Seventy-Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9 - Part 3

So I've always, again, I'm like you, I'm not dogmatic about it, but I've always assumed that that passage is referring to when Jesus comes to establish his holy, establish his kingdom, his earthly kingdom in the New Jerusalem, which of course, there will be a temple at that point, which there will be a temple that will never again be destroyed because keep in mind, all the previous temples have all been destroyed because after this passage or prophecy was given to Daniel by Gabriel, there was another temple built, which we'll be getting into later as we discussed this prophecy, but that temple was eventually destroyed. And so there's another temple that we believe is going to be built or authorized by the Antichrist during the tribulation period, the first three and a half years of the tribulation period again, which is something we'll be getting into. But there's a problem with that temple because that temple is going to be desecrated by the abomination of desolation by the Antichrist, similar to what Antichius did. And we'll talk about Antichius maybe at a future date. But so when you eliminate all of those, it will lead to me, to me, it will seem to lead to the Millennial Kingdom or the temple in the Millennial Kingdom.

But again, I'm not dogmatic about it. Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Now in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program. Welcome to Discerning the Times.

My name is Brian Thomas alongside cohost, Dr. Bruce Logan. And we are continuing this week, our series. This is part three in looking at the 70 weeks prophecy in the book of Daniel. That opening clip is from last week's episode where we left off with Dr. Logan, giving his commentary on the final task given to Israel in Daniel chapter nine, verse 24, which was to anoint the most Holy. I want to share that verse with you again, in case you missed last week or to just refresh your memory, Daniel chapter nine, verse 24 reads 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your Holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. So again, that was from last week's episode in which Dr. Logan was given his take on the last of the task, which is to anoint the most Holy. If you've missed the previous weeks, we encourage you to go to our website, blessings to Israel.com or go to our YouTube channel, search for discerning the times, and there you can listen to parts one and two, and I encourage you to do so.

So if you are joining us for the first time, again, my name is Brian Thomas cohost, Dr. Bruce Logan, who I will bring in shortly. But before we get into the topic, I want to remind you as we always do that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. We are all going to live for eternity, either in the presence of our Lord or in the lake of fire. So if you've never received Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, if you've never confessed your sins and received his sacrifice, I want to encourage you to do so today so that you too can inherit eternal life.

All right. So doc, we are continuing this 70 weeks prophecy, and we really started digging down into the details last week. And so we're really into the meat of it as we come this week to chapter nine verse 25.

Yeah. Again, I'm just so excited and looking forward to unpacking this passage and it's going to be powerful. And those who were with us in our last episode, we kind of just left you hanging out there a little bit, kind of left you with a cliffhanger kind of with the way they do in movies sometimes. But we're going to come back and we're going to really pick it up and it's going to start making sense as we go through. And if you just stick with us, if you have your Bible, um, and if you have no making notations and, and, uh, have your little notebook and pen, um, it's all going to start making sense.

Yeah, absolutely. And we definitely encourage you to take notes. We are, we are teachers of the Bible and we want you to take notes and follow along and, and just glean what the Lord is sharing with us. So again, we're coming to verse 25 this week of Daniel chapter nine. And we found in the previous episodes that we recorded, we saw in the prior verses that the nation of Israel is given 490 years to accomplish six different tasks. And so as we come to verse 25 of Daniel chapter nine, we find the texts know therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah, the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks.

The street shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times. So here we find the starting point of this 490 year period. So doc, I'm going to pass the baton to you to take it from here. Well, um, thank you for that. And I just want to just point out, I just want to go back just for a moment, just to review verse 24, because the beginning of this prophecy started out as we, for those who weren't with us in the previous episode, it says that 70 weeks are decreed for you and your people.

And we, I won't go back, you would have to just listen to the last part of podcast. So I won't go unpack the 70 weeks, how we arrived at that. But it was 490 years because 70 weeks represents a 70 periods of seven years. So that comes out to be 490 years. And the purpose of the 70 weeks was, uh, in verse 24 was to finish this transgressions, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness to fill up the vision and prophecy, and finally to anoint the most Holy.

So we unpacked that last week. Um, but then it goes on, um, from Daniel nine 24 to nine 27, also it breaks it down and gives us this scope or the gate. Gabriel gives Daniel the scope or the big picture of the 490 weeks. And the 490 weeks is divided up into four smaller periods. Um, and so the original scope, I'm sorry, three smaller periods. And so the scope went to 70 weeks or 490 years.

