Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 2 * PART 3 * BOOK 82
THE LAST MESSAGE TO DANIEL – 3
Daniel 11:32 – 12:13
Okay, good to have you all back again after another break. We’ll pick right up where we left off after the last half hour. For those of you out in television, Iris wants me to let you know that we still have the one and only book we’ve ever published. We advertise them at $11.00. We still haven’t changed, and we’ve sold thousands of them. A lot of people use them like a tract. You’d be amazed how many people buy and just hand them out like a tract. They’ve been a good vehicle. Okay, thanks, Herb.
All right, for those of you joining us on television, again, we’re just a simple Bible study. Most of the time we go verse-by-verse. Somebody asked me one time, how can you get by without using notes? And I said, “All I do is read. Who needs notes to read?” So anyway, that’s the basis of our teaching. We just simply take it verse-by-verse, and then look at some cross references, as well. All right, we’ll pick right up where we left off, Daniel chapter 12 and verse 5. I’ve been sitting here waiting and debating in my own mind whether I should come back and do a little more in verse 4, but I think I’ll let it go for now.
Daniel 12:5-6
“Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. 6. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?”
Now, whenever you read things like this, especially in the Old Testament, and I’ve been sharing this with people more and more lately. We have to understand that when God was dealing with Israel, the supernatural was commonplace. Always remember that when we read these things. The scoffer says—who would ever dream of anything like that? No, not today, because we’re not programmed for the supernatural. We’re not supposed to be. But Israel was.
All you have to do is go to the very beginning of Israel’s existence. Joseph was already having his dreams that were supernatural in content. Coming out of Egypt—a total miraculous removal of several million people with their little ones and their livestock, out of an enemy environment, across the horrors of the Sinai Peninsula. And, yeah, I feel Mount Sinai was over in Arabia. And then the miracle, I think we mentioned it in our last taping. There was probably not a greater miracle in all of Scripture, other than the things pertaining to Christ Himself, than the opening of the Red Sea.
I mean, what a fabulous miracle that was: how these several million Israelites and all their livestock are standing on the shores of the Red Sea in a dilemma. What are we going to do? And what did God say? Find driftwood? Build boats? He said “Stand still.” And God opened the Red Sea.
Now, that had to be over a period of miles for that many Jews to go across on dry land. Yet the timing was so perfect that all the hosts of the Egyptian army coming upon their rear, now—then the timing—that God opened the Red Sea and the Israelites could go through. And by the time the last Israelite is going out on the east side of the Red Sea, the Egyptians are coming in from the west. And when the last Egyptian is inside the shores of the Red Sea, here comes the water again. And God got every one of them.
You know, when I was a kid I used to hunt. And you know, my buddy and I, if we saw three or four ducks or something, we liked to get all of them. Well, God did. He got every one of them including the king. What a miracle! What a miracle!
Well, all through Israel’s history, you see, it’s miracle after miracle after miracle—even coming all the way up to the angelic announcement to Mary. Did Mary pass out with fear when all of a sudden an angel was standing there speaking to her? Of course not. That isn’t all that unusual. And then you come in even to the Book of Acts. Peter’s in prison. Well, who comes and opens the door? An angel. Well, you see, that’s the supernatural that we’re not accustomed to today.
All right, so now the same way here. When we speak of two personalities standing on the river and speaking on the river, don’t be surprised. It’s a supernatural thing. And the same way as soon as the miracle of the Rapture has taken place. Even the beginning of the Tribulation cannot happen without the supernatural power of God bringing Israel and the Arab world together in a treaty. It could not happen today. I don’t care how many great men would try it. It’ll never happen until it’s time for the anti-Christ to come. So, always remember this: that in Israel’s dealing with God, the supernatural is commonplace. All right, look at the verse again.
Daniel 12:6
“And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” Now these are not pleasant wonders. These are horrible wonders. It’s the final judgment of God on God-rejecting humanity. All right, then the other one said:
Daniel 12:7
“And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that liveth forever that it (this period of time) shall be for a time (one year), times (plural. For two years, for a total of three), and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” Now, I’m going to take a little time here. Didn’t intend to do this, but let’s go back again to pick up the timing of these seven years. Maybe we should go back first.
