Daniel 9:20-27: The 70 Weeks, Mystery Solved!

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Amen, please remain standing and turn in your Bibles once again to the book of Daniel Daniel chapter 9 will pick up our reading in verse 20.

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This is following the Passage we studied last week on the prayer of Daniel and now we get into the prophecy

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Daniel chapter 9 starting in verse 20 Here now the inspired Word of God Now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people

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Israel and Presenting my supplication before the Lord my God and behalf of the

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Holy Mountain of my God While I was still speaking in prayer Then the man

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Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision previously Came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering

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He gave me instruction and talked with me and said Oh Daniel I have now come forth to give you insight and understanding at the beginning of your supplications

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The command was issued and I have come to tell you for you are highly esteemed So give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision

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Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression to make an end of sin

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To atone to make atonement for iniquity To bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place so you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and Rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the

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Prince. There will be seven weeks in 62 weeks It will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress

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Then after the 62 weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing and The people of the

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Prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with a flood

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Even to the end there will be war desolations are determined and He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week

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But in the middle of the week He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction

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One that is decreed is poured out and the one who makes desolate

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Let's pray father once again as we look into this marvelous book of Daniel and Father we are given a glimpse into the prophetic

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Ministry of Daniel we pray that you would open our eyes our ears that we would have understanding that we would learn from what

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Daniel's prophecy is and That father that it would bring us closer to our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we would be more like him We pray this in Jesus name

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Amen, please be seated Did you ever ask yourself why there are so many different interpretations of biblical prophecy?

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I've often asked myself that question and and other questions related to it

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I believe there are many answers to that question, but I Boiled it down to two three of what

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I think are major issues the first reason is many expositories bring break a cardinal principle of hermeneutics by ignoring context and we see this frequently just picking verses out and Talking only about it and ignoring the context

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Prophecy is not given in a vacuum there's always a reason for it in a context and We'll look at that in our text this morning

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The second reason that I've come to understand is that many expositors come to prophetic scripture with a predetermined system and They read the text through The matrix of that system if you will

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So it's no wonder that the text they are examining fit into their system The third reason

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And I think this the most serious is that many expositors forget that the subject of prophecy always leads to Jesus Christ If you are reading prophecy and you do not see

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Jesus Christ in it Something is wrong That brings us to our text for this morning the prophecy following Daniel's prayer the context for Daniel's prayer is what

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He reads in the scriptures Specifically from Jeremiah 25 and 29.

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We looked at that last week We read in Daniel 9 2 in the first year of his reign

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I Daniel observed the books in the number of the years which was Revealed as the

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Word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem namely 70 years

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We saw last week how this revelation affected Daniel and in a rather unusual way

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He comes before the Lord not celebrating the end of the exile but in sackcloth and ashes and with the contrite and humble prayer

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His prayer was simple yet profound And I'm going to just summarize the prayer

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First thing he prays for he addresses God's faithfulness Versus the people sin second he addresses

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God's righteousness and the people sin Thirdly he addresses

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God's mercy versus the people sin are you getting a pattern here?

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fourth he addresses God's judgment and A specific sin of the people their spiritual adultery

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And then fifth he addresses God's past deliverance specifically in the Exodus once again with the people's sin and then the sixth thing he addressed in the prayer was

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God's righteousness and the overwhelming need of the people which is to be delivered from their sin and conclusion he prays that God would save his people and Vindicate his name.

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I want to read just a short quotation from one of the reformed scholars that I've been looking at He says this if God is going to vindicate his name

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He must find a way to forgive his people Daniel does not say how this can be done though His sackcloth and ashes makes it clear that he is willing to die for his people to be their substitute

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We know that the only reason God was ever able to pick his sinful people Back up was because of the cross of Jesus Christ still in the future

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If God is going to vindicate his name then the emptiness the desolation of his sanctuary must cease

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The shining light of God's Shekinah glory must return to it the city in which in his house must be rebuilt

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That's the context of the prophecy to follow the prayer and the prophecy clearly then point

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Directly to Jesus Christ who is the only answer to the dilemma of sinful mankind?

