Seventy-Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9 - Part 2

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. So great to be with you, as always, alongside my co-host, Dr. Bruce Logan, who I will bring in shortly. And today we're going to continue looking at our series on the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel, a prophecy that, as we stated last week, you don't hear talked about much, if ever, in churches. And so we're diving deep into it and we pray that it'll be a blessing to you that you will glean and learn from what God's word is concerning this great prophecy. But before we get into that, I want to remind you, as we always do, that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. And what I mean by that is we are going to exist for eternity. Every single one of us, when you are born, everyone is going to continue on for eternity. It's just a matter of are you going to exist in the presence with eternal life of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or if you will be in eternal damnation in the lake of fire. So I want you to be honest with yourself today and say, if you take your last breath this very second, where are you going to be in eternity? And if you cannot say that it's going to be in the presence of our Lord, I want you to receive the free gift of salvation that Jesus Christ provided by dying at Calvary.

All right. So once again, folks, it is so great to be with you. I'm going to bring you now Dr. Bruce Logan. And Doc, I know last week you said you were chomping at the bit to get to this prophecy.

And I know I am as well. And it's just so great to be able to get together to share this great prophecy in the book of Daniel, chapter nine. Once again, you know, like you said, this is just an incredible prophecy. And I am just so excited about the opportunity to be able to just share this and just to be able to dive into this because this is actually one of the most amazing prophecies in the entirety of Scripture.

I mean, actually, when it comes to the prophetic word, we're talking about four verses that are so power packed that it encompasses over two thousand plus years of human history that's just loaded with just incredible content that I just can't wait to get into it with our listeners. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

All right. And we scratched the surface last week by giving sort of the background as far as the setup for what is happening in Daniel, chapter nine. And we want you to know, folks, our audience, that there's more to the book of Daniel than just the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the lions den. There's so much more that God has put there for us and we're going to to dive deep into it. So, again, as we said last week, Daniel was praying for the sins of the nation of Israel.

And as he was doing so, the angel Gabriel came to him with a message. And so we're going to pick up with verse twenty four of Daniel, chapter nine. So I want to encourage our audience to grab a pen, a pencil, whatever writing utensil you may have, or if you do things electronically today, whatever it is, and grab something to take notes on, because this is a in-depth prophecy and you may need to go over it a few times to really get the things that we're going to share with you throughout this series.

So so please join us. And we're again hoping that you will be blessed by by what God is going to share with us. So turn your Bibles to Daniel, chapter nine. We're going to look today at verse twenty four, which 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. Again, that's Daniel, chapter nine, verse twenty four. And if your translation doesn't read exactly as it, I'm coming from the New King James version, just so you know where we are gleaning from. So, again, Gabriel is telling Daniel that his people, that is the Jewish people and his holy city, Jerusalem, have seventy sevens to accomplish the task at hand.

Now, a key point to unlocking this prophecy is determine what he is. Seventy sevens. The word sevens in Hebrew is actually translated to mean weeks in English. So we can know then that seventy sevens is referring to an amount of time, namely 70 weeks. But the weeks are actually years. So, again, folks, as I stated, you need to take notes because if you never heard this before, it can be a bit confusing.

So we're going to try to take a time and go slow with this. But again, the weeks are actually years. So if you search other scriptures, it reveals that one prophetic day equals one year. God described one day to represent one year in his commands to Ezekiel. Make a note of Ezekiel, chapter four, verses four through six. Another example is found in the Book of Numbers, chapter 14, verse 34.

So I want to share that verse with you very quickly here in Numbers, chapter 14, verse 34. It reads, according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, 40 days for each day, you shall bear your guilt one year, namely 40 years, and you shall know my rejection. So, again, we see there that the Bible is interpreting itself in which God again said the Israel Israelites would wander in the wilderness one year for each of the 40 days. So what this means is that one day equals one year and one week equals seven years. So this prophecy can therefore be referred to as the 70 weeks of years. And we can conclude that this prophecy covers a period of 490 years. If you do the math, 70 times seven is 490. So before we get into talking about the task at hand, Doc, do you have anything you want to add to that, the initial commentary on verse 24?

No, I think you just knocked it out of the park with that initial commentary. I did have one of the scripture that I want to just throw out there just because it's a particular scripture that I think that the listeners may be more familiar with because this is an example that you probably heard from or remember back from your Sunday school days. And that is the example of Jacob and Laban from Genesis chapter 29. And if you recall from that particular instance, Jacob had to work seven years, a series of seven years, like seven years for one wife.

To make a long story short, seven years for his other wife and then he had to work another seven years. But how that's described is in Genesis chapter 29 verse 27 that just kind of agrees with the analogies and the passages that you already pointed out. And it says in Genesis chapter 29 and verse 27, again referring to the story of Jacob and Laban, it says, Jacob's series of seven year agreement of servitude so that he could marry Laban's daughter Rachel. Now the verse goes like this. It says, verse 27, it says, fulfill her week and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.

