HomeARC ML 1490
INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL 9 FLANNELGRAPH! DFO 1490 France, 15/12/80
--Exact Times!
1. WELL, PTL, WHAT'S ON FOR TONIGHT? We had the Eighth Chapter of Daniel, I think we're supposed to have the Ninth, aren't we? How can you possibly picture Daniel Nine? I don't know what kind of pictures they're going to have here for me, it's all new to me. I just pull'm out of the hat! So I don't know what's going to happen.--Except I know what happened in Daniel Nine, that I know!
2. EVERY MAGICIAN HAS A PRETTY GIRL HELPER WHEN HE'S ON STAGE handing him the various materials, so, I'm going to let Sara be my pretty helper here. She can sit down on this nice chair, & be sure you get some nice shots of her, Peter, so that they see what a pretty magician's helper I have! XXX! Sometimes I help her too! Ummmmmmmm!
3. WELL, THIS IS ABOUT THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL NINE. And if you studied this at all with anybody yet, you found out that these are not actually weeks, the word means what? (David: Months?) Well, not exactly months, but the word "week" literally in the Hebrew means "seven." Oh, here we are! There it is! It means 70 sevens, & it comes from the Hebrew word "Shabuwa," which means seven.
4. SO WHEN IT SAYS 70 WEEKS IT MEANS 70 SEVENS. It means 70 weeks of days. 70 x 7 days. Only we find out in this story that even the days are not days, but each day represents a whole year, think of that! We've got 69 weeks here, & here comes the other week, the 70th week. 69 and one more week would be what, David? Do you know that big figure yet? (David: 70.) Very good, 70, that's right. So it was about the 70 Weeks of Daniel.
5. ACTUALLY THEY WEREN'T DANIEL'S 70 WEEKS BUT HE TOLD US ABOUT THEM BECAUSE GOD GAVE THEM TO HIM. Jesus revealed what was going to happen in the future & explained to him that this was a prediction of what was going to happen according to the very year it was going to happen, because each of these weeks was a seven. And not just seven days, but seven years. So 70 sevens is how much? (Family: 490.) 490!
6. BECAUSE SEVEN SEVENS IS 49, ISN'T IT? When you put a zero on it, that makes ten times as much. See, here's seven, so it's not only seven, because it has a zero on it it makes 10 times as much which is 70. And 7x7 is 49, & that means 49 years. But if you say 10x49 you'd add a zero here & that would make it 490 years. We don't have the zero, do we? When we get through with this felt-o-gram we're going to know what we didn't have & what we need. We need something to show the complete 490 years, & how we add the zeros & things like that. OK?
7. SO WHAT WAS THE LORD TELLING DANIEL TO SAY & TO TELL US? David's quoting it here for me, you tell them. "From the going forth of the commandment[DELETED]" (David: "To restore & to build Jerusalem.") Right, to restore & rebuild Jerusalem, the city, was going to be, first of all, what? First of all seven weeks, or seven sevens of years, or how many years? (David: 49.) 49 years.
8. FROM THE TIME THE COMMANDMENT WAS ISSUED TO REBUILD JERUSALEM, in other words, until it would be restored, the city rebuilt, would be 49 years. And that's exactly what happened! The great King Ahasuerus issued the commandment. He's called in the Hebrew Ahasuerus & in Greeks Artaxerxes. And where were the children of Israel, God's children at that time? (David: Egypt?) No, not this time, that was another captivity. (David: Rome?) Not in Rome. Daniel was a prisoner, a captive, whereabouts? In what great one of the great empires of the time? (David: Babylon!) Babylon, very good! (David: I remembered the head of gold!)
9. THAT'S RIGHT, HE WAS IN THE HEAD OF GOLD, IN BABYLON, that's where this happened. He got this message from the Lord during the time of Nebuchadnezzar, he was predicting that there was going to come a king much later who was going to set the children of Israel all free. And who was the man who set them free? Not this one, another one. What king? I just gave you that the other day. (Family: Darius?) No, Darius was one of the kings of the Medes & the Persians that set Babylon free. He went around liberating cities like they do nowadays.
10. EVERYTIME THEY CAPTURE A CITY OR A COUNTRY THEY SAY, "WE LIBERATED IT!" They don't say we enslaved it, we liberated it! Like the girl in the movie the other night. She said that she was in a "dollhouse," which meant a house for girls where the men could come make love to the girls, in Germany when the Russians came in. She said they liberated her & they put her in another dollhouse for the men. And then along came the Americans & they liberated her. She said, "You have no idea how many times I was liberated, but I always wound up back in the same dollhouse!" So some of these liberations look a little bit more like captivities.
