The 70 Week Prophecy of Daniel

THE SEVENTY WEEKS PROPHECY OF DANIEL

 
February 22, 2013

We begin this study where the man Gabriel prophesied:  “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.   And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and 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.” Daniel 9:25-26

Yea, that prophecy was designed to reveal to Israel the coming of their Messiah.  While at the same time it told of the things Messiah would accomplish through His sacrificial death.

That’s not all, it was handed to us in a numerical language wherein a week of years is a total of seven years.  The Holy Scripture also supports this elsewhere.   Moses helped us with the numerical account where he wrote: “And Jacob loved Rachel and bargained with her father, Laban, and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.”

Genesis 29:18   “And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and after serving her week in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and Jacob said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me?"   And her week, as it were was a week of years, which is to say seven years.   And Laban said “Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also. Yet Jacob served her father seven other years: and he gave him Rachel his youngest daughter to wife also." Genesis 29:26-28   Both the Old and New Testaments honor this and they reckon the day to begin and end at six o’clock P.M.

Now the Seventy Week prophecy included the anointing of the Most Holy, meaning Israel’s Messiah.  (See Daniel 9:24-c)  Yea, Messiah’s anointing was carried out by the HOLY FATHER on the day of His baptizing.

Luke holds that record, he said: “Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21-22

Again Gabriel said:   “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.” Daniel 9:25

Yea, the sum of seven weeks and three score and two weeks is a total of (69) sixty nine weeks.  And when converted into real time, it is 483 years, one week or seven years short of the (70) seventy weeks or the 490 years prophecy needed to back track into the Old Testament where we find the decree that went forth to restore Jerusalem.

Gabriel left nothing to chance, he said: “After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.” Daniel 9:24-a  Messiah was cut off at the crucifixion after three and half years into the Covenant. And as saith Gabriel: He was “cut off,” but not for Himself who knew no sin,” but for you and me that was acquainted with sin.

Now the Covenant of one week, or seven years served no less than two purposes.  When adding that week to the sixty nine weeks we have the Seventy weeks or the 490 years.  We need to regress into the Old Testament where the decree went forth to rebuild and restore Jerusalem.

Footnote: the one week or the Covenant of seven years is a subject all of its own, therefore we will deal with it separately in a future document, namely: “MESSIAH SHALL CONFIRM THE COVENANT WITH MANY FOR ONE WEEK.”

But now on with: “THE SEVENTY WEEKS PROPHECY OF DANIEL.”

After adding the (7) seven years to the 483 years we have a total of 490 years, the number of years needed whereby to backtrack into the Old Testament to find where and from whom the decree went forth to rebuild and restore Jerusalem.

We begin by turning back the Calendar 33 years, after which we come up with 457 years left to regress back where the decree went forth to rebuild and restore Jerusalem.

 And therefore after going back 490 years, we landed at Ezra chapter 7 where King Artaxerxes decreed to restore and build Jerusalem as said the prophecy.   It was on this wise:

“Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time.  I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.   Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors, to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand;  And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, And all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem:  That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.    And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God.   The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.   And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house.   And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily,  Unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measures of wheat, and to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.   Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?   Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God; it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them.  And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.” Ezra 7:13-25

In praise and adoration to GOD, Ezra, Priest and Scribe, blessed his GOD for setting in motion the restoration of Jerusalem and what’s more He was bringing it about through Artaxerxes the Persian king of Babylon.

Here is the blessing wherewith Ezra blessed his GOD for what had been accomplished through the Gentile King:

“Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem:  And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.”

Ezra 7:27-28

We need such a governing force in Washington D.C.

MESSIAH SHALL CONFIRM THE COVENANT

WITH MANY FOR ONE WEEK

September 5, 2013

We begin this study where the man Gabriel said to Daniel: “Messiah 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.”  Daniel 9:27   

Now just a short summary to say that the week in this prophecy was a week of years, meaning (7) years.

Now to get on with our study where Gabriel appeared to Daniel and said: “Messiah 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.”

Daniel 9:27a

Yea, Gabriel told Daniel: “And in the midst of that Covenant week the  Messiah shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.”   That meant in the midst of the Covenant, Messiah would be cut off through death by crucifixion. 

The COVENANT of one week, or seven years, was valid from the day Messiah was anointed at His baptizing.   Matthew said: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16-17

The Covenant began at that instant and continued its validation for the next (7) seven years.

You know what?   When all is said and done the Covenant was about keeping His Disciples safe from the vicious hands of those that sought to kill them, that will be more apparent before we are done with this study.

Yea, JESUS assured His Disciples of their safety.  When He dispatched them, He assured them: “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19

Therefore, He kept them safe from those whom He addressed as: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Matthew 23:33

Yea, He kept them safe for the first half of the Covenant.   Many are those that suggest that the Heavenly clock was paused at the death of JESUS to be restarted at what they call the beginning of the great tribulation.   But not so and here’s why:  On the night of all nights, and in His prayer of all prayers He assured the Holy FATHER:  “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12

And He pled with FATHER GOD, with these words:  “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.”  John 17:11  

(And He did!)  He kept them safe the remaining three and a half years of the seven year covenant.   Speaking of their safe keeping, John said in Revelation 12:6 “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”   John verified what he saw but Hosea prophesied in Hosea 2:14 and said:  "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her."   This woman was our Lord's remnant that truly believed. 

And those thousand two hundred and threescore days is a total of three and a half years completing the seven year covenant of keeping them safe.

Not only that.  Yea, the Covenant JESUS made with His Elect was all about their safe keeping from the old serpent and his seed.  The Heavenly clock continued to click for three and half more years even until the WORD OF GOD had been preached at Samaria.  Acts 8:14

Ah, but after the Samaritans had received the WORD of GOD, seven years had come and gone according to the secular Calendar and therefore the Covenant came to an abrupt end.

And at covenant’s end, the Jews killed Stephen and then James.

And henceforth the disciples suffered many afflictions at the hands of the Jews.  Amen!

May the GOD of the universe be blessed forever.