Seventy Weeks

Daniel 9:20-27. Pg. 747

Introduction

This morning we come to the infamous ’70 weeks’ passage of Daniel 9.

One of the most cryptic and nuanced texts in the whole of scripture.

In 1993, Harold Camping wrote his bestselling book 1994? in which he argued, based upon his reading of Daniel 9 and other apocalyptic texts, that Christ would return in September of 1994 and the world would end.

OT scholars have since disproven his thesis

His teaching gained such devoted adherents that people began taking out loans to purchase frivolous things they had no ability or intention to pay back because they didn’t think they would have to, Christ was going to return within the year.

One pastor reported visiting a church member who was having serious marital difficulties. When He asked the husband how he had spoken to his wife about the issues, the man responded that he had not spoken with his wife and had no intention to do so. He was convinced Christ was going to return in a few months and there was no need to try to fix his marriage.

In a debate with the famous OT scholar, Tremper Longman, only four months before his prediction was to be fulfilled, Longman pointed out to Camping that Jesus warns that no man knows the day or the hour of His return, to which Camping curtly replied, “I don’t know the day or the hour, just the month and the year.”

Interpretation of apocalyptic scripture is not only difficult, it can be downright dangerous.

The fact is, this passage does not prophesy the 2nd coming and the end of the world, but rather His first coming.

The reason so many people see the second coming in this text is because we are so eager to believe that Christ’s return will happen in our lifetime.

We need to be careful and humble as we look into these mysteries that God has revealed to us

May he help us to be so as we ponder this wonderful and enigmatic text.

Read Text: Daniel 9:20-27

Thesis: God Ends His People’s Captivity through His Messiah

Structure:

We learn four things about God here

God Answers Prayers

God Works on His Timeline

God Judges Those Who Despise Him

God Saves His People

God Answers Prayers

A Prayer for mercy

We need to remember that this vision is given by Gabriel as a direct result of Daniel’s prayer

Daniel 9:23 “At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.”

Daniel remembered his sin and the sin of his people and he called out to God for mercy and forgiveness

This is what characterizes all of God’s people. When sin is brought to light, God’s people confess it to Him and call out to Him for mercy.

Because God’s people know that the wages of sin is death. That sin will be judged, that God will by no means clear the guilty.

But they also know that God is rich in mercy, ready to forgive, and the only One in whom forgiveness can be found.

Daniel’s prayer ought to be our prayer.

Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”

God always hears the prayer of the broken hearted calling out to Him for mercy.

God Answers the Prayers of those He Loves

Does it ever feel to you that your prayers are an exercise in futility?

Do you wonder if He even hears you? Does He care?

Gabriel told Daniel that he came in response to Daniel’s prayers because Daniel is greatly loved.

God gifted Daniel in extraordinary ways. God used Daniel in extraordinary ways

But Daniel was no more loved by God than you are. He is no more a child of God than you are.

If God answered Daniel’s prayer because of His love for him, the He will also certainly answer our prayers.

He may not send a mighty archangel with a vision of the future, but He answers them nevertheless

John 14:13–14 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

God may not answer the way we expected

As Daniel didn’t receive the answer he expected

He may not answer the way we want.

But He will answer in the best way for us and for His glory.

Don’t grow weary in your prayers, don’t forsake prayer. God hears you because you are greatly loved.

God Answered Daniel’s Prayer by Giving Him a Vision of the Future

Gabriel calls the vision a word that went out

A Word that he explains to Daniel in opaque and cryptic language.

God Works on His Timeline

We’ve seen that God answers prayers

But we also see that, in answering prayers, God works on His own timeline, not ours

The End of the Captivity

Remember, Daniel’s prayer was inspired by his reading of the prophecy of Jeremiah in which he read that the captivity was only to be for 70 years. (Jer. 25)

So when Gabriel arrives and tells Daniel that he shouldn’t expect 70 years, but rather 70 weeks, one can imagine that it came as quite a shock.

