Cut Off
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The angel wraps up the Daniel 8 vision by saying, “seal up the vision, for it refers to may days from now.” I love that little synopsis because it ensures we can’t just assume a quick fulfillment, and it reminds us that the important stuff that’s happening here is about time.
The vision is gone but Daniel is in distress.
And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days; afterward I arose and went about the king’s business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it.
The next thing that happens in Daniel’s story is that the king calls him in to figure out what some writing on a wall means and then the kingdom is turned upside down and Daniel finds himself working for a new king. But his astonishment and questions about the vision he had a few months before still lingered.
We don’t know for certain if the vision of Daniel 9 happened first or if Daniel was thrown to the lions first, but both the vision and the lion’s den happened in the same year. One way or another, we find Daniel with his face bowed to the ground weeping and praying. And we know a little about the reason because Daniel tells us:
Daniel 9:2 (ESV)
I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Notice that Daniel 8 started with direction, but Daniel 9 starts with time. And the time is specifically about the amount of time God had prophesied Israel would be stuck in Babylon.
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel goes on for 12 more verses explaining the extent of the sins that had caused God to send Israel into exile in Babylon. Then Daniel says this:
“O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.
Not only is this prayer about time—the 70 years of captivity—but its also focusing our attention on the sanctuary. There’s no escaping the conclusion, Daniel realized that the angel in Daniel 8 was talking about 2,300 years that included the trampling of the sanctuary and he was worried that God was extending their captivity in Babylon beyond the 70 years originally prophesied.
Daniel 9:19 (ESV)
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
Delay not. Lord, forgive. Lord have mercy. Delay not.
While Daniel was in the middle of praying, Gabriel came to him to make him “understand, speaking… and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding.” (Daniel 9:22)
This is a critical component of Daniel 9, and the reason I’m not handling this prophecy in a separate sermon. Daniel 9 is a continuation of the explanation of Daniel 8—there is no new vision in Daniel 9, just new interpretation by the angel. What Daniel 9 has to say will help us understand Daniel 8.
“Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
“Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
“And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.”
Again, there’s a lot in this to unpack and we don’t have time this morning, so we’ll have to stick to the bigger picture.
Look at this first phrase, “seventy weeks are cut off.” That word “cut off” could be translated, “decreed,” but the hebrew word is more like a knife’s work than a piece of paper from the king. In fact, the only other place this particular hebrew word is used is when the king issued the decree to kill Daniel and the other wise men. “Cut them off!” he could have said.
The angel is saying “70 weeks are cut off from the 2,300 days in the vision you had a few months ago.”
Understanding this is important. Without the angel’s explanation in Daniel 9 we’re left to the same conclusions that Daniel came to at the end of Daniel 8—astonishment and confusion. Daniel was trying to make sense out of it by reading Jeremiah, but that was only making him more confused. He needed additional information to make sense out of the vision of Daniel 8, and this was that additional information.
What would happen at the end of the 70 weeks?
finish the transgression
put an end to sin
atone for iniquity
bring in everlasting righteousness
These words could have been straight out of the book of Jeremiah, not about the Babylonian captivity, but about the coming of the Messiah.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
What, or more specifically who, is Daniel 9 talking about? JESUS!
And what would Jesus do?
He forgave sins.
He brought in righteousness
And He became the atonement for iniquity.
Here’s how it would go:
There would be a decree in 457 BC that would complete the promise of Jeremiah—the city would be restored, the wall and the streets, and the temple would be rebuilt. The people we sent back to Jerusalem in 538 BC to work on the temple, but it wasn’t until a later decree in 457 that the walls and street were rebuilt.
The time before Christ counts down to 1, so you take 457 and subtract 69 weeks (483 years) and you’ll end up with the date that would begin the final week of the 70 week prophecy—the final 7 years. What is that date?
27AD
It’s amazing to nail this down in history. Luke and Matthew both provide an incredible amount of detail from the roman government that allows us to pinpoint with pretty good accuracy when Jesus would have been born, baptized and died. And its no coincidence that Jesus was baptised and began his ministry in 27 AD, right on time. Messiah the prince had come to make atonement for iniquity.
Notice verse 27
Daniel 9:27 (NKJV)
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering...
The covenant that God made was with Israel. God would confirm that covenant with them for 7 years — 3 1/2 years as Jesus, and 3 1/2 more years through his disciples. He had called them a nation of priests and commissioned them to take the gospel to the world. But in the middle of that week Jesus would be cut off. There’s no ambiguity here. Jesus would die in the middle of that week. And his death would end the sacrificial system.
It makes me sad to think that many read this prophecy and attribute it to the antichrist of Revelation 13. This is one of the most beautiful and specific prophecies that point to the messiah, Jesus. It’s no surprise that the Devil has inserted false teachings to obscure the truth of the gospel.
Remember, the evil the little horn perpetrates against God and His people Is being answered in the judgment—also called the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8. God is going to bring judgment. It’s a beautiful and necessary promise. Without judgment there is no justice, and there must be justice on this pompous power that perverts God’s law and destroys God’s people.
But you and I can’t stand in the judgment. When our lives are compared with the great law of love, the law of liberty, the law of heaven, we will fall severely short. If God brought judgment on the little horn without providing an atonement for our iniquity, then every one of us would be condemned.
Everything changes in the middle of that last week of the 70 week prophecy.
Our righteousness is like filthy rags, but Messiah the Prince, our sacrifice, is the one who brings in “everlasting righteousness.”
The 70 week prophecy was cut off from the beginning of the 2,300 day/year prophecy, which means that the start of the 70 weeks is also the start of the 2,300 Years. That means that all the big stuff that would bring judgment on the little horn — both the heavenly judgment and the church’s earthly response — would take place Starting in 1844.