The Promise, Pt. 5

How many years are there in seventy weeks? Time to dust off your math skills. In verse 24 of Daniel 9, Gabriel says to Daniel, “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city.” Most commentators agree that seventy “sevens” should be understood as seventy “weeks” of years – a period of 490 years.

The prophecy divides the 490 years into three smaller units: one of 49 years, one of 434 years, and one of 7 years. Verse 25 says, “From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’, and sixty-two ‘sevens.’”

The prophecy contains a declaration of God’s six-fold purpose in bringing these events to pass. Verse 24 says this purpose is to: 1) “finish the transgression,” 2) “make an end to sin,” 3) “make reconciliation for iniquity, “ 4) “bring in everlasting righteousness,” 5) “seal up vision and prophecy,” and 6) “anoint the most holy.”

The prophetic clock started when King Artaxerxes of Persia issued the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in c. 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1-8). Interestingly, it took 49 years (seven “sevens”) to rebuild Jerusalem.

Sorting through the math (and footnotes), 483 years (sixty-nine “sevens”) after the rebuild decree places us at A.D. 33 and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Verse 26 says that after 483 years, “the Anointed One will be cut off.” This was fulfilled when Christ was crucified.

So where are we now? Sixty-nine “sevens” have passed and the seventieth week is in our future. Verse 26 implies there is a temporal gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. It continues with a prediction that, after the Messiah is killed, “the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the sanctuary.” This was fulfilled with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The “ruler who will come” is a reference to the Antichrist, who, it seems, will have some connection with Rome, since it was the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem.

Beloved, many believe that we are between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. The length of time is not revealed to Daniel or to any other of the O.T. prophets. Furthermore, this intervening time span incorporates the church age, in which we now live and work. If this interpretation holds true, then the events of the seventieth week remain for the future and will be realized during an age called the “Great Tribulation”, referring to a time of seven years just prior to the bringing in of “everlasting righteousness” (v.24).

The seventy-weeks prophecy is complex and amazingly detailed. There are various interpretations of this passage, and the one presented here is part of the dispensational, premillennial tradition. But one thing is certain and universally agreed upon by all Christians, beloved: God has a timetable, and He is keeping things on schedule. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), and as we celebrate Jesus’ coming this Christmas, we should always be looking for the triumphant return of our Lord      (Revelation 22:7).

Come, Lord Jesus!