Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #6 of Revelation, chapter 10, and we are going to be reading Revelation 10:5-7:
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Just to remind us, we have been reading through Revelation, chapter 10, and we saw that this “mighty angel” is the Lord Jesus Christ and He is making an appearance in the Day of Judgment with the “little book” open, the Bible, to indicate that the Bible is still open and additional divine information (which comes forth from the mouth of God) can be learned in the Day of Judgment.
He is also making this appearance to encourage the people of God to prophesy once more. We saw in Amos 3, verse 8, that God relates a lion’s roar to His speaking and, so, too, here in Revelation 10:3, when the mighty messenger, the Lord Jesus, cried with a loud voice it was as when a lion roareth. Then God said, in Amos 3:8, that when the Lord does speak, “Who can but prophesy?” It says in our chapter in Revelation 10, in Revelation 10:11
And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
This is to encourage us and to move us, once again, to the task at hand, which is to feed sheep which is accomplished by sharing truth. Therefore, we are to publish these things and conceal them not; we are not to hold back or hide information about the time we are living in. We are to share as much truth as possible. It is the same thing believers have always done, but the only difference is that we are not sharing truth from the Bible in order for individuals to hear and become saved. We do not even have that hope or expectation. We are not to encourage anyone in the slightest bit along those lines. We are just to tell people what God is doing at this time. This is where we are at; we are living on the earth in the Day of Judgment, and, as always, truth will nourish the children of God. For those that are not children of God, they will just dismiss it or write it off. It probably will not concern them all that much. That is not our business and not our concern. The Bible does tell us that the people that did not become saved prior to May 21, 2011, will just continue on and they will not repent; there is no more repentance unto salvation. That is no longer taking place. Of course, God’s people that are already saved will repent and turn, in an ongoing manner, because that is the lifestyle God has given us.
Here, we see this mighty messenger that came down from heaven “lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever… that there should be time no longer.” We went back to the Book of Daniel, chapter 12, and we saw that there was a similar verse – it is not exactly the same and, yet, we are looking at the similarities. It says in Daniel 12:7:
And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
In looking at this verse, we realized that we now understand the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel 9, because Daniel 12:7 is speaking of “time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished,” and we saw how the “time, times, and an half ” or “three and one half” relates to a similar verse in Revelation 12, verses 13 and 14, concerning the woman that brought forth the man child; that is, the body of believers, as God brought Christ through Judea and He pictures it as though the believers brought forth the Lord. Then following Christ’s birth, the “woman,” or the body of believers, fled into the wilderness for “a time, and times, and half a time.” That is similar to this statement in Daniel 12:7. Yet, God helped us further in Revelation 12, verses 5 and 6, where He basically gave us the same information concerning the woman fleeing into the wilderness where she was fed for “1260 days,” which is “three and one half years” of 30-day months. That relates to the last half. The 69th week goes to 29 A.D.; then the period of Christ’s three and one half year ministry takes us to 33 A.D. Then God has the last “three and one half” of the seventieth week stretch for 1,955 years, the entire church age, or the period that the woman was said to flee into the wilderness.
We did not mention this last time, but it says in Revelation 12:6:
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
This time period is the same as we read about in Revelation 11, concerning the “two witnesses.” It says in Revelation 11:3:
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Now we can see that the “1,260 days” for the woman was the period of the church age, the period in which she was nourished by God – when God was with her, caring for her, watching out for her and protecting her. And God says, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days,” or 1,260 days, and that confirms our understanding of the “two witnesses” that had their period of testimony from 33 A.D., which would be the middle of the seventieth week of Daniel 9, or 69 ½ weeks; the “three and one half years” of Christ’s ministry (half of seven); and then the “last half,” or “three and one half” elongated years…you know, this is God’s prerogative to do with numbers as He wishes because He is God. If He wants one half of “seven” to be a literal “three and one half” years, as it was in the case of the ministry of Christ, and if He then wants the second half to fill up that “seventy” and to stretch over almost 2,000 years and to identify that period as “1,260 days” or “three and one half years,” or “time, times, and an half,” that is also His privilege. He is God. He is the author. He is the writer of the Bible and He defines His own terms.
