Daniel’s 70 Weeks

Daniel’s 70 Weeks

Dan 9:20-23 (ESV) While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God, [21] while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. [22] He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. [23] At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God..

 What is Daniel doing?

• Speaking, praying, confessing, and pleading

 Some observations about this prayer and the response of God in these verses—

• Daniel has been pouring his heart out over his sin and the sin of his people, pleading for the mercy and forgiveness of God—that God would act according to his character and for the sake of his name—not because he or the people of Israel deserve it—because they don’t!
• I think it’s highly possible that we need to spend more time praying according to the pattern of Daniel found in this chapter. Our prayers often become a shopping list of self-centered needs.
• Daniel saw his sin very clearly and felt the need to pray—to intervene for himself and his people. To confess their iniquity. Listen again Daniel 9:3-6.
• Dan 9:3-6 (ESV) Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. [4] I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, [5] we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. [6] We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
• When you picture Daniel presenting his plea for mercy and forgiveness to the Lord—please see Daniel on his knees, on his face before the Most High God.
• Also, notice quickly the timing of Daniel’s prayer. “At the time of the evening sacrifice.” This is a reference to the evening sacrifice that would happen each day at the temple. That hasn’t happened in decades. There is no temple in Jerusalem for the sacrifice to happen. The temple is desolate. Daniel has chosen to orient his life to God.
• Alistair Begg said it this way—“Daniel’s life is calibrated by the things of God.”
• Daniel Akin said, “Yahweh’s clock is his clock.”
• Does our life run according to God’s clock? Is our life calibrated by the things of God or are we living according to our plans and our purposes?
• Now consider the response of God to Daniel.
• God heard Daniel’s prayer immediately.
• “While I was speaking and praying”, “while I was speaking in prayer”
• The man Gabriel “warrior of God” came to me in swift flight
• “At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you”
• God hears your prayers of confession. He hears your intervention for others. He hears your pleas for mercy and for forgiveness.
• God responds. In this instance his response was immediate. A word went out at the beginning of Daniel’s prayer. God’s response is always according to his will and according to his timing. He always hears the prayer of the humble heart. His response may not be immediate.
• “For you are greatly loved.” 3 times this phrase is used to describe God’s affection toward Daniel.
• 1Jn 3:1 (ESV) See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
• 1Jn 4:19 (ESV) We love because he first loved us.
• Jhn 14:21 (ESV) Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

“In what follows, I reserve the right to change my mind later this evening, and as often as necessary for the rest of my life, until I finally settle this matter. What I’m about to now unfold for you will annoy some, disappoint others, confuse many, and perhaps encourage a few.”

Alistair Begg

 Terri and I were talking yesterday and I reminded her we were covering the prophecy of the 70 weeks and her response was, “Oh, the 70 weeks.”

 “Daniel 9:24-27 are four of the most controversial verses in the Bible.”

Stephen Miller

“The history of the 70 weeks of Daniel is the dismal swamp of Old Testament criticism.”

J. A. Montgomery

With all that being said, “Let’s wade into the dismal swamp.”

Dan 9:24 (ESV) “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city

• Literally 70 sevens.
• Now there is considerable debate over what these 70 sevens are. Days, weeks, years. Most scholars believe the weeks represent years. However, you read it—a period of time is expressed.
• The next question surrounding this period of time is—Do they represent a consecutive period of time—all 70 weeks together as a unit or are the weeks broken up in time. A lot of times, what seems to happen is we read back onto this passage what lines up with our particular end times view.
• Ask yourself this important question—When Gabriel unfolded the 70 weeks to Daniel, how would Daniel have perceived the 70 weeks? Would Daniel have best understood them as seventy consecutive weeks ( a unit) or would he have best understood them with a gap of many years between the 69^th and 70^th week?
• Notice that Daniel is told the time period is decreed. This is a command of the Lord. What unfolds for Daniel to understand is what God has determined will happen.

 I am not going to be so arrogant as to think I have these verses figured out. No commentator that would be completely honest would say they have Daniel 9:24-27 completely figured out. There are too many possible interpretations to think we have all the details understood.

What can we know?

