The Decrees of Persian Kings

 It’s fun when you “see” a tidbit in your daily Bible reading.  Of course you’ve read it many times before but for whatever reason you “see” it and it fleshes out some further understanding.

Last year I taught a class on Daniel at church.  We talked about the Seventy Sevens and how the time would start when "the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem."  Read it in Daniel 9 below.

This is one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible because Angel Gabriel delivered it to Daniel but told him that he won't understand the prophecy but the Bible readers of the future will understand it.

So the Jews are in Babylon and the 70 years that were appointed to them are about done.  Cyrus of Persia overthrows the Babylonians and when he arrives in the city the Jews in captivity there say, "We were expecting you!"  They show him the book of Isaiah and it has the name Cyrus right there.  Cyrus is is so impressed that he issued a decree to allow some Jews to go back to Jerusalem.

So is THAT when the hour glass flipped over and started the 490 years ticking for the Jews?

No, not so fast.  If you go down and read Ezra 6 that there were THREE DECREES GIVEN BY PERSIAN KINGS.

And that was the verse that I hadn't really "Seen" until yesterday.

So it turns out that the final decree matches up perfectly to the day from when Artaxerxes issued his decree. There were Seven Sevens (49 years) to build the walls and then Sixty Two Sevens (434 years) for a total of 483 years from decree until the day Jesus died on the cross.

And now the stop watch has stopped and it won't start for the FINAL 7 years until the Antichrist makes a covenant with the Jews for 7 years!  Those 7 years will end when Jesus returns to the earth.

Thank you Jesus for giving us your Word so that we don't have to be left clueless as to what you have planned for us.  Come quickly please!

Daniel 9

24 “Seventy ‘sevens’[c] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish[d] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atonefor wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.[e]

25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,[f]the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.[g] The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’[h] In the middle of the ‘seven’[i] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple[j] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

Ezra 6

13 Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence. 14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 15 The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.