So let me just read that again. It says fulfill her week and we will give thee, and this is Laban talking to Jacob, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And so you can see just from that verse that the term fulfill her week, her being Rachel, is also spoken as synonymous with seven years. So that's just a confirmation of what you were saying. And we know from the story that Jacob had to serve Laban for a series of three different, three separate periods of seven years and was a total of 21 years. So again, that's just another example of how scripture interprets scripture and how, you know, the way you kind of laid it out was just right on point.

All right. Yeah, that's a great example there. So again, folks, the key to really understanding this prophecy is what does 70 weeks mean? And as we've stated by the examples that we've given from other scriptures is that it's actually talking about years.

So again, this means that Israel has a total of 490 years, 70 weeks times seven to accomplish the following task. And as we saw in verse 24, it said to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness. Number four is to bring everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and then the sixth task is to anoint the most holy. So, Doc, the first task, which is to finish the transgression, refers to the Jewish rebellion to God. If we remember that Daniel received this vision prior to Christ coming to the earth as the son of God. But the Jewish rebellion would also include the rejection of Christ as the Messiah. And so Daniel is receiving this message that the Jews will reject Jesus as the Messiah. And let me just make a note to say that when we say the Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah, we're talking about collectively.

Not every single Jew rejected him, because remember, the apostles were Jews and many others who were Jews that did accept him. But we're talking about collectively. So what do you have to add concerning that first task? One of the things I wanted to say about this particular passage is that it outlines six different components, or what I would like to use the term, six purposes for the 70 weeks and how it's broken down. And again, you pretty much knocked it out of the park, because these are the six reasons in which God is giving this 490-year timeframe. In other words, these six things are going to be accomplished during the time span of this 490 years. And of course, we're going to get into later, you know, because there's a discrepancy, because it's been over 2500 years since this prophecy was given.

And so somebody just reading this off the cuff, you know, what we're saying probably wouldn't add up, or the math just wouldn't match up. But of course, you know, if you follow along with us, you're going to see that the math is going to perfectly align. And it's just going to be a wonderful thing to really be able to, a wonderful revelation to be able to really see. Yeah, and this is actually one of those passages, too, that this prophecy to really share with non-believers, it's a great witnessing tool, to be honest. Now, it is complex, so I'm not necessarily recommending that this be your go-to prophecy or verses when you're trying to bring someone to Christ. But if there's someone that really is willing to sit down and really take a really good look at the Scriptures, as you said, Doc, when we go forward, we're going to see how the math of this works out perfectly. And it leaves no doubt as to the sovereignty of God, that He's in control of all things, because He gave these things prior to them taking place.

And we're talking about centuries ahead of time. So it is a great witnessing tool for anyone who is, again, willing to go to this level of study when speaking to a non-believer. But when we come to the second task, the second of the six is to put an end to sin. And this refers to ending the immorality within the Jewish nation.

Doc, what do you have on that? Well, again, to put an end to sin, in addition, yes, it's going to be to put an end to the rebellion of the Jewish nation. But there's a thing that I often refer to when I look at this particular component, is that there is actually a principle in biblical interpretation, especially when it comes to the prophetic word. And it's often referred to or applied when we're talking about typology, but it's also applied when you're talking about prophetic passages. And that is the principle known as the double reference or the rule or the law of double reference, meaning that it's going to have in a medium. We're going to see this played out time and time again if you study the Book of Daniel.

But in this particular component, it will have a meaning, an initial short-term meaning or interpretation, but it also will have a longer view implication or a more bigger picture implication. For example, many of us who study prophecy are familiar with Antikia's epiphanies. It's an example of how he's like a type of the Antichrist and a small picture perspective, but he also represents a bigger picture of the actual Antichrist that's going to come during the tribulation period.

So that's kind of an example. But again, this is going to be to put an end to sin or the rebellion of the Jewish nation. But also in the big picture scheme of things, when Jesus comes to die on the cross and when he comes to establish his kingdom again, it's going to be the end of humanity, the global end of sin or the entirety of the end of sin regarding humanity in general.

Because we know that Jesus came and then the Jews rejected him in the New Testament and our salvation was then subsequently offered to the Gentiles. And so you can see that double reference applying in this particular passage, especially if you study it out. All right. Well, on that note, we're going to pause for a brief announcement. If you're just now joining us.

My name is Brian Thomas, alongside co-host Dr. Bruce Logan. And we're looking at the 70 weeks prophecy in the book of Daniel, Daniel, chapter nine. And we're really looking forward to the things that God is sharing with us.