Now, we read in the English ‘70 weeks,’ and that is a completely valid translation. The Hebrew word translated ‘week’ can mean that. But literally it just means 7.

So, Gabriel is not giving a vision of 70 literal weeks, but 70 periods of 7, usually taken to refer to 70 periods of 7 years, equalling 490 years total.

Prolonged Captivity

What Gabriel is saying to Daniel is that the captivity is not a mere 70 years, but 490 years.

Yes, the Babylonian exile lasted approx. 70 years, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the reign of Cyrus.

Yes, the Jews were freed to return home and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple

But even though they were home, their captivity was not truly ended. Not until the anointed one arrived

They would remain in bondage until the return of their king, the son of David.

Seventy Weeks

We need to be careful not to push this genre of literature past it’s limits

Several weeks ago, as we were looking at Daniel 7, we learned about apocalyptic literature

This is apocalyptic, it is complex, cryptic, vague, and opaque.

Apocalyptic is not attempting to communicate with precision, it is attempting to communicate a sense of the future.

Frankly, the Western mind is not used to apocalyptic literature and routinely misunderstands it.

One common feature of apocalyptic is that numbers are highly symbolic and are not usually to be taken literally

So when we look at 70 weeks, we should not be looking specifically for a 490 year period, but rather the completeness of the period.

Both the number 7 and the number 10 were understood in the Hebrew mind to convey a sense of completeness, perfection, and finality.

Thus 7 times 10 times 7 is meant to communicate not an exact number but the entirety of a lengthy period of time.

Let’s look at these 70 weeks

Three Phases

Phase One: 7 weeks

Phase Two: 62 weeks

Phase Three: 1 week

Phase One: 7 Weeks (v.25)

In the ESV it looks like it is is saying that the Messiah, or the Anointed One will come at the end of the first 7 weeks

Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.”

You will notice in footnote 5 of your Bible, if you are reading from the ESV, it offers an alternative translation. I think this alternative translation is better and it is similar to how the KJV, NASB, LSB, and NIV translate the original.

The NASB reads, “So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;

The anointed one is not to come after the first 7 weeks, but after the first 69 weeks.

But the first 7 weeks are distinct from the 62 weeks.

The first 7 weeks begins when the decree goes out that the Jews are to return home

This pertains to the decree of Cyrus (538 B.C.) to the completion of the City walls and Temple in Jerusalem

That first period of sevens is ended when the city and temple are finally reconstructed. As we read about in Ezra and Nehemiah.

Phase Two: 62 Weeks (v. 25)

Phase one and two can be taken together as one phase of 69 weeks

The 62 weeks is the persistence of Jerusalem during the intertestamental period

“It shall be built with squares and a mote.” That is, it shall be completed for 62 weeks.

“in a troubled time”

In Nehemiah we read about the difficulties and dangers posed to the returned exiles by their neighbors

In Daniel 8 we read about Antiochus IV Epiphanes who would come and slaughter 40,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem and desecrate the temple

God’s holy city and God’s holy temple would persist for 62 weeks in a troubled time

Phase Three: 1 Week (v. 26)

The final week is the week in which the anointed one is cut off

The time in which He will make a strong covenant with the people

This is when the 6 events of v. 24 are fulfilled

As we will see, this final week is the week in which the promised Messiah arrives on the scene and does His work.

God works in His Time

Daniel was expecting the exile to end, for Israel to have learned her lesson and for things to return to what they were intended to be in the promised land

But things were going to be far worse than Daniel thought and far far better than he ever anticipated

Worse in the sense that their return to Canaan would not mean the end of danger and hostility and sin and rebellion

But better in that God’s plans for His people were far more glorious than a mere return to the land.

Though things do not work out in our preferred timeframe, we know God is sovereign and patient and does all things well. He will accomplish His will in His time.

God Judges Those Who Despise Him

Judgment of Exile

Remember the context. As a young man, Daniel experienced the destruction of his homeland and the exile of his people.

