Daniel 9:20-27

c. REVELATION

TEXT: Daniel 9:20-27

20

And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God;

21

yea, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

22

And he instructed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee wisdom and understanding.

23

At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.

24

Seventy weeks are decreed upon they people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

25

Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times.

26

And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off, 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 even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined.

27

And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.

QUERIES

a.

What are all the things God intends to complete by the end of seventy weeks?

b.

Who is the prince to be anointed after 69 weeks?

c.

Who is the prince whose people come to destroy the city?

PARAPHRASE

Even while I was praying and confessing my sin and the sins of my people, and desperately pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, His Holy Mountain, His angel Gabriel appeared to me as a man (this is the messenger of God I had seen in the earlier vision) and flew swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice, and said to me, Daniel, I am here to reveal to you the plans of God for His people and to help you to understand what is to come to pass concerning them. The very moment you began praying, a decree was issued by God concerning all you have prayed and longed for. I am here to tell you what it isGod has greatly honored you for your trust and faith in Him and He desires that you know these things.
The Lord has commanded that, counting from the time of an edict to go forth and rebuild Jerusalem, seventy sevens shall transpire before all the glorious spiritual blessings of the Messianic age are fulfilled. There will be fulfilled at the end of this time such transgressions as will climax all transgressions, killing the Messiah; the power given to overcome sin; the work done of reconciling estranged sinners back to God; the imputation by grace of righteousness to sinful men; the accreditation of God's predictions through His prophets by the fulfillment of their prophecies; and the anointing of a Most Holy Messiah. I want you to know that counting from the year in which the principal increment of your people return from their captivities to rebuild and restore Jerusalem, there shall be seven sevens and forty-two sevens (a total of sixty-nine sevens) before the Messiah is anointed. During this period Jerusalem will have to suffer many perilous times while she is rebuilding. Sometime after the sixty-nine sevens the anointed Messiah will be slain and buried as a pauper. As a consequence of the Holy City slaying its anointed One, the people of a foreign emperor will come and destroy the Holy City and the Holy Sanctuarythis also after the sixty-nine sevens. A flood of destruction shall come upon the Holy City which has slain its Messiah, and war and desolation shall continue to flood upon this city until its end. The anointed One shall cause a strong and everlasting covenant to be established with many for one seven. And actually it shall be in the middle of that seventieth seven that the Anointed One shall bring to an end the sacrifices and oblations of Old Covenant by His own efficacious death. And the foreign ruler whose people come to destroy the city, will utterly destroy the Holy Sanctuary of those who killed the Anointed One, because that Sanctuary has become an abomination in the eyes of God. And the wrath of God shall pour forth upon this City and Sanctuary, and their devastation shall continue until God determines it shall end.

COMMENT

Daniel 9:20-23. WHILE I WAS SPEAKING IN PRAYER. THE MAN GABRIEL. INSTRUCTED ME. While he is in the very midst of his prayer, Daniel is approached by the angel Gabriel, come in human form, to deliver God's answer to his prayer. The interesting thing about the answer is that it came before Daniel was through praying. Furthermore, the angel reported that God's decree to accomplish what Daniel was praying for went forth at the very moment Daniel opened his mouth and began to pray! God knows what we have need of before we ask it. But God also knows that our greatest need is to ask for it! As long as a man is self-confident and self-dependent, he is in no position morally, intellectually or spiritually to receive. He only demands and spends whatever may come his way in goodness to confirm himself in his egotism. Repetitious prayers, like the heathens-', are vain and useless, simply because they are used by men to support their own vanity, and are used to seek the blessings of God by meritious repetition of prayers and self-righteousness. Therefore, be assured that the things you pray for are no problem with God. He can give you exceeding abundantly above all you can possibly ask or think (cf. Ephesians 3:20), if the power of utter, total, unreserved faith in Him abides in you. The problem is not what you needthe need is you resting on the Everlasting Arms.

Daniel 9:24 SEVENTY WEEKS ARE DECREED UPON THY PEOPLE. It would be difficult to exaggerate the significance of this passage (Daniel 9:24-27) in the teachings of Dispensationalists and Pre-millenialists! It is often appealed to as definite proof that the entire Church age is a parenthesis in the prophetic program. The Church age is supposed to occur between the events listed in Daniel 9:26 and the events listed in Daniel 9:27. The twenty-seventh verse of this chapter concerns the seventieth week which is supposed to be, according to Dispensationalists, the Millennium (or the 1000 years of Revelation 20).

