In 539 BC the prophet Daniel was given the following prophecy:
Daniel 9:24-26a
"Seventy weeks (meaning "weeks of years", or 70 x 7 years) are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction.
"And after (the first seven plus the) threescore and two weeks (after the 69th week) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.".
So 70 weeks (490 years)were determined until Messiah the Prince and 1. to finish the transgression, and 2. to make an end of sins, and 3. to make reconciliation for iniquity, and 4. to bring in everlasting righteousness, and 5. to seal up the vision and prophecy, and 6. to anoint the most Holy.
"And after (the first seven plus the) threescore and two weeks (after the 69th week) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself." (Daniel 9:26a)
"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." (Daniel 9:27a)
The Messiah:
Daniel 9
26 And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.
27 And he (Messiah) shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week he (Messiah) shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease.
City & Sanctuary:
26 And the people of the ruler who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end of it shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, until the end shall be war.
27 and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
There would need to be a city called Jerusalem and a temple being destroyed by the coming Antichrist if any part of the above prophecy fits into the final 42 months of this Age - because verse 26 says the city would be destroyed, and the prophecy makes it obvious in verse 24 that the city is Jerusalem.
Did Jesus say anything about armies gathering against Jerusalem and the city being destroyed in Luke 21:20-24?
Yes, He did.
Has such a thing ever happened in history?
Yes, it has - in 70 A.D.
Did Jesus prophesy about the coming destruction of the Temple when He was standing in the Temple talking to the Pharisees and scribes?
Yes, He did (Matthew 23:38 and 24:2).
So the people of the prince mentioned in Daniel 9:26-27 as the ones destroying the city of the Jews and making the sanctuary of the Jews desolate, came in A.D 70. The prophecy did NOT say, "70 weeks are determined for the destruction of the city and the sanctuary by the people of the prince who will come.", therefore the prophecy was not stating that the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the people of the prince who would come would be fulfilled within in the same 70 weeks.
The Messiah is the only person mentioned in Daniel 9:24-26a & 27, therefore the Messiah is the only subject of, and the fulfillment of, the "70 weeks" prophecy. In context, Daniel 9:25 is speaking about the amount of time that would pass until the Messiah came. "The street" refers to the rebuilding of Jerusalem (which the king of Babylon had destroyed), a re-building which took place during the first seven weeks of years (49 years):
Daniel 9:25 "Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction." (Daniel 9:25).
Daniel 9:26 "And AFTER (Hebrew achar) sixty-two weeks (after the sixty-two weeks which followed the first seven) Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end of it shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, until the end shall be war."
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Daniel was prophesying that Jerusalem and its temple, which had been destroyed by the king of Babylon, were going to be rebuilt, and 490 years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, Messiah was going to come - but after the Messiah had come, the city and sanctuary (temple) were going to be destroyed again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subject: The coming of the Messiah.
Timing: 70 weeks from a certain point in time.
Purpose: To make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Determined upon: Thy people and thy holy city.
Subject of verse 24: The Messiah.
Subject of verse 25: The Messiah.
Subject of verses 26-27: (a) The Messiah; and (b) the destruction of the city and the sanctuary:
The subject of the prophecy was the coming of the Messiah, so the first question that should come to mind is:
CONFIRMING A COVENANT
You may have heard talk about "the Antichrist making a seven-year covenant with Israel". Those who talk about this base the seven years on their incorrect assumption that the final seven years of Daniel's prophecy has never been fulfilled. They almost always have the cutting off of the Messiah (the crucifixion of Jesus) at the close of the 69th 'week' or at the start of the 70th week instead of after the 69th 'week' and in the middle of the 70th week, as the prophecy states.
THE NEW COVENANT IN CHRIST'S BLOOD
"Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31)
"but this shall be the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, says the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the LORD; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more." (Jeremiah 31:33-34).
"For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for MANY for the remission of sins." (Matthew 26:28).
Daniel 9:27 "And he shall confirm a covenant with MANY for one week. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease, and for the overspreading wings (Hebrew: kanaph) of abominations he shall make it (the city and the sanctuary) desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." (Daniel 9:27).