Because Israel refused to worship God alone, and because she refused to listen to God’s prophets, God finally brought the terrible judgment of destruction and exile upon her, as He promised through Moses in Deuteronomy

Daniel had lived in exile now for 70 years, and after reading Jeremiah, he discerned that the exile was almost over

So, in anticipation that the promises of God would be fulfilled, Daniel calls out to God for mercy and forgiveness.

God responds by giving him a vision of the future rebuilding of Jerusalem (after the first 7 weeks) and then the again destruction of Jersualem (after the first 69 weeks)

Judgment of Destruction

After the first 69 weeks, the anointed one will be cut off and the people of the prince will destroy the city.

The prince referenced here, as I have said, is the anointed one who was cut off.

His people are His people the Jews. They are the ones who destroy the city and the sanctuary.

They don’t, with their own hands, tear down the city, but their sin is what leads to its destruction, just as their sin led to its destruction under Nebuchadnezzar

We know that the Roman general, Titus, and his legions destroyed the city and the temple in AD 70 after a war against the Jewish rebels of Judea. The Jewish historian Josephus catalogs this event

But this destruction is seen in scripture as the clear judgment of God upon His people because, like Daniel’s ancestors, they refused to worship Him, even though He took on flesh and dwelt with them.

And just like Daniel’s fathers who brought upon the nation the first destruction, they refused to listen to God’s prophet.

Only this prophet was not like the other prophets, this prophet was God’s only begotten Son in whom God is fully and finally revealed.

Some get offended at talk of God’s judgment and curse upon ethnic Israel for killing the Messiah

Certainly, Stephen was stoned to death for suggesting such a thing in Acts 7.

If God would destroy Israel in the sixth century B.C. for putting the prophets to death and refusing to worship Him, why is it surprising that He would bring a worse judgment on them for putting His Son to death and refusing to worship Him?

Parable of the Tenants

Isn’t this exactly what Jesus teaches in the Parable of the Tenants in Matt. 21?

Speaking to the Jewish leaders He tells of a master who built a vineyard and leased it out to tenants.

When the time for harvest came, he sent His servants to collect, but the tenants beat and killed the servants.

Finally, the master sent his son to the tenants, thinking they would respect his son, but they killed him instead.

Jesus asked the Jewish leaders, “what do you think the master will do to these wicked tenants?”

They answer, he will put those wicked tenants to a miserable death and lease out the vineyard to other, more worthy people.

Jesus answers them, Matthew 21:43–44 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.””

The servants of the master who were beaten and killed were the prophets

The Son of the Master is Jesus who they will kill.

This final rejection of the greatest prophet will result in the removal of the kingdom.

The judgement of God on the Nation of Israel in its destruction in A.D. 70 is an important point in redemptive history.

It is the final removal of the kingdom from ethnic Israel. Now the kingdom no longer belongs exclusively to them, but to the Gentiles as well.

The Olivet Discourse

Consider the way Jesus Himself spoke about His people and the holy city

Matthew 23:37–39 ““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.

Then He foretells the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple

Matthew 24:2 “Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.””

Here in Matt. 23 and 24 Jesus correlates the apocalyptic destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple with the hardness of the Jews’ hearts and their unwillingness to receive the salvation of their Messiah.

Jesus even, pronounces curses upon Israel for rejecting Him

Matthew 11:21–25 ““Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

The People of the Prince Shall Destroy the City

The Jewish people, through their sin, will bring upon Jerusalem the renewed judgment of God

And He will send on the wings of Abomination one who makes desolate.

In A.D. 70 God, in judgment destroyed, for the last time, the holy city of Jerusalem.

This is what it meant to be in covenant with Him. Transgression of His law brought judgment.

But, by the time the city and the temple were destroyed, it was already shown that they were obsolete

Because an anointed one had come, a new holy of holies was consecrated, and a strong covenant with many was established.

