Daniel 9:24
Daniel chapter 9 is one of the most studied and controversial chapters in the WOG. It opens with a historical description of when the events of the chapter took place. Daniel then describes his study of the prophet Jeremiah and concludes that the period of captivity in Babylon is almost over. Daniel then offers a prayer of national confession on behalf of his nation, in the belief that confession was a pre-requisite to the establishment of God’s earthly kingdom. God hears Daniel’s prayer and sends Gabriel the angel to help Daniel correctly interpret the passages he has been reading, and to give Daniel further insight into the events surrounding the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth.
We have covered the historical context, Daniel’s prayer, and the arrival of Gabriel, in our previous studies. Today we will begin a study of Gabriel’s prophetic correction in verses 24 -27.
Gabriel’s Prophetic Correction, vs 24-27.
Seventy ‘sevens’[c] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish[d] 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.[e] 25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,[f] 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. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.[g] The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’[h] In the middle of the ‘seven’[i] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple[j] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
This section of Daniel has often been called the Seventy Sevens. It is a difficult section, and we will move slowly through it. We can outline the section as follows:
- The Decree of the Seventy Sevens, vs 24a.
- The Purpose of the Seventy Sevens, vs 24b.
- The Start of the Seventy Sevens, vs 25a.
- The first 69 Sevens, vs 25b.
- The Events between the 69th Seven and the 70th Seven, vs 26.
- The Seventieth Seven, vs 27.
The Decree of the Seventy Sevens, vs 24a.
Vs 24a, “Seventy ‘sevens’[c] are decreed for your people and your holy city
Gabriel starts with this phrase Seventy Sevens. The Hebrew root for seven is shavua. Depending on the suffix the word can mean weeks, or it can just mean seven (much like our word dozen). It does not tell you what the seven items are only that there are seven. In this case one must rely on the context of the sentence to determine what the seven is. This word appears four times in Daniel (9:23, 9:24, 10:2, 10:3). In 10:2 and 10:3, it means seven days since the context of the passage deals with days. In Dan 9:23 and 24, Daniel has been reading Jeremiah and notes there will be 70 years of captivity for the nation. The context is years hence the term refers to years. Gabriel is telling Daniel it is not 70 years before the Kingdom is to be established, it is a total of seventy seven year periods, or 490 years, before the Kingdom is to be established.
The word decreed means to divide, to determine, or to be cut off. In his previous revelations, Daniel was given insight into the times of the Gentiles, that period from the Babylonian captivity to the advent of the Anti-Christ. This time is characterized by the rise and fall of four great Gentile Empires, the Babylonian, the M-P, the Hellenistic, and the final fourth Imperialistic Empire (which has five components as we have studied before). Gabriel is telling Daniel that 490 years will be cut out, or determined, during this period for the nation of Israel.
Note this period is decreed for your people. This is a specific reference to the Jewish people. It is not the church and cannot be spiritualized as such. It is also decreed for the holy city, which is Jerusalem. This is not the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the physical city which now lies desolate 500 miles to the west of where Daniel has been praying. In summary, Gabriel is telling Daniel it will be seventy more periods of seven years (a total of 490 years), to complete the desolations of Jerusalem (not 70 years) that Daniel had thought.
The Purpose of the Seventy Sevens, vs 24b.
Vs 24b, to finish[d] 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.
In verse 24b, Gabriel introduces the purposes for this 490-year program. Notice there are six purposes Gabriel details. The first three are negative in nature, the second three are positive.
Negative
- To finish transgression
- To put an end to sin
- To atone for wickedness
Positive
- To bring in everlasting righteousness
- To seal up vision and prophecy
- And to anoint the Most Holy Place
The First Purpose: to finish transgression.
The word for finish means to shup up or to restrain, to withhold, or bring to completion. The word for transgression is pesha. It is a strong word for sin and means rebellion. In the Hebrew, this word is preceded by a definite article indicating Gabirel is referring to a specific rebellion. So, what is this specific rebellion? It is here we must consider the Messianic context of the Bible to find the proper reference.
