God told Daniel the very day Jesus would enter the city of Jerusalem and what did they say? Daniel chapter 9.
One of the great, exciting, prophetic portions of the Word of God. Daniel chapter 9. And we're looking in these days at verses 20 through 27, the last half of the great ninth chapter of Daniel. Now, first of all, we mentioned there are three perspectives and three persons in this passage, verses 20 to 27. First is the circumstances of Daniel, then the coming of Gabriel, and finally the communication of God. Now, we've already seen the circumstances of Daniel in verse 20. He was speaking and praying and confessing his sin and the sins of his people Israel. He was presenting his supplications before God and his concern was for the holy mountain of God, not for his own purposes and his own goals and his own projects, but for God's. And so he is communicating with God.
That is his circumstance at the moment. We then move secondly to the coming of Gabriel in verse 21. In the very process of Daniel being involved in prayer, Gabriel arrives.
Being caused to fly swiftly, the text says. It doesn't take angelic beings long to get from heaven to earth, and he moved fast. And he came with an answer, an incredible answer. That brings me to the third point, the communication of God. Because in verse 24 to 27, you have the message that Gabriel brings from God. The circumstances of Daniel, he's praying. The coming of Gabriel dispatched from God with the answer. The communication of God, the most incredible prophecy regarding the history of Israel ever given in the Bible. Verse 24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision in prophecy and to anoint a holy of holies is the literal rendering.
Now, just by way of reminder, this is the overall perspective. Gabriel says, I have a prophecy. A period of time called 70 weeks in the text is determined. And that word determined has to do with the sovereign, eternal plan of God.
Comprehensively does God control all future events. Literally the Hebrew word means to cut off. It's as if God has just cut off or cut loose a 70-week period, pulled it right out of human history and in that period He will accomplish His purposes with His people, Israel. Now, there's a key to the whole thing. The first two words of verse 24, 70 weeks.
What are they? Well, the term for weeks, Shabu'ah or Shabu'im in Hebrew, does not mean week. It means seven, 70 sevens. It doesn't in itself identify days. It doesn't identify weeks. It doesn't identify months.
It doesn't identify years. It just means 70 sevens. And so whenever you see the term, you've got to get its meaning from the context or the verses around it. And I'm convinced as are almost all, certainly all evangelical Bible scholars, that it refers to years. Not weeks of days, but weeks of years. Now listen, this is a tremendous truth. God says you're going to stay out of that land for 70 years.
You know why? They had violated how many Sabbaths? Seventy. They violated 70 Sabbaths. How many years would it take you to violate 70 Sabbaths? Four hundred and ninety. It seems to be that the Spirit of God is telling us that just as they had violated the Sabbath for 490 years, so 490 more years would be determined upon their history.
Amazing. In their 800 years as a nation, they had violated 70 of their Sabbaths. And so God uses the same number of years violated as the basis of His future plan. And each year in captivity was for one seven-year period when the Sabbath was violated.
Boy, God is very exacting, isn't He? Now, what is the length of these years? How long is a year? You say it's easy, 365 days. No, that's not easy because not everybody used a 365-day year in Daniel's time.
How about that? You say, what kind of year did they use? Well, some used a 360-day year and then they had to throw in an extra month every once in a while to catch up. You say, well, hmm, which year did the prophecy refer to? It's very important.
Well, I believe the prophecy refers to a 360-day year. Now, stay with me, folks. This is where we separate the men from the boys. It's going to get heavy. Hang on. According to Genesis, the Flood... Now you say, wait a minute, how did we get in the Flood?
Don't worry about it. We're working our way back to Daniel. All right, according to Genesis 7-11, the Flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month. And the Flood came to an end on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. Now if the Flood started on the seventeenth day of the second month and ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, how many months was the Flood? Good, class, five months. Five months. You say, what's so interesting about that?
Listen to this. In Genesis 7-24 and Genesis 8-3, the Bible says the Flood lasted for 150 days. Now if the Flood was 150 days and the Jews counted that as five months, how long were their months?
Thirty days. Twelve 30-day months equals 360-day year. So we believe the Jews functioned on a 360-day year calendar. The earliest known months used then in the biblical text were 30-day months, giving us a 360-day year.
