Daniel’s 70 Weeks Prophecy
PROVES
Jesus Is the MESSIAH!
not
only identifies WHO the Messiah is, but also plainly tells us
WHEN He would come to
the earth! It clearly speaks of His coming
TWICE – once to be “cut
off” and killed – and then later to usher in
the
Kingdom of God and to rule all nations as a King!
This prophecy, together
with the Bible Codes, and other prophecies,
describe
vividly the terrible state of immorality and world conditions
at
the close of this present age, and the last seven years of this present
generation
leading up to the coming of the Messiah!
It tells us about
the
“Road Map” to peace and the critical year 2006.
Here is the
astonishing
PROOF Jesus Christ truly is the Messiah,
and that He is
SOON coming again to
this earth in our lifetime!
The world is watching the
One of the most amazing and
intriguing prophecies of all the Bible is found in Daniel 9:24-27. Throughout the ages men and women have
puzzled over the meaning of this cryptic passage. It has stumped theologians, baffled scholars,
and puzzled Christians
and Jews alike for thousands of years. Very few understand just HOW this passage in
the book of Daniel, written in about 500-600 B.C., relates to the coming of the
Messiah, AND the prospects of “peace” in our generation!
Let us carefully review this entire
prophecy, and see how powerful and awesome it is, deserving
to be studied by ALL people – Christian, Jew, Muslim, and unbelievers as well!
First of all, let’s read the passage
in the King James Version:
“SEVENTY WEEKS are determined upon thy
people and upon thy
holy city, to finish [margin, to restrain] the
transgression, and to make
an end [margin, to seal up] of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up
the vision and
prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
“Know therefore and understand, that from
the going forth of the
commandment to restore and rebuild
again
threescore and two weeks:
the street shall
be built again, and the wall
[margin, breach, or ditch], in troublous times.
“And
after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be CUT OFF, but
not for himself [margin, and shall have nothing]: and the people of
the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary;
and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end
of the war
desolations are determined [margin, it shall be cut off by
desolations].
“And
he shall confirm the covenant with many for ONE WEEK: and
in the midst of the WEEK he shall cause the sacrifice and
the oblation
to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations [margin,
and upon
the battlements shall be the idols of the desolater], he
shall make it
desolate, even until the consumation, and that
determined shall be
poured upon the desolate [margin, desolater]” (Dan.9:24-27).
What a strange prophecy! It outlines strange events to occur in and
around
In Numbers 14:34 God told the
Israelites, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even
forty days, each day of a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even
forty years . . .” Each day of the
prophetic 70 weeks, then, is a year in being fulfilled!
Ezekiel confirms this same
principle. God told Ezekiel concerning
the punishment and siege of
To understand the 70 weeks prophecy,
one must realize each day of the prophecy equals a year being
fulfilled. Since there are seven days in
a week -- or a total of 490 days in 70 weeks -- this prophecy involves 490
years. At the end of this time period,
the “Most Holy” -- the Messiah -- will bring in everlasting righteousness -- He
will become King of the whole earth and put a complete end to all man’s
rebellion. All nations will finally be
reconciled to Him.
However, this prophecy does not say
that this period of years is consecutive, from beginning to end. It is divided up into three distinct periods
– 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and a final week.
But how are these 490 years to be
understood? When do they
commence'? And what do the three periods
of time mean? And when do they end?
Notice.
“Know therefore,” Gabriel told
Daniel, “and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to
restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [the Messianic king]
shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks [a total of 69 weeks
or 483 prophetic years]: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
troublous times” (Dan. 9:25).
Which
Decree?
What commandment or decree was this? Daniel recorded this prophecy in 538-537 B.C.
History records that Cyrus reigned from 538-537 until 530-529. Cambyses followed Cyrus on the throne and
reigned for eight years, until 522-521.
He was followed by Darius I who reigned 36 years, until December 23,
486, when Xerxes took the throne. Xerxes
was the Ahasuerus of the Bible (see Finegan, Light From the Ancient
Past, p.238). Xerxes reigned from
486 to 465-464 when he was followed by his son Artaxerxes. Artaxerxes then reigned nearly 41 years,
until 424 B.C.
