Last Wednesday we completed our verse-by-verse study of Daniel. I say “completed” because we technically reached the last verse as the final bell rang to dismiss the class; if I could, I would have asked the powers-that-be for a 10 minute overtime as I had to rush through the final few verses. I want to give that section of scripture its proper due before pivoting my attention to Isaiah, so here’s a little of what I wanted to say before I ran out of time…
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
(Daniel 9:24)
The one speaking here is the angel Gabriel, who has been sent by God to help Daniel understand the words of Jeremiah (which Daniel had been reading and lamenting over earlier in the chapter). The words of the angel not only explain Jeremiah’s prophesy, they add in new prophesies to consider, as well.
First, the angel speaks of “seventy weeks.” Right off the bat, even without any other information, the Bible reader can be sure that we’re not dealing with a literal number here. This is apocalyptic writing and while sometimes coincidences do happen, the fact is ninety-nine times out of a hundred, numbers and units of measurement are not to be taken literally in this kind of writing style. So when you read “seventy weeks,” do not start counting out and figuring out how everything in the vision will take place in the span of “a year, three months, and five weeks” or whatever.
Second, the subsequent verses make it plain as day that we’re not dealing with literal weeks. These words are stand-ins for other units of measurement. Armed with that understanding, and with the fact that Jeremiah spoke of seventy “years” we must conclude that the angel is cluing Daniel into the idea that these terms of measurement aren’t literal but symbolic.
BUT WAIT
There is a literal interpretation to Jeremiah’s “seventy years” prophesy. After all, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 586BC and will be rebuilt in 516BC. That’s a timespan of…seventy years. That’s one of those one in a hundred times when a number means what it says. But what Gabriel does is take that phrase and add onto it, by saying they are not just seventy years to consider, but “seventy weeks…of years.”
In the original language, the phrase is “seventy sevens.” Not seventy-seven, but seventy bunches of the number seven. It is the number seven, multiplied seventy times. In other words “seventy weeks” is really just “70 x 7.” Now I could go on with my own theory of what that means, but let me just pause here and direct your attention to the next verse, wherein Daniel introduces…the Messiah!
So let’s put a pin in trying to understand the mystery of the seventy weeks, just for a second, as we move on the next verse.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
(Daniel 9:25)
So again, “seventy weeks” is mentioned, and again we are all stumped as to what it means and no scholar or student has proposed an interpretation that the consensus can agree on. Fine. Here’s the thing: We don’t need to know what the seventy weeks represents, because it concerns a period of time that is already ended.
We have the beginning of a point in time (the time Daniel heard the prophesy) and, in this verse, we’re given the ending-point in time (the era of the Messiah). The space in between is dubbed “seventy weeks.”
So…who cares? Who cares how to properly work out what the seventy weeks means? Who cares if it’s a literal 490 years or some symbolic number representing this or that.
I read one theory that breaks it down like this:
49 years to rebuild Jerusalem,
434 years of nothing after that,
3.5 years of Jesus’ ministry,
another 3.5 years between Jesus ascension and the preaching of the Gospel to the Samaritans
= 490 years.
Well…yeah, the math checks out, but do you see how arbitrary some of those figures are? Why are you ending with the preaching to the Samaritans? Why not the Gentiles in Acts 10? Because that’d be more than 490 years, is why. So it’s just an arbitrary method of reaching a number that’s not meant to be taken literally in the first place.
Personally, I’m more keen to understand the big picture, and that’s this: There will be a period of time in between the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem, before the coming of the Messiah. I don’t care that “seventy weeks” is the number assigned to that period of time; I care about the idea.
The idea to consider, for the Jews reading Daniel’s words, is this: Don’t think just because the temple is rebuilt that the Messiah will be hot on its heels.
It might interest you to know that many Jews in exile did in fact believe that they would leave exile and receive the Messiah immediately. Some even had the idea that the Messiah would be the one to lead them out of exile, ala Moses. What Gabriel’s prophesy tells us is that there will be a gap in between the two events, a gap in which the people need to be waiting for, expecting, and preparing themselves to receive the Messiah.
I have no doubt that the reference to “seventy weeks,” and “seven weeks” and “sixty-two weeks” and any other unit of measurement these prophecies contain, all have an explanation. Those terms came from the mind of God; they have a meaning. I get that. My point is, I know that if the smartest Bible scholars over the past two literal thousand years can’t crack this code, I’m sure not going to figure it out from my church office in Batesville Arkansas, USA.
So why fret? I’ll just zoom out until I grasp the big picture and go from there.
The big picture is: You’re getting out of exile, the Temple will be rebuilt, then you’ll have to wait a bit, during which things will be difficult (the coming of Antiochus, for example, which Daniel predicts in ch10-12 of his writing), and then the Messiah will come.
I admit, I don’t know how to make heads or tails of the seventy weeks, or any of those other numerical terms. I do have this nagging thought rattling around my brain around it: Something about how it boils down to the phrase “70×7” and how that’s the “no limit” number Jesus mentioned to Peter when he asked about how many times he should forgive his brother (Matthew 18:21-22)…and how this whole thing started with Daniel asking God to, ya know, forgive Judah for all their sins (Daniel 9:19).
I’m just saying: Jesus knows what 70×7 means, and He used that term (or an equivalent to it) when talking to Peter. I dunno, it may be a coincidence, or it may be the start of me figuring something out. Really, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the big picture: Start with the overall theme of the book of Daniel, which is that God is in control over the Kingdoms of men and causes those Kingdoms to rise up and be destroyed at His good pleasure.
Zoom in a bit and you get the prophesy of a Kingdom of God that will never be destroyed. Zoom in some more and you have the promise that God’s people will get out of exile, receive the Messiah, and kill Him (Daniel 9:26). Putting the prophesy in the context of God and the Messiah helps me to see this entire prophesy as a big “you’re missing the point” argument from God to the Jews in exile.
They were fretting and crying about the horrible state of their city (Daniel 9:2-3), wanting to go home, and begging to get back to the way things were (v16), but God is here sending Gabriel to say “no, things aren’t going back to normal. The Temple you’re so crazy about rebuilding is going to be destroyed again anyway. It’s the Messiah you need to focus on; He’s coming with a new and better Kingdom that cannot be destroyed (Daniel 2:44). Let that be your hope, and your goal to live for.
Now here we are, living in that era of the Messiah, living as blessed members of that kingdom. Be thankful you have the Kingdom of Christ, because it’s everything the prophets were promising
I hope you’ll join us this Wednesday for the start of what I hope to be an enriching and exciting study of the marvelous book of Isaiah. See you then!
~ Matthew