Click here to watch the entire service
Welcome to the most fascinating prophecy in the entire Bible, known as Daniel’s 70 weeks. How you understand these verses will drastically affect your view of the end times. One of the keys to Bible interpretation is, “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense or you’ll have nonsense.” If God told Abraham his people would go into slavery in Egypt for 100 years, why should we doubt it? If God says He’s going to send His people Israel into captivity for 70 years, why should we doubt it? If God says there’s a seven-year period coming for Israel, there will be seven years. Daniel 9 speaks of three sets of years. Our task is to figure out as many details of these sets of years that we can and what happened during each time frame. We’ll take the next two weeks to work through the passage. Get ready to do some study. As Tommy Nelson said, this is not a sermonette for Christianettes. This is why Gabriel told Daniel to put on his thinking cap in verse 23 – “give heed and gain understanding.”
Let’s get some background. Daniel has been pouring his heart out confessing Israel’s sin and asking God to restore Jerusalem. God answers his prayer in a way he won’t answer yours – He sends an angel swift in flight with a prophecy that is simply astounding. We’re going to look at the bigger picture of these seventy weeks in verses 24-26 and then look more closely at verse 27 next Sunday. This is all about what God is going to do for Israel. Where does the church fit in? Keep this one major thought in mind: when God talks about Israel or Jacob He is not talking about the church. We do not believe the church took Israel’s place, nor is the church spiritual Israel. A good book to help you understand the end times is Christ’s Prophetic Plans by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue. Another good book about God’s plan for Israel is by Barry Horner, Future Israel. John MacArthur says, “Future Israel should be required reading for every pastor, seminarian, and student of Bible prophecy.”
GOD DECREED 490 YEARS FOR HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL vs. 24
Daniel 9:24, Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
Wait. Where did you get 490 years? Seventy weeks is literally “seventy sevens” or 490. These units of seven could be weeks, months, or years. God must mean years, as weeks or months wouldn’t take us nearly to the first coming of Christ to fulfill the six things in verse 24. So God decreed, or “cut off” these 490 years out of human history for the Jews – “your people and your holy city.”
God divides these 490 years into three time periods: 49 years in verse 25 to rebuild Jerusalem; 434 years in verse 26 until the coming of Messiah. Add 49 years and 434 together and you get 483 years, not 490 years. One 7-year period is missing. Drop down to verse 27 and you’ll see the missing “week” or 7 years. That’s 49 plus 434 plus 7 equals 490 years.
Within this broad time period of 490 years Christ Himself will accomplish the six redemptive things in verse 24. The first three deal with Christ’s first coming as He comes to defeat sin and Satan’s work through the cross. The second three deal with Christ’s second coming when He comes to set up His millennial kingdom.
First, He’s going to finish the transgression. Christ is going to do what is necessary to end man’s rebellion. Transgression means revolt against authority. Both Jews and Gentiles have been in rebellion against God from the beginning. The Jews said, “We’ll not have this man rule over us.” Man has been in revolt against his Creator since Genesis 3. “We will not obey God.” That’s the mantra of our day. “God has no business telling us how we should live.” But based on Christ’s saving work on the cross, all rebellion will finally be finished.
Second, He’s going to make an end of all sin and extend forgiveness through the cross. Through the cross Christ ended the totalitarian rule and reign of sin. He did all that was necessary to deal with the curse of sin and end it. 1 John 3:5, “He appeared to take away sins.” I John 3:8, “He appeared to destroy the works of the devil.” If you have received Christ as your Savior, sin no longer rules you. You’ve been saved from sin’s penalty and absolute power, and eventually you’ll be saved from sin’s very presence, all based on the cross. If you reject Christ as Savior you’ll pay for your own sin forever in the lake of fire.
Third, He’s going to provide atonement or salvation for all God’s elect Jews and Gentiles. The word atonement is kippur. The Jews celebrate Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) every year. But Christ will be the final sacrifice for sin for all God’s elect, both Jews and Gentiles. Sadly, by far the majority of Jews today do not accept Christ as their Messiah and final atonement. They don’t believe Isaiah 53:7 where the Lord laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. I was listening to Dr. Vladimir Zerenko, a Jewish physician, talking about the pandemic and the state of Israel. He knows Israel is not a godly nation right now, but he talks about looking to God and having a God-centered world view. Sadly, he has not received Christ. Neither has Ben Shapiro, or Dennis Prager, who appreciates Christians but thinks by keeping the law and being good he’ll go to heaven. We pray God will open their eyes to the gospel.
