Seventy Weeks

Daniel 9: 24-27

This is the third revelation God is giving to Daniel, and Gabriel has told him that he has come to give him insight and understanding because he is highly esteemed. 

This is the information we all need to understand.  

(24) "Seventy weeks have been decreed 

This is a specific time sequence, these "seventy sevens" means seventy heptads of years, or 490 years. 

for your people and your holy city, 

This is specifically for the Jews and Jerusalem, it does not include the rest of the world, for these six things to be accomplished.

to finish the transgression, 

Man's transgression or rebellion against God will not be "finished" until an entirely new order is established on Earth, composed of citizens who have no more compulsion to rebel.  

to make an end of sin, 

This refers to "missing the mark" in our choices and decisions; it is us not being perfect. This would be a bringing in of a whole new society and culture, unlike what is in the world today, or ever was. 

These could only refer to the establishment of Christ's Kingdom after His Second Coming.  

to make atonement for iniquity, 

This was accomplished by Jesus as the Lamb of God, fulfilling the sacrifices on the Cross to redeem us and establish His Lordship over us to judge.  

to bring in everlasting righteousness, 

This indicates an order of society in which righteousness, justice, and conformity to the standards of Scripture will prevail on Earth, rather than the temporary periods of upright government that have occasionally occurred in history up to now. 

to seal up vision and prophesy, 

This means to finish everything that has been revealed. To accomplish everything that has been promised, and every vision and prophesy that has been given to us in all of Scripture. 

The Bible is the whole story of Mankind, from before the beginning until after the Age of Man is finished. So this seventy weeks is a specific time for all these past present and future things to be accomplished, from Israel's point of view.  

and to anoint the most holy place. 

This is most likely in the Millennial Temple where King Jesus will sit upon the Mercy Seat as the throne of David, that the Lord gave to David to sit upon (I Chronicles 29: 23). So our Lord God, King Jesus, will take back His throne to rule this Earth. 

(Note: God had been the King over Israel since He rescued them from Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. He was with them in the cloud of the Shekinah Glory upon the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle. 

The book of Judges records the roller coaster time when the people went up and down following their King, being blessed by Him, then forgetting Him and losing the blessings, then turning back around again to obey Him, over and over again. Then they decided they wanted to be like the other nations, and have a human king instead of the Lord (I Samuel 8: 4-8). So the Lord gave His throne to David, and it's been called David's throne ever since.)

(25) "So you are to know and discern 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 plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 

So this seventy sevens, divided up into three periods of time, will start with an official decree to rebuild Jerusalem.

The first seven would be 49 years, then the sixty-two sevens would be another 434 years, totaling 483 years. 

The first 49 years will be for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, and it will be built even when other people are trying to prevent it.

Then after the whole 483 years, Messiah the Prince will appear. This so far is all history, so we can calculate it according to how it has already worked out.

(26) "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, 

This specifies that after the sixty-nine heptads, when the Messiah appears, He will be cut off. This accords perfectly with Jesus' three-year ministry before His crucifixion. 

If the terminus a quo for the decree be reckoned as 457 B.C. when Ezra returned to Jerusalem, then the first seven sevens would have run from 457 to 408, within which time the rebuilding of the walls, streets, and moats was completed. 

Then from 408 we would count off the next sixty-two sevens and come out to A.D. 27 (subtracting the 408 from the 434, and accounting for the year gained in not counting the year zero between B.C and A.D.). If Christ was crucified on 14 Abib A.D. 30, as is generally believed, this would come out to the exact fulfillment of the terms laid out here. 

And He will have nothing--or--no one. All His disciples fled from him when He was arrested, and He never did have anything in the area of possessions in this world. So this also was fulfilled.

So both the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, and the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ were both fulfilled exactly as this prophesy predicted!   

and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

This prince who is to come could be the end-time beast of Revelation 13 who  rules in the power of the Dragon (v. 2); who has followers in every time, including the Roman army under Titus who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70. This was forty years after Calvary, or forty-three years after the end of the sixty-ninth "week".   

And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 

The end will come like a flood, overflowing everything; and until then, there will be continual wars, and specific desolations have been decreed. God's plan will work out just as He planned it. 

