DANIEL - Chapter 9: 1-24 - GABRIEL'S MESSAGE OF 70 WEEKS
Daniel – Chapter 9: 1-24
Gabriel’s Message of 70 Weeks
By: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday Evening Service, December 4, 2011
“Seventy weeks are determined…” (Daniel 9:24KJV)
“Daniel’s prophecy of seventy weeks given to him by the messenger angel, Gabriel is the grandest Messianic and Christological prediction in all of Holy Writ.” (Paraphrased from Whose Right it is by: Kelley Varner, published by: Destiny Image, P. O. Box 310, Shippensburg, Pa. 17257-0310)
Daniel 9:24: NIS: “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.”
I have purposely taken a fresh biblical look of the study of Daniel free of any pre-conceived ideas. Yes, I have studied and enjoyed the prophetic theories of many theologians with great respect for their wisdom. In this study, we have carefully documented historically the precision of accuracy of all of Daniel’s prophecies. However, I have chosen to teach Daniel’s prophecy of 70 weeks from a different theory than Scofield’s, Darby’s, and Larkin’s dispensationalism.
As we study the scriptures, Eschatology is not the real issue. What counts the most is that Jesus Christ is the Lord of our lives.
After a life time of studying the Holy Bible, there is still more that I do not know than I know. I continue to enjoy great preachers and teachers as they open up the scriptures and expound on the Word of God. I have learned that many questions linger for all of us. We all have much to learn. The Lord in His wisdom has purposely veiled some of these matters until he chooses to open our eyes and ears. I am a perpetual student sitting at the feet of Jesus.
Kieth Miller ministered at our church this morning and decreed that in 2012 we will be stretched with new mind sets and will need to embrace a new frame of mind that we may come out of our preconceived ideas and receive a greater clarity of the Mind of Christ. (paraphrased) While he was preaching, I said, “Lord you are having him pave the way for me to preach this message this evening.” (Smile)
The only valid study of the interpretation of the Holy Bible for any of us is the revelation that comes through God’s own mind, eyes, and mouth by way of His Holy Spirit. When it comes to the hermeneutics of the study of last things, I don’t really think anyone knows any more than I do, but respect others’ theories.
The prophecies of Daniel as well as all of the Holy Writ are dualistic. Daniel’s prophecy of seventy weeks would qualify as a dualistic prophecy; a double witness of historical facts and spiritual truths.
Chapter 9 opens with Daniel studying the Scriptures. 9: 2-3: I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. I set my face to the Lord God, to see by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.”
Many Bible scholars are agreed that the first sixty-nine week of Daniel’s prophecy take us up to the time of Jesus’ public ministry and crucifixion. Dispensationalists contend that the entire seventieth week is yet to be fulfilled.
It was Jeremiah’s prophecy about which Daniel was seeking the Lord when Gabriel delivered the prophetic message (2 Chron. 36: 21-23; Jer. 25:12). Gabriel throughout scripture is the arch angel used to send messages of great importance. We would all be honored to receive such a message. However, this interpretation given by Gabriel is even today a mystery.
There is no indication of a gap in this 70 year period of Israel’s exile! At this time, there was no national Israel. The termination period for these 70 years is near and has provoked the prophet to prayer. Daniel based his supplication for restoration to the land on the certainty of the re-establishment promised by God when the seventy years was complete. Let us keep the focus that Daniel was praying about the future of a national Israel. Gabriel's appeared to give "skill and understanding" (9:24-27) revealing God's destiny and purpose "to restore Jerusalem" from the time Ezra (457 B.C. (Ezra 7) arrived in Jerusalem on August 1, 457 B.C. The decree went into effect in Jerusalem in the fall of 457 B.C.
Jer. 29: 10-11: “For thus says the Lord, that after seventy years is accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform My good Word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an unexpected end.”
