Daniel 9:24-27
The mass of Jews and Christians are alike in the understanding of this celebrated prophecy. The mistake lies in not perceiving that the last or 70th week is yet future, and that a long interval of time, one which has lasted for nigh 2000 years, occurs between the close of the 69th week and the opening of the 70th, and, further, that the prophecy concerns Jerusalem and the Jewish people. The apostle had no need to write of times and seasons to Gentile Christians (1 Thess. 5:1). The prophecy itself clearly teaches a long gap or interval between the last two weeks.
We transcribe the words of the prophecy in full, adding a word here and there of explanation.
“Seventy weeks (490 years) are determined upon thy people (the Jews), and upon thy holy city (Jerusalem) 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 (six blessings). Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem (Neh. 2) unto the Messiah, the Prince (Matt. 21), shall be seven weeks (49 years), and threescore and two weeks (434 years); the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks (in addition to the seven) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people (the Romans) of the Prince that shall come (little horn of Rev. 7) shall destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Temple), and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he (the Roman Prince) shall confirm the (“a”) covenant with many (“the many,” that is, the mass of the people) for one week (seven years); and in the midst of the week he (the Prince) shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations (idolatry) he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate (that is, the desolator).”
To whom then does the prophecy refer—to Christians or Jews? To the latter undoubtedly. Daniel’s people (the Jews) and city (Jerusalem)—the Jews and Jerusalem—are the subjects of the prophecy (vs. 24). In a letter received a few years ago from one of the most distinguished students of the prophetic Word, he urged the writer to study carefully the celebrated prophecy of the seventy years, as he regarded them as “the key to all prophecy.
The 70th week is yet future. The latter half of it is variously spoken of as 42 months, 1260 days—time, times, and half a time. It is that solemn period referred to in the central part of the Apocalypse, one profoundly interesting, and absolutely needful to understand if the prophecies are to be scripturally apprehended. Within these 70 weeks or 490 years the prophetic program is mapped out.
Are the weeks periods of days or years? All competent Hebraists hold that the “week” simply denotes “seven,” whether of days, years, or other denomination of time, must be learned from the context; the word itself does not determine. It is simply “seventy sevens.” Says the learned Tregelles: “I retain the word `week for convenience sake, and not as implying seven days to be the import of the Hebrew word.” That they are weeks of years is evident on the surface of the prophecy.
In Revelation 10:2 we have weeks of days; in that before us weeks of years. But another important inquiry meets us. When did the 70 weeks or 490 years commence? We are informed that it was “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” Now, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we meet with several decrees, but only one in reference to the building of Jerusalem, the others refer to the Temple. This special commandment or decree is that to which the prophecy refers, and will be found fully recorded in the last historical book of the Old Testament-Nehemiah, Revelation 2. This decree was promulgated in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king. Thus, then, we have the exact commencement of the 70 weeks-455 B.C.
The prophecy is thus divided:
1. Seven weeks, or 49 years, occupied in the reconstruction of the city (see Neh. 2), which had been destroyed by the universal autocrat, Nebuchadnezzar—the head of gold (Rev. 2:38), and the lion amongst beasts (Rev. 7:4). The books of Nehemiah and Ezra give the history of this period, or “troublous times.”
2. Three score and two weeks, or 434 years, which commenced from the city rebuilt, and the restoration of its social and ecclesiastical polity, which occupied 49 years, till Messiah the Prince. Thus, from the decree of Artaxerxes in the 20th year of his reign (Neh. 2) commanding the rebuilding of Jerusalem till the triumphal entry of Christ as Messiah into Jerusalem (Matt. 21) we have the two former periods multiplied; in all 483 years.
3. One week, or seven years, yet future. This interesting time, which introduces the closing sorrows of Judah, commences after the removal of the Church, and after the restoration of Judah to Palestine (Isa. 18). All prophecy, more or less, is concentrated in its final character in this interesting crisis. It is a week in which the gravest events which the world has ever known, political and otherwise, have their place.
4. Didst of the week of seven years, or three years and a half. This last week is divided into two equal parts. The attention of the reader in the books of Daniel and the Revelation is fixed on the history of the second half of the week. The first half will be one of general peace, one, too, of preparation for the awful outburst of satanic blasphemy, power, and cruelty, which characterizes the closing half of the week. The history of the first three years and a half is not written, either by the Hebrew prophet or by the apocalyptic Seer.
