The Restoration
Bible Study Time 8-26-07
Bible Study Time 8-26-07
Last week, we looked at Daniel’s prayer of confession. Daniel had been taken captive and carried away into Babylon. God had allowed this to happen because Israel had refused to live by the laws of God. Daniel was heartbroken when he later heard about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.
Ezekiel was there in Babylon with Daniel when God gave Ezekiel a message for the people. He said:
Ezekiel 18:2-4 NKJV
2 "What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on edge'?
3 "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.
4 "Behold, . . . The soul who sins shall die.
The children of Israel were consoling themselves that they were not the ones who were responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews. They commonly quoted the proverb that said, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” They conveniently excused themselves from any wrongdoing. They simply thought that they were being punished for the sins of their fathers.
They may have thought back on the days of Manasseh who did such evil in the sight of the Lord that the Lord told Manasseh:
2 Kings 21:12-13 NKJV
12 . . . 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
The Jews in Babylon knew that God had promised the captivity of the Jews because of Manasseh’s sin, so it was much easier for them to think of their own misery as being a result of Manasseh’s sins. They never thought about the fact that God had actually postponed that judgment for Josiah because Josiah repented and turned Israel away from her sin.
Ezekiel saw that many of the unbelieving Jews in Babylon were claiming that they had done nothing to deserve the punishment of God, so Ezekiel said, no more. No more will you say, the teeth of the children are set on edge because the father‘s have eaten sour grapes. He said, the soul that sins, it shall die.
Ezekiel 18:30-32 NKJV
30 "Therefore . . . Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"
Daniel took to heart the words of Ezekiel and though he was a very godly man, he got on his knees before the Lord to confess his sins and the sins of his people. He said:
Daniel 9:4-5 NKJV
4 . . . "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,
5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.
Daniel didn’t say, my people have sinned. No, He said, we have sinned and committed iniquity.
Daniel knew the Lord, and he knew that no man could stand before a just and a holy God and claim to be without sin. To confess the sins of others without admitting one’s own guilt would be the ultimate proof of the sin of pride and arrogance. Daniel wasn’t just putting on an act for God when he confessed his sins; his confession and his contrition were very real.
So when Daniel first started to pray, God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Daniel some astonishing things. Daniel had been praying about the restoration of the temple and the restoration of the city of Jerusalem. He said:
Daniel 9:16-17 NKJV
16 "O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.
17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.
Daniel longed for the restoration of the temple, the city and the kingdom. As a young man he had experienced the joy of worshiping the Lord in the temple where the very presence of the Lord was. Ezekiel said that he saw in a vision the time when the glory of the Lord left the temple in Jerusalem. What a sad time for all of the true believers. The presence of the Lord had left the temple, but they also knew that someday the presence and the glory of the Lord would return to the temple.
Daniel knew from the writings of Jeremiah that the children of Israel would be allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city after 70 years. When Daniel first heard the words of Jeremiah, he may have thought that after 70 years the temple would be rebuilt and the glory of the Lord would return to the earth. But that was not going to happen, and God wanted Daniel to know that. It was a harsh reality, but God always wants us to know the truth. After all, it’s the truth that sets us free.
Daniel knew that you can’t have the kingdom without the presence of the Lord. Many years after Daniel, the Apostle Paul came to the same conclusion. He said, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
When the children of Israel did return to Jerusalem after 70 years, and after they did start rebuilding the temple, Ezra said that:
Ezra 3:12 NKJV
12 . . . many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes.
We don’t know if they were weeping for joy or if they were overcome with sadness when they saw what was to be the new temple, but we do know that they had every reason to be sad. Even though it was God’s will for them to return to rebuild the temple, the glorious presence of the Lord was never going to fill that temple.
That temple would serve as the center of Jewish worship for hundreds of years, but it would not be blessed with the presence of the Lord. Without the presence of the Lord, you don’t have the kingdom of God, and that’s exactly what God wanted to talk to Daniel about.
In Daniel, Chapter 9, the angel Gabriel told Daniel in essence that from the time that the Jews went back to rebuild Jerusalem, it would be another 490 years before the true restoration of the kingdom.
Do you think this was a crushing blow to Daniel? I mean, seventy years must have seemed like a long time to Daniel, but now he learns that it will actually be 490 years before the glory of the kingdom is restored to Israel.