Here Seventy years meant 70 years…uninterrupted. Seventy weeks of years (Vs. 24) means 70 weeks of years…with no parenthesis. The continual 70-year period of captivity (606-536 B.C.) as declared by Jeremiah is the pattern for the seventy weeks of Daniel’s prophecy (457 B.C.-A.D.34)!
These verses are perhaps the greatest prophecy in the Old Testament and have produced a multitude of interpretations with many questions yet unanswered. Besides the dispensational view and the Messianic Christological view of this writing, we should mention:
- The historical view believes this to be fulfilled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes as described as a Little Horn in chapter 8. This view ignores New Testament realities and the witness of Jesus Himself to these verses in Matthew 24:15.
- The Jewish view is attributed to Josephus’ application of these verses to the fall of Jerusalem. This has become standard Jewish teaching. Concerning Daniel’s prophecies and Titus’ invasion, the historian said, “In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them”.
There is a great difference between real bible prophecy and humanistic eschatology. The vast majority of Old Testament predictions point to the coming and consequent death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Messiah. Some prophecies in the New Testament point to the fall of Jerusalem by the Roman army in A.D.70 and beyond.
The historical view believes that most bible prophecies had been fulfilled by the time Jerusalem fell, or at least by the time the Roman Empire was “Christianized by Constantine in 313 A.D. Accordingly they view the “last days” different from the “end times”. The last days spoken of in the New Testament were the last days for Old Covenant national Israel and the early inaugural days of the New Testament church. This includes the “last days” of animal sacrifices in the temple (Heb. 9:22-10:6). Scofield’s notes on Ezekiel 43:19 snub the New Testament Epistles and call for the reinstitution of animal sacrifices in a millennial temple! I view Ezekiel's temple (which has never been built) as a metaphor of the glory of the Gospel Church.
Hebrews 9:26, NIV: “Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
This lady Pastor will not worship sacrificing bulls and goats at a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem with the reinstitution of animal sacrifices in a millennial temple.
Hebrews 9: 11-13: “but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood. He entered into the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh. How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleans your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Hebrews 10:4: “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Hebrews 10:12: “He having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right Hand of God.”
- The futurist’s interpretation is that the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy has been disconnected from the sixty-ninth week, and is thus still future. Dispensationalist’s two princes in Daniel’s famous prophecy are Christ and antichrist. Darby taught that the first, the “Messiah the Prince” (Dan. 9:25), is Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace. He believed that the second is “the prince who shall come” (Dan. 9:26)
How should Christians treat Daniel’s prophecy? First we must understand that the seventy weeks were determined “upon” or concerning the “people” of Daniel and his “holy city.” Obviously the “holy city” is Jerusalem and Daniel’s “people” are the Jews from which Messiah would come. Gabriel’s prophecy in Daniel 9:24 has to do with Jerusalem and the Jews from whom Messiah the Prince came.
Daniel is our brother in Christ as Abraham’s seed. The New Testament “city” is the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem. The Lord gave me a vision of New Jerusalem. In the vision, He said, "Carolyn teach New Jerusalem as purity."
Heb. 11:10: “For he (Abraham) was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God.”
Heb. 12: 22-24: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”
Mt. 5:14: “You are the light of the world; a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
The key to unlocking this powerful Christological passage is to recognize the six-fold prophetic purpose in Daniel 9:24 in its complete scope and fulfillment.
Within the uninterrupted time frame of seventy weeks of years (490 years), historical events would take place among the Jews (“thy people”) in Jerusalem (“thy holy city”).
9:24: “Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end 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.”
Six-fold Prophetic Message given to Daniel by Gabriel in 9:24:
- Finish the transgression.
- Make an end of sins.
- Make reconciliation for iniquity.
- Bring in everlasting righteousness.
- Seal up the vision and prophecy (“prophet”).
- Anoint the most holy (“holy of holies”).
Jer. 31: 31`-34: “Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, says the Lord.”
