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Napoleon Bonaparte was born in France in 1769, the world did not care
nor was the world looking for his birth. But in 1793, the world began
to notice him after he defeated the British army at the city of Toulon,
France. The victories in his famous career are now recorded in the pages
of history books. The births of other men such as Greece’s famous
philosopher Socrates, Egypt’s priest Mantheo, India’s religious
leader Gandhi, and China’s Shi Huangdi (221-204 B.C.) of the Oin
dynasty, who built the Great Wall of China were not expected. But there
is one birth and one death that should have been expected because it
had been predicted for about 500 years. The prophecy was not a general
one. It did not predict that Messiah would just die sometime. It predicted
the exact week in which He would die. The prophecy did not apply to just
anyone who would die, or to just anyone who would die in Jerusalem. It
applied to only one person - a Jew who would die in A.D. 33 during the
week of March 27. The prophecy is found in Daniel 9:24-26a.Messiah’s Death Predicted. The early
church father Jerome indicates in his commentary on the book of Daniel
that many individuals believed that Daniel 9:24-26a was a prophecy about
the Messiah. He goes on to say that there were other Jews who agreed
that the prophecy seemed to point to Jesus. Julius Africanus stated Phlegon as stating, "And
calculation makes out that the period of seventy weeks, as noted in Daniel, is completed at this time." [1] We will discover that this prophecy of Daniel is like a pointer
that specifies a date after which the Messiah would die. In fact, the prophecy predicts the exact
week of Messiah‘s death. No one today and no one at the time the
prophecy was given could have qualified to be the Messiah. This is an
incredible prophecy. Here is the first part of this incredible prophecy.
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. (NASB) Dan. 9:24
Seventy Weeks. The expression “seventy
weeks” has been understood since the time of Jerome to refer to “seventy
weeks of years” or “seventy periods of seven years.” Today
there is wide agreement among many scholars that this is the correct
interpretation. This interpretation is supported by Daniel 9:2, where
we are told that Daniel was reading the scroll of Jeremiah and discovered
that the time was approaching for the Jewish captives to return to Palestine.
We discovered in our study of Daniel 1 that Nebuchadnezzar had taken
a group of Jewish captives from Palestine to Babylon in 604 B.C. Daniel
9:1-2 reveals that almost 70 years had elapsed since then, and it was
about time for them to return to Palestine. God had allowed them to be
deported because of the sins of their kings. The length of the deportation
was determined by the number of sabbatical years that they had failed
to observe (2 Chronicles 36:21; Jer. 34:12-22). God had commanded them
to allow a field of land to lie dormant every seventh year (Lev. 25:4-5,
27-46). But they had failed to observe the seventy sabbath years over
a 490 year period. Consequently, they were to be in captivity for that
length of time - 70 years. Daniel would have understood the reference
to “seventy weeks” in the prophecy to be 490 years.
Genesis 29:20-30 makes it clear that it was customary among
the ancient Jewish people to refer to a “week” as a another
way to refer to seven years. Genesis 29:20 tells us that Jacob served
Laban for seven years in order to marry Rachel. Unfortunately, Laban
was dishonest and refused to give Rachel to him on his wedding night,
even though she was the one for whom he had labored. Instead Laban gave
Jacob his oldest daughter Leah. Jacob did not discover the problem until
the morning. If we look at verse 30, we discover that Laban offers Rachel,
his younger daughter, to Jacob if he will serve another “week.” Then
at the end of the verse we are told that this “week” is “seven
years.” This example demonstrates that the term “week” did
mean “seven years” in the proper context.
Therefore, we conclude, along with many others, ancient
and modern, that the expression “seventy weeks” refers to “seventy
periods of seven years” or “490 years.” Therefore,
Daniel 9:24 tells us that 70 weeks or 490 years had to elapse before
sin would be eliminated and everlasting righteousness would occur. That
means the end of the world. We will explore this more in our next study.
Sixth-Nine Week Prophecy. The next three
verses contain three prophecies. The first prophecy is the focus of this
study. The last two will be explored in the next study.
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 . . . (NASB) Dan. 9:24-26a Here we are told that there will be sixty-nine weeks (7 weeks plus 62
weeks) from the date a decree is issued to restore and rebuild the city
of Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince is cut-off and have nothing. In
order to understand the meaning of the prophecy, we need to understand
the date on which the decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem was issued.
Then we will explore the meaning of the seven and sixty-two weeks.
Date of The Decree? When was the decree
given to which Daniel is referring? It is Cyrus’ decree of 538
B. C, Artaxerxes decree in 457 B.C., or Artaxerxes of 444 B.C.? There
are advocates for each one. We shall consider each separately.
Cyrus’ Decree of 538 B.C. -
The decree of 538 B.C. was issued by Cyrus, the first king of Persia.
He issued the decree during his first year as king (2 Chron. 36:22-23).
Most advocates for this decree admit that the decree as described in
2 Chronicles 36:22-23 does not include a directive to rebuild the city
but only the temple. To believe that the city is included assumes facts
not stated in the text.
Consequently, advocates refer to Isa. 44:26-28 to support
their claim that the decree included the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Unfortunately,
Isaiah 44:28 does not make it clear whether God is simply saying that
Cyrus is “My shepherd” and that he would rebuild the city
and the temple, or if God is simply stating a series of facts. There
is ambiguity in the text.
The Isaiah 45:13 passage is probably the strongest passage
supporting the concept that Cyrus’ decree included the rebuilding
of the city, but the question must be asked what does “rebuild
the city” mean and when was the rebuilding to occur? At first this
might appear to be dancing around the issue and an attempt to avoid the
obvious; but it is very clear in Nehemiah 2:11-17, which occurs later
in time since Artaxerxes ruled after Cyrus (Neh. 2:1), that the city
is desolate and the walls are “broken down.” The Hebrew text
in Neh. 2:13 states explicitly that the walls and gates were in utter
ruin. Nehemiah 2:17 is also very significant since it states that Jerusalem
is desolate and the gates burned by fire. The Hebrew word for “is
desolate” can also be translated as “to lay waste” or “to
lay in ruins.” If Cyrus’ decree included rebuilding the city
and the walls, why is the city in ruins during Artaxerxes reign? It is
very possible that Isaiah 45:13 simply means under his kingdom Jerusalem
will be rebuilt. Therefore, Cyrus’ decree is rejected.
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