IN a former number of " The Prospect," a paper, of mine appeared, entitled, "THE CYCLE OF SEVENTY WEEKS," wherein I endeavored to prove seventy weeks to be a great dispensational cycle (namely the half of a millenary) in reference to Israel, and also the whole human race. In the course of the argument, I there spoke of the seventy weeks of Daniel, dwelling especially on one feature alone of this prophecy, namely, “the unnoticed cancelled week of Messiah's rejection."
Now, however, I propose to confine myself to the ninth chapter of Daniel, and other chapters connected therewith, presenting, in a condensed form, a view of this prophecy, in its several parts, and as a whole. And here, let me add, that much that I shall say has already appeared in "THE COMPANION" to my two Charts on the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, and the Cycle of Seventy Weeks; it being my object to bring some of the leading subjects therein under the notice of the readers of "The Prospect."
And now, before I proceed, I will make a few observations on the state of the Jews, in connection with the circumstances and the times of our prophet.
In the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the throne of Judah was cast down to the ground, the times of the Gentiles began. By the term " Times of the Gentiles," we are to understand the whole period from the Babylonian captivity to the Lord's second coming, during which, instead of the Jews holding their proper place upon earth, as God's elect nation, four Gentile dynasties, namely, the BABYLONISH, the MEDO-PERSIAN, the GRECIAN, and, lastly, the ROMAN, were destined to arise, and to exist one after another, to each of which, in succession, the Jews were bound to pay tribute. It was the unfaithfulness of the house of David which, observe, was fully developed in the act of king Hezekiah, in showing his treasures to the Chaldean ambassadors, which brought this trouble upon them, which caused the removal of the throne of the Lord from Jerusalem, and the transfer of power, from that time, to the hands of their enemies.
When Hezekiah had failed as above, the prophet Isaiah was sent to him with the following message: "Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." (2 Kings 20:17, 1817Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. 18And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. (2 Kings 20:17‑18).) But then there was to be a limit to this. “It shall come to pass," as we read, "when SEVENTY YEARS ARE ACCOMPLISHED, THAT I WILL PUNISH THE RING OF BABYLON, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations." (Jer. 25:1212And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. (Jeremiah 25:12).) And then again, "Thus saith the Lord, that AFTER SEVENTY YEARS BE ACCOMPLISHED AT BABYLON, I WILL VISIT YOU, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place." (Jer. 29:1010For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. (Jeremiah 29:10).)
Accordingly, when the above seventy years had expired, deliverance being sent to them through Cyrus, king of Persia, they were free to return home. Let me however add, that, though in their own land again from their deliverance from Babylon, to the first coming of Christ, and, after that, to the time of the invasion of Titus, they were there only on sufferance, being subject to one Gentile power after another, till at last they were scattered, not to return again till the Lord's second coming, at the termination, as we shall see, of the seventy weeks of Daniel.
And now, as to the seventy weeks; the wondrous revelation connected therewith (so deeply interesting and important as it is to all the Lord's people, namely, both to the Church of God, and the Jews) was made to our prophet just when the seventy years above-named were nearly accomplished, and when the Chaldean empire, which began with Nebuchadnezzar, had now passed out of the hands of his grandson, Belshazzar, into those of Darius the Median, and was now about to be supplanted by the kingdom of Media and Persia.
In the first year then of Darius, the Median, now become king over the realm of Chaldea, we find Daniel, the captive, (himself one of the seed royal of David, who, as we have seen, had involved the nation in trouble,) in this ninth chapter of his book, discovering, on reading the above-cited words of Jeremiah the prophet, that seventy years was the time appointed by God for His people to groan under the dominion of Babylon; and seeing that this period had now well-nigh expired, we see him, as a true son of Abraham, setting himself to seek the good of his people, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The discovery to him was both happy and humbling: happy, because it told of the unchangeable goodness of God; humbling, because that goodness at once brought before him, in the strongest relief, the long-standing sins of the nation; and hence, as representing the whole house of Israel, he makes his confession, he offers his prayer, and is answered accordingly.
In verses 3-15, we read his confession—inverses 16-19, his prayer, and from verse 20, on to the end of the chapter, the answer, namely, the vision of the angel, with the prophecy of THE SEVENTY WEEKS.
"And whiles I was speaking," he says, "and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee: for thou art greatly beloved; therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision."
The Prophecy
The whole period
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish (or restrain) 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 the prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy( or Holy of Holies).
From Nehemiah to Christ.
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 the STRAIT OFTIME. (SEVEN WEEKS contrasted with the three-score and two weeks before-named, it being the shortest, most “strait” or contracted, of these periods. This appears to be the true sense of this passage. See margin).
And AFTER the (Heb.) THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS (above-named) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself.
The time of desolation.
And the people (the Romans) 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.
The last week.
And HE (“the Prince” above-named) shall confirm the covenant with many for ONE 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, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate (desolator). (See margin).”
Now, the plan which I propose to adopt is as follows: Having first thrown this prophecy into a certain order, which lately, from experience, I have found to be of the greatest assistance in showing the connection, and, at the same time, the distinction between the different parts, in reference to time and events, I shall suppose the angel Gabriel, after having delivered his message, commencing again, and taking up each of the eight parts in succession, interpreting it for the satisfaction of Daniel. This strikes me as a simple, lucid, and natural method of showing how one part bears on another, and of giving, in a brief space, a connected view of the whole.
The order of which I speak is as follows
The whole period, without noticing either the threefold division or the break therein.
Seventy Weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish (or restrain) the transgression and to make an end of sin, 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 (or holy of holies).
The seven weeks, and the three-score and two (or 62) weeks.
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 seven weeks
The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in the STRAIT OF TIMES. (SEVENWEEKS, contrasted with the threescore and two weeks before named, it being the shortest, most “strait,” or contracted of these periods. This appears to be the true sense of this passage. –See margin).
The 62 weeks, with the unnoticed week
And after the (Heb) THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.
The time of Israel’s dispersion
And the people (the Romans) 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.
The last week
And HE (the Prince above named) shall confirm the covenant with many for ONE WEEK.
The half 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, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate, (desolator—See margin).
Thus having, as it were, listened to the voice of the heavenly messenger, let us now fancy "the man Gabriel" speaking again, and explaining himself. In doing so, however, we must bear in mind that Daniel, notwithstanding all the wondrous revelations which were made to him by the Lord touching his purposes, had not the light which we in this dispensation, who have the whole Word of God, together with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, possess, if we will but use it aright. Therefore, in this, I am supposing him to be let more into the secret purposes of God than properly belonged to him as a Jew dispensationally under the law. This, however, is only a method which I adopt, for the sake of greater perspicuity, order, and brevity. Now then to proceed.