Which of these men made a decree to
“restore and to build Jerusalem”? Cyrus
made a decree in 536-535 regarding the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem
(see Ezra 1: 1-2). This particular
decree was specifically to build the Temple -- the city is not mentioned. This decree, therefore, is not the one spoken
of by Daniel in chapter 9:25. The Jews
had opposition in building the Temple throughout the days of Cyrus, “even until
the reign of Darius king of Persia” (Ezra 4:4-5). Local Samaritans frustrated their purpose and
attempted to overthrow the project. Work
on the Temple ceased until the second year of Darius (521-485) (see Ezra 4:24).
Darius also made a decree and
ordered the construction of the temple to continue (Ezra 6:11-12). But, again, this decree was to build the
house of God -- not the city of Jerusalem.
The Temple, except for the finishing touches, was completed by the sixth
year of the reign of Darius (Ezra 6:14-15).
Therefore, the evidence is that neither of these two decrees was the one
spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
A third decree, however, was made by
king Artaxerxes I (464-423). Since the
Temple was already built, Artaxerxes' decree concerned another matter. In the seventh year of Artaxerxes, the Jewish
scribe Ezra came to Jerusalem, carrying a copy of a letter containing the
decree of king Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:1, 6, 12).
We read in the book of Ezra: “Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the
priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a
time. I make a decree, that all
they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm,
which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem . .
. Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king . . . to inquire concerning Judah and
Jerusalem according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand: and to carry
the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered
unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, and all the silver and
gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon . . .” (see Ezra
7:11-26).
After this epochal decree, Ezra
prayed to God, saying: “Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great
trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our
priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword,
to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space grace hath been shewed
from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape . . . to give us a
reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations
thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem” (Ezra
9:7-9).
Mark carefully -- this decree gave
Ezra authority not only to rebuild and beautify the house of God, but also to
repopulate Jerusalem, to set government in operation, and to rebuild the city
and the wall! The Jews had never been
given authority from the Persian kings to rebuild Jerusalem and the city
wall. However, early in the reign of
Artaxerxes, the Samaritans had accused the Jews of building the city once again
(Ezra 4:7, 11-12). The king issued an
order for the Jews to stop all such activity until further notice (vs.17-21). After a through investigation, Artaxerxes issued
another decree -- the decree mentioned in Ezra 7. This must be the decree
Daniel had reference to since it was the first one that clearly involved the
city of Jerusalem as well as the temple.
When, then, was the “seventh year”
of king Artaxerxes? To understand when
the seventh year of Artaxerxes occurred, we must find the year he ascended to
the throne.
Artaxerxes’ Seventh Year
Ctesias, a Greek physician at the court of Artaxerxes II,
and who undoubtedly had access to the Persian archives, relates that Artaxerxes
learned that Artabanus had killed his father.
Artabanus was slain, and Artaxerxes assumed the throne without fear of a
rival.
But when was Xerxes murdered?
Discoveries in Mesopotamia and Egypt
have thoroughly established the chronologies of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian
empires. The evidence of Ptolemy’s
Canon, the Saros Tablets, and papyri dated with two calendar systems, reveal
that Xerxes’ reign ended in his 21st year.
His 21st year then was counted from spring of 465 B.C. to spring of 464.
(The Persian civil year was reckoned from spring to spring). Artaxerxes’ first year thus began in the
spring of 464 B.C. Artaxerxes must have ascended to the throne sometime in the
year 465/64 B.C.
A document that was written during
the accession year of Artaxerxes has been found. It is listed as Aramaic papyrus (AP 6) and
was written from the Jewish colony of Elephantine in Egypt. The document was dated the 18th of Kislev or
the 17th of Thoth, ‘in the year 21, the beginning of reign when King Artaxerxes
sat on his throne.’ Artaxerxes I took the throne in the 21st year of
Xerxes. He must be the Artaxerxes in
question, since neither Artaxerxes II or III came to the throne in a year 21.
