We are Christians. We have come to see that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. We believe Jesus who was born in 0AD, died in 33AD and rose again on the third day, is God’s Son, God the Son, the Christ, the King of the Universe. He reigns for ever and ever and his kingdom will never end.
Almost all of us are Gentiles. That is, we did not grow up with the Old Testament as our national book. We are outsiders to Israel who have been invited into looking at the family album of Israel. Israel was entrusted with the oracles of God. We come in as Johnny come lately’s, just glad that we are now accepted in.
And a conviction that we have is that the Hebrew Scriptures are the Old Testament. We believe that the Old Testament is the Old Testament. It is Old, and it is a testament. It is Old in that it wasn’t just given for itself. It looked forward to something new, something that would come later that would give it meaning and sense. And it is a testament or covenant. It contains promises God made that would be fulfilled in God’s timing.
For the Christian, the Old Testament writings are the prophetic writings that testify to Jesus Christ. They are the Lord Jesus’ family portraits and pictures. We see his form and picture everywhere in it. Sometimes it is like a Where’s Wally book, you have to look very hard for a concerted period. And sometimes we see a photo that is his spitting image. It is the exact likeness of our Lord Jesus in the Old Testament. And we say, ‘How is it that other people can’t see Jesus in this ancient book, written hundreds of years before his advent?’
So our deepest conviction about the Old Testament is that it promises Jesus Christ, shows us our need for him, looks forward to him, and tells us beforehand about his coming and work. And our New Testament shows how all this is true.
Some might call this attitude bias. You Christians know the answer is Jesus, and so you make the question fit the facts. You read Jesus back into the Old Testament.
But we actually get this perspective from Jesus Christ himself. So the risen Jesus said for us at the end of Luke’s Gospel:
Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:44-46 NIV) 44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day… (Luke 24:44-45 NIV)
We are Jesus’ younger brothers. We are being molded into the image of Jesus Christ. So we have taken our attitude to the Old Testament from Jesus himself. Which is not surprising, because we believe Jesus Christ to be God who became human.
It is now over 20 years since I had to do serious mathematics like algebra and equations. But I have had to get back into it to help with my kids’ homework. Sometimes I think the reason we learn maths is to help our kids learn maths. I know, I know, one of you will remind me that engineers and scientists and statisticians need maths everyday. But my point is this. If I’m going to help my kids, I need to know the answers I’m to get. I hate doing maths when I don’t know the answer. I hated learning my Greek and Hebrew grammar when I didn’t have the answers. Because I don’t know whether I got the question right or not. The answers in the back of the book help me check my method.
As Christians, we have the answers in the back of the book. The answer to the Old Testament is the New Testament. And our unashamed bias is that Jesus Christ is the answer to Old Testament prophecy.
This has always been the Christian method. Take and read the Old Testament, and see whether you can see Jesus is there. Paul said the holy Scriptures, which for him certainly meant the Old Testament if it didn’t mean more, is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:15). So the Bereans were praised as noble, because they eagerly grasped the Christian message and examined the Old Testament Scriptures every day to see if the gospel of Jesus was true (Acts 17:11).
Likewise, Peter said that the Old Testament prophets as they diligently inquired by the Spirit into the time and circumstances of Christ’s sufferings and glories, were not serving themselves but us (1 Peter 1:10-12).
We are again in a Hebrew section of the book, as we were in chapter 8. Here is a word distinctly for Israel, as opposed to the nations. The year Cyrus and Darius defeated Babylon is 539BC. Darius’ first year is probably 538BC. King Belshazzar has just had his funeral, and indeed, the Babylonian Empire has just fallen to the Medo-Persian empire. Darius the Mede has taken over the kingdom of Babylon, in his alliance with Cyrus the Persian (Daniel 5:31; 6:28). And with all the rise and fall of nations and kings, what’s Daniel been doing? Besides, of course, running the Kingdom better than anyone else and dealing with jealous rivals and getting thrown in the Lion’s Den. What’s he been doing besides that? Daniel’s been reading the bible. Verse 2:
In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. (NIV)
We already know Daniel prayed three times a day, with his window open to Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10-11). And we are given an insight into the fact that he also read the bible.
