The Decree of Seventy Weeks continued (Daniel 9:24-26) | Adult Sunday School

3 You rose, the grave and death are conquered.

You broke my bonds of sin and shame, O Lord, my rock and my

Redeemer. May all my days bring glory to your name.

May all my days bring glory to your name.

Thank you. Shall we?

Oh, there we go. Good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School.

We will be in the book of Daniel again. I don't know what page, I can't find my Bible, so I'm going to use this thing, which is going to be strange for me.

I can use this one. But thank you. Let's open in prayer.

Father, every bit of your word is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction.

And so this morning we look for each of those that you would bring them into our lives. As we look at these incredible panoramas that you laid out to Daniel for sometime just after his time and far into the future.

We are grateful, Lord, that you have everything in control, that we look to you as the sovereign

God of the universe. The one to whom we can come to with everything, the one to whom we know, the one from which comes everything.

This morning, give us illumination, help us to understand this section of Scripture as it relates to our lives and how it relates to the rest of Scripture.

And we'll thank you for all you're doing in Jesus' name. Amen. So as I mentioned, I don't know what I did with it.

It's been one of my superpowers lately to lay things aside and lose them. But I can read this.

These words are big enough if I just hold it the right distance. So open your

Bibles to Daniel and we're going to read from chapter 9 from verse 20 to the end of the chapter.

And we will be revisiting a little bit of verse 24, which we started last week.

And then we will launch into as far as we can get. So Daniel chapter 9, verse 20.

Remember, we're looking at the ending of Daniel's prayer, which probably lasted most of the day.

And at the beginning of that prayer, God dispatched the angel Gabriel, who made it by the time of the evening sacrifice to give

Daniel the information that God had sent. So verse 20 of Daniel chapter 9. Now, while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people

Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, on behalf of the holy mountain of my

God. While I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.

He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding.

At the beginning of your supplications, the command was issued. And I've come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.

So give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. Verse 24, 70 weeks have been decreed for your people in your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, 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 prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks, and it will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.

Then after the 62 weeks, the 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.

Even to the end, there will be war. Desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week.

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, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate. So as we're reading through and studying this section, there's something we all need to keep in mind.

And that is that prophecy is for comfort. It's designed to give us comfort. That's one of the built -in benefits, the pluses of prophetic insight that Daniel got here.

It gave him comfort as well as concern, knowing that hard things were still coming for his people.

But it also, if prophecy does nothing else, and it does a billion things, so this is just a saying, okay?

If it does nothing else, it reminds us of how sovereign God is and of how everything is completely within his control and purview.

Because when the things that he said come to pass, come to pass as he said they did, it should continually to be a source of awe and incredible joy and comfort and blessing for us.

Even though we've been reading about it and studying about it for most of us many decades. So he sent an answer to Daniel when

Daniel began to pray. And Daniel received that answer. Somebody's already throwing rocks at me.

Somebody, and Daniel received that answer towards the end of the day. And that answer begins with 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city.

It's doing it again. Oh, there we go. It has to vibrate in case you're wondering. Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.

We talked about the six purposes for the 70 weeks found in this verse. Finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the most holy place.

Those six, we've looked at three. We'll get to them in a moment. And then nine points to keep in mind.

The prophecy deals with Daniel's people and Daniel's city, verse 24. The princes, two princes,

Messiah the Prince, verse 25, and the prince that shall come, verse 26. The time specified is 70 weeks, verse 24, and it is specifically divided into three time periods, seven weeks, 62 weeks, and two weeks.

This period begins, quote, from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild

Jerusalem, verse 25, unquote. The end of the seven weeks and the 62 weeks are marked by the appearance of Messiah the

Prince, verse 25. At a later time, number six, after 69 weeks, after the 69 weeks, but not in the 70th week,

Messiah the Prince will be cut off and Jerusalem will again be destroyed by the people of another prince who is yet to come, verse 26.

Following this 70th week will be marked by the establishment of a firm covenant treaty between the coming prince and the

Jewish nation for one week, verse 27. And in the middle of the 70th week, the coming prince will force the

Jewish sacrifice to cease and will cause a time of wrath and desolation lasting to the end of the week, verse 27.