The 18th of Kislev or 17th of Thoth
dates the document as having been written the evening of January 2 or daytime
January 3, 464 B.C., since the Hebrews reckon a day from sunset to sunset. Therefore, by January 3, 464 B.C., Jews in
Egypt obviously knew that Artaxerxes had ascended the Persian throne. The document speaks of ‘the beginning of the
reign’ of Artaxerxes, or his accession year.
What does this mean?
As January 2/3, 464, is dated in the
accession year of Artaxerxes, his first regnal year -- according to the Hebrew
reckoning -- could not officially begin until Tishri 1, in the autumn of 464
B.C.! The Hebrew civil calendar began each year in the autumn with Tishri.
Since the first year of Artaxerxes,
according to the Hebrew civil year, did not begin until autumn of 464 B.C.,
seven years later would bring us to autumn of 458 B.C. The seventh year of
Artaxerxes, therefore, was from the autumn of 458 to the autumn of 457 B.C.
Fall-to-Fall Reckoning
But
do we have proof that the Hebrews still used the fall-to-fall reckoning for
their civil year after they returned from Babylonian captivity? Or did they adopt the Babylonian custom of
dating each civil year from spring to spring?
There is conclusive evidence that
during Nehemiah’s time the Hebrew civil calendar was still in use. Consider: in Nehemiah 1:1, Nehemiah said he
received bad news of Jerusalem in the month Chisleu, (November-December) in the
twentieth year of Artaxerxes. He
later mentioned that in Nisan (March-April), in the twentieth year of
the king, he gave wine to Artaxerxes (2:1).
Thus Nehemiah said Chisleu or Kislev preceded Nisan in the 20th regnal
year of Artaxerxes, showing he used a fall to fall reckoning.
Today, the Jews still reckon the
year from fall to fall, beginning the new year in the autumn. They celebrate Rosh Hoshana, or New Year’s
day, in the autumn, on Tishri 1. They have clung tenaciously to this practice.
According to the Hebrew calendar
used by Nehemiah, then, the seventh year of Artaxerxes fell from the fall of
458 to the fall of 457 B.C. Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem took place
from about late March to about early August (Ezra 7:8-9), 457 B.C. He carried
the decree of king Artaxerxes with him.
Therefore, the famous decree for the restoration of Jerusalem was
signed, sealed, delivered to Ezra, and went into effect as soon as he reached
Jerusalem -- in the late summer or early fall of 457 B.C.
Now we have dated the decree. Notice again Daniel was told that from the
issuance of the decree till the coming of the Messiah was to be “seven weeks,
threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even
in troublous times” (Daniel 9:25).
The re-settling and rebuilding of
the city of Jerusalem made rapid strides from the 20th year to the 32nd year of
Artaxerxes (Neh.5:14-16). The building
program continued into the reign of Darius II who succeeded Artaxerxes. During his reign the wall around Jerusalem
was finished (Neh.12:22, 27-30, 43). But
even after the wall was complete, many buildings within the city had yet to be
built (Neh.7:11, 14; 11:1-2). These were
“troublous times,” as Daniel foretold and as Ezra 4:5 summarized. Persecution and hindrances slowed progress. But after the first seven of the prophetic
weeks of the prophecy – a period of 49 years -- the city was rebuilt and the
temple restored.
Then Daniel mentioned “sixty two
weeks” were to follow-- or 434 more years were to pass -- until the
appearance of the Messiah. Thus a total
of sixty nine prophetic weeks -- or 483 literal years -- were to exist from the
commandment of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. till the appearance of the Messiah.
457 B.C.
-- year-date of the decree
-483
years -- time to pass till Messiah would come
26 A.D.
+1 -- since there is no year “zero”
27 A.D. --
year the prophecy would be fulfilled!
Counting 483 years from 457 B.C.,
then, brings you to 27 A.D. This was the year the Messiah was prophesied to
appear on the scene.
