Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, 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. 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. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and 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.
Daniel 9:24-27
This most famous section of Daniel is considered by many to be the core Eschatological text. By many, it is considered to be the promised plan for the restoration of Israel, and the time-table that He has decreed for their restoration into the fullness of His plan. Looking further at the historical situation surrounding this decree, however, we begin to see that this 490 years that Daniel is informed of is not, as it were, a blessing, but an additional 7-fold increase of punishment of the Jewish people.
The typical futurist eschatology holds that the 490 years, which began with a decree a relatively short time after Daniel received the word, progressed evenly to the conclusion of the first 77 + 427, or 483 years. The claim is then made that, because of the Jewish nation’s failure to receive Christ as Messiah at that time, the prophetic calendar was “put on hold”, as it were, and there has, since that time, been a near 2,000 year gap. The remaining 7 years, the last seven, is to be fulfilled in the time period of the “End Times”, wherein Israel will go through the tribulation, and be ultimately restored to God. The rationale for this is that God’s plan, His “prophetic clock”, as it were, depends upon Israel being in the land, with Jerusalem as it’s capital, and worshiping at the temple. Nothing could be further from the case!
Let us look, briefly, at the historical context.
In Daniel 2:38, Daniel tells king Nebuchadnezzar that he is the great king, the ‘head of gold’. Daniel informs the king what he apparently already knows, that, “…wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.” (Daniel 2:38). This ruling over even the animals is a direct result of a curse by God in Jeremiah 28. “For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have also given him the beasts of the field.'” (Jeremiah 28:14). This ‘yoke of iron’ was in response to the false prophet Hananiah breaking off a wooden yoke that God was using to symbolize the subjection of Israel to Nebuchadnezzar, prophesying to them of their coming captivity. Jeremiah had been prophesying the 70 years of captivity to come (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10), and right there in the midst of his prophesying, this false prophet was coming to say it wouldn’t happen. God said, in Jeremiah 28:13, “You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of iron.”
God was trying to get through to the people that they were going to go into captivity and serve Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness. When Hananiah broke the wooden yoke God was using as the visual symbol of that captivity off, and went around telling people it wasn’t going to happen, God told Jeremiah to tell the people that instead of a wooken yoke, instead it had been replaced by an iron one, and that the prophet who had lied would die within that year (which he did). The result of this was what we saw in Daniel 2:38, exactly what was promised as an increased punishment, that Nebuchadnezzar was given such great rulership that he even ruled over the animals.
Daniel’s Prayer
And, so, in Daniel 9, Daniel has learned through reading these passages in Jeremiah that the servitude of Israel in Babylon is about to be completed. Probably only a couple years remained of this prophesied 70 year span when Daniel began praying, and so you have Daniel reading the book of Jeremiah, realizing they have been in captivity for 68 years, and realizing that, according to the promise, it’s just about time to return. But, one thing is wrong–Israel hasn’t repented.
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.
Daniel 9:13-14
Daniel confesses that due to their sins, they were reaping the punishment from the covenant of Moses, and that God had been perfectly just in doing so. This is all confirmed in the histories of the nation, as it is written elsewhere,
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
So, we see that the writer of Chronicles directly links the seventy years of captivity with the failure to keep the Sabbath year. In Leviticus 25, God had required that every seventh year the land would not be farmed. God would provide enough in the sixth year, and the seventh year was to be a year of rest, just as the seventh day of the week was also a day of rest. In establishing this, God decreed that the land should rest, and all of Israel needed to obey this. But, according to 2 Chronicles 36:21, this did not happen. The Israelites did not keep the seventh year as a year of rest, and the land was to enjoy the Sabbaths it missed while they were displaced.
What is important to note in Daniel 9:14, above, is the last phrase, “but we have not obeyed His voice.” This is the exact condition God listed in the first talk of a seven-fold increase in punishment, Leviticus 26:18, saying, “If also after these things you do not obey Me”. Echoing the sentiment of Ezekiel 14:12-14, where God said that if Noah, Daniel, and Job were all in a country under God’s judgment, they could only save themselves and not even their own children by their righteousness, Daniel appears to be confessing that this, indeed, is the case in Israel. Having met with the conditions of Leviticus 26:18, despite Daniel’s own righteousness, Israel will meet with God’s righteousness in judgment.
God’s Covenant with Israel
While all of this may seem overly technical and law-like, remember, that is exactly what it was. God had set up specific requirements for His people, and established very specific consequences for its absence in being kept.
So, while Leviticus 25 spelled out the Sabbath ordinance, Leviticus 26 explained the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience. Beginning in Leviticus 26:14, God laid out his provisions for punishment for the breaking of the covenant. In summary, God explains the reason,
Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
Leviticus 26:34-35
Just as in 2 Chronicles 36, God explains that the land will enjoy the Sabbath that were not observed while they were living in it.