And once the 70 weeks are completed, there will be a time of great blessing for the nation of Israel. And we went through the first three, the first one being the fact that it was decreed for your people.

We looked at the fact that this was decreed for the people of Daniel, which would have been the Israelites, the

Jews. That the second aspect was to finish the transgression, although that is the first of the six purposes.

It refers to the Jews' sin of rebellion against God. God will eventually, at the end of time, completely remove this kind of transgression from Israel.

She will turn to her Messiah. And then it is to make an end of sin. This is to make an end of individual sin.

Sin that permeates. And then to make atonement for iniquity. And that is where we ended last week.

So the first three purposes deal with the sin of Daniel's people. And the idea is to get rid of sin.

What's heaven going to not have in it? It's not going to have sin. I am so looking forward to that.

It's not going to have any sin. It's going to be a perfect place of blessing. And so this is the beginning of that aspect, or looking at how that will work out.

So the second three purposes are positive items.

The first three, if you will, are negative only in the sense that they're to get rid of something. And the first three are to add some things.

So we're going to look at those three things today. The first one is to bring in everlasting righteousness.

Now, the angel does turn to positive items. The last item on the negative list was to make an end of sin.

Righteousness is the opposite of sin. It must be appropriated by grace through faith to be effective in one's life.

And it is individual righteousness that blooms into national righteousness. God does not save nations.

He saves people. And when the people of a nation begin to turn to Him, that is the salvation of the nation.

He doesn't just, I'm going to save this. He just doesn't just, I don't know how else to word it. He just doesn't save nations.

He saves individuals. And those individuals turn to Christ by grace, through faith, and through that changing in their lives, the nation begins to change.

Now, I believe this particular change is going to be rather rapid, this one that's being talked about here. But any nation can begin to turn back to Christ and begin to preach the gospel.

This happened in the 1740s in this country, what was called the First Great Awakening. And it was a return to national righteousness that slowly but surely created the seedbed for some of the freedoms that would take place later on.

Now, this will be a much quicker turn to Christ. But we will get to that later. The idea of everlasting here, when he says bring in everlasting righteousness, is very significant in the life of the

Israelites. They had constantly turned from God, and then back to God, and then from God, and then back to God, almost like a revolving door.

I'm glad none of us do that. But the Israelites did that. Well, okay then.

Every time they turned back to God, he brought blessing. This would be followed by a return to sin and God's discipline to encourage them, to force them, to cause them to turn back to him.

This turning to everlasting righteousness that this is talking about will be permanent. It is good for us to remember that this kind of righteousness will be the righteousness of Yahweh himself.

This is not a contrived men's righteousness, it's not the unreliable righteousness of human invention.

Men invent a righteousness that looks good, sounds good, smells good, tastes good, but it's not the real thing.

The real thing can only be imputed into individual believers by Yahweh, by God himself.

This is a righteousness that depends upon God's character. It doesn't depend on Israel's character or on our character.

Remember when Daniel prayed, some of the blessings he asked for, he specifically said, I'm not asking because of any merit on our part, but because of your righteousness, because of your mercy.

That's what prayer requested. Thus, this phrase describes something yet future.

This hasn't happened. It didn't happen right away. It didn't happen immediately after Daniel. It didn't happen in the near future there.

This is still something future. There is no national everlasting righteousness occurring in Israel, to my thought.

Is there? Am I missing something? I watch CNN. Okay, well,

I was kidding. I don't watch CNN. I don't do fiction. Thus, so this phrase describes something future.

What is in view here is a postponing into the future of the final righteousness that depends upon Yahweh permanently turning the hearts of the

Israelites to their Messiah. When we get to talking about the Messiah later on in this section,

I haven't finished fleshing this out, but some of the theories that have come up over the last three centuries are unbelievably strange, and I won't get into too many of them because we don't want to spend time on strange.

