The seventieth week has not even yet come. His dissertation was published as Jesus the Bridegroom by Pickwick Books in 2012. (Zechariah 9:9b RSV). There is thus a clear exhortation on the part of both the angel Gabriel and the Lord Jesus Christ that readers should carefully consider and understand this passage. The walls were breached and the Romans entering in were so angered by the stubborn resistance of the Jews that they disobeyed the orders of their general and burned the temple, melting the gold and silver so that it ran down between the cracks of the stones. When he breaks the covenant he will put an end to sacrifice and “set up an abomination that causes desolation.” (9:27). The prayer was not ended. He did not like God's postponement, but God showed him that his own heart was hard and callous. In other words, this timetable has no effect if the Jews are not in Jerusalem. Why "today"? Four hundred and eighty-three years ran their course, and then the Savior came. However, before the 490 years are complete the final seven years (the seventieth week) will be a time of war and desolation. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision: 24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. (Matthew 24:15-21). And I can’t help but feel very repetitive when I comment. 25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' The prophecy foretold a period of seven times seventy yet to come, or seventy seven-year periods. Notice that they all have to do with solving the problem of sin. 23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. By signs and wonders. Previous. Reference: Daniel 9:20-27; Series: Series in Daniel; Teacher: Pastor Robert Furrow; I Recently Gave My Life to Christ. This is a helpful passage to use with those who deny the supernatural element in the Scriptures. He will wreak vengeance upon the nations assembled against Jerusalem and especially against this blasphemous individual who has come into control of the world. The Prophecy of Daniel, Edward J. E. J. I feel that scholars get caught up between what is literal and what is figurative. Daniel’s prayer in verses 3-19 of the chapter refers to the fulfillment of a specific seventy-year period, the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity (as prophesied by Jeremiah). Seven more years were to follow, but something happened and the countdown has been delayed. If we work this out carefully, as certain chronologers have done, we find that the four hundred and eighty-three years (seven years short of the full four hundred and ninety), was fulfilled on the very day the Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, with the multitude of disciples bearing palm branches in their hands going before him crying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" Prayer is not merely an exercise in asking God for things; prayer is primarily a means by which we get involved in God's program. (This delay is from a human perspective, for the Lord always knew this was going to occur.) It is operative only when the Jewish people are in Jerusalem. What we should learn is that the Lord’s blessings in our lives may likewise be … The study of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation is important to the spiritual dynamics of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. What is Gabriel talking about here? An immediate answer sent him by an angel to his prayer, in which, 1. "Consider he," he says, "think it through and understand it." The 10 Toe Stage has no historical counterpart and can only be explained as a yet to be fulfilled prophecy (See Daniel 2:24-49 Commentary) 2) Daniel 7+ - The fourth beastly kingdom (Rome) in Da 7:7a has a 10 Horn stage (Da 7:7b, Da 7:8, Da 7:20, 21, Da 7:23, 24) which like the 10 Toe Stage of Daniel 2 has not yet been historically fulfilled. Sometime, of course, the end will come. Daniel 9:20-27. Enough people may take this seriously and change their lives to set themselves in tune with God's program and stop living for themselves to such a degree that God will change his schedule, hold off the end for awhile, and let us go on. He had been reading, as he tells us, the prophet Jeremiah. At the end of the sixty-ninth week, the “anointed one will be cut off and have nothing,” the ruler of the people to come will destroy the Jerusalem and the sanctuary and the “end will come like a flood.” This ruler will confirm a covenant but break it in the middle of the final seven-year period. It was he who dated creation at 4004 B.C. Daniel 9:20-27. As you know, Jonah was unhappy about that. That brings us then to the remarkable events that follow, for, in the next section of Daniel 9, we read of what occurs after the four hundred and eighty-three years, but before the seven-year period begins. If you are concerned about the state of our country today, I suggest that you read Daniel's prayer through and see how beautifully and wonderfully he gathers up the whole situation, realistically appraises it, and lays it before God. Now put on your thinking caps. Daniel's vision of the Seventy Weeks (9:20-27) is closely tied to Daniel's prayer of confession and intercession earlier in the chapter (9:1-19). That is what it means to bring in everlasting righteousness. The first three deal with the work of redemption: "to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity." It is necessary to allow for a four-year error in dating the birth of Christ (4 B.C. During that forty-nine year period the city was to be built again, "with squares and moat, but in a troubled time." He said once to his disciples, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" I think this