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 9:24-27
There are a handful of events that Gabriel told Daniel would occur during the seventy “sevens”:
- 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
Jesus fulfills each of these events. Some may have already been fulfilled. Some are yet to come. The first event that Daniel lists is that transgression will be finished. “Transgression” is the Hebrew word pešaʽ meaning “rebellion”, “sin” or “trespass”. Pešaʽ indicates a willful disobedience to God. This is not inadvertent sin. This is a conscious revolt that breaks relationship with God.
“Finish” is the Hebrew word kālā which also means to “refrain”, “restrain” or “to shut”. Kālā brings together the ideas of withholding something or bringing something to a halt. It’s most often used in Scripture to describe God exercising restraint. Whether it’s withholding a blessing or withholding his wrath, God demonstrates patience for us to emulate.
In the context of Daniel 9, God intends to restrain Israel’s rebellion against him. They are intentionally disobedient and He will shut this down:
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zech 12:10).
“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek 36:24-27).
There is a promise in these Scriptures of a national repentance for Israel. But it seems that there is a particular timing for this to happen. Perhaps it’s when Israel’s transgression has reached its climax. God has spoken this way before:
“In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Gen 15:16).
There seems to be a line that is crossed with God when the amount of sin demands judgment. It certainly was the case with the Amorites. Abraham’s descendants would return to the land and conquer the Amorites many years later but the sin of the Amorites had to reach its “full measure” before God allowed Israel to conquer them.
That concept could certainly apply here. God is waiting for the transgressions of Israel to reach their full measure before he shuts it down. This seems to be an event that has not happened yet. Israel still continues to sin. Transgressions aren’t finished yet. They still happen everyday. But God created a way to atone for sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ:
“For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people” (Heb 2:17).
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5).
Jesus paid for our transgressions. It is by his grace we have been saved. But we’ve also heard another time when God waiting for the fullness of time to come:
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal 4:4-5).
It seems that God is waiting for the right time to “finish transgression”. We no longer have to worry about our transgressions condemning us because Jesus paid the debt that our transgressions – past, present and future – require. But we still transgress. One day we will no longer transgress and it seems to coincide with the final “seven”.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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