We want to spend time on God's Word. So bringing in everlasting righteousness, a permanent righteousness that will permeate the nation of Israel and turn them back to their

God, turn them to their Messiah. The second of the three positive purposes, or the fourth,

I guess, or fifth, excuse me, is to seal up vision and prophecy. This phrase starts with the same infinitive as the phrase to make an end of sin.

The idea is one of completion, to finish, to cause it to happen for good.

That's what the idea behind the word seal up is in the Hebrew. Now the praetorist believes that all visions and prophecies have been fulfilled in Christ.

There are plenty of Old Testament prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled. From Daniel, the tribulation has not yet been fulfilled.

From Jeremiah, the covenant that Yahweh will make with Israel when He puts His laws into their hearts, that has not been fulfilled.

Also from Jeremiah, the time of Jacob's troubles has not been fulfilled. From Ezekiel, the future invasion of Israel has not been fulfilled.

These are just a few. I thought I would just kind of categorize that because some people figure, have determined that all the prophecies have come to completion in Jesus Christ.

They have not. There are plenty of prophecies that are still to be finished out. So this phrase rings with the finality from the words and it rings from the words and from the context that this refers to a final sealing up of vision and profit, literally, with the word profit referring to the product of the

Old Testament prophets, namely their prophecies. This phrase is a general statement about prophecy.

It is an indication of a time when all prophecies will have been fulfilled. This indeed indicates or points to the end times, which haven't happened.

That's number five. And then last of this positive aspect that the angel

Gabriel is bringing to Daniel is to anoint the most holy. So this phrase connotes the idea from the

Hebrew, usually translated as to pour oil on something or someone. It's funny how words come to have meaning, but the idea of to anoint came from a process that they did in anointing.

They would pour oil on the head and it would run down over the person's face and one of the prophets talks about in the beard,

I think it's Samuel, it runs into the beard and it's a picture of an anointing.

It is the physical manifestation of what the word to anoint means. This phrase occurs 39 times in the

Old Testament with or without an article, with or without the article. And it is always a reference to the tabernacle or the temple or to the holy articles that are used in their service.

Whenever it refers to the most holy place where the ark was kept, the article is used. But the article is not used when referring to the holy articles or tools in the tabernacle slash temple.

It is most certain that this phrase refers to the temple here. And as commentator

Leon Wood has shown in his word study, he said in view of these matters, it is highly likely that the phrase refers to the temple also here, which in view of the context must be a future temple.

And since the phrase is used without the article, reference must be to a complex of that temple rather than its most holy place.

Amillennialists, some of who reject the idea of a future temple and who find the fulfillment of this overall passage in Christ's first coming, identify the phrase with Christ himself, making him the holy of holies.

This, however, is contrary to the evidence cited. Christ's millennial rule will know a recovered temple.

And it is logical to find it as the point of reference of the phrase. So this is to anoint the most holy.

The fact is that this expression is never used of a person in the 39 times that it's used.

It's always used of things. It is not a reference to the Messiah nor to the church, which is nowhere found here in the entire prophecy of Daniel.

It refers to Daniel's people, Israel. This clause also awaits future fulfillment to anoint the most holy.

That hasn't happened yet. It's going to happen. So again, a summary

I read from Leon Woods. In summation regarding the time of fulfillment of all six items, the first four are fulfilled in principle at Christ's first coming when full atonement for sin was made.

Full atonement for sin was made by the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what his final words on the cross were.

It is finished. Oh, what beautiful, what three beautiful words. Okay, so let me start over because I interrupted

Leon. In summation regarding the time of fulfillment of all six items, the first four are fulfilled in principle at Christ's first coming when full atonement for sin was made but fulfilled in respect to actual benefit for Israel as a nation only at Christ's second coming when the nation will truly turn to God.

Individuals will and the nation will. And the last two items are fulfilled only in connection with the second coming when the prophecies of that time will be fulfilled and there will be a restored temple to anoint.

Reviewing the six clauses in verse 24 shows that none of them have been completely fulfilled.

There remains a time of future fulfillment for much of what is given to us in verse 24. This is an outline in verse 24 of the entire prophecy and shows a general picture of the end while the beginning will be given to us in verse 25.

