Untitled Sermon

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” cried the multitude as Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on a donkey. The crowd knew God’s ancient promise of a Messiah was being fulfilled before their eyes: Their king had come. They were singing the words of Psalm 118:25,26. The song addressed Yahweh, the covenant name of God, and the people sang it to the Son of David, identifying Jesus as both the God of the Old Testament and as the Messiah. They saw Jesus’ arrival as heralding “the day the Lord has made,” the establishment of the kingdom (Psalm 118:24; see Mark 11:10). The priest, Pharisees, and scribes should have known Messiah was coming: The book of Daniel records the prophecy of his triumphal entry to the very day. While Israel was captive in Babylon, Daniel “understood from the Scriptures...that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years” (Dan. 9:2; see Jer. 25:11, 12:29:10). Daniel took the prophecy literally and began to pray fervently for the release of the nation, only four years away, confessing his sins and Israel’s. In the middle of his prayers, the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel and said, “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Dan. 9:24-26). The period Gabriel prophesied begins with the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem Sevens sounds peculiar to us today, because we think in terms of decades. But the Jews thought in terms of seven-year periods. For example, every seventh year was a Sabbath for the land (Exod. 23:11) and a year for the remission of debts (Deut. 15:1). Following every seventh Sabbath year (every 49 years) came a Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:8- 12). Similarly, in Daniel’s prophecy, sevens are seven-year periods, as the fulfillment of the prophecy bears out. The period Gabriel prophesied begins with the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. From that time until the Anointed One came there would be seven sevens and 62 sevens. These 69 seven-year periods add up to 483 years. Scripture records a number of decrees concerning the temple in Jerusalem; one each by Cyrus (Ezra 1:1-4); by Darius (Ezra 6:1-12); and by Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:11-26). But none includes the rebuilding of the city. Then, about 95 years after Gabriel spoke to Daniel, Artaxerxes decreed the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Nehemiah asked the king for “timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy” (Neh. 2:8). And the king gave him what he asked for “in the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes” (Neh. 2:1). By our calendar, that was March 5, 444 B.C. Centuries passed. Then Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on March 30, A.D. 33, fulfilling Gabriel’s prophecy.

Adding It All Up Now would be a good time to go for your calculator, because a time line is not like a regular number line. There is no “year zero” between 1 B.C. and A.D. 1. So we need to subtract a year from the difference between -444 (when the decree was given) and + 33 (when Christ entered Jerusalem). The result is only 476 years, not 483. Did the prophecy in Daniel miss the mark by seven years? Not if we take a closer look. The years in biblical prophecy were only 360 days long. So we need to do some computations to compare Daniel’s numbers with our modern calendar. First, if we multiply the 483 years of Gabriel’s prophecy by 360 days each, the result is 173,800 days. Second, in changing our modern calendar’s years into days, we must account for leap years. In his book, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Zondervan, 1976), Harold Hoehner does this by multiplying 476 years by 365.24219879. The result is a rounded 173,855 days. (If computing with 365¼ days seems too neat, see the further down for more detailed methods of counting leap years.) To land within a year of Messiah’s triumphal entry would be amazing, but now we’ve got our prophecy figured within a month. So what about the 25 days left unaccounted for between Gabriel’s 173,880 days and the 173,855 days of Hoehner’s calculation? We’re not through converting to days, yet. The difference between 444 B.C.’s March 5 and A.D. 33’s March 30 is 25 days. Add those to our 173,855 and we have 173,880 days exactly! Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the very day Gabriel had prophesied. Immediately he began exercising his divine and kingly authority. He entered and cleansed the temple of the money changers and “those selling doves” (Matt. 21:12). He touched the blind and the lame who came to see him, and they were healed (v. 14). The kingdom was straining at history’s seams, waiting to break through. It seemed all things were ready to be made right by the Lord of the kingdom. But Gabriel had said, “After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.” (Dan.9:26). Ultimately the nation rejected their king and crucified him. The incredible accuracy of this prophecy in Daniel illuminates Jesus’ lament for Jerusalem: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:42-44). Both Jesus’ and Gabriel’s words were vindicated. The angel had prophesied that “the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” (Dan. 9:26). In A.D. 70, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.

