The Nature of the Mystery of God

     The mystery of God is the prophetic plan of redemption as summarized in the Great Week. It is  when the Kingdom of God comes to the earth. It is the restoration of all things, including the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel as promised to King David.
      This is what the disciples asked Jesus about just before His ascension. “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Jesus didn’t answer their question directly because He knew that the Israel of their time was not the Israel that would be restored at the appointed time. They hadn’t come to fully understand yet by the Spirit that it would not come until the Day of the Lord, the 7th Day in God’s plan of redemption. Instead, their focus was to preach the Gospel.
         In Rev. 11:15 we are given the clue as to how the mystery of God is completed. “In the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” So at what point does the 7th angel sound the trumpet? 
        The answer is given in a vision given to the prophet Daniel as recorded in the 9th chapter of the Old Testament book that bears his name. It gives us the essential backstory to this Revelation chapter. It is known as the 70 Weeks Prophecy which concerned Israel’s future.
        The prophecy covered three time periods described as 70 “weeks” of years, with each “week” lasting 7 years. The first would be a short period waiting for the Temple to be rebuilt after the Babylonians destroyed it in their invasion and the Jews were taken into captivity by Babylon. The second period would encompass an extended period waiting for the Messiah (Christ’s first coming). The third period would cover another “week” of 7 years concerning the Messiah’s work.
          It is this last and 70th Week that is so pivotal to understanding Revelation. It is the period that has been misinterpreted, causing the confusion in the Church concerning the end-times. The prophecy provided a sort of divine to-do list with six specific tasks that could only be completed by the Messiah. Three of those tasks were accomplished during Jesus’ first coming.
            End-Time Lesson: The prophecy predicted that Jesus would be “cut off” at the mid-way point of this final 70th Week, after 3½ years. Jesus’ earthly ministry did indeed last 3½ years. Since the prophecy concerned Israel’s future and hope as Jeremiah had prophesied earlier, the 70 Weeks Prophecy was paused and put on hold until the Jews would finally recognize Jesus as the Messiah at the rapture (Mt. 23:39). 
           This is the mystery of Israel’s blindness described in Romans 11, when they were cut off by rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. Yet Paul assures his people that they will be grafted back into the Vine. How did he know this? Because it was prophesied in Malachi 3, when God would bring them back at the appointed time—which just so “happens” to be the Day of the Lord, the 7th and last Day.
          When the Jews finally accept Jesus as the Messiah, the 70 Weeks Prophecy is resumed. The final 3½ years of the 70th Week unfolds. It coincides with the first 3½ years of Christ’s millennial reign over the earth. It is when the trumpet/bowl judgments are poured out as the wrath of that Day. It is the war for Jerusalem, which ends with the Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty (Rev. 16:14). We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, but at least you know where we are going. Stay tuned.