Daniel’s Doubts

Background to Daniel’s Vision. Daniel began praying because he had read from the writings of Jeremiah that God had given 70 years as the time Israel would be removed from their land. He had read from Jeremiah 25:11, 12, which says, “when seventy years are accomplished ... I will punish the king of Babylon.” Also 2 Chronicles 36:20 says, “And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:  21 To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years.

Now 50 years later, the Babylonian king had been defeated by the Persian empire and Daniel knew it was time for the desolations of Jerusalem also to be ended.

He begins to fast, pray and confess his sin and the sins of his people. Through the prophecy of Jeremiah was soon due to be fulfilled, Daniel cannot see how God can do this while the sin of Israel is still so strong. Why will God allow them to return them to their promised land while they still do the things that God punished them for.

God sends his answer by the angel Gabriel and that answer gives us God’s perspective, His plan for the Ages, not just Jeremiah’s 70 years but of God’s thousands of years and even eternity. It is here in vss. 24-27 and is called the Seventy Weeks Prophecy.

Daniel is told in 9:24  Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Six purposes of God’s Plan will occur during the 70 weeks:

(1) To finish the transgression. “Finish” (Heb. lƒkallē˒) means “to complete,” The kind of transgressions Daniel had been confessing for his people were to come to an end. That has not yet, two and a half millenniums later, occurred.

(2) To make an end of sins. Literally, to seal up. This word (as in Job 9:7; 37:7) means to bring under full restraint. Cf. the sealing of Satan’s prison to restrain him (Rev 20:1-3).

(3) To make reconciliation for iniquity Calvary’s reconciliation will become effective for Daniel’s people when again, “in that Day” of Messiah’s second advent, they look on Him “whom they have pierced” (Zech 12:10; cf. Rev 1:7) and shall in repentance believe on Him (Jer 50:4, 5, 17-20).

The first three items of accomplishment are negative. The remaining three are positive:

(4) To bring in everlasting righteousness. This will be effected by inward moral transformation (Jer 31:33, 34).

(5) To seal up the vision and prophecy (Heb. prophet). When the people cease sinning, the disciplinary oracles of prophets will no longer be needed (Jer 31:34).

(6) To anoint the most Holy (most holy place, ASV marg.). Most commentators, feel that this refers to a renewed Temple, anointed like the Tabernacle of old, following the results enumerated in the five promises preceding (see Ezk 40:1-7; Isa 4:2-6). - Charles F. Pfeiffer, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary: Old Testament, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), Da 9:24.

So what kind of time period is the word week describing? It comes from the Hebrew word shabuwa`{shaw-boo'-ah} which mean seven, or a period of seven (days or years), heptad, week. In this case it is a week of years so 70 weeks is 490 years.

This plan for the ages has a starting point in vs 25  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. When the Persian king granted Nehemiah the right to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem God’s program to reclaim his people, the nation of Israel began.

We are even told when the Messiah would be revealed? Seven weeks and three score and two weeks. 7x7+ 62 is 69 weeks or 483 years. This prophecy is probably when the wise men, the magi from the east came looking for One born King of the Jews. Daniel wrote this prophecy in Persia and as a seer for the Babylonians and the Persians his writing would be recorded and preserved.

One more thing we are told is when the Messiah would die or be cut off? In vs. 26   And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:  We are not given an exact time just that it would be after the 62 weeks.

Further we are told that that “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. This is a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans that took place in 70 AD.

The reference to the prince who is to come is the “he” in vs. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: One 7 year time period. The last week of Daniels 70 year prophecy. The last week we will see fully revealed in Revelation. This prince who is to come is the anti-christ. He comes from the same people or same kingdom who destroyed the temple in AD 70 and he signs a covenant with Israel. That covenant and nothing else begins the final week of Daniel prophecy.

There is one final part of the prophecy and that is the midst, the middle, of the week “ and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate.   Here the AntiChrist, the Beast of the Book of Revelation will cause the sacrifice and offering in the Temple to cease. This will occur  3 ½ years after the covenant is signed, right in the middle of the Tribulation.

Daniels’s time was a time of oppression for God’s captive people and Daniel prayed and God gave a prophecy of hope. In Matthew 24 once again God’s people are oppressed this time by the Roman Empire and when Jesus tells his Jewish disciples that the great Temple of Herod will be razed to the ground. They ask Him when and when he will return. What He tells them is a reinforcement of Daniel and our next enlightenment and enlargement of God’s Plan for His People.