Interpretation.
FIRST DIVISION.
SEVENTY WEEKS are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish (or restrain) the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy (or holy of Holies.)
Seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, so it is decreed by the Lord, are to elapse before thy people and city are blest, before reconciliation is made for iniquity, everlasting righteousness is brought in, and all that has been foreshown and foretold, both in vision and prophecy, is accomplished, and the temple of God is anointed; that is, before it becomes once again the abode of the Shechinah, or glory, which has been absent from thence for seventy years, and will continue to be absent for nearly two thousand six hundred years longer.
How or when this period is to commence, I do not now say; but when I enter into the details connected therewith, which I shall presently do, thou shalt hear. And now, before I proceed, there are four things which I will notice. 1St. That though I have spoken of the seventy weeks as though it were an unbroken, continuous period, I shall have occasion, in tracing the history of the Jews, as I shall do, from its commencement to its close, to divide it into three distinct portions, or parts, namely, SEVEN WEEKS, THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS, (making sixty-nine weeks together,) and ONE WEEK. 2ndly. That while the seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks form a continuous period between the threescore and two weeks, and the one week; on the other hand, a pause, as it were, in the Jewish division of time into weeks will occur, (Lev. 25) a period of years will elapse, which the Lord, in his reckoning, will count as a blank in the history of his people. 3rdly. That while the prophecy will be completely fulfilled at the close of the SEVENTIETH WEEK, it will have a partial, an initial, a sort of germinant fulfillment, "AFTER" THE SIXTY-NINTH WEEK, and at the beginning of the blank period above-named. And, 4thly. That while blessing will be secured to thy people at the close of the seventieth week, blessing will be proposed to them and rejected at the termination of the sixty-ninth week, and for a brief space of time after that, (a period, though brief, of the deepest importance,) showing, in the one case, that man is a failing, impotent creature; in the other, that, let him fail as he may, the blessed God cannot fail, that He must and will be true to His promise.
Second Division.
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.
Now, then, I proceed with the details of the prophecy; and first, learn what I have not told thee as yet, namely, that the seventy weeks will commence with the going forth of a decree which Artaxerxes, the king of Persia of that day, will issue, in the twentieth year of his reign, with regard to thy people (subject then, as they will be, to Persia, as they now are to Babylon) empowering one of thy people, a certain faithful servant of God, named NEHEMIAH, to return home, and to rebuild (not the temple, observe, which will have been previously built by EZRA, a certain priest, in the seventh year of his reign,) but the city-even the holy city, Jerusalem. And next learn, that between Nehemiah's return, and " the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God," (See Mark 1:1,1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; (Mark 1:1)) even the announcement of the promised Messiah, the Prince, the true Son of David, the heir of his throne, by a certain prophet named John, his forerunner and witness, SEVEN AND THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS (that is, 69 weeks in all) will elapse.
Third Division.
The street shall be built again, and the wall, even IN STRAIT OF TIMES. (SEVEN WEEKS contrasted with the THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS before-named, it being the shortest, most “strait," or contracted, of these periods. This appears to be the true sense of this passage.—See margin.)
And now, having heard of the going forth of the decree of the king of Persia, with regard to the city, learn further how long it will take to rebuild it. “The street shall be built again, and the wall, in STRAIT OF TIMES." (See margin.) Now, do not mistake me. By this I do not mean times of straightness, perplexity, danger. "TROUBLOUS TIMES," it is true, they will be, because of the opposition of the heathen to God in the work of rebuilding his city. But of this it is not now my object to speak. My present purpose being to instruct thee as to the disposal of the threefold division of the great prophetical period of seventy weeks. And what I am speaking of now is the period within which Nehemiah will accomplish his work, namely, the SEVEN WEEKS of which I have spoken before, and which I now turn, before I proceed, to notice again. This being the space of forty-nine years between two years of jubilee, will be the shortest, most "strait," or contracted, of the two periods above-named—SEVEN WEEKS, as contrasted with THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS. And this, let me add, will account to you for the BREAK which occurs in the interval, between the going forth of the command of the king of Persia, and the announcement that Christ is at hand, otherwise I should have spoken of it simply as sixty-nine weeks, without any interruption.
Fourth Division.
And AFTER the (Heb.)THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.
I come now to that part of my subject which claims the closest attention; therefore, listen, O Daniel, and mark what I say. "After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off." Thou least before heard that, at the close of this period, Christ will be offered to Israel; that between the edict as to the city, and his proclamation by John, seven weeks, and threescore and two (that is sixty-nine) weeks shall elapse. And now thou art told that Christ is to die, to be cut off; and when? "after" this period—yes; but not immediately after. No; because seeing that John is to witness to Christ for three years and a half; and then Christ, for the same length of time, is to declare the name of the Father, you must, of necessity, allow for an interval between the going forth of John as his messenger and the death of the Mediator; and this space, composed, as I have said, of twice three years and a half, is A WEEK; so that, according to this, by adding these three periods together, namely, SEVEN WEEKS, THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS, and THIS LAST WEEK, you reach the close of the SEVENTIETH WEEK.
