I. Scripture Text. Daniel 9:24a.
“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city” Holman Christian Standard Bible.
II. Introduction.
A. Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks (Dan 9:24-27) contributes the most specific chronological information about the future Tribulation by describing it as a remaining 7 year period (Dan 9:27) out of a total 490-year time period that concerns Israel. Dan 9:27 even divides this future 7 year period into halves, and predicts the prophetic event, the Abomination of Desolation, which will transpire at the midpoint of this coming 7 year period. However, the end result will be a politically and spiritually restored nation, whereby the 6 clauses spoken of in Dan 9:24 will then become a reality for national Israel in her millennial glory. Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks again fits the familiar Old Testament theme of Israel’s predicted national restoration, only after and through a time of unprecedented distress.
B. It will be shown that the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy will be that of the Tribulation. This article discusses the beginning of the 69 weeks that precede the Tribulation.
III. Scripture Examination.
A. Dan 9:24. Seventy weeks may also be translated seventy sevens. Many scholars agree that the “sevens” are years, as the 70 years of captivity addressed in v. 2 implies. Lev 25:8 speaks of “seven sabbaths of years”; Lev 26:18, 21 implies that Israel’s punishment would be multiplied sevenfold. Therefore, an exile of 70 “weeks” would be expected to last for seven times 70 years.
B. 2 Chron 36:21 suggests that the captivity was to last long enough to make up for 70 omissions of the sabbatical year, which occurred every seven years. This would amount to 490 years before God’s people would experience perfect reconciliation with their God.
C. There are many different interpretations of how these years account for the eras of world history before the Second Coming of the Messiah. Some interpreters have suggested that the use of the number seven in this verse is symbolic representing completeness—that is, the completion of all of human history.
IV. Additional Examination.
A. Daniel was told that this 490 year period would being “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem” (Dan 9:24). In the Scriptures are contained several decrees that have to do with the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. There was the decree of Cyrus in 2 Chr 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3; the decree of Darius in Ezra 6:3-8; and the decree of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7:7. However, in all these, permission was granted for the rebuilding of the temple, and nothing was said about the rebuilding of the city. In Ezra 4:1-4, the rebuilding of the temple was stopped because the Jews were rebuilding the city without authorization. In none of these decrees was the condition of Dan 9:25 met. When we turn to the decree of Artaxerxes, made in his 20th year, recorded in Neh 2:1-8, for the first time is permission granted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This then becomes the beginning of the prophetic time appointed by God in this prophecy.
B. It is necessary to establish the date of the decree of Artaxerxes.
1. The date of Artaxerxes’s reign can be definitely ascertained-not from elaborate disquisitions by biblical commentators and prophetic writers, but by the united voice of secular historians and chronologers.
2. The Persian edict which restored the autonomy of Judah was issued in the Jewish month of Nisan. It may in fact have been dated from the 1st of Nisan….The 70 weeks are therefore to be computed from the 1st of Nisan, 445 B.C.
3. The great characteristic of the Jewish sacred year has remained unchanged ever since the memorable night when the equinoctial moon beamed down upon the huts of Israel in Egypt, bloodstained by the Paschal sacrifice; and there is neither doubt nor difficulty in fixing within narrow limits, the Julian date of the 1st of Nisan in any year, whatever. In 445 B.C., the new moon, by which the Passover was regulated, was on the 13th of March at 7h.9m. A.M. And, accordingly, the 1st Nisan may be assigned to the 14th March
V. References.
A. Paragraph I. These verses in this paragraph come from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, which was cut and pasted from Bible Gateway.
B. Paragraph II.A. The Coming Kingdom, 2016, Grace Gospel Press, Andrew M. Woods, Ph. D., p 163.
C. Paragraph II.B. Mine.
D. Paragraph III. Holman Christian Standard Bible.
E. Paragraph IV. Things To Come, 1958, Zondervan, J. Dwight Pentecost, Th.D., pp 244-245.
VI. Biogenesis – Life. Article 6-29-21.
“the life of the flesh is in the blood” Leviticus 17:11 (New American Standard Bible).
Eternity 