11. WELL ANYHOW, DARIUS CAPTURED THE CITY OF BABYLON & HE LIBERATED IT, & then the other king, what was his name? They had two kings, Darius &... (David: Alexander?) Not yet, he didn't come yet. Alexander the Great came after this story. The story about Alexander came in the eighth chapter, we had that last time, but Cyrus came along & he liberated whom? He was a fellow king along with Darius. You don't know, Class, who Cyrus liberated?
12. OVER 200 YEARS BEFORE, ISAIAH PROPHESIED WHO WAS GOING TO LIBERATE THEM. God said, "To show you that I'm God & I can tell the future, I'll even give you his name, his name is Cyrus! That after you have been in captivity for 70 years, this king by that name is going to liberate you!" (Isa.44:28; 45:1.) So who did he liberate? (James: The Jews.) The Jews! Where have you been, Folks! My goodness, I thought you knew the Bible, I thought you knew the story!
13. WHAT HAPPENED WHEN NEBUCHADNEZZAR CAME ALONG & LIBERATED JERUSALEM? (James: When he liberated them he took them all into captivity.) He liberated all these captives & took them to Babylon--& they were still captives really. But kings don't like to say they take captives or they capture cities, they "liberate" them. They're freeing the city from its tyrannical occupants, they're freeing the poor from their rich rulers.
14. THAT'S THE VERY SAME DOCTRINE THAT THE COMMUNISTS PREACH NOWADAYS, & every tyrant & every dictator & every great World conqueror, that's the same kind of a doctrine they preach. That's the doctrine that all the great conquerors preach, that they didn't conquer anybody, they didn't take anybody captive, they liberated them! They liberated their land, they liberated their city, they liberated their people--& then they took them off captive to their city.--Ha!
15. SO DANIEL HAD BEEN WHERE? (DAVID: IN BABYLON.) In Babylon for quite a few years. And the Lord promised through the mouth of what prophet exactly how long they were going to be there? Does anybody know these answers besides James? (Sara: Jeremiah.) Yes. I know James is our star pupil, but I don't know why the rest of you don't know the answers. You should! Jeremiah had promised a long time before that they were gonna get clobbered & conquered & captured & carried away & that they were going to be carried away for 70 years. (Jer.25:11.) 70 years, think of that, that's ten sevens of years!
16. BUT HE SAID AT THE END OF THAT TIME A GREAT KING WAS GOING TO COME ALONG, & Isaiah said his name was going to be Cyrus, & he was going to let them loose. Cyrus was going to come along & liberate them. Jeremiah first of all had foretold that who was going to come & conquer Jerusalem? OK, our star pupil over here? (James: Nebuchadnezzar.) You mean none of you folks know that answer? Not one of you know the answer? Well, I think I'm going to tell him to hush up & I'm just going to wait until you guys wake up, because you ought to know those answers!
17. WHO PREDICTED THE FALL OF JERUSALEM? (FAMILY: JEREMIAH.) Who predicted the captivity of Israel for 70 years? (Family: Jeremiah.) My Lord, children, you ought to know those things by this time! After all the lessons you've had & all the Bible you're supposed to know, if you can't even tell me what's going on, how are you going to tell somebody out in the World that you're witnessing to about Bible Prophecy when you don't even know it yourself?--You who had years of it, most of you, years & years! You should have studied it for a long time now.
18. JEREMIAH PREDICTED THE FALL OF JERUSALEM BECAUSE THE WICKED PEOPLE WITH WICKED SINS, supposed to be children of God & children of Israel, they were more like children of the Devil because they disobeyed God so much, just like [EDITED: "some do"] today! So he predicted their city was going to fall, like it's going to fall again today, & that they were going to be in prison, or at least captive. Not exactly in prison, but they would be slaves & servants of this foreign king for 70 years--of him & his son & his grandson. Nebuchadnezzar & his son & his grandson Belshazzar.
19. BUT AT THE END OF THE 70 YEARS THE LORD PROMISED THAT ANOTHER KING WOULD COME & CONQUER THAT CITY--WHAT CITY? Where were they taken captive from Jerusalem? (David: Babylon.) Very good! I started to point to my head to give you a hint! Head of gold! You got it before I even pointed! They were taken to Nebuchadnezzar's city, Babylon, & they were still there when what two kings came & conquered it? Just speak out, Class, anybody that knows it. We don't have time to wait for hands & me to recognise you. I just want everybody, anybody, including our whiz kid over there, to speak out & tell us who were the kings who came & conquered Babylon? (Family: Darius & Cyrus.) Darius & Cyrus, kings of... (Family: Medo-Persia.) The Medes & the Persians.