And now, O Daniel, the thought of thine heart assuredly is, that I leave reached the point in the history of thy people when the kingdom of Christ will begin. But, alas! it is not so. Two thousand years from this point, an utter blank in their history, must roll on, ere an end shall be made of their sin; before my prophecy is accomplished, before the reign of Messiah begins. Dost thou ask, Why is this? Surely, thine own heart should answer the question. Messiah, as I have said, is here to be slain. His people, having no eye for his beauty, no heart for his grace, will put their King, their Deliverer, to death. And hence, from this time, they will be disowned, cut off by Jehovah, and left as a prey to their Gentile oppressors. "How is this?" thou wilt say. "Seventy weeks is ' the set time' which is to end with the redemption of Israel; and now, seventy weeks leaving run out, instead of being blest, I find they are cut off!"—"How," thou wilt say, "is God true to His promise in this?" Now then, mark me—seventy weeks, it is true, is "the set time" which is to elapse before Christ comes in His glory; accordingly, when the sixty-ninth week shall end, and the seventieth begin, all things being ready, a voice will be heard in the wilderness proclaiming the King, and saying, "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND." And then, after three years and a half, in the midst of the week, the King himself will come forth, declaring that “THE TIME IS FULFILLED." But then, at the end of the week, instead of ascending the throne, as He should do, He will die on the cross; His people will hate, will despise, and will slay Him. What then becomes of the Jews after this, thou hath heard. But what becomes of the week, I have not told thee. Mark then how the Lord will act in reference thereto. It will be a PROBATIONARY PERIOD, during which, for twice three years and a half, the question will hang in the balance, whether the Jews will repent, whether they will accept of the Lord's goodness or not. It will be, in an especial sense, a time of long-suffering, a season of mercy, when the Lord, for the last time, will give Israel a trial, when the voice of the Baptist, as foretold by Isaiah, (40:3-5; Luke 3:3-6,3And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; 4As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; 6And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Luke 3:3‑6)) the voice of him who will be more than a prophet, the very herald of the kingdom, if they would but receive him, will be lifted up in the wilderness, calling on Israel to repent. It will be the time too, when, according to Isaiah again, (41:1-3; Luke 4:17-21,17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:17‑21)) the blessed Jesus himself, after John has been imprisoned, will come forth as the Lord's anointed, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim " THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD," the true year of jubilee. But all will be in vain.—John will be beheaded; Messiah will be cut off. And though, even after his death and resurrection, when he shall have ascended to heaven, he will be offered again; still all will be in vain. They will not only have spoken against, but they will have slain, the Son of man. And now they will sin again, in rejecting the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the glory of Christ at the right hand of God. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that (or "in order that") the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3:1919Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; (Acts 3:19).) Such will be the testimony of the apostle Peter, after the ascension of Jesus, showing that Israel, as a nation, will be called to repentance, and that, were they, as such, to give heed to the call, then the very blood which they will have shed would avail in their favor. In this case this very prophecy would be fulfilled,—the time of Israel's blessing be accomplished. But they will not repent. They who have no eye for the beauty of Jesus, will surely have no ear for the voice of the Spirit; speak to them as he may of pardon and blessing, they "despise him and his testimony, and for this there will be no forgiveness. Israel will thenceforth be rejected, and that name of reproach—the name of "LOAMMI," "not my people,"—will be written upon them. Thus then the Lord, seeing that his purpose touching both his Son and his people has failed, that Christ has labored in vain and spent his strength for naught, and in vain, he will look on the week as lost time, and, acting in the way of retributive vengeance, he will, as it were, blot it out, he will cancel the period, not suffering it to stand, as it should do, as the last of the seventy weeks which is to end the captivity of thy people. A terrible proof thus of the indignation of God; a fearful sign that he had hid his face from his people!
And now I turn to explain to thee how the Lord shows that he will thus deal with this period. It is thus: in delivering my message, didst thou mark that I passed it over in silence? that I touched, it is true, upon that with which it will begin, even the first notice that Christ is at hand, by his messenger John; and then, that I spoke of that with which it will end, even the cutting of Messiah; but that I left the week itself altogether unnoticed. Yes, I treated this week as a blank, as forming no part in the reckoning of time in this prophecy; but just as a part of the unmeasured age of rejection and blindness which is to roll on between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth. It will be, as it were, the last, the seventieth link of the chain, and so would continue to be, were Israel to give heed to the offer of mercy. But this will not be; and hence the Lord thus breaks it off from the chain, its place to be supplied, as thou shalt hear, by another week at the end.
And now, dost thou see what I meant in dwelling so emphatically on the words "after the threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off?" "After," I said, but "not immediately after;" this being an indefinite word, which, for the reason I have told thee, leaves the space wholly unnoticed, unmeasured, between the proclamation of Christ by his witness, and his death.
And here dost thou ask what will occur during the time of Israel's dispersion? "Can love," thou wilt say, "be inactive? Can the Lord cease to bless? “Assuredly not. And now, for a moment, I draw the curtain aside, to show thee a secret hidden from ages and generations, even "THE GREAT MYSTERY," foreshown by the type of Adam and Eve in the garden, the mystery of THE CHURCH OF GOD, the Bride, the Lamb's wife.
Up to this point, the Jewish people alone will be set apart for the Lord, the chosen nation of God upon earth; but now, they being scattered, another people, unknown, and unthought of till then, a people whose calling and destiny is higher than Israel's by far, will be called into being; yes, an election out of Israel and the Gentiles, one in Christ Jesus, his mystical body, his bride, whose place in the kingdom will not be on earth, like the Jews, but in heaven; who, moreover, will be coheirs with Christ in his glory, in his dominion over all things; this people, this " people for his name," (Acts 16:1414And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. (Acts 16:14)) will, I say, then be fashioned on earth. And, at last, toward the close of the period, the whole elect body being completed, they will be removed from the earth, will be caught up to meet the Lord at his coming. (1 Thess. 4:15-1815For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15‑18) ) After which, having thus disposed of the Church, now in heaven with him, he will turn again and pursue his original purpose with regard to his ancient people, the Jews.
This, however, as I said, is "A MYSTERY," therefore tell it to none. Yea, even forget that thou hast heard it thyself; because, as a Jew, thou art not admitted, like the saints in the next dispensation, into this secret purpose of God; besides which, though as an individual thou art a partaker of grace, as one of this nation thou art under the law; and this which I tell thee, concerning the Church, will be the full revelation of grace which, being inconsistent therewith, will displace, in its day, the law altogether.
Fifth Division.
And the people (the Romans) of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, Thus, having disposed of the period of seventy weeks, fulfilled, as I have shown, in a sense, in connection with the first advent of Christ, I next reach the BLANK PERIOD above-named. And here learn, in connection with the cutting off of Messiah, that in retributive judgment, the Gentile avenger will be sent in due time, that "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." Now mark my solution of this. The Roman empire will be in existence at the time of the first coming of Christ; the Jews being then under its sway, as now they are subject to Babylon; and seventy years after Christ, in the reign of Vespasian, the Roman armies, under the conduct of Titus, his son and successor, will be used by the Lord to punish the sin of his people in slaying their King, their Messiah. They will destroy both the city and temple.
Again, about two thousand years after this, just previous to Christ's second coming, and the setting up of his kingdom, this empire, still in existence, will be under the dominion of a mighty prince, whom the whole world, both Jewish and Gentile, will wonder after, and worship, owning him as their Lord, as the promised Messiah. This, then, is "the prince" whom I mean. And as Caesar led the way in the work of destruction, so he, when he comes, will be used by the Lord as a far heavier scourge.
This, then, explains what I have said, " THE PEOPLE " (the Roman people) will exist in the time of Caesar, (of Vespasian, I mean,) and will be thus used as a rod in the hand of the Lord; while " THE PRINCE," on the other hand, their last head or chief will not arise till the latter times of the empire. Of this prince and his actings thou shalt hear more as I proceed.
