Because Abram believed
God, he was called a righteous man and in effect was "born again." To reflect
this, God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. After Abraham's
son Isaac was born, God tested Abraham's love by asking him to sacrifice
his only son. This event demonstrates how much God loves us when
He sent His Son to die for us. In Genesis 22, Isaac represents a
picture of Jesus even to the detail of carrying the wood for his own sacrifice
like Jesus carried the wooden cross.
Abraham's descendants
were slaves in Egypt for four hundred years as was told to him by the Lord.
Then God called Moses to deliver the people and pronounced the same blessing
on him as He did to Abraham concerning the land given to Israel.
Exodus 3:1 -10
- - Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to
the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked,
and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to
see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses,
Moses. And he said, Here am I And He said, Draw not nigh hither:
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses
hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God And the Lord said, I have
surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard
their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and
I am come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians, and to
bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the
Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel
is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians
oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh,
that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Moses, as a Prophetic
Power Wrangler, went to Egypt and Pharaoh would not let the children of
Israel leave. God brought ten plagues upon Egypt, which caused Pharaoh
to let them go. The last plague killed all the firstborn in Egypt.
God gave Israel the ordinance of Passover to protect them from the destroyer.
God also used Moses as a Prophetic Power Wrangler when it was foretold
that Messiah would be a great Prophetic Power Wrangler. He also described
how to tell a true Prophetic Power Wrangler from a false prophet.
Deuteronomy 18:15-22
- - The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren; like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken. According
to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the
assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God neither
let me see this great fire anymore, that I die not. And the Lord
said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee,
and will put my words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that
I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will
not hearken unto my words which He shall speak in my name, I will require
it of him. But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in
my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in
the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou
say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not
spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing
follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not
spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be
afraid of him.
Moses was the
first judge of Israel and Samuel was one of the last. Saul was chosen
to be the first King of Israel. But when he disobeyed God, his kingdom
was given to David who was considered to be a man after God's own heart.
God told David that his throne would be established forever, meaning that
Messiah would be David's descendant. Another King of Israel, Hezekiah,
got into trouble when he showed all the temple wealth to men from Babylon.
Because of the pride of life, God told Hezekiah through another Prophetic
Power Wrangler, Isaiah, that Babylon would take Israel captive.
2 Kings 20:12-18
- - At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, King of Babylon,
sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah
had been sick And Hezekiah hearkened unto them and shewed them all the
house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices,
and the precious ointment and all the house of his armour, and all that
was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all
his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. Then came Isaiah the
prophet unto King Hezekiak and said unto him, What said these men? And
from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from
afar country, even from Babylon. And he said, What have they seen
in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine
house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not
shewed them. And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the Word of the
Lord. Behold, the days come, that all this is in thine house, and
that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried
into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons
that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall be taken away;
and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon.
This prophecy
was fulfilled when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem and
carried away all the people of Jerusalem.
2 Kings 24:14
- - And he carried away alI Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the
mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen
and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.
God then visited
King Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. But when he awoke he could not remember
the dream. Another Prophetic Power Wrangler, Daniel, went to the
king and told him the dream and the interpretation from God. This
first of many dreams describe the five Gentile empires that would rule
the earth. Four of these would be before Messiah and the last Gentile
kingdom would take place in the last days. The first four Gentile
kingdoms are covered in this chapter and the last kingdom will be described
in Chapter 3.
Daniel 2:28 -
- But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known
to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.
The first kingdom
described was Babylon.
Daniel 2:31,
32, 36-38 - - Thou, 0 king, sawest, and behold a great image. This
great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the
form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold...
This is the dream: and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the
king. Thou, 0 king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath
given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever
the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the
heaven hath He given unto thine hand, and hath made the ruler over them
all. Thou art this head of gold.
In the book of
Daniel there are several dreams and visions seen by different people.
Each vision was different but it is important to note that each one added
information to the previous one to supply more pieces of the prophecy puzzle.
King Nebuchadnezzar saw Babylon as a head of gold. Daniel saw Babylon
as a lion with eagle's wings in the next vision.
Daniel 7:1-4,
17 - - In the first year of Belshazzar King of Babylon Daniel had a dream
and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told
the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision
by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great
sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from
another The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till
the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and
made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out
of the earth.
In the law given
to Moses, Israel was instructed to plant crops for six years and not plant
anything every seventh year. However, they disobeyed God and planted
the seventh year anyway. They did this for a total of 490 sabbath
years. God said that Israel must pay back these years as judgment
against them. In prophecy relating to Israel, one day is equal to
one year. So when a week of judgment against Israel is mentioned,
it is really a period of seven years instead of seven days of judgment.
Thus seventy weeks is 70 times 7, or 490 years.
Daniel 9:24 -
- Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,
to finish the transgression . . .
Daniel saw that
the second Gentile kingdom would be the Medo-Persian Empire.
Daniel 2:32,39
- - . . . his breast and his arms of silver,... and after thee shall arise
another kingdom inferior to thee, . . .
Daniel 5:28,
30, 31 - - . . . and given to the Medes and the Persians. In that
night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius
the Median took the kingdoms being about threescore and two years old.
Daniel 7:5 -
- And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up
itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the
teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, arise, devour much flesh.
Daniel 8:3, 20
- - Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before
the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one
was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. The ram which
thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
During the Medo-Persian
Empire the order was given to rebuild Jerusalem. This marked the
beginning of the "Seventy Weeks" of judgment on Israel. The time
span from then until Messiah would come used up sixty-nine of the seventy
weeks of judgment.
Daniel 9:25 -
- Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again,
and the wall, even in troublous times.
Daniel 10:20
- - Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee: and now I will
return to fight with the prince of Persia:
The third Gentile
kingdom that Daniel saw was the Greek Empire. The first Greek ruler
was Alexander the Great. When he conquered Israel, he spared the
burning of Jerusalem because they showed him the prophecy concerning him.
Daniel 2:32,
39 - - . . . his belly and his thighs of brass, . . . and another third
kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
Daniel 7:6 -
- After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the
back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion
was given to it.
Daniel 8:5,21
- - And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on
the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground. and the goat had
a notable horn between his eyes. And the rough goat is the king of
Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
Daniel 10:20
- - . . . and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
The fourth Gentile
kingdom of the earth was the Roman Empire, which was still in power when
Jesus the Messiah was born. This kingdom was also seen by Daniel
(see map 1-2)
Daniel 2:33,
40 - - His legs of iron, . . . And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as
iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and
as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
Daniel 7:7, 19,
23 - - After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth:
it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet
of it. and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it: ...
Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from
all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails
of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with
his feet: brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet: . . .
Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth,
which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth,
and shall tread it down, and break in pieces.