And then every once in a while they'd throw in an extra pile to catch up with the solar year. Now let me give you another thought. Ready for this one? Daniel 7 says that the great tribulation will last for a time, that's one, times, that's two, and half a time, that's half. Times, time, half a time, three and a half. Revelation 13 says the tribulation will last 42 months. And Revelation 12-6 says the tribulation will last 1260 days.
Now isn't that interesting? We have three different time frames for the tribulation. One place it says three and a half years, one place it says 42 months, and one place 1260 days. Three and a half years equals 42 months. Is that right? That's right. I'll tell you that's right. Thirty-six plus six, three and a half.
Okay. Three and a half years equals 42 months. But if 42 months equal 1260 days, they have to be months of 30 days.
There's no other way. So again we find not only in Genesis, but clear in Revelation, that the Bible is still counting on the same kind of clock. Months are 30-day months. So Daniel would have used a biblical prophetic calendar. He would not use the pagan 365-day year. So what do we have? We have a period of 490 years of 360 days.
Are you still with me? Four hundred and ninety years of 360 days. Now you say, when did this period begin? Because if we can find out when it begins, we can find out when it ends. Good thinking. That's right.
Let's find out when it begins. It even tells you in verse 25. And it just says this, and I like this, know therefore and understand. Get it? Keep saying this all through this text.
Now get this. It begins from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. Now that's fairly clear, right? You say, hey, we're in great shape. It begins right at the command to restore and build Jerusalem.
That's terrific. Except there were four of those commands. Four of them. Three of them are given in the book of Ezra. One by Cyrus, one by Darius, and one by Artaxerxes. And then there was a fourth one by Artaxerxes, a second one of his. Now, which one is the one we start with?
Because they were all given at different dates and if they all start at a different time, they're all going to end at a different time. And there's much debate as to which of these is right. Now some say the first decree of Cyrus is the one.
That's the one. And they find that, by the way, if you're interested in the first chapter of Ezra. And so they say the first decree of Cyrus is the one. And the reasoning being that in Isaiah 44 the Bible tells us that Cyrus would be the servant of God who would lead the people or let the people go back to the land to rebuild their city and so forth. So they say the 490 years began when Cyrus made the first decree. You know when that was? 536 B.C.
Okay? Let's take that. Let's say it began in 536 B.C.
and it went from there. And by the way, if you'll notice over in verse 27, it says, "'And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.'" For one week. The 70th week is cut off the other 69, so we can't count that one.
We'll see where that comes in later. So back to verse 25. It begins with a commandment to build Jerusalem and it goes unto the what? The Messiah. And it will be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.
Seven and threescore and two is 69. So the first 69 or 483 of the 490 start with a decree and end with a Messiah. And so some scholars say it has to be the first decree. It has to be the decree of Cyrus because in Isaiah 44, 24 to 28, Isaiah said Cyrus would make this decree and so forth.
But you know what happens? When you go with 483 years from 536 B.C., you wind up around 54 B.C. and you can't have the Messiah 54 years before Christ.
You've got a problem. In fact, Christ doesn't really start His ministry until 30 A.D. And so it's 80 years off. We say, yeah, but it's close. But God isn't just close, folks.
God is not just close. And you know what this fellow said who holds his view? He said, well, the solution is that the Ptolemaic calendar and the Ptolemaic list of the reigns of kings is off 80 years. That's no solution. You can't prove that. You can't just say, well, we come up 80 years short so therefore history is 80 years off. That's not too convincing.
There's no proof of that at all. So we don't accept that first decree and I'll tell you another reason why. Because in the first decree of Cyrus, there was no command to rebuild the city, only the temple. Only the temple.
Some people say, no. Nobody says it's the second decree of Darius, but they'll jump to the third one and they'll say it's the first decree of Artaxerxes in 458 B.C. And that's moving a little bit ahead in the calendar, about 90, 80 years or so.
They're trying to make up that little slack. And so they say 458. And if we go 483 years from 458, which is the decree of Artaxerxes, we wind up at 25 A.D. Well that's a problem.
25 A.D. because the only thing that could be remotely close to 25 A.D. would be the baptism of Christ. And the baptism wasn't His presentation as Messiah. The baptism was the Father's approval. That was between Himself and God. There's not even any comment that anybody around made any statement about it at all. We don't even know if they heard what was going on.
