by Brian Godawa
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Prince of desolation: Titus, the prince to come on the wing of abomination.
Daniel 9:26–27
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolated.”
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CHAPTER 40
Jesus fulfilled all the Jewish feasts: Special thanks to David Curtis of Berean Bible Church for his teaching on this topic. You can get his free teachings on these at: http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/studies/leviticus.php
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Feast of Weeks:
Leviticus 23:15–16
15 “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD.
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See chapter 14 for the theological explanation of the covenant in terms of “heaven and earth.”
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The Restoration of Israel is embodied in the book of Acts:
The following is an excerpt from my book, Brian Godawa, Israel in Bible Prophecy: The New Testament Fulfillment of the Promise to Abraham, (Los Angeles, Embedded Pictures Publishing, 2017), 59-61.
In Acts 2, we read about the first explosion of the Gospel with the first baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was the thing that Jesus had told them to wait for, which would launch them into all the world with the Good News (Acts 1:4). Pentecost would be the historical inauguration of the heavenly New Covenant achieved by the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. It would be the pouring out of God’s Spirit upon his people (Isa 32:12-19; 44:5; Ezek 36:25-28; 37:14).
The disciples asked Jesus if this was the time of the restoration of Israel (1:6), the very thing we have been discussing in this work. Jesus told them that the restoration of Israel would begin occurring when the Holy Spirit came upon them, but they were not to worry themselves with the timing (1:8).
And what was the restoration, but the pouring out of God’s Spirit and the regathering of Jews from all over the known earth in a spiritual metaphorical resurrection? (Ezek 37). So when the disciples were baptized with the Spirit at Pentecost and began to speak in foreign tongues, that was the fulfillment of God’s pouring out of his Spirit. Pouring is a form of baptizing (Heb 9:10, 13, 19, 21). But it was also the beginning of the regathering of Jews because “there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). The list of nations that are described (Acts 2:9-11) just happens to be a representative sampling of the seventy nations of Genesis 10. To the ancient Jew, those seventy were “all the nations” to which the Jews were scattered (Amos 9:9). According to the apostle Luke, Pentecost of AD 30 was transformed into the beginning of the gathering of Jews from all the nations.
And that gathering of Jews included the Gentiles. It was a gathering of two bodies into one that was occurring all throughout the book of Acts. Notice these passages that say that the evangelism of Acts is the very fulfillment of the promise to gather the Gentiles with the Jews as his people:
Acts 15:13–19
13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written.
Acts 26:23
[Paul:] 23 that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
The “ingathering” was based upon the unity of belief in Jesus as Messiah. Isaiah had prophesied that when Messiah first came (the branch of Jesse), in that very day, the Lord would “recover the remnant that remains of his people,” from all the nations. “In that day,” the root of Jesse would be “raised (resurrected) as a signal for the nations,” and would “assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isa 11:1-2, 10-12). According to the prophecy, the gathering of the remnant and the Gentiles would occur at the first coming of Messiah, when Jesus was resurrected, not the second coming. In that day of Messiah’s arrival and resurrection (his raising as a signal), he would draw both the remnant of Israel as well as Gentile believers. This will not start in our future, it already started in the book of Acts! Paul likened that raising of the signal to Christ’s resurrection, and confirmed this Isaianic promise as already being fulfilled during his ministry:
Romans 15:8–9, 12
8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy…12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.
What were the promises given to the patriarchs that Paul says were confirmed (“verified”) in Christ’s resurrection? All of them, including the regathering (Acts 3:24; 32; 15:13-15; 24:24; 26:6). In fact, most of the prophecies about the regathering of Israel almost always add the inclusion of Gentiles as a simultaneous event (See more below). But the point is that the book of Romans says explicitly that the Isaianic prophecy about the gathering of the remnant along with the Gentiles was already being fulfilled in his own day. This is not an eschatological system demanding something must be fulfilled in the future, this is the New Testament itself saying the prophecy was fulfilled in the first century, in that day.