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Box 266, 9th Dale, North Carolina, two seven five four five. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Welcome back to the program.

My name is Brian Thomas, alongside co-host Dr. Bruce Logan. Looking at the 70 weeks of years prophecy in the book of Daniel, Daniel, chapter nine, verse 24. And it's so much of a privilege and a blessing to have you alongside with us today. So before the break, we were talking about the second task in which God was telling Daniel they had this task of bringing an end to sin. As we know, throughout the Old Testament, the Jews were turning to idols.

They were worshiping false gods and they committed many other sins in rejection of the true God throughout their history. And so Gabriel is saying that the end of this sinful nature will come to an end once the Jews accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah. So that takes us to the third task, which is to atone for wickedness. And that would come when Jesus shed his blood on the cross as a sacrifice for all sin.

What are your thoughts, Doc? Yeah, that one is the most self-explanatory of all because, you know, Jesus came, the Bible says that God told of the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And when Jesus said it is finished, you know, this accomplished the atonement for the sins of mankind. That by accepting the holy sacrifice, the price that we can have salvation and we can have justification because in essence, we are all guilty. But because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross, we can have salvation and forgiveness of sins. And that was accomplished on the at the cross or on the cross rather. And so I'm just so grateful and thankful for that. But again, it was a fulfillment of what we see here in this third component of Daniel chapter 24 to atone for wickedness.

Yeah. And as you said to me, we just praise our Lord that he came to be that sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice. If you remember throughout the Old Testament, they had to sacrifice a lamb. That was the sacrifice that the people were done for their sins. But the thing is, it covered their sins, but it did not atone for their sins. But when Jesus came, he came as the ultimate perfect sacrifice, the sacrificial lamb. And it provides atonement for the people of Israel and for us as Gentiles. And as we said last week, this is a prophecy that is specific to the nation of Israel.

But there is still application in impact when it comes to us as Gentiles. And so Jesus, when he came, he put it into the need for those sacrifices when he gave his life on the cross. And again, we just give thanks and praise to our Lord. And I'm just looking forward to seeing him face to face and where I can take whatever crowns he presents to me and place them at his feet at his feet as a sign of worship. And we're just going to go on through eternity, giving praises to our Lord for his sacrifice on the cross.

So, all right. So now that goes, leads us into the fourth task, which is to bring everlasting righteousness. This is the period when Jesus will reign supreme on the earth as the Lord of all lords and the king of all kings.

Doc, what are your thoughts? Well, first of all, this is the passage that are one of the components that I often refer to when we talk to the millennialists, who those who believe that, you know, that we're living in the millennium right now. And just by this verse, it says to bring in everlasting righteousness. And all you have to do is just look around and you can know that this is not the time that we're living in. We're not living in a period of everlasting righteousness because we see wickedness all around. And I was just driving through my local community just this past weekend and I forgot, I completely forgot, it slipped my mind that this was, they were having a pride celebration at our courthouse square.

And I drove by and I'm looking at all of these kids painted up in pride colors and rainbow colors and mothers and parents walking their kids, you know, dressed up like, it just blew my mind. And that's just an indication of how we're definitely not living in a time of everlasting righteousness. But there's going to come a time, it will be in that 490 year timeframe, mind you, which is where the tricky part about interpreting this prophecy comes in, is that there's going to come a time during that 490 year time slot that everlasting righteousness is going to happen.

And then also, you know, hopefully we'll have this third of minds and the curiosity of our listeners for the next episode. Because, you know, because we're going to get into how, you know, we can commit this time period, this 490 year time period, along with the same time period of bringing in everlasting righteousness because, you know, just looking at it naturally, they just don't seem to line up. But that's another reason why I'm so excited about, you know, teaching this prophecy of Daniel 70 weeks because, you know, we get to dive into troublesome issues like that or issues that have been problematic to many people in the past.

Actually, it's issues like this that have prevented people from wanting to even tackle the topics like what we're doing here because of the controversy or the confusing nature of the text. But when you really get down into it, we're going to see that it's going to be very, very clear and simple. And it's going to happen just as God said. But there's going to come a time in the future, long story short, is that Christ is going to return and bring in everlasting righteousness. What the Bible tells us in Revelation, there's going to be no more sin, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death, no more suffering, and no more sin. And that's going to be a glorious time that I just am looking forward to.

Oh, man, I know I'm looking forward to it as well, because, as you said, the wickedness that we see around us, the unrighteousness is just so many vile things that are going on in which our our Lord, he's being blasphemed by people. And to your point, for those who try to say, well, we're either in the millennium already or or anything in which they're not really interpreting scripture correctly. I say, well, the Bible says in the book of Isaiah Chapter 65 that the lion is going to eat straw like the ox during the millennial kingdom, the animal kingdom will be at peace.