Let’s go back a minute to Daniel chapter 9, just in case we’ve got some listeners out there that have just tuned in and they’ve missed these previous programs. I’m sure there will be some. And it never hurts to repeat, anyway. Come back to Daniel chapter 9, where we have the proclamation of a 490-year period of time prophesied on behalf of the Nation of Israel. Now, that’s down in verse 24.
Daniel 9:24a
“Seventy weeks (of years or 490 years total) are determined upon thy people (Now see, there’s an instance, again—Israel is still out in unbelief, and God doesn’t call them my people. But to Daniel He can say thy people.) and upon thy holy city, (Jerusalem) to finish the transgression, (in other words, the work of the Cross) and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,…”
Well, you see, there’s our timeline that we put on the board in the first half hour. Exactly, repeated again—coming out of the Old Testament, in would come Christ’s three years of earthly ministry, His crucifixion—death, burial, and resurrection—His ascension. Then in would come these final seven years—the worst of which will be the last three-and-a-half, triggering the Second Coming. I should put that up there, I guess, so that people will know what we’re talking about. This is the Second Coming at the end of those seven years. He’ll come to the Mount of Olives, and that will usher in, of course, the King and His Kingdom.
All right, so all the Old Testament speaks of it in that line. And like we said in that first half hour, there is not one mention of the Church Age. Okay, go on down to verse 27. Four hundred and eighty-three years of the 490 will be fulfilled at the time of the Cross. All right, but we’ve got seven years left. We’ve only fulfilled 483. There’s 490 total. We pick up those last seven in verse 27.
Daniel 9:27a
“And he (The prince that shall come up in verse 26, which is a reference to the anti-Christ, or the son of perdition, or all the other terms that Scripture puts on him.) he shall confirm (or make) the covenantwith many for one week (seven years): and in the middle of the week…”
So, isn’t this Scripture an amazing thing—that from the very time that we see the first mention of the time, the seven years, it’s immediately split in half. Right from day one the Scripture divides these seven years into half and half. All right, so here it is.
Daniel 9:27b
“…in the middle of the week (at the end of three-and-a-half years) he (this anti-Christ, this son of perdition) shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,…”
Now, you remember when we were looking at this several programs back, I asked the question—how can you stop something, if it hasn’t started? So we know from this verse, that Israel will have a Temple rebuilt as a result of the treaty, and they will enjoy Temple worship for three-and-a-half years. Then at the end of the three-and-a-half years, the anti-Christ will go in, up there, I think, on the Temple Mount. He will go into that rebuilt Temple and defile it and turn on the Nation of Israel like they’ve never been persecuted before. It’ll be awesome. All right, here is the basis of our seven years.
Daniel 9:27c
“…and in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to stop, and for the overspreading of abominations (That is the wickedness that’s going to come on the planet.) he (the anti-Christ) shall make it (the Temple) desolate, (and it’ll remain desolate) even until the consummation,…” Of those seven years.
All right, now then, just to pick up again—I think we did this way, way back, but come all the way up to Matthew 24, once again. We looked at it in the first half hour. Matthew 24 verse 15 and here the Lord Jesus Himself starts at that mid-point. So, He, too, is looking at the seven years in two sections: the first half and the second half. All right, verse 15, we know it’s the middle, because He speaks of what the anti-Christ has just done at the Temple.
Matthew 24:15a
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,…” Now, I do that emphatically to impress on everybody that the Lord Jesus Himself puts the stamp of approval on Daniel’s book. That’s why we can take it as authoritative as anything can be. All right, now He says, when you see that happen–
Matthew 24:15b
“…(whosoever readeth, let him understand:)” Now then, from verse 16 through verse 20, we have a description of this escaping remnant of Jews out of the area of Jerusalem and Judea to a place of safety.
Now, we don’t know where it is. A lot of prophecy people think it’ll be the city of Petra, over there in Jordan. And I won’t argue the point. We’ve been there, and I’ve looked at it in that light. Yeah, it could be a very good place for them to encamp. Because not only does it have all the caves and so forth in the limestone mountains, but there’s also a huge, flat desert area where they could encamp.
