The Seven Times Throughout the Scriptures | Michael Troyanosky III

How many verses are okay? How many verses do we read each? Um, you can do three.

Okay. "You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. If you walk in my statutes and keep, sorry, if you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your thresh shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid. And I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you."

Okay, so did you finish the verse there with you? Say yes, I did. Yeah. Okay, all right. Who's next?

Okay. "And you shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondmen. And I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you go upright. But if you will not hearken unto me and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that you will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant, I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it."

And I just read another verse because it was like the same sentence. Um, we back to Armen. Okay. "And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when none pursueth you. And if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if you walk contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you which shall rob you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you few in number. And your highways shall be desolated."

Okay, um, it's Renell again, right? It's "And if he will not be reformed by these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. And when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence you, and you shall be delivered into the of the en."

Okay, so I'm gonna do Renell's turn. Yeah. "And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall break your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight. And you shall eat and not be satisfied. And if he will not for all of this, all this, hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times."

This is the key verse for today. Amen. "And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols. And my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries into desolation. And I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will and I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you. And your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate. And you be in your enemy's land, even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbath as long as it lieth desolate. It shall rest because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when you upon it. And upon them that are left alive with you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when none pursue it."

I, one more. Or wasn't cutting. Okay, so, so there's a few more verses left, but I'm going to break, break up the, um, monotony of reading a whole chapter. Um, so we're on verse, we're in verse 37 right now, I guess, right? Or did we? 37. Yeah. Okay. So what the verse I want to focus on, if you want to open your Bibles there, if you have Bibles, is is verse 28. Does, does everybody have the King James version, or does anyone have a different translation on them? Because I'm curious if anyone's Bible has a different rendering. Because the, well, there's a King James here that. Okay, I have a King James and this a New King James. Yeah, whatever you prefer. Yeah. So, so we're not going to, there's some controversy over this verse. And the reason there's controversy over this verse is because this is the chapter that we find that, that those who, um, those who believe that there's a time prophecy in Leviticus 26, this is the chapter that you find the 2520 days, or the 2520, also known as the seven times. And the reason it's known as the seven times is right there in, in verse 28. Um, he says, "I will even I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins." And he goes on to to communicate like these consequences that result from the, um, just bad choices of the Israelites. And we see, um, we see here on the chart, there's, um, you see, see here, there's the 2520 up here, and it's there, it says 2520, and then it says seven times, and then it starts in 2 Chronicles 33:11. So let's go there, and I'll, I'll read that. Let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Chronicles 33:11. 2 Chronicles 33:11. So, so, all right, keep, keep your finger in Leviticus 26, because we're going to be going back there, and open up to 2 Chronicles, um, like I said, 33:11.

2 Chronicles 33:11. "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon." And so this, this, um, the point of bringing up this verse is like, here in this, this story, we see the very types of consequences that result from essentially breaking the hedge of protection that God has bestowed upon his people through his law. And when that hedge is broken, we're vulnerable to the will, to the, like assaults of the enemy, and the, you know, this chastisement of the Lord. And he, he sends his people on this, this, there's this whole 2520, um, 2520 years that his people go through. And I, I'm not like the greatest expert on this section of the study, um, and I do want to study it more. But the general concept that I understand is that this, what's, what's being talked about here as like where God's people are carried away into Babylon, is that's happening in, uh, in 677. So when you take, when you take 677 BC and you bring forward 20, 2520 years, you end up in 1843. And it's, um, another time prophecy that brings us to the year, or you end up in 1844. The, this is the original chart. So they, they still had the zero year, um, miscalculation. And I, I know I'm kind of like using a bunch of terminology that's, and like, and referencing things that might not be as familiar to everyone listening. So please don't hesitate to be like, to raise your hand or just speak up and say, hey, what's the zero year confusion? Or hey, like, just ask your questions. I don't want to, like, um, stop anyone from doing that.

Um, problem. So, who, who here has like, um, you know, because I, I've only really begun to study the 2520 myself for like, just a little while. Like, I kind of just absorbed a lot of of it through like osmosis, I guess, because the congregation that I was baptized into was just fellowshipped on this question. Like, the congregation that I joined, like they were bringing up the charts, they were bringing them to church or show, they were talking about them in church, they were passionate about the, um, the prophecies on the charts. Because it's not just a 2520, you have, you know, 1335, you have the 1290s, you have the 2, 1260s, you have the whole time in the end in 1798. You have, you know, we obviously know, we Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Daniel 8, little horn, 10 horns, three horns plucked up. You have like a whole perfect chain of truth. And this is the one from the Millerite movement, from, they call it the 1843 chart, even though it existed before 1843, they just call that because of the, the 1843s on it. And then this is the, um, this is a reproduction of the 18, what they call the 1850 chart, because this one was printed in 1850, and this is after they corrected the 1844. And then they have the sanctuary message and a few other things lined up here. Um, so, so yeah, um, any questions so, so far? Because I'm going to jump into a few examples of different 252s or different seven times in the Bible. It's just interesting that the church would have accepted the, you know, the, the 35, was 3500 days, the 1260 days, but not the 2520. Well, I think it's because, um, I think it's because they didn't teach it in seminary. And when lay people came and they said, hey, look at what we found in our pioneers, like position, here's the charts, like, like they might have seen a chart, but they weren't taught the charts. They weren't taught the 2520, the seven times, as I prefer to call it. They weren't taught the seven times. They weren't taught the charts. So when lay people come in and they show up with the charts, the sem, these seminary-trained pastors and and like, uh, peoples, they basically end up, I don't know, I think it's like, I don't know their hearts, but I can imagine it would be hard to have the humility to just accept that, like these people coming in who are enthusiastic about a certain doctrine are, um, are one, correct, and that just, and two, that they know something you don't. They didn't, they know something you didn't learn in seminary. And I think that's what happened is I think it was just that simple. And then somebody decided like that these are fanatical people because they were enthusiastic, and some of them may have been too zealous. I don't dispute that. The people, the like people sharing it. But like, this is the foundation of our faith, like these, these charts. And we're going to go into, we're going to have just a, like, little summary, like, we're going to talk about the divine endorsement of the 1843 and 1850 charts. Uh, we're going to talk about, um, William Miller a little bit, and we'll talk about, um, just maybe we won't go into all of them, but we can touch on a few of the examples of the 2520 in the Bible. Because what happened with the conference, basically, was they said, there is no time prophecy in Leviticus 26. And they considered that to be the foundation of the 2520 movement. So when they, when they just shut people down on that note, then they stopped listening, and they didn't care that there is a 2520. Um, with, we'll just, I'll just list them off real quick, and we can go into them later.

