The Seventy Sevens

Daniel 9

9:20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and

confessing my sin and the sin of my people

Israel, and presenting my supplication

before the LORD my G-d for the holy mountain of

my G-d;

9:21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even

the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at

the beginning, being caused to fly

swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening

oblation.

9:22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and

said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee

skill and understanding.

9:23 At the beginning of thy supplications the

commandment came forth, and I am come to shew

thee; for thou art greatly beloved:

therefore understand the matter, and consider the

vision.

9:24 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.

9:25 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.

9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall

Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the

people of the prince that shall come shall

destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end

thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end

of the war desolations are determined.

9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many

for one week: and in the midst of the week he

shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation

to cease, and for the overspreading of

abominations he shall make it desolate, even

until the consummation, and that determined shall

be poured upon the desolate.


This brings us to the prophecy of seventy weeks

in Daniel, that begins in verse twenty of the

passage above. Walvoord says, 'Because of the

revelation given through Daniel, both concerning

the times of the Gentiles and the program of G-d

for Israel, the prophecies of Daniel are the key

to understanding the major prophecies of

Scripture in both the Old and New

Testaments.'p.242 There is also mention made by

walvoord that Jeremiah had been been 'carried off

to Egypt against his will and apparently died

there...'. Something to consider as a background

for yesterday's blog posting. It represents the

fact that even though the hebrew people were

scattered across the earth, they were willing and

able to continue their effort to return to their

homeland and entertain the hope of rebuilding the

Temple and Jerusalem. Jeremiah saw that it would

only be a seventy year captivity, of the 490

years that were covered in Daniel's seventy

weeks.


'...some believe that Babylon will be rebuilt in

the end time and destroyed at the time of the

Second Coming...(Rev.18:1-24)p.244 I lean toward

the idea that the Babylon mentioned in Revelation

is a symbolic Babylon, that represents the

idolatry of the end times, enforced under the

worldwide rule of the 'beast', that parallels the

worship of the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar

enforced in ancient Babylon. It doesn't require

a literal rebuilding of the ancient city of

Babylon, but doesn't exclude it either. It's

just that I recall a prophecy that Babylon, the

site of the ancient city, will remain desolate,

and that would imply a symbolic interpretation of

the Babylon in Revelation, rather than a literal

interpretation. I prefer that view because of

the fact that some of the passages in the book of

the Revelation are clearly symbolic, rather than

literal. We'll get into that subject some other

time.


Walvoord refering to the seventy sevens passage

in Daniel 9 says,'This revelation should be

placed aongside prophecy concerning Gentiles

outlined previously in Daniel. The chronology

and sequence of events in the times of the

Gentiles, like Israel's seventy sevens, climaxes

in the Second Coming.'p.248 In other words,

there is no specific chronology given in the

Gentile prophecies, there is only a schematic

outline of the series of rulers that rise and

fall during the history of the kingdom's of man.

In this sense, the prophetic clock is calibrated

using events that unfold in the nation of Israel

and the city of Jerusalem. We already know that,

but it is one point that can't be overlooked in

an interpretation of prophetic scripture. In

other words, the kingdom's of man are subject to

the chronology established by the time clock of

the kingdom of Heaven. This is not a shocking

idea, if you place it in the context of Divine

Creation, where the rotations and orbits of all

planets, stars and galaxies are calibrated by

Divine intiative and designation.( That idea of

random cosmic evolution just doesn't fit into

this prophetic scheme anywhere. Sorry 'bout

that.)


From verse 24, there are six major events that

are identified over this prophetic period of

(seventy sevens) 490 years:

1. to finish transgression
2. to put an end to sin
3. to atone for wickedness
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness
5. to seal up vision and prophecy
6. to anoint the most holy

'As none of the six acheivements were explained,

it leaves the expositor to find a plausible

explanation.'p.251 And that is where we would

like to begin in the next posting of the Jesus

Bus.