They heard a noise. And by the way, the first decree of Artaxerxes said absolutely nothing about the city either, only about the temple. Nothing about restoring and rebuilding the city. There's one other alternative, and that it is the fourth decree, which is the second decree of Artaxerxes. In the first three decrees, there was no authorization given at all for the building of the city.
So it can't start there. In fact, it's most interesting to me, and I was reading through Ezra to check all of this, that when they were building the temple in Ezra chapter 4, this is most interesting, that they were stopped for a while in their building because they were accused of attempting to rebuild the city without a permit. So we know they didn't have that right until that decree of Artaxerxes. That's the only decree that fits, and that's found in Nehemiah chapter 1 and chapter 2. Nehemiah chapter 1 and chapter 2. And I just want to read chapter 2, verse 1, because we don't have to spend too much time in this point, but it says in chapter 2, it came to pass in the month Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king.
And then it goes on to say that he made the decree as you read down through verse 8. But I want you to note, the month was Nisan and the 20th year of Artaxerxes. When did Artaxerxes begin to reign?
There's very little doubt about that. Historians tell us that he acceded to the throne in 465 B.C. That's in Encyclopedia Britannica, by the way.
So that's a very established fact. 465 B.C. So his 20th year would be what? 445, because we're coming down toward the birth of Christ. So 445, the years of a king's reign were from the first of the month of his reign. And so if it's the month of Nisan, it begins at the first of the month of Nisan. And that is again substantiated because there's no other date mentioned. So it would be likely the first day of the month of Nisan in 445.
When did it end? Back again at our verse. Look at it, verse 25, unto the Messiah, unto the Messiah, the Prince. It is then consummated that first 69 weeks in the arrival of the Messiah the Prince. It will be, he says, seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.
The streets shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times. Now stop there for a moment. So we have these two periods divided, first seven weeks and then 62 weeks equaling 69.
Now watch this. The first seven weeks is a 49-year period. So let's separate it out. Seven weeks, verse 25 indicates, until the street is built again and the wall even in troublous times. Now if you study the book of Nehemiah, you'll find out one thing very quickly. They had a lot of trouble building the city, didn't they?
Troublous times. But he sees, the prophet sees a 49-year period. So if you go from 445, 49 years later, you're at 396 B.C. And that's a very crucial time for that was not only the time when they completed the city, but that was the time also when the Old Testament canon was completed as well. It's as if God established His people in their land, God established His city, God established a temple, and God established His Word.
And from there till the coming of John the Baptist, there was no prophet. God had affirmed His people, His city, and His Word. And by the way, it says in verse 25, in those 49 years, the street would be built and the wall. And the actual word for street is the word for public square or marketplace and it probably is best understood as the inside of the city.
And then the wall is actually the word for a moat or a ditch or an external fortification. And what it means is the city was completed inside and outside. It was fully done in those years. Complete restoration in 49 years and, beloved, it's only possible that that could have occurred from the decree of Artaxerxes because it was at that time that Nehemiah began to rebuild. So the decree of Artaxerxes, I believe, has to be the decree and you have the period of time in which the city is finalized.
All you need to do is read Ezra 9 and 10, Nehemiah 4, chapter 6, chapter 9, and you can see the trouble they had in doing it in those treblest times. Now, we've covered the 49 years and we have another period in verse 25. And then comes threescore and two weeks, or 62 weeks, 62 weeks. And this goes from the time of 396 from there on ahead. Now, let's take the whole figure of 483. From 445 B.C., we want to go 483 years. You have 69 times 7 years, which equals 483 years. And then you have 483 years times 360 days.
And that's the figure I want you to get. The total of days is 173,880 days. That is 483 years times 360 days. Remember I told you we're dealing with a 360-day year.
So in order to convert that to a 365-day calendar like we have, we have to reduce it to days and then divide it back again. So we're dealing with 173,880 days from the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. to the coming of Messiah the Prince. The Messiah will come in 173,880 days. Now the phrase unto Messiah the Prince I think is a very interesting phrase.
I think it's a phrase that carries with it a very official terminology. Mashiach nagith, the Messiah, the anointed one, the prince, the ruler is a very official term. By the way, that very term prince is used first of Saul and used other times of kings.