We have found three excellent discussions of this so-called difficult passage (Prophecy And The Church, by Oswald T, Allis; The King Of Kings, by E. V. Zollars, a Restoration Reprint from College Press; and The Prophecy of Daniel, by Edward J. Young) from which we shall borrow in our comments on this section.

The word translated weeks is literally, sevens. It should be paraphrased, Sevensand in fact seventy of them are decreed. etc. The correct interpretation, however, in light of other key passages (Ezekiel 4:6, etc.) used to form the year-day theory is probably, Seventy weeks-of-years (i.e. 7 years × 70) are decreed, etc..

Thus these 490 years express in the form of Divine revelation that a definite period of time has been decreed for the accomplishment of all that which is necessary for the restoration of the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, which is a messianic term in itself. Within this definite period of time will be finished all the plan of God's redemption of man which he made known through the prophets to the fathers through divers portions and divers manners, (cf. Hebrews 1:1 ff).

a. Transgression would be finished: That is, the cup of iniquity of the Jewish people would be filled to the brim. They would reject the Messiah. The full height and depth of their iniquity was yet to be shown but would be shown within the 490 years. In putting the Messiah to death they reached the culmination of all their wickedness. No greater sin was possible. (Matthew 23:32; 1 Thessalonians 2:16).

b. In the death of the Messiah God will triumph over man's rebellion and give the power, judicial and experiential, to conquer sin. He will, by a sovereign decree of grace, punish all sin in His Son (2 Corinthians 5:17 ff.), and offer to man a way (faith) to overcome his rebellion. All sin, even that done aforetime, was done away with in the death of Christ (cf. Romans 3:21-26; Hebrews 9:15-28).

c. To reconcile man to God's will and way, God took the initiative and presented His Son as an atonement. Man hardened his heart toward God's goodness and estranged himself from God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. and man's heart is broken and he is drawn to God by the love of the Son. (Colossians 1:20-21).

d. The work of the Messiah would also bring in everlasting righteousness. There are two aspects of this righteousness; imputed righteousness, that is, the righteousness which God declares we have which we do not merit; and practiced righteousness, which we are promoted to do by faith and love in God as He reveals to us in His Book the way of righteous living. (Romans 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:18).

e. With the accomplishment of the work of the Messiah in fulfilling God's prophesied plan of redemption, prophecy was confirmed, fulfilled, validated and thus sealed uppaid in full! (Acts 3:24; 1 Peter 1:10-11).

f. The anointing of the Messiah is to be accomplished during this period of time. The phrase occurs without the definite article and therefore means the anointing of a most holy thingnot place. Literally it should read, the anointing of holiness of holinesses. (Acts 1:38).
Allis, in Prophecy And The Church, indicates that there are points of agreement and points of difference between those who interpret the prophecy of the 70 weeks traditionally and those who interpret it dispensationally. Points of agreement are: (1) the 70 weeks represent weeks-of-years, a total of 490 years; (2) Only one period of weeks is described, as is proved by the fact that the subdivisions (7 + 62 + 1) when added together give a total of 70; (3) the anointed one, the prince (Daniel 9:25) and the anointed one (Daniel 9:26) are the same person, the Messiah; (4) The first 69 weeks or 483 years had their terminus in the period of the first advent; their fulfillment is long past. Now the points of difference revolve around two significant questions: (1) Have the great events described in Daniel 9:24 been fulfilled, or is their accomplishment still future?; (2) Is the 70th week past, or is it still to come?

Now the dispensationalists insist that all the events of Daniel 9:24 are still in the future. They say, for example, to make an end of sins means to eliminate moral evil completely from this world. The reason the dispensationalists must insist that Daniel 9:24 refers to the future is quite clear. If the fulfillment of the prophecy is still incomplete, and if the predictions relating to the 69 weeks had their fulfillment centuries ago, then the 70th week must be still future. Therefore, there must be an interval between the end of the 69th week and the beginning of the 70th week; and the entire Church age can be regarded as forming a parenthesis at this point.

