Satan’s First Counterattack

With the blueprint of the plan of salvation in the possession of Israel, God’s chosen people were to prepare the world for the coming Messiah. But soon after they had received the sanctuary plans, they did not keep His testimonies. They were unfaithful and turned aside from following God. As a result of Israel’s continued rebellion through idolatry, God forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh. God warned that the whole nation would be desolate, and they would eventually serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.

Even though God sent His chosen people messengers, they would mock them and eventually find themselves being taken over by Babylon. Among these captives were Daniel and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. While Daniel was in Babylon, he received a vision from God revealing that God’s people would have 70 weeks of grace. This time period was given to them to put an end to their rebellious disposition that put them into captivity and to prepare for the first coming of Christ. The vision gives a starting point for the prophecy which is the command to restore and build Jerusalem. If one were to count 69 prophetic weeks from the command to restore and build Jerusalem, it would lead to the very year in which the Messiah would be anointed to begin his work of redemption. That decree came from Artaxerxes of Persia in the year 457 BC.

According to Numbers 14:34, the time prophecies of Daniel are based on the principle that a prophetic day is always counted as one literal year. Since 69 weeks equals 483 days, this prophetic time period would amount to 483 years. That brings us to AD 27, the very year that Jesus was baptized at the Jordan according to Matthew 3:16. But Christ came to His people and His own people did not receive Him. Christ was anointed (or baptized) at the beginning of the 69th week, which was the year AD 27. In the midst of the remaining week (or seven years), He would be cut off – confirming the covenant and bringing an end to the sacrifices and offerings. Exactly three and a half years after, Christ was baptized. He was indeed “cut off” and “separated” – not for Himself but for the world. Jesus was betrayed by the leaders of Israel and thus rejected by the whole nation. Christ had come to bridge the separation caused by sin by taking upon Himself our sins. Jesus would experience this separation from God.

The prophecy also states that through His death, He would bring an end to the sacrificial system. There was no longer a need to sacrifice animals or keep certain ceremonial laws, which pointed forward to His work of redemption. These laws surrounding sacrifices were to cease, while the eternal law of God was confirmed. Satan would now seek to use the death of Christ to His advantage. Teaching that there was no longer any need to keep the Ten Commandments – that the grace of Jesus nullified the law of God. This error, that Christ nailed the moral law of God to the cross instead of the ceremonial law of Moses, has been challenged by spiritual giants such as Spurgeon, Wesley, Moody, Luther, Calvin, and even Billy Graham. The prophet Daniel foresaw this counterattack on the moral law of God and wrote that Satan, through the power called the little horn (Daniel 7:8), would attempt to change times and laws (Daniel 7:25). We will cover more of this a little later.

Now, after Christ’s resurrection, He ascended to the throne of the majesty in heaven (Hebrews 8:1) to become a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, not man (Hebrews 8:2). To both Jews and Gentiles who accepted Christ, these words applied, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:9,10).

The church after the cross now consisted of spiritual Israel, those born of the Spirit in Christ. These believers were to go forward not with an earthly sanctuary but with the message of a heavenly sanctuary. With renewed zeal, a new threat was posed to Satan. He would need to find a way to fight against the new spiritual Israel and the message of a heavenly temple. Don’t miss next week as we cover Satan’s second counterattack against God’s newly formed spiritual Israel.

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