That's the big picture. And that 490 years is divided up into three smaller components, one of 69 weeks, which is the verse 25. And then in verse 26, we're going to see an interval period, mark that down in your Bible and interval period.

And that's, that's, that's significant. And then the final component is the 70th week or the final period of seven years, which is recorded in verse 27. And so now with that big picture scope in mind, um, let's go back and look at verse 25 again, which says no one understand this, that from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointing, uh, the anointed one, the ruler, uh, who will come, there will be seven seven and 62 sevens.

It will be rebuilt with the streets and trenches, but in troubling times. And so basically, uh, what we have here is that we have, uh, the basic outline for this 490 year period. And it begins with the component. This, the first part that starts out with 69 weeks, that 69 weeks. If you do the math again, 69 times seven, uh, comes to 483 years. So now verse 25 says, and this is the key from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

That's the key. So in other words, at the issuing of the decree is when God's prophetic clock, if you will, will begin to click off this 490 years. So, uh, we know that at this particular time, there was about two years prior to the , to, uh, Cyrus King of Persia issuing a decree, allowing the Jews to return back to Jerusalem. But there was a problem because, um, at that particular time, they weren't able to begin to rebuild, uh, Jerusalem because in order to rebuild a city, it involved rebuilding a fortification, the rebuilding walls. And when you rebuild walls, that was all oftentimes reviewed, viewed as a threat, um, you know, by, by the ruling, uh, by, by the ruling powers that be, because, you know, by rebuilding walls, you know, that indicated order of fortifications was a big thing that you could, you know, resist, or you could raise up against the ruling authority. And so you had to have permission back in that time in order to, uh, rebuild walls. And so that permission wasn't given for another hundred years or so after they were allowed to return or after the decree that was signed by Cyrus. And so many, many, uh, uh, scholars get that incorrect. They think that it was, uh, the decree by Cyrus that, where the prophetic clock began to tick off. But actually it was about a hundred years later after that, where the decree was given, uh, by Xerxes in the book of Nehemiah, um, in, in, in which the prophetic clock actually began to tick off.

All right. So I'm going to share a few verses, uh, for our listeners to make note of. So we won't read through them all for the sake of time, but just to give some more insight onto what Dr. Logan is sharing, make a note of second Chronicles chapter 36, verses 22 through 23. Again, the second Chronicles chapter 36, verses 22 through 23. Another passage is Ezra chapter one, verses one through three. Again, that's Ezra chapter one, verses one through three and Ezra chapter six, verses one through five, Ezra chapter six, verses one through five. And in these texts are going to give some more insight on what you're referring to doc concerning Cyrus, the King of Persia and, and the, the decree that was issued to a cerebral bowl to, to rebuild the temple. Now I have another passage, uh, Ezra chapter seven, verses 11 through 28. Make a note of that again, because of time constraints, we won't read through them all, but Ezra chapter seven, verses 11 through 28 here is talking about, uh, Artaxerxes the King of Persia and his decree, uh, to Ezra.

And then as you stated last in the book of Nehemiah chapter two, verses one through eight, again, Nehemiah chapter two, verses one through eight, where again, Artaxerxes is issuing a decree to Nehemiah, allowing him to go to Judah, Jerusalem, and rebuild the walls of the city. If you are in a position where you were unable to take down all those references, go to our YouTube channel. Just again, search for discerning the times blessings to Israel. And there you will see in the video, you will see these references there on the screen. So you can go back and reference these passages. So again, it's important because there is a lot of details to this prophecy as we've been stressing.

And that is why we're saying, take notes and go back through it because there is a lot to it and it may not all come to you right off the bat. But as you said, doc, the major problem was in returning to Jerusalem was that the city was in ruins. And we remember that the looking at the time periods and all of this, the nation of Israel, the Israelites, they went into captivity under King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. And when that time came, he destroyed Jerusalem in five 86 BC. So when returning, then they had to go back and rebuild. So as you stated so, so beautifully that the key to understand the prophecy is when they are going back to rebuild. And that again is when the prophecy, when the clock began ticking concerning when this 490 year period, as far as the total, but as you said, we're looking now at the smaller segment or a subset segment of a period of 483 years.

So where do you want to go next? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I just wanted to just go back and reiterate something that you just said, because it's very important.