20. DARIUS THE MEDE & CYRUS THE PERSIAN CAME & CONQUERED BABYLON, & along with it the children of Israel. And which one of these kings then was the top dog, the top man? (Family: Cyrus.) Cyrus, he was the bigshot. Darius went around fighting his battles for him & conquering cities, & then Cyrus would march in in triumph & take'm over! And one of the first things he did, pretty soon, by the will of God & the persuasion of some of God's prophets, he decided to let the Jews go.
21. WHAT WERE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CALLED BY THIS TIME? This is when they first got nicknamed what? (Family: Jews.) This is when their enemies nicknamed them Jews. And where did they get that "Jew" nickname? (Family: From Judah.) From the leading tribe, which was the Tribe of Judah, from which tribe came the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, & who is that? (Sara: Jesus.) So Judah was the leading tribe of the Israelites or the Children of Israel.
22. SO THEN WHO WAS IT THAT LET THE JEWS GO? Nebuchadnezzar captured them in Jerusalem, took them over to Babylon, & the kings of the Medes & the Persians captured Babylon & the Jews, & which one of these kings, Cyrus or Darius, let the children go? (David: Darius.) Bad guess. You've only got one more coming & it's bound to be the other one! Which one? (David: Cyrus.) Cyrus, ha!
23. THAT'S A PRETTY DEEP SUBJECT, I don't know whether he's had all that or not. (Sara: No, not yet.) Well, he should have, really, because this is all Bible history & we ought to know it pretty well. It looks like I'm going to have to start teaching you guys the Bible! You don't even know the Bible, much less some of the MO Letters on Bible prophecy.
24. EXCUSE ME, I'M TRYING TO KEEP FROM SNEEZING FOR SOME REASON, something's tickling my nose! Must be the Devil or one of his little imps tickling my nose trying to make me sneeze! Because he knows if he makes me sneeze, then I go sneezing & sneezing & sneezing & I'll be sneezing & wheezing for another 20 minutes & my nose running & spitting & coughing & hacking & whacking & I won't be able to tell you a Bible story! So you pray for me right now, Lord help me not to sneeze, in Jesus' name! PTL! Because if I sneeze, you're not going to get any Bible story for quite awhile! TYJ!
25. ALL RIGHT, SO CYRUS CAME ALONG & HE LET'M GO. He let'm go back to their country, but he didn't tell'm to do what? (Sara: Rebuild the temple.) (James: Rebuild the wall or the city.) He didn't tell'm to rebuild the city, Just the temple, not the wall, nothing else. He just let'm go back to rebuild the temple, didn't he? Well anyhow, they weren't told yet to rebuild the city or the city wall. Nehemiah did later.
26. BY THE WAY, REMEMBER, NOT ALL THE JEWS LEFT BABYLON. Many of them were already settled down & had children & grandchildren there. They had their own farms, their own places to live, their own cities, but they had to serve the King of Babylon. Remember how Ahasuerus had saved them from Haman, the guy who got hung? He sure deserved it, didn't he? (Est.7:10.) He was going to kill them all.
27. THEN WHEN HAMAN WAS TRYING TO KILL ALL THE JEWS, ESTHER CAME ALONG & RESCUED THEM, DIDN'T SHE? She pled with the king not to kill'm, & told the King that Haman was a bad wicked man trying to steal his throne, his crown & trying to kill all these Jews who'd helped him become so prosperous, & therefore Esther then saved the Jews. (See Est.7.) And what did king Ahasuerus do after Esther pled for him to save the Jews? After he killed Haman, saved the Jews, what did he do for the Jews? You need to read your Bibles! (David: He made a big feast.) He made a big feast, & he let them all get their arms & weapons & attack Haman's men & kill all those bad wicked men. And then what did he do?
28. HE LET THEM LIVE IN THEIR OWN CITIES & HAVE THEIR OWN GOVERNMENTS, & they were virtually autonomous, they call it today. He let them be self-governing even though they were still living in his country & in his land, he gave them cities & let them govern themselves & virtually be free in the Medo-Persian Empire. And a lot of them even got rich there, believe it or not.
29. DANIEL GOT A CHAIN OF GOLD & GLORY FROM THE KING & everything because he was such a good man, God's man, God's prophet. He always told the king the right thing to do, he interpreted his dreams & he had great prophecies & vision & always advised the king wisely, so the king made him the next man in the kingdom to him, the highest man in the kingdom aside from the king! So Daniel was a very big important rich & powerful man.