Now you’ve got to remember, supernaturally God is going to protect that remnant of Israel, wherever they are. Now, lest you think that’s a stretch, go back to Egypt—because a lot of these things in this seven-year period are almost a “de ja vu” of Pharaoh and the plagues of Egypt. Now, if you remember, at the end of the fourth or fifth plague, God put an invisible fence around Goshen; where Israel, of course, lived, and the plague did not touch them. Now always remember that. That’s where it first started. I think it was the plague of the flies. I’m not sure. But whatever it was, not a bit of that plague entered in to where the Jews were living, and Egypt was decimated by it.
Well, He’s going to do the same thing for this last half of the Tribulation. Wherever Israel is led, God has a place prepared for them, as we’ll see in Revelation. There’ll be an invisible protective wall around them, and none of the horrors of the Tribulation will touch them. And that’s going to be a supernatural, supernatural event. But it’s going to happen. All right, so now the Lord speaks of these surviving Jews who will flee to the wilderness. Now, we’ll go on quickly. We’ve done it many, many times, but verse 17:
Matthew 24:17a
“Let him who is on the housetop…” Who I’ve always referred to as probably the wealthy, retired people living on their penthouses or whatever, and they are warned to not even take time to go and find something that they would like to hang on to of their possessions. The main thing is to get out of Jerusalem.
Matthew 24:18
“Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.” All right, we always look at this as the working class. Whether it’s professional people, whether it’s physicians, or university people, or whether it’s business people. These are in the working area. The income people. And He says to them, do not go back and get your clothes. Because you want to remember, at the time of Christ and the time that Scripture is written, Israel was an agrarian nation. Ninety percent of the people made their living herding sheep and farming, and orchards and so forth. Only a small percentage were business people. So, that’s why the term here is “let him who is in the field.” It’s an indication of their working class. All right, so they are instructed not to go back and get extra clothes.
Then you jump into another segment. Now the reason I do this over and over and over, is because so many people think there’s only one remnant of Jews in Scripture, and that’s the 144,000. No, there are two remnants. This is the remnant that will become the seed-stock of the Nation of Israel in the Kingdom. Now, if you’re going to have seed-stock, and I use that word, I think, correctly, you have to have male and female. They’re going to reproduce. They’re going to have families.
Well, you see, the 144,000 are all young men. So it just doesn’t make sense that they are the remnant that’s going to re-establish the Nation of Israel. This is the remnant that will do that. It’s a cross-section. You’ve got men and women and children and babies. See?
All right, read on.
Matthew 24:19
“And woe unto them that are with child, (See? Little ones that haven’t even been born yet.) and to them that are nursing…” Mother’s who have already got one or two kids at their side. So, you’ve got a whole cross-section of a society right here in these few verses. And these are going to be the Jews escaping to that place of safety. All right, now then, Jesus—we’ve already looked at it—in verse 21 Jesus announces:
Matthew 24:21
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” It’s going to be awful. Beyond human comprehension.
All right, now let’s pick up—since we’re dealing with it—let’s pick up this escaping remnant clear back in Revelation. And we can also depict the language of the three-and-a-half years as Daniel used it, and that’d be Revelation chapter 12, Honey. Revelation chapter 12 and, for sake of time, drop down to verse 5. The first three verses just establish that the woman is a symbolic picture of the Nation of Israel.
Revelation 12:5a
“And she (the woman, Israel) brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:…” Now, that’s the way Scripture works. That’s speaking of the Kingdom when He will establish His rule and reign of the nations, which is still future. Now, it will be a rule of iron because of its absolute authority; but it’s going to be a benevolent rule.
In other words, there will be nothing that will hurt. There will be nothing that will cause sorrow or turmoil. So, even though it’s an absolute rule, it’s a righteous rule, as we see back in Isaiah 11 and other places. It’ll be a Heaven-on-Earth existence.
Now, I can’t repeat it often enough, because, like I say, most of Christendom never hears this. But in this coming thousand-year Kingdom over which Christ will rule and reign, Israel will be the major Nation. That goes back to Deuteronomy 2—you will no longer be beneath, you will be above. You’re not going to be the tail; you’re going to be the head. You will not borrow, you will loan.
Israel is going to all of a sudden make a complete inversion of where they’ve been all through history, and that’ll be because their King is the Messiah. But all of the other nations of the world will be operative. All right, now where was I? Revelation chapter 12, the woman here is the Nation of Israel. But now remember, you haven’t got the whole Nation. You’ve only got a third.