because of what PLong would say in class about examples in scripture when the author would use exaggerations to prove a point. They recognize the same event, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, but they date it at 454 B.C. It is just not a bad thing to consider this view on the seventy. This is what Jesus called "the abomination of desolation." It reveals one of those remarkable "coincidences" which are really not coincidences at all, to learn that the historian Herodotus (who is called the father of history), was a contemporary of the king, Artaxerxes, who issued that decree. J. There is a strange element of contingency in prophecy. However, because Daniel's vision is controversial in our day, I've decided to devote an entire lesson to this vision, in particular to the four verses that conclude the chapter (9:24-27). Remember that after the day of Pentecost, Peter was preaching to the people in connection with the healing of a lame man at the temple gate. This is a searching, penetrating prayer of confession, of praise, and of earnest petition to God. The gospel accounts record that it was one literal week of seven days after the triumphal entry that the Lord Jesus was crucified on the little hill that stands outside the Damascus gate, north of the city of Jerusalem, and literally "had nothing." They are, specifically, "to bring in everlasting righteousness," i.e., to establish the kingdom of God, the kingdom for which we pray in the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The passage is so tremendously significant because it already has been partly fulfilled in precise accuracy concerning the first coming of the Lord Jesus. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. Conclusion: The book of Daniel, and our Lord’s comment on the end times (Matt. Launch Research Feed. There are three wonderful things to note about that first section: First, there is a specific time period decreed. This shall go on "until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator." Rather than a confirmation the Judah’s exile would soon be over, Daniel is told the seventy years have become seventy “weeks of years,” or 490 years in all. It means that all predictions are to be completed, fulfilled, and there is no longer any need to predict a future event. They prided themselves on being students of Scripture. This passage is therefore one of the strongest evidences to prove the divine inspiration of the Bible. All this will happen, he said, "...because you did not know the time of your visitation." Then he said these very significant words. Thus this is a means by which the prophet gets involved in God's work. For the next 483 years (representation of 69 weeks) we have fulfilled biblical prophecy in which Daniel 9:20-23 talks about. Unleashing God’s Truth, One Verse at a Time Since 1969. This is why the whole Christian world is watching Israel constantly and hanging on every rumor concerning the building of a temple again on the ancient site. If we focus on the trees and not the forest, it is very easy for us to miss the main point of a difficult text like this one. They should have known. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are recorded several decrees by Persian kings concerning Israel, but two of them clearly relate to the building of the temple. These 483 years (69 weeks) end with Jesus’s ministry and of course the cross happens. Daniel 9:20-27. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. If the seventieth week, the final period of seven years, had followed the sixty-ninth week without a break then the whole period of four hundred and ninety years would have ended sometime in the period of the book of Acts. The first 483 years begin with the Artaxerxes permitting Nehemiah return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city (Neh 2), approximately 445 BC. There is first a listing of the objectives that are to be accomplished during the course of the prophecy; and, second, there is a three-fold division of the time set forth. Daniel used symbolism … That is because they are following Bishop Ussher, the seventeenth-century Irish bishop who took it upon himself to insert dates into our Bible. Perhaps not. The angel Gabriel was sent to the prophet Daniel to give him a clear and undisguised look into the future in answer to a prayer of the prophet. 22 He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy. The Christian writer to first suggest this appears to have been Julius Africanus in A.D. 200, mentioned in Jerome’s commentary on Daniel. There are some who would say that Dr. Scofield originated this and put it in his reference Bible and all of us have been following him ever since. Commentary; Illustration; Bible Survey; Topics; Find by passage; The Seventy Weeks Prophecy Daniel 9:20–27 » View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) When Queen Elizabeth was a little girl, she threw a tantrum. The original audience of the text was to understand that God had delayed the restoration because of impenitence. 