There are four passages we need to note:
The first is Lev 26:40-42, But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, 41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. Here God notes he will forgive and return his people to the land if they confess their unfaithfulness and rejection of him.
The second is Jer 3:12-15, Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt—you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,’” declares the Lord. 14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. 15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. Again, God is noting the unfaithfulness and rejection of himself, but notes forgiveness is available with confession.
The third is Mt 12:22-24 then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons. In this passage a demon possessed man who is both deaf and mute is brought before Jesus and Jesus heals him (vs 22). This Messianic miracle was prophesized by Isaiah 35:5-6, then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. So, in the next verse (Mt 12:23) the people ask, “can this be the Son of David?” In other words, the people are asking “can this Jesus really be the Messiah?” This was the key reason behind the miracle as Jesus was trying to bring them to a decision point. The people then defer to their religious leaders, the Pharisees, and ask for guidance. The Pharisees have only two options, either Jesus is the Messiah, or he is not. If he was not, then they would also have to explain how the miracles occurred. The Pharisees give their answer in Mt 12:24, But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons. They refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah as he did not fit the Pharisaic mold of what they thought he should be (see also Lk 7:30-35). Their explanation was that Jesus must be demon possessed, and not by just any demon, but by the chief of Demons, Beelzebub (which is a combination of two Hebrew words meaning Lord of the flies). Therefore, Jesus was not the Messiah as he was demon possessed.
Jesus responds in verses 25-29 and states this could not be true as this would mean Satan would be divided against himself (vs 25-28) and additionally, you cannot go into the house of a strong man and remove one of his possessions unless you were stronger than he is (vs 29).
Christ then pronounces judgement on the Pharisees and the Jewish generation of that day in verses 30-37. The key verse is 31, 31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
We should never forget that God is merciful and willing to forgive a repentant heart. Verse 31 tells us Christ can forgive any sin. To understand the later portion of verse 31 we must remember the context. The leaders have just attributed the miracles of Jesus, and the messianic miracle as prophesized in Is 35 to Satan. John 15:26 tells us the job of the HS is to testify as to who Jesus is. Here scripture is telling us the leaders of the country were rejecting the testimony of God the HS regarding Christ. Instead, they were saying the testimony (i.e., the words and miracles) stemmed from the exact opposite source –i.e., Satan –rather than God. Notice Christ reveals the Pharisees hearts in verse 33 and calls them a brood of vipers in verse 34. Brood of vipers means sons of Satan. Jesus is calling them a generation of the serpent. They had committed the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin is not individual, rather it is national. Individual sins can be forgiven (vs 31a), but the national sin of rejecting the messiahship of Jesus while he was physically on earth (and hence the rejection of the Messianic Kingdom he would have brought) on the basis that he was demon possessed, was not forgivable.
The fourth passage is Zech 12:10. This passage reveals that at the time of Israel’s national confession, they will look upon the one they rejected. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit [a] of grace and supplication. They will look on [b] 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. This moment marks the end of the transgression mentioned in Dan 9:24b. Israel will repent of her national sin of rejection, and God will put an end to it.
So, to summarize,
- Israel’s sin was the rejection of God and then the Messiah, Lev 26:40-42, Jer 3:12-15, Mt 12:22-24.
- The blessing of forgiveness and the kingdom to come will require a national confession of this rejection, Lev 26:40-42, Jer 3:13.
- God will put an end to this sin once confession occurs, Zech 12:10.
The Second Purpose, to put an end to sin.
The Hebrew term to put an end to means to seal up, or to affix a seal. It derives from a root that means to restrain or withhold. It is like putting something in a box and then placing a seal on it so nothing may escape. The word sin means to miss the mark. Hence Gabirel is saying there will be a restraint put on sin. Sin will be put in a box and sealed. As Ez 35:24-27 notes, 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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Additionally, Ez 37:23 states, They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, [b] and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
In summary then, the first two purposes of the seventy sevens will be to abolish the national transgression of the rejection of Jesus and to seal up and put away personal sin.