Daniel was reading the prophet Jeremiah. At about the time the young Daniel was dragged off to Babylon[1], the Yahweh the God of Israel spoke yet again through Jeremiah. And Jeremiah said that, yes, it is true, Nebuchadnezzar is Yahweh’s servant. And Nebuchadnezzar will do Yahweh’s work of destroying Jerusalem and Judah (Jeremiah 25). But Babylon would be punished after 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Babylon and it’s king too would be destroyed.
Later, through Jeremiah, Yahweh expanded on this promise. It was not just punishment, but restoration. Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles of the Jews in Babylon, including Daniel. This letter was taken to Babylon in 597BC with a second large group of exiles. Daniel then would have been a young man when he first got it, perhaps in his twenties. And he is still reading it, or re-reading it, in his 80s. And part of Jeremiah’s letter said this.
This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:10-14 NIV)
The background for this time period of 70 years is in Leviticus 25 and 26.
In Leviticus chapter 25, Israel was commanded to let the land lie fallow one year in every 7 years (Leviticus 25:1-7). Even the land was to have a rest, and not to be mercilessly worked. Israel needed to trust God to provide in the sabbatical year.
Leviticus chapter 26 is filled with blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. If Israel obeys, they will be blessed, but if they disobey, they will be punished.
And the accent is on the curses. Four times in Leviticus 26, God threatened that he would punish his people ‘seven times over’ if they rebelled against him (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28). And part of that punishment was related to the fact that Israel had not given the land it’s Sabbaths, one year off every seven. So this is the warning God gives his people in Leviticus 26, verses 35 and 35.
28I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. … 33 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. 34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it. (Leviticus 26:28, 34-35)
If there is disobedience, the land will need to catch up on it’s rest. And that will occur by Israel getting kicked out of the land. Apparently, Israel did not, or did not always, obey this command to give the land it’s sabbath. And when the Chronicler reflects on this, he says of the 70 years of exile Jeremiah prophesied:
The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah. (2 Chronicles 36:21 NIV)[2]
According to this chronological scheme, for 490 years the land had gone without it’s stipulated rest. So it needed 70 years to put it right and catch up on the rest.
And when Daniel re-reads Jeremiah’s prophecy, his 70 years of exile are almost up. By chapter 9, and the first year of Darius, Daniel has been in exile 66 years. We know from chapter 10 verse 1 that he will still be in exile in the third year of Cyrus. So here is Daniel, close to the end of his own 70 years of exile, an old man in his 80s, realizing a home coming is just around the corner. It won’t be for him, for almost certainly he died in the far off country in exile. Jerusalem will be saved for others, not for Daniel. But he still longed for that land.
And what is his response? Repentance and request. Verse 3:
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. (NIV)
The promise of God has prompted prayer. Disciplined prayer, because he is going without food. Repentant prayer, because he is sorry for his own sin and the sin of his people, hence the sackcloth and ashes. And he makes petitions. He makes requests.
Notice that Daniel’s prayer has been prompted by God’s promise. Prayer is promoted by perceiving God’s promises. This is always been the case. If your human father promises something, aren’t you more bold and enthusiastic in asking for it? How much more our heavenly father.
Daniel’s prayer is praise and penitence followed by petition. He rejoices and repents, and then requests what his heart desires. And he prays in accordance with God’s will, because God has already said that this is indeed what he plans to do.
God has said he will do it. Daniel thinks God’s thoughts after him. He wants God to do what he wants, so changed are his desires and attitudes. Make God the desire of your heart, and he will give you the desire of your hearts. So Daniel wants God to restore his city and temple and honour his name.
First, in the midst of his confession and penitence, Daniel praises God and rejoices in who is. He both rejoices and repents. He both praises and is penitent. Both go hand in hand.
We must rejoices when God is as good as he is. You must repent when we are as bad as we are. The thought is, ‘We are scum, you are worthy’. ‘We are sinners, you are righteous’. Verses 4 and 5:
O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. (NIV)
Verse 7: Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame
Verse 9: The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;
Verse 14: the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
Verse 15: “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong.