Was this prophecy fulfilled? What happened in 27 A.D.?
Jesus’ Ministry and Death
The interesting fact is that Jesus Christ was born in 4
B.C., shortly before the death of king Herod (Matt.2:1-16). Jesus began His ministry when He was 30 years
old (Luke 3:21-23). Subtracting 30 from
4 B.C., we come to 26 A.D. But since
there was no year “zero”, we must add a year in going from B.C. to A.D.. Thus the year 27 A.D. was the very year Jesus
Christ began his ministry, and commenced preaching the Gospel of the coming
Kingdom of God (Matt. 3:13-17; 4:1-23; 9:35).
This represents the FULFILLMENT of
the 69 “weeks” of years of Daniel’s 70 week prophecy!
However, when He came, instead of
taking His crown and ruling as a great King, He was persecuted, afflicted,
abused, beaten, scourged, and CRUCIFIED by His enemies, the state, and the
jealous religious leaders of His day. In
this, too, He fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel 9! For we read:
“And AFTER threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be CUT OFF, but not
for Himself . . .” (Daniel 9:26).
The fact that the Messiah was to DIE
was not understood by the Jews and the religious leaders of that time. Yet Isaiah the prophet also foretold of this
tragic yet awesome truth. He wrote,
about 700 years before Christ, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried
our sorrows: yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for OUR
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: and the chastisement of our peace was upon
him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Isaiah makes it plain that He was
not only to suffer greatly, but also to be killed as a “sacrifice” for our sins
– even as the nation of Israel in ancient times sacrificed sheep, bulls and
goats at the Temple of God to “atone” for their sins. The Messiah became our “Passover lamb” (I
Cor..5:7). He became a “sin offering”
for us (II Cor.5:21).
Isaiah puts it this way: “He is brought as a LAMB to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment
[He was judged, condemned, and imprisoned]:
and who shall declare His generation?
For He was cut off out of the land of the living” – that means
He, the Messiah being depicted here, was KILLED! “For the transgression of My people,” God
says, “was He stricken” (Isaiah 53:7-8).
“And He made His grave with the
wicked” (verse 9). Together with Him
others who were real criminals were also crucified. “And with the rich in His DEATH” (same
verse). He was buried in the grave
of rich man, Joseph of Arimathea
(Matt.57-60).
Do you see how Jesus fulfilled
these ancient Biblical prophecies, and Daniel 9? EVEN TO THE VERY EXACT TIME OF HIS MINISTRY
AND EXECUTION!
No one else has even come close to fulfilling this amazing divine prophecy!
Daniel also foretold what was to
happen to the Messiah. The Jews of
Jesus’ time thought that when the Messiah would appear he would restore the
Kingdom of Israel and deliver them from the Romans. They looked for a shining knight on a white
charger. But when Christ came as the
humble preacher from Nazareth, of all places, they did not understand
this. They were looking for a divine
King to rescue them from Roman oppression.
But when He did not, they in turn rejected Him. So they had Him put to death thinking that He
was a seducer, a false teacher, a false prophet – a charlatan and a
heretic.
After preaching the gospel for three
years, from the spring of 27 A.D. until the spring of 30 A.D., Jesus was
condemned by the Sanhedrin and the high priest, and put to death!
Did Daniel foretell that Christ
would die for our sins and reconcile us to God?
Notice again -- Daniel 9:26 – “And
after [the period of] threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off [that
is, killed], but not for himself . . .” Daniel prophesied that
the Messiah would be “CUT OFF.” The
Hebrew word here is #3772 in Strong’s Concordance. It is karath, a primitive root
meaning “to cut (off, down, asunder); by implication, to destroy or consume;
spec. to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, orig. by cutting flesh and
passing between the pieces.”
How would the Messiah be “cut
off”? What does this mean? He would be killed, destroyed, put to
death! But in so doing, He would “make a
covenant” -- the New Covenant -- in His own blood, reconciling sinners to
God! Thus He fulfilled the prophecy of
making “reconciliation for iniquity” (Daniel 9:24).
