Transcript

A teacher was arrested at an airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

“Al-Gebra is a problem for us,” the Attorney General said. “They derive solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values. They use secret code names like ‘X’ and ‘Y’ and refer to themselves as ‘unknowns’.

“They are willing to dis-integrate us with calculus disregard. These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimal everything unless we become exponents of a Higher Power. Read my ellipse: though they continue to multiply, their days are numbered.”

We’re going to be doing some math instruction in this episode as we learn more about the 70 weeks of years regarding Israel’s future that was revealed to Daniel.

Daniel 9:25: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

Here the angel gives Daniel the starting point for the 490 years that are determined by God in His dealings with Israel: “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.”

When Daniel was revealed this prophecy it was around 537 B.C. At this point, Jerusalem was still lying ruins from its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Its houses, streets, buildings and walls needed to be built again and restored.

The starting point for the 70-week prophecy, “from the going forth of the commandment to build Jerusalem” took place when Nehemiah the cupbearer requested permission from King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls.

Nehemiah 2:5 reads, “And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.”

The King approved and granted Nehemiah’s request, and then gave him official letters to procure building materials and lumber from the king’s forest as well as letters for safe passage from Babylon to Jerusalem.

This all took place in the month “Nisan” according to Nehemiah 2:1, and it was the year 445 B.C. Nisan is the first month of the Jewish calendar and corresponds to our March or April.

According to Sir Robert Anderson’s book, The Coming Prince, the new moon by which the Passover was regulated was on the 13th of March in 445 B.C. Accordingly the first day of Nisan was March 14, 445 B.C. We can demonstrate that the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem was either on or very near to this date.

In all our calculations for these 70 weeks of years, we must use the Jewish calendar. We keep time by solar years of 365 ¼ days each. The Hebrews count years by dividing them into 12 lunar months of 30 days each, making a 360-day year.

We see an example of this in Revelation when half of Daniel’s 70th week, or 3 ½ years, is called 1260 days (Rev. 12:6). 3 ½ years according to our calendars is 1277 days. The only way 1260 days equals 3 ½ years is by the Jewish calendar: 360+360+360+180=1260.

When Ezra made the trip from Babylon to Jerusalem, Ezra 7:9 says, “For upon the first day of the first month [or Nisan] began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem…” It took him 4 months to get to Jerusalem.

When Scripture says it took Ezra exactly 4 months to get to Babylon that means according to the Jewish calendar it took him 120 days. And we need to keep this number in mind when considering the time it took for Nehemiah to travel to Jerusalem.

Nehemiah received permission to rebuild Jerusalem and the wall in Nisan. Nisan began on March 14.

Nehemiah 6:15 says he completed the building of the wall “in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.” The month Elul on our calendar falls from mid-August to mid-September. The 25th day of Elul would be around our September 10. There are 180 days between March 14 and September 10.

Now first, Nehemiah had to get the timber and the building materials. A conservative estimate for this could be around 5 days. Then he had to travel to Jerusalem from Babylon. Like Ezra, it likely took him 120 days.

After he arrived in Jerusalem, Nehemiah 2:11 says, after he arrived “I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.” Then the wall was completed in 52 days.
Adding all this up, 5 days to get the building materials+120 days travel time+3 days being in Jerusalem+52 days to build the wall, 5+120+3+52=180 days.

What all this shows is that the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem had to be very close to or even on March 14th, 445 BC in order for him to finish the wall in Jerusalem in the 25th day of the month of Elul or our mid-September.

On or very close to this date of March 14, 445 BC, Nehemiah received permission to rebuild Jerusalem. From this commandment, according to Daniel 9:25, it was t-minus 69 weeks, or 483 years, and counting “unto the Messiah the Prince.”

“Messiah the Prince” I believe refers to when Messiah was presented to Jerusalem as the King of Israel.