So when God speaks of a “Day of Judgment,” as He does in numerous places in the Bible, and then He has that day stretch out, for instance, for a likely 1,600 days; well, alright, God can do that; it is all in how He defines the numbers, the words and the phrases He uses. He is the one who had the “day of salvation” stretch out for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, so, certainly, a Day of Judgment can also be a prolonged period of time.
So the “two witnesses” prophesied for that “1,260” for the last half of Daniel 9, and then notice what happens in Revelation 11:7:
And when they shall have finished their testimony…
And when did they finish? It was after “1,260 days” or after the “times, times and an half.”
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
This agrees perfectly with Daniel 12:7. God is swearing there, by Him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a “time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people.” God gave them “power” and even though that word “power” is italicized, it is still the point in view in that passage. God does use the word “authority” there, which He gave to the “two witnesses” and they carried out that authority for “times, times and an half,” or “1,260 days.” Then it says in Daniel 12:7:
…and when he shall have accomplished…
The Hebrew word translated as “accomplished” is the same word translated as “finished” at the end of this verse, so we could read it this way: “…and when he shall have finished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” The holy people were those that were the caretakers of the Word of God; they were the “two witnesses” that had the Bible in their possession and it gave them the authority of God Himself and, yet, there came a time when He scattered the power of the holy people and “all these things shall be finished.”
The word “scattered” is translated as “break in pieces” nine times in Jeremiah 51. This is describing the end of the church age and the end of God utilizing the New Testament churches and congregations as His representatives to the people of the world. He has “scattered the holy people,” or those that were made holy by identification with the Word of God, the holy Bible. That would bring us to the end of Daniel, chapter 9, the end of the “seventieth week.”
Now let us go back to Daniel 9 because this is something we are learning. We had always assumed that Daniel 9 goes to the end of the world and it does, as far as God is concerned because the end of the church age and the beginning of the Great Tribulation is the time of the end. It is the beginning of judgment; judgment begins at the house of God and it is a very long stretch from that point on – twenty three years of Great Tribulation and of judgment on the churches; and then it looks like another four years, four months and 16 days of judging the world (1,600 days), or 10,000 overall days of judgment. Yet, God is bringing us to the point when the Bible is “unsealed,” the time of the end. So we read in Daniel 9:24:
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city…
Do you see how it is letting us know that what God is going to talk to you about has to do with the “holy city,” the corporate churches where the “two witnesses” were located for “1,260 days”?
…to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness…
All those phrases can relate to Christ when He went to the cross. Remember, included within these seventy “sevens” of Daniel 9 is a lot of information focused on the ministry of Christ and His going to the cross in 33 A.D. But then it goes on to say at the end of Daniel 9:24:
…and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
So here is the reference to sealing up the prophecy. According to Daniel 12:4, which said, “Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” We have known for some time that the Bible was unsealed at the very beginning of the Great Tribulation period; that is when the seventh and last seal was taken off the Book. Then there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour (at the end of the removal of the seven seals) which began the 2,300 evening mornings, when virtually no one was being saved for the first 2,300 days of the Great Tribulation.
Then it says in 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.
This is a prophecy dealing with the Messiah, the coming of Christ and His official period of earthly ministry, so it does not relate to the end of the world, so we are going to continue on. All of this information, and our previous understanding of this, was correct.
It says in Daniel 9:26:
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off…
That happened at the cross. Then it says in Daniel 9:26-27:
…but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…
This is the “seventieth week.”
…and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…
We continue to understand this correctly. This occurred in 33 A.D. when Jesus ended all sacrifice. Never again were animal sacrifices to be offered; “sacrifice and the oblation” ceased.