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So let's look at verses Well, we start with verse 20 Now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people

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Israel I'm presenting my supplication before the Lord my God and behalf of the holy mountain of my

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God While I was still speaking in prayer then the man Gabriel whom

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I had seen in the vision previously Came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering

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Now we already know from the previous chapters in the book that Daniel was an extraordinary man of God he was devoted to serving

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God in the pagan kingdom that God had brought him to and Part of that devotion was a consistent and I would say a vibrant prayer life

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It got to the point. He would rather be thrown into the lion's den Than to give up his spiritual duties

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So I think it's fair to say that Daniel Like the

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Apostle Paul had learned the secret of being content in any and all circumstances that God placed him

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Yet Daniel knew that Jerusalem and the temple were necessary For God's plan.

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So while being content, he also longed for the exile to end and We just saw that in that short review of his prayer

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That he longed for the exile to end and in fact in His prayer

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Daniel even refers to God. He calls him you are the God who keeps covenant

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I That's one of my favorite names for God the covenant keeping

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God Because if it wasn't for that fact, we would all be doomed Thank God.

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He doesn't keep covenant like we do so Daniel was praying fervently as Indicated by verse 21.

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He was extremely weary from his prayers, I Wonder how long was he had he been praying

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But he was confessing his own sin as well as interceding on behalf of the people

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And then we come to verse 21 while he was still in prayer the man

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Gabriel whom He had seen in the vision previously came to him in his extreme weariness

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He said about the time that is the second time in this book that we've seen Gabriel He calls him a man because he's appearing in human form

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But the first time we saw him was in chapter 8 When he's told to give

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Daniel understanding about the vision of the goat and the ram He's also mentioned twice in the

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New Testament in the gospel of Luke first time he's called to give the message to Zacharias about the birth of John the

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Baptist and then second to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus Now many people speculate who

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Gabriel is. What is his rank in heaven? What would he be called etc, etc for our purposes?

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It's just sufficient to say he was a messenger from God As each of the four scriptures tell us so we're on safe ground to say that he was certainly an angelic messenger and here we are given a glimpse in the spiritual realm so realm so we can

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We can see what happens when faithful people pray and I love this part Daniel was still praying when

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Gabriel appears before him and in verse 23 Gabriel tells him that he was dispatched when

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Daniel started to pray. I'm reminded of the third petition in the

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Lord's Prayer Says thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven in heaven

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Just as Daniel begins to pray God says Gabriel go He knew what he was gonna pray before he asked and that's what we pray for in that third position petition

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We pray that we on earth would be as obedient as the angels are in heaven

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So Daniel begins his prayer Gabriel is dispatched and reaches Daniel while he is still praying and The reason he comes is to give insight and understanding

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To comfort Daniel by giving him a view into the future plan of God something else in this section this confirms

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That the prayers of the righteous are not in vain God hears every one of our prayers and answers them

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Accordance to what is best for us and would give him the glory Daniel's prayers were answered because of his faithfulness as a servant of the

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Lord Verse 23 says he was highly esteemed Look at verse 24 70 weeks have been decreed for your people in your holy city

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To finish the transgression to make an end of sin to make an atonement for iniquity to bring in everlasting everlasting righteousness to steal up seal up vision and Prophecy and to anoint the most holy place 70 weeks decree

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That's an important piece of information. We'll get into the 70 weeks a little bit later What I want to look at first is the content of what was decreed

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There are six items six things to be accomplished in these 70 weeks

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And it's important that we understand what those things are first says to finish the transgression

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Some translations say to complete the apostasy We must come back to the reasons

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Why Judah and Israel are in captivity? They had profaned the worship of God which resulted in the temple being desecrated and left desolate and This was clearly seen in especially in the high priesthood

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The Gospels confirmed for us that the high priests were corrupt even at the time of Christ God is telling

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Daniel that The 70 weeks is the time allotted for that to be completed for the transgression to be completed

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We saw a similar language in Daniel's previous vision in Daniel chapter 8 verse 12 and An account of transgression the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice and it will fling truth to the ground and performance will and Prosper then

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I heard a holy one speaking another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply?