God of His Word Daniel had read Jeremiah’s prophecy about the time the captivity would end. But unlike the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, he believed. The priests, Pharisees, and scribes – those who made a pretense of devotion to God – should have known from the book of Daniel the year, if not the date, that Messiah would come. But they didn’t care. Likewise, they had known the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, but they were indifferent. Daniel’s prophecy demonstrates the awesome trustworthiness of Scripture. As far as the first 69 sevens are concerned, the time is past. No one else fulfilled Gabriel’s words; only Jesus could have been the Christ. Fulfilled prophecy also shows God’s control over history. A major theme in Daniel is God’s sovereignty. Even the most powerful kings and world rulers stand in awe of the King of heaven (Dan. 4:37). The kings made great claims for themselves. In chapter after chapter, Daniel’s chronology is marked according to the temporary reigns of the kings. God’s kingdom, however, is everlasting; “His dominion endures from generation to generation.” (Dan. 4:3). The kings boasted great power, yet Darius made laws that even he had no control over (Dan.6:12-17). God, however, “does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Dan. 4:35). From our vantage point, we are able to understand more fully how the cutting off of the Messiah worked toward fulfilling God’s purposes. Christ entered the city as its king. But he also entered it to die. He substituted his life for ours “to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.” (Dan. 9:24). Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem marked the end of only the 69th seven. The 70th has yet to come. Only after the final week will the Lord bring in “everlasting righteousness.” Palm Sunday is a good time to consider Gabriel’s prophecy in Daniel, the Lord’s fulfillment of it, and its implications for us: If the prophecy of the first 69 sevens came true precisely, we can trust the God who controls history to make all his promises good. Why A.D. 33? Evidence from the Bible and history leads noted chronologist Harold Hoehner and other scholars to believe that Jesus entered Jerusalem on March 30, A.D. 33. Passover is the 14th day of the Hebrew year (Exod. 12:18). Christ died as our Passover sacrifice, and given a Friday crucifixion, Passover fell on Friday only in certain years on the lunar Jewish calendar: A.D. 27, 30, 33, and 36. Further reasons point to A.D. 33. John the Baptist began his ministry “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (Luke 3:1), or A.D. 28-29. Christ began his ministry sometime after this. Because the number of feasts mentioned in the Gospels, particularly Passovers, requires about 3½ years for Christ’s ministry, A.D. 33 is the best date for Christ’s death and resurrection. Also Jewish writer Philo and Josephus characterize Pilate as cruel toward the Jews. Influenced by Sejanus, a militant anti-Semite in virtual control of the government under Tiberius, Pilate committed several acts against the Jews. By contrast, the Gospels record Pilate giving in to the Jewish demands for Jesus’ crucifixion. In A.D. 31, Tiberius executed Sejanus for subversion. Philo records that after Sejanus’ death, Tiberius’ practice was not to disturb the Jews, which would account for Pilate’s seeming change of heart.

The Hard Way The precision of 70 sevens astounds me. But the perfect result from using a formula (multiplying 476 years by 365.24219879) to account for leap years was just too good to believe. I had to calculate things the hard way. Whatever way you choose to figure the days of the first 69 sevens of the prophecy, you need to know how many leap years to account for. Not every fourth year is a leap year. You cannot simply divide the 476 years of the 365- day calendar by four. Years that are multiples of 100 are not leap years – but multiples of 400 are. And because there no “year zero” between 1 B.C. and A.D. 1, you can’t count that as a leap year. One way to figure leap years is to divide the 476 years by four, getting 119. But of those 119 potential leap years, take away 300 B.C., 200 B.C., 100 B.C., and “year zero.” That leaves 115 extra days to add to the product of 365 days times 476 years. The result is 173,855, or the same number Hoehner arrived at by using his formula of 365.24219879. Another way to account for leap years is to think through a single 100 years at a time. One hundred divided by four equals 25, yet there are only 24 leap years per 100 years (except every 400th year, which has a full 25). Working back from the end of 1 B.C., there are 24 leap years through 100 B.C. From 101 through 200, there are 24 more; from 201 through 300, another 24; from 301 through 400, there are 25 (400 B.C. is a leap year). So far, that’s 97 more days. From 400 B.C. to 444 B.C. are 44 years. Divided by four, that gives us 11 more leap years. But 444 doesn’t count because the decree of March 5 fell after that year’s extra day. Therefore, we add 10 more days to 97 and get 107 extra days. Now, going forward from A.D. 1 to 33, every fourth year is a leap year, giving us eight more to add to our 107. The result, again, is 115 extra days. If you’re still not satisfied (and I wasn’t), you can plot your own time line from 444 B.C. to A.D. 33 and count out every single year. But don’t forget, March 5, 444 B.C., came after that year’s extra day. Happy counting!