SATURDAY, JUNE 9
Daniel 9:20-26
Nehemiah 2:1-8

“… So I prayed to the
God of heaven.”

DANIEL’S SEVENTY WEEKS

The present passage is of the utmost significance in shedding light on the future. The view expressed here is one among several. For the reader’s own instruction, his pastor’s advice should be sought.

Daniel’s urgent plea to God: Lord, restore Thy people and Thy holy city. God’s answer to Daniel: In seventy weeks Israel and Jerusalem will be restored. Some 2,500 years have passed and the prophecy is unfulfilled. Obviously the seventy weeks must mean something other than literal weeks. Most serious Bible expositors take the “week” to mean seven years, and not seven days. Thus, seventy weeks = 490 years. The problem now is to figure out how these 490 years fit into the prophetic jigsaw.

First, we must determine when the “countdown” began. The answer is in Daniel 9:25. A period of sixty-nine “weeks” or 483 years will stretch from the “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince.” Here we have two historic landmarks:
a) 445 BC (approx.) when king Artaxerxes gave permission to Nehemiah to rebuild and restore Jerusalem (Neh 2).
b) AD 30 (approx.) when the Messiah, the Prince, our Lord Jesus appeared as King of the Jews, crucified.

Between (a) and (b) there are 478 years, five years short of the 483 years required to make Daniel’s sixty-nine weeks. But the prophetic year is 360 days, not our normal 365 days. In support of this, Daniel 9:27 referred to “the midst of the week” which corresponds to 1,260 days or forty-two months (Rev 11:2-3, 12:6, 13:5). Using this calculation we arrive at approximately AD 30, the date of Messiah. Now Daniel 9:26 marks a distinct break between the end of the sixty-ninth week when Messiah is “cut off,” and the seventieth week when “… the prince that shall come … shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” This separation is of greatest prophetic significance.

THOUGHT: Prophecy is history on preview.
PRAYER: Lord, may Thy Word affect the way I live my life now.