It is confession with praise. The only reason we can confess is because of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
But Daniel also has a very specific request. It relates to the city and the temple to which his window opens, and toward which he has been praying. The temple was completely flattened just under 50 years earlier by Daniel’s old friend, Nebuchadnezzar. The city was destroyed, the walls pulled down. It was completely wrecked. And Daniel, after God’s heart, wants the city of Jerusalem inhabited once again and the temple in Jerusalem restored and functioning.
First the city. Verse 16: turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. (compare verse 18, the desolation of the city that bears your Name)
Then the temple. Verse 17: For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.
He pleads that God would act this way so that God will glorify his name. Verse 19: For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.
And just as seventy sevens of years brought the people into a 70 year exile, so another seventy sevens of years will be needed to properly deal with sin. Verse 24:
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. (NIV)
How is the sin of God’s people and God’s city going to be ultimately dealt with? Well, it will happen at the end of ‘seventy sevens’.
Now about the seventy sevens, or the 490 years. We simply don’t know when Israel started neglecting it’s Sabbaths years. There is nothing in Scripture to tell us. We don’t know if the 490 years started with King Saul, or when the people first came up into the land under Joshua and Judges. We just know that they were punished for it in the 6th century BC.
Nor can we can work out with certainty when the 70 years of exile started or finished. There are at least two different possibilities, looked at from the point of view of Daniel in exile, or from the point of view of the temple’s destruction in Jerusalem (see note [1] below).
Likewise, while I’ve wrestled with Daniel’s seventy sevens, I don’t think we need to get too hung up on when Daniel’s seventy sevens started. There are at least 5 different possibilities, and each has it’s own problems.
I think what we are looking with the seventy sevens is a schematic view of history. It is a symbolic way of looking at history, a bit like the statue vision in chapter 2 and the four beasts in chapter 7. A bit like how Matthew’s genealogy in chapter 1 says there are 3 sets of 14 generations. But we know that there actually aren’t just 14 generations because other parts of the bible tell us. It is a schematic, neat and symbolic way of looking at long periods of time. And the message to Daniel is using symbolic numbers, particularly the number 7 and it’s multiples.
And the reason I don’t have to worry too much about the start date is because I’ve got the finish date. I look back with the benefit of hindsight. As a Christian, I know when the seventy sevens have finished. Because we know the Lord Jesus Christ and his work in his first coming is now completed.
According to verse 24, there are six things promised that will occur within seventy sevens. finish transgression, put an end to sin atone for wickedness, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy anoint the most holy. In short, redemption and salvation from sin and a giving of righteousness according to prophecy will be given by the end of the seventy sevens.
Daniel has been confessing his sin, and the sin of his people and his city. And the first three things mention that sin is going to be finally dealt with. Sin will be finished, brought to an end, and atoned for. Negatively, sin needs to be dealt with.
And we see that in Jesus Christ. Jesus while dying on the cross for our sins said, ‘It is finished’. There he finished transgression. He put an end to sin because he is the complete and once for all sin offering, which needs no repetition. He atoned for iniquity because he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. In the death of Jesus Christ, the New Testament tells us the sacrifice for sin is finished and completed, and sin is atoned for.
Positively, there are three other things. Bring in everlasting righteousness Seal the vision and the prophet. And anoint the Holy of Holies.
And again, each of these three has happened in Christ. Christ has brought in a righteousness of God apart from the law, testified to by the Law and the prophets. Christ himself is our righteousness. He was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. So now, through the righteousness or justification of the one man, the many will be made righteous. By his knowledge Christ justified many and bore our iniquities. So now, because he who knew no sin became sin for us, we have become the righteousness of God in him. Friend, if you have put your trust in Jesus Christ, you believe for righteousness. Jesus is your righteousness. He is in you, you are in him. Your sin is his, his righteousness is yours. His righteous life, death, resurrection is credited and imputed to you. Bold you can approach the Holy and Righteous judge, for you are hidden in Christ, safe in him, who lived and died and rose again for you. And it is everlasting righteousness because hidden in Christ, you have eternal life.
