Daniel

The struggle between God's people and the empire started long ago, with the struggle of God's elect out of man, Jacob, with satan at the brook Jabbok. As we discussed, the man with whom Jacob fought until sunrise and by whom he was crippled, was not the appearance of God. It was a trick of the devil to lure Jacob into a fight in order to prove himself able to fight with 'elohim', the gods, the angels. With Eve satan spoke to deceive her into believing she could know like 'gods'. With Jacob satan fought to deceive him into believing he could fight like 'gods'. And not only was he crippled. His name was altered into 'Israel' - 'he who struggles with god'. And he was blessed by the devil. The history of Israel shows what the lameness and the new name and the blessing meant. Although they saw the great and powerful works of the Lord, they have never been able to bring God's kingdom on earth. Their history was a history of idolatry and failure, ending in the most evil of acts ever performed: the rejection of God Himself, Who had come the them in the Person of Messiah, Jesus Christ.

However, in the midst of all failure of the people of Israel as a whole, there has always been a faithful remnant that was obedient to the Lord and that expected his salvation to come. Through them, Jesus came to the earth. The vessel through which He came, Mary, belonged to those expecting the coming of the Lord. Likewise in the Endtime, Lord will reveal Himself to the pure and the expecting among his people and they will be saved however far they have wandered away from Him, as we shall see. Through ways we cannot fathom He will lead them to repentance and to true knowledge of Himself.

But the idolatry and failure of the people of Israel has brought the devil to great heights and so we arrive at the empire. God gave Jerusalem and his temple over to fire and his people to exile around 600 BC through the Babylonian armies. Since then the empires ruled the world. They became the devil's instrument to persecute those of God's people that still obeyed the Lord. That is why we see the three friends of Daniel being thrown into the fiery oven (Daniel 3), Daniel being thrown in the lions' den (Daniel 6) and the complete people of Israel being threatened by extinction (Esther). After the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple, the faithful were harshly persecuted by the Greek Antioch Epiphanes while the temple was defiled for 3 years (Daniel 8).

All of the devil's efforts to destroy God's people could never exceed God's ultimate authority nor thwart God's plans with his people. Again and again they were saved, from the fiery oven, from the lions' den, from extinction and from persecution. And God gave his people the promise of the coming of Messiah, He that would destroy all power of satan and erect an everlasting kingdom of justice and peace. Messiah would come after 69 periods of 7 years would have passed after the command from Ceres, the first Persian king, to restore and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, an order that came in 458/7 before Christ. But when He came, at the appointed time, 69 x 7 years =483 years past Ceres' command, in the year 27 AD, He was crucified. And even that could not nullify the plans of God. On the contrary. His crucifixion would become the central cornerstone of the fulfillment of God's eternal councils.

There would come a 70th period of 7 years in which God's people would again be fiercely attacked by the empire - so fierce that the whole world would doubt weather they as a people would be able to survive. In our understanding of recent history we have now arrived in this final week of history, that will end in the total victory of God's people and the destruction of the empire, because of the return of Messiah, that was once crucified. The last half of this 70th period of 7 years would become extremely difficult, not only for God's people but for the whole of mankind. Messiah Himself has announced this period with the words: 'For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be'. (Mathew 24:21)

The book of Daniel does not reveal anything about what would come after the 70th period of 7 years. Its account of the future ends 45 days past that last 7 years, when destruction would have come to a halt and those having survived all disasters would enter a totally new epoch: 'Blessed is he that waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days' (Daniel 12:12). The last half of the last 7 years will consist of 1,260 days, so 1,335 days is 45 days past the last 7 years.