• The Lord will deal with sin. (9:24)
• to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
• Transgression will be finished.
• Sin will be put to an end.
• Iniquity will be atoned for.
• Everlasting righteousness will be brought in
• Both vision and prophet will be sealed.
• A most holy place will be anointed.
• Ask yourself—When you read these words what immediately comes to mind?
• This is what Jesus does!!!
• Don’t lose sight of the fact that this appears to be the focal point of what Gabriel is explaining to Daniel. We can get so caught up in trying to figure out what the abomination of desolation is or who the antichrist is or is there a gap or not in Daniel’s 70 weeks, that we miss the beauty of these truths.
• The debate surrounding these verses among all the scholars is when does Jesus accomplish all this.
• My interpretation of these words is what I would describe as a “Now and Not Yet Approach.”
• I believe Jesus ushered in these things in his first coming and he will complete them once and for all at his second coming.
• Jesus accomplished all that was necessary to deal with transgression, put an end to sin, atone for iniquity and to usher in everlasting righteousness.
• Jesus is the final word of God. As Sinclair Ferguson said, “In him, prophcy and prophet are united.”
• The anointed holy place is a reference to the Old Testament holy of holies. But also understand that Jesus came to fulfill all that the holy of holies represented. In a true sense Jesus is the temple of God—the place where God’s holy presence dwells. The church is also referred to as the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3).

• The Lord will bring the Messiah 9:25-26a
• [25] Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. [26] And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
• What is described here is the rebuilding of Jerusalem, along with probably the temple and the arrival of Jesus the Messiah.
• In Isaiah 44 and 45 Cyrus is described as God’s anointed one who would build Jerusalem and lay the foundation of the temple. The decree to go rebuild the city began in his first year
• In the time of Nehemiah the work would continue. This is the period of time most likely described by the 62 weeks that would also lead up to the time of the arrival of Christ.
• At the conclusion of the 69^th seven an anointed one (Messiah) will be cut off and have nothing (or not for himself).
• Isa 53:6-8 (ESV) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. [8] By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

• The Lord will bring judgment 9:26b-27a
• And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. [27] And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate,
• Verse 26 describes a prince who is to come that will destroy the city and the sanctuary. This appears to be very clearly describing what Jesus said would happen at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D when Titus came and leveled Jerusalem and literally tore down the temple and threw the stones of the temple off the temple mount.
• Luk 21:20-22 (ESV) “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. [21] Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, [22] for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.
• But it also appears to be more than just A.D. 70 because of the continued wars and continued desolations.
• Titus may be a foreshadowing, a type of antichrist that comes at the end of history as Paul describes in 2 Thessalonians.

• The Lord will bring in the end 9:27b
• “until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
• The Lord will bring the end and will bring in his final glorious kingdom.
• In the seventy sevens there may be strong ties to the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25. This was a period of restoration and healing and redemption and freedom. It was centered around a period of 49 years or seven sevens. 490 years or seventy sevens may be the Lord’s way of communicating—at the end of time I will bring about a final jubilee that will usher in perfect restoration and healing and redemption and freedom for my people.

Luk 21:28 (ESV) Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Life Group Discussion Guide

1. How does Daniel’s pattern of prayerful confession impact our own patterns of prayer?
2. Look at the 6 phrases in verse 24. How does knowing Jesus has dealt with sin move you to praise for salvation? How does it move you to live for the Lord?
3. Read Galatians 4:4. How can we tie that into what Daniel says about the arrival of the Messiah in 9:25-26.
4. Think about the decree of the 70 weeks. It concludes with the final consummation of God’s plan. So, just as in the fullness of time God sent his Son, also in the fullness of time God will complete his plan. Spend time discussing this.
5. Discuss this summary of what the chapter means for us— “Though Daniel 9:20-27 is a difficult text and no interpretation is without difficulty, it includes biblical-theological themes that apply regardless of overall interpretation. The passage is a prophecy of hope, reminding believers that God answers prayer. It affirms the reality of angels as mediators of God’s revelation and through prayer angels can help people in their extreme weariness. It affirms that God directs the course of history for his people and enables them to endure a terrible “abomination of desolation”, something Jesus sees happening in the future in the destruction of Jerusalem. God’s predetermined plan shows his sovereignty over human history. His plan ultimately deals with sin and establishes righteousness. Despite sin and desolation God’s Jubilee purposes will win in the end.”