by jay on Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:41 pm
oh how we ignore the scriptures. No mention is made of Roman in Daniel 2 but we assume that the empires that come against Israel are the same empires in Daniel 2. We have to read other chapters of Daniel to come to an understanding of who the first three segments of the statue represents. Segments four and five are not revealed but belong to this present time and Jeremiah 50-51 provides some clues as to who they might be.
Daniel 8 tells us of the Mede and Persian and also of the Greeks and our history tells us that those that had dominion over Babylon were the chaldeans, the Medes and the Persians and then the Greeks followed. We are not given any other clues. We need to look at Jeremiah 50:39 carefully and there we will see that Babylon will be desolate for around 2,000 years and history confirms this understanding as the "early" Greeks dismantled the Buildings of Babylon and scattered the people before the later Greeks, the Roman Empire marched through the area that was Babylon and found no people to have dominion over in what was once Babylon.
Daniel 8 tells us that the gentiles will trample the sanctuary for 2,300 years and the Greek empires that have flowed since that time have been the domain of one of the beasts of Daniel 7 and the Roman Empire was influenced by this same "Greek" Beast.
The Prophet Joel recorded that the 70 CE disbursment of the Jews was accomplied at the hands of the Greeks as they brought the slave from Israel.
Now Daniel 9 :24-27, in my view contains four very distinct and seperate prophecies. and that they are broken down like this: -
1: - 24 "Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning 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.
2: - 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going forth 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. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing;
3:- 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.
4:- 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."
Puting in place a timeline for these four seperate prophecies requires a reading of the OT from Exodus to Malachi and if we are observent we will see a 2,000 year period where the Promised land will be devasted and desolate. In Daniel 7 and 12 there are hints that the span of the prophecies that Daniel received were for a period of time spaning around 3,500 years give or take a few because of our lack of understanding of the relationship between God's timeframe and man's.
Now the Terrible Beast is identifiable today with our twenty twenty hindsight vision as the Islamic nation of people, associated with the Amorite nation, who have been coming against God and the Saints since the earilest of times and who God pointed to in revealed words to Abraham. The Book of Revelation also helps us. Christ also talked about this same time span, but the disciples were hindsighted by the scholarly understanding of their day of the length of a generation and we today still have this miss understanding today.
God also gave an indication through another prophet as to when the end would be based from when the temple was dedicated and from this we can know the full span of man's time before the finial judgement.
it is not impossible to find this out, it only requires us to allow the holy Spirit to reveal it to us but be careful how loudly you speak our your revelation because those who kill the prophets and the Saints will rise up against you and you will feel lonely in your understanding.
God's revelation is slowly being opened up for all of the Saints to have an understanding of the things to come.
Shalom
Jay