The vision and the prophet is to be sealed. Just as in English, so in Hebrew, the verb seal can mean two things. It might mean sealed, so that it cannot be seen or understood. Like when you seal an envelop. It cannot be read, so it is sealed. But I don’t think it means this here. Because seal can also mean ratify or affirm or approved. In that case it means it is under the king’s seal, it is validated and proved and promulgated. It is sealed in that it is guaranteed. And I think that is the sense the prophet and vision is sealed. The vision will be shown to be valid and approved and genuine by the end of the seventy sevens.
Finally, within seventy sevens, a holy of holies will be anointed. The Holy of Holies will literally be Christen-ed or Messiah-ed. Christ might be the Holy of Holies. He claimed to be the true temple, so of course he is the Holy of Holies as well. Or Christ might have Christened the heavenly holy of holies by his own blood. Either way the Holy of Holies has been Messiah’ed by Jesus Christ. Now because of Jesus’ first coming, our sins are dealt with, we have a forever righteousness, the word of the prophets made more sure, and an anointed Most Holy Place to which we have access. All these things were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ in his first coming.
Daniel might have wanted the city and the temple. But the angelic answer is giving him more than he asked for. Because God knows our needs better than we know them ourselves. And more important than city or temple is the Messianic King. Verse 25:
“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One [literally, until Messiah], the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
Scholars have debated over which decree is spoken of. Is it a heavenly decree, like Jeremiah’s oracle of judgment after 70 years in 605 BC (Jeremiah 25:11)? Or is it Jeremiah’s letter sent to Babylon in 598BC (Jeremiah 29:10)? What about the Decree issued by Cyrus King of Persia in 538BC, where he proclaimed that the Jews were to return to Jerusalem to build a temple to Yahweh? Or was it the decree issued in 458BC by Artaxerxes, allowing Ezra to return. The temple was already rebuilt at this stage (Ezra 7:11). Or was it the decree in 445BC by Artaxerxes which permitted Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem rebuild it (particularly the walls, and his residence also, given the temple was already rebuilt at this stage) (Nehemiah 2:5)? All of these ‘decrees’ span 150 years.
In fact, all three sources of the Decree -- God, Cyrus and Artaxerxes -- are lumped together in Ezra 6:14: Speaking of the temple, the book of Ezra says:
They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. (Ezra 6:14 NIV)
It makes more sense to me to say that the ‘seventy sevens’ are schematic rather than strictly chronological, and not to admit any gaps in the time frame, which one must do if they say it is the decree of Artaxerxes in 445BC.
So I take the ‘seven sevens’, as represent the period from the issuing of the decree by Cyrus, to the completion of the temple and the city during the time of Nehemiah. It is actually longer than 49 years in that case. But for the purpose of the chronological scheme, it occupies the shorter period. Reading Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra and Nehemiah, we can agree that the temple and the city were all rebuilt in times of trouble.
Then I take the 62 sevens to be the time from the completion of the walls of the city under Nehemiah to the time of Messiah. Again, I am not looking for exact correspondence in the years. I’m seeing how the symbolic schema works. The first period is seven sevens. Then there is seventy sevens less the seven sevens less one seven. That is, sixty two sevens. There, the focus is not on the construction of the city or the temple. It is the coming of Messiah, who is also a Prince. We are looking for a person, not a building project. We are looking for Messiah, a Royal figure, to come to his city and his temple.
But some surprising suffering comes to Messiah, the Prince. Verse 26:
After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing (NIV)
And friends, we worship a Messiah who was cut off and had nothing. We worship the crucified Messiah, who was cut off from the land of the living, and who for the transgressions of God’s people was stricken. He who made the world and owned the sun, lost even his clothes to the soldiers who killed him.
The word cut off reminds us of a covenant. Covenants are said to be cut. And in using that word, we see the connection between the death of Messiah and the covenant that is made by that death in the use of the word.
