Transcript

Peter Stoner authored a book which applies the modern science of probability to just eight prophecies regarding Jesus Christ.

He wrote, “The chance that any man might have fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th. That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000” (one hundred quadrillion).

Stoner suggests, “Suppose that we take 10 to the 17th silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state.

Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one.

What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing those eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.”

There are much more than just 8 prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ in the Bible. The fulfillment of so many prophecies in Christ is a remarkable evidence of the inspiration of Scripture. The only reasonable explanation is that this is the Word of God.

We’ll be looking at a prophecy concerning Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ, in Daniel 9. It was a prophecy which has been partially fulfilled, and still has more yet to be fulfilled.

This prophecy is important in order to more fully understand God’s dealings with Israel as well as His dealings with mankind and the Body of Christ today under grace.

In our past couple episodes, we took a look at Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem. The order to rebuild the wall and Jerusalem ties in directly with the 70 weeks of 7 years prophecy that was revealed to Daniel concerning Israel and her future.

Daniel 9:1-3: “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

“In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

“And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.”

Daniel had been among the first captives taken from Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C. He had been a young man, anywhere from his early teens to around 20 years old, when he was taken captive.

Here in Daniel 9, it had been roughly 67-68 years, or nearly 70 years, that Daniel had been in Babylon. This was significant as Daniel was about to find out.

We find in verse 2 that Daniel had a copy of the book of Jeremiah, and he was reading and studying it.

Jeremiah was a prophet in the years and days leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah’s captivity. Jeremiah saw and lived through the 3 phases of the carrying away of Judah to Babylon, in 605, 597, and 586 B.C., and he personally witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

The book of Jeremiah had found its way across the desert and mountains and the many miles between Jerusalem and Babylon into the hands of the prophet Daniel.

Daniel read from Jeremiah how Judah’s captivity and the time of desolation in Jerusalem when it would be empty and desolate, that it would last 70 years (25:11-12).

And Jeremiah prophesied this in his book: “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place…Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart…and I will turn away your captivity…I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive” (29:10-14).

As Daniel read Jeremiah’s writings, he saw this prophecy and then he did the math. “Wait a second, I’ve been in Babylon around 68 years.”

And it dawns on him as he realizes that the 70 years were nearly accomplished before this prophecy would be fulfilled and that the Jews would return to Jerusalem.

By faith in God’s Word, Daniel then immediately began to pray as God said His people should, so that God would turn away their captivity and bring them back to the land.

It’s important to note that Daniel took this prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the 70 years of captivity literally. He believed they would be fulfilled literally, and they were.

This is important when you consider the further prophecy of years that Daniel receives later in this chapter, because we, likewise, should interpret those years literally.

As Daniel 9 goes on, we find that as Daniel set his face unto the Lord in prayer, out of his love and concern for God’s people, he confessed his sins and the sins of his people and asked the Lord for forgiveness and to fulfill His promises concerning Jerusalem and the people of Judah.

Daniel 9:20-23: “And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

“Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

“And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.”

Daniel stresses twice in these verses “whiles I was speaking…whiles I was speaking.”

Daniel was shocked how he received an answer to his prayer before his prayer was done.

Sometimes this happens, that the Lord answers our prayers quickly. Other times, like in the next chapter, when Daniel had to wait a while, we too have to wait on the Lord. We do so knowing and trusting that the Lord has a wise reason for all that He does.

Here we see an example of how prayer will work in Christ’s kingdom. Isaiah 65:24 reads, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” In the kingdom on earth, they will pray, and God will immediately answer their prayers like He did with Daniel here.

As Daniel was pouring his heart out to the Lord, confessing his and Israel’s sins, and making supplication concerning Jerusalem, he was interrupted.

A heavenly messenger, the angel Gabriel, which Daniel had seen in a former vision is again commissioned by God to bring Daniel a revelation.

He came swiftly to him from heaven to Babylon and appeared before Daniel around the time of the evening sacrifice or 3:00 in the afternoon.

Though living in Babylon, and though the Temple in Jerusalem had been broken down for nearly 50 years, Daniel still kept time by the Jews’ religion.

Daniel had been taught in his youth to observe the set times of the temple services. As a young man in Jerusalem, he had seen the smoke rise from the temple in the afternoon sky when the evening sacrifice was made.

Nearly 70 years later, he still kept the time by the temple sacrifices. It reminds us of the impact we make on our children when we raise them in the things of the Lord and how it can stay with them all their life, like it did with Daniel.

Verse 22 says that Gabriel “informed” Daniel or gave him instruction, and he tells Daniel that he is come to give him “skill and understanding” or literally, “to make him skillful, or wise, in understanding,” or “to give him insight with understanding.”

The insight with understanding he came to give Daniel pertained to his prayer concerning the Jews, Jerusalem, and the temple. It was concerning these three matters that Daniel was wrestling in prayer and that now he would receive more light.