Do you have a chart, Armen? Yes, I do have one here somewhere. Yeah, I'm, I'm lifting them up here. Mine's not laminated though. Good to have. Yeah. So, um, okay, so all right, any questions before we go into the quotes from Ellen White about the chart? I kind of like didn't finish, I don't think, about saying what I was saying about the conference, but that's not the focus. I want to have all good. Okay. So you've got the same charts I have. I got the 1844 one. I don't have the other one, I don't think. Does it have like words on the back? No, it's just white in the back. Okay. Okay, we got to get you the like premium words on the back version. Sounds good. I'll put an order in. I would like one too. Okay. Um, all right, so we're going to, we're going to look at Early Writings page 236, paragraph 1, or, or sorry, sorry, we're going to start in Early Writings page 74 first. Um, so I'm just going to read these. Um, all right. Uh, I see what I, all right, it's not that much. All right. So Early Writings, Sister White wrote, "I have seen that the 1843 chart, this one was directed by the hand of the Lord, and that it should not be altered, that the figures were as He wanted them, that His hand was over and hid a mistake, so a singular mistake in some of the figures, so that none could see it until His hand was removed." She continues, "So that was page 74.1. Same book, a little later in page 23, 236.1, she writes, "The hand of the Lord was removed from the figures, and the mistake was explained." This was the zero year confusion. When you go from AD to like, on a, on a, like in math, zero exists as like a spot in the mathematical sequence, but on a timeline, there's no year zero. It just goes 1 AD or 1 BC and then backwards to 1 BC. There's no, there's no nothing happened, year zero, because there wasn't one. So like mathematically, that's why when you do the math, um, when you do the math, you end up 1843 if you, if you act like the year zero existed, but it doesn't. So you end up at 1844. So, so that's, does, does everyone follow that? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, "The hand of the Lord was removed from the figures, and the mistake was explained. They saw that the prophetic periods reached to 1844, and the same evidence they had presented to show that the periods closed in 1843 proved that they would terminate in 1844." So what something I learned is that William Miller discovered seven witnesses for 1844, and most people only emphasize the 2300 days. Like, I've never heard anyone talk about any of the other ones, like, except in like the sphere out in the Northwest. And that's really like mind-boggling to me that like we have seven, he found seven witnesses to 1844, and we only talk about one of them. And one of them obviously is the 2520. The other one's 2300 days. One is the, he had a few of them, but that's not the subject for today. Um, that sounds like another study that. Yeah, it's really good. Um, so, so this is from GC 88. So there's a Great Controversy edition from from 1888. So this is GC 88, and then page 392.1. The following quote here. [Music] 39.1. Okay, all right. "As early as 1842, the direction given in this prophecy to write the vision." She's talking about. Let's, let's open our Bibles to Habakkuk 2 verse 2 first. So keep your finger in Leviticus 26, maybe I don't know, we'll probably not go back there actually. So let's just turn to Habakkuk. Um, someone can volunteer to read Habakkuk 2:2, 2, 3, and 4, actually. Verse 2. "Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not perish. Behold, the proud soul is not upright in it, but the just shall live by his faith." So does this prophecy remind you of anything in history? Well, the appointed time, time of the end. It, about the, about the charts. They, they read that verse and they made the chart. MH. It also, it also, you know, they, after the Great Disappointment, they were devastated. But when they read that vision, then they knew that that there was a tarrying time. It wasn't, it wasn't that the Lord wasn't going to come, but that there was something that they had missed. Yeah, exactly. That's, that's what I was trying to get at is the, um, right, like you see the sequence of events. Verse two, charts. The first chart, verse two, make it plain. They made it plain on the Millerite chart. It wasn't an Adventist church yet. This is the Millerite chart. Great disappointment comes. Like, so the charts made in verse two. Great disappointment comes. The vision is yet for an appointed time. And and that's the, so, you know, you have the time of the end, 1798, and then the, years leading up to the 1844. And they had that tarrying time. It says it will, in the end, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. So you see right there in the sequence of prophecy, verse two pertains to the chart. Verse three includes this great disappointment concept, or this warning against the great disappointment, to persevere and continue. Um, so back to the quote, we're back in GC 88, um, 392.1. All right, so where she says, "As early as 1842, the direction was given in this prophecy to write the vision, to make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it." And this, she writes, that this had suggested to Charles Fitch the preparation of a prophetic chart to illustrate the visions of Daniel and the Revelation. The publication of this chart was regarded as a fulfillment of the command given by Habakkuk. "And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith." This is what Paul was quoting when he says, "The just shall live by faith." And this is what Martin Luther like had his epiphany about was this concept of the just shall live by faith. Um, as a Catholic, that was like totally an alien concept. Okay, we got one more quote about the charts here. Um, there's two quotes actually. One is from 5MR 202.4, and it just continues on to the next page. What was it? Manuscript Release of Volume Five. Mume 202.4. 5MR 202.4. "God showed me that the necessity of getting out a chart. God showed me the necessity of getting out a chart. I saw it was needed, and that the truth made plain upon tables would affect much and would cause souls to come to the knowledge of the truth." On on the. Yeah. So she continues, I don't know if this is right afterwards, but it's on the next page, 203.1. "On our return, Brother Nicholls, on our return to Brother Nicholls, the Lord gave me a vision and showed me that the truth must be made plain upon tables, and it would cause many to decide for the truth by the third angel's message, with the two former being made plain upon tables." This is November 7th, 1850. So she's saying like, this chart, this one, the 1850 chart, right there, she says, "The Lord gave me a vision and showed me that the truth must be made plain upon tables." So the first, like, you see how God works in his people. It was originally, um, some of the brethren that initiated the, you know, creation of this chart, and then Sister White is shown in vision that there must be the truth must be made plain upon tables for the 1850 chart. Um, final quote here is from 15MR, so it's 15MR 23.2. It's a very short quote. Um, 15MR 23.2. "The chart is being executed in Boston. Period. God is in it. Period. Brother Nichols has the charge of it. Period." I don't know why anyone would be hesitant to embrace these as historical artifacts of our movement and as tools for modern evangelism and education and Sabbath School. Like, these should be like in every pew, like for Sabbath School, like every, like there should be the Bibles, the hymnals, and the charts, like right there, like in the pew, in my opinion. Because, and you should encourage people just to take them home. Because if I can say something, uh, about 10 years ago, I called the Adventist Book Center and I asked them for to send me the whole set of manuscript releases, and they said, well, we've only got like book one, blah, blah, blah. They only had half of them. And I said, can you order me the rest? And they said, no, they're not in print. You know, they're basically, they're not available. And I have come to believe that there are things in ones that aren't available, you know, from reading them online since the EG White app has come out, that there's things that they don't want the General Conference church people to read. What? Yep. We need a printing press that is independent and has access and can print stuff. Well, Ellen White wouldn't, wouldn't they have? Yeah, the, the site has them, but not print. But when I ordered the print books years ago, long before I had sign, the EG White two notes, before I had anything online, they, they, uh, wouldn't order me the other books. The ABC. So I've got probably half of the physical books, but the other half of them, but wouldn't the EG White have been? Oh, probably. But back then, now I have it online. For my very own. Brother. All right. It, it's just, uh, I, I, I had to really focus to hear you guys. Um, it's part my fault because my micro, my speakers are just like, not, I don't know what's up with them. Um, and the air conditioning or whatever is background noise. Okay. Um, so y'all usually go for like another 10 minutes, and then you eat. Another hour and 10 minutes. An hour and 10 minutes. Okay. All right, then we got time. Y'all. Um, so, uh, does somebody want to read a, a quote for me here? It's from Early Writings 229.182. Uh, how much of it? Paragraph starts with "God sent his Angel" and it ends with "deepest respect and awe."

