The Seventy Weeks. Daniel 9:20-27
WE have already been considering the attitude of Daniel’s soul as revealed in the opening part of this chapter. Before passing to an examination of the prophecy at the close, it may be well to remark that the prophet in his prayer and confession dwells upon “the oath that is written in the law Of Moses” (vers. 11-14), and does not allude to the promises made to Abraham. Upon the ground of those promises the Jewish people will eventually be brought into their land in blessing; but meanwhile they are put under responsibility to walk in obedience to the law.
In Leviticus 26:3-14, a most beautiful picture is drawn of the earthly blessings that would have been theirs had they walked in Jehovah’s statutes and kept Jehovah’s commandments. Fruitful seasons, plentiful harvests, peace and prosperity, would have marked their inheritance. Jehovah Himself would have set up His tabernacle amongst them, and would have manifested to all the nations around that He, their God, dwelt and walked amongst them, and that they were His redeemed and chosen people.
Then follows a long description of the judgments, woes, and desolations that would fall upon them in the event of their disobedience. “I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths” (Lev. 26:33-35).
It was this very judgment that in Daniel’s day was being put into execution. The captivity in Babylon, whither Daniel had been carried, was to this very end, “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 three score and ten years” (2 Chron. 36:21).
These seventy years were now about to end, and Daniel, deeply conscious of the desolation that had befallen the city and sanctuary of Jehovah, confessed the sin that had brought it all about. He appeals to the Lord for His forgiving mercy, “for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.” To faith they were still the people of God.
Daniel’s lips were still moving in prayer when God sends the answer. This is not always the case. In the next chapter we find Daniel praying for three weeks before the answer came. Sometimes when an immediate answer is not given we are disposed to assume that God has not heard. But this is not so. Faith may need sometimes to be tested, and there may be other reasons too, but “this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us,” &c. (1 John 5:14, 15
And now a fresh revelation is made to Daniel. “Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people” (vs. 24). To understand thee prophecy we must banish from our minds all idea of applying it to the Church, or the people of God in this present time. Daniel’s people were not. Christians, but Jews. “Thy holy city” was none other than Jerusalem, Indeed the whole atmosphere of the passage was Jewish. It was “about the time of the evening oblation” (vs. 21) that the prophet bent his knees in prayer. Far away from Jerusalem, deprived of the joy of treading the courts of the house of the Lord, nevertheless his thoughts were there, and God answers him according to His promise (Lev. 26:40-46).
The study of Jeremiah’s prophecy had brought to Daniel’s soul the glad prospect of a speedy deliverance, but the Spirit of God here carries his thoughts forward to a time of blessing which has not yet been reached.
“Seventy weeks.” These seventy weeks, all are agreed, represent weeks, not of days, but of years. That is to say, each day of the week stands for a year; therefore seventy weeks stand for 7x70 that is, 490 years.
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people (i.e. the Jews) and upon thy holy city (i.e. Jerusalem), 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.”
it is to be noted how God, in His answer, takes up the very words that had been on the lips of His beloved and heart-broken servant. Daniel had been confessing as his own the sins, iniquities, and transgressions of his people, and God holds out the bright and glorious prospect that all this history of failure and guilt should end, and “everlasting righteousness” take its place. Clearly, this has not yet been fulfilled.
Israel lies at this very moment under the consequences of far greater guilt than that which brought upon them the captivity in Babylon.
If for seventy years they were driven from their land because of idolatry and departure from the law, what has been the greater crime which has scattered them for nearly nineteen hundred years? Is it not the rejection and murder of their Messiah, foretold in this very prophecy we are considering? And yet there is forgiveness for even this!
Some may be surprised at the thought that all the blessings enumerated in this verse are yet future. They may ask, Has not an end been made of our sins at the cross? Has not everlasting righteousness been already brought in?
Quite true, the believer in Christ to-day may rejoice to know that all his sins have been put away by the blood of Christ, and that he is now made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. vs. 21). The Christian now may thus apply these expressions to Himself, while yet the proper fulfillment of it all for Daniel’s people awaits a coming day.
“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 three score and two weeks,” &c. What a marvelous answer to Daniel’s prayer is here! What an honor conferred upon this faithful servant, to reveal to him and through him to others, the very time of Messiah’s advent. For the dates are here precise. The point of departure where these seventy weeks commence is given in no vague and uncertain manner. Some have thought that the passage referred to Ezra’s journey to Jerusalem about B.C. 536. But the main object before Ezra was the building of the house or temple (Ezra 1:2, 3), whereas here it speaks of a commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem―not the temple, but the city. The allusion is clearly to Nehemiah 1 and 2., and the date is B.C. 445.
From this date, then, the month Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, unto the Messiah, the Prince, were to be reckoned sixty-nine weeks, that Isaiah 7x69 years =483 years. But these 69 weeks are subdivided into 7 weeks and 62 weeks. It may be asked, Why is this? The 7. weeks, no doubt, was the time during which the wall was being built, “the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” These troublous times are described in the book of Nehemiah, when the builders, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon (Neh. 4:17). Then follow the 62 weeks, making a period of 69 weeks, or 483 years to the time of Christ.