The Hebrew can be translated in the alternative, The Messiah will be cut off and will have no one. And if that is the case, we remember that ‘everyone deserted him’. We remember that even on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ cried to his father, ‘Why have you forsaken me’. In being cut off, Messiah was utterly alone.
There is another alternative. The Messiah will be cut off, but not for himself. And if that is the true translation, it reminds us that Jesus Christ did not die for himself, but for us. He came to save us, not himself. The Son of Man gave his life ‘as a ransom for many’.
The next part of verse 26: The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
Some take this ruler who is coming to be Antichrist who will destroy a third, rebuilt temple. I don’t. This in fact could be taken of Jesus and his people after his resurrection. Stephen was actually accused of speaking against the temple. Acts 6:13-14:
“This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” (NIV)
And Stephen actually did say, “the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands.’ (Acts 7:48)
Indeed, the Jews said of Paul: ‘This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place [ie the temple in Jerusalem].’ (Acts 21:28 NIV)
Jesus said a time was coming when people wouldn’t worship in Jerusalem. Jesus said that his own body was the temple in replacement of the ones with bricks and mortar. Jesus predicted that the temple would be destroyed. Jesus ripped the curtain of the temple down the middle in his death. And then Jesus’ followers relativized the temple, saying that God didn’t live in temples made by human hands. Peter and Paul started calling the church the temple of God. And they called individual Christians ‘living stones’ built into a house.
A tenable case can be made that Jesus is the ruler who was to come whose people would destroy the temple.
By rejecting Jesus Christ, Jerusalem and the temple sealed it’s own destruction. In Luke 19, Jesus as he entered Jerusalem to die, wept over it, and predicted:
The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:43-44 NIV)
The destruction of the city and the temple is linked to their rejection of Christ the King. But if you don’t like this, then probably you can take this Prince to be the Roman General Titus. When Titus came along in 70AD, and flattened the temple, all he was doing was cleaning up the rubble left by Jesus’ and his death and resurrection, and his people, who took conquered Jerusalem by the word of God in the power of the Spirit.
But Messiah will also act to bring in a New Covenant and put an end to sacrifices. That is who I take as the ‘He’ of verse 27: Verse 27:
He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’ and in the middle of that seven, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering (NIV)
Not everyone thinks this. Some people take this to refer to the Antichrist at the end of the age. They say that a new temple, a third temple, will be built in Jerusalem, and there will be an agreement between the antichrist and the Jews for 3 and a half years, but then the Antichrist will renig and stop the sacrifices. And all of this will occur after a great gap of time – at the moment 2000 years and still counting -- unaccounted for between the 69th and 70th week. But I don’t think there is any indication of any gap between the time periods.
I think a much better understanding is this. Jesus Christ establishes a new covenant with his people in his blood. And 3 and a half years into his ministry, by his death on the cross, he puts an end to sacrifice and offerings by the once and for all offering of himself. This is in much greater agreement with the book of Hebrews.
Now, I don’t think the NIV (or ESV or HCSB, for that matter) gets that last part of verse 27 as good as it could. A more literal translation of that last part of verse 27 is this from the ESV study bible notes:
and on account of the extremity [or “wing”] of abominations that cause desolation, until the end that has been decreed, it will be poured out unto desolation.’ [I M Duguid, ESV Study Bible, 1608]
This seems to me to say ‘extreme desolation upon desolation upon desolation’. Layer upon layer upon layer of desolation, as decreed. It is a complete and total appalling and abominable desolation.
The abomination that causes desolation is a famous phrase. Jesus in the gospels actually interpreted it for us. Jesus indicated that the temple would be destroyed in that generation.
Matthew 24:15-20 NIV
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—
16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak.
19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.
21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
Luke 21:20-24 NIV
20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.
21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.
23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
A comparison between Matthew and Luke shows us that Jesus regards the destruction of the city and temple by the Romans as at least one of the things the ‘abomination that causes desolation’ refers to. And perhaps that abomination that causes desolation, the destruction of the city and the temple, is a direct result of another abomination that causes desolation, the cutting off of Messiah, a Prince. The atrocity of killing the author of life, and rejecting the Christ, led to the destruction of the city. And in response to such an abomination, God promised that he would destroy the second temple for which Daniel so earnestly sought and prayed.