"God sent his angels to God sent his Angel to move upon the heart of the farmer who had not believed the Bible to lead him to search the prophecies. Angels of God repeatedly visited that chosen one to guide his mind and open to his understanding prophecies which had ever been dark to God's people. The commencement of the of the chain of truth was given to him, and he was led on to search for link after link until he looked with wonder and admiration upon the the word of God. He saw there, he saw there a perfect chain of truth. That word which he had regarded as uninspired now opened before his vision, and its beauty and glory. He saw that one portion of scripture explains another, and when one passage was closed to his understanding, he found in another part of the word that which explained it. He regarded the sacred word of God with joy and with the deepest respect and awe."

Thank you. So some of you may know that William Miller was, he was a skeptic. Like, he was, yeah, perplexed by his survival of the war and how people died all around him and he survived. And he's like, why did I live? And he was a farmer, and his associates were, and he, and possibly he himself, were, um, were like either atheists or just theists. And, what's, what are they, what are those people called who think, who think like God made everything and then just walked away? I think they're deists. Yeah. Deist. Yeah. Deist. So like, that was like the spirit of like ideology that he was familiar with. But his perspective was like, it's worth investigating because like, you know, it's worth investigating and he wanted answers. So the way he started was he just started in the beginning of the Bible and he read until he didn't understand what, what he was reading. And then he searched the rest of the Bible for like, to understand like that verse. Like if you got to Genesis 15:5 and he didn't get it, he would look up every word in his concordance, read everywhere else in the Bible until he understood 15 verse, Genesis 15 verse 5. Amen. And that's what he did. So do you want to guess what the first time prophecy related to 1844 is that he finds if he's reading from Genesis to Revelation? 2520. Yes. So if I remember correctly, and I think I do, the 2520 was the first prophecy, the first prophecy that ends in 1844, or he perceived 1843 to for him to encounter. So like, where does the chain of truth start? The chain of truth starts with the 2520. And people just want to cut off this section of the chain of truth and say, we're going to start with the 2300 days. This doesn't make sense. Was the 2300 days a part of that 2520? Yeah, it's, it's a section of those. Yeah, they overlap. Yeah. It doesn't make sense at all. That's the, the 2300 days starts in 457 and goes to 18, 1844. And the 2520 starts in 677 and goes to 1844. There must be a reason why there's so much controversy. But I, like, I don't have a problem with it. What's the big deal? I, I, you know, it's, it's beautiful. It all lands in 1844. It confirms that one supports the other, type of thing. I have a theory. Go, like, to hear it. Well, what does it require to receive chastisement? Humility. That's what the 2520 is really about. It's about humility, and the character building related to have exercising that humility and growing and being purified through fiery trials. And I'm going to bring forth like a whole bunch of evidences in my, in this study coming up to like reiterate that, to, to like substantiate that theory. But I, my theory related to like why it's rejected is because it's a message about humility. It's a message about character building. It's a message about fiery trials. And ironically, or poetically, you could say, it requires humility on behalf of the clergy and seminary-trained people to even consider the idea that the 2520 is a legitimate prophecy, that the charts are legitimate tools. Like, if you aren't taught in seminary something, and your congregation comes and brings something up to you, and they're really enthusiastic, it's easier to call them fanatics and tell them to be quiet than it is to humble yourself and like, look into it. So like, a lot of people rather than seeking for truth, they seek for rebuttal. I'm sure you've seen this, uh, happened to you in, um, your churches, right? Like, they wouldn't look into what you were sharing with them. They would look for rebuttal to what they think your position is. So they're basically like strawmanning you, if you know what that, that idea concept is, like rather than actually re, re, responding, they're trying to like fight you, like rather than come together and reason. There's this like spirit of, get, get away from me, heretic, you know? See that the one true God to. Yeah. And that's what I mean. It's like, how many people like re, like, how, like, how much time did you get to communicate your position at your meeting, um, Armen? Like, when they called you before the people, it was in private, right? Um, well, we went one at a time, and I don't know, I don't know if they gave us a time limit or whatever. They didn't give us a chance to speak anything from the Bible. No, just a statement. Yeah, like a sentence. Uh, no, I, I mean, I, like, all you got to say was, I do or do not recant. No, no, basically I had time while, of course, they were willing to listen to that, that I apologized for the way we had come out with this, right? But then I, I think I said, but it doesn't change the fact that these things are true, right? And that's all I said. So you never were like, given opportunity to like, present your position before the brethren? No. Yeah, I've seen, I've heard stories of people who are given like five minutes or 10 minutes or something, and they do like the best they can, and then like, and then like it seems just like they harden their hearts. Like it just really does. It just seems like they already decided before they even sat down that like, it's over, like this is just a formality. Yeah. Oh, that's certainly how it felt. Absolutely. I took, I took a 13 pages of handwritten Bible verses to the elders of my church, and they, they kept saying, "The scripture and the scripture only." And I gave them 30 pages of scripture, and then what did they come back at me with? Photocopies pages from Evangelism about the Trinity. "The scripture and the scripture only." Yeah. Literally. They literally photocopied it and handed it to you. Yeah. Wow. And yet one had said, "The scriptures and the scriptures only." And he never did come back to me with scriptures. How pretty. At least, uh, Pastor Ricky was humble enough to come to my house and hear me out. But then the response was, "I totally see what you see, but yet I see it different." And I don't believe Jesus is the Son of God, literal Son of God. He said, "I think he's just acting a role." So, you know, at least he came to me and told me this himself. So Armen didn't believe that he had said that. No, no. When person, and I told him until he heard him say it himself. Yeah. You couldn't believe that pastor would say something like that, being in the SDA church, like when the Bible is so clear, Jesus is the Son of God, and that's the whole point that that's so important, you know? Yeah, that, you know, that headship type thing, right? It's the whole, and the whole image of man in the family illustrates that. Okay, so I'm going to continue here. Um, so while, okay, so we see that angels of God repeatedly visited that chosen one in that quote we just read. And I believe it's in Great Controversy, Sister White explicitly says that Gabriel, maybe been Great Controversy or, um, Early Writings, that Sister White explicitly says Gabriel stood by William Miller's side when he was going through this work and like communicated to his mind like these ideas that he was like reading in the scriptures. Like, basically William Miller had Gabriel as his Bible study partner. And that's just like, like, you don't hear of stuff like that happening that much. Like, these are key moments in history. Like, Gabriel is a key figure. Like his role in human history and just the history of everything is huge. For him to be standing next to Miller at such a time is, uh, is fascinating. Um, this quote from Desire of Ages 99.1. "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John." Of Gabriel, the Savior speaks in Revelation, saying that He sent and signified it by His angel. Wonderful thought that the angel who stands next in honor to the Son of God is the one chosen to open the purposes of God to sinful men. Um, so this quote is probably, I don't know if you can find it in your, this next one, I don't know if you can find it in your app, your software, or whatever, but it's William Miller, U, William Miller's writings. So it says 1853 SB, comma, MWM 76.1. Um, [Music] 1853 SB, comma, MWM 76.1. Um, but I'm going to read it so you can hear it at least. I don't know how to put that in. Yeah, so I'll read it. This is from Miller's writings, so this is him