Remember in the first half hour this afternoon, we went back to Zechariah chapter 13 and found that one third will escape death. All right, I think that’s this segment that’s going to flee out to this place of safety. So, verse 5—I should have finished that verse. I’m sorry.
Revelation 12:5-6a
“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: (but a benevolent) and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. (Speaking of Christ when He came and went back to Glory.) 6. And the woman (this escaping remnant of Israel) the woman fled into the wilderness, (Now, we don’t know which wilderness Scripture is talking about.) where she hath a place prepared of God,…” Now, take that slowly. What does that mean? Wherever God is going to leave them, He’s already got it all ready. In other words, He’ll probably have places of abode where they dwell out of the heat of the desert sun. He’s going to have all of the infrastructure that they need for sanitation and all these things. It’s all going to ready for them. And let God be God. He doesn’t take ten or twelve months to do something. He can do it instantly. But, it’s going to be ready for them when they get there.
Revelation 12:6b
“…where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her (or supply all her needs) there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.” Which is how long? Three-and-a-half years. Twelve hundred and sixty days and forty-two months, or three-and-a-half years. All right, let’s drop all the way down to verse 14. Now, this is the way Scripture works. And unless you know how to study, you’d never figure this out.
Now, we’re dealing with this escaping remnant fleeing out of the area of Jerusalem—men, women, children, nursing mothers, expectant mothers—a whole cross-section. All right, verse 14:
Revelation 12:14
“And to the woman (this escaping remnant) were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, (The one that the other verse said was prepared of God.) into her place, where she is nourished (or fed, or provided for in every need) for one year plus two years plus a half year, (for three-and-a-half years) from the face of the serpent.” That is from Satan and the man anti-Christ.
All right, now just to show you that what I said a moment ago had more clout to it than you had any idea—that the exodus out of Egypt was almost a forerunner of this for the escaping remnant. Come back with me to Exodus chapter 19. Now, I know for some of you, you’ve heard this over and over. For some of you, maybe you’ve never heard it before. And if you haven’t, you’d like to have it repeated. So, that’s why we do it. Exodus 19 and they have just come out of Egypt, and they’re encamped around Mount Sinai, and Moses goes up into the Mount. Verse 3:
Exodus 19:3-4
“And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4. Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, (I explained that already a moment ago.) and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.”
Now stop. Has anybody ever told you that they sprouted wings and flew from Egypt to Sinai? No, of course not. What did they do? They walked. The Scripture is evident, how they walked with all their herds and their flocks. But I have to feel it was some sort of a miraculous, speeding-up somehow or other, as only God can do. Because they had to stay ahead of Pharaoh and his army, and they’re on horseback.
So whatever, it doesn’t mean that they flew, but it was a supernatural working of God that they somehow covered the territory, probably in less time than would be ordinary. But that’s all that you can put on it.
Now the same thing, then, in Revelation 12:14—the same scenario as they’re fleeing Jerusalem. They’re either going to be on foot or maybe in vehicles, or whatever, but however they go, God is supernaturally going to enhance their travel. And let God be God. Let Him do it any way He wants.
All right, now if you’ll come back to Revelation 12 verse 15. Now again, here you have to kind of interpret a little bit. And I just use common logic. We know that the anti-Christ is now ruling from Jerusalem under the power of Satan. So immediately, when he hears of this group of Jews fleeing to whatever place they’re going, he immediately sends out a command to have some military organization pursue them. Whether it be a battalion or a regiment or a company, I don’t care what. But he’s going to send some military operation to pursue these Jews, just like Pharaoh and his army pursued the Israelites in the Exodus. All right, now look what happens.
Revelation 12:15
“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood (And I maintain it’s a military command.) after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” Or whatever he’s telling the military to do—to either mow them down, machine guns, or bomb them or whatever—destroy them. But you see, about the time that military contingent catches up with the tail-end of the escaping Jews, God does another miracle. He opens the earth.
Well, you remember, He did it back with Korah in the Old Testament? All right, so that whole anti-Christ military operation will sink into the opening earth. All right, now I’m down to seconds. So, when he hears what happens, verse 16.
Revelation 12:16
“And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood (or this military pursuit) which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 17. And the dragon was angry with the woman, (That is, with Israel.) and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”