#1221 Daniel 9 Part 5 70 Times 7

 

24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress. 26 Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27 And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.” Daniel 9: 24-27 NASB

Daniel 9: 25-27

…2But He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’ 3and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times. 4A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.… Matthew 16: 2-4

44Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” 45Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46And He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,… Luke 24: 44-46

So you are to know and understand - He is giving them history before it happens, breaking down the 70 weeks, when is Shiloh coming, to what city, when is the atonement that will take place from verse 24? The sad thing is, when the Messiah does come to fulfill what Isaiah prophesied, what was spoken of in the garden back in Genesis, the prophecy about the seed, the first we are made aware of God's redemptive plan, they will not recognize the time of their visitation.

Issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem - So this is the point from where we count from, the 7 weeks plus 62 weeks which equals 69 weeks which is about as impressive as my math gets. 69 weeks is equal to 483 years. So from the issuing of the decree to what, not to rebuild the temple, but to restore and rebuild the city, we would count 483 years. This is what the scribes and the Pharisees poured over, trying to discern the time of Messiah's coming. Now scripture is the best interpreter of scripture, and if we look in Nehemiah we find the date for when the decree went out, of which Daniel is writing before it takes place. 

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.

7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.

The 20th year of King Artaxerxes would be 445 B.C., because he started to reign in 465 B.C. according to history. 

Now let’s take the whole figure of 483. From 445 B.C., we want to go 483 years. You have sixty-nine times seven years, which equals 483 years; and then you have 483 years times 360 days. And that’s the figure I want you to get. The total of days is 173,880 day. That is 483 years times 360 days. Remember I told you we’re dealing with a 360-day year; so in order to convert that to a 365-day calendar like we have, we have to reduce it to days, and then divide it back again. So we’re dealing with 173,880 days from the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. to the coming of Messiah the Prince. The Messiah will come in 173,880 days.

Now there are only two events in His life, the life of Christ, where He is officially set apart. One is the baptism, and two is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Now some believe it’s the baptism. But as I said, it can’t be, because He was not being presented to men there but to God. And the men didn’t even know what was going on. There is utterly no reference to Israel. There is no statement about messiahship; only, “This is My beloved Son.” And so if it isn’t the baptism, it has to be the triumphal entry; it has to be. There’s really no other alternative. - J Mac

Seven weeks - I believe that this represents 49 years until they completed building the city square and moat, walls, during the time of Nehemiah. This also finished out, sealed the time of the OT prophets. They had a temple now, and the stage was set, now they were counting the times of the years till Christ would come. There is a time of prophetic silence here that goes all the way till the coming of John the Baptist, the one who announces Messiah, preaches about repentance and baptizes Christ.   

Even in times of distress - Read the book of Nehemiah, this is the time of the sword and trowel. Their neighbors did not like them building the city and caused all sorts of problems for them, not much has changed for Israel.

…16And from that day on, half of my servants did the work while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers stationed themselves behind all the people of Judah 17who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried materials worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other. 18And each of the builders worked with his sword strapped at his side. But the trumpeter stayed beside me.… Nehemiah 4: 16-18

Then after the sixty two weeks - You had the seven weeks of building, finishing the wall and the square. You add the sixty two weeks to this and that is the 69 weeks, and here is an amazing tid bit, down to the moment.

Dr Harold Hoehner professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary using more modern astronomical data confirmed the validity of Anderson’s detailed chronology, although Hoehner arrived at a different beginning point (terminus a quo) for the Seventy Sevens. Using the knowledge that many ancient kings, including those of Medo-Persia did not equate their accession year with the first year of their reign, Hoehner concluded that Artaxerxes was not officially identified as king until 464BC which made his 20th year (the date in Neh 2:1) the year 444BC instead of 445BC and that the first of Nisan was on March 30 (according to the new moons of 444BC) not March 5 (Anderson’s terminus a quo).

Using the same adjustments as Anderson, Hoehner multiplied 476 years (years between decree of Artaxerxes and Triumphal entry of the Prince or King in Jerusalem) by 365.24219879 (the decimal equivalent of 365 days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty-four seconds--which accounts for the 1/128 difference between calendar and solar days observed by Anderson) and obtained a product of 173,855.28662404 days (173,855 days, six hours, fifty-two minutes, and forty-four seconds) which is 25 days longer than the 173,880 days calculated by Anderson. But Hoehner was able to adjust that amount by the difference between Anderson’s terminus a quo of March 5 and his date of March 30 which is 25 days which when added to 173, 855 days gives the same number of days as Anderson.