talking about his experience. "From further study of the scriptures, I concluded that the seven times of Gentile supremacy," that's the 2520, he says, "I concluded that the seven times of Gentile supremacy must commence when the Jews ceased to be an independent nation, at the captivity of Manasseh." That's when we, that's what we read in 2 Chronicles, that's what we just read. It's on the chart, 2 Chronicles 33:1, captivity of Manasseh. This is Miller's conclusion that the seven times must commence when the Jews ceased to be an independent nation, at the captivity of Manasseh. Watch the best chronologists assign to BC 677. He continues, saying that the 2300 days commenced with the seven weeks, which the best chronologists dated from BC 457, and that the 1335 days, this is another one of his witnesses, commencing with the taking away of the daily and setting up of the abomination that makes it desolate in Daniel 12:11, were to be dated from the setting up of the papal supremacy after the taking away of pagan abominations, and which, according to the best historians I could consult, should be dated from about AD 508. So it sounds like Miller really has been studying. And it says, "Reckoning all these prophetic periods from the several dates assigned by the best chronologists for the events from which they should have evidently be reckoned, they would all terminate together about AD 1843." And again, considering the zero year confusion, it would be AD 1844. But so he's referencing here several of his witnesses. He's referencing 2520, 2300 days, 1335. All of these terminate in 1844. And he had four more witnesses beyond that, if I recall correctly. So there's that. Off we go to, uh, different instances of the seven times or the 2520 in the Bible. So how long is a year in Bible time? Um, like how many days? 360. Yeah. So just for the fundamentalist of the most fundamental, 360 times 7 is 2520. That's why that number is that number. That's what we're talking about here. 2520 is equal to seven times is equal to seven years is equal to 360 times seven. That's all the same. Um, the word time in the Bible is often synonymous with the word year. So that's a, uh, just some, some vocabulary foundation. Was punished seven times, eating grass like an animal, years. Um, so we're going to turn to Genesis 29 and we're going to read. Ryell is going to read some for us. Do you, do you want it on the screen? Does it help everyone? Yeah, if it's easy. Yeah, sure. It helps. I can bring it up too on this end. And if it's easy to find. Yeah, it's no big deal. I can, I can share my screen. I can do it. [Music] There it is. Um, what is this? A concise dictionary of the words of in the Greek. Genesis 29. The charts. So we're going to be reading Genesis 29:16 through 30. Um, you can read as much as you want. 16 to 30. Is that what you said? Talk. Can you guys hear me well? Yeah, pretty good. But that's chapter four on the screen. Yeah, I didn't get there yet. My, my, it's slow. Okay, 16 to 30. All right, sorry. Clear. Is this? Yeah, it's too, too sophisticated for its own good sometimes. It's, it's coming. Oh, I just closed it. Oh, sorry. We can follow along in our Bibles too. No problem. See, books don't have to load, right? Um, the loading is the flipping of the pages. All right, so we're reading 16 through 30. All right. "And Laban had two daughters, the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her. And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me thy wife, oh sorry, give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. And he went in unto her. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah, Zilpah his maid for an handmaid. And it came to pass that in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? Did I, did, did not I serve thee with thee for Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled her? And Laban said, It must not, sorry, it must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve me yet seven years, seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years." So, so we see two, two seven-year periods in this story. And there's actually a common theme throughout the scriptures where you see, um, two different 2520s because, um, anyway, we can get into that later. But there's, there's two different 2520 periods for the two different, for like the north and south of Israel when they, the split of the tribes, if I remember right. So notice how again, he, there's this theme of he subjects himself to this, like, to this service, and it requires what? It requires humility to serve in this capacity. And then there's the, you, he has the seven years, and then he faces the trial of marrying a woman he didn't agree to marry. And then he goes through another seven-year period. Period. So he goes through 2520 days of experience to to marry Leah ultimately, and then he goes through another 2520 days of experience and he marries Rachel. And I think what, what stood out to me in this story is that like, what did it say that his experience was like? Due to he loved, he loved her so much. She, it, it basically went by really fast. So do, do our 2520s in our life need to be tormented? Torment? Torment? No. So even if there's work involved, even if we're growing, we're maturing, we're developing, like with humility and with love, the experiences that are challenging can feel like days. And, uh, we see this in, uh, can you turn to 2 Corinthians 4? We're going to go to 2 Corinthians 4. [Music] All right, so, so in verses, we have a volunteer read 17 and 18 of 2 Corinthians 4. Read loud. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Amen. So the 2520, in a sense, is to us a light affliction, or a heavy affliction, depending on our perspective and our reception and our attitude. Um, Paul calls our light affliction, which is for a moment, just basically the suffering of this life. And he says, "worketh for us." That's a refining fire. It worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But where are we supposed to look? Like, why, why does it matter for our personal experience where we're looking in the midst of affliction? It's going to change how we experience the affliction. Where was Jacob looking in the midst of his 2520s? Rachel. With, with love. Yeah. So where can we look with love in the midst of our 2520s, in the midst of our affliction, which is but for a moment? Christ. Reel says to Christ. So, okay, so that's 2520s, and we haven't even left Genesis. Can we, uh, just take a short break? I need to go to wash. I don't know if anybody else needs to. Sure. I tried to copy this long time ago. He me so I could print it off. Cof. But it was so small. I mean, my, my scanner isn't as big. So it was, I couldn't read the. Yeah, I'd like to get for. Oh, went something there that concerning me. Said, yeah. Cancel. I'm back. This feels like a blow torch. I haven't looked at this for a long time. It's nice. Back to our roots. Yes, it would be nice to get some of the good ink on the back. Maybe. Michael. Yeah, I'll find out how to get them. I know, um, what's his name? L on there was this guy who was selling them and different sizes, laminated. They were fairly expensive. I was going to order some from him and then I slipped by. Get his name. What do you, what are you talking about? These charts. These charts. I was studying with. I forget his name. But he had something for sale. He was selling. Richard Thomasson? No, wasn't him. A young guy like you? Oh, okay. Christian? No, it wasn't Christian. He's a guy from the states that, uh, yeah, he, oh man, I, he knows Enoch and, um, I think he knows you too, Michael. Anyway, the name will come to me before the end of it. What's he look like? Um, well, he's, I've never seen him in person, but short hair, I think he's got glasses. Um, no mustache, no beard. His name, Andrew. Andrew, what again? Mossman. Yes, that's him. Yeah, yeah. He was the, um, he was staff at the school I went to in Oregon. Okay. He was staff. Okay. Is he older than you? A little bit. Not much. Um, I mean, I am 31, so. Oh, yeah. It's young for me. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, can we have a volunteer read our next Bible passage in First Kings 18:42? Bring it up bigger. First Kings 18:42. Yeah, 42 to 46. There. I can read it if you like. Read loud. "So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass that at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say to Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not." To to 46. Yeah. "And it came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel." Ahab's in a chariot pulled by horses, and Elijah runs before the chariot. The hand of the Lord was on him. Seven times. But what can we learn? Like, like, as you can see, like, I think there's a reason why the 2520 is the first link in the chain of truth. And I think it's in part because it goes all over the place. Like this subject, we just saw it in Genesis. We know that like the prophecies and like the.