" And the end thereof," as I have said, " shall be with A FLOOD; " so it will be; as a flood of water, in the days of Noah, swept the apostate world away, so a judgment more fearful by far awaits this willful king and his subjects, his worshippers. They will all be destroyed, while the faithful servants of God, the believing remnant of Israel, groaning at the time under his iron yoke, will be saved.
Sixth Division.
And unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Thus, as I have shown thee, the work of desolation will begin with the destruction of the city and temple, by " the people of the prince that shall come," even the Romans; and from this, down to the close of the blank space before-mentioned, yea., to the end of the seventieth week, for about two thousand years, the afflictions of Zion will last. “Unto the end of the war desolations are determined." " THE WAR," of which I here speak, will be the great battle which is to be fought between Christ and "THE PRINCE above-named, the man of sin, or the Anti-Christ, even "the battle of Armageddon," of which thou shalt presently hear, at the close of the last week of the seventy. Here mark the distinction between these “desolations," and "the war." The former will continue for centuries; while the latter, as I have shown thee, will be fought at the crisis, when Christ is revealed at the head of the armies in heaven.
Seventh Division.
"And he shall confirm the covenant for ONE WEEK."
Thus, having told thee of the sixty-nine weeks, from Nehemiah to Christ; then of the last week of grace, and, lastly, of the long age of Israel's estrangement from God, I now have to tell thee the history of that which will prove to be truly THE SEVENTIETH WEEK.
The stream of time which, in reference to Israel, will flow underground, will now re-appear; the times and the seasons again will be numbered, and thy people, though yet un-forgiven, will be owned, in a sense, as God's people. Here also, the Jews having first, without either the aid or the sanction of God, made their way home to the land of their fathers, and having built their city and their temple, the false Messiah appears, " THE PRINCE THAT SHALL COME "—the willful king is presented. This “PEOPLE," as I have said, in the reign of Vespasian, will begin the desolations of Zion. But now "HE," the little horn of the fourth beast, the head and leader of Gentile apostasy, the usurper of the power of David, abruptly appears on the scene.
Now, then, we have reached the " ONE WEEK," which will hereafter come in to supply the place of the forfeited week of Messiah's rejection, and so perfect the period of which I have spoken at first. And for this week, this deceiver (for such he will be at the outset) will enter into a covenant with the deluded children of Judah. They having slain the true hope of Israel, will now be left to themselves, and so, falling into the snare, will receive another who, coming to them in his own name, in the pride and blasphemous independence of man without God, will treat them according to their treatment of Jesus, so that, with the same measure which they mete to him it shall be measured to them again.
Having thus spoken of Anti-Christ, (so I call him, as being opposed altogether to Christ; yea, more than this, a blasphemous counterfeit of the blessed Messiah,) I will now tell thee something of him who will give him his power, and show thee how the creation and establishment of this royal infidel's glory was Satan's great object from the very beginning, that at which he has ever been aiming since man first revolted from God.
Thou knowest that from everlasting God's object was CHRIST—the great center of all his counsels; " the power of God and the wisdom of God," in, and through whom, as the Head of the new creation, it is his purpose to glorify himself, and to communicate blessing to man; of him it is written, under his title of " wisdom," " The Lord possessed ME in the beginning of his way; I was set up FROM EVERLASTING, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." (Prov. 8:22, 2322The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. (Proverbs 8:22‑23).) In due time, accordingly, the heavens and the earth, the destined scene of God's glory in Christ, were created; and to Adam, made in his image, the head of the old creation, was given dominion over all things on earth. But this did not last long; being left to himself, Adam soon proved that the creature, even in innocence, could not stand, Adam fell under the power of Satan. Thus occasion was given for the display of the marvelous grace of Him who had ordained and arranged all things for the bringing forth and the display of all his everlasting counsels in Christ; and before Adam was banished from Eden, to wander over the face of that world which his own transgression had marred and defiled, the serpent was given to know, within the hearing of those whom he had beguiled, that his head should one day be bruised by the blessed Seed of the woman. This, as thou knowest, is the earliest notice in Scripture of redemption through Christ; and the whole history of man after this shows that the actings of God have had one grand object, namely, blessing to man, and the establishment of the kingdom of Christ on the ruins of the empire of Satan. And this will yet come to pass. The true Heir of all things at last will come forth, destroy, and displace the usurper, and Himself take the kingdom. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
Against such an one, therefore, thou mightest well be prepared to see all the malice and power of Satan directed. And so they over have been from the outset. To exalt man in the flesh, to make him independent of God, has been Satan's great object, so as, if possible, to defeat all the divine purposes towards him in Christ. What have all the great ones of this world been, such as Nimrod, Nebuchadnezzar, and others, but just the minions and slaves of his will, mere tools in his bands, through whom he has hoped to compass his object? Through them, as his vassals, he has worked with unwearied activity, since the fall of man in the garden.
And more than all this, so daringly bent on his object was this mighty deceiver, that when the blessed Jesus shall come forth to do the will of His Father, to make Him known to the children of men, Satan will approach Him with the promise of universal dominion, if He will but fall down and worship him; and were this possible, could he for a moment draw Jesus aside from his allegiance to God, he would be the most suitable instrument wherewith to effect his designs; in this ease the ruin of man would be complete, the glory of God irretrievably tarnished. But this cannot be. Thy heart, I well know, shrinks from the thought. Christ, the Holy One of God, I need not tell thee, will stand in the conflict, He will master His enemy. But Satan, not chained as yet, as he will be at last, as the god and prince of the world, will continue to work in the hearts of the children of men. And when the evil of the world has well nigh reached its maturity, when the last of the four empires is just reaching its close, just before the second coming of Christ, he will meet with one who, so far as he is suffered to go, will carry Satan's plans into effect; one who, assuming to himself all the power and glory of the real Messiah, will draw to himself the admiration, the worship of all but the disciples of Christ; one whom Satan will clothe with all that is fitted to dazzle and captivate the natural mind, seeing that all the glory, the strength, the intelligence of man's un-renewed nature will center in him, so as to exalt him in his own eyes, and also in the estimation of others. In him will be fully developed all the principles of evil which have ever lurked in the flesh since man fell, and which have been only partially shown in those who are openly impious, or who, thoughtlessly, live without God in the world. Human nature, in short, enslaved and debased by the enemy, will be shown forth in him.
