Life, Work and Jesus
Seventy Weeks
Daniel 9:24-27 (NIV)
24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
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.
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.”
1.0 Background of the Prophecy
The 70 years was due to expire. Daniel’s vision of the four beasts could not be reconciled with that of the 70-year prophecy. Jeremiah 25:11 (NIV) This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
In the 68th year, he received this vision.
2.0 Subjects of the Prophecy
Your people – the Jews. Hosea 1:9
Your Holy City – Jerusalem
3.0 Purpose of the Prophecy
Daniel 7:24
a. To finish the transgression. Finish transgression – the end of the sins of the Israelites when Christ returns
b. End of sin, by the work at Calvary. But effective when Christ returns.
c. Atone for wickedness; Through the cross.
d. Bring everlasting righteousness. This will happen at the end of the 70th week.
e. Seal up the vision and prophecy.
“To seal” may refer to the closing up of a document, for in ancient times a scroll was rolled up and sealed shut for preservation. This would signify that these forms of revelation would be closed. In the presence of God, there is no need for further prophecy.
Also, the seal was additionally employed as a mark of authentication by a king or other official.
God will someday set his seal of authentication upon every truly God-given revelation by bringing about its complete fulfillment.
f. Anoint the Most Holy. Most likely talking about a place, in this case, a temple. The term “holy of holies” is usually used in relation to the temple. If a future temple is intended, then it is described in Ezek 40–48. This temple would be built and consecration in the millennium.
4.0 Divisions of the Prophecy
Leviticus 25:8 (NIV) “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years.
4.1 Division 1. Seven weeks.
Seven weeks = Forty-nine years. Daniel 9:25
The first seven sevens (49 years) commence with a command to rebuild Jerusalem. It could be the decree to Ezra in 458 B.C. (Ezra 7:11-26).
The rebuilding is characterized by trouble. It terminates with the completion of the work of Ezra and Nehemiah about 49 years later (409 B.C.).
4.2 Division 2. Sixty-two weeks.
Sixty-two weeks = 434 years. Daniel 9:25-26
The next sixty-two sevens (434 years) extend from the end of the first group of sevens to Christ’s first coming (likely his baptism), since that is when he officially took the role of Messiah and began public ministry. A.D. 26.
4.3 Gap between the 69th and 70th week.
It is the Age of Grace or the Period of the Church.
“Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing”. Fulfilled in AD 30 when Jesus was crucified.
“The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary”. Fulfilled in AD 70, the Romans under General Titus, destroyed Jerusalem.
4.4 Division 3. One week. The 70th Week.
One week = Seven years
“ruler who will come”. Dan 9:26. The ruler will come from the Romans.
“He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’” He will confirm a covenant with Israel.
“In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to religious worship.
And at the temple he will set up an “abomination that causes desolation” – in the middle of the last week, he will stop worship in the temple and set up an abomination in the temple that will cause desolation.
“until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” The final destruction will come upon the antichrist.
Prophecies and their fulfillment
Further Reading