So we're going to see more explicit more information coming in the next three verses 25, 26, and 27.

Now keeping in mind as we begin to discuss the 70 weeks, some do not countenance the gap between the first and second comings of Christ.

The idea of a 70th week. In the 800 year period in which Israel occupied their land, there is a 490 year period of ignoring the

Sabbath rests. There are at least 310 years of gaps interspersed throughout those 800 years.

So there's a 490 year period of ignoring the Sabbath rests, but in that 800 year period there's 310 years of gaps interspersed throughout that 800 years.

This is a direct correlation between the two things. Even preterists generally agree that the 70 weeks of Daniel are related to the violation of God's direct command for sabbatical years as God gave in Leviticus 25 and 26 and concerning 2

Chronicles 36 and Jeremiah 25. There appears to be substantial evidence that the gaps of the 800 years of Israel's occupation of the land predict or at least allow a gap in the prophecy of the 70 weeks.

And so we're going to look at this. There is going to be clearly language in this next section for those who take the scripture literally unless directed otherwise that there are a number of things that happen after the 69th week but do not happen in the 70th week.

So we will look at those as we get to them. Any questions about verse 24?

Two weeks on verse 24. Verse 25, Daniel, angel

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

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. I have asked

Josh to put the entire PowerPoint online and so he's going to facilitate that and that will cover nearly all of the scripture that I use, the other scripture and some of the comments and that will be available for you to look at.

The text is 100 ,000 words already so it's probably too much but the

PowerPoint will be up. He said probably when he gets back from Oklahoma. So verse 25, here we have the beginning point or what is called the terminus aquo.

Why do people use Latin? My son was born with what is called spina bifida occultus and you know what that means?

Let me translate that for you. Something happened in the womb to his backbone and we don't know what it was. That's what the

Latin means in the vernacular. Sometimes I wish they just put stuff in English. So this is the beginning, the terminus aquo.

The countdown will begin with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Note that some have mistakenly used dates from the beginning of the building of the temple but also, but this is not what is said here.

There were several decrees regarding the rebuilding of the temple. Now I have all the scripture presented on this up here.

We're not going to read all of it but it will be available online to direct you to look at the different decrees that were made in Ezra and in Nehemiah.

I will read some of them. There were several decrees regarding the rebuilding of the temple.

The decrees will be listed this morning in reverse order of time. The third decree was issued in Ezra chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, chapter 6, verses 3 through 5 in 537

BC. Now, Ezra says, In the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the

Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stood up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the

Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. By the way, this pagan still doesn't understand just who

Yahweh is, because he's not just the God who is in Israel. He is the God, sovereign God of the universe, but he is being used by Yahweh right now to facilitate this prophecy, or to begin to facilitate some parts of this.

Every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.

So, one observation I made there that has absolutely nothing to do with Daniel, but it occurred to me.

Whether you actually go, or you're financed, both people have part in it, an equal part.

I'm reminded of that, I think David said that at some point in his kingship too. So, the people that went, and the people that stayed and financed the going, had part in this.

The second one part in Ezra is chapter 6, verses 3 -5. In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God of Jerusalem.

Let the temple, the place where the sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt, and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits, and its width 60 cubits, four, with three layers of huge stones, and one layer of timbers, and let the cost be paid from the royal treasury, also let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which

Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem, be brought to Babylon, remember that? Early on in Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar took all of those implements, they're going to take them back home.

And you shall put them in the house of God. So, that's the first decree, it's the third decree actually, and it was issued in 537.

Then there was the second decree, which was from Artaxerxes in Ezra 7, 11 -26.

And I believe I do have that, or not.

There it is, second decree. I'm going to hit the high points, not that all of Scripture isn't important, but I would like to get through some of this this morning.

