Chapter 22:7-21

We have now reached the last box in the flowchart, covering the last portion of Revelation to be studied. At this point in the story all should be encouraged, and eagerly waiting for these final events to unfold. V7 has Jesus affirming that He will be coming soon, and now for the second time we are told that we will be blessed if we keep the words of the prophecy of this book. We ran into this promise before, at 1:3. In the Conclusion those blessings will be discussed more fully.

Again John is told not to worship the angel who had been showing all these things to him. Only God is to be worshiped, as John well knew, yet he had to be told twice not to worship an angel, here and at 19:10. Odd.

The message of v10 is to let this book become widely known. V11 merely means to allow the sinful to remain sinful. Christianity is voluntary, and if it isn't freely chosen then the choice is of no value anyway. Our job, though, is to teach everyone we can, and let them make up their own minds.

If the trumpet judgments won't change them nothing will, and so, like the wicked men of Romans 1:18, God will let their judgment fall on their own heads. At the same time, those who do right and are holy will continue to do right and be holy.

What great encouragement we get from Jesus' last speech! What an invitation in v17! Anyone who has followed all that has happened in this book up to now and seeing how it all ends up must be impressed with how all this is his for the asking! Let him come! The appointed way while the earth still stands is still to hear, believe, repent, be baptized, and walk in the light as Jesus is in the light. When the earth no longer stands it will be too late.

This impresses one again with the importance of knowing that there will be no signs of the end. Sometimes all of Matthew 24 is used in defense of endtime signs, which can cause people to live sinful lives until these signs occur, and thus they will have a chance to slip in under the wire, so to speak. But that is due to a basic misunderstanding of Matthew 24.

At the beginning of that chapter, the disciples call Jesus' attention to the temple, causing Him to say that a day is coming when it will be destroyed. V3 is the first key to this chapter, in that the disciples ask Jesus two questions, not one. What are they?

The first question is when will this happen to the temple? Jesus gives them signs to look for, and at v34 tells them that it will happen in their lifetime. The Greek word translated generation is the same one in Hebrews 3:10 that means generation, not race.

The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD fulfilled that prophecy. Since then no Jewish sacrifices have been made, because the only authorized place to make them in, the temple, no longer exists!

An interesting thing to note here is the quote from Daniel 9:27 that Jesus makes in the 15th verse of this chapter. Being within the scope of verse 34, it would appear that Daniel's prophecy, about the seventy 'weeks,' also describes the destruction of Jerusalem.

The following comments are a summary of Foy E. Wallace's insightful thoughts on Daniel 9:20-27 in his book, GOD'S PROPHETIC WORD, pp.514-518:

Daniel's prophecy, beginning at 9:20 through the end of the chapter, is a difficult one to understand, and has been understood a number of ways. One thing is certain, and that is since Jesus quotes from it in relation to what He said about the destruction of Jerusalem it follows that the interpretation of the prophecy should not go beyond that time.

Verse 25 states that the seventy 'weeks' begin with the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Sixty-nine 'weeks,' counting one 'week' as seven years, brings us to the crucifixion of Christ, making the seventieth 'week' the conversion of Cornelius and the reception of the Gentiles into the church.

Without mathematical calculation the sequel to that would be the destruction of Jerusalem, which lasted exactly three and a half years, or half of one 'seven.'

It is said by some scholars that the seventy 'weeks' are heptades, a sum or a number of seven, or groups of seven, and do not necessarily follow each other in succession to fulfill prophecy. This involves three heptades; 1. the restoration period under Cyrus, 2. the intervening time between the restoration and the establishment of the new kingdom of Christ; and 3. the final overthrow of the Jewish state, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem. This connects Daniel 9:27 with Matthew 24:15 quite nicely.

With this general period of time determined, the events can be arranged according to Daniel 9:23-27 with the New Testament passages fulfilling them as follows:

1. Seventy weeks from the commandment — Romans 3:21-31

2. Finish the transgression and make an end of sin — Hebrews 10:12; Ephesians 2:15

3. Bring everlasting righteousness — Romans 3:21-31

4. Reconciliation for iniquity — Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 2:17

5. Anoint the Most Holy — Acts 4:26-27; Hebrews 1:8-9

6. The Messiah cut off — Isaiah 53:8; Acts 8:32-33

7. Destroy city and sanctuary — Matthew 24:1-34

8. Covenant confirmed with many — Acts 10:34; Romans 9:30

9. Seal up the vision — indicating the completed vision by its fulfillment in the events specified.

It is obvious that any attempt to place Daniel's prophecy in our future is a mistake. Clearly it was fulfilled in the events just listed above.

However, it is also obvious that the reason this passage lends itself to so many widely varied interpretations is that it is virtually impossible to figure out a way for it to work out mathematically. The way listed above comes pretty close, but it seems almost impossible to have any real degree of certainty about what Daniel 9:27 means beyond what is written above.

Actually, the restoration of Israel has a number of insurmountable problems that cannot be ignored. First, the promises to Israel were based on their keeping the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Nehemiah 1:7-10) which has been abolished, Ephesians 2:14-16. Second, Their inheritance was through their family estate (Leviticus 25, Jeremiah 12:14), but in 70 AD the genealogies were lost and forbidden to be looked into, 1 Timothy 1:4, Titus 3:9. Third, the northern ten tribes are lost, never to be restored (Hosea 1:4-6.) And, last but not least, the earthly throne of David became extinct with Coniah (Jeremiah 22:28-30.) No descendant of David ever ruled or sat on the throne again after him.

The establishment of national Israel in 1948 has nothing to do with biblical prophecy. Rather, it has to do with the premillennial theory of what scripture means, clearly not what it actually says. In this way it actually became self-fulfilling, in that the political climate of the world just after World War II was perfect timing for this theory to be accepted as right. But if we turn to scripture we see that national Israel is not God's Israel, we are, as Galatians 6:16, Romans 9:6-8 and other passages show.

The second question that the disciples asked Jesus was what would be the sign of His coming, and of the end of the age? This He answers in the rest of the chapter, beginning at v36, but the second key to understanding this chapter is that 36th verse, where He says that not even He knows when it will be.

So, yes, there were definite signs of the coming end of the Jewish age, and, as stated earlier, when Jerusalem was destroyed not one Christian was there.

But this chapter answers two questions, not one. As for the second coming of Christ, the second answer is that there are no signs. We should be ready all the time.

Those who want to lead a sinful life up to the last moment need to know that no one knows when that last moment will be, and that, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "...now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation."

The warning in v18, sometimes misapplied to the entire bible, really only applies to this book. There are warnings elsewhere about adding to or taking away from the scriptures. The emphasis here is to not change the imagery so as to lose the import of what it is about. It doesn't mean that you have to have a perfect understanding or else you would be adding to or taking away from it, for that would be impossible to have with any degree of assurance. There is a huge difference between having an opinion about what a verse means and changing what it actually says.

The book and the bible closes with Jesus yet again saying that He is coming soon. With John we say, amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

And now for the last flowchart file. Click here for the Conclusion as we attempt to summarize and wrap everything up.