Daniel had been studying the prophetic manuscripts of Jeremiah. The six-fold scope of Daniel’s prophecy is summed up in Jeremiah’s prediction of the “new” covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is quoted in Hebrews 8: 8-13 following the truths of Hebrew 8: 1-6 that declare Jesus’ more excellent” high priestly ministry after His resurrection.
Hebrews 8:6: “Now He has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises.”
Hebrews 8:13: “”When he (Jeremiah) said, “a new covenant,: he has made the first obsolete. Whatever has become obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”
The New Covenant is the New Testament, a matter of the heart and not the letter (Rom 2: 28-29).
Hebrews 9:15: “For this reason He is the mediator of a New Covenant in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
Gabriel’s message to Daniel of seventy weeks enlarges Jeremiah’s predictions. It is wholly Christological and Messianic!
Six-fold Prophetic Message given to Daniel by Gabriel in 9:24:
- Finished the transgression (Is. 43:25; 53:5)
Hebrews 9:15: “For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the new covenant those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
Jn. 19:30 KJV “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, it is finished; and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.”
- Made an end of sins (Mt. 1:21).
Jn. 1:29, KJV: “The next day John sees Jesus coming unto Him and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.
Hebrews 8:12: “”For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.” (quoted by the writer of Hebrews from Jeremiah 31:34).
Heb. 9:26: NIV – “Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
- Made reconciliation for iniquity (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:16)
2 Cor. 5:19: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the Word of reconciliation.”
Col. 1: 19-20, KJV: “For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself…”
Heb. 2:17, KJV: “Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
The first three promises of Daniel’s seventy weeks were historically fulfilled at Calvary’s cross! Compare Isaiah 53:12; Mark 15:28; John 4:34; 5:36; 17:4.
- Jesus Christ brought in everlasting righteousness because He is everlasting righteousness (Rom. 10:3, 10; Phil. 3:9).
2 Cor. 5:21: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
1 Cor. 1:30, KJV: “But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
Heb. 7: 1-2, KJV: “For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham; returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness…
- Jesus Christ sealed up the vision and the prophecy to fulfill the law and the prophets, because He is the vision and the prophecy or Prophet (Isa. 29: 10-11; Mt. 5:17-20; 11:13; Jn. 5:39; 6:27; 19: 28-38; Acts 3:18; 16:17-19).
Hab. 2:3: KJV “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
Heb. 10:37, KJV: “…He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”
Mt. 5:17, KJV: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill”
Acts 3:22, KJV: “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me…”
Rev. 19:10, KJV: “…for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
- Jesus Christ is the anointing and the most holy---the “Holy Thing” and the “Holy One”.
Luke 1:35: “And the angel (Gabriel) answered and said to her, The Holy spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.”
Acts 3:24: “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One…”
1 John 2:20: “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”
He ripped the veil from top to bottom, opening the way into the “holy of holies” (see Ps. 45:7; is. 61:1; Lk. 4: 16-21; Acts 2:27; 4:27; 10:38).
Jesus fulfilled the
sacrifices, the feast days, the temple, and the priesthood of the Old Covenant
which “served as a copy and shadow of
heavenly things”…”It was necessary
for the copies of the things in the heavenlies to be cleansed, but these
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Christ did not enter a holy place made with
hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us. (Heb. 9:23)
Rom. 1:4; KJV “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness…”
Heb. 10: 19-20 KJV: “Having therefore brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh…”
Daniel 9: 24-27 is all about Jesus. None of Daniel 9:24 was accomplished in the first 69 weeks of Gabriel's prophecy. All events in verse 24 occurred during the seven years after the sixty-ninth week---with no chronological break. Once the Messiah came, He was given one prophetic week of seven years to see it through. According to Christology, “when Prince Jesus stepped down into the muddy baptismal waters of the Jordan, Gabriel’s message of the seventh week began when “the Messiah the Prince” came up out of those same waters, anointed to dismantle the works of the devil.”
