Daniel 9:24-27 “Short”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁴Seventy sevens are determined upon your people and upon your holy city to end the rebellion and to finish sins and to atone for perversion and to bring in righteousness of ages and to seal vision and prophecy and to anoint [the] Holy of Holies. ²⁵And know and have insight – from issuance of a word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah [the] Prince [shall be] seven sevens and sixty-two sevens, and again a plaza and a moat will be built even in times of trouble. ²⁶And after the sevens of sixty and two, Messiah will be cut off and nothing to Him and a people of a coming prince will spoil the city and the sanctuary and its end in the flood and until end war being determined desolations. ²⁷And he will confirm a covenant with the many [for] one seven and [in] the half of the seven, he will stop sacrifice and offering and upon a wing of abominations one making desolate, even until [the] end, and [the] one causing to be decreed will pour out upon [the] desolator.

Interesting to note, as we would listen in on v.27, we actually take a seat next to Daniel. What I mean is that, up to this point, we have been studying prophecies which, while yet future for Daniel, are past history for us. We have no problem understanding how the great Messiah could be cut off. We know about the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem. That’s history for us. However, as we come to v.27, we’re reading about something yet future for us too. So, we pull up our chair next to our friend Daniel and ponder over Gabriel’s words much as he would have.

The one exception, however, is that we have the book of Revelation. Essentially, the book of Revelation is Daniel Vol. II. Nearly the entire book could have been entitled, “Daniel’s Seventieth Week.” In Daniel 9, we get one verse on it. John gives us an entire book. I say all of that because we have the wonderful gift of additional revelation beyond what Daniel apparently had, and, in order to understand v.27, we should give earnest heed to John’s writings. However, I also don’t want to lose sight, as we would study, that Daniel could not. On the other hand, it is also true, even with the book of Revelation, it is all still future for us.

Gabriel tells us that “the ruler to come” will “confirm a covenant with many for one seven.” Well, there it is. There is our final seven, our final “week” of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. Gabriel then tells us that, in the middle of the seven, this ruler to come will “put an end to sacrifice and offering…and set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed for him is poured out on him.”

Before I say anything, I want to acknowledge that the Hebrew here is quite cryptic. I think the NIV (which I just quoted) does a good job of translating the verse, but much of that is actually based on the understanding that we get from the book of Revelation, not from the Hebrew itself. Without John’s writings, I would suggest that verse 27 is almost unintelligible. One could say that explains in part how this verse could have spawned the endless myriads of interpretations which have been offered all down through the centuries. For myself, however, I agree with the NIV translators that the book of Revelation is the key to understanding it, and so I proceed on that basis.

Several significant cross-references need to be recognized at this point. Beginning with Daniel himself, in 7:25, he foresaw that “the saints will be handed over to him (the little horn) for a time, times and half a time. Now Gabriel says the ruler to come will break his covenant in the middle of the seven, so we know the time, times, and half a time is 3 ½ years. Later, in 12:1, Daniel was told of “a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations…” When it is asked how long this will last, it is again revealed to be “a time, times, and half a time” (v.7).

Jeremiah had spoken of a horrible time in Israel’s future which he called “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” He said in 30:7, “How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble…” Notice in particular it is called the time of Jacob’s trouble. Gabriel had specifically said, “Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city…” (v.24). Once again, this future time of horrific distress specifically concerns the Jewish people, It is the time of Jacob’s trouble.

Jesus referred to Daniel when He was speaking of the last days and said it would be a time of “great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to be equaled again” (Matt. 24:21). He had just said a few verses before that, “So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation, spoken through the prophet Daniel…” (24:15). Jesus makes it clear that He is talking about the same events which Daniel (and Jeremiah) had addressed. Then, even when Jesus was here, it is clear that this Seventieth Week was still yet future.

Several verses in Revelation assure us John was prophesying about these same events and they were still yet future, even when he was an old man and exiled on the Isle of Patmos. Beginning in Revelation chapter 6, John prophesies about a world of horrible judgments and reading the rest of the book, we have come to call this time “the Great Tribulation.” This matches Daniel, Jeremiah, and Jesus’ predictions of this world of “great distress.”