But, here is the important point. Between the declaration of punishment and the later explanation of why there would be the punishment, God laid out four specific provisions for if Israel still rebelled against His leadership.
Four times (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28) God said, if Israel continued in their sin after the previous punishment, that He would either increase their punishment 7-fold (1 + 7 for a total of eight), or punish them seven times for their sins (possibly, just a total of seven). From these four increases in punishment, we can pull out several key and important features of this that should narrowly define where this fulfillment is located in history.
First, in Leviticus 26:25, is one of the primary passages. In the NASB, this reads, “I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant”. This, it would appear as best interpreted, to be the reference Jesus was referring to when He spoke, “because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.” in Luke 21:22. This ‘vengeance’ is the vengeance written in the covenant in Leviticus 26, and the ‘all things which are written’ then refers to the fulfillment of the curses upon Israel. Note, of course, that this is the second-to-last chapter of Leviticus. In fulfilling this chapter, all the things written concerning the Covenant of Moses were fulfilled. It is, as it were, the final close to the covenant–and it was! As well, this is likely the reference in Daniel 11:36, which concludes, “…and he [by interpretation, the ruler of the fourth kingdom, which we take to be Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of Rome] will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.” This ‘indignation’ is likely the same as the vengeance of Leviticus 26:25.
Next, the events of the second and third increase in punishment, the wild beasts and wars and famines, each of these can be seen in the build up to the war in Jerusalem, even as the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) holds that these things must come. It is not disputed that there was a historical fulfillment of each of these in the first century, but merely that the Second Coming of Matthew 24:29-31 did not occur (we cover why we agree, and believe it is yet to come, yet the rest is fulfilled historically elsewhere in a thorough study of Matthew 24).
Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, [28] then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.
Leviticus 26:27-28
This wrath (‘wrathful hostility’), apparently referenced in Daniel 8:19 as the ‘time of wrath’, is also likely referred to in Revelation 6:16, which says, “They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'”. As such, it lends to the credence that this is speaking of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
This is borne out further in the following verses, indicating the cannibalism that occurred in the siege of Jerusalem. The sanctuaries and cities of the Jews were spoiled, and the land was made desolate. In particular, Leviticus 26:33 does not appear to have been fulfilled in the earlier Babylonian captivity, as some might hold, because in the Babylonian captivity, the Jews were taken captive in Babylon. After the fall of Jerusalem, and the making of the land waste, and again after the second Jewish Revolt in 135 AD, the Jews were not captive in a nation, but were forbidden in Israel. Hence, the ‘scattering’ describes precisely what occurred.
Each of these could easily be described in the build up and culmination of the war on Jerusalem. But, it is their implication upon the prayer of Daniel that is important.
Daniel’s Prophecy
As we have discussed, Daniel had learned from reading the book of Jeremiah that the 70 years were nearly complete. But, God had promised that He would, indeed, bring them back to that place (Jerusalem).
For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
Jeremiah 29:10
Now, on the one hand, God had promised to bring them back, but, on the other, in Leviticus 26, God had promised that if they didn’t repent, He would increase their punishment 7-fold (that is 7-times additional punishment, or 1 + 7 = 8). Since God does not contradict Himself, He accomplished all of this in the decree to Daniel. Now consider the Angel’s words (Daniel 9:24). Daniel has confessed that Israel is in captivity because of the ‘sworn judgments’, or ‘oath written’ (Daniel 9:11), confirmed by 2 Chronicles 36:21 to be in regard to the keeping of the Sabbath. Further, Daniel confesses that Israel, in spite of this 68 years or so of bondage by the Babylonians, has not repented (Daniel 9:13b). Therefore, despite their return to the land, in accordance with the promise in Jeremiah 29:10, it was decreed by the angel,
Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, 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.
Daniel 9:24a
Seventy weeks (or groups of seven years), were been decreed for (or, ‘upon’, or several other synonyms are allowable here) Daniel’s people and Jerusalem, the holy city. The Jews had failed to repent, hence the the first increase of Leviticus 26:18 was decreed, “…I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” Their seventy years augmented with seventy sevens of years, seventy weeks, or a total of 490 more years, in addition to the seventy they had already endured (now totaling 560 years).
So, what was the nature of this punishment? Well, remember, before Israel was taken captive by the Babylonians, they were a sovereign, independent nation. They had kings and prophets, and ruled themselves, and, though they were small, when they were in right relationship with God, they were invincible. So, from the time of their return, onward, Israel was no longer a kingdom of its own. More telling than that, aside from a few prophetic figures around the establishment of the temple and the final coming of John the Baptist, this entire period was is often referred to as the ‘silent years’, the time when there was no prophetic voice in Israel.
