Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday March 22, 2015
1. Why did God predict prophecy.
2. Where some of the prophecies are.
3. How He predicted them and how they were fulfilled.
4. The role of prophecy and the illustrations God gives us to see the accuracy and preciseness of His prophecies.
3. How our Lord predicted and fulfilled certain prophecies.
JER 30:7, "Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob's distress, But he will be saved from it."
Jacob was one of the sons of Isaac and represented Israel because of an experience that he had when the Lord changed his name from Jacob to Israel in GEN 32:28.
In the ancient world names meant a lot and the fact that Jacob's name was changed from Jacob to Israel meant that he went from being a deceiver (Jacob) to a prince with God (Israel) God.
If we were studying the life of Jacob we would compare scripture with scripture and you would see in detail that the individual described as "a man" was literally TLJC in what is known as a Theophany form.
A Theophany is a manifestation of the person and work of Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state which is the appearances of Jesus Christ before the First Advent.
TLJC appeared as the angel of the Lord, the primary Theophany in the Old Testament.
He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, EXO 3:2 cf. Acts 7:30‑35.
EXO 3:2, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.
As the Angel of God, TLJC was in the pillar of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to lead Israel through the desert; EXO 13:21; EXO 14:19; EXO 23:20‑23, 32:34, 33:2; NUM 20:16; ISA 63:9.
He also appeared to Abraham as a man in GEN 18:1‑33.
He was also the wrestler with Jacob in GEN 32:24‑32.
He also appeared as an angel in HOS 12:4.
The Bible says who is the only visible member of the Trinity, according to JOH 1:18; JOH 6:46; 1TI 6:16?
Because of who the Bible says is the only visible member of the Trinity, according to JOH 1:18; JOH 6:46; 1TI 6:16.....and that is TLJC.
I have seen God "face to face," it doesn't mean Jacob has seen the deity manifestation of God but he had seen the overt manifestation of God in a human form, though not in His hypostatic union for He had not been born as of yet.
This falls under the doctrine of a Theophany which is an Old Testament manifestation of TLJC.
There was never was a time in history when some part of the world did not "see" TLJC - that's the doctrine of Theophany.
A Theophany is a manifestation of the person and work of Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state which is the appearances of Jesus Christ before the First Advent.
TLJC appeared as the angel of the Lord, the primary Theophany in the Old Testament.
He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, EXO 3:2 cf. Acts 7:30‑35.
As the Angel of God, TLJC was in the pillar of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to lead Israel through the desert; EXO 13:21; EXO 14:19; EXO 23:20‑23, 32:34, 33:2; NUM 20:16; ISA 63:9.
He also appeared to Abraham as a man in GEN 18:1‑33.
He was also the wrestler with Jacob in GEN 32:24‑32.
He also appeared as an angel in HOS 12:4.
The Bible says who is the only visible member of the Trinity, according to JOH 1:18; JOH 6:46; 1TI 6:16?
1. Because the man or the individual had the authority to bless Jacob, verse 29.
2. Because Jacob said I have seen God face to face, again JOH 1:18; 6:46; 1TI 6:16.
JER 30:7 'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob's distress, But he [Jacob or Israel, that is true Israel] will be saved from it."
JER 30:7 says this period is particularly called the time of Jacob's trouble and Jacob refers to Israel.
This whole Tribulational period has special reference to "Daniel's people Israel" and "Daniel's holy city, Jerusalem."
The seventy weeks of prophecy are really weeks of years.
The first mention principle is that principle by which God reveals in the first mention of a subject, the truth with which that subject carries with it throughout the Bible and it is repeated as it stands connected in the mind of God.
A simple basic illustration is found in the book of Genesis with the serpent.
GEN 3:1, Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
MAT 23:33, "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?"
1CO 10:9, Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.
2CO 11:3, But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
REV 12:9, And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
For under the first mention principle, the first time a week or weeks are mentioned in the Bible is found in GEN 29:27.
Believe it or not, but in the ancient world, they had fixed marriages and many times the first time you ever saw the one who you were about to marry was on your wedding day.
"Lear's eyes were weak" = a Hebrew idiom meaning that she was "dull-looking" and she lacked overt beauty because "bright eyes" or "eyes like fire" in the Hebrew were considered to be beautiful in the ancient Oriental world.
Leah's sister Rachel, the other daughter of Laban had a beautiful figure and beautiful symmetry, described by the word "form and she also had a beautiful face.