Such is the one who, at this time, will arise, and be used as a snare, and as a scourge, in the end, to thy people, O Daniel. And what wonder if the whole Gentile world, as well as the children of Israel, (that world which, urged on, it is true, by thy people, will nail the Lord to the cross,) will fall into the very same snare, and become their companions in evil? What wonder, if attracted by the false glory and beauty of this mighty deceiver, with their ten kings of that day at their head, they give their power and strength into his hands and become tributary to him? Yes, so it will be. The whole world, both Jewish and Gentile, will " wonder after the BEAST," (a name which he will yet bear in the pages of prophecy) will fall prostrate before him and own him as KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, titles which, It is needless to tell thee, belong only to One—even the blessed Messiah himself. Thus this " ONE WEEK," these seven years of this willful one's empire, will be the period of the world's ripened apostasy, when the unrestrained power of those three great agents of evil, THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL, will be fully expressed, and be seen linked in a daring attempt to cast the blessed God out of this world, which He has made for the eternal display of his own goodness and glory in Christ.
Eighth Division.
"And in the MIDST OF THE WEEK he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolator. (desolate.)
Now then we come to “THE MIDST OF THE WEEK," when the deceiver will throw off the mask, and discover himself. Like Dan in the prophecy, (Gen. 49:16, 17,16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. (Genesis 49:16‑17)) he will act as ' a serpent" at first, and then, having compassed his object, he will show himself forth as a tyrant, a murderer; in order to flatter his people, he will set up at first that species of worship which alone will take with the Jews, even the services of the sanctuary, the temple worship of Israel. But now, this is all set aside, he causes the avowed worship of God, even the sacrifice and oblation, to cease; and for "forty and two months," or " time, times and a half," the latter half of the week, even three years and a half, he opens his mouth in blasphemy against God, and oppresses His people.
These will be "the clays of vengeance," when God, through the false one, (the enemy and the avenger) will punish His people. This will be "the time of Jacob's trouble," the "great tribulation," when the holy city shall be trodden under foot, the abomination of desolation set up, and the image of this beast—even that of this desolator himself—shall stand in the holy place; and when all who will not worship the idol will be slain.
And now, mark the resemblance, the coincidence, and, at the same time, the contrast, between the week of this willful one's reign, and the cancelled week of Messiah's rejection. John the Baptist, as thou hast heard, will come forth, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Then Jerusalem, and all the region round about Jordan, will go forth, will be baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. All this will look well. It will, however, be but for a moment. Their repentance will be false and deceitful. This the Baptist himself will discover, who, like his Master in measure, will know what is in man. "O generation of vipers," he will cry, "who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? " showing that the Spirit within him will detect the evil, the fearful hypocrisy of those who will show, in the end, what they are, by murdering him in whose light they will for a season rejoice, even this prophet of God, yea "more than a prophet," the very herald of the Messiah himself.
And now, as to Christ, He will be met at the outset by the open hatred of Israel. In his infancy even, they will seek to destroy him; through the whole of his walk upon earth they will loathe and despise him, and, in the end, put him to death on the cross. Thus, deceit in the one case, and violence in the other, the characteristics of Satan (the liar and murderer, John 8:44,44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)) will be found in thy people at this time of proffered deliverance and blessing. Hence it is that these two sins will be visited upon them at last, through this false one, this "bloody and deceitful man," this betrayer and murderer, who will begin with beguiling, and end with oppressing, his victims. And this will continue for "forty and two months," or three years and a half, corresponding exactly with the time that the Lord will walk as a stranger and pilgrim through the land, enduring the hatred and scorn of those whom he will come, to deliver and to bless.
In the midst, however, of the blasphemies and idolatries of these times, there will be an ELECT REMNANT, who, standing wholly aloof from the infidel nation, will be brought to look for the promised Messiah. This remnant will be divided into two distinct portions: some who, standing forth in that day, as the champions of truth, will die for their testimony; others who, true to the God of their fathers, will be preserved by the sheltering hand of the Lord through these dark times of Anti-Christ, and will form, in the end, the seed or nucleus of the redeemed, the millennial nation of Israel; and, at the voice of their cry, while suffering at the hand of their enemies, the Lord will awake, and come forth to their deliverance, at which time, he of whom I now tell thee, having been used as a rod in the hand of the Lord, will, in his turn, be judged. Man, in the person of this great willful one, having been suffered to go to the full length of his native iniquity, having displayed the evil of the flesh in all its enormity, will come to his end, and none shall help him. At the battle of ARMAGEDDON, namely, “THE WAR," of which I have told thee before, the confederate powers, yea, “the ten kings " of the earth, with this great apostate king at their head, will be seen in personal conflict with Christ. And there his impious career will be cut short—there Anti-Christ will fall with all his confederates, both Jewish and Gentile. Thus, then, we have reached the close of our period—the end of Anti—Christ's week—the last of the seventy—the point when the Lord who, through their sin in rejecting his Son, will have been estranged from his people for ages, will show himself faithful to his ancient covenant with Abraham, and returning again to the scene of his former presence on earth, will be known once again as the God of Jeshurun, as the rock of his people.
Thus, having followed the angel through his supposed interpretation of this wonderful prophecy, this seventy and sevenfold purpose of forgiveness to Israel, we here reach the close of our subject, having traced the history of the Jews, from Nehemiah's return to the second coming of Christ, at the end of the seventy weeks. And what have we seen? Evil, nothing but evil, on the part of the creature; grace, wonderful grace, on the other hand, on the part of the Lord. That which appears to me to be especially sweet and profitable in these meditations on this ninth chapter of Daniel, is the application of the very same truth to ourselves, as individuals, which belongs to the Jews, as a nation. How often, alas! do we find that we have little heart for the blessing which He graciously lays at our feet, just as little as Israel had at the first coming of Christ. The consequence of which is, that, like Israel at present, we get awhile into deadness, darkness, and estrangement from God; and in the end, like the Jews in the latter day, under Anti-Christ, we find ourselves plunged in a sea of trouble and sorrow, all the result of our folly and sin in not walking in happy child-like obedience to God. Blessed, however, is it to know that such is not to be the end of the path, either of the saint in this dispensation, (however perverse he may be,) or of Israel hereafter; but that blessing, full blessing, is reserved by the Lord in his goodness, for both one and the other!
Such is the moral to be drawn from this prophecy, which so fully displays the abundance of grace over the abundance of sin. Happy is it to trace the gracious ways of the Lord with his ancient people, the Jews, and to know that the God of Israel is our God and Father, the one with whom our souls have to do, who, notwithstanding all our shortcomings, will surely perfect his own blessed work in our hearts.
Well may we say, as we trace the Lord in his ways, both with Israel and his elect Church, in the words of St. Paul: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory for over. Amen."
Appendix.
