The Purpose Of The Seventy Weeks Series

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.