20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill- 21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. "He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week." (Luke 19:44b RSV). Now that is very precise, is it not? Those who use 454 B.C. (Daniel 9: 26 RSV). Daniel 9:20-27 – The Prophecy of the Seventy Sevens. Commentary on Daniel, Albert Barnes b. It does not make any difference whether we are in the last days or not, we are responsible to act according to the Word of God, and to understand that God's program is going to run its course exactly as predicted. That occurred in 70 A.D., forty years after our Lord's crucifixion. We can expect to see the rise of a Western confederacy of nations, which may even be taking shape today, and which will ultimately be dominated by this strange individual who has appeared in these prophetic sections. Since God is faithful, Daniel knew that it was time for God to act. Phillip J. So, as the second point of interest, we have a clear limitation of this prophecy to a time period involving only the people of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. One of the great, exciting, prophetic portions of the Word of God, Daniel chapte. criticism…. This is very important to see, for once again we are facing the likely fulfillment of these things. "He wept over it!" That first part of the predicted accomplishments was fulfilled when our Lord was "cut off" on the cross, after the sixty-two weeks. It is the time when a decree should go forth to build the city and walls of Jerusalem. But, someone may ask, how do you explain this long gap? That is very revealing, and it tells us an awful lot about prayer. No how were they able to measure that temperature. Matthew adds in parenthesis these words "(let the reader understand)" (Matthew 24:15b RSV). as the starting point find the termination for the first 69 weeks at 29 or 30 A. D., which is sometimes regarded as the date of the crucifixion. According to Nehemiah 2, the decree was issued in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes. We can pinpoint that precisely as occurring in the year 445 B.C. Everything else must fit into the outline of this great prophetic revelation in Chapter 9. There are two general parts to the prophecy. Jonah went to Nineveh and prophesied, "Yet forty days and the city will be overthrown..." (Jonah 3:4). It is clear from this that there must be a temple in Jerusalem in order for these four hundred and ninety years to be fulfilled. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. That is what Jesus meant when he said, "When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place... [then don't wait; get out of Jerusalem as fast as you can] for there will be a time of trouble such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never shall be." Theological presuppositions often guide the answer to this question. He did not simply say, "Well, it is all going to happen anyway so there's no use in worrying about it or praying about it." Of course these things aren’t as clear as our salvation, but with the scripture that we have, this seems to be the best approach to Daniel’s 70 weeks. It is a very strange interlude. If we focus on the trees and not the forest, it is very easy for us to miss the main point of a difficult text like this one. Unfortunately it was not the answer he may have been expecting. All this confirms what we have here. If an interpreter is committed to a second-century date, then the author of Daniel only knows history up to the 160’s B.C. By his preaching. The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy. So it is very clear that there is to be a gap in time of indeterminate length. It was held by some of the earliest church fathers. Young argued a “seven” was an indefinite period of time and ran the whole 490 years from the return from exile up to the time of Christ. Wesley's Notes for Daniel 9:27 . History has clearly fulfilled that. Where God has spoken in writing, he does not add a vision. Daniel had indicated very plainly, exactly to the day, when Messiah would come, but they "did not know the time of their visitation." People often say, "What is happening? Cite. All this is to take place within the predicted time period. As with all Scripture, this important passage should be interpreted in its plain, natural, literal sense, taking care to avoid speculation, allegorization, application of symbolism or spiritualization. A second approach is to interpret the years are symbolic of the time from the end of the exile to the coming of messiah. But God's program in time hangs upon human reaction. In Daniel 9 Daniel reads from a scroll of Jeremiah and understands the 70-year exile must be coming to an end. Listen Now. "He shall make a covenant with many," evidently refers to an agreement to allow the restoration of Jewish worship in Jerusalem. - Daniel 9:20-27 It has been incorporated into charts that depict the series of events that are supposed to happen before the end of time. They most likely couldn’t, therefore this was just a way to show that the fire was very hot. We would be beyond it now for a thousand years would have been over by now. 24:1-25:46) help us to understood the book of Revelation. But Dr. Scofield did not originate this teaching. Nevertheless, the numbers work out generally to the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the period of seven years is approximately correct. We have the first section in verse 24: "Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place." While Daniel is praying … II. He must have already been referred to in this prophecy or the angel would not have simply used a pronoun to identify him. The history of the exegesis of the 70 Weeks is the Dismal Swamp of O.T. The gap has covered over 1900 years. God delayed, postponed, the fulfillment. (Daniel 9:20-23 RSV). Now anointed one is the Hebrew word for Messiah. All this is history and it all happened during a time gap in the seventy weeks. While Daniel is praying an angel is sent to him to give an answer to his prayer. He will make an agreement with the Jews as a nation, possibly to allow the construction of a temple once again. Daniel 8:15-27 Gabriel Interprets The Vision. We are now living in the Church age that was reveled by the