At some point in the future, Israel as a nation will bow their knee to Christ in deep repentance and confess Him as Lord. Zechariah 12:10 says, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” So, all of Israel’s future hope is grounded in her Messiah and His work of atonement on the cross. God is able to change the hearts of His elect Jews and give them this salvation, and we believe He will do this sovereignly during the tribulation period.
S. Lewis Johnson tells the story of Mr. Leopold Cohn, a European Rabbi who studied Daniel 9 and decided the Messiah had already come. He asked another Rabbi, “Where is the Messiah? Daniel 9 says He’s already come.” The Rabbi said, “Go to New York and you will find the Messiah there.” So Mr. Cohn bought passage to America and wandered up and down the streets of New York City, looking for the Messiah. One day he heard singing coming from a building. He went in and heard a clear gospel message. That night he received Jesus Christ as his Savior. Mr. Cohn went on to found the American Board of Missions to the Jews. God’s word is powerful!
Now we jump to the second coming of Christ in the last three accomplishments.
Fourth, God’s going to inaugurate an age of righteousness. He will bring in everlasting righteousness. He took our sin on that cross and imputes to us His perfect righteousness, so God justifies us by faith alone. But here, Christ will establish a world-wide kingdom of righteousness. Isaiah 60:21, “Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. Isaiah 61:20 says He will wrap me with the robe of righteousness. Christ will establish a perfectly righteous world-wide kingdom with Israel and Judah in the very center of it. But on what basis? His work on the cross! The cross is the basis of all God’s redeeming work, for both Jews and Gentiles.
Fifth, God will end all special revelation. What does that mean? All the visions and prophecies like Daniel’s pointed to the time Christ will rule and reign over the earth as the greater David. But then there will be no more need for special revelation. Isaiah 2:3 says we can go up to Jerusalem in the coming kingdom and Jesus will teach us concerning His ways, that we may walk in His paths. Want a Bible study? Go up to Jerusalem and learn from the source. What a Bible conference that will be.
Sixth, Christ is going to cleanse and anoint the most holy place, the temple in Jerusalem. As we’ll see, there will be a temple rebuilt by Israel in Jerusalem before or at the very beginning of the coming tribulation period, but the Antichrist will desecrate it. That temple represents Christ and all His work of redemption for us. Many believe at His second coming Christ will cleanse and anoint this temple for the millennium in Jerusalem where Jesus will be teaching the nations. There may even be memorial sacrifices made, pointing back to the cross and Christ’s work of redemption.
Now, let’s go back to the time leading up to the first coming of Christ.
GOD DECREED THE REBUILDING OF JERUSALEM AND THE FIRST COMING OF CHRIST v. 25
Daniel 9:25, 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.
Now it gets difficult. Until Christ’s first coming you have seven seven-year periods or 49 years. And you have sixty-two seven-year periods or 434 years. That’s a total of 483 years to the coming of Christ. Without getting in the weeds here, these years are what the scholars call prophetic years or 360 day years. You see the same thing in Revelation that talks about 42 months, 1260 days, three and one-half years. I’m going to leave that right there.
The decree to rebuild Jerusalem has several possibilities. To simplify matters, Nehemiah 2 tells us that in 445 BC Artaxerxes of Persia gave Nehemiah official permission to return to Judea and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Under Nehemiah’s leadership, the walls were rebuilt completely but with lots of distress. You can read about all this in Nehemiah 6. The nasty Samaritans and Arabs hated the Jews and mocked and ridiculed them as they were rebuilding. They did whatever they could to stop the Jews. At one point three of the enemy leaders invited Nehemiah to meet with them. They planned to harm him. They said, “Meet with us in the plain of Ono.” (Neh. 6:2) Nehemiah immediately replied “Oh no!” They repeated this four times; Nehemiah said, “Oh no.” four times. Nehemiah was a man of godly character and courage.