Something you just said that, that you have to really, the list of really have to be able to wrap their mind around in order to fully grasp the math of what we're talking about. And again, I just want to read it, read it again in verse 25 says from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, not to restore and rebuild the temple to, to, to a completely different time period, but to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That decree was given by Xerxes nearly a hundred years later, and it's recorded in, and you quoted it, but I just wanted to, and you mentioned it rather a reference that, but I just want to just read just a little bit of it just for, just for the, give the listeners a point of reference to Nehemiah chapter two. And I'm just going to read verses five through eight, but this is a very familiar story, but I just want to read this part of it because it's very significant because it is here where the prophetic clock or God's prophetic clock actually began to start ticking this 490 year period. And it says in verse five, Nehemiah chapter two, and I said unto the king, I being Nehemiah, if it pleased the king and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou would send me to Judah unto the city of my father's the poulterer that I may build it. And the king said to me, the queen also sitting by him, for how long shall thy journey be?

And when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time. Moreover I said to the king, if it pleased the king, let, here's the key, write this or underline this in your Bible if you're listening, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river that they may convey me over until I come unto Judah. And after and a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace, which are appertained to the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me.

And so again, at this moment, the 490, when King Xerxes wrote these letters, sending them with Nehemiah, at this point, the 490 year clock or the 490 prophetic clock began to tick off this 490 year period. That's very important point of reference that I just want to initiate there. So that's key and understanding the total scope of what's happening here in Daniel chapter seven. Yeah, that's well said. And again, to our listeners, if you're listening to this, I want to stress that as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you look at the video version of this podcast on YouTube, then you will see these charts that we have in there. It's really showing you how this all comes together and it'll help make a lot more sense to you. So I do encourage you to, to go and take a look at that, uh, if you're able to, but we're going to pause now for a short break. If you're just now joining us, we are going through the 70 weeks of years prophecy in the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter nine, just a beautiful prophecy in which our Lord is showing from the times of centuries ago, all the way up to the coming of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ and beyond.

So don't go away. You are tuned into discerning the times. You are tuned into discerning the times. If you believe in what we stand for, would you consider partnering with us? Our partners program is based on Genesis 12 three. I will bless those who bless you for a recurring donation of $12 and three cents per month. You can help us share the message of discerning the time as we await our Lord's return to Israel. For more information, please visit our website, lessons to Israel.com or write to us and lessons to Israel.

Keo box two 66, 9th Dale, North Carolina, two seven five four five. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Welcome back to discerning the times.

My name is Brian Thomas alongside cohost Dr. Bruce Logan. And we're just really enjoying this series and we hope that you're enjoying it and being blessed as well as we are looking at the book of Daniel chapter nine, going through the 70 weeks of years prophecy. And again, it's just a very, very beautiful prophecy in which our Lord is showing us what he is yet to come and what we've already seen transpire. And so before the break, we were just talking about the key to understanding when this prophecy, when this 490 year period began. And now we're going to dive even deeper because as you mentioned earlier, doc, that there are segments that you have to understand, because we saw in the scripture here in verse 25 of Daniel that it says, well, there should be a period of seven weeks. And then there's a period of 62 weeks. And so that's within the overall 70 weeks.

And if again, there's anyone out there, if you're not a math person and this is sort of making your head hurt, just, just hanging there with us, trust me, it will, it will make sense in time. But, uh, Daniel mentioned in verse 25 that again, it's going to be broken up to these different periods. So, so doc let's, let's dig into it and share the, with the listeners, what these different segments are and what's going to take place.

Yeah. Uh, first of all, I needed to clear up a little bit of the confusion, um, because I'm glad you pointed that out because it's, this is a multiple different segments, how this is very segmented and how these years are broken up and notice again. So let's just, let's just read it again. It says, uh, from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the, until, get this, until the anointed one, the ruler, uh, that shall come, there will be seven sevens and 62 sevens, seven sevens and 62 sevens. So that's seven sevens, it's 49. So seven times seven is 49.

All right. So, and then it says, and also in addition to the 49 years, it'll be 62 sevens. So when you take 62 times seven, it equals 434 years. And then when you add 49 years plus 434 years, that equals 483 years, 483 years. So it says, again, there will be seven seven equals 49 and 62 sevens, which is 483, which totals for, uh, I'm sorry, which is 434 and add the two together and it equals 483. And of course that still, uh, will leave some people confused because, you know, you will initially, initially you would think, well, I thought you said it was 490 years.