So we must deal with the first difference now. Have the great events described in Daniel 9:24 been fulfilled, or is their accomplishment in the future? In the light of plain N.T. teaching we cannot abide the idea that these events are in the future! We must resist such an idea with vigor. The N.T., especially the treatise to the Hebrews, represents all these transactions (Daniel 9:24) as having been fulfilled at the first adventin the great climactic event of the plan of God's redemption at Calvary. Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice, the one and only sacrifice, made for all time which is able to perfect for all time those who are being sanctified by it (Hebrews 10:12-14). One should read the entire book of Hebrews, along with the book of Galatians, to understand that a return to Jewish law and Jewish sacrifices would be apostasy! Hebrews 9:28. so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Notice that at Christ's second advent He is not going to deal with sin for sin has already been dealt with! Certainly the N.T. teaches that Christ is the end, the fulfillment, the anti-type the confirmation of all prophecy! If Corinthians Daniel 1:20, For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. How more specific could it be stated that Christ is the goal of all the promises of God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:11). For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The traditional and in our opinion, the scriptural view is that all these events (Daniel 9:24) were fulfilled and completed in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ and the establishment of the church.

Daniel 9:25 KNOW THEREFORE. THAT FROM THE GOING FORTH OF THE COMMANDMENT. UNTO THE ANOINTED ONE. SHALL BE SEVEN WEEKS, AND THREESCORE AND TWO. We must clearly understand that the fact (based squarely upon N.T. teaching) that all the six items presented in Daniel 9:24 are Messianic settles the terminating point of the prophecy and the 70 weeks as well! The termination of the 70 sevens coincides then, not with the times of Antiochus, nor with the end of the present age, the second advent of Christ, but with His first advent! When Christ ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit descended, there remained not one of the six items of Daniel 9:24 that was not fully accomplished.

Now, Daniel 9:25, we are told exactly how many years shall intervene between the return of the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of the anointed One, the Messiah. That expiration of time shall total 69 weeks-of-years (69 × 7 = 483 years). This prophecy was fulfilled in a marvelously accurate way.

There are only four events that can be taken as answering to the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem. (1) The decree of Cyrus, 536 B.C., Ezra 1:2-4. This was the decree for the building of the temple but did not include the authorization in restore the Jewish commonwealth. (2) The decree of Darius, 518 B.C., a decree for the further prosecution of the work permitted by Cyrus which seems to have been hindered. It was a repetition of the first decree, and did not authorize the re-establishment of the Jewish commonwealth. (3) The decree of Artaxerxes, 457 B.C. The seventh year are Artaxerxes was the year 457 B.C. and is confirmed by concurrent agreement of more than twenty eclipses. An exact copy of this decree is found in the seventh chapter of Ezra. It is written in Aramaic, which was spoken in Babylon at the time. The rest of the Book of Ezra is written in Hebrew. There is something very significant in the preservation of the original form of this decree, and when we see how much depends upon it, we may regard it as providential. By this decree permission was granted to Ezra to go up to Jerusalem, taking as many as he desired that were willing to go. It also was granted him unlimited treasure. It empowered him to ordain laws, set magistrates and judges who had authority to execute punishmentsconfiscation, banishment and even the infliction of the death penalty were included. In other words, Ezra was authorized to restore the commonwealth, and means were placed at his disposal to enable him to do so. (4) The fourth decree was given to Nehemiah 444 B.C. The purpose of Nehemiah's going was to assist in accomplishing the work undertaken by Ezra which was being retarded. He accomplished his mission in 52 days after arrived at Jerusalem (Nehemiah 6:15).

Now it is evident that the decree given to Ezra in 457 B.C. is the one authorizing the restoring and rebuilding of Jerusalem. Actually the three decrees (Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes) may really be regarded as one decree, that of Artaxerxes being the principal one in that his decree authorized the restoration of the Jewish commonwealth. It is so regarded by Ezra (cf. Ezra 6:14). Therefore, the decree of Artaxerxes must be regarded as the one referred to by the angel in the words, from the going forth of the commanded, and fixes our date from which to reckon.

Reckoning from 457 B.C., the first 7 sevens (7 × 7, or 49 weeks-of-years) we should arrive at the date of 408 B.C. for the accomplishment of the restoration of the Jewish commonwealth. The date 408 B.C. accords accurately with historic facts. This was the time the work was completed! This restoration was accomplished in troublous times, as the Biblical record bears out (see Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, etc.).

