Daniel cried out to God in chapter 9 of the book of Daniel. It is recorded that he prayed, repented and sought the heart of God for the destiny of his people, the chosen people of God, Israel. This was one man doing what God had said would release the Kingdom of God in the last days when the nation does it. Leviticus 26:39-41 39”And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them. 40“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, 41so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.”
The last few verses of Daniel chapter 9 reveal information about the end of this evil age that has never been revealed before or since. There is one “week” of years, so in other words, a 7 year period of time that finishes off this evil age and accomplishes, “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” (Daniel 9:24b) The last ½ of that period (3 and ½ years) starts with a seminal event that Jesus told His followers to go back to Daniel and understand, the abomination of desolation in a temple in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11, Matthew 24:15). There is one other period of time mentioned by so many scriptures in the Bible it would take a page to document them, the Day of the Lord. This is the final time at the close of this evil age, where judgment falls on all who oppose God and His very soon coming Kingdom. All who have gotten the mark of the beast to display their worship of the beast will be killed during this time. These three periods of time, the 7 years, the 3 ½ years and the day of the Lord will help us navigate through Revelation.
An overview of Revelation will help to simplify it and will help to avoid false alarms and will help us to help others as the day approaches.
Revelation 1 introduces Yeshua the focus of the vision and prophecy.
Chapters 2 and 3 are letters of warning, preparation, and reward all with an eye to help the hearers persevere through the coming time of trouble.
Chapters 4 and 5 picture the throne room of God being set up as a court that will pass the fair and righteous judgment and the Lamb of God , the Lion of the Tribe of Judah the only being worthy to open the seals of judgment of the times of the end. Chapters 6-18 contain the seals, trumpets and bowls of judgement. The three time periods have been shown to line up with these times of judgment. The seals start off and grow more and more as the 7 years progress, deception, war, famine and death are released and grow ever more strong especially at the 3 ½ year mark, that starts the great tribulation and coincides with the 7 trumpets. The final period of time known by most of the prophets and Paul and other writers is the Day of the Lord and it is the short time of the most severe judgments on the portion of mankind that took the mark of the beast and choose to worship him, these are the bowl judgments. Having these periods clearly shown will preserve us from false alarms and speculation. Having the abomination of desolation as an event that takes place at a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem gives the end times their proper center. Satan knows that this age is about the faithfulness of God to His promises to a people and a land. When we see the totally out of proportion hatred and anger directed against the Jewish people and their status in that land, hopefully we are led to the question, Why? When God chose Abraham and stated His intention to be the God of Abraham and to give Abraham and his descendants that land, everything changed. All the other nations, the goyim, had gods and had territory, but God chose this tiny people and this tiny sliver of land to be the people and the place that would make His name known. It is key to notice how much God rails against adultery and unfaithfulness. This being the case would He be unfaithful to the people and the land of promise, no! Or as Paul would say, God forbid! Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,” The people matter to God. Hosea 1:10 “Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place Where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” It will be said to them, “You are the sons of the living God.” The place matters to God. The Revelation of Yeshua is a revelation of a God who is Faithful and True.
This is the key to understanding the book of Revelation. (I'm posting this as a rough draft and asking for any input, suggestions, corrections, in fact, any feedback whatsoever - chuckabean@hotmail.com - put "Revelation" in the subject line, and by the grace of God I will read it and respond)
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