Class: Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

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Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

Daniel 9.24–27

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • May 19, In the year of our Lord, 2013

Prelude:

What if I told you that one passage in the prophets prophesied of:
1. The time of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus?
2. The length of His ministry?
3. The time of His death, even the time of day?
Consider Daniel 9.24–27,

24 “Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.”
(Dan 9.24–27)

Persuasion:

The Historical Context
1. 70-year captivity foretold
  12 “Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,” says the LORD; “and I will make it a perpetual desolation” (Jer 25.12).
  
  10 “For thus says the LORD: ‘After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place’” (Jer 29.10).
2. 70-year captivity fulfilled
  2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem (Dan 9.2).
  
  21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years (2Ch 36.21).
  
  12 Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?” (Zec 1.12).
  
  5 “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me?’” (Zec 7.5).
3. 70-year captivity explained
  1. Leviticus 25 commanded a Sabbath for the land every seven years,
    1 And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. 6 And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, 7 for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food. (Lev 25.1–7).
  2. Second Chronicles 36.21 had said
    1. that Israel was in Babylon for seventy years so that
    2. the land could enjoy its Sabbaths.
      1. Therefore, Israel had ignored the command for 490 years.
      2. God wanted Israel to make up for the seventy times of neglect.
  3. Fascinatingly, the 70-year captivity was a midway point
    1. between the sin of Second Chronicles 36.21 and
    2. the end of sin that is prophesied in Daniel 9.24–27.
      1. There were 490 years previous to the captivity.
      2. When the captivity ended till the time
        
        that the Messiah would come and take away sin,
        
        would also be 490 years.
Context
1. In Daniel 9.1, 2, the prophet read how long the captivity was to last.
  1. He could see that the time had just about been fulfilled,
    1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem (Dan 9.1, 2).
2. Then in verse 3, he prepared himself to seek God by prayer and humility,
  3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Dan 9.3).
  1. For what do you think Daniel wanted to make request?
  2. If the 70-year captivity was over, he would want the Jews released.
3. In verses 4–15 of the prayer,
  1. he confessed the sin of Israel, and
  2. God’s righteousness in carrying out punishment against Israel.
4. It is the last part of the prayer, verses 16–19,
  1. that brings on the passage we are considering,
    16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name” (Dan 9.16–19).
5. While he spoke,
  1. the Lord sent the angel Gabriel
  2. to Daniel to tell him how his prayer was being answered.
    1. In verses 20–23, the stage is set for the prophecy of the Messiah,
      20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision…” (Dan 9.20–23).
Understanding Historical Dates
1. To appreciate the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks,
  1. we must know the times when the captivity began and
  2. the time when the Jews returned to Jerusalem,
    1. which are well-established historical dates.
2. King Nebuchadnezzar made three significant attacks against Jerusalem, and
  1. corresponding deportations of Jews to Babylon.
    1. The Scriptures that I will present do not give the dates, because
    2. the dates of “bc” could not be given before Christ had actually come.
      1. However, these passages give years of the kings, and
      2. these correspond to dates that we can nail down.
    3. These dates reveal when Babylonian or Persian kings reigned, etc.
      1. These passages tell what happened during the sieges, etc.
  2. 606–605 bc
    1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him (2Ki 24.1).
    
    1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god. 3 Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants and some of the nobles, 4 young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. 5 And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. 6 Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Dan 1.1–6).
  3. 597 bc
    10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged (2Ki 24.10).
    
    2 On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity… (Eze 1.2).
  4. 586 bc
    8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem (2Ki 25.8).
3. After Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian Empire, there were three returns:
  1. 536 bc
    2 Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel… (Ezra 2.2).
  2. 457 bc
    6 this Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. 7 Some of the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. 8 And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king (Ezra 7.6–8).
  3. 444 bc
    1 And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before (Neh 2.1).
    
    11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days (Neh 2.11).
The Prophetical Timeframe
1. Now let us read the passage under consideration,
  24 “Seventy weeks are determined
  For your people and for your holy city,
  
  To finish the transgression,
  To make an end of sins,
  To make reconciliation for iniquity,
  To bring in everlasting righteousness,
  To seal up vision and prophecy,
  And to anoint the Most Holy.
  