principles are found in Leviticus. And here we are in First Kings, and we see another seven times. And so he tells his servant, Elijah, right? Tells his servant in verse 43, "Go up now, look toward the sea." And he went up and looked and said, "There is nothing." And he said, "Go again seven times."

What kind of human behavior is required to say to go do something seven times that you just did and you saw nothing? Faith. Great faith. Great faith. And perhaps great humility, because this is his his boss man, his master, his like, he is the servant of Elijah. And to go and do something seven times that your master or your leader, your friend, is telling you to do, to trust him, like to trust God through him, and to trust that he is a like, prophet of God. And to go and do something seven times. You know, we saw Jacob labor seven years for Leah and seven years for Rachel. We see the servant of Elijah go seven times. And what happens on the seventh time? He said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand."

Does this bring to mind any Spirit of Prophecy? Any, uh, any of the writings of Sister White to any of you? This verse 44, "When Jesus comes the first time, will be applied like a man's hand." Interesting, right? Yeah, interesting. Okay, uh, so we're going to read, I'm going to read here from Review and Herald, May 26th. So, Review and Herald, May 26th, 1891, paragraph 8. So, Review and Herald, May 26th, 1891, paragraph 8. This is White, is it? Um, I think it is. I think it is. I think all of this is, all the stuff I'm going to be reading is Ellen White. The only stuff I read that was not Ellen White was from William Miller's book earlier. Give me a sec here. 1991, Review and Herald, May 26th, 1891, paragraph 8. 18 starts with the seven times of prayer or no, that's maybe not. I'm just, I, I'll get into it. Um, do you need me to hold up or, uh, you want me to pull it up? I was just trying to bring it up. Uh, R periodical, May 26th, 1881, 18991, 1891, sorry. Yeah, there, go. Got it. Okay.