So within the seven “sevens” (or 49 years) of that 445 BC decree, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. The end of this time may have been when the last prophet Malachi wrote his book and the Old Testament came to a close. Then there is the 400-years of God’s silence to the Jews until the coming of Christ.
When you add the 49 years and then the 434 years, you have 483 years from that 445 BC decree which takes you up to the first coming of Christ. In fact, numerous scholars have figured out that these total years end on the very day when Christ entered Jerusalem in His triumphal entry as Israel’s king. There are various opinions about the day and year of the triumphal entry. MacArthur thinks it was on 10 Nissan AD 30. Other Bible students have figured it out to March, AD 33. Whenever it ended, it takes you right up to the crucifixion of Christ, which takes us to verse 26.
GOD DECREED THAT CHRIST WOULD BE CUT OFF AND JERUSALEM DEMOLISHED vs. 26
Daniel 9:26, 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.
So God revealed to Daniel that within 483 years of Artaxerxes decree, Jesus would come and be cut off. How did God know this? God knows the future because God planned the future. He knows the end from the beginning. He just hasn’t told you what your future holds in any detail. You probably wouldn’t want to know. But look closely in verse 26. He’ll be cut off and have nothing. He came to His own and His own received Him not. He came to Israel and they murdered Him! That’s what “cut off” means – killed. And He’ll have nothing in the sense that He does not set up the kingdom He is to rule over according to all the prophets. Isaiah is full of teaching about the coming glorious kingdom when Christ will rule over His people Israel, but something happens first. Even Isaiah says He was “taken away” and “cut off.”
Isaiah 53:8, By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
True, we know He arose, ascended, and sits at the right hand of God today. But He isn’t ruling over a righteous world today. He did not bring in the kingdom the disciples asked about in Acts 1:6. Jesus said, “Never mind about that right now. You go and take the gospel to the nations.”
There is something extremely ominous is in verse 26. The “people of the prince to come” refers to the Romans. The prince to come is not the Messiah. He is the antichrist. He’s that little horn with the big mouth we met in chapters 7 and 8 and we’ll see him next week. After Messiah is cut off, there is going to be a horrible devastation of Jerusalem and the temple. That’s exactly what happened about forty years after Christ ascended to heaven and launched the Church Age. Twenty-nine year-old Titus and his four legions of Roman killers slaughtered thousands of Jews. Josephus says with the siege and the slaughter with the sword over 1 million Jews perished. Some say not a single Jew remained alive in the city. Luke 21:24 prophesied this, “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
Before the kingdom blessings of Messiah fall on His people Israel, they will suffer much. “To the end there will be war; desolations are determined.” The fact is, the Jewish people have been banished and slaughtered and tortured and blamed and hated by almost every nations. Even Christians from the early days of the church have asserted that God is finished with the Jews. But there they are! There is something about the Jew that this world hates. It is inspired by Satan, who hates every Jew. But he hasn’t exterminated all of them. We should have the heart of Paul who never stopped loving the Jews and praying for their salvation. Charles Spurgeon said, “Be it never forgotten that Jesus was a Jew.” The blood shed on that cross was Jewish blood.
God is providentially preserving the Jewish people. God has a clear, distinct plan for Israel as a nation. Here you see 483 years of past history all pertaining to the Jews right up to the first coming of Christ. He still has that 70th week of years. We’ll see that next week in verse 27. God will keep His future promises to Israel just as He kept these promises fulfilled in Christ’s first coming. We believe God is yet going to save them as a nation and they will be the center of the world during the coming Millennial Kingdom.
In the meantime, God has another plan He initiated on the day of Pentecost to bring the gospel to the nations. You see it in the white spaces between verses 26 and 27. It’s the present Church Age that will continue until Christ descends from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We believe the rapture of the church will happen before that last seven years break in for Israel and the world. We’ll see more of this next week.
Praise God! He is in control of everything. He knows what’s coming because He planned what’s coming. God accomplishes His great plan through history, one year after another. We don’t see why and even how He’s doing it, but He is. For God, one year is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one year. We are not in that 70th week yet. It’s still future. Why? Because God isn’t finished saving people in this Church Age.
2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
Christ could return for His church at any moment. I hope you’re ready to meet Him.