Now, this is the copy of the decree which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra, the priest, the scribe, learned in the words of the commandments of the

Lord and the statutes to Israel. So, Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra, the priest, the scribe, of the law of the

God of heaven, perfect peace. And now I have issued a decree that any of the people of Israel and their priests and the Levites of my kingdom who are willing to go to Jerusalem may go with you for as much as you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your

God. So, I'm going to read verses 17 -20. With this money, therefore, you shall diligently buy bulls, rams, and lambs with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them on the altar of the house of your

God, which is in Jerusalem, whatever seems good to you and to your brothers, to do so with the rest of the silver and gold you may do according to the will of your

God. Also, the utensils which are given to you for the service of the house of your gods deliver in full before the

God of Jerusalem. The rest of the needs for the house of your God for which you may have occasion to provide, provide for it from the royal treasury.

So, this decree was for resumption of use of the temple.

And then the third decree, or the first decree in our particular way we're doing it, which was also from Artaxerxes in Nehemiah chapter 2, and this is the one that we're going to focus on.

The third decree referenced the rebuilding of the temple, the second decree the reestablishing proper procedures, the first decree in Nehemiah specifically addresses the rebuilding of the city.

So, let's look at that, see if I can find that in this bunch of Scripture. Nehemiah chapter 2, verses 5 through 8.

Let's back up here, go the other way.

Moving forward. I said to the king, Nehemiah said to the king, if it pleased the king and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it.

Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, how long will your journey be and when will you return?

So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time, and I gave him a definite time, and I said to the king, if it pleased the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the river that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress, which is by the temple for the wall of the city, and for the house to which

I will go. And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was upon me. So this is the decree that I believe is being referenced in Daniel chapter 29, verses 24 and 25.

So, as I said, the first decree referenced the rebuilding of the temple, the second decree reestablished proper prayer procedures at the temple, and the first decree in Nehemiah specifically addresses the rebuilding of the city, and it is from this specific decree that the 70 weeks proceeds.

The 483 years from the beginning of which is March 5th, 444 B .C. and ended on Monday, March 30th, 33

A .D. constitutes the 69 weeks of this prophecy. Monday, March 30th, 33

A .D. was the date of Christ's triumphal entry, and four days later, he was cut off by the crucifixion.

So all of that scripture and attendant, concurring scripture, it will be on the, and maybe many of you have read it already, but it will be in the

PowerPoint online. Now, the scripture specifically says 7 weeks and 62 weeks.

Why didn't it just say 69 weeks? It will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress.

Why is it divided this way? There is not much debate on the first 7 weeks. This is the first of the three segments and refers to Jerusalem, refers to when

Jerusalem will be built again with plaza and moat. So the first 7 weeks refers to the time of rebuilding

Jerusalem and the temple. In his documentary, The Key to Prophetic Revelation, John Walward says this, he said, the best explanation seems to be the beginning with Nehemiah's decree and the building of the wall.

It took a whole generation to clear out all the debris in Jerusalem and restore it as a thriving city. This might well be the fulfillment of the 49 years, first week.

The specific reference to streets again addresses our attention to Nehemiah's situation where the streets were covered with debris and needed to be rebuilt.

That this was accomplished in troubled times is fully documented by the book of Nehemiah itself.

I don't know how many of you have come upon abandoned buildings, but even if they're only abandoned for just a few years, they quickly go into serious disrepair.

And it's like if things aren't used, they break. They break badly. So Jerusalem had been essentially by the

Jews properly unused for 70 years. There was a tremendous amount of restoration to be done.

And this would take time. Now, it's amazing what people could get done in antiquity.

I mean, witness the pyramids and things like that. But they did not have backhoes and graders and dump trucks,

I don't think. I do watch CNN. They had hand labor and donkeys and carts and horses.

And so this would have taken a long time. 49 years doesn't seem like an untimely amount of time.

So Walvor's comments about streets, by the way, when he uses the word streets, is based on the fact that the word for plaza is from a

Hebrew word which means a width, an area, a broad place, hence a street.

So also the combination of the words plaza and moat refers to access to the city and to the city defenses.

So the plaza refers to the streets, getting those rebuilt. The moat is an oblique or even a definite direct reference to the city defenses.

So the next period, the 62 weeks, follows the first seven years of weeks, seven weeks of years, excuse me, seven years of weeks.