[Music]

"So the seven times of prayer produce great rain or equals the latter rain." This is notes from the brother who compiled this a lot. And then, um, here, "Elijah's heart searched by his seven times of prayer: 'He said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea.' And he went up and looked and said, 'There is nothing.' And he said, 'Go again seven times.'" The servant watched while Elijah prayed six times. He returned from the watch, saying, "There is nothing, no cloud, no sign of rain." But the prophet did not give up in discouragement. He kept reviewing his life to see where he had failed to honor God. He confessed his sins and thus continued to afflict his soul before God while watching for a token that his prayer was answered. And as he searched his heart, he seemed to be less and less, both in his own estimation and in the sight of God. It seemed to him that he was nothing, and that God was everything. And when he reached the point of renouncing self, while he clung to the Savior as his only strength and righteousness, the answer came. The servant appeared and said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand." And he said, "Go up, say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, and the rain stop that the rain stop thee not." And it came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.

So notice that this, Sister White, Sister White here, she's emphasizing the 2520 experience of Elijah. When I read the scripture just now, or when I was looking, listening to it being read, and I looked at it myself, I noticed a humility experience within just the servant. But Ellen White says here that as the servant was going back and forth, checking, checking, checking, that the prophet was deep in reviewing his life, seeing how he failed God, confessing his sin, continuing to afflict his soul before God, just watching for a token that his prayer was answered. And as he searched his heart, he became, he became less and less. God became more and more. It seemed that he was nothing and God was everything. And reached the point of renouncing himself. And he clung to, this is the key part, he clung to the Savior as his only strength and righteousness. And then the answer came. So the culmination of his experience during the seven times was clinging to the Savior as his only strength and righteousness. Amen.

So again, this message has to do with humility. It has to do with trials. It has to do with affliction. It has to do with righteousness by faith. It has to do with, like, our self becoming less and less, and God becoming everything, becoming more and more. I, what, what did, what did John say? He said, "He must increase, I must decrease." So that's all related. And I think part of the reason this message was not received is because it's such a hard saying. And people who are righteousness by works oriented, even in, like, the smallest way, they don't want to hear a righteousness by faith message, even if it's just like, or at least they might not want to, even if it's just like, on a subconscious level. So, any, any questions or comments pertaining to this story and these quotes? Oh, there's a lot of faith too, when he just sees that little cloud. Oh, there's going to be a great rain. So it starts out as a little cloud, but it's going to be a massive rainstorm. Yeah.

Okay, our next section is in 2 Kings, chapter 5. Okay. Y'all. So, Second Kings, chapter 5, is the story of Naaman, or not Aman, as I think they would have said it closer to something like that, but we call him Naaman. So, we'll just say that. Naaman. Um, okay. I, I can try to abridge some of these stories if people want, like, the bite-sized version, but we have plenty of time. And I don't have, I don't know, unless somebody like has an objection, we'll just read it. Yeah, it's good to read. Good to read the scriptures. Absolutely. Okay. I like what Doug Bachor said, where he's like, "Sometimes I just like to get up here and read the Bible because then at least I know somebody's getting something out of it." He's kind of funny. It was kind of like his little self-deprecating joke. But like, I, I read a quote, I'll just, just a brief interjection here. I read a quote, and I don't know where it is from, but I just was actually looking up, like, I just Googled, like, Ellen White quotes, or Ellen White quotes. And one of the quotes that came up was her saying that those who get up from the pulpit and just like, or get up to teach a lesson and they're just like, um, like they don't, and I don't, I don't want to butcher the quote, but basically it was a rebuke to my heart because the concept is that like, we shouldn't be so reluctant to let God give us words to say, like, in our own words. Like, we don't need to quote, like, just, we don't need to just get up at the, get up to teach a lesson and just quote the pioneers. Like, it's nothing wrong with quoting the pioneers, but like, God gave us a brain too. And he has things that we've come to, like, there's things that we've thought of that were worth saying. And I kind of had this attitude that like, I don't have anything to offer. The only thing I have to offer is to be a Bible echo and to echo the words of the pioneers, to echo the words of Ellen White. And that I should say as little as possible in my own, of my own thoughts and opinions, thoughts and feelings, and like conclusions. But I was rebuked in, like, that concept because, like, you know, to suggest that I have nothing to offer is to suggest that God is feeble, that God is so weak that he can't use me and my brain. So any of y'all who are hesitant to speak your mind, like, to share the words that God has placed on your heart, like, be encouraged because he wants us to do that. Because if these, if these men never did it, we wouldn't even have them to like quote. So somebody has to say something sooner or later, otherwise nothing's, there's nothing. So, amen. Hopefully that was encouraging to somebody. Even the Bible writers. Can you let Ryell in? Or I can, I can let you in. Didn't realize she was trying to get in. I, I missed what someone said. Even the Bible writers, even though they were inspired by God, they wrote it in their own words and according to their own education level. Yeah, like Paul. Paul quoted some Greek philosophers. But imagine how awful it would be if all he did was quote Greek philosophers and like the Old Testament. Like, the Old Testament's already there. Like, we want to hear what Paul has to say as moved by the spirit, you know? Right. Yeah. So, all right, cool. All right. Uh, volunteer to read. Um, I don't know. Uh, does someone want to just read seven verses here? Like, what's on the screen? I'll come over closer to the mic. Okay. Do, do people, y'all prefer shorter sections? Seven verses is good for me. Okay. Go for it.

"Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor, he but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria: for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man with leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so—"

Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

"And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So so he turned and went away in rage. And his servant servants came near and spoke and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather than, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? When then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Amen."

He had to humble himself. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess, yeah, we can stop there. The, so what, what stands out to, uh, to each of you? Like, what, what are your thoughts? Like, given, like, what we've heard today about the seven times and the concepts related to the seven times, um, what do you notice thematically and, like, um, spiritually in in these stories?

