Daniel 9.27a-The Event Marking the Beginning of the Seventieth Week
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday January 22, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 9:27a-The Event Marking the Beginning of the Seventieth Week
Lesson # 291
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 9:24.
Daniel 9:24 “Seventy units of seven years have been decreed for the benefit of your people as well as for the benefit of your holy city in order to put an end to the rebellion and in addition to bring sin to an end as well as to atone for iniquity likewise to bring about everlasting righteousness as well as to seal up prophetic vision and in addition to anoint the most holy place. 25 Therefore, please know, yes please carefully consider: From the issuing of the command to restore, yes to rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince, there will be seven units of seven years and sixty-two units of seven years. It will be restored, yes it will be rebuilt with a public square as well as a defensive trench even during distressful times. 26 Then, after the sixty two-units of seven years, the Messiah will be executed so that He possesses nothing. Next, the people of the coming leader will destroy the city as well as the sanctuary. Indeed its end will take place with a flood. Yes, there will be war up to the end. Desolations have been decreed.” (My translation)
Daniel 9:27 “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (NASB95)
“He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week” presents the next event that will take place after the three events recorded in Daniel 9:26 which will take place after the sixty-ninth week.
“He will make a firm covenant” is composed of the verb gā·ḇǎr (גָּבַר) (gaw-bar´), “he will make” and then we have the noun berîṯ (בְּרִית) (ber-eeth´), “a covenant.”
The verb gā·ḇǎr means “to establish a strong or firm relationship with a particular group of people.”
Here it refers to the prince who comes from the people who will destroy Jerusalem and the temple “establishing a strong or firm relationship with” the nation of Israel during the seventieth week.
The verb means that these two parties will enter into a strong relationship with each other which is bound by a treaty.
The third person masculine singular form of the verb gā·ḇǎr refers to the coming leader mentioned in Daniel 9:26 who will be from the people who will destroy Jerusalem and the temple.
The rules of grammar would support the view that the nearest antecedent for the “he” in verse 27 is “the prince who is to come” in Daniel 9:26.
The hiphil stem of the verb gā·ḇǎr is factitive which indicates that the Antichrist as the subject will cause the leadership of Israel to enter into a firm or strong covenant with him for seven years.
This would imply that he will convince the leadership of Israel that it would be in their best interests to enter into a treaty with him.
The noun berîṯ refers to a treaty between the future Roman dictator of the final stage of the Roman Empire who we know is the Antichrist and the leadership of Israel at that time.
This word means that there will be an alliance of friendship between the ten-nation European Confederacy and the nation of Israel.
“With the many” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh) “of” and its object is the adjective rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “the many.”
The articular masculine plural form of the adjective rǎḇ functions as a substantive as indicated by its articular construction which is a substantiver converting this adjective into a noun.
Thus, the word literally means “the great ones” but the idea here in Daniel 9:27 would be “the leaders, the commanders” referring to the individuals in Israel who will constitute the highest authorities or in other words, the political and military leadership in the Israeli government.
“For one week” is composed of the noun šā·ḇûaʿ (שָׁבוּעַ) (shaw-boo´-ah), “week” which is modified by the cardinal number ʾě∙ḥāḏ (אֶחָד) (ekh-aw), “one.”
The masculine singular noun šā·ḇûaʿ means “a unit of seven years” and is modified this time by the singular form of the cardinal number ʾě∙ḥāḏ, which means “one” in contrast to more than one.
Therefore, these two words mean “one unit of seven years” or seven prophetic years with a year being 360 days according to the Jewish calendar.
Daniel 9:27a “Then, he will establish a firm covenant with the leaders, which will be one unit of seven years.” (My translation)
This treaty mentioned in Daniel 9:27 will mark the beginning of the seventieth week.
The third person masculine singular form of the verb gā·ḇǎr has sparked controversy among interpreters of Daniel 9:27.
The nearest antecedent is the prince who will come from the people who will destroy Jerusalem and the temple by waging war and does not refer to Jesus Christ.