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While the transgression causes horror So as to allow both the holy place and the holy and the host to be trampled

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God is giving Israel time to repent and return to him and if they do not after the 70 weeks

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Judgment will follow Now if you're not familiar with this type of language, let me Let me refer you back to Genesis remember when

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God showed Abraham all the land of promise that was promised to him.

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He says This is going to be yours You're descended to occupy it but not yet and he gives him a reason a very unusual reason from our perspective

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Because we don't talk this way Because the iniquity of the

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Amorites is not yet complete Genesis 15 16 then in the fourth generation, they will return here for the iniquity of the

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Amorite is not yet complete Now this makes perfect sense in the present circumstances since Israel presented with the

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Messiah and Rejected him and chose Caesar as their king when they crucified him.

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Their iniquity was full and complete The kingdom was removed from them and given to a nation bearing the fruit thereof but God is giving them 70 weeks of time to repent of their apostasy and if they don't

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If they don't repent It will be full at that time So that's the first thing second

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Says to make an end of sin some translations say to seal Purifications it refers to the sin offerings which were part of the sacrificial system detailed in Leviticus 4 and 5

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Leviticus 4 verse 2 Speak to the sons of Israel saying if a person sins unintentionally

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In any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done and commits any of them if the

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Lord anointed priests so at sins So as to bring guilt on the people then let him offer to the

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Lord a bull without defect as a sin offering For the sin he has committed

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He shall bring the bull to the doorway of the tent of meeting Before the Lord and he shall lay his hand on the head of the bull and slay the bull before the

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Lord This was essential For the people to be declared even ceremonially clean so that it could function in the in the community of Israel But in Leviticus 16, we find out that this sin offering was also an annual thing on the

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Day of Atonement however We also know from Hebrews 10 for which we read earlier

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That the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin So at the end of the 70 -week period something was going to happen that was going to put an end to these sacrifices once for all time and There's only one event that can do away with those sacrifices the cross of Jesus Christ The innocent blood of our

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Savior put an end to sin offerings for all time And that fault flows into the third thing to atone for iniquity

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This too has reference to the sacrifices for sin the Hebrew word translated the to atone here means a covering

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Remember sin is a liability or a debt that needs to be reconciled

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We still use this language when we pray Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors the

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Old Covenant sacrifices for sin were more symbolic in nature and To give us understanding of this concept.

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The Holy Spirit has given us the book of Hebrews, but especially chapter 10, which we read this morning

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Remember we read in Hebrews 10 11 every piece priest Stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifice which can never take away sin

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But he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God So at the end of this 70 week period the sin of all the people of God will be atoned for So we're starting to get a picture of the event that will accomplish this task

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Next one. The fourth principle is to bring in everlasting righteousness This is what

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Gable tells Daniel will occur at the end of this period of time to bring in everlasting righteousness if sin is covered

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The sacrifices for sin are no longer needed That must of necessity means that righteousness comes in Only the sacrifice on the cross can accomplish this it is only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that brings in righteousness

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Right here and now and I mean here and now

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The people of God have been declared righteous in Jesus Christ This is one of the amazing things when

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God looks at us Not only does he not see our sin, but he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to us

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This is an amazing an amazing reality and one that's important to understand this element of our salvation

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Was one that astounded Martin Luther He expressed what this looks like in the

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Latin phrase simul Eustace at Peccator at the same time righteous and sinner

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That's one of the wonders of the cross and that leads to the fifth purpose of the decree to seal up vision and prophecy

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The word seal in this case does not mean to put an end to but rather to seal means to ratify or confirm the prophecies

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Of God, we know that all Old Testament prophecy points to the work of Christ all the prophecies and All the types and the shadows all of the

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Old Testament sacrificial system all pointed to Christ Therefore when

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Christ was crucified Resurrected and ascended into heaven. That was God putting his official seal on his entire work