Thus, having gone through this prophecy, I shall now add an appendix, wherein I purpose, in connection with the subject of the cancelled week, to speak, 1St, of the testimony of John and of Elias; (Matt. 11:14; 17:10-73;) 2ndly, of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew; idly, of the force of the word "generation," in the thirty-fourth verse of this chapter; and, 4thly, of the reply of Jesus to his disciples' inquiry as to the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. (Acts 1:6, 76When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (Acts 1:6‑7).)
1St.—And now, as to John and Elias, the forerunners of Christ, at his first and second appearance. Theirs is, we shall find, exactly a parallel case to that which we have been considering; these prophets standing, as to their testimony, in the same relation one to the other that the two weeks (namely, the cancelled week, and the revived one) are here shown to do, in the counsels of God.
In Malachi 4. we read, in connection with the Lord's second coming, as follows: "Behold, I send you ELIJAH THE PROPHET, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord;" words which, we need not say, will yet be fulfilled. But, in the meantime, when Christ, at his first coming, presented himself to his people, claiming their allegiance, as the heir of the throne, he was preceded by one who, "in the spirit and power of Elias," came to prepare the way of the Lord, to make his paths straight. Of him, therefore, it was that the Lord said: "IF YE WILL RECEIVE IT, THIS IS ELIAS, WHICH WAS FOR TO COME." (Matt. 11:1414And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. (Matthew 11:14).) Observe here the words of Jesus in connection with this, "If ye will receive it." It was all a contingency. It depended on this—had John been received, (his reception involving the reception of him to whom he came to bear witness,) he would really have proved what he ostensibly was the harbinger of the kingdom, THE VERY ELIAS; and no other Elias would, in this case, have been needed to announce the coming glory of Christ, which would even then have been revealed. But John, and his testimony, as in the ease of Jesus himself, were alike set at naught; and hence the Elias originally foreknown in the counsels of God, will come, and, as Jesus declared of him, after the slaughter of John by king Herod, will be, in the full sense of the word, "THE PROPHET OF THE HIGHEST." (Luke1:76.) Yes, he will assuredly come; and, taking up the burden once uttered by John, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord;" he will really be what John ought to have been, " even the messenger " sent to declare that " the Messiah the Prince," "THE MESSENGER OF TILE COVENANT" HIMSELF, in whom his people will delight, is at hand; which covenant, observe; will depend for its establishment, not on the will of the Jews, as of old, but on the power and grace of Jehovah himself.
2ndly.—And now as to Matthew 24, a chapter which we shall find to be closely linked with our subject, containing, as we shall see, the history of Daniel's last week.
Many, supposing this chapter to relate to the destruction of the city and the sanctuary by Titus, say that it has been
Others again regard it as future, believing, at the same time, that some of the things here foretold will occur before, and others after the Anti-Christ rises; the former, namely, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, and so on, being, as they suppose, precursory judgments, which may have already begun; the latter being those which will follow in the train of this willful deceiver. Now, I confess that I take a different view of this passage from either of these; believing, as I do, that all this will occur after this dispensation, in which we stand at present, has ended; that is, after the Church has been caught up to heaven; and, not only so, but strictly within the limits of Daniel's last week.
In answer to those who take the first of the above views, I reply, that the moment when Jesus uttered this prophecy was one of the deepest solemnity. Darkness had now begun to close in on the nation, and not only so, but on the spirit of Jesus himself. His hour of suffering was near; the week of grace had now almost expired; he had given up the city and the temple as defiled and desolate, for a season. Therefore, to suppose that at such a moment as this, he meant to predict the invasion of Titus, or anything short of those judgments which await the children of Israel hereafter, (the fully ripened fruit of their sin in rejecting himself,) seems to me to be by no means in harmony with a crisis like this.
The Lord's word, at the close of the foregoing chapter, may, I am aware, be pleaded on the opposite side. "Behold, your house is left desolate," said he, as he went out of the temple, not to enter it again till they should own him as blessed. Now these words, though they seem to favor the thought that the destruction here spoken of occurred comparatively soon after this juncture, (namely, under Titus,) do not really do so. The phrases "left desolate" and "thrown down," as applied to the temple, do not mean the same, and therefore should not be confounded. The moment he left it, in the solemn way here described, it became desolate. His words imply this: " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, for, I say unto you, ye will not see ME henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." So that, notwithstanding all its magnificence up to the time when it was burnt by Titus, so great as to lead the conqueror to strive to hinder its being set fire to by his soldiers; still all was desolate; and when rebuilt hereafter by the Jews, and it becomes the place of the abominations of Anti-Christ, it will be desolate still, simply because he, the Lord of the temple, will not be there. Observe, I speak of the temple as one temple all through, without reference to its ceasing to exist for a season. In this light the Lord views it himself, and in this we should carry our thoughts onward in association with his. Let me observe, however, that while I do not regard the destruction by Titus to be the fulfillment of the Lord's word in this chapter, I do believe that this was allowed to occur in the interim, as a terrible sample of far heavier judgments hereafter. The ninth chapter of Daniel, we may remember, takes especial notice of this, where it is written, " The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary," which, just following the announcement of the solemn fact that the Messiah should be cut off, shows that there was something, in the way of retributive punishment very especial therein. The truth is, that the destruction by Titus so closely resembles that yet to come, the full judgment that awaits the betrayers and murderers of Jesus, that it is no wonder that they should often have been confounded.
Then, in answer to those who take these judgments, some of them at least, as preceding the week, I reply, that neither the Church of God, nor apostate Christendom, seem to have had place in the Lord's thoughts at this moment. Here he exposes the sins of the Jewish nation, denouncing desolation and judgment on the city and temple alone. The Lord, in fact, is here shown as the Messiah of Israel, addressing Jewish disciples cognizant of the affairs of their nation, and exclusively so. This we gather especially from what he says to them at the beginning of the twenty-third chapter: “The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; " words which could be addressed to Jews only, and to no others. Then, as to their enquiry of him in the third verse of the twenty-fourth chapter: “Tell us," say they, “when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?”“These things,"—what things do they mean? The answer surely is simple—those of which he had just spoken, the destruction of the very temple of which they had been boasting. "Thy coming "—what coming? Surely, his coming to Israel—that of which he had spoken at the end of the twenty-third chapter; They, as yet, knew of little beside. Then, as to “THE END OF THE AGE "—what age do they mean? Surely, this also is Jewish; they knew of no other; neither do we; seeing that ages belong in no sense to us in this dispensation, but only to Israel. "The age," then, I believe to be nothing less than THE SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL; and, if so, "the end of the age" must mean THE LAST WEEK OF THIS PERIOD, within which all that is here foretold will take place.