You get that backwards, you really are. These two total the 69 weeks before the final 70th or 483 years.

As noted briefly previously, this period extends to Christ's triumphal entry which was predicted in Zechariah 9, 9.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you.

He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

So because God gave us the timing, we can also see this fulfilled as Jesus entered

Jerusalem in Luke chapter 19, verses 41 through 44. Scripture says,

When He, Jesus, approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known this day, if they'd paid attention to the

Scriptures, they would have known this day. If you had known this day, even you, the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes.

For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation, the visitation of the

Son of God, the Messiah. The literal understanding of Daniel 24, 9, 24 through 27 shows the actual fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy and its fulfillment as chronicled in Luke 19.

The 62 weeks ending at Christ's triumphal entry marks the second section of the prophecy.

The third section is the 70th week, and there are numerous textual reasons for a gap between the 69th week and the 70th.

In the first place, the Scripture itself sections off the three different periods. Verse 25 speaks of the seven weeks, and then the 62 weeks, or the 49 years, and then the 434 years, which totals 483 years.

We have seven years left to complete the 490 years. This comes in verse 26.

Now granted, there were no verse divisions in the original text, so that in itself is not an indication, but the fact that Gabriel speaks of the first seven weeks, then the second 62 weeks, then the third week separately is an indication that God has made a division here.

So the records that Daniel would have had in the Bible all the way up until the 900s would have not had the verse and chapter divisions.

It would have been one, and sometimes that would be very welcome. It would just be one narrative in each book.

Any comments or questions about verse 25? Yes, that's after the 69th week.

Oh, she noted that there's a 69 weeks and then a gap, the Messiah and the church age.

So that's how this, I looked for really good diagrams. The diagram is supposed to show the first 69 weeks, not separating the first out, but it shows the first 69, then a gap, and then the coming prince, the final week.

So there's a gap between when Messiah was cut off, that's the church age, and the coming prince, the

Antichrist. We're in the gap. No, no, it's not counted either place.

It's spoken of separately from those times. The 69 weeks ends, Messiah's cut off.

So, and it's worded that way. It's literally worded that way. Then, after the 62 weeks, so we have the first seven weeks, and then the 62 weeks.

Then, after the 62 weeks, but it doesn't say anything about it being in the 70th week. The 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.

Even to the end, there will be war. Desolations are determined. I don't know.

I'm not the Bible scholar you should follow for these kinds of things, but I don't know if there's more encapsulated in one verse in the

Bible than there is right here. Just an unbelievable amount of happenings. Messiah is cut off.

Then, after the 62 weeks, the scripture says, quote, unquote, there is no description of the length of time that the word after describes.

This is not the opening event of the 70th week, and it is not stated as such. It occurs after the culmination of the 69 weeks, or more formally, it is after the culmination of these seven weeks, and then the 62 weeks.

So, the reconstruction of Jerusalem occurs in the first seven of sevens. First seven sevens, 49.

Remember, the word weeks is not used. It's seven sevens and 62 sevens. Daniel actually used the term to create the word week back in an earlier chapter and in a later chapter.

So, the reconstruction of Jerusalem occurs in the first seven sevens, 49 years. Then another 62 sevens passes, 600, 434 years.

Following this, two events occur. First, Messiah comes, verse 25, and he is cut off, verse 26.

There is no debate about the fact that it is Jesus who is being spoken of here. I'll talk about that more next week.

There actually is some debate that I discovered. It's spurious debate, but it's interesting what people, the lengths people will go to from the time of 400, the silent years of the

Old Testament, interval between the Old and the New Testament, and not too many years ago, to come up with ways that this could have happened differently than Daniel predicts it.

So, there's no debate, I say, but I believe there was some debate about the fact that it is Jesus who is being spoken of here, and this is a reference to the crucifixion of Christ.

So, after the completion of the seven, and then the 62, Messiah appears and is cut off, but this happens, 483 years have been fulfilled to the day on March 30th,

AD 33, at Christ's triumphal entry, and the Lord was crucified four days later, on April 3,

AD 33. So, this was an event that took place after the 483 years, after the 69 weeks, but not during the final weeks of years.