The rules of grammar would support the view that the nearest antecedent for the “he” in verse 27 is “the prince who is to come” in Daniel 9:26.
If one interprets the “he” in Daniel 9:27 as the Messiah, then one cannot reconcile the fact that the temple sacrifices continued until 70 A.D. over thirty years after the crucifixion of Christ.
Furthermore, the “he” in Daniel 9:27 breaks the covenant.
At what point did Christ make a covenant with the Jews and then break it?
There is nothing in the New Testament which would even suggest this.
Would Christ break a covenant He has made?
Thus the individual establishing the covenant with Israel is not a reference to Christ but to a prince who is yet to come, who we know is the Antichrist.
So the coming leader mentioned in Daniel 9:26 and here in Daniel 9:27 with the third person masculine singular form of the verb gā·ḇǎr is a reference to Antichrist.
It is not a reference to Jesus Christ since Jesus Christ was not a Roman.
Furthermore, the Messiah is said to be executed in the first statement in verse 26. So this coming leader comes after the execution of the Messiah.
The coming leader is also not a reference to the Roman general Titus who led the siege against Jerusalem in 70 A.D. since the emphasis in Daniel 9:26 is upon “the people.”
It is stated this way because this prophecy would link the Roman destruction with the event which took place in 70 A.D. while simultaneously setting up Antichrist to be linked to the first “he” in Daniel 9:27 and the seventieth week.
The coming leader also cannot be Antiochus Epiphanes IV since he did not destroy Jerusalem or the temple.
Therefore, Daniel 9:26 makes clear that the people and the coming leader will not appear on the pages of history at the same time.
Daniel 9:27 also makes it crystal clear that the coming leader is the future persecutor of the nation of Israel during the seventieth week or seventieth unit of seven years.
Therefore, we can see that because the prophecy in Daniel 9:27 has never been fulfilled in history, it must be yet future, which makes clear that there is a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week.
This covenant between Antichrist and Israel is a peace treaty, which will guarantee Israel’s safety in the land and suggests that Israel will be in her land but will seek support that she had previously.
The United States is nowhere in prophecy and is thus no longer a superpower at the time of Antichrist’s rise to power.
The United States is the greatest benefactor of Israel since her return to the land in 1948 and so it is easy to see why Israel would seek an alliance with a superpower with the United States no longer a major player on the world stage.
Therefore, it appears that she will seek a treaty with the Revived Roman Empire, the United States of Europe headed by Antichrist and she will welcome the peacemaking role of Antichrist and the Revived Roman Empire.
Therefore, we can see that Daniel’s seventieth week is a seven-year period that takes place sometime after the rapture of the church and extends from Antichrist’s peace treaty with Israel to the Second Advent of Christ and is concerned with the nation of Israel exclusively and will be the worst period in all of Israel’s and the world’s history.
This 7-year period is divided into two three and a half year periods with the first three and a half years characterized as a cold war (Mt. 24:6) whereas the last three and a half years are characterized as a hot war (Mt. 24:21-22).
This period will end with the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, which is the visible return of Christ to planet earth with the elect angels and the Church in order to deliver Israel from her enemies and establish Jesus Christ’s millennial reign resulting in the fulfillment of the four unconditional covenants to Israel (Dan. 2:44-45; Zech. 14; Mt. 24:29-31; Rev. 1:7; 19:11-21).
Antichrist will not and can not appear until the Day of the Lord has begun (2 Thessalonians 2:2) and his manifestation is being hindered by the Restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7) and this appearance will be preceded by the rapture of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
Therefore, we can see that the seventy weeks of Daniel of four hundred ninety prophetic years are divided into three segments: (1) 7 “sevens” (49 years): The decree of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-8) to the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25). (2) 62 “sevens” (434 years): The completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem to Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and crucifixion in 33 A.D. (Dan. 9:25-26) (3) 1 “seven” (7 years): Tribulation period (Dan. 9:27).