Daniel 09 20-27

Daniel 9:20-27

20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God,
21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.

Let's remember Daniel was praying for the future of his people the Jewish nation of Israel & the holy hill, Jerusalem where God's sanctuary the Temple was.

Because of their sin & rebellion God had sent Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to take the people captive.
But as Daniel was reading the book of Jeremiah he discovered that after 70 years of captivity God was going to use king Cyrus to set the people free.
So Daniel was praying seeking the Lord's mercy & to know what the future held for Israel, Jerusalem, & the Temple.
God therefore sends to Daniel the angel Gabriel to let Daniel know the answer to his prayer.
The thing we see here is God's desires to reveal His plan & truth to His people.
God does not hide things from us but desires we know the truth so that we know how to live in this life & have hope for the future.

22 He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, "O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding.
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. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

Three times in these two verse we are told Gabriel came to Daniel so that he would understand.

Bin (understand) - "to understand, be able, deal wisely, consider, pay attention to, regard, notice, discern, perceive, inquire." - Vine's
Insight - A verb meaning to act with insight.
So God wanted Daniel to understand the future & than to act with insight.
Something like 1/3 of the Bible is prophecy. God therefore wants us to know much of His redemptive plan for man & applying it our lives.

Whether that's having the right priorities, sharing the truth with the world, or gaining encouragement to endure the hard times we face.
Daniel & his people the Jews needed set their focus on Jerusalem & not living in Babylon.
We need to set our focus on the eternal not living for this world.

So now look at what Daniel was told about the future of Israel, Jerusalem, & the Temple.

24 "Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

Seventy weeks were decreed about Daniel's people & Jerusalem the holy city. But were these seventy literal weeks?

The answer is that they are literal weeks of time but not weeks of days.
Week in the Hebrew is - A masculine noun meaning seven; a week, a group of seven days or years. It indicates a unit of seven. - Complete Word Study Dictionary

We have the word dozen that means a unit of twelve.
A dozen can be twelve apples or twelve pairs.
We also have decade a unit of ten years.

What we have before us is weeks of years not days.

Since Daniel had been thinking of God’s program in terms of years (Jer. 25:11-12), it would be most natural for him to understand these “sevens” as years.
Whereas people today think in units of tens (decades), Daniel’s people thought in terms of sevens (heptads).

Seven days are in one week. Every seventh year was a sabbath rest year (Lev. 25:1-7).

Seventy weeks than equals 490 years. 490 years have been set apart for Daniel's people & the holy city Jerusalem.
490 years to do what you ask?
Six things will be accomplished & they will all be accomplished by one person, the Messiah Jesus.

1. To finish the transgression.

This is "the transgression" not transgressions. What is the transgression?
At the end of the 490 years God will finish the transgression of Israel.
The verb “to finish” (kālā’) means “to bring something to an end.”
Israel’s sin of disobedience will be brought to an end at Christ’s second coming when she repents and turns to Him as her Messiah and Savior.

In Zechariah 12:10 God says, "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."

Some believe this refers to the transgression of mankind's rebellion against God.

Humanity’s transgression against God did not cease after the crucifixion of Christ but will end with his return and subsequent millennial and eternal reigns.

In this we see God's patience & grace with both Israel & mankind.

2. To put an end to sin.

Christ has died for our sin, the sin Israel, & the sin of the world but He has not yet put an end to it.
The world is still a sinful place but the day is coming when Jesus will return to deal with Israel's & man's sin once and for all.
That will be a wonderful day indeed.

3. To atone for iniquity

Basically, the Hebrew verb kipper (“to atone”) means “to make a covering.”
This symbolism is drawn from the Old Testament sacrificial system in which the blood was sprinkled over the mercy seat in the temple, depicting that the sin of the people was forgiven because it was covered by the blood (Lev 16:15–16).
So an atonement will be made for persons who are guilty because of their iniquity.
In the first two acts sin was to be ended and transgression finished.
This would be accomplished through the atonement spoken of here.
This atonement for humanity’s sin was made by Jesus Christ upon the cross. His blood is the covering for sin.
It must be said that while Jesus has made the sacrifice to atone for the sins of His people Israel that they have not applied it themselves by faith in Jesus.

4. To bring in everlasting righteousness

“To bring in everlasting righteousness” signifies that at the end of the seventy weeks an era of righteousness will pervade the earth, which will continue for eternity.
Only when the kingdom of God is ushered in at Christ’s return will such a state of universal righteousness be possible.

5. To seal both vision and prophet

All that God through the prophets said He would do in fulfilling His covenant with Israel will be fully realized in the Second Coming of Christ & millennial kingdom.

6. To anoint a most holy (place)

This may refer to the dedication of the most holy place in the millennial temple, described in Ezekiel 41-46.
Or it may refer not to a holy place, but to the Holy One, Christ.
If so, this speaks of the enthronement of Christ, “the Anointed One” (Dan. 7:25-27) as King of kings and Lord of lords in the Millennium.
What a glorious day it we be when we see all these statements come to past.

The earth is bad now but a glorious day is dawning for those that know Jesus as their Lord & Saviour.

Looking at these six things we are see that for the most part these things still have not been accomplished.

Therefore there is still a future fulfilment of this vision or prophecy.
So let us now look at the events that we see this glorious day come to pass.Da 9:25 "So you are to know and discern 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; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. (NASB)

The text divides the seventy weeks into three groups.