He definitely had to humble himself. It took, you know, because he was ready to stomp off and go back home. And it really was a simple thing, but he was angry because he didn't, you know, actually come out and, uh, touch him and, and call onto his God. He didn't even come out to see him, but he just gave him direction, "Go wash yourself seven times." Yeah.

So if we go back to Leviticus 26, what do we notice? Like, what parallels can we notice between Naaman's experience and the children of Israel's experience? Because the prophet of God is telling Naaman, through his servant, I think, right? To what to do. Like, the prophet didn't even come out. It was a cleansing. So Naaman's being told to do something. And what do we see here? So Naaman's being told to do something, and it's in doing that something that he's able to be clean. He's able to, to, to be free of his leprosy. And we can be free of our leprosy of sin, and even our physical sickness, so far as the Lord would have us be free of those things, when we obey his moral law and his health laws. And we see in the beginning of Leviticus 26, he's telling us not to make idols, he's telling us to keep the Sabbaths, to reference the sanctuary, that he is the Lord. He says, "If you walk in my statutes, keep my commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in season, land shall yield her increase, and trees of the field shall yield their fruit." So there's all of these blessings associated with obedience. Very much like Naaman had the blessing of being, he healed and made clean with just the simple obedience of going and washing seven times. And I think the, the concept here is that there's two seven times offered to us. Like, there's not any other choice for humans, for humanity. We either accept the seven times with the, we, we either, like, seven times is kind of like our life. Like, so the course of your life, you have affliction. Are you going to let that affliction torment you, or are you going to walk with God and behold God and look not at the things that are temporal, but look at the things that are eternal and have peace? Because like Jacob, who loved Rachel, we can walk through the fiery trials, through the furnace of affliction, by, with our eyes fixed on Christ. So the question is, what kind of 2520 experience do you want? What kind of life do you want to live? Do you want to live a life fixated on the challenges and fixated on the thorns, or do you want to gather the roses, the lilies, the pinks, have gratitude to God, and look to Christ, the author of our faith? So, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Amen. That's the one. That's the one. Amen. Agreed. Absolutely. What I love about this story too, you go a little further, he was converted. Just like that. Amen. He was not only cleansed of his leprosy, he became a worshipper of the true God. Am I, like how you said the seven times represent your life? Right? Because it's a complete, it's a complete number. It's the whole life. Whether it's 20 years or 100. The average lifestyle is 70, you know, if you get more, it's a bonus. Yep. Seven times that cold. Know it was dripping. Okay.

Um, so our next quote here, our next passage, if we get a volunteer to read, um, Daniel 3, start in verse 19. How many verses? Uh, we're going to go to, from 19 to verse 30. So, however y'all want to split it up is fine with me. It's 11 verses. So it's 11 verses. One person can read it, two people can split it. Okay. L, you want to read the six verses?

"Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire, and the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon."

There's no verse 31. So there's a lot here. I, I want to point out that in verse 24, Nebuchadnezzar asks, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" And in verse 25, he says, "I, lo, I see someone answers and says, 'Lo, I see four men loose,' or like, uh, or I guess Nebuchadnezzar says, 'Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt,' and no form, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." So what burned up? If they were bound when they went in, and they were standing when he sees them in there, what burned up? Nothing but the ropes that tied them. So only the things that are holding us back in this world are going to be lost and burned up in the fiery trials of this life. Because how many times was the furnace heated up? Seven times. Seven times more than it was wont to be heated. So again, this life and our Christian experience is related to this concept of the seven times, the 2520. And what can we have assurance of in this experience? This fiery furnace of affliction, that we come forth as pure gold. And who is there with us in the midst of the fire? Jesus. Jesus. Amen. So the Son of God, just like he was with these three worthies, as they're called, he, he, he can be with us. Amen.

Give us okay to go through it. We're going one chapter onward, chapter 4, 28 through 36. I can read a little bit. Read on, daughter. Read on. Oh, I zoomed way out. I went all the way to Hosea. I overshot. First. All right, here we are. It from where to where again? To 28 to 36.

"At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most high, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counselors and my lords sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me."

I'm just realizing that verse where it talks about the, like his, his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like bird's claws. He was, it just basically that, like he wasn't groomed. Yeah. He was living in the wilderness. Okay. So, like, I misunderstood this before because it sounded like he became an animal or something. Like, he kind of did. He just kind of lived like one. Yeah. And, like, but I was thinking more of like the werewolf type of transformation, which I don't think that's what happened. It was more just, I mean, there's probably more to it than just being in the forest. But, anyways, um, yeah, it was extremely humbling, that's for sure. Yeah. It came to an animal, then back to a king. Seven times. Only when, only when he extolled. In the last verse, "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase." Sorry, that's one heathen king that will be in the kingdom of heaven.

So the brother who put this together, he, he draws some, some interesting points out of this story. And it says, you know, Nebuchadnezzar was, he was driven from men. So you can say, like, he moved out of the city. And he also withdrew his affections from worldly things. It says he ate, he ate grass like oxen, or like he became a plant-based person. And like he was adhering to some health principles by like living outside and like moving around and eating. And his body was wet with the dew of heaven. So like, you might say that he was receiving the latter rain. Um, and then there's a few other points that he brings out. But he emphasizes, he concludes it with saying that Christ in you, or Christ in you is the hope of glory. And that he, and that Nebuchadnezzar, he had some understanding of the seven times, but he did not benefit from it until he experienced it. So, like, what happens? Like this yellow part I highlighted, if you see my screen, it says, "At the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most high, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." So he came to know the good, you know, the, uh, the goodness and power of the Father. And it took this wildly intense experience for him. Uh, and this, this brother words it, "The seven times process Nebuchadnezzar passed through enabled him to overcome his besetting sin of pride." And, you know, whether it be pride or some other sin, some other impurity, we all, we all are invited to embrace this seven times experience and get out of it what the Lord wants us to get out of it. Because it's only with the protection of Christ that we come out of that furnace, uh, at all, you know, like, in the ultimate sense of like, eternal life. Like the presence of Christ in the hearts of those men, that spirit of God is what kept them alive. Like, uh, it's, uh, it's really interesting. Um, there's another, there's another thing I get out of this. Before, you know, he, he, before he had realized the power of God, you know, when those, when Daniel was able to not only tell him what his dream was, but also to explain the meaning of it. I mean, to be able to tell him what his dream was, he knew that was supernatural. He had to admit that there was a God in heaven. He was, he was going to kill all the other, he was going to kill all the wise men, you know? And then, and then, uh, when with the fiery furnace, he was going to kill all the people that didn't, you know, say good things about the God of heaven. So, you know, basically he was going to force his views on the people. But after, after this humbling experience, he admitted for himself, "I praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven." But he didn't say, "If everybody in my kingdom doesn't, you know, do the same, they're going to be killed." He realized then, I think, that it is a, it's a, your walk, you know, it's who you don't force your beliefs on somebody else. So it humbled him enough to realize that he would have been a changed man before. Yeah.