Gabriel tells Daniel that the command to visit Daniel came from the throne of God as soon as he began to pray.

Because of Daniel’s deep concern for God’s honor and God’s people, Gabriel tells Daniel “for thou art greatly beloved,” or highly esteemed, a man of God’s delight.

Imagine that. Because of Daniel’s love for the things of God, that the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, held Daniel, a mere mortal man on earth, in high regard and high esteem. God delighted in him. He was much-loved.

And out of God’s great love for Daniel, as soon as Daniel started praying, God immediately commanded and dispatched Gabriel to give him this astounding revelation.

God wanted to reassure Daniel of His unwavering purpose to fulfill ALL His promises and commitments to Israel, not only of His promise to return His people to the land after 70 years, but of the coming of Israel’s Messiah and His glorious kingdom.

Daniel had been focused on the short-term 70-year prophecy fulfillment concerning Judah’s return to the land. Gabriel is sent to tell him about another long-term 70-year prophecy concerning the future of God’s people.

The revelation goes way beyond the immediate restoration of Israel to the land to the ultimate restoration of Israel in the Messiah’s kingdom.

Gabriel had been dispatched by God that Daniel might understand the timeline of Israel’s program and last day events, and Gabriel told him “therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” And with the Spirit’s help, let us do the same.

Daniel 9:24: “Seventy 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 and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”

In English, when we say “week,” we automatically think of 7 days. When the angel revealed to Daniel, “seventy weeks are determined up thy people,” he didn’t mean one year and four months which equals are normal understanding of a 70 week time period.

A lot of things would’ve had to take place in a short amount of time if this was the case, such as what the angel reveals about the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Anti-Christ, and the Tribulation.

Here’s a couple ways to understand that “seventy weeks” are years. Following Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and arrival at the promise land, 12 spies were sent into the promised land to scout it out. They spent 40 days searching the land.

After they returned, 10 of the 12 spies, in their unbelief, advised against going in, claiming that there were giants in the land and that they were stronger than Israel.

Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, said they should go in because the Lord was with them. The children of Israel sided with the 10 and their unbelief and judgment was pronounced on Israel by the Lord.

Numbers 14:34 says this, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years…”

This judgment was fulfilled literally, and for every day the spies searched the promised land, which was forty days, Israel was made to wander in the wilderness “each day for a year,” or for forty years.

So one way to understand the “seventy weeks…determined upon thy people,” is “each day for a year.” Seventy weeks equals 490 days or 490 years.

Also, in the Old Testament, the word “week” is sometimes applied to a period of 7 years.

Here’s an example. When Jacob went to work for Laban intending to work for him seven years that he might marry his younger daughter Rachel, Laban tricked him after the seven years and gave Jacob his older daughter Leah as his wife first.

Laban explained why he did what he did in Genesis 29: “And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. FULFILL HER WEEK, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.”

Fulfilling her week, meant to work for Laban 7 full years. Jacob worked a week or 7 years for Leah, and a week or 7 years for Rachel.

When Gabriel told Daniel that “seventy weeks” are determined upon God’s people and His holy city, the Hebrew word translated “weeks” is the same word used both here and in Genesis in the account of Jacob, and it means “sevens.”

When the angel said “Seventy weeks are determined,” he was referring to “Seventy sevens.” As the “weeks” or “sevens” are speaking of years or year-weeks, the interpretation is seventy periods of seven-years, or again, 490 years.

During these 490 years Israel’s history, Daniel is told that God had determined six things for Israel and Jerusalem:

(1) “To finish the transgression,” (2) “To make an end of sins,” (3) “To make reconciliation for iniquity,” (4) “To bring in everlasting righteousness,” (5) “To seal up the vision and prophecy,” and (6) “To anoint the most Holy [place].”

The six promised blessings relate to two works of the Messiah, His death and His reign. The first three have to do with the removal of sin in Israel by the Messiah’s sacrifice. The second three have to do with the establishment of the Messiah’s kingdom.

First, during the 490 years, God would “finish the transgression.” These things tie into Daniel’s prayer and confession of his and Israel’s sins. In verse 11 of this chapter, Daniel had prayed:

“Yea, all Israel have TRANSGRESSED thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.”

Because Israel transgressed God’s law and did not obey His voice, they reaped the curse of the law of Moses of being taken captive by a foreign nation.

Israel was told in the Law that if they disobeyed, “The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known…” (Deut. 28:36).

Daniel is told about God finishing the transgression within the 490 year prophetic timetable. Bringing to an end Israel’s transgression of the old covenant of the Law and the resulting curse of being driven from the land, speaks to the New Covenant that was be established by the Cross and the blood of Christ.

Under the New Covenant, by the Spirit, Israel will keep God’s Law perfectly. And Israel’s time of transgression and chastening will come to an end forever, and she will dwell safely and permanently in the Promised Land.

