Daniel 9: 20 - 27
So Much From So Little – Part 1
20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision: 24 “Seventy sevens are determined for your people and for your holy city, 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 sevens and sixty-two sevens; The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. 26 “And after the sixty-two sevens 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 of the war desolations are determined. 27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the seven 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.”
We have come now to what is probably one of the most crucial passages in the bible .Everyone who has been a believer and have studied the bible look forward to this portion of the book of Daniel. In just a few verses there is so much controversy. Here are just a few of the topics that are of interest that chapter 9 initiates;
1. 70 weeks
2. Christian era gap
3. Last week
4. Tribulation – Pre, Mid, or Post
5. New Temple
6. Peace treaty
7. Abomination that makes desolate
8. A Coming Prince
9. Command to rebuild Jerusalem
10. Breaking of Peace Treaty after 3 ½ years.
Now I know how you hate some teachings stretched out in many sessions. However, to do our topics justice I believe in this case we need to take a serious look at all these potential areas.
Let us take these amazing verses one at a time, shall we.
20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.
We are possibly to understand that Daniel had begun praying at first light and that he had prayed through the day. The evening oblation was the time of the evening offering which would have been offered before the light died if there had been a temple in Jerusalem. It was a time observed by the faithful in Israel for worship and prayer, because the sacrifice could no longer be offered.
Here we learn the vital lesson that God’s response is prompt and not dependent on the volume of our prayers, as our Lord Jesus Himself would make clear We read in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6, “7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
Daniel had not wasted his time. It had brought him nearer to God. Now he would learn what God was going to do in the future. His prayer had been the final touch to the prayers of all the faithful throughout the world. And he was to hear, and consider and understand.
24 “Seventy sevens are determined for your people and for your holy city, 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.
Our Holy King sends His number 1 spokesman to Daniel. Gabriel Appears With The Promise That God Will Fully Bring About His Purposes, But It Will Not Be Within Seventy Years But Within Seventy ‘Sevens’.
At this point deliverance for Israel was already in motion. In this first year of Cyrus the edict would be proclaimed which allowed Israel to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple
In the book of Ezra chapter 1 we find out when the Jews were allowed to go back home to Israel, “1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. 3 Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4 And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem. 5 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem. 6 And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered. 7 King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods; 8 and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9 This is the number of them: thirty gold platters, one thousand silver platters, twenty-nine knives, 10 thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind, and one thousand other articles. 11 All the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.
The same would happen to many other nations. It was Cyrus’ policy. Indeed he restored many gods to their homelands from which Nabonidus had removed them, and in Israel’s case commanded that the temple vessels, stolen by Nebuchadnezzar, should be restored to them.
We are not therefore left to hazard as to when the seventy sevens commences. It commences in 539/8 BC in the first year of Darius the Mede, when Daniel put forth his intercession for the rebuilding of the city and the Temple. Please make a note to yourselves that the order was to rebuild the city and the Temple.
We should also all note is that there is no mention anywhere of ‘years’. Indeed the seventy ‘sevens’ are contrasted with the seventy ‘years’ prophesied by Jeremiah. Deliverance for Judah will come after seventy years, but God’s full and final deliverance will only come after seventy ‘sevens’. There are therefore no real grounds for applying the idea of ‘years’ to the seventy ‘sevens’. Thus the idea is that final and full deliverance will occur in God’s timing. What Gabriel is saying is that far beyond the limited statement of Jeremiah concerning seventy years there was rather to be a period of seventy ‘sevens’ which would result in the fulfillment of God’s final purposes. In other words the ‘sevens’ (divinely perfect time periods) replace years. This expresses the ultra divinely perfect period. Seven is the number of perfection and seventy is an intensification of that number.
Therefore there are to be a divinely perfect number, not of years per Jeremiah, but of divinely perfect periods. God has them measured, even if man does not, and they are perfect within His will.
Look again at verse 24 and let us see what the ultimate purpose our Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High – was initiating;
1. to finish the transgression
2. to make an end of sins
3. to make reconciliation for iniquity
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness
5. to seal up vision and prophecy
6. and to anoint the Most Holy.
Let us take a look at each point. First of all what is a transgression? It is as follows;
1. (Law) a breach of a law, etc.; sin or crime
2. the act or an instance of transgressing
The bible testifies that the nation of Israel transgressed the commands of Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High. These seventy ‘sevens’ are in contrast with Jeremiah’s seventy ‘years’. The seventy sevens are here seen as not only making the situation right between the nation and God, resulting at the commencement in the rebuilding of the city and the sanctuary in the first ‘seven’, which was what the seventy years of Jeremiah had in mind, but also as resulting in the making of a way of final full restoration and acceptability with God, and the final fulfillment of all prophecy, which includes all nations. The whole world is in mind.