When Christ rode “upon a colt the foal of a donkey” into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, Luke 19 describes the crowd of people and how they rejoiced and praised God with a loud voice, “Saying, Blessed be THE KING that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”

This was the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, THY KING cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (9:9).

As Christ rode on that young donkey and looked at Jerusalem, He wept over it and said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in THIS THY DAY, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

“For THE DAYS shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

“And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not THE TIME of thy visitation” (Luke 19:42-44).

This was Jerusalem’s day, it was “this thy day,” or THE day of “Messiah the Prince.” It was THE time of thy visitation by the Messiah. The Lord was announcing Himself as the fulfillment of Daniel 9:25.

Christ riding into Jerusalem as her King and hailed by the people as her King at the triumphal entry, was the fulfillment of the coming of Messiah the Prince to Jerusalem.

Often, the Lord’s words concerning the trench, the siege, the surrounding of Jerusalem and then the laying of the city to the ground and that “they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another” is applied to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. But that’s not the fulfillment of Christ’s words.

Christ was referring to what Daniel’s prophecy points to also. Both Christ’s words and Daniel’s prophecy refer to the future Anti-Christ and how the people of the prince [or the Anti-Christ] that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood…” (Dan. 9:26).

Daniel 9:25 goes on to say that the timeframe from the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem to Messiah the prince, “shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

In verse 25, we find that 69 weeks of the 70 weeks are broken into 2 sections: (1) seven weeks of years or 49 years and (2) 62 weeks of years or 434 years.

This leaves 1 week or 7 years as the third and final period of the prophecy. Thus, the weeks of prophecy were to be broken down and divided into 3 sections: 7 weeks + 62 weeks + 1 week = 70 weeks, or 49 years+434 years+7 years=490 years.

But verse 25 shows that from the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem in March 445 B.C. until the Messiah the Prince, is a period of 69 weeks, or 483 years.

Again, this is based on the Jewish calendar of 12 thirty-day months, 360 day years. And it’s easier to figure it out by days.

A 483 year period with 360 day years is a total of 173,880 days. If you count 173,880 days forward from March 14, 445 B.C. it brings you to April 6, 32 A.D.

Possibly adding a day or two for when the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem was made, that is when Christ came riding into Jerusalem, as Messiah the Prince.

The purpose for the division of 7 weeks and threescore and two weeks or 62 weeks is because it would take 49 years “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” until as verse 25 says that “the street be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

It took the first 49 years to complete the task of rebuilding Jerusalem. Seven weeks shows the terrible condition of Jerusalem after its destruction and how it would take 49 years to completely restore and reconstruct it.

And as Nehemiah demonstrated, even during the initial building of the wall in 52 days, men like Sanballat and Tobiah opposed the work, and the rebuilding of the city was done as Daniel was told “in troublous times.”

Daniel 9:26: “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

After the 7 weeks, or 49 years, when the rebuilding of Jerusalem would be accomplished, and then as verse 26 says, after the 62 weeks or 434 years that follow till the coming of Messiah the prince, the Messiah would be cut off.

Six days after the end of the 69th week, Messiah was cut off. The “cut off” of Messiah is defined for us in Isaiah 53:8, which states of Christ’s substitutionary death, “for He was CUT OFF out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was He stricken.”

Daniel 9:26 is an Old Testament prophecy of Christ’s death. And as this verse says the Messiah was cut off, “but not for Himself.” The Messiah would not be cut off out of the land of the living for Himself or His own sins; He would die for the sins of others.

Now, you can see a gap between the ending of the 69th week and the beginning of the 70th week. “AFTER” the completion of the 69 weeks at the coming of Messiah the prince, or the triumphal entry, Messiah would be cut off.

Then there is a gap until “the people of the prince that shall come.”

The editor of our Berean Searchlight magazine, Pastor Ricky Kurth, wrote this: “Verse 26 allows for a gap in prophecy during which time prophetic events such as the crucifixion occur, but God’s prophetic clock is not ticking.”