Furthermore, if we reckon from 408 B.C., the next period of time, 62 sevens (62 × 7 weeks-of-years) or 434 years, we come down to the year 26 A.D. as the close of the second period. The close of this second period brings us to the Messiah (the prince) according to the prophecy. This was the 30th year of Christ's life, since there is an error of four years in the calendar, as is well known. At this time (26 A.D.) Jesus began his public ministry (Luke 3:23), when he was about 30 years of age. When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended upon him, and a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son; in whom I am well pleased. Immediately Christ entered upon His work. He was now the Anointed One. Here the second period of the 70 weeks-of-years (the 434 years) ends.

Daniel 9:26-27 AND AFTER THE THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS SHALL THE ANOINTED ONE BE CUT OFF. AND IN THE MIDST OF THE WEEK HE SHALL CAUSE THE SACRIFICE. TO CEASE. The third period of the 70 weeks-of-years consists of but one seven (or seven years). This is the long debated 70th week. The cutting off of the anointed one and his causing sacrifice and oblation to cease are coincidentaltherefore his cutting off is determined to be in the midst of the week (in the midst of the 70th week). This settles once for all that the 70th week is not waiting for Christ's second advent!

Dispensationalists are fond of the illustration of a clock. The ticking clock, they tell us, represents Jewish time. The mystery parenthesis is time out. God only counts time in dealing with Israel, when the people are in the land, according to them. Some add to this the further specification, when they are governed by God. Neither of these requirements is met by the interval which they find here in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Consequently, the clock ceased to tick at the time of the triumphal entry. It will not tick again until that moment, still future, when God resumes His direct dealings with Israel (the Millennium). This will be when the Jews are once more in their own land. It will follow the rapture and be marked by the appearance of the (in some interpretations) resurrected Roman prince. So those of us who live now in the so-called Church age exist, as far as God's time-clock is concerned, in a sort of suspended animation, while God's time stands still.

It seems incredible that if the 69 weeks are exactly 483 consecutive years, exact to the very day, as dispensationalists admit, and if the 1 week is to be exactly 7 consecutive years, that an interval (a parenthesis) which is already more than 1900 years, nearly four times as long as the period covered by the prophecy, is to be introduced into this whole prophecy and be allowed to interrupt its fulfillment. It seems very much more plausible that since the 62 weeks are regarded as following directly on the 7, that the last week is to follow immediately on the 62.
There are two very serious objections to the Jewish time-clock theory. (1) Israel was still in the land for nearly 40 years after the death of Christ. In other words, Israel was still in the land for nearly 40 years (to 70 A.D.) after the clock stopped ticking! (2) And, if the clock could only tick when Israel was governed by God can we say this condition was really fulfilled at any time during the period of the 69 weeks? The times of the Gentiles are regarded by Dispensationalists as beginning with Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem. This entire period, then, was distinctly not a period when Israel was governed by God. If the clock represents Jewish time, with Israel in the land and governed by God, how then could it tick at all during the entire period from 606 B.C. to 30 A.D.? What the Dispensationalists really have is a parenthesis (times of the Gentiles beginning with Nebuchadnezzar) within which they have placed another parenthesis (the so-called Church age). On Dispensational principles the one parenthesis is no more entitled to be called Jewish time than is the other. If the clock could tick during part of the times of the Gentiles, it could tick during the whole of it! If the clock stops ticking at 30 A.D., instead of 70 A.D., it does so quite arbitrarily. For Israel continued to be in their land and under foreign rulers during these 40 years (30-70 A.D.), quite as much as from 457 B.C. to 30 A.D.

What then of the 70th week? To sum up so far, the 70th week follows immediately upon the 69th weekthere is no parenthesis. In the midst of the 70th week the anointed one is cut off. That much we know. His cutting off and His causing sacrifice and oblation to cease are one and the same thing. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, the law of Moses in its entirety was nailed to the cross with Him, for He fulfilled its penalty and its purpose (cf. Colossians 2:13-15; 2 Corinthians 3:7 ff; Ephesians 2:13-16, etc.). The very emphatic argument of the whole book of Hebrews is that Christ, by His death, did abolish the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. (cf. Hebrews 7:11; Hebrews 8:13; Hebrews 9:25-26; Hebrews 10:8-9).