Most Jewish rabbis, to this date,
however, have not recognized this astonishing truth of the Scriptures. That is a sad fact. Yet even their own translation of the
prophecy in Daniel 9 provides us insight into this mystery. Notice the Jewish Tanakh translation of this
passage:
"Seventy weeks have been
decreed for your people and your holy city until the measure of transgression
is filled and that of sin is complete, until iniquity is expiated and eternal
righteousness ushered in; and prophetic vision ratified, and the Holy of Holies
anointed. You must know and understand: From the issuance of the word to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem until the [time of the] anointed leader is seven
weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it will be rebuilt, square and moat, but in a
time of distress. And after those
sixty-two weeks, the anointed one will disappear and vanish. The army of a leader who is to come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary, but its end will come through a flood. Desolation is decreed until the end of
war. During one week he will make a firm
covenant with many. For half a week he
will put a stop to the sacrifice and the meal offering. At the corner [of the altar] will be an
appalling abomination until the decreed destruction will be poured down upon
the appalling thing” (Dan.9:24-27).
Notice! The prophecy in Daniel 9 in the Tanakh says
in verse 26 that after the seven weeks, and sixty two weeks, “the anointed
one will disappear and vanish.” That
is a strange statement! The Jews
expected that the Messiah would appear on a white horse, as a national champion
against the Romans, and lead them to glory!
Yet that is not quite what God inspired Daniel to write! God said that the Messiah would DISAPPEAR --
VANISH!
After a ministry lasting three
years, Jesus Christ was crucified and buried.
And then He arose from the grave, and taught His disciples for forty
days, and then notice what happened.
After He gave them some final instructions, “He was taken up before
their very eyes, and a cloud HID him from their sight. They were looking intently into the sky as he
was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you
stand here looking into the sky? This
same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, WILL COME BACK in the same
way you have seen him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9-11).
Jesus literally VANISHED before
their very eyes!
How amazingly, wonderfully and
precisely this prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled! Jesus truly “disappeared and vanished,” just
as Daniel the prophet FORETOLD over 580 years before!
Some may think that the application of this
prophecy to the Messiah is contrived. In fact, most contemporary Orthodox
Rabbis deny the messianic application of this prophecy.
However, it’s well established that ancient
Jews believed that this prophecy pinpointed the time of Messiah’s coming. In
recent years, compelling evidence has been discovered that revealed the Qumran
community (the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls) believed Daniel’s verses were,
indeed, a mathematical prediction of the time of Messiah’s coming. And they believed
they were living in the very generation to which this prophecy pointed.
One of the most ancient rabbinical
commentaries is the Talmud. In the Babylonian Talmud, compiled between 200-500
CE, ancient rabbis wrote extensively on the time of Messiah’s coming, as well
as Daniel’s 70-weeks’ prophecy.
Rabbi Judah, the main compiler of the Talmud
said regarding the times referred to in Daniel’s prophecy, “These times were
over long ago.” (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin.)
In the 12th Century AD, Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon
(Maimonides), one of the most respected rabbis in all of history, came on the
scene and wrote profusely on the Torah – he was a leading Jewish scholar who
rejected the Messianic claims of Jesus Christ.
He made a remarkable statement that many scholars believe is a reference
to Daniel’s 70-weeks’ prophecy. Declared
Maimonides, “Daniel has elucidated to us the knowledge of the end times.
However, since they are secret, the wise [rabbis] have barred the calculation
of the days of Messiah’s coming so that the untutored populace will not be led
astray when they see that the End Times have already come but there is no sign
of the Messiah.”
Why
did the rabbis forbid the calculation of the coming of the Messiah? Obviously, it is because the dates arrived
at, from Daniel’s plain prophecy, pointed to a time during the first century –
the very time Yeshua came on the scene – and they had already rejected Him! They did not accept Him as being the
“anointed one”! Nor did anybody else
come at that time who could have fulfilled the prophecy, so they forbad its
calculation under the rubric that it was a “secret.” How sad.
Rather than accept the plain evidence, they concluded the whole thing
was a “mystery,” a “secret,” and since a plain calculation would have pointed
right at Jesus Christ – they commanded the people not to try to calculate His
coming! So they IGNORED the plain
evidence in the book of Daniel the prophet!
They rejected GOD’S OWN SIGN!
Yet the evidence was so compelling, they chose
to ignore it. And as they did not want
the people to be “led astray” and accept Jesus as the Messiah, so they cleverly
decreed the calculations should be avoided.
To have accepted the calculations shown in Daniel, and to reject Jesus
as the Messiah, would have meant that the Messiah simply did not come when He
was prophesied to come, and this would have undermined the people’s faith in
Scripture. So since they rejected
Christ, they also felt compelled to reject the prophecy of Daniel! But in so doing, they just dug themselves
deeper into the pit, and their darkness increased.
Rabbi Moses Abraham Levi said, “I have
examined and searched all the Holy Scriptures and have not found the time for
the coming of Messiah clearly fixed, except in the words of Gabriel to the
prophet Daniel, which are written in the 9th chapter of the prophecy of
Daniel.” This being said, then why
didn’t he follow through to the natural conclusion – that is, that Jesus of
Nazareth, a man of signs and wonders, fulfilled the prophecies of the coming
Messiah?
But of course, they did not expect their Messiah would DIE! Yet many rabbis today expect that Messiah, son of Joseph, will be a Messiah who will be killed. They then look forward to the coming of Messiah ben David. What they fail to understand is that Jesus Christ combined both roles into ONE – He was both Messiah ben Joseph (Joseph was His legal “father”), and He was by direct lineage the anointed “son of David” as well!
Messiah to Come During Second Temple Times
Daniel wrote his prophecy at a time when the
Temple in Jerusalem was desolate. Destroyed in 586 BC, there was no indication
in Daniel’s day that it would ever be rebuilt.
However, Daniel states very plainly that the Temple was going to be
rebuilt, and also that the Messiah would come AFTER it was rebuilt! He then declared that “the prince of the
people who is to come” would destroy the Temple again (Daniel 9:26-27).
This shows plainly that the Messiah had to
come to the Second Temple sometime after it was built and BEFORE it was
destroyed.
The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans under Titus in 70 A.D. So the Messiah had to come BEFORE that date, to fulfill the prophecy!
He
did. But the religious leaders and most
of the people simply didn’t buy it.
Jewish history reports that in the aftermath
of the Roman invasion of 70 CE, the people wept in the streets, crying that the
Temple had been destroyed, yet Messiah hadn’t come.
In the Babylonian Talmud, Rabbi Rabh stated:
“All the time limits for redemption (the coming of Messiah) have passed and the
matter now depends only on repentance and good deeds.”
The truth is, He had come – but they had
missed Him. They simply did not expect
Him to come as a humble carpenter, a meek and compassionate teacher, a miracle
worker, who healed the sick on the Sabbath.
Their traditions forbade healing on the Sabbath. But most of all, they were expecting a great
king who would then rule over them and conquer the Romans. When He did not at that time fulfill those
particular Messianic prophecies, they rejected Him as the promised Messiah –
and they completely missed the fact that He had indeed come, precisely as
Daniel the prophet had foretold – even to the VERY YEAR ITSELF!
Truly, the Messiah had come, and then the
Second Temple was destroyed, exactly as Daniel had foretold.
But this event occurred BEFORE the
fulfillment of the complete 70 WEEKS of the prophecy. Technically, only 69 weeks had gone by. One week of seven days – years – was left yet
to be fulfilled.
Let’s read the rest of this amazing
prophecy. Notice, Daniel had foretold
that the Messiah would do several things – at the end of the prophecy of the
seventy weeks, transgression would be “finished,” sins would be “ended,”
reconciliation for iniquity would be accomplished. Jesus Christ accomplished this in many ways
through His personal self-sacrifice in 30 A.D., dying for our sins and
transgressions.