Gabriel states that the first two groups (seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks) will conclude with the coming of “the Anointed One, a prince”
Than there is a final week to would see covenant & abominations that would cause desolation of the Jewish sacrifices & offerings. (Daniel 9:27)
For a total of seventy weeks.

The starting point of the seventy weeks is now revealed. It is when the word to restore & build Jerusalem is issued.

This word or decree was given by king Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-8)

There were decrees before this but they were to let the people back to rebuild the temple but not the city. * On this occasion Artaxerxes granted the Jews permission to rebuild Jerusalem’s city walls. This decree is the one referred to in Daniel 9:25.

The first period of 49 years may refer to the time in which the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, permitted by Artaxerxes’ decree, was completed (444-395 b.c.).

Though Nehemiah’s wall construction project took only 52 days, many years may have been needed to remove the city’s debris (after being desolate for many decades), to build adequate housing, and to rebuild the squares and moat.

Da 9:26 "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. (NASB)

Gabriel affirmed that 483 years are involved from the giving of the decree to the coming of "the Anointed One, a prince" (7 x 7 = 49; 7 x 62 = 434; total = 483).

When you count 483 solar years from the year 445, you end up with A.D. 32, which brings us to the time of Christ's ministry on earth.

Around a century ago in his book "The Coming Prince", Sir Robert Anderson gave detailed calculations of the sixty-nine weeks, using "prophetic years," allowing for leap years, errors in the calendar, & the change from B.C. to A.D. I'm using his calculations. March 5 on March 5 445 B.C. to April 6 A.D. 32. * But this Anointed One, the Messiah, will not be permitted to rule, He will be cut off; for His people cried out, "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15).
"We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14).

This speaks of Jesus' rejection by the Jewish nation and His crucifixion as a criminal, turned over to the Roman authorities by His own people and one of His own disciples.
But He died for the sins of the world, including the sins of the Jewish nation.

So even when the Jews & mankind were busy rejecting Jesus the Messiah God was working out His plan of salvation for mankind, Jew & Gentile.
Oh the wisdom & grace of God.
Oh the love of God for His people the Jews & for every man.

Jesus the Messiah was cut off by His people and had nothing at this point.

The end or goal of the prophecy is the appearance of the Anointed One, the Prince. * God the Father anointed Christ with the Spirit at the time of His water baptism, but the anointing referred to here is the anointing of Christ as the Ruler in His kingdom (“anoint the Most Holy” in Dan. 9:24).
This prophecy of the 70 sevens, then, ends not with the First Advent of Christ, as some suggest, but rather with the Second Advent and the establishing of the millennial kingdom.
In other words Jesus' rejection & death was not the end for Him.

We know that Jesus arose from the dead and returned to heaven.

He sent the Holy Spirit to empower His people to bear witness to the whole world (Acts 1:8), beginning in Jerusalem. * But the same nation that allowed John the Baptist to be slain and asked for Jesus to be crucified went on to persecute the church and themselves kill Stephen (Acts 7).
In A.D. 70, the prophecy in Daniel 9:26 was fulfilled when the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and the Jewish nation was scattered.
The Romans are "the people of the prince that shall come," and that prince is the future
Antichrist that Daniel described as "the little horn" and the blasphemous king (7:8, 24-25; 8:23-27).

We saw how this king makes war against the Jews.
How he puts a stop to the Jews worship of sacrifices & offerings.
Plus how he blasphemes & fights against God.

This takes us to the third period.

27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."

The pronoun "he" refers to "the prince that shall come" (v. 26), this is, the Antichrist.

We are now in the final seven years of the prophetic calendar that Gabriel gave Daniel, the period that we know as "the Tribulation" or "the day of the Lord." * While the world has always known wars and desolations, the end of the age will introduce a time of terrible suffering that will climax with the return of Jesus Christ (Matt. 24:15-35).
The event that triggers this last seven-year period is the signing of a covenant between the Antichrist and the Jewish nation.
At this time, the Antichrist is a key political figure in Europe—one of the ten toes of the image in Daniel 2, and the "little horn" who emerges from the ten horns in 7:8, 24ff— and he has the authority and ability to end the "Middle East problem."
He seems to make a covenant (peace treat) to protect the Jews from their enemies, probably so they can build their temple and restore their sacrifices.
The spiritually blind Jewish leaders, ignorant of their own Scriptures, will gladly enter into the covenant.
After three and a half years, the Antichrist will break the covenant, seize the temple, and put his own image there, and will force the world to worship him (2 Thes. 2:1-4).
This is the "abomination of desolation" that Jesus spoke about that marks the midpoint of the Tribulation period (Matt. 24:15).
The "man of sin" and "son of perdition" who up till now has deceived the world by playing a shrewd political game will now reveal himself as a tool of Satan and a cruel world dictator.
Christ will defeat him when He returns to establish His kingdom.
The final victory always goes to Jesus & the saints.

Da 9:25 "So you are to know and discern 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; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. (NASB)

The text divides the seventy weeks into three groups.

Gabriel states that the first two groups (seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks) will conclude with the coming of “the Anointed One, a prince”
Than there is a final week to would see covenant & abominations that would cause desolation of the Jewish sacrifices & offerings. (Daniel 9:27)
For a total of seventy weeks.