Most teachers take either the historical or prophetic position when interpreting this passage. The full scope of truth includes both, with the latter revealing Jesus and His Church.
A review of Chapter 9: 1-9 is in order before proceeding with (9:24-27):
Daniel had discovered Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer. 25: 8-11); 29:10) that Judah would be in captivity for 70 years (606-536 B.C.). The focus of his consequent fastings and prayers was the sinful condition of his people and the desolation of the national sanctuary. While the prophet was confessing the sin of Israel and “the holy mountain of God” (Zion), the angel Gabriel appeared “at the time of the evening oblation” to give skill and understanding” concerning the vision (Dan. 9:20-23).
The time of the evening oblation was three o’clock in the afternoon---“the ninth hour”---the very hour of Jesus’ crucifixion (Mt. 27: 45-46; Jn. 19:30)! The Lamb of God didn’t just die for the sins of the Jewish nation---He died for the sins of the world, for all men, Jew and Greek.
The first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is a seed form of His second coming. These four important verses are historical and Messianic for the time of Jesus’ first coming. They have prophetic overtones, for the time of Jesus’ second coming.
Dan. 9:24: NIV – “Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city…”
Dan. 9:24, AMP—“Seventy weeks (of years, or 490 years) are decreed upon your people (Jews) and upon your holy city (Jerusalem)…
“Seventy weeks (Seven – Strong’s H7620)”… 70 continual, consecutive weeks! “Seventy weeks” is 70 times 7 or 490 weeks, a total of 490 years. (Here weeks should be translated as sevens (Strong’s H7620.). The word for “determined” here means “cut out or cut off”; “Seventy weeks (7) are determined”.
Jesus knew the Father’s plan, because 490 is the Bible number denoting complete forgiveness (Mt. 18: 21-22). (Jesus told Peter we must forgive one another’s sins 70 x 7).
The prophetic overtone of Daniel 9:24 reveals the Church in His image, forgiven and delivered from sin by His finished work, accomplished in the Feast of Passover. There is a present, ongoing work of His cleansing the Church in the Feast Day of Atonement. Everlasting righteousness speaks of an everlasting Kingdom (Is. 9: 6-7; Rom. 14:17) and an unchangeable priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. (Heb. 5-7). The Head of the Church was sealed and anointed (Jn. 6:27; Acts 10:38; Heb. 2:9). There will be a many membered prophetic church (an Elijah ministry) who will be sealed with the name or nature of God in the forehead, a Most Holy Place, Third Day people (see Ex. 28; Hos. 6:1-3; Rev.7:3; 14: 1-5; 22:4). The New Testament Epistles declare the ultimate fulfillment of Daniel 9:24.
1 Cor. 15:28, KJV: “And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
Eph. 1: 9-10, NIV: “And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment---to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”
Because of the historical integrity of Daniel’s precision of days and years, I will proceed as the Holy Spirit permits with Daniel 9:25-27 walking circumspect with the Word of God. I did approach Daniel 9:25 in the teaching at the Sunday evening service, but will hope to bring as much clarity as possible as we continue this study.
Our church has simultaneously been studying the Book of Daniel on Sunday evenings and Hebrews on Tuesday morning. This had to be by divine providence because the two Books of the Bible converge together.
Daniel 9:25: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
Daniel 9:25, NIV: …”until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven “sevens” and sixty-two “sevens”…
Daniel 9:25 TLB: “Now listen! It will be forty-nine years plus 434 years from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One comes!...”
The varying views of the interpretation of this verse are established on the Scriptural principle that a day can represent a year (Gen. 19:27; Lev. 25:8; Num. 14:34; Ez. 4:6)…I have appointed you each day for a year.”
Let us consider framing and enlarging our view: To be continued
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture verses as noted in text. Paraphrased Text from Whose Right it is by: Kelley Varner, Published by: Destiny Image, P. O. Box 310 Shippensburg, Pa. 17257-0310 Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those from whom I have gleaned.