DANIEL - CHAPTER 9: 25-27 - CONT'D.
DANIEL- Chapter 9: 25-27
Sunday Evening, January 9, 2012
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Gabriel’s Prophecy of Seventy Weeks continued from Daniel 9:24
(Brief overview of Daniel (9:24):
The same archangel that announced the Messiah’s birth to Mary (Luke 1: 26-31) prophesied His death to Daniel… Gabriel’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: Kelly Varner published by: Destiny Image, P. O. Box 310, Shippensburg, Pa. 17257-0310)
We might conclude that the most critical week (seven years) in human history is the 70th week of Daniel 9:24. The 3-1/2 year ministry, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and the consequent outpouring of His Holy Spirit are the basis for every New Covenant reality.
9:24:
- Finish the transgression (Heb. 9:15;
- Make an end of sins (Mt. 2:21).
- Make reconciliation for iniquity. (Rom 5:”10; Eph. 2:16)
- Bring in everlasting righteousness (Rom. 10:3; Phil 3:9).
- Seal up the vision and prophecy (“prophet”) (Mt. 4:17-20; Jn. 5:39; Hab. 2:3; Mt. 5:17; Acts 3:22; Rev. 19:10).
- Anoint the most holy (“holy of holies”). (Luke 1:35; Acts 3:24; 1 John 2:20).
The historical and Messianic fulfillment of Daniel 9:24 was accomplished by Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross. He fulfilled all six prophetic points. (See Bible Study Notes on Daniel 9:24, www.eastgateministries.com)
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 cleaning 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)
John 6:27: “Labor not for the meat which perishes, but that meat which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give to you; for Him has God the Father sealed.”
To “seal up” or “close up” the vision and prophet is to authenticate or confirm them, to make them sure (Dan. 12: 4, 9). Jesus fulfilled and confirmed the law and the prophets (Mt. 5:17; Rom. 15:8).
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 (Ex. 28; Hos. 6: 1-3; Rev. 7:3; 13: 1-5; 22:4). The New Testament Epistles declare the ultimate fulfillment of Daniel 9:24.
Daniel 9:25: KJV “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.”
NIV: “…until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven “sevens,” and sixty-two sevens”…
TLB: “Now listen! It will be forty-nine years plus 434 years from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem unto the Anointed One comes!...”
This is 483 years or 69 weeks.
This is very specific as have been all of Daniel’s prophecies. There is one event that can be taken as answering the commandment to “restore and build Jerusalem,” as the beginning point of Daniel’s prophecy.
A mandate was granted to Ezra by the Persian emperor Artaxerses to go up to Jerusalem with as many people as were like minded in the year 457 B.C. This commission granted him unlimited revenue to beautify the house of God, empowered him to ordain laws, set magistrates and judges, and execute government---in other words to “restore” the Jewish state, civil and ecclesiastical, according to the law of God and the ancient customs of the Jewish people. This edict was a reaffirmation of the first two decrees of Cyrus and Darius. (Ezra 7:8)
The decree went into effect in Jerusalem in the fall of 457 B.C. Thirteen years after this (444 B.C.), in the 20th year of the same king (Neh. 1:1), Nehemiah sought and obtained permission to go up to Jerusalem. Oral permission (not written) was given and pertained to him individually. When he arrived in Jerusalem, Nehemiah found rulers, priests, nobles and people, already engaged in the work of rebuilding Jerusalem (Neh. 2:16), acting under the decree given to Ezra 13 years before. Although there were “troublous times” (Neh. 2: 8-17; 4:17), as prophesied in Daniel 9:25, the wall was rebuilt. In 52 days, Nehemiah finished the work he came to accomplish (Neh. 6:15).
The starting point for Daniel’s prophecy of seventy weeks was Artaxerses’ decree to Ezra in 457 B.C.!” Some chronologists attribute the decree to Cyrus, but it is still the same date. 434 years later (threescore and two weeks) after the wall was finished takes us to A.D.27 (one year must be added, when going from B.C. to A.D.), when Jesus Christ the Messiah was 30 years of age.
Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, received His anointing at His baptism in the Jordan.
Mt. 3: 15-17: “Jesus replied, Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”
Mk. 1: 14-15 KJV “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand…”
Jesus was born three to four years before the beginning of the Christian era, the year called A.D.1. Jesus was 30 years of age in A.D. 27, the “child” had been born in Bethlehem; the “Son” was given 30 years later at the Jordan.
Again we have Daniel’s prophetic preciseness of 483 years from 457 B.C. to A.D. 27. Jesus Christ is the “Messiah the Prince.” Jesus, who received this anointing of the Spirit in His public baptism (A.D.27), informed the woman at the well of His identity. Furthermore, Jesus confirmed this revelation with His own mouth at the synagogue in Nazareth. (Lk 4:21) “And He began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
The “street” mentioned in Daniel 9:25 refers to the “width, avenue, plaza, town square” or market-place of Jerusalem. The “wall” or “ditch, moat” (the trench cut into the rock outside the city walls, points to the “troublous times” of Nehemiah.)