CAUSING SACRIFICE AND OFFERING TO CEASE
The author of the letter to the Hebrews quoted a prophecy from Isaiah 1:11-14, and related it to the sacrifice of Jesus:
Hebrews 10:8-10
"Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
The prophecy that Hebrews quoted says:
Isaiah 1:11-14
"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says the LORD; I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to trample My courts?
Bring no more vain sacrifice; incense is an abomination to Me; the new moon and sabbath, the going to meeting; I cannot endure evil and the assembly! Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me; I am weary to bear them."
It makes sense therefore that we read in Daniel 9:27b about the Messiah causing the animal sacrifices for sins and the oblations to cease, by rendering them obsolete through His own sacrifice of Himself:
"..and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it (the city and the temple) desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." (Daniel 9:27b).
Just hours before He was crucified, Jesus repeated Daniel's prophecy, saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:37-39).
Yet in their unbelief the Jews continued after God's once-for-all sacrifice of His Son to offer daily sacrifices for sins, and those sacrifices were abominations to God, because as the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us:
"But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Therefore when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but You have prepared a body for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. Then I said, Lo, I come ( in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God." Hebrews 10:3-7.
Isaiah 53:8 speaks of the Messiah being cut off. Count: (7 + 62) weeks of years = 69 'weeks of years'. Daniel 9:26 states that it was after this (in the 70th week) that Messiah was cut off (but not for Himself): He was cut off by the people demanding of Pilate that He be crucified - and as a result, the Messiah finished the transgression (of the law) and made an end of sins:-
1. "It is finished!" (John 19:30). He did this "once for all" (Hebrews 7:27; also Hebrews 9:12 and Hebrews 10:2 & 10).
2. He made Atonement for iniquity (Romans 5:11)
3. He brought in everlasting righteousness: "The LORD our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16; Jeremiah 51:10)
4. He (a) Sealed up vision and prophecy. (He reopens the seals Himself: "And one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals of it." Revelation.5:5)
(b) He was anointed by the Holy Spirit when He was baptized by John the Baptist:
"And Jesus, when He had been baptized, went up immediately out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:16-17)
So Jesus fulfilled it all:-
"Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city,
1. to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and
2. to make atonement for iniquity, and
3. to bring in everlasting righteousness, and
4. to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." (Daniel 9:24).
DESOLATING ABOMINATIONS
Unlike the abomination of desolation (singular) that was placed in the holy place by Antiochus IV Epiphanes over 200 years prior to the crucifixion of Jesus (Daniel 8:11; 11:31 & 12:11), abominations (plural) are mentioned in Daniel 9:27 - because in rejection of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice for sins, daily animal sacrifices for sin continued to be made by the people upon the altar in the Jerusalem temple - and this continued for forty years: Like lost sheep, the people were wandering in unbelief.
The author to the Hebrews wrote,
"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness. There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years. Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, Their hearts are always wandering and they have not known my ways. As I swore in my anger, They will never enter my rest!'"; and
"For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership? And against whom was God provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient? So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:7-11& 16-19).
Therefore the final 'week' of the 70 weeks was not completed: Daniel's prophecy stated that the Messiah would be cut off (Hebrew karath - He was cut off by the people) in the middle of the 70th week.
CUT OFF AND PREVENTED FROM COMPLETING THE 70TH WEEK
Rabbis acknowledge that scripture prophesies of a Messiah whom they refer to as "Messiah son of Joseph" (a suffering servant who dies for the people):
"He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6).
The Rabbis also acknowledge that scripture prophesies of a Messiah whom they refer to as "Messiah, son of David" (a king who defeats the enemies of Israel and thus delivers the Jews from the hand of their enemies).
Though the Rabbis do not acknowledge that the above scripture is talking about Christ, Christians do:
Whatever else that is prophesied in scripture about what the Messiah would accomplish and do, if it was not completed before He was cut off, the Messiah will accomplish and do when He returns.
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