30. THIS WAS ONE PROPHET THAT GOT RICH! Not many prophets get rich. Not many prophets had that much power in the government either. Most prophets are made very poor & are persecuted by the government, usually because of the false prophets & other false enemies & the false churches & the false religions--like they persecute us--& therefore they don't have much power & usually they get killed. But anyhow, the Lord's been good to us, He's prospered us & we have enough to eat, we have a place to live, we have clothes to wear, & we have a wonderful Family all around the World, & we have the love of Jesus!
31. SO WE'RE THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, AREN'T WE? (Family: Amen!) It doesn't matter how little or how many things you have, "a man's life consisteth not of the abundance of the 'things' that he possesseth," Jesus said (Lk.12:15), but it really consists of the joy in your heart & the happiness, right? What are our greatest riches? What's the most valuable thing in the World that you & I have? (David: Jesus.) Jesus! Right!
32. DAVID'S GOING TO BE A PREACHER SOMEDAY, HE KNOWS ALL THE ANSWERS! Hallelujah! He reminds me a little bit of Ho. Ho was kind of like that when he was David's age. He used to know all the answers & the stories & he was our first little preacher. Aaron was the magician--the magician all right--musician! Aaron was the musician, Faithy was the singing star, Deborah was the organiser & little Ho, he was the preacher!
33. HE WAS ALMOST THE YOUNGEST & YET HE WAS THE PREACHER, & he got up on the platform & after the rest of them had their say & their sing & their testimony, he'd preach a sermon!--And he can still preach some sermons as you'll see. We're going to put some of them in the FN. Some of these sermons he's going to preach are about himself & how he got away from practising what he preaches, or what he preached, & what Daddy preached, & how he's getting back now, TTL!
34. WELL ANYWAY, I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT HOW LOTS OF JEWS DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO GO HOME, they wanted to stay in Babylon because they had nice comfortable homes & families & their own cities & their own governments & a very good king, king Ahasuerus. And even when other kings took over, they seemed to continue the same plan where they allowed the Jews to be residents of their country & freeholders, so to speak, & have their own homes & cities & governments.
35. THAT'S BETTER THAN MOST COUNTRIES WILL DO FOR YOU NOWADAYS IF YOU'RE A STRANGER, AN ALIEN. You have a hard time staying there over three months, much less be able to have your own home & your own job & live there like a citizen! But they were royal guests in the land of Babylon, & finally the prophet of God persuaded the king that he might as well let some of these royal guests go home--maybe he figured that would take a little bit of the load off the land--& send them home to their own land.
36. WELL, WHATEVER THE REASON OR LOGIC THEY USED, IT WAS PREDICTED BY THE LORD IN THE BOOK OF ISAIAH that God would call this man's name Cyrus & would send the children of Israel home under Cyrus--over 200 years after the Lord predicted that in Isaiah! God is a wonderful miraculous God, right? How is anybody ever going to predict that a king is going to let his people go when they weren't even captives yet?--And then even name the king! But that's what He did! He told them that they were going to be in captivity, but yet this king was going to let them go, & his name was Cyrus. One of the miracles of the Bible! One of the most specific prophecies in the Bible, like this one. One of those amazing strange specific name prophecies. (Is.44:28)
37.(TO DAVIDA:) SORRY I HAVE TO HAVE MY FOOT THERE, HONEY, BUT GRANDPA'S GOT BIG FEET & THEY TAKE A LOT OF ROOM! You should be sitting around here where people can see how pretty you are & you can answer questions along with David, OK? Then I'll have more room for my feet! Oh, you've got to see how pretty & sweet she is! Isn't she a little doll? She looks just like a little Dutch girl & he looks like the little Dutch boy! Isn't that the way the Dutch boy used to wear his hair in the old stories that I used to read?
38. REMEMBER THE LITTLE DUTCH BOY THAT PUT HIS THUMB IN THE HOLE IN THE DIKE & he wore wooden shoes? He had his hair just like this, & a funny little hat on! And the little Dutch girls wore those cute little hats with the little white points & everything. We'll have to get you a hat like that so you can look like a little Dutch girl. Anyhow, here we have our own little Dutch boy & Dutch girl, & they really love each other & take good care of each other!
39. ARE YOU GLAD YOU'VE GOT A NICE FAMILY LIKE OURS & THAT WE HAVE BIBLE STORIES?--Only I'm sure you're hoping Daddy would hurry up & quit going into all these details & give more flannelgraph! Well, I've got to give you the background & tell you the history since you're so dumb you don't know it & you haven't read it! I thought you knew all these things! You're supposed to have already studied all these things.