However, the prophecy also stated
that at the end of the period of weeks, He would “bring in everlasting
righteousness” and “seal up the vision and the prophecy” and “anoint the Most
Holy” (verse 24). This means that one
week remains to complete the prophecy, and to bring in the Kingdom of God, to
complete the prophecy in the full sense, and to anoint the Messiah as
KING!
What happened after Yeshua was
crucified, and resurrected? After the
first 69 “weeks” of years? Notice:
“The army of a leader who is to come
will DESTROY THE CITY AND THE SANCTUARY, but its end will come through a
flood. Desolation is decreed until the
end of war. During one week he will make
a firm covenant with many. For half a week
he will put a stop to the sacrifice and meal offering. At the corner [of the altar] will be an
appalling abomination until the decreed destruction will be poured down upon
the appalling thing” (v.26-27, Tanakh).
In 70 A.D. Titus and Vespacian,
Roman generals, led the Roman armies in a conquest of Jerusalem because of
Jewish rebellion. Over a million Jews
perished in the war, and the city was burned and the Temple was razed.
However, many Bible prophecies show
that the invasion of Judea and conquest of Jerusalem are also predicted as
events leading up to the SECOND COMING of the Messiah! In the prophecy of Zechariah
we read: “Lo, a day of the LORD is
coming when your spoil shall be divided in your very midst! For I will gather ALL NATIONS TO JERUSALEM
for WAR: The city shall be captured, the
houses plundered, and the women violated; and a part of the city shall go into
exile. But the rest of the population
shall not be uprooted from the city.
“Then the LORD will come forth [from
heaven, where He has gone!] and make war on those nations as He is wont to make
war on a day of battle. On that day
He will set His feet on the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem on the east; and
the Mount of Olives shall split across from east to west . . . And the LORD
my God, with all the holy beings, will come to you” (Zech. 14:1.5).
The leader of the army which will
come against Jerusalem will this time not be Titus or Vespasian, but the one
foretold by Daniel who would arise in the END TIME, one who “will be
extraordinarily destructive; he will prosper in what he does, and destroy the
mighty and the people of holy ones. By his
cunning, he will use deceit successfully.
He will make great plans, will destroy many, taking them unawares, and
will rise up against the CHIEF OF CHIEFS [the Messiah Himself!], but will be
broken, not by [human] hands” (Daniel 8:24-25).
This wicked king is also described
in Daniel 7. We read: “He will speak
words against the Most High, and will harass the holy ones of the Most
High. He will think of changing times
and laws, and they will be delivered into his power for a time, times, and half
a times [three and one half years]” (Dan.7:25).
The book of Revelation in the New
Testament describes this wicked tyrant as a “beast.” The apostle John writes: “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud
words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for FORTY-TWO MONTHS [three
and one half years!]. . . . He was given power to make war against the saints
and to conquer them” (Rev.13:5-7, NIV).
This beast, along with all the kings
of the earth, will gather at Jerusalem to fight against the Messiah at His
coming, at “the battle on the great day of God Almighty” (Rev.16:14). John says, “They will make war against the
Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of
kings -- and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers” (Rev.
17:14).
John goes on to describe in vivid
prose the SECOND coming of the Messiah, as a conquering KING!:
“I saw heaven standing open and
there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and
True. With justice he judges and makes
war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and
on his head are many crowns. He has a
name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and
his name is the Word of God [compare John 1:1-2,14]. The armies of heaven were following him,
riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with
which to strike down the nations. He
will rule them with an iron scepter. He
treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name
written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF
LORDS. . .
“Then I saw the beast and the kings
of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider
on the horse and his army. But the beast
was captured, and with him the false prophet . . . The two of them were thrown
alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur” (Rev.19:11-20).
Thus the army of this world-ruling beast will be destroyed by Christ, and the beast himself slain in the lake of fire. As Daniel foretold, “its end will come through a flood. Desolation is determined until the END of the war” (Dan.9:27). The Messiah Himself will end the “appalling abomination” and the prophesied “decreed destruction will be poured down upon the appalling thing” (Dan.9:27).
