately 30 AD, and the city of Jerusalem and the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans.

Now when Daniel was receiving this vision, Jerusalem was a heap of ruins. There were no walls, no Temple, no streets, no houses to dwell in. No one lived there. The angel is telling Daniel, first, it will all be rebuilt; second, Messiah will come. Third, He will be cut off, and fourth, it will all be destroyed again. The first coming of Messiah is tied by this prophecy to the rebuilding and destruction of Jerusalem, between 538 BC and 70 AD.

The angel, continuing to speak of the event marker of the destruction of the the city and the sanctuary, tells that the end of the war will be with a flood, and that until the end of the war, desolations are determined. Here is a list of desolations recorded by historians -- the first desolation is the crucifixion of the Creator of heaven and earth -- until the end of the war:

28 to 30: crucifixion of Messiah.

39: The Roman emperor Caligula declared himself to be a deity and ordered his statue to be set up at every temple in the Roman Empire. For the Temple in Jerusalem, this order was delayed by the Syrian governor for nearly a year, fearing civil war if it were carried out, although the other temples in the Empire complied. The Jews' refusal enraged the already half- mad Caligula, who then threatened to destroy the Temple. A Jewish delegation was sent to pacify him, without avail. He raged at them: “So you are the enemies of the gods, the only people who refuse to recognize my divinity.” Caligula was planning reprisals against the Jews, when he was assassinated in 41 AD. During the course of these troubles, statues of the emperor were set up in various Jewish synagogues in the Empire, and in the decades following, other indignities against their monotheism were perpetrated, which were hard to bear.

66: The Roman procurator stole a large amount of silver from the Temple on his way out of Jerusalem. Some of the outraged Jews massacred the Roman garrison stationed in the city, in retaliation. The Syrian governor sent a larger force of soldiers to restore order. They were killed as well.

67-70: The Roman emperor Nero sent a large force of soldiers to quell the revolt -- 60,000 strong. Over the course of the next three years, these professional soldiers under Vespasian and Titus first overcame the Galilee, then the coastland, and finally surrounded Jerusalem.

The more zealous Jewish faction inside Jerusalem murdered the moderate Jewish leadership who desired to come to terms with Rome. Civil war broke out in the city among three rival factions, who killed each other, and innocents caught in the cross fire. One of the factions burned the city's stored food supply, as Jerusalem was being surrounded by Roman armies, which would have helped the city survive a siege of many years. Terrible famine and pestilence resulted.

Anyone trying to escape the insane civil war, if they were not killed by the Jewish factions inside the walls, were crucified by the Romans outside the walls. Josephus records up to 500 crucifixions per day around the walls of Jerusalem during the siege.

Once the Romans breached the walls, a flood, an orgy of violence followed, in which the emaciated survivors of the civil war and the famine were slaughtered wholesale. In this instance, it was not Rome's policy to take prisoners, even as slaves. The Romans were tired of the long siege and were determined to take their rage out on the Jews remaining inside the city. Over one million Jews were killed in the Jewish Revolt of 67-70 AD, most in the city of Jerusalem, and not all by Romans.

The beautiful Temple in Jerusalem was burned to the ground, as well as the general destruction of the city and its walls.

All of these things are desolations, which caused untold suffering, that continued until the end of the war. The war did not end in 70 AD. A group of insurgents maintained a resistance at Masada, and these were finally overcome in 73 AD. Two other revolts against Roman rule took place after these things, the last one in 135 AD, after which Rome expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and Judea, and they have not lived there in any numbers since that time, until they began to return home in the 20th century.

The angel takes up the 70th week in the next verse ...

daniel 9, the abomination of desolation part two

Previously: Daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part one

Last time we saw from Dan 9 that seventy weeks were determined for the Jewish people and for Jerusalem, until the first coming of the Messiah, in which He made an end for sin and made atonement for iniquity. Continuing on:

“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.” Dan 9:25

The angel says that the command will go forth to restore and build Jerusalem, which was lying in desolate ruins at the time that Daniel received this vision. From the time of the command, until the coming of Messiah, there shall be 7 + 62 weeks. Why didn't the angel just say 69 weeks? The command was first issued by Cyrus, then confirmed by one of his successors, Darius, later. The Temple was rebuilt first, then the wall and the city. So it was not accomplished all at once. Now doing some math, we understand that a week is seven days, so 69 weeks is the same as 69 x 7 days, or 483 days. The history books tell us the decree went forth approximately in 536 BC. 483 days later does not bring us to the time of Jesus the Messiah.