During the 490 years, God determined “To make an end of sins.” This again goes to God’s response to Daniel’s prayer. In verse 5, Daniel had prayed, “We have SINNED, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.”

How Israel’s sins were put away is clear. Hebrews 9:26 reads, “…but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

When Israel’s sins will be put away is also clear. In Acts 3:19, Peter told Israel, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, WHEN the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

HOW Israel’s sins were ended and put away forever in God’s sight was by the Cross of Christ. WHEN Israel’s sins will be ended is “when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,” which is the establishment of Israel’s everlasting kingdom.

In Romans 11:26-27, Paul wrote of this blessing for Israel in the kingdom, “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

During the 490 years, God also determined “to make reconciliation for iniquity.”

Again in Daniel’s prayer, he had prayed, “We have sinned, and have committed INIQUITY…because for our sins, and for the INIQUITIES of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us” (vv. 5,16).

Israel had become a reproach before the nations because of their iniquities. But God had determined to make reconciliation for iniquity. As a result, Israel would never again be a reproach but only a blessing to all the families of the earth.

“Reconciliation” is the Hebrew word “kaphar,” which means to cover and is elsewhere translated as atonement. The Day of Atonement is the English equivalent for “Yom Kippur.” “Kippur” is from the Hebrew word “Kaphar,” which means to cover.

On Yom Kippur under the law, an atonement was made for the previous year’s sins of all those in Israel. The covering consisted of the shedding of the blood of a sacrifice.

This, of course, pictured the sin-atoning work of Christ, once for all, when He shed His blood as the perfect sacrifice for sin.

The high day of the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament was used of God to temporarily “cover” Israel’s sin for the previous year and it looked forward to Israel’s national cleansing from sin in one day.

Again, the “how,” or the provision for the atonement of Israel’s sin was made at the Cross, but the “when” of the actual application of it, as far as Israel is concerned, is associated with the Second Coming of Christ.

The nation’s sin was dealt with in one day at the Cross. And based on the blood of the new covenant, in Jeremiah 31:34, God says of believing Israel, “for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”

But Israel’s Day of Atonement also pictures her future conversion as a nation in one day at the Second Coming of Christ at the end of Daniel’s seventieth week, when “they shall look upon Me who they have pierced,” Zechariah 12:10 says, and they repent.

All 3 of these: “to finish the transgression,” “to make an end of sins,” and “to make reconciliation for iniquity” point to the saving work of the Messiah on their behalf at the Cross and to the fact of how, in Christ’s Kingdom, sin would be removed from Israel and they would be “a holy nation.”

Because the sacrifice of Christ forms the eternal basis for the Kingdom of Christ.

Sin having been fully dealt with, at the end of the 490 year prophecy, God determined that the Messiah will “bring in everlasting righteousness” when Israel’s Messiah, the “Lord our Righteousness” as Jeremiah 23:6 calls Him, reigns over the nation forever and ever. Everlasting righteousness will prevail in Christ’s everlasting kingdom.

Daniel had prayed, “O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee… for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth…O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain…” (Dan. 9:7,14,16).

According to the Lord’s righteousness, His anger would be turned away from Jerusalem, and in righteousness He will establish His kingdom and reign over Israel from Jerusalem.

During the 490 years, God has determined “to seal up the vision and prophecy.”

Daniel had prayed, “O Lord, the great and dreadful God, KEEPING THE COVENANT and mercy to them that love him…O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, HEARKEN AND DO; defer not, for thine own sake…” (9:4,19).

Sealing up the vision and prophecy means a complete fulfillment of all prophecy. All God’s revelation through the means of vision and prophecy, all Israel’s promises and her blessing as a nation through her Messiah, will be realized and fulfilled and consummated.

There is coming a day when all visions and prophecy will be fulfilled to the letter and God has determined to seal them up by their complete fulfillment.

Thus, everything God has promised in this 490 year prophecy will take place exactly as He has said. God will “hearken and do.” He is the great God who keeps His covenants and shows mercy to them that love Him. He is faithful to His Word.

And finally God has determined “to anoint the most Holy.” Daniel had prayed concerning the temple, “…and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake” (Dan. 9:17).

In response, the Lord told Daniel about His future plans for the temple.

The “most Holy” is a phrase in Scripture that refers to the most Holy place in the temple, the dwelling place of God. Here we find that God has determined to anoint the Holy of holies in the millennial temple of the kingdom in the midst of Jerusalem.

And when Christ establishes His kingdom He will build His temple and “the most Holy [place]” will be anointed by the blessed presence of the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ.

Great things are coming for God’s people Israel in the kingdom on earth. And great things are coming for us, God’s people in the Body of Christ, in the heavenlies. And all of it based on the Savior and His sacrifice, and being in His presence forever.

Join us next time when we break down the 490 year timetable of Daniel’s prophecy even more, which brings us to the near to the very day and date Christ was crucified.