So it is a kingly concept. It isn't the birth of Christ we're looking at. It isn't the baptism of Christ we're looking at. It is the presentation of Christ as the Mashiach nagith, as the prince, the Messiah.
And that's what you have to keep in mind. Now there are only two events in his life, the life of Christ, where he is officially set apart. One is the baptism and two is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Now some believe it's the baptism, but as I said it can't be because he was not being presented to men there but to God.
And the men didn't even know it was going on. There is utterly no reference to Israel. There is no statement about Messiahship, only this is my beloved Son. And so if it isn't the baptism, it has to be the triumphal entry. It has to be.
There's really no other alternative. And you no wonder it says in Isaiah 46, 10 that God is the one who declares the end from the beginning. And he predicts things that are not yet done. God told Daniel the very day Jesus would enter the city of Jerusalem and what did they say? Hosanna to the King of David, the Messiah.
Let's pray. We thank you that if you're a God who can care for the calendar, you're a God who can chart the destiny of every soul. And so we are pleased Father that we know you through Christ and that the infinite wisdom that is yours as manifest in what we've seen is granted to us in an unlimited fashion to so live that we may be to the praise of your glory. Thank you for loving us and for letting the Messiah be cut off for us. We praise you in his blessed name.
Amen. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary with a look at the prophecies of Daniel chapter 9. John's been showing you how fulfilled prophecy can build your confidence in God's Word in our study here on Grace to You titled The Future of Israel. If you're like many people, you find end times prophecy fascinating, but not always easy to understand. And maybe it's hard to see the practical value.
Any thoughts on that, John? How does understanding the future help a Christian serve his family or his church or his community today? Well, first of all, let me say I don't find all end times prophecy difficult.
Hard to understand. Some of it is, but not all of it. And there's one place where it's really not hard to understand, and that's the book of Revelation. And I know people think the book of Revelation has all kinds of imagery and it may be obscure, but it begins with the promise that the person who reads and understands this book is going to be blessed. So the assumption of the Lord who authored the book is that you can read it and understand it and be blessed.
And that is true. And once you understand the book of Revelation and you can have a full understanding of it, then you begin to understand all the previous prophecy because it all sort of comes together in the capstone of the book of Revelation. To help you with that, I want to mention something that's been a popular resource, and that is a booklet that I wrote a number of years ago called A Jet Tour Through Revelation. And can I let you know that in a very brief booklet, you can master the flow and understanding of this amazing book.
I get it. The book of Revelation is arguably the Bible's most popularly misunderstood book, but there is no need to miss the meaning at all. You can be blessed by understanding it. And the booklet is based on the longest sermon that I have ever preached through the years.
I went through the entire book in one session. And the booklet will give you a high altitude panoramic view of the entire book of Revelation. You'll understand it. You'll be amazed how clear it is. You'll see where history is headed and what's waiting down the road for the planet earth and everybody on it. And after all, nothing is more fascinating to people than the future.
And while conventional wisdom says you can't know the future, when it comes to God's plan for the world, you can know the future because it's in the book of Revelation. So this densely packed booklet titled A Jet Tour Through Revelation is—here's the good news, yours—free. That's right, free for a limited time. Just let us know you want one.
That's right, friend. Everything in this resource will help you grasp the life-changing truth in the Bible's final book, truth that God intends to be a blessing. So pick up your copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation.
Again, it's free for the asking for a limited time. To get your booklet, contact us today. Email your request to lettersatgty.org. That address one more time, lettersatgty.org. You can also request your free copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation online at gty.org or when you call our customer service line at 855-GRACE.
Monday through Friday, 730 to 4 o'clock Pacific Time, the number translates to 800-554-7223. This booklet is an ideal gift for anyone who thinks that understanding biblical prophecy is an unreachable goal. Again, to request your free copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation, send an email to lettersatgty.org or you can call us at 800-55-GRACE. And when you visit gty.org, be sure to check out our Grace to You sermon app. The app delivers John's verse-by-verse teaching, more than 3,600 sermons, straight to your mobile device, and it's free of charge.
To get the app or to access thousands of other free resources, visit our website gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for listening today and be back tomorrow when John continues his look at the future of Israel. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