Leah means "wearied wild-cow" says Gesenius in his Hebrew word studies and the Biblical Library on page 265. Message Bible = "Give me my wife that I may consummate the marriage.
In the ancient world the sex between the male and female consummated or began the marriage, not the vows at the ceremony.
Leah was Laban's reward to Jacob for serving Laban for seven whole years.
Then in Laban's self-justification for his deception of Jacob. Laban says in GEN 29:26 "It is not the practice in our place, to marry off the younger before the first‑born."
In the analogy and typology, each week is a reference to seven years or a seven year period, according to the prophetic calendar.
The principle: one week refers to seven years or a seven year period.
We live in what our Lord called in LUK 21:24 "the times of the Gentiles"
And when God's purpose "in the times of the Gentiles" is finished, then God is going to have to get the Church out of the way so that He can go back to dealing with Israel for He has unfinished business with Israel.
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, conquered Jerusalem in 606 B.C. and returned home with a group of royal captives, including a young man named Daniel.
Daniel distinguished himself by his outstanding character, his wisdom and the tremendous prophetic gifts which God had bestowed upon him due to his faithfulness.
As a result of these prophetic abilities, Daniel was elevated from the position of a captive slave to ultimately become the First Minister of this great Babylonian Empire which at the time ruled the world.
JER 25:11, 'And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
In 538 B.C. Daniel was reading this prediction and knew that the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity would end within two years,
in 536 B.C. (It lasted from 606 B.C. to 536 B.C.).
This vision of the seventy weeks of years foretold to the precise day when Israel would reject and "cut off" their Messiah and then looks forward to His Second Coming to set up His everlasting kingdom.
DAN 9:25, "that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince {there will be} seven weeks and sixty‑two weeks; which is 69 weeks of years or 483 biblical years and was totally fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ to the exact day.
483 biblical years (each year equaling 360 days).
The Jewish year of biblical times was known as lunar solar and had only 360 days. The solar year, which we live by, of 365.25 days was unknown to the nations in the Old Testament.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica and Smith's Bible Dictionary on Chronology, Abraham continued to use a year of 360 days in his original Chaldean homeland.
Sir Isaac Newton - "All nations, before the just length of the solar year was known, reckoned months by the course of the moon, and years by the return of winter and summer, spring and autumn; and in making calendars for their festivals, they reckoned thirty days to a lunar month, and twelve lunar months to a year."
REV 11:3, says that three and a half years is twelve hundred and sixty days."
REV 12:6, refers to the three and a half years of the Tribulation period as being one thousand two hundred and sixty days."
If we are to understand the precise times involved in the fulfillment of prophecy, we still need to use the same biblical lunar-year of 360 days which the prophets themselves used.
The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, and at the time this prophecy was written, they used lunar-years or 360 day years.
The phrase translated Seventy weeks in the Hebrew is the phrase Shaabu`iym shib`iym which literally means 70 X 7.
DAN 9:24 "Seventy `sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city" (NIV)
DAN 9:24 "Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city,"(RSV)
DAN 9:24 "The Lord has commanded 490 years of further punishment upon Jerusalem and your people.(TLB)
This decree was issued by the Persian King Artaxerxes Longimanus "in the first day of the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year" of his reign according to NEH 2:1-8.
"The 1st of Nisan in King Artaxerxes' twentieth year was computed by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, United Kingdom, as March 14, 445 BC.
From the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem [began on March 14, 445 B.C. until Messiah the Prince [comes] {there will be} seven weeks [7 X 7 = 49 years]
and sixty‑two weeks [62 X 7 = 434 years], which total 69 weeks of years [69 X 7 = 483 Biblical years = 483 years X 360 days = 173,880 days. 483 biblical years X 360 days = 173,880 days.
Now, 483 years from this prophecy and exactly 173,880 days later on the tenth day of Nisan, which would be April 6, A.D. 32 on Palm
Sunday in fulfillment of this prophecy, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and presented Himself as "the Messiah.
This took place exactly 69 weeks or (483 years), or 173,880 days from the time of the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
Our Lord emphasized the fact that this day, the tenth day of Nisan, April 6, A.D. 32, was an incredibly important day for Israel.
The reaction of the Nation as a whole and the religious and political leaders to their time of visitation was to reject their Messiah.
DAN 9:26 "Then after the sixty‑two weeks the Messiah will be cut off [Hebrew word karath = killed or destroyed]