I. THE ANSWER TO THE TWO QUESTIONS

• King Nebuchadnezzar’s question: ‘What shall come to pass hereafter?’ (Daniel 2:29)

• Daniel, The King’s Hebrew Captive, ‘s question: ‘What shall befall My People?’ (Daniel 10:14)

THE ANSWER:

THE KING OF KINGS – EVEN OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR, THE GREATEST OF THE GENTILE KINGS; AND THE MESSIAH, THE PRINCE OF THE JEWISH NATION, DANIEL’S PEOPLE – IS COMING.

‘No wonder’, Co-Co, The Chimpanzee Schoolmaster used to exclaim, ‘The Book of Daniel concludes with a beatitude – a blessing!’

“BLESSED IS HE THAT WAITETH, AND COMETH TO THE 1,335 DAYS – THE MANIFESTATION OF THE MESSIAH (Daniel 12:12)”

II. THE PRE-EMINENT RULER FROM CYRUS UNTIL THE MESSIAH

Co-Co, The Coconut-Throwing Chimpanzee Schoolmaster, argued that Artaxerxes I (465 – 424 B.C.E.), the successor and son of Xerxes The Great, was the pre-eminent imperial ruler from Cyrus The Persian (537 B.C.E. – 530 B.C.E.) until Messiah The Prince (5 B.C.E. – 36 C.E.) because he was the ruler whose decree to re-establish Jerusalem as a walled city begins The Seventy Weeks – Of Years Of Seven (Daniel 9:24).

N.B. It is The End of The Sixty-Ninth Week which sees the ‘Cutting-Off of THE MESSIAH THE PRINCE’ (Daniel 9:26 ) – The Covenant which sees The Perfect Redemption of Sinners (Daniel 9:24).

Cyrus The Great ( 537 B.C.E. – 530 B.C.E.) authorized The Return of The Jews From Babylon.

Darius The Great ( 522 B.C.E. – 486 B.C.E.) allowed The Completion of The Temple (516 B.C.E.)

Xerxes The Great (486 B.C.E. – 465 B.C.E.) enabled The Jews to defend themselves against the genocidal decree of Haman The Agagite.

Nevertheless, it was Artaxerxes I (465 B.C.E. – 424 B.C.E.) who appointed:

• Ezra The Scribe, authorized by Artaxerxes in his seventh year (458 B.C.E.), to ‘teach in Israel Statutes and Judgements’ (Ezra 7:10b)

• Nehemiah, The Cup-Bearer of The King, authorized by Artaxerxes in His Twentieth Year (444/445 B.C.E.) as Governor of Judah to build the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:6)

It was the godly descendant of Aaron, The Priest, Ezra, and the Moses-like governor, Nehemiah, who re- established The Law in the hearts and minds of the returned captives under the Imperial Artaxerxes I, whose decree to rebuild Jerusalem as a fortified city begins The Prophetic Seventy Weeks (Daniel 9:24 – 27).

Sixty-Eight Biblical ‘Weeks’- Units of Seven Years of 360 days – follow and then comes the Sixty-Ninth Week.

Ironically, at the beginning of The Penultimate Sixty-Ninth Week, (The Year 26/27 C.E.) Pontius Pilate was appointed governor of the Roman Province of Judaea by the Roman Emperor, Tiberius, (14 C.E. – 27 C.E.). Caiaphas, the Son-In-Law of Annas, was the High Priest.

Next Week: ‘The Assumed That The Reader Will Know’ (according to Co-Co, The Chimpanzee Schoolmaster) One Hundred and Twenty Nine Years From The Death of ‘The King Who Stirred Up All Against Grecia’ (Daniel 11:2) , Xerxes The Great, (486 B.C.E. – 465 B.C.E.) Until Alexander III of Macedon, ‘The Mighty King’ (Daniel 11:3) Alexander The Great (336 B.C.E. – 323 B.C.E.).