Study – Grow – Know

Daniel 9C 70 Sevens

April 29, 2024 at 12:08 PM Leave a comment

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Gabriel has arrived to Daniel and has begun explaining to the prophet what he should understand about the 70 year captivity and then adds more information about those days and times, referring to things as seventy “sevens.” Let’s take a look at the text of Daniel 9:24-27.

²⁴ “Seventy weeks 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 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 of the 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.”

First, the word “weeks” in verse 24 should have been translated “sevens” but the translators used the word “weeks” because people might not have easily known what “sevens” stood for in the text. Gabriel says that 70 “sevens” are determined for “your” people, meaning Daniel’s people, meaning Israel/Jews.

Replacement theologians often see verses like this to ultimately refer to the church, but it is clear that Gabriel was specifically talking about the Jews of Israel. In fact, the entire context of Daniel 9 refers to Israel and Jews. Daniel prays for his people – the Jews – and even includes himself in that prayer as someone who was not free of sin.

The point is that we need to figure out what “sevens” means as it connects to 70. We know from Jeremiah that the 70 years of captivity when Jewish people were taken captive and hauled off to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, was almost up. This is why Daniel began praying for God’s mercy.

Gabriel arrives to essentially say to Daniel, “It’s not 70 years, but 70 ‘sevens’ of years” or 70 periods of seven years (since the entire context of Daniel 9 is dealing with years. It then becomes a simple matter of multiplying 70 times 7 to equal 490 years total. So Gabriel is telling Daniel that while the 70 year Babylonian captivity is almost at its end, allowing Jews to go back to Judah and Jerusalem, God has determined that there will be a total of 490 years of a type of captivity for Israel and Jews.

If we look at the text, we learn God’s purposes for this 490 year period of time for Israel and the Jewish people (verse 24).

• 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

The above list is what God is going to accomplish during the 490 years He determined is needed to accomplish that. Clearly, some of it is completed because of Jesus’ death on the cross, but it is not hard to see that none of this has affected the nation of Israel completely. In essence, though Paul tells us “all Israel will be saved,” (Romans 11:26), that has not happened yet and won’t happen until near the end of the Tribulation period.

Many Jewish people will wake to the reality of who the Antichrist is when he goes into the rebuilt Temple and sits in the Holy of Holies declaring himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). This is when many Jewish people will wake up and begin seeking God. They will come to understand that Jesus is their Messiah and will receive Him. This group of Jewish people will become the final remnant and go into the Millennial Kingdom to receive all the promises in full originally given to Abraham and the patriarchs.

Looking at that bulleted list above, we see that some of it will be fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus personally rules with a rod of iron from his father David’s throne in Jerusalem. So if that is the case, then at least some of the 490 years is still ahead of us.

Gabriel then breaks things down further in verses 25-26, explaining the difference in the “weeks” or sevens. There are three sets of weeks. The first set of weeks/sevens last for seven weeks (or 49 years). This set is immediately followed by the second set of 62 weeks or 434 years. So if we add 49 years to 434 years, we arrive to a total of 483 years. But Gabriel said there would be a total of 490 years, so we still need the final set of weeks/sevens or one “week/seven.”

Many people think the final or 70th seven began immediately following the second set of 62 sevens. But if we look closely at the text, Gabriel tells us something completely different. Verse 26 tells us, “And after the sixty-two weeks…” In essence then, Gabriel is alerting Daniel to the fact that when that second set of sevens (62 sevens), ends, something happens. In fact, several somethings happen.

• 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

The first thing that happens is that the Messiah is “cut off” but not for Himself. This clearly means He is executed and we know that He died for our sins, not His own because He was sinless. This event occurred in 32 AD.

The next event deals with the fact that “the people of the prince who is to come” or historically, the Romans surrounded Jerusalem and essentially destroyed the city and the Temple (sanctuary). This event occurred in 70 AD.