Starting in Rev. 11:3, John begins making reference to a time of 1,260 days (3 ½ x 360) for the Two Witnesses to prophesy, then for another 1,260 days that “the woman” will be “taken care of” (12:6). Then too, tying back to Daniel, the beast of Revelation is said to be given “a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months” (=1,260 days or 3 ½ 360-day years).

I point out all of this to establish that, as I said earlier, the book of Revelation is to a large extent simply a chapters-long explanation of what will happen in this “week” that gets summed up in Daniel in just a couple of verses. Revelation really is Daniel Vol. II, and, based on John’s writings (in addition to Jeremiah, Daniel, and Jesus), we have come to call this horrific period, this last “Seven,” the Great Tribulation and the “little horn” we know to be the man we’ve come to call the AntiChrist.  In chapters 7 and 11, Daniel gives us a little more information about these things, but, of course, his few short verses had to await John’s writings before we could have the exhaustive treatment of an entire book to describe this Seventieth Week.

I would suggest one implication of this entire prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 is that the Lord apparently has a different plan for us His church. If we are careful with our exegesis, we cannot ignore the many very clear statements that these prophecies concern Israel, not the Church. It is the time of Jacob’s trouble and concerns Daniel’s people and his city. In Luke 21:24, Jesus referred to “the times of the Gentiles.” He said, “And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” In Romans 11, Paul makes it clear that this “times of the Gentiles” is, in some way, an interruption of the Lord’s plans for the Jewish people. He says, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in” (v.25). Notice the “until.” The very word implies there is yet something in store specifically for the Jewish people.

I personally don’t see how, if we are careful with our exegesis, we can fail to see that, at the present time, their Seventieth Week is yet future for the Jewish people and that we are now in a parenthesis of sorts while the Lord draws in us Gentiles. All of that then fits logically into Paul’s prophecy of what we call the Rapture in I Thes. 4:13-18, “The Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up (Latin: rapturo) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

When the parenthesis (the times of the Gentiles) ends, then the Lord resumes the Jewish people’s “Seventy Weeks.” Note too there is nothing in the Bible to say the end of that parenthesis equals the beginning of that Seventieth Week. Jesus’ return for His church has been imminent ever since He left and there is no prophecy that necessarily needs to be fulfilled before the Rapture happens. However, what we do see is a world today shaping up exactly as Daniel and John prophesied. Israel is in the Land. The European Union is a reality. It is at least the essence of what will become the Revived Roman Empire (the “ten toes” of Daniel chapter 2). Our world seems to be devolving rapidly into chaos and there really are people we call “Globalists,” who clamor for a one-world government. We now have the technology to create “chips” to identify (and locate) people – the “mark of the Beast.” The event which does mark the beginning of this Seventieth Week is the covenant between the AntiChrist and the Jewish people: “And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one Seven…” (Dan. 9:27).

Given the horrific turmoil in the Middle East and the world-wide prevalence of antisemitism, it would certainly be no surprise to see the nation of Israel make a covenant with the European Union and its leader, the AntiChrist, to protect them, to give them peace. That would be the “covenant with the many” which sparks the beginning of the Seventieth Week. My point would be, if somehow the Rapture must precede that event, and if world events seem to be rapidly moving toward its fulfillment, then certainly “the time is short.” It could still be 500 years in the future, but I would guess it closer to 50. Given the world we’re seeing, it could be 5 – or less.

Surely the time really is short. Even if, somewhere along the line here, I have misunderstood the prophecies or suggested logical implications which turn out to be incorrect, no matter what, the time is short. The Lord will return. As Peter said, “The Day of the Lord will come” (II Pet. 3:10). Lord help us all to prayerfully do the best we can to live lives of loving God and people, to be the fragrance of Christ in a world of people who desperately need Him! Daniel was that kind of man in his day. May we be so in ours.