40. IT'S ALL IN SAM'S BIBLE PROPHECY LESSONS, you should have read & studied them. Where do you think he got all that anyway? From the Bible & me & the Lord! He made a few mistakes, one or two, but not too many, TYL! So don't just throw the whole thing out just because of one little mistake in there. If you're typing a letter & you make one mistake, you don't just throw it away, do you? You erase it & correct it.--(David: You white it out.) White it out, that's right, & you keep it. Right. Here's our typist speaking from experience! He already knows how to type, he types letters now.
41. IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, YOU DON'T THROW THE WHOLE LETTER AWAY, DO YOU? You white it out, you correct it. When you make a mistake, God doesn't just throw you away, does He? If so, you'd have been thrown away a long time ago, because you make so many mistakes! He just tries to tell you how to correct'm & how to white'm out & to try again! So PTL! And that's what we celebrate even in the communion, correcting our mistakes & confessing our faults & trying to make things right with each other, & showing how Jesus' blood has whited them all out. It says so in the Bible!
42. I CAN PROVE IT TO YOU THAT YOUR SINS ARE ALSO WHITED OUT, just like you white out mistakes on the typewriter. I can give you a Scripture for it! Anybody got a scripture for it? "Though your sins be as scarlet"--that's in red type--"they shall be white as snow. And though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as..." (David: "Wool.") (Isa.1:18.) And what colour is wool, do you know? Most of it's white. Did you see the sheep passing by? (David: Yes.) Well, what colour was their wool? It's supposed to be white but it was a bit grey because it's kind of dirty. But really it's white.
43. ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE YOU'LL SEE A SHEEP THAT HAS WHAT COLOUR WOOL? (RICH: BLACK.) Black! Sometimes you'll see a black sheep, & we call an odd sheep that's different from the rest a black sheep. Well, before Jesus found us we were all black sheep, right? But after Jesus found us & washed us in His blood, He made our wool as white as snow! We're all His sheep & the sheep of His pasture, so He made our wool as white as snow! So when you make a mistake you white it out! You don't throw it away, you don't throw yourself away or your paper away.
44. SO CYRUS LET THE PEOPLE GO. They didn't all want to go, a lot of them stayed in Babylon, believe it or not. And there weren't any lost ten tribes! Whoever got that crazy idea? There's no such thing! You can't find that in the Bible, it doesn't say anything about the ten tribes getting lost! They were all right there, some people of every tribe of Israel that went back. You can read it in Ezra, you can read it in Nehemiah & in the return, it lists the families, it lists the people by name, & there were people from every single one of all twelve tribes!
45. THERE WERE NO TRIBES LOST AT ALL, THAT'S A BIG HOCUS-POCUS FALLACY! You know what a fallacy is? It's a falsehood, something that's not true, which means a... (Family: Lie!) A lie, simply a lie! So these people that cooked up this business about the ten tribes of Israel getting lost & wandering from Egypt & Alexandria & taking ship to the British Isles & to Ireland later on, the lost ten tribes... Let me tell you, if you just take a good look at all those Irish & take a good look at most of the British--it's not the ten tribes that got lost, it looks to me like the whole Tribe of Judah moved to the British Isles! Not the ten tribes but the others if anything.
46. IT IS TRUE THAT AFTER JEREMIAH DIED, THAT THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF THE KING TOOK SHIP & WENT TO THE BRITISH ISLES, that's what they say, & they took along with them the Stone of Scone on which the British kings are crowned, because they still expected & hoped to have another king & be able to crown him on that Stone of Scone. And the word "Britain" really comes from an old Hebrew word "Brithin" which literally means "brethren" or "brothers." And in fact, there's still a Jewish organisation called B'nai B'rith, which is a Jewish Brotherhood.
47. SO THAT'S WHERE BRITAIN & THE BRITISH CAME FROM, & that's why they all look so Jewish--they are, very Jewish. You take the Irish, my, you never saw such Jews! They sing like Jews, they write poetry like Jews, they're happy like Jews & they get mad like Jews! And they fight like Jews, oi yoi yoi! Such a business, what it is, oi yoi yoi! Vell, vhere vere ve? Cyrus was letting the children of Israel go! Well, not all of them but some of them went back, & the thing they were most concerned about more than anything else was to... (David: Rebuild the Temple.) Rebuild the Temple! That was the first most important thing they wanted to do was to rebuild the place where they worshipped God.
48. SO A LOT OF THEM WENT HOME UNDER CYRUS, the king who was predicted, even his name, that he would let them go, & then they tried to do the best they could to rebuild the Temple. It wasn't near as glorious as Solomon's Temple by far, but at least they had a roof under which to worship from the hot sun & the rain & someplace to have their meetings.
49. EVEN WE HAVE TO HAVE SOMEPLACE TO HAVE OUR MEETINGS, DON'T WE?--Even a living room or a caravan or down at MWM in Greece they meet out under the trees on the grass, & sometimes under a big tarpaulin they stretch that's about as big as this ceiling, way up over their head to keep out the sun & the rain. Because it's a hot country down there.
50. AND THAT'S WHAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAD FIRST TOO, THEY JUST HAD A TENT TO HAVE THEIR MEETINGS IN, their Fellowship Days. They had their Fellowship Days on Saturdays, we have ours on Sundays because most Christians do. And they had these meetings & they sang songs & read the Bible. They didn't exactly have felt-o-grams but they had illustrated sermons. They had illustrated ceremonies which told the story about the things they'd gone through & experiences they'd been through.
51. ALL THESE THINGS IN THE TEMPLE WERE ALL PICTURES, REALLY, OF SPIRITUAL TRUTHS & spiritual things & experiences they'd been through. All of these things were types & shadows of spiritual realities. See, these are types & shadows, aren't they? These aren't real things, are they? They're just pictures, right? Haven't we got a picture of somebody that's supposed to be in here? Where's Daniel, anyway? Whatever happened to Daniel? We should have Daniel up here somewhere explaining all this! My goodness, he should be on top of the whole thing here. There!
52. NOW, IS THAT DANIEL? (DAVID: YES!) Is it really Daniel? Look at that, feel it. It's a felt-o-gram! But it looks like Daniel, doesn't it? And we call it Daniel, don't we? So it's our picture of Daniel, right? So we say it's Daniel, right? (David: Yes.) But it's not really Daniel, it's a felt-o-gram of Daniel, it's a picture of Daniel, & that's what they had in the Temple, all kinds of pictures of things.
53. THEY HAD A BIG ALTAR OUT FRONT WHICH IS SYMBOLIC OF THE SACRIFICES WE MUST MAKE. They had sacrifices on the altar, all these burnt offerings & everything, & that was symbolic of the things we must give to the Lord. And they had a priest up there killing the animals & officiating in the sacrifices & preaching them sermons, & that was sort of like the preachers. And they had one special high priest who went way into the Temple in the Holy of Holies, not just the Holy Place but the Holy of Holies, & sprinkled blood on the people, etc., & he was symbolic of Jesus. He was a picture of Jesus, see?
54. AND THEN THEY HAD THE TABLE OF SHEWBREAD & THE ALTAR OF INCENSE & they had the seven-prong candelabra, the Menorah, & all of those symbolised something. I don't have time now to give you a whole course in the Tabernacle & Temple types & shadows, but all of those things symbolised something, were a picture of something spiritually, & also were souvenirs from experiences they'd been through.
55. DID YOU KNOW THE JEWS COLLECTED SOUVENIRS? Well, we can't collect too many because we're always on the move. Well, they were always on the move too, but they collected a few very important souvenirs--Aaron's rod that budded, & a little bit of manna, & they had the tables of stone & a few odds & ends of souvenirs to remind them of the things that had happened to them, & the things they'd been through.
56. AND THEY HAD A CEREMONY CALLED PASSOVER WHEN THEY KILLED A LITTLE LAMB, & the lamb was a picture of Whom? (David: Jesus.) Jesus! And his blood was a picture of Jesus' blood, right? And when they ate him for Passover it meant that they were receiving Jesus as their Saviour. So see, we have all these pictures, illustrated sermons. The Jews had a lot of pictures & illustrated sermons, which were like their felt-o-grams, see?
57. SO THE FIRST PLACE THEY WANTED TO BUILD WAS THEY WANTED TO BUILD THEIR FELT-O-GRAM BUILDING where they could have their felt-o-grams--in other words their pictures, types & shadows & souvenirs of the story. Savvy? They wanted to have that building restored so the felt-o-grams wouldn't get all wet. I don't know, maybe they had felt-o-grams, who knows? They had things like felt-o-grams, all these odds & ends that were pictures & illustrations.
58. A FELT-O-GRAM IS AN ILLUSTRATION, IT'S A PICTURE OF THE TRUE. And that's what Jesus said & Paul said, they all said they were pictures of the true. So they had a whole building full of pictures, all kinds of pictures of things. (Col.2:17; Heb.8:5; 9:9; 10:1.) Only mostly it wasn't just pictures, they actually had objects that represented things in there, just like we do in our felt-o-gram. We've got objects that represent things here, & they're pictures too.
59. SO ANYWAY, SOME OF THEM WENT BACK & THEY REBUILT THEIR FELT-O-GRAM BUILDING with their pictures of the spiritual things & truths & experiences, but they still hadn't rebuilt the city. So there had to come along another king--because Daniel said so, God said so--who was going to tell them--in fact command them, to go back & rebuild the city & the wall thereof! How about that?