Apostle Paul; however that last 7 years (1 week) has not been fulfilled yet. Daniel 9:24-27 is apocalyptic literature that uses figurative language to predict the nature, timing and consequences of Christ’s work at His first coming. In this view, the “cutting off of the anointed one” is the assassination of Onias III the high priest, about 170 B.C. What will happen? Luke 19:41b-44a RSV). At the beginning of your supplications a word went forth, and l have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the word and understand the vision." For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you." The actual date when Messiah Jesus would come, the One whom Daniel … The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 9:27 He shall confirm - Christ confirmed the new covenant, By the testimony of angels, of John baptist, of the wise men, of the saints then living, of Moses and Elias. However, because Daniel's vision is controversial in our day, I've decided to devote an entire lesson to this vision, in particular to the four verses that conclude the chapter (9:24-27). But Daniel was interrupted as he prayed and never finished. The first part of the chapter is taken up with that prayer, which we shall not repeat here, for we want to focus on the prophetic elements of the chapter, but do read the prayer through. He was followed by his son Solomon who ruled Israel about 40 years. In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. His report of that interruption is in Verses 20-23: While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God; while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. Verse 1. And the abomination of desolation will be on a wing of the temple. He knew from Jeremiah's writings that the desolation of Jerusalem was prophesied to last for 70 years, and they had been fulfilled. The 483 period ends sometime in the ministry of Jesus. When Daniel and his friends were thrown into the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar wanted the temperature to be turned up seven times. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Even the last seven has been completed, starting sometime in the ministry of Christ and ending before A.D. 70. It had to go to the Jew first, after the day of Pentecost, in order that these people be given an opportunity to repent. When Daniel learned what God's program was he prayed that he might be involved in it, that he might have a part in it and thus to cooperate with what God was doing. By his resurrection and ascension. But to answer the question “Which approach is best?” when it comes to the views on how to interpret the seventy sevens. Daniel 9:11-19 Daniel Cries Out to God For Mercy. Daniel was written for the Israelites who had been living as captives in Babylon for almost seventy years. for Artaxerxes' 20th year. In this view, the book of Revelation picks up the final seven year period to describe a final confrontation between the arrogant kingdom of man and God’s coming kingdom. But there is no account in Acts to indicate when this period ended. Chapter 9. In this chapter we have, I. Daniel’s prayer for the restoration of the Jews who were in captivity, in which he confesses sin, and acknowledges the justice of God in their calamities, but pleads God’s promises of mercy which he had yet in store for them . ( A) Daniel 9:10 "Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set … The two are tied together in the way they present prophecy. This chapter recounts the prophecy of the seventy weeks, probably the most debated portion of the whole prophecy. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' For most, this is simply a miscalculation on the part of the second-century writer (Montgomery, 393). 9:20-27 An answer was immediately sent to Daniel's prayer, and it is a very memorable one. We cannot now expect that God should send answers to our prayers by angels, but if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised, we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer; for He is faithful that has promised. He has Masters degrees in Biblical Exposition and Old Testament from Talbot School of Theology (BIOLA) and a PhD in New Testament from Andrews University. DANIEL 9:20-27 The "Crown Jewels" of Old Testament Prophecy: The Seventy Weeks INTRODUCTION The first part of this chapter dealt with Daniel's prayer of repentance in response to his discovery in Jeremiah's writings that the time in exile would be seventy years. Post navigation. Contact & Service Times. As we shall see, "the prince to come" is a reference to the Antichrist who, as we saw in Chapter 7, is a Roman, the last Caesar of the Roman world. At the end of Jesus’ three and a half year ministry, Jesus was crucified as a sacrifice for sin. Though he was a prophet and God spoke to him directly, yet he learned many things from the Scriptures. Daniel asks certain questions of the angel who has revealed this to him, and then he is given to understand two great principles that are at work in human life. rather than 1 A.D.), and to use, as the ancients did, a year of 360 days rather than 365. The first two divisions are described in Verse 25: "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. We can never say, "Yes, this is the final fulfillment; these events are moving surely and unmistakably to the end." Daniel 9:20-27 The Seventy Weeks Prophecy. The ninth chapter of Daniel centers clearly upon the person of Jesus Christ and is one of the few places in Scripture where God ties himself to a definite timetable of events. This will be the fifth set of comments I will have to do on these daniel blog posts. He describes the terrible days in which Jerusalem was under siege by the Roman armies, and how starvation and famine stalked the streets of the city; people died by the hundreds and bodies were stacked up in the streets like cord wood. The last eligible antecedent to the three he’s in v.27 is “ The original audience of the text was to understand that God had delayed the restoration because of impenitence. The angel also indicated that this 490 year period would be divided, first into two divisions, one of seven weeks, and then sixty-two weeks. At the end of the period prophecy and vision will be sealed up and the Most Holy Place will be anointed (9:24). Daniel had a far greater and more glorious redemption discovered to him, … "He shall make a strong covenant with many [this refers to the nation Israel, the mass of the Jews] for one week", i.e., for seven years. Many of you are frequently asked why you believe the Bible to be the Word of God, and it is helpful to know certain passages which clearly set forth predictive elements that are unmistakable and which do indicate the ability of the Bible to predict events far in the distant future. Both John, in Revelation, and Paul, in Second Thessalonians, have told us his end will be at the appearance again of Jesus Christ. The third option seems to be the way the text was read in the first century, “how soon until the exile was really over?”, The prophecy of the seventy sevens The full course of it would cover four hundred and ninety years, and at the end of that period the problem of human sin would be solved, and the problem of human suffering would have ended. I think that it’s okay to think that this period could be an exaggeration or a metaphor for a very long time. It says to me that it is time to take seriously the days in which we live. Third, there are six goals which are detailed to be accomplished during this stretch of four hundred and ninety years. The beginning of the period is the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., although the “decree” is Jeremiah’s prophecy (dated to 605 B.C.) Thus they missed the time of their visitation. So much of the job to the reader of the book of Daniel is to figure what is literal and what is allegorical. Personally, I take the position that the 483 literal years started with the degree to rebuild Jerusalem. Read the Scripture: Daniel 9:20-27. In Daniel 9 Daniel reads from a scroll of Jeremiah and understands the 70-year exile must be coming to an end. After looking at it both ways I’m more confident on this verse than I ever would have been before. The RSV is in error here. (Daniel 9:24 RSV). There are several very detailed attempts to count days and calculate the exact moment in Jesus’s ministry the 483 years end (the most common suggestion is Jesus’s baptism or the triumphal entry). Jesus had said to them, "You search the Scriptures and think in them to find eternal life, but you don't seem to understand that they testify of me," John 5:39). A. Montgomery, Commentary on the Book of Daniel, 400-401. Thy kingdom come, thy will he done..." (Matthew 5:10). You have this clearly set forth in the book of Jonah. Our relationship to it will be determined by how seriously we identify ourselves with what God is doing in our day and give ourselves to the advancement of his work, not ours. The result was, forty days went by and nothing happened. Then for sixty-two weeks..." (Daniel 9:25a RSV). Perhaps a word of Peter's from the third chapter of Acts will help us here. If you read some of the commentators you will find that they pick a different starting point. Bible Commentary for Daniel 9:27. What kind of a triumphal entry is this? Therefore, at this time the Medes and the Persians had taken over the former empire of Babylon. But this is almost impossible since the years may be lunar or solar, there may be intercalculary months, etc. Daniel 9:1-10 Daniel Prays For The People. The moderator of the debate was a learned rabbi, and as the Christian pressed the claims of this passage home it became so clear that the passage was pointing to Jesus Christ that the rabbi closed the debate with these words: "Let us shut up our books, for if we go on examining the prophecy we shall all become Christians.". We know what that end is. This could only be by divine power. It shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time." Will he find people who believe God, and act accordingly? He came to offer himself as king to the nation that had learned of his coming for many centuries from the prophets, but instead of a crown he received a wreath of thorns; instead of a scepter, a broken reed was put into his hands; instead of a throne, he hung upon a bloody cross. They divide into two halves. Daniel 9:24-27. Unfortunately it was not the answer he may have been expecting. But the people of Nineveh repented. This will be a gift of understanding. When Daniel began his confession and humiliation the Lord called Gabriel and instructed him what he should tell the praying prophet, and then Gabriel was caused to fly swiftly through the immeasurable space, and before Daniel … Daniel 9, Adam Clarke Commentary, One of over 110 Bible commentaries freely available, this commentary is one of the most respected interdenominational commentaries ever written. (Daniel 9:27 RSV), Who is this strange individual referred to as he? Lord, you who love us so earnestly and tenderly, help us to see that we cannot play, we cannot dabble. We do not have any doubts about its general thrust. This is the same angel that appeared to Joseph and to Mary, as recorded in the opening chapters of the New Testament. 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.