Okay, so there's a few more thoughts here, but it might take a little while. Um, we can conclude here if that makes sense. Yeah, timing's good. Okay. It was, it was really good though. Was good to look at this seven times again and see how it connects in a lot of places in the Bible. Yeah. And, and you can, you can see what I'm saying in that, like, it's way more than a prophecy in Leviticus 26. Yeah. Like, and that's the thing that people get fixated on. People are like, "There's no prophecy in Leviticus 26." Like, that's what people say, and then they shut you down, and they don't even stick around to hear you talk about Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, about Elijah, and Naaman, and Daniel 3, Daniel 4 with the fiery furnace and Nebuchadnezzar and his seven years. And, like, the, you know, either next time or, like, there's, there's the story in Daniel 5 with Belshazzar with the "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" written on the wall, and there's some things we could go into there. Um, we see Christ. He went through seven trials in his, during his, like, in his, like, when I say trials, I mean like he was brought, uh, into judgment halls, and he was, he was seen. Anyway, like, we can talk about that for a second. And then, Mary, how about we, there's two Desire of Ages quotes that are worth reading. How about we close with those? Does that sound good, y'all? All right.

"Desire of Ages 76.1." Here, I'll just, I'll just read these. D.A. 76.1. "Heaven beheld the victim betrayed into the hands of the murderous mob," talking of Christ, "and with mockery and violence hurried from one tribunal to another. It heard the sneer of His persecutors because of His lowly birth. It heard the denial with cursing and swearing by one of His best-loved disciples. It saw the frenzied work of Satan and his power over the hearts of men. Oh, fearful scene! The Savior seized at midnight in Gethsemane, dragged to and fro from palace to judgment hall. He was arraigned twice before the priests, twice before the Sanhedrin, twice before Pilate, and once before Herod—totaling seven. Mocked, scourged, condemned, and led out to be crucified, bearing the heavy burden of the cross, and wailing of the daughters of Jerusalem, and jeering of the rabble." So he was, he was brought before four different groups of people, a total of seven times combined for each, if you count the multiple times. So he himself went through this just in that one short period of time. These, this seven times type experience.

Um, we're also going to read from "Desire of Ages 568.1." "Mary had been looked upon as a great sinner, but Christ knew the circumstances that had shaped her life. He might have extinguished every spark of hope in her soul, but He did not. It was He who had lifted her up, from lifted her from despair and ruin. Seven times she had heard His rebuke of the demons that controlled her heart and mind. She had heard His strong cries to the Father in her behalf. She knew how offensive is sin to His unsullied purity, and in His strength she had overcome." So Mary Magdalene went through her seven times experience with demonic possession or affliction. Seven times. Amen.

And we can learn from her experience, from the three worthies' experience, from Nebuchadnezzar's experience, from Christ's example, from from Naaman's experience, from Elijah's experience, from Jacob's experience, and from the experience of all of the children of Israel, that in the seven times of this life experience, there may be trials, there may be afflictions. But as we decrease and He increases, we can have righteousness by faith. We can have peace in the midst of trial. We don't need to let affliction torment us. And, uh, might remember, if you read, we were reading from from Wisdom of Solomon, um, the other day about how the people who are in the hand of God. It says, "But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seem to die, and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction. But they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality." So they were looking to the things that are unseen. So their hope is full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded. For God proved them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. Amen."

I like that. So that's Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-7 from the Apocrypha. And God is good. And He doesn't want us to have this life be a torment. He, He says, "His," you know, Christ says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." He, He, He gives us that peace that passeth understanding. And he basically, here he basically, you know, he basically says, like, the world won't get it. Like, that's right. The world will look at us and be like, "That must be awful." Like, they'll look at us, they'll see something we're going through, and they'll be like, "Oh no, that must be miserable," or "He's being punished." Sure. But when we experience chastisement, it doesn't need to be torment. We can have peace as we learn and grow. We can endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We can be as gold tried in the fire and come out on the other side better men, better women, and have righteousness by faith, knowing that we need to decrease and He needs to increase. So, amen. That's, that's all for now. That was a blessing. Praise the Lord. That brings it, that brings it, you know, out more. So, any questions or thoughts before I end the recording here? I'm not ending the meeting, just the recording now. That's really, that's really helpful. It just amazes me that there's so much pushback against it. Okay, well, I can close with prayer. Did Armen leave? Uh, no, he's just open the, get in there. Okay. The cat. All right, let us pray. Father, thank You. Deliver us from evil. Help us to resist temptation and forgive us our sins as we confess them in our hearts. And have this opportunity to do that in this very moment. Please forgive us our sins and have mercy on us. Help us to walk with You. Help us to know that You love us. Help us to love You more and to love others more. Bless the food that we may be about to eat and strengthen us. And be with us in our conversation. Help us to walk and breathe in nature and to experience the blessings that You provided that are all around us. Help us to be cognizant and aware of the blessings and things that we have opportunity to exercise gratitude for. And guard us from dwelling on the thorns and the thistles. Help us to gather the roses, the lilies, the pinks, and to just focus on the blessings that You offer. We pray for those who are, uh, the confusions that we might have, all those who are confused, and all the different winds of doctrine that are blowing around. Help Your people to gather onto one boat and to be blown by the one true Spirit of the one true God, and to recognize that one true Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Michael. You're welcome to stay with us while we.