Daniel's 70 Weeks

DANIEL 9:24-27

It was revealed to Daniel, whose main concern was for destitute Israel, that it would yet be 70 weeks for Israel (70 X 7 years = 490 years) until the Lord would:

* finish the transgression
* make an end of sins
* make reconciliation for iniquity
* bring in everlasting righteousness
* seal up the vision and prophecy
* and anoint the most Holy

Accordingly, all this was fulfilled by Christ Jesus the Lord, 490 years after Cyrus issued the decree to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem.

Daniel was given still more details relevant to Israel: Messiah will be "cut off" (killed) but "not for himself"; then "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (verse 26).

We are usually told that "the people of the prince that shall come," are the armies of a future antichrist. But is this really a future event, as some want to tell us - or has it already come to pass?

For it to be a still future event, a gap of thousands of years would need to be inserted into Daniel's text, plus the sanctuary would first need to be rebuilt, because it was destroyed in AD70.

But why would God have a program to rebuild the Temple and introduce animal sacrifices in Israel once again, since these were only a shadow of the true sacrifice of His Son which has now come? What pleasure could God now take in the blood of bulls and goats?

"If I build again that which I once destroyed, I make myself a transgressor," Paul said.

The Old Testament prophecies concerning the rebuilding of the Temple were spoken during the Babylonian captivity. Within 70 years, Cyrus issued the decree to rebuild the Temple. The books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Haggai, Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah fit into this time period, not after.

The Temple was central to God’s Covenant (Old Covenant) with Israel; and God never takes covenant action without using His prophets to speak about it first. So if the prophecies spoken during or before the period of Captivity refer to a third temple instead of the second, where were the prophecies about the second temple which was built shortly afterwards? Such silence would be uncovenantal.

Therefore when Daniel and Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple, they were talking about the very Temple that existed at the time of the fourth kingdom, that is, the Temple that existed at the time of the Roman Empire, at the time of Christ.

Who then were "the people of the prince that shall come", who were to "destroy the city and sanctuary" during the reign of the Roman Empire, at the time of the Messiah?

In the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24, Jesus described Jerusalem being besieged by her enemies when not one stone of the Temple would be left standing on top of the other, because Israel "knew not the hour of her visitation".

Within that generation, all this came to pass just as Jesus predicted, when Roman armies besieged the city in AD70, fulfilling Daniel's prophecy which Jesus was quoting.

As for the believers, Jesus forewarned them that when they see "the abomination of desolation" standing in the Temple, quoting Daniel, it's time to flee the city. "Pray it's not in winter," Jesus said.

It came to pass that when Titus' armies besieged Jerusalem and pagan idols were set-up in the Temple at Jewish invitation, the believers recognized this to be what Jesus had warned them about, the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy. They remembered Jesus' advice to flee into the surrounding hillside without even returning to fetch anything from their houses. They fled the city, and by so doing, saved their lives.

Then Rome desecrated the temple and city. Some were taken, others were left. Wherever the dead bodies were, there the vultures gathered. The tribulation of those days in Jerusalem was so great that Jesus said, “Except the tribulation of those days be shortened, no flesh shall be saved”. But for the elect's sake, that is, for the sake of the believers struggling to survive during those difficult times, the days would be shortened.

Jesus had said, “All the righteous blood shed since Abel to Zechariah, will be required of this generation”.

On the way to the cross when a great company of women bewailed and lamented him, Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children…”

In the parable of the tenants, Jesus foretold that the owner of the Vineyard would destroy the original tenants and give it to others. Now just as He said, it came to pass in Israel that “the kingdom will be taken away from you, and given to another nation”.

Within the exact time-frame told to Daniel by the angel, the Messiah came, fulfilling all that was written of by Daniel: offering the Kingdom to Israel; He was cut off; He was presented before the Ancient of Days; the saints possessed the Kingdom; Jerusalem and the sanctuary were destroyed; now the gentiles are grafted-in with the elect Jews, and together the Kingdom is becoming a great mountain to “fill the whole earth".

Notice that in relation to Israel, Daniel was told it would be the “saints” who shall possess the Kingdom, rather than Israel generally – that is, a remnant, the elect, rather than all Israel after the flesh.

This is precisely how Paul applied the prophetic Scriptures - and it's the only way he applied them. Israel hath not obtained it, but the election hath obtained it, Paul explained.