Then notice what it says at the end of Daniel 9:27:
…and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate…
That sounds very much like Matthew 24:15 and its reference to “the abomination of desolation,” and we know that at the precise moment that God ended the church age, the Holy Spirit came out of the midst and Satan entered in (the “abomination of desolation”) and that immediately scattered the power of the holy people and ended the period of “time, times and an half,” and that started the period of the end: “and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate.
The word “desolate” is a word that God uses very often to describe the spiritual condition of the churches after the Holy Spirit removed Himself and came out the midst.
…even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
So this statement would lead to the final end of all things. So the “abomination of desolation” will make it (the churches) desolate until the “consummation,” or until the end of the world, as that seventieth week concludes with the abomination of desolation being set up and established in the churches, showing himself that he is God. (The information the Lord gives us in 2 Thessalonians concerning the “man of sin” and the “man of sin” and the “abomination of desolation” is one and the same.) That desolate condition will continue until the final end of all things – when you begin the time of the end (when judgment begins at the house of God), it must conclude; it does not go on indefinitely without end. Certainly, it is the “beginning of the end,” and the “time of the end,” so we have been living in the period of the end since May 21, 1988, when the “seventieth week” of Daniel 9 finished and we officially entered the end stage of this world.
Let us go back to Revelation 10:5-6:
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
What is He swearing? He is swearing that “there should be time no longer.” God is swearing and the Bible tells us when God swears like this, it is as though He has taken an oath. Now we are not going to have time in this study, but we are going to look, Lord willing, in our next study at the relationship of the oath of God with God’s overall program of salvation and of judgment. It is interesting that God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and He swore certain things: He swore that their seed would multiply; He swore that they would enter the land of Canaan into the Promised Land. What we are going to find is that just about all the things which God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were found in relationship to the Egyptian bondage and the deliverance from that bondage.
We are also going to find that these things are extremely similar to what took place during the Great Tribulation period. For instance, God brought Israel into Egypt where they were soon in captivity; they were in captivity in Egypt. During the Great Tribulation, God commanded His people to leave the churches and go into the world. We understand that the teaching in the Book of Jeremiah, where God commanded the Jews to go into Babylonian captivity, is picturing that. Therefore, during the period of the “latter rain,” God’s people (in a spiritual sense) were in Babylonian captivity, just as Israel was in Egyptian captivity. What happened while they were in captivity? The Israelites multiplied greatly, to the point that the Egyptians began to fear them. And what happened during our period of Babylonian captivity during the last (about) seventeen years of the Great Tribulation in which God commanded His people to go into the world? Well, we multiplied greatly – God saved a great multitude out of the nations of the world. In other words, it is as though the captives in Babylon multiplied, just as the Israelites in Egypt multiplied. You can see how this is very similar and, actually, the similarities continue. There are a few more that we will hopefully get a chance to talk about.
God also swore something very “hard” that relates to His wrath and His judgment concerning some that came out of that Egyptian captivity, so the swearing of God is like a two-sided sword. On the one hand, He swears to the benefit of His people and, on the other hand, He swears to the condemning of those that are not His people. We will look at that later.
Let us just take a look at Hebrews, chapter 6, right now and then we will close this study. It says in Hebrews 6:13-18:
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Here, God is speaking to us as the Bible basically lays out the promises of God and the child of God hopes and lives according to those promises. You know, if the promises of the Bible are not true and faithful and if this Book is what the atheists or secularists claim it to be…or any individuals that dispute and doubt and are critical…of course, these people have nothing to offer and they do not know anything themselves, but they think they do. So they think they know better than God; they know better than the Words written in this Book, and they will call it a fairy tale or some nice stories that have been put together, and they say, “It is not true and you cannot count on these things.” Well, if what they say is true, then we have no hope; we have no Gospel and we are worse off than anyone else in this world. Yet, God swears and promises and tells us, absolutely, that we can trust everything that is said in this Book, from beginning to end. “I swear,” God is saying, and He is taking an oath.
So when we find this mighty messenger, the Lord Jesus, “lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever…that there should be time no longer,” then that is a fact – it is a guarantee and a promise of God that the point will come when time will end.