The text says after the 62 weeks, not in the 62 weeks. These things occurred after 483 years, but before the final seven years, since no mention is made of these things occurring during that final week of seven years.

Walvert explains in his commentary, open quote, it makes plain that Messiah will be living at the end of the 69th, 7th, and will be cut off or die soon after the end of it, end of it, end of it, the end of it, close quote.

Another commentator, G .H. Pember observes, now his crucifixion, quote, now his crucifixion took, quote, quote, now his crucifixion took place four days after his appearance as the prince, that is four days after the close of the 483rd year.

Nevertheless, the prophecy does not represent this great event as occurring in the seven years, which yet remain to be fulfilled.

Here then is the beginning of an interval which separates the 483 years from the final seven.

This explains the phrase that the Messiah would be cut off. The Lord Jesus Christ, through his death on the cross, which paid for the sins of the elect, was in effect, well actually it wasn't in effect, he was killed, he was cut off, he was murdered.

This is the cutting off of the prince. The nothing, quote, since we're being filmed you can see them, that Christ did not gain at his first advent was his final kingdom.

He did not receive his messianic kingdom, and that was intentional. He was cut off before that was established.

The stone had not destroyed the image at this point. His own people rejected him and did not receive him as John says in his gospel, yes, during his triumphal entry, yes.

So it was noted that he was declared a prince. You can't kill a prince unless he is a prince. He was declared a prince during his triumphal entry.

Good point. He did not receive his final kingdom, and his own people rejected him as it is said,

John says in his gospel, John 1 11. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

The people of Daniel, the Jews, rejected the Messiah, and so with the Lord Jesus Christ's first coming, the kingdom was not ushered in.

After the final week, the 70th week, this will happen, and that is part of the comfort of prophecy.

This will happen. You don't have to take my word for it. You take, well, I don't have my

Bible up here. You take this phone's word for it, because it's open to Daniel chapter 24. So Reynold Showers explains this section in his commentary.

He said the expression, open quote, and have nothing, close quote, meant that when Messiah would die, he would not have all that should properly belong to the

Messiah. As Messiah, he should have had a royal crown of gold and precious jewels, but he had a crown of thorns,

Matthew 27 29. He should have had a royal robe, but he was stripped of his clothing, John 19 through 23 24.

He should have had a royal throne, but he was given the cross, John 19 17 and 18, and he should have had the reception and claim of his people, and a claim of his people, but he received their rejection,

John 19 14 15, and their scorn, Matthew 27 39 through 44.

So regarding the phrase, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, open and close quote, there is considerable debate, and we don't have time to get into that debate this week.

I wanna just close there then, we'll look at the people of the prince, that next section.

I know this is slow going, but there's much here, and there's much comfort, much encouragement, much blessing, much for Daniel I think comfort, but also concern, because he was going to see that his people still had a lot to go through before they finally accepted, trusted

Messiah, before they finally turned to Messiah. And this would have been a real heartbreaker for him, because he was a man who loved his

God, and he loved his people. I'm sure all of us can feel some of that, a little bit of that, we love

God, we love our people, and the church, the real vibrant living church of God, will believe this, or does believe this, and this will be a comfort to those who understand these words.

They're not as cryptic as I had thought they were going to be, as I began to study through them. I have not given as much time to eschatology in my 40 years of studying the

Bible as I should have, and for that I am profoundly sorry, but it has been such an encouragement and a blessing to spend time in this, and wait till you hear about the weird ideas about the

Messiah next week, it'll be a good belly laugh for you. Any comments or questions before we close?

Let's close. Father, what Jesus did was perfect, it was finished, it was enough.

What you gave us in your scripture are sufficient, is all sufficient for every exigency of life.

We have no, we have nothing to complain of, we have everything to be grateful for, and so this morning as we worship you, and as we praise you, and as we hear your word, might we just continue to bend our knee and sanctify you, and glorify you in our lives as we take your name to those who need to hear of you.