First of all, we have to understand, that this vision in Daniel reveals the principle, since we think we know when Cyrus' decree went forth, and we know when Jesus the Messiah came, that one day of prophetic time is the same as one year of historic time. This principle carries through and applies consistently to the days prophesied in Revelation as well.

Second of all, we have to understand that we have too many years in our BC calendar for the Persian kings. The information on the reigns of the Persian kings is taken from Ptolemy's king list, in which a list of kings and years of reigns are given. The years are added up, to the conquest of Alexander the Great, and the date for the first year of Cyrus at 536 BC is arrived at. However, there is evidence that in Ptolemy's list, there is either a confusion of kings (“Darius” was most likely a title, not a personal name, just as “Pharaoh” was a title and not a personal name, and it may be that too many kings were invented to fill every instance of the use of “Darius”), or years of reigns which were in fact overlapping, were taken to be sequential. And perhaps both errors were at work in Ptolemy's document. Please see this and this issue of the Biblical Chronology Newsletter which discusses the problem of Persian chronology in greater detail.

This means it could very well have been 483 years from the going forth of the decree until the coming of the Messiah. I believe it in fact was, because I believe that God knows exactly what year it is, and knew exactly what year it was then also. If it is true, that we have too many years for the Persian kings in our BC calendar, thus it was really only 483 years from Cyrus to the Messiah, this also explains another mystery:

The history recorded in Torah of the world and Israel is history, but also prophecy. It is a true historical fact that God judged the world for sin, and only His righteous family, Noah's, was saved through judgment by faith. This historical event is also a prophecy of the coming judgment of the world for sin. It is a true historical fact that Abraham offered up Isaac in obedience to God's command, but that historical event was also a prophecy of the Messiah, of the Father offering up His only Son. And every historical event recorded in Torah can be shown to also be a prophecy of Messiah and future dealings of God with man and the world.

The first historical event recorded in Torah is in six days God created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day, He rested. The prophecy is that work in the form of the curse for sin (Gen 3:16-19) will rule in the earth for 6000 years, one millennium for each day, but that the 7th millennium will be the millennium of rest under the rule of Messiah Yeshua (Rev 20:4-6). (Why has the enemy attacked creation in six days, and Sabbath rest on the seventh day, so hard in our modern era? These things are prophecies of the reign of Messiah! When we rest on Sabbath, we proclaim with God that Messiah's Kingdom Comes!)

Now chronologers, assuming that the decree of Cyrus went forward in 536 BC, have figured that God created the world in 4004 BC, because every bit of information needed to construct a reliable biblical chronology from the creation of the world until this event is present within Scripture itself. (Please read the excellent and thorough Chronology of the Old Testament by Dr. Floyd Nolen Jones to confirm this fact.) If God did create the world in 4004 BC, then today, in 2010, we are already over the 6000 years alloted for the curse for sin. But, if there are too many years for the Persian kings in our BC calendar, then we are in fact coming up on 6000 years, not over it.

My belief is that God knows what year it is, and the angel knew what year it was when Daniel received this vision, and we can rest assured that if the angel said it would be 483 years until the coming of the Messiah from the time of the decree, it was in fact 483 years.

So we see that so far, the context of this prophecy of seventy weeks, is the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem, and the first coming of the Messiah which followed, within the space of seventy “weeks” of years. We are coming up to the abomination of desolation ...

abomination of desolation

daniel 9, part one
daniel 9, part two
daniel 9, part three
daniel 9, part four
daniel 11, part five
definition of abomination of desolation
daniel 12, part six

daniel

daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part one
daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part two
daniel 9. the abomination of desolation, part three
daniel 9, the abomination of desolation, part four
daniel 11, the abomination of desolation, part five
daniel 12, the abomination of desolation, part six


expert studies on the book of daniel at bible.org*

*There is a lot of valuable material at bible.org, so enjoy digging around! However, I do not agree with every premise made or conclusion drawn in every study. Many have a traditional, learned bias against the Torah which God is stripping away in His Church in these last days.