The angel does not explain how long this gap in the prophetic calendar would last.
But this gap allowed the Lord, without upsetting the prophetic calendar, to give the nation Israel an additional year to consider and believe that He is Israel’s Messiah.

Luke 13:6-9 says this, “He [Christ] spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

“Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:

“And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”

The fig tree is a Bible type for Israel. The “certain man” who had the fig tree planted in his vineyard is God the Father. The “dresser of his vineyard” is Christ. The “three years” speak to the Lord’s 3 year earthly ministry to Israel, during which His Father searched for spiritual fruit among the nation as a whole but “found none.”

God’s response to these fruitless years was for Christ to cut the fig tree of Israel down with the axe of the Tribulation and Daniel’s 70th week.

However, because of the gap in Daniel’s 70 weeks, it allowed for the Lord to say to His Father, “Lord, let it alone this year also…and if it bear fruit well, and if not, then after that Thou shalt cut it down.”

The Lord requested another year to give Israel an opportunity during this time to accept Him as her Messiah and His offer of the kingdom.

And Acts chapters 1-7 tell us about this added year. By the Holy Spirit’s ministry to Israel and through Christ’s apostles, Israel was powerfully confronted throughout this year with the claims of Christ and the truth of Christ as Israel’s Messiah.

But Israel as a whole would not and did not believe. And at the end of that year, Israel’s religious leaders stoned Stephen, and they fell and were cut down in God’s eyes.

This should have resulted in the beginning of the last week of Daniel’s prophecy, but instead God used this gap for a surprise of grace for the nations.

Instead of Israel’s fall resulting in the last week of Daniel’s prophecy, or the 7-year Tribulation period, God interrupted His program with Israel and set her aside temporarily in her unbelief. Christ then raised up the Apostle Paul and ushered in an age of grace that was kept secret since the world began.

Paul wrote to us Gentiles, or the people of the nations, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.”

For 2000 years, mankind has been living during an unprophesied period in which God is dispensing grace to the world, giving all an opportunity to be saved by grace through faith alone in Christ.

Paul said that the message committed to Him by Christ for this age, the mystery, “in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men” (Eph. 3:5). The gap predicted in Daniel 9:26, therefore, is not the current dispensation of grace or a prophecy for it.

But it’s been said well that “Just as our Lord used the gap to give Israel another year without upsetting the schedule of the 70 weeks, so God has now used the gap to give the Gentiles nearly 2000 years of opportunity—again without disturbing the prophetic calendar.”

The present age constitutes an interruption in the prophetic calendar. You could say that it is an interruption within an interruption in prophecy.

This entire dispensation of grace that was revealed to Paul falls into this prophetic gap between these two great prophetic times of the coming of the true Messiah to Jerusalem and the coming of the false Messiah to Jerusalem.

This age will close with a coming of Christ not revealed in prophecy, the Rapture, to catch the Church, the Body of Christ away to heaven BEFORE Christ picks up on the prophetic timetable where it was left off, with Daniel’s 70th week, the last 7 years.

This is also why we must reject any and all teachings that the Rapture takes place during any part of Daniel’s 70th week. Seven years are left and assigned TO ISRAEL in God’s prophetic calendar prior to Christ’s millennial kingdom on earth. The Body of Christ has no part of these 7-years of prophecy. It’s all about and pertains only to Israel.

When the angel appeared to Daniel here, he told him that “seventy weeks are determined upon THY PEOPLE.” This prophecy is about Israel and not the Body and we will be caught away at the Rapture before Daniel’s 70th week ever begins.

Daniel 9:26 further teaches, “and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

After prophesying of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the angel tells Daniel about a time that Jerusalem will be destroyed again. The “prince that shall come” in this verse is different from “the Messiah the prince” in verse 25.

This “prince” is the Anti-Messiah, the “man of sin” that will be revealed after the Rapture and as the 70th week begins.