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Just as the ancient Kings used a signet ring. God put his stamp of approval on the entire revelation of Scripture Specifically the prophecies of the

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Old Covenant is so significant. Jesus said it is finished the last part of the decree

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Was to anoint the Most Holy some translations say the most holy place which

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Fits either way doesn't make a difference, but the better translation I think is just the most holy speaking of a person specifically the high priest

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Remember the high priest was an anointed position But in the context we we have seen here it applies to the anointing of Jesus Christ in his messianic duties

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When Jesus entered the temple made without hands, he became the final high priest

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The high priesthood ended with him So you can see why it doesn't matter if you translate it the most holy place

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Because Jesus became the incarnate most holy place when he came to her now, there's a debate

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Concerning when this anointing took place Some say it is baptism. Others say it is ascension when he assumed the throne

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Either works for me since he is the eternal holy of holies who came to earth Tabernacled with his people and will never leave us nor forsake us

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When you take these six purposes for the decree together, it is clear that they all point to the person in the work of Jesus Christ so With that as the background, let's examine these 70 weeks

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This text has caused more battles in churches than I care to recount So we want to proceed through this very very cautiously

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Verse 24 tells us that 70 weeks have been decreed The word used for weeks is not the usual word for week, but a word that indicates 70 periods of time 70 weeks of years is the best

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English translation and Believe it or not. That's one of the areas that is not in the debate

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I have pretty much all scholars agree that that's what the text is saying in other words, it's talking about 490 years and You will see shortly that the text itself verifies that interpretation

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What is in dispute is what happens in divisions of these 70 weeks? Look at verse 25

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So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild

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Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks it will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress from Cyrus's decree which starts to clock to the end of Nehemiah when the construction of the temple was complete was 49 years

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That's the first division seven weeks of years That's 7 7 is 49 and the city is said to be rebuilt even in times of distress a

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Few years ago. We preached through the book of Nehemiah and For those of you who were here, you know what

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Nehemiah went through When he was trying to get the walls built and and the city restored if you've never read

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Nehemiah I urge you to do so and you will see the pressure and the opposition

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Nehemiah had while supervising the rebuilding of the city In fact at one point men literally worked on the walls with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other hand

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That's where Charles Spurgeon got the name for his publication the sword and the trowel

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But let me keep on reminding you that all of these books are related to each other we find Daniel Well, he's serving the

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Lord. He's reading Jeremiah And if you read Nehemiah, you will find the important information that refers to both

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Daniel and Ezra So the first seven weeks or heptads is it's called and with the rebuilding of the city during the next 62 weeks nothing prophetically of consequences recorded for us and this corresponds to what is usually called the

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Intertestamental period it also explains why there was a prophetic silence during this period

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They already had this prophetic word that basically said once That the city will be repaired be patient For the next important prophetic event in the time is the time of the

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Messiah Now before we move on let me remind you that all these prophecies symbols concerning the rebuilding

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Etc. They all have their ultimate fulfillment in the new covenant with Jesus Christ and the new covenant

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Church So let's look at verse 26 then after the 62 weeks the

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Messiah will be cut off and have nothing and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and Its end will come with a flood

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Even to the end there will be war Desolations are determined The text says is at some point after the 62 weeks the

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Messiah will be cut off and have nothing This can only happen at the crucifixion and the death of Jesus Jesus was cut off from his own people who shouted crucify him crucify him

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He was true royalty and yet the Jewish court Basically excommunicated him and bowed banished him by sentencing to to the death of a criminal

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He was left with nothing even as God first took him on the cross It was the greatest sacrilege in the history of mankind

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The greatest crime ever committed. Oh and just a reminder.

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These verses are not necessarily in chronological order Because God is painting word pictures for us

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But the prince who is to come will destroy the city as as a result of the rejection of Christ an army will come and destroy the city and Remember what's happening through all of this?