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Believers as the new covenant temple of God: I have already explained this in previous footnotes.
Ephesians 2:19–22
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
1 Peter 2:4–5
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
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This parable is a paraphrase of Jesus’ parables of the end of the age: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. But it also integrates with John the baptizer’s warning about the separation of the wheat and chaff at the end of the age as well:
Matthew 3:11–12
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
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This is a reference to: Revelation 14:14-16. It fits in with Jesus’ parable about the end of the age and John the baptizer’s parable as well. In Revelation 14, the first harvest is of believers in Jesus to protect them from judgment. But the second harvest right after it is a harvest of grapes for the winepress of God’s wrath. This is the judgment on apostate Jews. Revelation 14:17-20.
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God used Babylonians to perform his judgment destroying the first temple 587 BC
Jeremiah 4:12–27
Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.” 13 Behold, h
e comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles… Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem, “Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah…27 For thus says the LORD, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
God uses Nebuchadnezzar as his tool to judge Egypt
Ezekiel 30:24–26
24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him like a man mortally wounded. 25 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. 26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
God uses the Medes to destroy Babylon in 539 BC
Isa. 13:1
The oracle concerning Babylon ...The LORD of hosts is mustering the army for battle. 5 They are coming from a far country, From the farthest heavens, The LORD and His instruments of indignation, To destroy the whole earth. …11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil..17 Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them..
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Moshe is quoting from: Zechariah 14:12-13.
Here is an interesting possibility for an interpretation of that judgment on Rome:
This is the plague with which the LORD will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
“In Zechariah 14:2, the prophet predicts that “all the nations [will be gathered] to Jerusalem to fight against it.” This seems to have been fulfilled when the Roman legions and auxiliaries consisting of a vast array of ethnic groups from all over the known world attacked Jerusalem in A.D. 70…
“In v. 12 the Lord threatens to “strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem [such that t]heir flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.” A couple years after Israel’s war with Rome, Mount Vesuvius erupted releasing a colossal surge cloud that engulfed the surrounding Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and Oplontis in an incendiary cloud of smoke, lava and ash. Burning at approximately one thousand degrees Fahrenheit, this volcanic ash would have killed the people in these cities in roughly three to five seconds – their flesh beginning to be consumed before their bodies even hit the ground. Zechariah 14 closes with the following prediction: “And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD Almighty.”2 In A.D. 70, the Romans destroyed the Temple, the “house of the LORD Almighty,” making it impossible for anyone to physically enter…
“Under Titus’s leadership, Jerusalem was attacked and destroyed. Nine years after this military victory, Titus succeeded his father as emperor of Rome. During this time, I believe God patiently waited to fulfill the plague described in v. 12. After Titus, the Roman general responsible for Jerusalem’s desolation, had at last become emperor of Rome in June of A.D. 79, the scourge of Zechariah 14:12 may have been released.
“In August of that year, Mount Vesuvius erupted destroying Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and Oplontis. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, a colossal surge cloud rushed down the mountain engulfing the surrounding cities in an incendiary cloud of smoke, lava and ash. Burning at approximately one thousand degrees Fahrenheit, five times hotter than boiling water, this volcanic ash would have killed the people of Pompeii and the surrounding cities in roughly three to five seconds. The flesh of many of these people would have begun to be consumed even before their bodies dropped to the ground fulfilling v.12: “Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.” Concerning the magnitude of this eruption and its aftermath, Cassius Dio writes:
Indeed, the amount of dust, taken all together, was so great that some of it reached Africa and Syria and Egypt, and it also reached Rome, filling the air overhead and darkening the sun. . . .These ashes, now, did the Romans no great harm at the time, though later they brought a terrible pestilence upon them.29
“Concerning the plague induced by the ashes of Vesuvius, Suetonius writes that it was “one of the worst outbreaks of plague that had ever been known.” Cassius Dio also says that this ash “wrought much injury of various kinds. . . .”31 The plague described in v. 12 may be the fifth plague of Revelation 16:11, the plague of boils. Perhaps this burning ash and the subsequent pestilence it caused also brought about tissue necrosis, rotting the flesh of those affected, as is suggested in v. 12 and Revelation 16:11? …
“Volcanic eruptions often release great amounts of sulfuric dioxide into the atmosphere. When this gas reacts with water vapor it forms sulfuric acid which falls to the ground as acid rain. Could the tissue rot mentioned in Zechariah 14:12 and the “pains” and “sores” of Revelation 16:11 have also been induced by especially-caustic acid rain?…
13 On that day men will be stricken by the LORD with great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other. 14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected – great quantities of gold and silver and clothing.