Well, when you subtract 483 from 490, what do you have? You have a remaining seven years leftover that has to be fulfilled. And of course, I'm just going to let, I'm just going to tease that right now. You have to just tune in later to pick up that last seven years. But that is how it is all, all broken down. And, uh, and, and again, I want to just point out too, because, uh, uh, I wanted to say this before it slipped my mind that Gabriel's message to Daniel, just in general, just the overall scope of the message, uh, has it involved the initial, uh, decree of the Jews being led to return to Jerusalem, which was a direct fulfillment by the way, of Jeremiah's prophecy, who said that 40 years, I'm sorry, 70 years, you will be in captivity in Babylon. And then I will, uh, restore you back to the land, which it had happened at exactly 70 years, which again, give us evidence that we're talking about a God who's able to see the end from the beginning and who no human being could be that precise or predict the future with that level of precision. With that being, but that aside, uh, Gabriel's overall message to Daniel involved something even far, far greater and more important because Gabriel's message to Daniel was at the heart and get this, it was at the heart of God's overall plan for salvation, uh, for all people in all nations. And it's a bringing in of God's rule and reign here on earth. So, so the, the overall, uh, prospect or perspective of the message here in the Daniel 70 week prophecy involved all of human history from a big picture component. Uh, when we talked about last week about bringing in everlasting righteousness, um, it is the scope of this prophecy is this sometimes is very, very difficult. Even those of us who study it on a regular basis, it's difficult for us to kind of wrap our minds around how powerful it is. Yeah, that's, that's very true.

Yeah. And, and you laid out those segments and did the math very, very beautifully. And I think that's really going to help the listeners to understand these different segments because again, you, you may be listening and you're saying, okay, I'm trying to grasp what, how this 490 years, how it fits into the thousands of years that have already passed. And then it's talking about these segments.

One of the ways I like to also think of it is to try to help you understand what, what it really, how these different segments fit in. If you think about just a regular calendar year, we'll within the calendar, you have different segments. You have months, you have 12 months. Um, then within that, you can break it down to say in quarters, you have four quarters. And so it's sort of the same type of thing in the sense that if you think of the 490 years as being equivalent to a calendar year, and I don't, I don't want to get you confused because I know we've already established that the 70 weeks is talking about weeks of years, but in the sense of understanding the intervals, you can sort of think of, well, this whole segment of, of, of a year's time, but then within a year, you may have a two week period that you're referring to, or you may have a three month period that you're referring to.

So that's what we're looking at with these different segments. But again, the prophecy is a total of 490 years. And, um, and when we look at that in verse 25, I also wanted to mention when it talks about that seven, uh, weeks period that, that first segment, as you said, that's talking about a period of 49 years and the scripture doesn't specify how long it took to rebuild Jerusalem. But I think it very well may be that it took 49 years, which would be that first seven, uh, weeks period there, that, that the scripture is laying out for us. But again, this is covering a period of 483 years. And then that leaves seven years that is still to come.

So we're not going to go deeper into it this week, because we, if we started, we really won't be able to get through it. But as you said, doc, we're going to tease it a little bit, leave a little bit of a cliffhanger, but there is an explanation as to why thousands of years, thousands of years have passed since this prophecy began, but yet they still fit into a 490 year period. So, uh, not before we wrap things up for this week, you have any final words on Daniel chapter nine, verse 25.

I just want to just say this because you, again, once again, knocked it out of the park when you talked about, because that was very important. Uh, when you mentioned about the 49 year period and extra biblical sources, because one of the, you have to understand when it comes to interpreting the old Testament, especially that there are other non-biblical and this, I don't want to sound like I'm being heretical. So I just, I need the listeners just to pay attention is that there are other non biblical sources that, um, when I mean non-biblical, I mean other sources from the day other historians who have written or other records that has been uncovered because of archeology that affirms and confirms what we have in the Bible.

And there are other non-biblical sources that actually tell us and like Josephus for an example would be, it will be one good example. And there are a number of others, but they, they confirm what you, what you mentioned earlier that it took 49 years, uh, from the time that our Xerxes wrote those letters until the walls were completed, it took 49 years in order for the city or the reconstruction period to be concluded. And it took, and according to add another 434 years and something amazing happened that we're going to just leave it there.

And, uh, hopefully the listeners will turn, uh, tune back in to hear what happened at the end of that next 434 years. Yeah. Yeah.

That, yeah. You definitely want to tune in next week because it, again, folks, if it's not making sense to you yet, it will start to make sense because what is going to come up in the next, the next episode that we're going to do in this series is very important to really make this all tie and come together. So, uh, so we're going to leave it there for this week, but doc looking forward to coming back again next week to continue in this great prophecy. Yes, sir.

Can't wait. All right. And to our listeners, please come back and join us once again, as we continue to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning into discerning the times. Please come back and join us next week. As we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.