Therefore regardless of the terminus a quo used, both Anderson (in the 1880’s) and Hoehner (in the 1970’s) were able to show the accuracy with which God’s word through Gabriel to Daniel predicted and fulfilled the presentation of Jesus Christ to Israel as Messiah the “King of the Jews” (Mt 27:11, 29, 37) (the terminus ad quem = literally “the end to which)

When Jesus entered Jerusalem mounted on a donkey He did so in full awareness of the timing of “the day” of His royal presentation. Prior to this He had declared "My hour has not yet come," (Jn 2:4, 7:3, 4, 5, 6) and dismissed any attempts to make Him King as in John 6:15 where the crowd’s intention was make Him king because He had healed and fed them! Jesus Christ, the perfect God Man knew perfect timing for He knew "the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (Isa 46:10, cf Isa 45:21). Shortly after John’s description of Jesus’ triumphal entry (Jn 12:12, 13, 14, 15), our Lord finally acknowledged “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (Jn 12:23, 24, 13:1 cf “cut off” Da 9:25), in perfect fulfillment of God’s prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27.

So now after the 62 weeks, sometime after His triumphal entry on the donkey, when the crowd is saying "Hosanna, blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord", while laying palm fronds in front of Him, and there is something else peculiar about this, something they would recognize from study and the temple reading, this was foretold by Zechariah, and they would also think from this that His earthly kingdom had begun. Remember, they don't want a suffering servant, they want someone to smash Rome right then, but Jesus came to fulfill all of the law and prophecy, to be the sacrificial lamb, to take my place. 

9Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. Then He will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.… Zechariah 9: 9-10

Messiah will be cut off and have nothing - To be cut off means to die. After the triumphal entry he will die, between the 69th week and the 70th week. Christ will be despised and rejected of men, just like the prophet Isaiah foretold. He will not go to an earthly throne, and He will even have to explain to His disciples once again, that all this must take place. And we don't go from there right into the 70th week, that is why He can say no man knows the hour or day of His return, and so we look for his coming, and we build up the spiritual kingdom, spreading the gospel to all those who will believe and look forward to His return. We are living in the gap between the 69th and 70th week.

J Dwight Pentecost explains this somewhat enigmatic phrase as...

At His crucifixion He would “have nothing” in the sense that Israel had rejected Him and the kingdom could not be instituted at that time. Therefore He did not then receive the royal glory as the King on David’s throne over Israel. John referred to this when he wrote, “He came to that which was His own [i.e., the throne to which He had been appointed by the Father] but His own [i.e., His own people] did not receive Him” (Jn 1:11, 12, 13). Daniel’s prophecy, then, anticipated Christ’s offer of Himself to the nation Israel as her Messiah, the nation’s rejection of Him as Messiah, and His crucifixion. (Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor ) - Precept Austin

And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city - They rejected God as prophesied, but many posers would come along the way, what we refer to as antichrists. The prince who is to come in this passage is the final man of perdition, who Daniel described earlier as the little horn that rises from the 10 horns of Rome. We know it is Rome, because they are the one's that crucify Jesus and then come back later to squash a Jewish rebellion. This will happen in 70 A. D. The final Roman kingdom will look much like this, and as mentioned in prior posts, Antiochus Epiphanes, who came out of the Greek kingdom will also be a prototype for this prince.

…43For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will level you to the ground— you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” 45Then Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling there.… Luke 19: 43-45

How do we know? If one looks at the action of these people in destroying the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Holy Jewish Temple in Jerusalem), the most obvious conclusion from history is that this event was fulfilled in the sacking and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD, which would identify the people as the Roman Empire led by the Roman General Titus. The prince who is to come would then be associated somehow with the Roman Empire or what has been designated by most evangelical commentaries as the "Revived Roman Empire". Observe carefully that this verse does not state that the prince comes at this time nor that the city is destroyed by him but by his people. - Precept Austin

Donald Campbell notes that...

Leopold Cohn (additional note), a European rabbi, studied the prophecy of the 70 weeks and came to the conclusion, based on verse 26, that Messiah had already come because His coming was to be before the destruction had taken place in A.D. 70! Approaching an older rabbi, he asked where Messiah was. The rabbi said, "Go to New York and you will find Messiah there." Selling most of his belongings to buy passage to America, Mr. Cohn came to this country and wandered the streets of New York City, looking for Messiah. One day he heard singing coming from a building and went in, only to hear a clear gospel message. That night he received the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah and Savior. Shortly after, Mr. Cohn bought a stable, swept it out, set up some chairs, and began to hold gospel meetings, the first outreach of what was to become the American Board of Missions to the Jews. (Campbell, D. Daniel God's Man in a Secular Society)

Even to the end there will be war - Up until the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus you had the Jewish war. This is what an observer and captive from that time, Josephus, a Jewish historian, wrote:

“The terrible famine that increased in frightfulness daily annihilated whole families of the people. The terraces were full of women and children who had collapsed from hunger. The allies were piled high with the bodies of the aged. Children and young people swollen with lack of food wandered around like ghosts until they fell. They were so far spent that they could no longer bury anyone; and if they did, they fell dead upon the very corpses they were burying.