Daniel’s sixty-ninth week ended in A.D.27. The 70th week began at the time of Jesus’ public ministry.
(The prophetic overtone of this verse reveals the restoration of the church from Martin Luther to the present. This is yet another teaching.)
Daniel 9:26: KJV “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; 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.”
NIV: “After the sixty-two “sevens” the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood; War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”
LAM: “…Messiah shall be slain…”
SEPT: “The Messiah shall be cut off, though there is no crime in Him.”
“Messiah” is the Hebrew equivalent for the Greek “Christ” or Christos, which means “the anointed one.” Jesus Christ was cut off at the cross. Is. 53:8 KJV “…He was cut off out of the land of the living…”
Some Greek translations render the phrase “but not for himself” as “without trial” or “unjustly”. Jesus was born in another man’s stable, cradled in another man’s manger with no place to lay His head throughout His life here on earth, and buried in another man’s tomb after dying on a cursed cross. The Christ of God and Friend of the friendless was indeed cut off and had nothing. The Messiah would be rejected and crucified (Isa. 53:1-4; Jn. 1:11; 2 cor. 8:9), “not for Himself” of His own sin, but the sin of the world.
The next part of Daniel 9:26 is most critical. Its literal rendering is, “…and the city, and the sanctuary, the people of a prince that comes, shall lay waste…”
Darby, Scofield’s and Larkin followers say this prince is the future anti-christ. They emphasize that a natural temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, referencing II Thess. 2:3-4. but to teach that animal sacrifices will be reinstituted (even in a “memorial” sense), as taught in Scofield’s notes ignores the Epistle to the Hebrews, the revelation of the final “once and for all” blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s better blood (Heb. 9-10).
The end of the city and the sanctuary is compared to an overflowing “flood” or “deluge”, a gushing out, pouring of rain, carrying away everything before it (like a mighty, galloping, conquering army, sweeping everything away).
The Hebrew margin renders the last part of Daniel 9:26 as “it shall be cut off by desolation.” These words and phrases point to the complete destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Mt. 24:2).
This verse accurately predicts the ravaging of Jerusalem by the Roman “troops” and their “prince” Titus in A.D. 70. (the referencing Titus and his army is parenthetical to the whole prophecy. It does not fit into the things that were to be done in the seventieth week. Historically, those events occurred 35 years later A.D. 69-70).
Another slant of the historical view “and the prince (Messiah’s) future people shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” Accordingly, the “people” of Prince Messiah would be the Jews. Josephus, the Jewish historian, blamed the complete destruction of Jerusalem upon the Zealots who resisted and continued fighting after their defenses had fallen, thinking that God would never allow the city to be conquered.
Titus and his men “destroyed the city and the sanctuary” of the Jews. Josephus was an eye-witness to the unparalleled tribulation that brought the fall and destruction of Jerusalem, and the “end” of Judaism like a flood. His detailed and scholarly account, Wars of the Jews, was published about A.D.75. His history provides a marvelous confirmation of the prophecy Jesus gave even in fine detail. The “desolation” that Jesus decreed came to pass (Lk. 13:35).
Mt. 24:34 NIV: “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”
Jesus said “this generation” (His own).
The marble stones of the temple, some of them 50 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 16 feet thick, cut to fit perfectly without the need of mortar, would all be thrown down and completely demolished within 40 years!
Daniel pinpointed the “time” and the “hour” when Jesus would come, suffer, and die for the sins of the world (see Mt. 26: 18, 45; Jn. 2:4; 7:6, 30; 17:1), causing the sin offering to cease.
Daniel 9:27: KJV “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 over-spreading of abominations He shall make it desolate even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
NIV: “He will confirm a covenant with many for one “Seven.” In the middle of the “seven” He will put an end to sacrifice and offering…”
In the beginning of verse 27, “He” is Messiah the prince! Jesus is the one who “confirmed” the covenantal promises of Jeremiah’s “New Covenant”.
The grammatical sense of the context is as follows:
“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but for Himself…And He (the Messiah) shall confirm the (New) covenant with many (elect Jews) for one week; and in the midst of the (seventieth) week He (the Messiah) shall cause the sacrifice and the sin offering to cease (at Calvary’s cross)…”
Jesus Christ “confirmed” the Abrahamic covenant and secured the promises made to the fathers (Acts 3:13).
Dispensationalists contend that a future antichrist will “make” a covenant with the Jews. It is then taught that he will “break” that covenant. The bible teaches that Jesus Christ “confirmed” the covenant with many. The words “make “ or “break” are not found in Daniel 9:27. The everlasting covenant in Jesus’ blood was confirmed with the Jews for seven years before God turned to all nations.
