Prophecy- prediction
of the future.
A prophet did this--
Luk 2:19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered
them in her heart.
Luk 2:20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and
praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told
unto them.
Luk 2:21 And when eight days were accomplished for the
circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the
angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Luk 2:22 And when the days of her purification
according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem,
to present him to the Lord;
Luk 2:23 (As it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)
Luk 2:24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that
which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young
pigeons.
Luk 2:25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem,
whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the
consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
Luk 2:26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy
Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
Luk 2:27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple:
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom
of the law,
Luk 2:28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed
God, and said,
Luk 2:29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace, according to thy word:
Luk 2:30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Luk 2:31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of
all people;
Luk 2:32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
glory of thy people Israel.
Luk 2:33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those
things which were spoken of him.
Luk 2:34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary
his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in
Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
Luk 2:35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own
soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Luk 2:36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the
daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had
lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;
Luk 2:37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and
four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings
and prayers night and day.
Luk 2:38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks
likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption
in Jerusalem.
A man named Simeon
was told by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Lord's Christ before he would
die, and He did.
A prophetess over a
hundred years old KNEW Jesus as the Savior when He was just a baby! How did she
know? God revealed it to her.
Prophecy is HUGE in
the Bible, HUGE. This is a prophecy--
Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel.
The prophecy of
Satan's ultimate destruction and the seed of the woman's temporary pain was
made long long before it began to unfold.
If you believe in
God you must believe in prophecy- the Bible is filled with prophecy. We need to study prophecy, study God's
precious word.
May the Holy Spirit
enlighten us further as we continue on revisiting the prophecy study from a few
years back.
******* Continuing
our prophecy study-- Please GO back and
read the study from the beginning to gain full understanding of where we are,
if you haven't been following this study daily. *******
We're going to pick
up in the same place as yesterday to recap for a moment.
Dan 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and
behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it
had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue
with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before
it; and it had ten horns.
We've been
discussing the relationship between Daniel 2 and Daniel 7- the similarities in
the message. It's very easy to see that the Statue and the Beasts are
symbolizing much the same thing. The Beasts are adding more detail to the
overall picture and it's serving to clarify God's message to us.
When Daniel wrote
the first prophecy He knew what time they were living in and said as much-
Dan 2:38 ... Thou art this head of gold.
Dan 2:39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom
inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule
over all the earth.
Daniel knew he was
living in the time of the head of gold and yet he also knew that after him
there would be other kingdoms. Because
no one knows the day nor the hour of Christ's return we cannot place a date on
the appearance of that stone Daniel mentions.
Dan 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God
of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom
shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all
these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was
cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron,
the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold…
We don't know when
the stone will come to destroy all the worldly kingdoms, we don't know when the
kingdom that was set up for us will be realized. What we do know is that as sure as these
prophecies have come true the kingdom of God will be fully realized.
Yesterday we talked
about the ten toes and ten horns. We are
living in the time of the ten toes and ten horns and by that I mean there is NO
other kingdom left to come but the kingdom of God.
Our world will never
again be dominated by any one world power, not ever. Even if there is a common leader for world
peace one day that brings the leaders of many countries together to work for
peace, there will still be many other countries and NEVER a single country,
never a single country to rule all. You could never get any of the major world
countries today to agree to any other country ruling them, never. The United
States would never all Russia or China to take control of them, never and vice
versa.
Let's continue on
here and learn more of what the Bible has to say about the horns…
Dan 7:8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there
came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the
first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like
the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
So the ten major
conquering people that sprang up taking control over what was once the great
kingdom of Rome weren't left alone… ANOTHER horn would come up among them, a
*little* horn. Something that is very
notable and that we need to really pay attention to is three of the first horns
were going to be plucked up by the roots when this little horn came up. For being a *little* horn it's really
something that three of the other horns not classified as little would be
plucked up by the roots. When you pluck
something up by the roots what are you doing? Destroying it completely, right?
If you don't pluck something up by the roots it still has a chance to grow
again. You know what they say about
weeds right? Make sure you get all the roots up or else. And that or else is
the return of those weeds. When these three
kingdoms were plucked up by the roots that means they were destroyed completely
NEVER to become kingdoms again. Never to continue on in history as a people, as
a place, but totally destroyed and kept from flourishing.
Three of the ten
kingdoms…
Heruli- After this
kingdom was destroyed by the Langobards, Herulian fortunes waned. Remaining
Heruls joined the Langobards
and moved to Lombardia, today Italy, and some of them sought refuge with the Gepids. Marcellinus comes recorded that the Romans (meaning the
East Romans or in modern naming the Byzantines) allowed them to resettle
depopulated "lands and cities" near Singidunum (modern Belgrade); this was done
"by order of Anastasius
Caesar" sometime between June 29 and August 31, 512. After one generation, this
minor federate kingdom disappeared from the historical records.
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heruli>
Vandals-In the words
of historian Roger Collins: "The remaining Vandals were then shipped back
to Constantinople to be absorbed into the imperial army. As a distinct ethnic unit they disappeared".
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandals>
Ostrogoths-With that
final defeat, the remaining Ostrogoths went back north and (re)settled in south
Austria. The
Ostrogothic name wholly died... The nation had practically evaporated
with Theodoric's death.
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrogoths>
This can be said of
NO other of the ten conquering kingdoms.
None of them disappeared from historical records, none of them as a
distinct ethnic unit disappeared, and the names of them all did not wholly die
such as these. Of these three horns
plucked up the *little horn* played a part in their demise in some manner. What *little* power was suddenly worth
reckoning with that hadn't been a power previously- and it wasn't a regular
kingdom like the others. If this *little horn* was like the others wouldn't it
just have been another horn? Seriously.
Dan 7:8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there
came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the
first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like
the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
A little horn. In
this little horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great
things.
Eyes like a man.
A mouth speaking
great things.
We know the previous
beasts had characteristics we could note and it gave us much more detail on the
kingdoms. But the other horns of the
fourth beast did not possess extra characteristics, only this little horn, this
strange little horn with eyes and a mouth.
Eyes of a man… not
eyes of an animal, not eyes of an eagle, not eyes of an owl, not eyes of a hawk
but eyes of a man. And a mouth that speaks, not a mouth of a lion roaring or
devouring, but a mouth that speaks great things.
Eyes obviously
represent sight and when we see things it's with a certain comprehension.
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the
fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed,
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with
eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Anoint thine eyes
with eyesalve that thou may see!
We need to see! We
need the Holy Spirit's guidance to see.
Seeing means
comprehending, understanding, knowing.
This little horn with eyes of man would see as a man sees, would
understand as a man understands. Would be like man, speaking like a man only
this man would speak great things! So
while this little horn is a power to be reckoned with it is a like a man not a
normal kingdom, surely this makes the little horn very, very special. Remember it was able to uproot 3 normal
kingdoms. What sort of power can we even
remotely imagine doing this during the history portrayed? Rome mixing with
others, iron mingling with clay while Rome is conquered and divided into many
parts?
Because this is such
a unique and important part of our history I'm going to pause here and pick it
up tomorrow, by the grace and will of God.
We need eyes to see,
we need the eyesalve on our eyes and by the Lord's mercy we will have this as
we continue to study prophecy.
In His amazing LOVE!
Amen.
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