Q. Have we the last of Daniel's seventy weeks (Dan. 9:27) defined by its events in other parts of the word? Does Matt. 24:4-14 speak of it in a general way? I have no doubt that verse 15 gives us the commencement of the last half of the week, going on to the coming of the Son of man; the setting up of the abomination of desolation (or, that maketh desolate) being the sign given for the last half-week.
This is clearly noted by our Lord's quotation from Dan. 12:11; also in Dan. 7:25, as “A time, times, and half a time.” In Rev. 11, 12 half-weeks are referred to, in the varying terms of “forty and two months;” of “twelve hundred and sixty days;” and of “time, times, and half a time.” Do these all refer to the last half? In Rev. 11:1, 2 the temple and altar are measured for protection; whilst the outer court is left out to be trodden down of the Gentiles. Do the measuring, and the leaving out to be trodden under foot, refer to the same period? The treading down evidently has reference to the last half of Daniel's last week. Does the measuring refer to the first half only, or to the whole week? for this figure seems to show the power and protection of God, in testimony for the first half-week, given in days. If at its termination the treading down commences, we should have the whole week: the first half closing when the witnesses were killed; at which period, the abomination being set up and the apostate Jews abandoned to idolatry, the treading down commences upon them, as God's judgment, this being the great tribulation spoken of by the Lord and by the prophets. If then the protection, shown by the measuring of the temple and altar to the worshippers therein, refers to the whole week; (as I should incline to think it does), the second half of the week is a protection, not by power given to the witnesses for killing their enemies, but by immediate flight from the scene of idolatry, and consequent desolation, to a place of safety prepared of God. This we have in Matt. 24:16-22; and in Rev. 12:6, where the woman flees into the wilderness, having a place prepared of God, for “a thousand, two hundred and three-score days;” so also in verse 14, “she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.” This last half is again referred to in Rev. 13:5, as power given to the beast to “continue forty and two months.” This last is evidently the same as Dan. 7:25, and the last half of the week.
Once again I hope these questions are not out of place. Whilst looking at Rev. 12 and the acting's of the first beast in persecuting the saints for the time mentioned, along with his “blasphemies against God, and them that dwell in heaven” (ver. 6), I would ask, Is the image, made to the first beast by the dwellers upon earth at the suggestion of the second beast (ver. 14), the “abomination” spoken of in Dan. 12 and referred to by our Lord in Matt. 24:15, “standing in the Holy Place” as the object of worship instead of God? And is this what the apostle refers to in 2 Thess. 2:4, “sitting in the temple of God, sheaving himself that he is God.” G. R.
A. The readers are directed to the Bible Treasury (first edition i. 276, ii. 32, 63). If any one can furnish fresh help, it will be welcome. In the second edition the pages are i. 272-4, ii. 32, without the notice in 63.