Daniel 9:24-27--The Seventy Weeks

Daniel 9:24-27
English Standard Version

The Seventy Weeks
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. And for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

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I've been making mention of this prophecy since we started studying the book of Daniel.  I believe it's one of the most important prophecies to let us know that points people, especially Jewish people, to the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah.  He came at just the right time as prophesied by this prophecy, and the prophecy is so specific and was clearly written before Jesus fulfilled it.

So, let's break down what this prophecy says and why I think it tells us that the Jews should no longer be expecting the First Advent of Jesus (no one should be fooled by the Antichrist to think that it is the first coming of Messiah because it will be at the wrong time).  First, the word translated "weeks" is actually "sevens."  I don't understand why translators continue translating it as "weeks" when it is clear that it is speaking about groups of seven years and not periods of seven days.  Also of note, these years would be years on the Jewish calendar (what many people call prophetic years) which are based off of the lunar calendar that is 360 days long, not solar years that are 365 days long.  I will try to not get that specific because there are some great online tools to calculate dates of the lunar cycle for us 

The "going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem" could refer to different edicts/decrees, but the one that makes the most sense for this prophecy occurs in 445 B.C. when Artaxerxes issued a decree to Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 2:1-8). Using a 360-day fixed lunar calendar instead of a 365-day solar calendar, accounting for leap years, and accounting for the fact that there is no  year zero (you go from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D., which still doesn't account for all the corrections, because we know there is an error in where the "zero" between B.C. and A.D. was placed by as many as 6 years too late, the date prophesied for Jesus' crucifixion falls exactly when we expected it to, and I think it was intended for the Jewish people to be able to use their calendar (which does not have B.C. and A.D. and is a lunar calendar) to calculate this to exactly the right year (maybe even the right month and day if they had that level of specificity of when the edit mentioned was issued).

For those that want a rough estimate calculation, 483 lunar years is 173880 days.  Divide this by 365.26 days per yet to account for 365 days in a solar year, an extra day every 4 years, and skipping the extra day every 100 years.  This gives us  a solar date of 30.04446148 AD (roughly two weeks after the same date on the lunar calendar in the year 30 AD).  This lines up exactly with what we expect if the edict was given at the beginning of the month (at the New Moon) and Passover happens in the middle of the month at the full moon.  It seems like God intended the prophecy to be specific enough to get the Jews to the right year, the right month, and even the right day--Passover.

With a prophecy this specific we wonder, "How could anyone have ever missed Him?" and yet, many of our day miss seeing Him too because they also do not read or believe the Scriptures.  The fulfillment of Daniel's 70th week is just around the corner and things are lining up to happen just as God said they would.  Will you be ready for His Second Coming?  Give your life to Him today so that will no longer be a part of the kingdom of this world that is coming to an end, but you will a be a part of His kingdom which is forever and ever.