The
Final Week of Daniel’s Prophecy
These things will culminate in the
final “week” of years of Daniel’s prophecy.
The last seven days or final week of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy refer to
the final seven years of this present age, which culminate in the return
of the Messiah.
In the end of this amazing prophecy
of Daniel, we read that a wicked leader arises, and he will “confirm the
covenant with many for one week; and in the MIDST of the week he shall
cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” (v.27).
What is this strange-sounding
“covenant”? The Hebrew word berith
literally means “a cutting,” or a “compact, league, confederacy, treaty.” That is, he will “confirm” an agreement, treaty,
with the Jews and others, during the end-time of this age. What treaty is this? Could this be the so-called “Road Map to
Peace” now being foisted upon the Israelis by the “Quartet” of the United
States, Europe, Russia, and the United Nations?
Notice carefully! The word “confirm” in this passage is Strong’s #1396, the Hebrew word gabar, a primitive root meaning “to be strong,” that is, “by implication, to prevail, act insolently: -- exceed, confirm, be great, be mighty, prevail, put to more (strength), strengthen, be stronger, be valiant.”
Isn't this exactly what IS
HAPPENING, TODAY, in the peace negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon and the Palestinians?
The
world has striven to “force” its own brand of “peace” down the throats of the
Israelis, compelling them to accept a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West
Bank territories – a state which hates, abhors and detests them and which seeks
their annihilation! This process began
in 1993 with the pact between Arafat and Yitzak Rabin. It was pushed actively during the presidency
of William Clinton. Now it is being
pushed by George W. Bush. Originally,
these accords were designed to bring peace to the Middle East over a period of
seven years -- from 1993 to 2000 A.D.
But in the year 2000, the Palestinians initiated the present
“intifada,” with increased violence and suicide bombings. The Quartet now is striving to force peace
down the throats of the Israelis and there is talk of sending special European
troops to patrol the borders between Israel and the Palestinians. The “Road Map to Peace” is intended to create
a viable Palestinian state by the year 2005.
The prophecy states that a powerful
world “prince” of the “Romans” or end-time world government “will confirm a covenant
with many . . .” The word for
“many” in Hebrew in this verse is rab, meaning “abundant (in quantity,
size, age, number, rank, quality).” It
can refer to numbers, or even to a “captain, chief, great, lord, master,” or
even “archer.” Interestingly, the Hebrew in Dan.9:27 uses the plural of rab,
that is, rabbim. How similar to the last name of the Israeli
Prime Minister who began the peace negotiations at Oslo – Rabin! Is this a Biblical and prophetic “play on
words”? Hebrews often use similar-sounding
words as a “play on words” to teach a truth or to get a message across. This is often done with names of people. The word rabbim is very similar in
sound to the name Rabin -- that is, Yitzak Rabin, the Israeli Prime
Minister who first signed the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, and who was
subsequently gunned down and assassinated while campaigning in Israel!
It seems very likely that the “treaty” mentioned in Daniel 9:27 could refer to the Oslo Peace Accords, which lasted “seven years” precisely. They have now been revived as the “Road Map to Peace.”
“And
in the MIDST of the Week”
Daniel goes on to say, “And in the midst
of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for
the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate . . .”
In the passage just quoted, the
subject of the entire passage, from verse 24 to verse 27, is the 70 WEEKS. As I have explained, we have seen the
fulfillment of the first 69 weeks, or 483 years, leading up to the first coming
of Messiah. The final week, then, must
refer to the seven years (last week of days) leading up to the climax of the
SECOND coming of the Messiah to inaugurate the Millennial rule of God upon the
earth!
Therefore, when the passage states,
“In the MIDST OF THE WEEK he shall cause sacrifice and oblation to cease,” this
would be a clear reference to the FINAL WEEK OF THE PROPHECY! The final week under discussion is not
necessarily the same week as the one just described, the “week” of the
confirming of a very important “treaty” or agreement on the world scene.
The 6,000 Year Plan of God