“Describing the panic induced by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, Cassius Dio writes in fulfillment of v. 13: “Therefore they fled, some from the houses into the streets, others from the outside into the houses, now from the sea to the land and now from the land to the sea; for in their excitement they regarded any place where they were not as safer than where they were.”32 In the next verse, Cassius Dio states that the citizens of Pompeii were seated at the theater when the eruption took place.33 Were the people of Pompeii watching Jewish prisoners of war forced to dual to the death? Were they watching gladiatorial combat or any other type of hand to hand combat as was commonly presented in Roman theaters in fulfillment of v. 13: “Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other”?”
“Zechariah 14 Fulfilled–including the splitting of the Mount of Olives!” on RevelationRevolution.org online: https://revelationrevolution.org/zechariah-14-fulfilled-a-preterist-commentary/
Also consider:
“[D]uring the period of the Jewish War (AD 67–70) judgments befell Rome: the specific manifestation of the beast, Nero, committed suicide (June, AD 68) and the Roman civil wars erupted (AD 68-69) causing the death throes of the generic concept of the beast.
“Tacitus records the (generic) beast’s circumstances:
The history on which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil struggles, horrible even in peace. Four emperors fell by the sword; there were three civil wars, more foreign wars and often both at the same time. There was success in the East [i.e., the Jewish War], misfortune in the West. Illyricum was disturbed, the Gallic provinces wavering, Britain subdued and immediately let go. The Sarmatae and Suebi rose against us; the Dacians won fame by defeats inflicted and suffered; even the Parthians were almost roused to arms through the trickery of a pretended Nero. Moreover, Italy was distressed by disasters unknown before or returning after the lapse of ages. . . . Rome was devastated by conflagrations, in which her most ancient shrines were consumed and the very Capitol fired by citizens’ hands. Sacred rites were defiled; there were adulteries in high places. The sea was filled with exiles, its cliffs made foul with the bodies of the dead. In Rome there was more awful cruelty. High birth, wealth, the refusal or acceptance of office – all gave ground for accusations, and virtues caused the surest ruin. The rewards of the informers were no less hateful than their crimes; for some, gaining priesthoods and consulships as spoils, others, obtaining positions as imperial agents and secret influence at court,
made havoc and turmoil everywhere, inspiring hatred and terror. Slaves were corrupted against their masters, freedmen against their patrons; and those who had no enemy were crushed by their friends. . . . Besides the manifold misfortunes that befell mankind, there were prodigies in the sky and on the earth, warnings given by thunderbolts, and prophecies of the future, both joyful and gloomy, uncertain and clear. For never was it more fully proved by awful disasters of the Roman people or by indubitable signs that gods care not for our safety, but for our punishment. (Hist. 1:2–3)
“Josephus himself observes that “about this time it was that heavy calamities came about Rome on all sides” (J.W. 4:10:1 §585) with thousands dying (J.W. 4:9:9 §545–555; 4:11:4 §645–55; Tac., Hist. 1:2). General Vespasian was tormented by the horrible news: “And as this sorrow of his was violent, he was not able to support the torments he was under, nor to apply himself further in other wars when his native country was laid waste” (J.W. 4:10:2). In addition, the Jewish War was extremely costly to the Romans, requiring four legions (which sustained thousands of casualties) and more than three years of effort and resources (Barker 311).”