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Why is all of this happening? Because God is judging Israel and Judah the kingdom is being taken away from them and given to the

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New Covenant Church and Part of that judgment is that the city would be destroyed and the temple would be torn down stone by stone

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Just as Jesus said it would This fate of Israel was set When they not only killed the prophets who came to call them to repentance

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But when they actually crucified the Son of God the true King and the legitimate high priest

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This decree was revealed 70 weeks of years earlier and Was set when they actually carried out the crucifixion

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But even then God gave them 40 years to repent But in 70

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AD the prophecy was fulfilled in amazing detail when Titus the general of the

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Roman army overran Jerusalem destroyed the city just as Gabriel had said and then

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Look again at the end of verse 26 and its end will come with a flood

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Even to the end there will be war Desolations are determined. This is language of utter destruction

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In God's Providence, we have some good historical records of this war against Jerusalem Flavius Josephus wrote the chronicles of the war called the

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Jewish Wars. I Would suggest that you read it, but it's not for the squeamish if you have a aversion to Hearing of atrocities then maybe you don't want to read it

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But the Roman army and the mercenaries of Edomia were rather brutal in their treatment of the people

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So, let's now look at verse 27, here's where it really gets controversial and He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week

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But in the middle of the week He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of abominations one will come who makes desolate

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Even until a complete destruction one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate

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Here is what we have great disagreement with some of our brothers in Christ It has become popular to say that the he right in the first Verse and he will make a firm covenant

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It's become popular to say that that's referring to the Antichrist First let me say

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I disagree with the term the use of the term Antichrist as it is used in eschatology today anyway they usually mean one one or more of the beasts of Revelation and there there's even more and John in his first epistle says that during his lifetime.

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There were many Antichrists and The word Antichrist is not used in the book of the

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Revelation But putting that aside for the time being they usually mean one of the beasts of Revelation the problem is that grammatically linguistically and Contextually the he refers back to Messiah in verse 26 not to a supposed

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Antichrist Verse 26 tells us that after the 62 weeks the Messiah is cut off Verse 27 gets more specific and tells us that it was in the middle of the 70th week

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So, how does he put an end to the sacrifice and offering? by sacrificing himself

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The once -for -all sacrifice that all the sacrifices and offerings of the

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Old Covenant look forward to They were types and shadows So when the one and the two sacrifices made in his blood that ended all the sacrifices and all the types and shadows

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Now did the people of Israel and Judah continue making sacrifices and offerings? Yes, they did for a while but far from being acceptable to God they were an abomination and Even in one of his letters in the book of the

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Revelation he says that they had become a synagogue of Satan, but that all ended in 70

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AD when the temple was destroyed and God used the Roman army to destroy what had become detestable and desolate

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The temple suffered its ultimate desolation because it was completely destroyed. And so just so we don't miss the point

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Look at the end of verse 27 again And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction

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One that is decreed Here we have a prophecy 490 years beforehand telling us what is going to happen when faithless

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Israel and Judah are judged and The kingdom was wrenched from them and given to the New Covenant Church All by decree of the

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Most High God Now, I know some of this got very technical

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But we have strived to be as faithful to the text as possible We've not overlaid a system on the scripture

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We've interpreted the scripture in light of the context given to us in the word and Most importantly we have always pointed that to show how this prophecy points directly to Jesus Christ This prophecy was given to Daniel because he was highly esteemed and was a man of prayer

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It was important for him and it's important for us today There's a few lessons that I think we can directly take from this text

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First it shows us the importance of prayer and gives us an example of biblical prayer

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It shows us how God answers the prayers of his people It shows us the importance of being faithful to our

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Lord It teaches us to be content in any and all circumstances that God brings in our path

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It teaches us that there are consequences for sin But it also teaches us the mercy and compassion of our

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Savior It teaches us that the only way to avoid the judgment That sin brings is to confess and repent of our sin

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Just as Daniel did I would say there's a lot here for us as believers

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To consider to mull over and to evaluate our lives based upon it to the person here today who doesn't know

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Doesn't know Jesus Message is clear Judgment is coming repent of your sin bow the knee to Jesus Christ and be saved