Paul understood that the Kingdom had come through Jesus, fulfilling prophecy. Paul's writings nowhere try to explain that the promises failed just because Israel failed to receive it, or that the Kingdom is therefore yet to come in some future way to fulfil the Scriptures. Rather, he spent ALL his time explaining how that the Kingdom has ALREADY come, in Jesus. And the Gentiles are now inheriting the Kingdom.

This is how Paul understood the promises and the prophets. Paul's revelation of the Gospel is that Jesus fulfilled prophecy and procured the promises made to Israel for both Jew and Gentile alike through faith.

Israel after the flesh is currently blinded and cut off because of unbelief, while it is a remnant of Jews who believe and inherit the promises, the Gentiles also grafted-in to the promises through faith. The Gentiles are inheriting the blessing of Abraham. This is Paul's gospel.

Jesus said, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and was glad".

Paul said, "God preached before the gospel to Abraham when he promised the justification of the Gentiles by faith, saying, 'In thee and in thy seed (Christ) shall all families of the earth be blessed (saved, justified)'".

To what period or dispensation does Abraham’s blessing refer? Jesus said, “My day”, that is, to this day in which we now live through the gospel.

Abraham saw it. Jesus fulfilled it. The Kingdom is being announced and is available to all. Jesus gave to the apostles the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is the father's good pleasure to confer on you a Kingdom, just as he has conferred on me a Kingdom.”

Just like Jesus said in His parables, the Kingdom is taken away from them (apostate Israel) and given to another nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. We now live in a time when the Kingdom is being announced and the fullness of the Gentiles is coming in, and Jews who continue not in unbelief are also entering.

This is the manner by which all [true] Israel shall be saved.

The Kingdom of God is now like the mustard seed which is the smallest among herbs, yet grows to become a tree big enough for the birds of the air to land in. It began as a seed which fell into the ground and died, but now has produced many sons unto glory.

Jesus has gone away to prepare a place for us, then He that shall come shall come, and will not tarry.

So instead of watching newspapers for a one-world government to arise in Europe which will supposedly put an end to the daily sacrifice in a temple which no longer exists – can we instead perhaps understand this to be fulfilled prophecy? Christ Jesus fulfilled Scripture.

Maybe there isn't as much a case (from these verses in Daniel or from Matthew 24), for the eschatological system that teaches a coming Great Tribulation or one-world government in our generation, as a sign of the end. Even if other Scriptures point to this, Daniel and Matthew don’t seem to.

Double Fulfilment?

Now some who read this may accept that these verses could possibly already be fulfilled prophecy – but they’ll also claim a future fulfilment for them as well, some double fulfilment.

But I wonder what precedent in Scripture exists as authority to arbitrarily place a “double fulfilment” on a clear prophecy?

One text that is claimed to have a double fulfilment is from Isaiah:

“A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son”.

But I only know of one virgin birth, don’t you?

Others claim a double fulfilment of David’s prophetic psalms, saying that they first applied to himself, and later to Christ.

But Peter said, “He (David) being a prophet, spoke NOT ABOUT HIMSELF, but about Christ” – and David knew it. For example, David’s hands and feet were never pierced. He was preserved withersoever he went. But he wrote this in the Psalms being a poetic book, in the first person, using poetic identification rather than prose.

The problem with placing a “double fulfilment” on Matthew 24 in places where Jesus quotes passages from Daniel, is that we have no third testament to explain a second fulfilment to us; however, when it comes to Old Testament prophecies, we have Apostolic authority in the New Testament (through statements made by Jesus and the Apostles) to show us how the Old Testament Scriptures are meant to be interpreted. And they applied the prophecies and promises as being fulfilled in one way and one way only, and that was through Christ, in their own time.

If prophecies of the bible have a valid double-interpretation, there ought to be a clear demonstration of the use of this hermeneutic (the double interpretation hermeneutic, or method) by Jesus or by the Apostles of the New Testament, but there isn't one.

Therefore, knowing that these days in which we live are the Kingdom days spoken of by Daniel and all the prophets, and by John and the Lord Jesus, we can, like Peter and Paul, go about preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Name of Jesus.

Perhaps we needn’t keep looking, on the basis of these Scriptures, for a revived Roman Empire to emerge from Europe in our generation that will yet desecrate a Jewish Temple which doesn’t even exist, using a sacrificial system which God has no interest in restoring, now that He dwells in a true temple not made with hands.