The people of this world ruler will one day destroy the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary, or the temple that will stand in Jerusalem in that future day.

The end thereof shall be with a flood,” refers to the flood of people and of armies that will overwhelm, level, and destroy Jerusalem and the temple when they enter the land at the end of the 70th week as they gather for the Battle of Armageddon.

Isaiah 59:19-20 prophesies of that day, “When the enemy shall come in like A FLOOD, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion…” The Redeemer will come to Zion at His Second Coming to destroy the Anti-Christ and the armies of the Anti-Christ.

Daniel finishes verse 26 by pointing out that “unto the end of the war,” or “unto the end shall be war.” The prophecy points out first “the end” of Jerusalem and the temple, and then how “unto the end” of Daniel’s 70th week, there will be troubles, war, and desolation throughout and till the end of the 7-year Tribulation.

Daniel 9:27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

The “he” here is the Anti-Christ, “the prince that shall come.” The Anti-Christ will “confirm the covenant with many for one week,” or 7 years. The “many” is Israel, unbelieving Jews who will enter into alliance with the Anti-Christ.

The “covenant” is a peace pact, a promise of blessing, and the ability for Israel to go back to their temple worship at the temple mount.

We can conclude this because the next phrase refers to when he breaks the covenant “in the midst of the week” and causes the sacrifices and oblations to stop. “Sacrifice” refers to blood sacrifices. “Oblation” refers to the meal and drink offerings of the law.

Devout Jews, who reject Jesus Christ, will jump at the chance for their temple worship to be reinstituted by the Anti-Christ. And when pen hits paper with this covenant between the Anti-Christ and the Jews, Daniel’s 70th week, the last 7 years begins.

And in the middle of the week, 3 ½ years into the seven years of the 70th week, the Antichrist will cause the temple worship, sacrifices and oblations to cease.

The reason why is “for the overspreading of abominations he [the Anti-Christ] shall make it [the temple] desolate.” Here at the mid-point of the Tribulation, the Anti-Christ is assassinated. He dies and his soul goes to the bottomless pit in hades.

Then, under the permission of God in giving the world what it has always wanted: a Savior other than Jesus Christ, the Anti-Christ will be allowed by God to return from the dead, and it is more than likely that it occurs after 3 days.

Through the Anti-Christ, Satan will counterfeit the death, burial and resurrection of the true Savior.

In light of his assassination and resurrection, the Anti-Christ will be held up by the False Prophet as the true Messiah and God in flesh. In celebration of this fact, the False Prophet proclaims that an image should be made to the beast, the Anti-Christ.

In an astounding supernatural display of power to deceive, Satan gives breath and life to the idol, and it even speaks. The idol will be set up in the temple in Jerusalem. Under a worldwide decree, all will be required to bow down and worship this image to the beast.

Setting up a satanic idol in God’s temple is the pinnacle of blasphemy. This is the abomination of desolation, “the overspreading of abominations.”

Matthew 24:15,16 says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation [idol of the Anti-Christ], spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…”

An idol standing in the temple is an abomination to God and it desolates and desecrates the temple in His sight.

The idol will “stand” in the temple, and then the Anti-Christ, having been raised from the dead, will go into the temple and “sit” in the most holy place, the dwelling place of God. He will sit on the mercy seat in the Holy of holies and declare that he is the true God.

The reason the temple worship ceases is because he will say that he is the antitype of the sacrifices and will demand that all Israel worship himself and the idol made to himself.

This abomination will continue “until the consummation” of the final week, or the end of the 7 years.

And I love how the prophecy ends. At the consummation is when “that determined,” or the prophesied judgment determined by Almighty God, “shall be poured upon the desolate,” that is, the Desolator, the desolate one, or the Anti-Christ.

At Christ’s Second Coming at the end of the 70th week, the Lord, the true Christ, will return and pour out His wrath, and destroy the Desolator.

We, who are on the Lord’s side, are always on the side of power, truth, and victory!