The 70 Weeks Prophecy

"SEVENTY WEEKS (of years) are determined for your people and for your holy city...
"Know therefore and UNDERSTAND, That from the going forth of the COMMAND
To restore and build Jerusalem UNTIL Messiah the Prince (Jesus),
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times." (Daniel 9:24-25)

This may be one of the most significant prophecies spoken of in all of Scripture because it deals with both the prediction and the precision of the time concerning the events leading up to the revealing of Jesus the Messiah in His first coming as well as what would happen in the final seven years leading up to Jesus' second coming.

For the people of our world that doubt the divine authorship of the Scriptures or who question the identity of Jesus as the promised Jewish Messiah, this prophecy directly reveals and confirms the truth that ONLY JESUS COULD FULFILL THIS ROLE!

Why? Because whoever the Messiah would be, He must arrive in Jerusalem...at the appointed time given in this amazing prophecy! This would have to be fulfilled around 32 AD.

This prophecy begins with understanding what is meant by the "seventy weeks" that are determined for God's people and the city of Jerusalem. In Hebrew, the word for "weeks" here is "shabua", which means a week of either days, units, or years. The context determines which one this is...and, in this case, it is clearly seventy sets of "seven years" for each week given in this prophecy.

We see this same word for "week" used to describe a seven year period in the story of Jacob working to marry the woman he loved, namely Rachel. In Genesis 29:27, Laban tells Jacob to work another "week" of seven years for Rachel after he switched wives on him and gave him Leah, the older sister of Rachel, saying, "Fulfill her week (HB - shabua”), and we will give you this one [Rachel] also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.”

Thus, the seventy weeks that are determined are seventy sets of seven years, which works out to be 490 years. The next step we need to see is that this is not a consecutive 490 years but a collective Bible prophecy that is broken up into three key distinct categories.

Here is the TIME KEY Divided Up into Three Time Frames:

7 weeks = 49 years of rebuilding the temple with its wall
62 weeks = 434 years until the coming of the Messiah the Prince
1 week = 7 years of final tribulation and God's wrath poured out on the earth

In the middle = The Abomination causing Desolation (Last 3 and 1/2 years of Great Tribulation)

Once we see that this prophecy is directing our attention to these three periods, we must start with the first two added together which will give us both the Starting Point and the Finishing Point of when the Messiah the Prince will appear on the scene.

The STARTING POINT:
"That from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem (the City)"

• This was the specific decree given by Artaxerxes in 445 BC since this is the only commnad that deals with the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and its wall.

The ENDING POINT:
Until Messiah the Prince (The Christ)"...

This is the very date when Jesus is officially and publicly recognized as the Jewish Messiah when He rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and is later crucified in this same week.

Therefore, we see the total 483 years of this part of the prophecy culminating on March 14 (1st of Nisan), 445 B.C., as confirmed in history, when King Artaxerxes I of Persia issued the command to rebuild Jerusalem, including its wall (Neh. 2:1-8). If you use the 360 day calendar that the Jews and the Persians used, and then convert it to the modern calendar that we now use today, we will arrive at the time the Messiah was predicted to come to Jerusalem.

This takes us to right around 32 AD.

...And what significant event do we know history happened at this time?

ANSWER: The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and His sacrificial death on the cross.

...How is this even possible?

Coincidence? Luck? Happenstance? ...Impossible! This is God amazingly showing us that He is in control of all things and that His Word shall never fail but endures forever!

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4-5).

This historically confirmed prophecy reveals the appointed time of the Anointed One -- JESUS, and what the Messiah ("Christ" in Greek) would accomplish over this time...

What God Will Fulfill during the whole 70 Weeks through the Messiah:

1. To finish the transgression
2. To make an end of sins
3. To make reconciliation for iniquity
4. To bring in everlasting righteousness
5. To seal up vision and prophecy
6. And to anoint the Most Holy

Although no one is able to know the date or the hour of the Second Coming of Christ, Jesus was very clear that the appointed date of His first coming could have and should have been known for those who were carefully studying the Scriptures.

At the beginning of His ministry, He stood up in his hometown synagogue and spoke these prophetic words in Isaiah 61:1-4:
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,                      (1st Coming)
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;                                (2nd Coming)
To comfort all who mourn,                        
To console those who mourn in Zion...
And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations..."

During His final week when Jesus was praised on the streets of Jerusalem as He rode in on a donkey, He said that if the people did not worship Him on this day, "the stones would  immediately cry out" (Luke 19:40). Why is this? Because it was directly prophesied that the Messiah must be worshipped ON THIS VERY DAY!

Jesus ended with a rebuke to the religious leaders of Israel who missed the glorious fulfillment of this prophecy saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in THIS YOUR DAY, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION" (Luke 19:41-44).

Sadly, the destruction of the city and the temple would be repeated once again after Israel defiantly rejected the visitation of their own Messiah, which took place when Rome set fire to the temple in A.D. 70. May we learn from history to always take God's Word seriously!

DANIEL CHALLENGE:

LET US REMEMBER WE ARE IN GOD’S HAND
NO MATTER WHAT TROUBLES MAY COME,
HE HAS ORDERED TIME TO UNDERSTAND
HOW GOD’S WORK IS AS GOOD AS DONE.

...Share this with some one who does not yet believe in Jesus or who doubts God's Word

Home Group Discussion Questions:

1. What have you learned about the power of corporate prayer and the spiritual warfare that take place as we pray and even because we pray?
2. What do you believe is needed for authentic "revival" to take place in our time?
3. What do you find intimidating about reading Bible prophecy and what do you find inspiring and faith building about it?
4. How can we be sure that we are ready and do not miss the next visitation of our Lord, Messiah, and Savior Jesus as those Jewish leaders did when He came the first time?