In Jesus' own words in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24: 7-22), He stated that hardships, suffering, and wars would continue right up to the end of this present age, culminating in a time of unparalleled tribulation. 

This entire intervening period is referred to before the seventieth "week." So it is reasonable to infer that a period of war and desolation is to intervene between the sixty-ninth week (Christ's first coming) and the seventieth week (of His second coming). 

God has not been dealing directly with His people Israel during this time He is building His bride for His Son. So the timing God gives Daniel here would be the times He is working directly with His people Israel as a nation. He is taking some Jewish people out of the nation into His church during this time, but His direct dealing with the nation will resume during the last week.

(27) "And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, 

This "he" has as an antecedent the Prince whose people destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple (in the preceding verse). Since this cannot be the same person in both places and times, it must refer to the power behind the prince, or beast, or the ten toes of Chapter 2, or the ten-horned beast of chapter 7; so it would be the one holding the dictatorship over the whole world during this final week of time allotted to Mankind. 

This says he will sign a treaty that will be up for renegotiation in seven years. Who are the many that he is making this covenant with? In the Qumran Rule of the Congregation, this word often occurs in reference to the community of "true believers," and is translated "the congregation." So this could be referring to the Israelites who recognize and worship "The Great I Am" with sacrifices in the rebuilt temple. 

Or it could be referring to the specific nations who populate the Middle-East area of the world. He would be a great peace-maker, bring harmony to this most consistently troubled area of the world. 

but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; 

After three-and-a-half years into this seven, this world dictator will break his own treaty, and come down hard on these Jews.  

and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, 

This antichrist will swoop down like a vulture on his beleaguered victims to oppress and plunder them.

even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." 

This oppression and plundering will continue until this antichrist himself will be destroyed. 

Daniel was told that these seventy weeks only pertained to the Jews and their city, Jerusalem. So Daniel went back to writing in Hebrew, for his people. 

These seventy weeks do not constitute all the time God will give the world on this Earth, only the time He would be working directly with the nation Israel. So when we see that all three segments of this time-line may not be immediately consecutive with one another, we shouldn't worry about it. God has divided up this time into three distinct segments, so they don't have to flow directly into one another. When God turns His attention to someone else for a while, that's His prerogative. He is God, we are not. 

We see that the first sixty-nine weeks of years are history. We are still waiting for the last seven years. 

During this interval, while we are living now, we are still waiting for that last week to come, when God will again work with Israel as a nation. The man who will show himself to be the antichrist will do so by acting in hubris as a world ruler, in brokering a peace treaty in the Middle East, something no one else has been able to do. He will be hailed as a great peace-maker, and admired all over the world. 

Then in the middle of the terms of the treaty, this braggart will demand worship from the world, not just admiration. He's so full of himself, he places himself above every god that is worshiped, from every religion, and commands that everyone worship him. And being the world ruler, he decrees that no one will be able to do any commerce at all unless they do it his way, to get his "mark" indicating worship of himself, which will be the only way people will have access to finances they can buy or sell with. 

So this antichrist will tie up all commerce in the world, connecting every transaction to himself. He will be the source of everything everyone will need, instead of God. And those who don't want to worship him will need to go "underground" to be able to barter for what they need (as in Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins' "Left Behind" series of books). 

O my Father, You are so kind to us to tell us what to expect. We know that everything You do is for Your purposes. And You left us here after You saved us, so that we would be Your hands and feet doing Your work in Your power to grow Your Kingdom. Father, help each of Your children to grow to maturity, and use us to grow the numerical size of Your Kingdom, also. 

O Father, prepare us to be ready to face all of the desolations You have prepared for the world. Protect us and give us Your strength to bear whatever hardships they may bring on us. Show us how to help one another through the horrors and sorrows that are coming, to love one another as You have loved us, unconditionally, putting their need at a higher priority than our own. 

Let the love we demonstrate to one another show the world how much You love them, too, and draw them to Yourself, to also be born into Your family, Your Kingdom. And may no rebel have any excuse for refusing Your gracious and generous offer. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, our Source, our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!