Daniel prophesied about 70 weeks - seventy sevens - ten jubilees - for the Jewish people, beginning from the date of the decree to rebuild the Temple and city.
→ When Jesus began His ministry, He announced, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, and believe the Gospel."
Isaiah prophesied about the acceptable year of the Lord.
→ Jesus quoted part of Isaiah, and said, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears".
Isaiah also prophesied about an acceptable time - a day of salvation.
→ Paul quoted Isaiah and taught that day had come and its provisions were still available, even to the Gentiles.
Daniel's 70th week - the tenth Jubilee - Isaiah's acceptable year of the Lord - likely began on the precise day when Jesus said, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears" - or thereabouts.
In the midst of that final seven-year period - approximately in the middle of it - Messiah the Prince was "cut off, but not for himself" - it was for our sins.
In the final half of that seven-year period, the covenant continued to be confirmed - the Gospel continued to be preached - in Jerusalem, by the Apostles, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following. But the outcome was a great persecution of the Church which arose over the martyrdom of Stephen. The entire Church except the Apostles was scattered. This event completed Daniel's 70th week - consecutively, without a gap. From that time onwards we read in the Book of Acts that the Gospel began to be preached primarily in Gentile regions. God's promises to the Jews were all fulfilled, but only the believing remnant experienced the promises fully, and Gentiles were also experiencing it, just as the Prophets also foresaw. Yet none of the promises have been repealed. Potentially any Jew could still experience the promises, if they believed. Paul was an example of an unbelieving Jew being grafted back in.
Future celebrations of the Jubilee were hindered forever - along with the rest of the Old Covenant rituals - once the Romans destroyed the Temple and city - which occurred within the Apostles' own living generation, exactly when Jesus predicted it would. This was the "day of vengeance of our God" - "the time of Jacob's trouble" - "great tribulation" - "that all things that were written might be fulfilled" - "when ye see the abomination of [causing] desolation, spoken of by Daniel, standing where it ought not [in the holy place]".
Jesus announced the fulfilment of Daniel's prophesied time-frame. He announced the fulfilment of Isaiah's acceptable year of the Lord - the Jubilee. Although from that moment in history onwards the literal observance of the Jubilee-cycle, on the old Jewish calendar-dates - and the rest of Moses' customs - ceased forever, Paul asserted that the real provisions which the Lord Jesus brought on that day, in fulfilment of the Scriptures and of the symbols and shadow, were those that were available - even for Gentiles, through the Gospel. Now is the day of salvation. Beyond knowing that now is the day of salvation, Paul taught the believers that they need not feel obligated to observe any set days. Jesus was complete. And in Him they were complete. And free. That's the Gospel - the good news.
Jesus' Jubilee provisions continue. We who believe do enter into God's rest and cease from our own works, just as God also ceased from His. After the final Jubilee year, there was no resumption of the shadow, no resumption of the forty-nine or fifty-year cycle - just as there has been no ongoing obligation to the rest of Moses' customs. The provisions, once brought by the Lord, were permanent. The set-dates of the old calendar no longer mattered - what avails now is the new creation.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.
In Whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Bond nor free. Male nor female.
No special days. Just one new day.
That's the good news. The freedom of the Gospel. The good news. For all people.
While we wait for His second coming, we have something which the Lord instituted for us to do in remembrance of Him - the Lord's Table - which He said we can do not on set Old Covenant Feast Days like the now-superseded Feast of Passover - but as oft as ye drink it. It's not a new way of observing the Passover - it's a whole new and different institution. Once He comes the second time, we will no longer need any remembrances, for we shall see Him as He is.
(Still, civil authorities do not bear the sword in vain, Paul taught. The ethics of the Jubilee cycle aren't necessarily without enduring economic merit.
The Jubilee year was to be a time of release for prisoners, and a year of release from debts, most imprisonments having been for debt, all other sins having had other punishments at the Law besides imprisonment.)
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