And now, let us turn to consider what the disciples meant by the term “the end of the age." They were in full expectation that the kingdom of God was at hand. From the knowledge they had of the time of Nehemiah's return, with which, as I have shown, the seventy weeks began, as well as from their perception of “the signs of times," they judged that this period was now near its end, as indeed, according to what I have said, in one sense, it was. The truth is, the setting up of the kingdom of Christ at the very time that he came, was an event of which the Jews were in full expectation; so that there were those in Jerusalem, such as Simeon and Anna, who were waiting for the consolation of Israel; and even the woman of Samaria, half Gentile as she was, could say: " We know that Messiah Cornett )," which expectations were founded alone on this very prophecy; nothing else do we know, within the whole range of Scripture, which could have served as a guide to the Jews, as to the time of His coming, and to this, I believe, his disciples referred, when they spoke of " the age " and its " end."
The time, as I have said, in a sense, was well nigh fulfilled; and this being the case, they believed that, though hidden for a time, their rejected Master was now about to appear in his glory, as the expected Messiah. (See Luke 24:2121But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. (Luke 24:21); Acts 1:66When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6).) Such were their thoughts at this moment; and the Lord's answer, though not meeting their thoughts, was a reply to their question; inasmuch as, leaving unnoticed what they meant by the end of the age, (namely, the week of grace, which had now nearly expired,) he passes that over, as well as the whole course of this dispensation, this period of Israel's rejection, (blotting them out, as it were, in his mind, much in the same way that the angel Gabriel had done in his prophecy,) and bears them onward, in spirit, into that week with which the ago will really close.
And now, let us look a little more closely at this twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. It coincides, I believe, with the book of Revelation, from the fourth chapter nearly down to the end of the nineteenth, containing a prophetical history of the very same week, which there is presented under different aspects. And not only so, but in it we may, with wonderful accuracy, trace the twofold division thereof. For instance, from the fourth verse to the eighth, we have "the beginning of sorrows," a time of deceit, of delusion, when one shall come in his own name, saying, "I am Christ." This, I believe to be the earlier part of the week, before the great deceiver throws off the mask and discovers himself—the thousand two hundred and threescore days of Revelation 11.
Then, from the ninth verse to the fourteenth, we have the other division, a time of hatred and violence, when " the violent man," the great deceiver above-named, having fully discovered himself, the saints shall be afflicted and killed, " worn out," as Daniel foretells: the " time, times, and a half," or, "forty and two mouths " of the beast. " THEN COMES THE END," as we read; not "the end of the age," which, as I have said, means the whole of our week, but the termination thereof, THE CLOSE OF THE LAST WEEK OF DANIEL.
Then, as to what we find from the fifteenth to the twenty-eighth verse, this is not an advance on the foregoing subject, but merely a more detailed account of the acting: of Anti-Christ through the forty-two months of his tyranny. In the foregoing verses, false Christs and false prophets are seen, in a general way, each seeking to gain the ascendancy. But here we have something more definite still; namely, the history of the time when the false Christ will be in the plenitude of his power, when he and the false prophet of Revelation 13. will join in a blasphemous league to deceive and to destroy. Not that either the beast or the false prophet are here named, or personally appear in this chapter; no, but the effects of their evil doings are seen. The chief object here seems to be, to mark the great "sign" of "the end of the age," and this I take to be "the abomination of desolation," namely, "the image of the beast" set up in the holy place, which all will be called on to worship, or to perish. (Rev. 13:1515And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (Revelation 13:15).) This will be the sign, I believe; and when this-is set up, then the Jewish remnant are to know that evil has come to its height, and are counseled, yea, commanded, to fly.
Then, in verses 29-31, we have that which especially marks “the end" above-named of the week—I mean the Lord's coming in clouds to scatter his enemies, and to gather in his elect. Observe, “his elect" here are his remnant of Israel. In vain he had sought again and again, as he says at the close of the twenty-third chapter, to gather the nation together; as he touchingly cries: " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." But now the desires of his heart will at length be accomplished; they will be gathered at last from the four winds of heaven. At last, overcome by his grace, they will say: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Thus the thirty-seventh verse of the twenty-third chapter may serve to throw light on the thirty-first verse of the twenty-fourth chapter, which last is often wrongly applied (because of the mistake as to the term "elect") to the Church of God, instead of to Israel. And here I will cite two passages wherein this term can only refer to the Jews: " I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains; and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there; " and again, " they shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." (Is. 65:22.)
3rdly.—And now, with regard to the thirty-fourth verse of this twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew: “Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled," I will say a few words. This chapter, as I have said, is by many considered to have been accomplished in the time of Vespasian, and these words seem, at first sight, to favor this thought. But to me, looking at them a little more closely, they do not really do so, as I shall endeavor to show. And now, let us first just consider this passage, and ask what it means. It means simply this—that the generation (whatever this word may import, or to whomsoever it may apply) should exist up to the point when " the great tribulation " here predicted by Christ should come to its close, and then pass away; that is, that the tribulation should light on the generation itself, and end with their being all swept away, as in the days of Noah of old. Now, taking the word "generation" in its popular sense to mean "a single succession, or one gradation in the scale of genealogical descent," (the meaning given by Johnson,) this was not actually the case. No, because the generation, in this sense of the term, did not reach down to the days of Vespasian, about forty years from the period when Christ uttered this prophecy. By that time, the generation, as such, had died off, and a new one had succeeded. Some few of those cotemporaneous with Christ might have been alive at the time, it is true, and so perished in the Beige of Jerusalem; but they were merely relies of the past generation, being both too old and too few, either to form, or to belong to, that existing, and owned as such at the time of our Lord. If all this be true, how can it be said, in the above sense of the term, "This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled?"
Then again, if the word "generation" be taken as expressing the race, the descendants of Abraham, it cannot either, in this case, apply. Because, though thousands died in the siege, still the race outlived this terrible crisis, are living at present, and, according to God's ancient promise to Abraham, that they will not pass away.