60. THEY BUILT THE TEMPLE FIRST, WHICH REPRESENTED GOD & THEIR RELIGION & THEIR SERVICE FOR THE LORD. That was good, right? They put God first. They put God first & His Work first & His worship first & sacrificing to the Lord first. They rebuilt the Temple first & the altar & they started sacrifices again, that's what they should have done, wasn't it? They should put God first, His work first, His service first. Isn't that what we do?
61. AREN'T WE SUPPOSED TO PUT GOD'S WORK FIRST? Aren't we supposed to put His service first & His sacrifices first & His worship first? (Family: Amen!) All right, that's what they did. So they rebuilt the Temple & started worshipping again & serving the Lord again. They'd been away 70 years in captivity & been far away from serving the Lord like they should--like some of our backsliders! We haven't had any of them gone 70 years yet, but give us time, who knows? Well, we don't have that long.
62. WE'VE HAD SOME GONE SEVEN YEARS, & THEY'RE COMING BACK AGAIN NOW, how about that? We've had some gone seven, eight, I think one even nine years who'd known us before, & they're coming back & being friends again & want to get the Magazines & hear the Word of the Lord & serve the Word of the Lord. They ran away like the Prodigal Son & were out there in the World & spent their substance in riotous living until they'd wasted everything they had & they wound up in the swinepit of the old System until they got so fed up with it & sick of it they decided the Family wasn't so bad after all, that dear old Dad maybe was right after all, & maybe they'd better get back in the Family!
63. WHAT'S THAT SONG THEY SING?--"LET'S GET BACK TO THE GARDEN"! (Family:
"Let's get back to the garden,
Let's get back to the garden,
Let's get back to the garden you & I!")
So we want to get back to the Garden of Eden, & our Garden of Eden is Jesus & the Family, PTL! Jesus is our Shepherd in the Garden & our lives that we live is like living in a garden, & some of us do live in gardens, don't we? Especially if you're living in a caravan or a tent! (David: We have a little garden upstairs with plants & one plant is really really up high & almost about to bloom!) How about that! So you've got a garden that lives with you!
64. WELL, MOST PEOPLE LIVE WITH THEIR GARDEN, & we've got a lot of people in caravans that are living out in gardens. So a lot of us have really gotten back to the Garden!--Literally!--Not just a spiritual garden of happiness & fellowship in the Family only, but literally living out in gardens--& some of them are living in the gardens of the homes that they're visiting--& so they're getting back to the garden. We're getting back to the garden all the time! It's getting happier & freer & more beautiful & serving the Lord is better everyday, amen? PTL!
65. SO THEY WENT BACK & REBUILT THE TEMPLE FIRST & SAID, "LET'S GET BACK TO THE TEMPLE"--that was in a way their garden, their Garden of Eden. Our Garden of Eden is the Family, the Kingdom of God & the Lord's fellowship. We are the Kingdom of God, Jesus said so! It's already here--in you & me, right? So we're already in the Kingdom, the only thing is, the Kingdom doesn't control the whole World yet, but it will, we will, just give us time. Wait'll Jesus comes back & we'll take over. But right now the Kingdom is here & is within you. (Lk.17:21.)
66. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT JUST AT HAND ANYMORE, IT HAS ARRIVED! "At hand" means near, but the Kingdom of God has arrived, & we are it! PTL! Every Christian is a citizen of the Kingdom of God & all the Christians together the whole Worldwide, not only the Family, but all Christians are members of His Kingdom. So His Kingdom is spread all over the World already, everywhere there are hundreds of millions of Christians all over the World who love Jesus.
67. THEY MAY NOT ALL WORSHIP THE SAME WAY, they may not have it all right, they may not understand the Bible the same, but as long as they love Jesus & they believe He died for them & have received Him as their Saviour, they're Christians, right? They're saved & they're His children & members of His Kingdom.
68. SO GOD'S KINGDOM IS ALREADY SPREADING ALL AROUND THE WORLD, hundreds of millions of them! Those hundreds of millions who are suffering under other kings & other rulers & wicked men & wicked women & wicked people right now, most of them are suffering & are not running the place & not ruling things. But one of these days when Jesus comes, all those Christians are going to be raptured--not captured--but raptured! And we're going to get our new bodies & we're going to start pretty soon ruling the whole World! So the Kingdom of God is already here & it's within you, it's all over the World, everywhere!