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 sevens and sixty-two sevens; The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.
Up to the time of Nehemiah Jerusalem had again been populated to some extent, but it was as a huddle of buildings with its own small Temple, and it was ruled from elsewhere and had little real authority. It was merely a provincial town of no importance and no status, part of a larger province, with no independence. It was still a dream in Israelite hearts rather than a reality. It was Nehemiah who rebuilt the walls and made it once more a ruling city with its pride restored. It was Nehemiah who made ‘Jerusalem’ truly independent from the surrounding nations. Thus the word going forth in Daniel’s prophecy must be seen as resulting both in the edict of Cyrus and in the edict of Artaxerxes concerning Nehemiah, when Jerusalem once again began to count for something.
It was the rise of Nehemiah that resulted in a great advance in the situation. It was he who received the king’s authority to rebuild the city and its walls, and to establish it as an independent city, thus demonstrating that God was ensuring that His plan to go forward. It was then, and only then, that Jerusalem could become what for Israel it had always been, a capital city, ruling over its own dependency. Note the words spoken to Daniel; it would be built with street and moat, a planned and defendable city, not a huddle of houses. This presumably occurred within the first ‘seven.
We must ask, what is the significance of the split into two sections? For nothing is specifically stated as happening at that time, unless we see it in the reference to the building of the city with street and moat in troubled times, and anointed princes were coming along in Israel all the time. It should be noted that this is not intended to be an ongoing prophecy like those in chapter 7, 8 and 11, covering different aspects of history. In this prophecy all the emphasis is on the achievement of God’s ends.
The main answer to the question of the reason for the split almost certainly lies in the nature of seven ‘sevens’. We must look at this from the perspective of Israel and understand in this regard that ‘seven’ was a distinctive period for Israel. Time for them was split up into seven day periods, with the seventh day a Sabbath; then into moon periods; then into years; and then into seven year periods, with the seventh year a Sabbath for the land; and then finally into ‘seven sevens of years’ which we find in the book of Leviticus 25.8, 8 ‘And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.
The fiftieth year a year was called a year of Jubilee as we read in Leviticus 25, “10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. 12 For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.”
It was a time when all Israelite bondservants would be released and land outside of walled cities would revert to its original owners. All Israel would then be made free again. Thus time was seen as moving forward in seven day periods, and then in seven year periods and then in forty nine year periods (seven sevens of years.
Thus if seven days ended up with the Sabbath and seven years ended up with the Sabbath for the land and seven sevens of years ended up with the year of Jubilee, then seven ‘sevens’ might well have been seen as a period ending with a seventh ‘seven’ which would be a time of special blessing. Seemingly this would be the period when the street and moat of Jerusalem would be built in troubled times, the street indicating a populated city, the moat indicating a city with strong defenses as we read in verse 25. Thus by the time of the seventh ‘seven’ Jerusalem would have been established as a populated and fortified city. And they might well have seen that as indicating that the kingdom of blessing would then come.
The angel is therefore careful to explain that that will not be so. For the seven ‘sevens’ will simply lead into the sixty two ‘sevens’. They were not to look for a quick solution. The purpose of this is n order to emphasize that there will be a considerable length of time which must pass before what is prophesied finally comes about. The everlasting kingdom will not be issued in by the restoration of the city and building of the sanctuary.
This is not suggesting that we are to think strictly of a certain period of years. Indeed it rather brings out that we are dealing in ‘sevens’ not years. Not ‘seven days’, not ‘seven years’, nor seven sevens of years, but seven ‘sevens’, seven divinely determined periods. And these will then be followed by a period of a further sixty two ‘sevens’, and then by a final period of ‘a seven’. And these are clearly to occur in sequence. There is not even a hint of a gap in between. The first ‘seven’ (divinely determined period) sees the establishment of Jerusalem. The second series of ‘sevens’ will end in the coming of the anointed Prince
26 “And after the sixty-two sevens Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself
It is pretty clear that the 2nd and 3rd reason were dealt with by our Precious Lord and Savior’s death on the cross;
1. to make an end of sins
2. to make reconciliation for iniquity
He brings in number 4 to all those who submit to His Rule and Authority – ‘to bring in everlasting righteousness’.
The third ‘seven’ will bring about the consummation, the final fulfillment of prophecy and the introduction of the everlasting kingdom.
In our next study we will pick up on the second part of verse 26, which talks about ‘the prince of the people.’
