The Seventieth
Week in Daniel
Paul Wong
Messianic Judaism or Christianity is based on the absolute certainty and accuracy
of God's Word, the Holy Bible. If the prophecies in the Bible are not true,
then the whole religion would have no foundation to stand on. The Lord Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” (Jn. 5:39) After
His death, burial and resurrection our Lord spoke to His disciples, “Then He said to them, "These are the words which I
spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms
concerning Me." And He opened
their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” (Lk. 24:44-45)
One of the most amazing prophecies that concerns the first advent of the Messiah was revealed by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel during his prayer. Here is the prophecy.
9:24 Seventy
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.
9:25 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 sixty-two weeks; The street shall be
built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.
9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall
be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many
for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice
and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the
desolate."
Purpose
of the Messiah’s Coming
to Jerusalem
Let us now study the actual verses of the prophecy.
In Daniel 9:24 the One True God would accomplish six objectives for His people and Jerusalem during the seventy weeks (490 years).
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 vision and
prophecy,”
6.
“And to anoint the Most
Holy.”
The
prophet Isaiah wrote about the Messiah’s atonement, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”
(Isa. 53:5) “And when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It
is finished!” And bowing His head, he gave up His
Spirit.” (Jn. 19:30)
At Calvary, Jesus finished the transgression by becoming sin for us. (2
Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:15)
The same angel Gabriel
who revealed this prophecy to Daniel also appeared to the virgin Mary and
revealed she would be the mother of our Lord and Savior. (Lk. 1:26-33) “And she will
bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (Yahshua in Hebrew) for He
will save His people from their sins.” (Mt. 1:21) “The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said,
‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn. 1:29) “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor.
5:21) In
the Old Testament animal sacrifices there could be no end of sins (Heb.
10:1-11). “But
this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the
right hand of God, . . . then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I
will remember no more. Now where there
is no remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” (Heb.
10:12-18)
“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Nor His ear
heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your
God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
(Isa. 59:1-2) The Lord
Jesus Christ came to reconcile us to God.
“Now all things are of God, who has
reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of
reconciliation, That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the
word of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18-19)
The Bible indicates, “But
we are all an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy
rags; We all fade as a leaf and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa. 64:6) Our Lord Jesus
Christ alone can “bring in everlasting righteousness,” “For He made Him who
knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21) When we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ we make
an exchange – our sin for His righteousness.
Our sin was poured into the Messiah when He was crucified. His righteousness is poured into us when we
receive Him as our Lord and Savior. His
righteousness is everlasting.
Some interpret this as
the fulfillment of Daniel’s vision and prophecy but others interpret it as a
concealment of them from the Jews until the End Time. The original Hebrew word for “seal”
is “chatham” {khaw-tham}
Strong’s # 02856: to seal up, affix a seal, to seal up, fasten up by sealing, to seal, to lock up, to be stopped.
The same Hebrew word “chatham” is used again by Daniel in Daniel 12:4,9.
4. "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal (chatham) the
book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall
increase."
9.
“And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are
closed up and sealed (chatham) till the time of the end.”
From these two verses that were
also written by Daniel it may be concluded that God wanted the vision and prophecy that were shown by the angel Gabriel to be sealed up but will be revealed to the Jews at the End Time. When our Lord Jesus
Christ came to the Children of Israel about two thousand years ago they had
rejected Him as their Messiah and shouted, “Crucify
Him, crucify Him.” (Lk. 23:21) “He came
to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” (Jn. 1:11) Only a small
remnant of Israel had accepted Jesus as their Messiah in the first century
(Rom. 11:5; 9:27). “Just as it is written:
‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see
and ears that they should not hear to this very day.”(Rom. 11:8) “For I do not desire, brethren, that you
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own
opinion, that hardening in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of
the Gentiles has come in. And so all
Israel will be saved, . . .” (Rom. 11:25-26)
The purpose of anointing which is applying the oil is to dedicate a person or thing to God. It signifies holiness or separation unto God. Prophets (1 Kng. 19:16; 1 Chron. 16:22), priests (Ex. 28:41; 29:7; Lev. 8:12:30), and kings were anointed (1 Sam. 9:16; 16:1, 12-13; 2 Sam. 2:7; 1 Kng. 1:34). The Lord Jesus Christ is a Prophet (Deut. 18:15,18; Mt. 13:54-58), Priest (Heb. 4:14) and King (Jn. 18:36-37; Mt. 21:4-11; Rev. 19:16).
To whom does the “Most
Holy” refer to?
In the Old Testament the One True God says, “To
whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy
One.” (Isa. 40:25) I
am the LORD, your Holy One,
The Creator of Israel, your King." (Isa. 43:15) In the New
Testament the “Most Holy”
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. An angel said to Mary, "The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow
you; therefore, also, that Holy One
who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Lk. 1:35) On the Day of
Pentecost Peter preached, “For You will not leave
my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy
One to see corruption.” (Acts 2:27, ref. Psm.
16:10) “But you denied the Holy
One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to
be granted to you,” (Acts 3:14).
During our Lord
Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry He fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy, “And to anoint the Most Holy.” (Dan. 9:24) Let us read
Luke 4:16-21.
16.
So
He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
17. And He was handed the book of the prophet
Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was
written:
18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because
He has anointed
Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To preach liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at
liberty those who are oppressed;
19.
To preach the acceptable year of the
LORD."
20.
Then He closed the book, and gave it back
to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue
were fixed on Him.
21.
And He began to say to them, "Today
this Scripture is fulfilled
in your hearing.”