God Saves His People

This brings us to our final point, God Saves His people

The whole point of the 70 weeks was to reveal when the events of v. 24 would transpire

Six Things Accomplished

The finishing of transgression

The ending of sin

Atonement made for iniquity

The establishment of everlasting righteousness

The sealing of prophet and vision

The anointing of the Most Holy

Fulfilled in Christ

Of course, when we read this list, we as Christians, instinctively see them fulfilled in Christ

Follow your instinct, that is the Spirit of God helping you to interpret His Word

Paul tells us that all of the promises of God find their yes and amen in Christ.

Jesus tells us that all of the Scriptures speak of Him. This is just one of many instances.

At first reading, it looks like there are several characters here in this vision.

Two anointed ones, two princes.

One of these characters is cut off, the people of one of them will destroy Jerusalem again, one of them will make a strong covenant with the people, one of them will put an end to sacrifice and offering.

I want to propose to you that these characters are not all distinct, but they are all actually one person.

This one person is Jesus.

He is the Prince of princes, He is the Anointed one, the Messiah. He is the mediator of a new and better and stronger covenant.

And so this vision that Daniel receives is more than a future glimpse of the end of captivity, it is a vision of the coming Messiah.

The seventy weeks are merely the time that elapse between the end of the Babylonian captivity and the end of the captivity of the human race.

Captivity Ended

Daniel was so concerned with the end of his people’s captivity, but it would never end until their true captor was defeated.

That same enemy that had held all of mankind in chains. Namely our sin and our guilt.

Captivity could not end until transgression was finished, sin was ended, iniquity atoned for.

The anointed one, the Prince, the covenant mediator was the one who would finally bring an end to the true captivity under which Israel and all mankind was subjected.

And Dan. 9 tells us how.

He will be Cut Off (v. 26)

Put to death, condemned, cursed.

As a sacrificial lamb He would make atonement for iniquity.

He took upon Himself the guilt of His people and suffered the curse vicariously for us.

The condemnation that you deserved, He experienced so that you would not be condemned

He shall put an end to sacrifice (v. 27)

This is why it says that He put an end to sacrifice in v. 27

He, the great and final sacrifice toward whom all the OT sacrifices pointed, put an end to that old system of worship.

The blood of bulls and goats were unable to cleanse the soul of its sin, but Christ’s blood is sufficient

Christ’s blood can remove even the most vile of sins

The OT sacrificial system was not meant to atone for sins but to point to the sacrifice that would

But when the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World appeared, that old system was no longer needed.

He abolished it.

As v. 27 says, He put an end end to sacrifices and offerings.

He shed His blood, no other blood need be shed.

The Most Holy will be anointed

The priest would take the blood of the sacrifice into the holy of holies and anoint the mercy seat with that blood

But Christ did not go into the earthly holy of holies with the blood of an animal. He went into the heavenly holy of holies with His own blood

Hebrews 9:11–12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Hebrews 9:24 “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”

He Shall make a strong covenant with many

Not like the old covenant by which Israel continually brought the curses of God upon themselves

As Hebrews 8 says, it is a new and better covenant, unbreakable.

A covenant in which only grace and blessings flow to us because of God’s great love and mercy for us and because of Christ’s great work of redemption on our behalf.

Unlike the Israel of the OT, the church, the new Israel is under a covenant of grace.

A covenant whose blessings do not depend on our obedience and merit but rather upon the obedience and merits of the coming prince, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the covenant Mediator.

Out Messiah has ended our captivity

Brothers and sisters, we don’t need to look forward to some distant day in the future to a coming Messiah like Daniel

Our Messiah has come. He is God with us. He has taught us, He has loved us, He has bled for us.

He has removed our sin and our curse and He has ended our captivity. We are free in Him

So love Him and trust Him all the more.

Salvation or Destruction

He has come, He has revealed Himself, and He gives everyone a choice

Receive Him, love Him, Trust Him, serve Him and be saved

Or, like the Jews of old, reject Him and face the certain destruction that comes upon all who despise His salvation.

Conclusion

In this complex passage of scripture, God has taught us

That He hears our prayers

He Works on His own Timeline

He Judges those who Despise Him

And He Saves His people

He has ended our captivity, and one day He will end all our sorrow, suffering and pain.