2 Thess 2. The Purpose of the Great Tribulation.
length: 58:20 - taught on Aug, 3 2023
Class Outline:
Thursday August 3, 2023
The first great purpose of the Tribulation is to prepare the nation of Israel for her Messiah.
‘Alas! for that day is great,
There is none like it;
And it is the time of Jacob's distress,
But he will be saved from it.’
As we will see from Scripture, the Tribulation is primarily Jewish. The Tribulation will bring about the conversion of a multitude of Jews, who will with one voice confess their sin and plead for the Messiah’s return.
'Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God
And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,' declares the Lord.
I will go away and return to My place
Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'"
When they do, those who have survived the Tribulation will enter into the blessings of the kingdom and experience the fulfillment of all Israel’s covenants.
The main purpose of the Tribulation is for the nation of Israel.
The second great purpose of the Tribulation is to pour out judgment on unbelieving man and nations.
Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains …
Daniel’s Seventy Sevens.
In the prophecy there are seventy sevens (Hebrew is not “weeks”) that are weeks of years (like a Sabbath year or Jubilee) or 490 years. These are broken up into three divisions: 7 and 62, and 1. The first two divisions have no gap between them and so add to 69 weeks. These have already been fulfilled, which is exciting. What is further exciting is that Jesus fulfilled them when He rode into Jerusalem on the colt (fulfilling ZEC 9:9).
The church is not mentioned in the prophecy, much like the church is not mentioned in Rev 6-18.
The seventy weeks of Daniel further reveal a distinction in history between Israel and the church.
This prophecy gives us a divine chronology. The greater portion of the Book of Revelation is an expansion of Daniel’s prophecy of the seventieth week.
The context of the prophecy is Daniel’s curiosity concerning the prophecy of Jeremiah about the length of time Israel would be in captivity in Babylon.
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans — 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
All Daniel knows is that Israel will be restored as the other prophets had said - meaning the Millennial reign of the Messiah. Knowing the prophecies that Israel would have to confess their sins, Daniel confesses theirs and his own.
After some time in intense prayer …
"So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. 18 "O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. 19 "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name."
Gabriel comes to reveal to Daniel the program of God, which would bring in the Kingdom. It would not be seventy years but seventy times seven of years.
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. 25 So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”
- The entire prophecy has to do with Daniel’s people and city, v. 24.
It has to do with Israel and Jerusalem.
- There are two princes: Messiah (v. 25) and the prince to come (v. 26).
These are not the same prince. And it becomes obvious that the prince to come is the same chief of the fourth empire, the little horn (DAN 7:8), the insolent king (DAN 8:23), the man of sin (2Th 2), and the beast out of the sea (Rev 13). He has at least thirty titles in Scripture.
Daniel’s Seventy Sevens.
[click to fly in] The beginning is the commandment to restore Jerusalem.
The Scripture there are several decrees that have to do with the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. The decree of Artaxerxes (NEH 2:1-8) was the first to give permission to rebuild the city. This year we know from historical research to be 445 B.C.
Daniel’s Seventy Sevens.
[click to fly in] The first 7 weeks is the 49 years it took to rebuild Jerusalem.
There is no gap between this first seven and the next subdivision of 62.
So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress
Seven sevens is directly followed by sixty-two sevens. But then, in vs. 26, signs are given because there is a gap of indeterminate time between 69 weeks and the seventieth week.
From 445 B.C., 483 years later, the Messiah would present Himself to Jerusalem. By all intents and purposes, the Scripture puts it to the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the colt in the spring of A.D. 32, April 6.
After the 69 weeks or 483 years, after the entry into Jerusalem, two signs are given:
Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”
Cut off means to be killed.
Have nothing may mean His judgment for the sins of all, being forsaken by His Father, not for Himself but for others.
This did not happen on the day of His triumphal entry into the city, but a number of days later. The city was destroyed, but not on the day of His entry, but roughly 40 years later. These two delays between the entry of Messiah the Prince and these two signs refute the interpretation that the seventieth week happened directly after the sixty-ninth week.
Posttribulational rapturists and amillennialists want the seventieth week to be fulfilled historically immediately following the death of Christ. But a sober and literal evaluation of the prophecy reveals a gap.
Daniel’s Seventy Sevens.
[click to fly in] There is a gap of indeterminate time between 69 weeks and the 70th week (the Great Tribulation).
The people of the prince destroy the city and the temple. At most we can say that the Antichrist is a Gentile.
We also have a prophecy that for the remainder of the interval between week 69 and 70 the Land will be characterized by war. End of vs. 26, even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
There has been constant conflict and war in the world and especially the Middle-East.
After the death of the Messiah and the destruction of the temple and city, the beginning of the seventieth week is marked by the establishment of a firm covenant or treaty between the prince to come and the Jewish nation for a period of one week. It is this treaty that marks the start of the seventieth week.
Daniel’s Seventy Sevens.
[click to fly in] The seventieth week begins with the signing of a seven year covenant with Israel.
This is still in the future.
"And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."
In the midst of this week (7 years) the prince will break his treaty with Israel, putting a stop to the temple sacrifice (and putting his image in the holy of holies) and he will turn on the Jewish people with fierce desolation.
The beast will restore the land to the Jews, restore the temple and its sacrifices, and bless the Jews in the nation of Israel for the first 3.5 years of the Tribulation. It may be that he convinces many in Israel that he is the messiah.
Whatever the case, like the ultimate false messiah he is, he breaks his covenant, something the true Messiah would never do.
The Antichrist is going to institute idol worship with his image as the idol.
The complete destruction means a full end. This period, the worst ever seen, will not be one day shorter or one day longer than what it is destined to be. And in the last half of it, the desolator will make it desolate, especially for all Jews that he can get.
The actual reason for it all is in vs. 24, which contains 6 things.
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.”
We will see them next time.
There is an ultimate of evil and hatred of good. It is embodied in the antichrist. This should make us even more cautious when tempted with sin and worldliness. And, the time is short. Our Master is returning.
"Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. 34 "It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. 35 "Therefore, be on the alert — for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning — 36 in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 "What I say to you I say to all, 'Be on the alert!'"
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