So what Daniel got to hear about in the Angel’s Answer was the rise and fall of another temple. Yes, a second temple would be built. But it would not last. It to would be destroyed. And so we see it now, the temple mount, with two mosques on top of it, trampled by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
But there is something more important than bricks and mortar. It is Messiah. And Daniel also got to see that there would be Messiah, a Prince, who would come to the city and the temple. And yet he would be cut off, bereft of everything, including life itself. Yet in the process, this Messiah, a Prince, would make a new covenant which would end sacrifices at the temple. He would atone for sins, bring in everlasting righteousness, and put the seal of approval on Old Testament prophecy. This Messiah is our Lord Jesus Christ, who we love and long for. He has done it all.
Let’s pray.
[1] Compare Jeremiah 25:1ff with Daniel 1:1ff. This date is 605BC according to Longman, 606BC according to Young. Daniel was carried off into exile at this time, even though Jerusalem and the temple still remained at this date, and there were still two further groups taken into captivity, one in 597BC and one in 587BC. E J Young takes 605BC to be the most likely ‘start’ date for the 70 years. It is a possibility for T Longman III, Jeremiah: NIBC, 172-3. See also R K Harrison, Old Testament Times, 257, for discussion. This makes most sense from the perspective of Daniel. However, the Decree of Cyrus (Ezra 1) is dated at 538BC (R K Harrison, Old Testament Times, 281; E C Lucas, Daniel, 235) and the people set out and/or came to Jerusalem in 536BC under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. Ezra records that the foundations of the second temple was laid in their second year of their return (Ezra 3:8ff). The rebuilding efforts stalled, and were restarted in 520BC under the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, and were completed in 516BC. One tenable reading of 2 Chronicles 36:17-23 suggests that the date starts with the third deportation in 587BC and finishes with Cyrus Decree in 538BC, only 49 years: compare H G M Williamson, 2 Chronicles: NCBC, 418. In Zechariah 1 (519BC), it appears that the temple has not been rebuilt, and one reading could be that the 70 years continues while the temple is not rebuilt (Zechariah 1:12-16). The fact is that there are several dates that could begin and end the period. From Daniel’s perspective, starting at 605BC and finishing at 536BC makes sense of his perspective. That is the period from his exile in 605BC (Daniel 1:1) to his final vision in exile (3rd year of Cyrus in Daniel 10:1 – assuming that Darius the Mede was co-regent with Cyrus the Persian). From the perspective of Zechariah, starting the time from the third deportation in 587BC (taking Daniel’s as the first in 605BC) and the final sacking and destruction of the temple in 586BC to the completion of rebuilding the temple in 516 BC also makes sense. Compare M J Selman, 2 Chronicles: TOTC, 550-1; H G M Williamson, 2 Chronicles: NCBC, 418. It may be that the date phrase is an approximate one denoting a human lifetime: Selman, 550; also Goldingay.
[2] This suggests that 70 sabbath years have been neglected, which would lead to a period of 490 years at least of Israel living in the land, supposing that every Sabbath year was neglected. But were the Sabbath years neglected, even during kings like Josiah and Hezekiah, David and Solomon? It is possible that the 490 years could be the precise number of years from Saul to the exile (J G McConville, Chronicles: DSB, 270; H G M Williamson, 1 & 2 Chronicles: NCBC, 418) – there is some uncertainty because of the uncertainty of the length of Saul son of Kish’s reign. But alternatively, why should the period under the Joshua and Judges be excluded if Leviticus 25-26 was given to the nation, irrespective of whether it was a tribal confederacy under the judges or a monarchy, united or divided? The same problem therefore accrues here that has also in calculating Jeremiah’s 70 years or Daniel’s 70 sevens. Where do we start the time period? It is sensible from the perspective of Chronicles to start from King David (474 years, according to Williamson). Importantly for Daniel, the schematic time of 490 years is alluded to here. At least schematically, there is a 490 year period of sin alluded to, by a 70 year period of dealing with the sin in exile.