One might think that Daniel would be crushed to hear this, but the text gives no indication that he was. Oh, he was no doubt astonished and amazed, but it doesn’t seem that he was disappointed.
Up to this point Daniel had never seen the true magnitude of what God was planning for Israel. He had always thought in terms of God bringing back the glory of the kingdom as it was under David and Solomon. But as wonderful as that kingdom was, its glory would be miniscule compared to what God has planned for Israel in the future.
I think that when Daniel caught a vision of the coming kingdom with immortal beings ruling over the entire earth with the glory of the Son of God actually dwelling in Jerusalem, he never looked back with longing for the Jerusalem of his day. God knew that Daniel’s vision of the future was too small, and it was causing Daniel to suffer spiritually. So God helped Daniel to think a little bigger. Actually, he helped Daniel to think a whole lot bigger. Once Daniel saw the magnificent glory of the future kingdom, how could he set his affections on anything less. He knew that the kingdom of the Messiah was worth waiting for.
Well, the Jews went back to rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, but the true believers knew that the restoration of the kingdom was yet to come. They looked forward to the day when the Messiah would come to the earth. They looked forward to the day when the glory of the Lord would fill the temple and all of the earth.
When Peter, James and John were with the Lord on the Mt. of Transfiguration, they saw the glory of the Lord, and on the way down the mountain, they asked the Lord about the coming kingdom. They asked:
Matthew 17:10-11 NKJV
10 . . . "Why . . . do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
11 Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first* and will restore all things.
Daniel had said that the restoration of the kingdom would be in 490 years, but he had also said that the Messiah would be cut off after 483 years. As Jesus spoke to his disciples, it had been 483 years, and the time for the death of the Messiah had come. Jesus said:
Matthew 17:11-13 NKJV
11 . . . "Indeed, Elijah is coming first* and will restore all things.
12 But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."
13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.
Jesus was falsely accused and convicted. He was crucified upon the cross, but after three days He was raised from the dead. Acts, Chapter 1, says that after the Lord’s resurrection, He spent 40 days with the disciples, speaking to them of things concerning the kingdom. He said:
Acts 1:5 NKJV
5 . . . John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
This was proof that the time for the kingdom had truly come. The Lord had spoken through Ezekiel and said:
Ezekiel 36:27-28 NKJV
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
The disciples had witnessed the Messiah’s resurrection from the dead, and now the Spirit of the Lord was going to come upon them. The kingdom of heaven was at hand, so they asked the Lord, point blank:
Acts 1:6 NKJV
6 . . . "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Are you really going to establish the kingdom at this time? But Jesus said:
Acts 1:7-8 NKJV
7 . . . "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me* in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
It had been 483 years since the Jews went back to Jerusalem from Babylon. Now, would the kingdom come after 7 more years? According to Daniel, that seven years was going to be a terrible time of tribulation.
Jesus had confirmed this when He said, before the coming of the Son of Man the world will see great tribulation such as has never been seen before. So after the spirit came upon them on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples must have had this in mind as they went out preaching the gospel of the kingdom. They were not surprised at all when they were severely persecuted, and they considered it an honor to suffer for Christ’s sake.
After Peter healed the lame man at the temple gate, Peter seized the opportunity to preach to the people, saying:
Acts 3:19-21 NKJV
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,*
21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
The times of refreshing referred to the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit within the heart of every believer. The times of restoration of all things referred to the time when the Lord returns to the earth to fill the temple and the earth with His glory. In the kingdom associated with the Old Covenant Law, the presence of the Lord came down to dwell in the midst of the people. In the kingdom that is associated with the New Covenant, the presence of the Lord will come down to dwell in the people before He dwells among the people.
Peter and the other apostles went out preaching the message of the kingdom. Those who believed were baptized or immersed into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ by the Holy Spirit. The times of refreshing came upon them. But in spite of many miracles, wonders and signs which were given to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit, the nation of Israel as a whole refused to accept that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
As a result, God started calling out the church of today. Someday, we who are members of the church will be caught up to be with the Lord in heaven. At that point, the message of the kingdom will once again go out to the Jews during the great tribulation period. The believing Jews will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then the Son of Man will come with the clouds of heaven to fill the temple and all of the earth with the glory of the Lord.
