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.
Several thoughts I want to record before diving too hard into this passage. First of all, just so it’s said, this is a very difficult passage to translate. Several of the Hebrew words are very general and capable of various understandings. I personally have no doubt that is the nature of prophecy – to always have some element of a cryptic sense about it.
That thought leads me to the second which is this: When Jesus was giving prophecy to His disciples, He said to them, “I have told you now, so that when it does happen you will believe” (John 14:29). Notice the “when it does happen.” I would suggest it is generally always true of prophecy that it will contain two elements. First, there is much that is very clear and it seems to me those things are told us invariably to give us hope and an understanding of our times. The second element is this cryptic feature. Prophecies are just cryptic enough to frustrate our passion to “know it all” ahead of time. To some extent, it will only make sense at the time – when we actually need to know it. The “666” of Revelation is a good example. We’re told it will be the number of the Beast. As much as we ponder that, I doubt we can unravel its meaning – precisely because we don’t need to know (as much as it may fascinate us!). When the time comes and believers need to understand it, I am sure it will be patently clear. However, we don’t need to know it, and so we don’t. That’s the cryptic element that keeps us watching and waiting.
That cryptic element is precisely
what ought to keep us all humble as we try to construct our understanding of
prophecy. We should study prophecies. We should ponder them and
do our best to understand “the things that are all too clear” as we would look
ahead and look around. However, we should also do our best to acknowledge when
we simply don’t know. The trick, I’m suggesting, is to know the difference. If
everyone took that posture, you wouldn’t have people angrily defending their
particular prophetic timelines. It would also have protected people down
through the centuries from coming up with what are now laughable
interpretations.
Once again, we should study and seek to know “the things that are all too clear.” However, and this is the bottom line in my heart – that it is far more important to know the prophecies themselves, to know the Scriptures which present them (even with those cryptic elements), and then to keep them as our “rock” of understanding. The Scriptures themselves need to be our rock – not our prophetical systems which we have devised. We need to know our Bibles!
Another thing I believe we should all acknowledge and keep in mind is that ancient timelines are dubious at best. I myself am very happy to accept that, for instance, the Persians conquered Babylon in 539 BC. However, I have no intention of “going to the mat” with anyone over that date. The secular world and (I think) too many “theologians” treat their ancient timelines as if they’re etched in stone. People are forever trying to align the Bible and its apparent timelines with those which have been constructed for the ancient world. They act like those ancient timelines are absolute truth and the Bible somehow has to be defended against them.
That is so ludicrous, it would be laughable if it wasn’t so ridiculously blasphemous. First of all, the ancient scribes were just as a big a liars as our media today. The government tells us what they want us to believe. They do not hesitate to rewrite history, to only tell half the story, to cherry-pick data in order to “prove” their case, and simply to tell us outright lies. The people doing the writing are and always have been very aware of what their bosses “want to hear.” They are courtesans in every sense of the word – journalistic prostitutes – and nothing they say (or said) should be taken as absolute truth. The other thing about ancient writings is that, usually, there are only scraps and pieces of documents, written in ancient languages, and even the ones that seem most well preserved invariably disagree.
I have expressed this from time to time, but I will not defend the Bible against those “ancient timelines,” regardless of how dearly they may be held by the “scholarly” community. The Bible itself is the only ancient document which is absolutely true and when it seems difficult to align it with those other ancient timelines, I’ll stick with the Bible.
One more thing I want to record concerns the length of the “years” we’re considering. I would suggest once again, if we let the Bible speak for itself, there is no question these are 360 day years or what some have called “prophetic years.” I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it, but it is clear in the account of Noah that time was being reckoned in 30-day months, then between Daniel 7:24,25, Rev. 12:6; 12:13,14; and 13:4-7, the Seventieth Week is variously designated as including 3 ½ years, 42 months, or 1260 days – all indicating a year based on twelve 30-day months or 360 days.
The only real argument against this understanding is the objection that nowhere in ancient history is there any record of anyone reckoning time using such a system. I’ve already addressed that argument above. Their assumption is that their “ancient” documents are an exhaustive, complete, and authoritative standard by which to judge all truth. Anyone with any understanding of “ancient” documents would (should) know such an argument is in itself ludicrous.
And then to use such an absurd standard to judge the Bible is not only logically fallacious, but in the end displays a complete misunderstanding of real Truth. The Bible is the Word of God and it is itself the standard of Truth. Someone may scoff at my faith in the Bible, but they ought to at least admit that their “faith” is being based on a ragged, very incomplete, and often very contradictory collection of those “ancient” documents. Such a person has every right to choose what to put their “faith” in, but then so do I, and so do you, and “as for me and my house,” we’ll choose the Bible. There is no question, if we let the Bible speak for itself, that the years in this prophecy consist of 360 days each.
Alva J. McClain uses the 360-day years, then presents the math that he could predict the exact date of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, starting with Nehemiah and the decree of Artaxerxes on an understood date of March 14, 1445 BC, and leading to a date of April 6, 32 AD. I’ve always found that intriguing and it may in fact be accurate, except for, once again, we’re basing that system on the scholarly world’s assumed timeline. At this point, I would still call McClain’s suggestions intriguing, but I wouldn’t go the mat over it with anyone. The Bible is true. There is no way to know for certain whether or not Artaxerxes’ decree was issued on March 14, 1445 BC. So I will leave it all as “intriguing.”
It may be that the Jews of Jesus’ day did or could have known those exact dates. Since they were living in that time and could have (or should have) realized the prophetic significance of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, perhaps they could have done the math. Our problem now is the complete impossibility of pinning down those dates with infallible accuracy. The admonition from all of that to us is to be sure we’re aware as prophecies are being fulfilled around us.
Until the Seventieth Week starts, there is no timeline for us to observe, but still prophecy is being fulfilled even as I type. Israel is once again a nation. On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, and for the first time in 2,000 years, the Jewish people were a nation. The whole world should have realized the “Dry Bones” prophecy of Ezekiel 37:1-14 was being fulfilled before their eyes. In fact, it has been being fulfilled ever since that day. The bones came together and the flesh of a true national people became reality until today we see them literally standing. All that is left now is for the breath of the Lord to enter and give them true spiritual life.
It will be interesting to watch and see, with all the military turmoil currently swirling around the nation of Israel (this is the year 2024), if we don’t see the prophecy of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38 & 39) fulfilled before our eyes. In addition to those things, we see the Revived Roman Empire, the ten toes of Daniel apparently being fulfilled in the European Union. On February 7, 1992, politicians from 12 European countries signed the Maastricht Treaty and the European Union was born. It still needs to align with its prophecies in a number of ways, but there is no question it is leading to the world of the AntiChrist.
My point in all of that is simply to say we need to have our eyes open, to know our Bibles, and to know the prophecies, so that we are aware as they are being fulfilled. Apparently at least most of the Jewish people paid little regard as their prophecies were being fulfilled. No doubt today, the vast majority of the human race doesn’t even realize prophecies continue to be fulfilled – but you and I don’t need to be so blind. We have every opportunity to actually “walk in the light” and “understand the times.”
To that end, I want to study Daniel 9:24-27, do my best to understand “the things that are all too clear,” to admit to the things that remain uncertain, then to be ready to grasp the significance of world events as they unfold around me.
History is, in fact, His story, and as we see it unfold, we can say once again,
“Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!”
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