Revelation Part 12
As it has already been mentioned, the matter of end time events revealed through prophetic utterance is not easy to follow . Prophecy originates in the OT prophets but many times is only a piece or two of the picture or entire event. Ezekiel, Daniel, Zachariah, Isaiah, and the minor prophets and the Lord’s Apostles also had insight into end time events. These prophetic words are like a mosaic or pieces to a puzzle. Today we will put three more pieces in the puzzle and our understanding will increase as the mosaic takes shape.
Three battles over Jerusalem
In the middle of Daniel’s 70th week , 3 1/2 years or 42 months in to it, the Antichrist will break his covenant with Israel. Then Israel will know the covenant that was promoted for peace, will in affect be a covenant of death.
Isa 28:18 Your covenant with death will be annulled, And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,Then you will be trampled down by it. NKJV
Dan 9:24 “A period of seventy sets of seven{ years } has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times.
26 “After this period of sixty two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. 27 The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.” NLT
After the 1st battle over Jerusalem the Antichrist will profane the temple and set an idol of himself
and sit down on the throne declaring that he is god.
2 Thess 2: 3 Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction. 4 He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God. NLT
Matt 24: 15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. NKJV
Two out of three people living in Jerusalem during this first attack will die . The remnant , however, will be purified through suffering.
Zech 13:8 And it shall come to pass in all the land,” Says the Lord, “That two thirds in it shall be cut off and die,But one third shall be left in it: 9 I will bring the one third through the fire,Will refine them as silver is refined,And test them as gold is tested.They will call on My name,And I will answer them.I will say, ‘This is My people’;And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” NKJV
Matt 24:9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
NKJV
Because these days are filled with false teachings , many will be deceived just as Jesus warned the church at Thyatira.
Rev 2:18 ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: 19 “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. 20 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols{ spiritual immorality }21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
24 “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. 25 But hold fast what you have till I come. 26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations — NKJV
Israel has been lulled in a false sense of security by this great world leader who is come to bring peace between Israel and her neighbors. Ezekiel and Daniel the prophet reveal Antichrist’s strategy.
Dan 11:21 And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue. [ deception] 22 With the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant. 23 And after the league is made with him he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. 24 He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province NKJV
Ezek 38:8 In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”
10 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’ — 12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, NKJV
Zachariah the prophet warns the people of Jerusalem and Judah , just as Jesus did about what will surely happen when the covenant is broken.
Zech 14:1 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst.
2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled,
And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. NKJV
While Antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel, in heaven there is war and Satan and his angels are cast down to the earth.
Rev 12: 7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,”Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. NKJV