Thank you for studying with me this morning. It’s been a pleasure for me, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/
Ezekiel was there in Babylon with Daniel when God gave Ezekiel a message for the people. He said:
Ezekiel 18:2-4 NKJV
2 "What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on edge'?
3 "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.
4 "Behold, . . . The soul who sins shall die.
The children of Israel were consoling themselves that they were not the ones who were responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews. They commonly quoted the proverb that said, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” They conveniently excused themselves from any wrongdoing. They simply thought that they were being punished for the sins of their fathers.
They may have thought back on the days of Manasseh who did such evil in the sight of the Lord that the Lord told Manasseh:
2 Kings 21:12-13 NKJV
12 . . . 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
The Jews in Babylon knew that God had promised the captivity of the Jews because of Manasseh’s sin, so it was much easier for them to think of their own misery as being a result of Manasseh’s sins. They never thought about the fact that God had actually postponed that judgment for Josiah because Josiah repented and turned Israel away from her sin.
Ezekiel saw that many of the unbelieving Jews in Babylon were claiming that they had done nothing to deserve the punishment of God, so Ezekiel said, no more. No more will you say, the teeth of the children are set on edge because the father‘s have eaten sour grapes. He said, the soul that sins, it shall die.
Ezekiel 18:30-32 NKJV
30 "Therefore . . . Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"
Daniel took to heart the words of Ezekiel and though he was a very godly man, he got on his knees before the Lord to confess his sins and the sins of his people. He said:
Daniel 9:4-5 NKJV
4 . . . "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,
5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.
Daniel didn’t say, my people have sinned. No, He said, we have sinned and committed iniquity.
Daniel knew the Lord, and he knew that no man could stand before a just and a holy God and claim to be without sin. To confess the sins of others without admitting one’s own guilt would be the ultimate proof of the sin of pride and arrogance. Daniel wasn’t just putting on an act for God when he confessed his sins; his confession and his contrition were very real.
So when Daniel first started to pray, God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Daniel some astonishing things. Daniel had been praying about the restoration of the temple and the restoration of the city of Jerusalem. He said:
Daniel 9:16-17 NKJV
16 "O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.
17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.
Daniel longed for the restoration of the temple, the city and the kingdom. As a young man he had experienced the joy of worshiping the Lord in the temple where the very presence of the Lord was. Ezekiel said that he saw in a vision the time when the glory of the Lord left the temple in Jerusalem. What a sad time for all of the true believers. The presence of the Lord had left the temple, but they also knew that someday the presence and the glory of the Lord would return to the temple.
Daniel knew from the writings of Jeremiah that the children of Israel would be allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city after 70 years. When Daniel first heard the words of Jeremiah, he may have thought that after 70 years the temple would be rebuilt and the glory of the Lord would return to the earth. But that was not going to happen, and God wanted Daniel to know that. It was a harsh reality, but God always wants us to know the truth. After all, it’s the truth that sets us free.
Daniel knew that you can’t have the kingdom without the presence of the Lord. Many years after Daniel, the Apostle Paul came to the same conclusion. He said, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
When the children of Israel did return to Jerusalem after 70 years, and after they did start rebuilding the temple, Ezra said that:
Ezra 3:12 NKJV
12 . . . many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes.
We don’t know if they were weeping for joy or if they were overcome with sadness when they saw what was to be the new temple, but we do know that they had every reason to be sad. Even though it was God’s will for them to return to rebuild the temple, the glorious presence of the Lord was never going to fill that temple.
That temple would serve as the center of Jewish worship for hundreds of years, but it would not be blessed with the presence of the Lord. Without the presence of the Lord, you don’t have the kingdom of God, and that’s exactly what God wanted to talk to Daniel about.
In Daniel, Chapter 9, the angel Gabriel told Daniel in essence that from the time that the Jews went back to rebuild Jerusalem, it would be another 490 years before the true restoration of the kingdom.
Do you think this was a crushing blow to Daniel? I mean, seventy years must have seemed like a long time to Daniel, but now he learns that it will actually be 490 years before the glory of the kingdom is restored to Israel.