Christ was actually crucified in the middle of the last prophetic week, (in the midst of the 70th seven) or three and one-half years after the beginning of his public ministry, thus fulfilling this part of the prophecy to the letter.
Only the last half of the 70th seven (3½ years) is left now to be accounted for. It is our opinion that the historic fact that for about three and one-half years after the death of Christ the gospel privileges were confined to the Jews by reason of providence, the prophecy that 490 years would be allotted to the Jews is finally fulfilled completely!

Some think the references in Daniel 9:26-27 to the people of the prince that shall come and destroy the city and the sanctuary. and desolations, and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate, etc. forces the termination of the 70th seven to be the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus Vespasian in 700 A.D. While we believe the statements quoted above from Daniel 9:26-27 do predict this Roman desolation of Jerusalem, we do not believe that it is necessary to find the termination of the 70th week in this destruction. This destruction of the city and the sanctuary was a consequence of the Jews cutting off their Messiah, but its accomplishment extends to a time beyond the strict limits of the 70th week. We quote in full from Prophecy and The Church, by Allis, pgs. 114-115 where the difficulty with forcing the destruction of Jerusalem to be the termination of the 70th week is discussed thoroughly:

A difficulty with this interpretation is to be found in the fact that it does not clearly define the terminus of the 70th week. Unless the view is taken that in the midst of the week means in the second half of it, and even at the end of that half, the end is not definitely fixed. It seems very unlikely that if in the midst really meant at the end, it would have been described in this way. On the other hand if in the midst is taken in its natural sense, a half-week, or three and a half years, remains to be accounted for after the crucifixion. Many interpreters regard this as referring to the period of the founding of the Church and the preaching of the gospel exclusively to the Jews, a period ending with or about the time of the martyrdom of Stephen. Others hold that the period of three and a half years was graciously extended to some 35 years, to the date of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a reference to which is found in Daniel 9:26. Both of these explanations may be regarded as possible.

With regard to the claim that the prophecy extends to the date of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 it is to be noted that while the language of Daniel 9:26 may seem to favor this, it does not require it. Daniel 9:26 speaks of events which will come after the threescore and two weeks. Of these events it mentions first the cutting off of Messiah, which Daniel 9:27 describes as taking place in the midst of the week. Then it speaks of the destruction of the city and sanctuary and finally of an end or an end of war, which is a very indefinite expression. Daniel 9:27 declares that a covenant is to be made firm for one week, that in the midst of the week someone will cause sacrifice and oblation to cease. Then it goes on to speak of the coming of a desolator and of a full end. None of the predictions of desolation and vengeance contained in these verses can be regarded as so definitely included in the program outlined in Daniel 9:24 that we can assert with confidence that they must be regarded as fulfilled within the compass of the 70 weeks. They are consequences of the cutting off; they may be regarded as involved in it, but their accomplishment may extend, and if this interpretation is correct, clearly does extend beyond the strict limits of the 70 weeks, since the destruction of Jerusalem was much more than three and a half years after the crucifixion. But, in either case, the great climactic event of the last week was the crucifixion which took place in the midst of that week. So interpreted there can be no interval between the 69th and the 70th weeks.

There is no doubt that Jesus was predicting the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 A.D. when He quoted Daniel's abomination of desolation in Matthew 24:15-28. This desolation was to pour forth upon this city and its devastation would continue until God determined it was ended. For a graphic account of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. read the Antiquities of Josephus. Josephus himself interprets the event as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel.

But what is the firm covenant with many to be made for one week by the anointed one? It means that during the brief period of His earthly ministry and the infancy of the church (while the gospel was just beginning to be preached to the Jews) Jesus fulfilled the terms of the ancient covenant made with the seed of Abraham (cf. Romans 15:8), that He secured its benefits to many, (even the pouring out of the Spirit as prophesied by Joel), for the period up to the stoning of Stephen (or, if you prefer, perhaps in mercy until the time of the destruction of Jerusalemat which time the new covenant which was in fact only the full unfolding of the old covenant and made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, went fully into effect through the destruction of the temple and of Jewish national existence). (Hebrews 8:13; Hebrews 9:15).

Edward J. Young's interpretation of the 70th seven is that the termination of the last week is indefinite. We quote from The Prophecy of Daniel, by Edward J. Young, pp. 220-221.