  25 Know therefore and understand,
  That from the going forth of the command
  To restore and build Jerusalem
  Until Messiah the Prince,
  There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
  The street shall be built again, and the wall,
  Even in troublesome times.
  26 And after the sixty-two weeks
  Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
  And the people of the prince who is to come
  Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
  The end of it shall be with a flood,
  And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
  27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
  But in the middle of the week
  He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
  And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
  Even until the consummation, which is determined,
  Is poured out on the desolate.”
  (Dan 9.24–27)
  1. A breakdown of this prophecy looks like this:
    1. Verse 24: The Messiah’s work on earth
    2. Verse 25: The beginning of the Seventy Weeks
    3. Verse 26: The Messiah killed, and Jerusalem destroyed
    4. Verse 27: A New Covenant is made, and Judaism is finished
2. Gabriel prophesied of many things, but
  1. we note especially that he specified 70 weeks
  2. until something happened.
    1. There would be a countdown, and
    2. Gabriel will tell us when the countdown would begin, and
      1. finally the magnificent things of this passage,
      2. especially verse 24, would happen.
3. “These are not literal weeks; they are prophetical weeks” (Wayne Jackson).
  1. The Hebrew for our English word “weeks” is not the normal one.
    1. Some scholars believe it would be better translated “units or periods of seven” (J. Barton Payne, Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy).
    2. Payne says further:
      “Keil seems properly to argue that since Jeremiah’s 70 years were almost completed at this time in 538 b.c.…Daniel’s periods must extend further than Jeremiah’s and denote 70 units of seven years each, or 490 years in all.”
  2. Ezekiel 4 shows that a day can represent a year in prophetic language,
    6 “And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year” (Eze 4.6).
    1. Also, Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years, because
    2. the spies were in the land for 40 days.
Verse 24: The Messiah’s Work on Earth
1. “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city.”
  1. Verse 24 reveals that by 70 units of 7, the Messiah would do six things.
    1. Number one: “finish the transgression,”
    2. Number two: “make an end of sins,”
    3. Number three: “make reconciliation for iniquity,”
    4. Number four: “bring in everlasting righteousness,”
    5. Number five: “seal up vision and prophecy,”
    6. Number six: “anoint the Most Holy.”
  2. Notice the first three.
    1. Surely you can see that Jesus came to Earth to fulfill those very things,
      26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation (Heb 9.26–28).
    2. Surely you know that Jesus came to do away with sin.
  3. What verse 24 prophesied
    1. was fulfilled in the first coming of Christ,
    2. not during some as yet future time.
2. 70 units of seven were determined to “bring in everlasting righteousness,”
  15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him (Matt 3.15).
  1. Jesus brought in everlasting righteousness.
    1. John 16.7, 8 Jesus sent the Spirit to convict the world of righteousness.
    2. Romans 1.16, 17 says that the gospel
      1. is able to save us from the wrath of God, because
      2. in the gospel is found the righteousness of God.
  2. Righteousness is found now in the gospel, not some future time.
3. 70 weeks or units of seven were determined to “seal up vision and prophecy.”
  1. Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies:
    25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24.25–27).
    
    44 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me” (Luke 24.44).
    
    24 “Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days” (Acts 3.24).
  2. When Jesus made a covenant, the supernatural giving of knowledge ended.
    1. First Corinthians 13.8–13
    2. Zechariah 13
4. 70 weeks or units of seven were determined to “anoint the Most Holy.”
  1. This is not a future anointing of the rebuilt temple by the Jews, but
    1. in keeping with what we have already seen
    2. it is a reference to the Anointing of Christ,
      1. the Most Holy One of God, or
      2. it might refer to the temple in heaven.
  2. It shows that Jesus was chosen of God to do these things.
    1. Verse 25 refers to the Messiah, the Anointed One.
    2. In the Old Testament,
      1. prophets, priests and kings were anointed, and
      2. Jesus was all three.
  3. Consider these facts also:
    1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
    Because the LORD has anointed Me
    To preach good tidings to the poor;
    He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
    To proclaim liberty to the captives,
    And the opening of the prison to those who are bound”
    (Isa 61.1).
    
    16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
    
    18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
    Because He has anointed Me
    To preach the gospel to the poor;
    He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
    To proclaim liberty to the captives
    And recovery of sight to the blind,
    To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
    19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
    
    20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4.16–21)
    1. The word “Christ” is Greek for anointed, and
    2. “Messiah” is Hebrew for anointed.
  4. Matthew shows the anointing of Jesus,
    16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him (Matt 3.16).
Verse 25: The beginning of the Seventy Weeks
25 “Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.”
(Dan 9.25)
1. The 69 weeks here goes from what to what?
  1. It began with the command to restore and build Jerusalem, and
  2. ended with Messiah the Prince.
    1. From the time the command was issued to restore and build Jerusalem
    2. to the time the Messiah arrived,
      1. would be 69 weeks, or
      2. 483 years.
  3. First, there would be a period of seven weeks or
    1. seven units of seven or
    2. 49 years.
  4. The second period would be 62 weeks or units of seven, or 434 years.
    1. According to verses 26 and 27 in the middle of the 70^th week,
    2. the Messiah would be cut off or killed.
      1. Therefore, from the beginning of the counting of the 70 weeks
      2. to the mid-point of the 70^th week, there would be 486.5 years.
        
        Do you understand that Gabriel was telling Daniel
        
        that the Messiah would be killed
        
        486.5 years after the command
        
        to restore and build Jerusalem?
2. When does the command go forth?
  1. There are three possible dates.
  2. By taking those dates and
    1. adding 486.5 years
    2. we can know the year when the Messiah or Christ would die.
  3. The dates:
    1. 536 bc = 49.5 bc
    2. 457 bc = ad 29.5
    3. 444 bc = ad 42.5
  4. In the set of second dates,
    1. you should see that we do not call years by half-dates, but
    2. by always rounding up.
      1. For example, 3.5 years from the year 2000 is in what year?
      2. We would be talking about the year 2004.
        
        Thus, our dates under contemplation
        
        are 50 bc, ad 30, and ad 43.
3. Do you remember last week that I gave you several Scriptures with each date?
  1. The first return of 536 was to build or rebuild the temple.
    1. Ezra 1 states explicitly what the Jews were allowed to do,
      1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. 3 Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4 And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1.1–4).
      1. Much of the Book of Ezra shows this activity.
      2. You will not read about the building of the city.
  2. The last return of 444 may seem to fit, because
    1. Nehemiah 2. is the request of Nehemiah to build the city, and
    2. in subsequent verses he receives that authority,
      3 [Nehemiah] said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it” (Neh 2.3–5).
      1. However, this was the second command to build Jerusalem.
      2. The first command to restore and to build Jerusalem was in 457,
        
        which takes us to the year ad 30 for the death of the Messiah.
        
        Therefore, with the prophecy of Daniel, and other prophecies,
        
        the Jewish leaders should have seen that Jesus as the Christ.
4. Interestingly, the Lord frequently spoke of His “hour.”
  1. It was as though there was a scheduled time for His death.
    1. Daniel 9, along with other prophecies in the Law, Psalms and Prophets,
    2. does show a prearranged schedule for His life and death.
  2. Galatians 4 even says,
    4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law (Gal 4.4).
5. Calculating Daniel’s prophecy from the return of Ezra, we arrive at ad 30.
  1. It used to be said that the death of Jesus was in the year ad 33.
    1. However, it has been discovered that there was an error in the calendar.
    2. Showing you this error is beyond the scope of this class, but
      1. if you would like more information,
      2. I have put an article on the credenza explaining this more.
    3. This is a well-known fact accepted by all.
  2. Ezra 9 also adds pertinent information,
    9 “For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem” (Ezra 9.9).
6. Chronological breakdown.
  1. There are three sections:
    1. 7 weeks
    2. 62 weeks
    3. The 70^th week during which something happens in the middle of it.
  2. The first 7 weeks or 49 years, refers to the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
    1. This was in answer to Daniel’s prayer in 9.16–19.
    2. Gabriel said the rebuilding would happen in “troublesome times.”
      1. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah show the fulfillment.
      2. Ezra 4.21 tells us what happened when
        
        the enemies of the Jews in Jerusalem
        
        saw the Jews attempting to rebuild the city,
        21 Now give the command to make these men cease, that this city may not be built until the command is given by me (Ezra 4.21).
      3. Ezra 4 shows the antagonists persuading the Persian king
        
        that the Jews were wrong, and
        
        stopped the work,
        23 Now when the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem against the Jews, and by force of arms made them cease (Ezra 4.23).
      4. Years later Nehemiah heard of the situation, and
        
        it disturbed him that the wall was destroyed and
        
        the gates had been burned with fire.
        
        He got permission from the Persian king
        
        to rebuild the wall and gates, but
        
        there was constant opposition and
        
        threat of war from the enemies of the Jews.
  3. The second period of 62 weeks or 434 years,
    1. would start after the 7 weeks concluded.
    2. This would extend to the beginning of the Lord’s teaching ministry,
      1. which was about 3.5 years before His death.
        “Thus, starting from 457 bc, and counting forward 483 years (49 plus 434) would bring one to 26 ad, the approximate time of the baptism of Christ” (Wayne Jackson).
  4. The third period spoken of by Gabriel was the middle of the 70^th week,
    1. about 3.5 years after the end of the 69^th week.
      “That the Lord’s ministry spanned this approximate time-frame may be observed by noting that this period encompassed four Passovers (John 2:13, 23; 5:1; 6:4; 12:1), in addition to the weeks which preceded the first one in John 2:13” (Wayne Jackson).
Verse 26: Messiah Killed, Jerusalem Destroyed as Punishment
26 “And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.”
(Dan 9.26).
1. “Cut off” is an Old Testament expression referring to death, or killing.
  1. Isaiah 53 uses it to prophesy of the death of Christ,
    8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
    And who will declare His generation?
    For He was cut off from the land of the living;
    For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
    (Isa 53.8).
2. “The people of the prince,” does not refer to Christ, but
  1. refers to the man who would lead the invasion against Jerusalem,
  2. which would be led Titus, son of Vespasian.
3. Josephus understood that this referred to the Romans, when he wrote,
  “…Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them” (Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, Chapter XI, Paragraph 7).
4. Truly, the Romans destroyed the city and the sanctuary like a flood.
  1. When the Romans finished, not one Jew was left living in Jerusalem.
  2. What Jews survived the war, the Romans took captive to other places.
Verse 27: A New Covenant Made, Judaism Finished
27 “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.”
(Dan 9.27).
1. Sacrifice and offering would cease because of the death of Christ.
2. “On the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate” is interesting.
  1. The Romans showed their spite of the Jews,
  2. by sacrificing to their gods in the temple before destroying it.
    1. Also, Daniel 11.31 and 12.11 have a similar expression.
    2. In Mark 13, Jesus warned,
      14 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ {Dan 9.27; 11.31; 12.11} spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Mark 13.14).
3. Wayne Jackson said,
  “One may wonder how the destruction of Jerusalem can be a part of the prophecy of Daniel’s 70 weeks, since that event occurred 40 years after the death of Christ. It must be noted, however, that Daniel does not affirm that the actual desolation of the city would occur within the 70 weeks. Rather, the text suggests that Jerusalem’s fate wold be determined within that span (26b; 27b). When the Jews reached the epitome of their rebellion and crucified their own Messiah, the decree or determination was made that they be destroyed. By killing Christ, they had filled up the measure of wickedness characteristic of their rebellious ancestors (Cf: Matthew 23:32). And Jesus indicated that that accumulative rebellion would be required of ‘this generation’ (Luke 11:50, 51). And so, this marked the ‘full end’ of Judaism, both religiously and politically, from the divine vantage point” (Wayne Jackson).

Exhortation:

What shall we learn?
1. God gave many signs so that we can know that Jesus of Nazareth is His Son.
2. This lets us know that He is the One who removed sin.
3. Sin must be removed from our souls because of the wrath of God.
4. The Jews, Jerusalem, and the temple suffered God’s wrath for rejecting Christ.
Jesus is the Christ
1. Even as the Lord warned Jerusalem of its impending judgment,
2. so He warns the world of a greater judgment.
  1. Jerusalem did not know the exact time of its punishment, but
  2. they had a good idea.
    1. We do not know the time of the future judgment, but
    2. it is just as sure to come.

Savage Street Church of Christ

Class: Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

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Class: Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

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