TIMES, DAYS, MONTHS
A time is a year (for the force of the term, time, see Dan. 4:16-37); times, two years; dividing of time, or half a time, signifies half a year; months are of 30 days; days are literal days of 24 hours. Now these periods refer to the same time, namely, the last half of the 70th week. They cover the period of the tribulation. It will be observed that in Revelation 11:3 and 12:6, days, and not months or times, are spoken of, the reason being that God’s suffering saints are in view; hence the days of their testimony and trial are carefully numbered. Days of interest to Him, Who has numbered the hairs of our heads. But when the power and blasphemy of the great political enemy of God and of the Lamb, as also the persecutor of the godly-fearing part of Judah, the king of the west is in question, and we may add, of the oppressing Gentiles as well, then the period is curtly spoken of as 42 months (Rev. 13:5; 11:2). The days are twice named in reference to God’s saints. The months are twice named in relation to the enemy of God’s people. “Times and laws,” not the saints, are given into the hands of the little horn, or head of the revived Roman empire, “until a time, and times, and the dividing of time” (Dan. 7:25). He rages and ravages in the wide scene of Christian profession, but especially in Palestine is his iron hand felt, not against the nation as such, but against the God-fearing part of the people who boldly witness for God in these awful times. The Antichrist will support the pretensions of the arrogant, blaspheming king, energized by Satan cast down from Heaven, whose expulsion there from is noted in Revelation 12. Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 13:5 refer to the same personage and to the same period. The continuance of the last and satanic phase of the empire (Rev. 17:8) is limited to 42 literal months. Thus the 1260 days of suffering, 42 months of 30 days each of Gentile domination, and time, times, and half a time of Judah’s abject misery synchronize.
Five Months Five months of torment (Rev. 9. 5-10).
The locust judgment under the sounding of the fifth angel is a terrible one, and spite of the assertion of Hengstenberg to the contrary, we believe that the “five months” of torment is in allusion to the ravages of the natural locust which usually lasts five months. A limited and brief period is referred to, and one which may not exceed five months.
Hour, Day, Month, Year An hour, a day, a month, and a year (Rev. 9:15).
The angels of judgment bound at the Euphrates were to be loosed, not during the time specified, but at that particular moment. These evil agencies were to be let loose at an exactly defined moment. The very hour of the day of the month and year is noted. It is an exact note of time.
Three Days and a Half Three days and a half (Rev. 11:9-11).
The dead bodies of the witnesses lying unburied in the streets of Jerusalem, and exposed to the cruel and public gaze of the Gentiles, is a scene of three and a half literal days. Be it observed that the testimony of the witnesses extends during the last half of the unfulfilled week. Then they are killed, and after the public exposure of their bodies for three days and a half a public resurrection is granted them. The prophetic days in Daniel and in other parts of the Apocalypse are literal; why then should this particular passage form an exception? This is a special scene, confined in its peculiar features to events in Jerusalem. It is the Beast who murders the Jerusalem witnesses.
Two Thousand and Three Hundred Days
2300 days (Dan. 8:14) is an historical statement referring to the desecration of the Temple and the cruel treading down of the Jewish people by the Syrian monarch of infamous memory, Antiochus Epiphanes. That there is a typical bearing on the last days of Gentile supremacy and misrule over the restored Jewish commonwealth seems evident from verses 17 and 19. Antiochus figures the future Jewish antagonist, the king of the north.
Twelve Hundred and Ninety Days 1290 days (Dan. 12:11).
These days exceed by a month the tribulation and the forced interruption of Jewish worship. They commence with the well-known and divinely-appointed sign (Matt. 24:15), idolatry, which will mark the commencement of the closing sorrows of the coming crisis. The extra month is needed to complete the destruction of Israel’s enemies. The prophet does not speak of blessing in connection with this period, because not only must judgment clear the scene of evil and evil men, but the people themselves must be morally prepared for the full tide of millennial blessing. The days are literal, of course.
Thirteen Hundred and Thirty-Five Days 1335 days (Dan. 12:12).
Here 45 days are added to the former number. “Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand, three hundred, and five and thirty days.” Thus we have 75 literal days added to the 1260 before the full blessing of Israel is secured. What a busy two months and a half! The tale of judgment will be finished, “the filth of the daughters of Zion” washed away, temple worship restored under new conditions (Ezek. 40), and the people morally cleansed from all defilement in heart and life; then “blessed is he” who waits and reaches that moment of wondrous blessing for Israel and the earth.
Postponement of the Seventieth Week of Seven Years
The present interval of grace and of Jewish degradation are co-existent, and are terminated by the translation of the heavenly saints, consisting of the changed living and raised dead. Then the last week, needed to complete the full tale of 490 years, opens with the apostate Roman prince and the apostate nation returned to Palestine, making a mutual agreement. The prince perfidiously breaks the treaty in the midst of the week. The great Tribulation with its horrors immediately ensue. It is enough. The throne is satisfied (Isa. 40:2). The seven years close, and the ancient people, chastened, saved, and blest, enter into blessing. Her sun will never again set, and Jerusalem becomes the throne of the Lord (Jer. 3:17).
Now unless this Dispensation is seen as having its place between the 69th and the 70th week of prophecy, there must be muddling and confusion. The interval between these weeks explains much.