Now, just based on these two events, had the 70th week/seven run concurrently right after the second set of weeks/sevens, then the entire 490 years would have long been fulfilled. But again, notice Gabriel says, “And after the sixty-two weeks…” which should give us a heads up to understand that there is a break between the second and third set of weeks/sevens.

That break is made up of the events listed above starting with Messiah’s crucifixion, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the end of it shall be with a flood refers either to the “flood” of an army against Jerusalem, the flood of an army during Armageddon at the end of the Tribulation or both. Notice also Gabriel says “And till the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Since the time of Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AD, there have been continuing wars and skirmishes in that area of the world. In fact, we are seeing it again now, living through it. Hamas attacked Israel. Israel eventually fought back. Iran got involved and other proxies as well. Urkaine vs Russia continues too and it appears that the world is well on its way to World War III. These wars and desolations continue.

If we consider the Temple Mount, even though Jerusalem became united again in the 1960s with the so-called Six Day War in which Moshe Dayan led his troops into the part of Jerusalem where the Temple Mount is, finally uniting all of Jerusalem, Israel’s leaders left the security of the Temple Mount in the hands of Arab/Muslim security. This has caused nothing but problems for Israelites every year especially during Islam’s Ramadan.

In essence, Gentiles continue to trample the Temple Mount, a place God put His Name and considers it holy for Himself. But instead of a Temple that glorifies the God of Israel, the Dome of the Rock sits that glorifies the god of Islam (Satan). This will not fully be resolved until the return of Jesus. However, when the Antichrist comes on the scene and begins his ascent to supremacy, he will manage to create a type of (false) peace between Israel and surrounding Arab nations. This peace will undoubtedly include allowing the Jewish people to rebuilt at least part of the Temple so that Jewish worship including sacrifices can begin again.

Of course, the Antichrist desperately wants the Jewish Temple rebuilt so that he will be able to go inside the Holy of Holies and declare himself to be God. The Jewish people will see this and run for the hills to a place God has prepared for them for the remainder of the Tribulation (the second half of 3 and a half years).

This is what Gabriel is telling us in verse 27. Antichrist (the “he”) will confirm a covenant with the man (Israel’s leaders) for a “week/seven,” which is the final week/seven of the 490 years. The Tribulation period – aka the Time of Jacob’s Trouble – is that final seven year period that is still in front of us.

Notice Gabriel tells us that “…in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.” In other words, after Antichrist confirms a peace treaty for seven years, in the middle of that “week,” he will do something that ends the sacrifice and offering making the newly built Temple unusable to the Jewish people. Paul tells us the Antichrist declares himself to be God inside the Holy of Holies (2 Thessalonians 2:4), as I just mentioned.

The remainder of verse 27 confirms to us what will ultimately happen to Antichrist.

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.

Antichrist is the “one who makes desolate” and eventually, God’s wrath is poured out on the Antichrist, but the desolations continue until Jesus returns. It will be when He returns that He will destroy the Antichrist and the False Prophet and those two will be tossed directly into the Lake of Fire alive.

To sum up, a total of 490 years are set aside to deal with Israel’s sin and rebellion. After the second set of weeks/sevens (the 62), there is a break or gap in which several things occur that lead up to the actual beginning of the Tribulation period when the Antichrist brokers or confirms a peace deal with Israel and Arab nations. Once the Antichrist confirms this peace treaty, it will be then that the final week/seven begins, which is called most commonly, the Tribulation period. This period of time is still in front of us.

While I tend to think that this final seven year period will happen sooner than later, I could be completely wrong about that. I simply judge this by how far the world has come based on the wants of the World Economic Forum, the WHO and the UN. More is on the way next month with the WHO and also later this year in September. They are not giving up and want the entire world caught in their surveillance trap where all people are fully controlled.

The WEF wants a good deal of things in place by 2025, not 2030 and to that end they push. Next time, we’ll get into Daniel 10.

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