Mt. 26:28 KJV: “for this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many…”
Throughout this prophecy, Gabriel was explaining to Daniel the “covenant” that Jeremiah had predicted (Jer. 31: 31-34). This was the ‘New” Covenant with God’s laws written in men’s hearts. The Messiah would confirm this New Testament in His own blood with “many” of the lost sheep of the house of Israel for one week, or seven years.
In the first three and one-half years of the seventieth week (Jesus’ public ministry), our Lord gathered together His Jewish generals (the apostles and a Jewish remnant). In the “midst,” or “half, middle,” of Daniel’s seventieth week Jesus rent the veil from top to bottom. He pronounced “desolation” upon the old order of Judaism. In person Jesus came to the Jews (“thy people”) and Jerusalem (“thy holy city”). Through His disciples and by His outpoured Spirit from the throne (Mk. 16:20; Gal. 4:6)---for the remaining three and a half years---He confirmed the New Covenant with many elect Christian Jews for the rest of the seventieth week (A.D. 31-34).
The last three-and-a-half years of Daniel’s seventieth week was Messiah’s exclusive ministry to “the Jew first” (Acts 1-7; Rom 1:16). The beginning of the Book of Acts marks the first moments of the last half of the seventieth week, all that Jesus “began to do and teach” (Acts. 1:1) from His throne of grace (by the Spirit). The 120 on the Day of Pentecost were all Hebrews as were the 3,000 that were added to the Church (Acts 2).
Acts 7:59 KJV: “And they stoned Stephen…”
The next grand historical terminating point of the continuous period of Gabriel’s seventy weeks was in A.D. 34. This date is marked by the martyrdom of Stephen, the formal rejection of the gospel of Christ by the High Priest and the Jewish Sanhedrin! What soon followed was the consequent persecution of Jesus’ disciples, and the turning of the apostles to all nations. The apostle Paul summed it up:
Acts 13:46 KJV: “…It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”
After the fulfillment of Daniel’s seventieth week, Philip, Peter, and John preached and ministered at Samaria. Saul of Tarsus was converted. The Holy Ghost was poured out upon the household of Cornelius. The center of Christianity moved from Jerusalem (Daniel’s “city”) to Antioch, Paul’s launching pad (Acts 11-15)! These events could only have taken place when that uninterrupted specified period (490 years), cut off for the Jews and allotted to them as a peculiar people had expired.
Mt. 24:14 KJV “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
The “last days” of Judaism came in A.D. 70! There is a difference between the “last days” of the Old Covenant and the current end times. The last days of Judaism was the time of the end of animal sacrifices.
According to Christology, Daniel’s prophecy of 70 weeks has been historically fulfilled. Yet (as with Mathew 24), it still has prophetic and spiritual implications. Like an onion, truth comes in layers. The Holy Writ has many layers of meaning.
- A pertinent historical word to those to whom it was spoken.
- What it means to us today.
- A prophetic word to those upon whom the end of the ages have come. (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10: 1-11)
The prophetic overtone of verse 27 reveals an overcoming, glorious Church with the nature and ministry of Jesus raised up in the image of their glorious Head, the Pattern Son. Thus, these “many” of Daniel 9:27 are also found in Daniel 12:3, 10; Romans 8:29; and Hebrews 2:10.
It was Rome that desolated Jerusalem. From a broad view that covers the span of the last 2000 years. The “desolator” of Daniel 9:27 can also point to the spirit of antichrist in the man of sin who sits in the temple. This is the seat of satan, the god of this age and the energizer of all the sectarian religions.
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. and N.I.V. unless otherwise noted. T.L.B is the Living Bible. Study is taken from “Whose Right it is, a Handbook of Covenantal Theology by: Kelly Varner, published by: Destiny Image.
Because of time restraints within teaching parameters, I have not covered this teaching in its depth. I recommend the book to you. Or if you have any questions, I can dig deeper into the teaching. Carolyn Sissom
Subject: FROM JOHN & KELLY / Re: DANIEL 9: 25-27
Hi Pastor Carolyn,
This is, by far, the best teaching, word and explanation I have ever heard on
this subject! Thank you! Isn't it interesting that in Acts 13,
where it is recorded of Paul turning to the Gentiles, that the number
"490" appears twice (basically)? 40 years in the wilderness +
450 years of Judges until Samuel the Prophet = 490. Then, the 450 years
until Samuel + 40 years of Saul's reign as king =
until the reign of King David, or another 490 years. Wow! Love and
blessings, Pastor Carolyn...
~J&K:-)
Acts 13: 16-23 (KJV)
16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.
18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.
19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.
20 And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
23 Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: