Daniel 9:24
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 Place. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Daniel 9:20-27
This week we will embark on the prophecies found in Daniel chapter 9. We begin today in verse 24. This entire section, containing verses 24-27, is a prophecy that the angel Gabriel gave to Daniel as he was praying for his fellow Israelites. This is the second time Daniel gets a visit from Gabriel. The first time was in Daniel 8 where Gabriel interprets a very similar dream to the ones in Daniel 2 and 7.
In Daniel 9, Gabriel doesn’t show up to interpret a dream. He shows up because Daniel’s prayer was heard and Gabriel was summoned to bring Daniel “insight and understanding” (Dan 7:22). Daniel’s prayer was triggered due to a change in the administration of Babylon. Babylon had just fallen to the Medes and Persians and the new rulers installed Darius as king. So it was around 539 BC when Daniel was reading over Jeremiah’s prophecies and understood that God told Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years:
“‘This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will make it desolate forever’” (Jer 25:11-12).
This meant that the end of Israel’s exile was near since Jerusalem fell in 605 BC. So Daniel was praying for God to fulfill His promises and restore Jerusalem to His people. At this point, Gabriel shows up and he gives Daniel a prophecy:
“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 Place” (Dan 7:24).
Gabriel then interprets this prophecy to a small degree. His interpretation is not super clear but there are some things that we know are true as we look back over 2500 years later. Gabriel said that after seventy “sevens,” the following events will occur:
- transgression will be finished
- sin will end
- wickedness will be atoned
- everlasting righteousness will be brought in
- vision and prophecy will be sealed up
- the Most Holy Place will be anointed
We will dissect each of these events in the coming days. However, it’s interesting to notice that Daniel was expecting a period of seventy years to come to an end to restore Jerusalem and then Gabriel shows up talking about seventy weeks. Gabriel skips past the imminent event and points Daniel to a future event. It’s as if God is less concerned about His people from the bondage of Babylon than he is about freeing them from the bondage of sin. God sends Gabriel to Daniel to remind him of a greater liberation that will take place much farther into the future. It’s a type of Jubilee that was spoken about by Moses:
“Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan” (Lev 25:8-10).
God implemented a jubilee after seven “sevens,” God is now declaring an even greater and more perfect jubilee after seventy “sevens.” It would be ten times better! Gabriel told Daniel exactly when this would occur:
“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, 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. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing” (Dan 9:25-26).
Once word goes out to rebuild Jerusalem, Daniel can start the clock. There will be 49 years and then 434 years for a total of 483 years. The first 49 years would be a period of rebuilding for Jerusalem “but in times of trouble” (Dan 9:25). This is in fact what happened. The call goes out to rebuild Jerusalem around 444 BC in the 20th year of Artaxerxes reign as chronicled in Nehemiah chapter 2.
We also know that after both the seven weeks and sixty-two week (483 years), the Anointed One will be put to death “and will have nothing” or also translated “but not for himself” (Dan 9:26). If we then assume these years are based on the Jewish calendar which is 360 days, then 483 years is a little over the equivalent of 476 years of our current calendar. Doing the math, 444 BC plus 476 years puts us around 32 AD when the Anointed One would be put to death.
The Hebrew word translated “put to death” is kārat meaning “to cut off” or “to cut a covenant.” We know on this side of history the depth these words really hold. Jesus was sacrificed, cut off from God, so that transgression would be finished, sin would end and wickedness would be atoned. Jesus cut us free from the Old Covenant and established a New Covenant:
“In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:20).
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord,
‘when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,’
declares the Lord.
‘This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,’ declares the Lord.
‘I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people’” (Jer 31:31-33).
We will pick up here tomorrow. But for today, listen to the prayer that Daniel prayed. God responded to His prayer because Daniel was “highly esteemed.” Daniel’s prayer was filled with truth and God agreed with Daniel:
“The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him… Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name” (Dan 9:9, 17-19).
God is merciful and forgiving not because we are righteous but because we bear His name. God loves us with a love that is greater than any love we could imagine. He has our fates in His hands. Who better to live for than a merciful and forgiving God that loves us so much!
Christ in the Old Testament 
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