We are then constrained to look for another meaning than either of these, for the word “generation." This, then, brings me to speak of the two weeks above-named—the past week of grace, and that of retributive judgment. The Jews, at the first coming of Christ, were "an evil and adulterous generation”—"a generation of vipers." Both John and the Lord each bore witness to this in his day. And so, in the end, during the future week of our prophecy, the Jews will, in principle, in character, and in action, be precisely the same; the evil, it is true, being far more fully developed, the sevenfold energy of Satan being, in that day, at work. (See Matt. 12:4545Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. (Matthew 12:45).) They will not only allow, but even outdo, the evil deeds of their fathers. The former slew their Messiah; the latter will receive, and bow down to the false Messiah, the beast. Now, though between them about two thousand years may elapse, still, in God's estimation, the generation is one and the same; not of course individually so, nor, in a sense, even nationally, (though this also, in another sense, is true,) but characteristically they are so, as much as though the Jews of that day had been raised from the dead, and were living and acting again on the earth. This, surely, is simple. The betrayers and murderers of Christ, and the adorers of Anti-Christ, have a sort of moral identity, though literally and personally they are not the same. This, then, again brings this twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew down, not to the times of Vespasian and Titus, but to those of “the prince that shall come "—to THIS LAST WEEK OF DANIEL. At the very same time that the past week of grace was annulled, that evil and perverse generation, in God's account, ceased to exist for a season. But with the revived week hereafter the generation will surely revive. Unregenerate Israel will continue unchanged; and, in the end, will, with their leader the Anti-Christ, perish forever. But will the race therefore perish? No, the generation, in this sense, will outlive the judgment under the beast. A seed who, during the dark days of Israel's trials, will cling to the Lord, will be accounted to him for a generation; these will survive the apostates, and come into blessing. “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you," said the Lord to the adulterous nation of his own day, "and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." (Matt. 21:4343Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matthew 21:43).) A nation born again of the Spirit; not merely the seed, but the children of Abraham—the children of promise, like Isaac.
4thly.—And now, in connection with what I have said as to “the end of the age," and the hopes of the disciples connected therewith, we may look at Acts 1:6,6When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6) where we hear them saying to Jesus: " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? As I have before said, they knew that "the time was fulfilled," that "the end of the age" had arrived; so that their hopes, which, while their beloved Master was lying dead in the grave, had given way for a season, (now that he had been raised from the dead and was amongst them again,) had gained additional strength, and hence this enquiry; in answer to which we hear the Lord saying to them: " It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." (Verse 7.) From which we gather distinctly that the kingdom, in due time, would come, but not yet: and that for the reason aforesaid, namely, that the last week of the seventy, at the termination of which the Lord had been slain, had been cancelled; the Father having set it aside, with the times and the seasons comprehended therein, designing henceforth to leave the course of time altogether unmarked and unmeasured, till his purpose as to the gathering out of his elect Church should be fully accomplished.
Such then, at present, are the dealings of God with his Church, which, being raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, has, in spirit, passed away into a sphere where the revolution of times and of seasons, of days and of months, as connected alone with this earth and its interests, is altogether unknown and unrecognized. So that the observance of such by the Church as fully indicates failure, as the neglect of these ordinances was the great mark of Jewish apostasy.
But, just as he is about to put all things under the feet of his Son, taking up the one week at the end, the Father again will number the times and the seasons, as of old, according to the Levitical law, showing that, though still under the yoke of their enemies, and still disobedient to him, they are his great object on earth-beloved for their father's sake; and that the time of their deliverance, at the end of the age, is in reality coming.
I have before shown that it was an act of judgment on the part of the Lord, as the Jehovah of Israel, to cancel the week; but as touching the world it showed his grace, at the same time, being as much pre-ordained in his counsels, as that on which our hopes of salvation depend, even the cutting off of Messiah. This will be found to be true, when it is considered that though, in one sense, turning him aside from his purpose, in reality it made way for the revelation of that to the hearts of his saints, in which he will be especially honored, I mean, the calling out of his Church, For had Israel been prepared to own Jesus as Lord, " the times of refreshing " would have immediately followed; and then, in this case, where were the Church? Where the Lamb's wife, the companion of Christ on the throne of his glory? The truth is, the very delay as to the time of Israel's blessing left room to the Father to act in grace to ourselves—to take out from among the Gentiles, "a people for his name," (Acts 15:1414Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. (Acts 15:14)) a people in whom the riches of his grace will, at last, be far more fully displayed, than even in the elect seed of Abraham.
What time did he mean? The sixty-nine weeks, it may be said. Well, he was presented, it is true, as foretold, at the end of this period, namely, of seven and sixty-two weeks. But, be it remembered, that he, as "a minister of the circumcision," came seeking "to confirm the promises made to the fathers;" came offering the kingdom to Israel. And when was Israel taught to look for this kingdom? at the termination of the sixty-ninth week? Nay, but at the close of the seventieth. Then again, let us remember the words of Jesus, when he opened the book which speaks of him at the time when he will come in his glory: “This day is the prophecy fulfilled in your ears." In the case referred to above, he spoke of "the time" that must pass before the coming of the acceptable year of the Lord; here he shows that this year had actually arrived; not the shadow, but the substance; not the type, but the anti-type; at least so it would have been, had they received him. Yes, because he, the true kinsman redeemer, was there, in the midst of his people, offering them deliverance and blessing. But then the Lord stops in the midst of the prophecy, just at the point between "the acceptable year of the Lord" and " the day of vengeance of our God," (see Is. 61:1, 2; Luke 4:10, 2010For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: (Luke 4:10)
20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. (Luke 4:20).) and there he closes the book, thus intimating, if we understand his action aright, that, though the year of redemption was come, the redemption itself, though thus offered, would not then, be accepted.
And here I may be told that I have added nothing to my original argument. Well, be it so; I rather seek to press on my reader what I believe to be the true process of reasoning, which Scripture demands on this subject, than to add anything new; to show this to be a question, not for the natural intellect, but for the spiritual mind, yea, for faith, as I have said, to determine: not one, I am sure, to be settled by a reference either to divine or to human chronology.
To seek indeed in the Gospels for dates, and so on, in order to prove the existence of this week, I believe, is unconsciously seeking to make God inconsistent with himself. If he purposely leaves the whole period between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth unnamed and unmeasured, thereby, among other things, cancelling the week, when his grace was refused, why expect to find hint afterwards taking notice of time which he had already obliterated? Some occasional slight references to time, I am aware, there are in the Gospels, none, however, which would help a chronologist to settle this point. Abundant, however, on the other hand, are the notices throughout the pages of prophecy, which, when compared with each other, and judged of in the light of the sanctuary, will lead to the conclusion to which I have come.
[Although I still feel the same difficulty in receiving our beloved brother's theory of "The Cancelled Week" as I did when reviewing the Charts, (vol. 1. pp. 188-190,) yet am I quite happy in presenting His statements to the Church at large, trusting, to the Lord in His own good time to cast further light upon the subject. is it not strange that the important questions of the dates of the Lord's birth, baptism, ministry, or death, are not "to be settled by a reference either to divine or human chronology?" On what is faith, as to these things, to be exercised; if not on divine chronology? If there is no mention of them in Scripture, I should have supposed that it was no question of faith. If God has spoken, our business is to believe Him: if He has not, faith there cannot be.—ED.)