“The misery was unspeakable; for as soon as even the shadow of anything eatable appeared anywhere, a fight began over it, and the best of friends fought each other and tore from each other the most miserable trifles. No one would believe that the dying had no provisions stored away. Robbers threw themselves upon those who were drawing their last breath and ransacked their clothing. These robbers ran about reeling and staggering like mad dogs, and hammered on the doors of houses like drunk men. In their despair, they often plunged into the same house two or three times in one day.

“Their hunger was so unbearable they were forced to chew anything and everything. They laid hands on things that even the meanest of animals wouldn’t touch, far less eat. They had long since eaten their belts and their shoes, and even their leather jerkins, which were torn to shreds and chewed. And by the way, they also ate their children. Many of them fed on old hay, and there were some who collected stocks of corn and sold a small quantity.”

But Josephus says, “Why should I describe the shame and indignity that famine brought upon men, making them eat such unnatural things? Because I tell of things unknown to history, whether Greek or Barbarian. It is frightful to speak of it, and unbelievable to hear of it. I should gladly have passed over this disaster in silence so that I might not get the reputation of recording something that must appear to posterity wholly. degrading. But there were too many eye witnesses in my time. Apart from that, my country would have little cause to be grateful to me were I to be silent about the misery which it endured at this time. - J Mac quoting Josephus

And he - The prince, the little horn, now we move to the final son of perdition, the willful king, the blasphemer.

1Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 The beast I saw was like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3One of the heads of the beast appeared to be mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast.… Revelation 13: 1-3

Confirm a covenant with many for one week - This is the seventieth week, the Tribulation. He will make a covenant which I believe will allow Israel peace, this antichrist is a brilliant politician, carrying the bow, which is the threat of power or war, yet he is able to conquer often without fighting. I agree with the commentators who think this will include the allowance of a temple, which would cause even the most pious of todays Jews to think he was somebody special, give him a footing for a claim to Messiah, but also the world will be infatuated with him. Anyone who could pull that off would draw massive attention, and receive the loyalty of many, peace in the Middle East with a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, now that's a feat. The false Messiah will try to look like the real thing.

1Then I watched as the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say in a thunderous voice, “Come!” 2So I looked and saw a white horse, and its rider held a bow. And he was given a crown, and he rode out to overcome and conquer. Revelation 6: 1-2

…2For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.… 1 Thessalonians 5: 2-4

But in the middle of the week - The middle of 7 years, time, times and half a time. He is going to break the covenant, stop the sacrifice, which indicates a temple, and then set up an abomination of desolation. In other words, he will set up an idol to himself, demanding worship, which will make the temple desolate to the Jews, no longer a sacred place of worship. 

Harry Ironside explains that...

The many, that is the apostate mass of the (Jewish) people, will enter into covenant relations with the prince whose people formerly were the instruments of the destruction of their city. That is, this great blasphemous Roman leader will guarantee protection and freedom of religious worship to them for seven years, in return for which they will promise allegiance to him as their sovereign. In the midst of the week (that is, after three years and a half) he will violate his part of the covenant, and cause the sacrifices and oblations to Jehovah to cease. Idolatry of the most dreadful kind will be forced upon them. The direct result of which will be to distinguish the remnant from the mass, and thus to bring in the Great Tribulation which will continue for forty-two months,—“a time, times, and half a time,” or 1260 days.(Daniel - H A Ironside) - Precept Austin

15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. - Matthew 24: 15-21

Christ foretells of this Great Tribulation, the last 3.5 years of the seventieth week above. All this must be fulfilled and then Christ will return.

On the one who makes desolate - God will bring an end to the little horn and his reign.

…19Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army. 20But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21And the rest were killed with the sword that proceeded from the mouth of the One seated on the horse. And all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.… Revelation 19: 19-21

John MacArthur sums up this incredible prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 noting that...

As bleak a picture as that is, history will not end with the worship of the Antichrist. Daniel 9:24 says that at the end of Israel's seventieth week God will "finish the transgression, and...make an end of sins." That includes the destruction of the Antichrist. Then God will "make reconciliation for iniquity...bring in everlasting righteousness...seal up the vision and prophecy, and...anoint the most holy" (Da 9:24-note). That speaks of the Millennial Kingdom (Rev 20:4-see notes) (See also the Millennial Kingdom; Millennial Reign of the Saints).

It is an amazing thought that the future history of the world has been hidden "from the wise and prudent...[yet] revealed...unto babes" (Mt 11:25). We ought to be deeply grateful that God has given us the privilege of knowing His plans for the future.