The Prophecies of Daniel
Part 8: The Purpose of the Seventy Weeks (Daniel 9)
We have reached week eight of our study of the prophecies given to the Old Testament prophet, Daniel. We have seen how God predicted the rule of the Gentile powers throughout history and we’ve seen the unveiling of the final world ruler, the Antichrist.
Last week we did an exciting teaching where we narrowed down the area of origin for this evil dictator. I showed you through visions the prophets Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel experienced why I believe the Antichrist will come from the area of modern-day Syria, Lebanon, or northern Iraq. I also explained why I believe there is a very good chance that the Antichrist will come from among the Islamic religion. (If you missed this teaching there are copies of it on the vestibule table. I encourage you to pick one up.)
Today we are turning to chapter nine of the book of Daniel and the fourth vision given to the prophet concerning the Times of the Gentiles. With each successive vision God gives to Daniel He reveals more and more information about this time. While the first three visions we’ve studied have dealt with which Gentile nations are going to hold sway in the Middle East and in what order beginning with Babylon and ending with the second coming of Christ, the vision of chapter nine is going to take a different slant.
The vision of the seventy weeks found here still deals with the Times of the Gentiles like the other three visions did. But instead of looking at what will be happening among the Gentile nations during this time, it’s going to show us what will be occurring among and to the Jewish nation during the Times of the Gentiles.
This week we are going to be laying the groundwork for understanding this revelation. Next week we will get into dividing the seventy weeks up according to Scripture.
I. Daniel’s Confusion
So let’s begin by reading Daniel 9:1-3, “In the first year of Darius, son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom – [2] in the first year of his reign, I Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. [3] So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”
Then if we were to read on we would find that Daniel launches into a profound prayer for forgiveness for himself and his people, the Jews. The reason for Daniel’s prayer has to do with his confusion over timing in the visions that he had just received, and the visions that the prophet Jeremiah had received.
You see, Daniel was not only a prophet of God, but a student of prophecy as well. He read and did his best to understand the words of God that were given to other Jewish prophets. In these verses we see that Daniel had been studying the words of the prophet Jeremiah and what had been predicted about the length of the Jewish captivity in Babylon. And he became confused.
Let’s read what he read. Jeremiah 25:11 (NIV), “This whole country [Israel] will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations [Jews] will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”
Jeremiah 29:10 (NIV), “This is what the Lord says, ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you [the Jews] and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place [Jerusalem].’”
When God allowed the Jews to be taken captive by Babylon as a punishment for their disobedience, He gave these two prophecies to the exiles through the prophet Jeremiah. As we just read, God promised the Jews seventy years of exile before He would free them to return to their homeland and sacred city.
This is what Daniel was reading about and trying to understand. You see, in Daniel 9:1, it tells us that Daniel was reading these words in the first year of Darius the Mede’s rule over Babylon. The empire of Babylon had just been destroyed and the Medo-Persian Empire had taken over. It’s the first year of their reign, so we can date this chapter to 538 BC.
This is important because Daniel knew that the timing of the Jewish captivity began in 606 BC. That means he and his people were only two years away from completing the seventy years of captivity mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. He was probably excited and looking for the signs of their release.
But Daniel also knew from the visions that had just been recently given to him that the Jews were supposed to experience a prolonged time of dispersion and subjection to Gentile rulers. His visions showed the Jews under submission to four world empires before the restoration of their nation. And he knew that he was only living in the second one of those empires. He didn’t understand how two more empires could come and go within two years.
He couldn’t reconcile Jeremiah’s prediction of a seventy-year exile with his own visions of two more ruling empires existing before the Jews regained their prominence among the nations. He knew both Jeremiah’s prophecies and those given to him were true. He just didn’t see how they fit together. He didn’t get it. (And I know exactly how that feels.)
Well, God sent Daniel the answer by special messenger – the angel Gabriel came to explain the time difference to Daniel. He showed Daniel how the seventy years of captivity that the nation of Israel just experienced were only a “type” or foreshadow of a period of time that would be seven times as long.
So let’s read our key passage of Scripture. Daniel 9:24-27 (NKJV), “Seventy weeks are determined for your [Daniel’s] people [the Jews] and for your holy city [Jerusalem], to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. [25] Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. [26] And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end war desolations are determined. [27] Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
This vision of seventy weeks deals with a specific length of prophetic time. It actually tells us how long the Times of the Gentiles will be. It’s explaining to Daniel how long the Jewish people will have to answer to the Gentile nations of the world.
Most prophecy scholars consider Daniel 9 to be the most important revelation made in the entire Scriptures. We’re going to find out from this revelation how God counts time, and we’ll find that God’s timing is intimately connected with the Jewish people.
II. Seventy Weeks
So the first thing we need to understand is what is meant by seventy weeks. Just how long of a period of time is seventy weeks on God’s calendar? How long will the Times of the Gentiles last, and how do the Jews fit in?
A. How Long Is A Week?
If you were to ask the average person on the street how long seventy weeks is, you’d probably get an answer of 490 days or approximately one year and four months. This is because to modern America the concept of a week means a period of seven 24-hour long days.
But the word “week” doesn’t necessarily have to mean a period of seven days. The word translated as “week” is the Hebrew word shabuwa (shaw-boo-ah) which means a group of seven, not necessarily seven days.