And my mother was even saying over the weekend, she said, isn't there somewhere in the Bible that talks about children playing by the snakes or something and the snakes will harm them? And I say, yeah, that's that's in the 1000 year reign of Christ. But we're not there yet. We know that now you don't want to go play with the lion or or a cobra because there that's that that seeing nature, that curse of seeing is still there.

But that time is going to come when our Lord comes to reign on the earth. So, all right. And you said that that passage also speaks about how the lion will lay down with the lamb. And I actually love watching the animal planet and you won't see a lion and a lamb laying down together, you know, because if they get a close proximity of each other, something's bad going to happen to that lamb. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. And that's my our friend in the ministry, Donald Perkins. One thing he he often says when he teaches on the Millennium is he says, well, we know we're not there because you go to the local zoo and you go into the cage with Leo the lion.

And you go in there and try to pet him and see is not going to be a good outcome. So, folks, we're we're not there yet. We're not in the Millennium, but it's coming. And that's going to be a time again where Christ is going to bring in this everlasting peace and righteousness. This earth has not seen since sin came upon it. And we're looking forward to that time. So, all right, the fifth task, which is to seal up vision and prophecy refers to the fulfillment of all the messianic prophecy.

So what do you have on that? Exactly that you just summed it up in that one sentence that it just specifically refers to the filling up or the conclusion of all messianic prophecies at the conclusion of Genesis 3 15 where the very first messianic prophecy was given where God had promised that he was going to send the Messiah who would in a long story. To crush the head of Satan or the serpent and and basically that was the very first messianic prophecy and it basically was pointing to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who will come and make all things new which is told us in the book of Revelation. So the conclusion of prophecy the end of all the messianic prophecies in the Old and the New Testament will will culminate in the book of Revelations at the conclusion of time and at that point in time, there will be no more need for any other messianic prophecies because they were all have been fulfilled when Jesus returns and said this Kingdom appear on Earth. And I want our listeners make a note of first Peter chapter 1 verse 11.

I won't read through it. But that is a verse that is telling us that the messianic prophecies fall into two categories and those two categories are the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory of the Messiah. So all of these things are going to be fulfilled and Jesus was persecuted. We know that he was scorned at his first coming but he is going to come back to rule and reign and he's going to be glorified and we know it is first coming.

He was rejected and he was crucified on the cross, but at his second coming he will return in great honor and glory and I want to share with you on that note. Matthew chapter 24 verse 30 where the text tells us then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So these are passages that are letting us know all of these messianic prophecies are going to be fulfilled by our Lord. And so that brings us to the last task which is to anoint the most holy and this has caused a lot of debate among theologians and dog you can share with with us how you feel. But I I think that this means the anointing of well some I should say think this means the anointing of Jesus Christ while others believe it refers to the anointing of the Holy Temple. Now I tend to lean toward it being the anointing of the Holy Temple since the anointing of Jesus seems to occur in the fourth and fifth task. But again, I'm not dogmatic about it.

But but doc, what are your thoughts? I would think that this is referring to when Jesus sets up his Millennial Kingdom here on Earth because the Bible says I saw the New Jerusalem coming down as a bride adorned for her husband, which is in concert with of course, the filling up of vision and prophecy because the two are synonymous when you think about it because when Jesus comes down and sets down. And establish his earthly Kingdom when the New Jerusalem comes down that will be the actual culmination of all of the prophetic and messianic passages in the Bible and then that's where eternity will officially begin at that point. So I've always done again. I'm like you guys.

I'm not dogmatic about it, but I've always assumed that that passage is referring to when Jesus comes to establish his holy publishes Kingdom is earthly Kingdom in the New Jerusalem, which of course there will be a temple at that point. All right, good stuff. Good stuff.

All right. Well that's going to wrap it for this week and to my listeners. I want to encourage you if there's anyone out there if your head is spinning right now, don't get discouraged again. We want you to take it slow because what we're sharing with you is something that we've spent years in studying and gleaning. So if it's not coming to you right away, don't don't get discouraged continue to go through it and pray seek the Holy Spirit and he will reveal it to you. So now that we've gone through the task that have been outlined for Daniel 490 years have been given and as you pointed out doc earlier, some people might be saying well, it's been over 2000 years since Christ has been on Earth and y'all were talking about 490 years.

So this is not making sense. Well, that's why you need to come back next week because we're going to explain and show you how everything is going to fit together beautifully. Amen. Amen.

I just I wish the time you just never know if time just flies by when you're having fun. Yeah, we look I'm looking forward to the next episode because this is this is getting good. All right. All right, likewise.

All right. Well to our listeners, please come back and join us again next week as we continue to encourage you to discern the times while viewing life through the window 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 in to deserting 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.