Daniel Habakkuk Zephaniah
This will widen your eyes, even if you hesitate to agree. I have previously offered an interpretation of Daniel Ch 9 where there is one each, Prince, Messiah, Anointed One and Covenant. All centered on Jesus. Daniel’s 70th week being two 3 ½ year periods of Jesus first and second coming. Would the Jewish people embrace Jesus more easily with this reading of Daniel? If you are led, read these “minor” prophets with this perspective in mind. Below, I will show some selected verses in close proximity through these books and offer the connections that I see to Daniel and Revelation.
Here is an excerpt:
Now the verse which first got my attention, Ch 2 v 20:
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
This verse links to Zeph 1:7 and Zech 2:13. The Lord is in His heavenly temple. Is this the silence in heaven for ½ hour from Revelation?
In Ch 3 v 1 Habakkuk says a prayer like a psalm in extreme emotion, see shiggaion.
Keeping in mind the Daniel interpretation of a split 70th week read v 2, the beginning of the prayer.
2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
He heard the speech of the Lord and was afraid. He asks the Lord to resume His work from the middle as he returns in wrath!
Habakkuk
Habakkuk starts with a cry to the Lord on behalf of his people, just like Daniel Ch 9. The Lord replies that he will send the Chaldeans, a fierce army. Historically, the Chaldeans were not the original Babylonians, but lived more rurally. Eventually, their culture overtook the Babylonians and they became known as neo (new)-Babylonians. Today they would be represented by Iraq and Iran, the northern Persian Gulf nations. Or symbolically, the “new Babylonians” could also represent the world government, banker group. Habakkuk asks why the Chaldeans are allowed to…, Ch 1 vs 14-15:
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
At the end of His ministry Jesus turned this example from evil to good. While the “angle” refers to a hook, it is very reminiscent of the upturned carpenter’s square prominent in a secret order’s logo.
Ch2 v1 describes the communication of the Lord with his prophet:
2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto (within) me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
“That he may run that readeth it.”, is much like the blessing of reading contained in Revelation.
Verses 3&4 reflect on the end times…
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
The language is unmistakably of salvation and the end times. This looks like a rapture verse.
Verse 6 contains a woe to those who collect the wealth of others and collect usury (interest).
Verse 9 contains a woe for those using evil power to prosper his house.
Verse 12 contains a woe for building towns with blood and cities with iniquity.
Verse 15 contains a woe to those who give drink to persons near to them so that they are exploited.
Now a reference which links to our times v 2:17:
17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
Another woe is in verse 19 to those who worship (wooden) images which have no breath. This is a total of at least five woes. Revelation anyone?
Now the verse which first got my attention, Ch 2 v 20:
21 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
This verse links to Zeph 1:7 and Zech 2:13. The Lord is in His heavenly temple. Is this the silence in heaven for ½ hour from Revelation?
In Ch 3 v 1 Habakkuk says a prayer like a psalm in extreme emotion, see shiggaion.
Keeping in mind the Daniel interpretation of a split 70th week read v 2, the beginning of the prayer.
3 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
He heard the speech of the Lord and was afraid. He asks the Lord to resume His work from the middle as he returns in wrath!
Now a possible description of the rapture in verses 3 and 4:
3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
Now His wrath v 5:
5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.
Revelation is strongly reflected in the next verses:
6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. (measuring rod)
8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? (horses and salvation)
9 Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
The “bow” may be familiar to those thinking of the white horse of Revelation. Judgment is described to the end of the book.
Zephaniah
Zephaniah continues the reflection of Revelation. Zep Ch 1 v 2:
2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.
The word KJV translates as consume is cuwph G5486 and means “to snatch away and end”.
So, the entire book starts with a potential rapture verse. Some of what follows:
6 Hold thy peace (be quiet) at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice
(offering to God), he hath bid his guests.
Once again, silence in heaven. The offering is the church. They are guests because they have accepted His invitation. This links to Hab 2:20.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
Leaping on the threshold is like a thief, while those of the master’s house are like the “keepers” in Mat 24.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
A Fish Gate, a cry and a second (cry) and an earthquake. The Fish Gate is the open door for the church. Two cry’s while the dead in Christ rise and then those living. Rapture.
Verse 14, “The great day of the Lord…”.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind
men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
The wrath comes. They are blind because they were given over to a delusion.
In Ch 2 we have the message we have recently heard from many receiving words from the Lord and preached by Dr. Owuor among others and the blessed hope in the same verse!
3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.
Be hidden in the rapture by seeking Jesus in humility.
Ch 3 Begins with a woe to Jerusalem (the oppressing city).
3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
5 The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
“He will not do iniquity…” is also in Habakkuk.
8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.
This is how it will end, the purpose of the cleansing wrath.
10 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain.
This is the transgression mentioned in Daniel Ch 9. Evil-doers will be removed. Zephaniah ends at verse 3:20:
18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.
19 Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.
20 At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD.
…As John would say, “Amen”. Are these John’s two “favorite” OT books?
The manner in which I was led to these books personally encouraged me regarding their relationship to the Daniel interpretation and it’s relation to Revelation. Reading prophecy I no longer feel I am reading two overlapping or conflicting timelines. Even so, I cannot yet reconcile all of it. There may be time for me to follow into other books for more clarity, or maybe not.