It is like our English words “dozen” or “score.” When we use the word dozen we know we are referring to a group of twelve. It may be twelve eggs, or twelve shirts, or twelve books. We don’t know for sure what a dozen is referring to; we only know a dozen stands for a group of twelve. The same can be said about the word “score.” A score means a group of twenty. Twenty years, twenty cars, twenty whatever.
And this is how the word “week” is used in the Bible. A week is a group of seven. It could be seven days, seven donkeys, seven chairs, seven whatever. Since we’re dealing with an amount of time, it could be seven seconds, seven minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years or more.
So in order to find out how long seventy weeks is in God’s timing, we need to know how long one week is. Are we talking about a week of days, a week of weeks, a week of months, or a week of years? A week of days is 7 days. A week of weeks would be seven weeks or 49 days. A week of months is seven months or approximately 215 days. A week of years is seven years or about 2557 days. Those are vastly different lengths of time.
B. God’s Week
Which one is God referring to in Daniel 9? The key to this passage is found in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Numbers.
In this chapter, God has brought the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt and led them to their Promised Land. When they reached its borders Moses sent one man from each tribe to scout out the land and then report back what they had found.
The men were gone for forty days and when they returned only two of the twelve men recommended going in and taking the land that the Lord gave them. The other ten said it was too difficult. They said the giant people who lived there would kill everyone.
God was not pleased with these men who led the Israelites astray and He pronounced a punishment upon all of the Israelites. In this punishment we get the first glimpse of how God handles time when dealing with His children. Read Numbers 14:34 (NIV):
“For forty years – one year for each of the forty days you explored the land – you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.”
This judgment was literally fulfilled. The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness desert forty years, one year for every day they scouted out the land. So from this passage and another one in Ezekiel 4 we see that on God’s timetable a day stands for a year.
If we apply this knowledge to the seventy weeks of Daniel, one week would be equal to seven years. Because each of the seven days in a normal week would equal one year – a day for a year. So Daniel 9 is talking about a week of years. And since there are seventy weeks, or seventy weeks of years, we are talking about a total of 490 years, not 490 days.
III. Why Seventy Weeks?
So, now that we know how long a period of time seventy weeks is, that leads us to the questions: “Why seventy weeks? Is there some significance connected with the number seventy?” Well, of course there is. And it’s found in the Old Testament book of Leviticus or the Law.
A. The Sabbath Year
Since Daniel 9 tells us that the seventy weeks of this vision are appointed to the Jews, we know that the length of time must have something to do with the Jewish people.
When the nation of Israel was first being established in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, God gave them the Law which they were to live by. Part of this Law established the schedule of feasts and sabbaths they were to observe.
Leviticus 25:2-5 (NIV), “When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. [3] For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. [4] But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. [5] Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.”
Part of God’s command to His children was to observe the weekly sabbath, which was a day of rest every seventh day. This is something which most people are familiar with. But God also command the Jews to observe a yearly sabbath, which was a year of rest every seventh year.
The problem for the Jews was that they never observed this yearly sabbath of the land. In fact, they let seventy sabbath rests pass without letting the land rest. So, God punished them by sending them into Babylonian captivity for seventy years – one year for each of the sabbaths they refused to observe. God forced them from the land so that the land could rest as He had originally planned.
2 Chronicles 36:19-21 (NIV) describes this, “They [the Babylonians] set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. [20] He [Nebuchadnezzar] carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. [21] The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.”
Leviticus 26: 34, 43, “Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths…[43] For the land will be deserted by them [the Jews] and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them.”
So this is why the Jews were in captivity to Babylon for seventy years. It was for the seventy times they did not observe the sabbath year and allow the land to rest. But this doesn’t explain the seventy weeks which we said stands for 490 years. Where does this longer time frame come from?
B. Seven Times Over
If we go back to the Law and the book of Leviticus we’ll find the answer to this question as well. When God gave the Israelites the Law, which they were to follow, He also gave them a warning about the punishment they could expect to receive if they broke the law.
Leviticus 26: 18, 21, 27-28, (NIV) “If after all this you [the Jews] will not listen to me [God], I will punish you for your sins seven times over… [21] If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve…[27] If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, [28] then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.”
Here’s the explanation. The Israelites were chastised for their many sins, and God gave them several chances for repentance. But when they continued in their disobedience, God said He would punish them seven times over.
The Jews not only didn’t observe the sabbath year seventy times, but they had a multitude of other sins to be punished for during the entire duration of time represented by those seventy sabbaths.
Since the sabbath year occurred every seventh year, and the Jews ignored seventy of them, that means that there are a total of 490 years of sins and transgression to be atoned for. And that is just what Daniel 9:24 says the reason for the seventy weeks or 490 years is.
“Seventy weeks are determined for your people [the Jews] and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity…”
The Jews served seventy years of punishment for the seventy sabbaths they ignored, but God is telling Daniel that they still have to be punished for the 490 years of transgressions between those sabbaths. That is what the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 is about. That is what the Times of the Gentiles is about. It is about God keeping His word to punish the Jews seven times over for their sins if they did not repent and turn back to Him.
Next week we will begin to take the seventy weeks and fit them into history.
Sermon Sources:
Larkin, Rev. Clarence. The Book of Daniel. Clarence Larkin Estate, Glenside, PA. Copyright 1929.
Stone, Dr. Perry. Sixty-nine and One To Go. Video Tape. Voice of Evangelism. Cleveland, TN. Copyright.
