Daniel 9

Daniel 9 consists in three parts.  First, Daniel prays to God.  Second, he is granted a visitation from the angel Gabriel.  Finally, in the last part, four verses of prophecy are given.  With the fulfillment of the first three of these verse, most all are in agreement.  With the last verse, however, disagreement arises.  We focus, therefore, on the last four verses of this chapter, and focus only on the rest as necessity arises.

Daniel 9:1-19

Daniel has read scripture, and sees that the prophecy of Jeremiah’s 70 years of desolation are at an end, and that, according to the Word of the Lord, Israel should return to its homeland.  In light of this revelation, he prays with fasting and humility.

Daniel 9:20-22

Daniel thus receives a visitation from the angel Gabriel, the same one that announced to Mary her Lord.  Daniel was exhausted from the prayer and fasting, and Gabriel says he had come to give Daniel the insight and understanding.

Daniel 9:24

(1) Seventy weeks have been decreed (2) for your people and your holy city, (3) to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. 

  1. Seventy weeks, or seventy periods of seven years are prophesied by Gabriel.  This is a span of 490 years.  Specifically it is the time period that has been decreed, not anything else.
  2. The time is specifically for the Jews and Jerusalem.  Since we see the rebuilding of the city begins with the 490 years, we can be sure that the full scope of the time period is for the city then built.  Rebuilding a city later for to be part of a final 7 years, as a futurist would maintain, would require the whole of the city being built within that seven years, and then being destroyed.  Since Jerusalem was built from rubble and destroyed again to rubble, we can be sure this 490 years has passed with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
  3. The six things listed are what God has decreed this 490 years for.  Namely, God has decreed 490 years, not the accomplishment of the six things.  The 490 years is the prophecy given to Daniel, in which time, the Jews were expected to do these things.  failure to do these things does seem inevitable by the end of these four verses, but the prophecy never said they would be accomplished.  This is in response to Daniel’s prayer for mercy, which was given.  And, indeed it was a great mercy, for in this time Messiah was given through the Jews.  But, the failure of the Jews resulted in the hardening of some, that the full number of Gentiles might be brought in.  The failure of the nation to fulfill these six things does not invalidate the 490 year time table established, but only illustrates their failure to meet the conditions of God in the time allotted.

Daniel 9:25

So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.

  1. The city took 49 years, or seven weeks to rebuilt.  They continued living there for the other 62 weeks.  This is a total of 69 of the seventy weeks, so it leaves only seven years remaining.  This is the crux of many people’s eschatology, but it must be seen as fulfilled since the scope of the prophecy, v24, is the people and the city.  Since the people’s power is broken by 70 AD, and the city is destroyed then, we know for certain that this prophecy reached its fulfillment, with the full seventh week, historically.  The decree is historical, and most scholars agree, at least within a couple of years, depending on the counting of the Jewish year, to either the baptism of Jesus or His triumphal entry.

Daniel 9:26

(1) Then after the sixty-two weeks the (2) Messiah will be (3) cut off and (4) have nothing, and (5) the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. (6) And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.

  1. That is, after the 483 years, as the 62 weeks comes after the 7.
  2. It is determined that Messiah, Jesus Christ, will come then, at His baptism.  This is when Jesus was presented as the Lamb of God, and this is when He began His ministry.
  3. He will be cut off and have nothing after the 62 weeks, or after 483 of the years are completed.  This “cut off” many have taken to be his death, but that need not be the case.  As with the prophet Elisha, a branch was cut off and cast upon the waters to retrieve that which was lost (the iron axe head).  This is the picture of Christ being “cut off” at His baptism.  Indeed, the third use of this word in the Old Testament is in reference to circumcision, of which baptism was a type.  When Christ was baptised in the water, and the Holy Spirit came upon Him, he was then “cut off” from the land of men, and lived in the realm of the Kingdom of God, the Spirit.
  4. He had nothing, because you cannot hold onto anything of this life materially and dwell in the Spirit.  While we have possessions in this life, we have greater possessions in heaven, and it is in this realization that we are freed.  We are stewards while on this Earth, but we are not said to possess anything but Christ.  In this way, the idolotrous works of the flesh and the lusts thereof and the eyes, and the pride of life are doomed to frustration.
  5. Now, again, we see Christ begin to gather His disciples.  It is said that the people of this prince that was to come, namely Christ, not some future anti-christ, would destroy the city and the sanctuary.  How is this possible?  In the same manner as Hebrews 11:7 says that Noah condemned the world by his faith.  The faith of the disciples, as they built the ark of the church, condemned the Jewish order.  It was their faith, and ultimately the prophetic utterances of the early church, that brought about the complete destruction of the Jewish civilization.  Beginning with Jesus and His prophecy about their missing the time of their visitation, it was the disciple’s walking in the faith that Jesus taught that damned the city.  Jesus explained it well.  At the preaching of the 72, Jesus saw satan fall from heaven like lightning.  Yet, he said the generation would be like the house that had the spirit cast out, and it was left clean and swept.  That spirit went out, gathered seven more wicked to itself, and came back and the condition of that city was worse than before.  Jesus said in response to this parable, “That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:45) The people of the Messiah thus destroyed the city and the sanctuary, in the same way Noah condemned the world (Hebrews 11:7).

Daniel 9:27

(1) And he will (2) make a firm covenant with the many (3) for one week, but (4) in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and (5) on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

  1. Jesus, Messiah.
  2. The whole chapter begins with a prayer about the covenant.  The text here should read “confirm” or “strengthen” a covenant.
  3. For the remaining seven years, starting with His baptism.
  4. But, Christ put an end to sacrifice after 3 1/2 years.  What of the remaining 3 1/2?  It is revealed in Mark 16:20b (, “. . . the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the sign that accompanied it.”  The Lord continued to strengthen and confirm His word for the next 3 1/2 years (and continues today, but outside the realm of the 490 years), up until, probably the martyrdom of Stephen.
  5. The difficulty in interpretation is compounded by the translation.  Various translations of Daniel 9:27 exist, but what can be certain is that the Scripture makes no direct reference to the temple.  We prefer the standard King James for the last portion of this verse, reading, “. . . and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”  Because of the widespread abominations of the city, Jesus will make the city desolate, even until the final end, 70 AD, when what has already been determined, that “not one stone will be left upon another” is fully poured out on the city that is already made desolate.