69. WE HAVE A GREAT FAMILY--NOT JUST OUR FAMILY ALONE, OF YOU, MY CHILDREN. I'm just one of many fathers, really, of many spiritual fathers. You're my spiritual children in the Lord, I'm your spiritual father, but God's our big Father in Heaven & Jesus is our big Brother, & we belong to a big Family of everybody who love Jesus all over the World, and there are lots of people who love Jesus besides just our little Family.
70. THERE'S ONLY ABOUT 8,000 OF OUR LITTLE FAMILY, YOU, MY CHILDREN, & there's only about 2,000 Homes of us. Well, that's a lot, that's more than most preachers have. That's more than a lot of prophets even have. But that's a pretty small kingdom for kings. That would be about the size of the kingdom of "The Mouse that Roared"! You've got to be sure & see that picture. It's about a little tiny country that conquered the United States, funny story, real funny!
71. THERE'S SOME LITTLE TINY COUNTRIES IN EUROPE, but I don't think there's any little tiny country that tiny with only 8,000 people! (David: 8,000, that's a lot!) How many in San Marino in Northern Italy? How many in Andorra? How many in Liechtenstein? (Family: More than 8,000.) Can you think of another little tiny country? (James: Monte Carlo.) Monte Carlo is not the country, that's the city! It's Monaco, and it's only 400 acres or something.
72. WE USED TO LIVE ON 400 ACRES, THAT'S EXACTLY THE SIZE OF TSC! The Ranch back home in Texas was 400 acres exactly! You remember that? How many were on the Ranch in Texas? All you out there in Videoland, raise your hands! How many of you were on the Ranch in Texas? Well, you remember how big the Ranch was? Well, it seemed pretty big, it was a whole mile long & half-a-mile wide, but that was only 400 acres. And just think, that's about the size of Monaco! That's a pretty small kingdom. But goodness, in Monaco they've even got more people than us.--Thousands!
73. AND WHAT'S ANOTHER LITTLE TINY COUNTRY? Luxembourg! How many people in Luxembourg? Nobody knows how many people these little countries have, & yet you're a little country like they are & you don't even know how many people live in those countries. We may not be the biggest country on Earth, but I bet we're about the smallest! In our little country there's only 2,000 Homes but that's a pretty big town, though, with 8,000 people. I wouldn't say that was a little village, I would say that was a pretty good-sized town of 2,000 Homes & 8,000 people! It's about the size of my little town of Coolidge where I used to live. I guess that's about all God can trust me with is 2,000 Homes & 8,000 people! (1983: Now 36,000 Homes with 45,000!)
74. WELL, WE'VE HAD A LONG LESSON ALREADY ALL ABOUT THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF DANIEL NINE. You didn't know the story, did you? David, if you don't even know the story, how are you going to understand this? So right where we're ending the story for tonight is where the king--this king right here, Artaxerxes, Ahasuerus--told the Jews to go home. There were more Jews that still hadn't gone home, so he said, "Why don't you guys go home! Yankee to home!" I mean, "Jews go home!--Back to your own country! I'll let you go home now & you can even rebuild your own city. You can go back. You rebuilt the Temple, now you can go back & rebuild the city!" (Neh.2.)
75. AND DANIEL THE PROPHET PROPHESIED A LONG TIME BEFORE IT HAPPENED, EXACTLY WHEN IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, when they were going to rebuild the city--they hadn't even left their captive country yet in Daniel's day--& how long it was going to take them to build the walls. (David: 7 weeks.) Right, it's 7 sevens, isn't it, which is how long? They're not weeks, they're 7 sevens of years, so seven times seven years is 49 years. It took'm 49 years to build the walls of Jerusalem, because it was a big city.
76. SO YOU HAD THIS LITTLE WEE WORD OF INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL 9. I used to tell you a joke about how my little kids would all sit in a row on the front seat, & by the time they got through singing & everything at a church service, then I got up. And I heard Aaron whisper to Ho one time, he said, "Now starts Dad's little wee word of introduction--two hours long!" So here you have my wee word of introduction--I bet it was two hours long! I can't seem to make any progress under two hours.
77. MY MOTHER USED TO SAY, "I DON'T SEE HOW ANYBODY CAN PREACH A SERMON IN LESS THAN TWO HOURS, you can't really get anywhere!" You can't really knock it through their heads, you can't get through that thick skin, you can't really get'm beaten down & weakened & ready to receive it. It takes about two hours to do it. So that was Daddy's wee word of two-hour introduction to Daniel Nine--& I'll guess we'll have to have Daniel Nine next time, OK? But this begins to tell you the story of Daniel Nine, & we'll tell you what all this means next time, God willing. GBAKY all, in Jesus' name, amen.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