One might think that Daniel would be crushed to hear this, but the text gives no indication that he was. Oh, he was no doubt astonished and amazed, but it doesn’t seem that he was disappointed.
Up to this point Daniel had never seen the true magnitude of what God was planning for Israel. He had always thought in terms of God bringing back the glory of the kingdom as it was under David and Solomon. But as wonderful as that kingdom was, its glory would be miniscule compared to what God has planned for Israel in the future.
I think that when Daniel caught a vision of the coming kingdom with immortal beings ruling over the entire earth with the glory of the Son of God actually dwelling in Jerusalem, he never looked back with longing for the Jerusalem of his day. God knew that Daniel’s vision of the future was too small, and it was causing Daniel to suffer spiritually. So God helped Daniel to think a little bigger. Actually, he helped Daniel to think a whole lot bigger. Once Daniel saw the magnificent glory of the future kingdom, how could he set his affections on anything less. He knew that the kingdom of the Messiah was worth waiting for.
Well, the Jews went back to rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, but the true believers knew that the restoration of the kingdom was yet to come. They looked forward to the day when the Messiah would come to the earth. They looked forward to the day when the glory of the Lord would fill the temple and all of the earth.
When Peter, James and John were with the Lord on the Mt. of Transfiguration, they saw the glory of the Lord, and on the way down the mountain, they asked the Lord about the coming kingdom. They asked:
Matthew 17:10-11 NKJV
10 . . . "Why . . . do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
11 Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first* and will restore all things.
Daniel had said that the restoration of the kingdom would be in 490 years, but he had also said that the Messiah would be cut off after 483 years. As Jesus spoke to his disciples, it had been 483 years, and the time for the death of the Messiah had come. Jesus said:
Matthew 17:11-13 NKJV
11 . . . "Indeed, Elijah is coming first* and will restore all things.
12 But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."
13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.
Jesus was falsely accused and convicted. He was crucified upon the cross, but after three days He was raised from the dead. Acts, Chapter 1, says that after the Lord’s resurrection, He spent 40 days with the disciples, speaking to them of things concerning the kingdom. He said:
Acts 1:5 NKJV
5 . . . John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
This was proof that the time for the kingdom had truly come. The Lord had spoken through Ezekiel and said:
Ezekiel 36:27-28 NKJV
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
The disciples had witnessed the Messiah’s resurrection from the dead, and now the Spirit of the Lord was going to come upon them. The kingdom of heaven was at hand, so they asked the Lord, point blank:
Acts 1:6 NKJV
6 . . . "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Are you really going to establish the kingdom at this time? But Jesus said:
Acts 1:7-8 NKJV
7 . . . "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me* in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
It had been 483 years since the Jews went back to Jerusalem from Babylon. Now, would the kingdom come after 7 more years? According to Daniel, that seven years was going to be a terrible time of tribulation.
Jesus had confirmed this when He said, before the coming of the Son of Man the world will see great tribulation such as has never been seen before. So after the spirit came upon them on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples must have had this in mind as they went out preaching the gospel of the kingdom. They were not surprised at all when they were severely persecuted, and they considered it an honor to suffer for Christ’s sake.
After Peter healed the lame man at the temple gate, Peter seized the opportunity to preach to the people, saying:
Acts 3:19-21 NKJV
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,*
21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
The times of refreshing referred to the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit within the heart of every believer. The times of restoration of all things referred to the time when the Lord returns to the earth to fill the temple and the earth with His glory. In the kingdom associated with the Old Covenant Law, the presence of the Lord came down to dwell in the midst of the people. In the kingdom that is associated with the New Covenant, the presence of the Lord will come down to dwell in the people before He dwells among the people.
Peter and the other apostles went out preaching the message of the kingdom. Those who believed were baptized or immersed into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ by the Holy Spirit. The times of refreshing came upon them. But in spite of many miracles, wonders and signs which were given to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit, the nation of Israel as a whole refused to accept that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
As a result, God started calling out the church of today. Someday, we who are members of the church will be caught up to be with the Lord in heaven. At that point, the message of the kingdom will once again go out to the Jews during the great tribulation period. The believing Jews will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then the Son of Man will come with the clouds of heaven to fill the temple and all of the earth with the glory of the Lord.
Thank you for studying with me this morning. It’s been a pleasure for me, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/
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