Daniel's 70 weeks

 

God revealed many detailed facts about the end times to His beloved prophet Daniel. Among them was the unfolding of events leading up to the first coming of Israel’s Messiah, and then further into the future, to events in the time of the Antichrist. These are to be found in Daniel 9:24-27 and are well-known as Daniel’s 70 weeks. Let us take a closer look at those four verses.

Daniel 9:24-27

“A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.”

What I wish to highlight here, is the fact that the seventy units of 7 years each (hereafter called Daniel’s weeks) all have to do with Israel and the Jewish people, as the angel Gabriel says to Daniel, “your people and your holy city”. This includes the last 70^th week, (the last unit of 7 years), a most important fact to remember, as this last week is the 7-year Tribulation period just before the second visible appearance of Jesus.

Verse 25 “Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defences, despite the perilous times.

Sixty-nine of these special seventy weeks are broken down into two parts: the first part would last 7 weeks and would start when the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem. This was fulfilled when Artaxerxes instructed Nehemia to go and rebuild the city on 14 March 445 B.C. (Neh 2). The second part would last 62 weeks and would be the time that Israel waits for her Messiah to come. They were told how to recognize Him by Zechariah in Zech 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” This was fulfilled on 6 April A.D.32, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey colt to shouts of Hosanna! and palm branches, hailing Him as King of Israel, their long-awaited Messiah. Anderson, in his book “The coming Prince”, calculated that the difference between these two dates is exactly 69 units of 7 years each, or 69 Daniel weeks!

Verse 26:  After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”

‘After the 62 weeks’ actually means after 69 weeks, as we have to remember to add the 7 weeks preceding them.  Jesus was put to death, He certainly did not leave any earthly treasures behind, and here at this point the prophecy starts to extend beyond its fulfilled history and into the end times. There came a Roman ruler called Vespasian who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. But there will also be another ruler in the future who will destroy Jerusalem and the third temple, yet to be built, and war after war will follow him – the Antichrist.

Verse 27 “He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

After an interval of several years, called the Church Age which started when Jesus died and rose again, this last 70^th week will start. It will start with the Antichrist making a peace treaty with among others, Israel, which he will break off in the middle by positioning himself in their temple and declaring himself god.  Great Tribulation for Israel and the whole earth will follow, until God’s decreed wrath brings a complete end to Antichrist’s rulership on earth.

Points to ponder:   The exact details of fulfilled biblical prophecy, as proven in history, is the guarantee that future unfulfilled prophecies in the Bible will also come to pass in exact detail.  Let us look them up, take them to heart and warn others to do the same!

Jesus is coming