In essence, this was the time in which Israel did not possess the Kingdom. Jesus came in the power of the Kingdom, demonstrating that the power of the Holy Spirit was working His deliverances (Matthew 12:27; Luke 11:20) which was a sign the Kingdom had come. Hence, in Acts 1:6, His disciples, which had already been conferred a kingdom themselves (Luke 22:29), asked when the the Kingdom would be restored to the nation as a whole. ‘Restore’, in that passage indicates they had had it before, and that it was to be given back. So, the ‘silent years’ were the time period in which, indeed, the Jews did not possess the Kingdom, either politically, as is visible by the world of men, nor spiritually, which is in the unseen (John 3:3, 5).
The Fulfillment of the Covenant
But, that leaves us with the Seventy weeks. This was the time of continued punishment.
Indeed, it is important to note that this is the ‘end’ that Daniel was told would come to pass (Daniel 11:36; 12:7). The whole of the 490 years of prophecy entail its building, its being lived in, and its ultimate destruction (Daniel 9:26).
Perhaps most important is the promise of the ultimate breaking of Israel.
I will also break down your pride of power…
Leviticus 26:19a
In Daniel 12:7, we see this played out.
…and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed.
Daniel 12:7b
Hence, in 33 AD, Jesus approached Jerusalem, weeping that she had missed the day of her visitation (Luke 19:44). Jesus prophesies the utter destruction of the temple (not one stone left on another), because, if by nothing other than the prophesies of Daniel itself, the Jews should have known it was time. Hence, here again is evidence that this is the end spoken of in Daniel 12:9, “And he [the angel] said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” The time of the end of what? The end of the Jewish state proper, the end of all that is written, the end of the Covenant of Moses and the temple. Certainly, if Jesus held them accountable for the timing outlined in the book, it would be be a favorable conclusion that quite possibly, the sealing of v9 spoke of this ‘end’, and not one later.
We can be assured that the context of the ‘…all things that are written’ is the Mosaic Law, because the first half of Luke 21:22 makes reference to the ‘days of vengeance’, one of the clearer references to Leviticus 26:25. As this portion of Leviticus closes this book of the law (as the second-to-last chapter), the full ending of the Old Covenant for the installment of the new is in view. Thus, as Paul confirmed, the old was passing away, and the old order of sacrifices and types and shadows failed completely once the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. As Paul revealed, these had been a but shadow of the things to come, but the reality was found in Christ.
Conclusion of the Matter
But of the Seventy weeks, without evidence to the contrary, it seems most logical to conclude that all these things did occur at the end of the temple, that the book had been unsealed that, as Daniel 12:7 indicates, by extension, all the events [of Daniel] are completed. We demonstrate the position to the many parts of this book elsewhere, but we summarize our position only in passing here.
The 490 years were not the time of preparation of Israel, but were the extended punishment. Likewise, it was the time-period only, not the ‘six things’ of Daniel 9:24, which were promised, in accordance with the four “If”‘s of Leviticus 26 resulting in more punishment.
As the multiple corollary textual indicators, the failure of the Jews to heed the call in the first 70 years resulted in the 490. The failure to recognize the day of their visitation, hence to fulfill the “six things”, according to Jesus, resulted in the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of the land. In the end, the final result was the breaking of the power of the Jews, and the Kingdom going over to the Gentiles. To which, it must be added, of course, that this is not “replacing” anyone. Paul said it well enough, the church is the root of Israel, and some Jewish branches were broken off and Gentile wild branches grafted in. Lest we repeat the prejudice of history, let us remember God can just as quickly break off the grafted in branches and replace them with the originals.
It is then in the church, alone, which is Spiritual Israel, in which God’s promises will be fulfilled. The dispensationalist case clearly has no footing in this position, as Paul said that out of the twain God had main “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15) by abolishing the barrier between them. Further, it is only through the blood and in the church of Messiah that any of Christ’s ruler-ship is established. The church is no mere parenthesis in history, but is the bride for which He died.
Yet, finally, it again must be noted, that, although God broke Israel in 70 AD, national Israel will forever be a nation before Him (Jeremiah 31:35-36). Only if the sun and moon vanish will Israel no longer be a people before Him. As Paul said, Israel experienced a partial hardening, until the full number of Gentiles would be brought in. And, at that time, all Israel will be saved (see also Ezekiel 39:28-29).
This is the ultimate redemption. While God has no other other plan than “Israel”, spiritual Israel, the church, the entire nation of Israel will come to know Messiah, will be born again, and, as Paul wrote, All of Israel will be saved.
God’s plan is for the church. The church is what He paid for with His blood, and, like Eve from Adam’s, she is the bride taken from His own side on the cross. There is no other plan for the Jew, other than salvation in Jesus’ name (Acts 4:12). The church is not going away, it is the Jews that will join her, as ‘life from the dead’.