Seventy Weeks Are Determined

If you can turn in your Bibles, I'm actually not in the book of Revelation this week. We are in the book of Daniel chapter 9. I mentioned it a little bit the last time in the last sermon on the book of Revelation. We talked about Daniel, but really I wanted to talk about Daniel chapter 9 and specifically verses 24 through 27 because they deserve their own sermon. There's, there's a lot of information there, and it is related to what we've been going through in the book of Revelation. But I think it's important that we spend a little time looking and digging into what the Lord is saying in those passages. We're going to be looking at that. I'm going to actually look at that whole chapter, but most of our time will be spent in 24 to 27. But I'm also going to be looking at some other passages in the Bible, so you So you might be going back and forth if you're following along in your Bible to some different places. We're gonna look at Zechariah, we're gonna look at Matthew, the book of Revelation. We're gonna be going back and forth to some different places.

You know, as you look around, it feels like our world is falling apart. There's all kinds of things happening. There are wars happening. There's All kinds of arguments happening on social media. People are attacking one another left and right. Even people who we once thought held a point of view either politically or religiously, some of them not religiously but politically at least, they seem to be conservative voices or they held almost felt like a biblical worldview. A lot of those voices have changed. I don't know if you've noticed in the last few months. I'd say in the— at least the last year, last 6 months, a lot of those voices have changed.

I was having an AC unit worked on a house, and I called a company out to take a look at the unit. I didn't know— I've only had that house a few years, and I didn't know when the last time somebody had looked at it. So I wanted— before it causes me trouble, I wanted to have it looked at. And so the guys came out, the technicians came out. One guy came inside because the air handler is inside the furnace and the air handler and all that. And another guy went outside to work on the compressors and check the charge and all those things. And I got into a talk with the guy inside, with the technician inside. And I started talking to him about the state of our world and that led to talking about the Lord. And, um, And it didn't take me very long to find out that this guy professes to be a Christian. And by the end of it, I invited him to church, and then he invited me to his church, you know. So, which was a great discussion. But so I was trying to witness to him, but I ended up witnessing to a believer, which is all right.

But we started talking about the state of our world and all that. And we were talking about, we talked about what's happening in Israel, what's happening in all those things. And he made a statement to me that sounded like what I'm starting to hear from, like, political conservative type talk, but from these people that are moving away from a biblical worldview. Specifically, they're moving to a view that is anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic, and they're moving to a view that is pro-Islamic. And anything that's ever been said bad about Islam must have come from the Jews, so now we should have a pro-Islamic view. And he made a statement that sounded just like it was coming from some of these people. And I lost my place. But you might guess who some of these people are. One would be— I'll just name names. One would be Tucker Carlson, professes to be an Episcopalian. But he recently said that the people he hates most in the world are premillennial or dispensational Christians who think there's a future for Israel. That's the people Tucker says he hates most in the world. Think about that if you listen to Pastor Johnny's sermon this morning.

Does a Christian hate other Christians? He might have a different eschatology. That's fine. But should we hate one another because of our eschatological views? He actually says it's heretical. Of course, he doesn't have any theological training to know what a heresy is, but he says it's heretical to have a dispensational view. And when I say dispensational, I want you to think— maybe I need to clarify some terms. There's dispensational premillennialism, and then there's historic premillennialism. And not everybody who holds to any of those views holds to every single aspect that everybody else holds to. When I say dispensational, all I really mean is there is a distinct purpose for the nation of Israel and there's a distinct purpose for the church. They don't have the same beginning. They don't have the same, um, what should I say, destiny, I guess. I mean, yes, they're both redeemed. I mean, well, not the nation, but believing Jews are redeemed. Believers in the church, true believers, are redeemed. We're both going to be in heaven, but there's kingdom promises to the nation. There are no kingdom promises to the church, really. That doesn't mean we're not going to be part of it. We're going to rule and reign with Christ, so you could say there are some kingdom promises. But the Davidic promises and all that were to the nation. And God keeps his promises. I don't know the timing of all that. I really don't. But God keeps his promises, I know that much.

Now, I don't really care. Tucker's one of them. Of course, Candace Owens is another. And recently, just in the last few months, pro-Islamic, anti-Israel has been Megyn Kelly. So those aren't believers. I mean, they, uh, Well, I guess one's an Episcopalian, supposedly. The other two are now Catholic, as Candace switched to Catholicism after she got married. And her views on a lot of things went way haywire, very anti-Semitic. I don't really care what they think, honestly. But these views are also in the church. And they're affecting young men like the guy I was talking to. To where he said a statement which said, "How do we know the Jews of today are actually the Jews that we had in the Old Testament?" And my first response was, "If you're not a Jew, why on earth would you claim to be one? So that the world would hate you? So that Islam would look for you and try to kill you?" Why would you want to be one or claim to be one if you weren't one?

And then the other thing I asked them was, when you look at your Old Testament, how many good kings did Israel have? How many good kings did the southern kingdom of Judah have? Could you count them on two hands? Barely. 6, maybe 8, maybe. How about the rest of them? They were wicked. Most of them were idol worshippers. They, they repressed worship of Yahweh and they built temples to other gods. How many Godly kings were in the Northern Kingdom of Israel? Zero. They were all wicked, every single one of them. And one of the worst ones in the Northern Kingdom of Israel was Ahab. Ahab and Jezebel. But do you remember at one point people saw Ahab had put sackcloth and ashes on, it was under his garments, and he was repenting? For something he had done, and the Lord relented on the judgment he was bringing against Ahab, at least at that point. Ahab continued to be wicked and he got judged. But at that point, the Lord relented. So even though he was wicked, did God still use him, or did God still work with him anyway? Did God still send him prophets to put him on the right road? Yes. Were they still God's people? Yes.

So do we have to agree with everything that— like, we see what's happening in Gaza, we see, you know, people are, you know, maybe they overreacted, but you know, when the whole world's trying to kill you, you might have a tendency to overreact. So we don't have to agree with everything the government of Israel does, but I don't think I want to be on the side of Sanballat and Tobiah standing against the Jews when the Lord returns. I don't think I want to be taking that side.

So there is a passage, I'm just gonna quote it real quick. It's like if you were to open your Bible right to the center, you'll be right around Psalm 118, Psalm 119. And right in the middle, or right at the beginning of Psalm 118, there's a passage that said, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. So whatever's going on in our world today, whatever people think, and they have our attention because their voices are so loud, they have millions of viewers and all those things, should we put our confidence in them or should we put our confidence in the Word of God? In the Word of God.

Let's pray. Father God, pray that you would help me tonight, Lord, to talk about your word, talk about what Daniel said to us, Father, in the book that you inspired for him to write. And Lord, I pray that we see these things rightly, Father. I pray that we can see these things rightly, Lord, to understand what you would have of us today. Not because we want to get all these facts straight, but because we— Lord, you hold people accountable to know your word. And so, Lord, help us to understand these things in Jesus' name.

I was going to say something. In the church, there are some— I just heard something that was said this week where it's somebody you actually all know, but I'm not going to say who it is. But they've come to a view that's pretty antagonistic to premillennialism, pretty antagonistic to dispensationalism, which is fine. But something they said was basically premillennialists are, they said, not sola scriptura, they're solo scriptura, meaning only me and my Bible. So they don't— we don't, we don't look into history, we don't look into any of that, any other thing, just your Bible.

Two arguments. One is, is that really an argument for your position, or is that just an ad hominem attack on the other position? That's not an argument. And the other thing I wanted to say was you can have a position that may not agree with, say, I'm looking at these passages. Maybe you have a different view of this passage. All I'm saying is you shouldn't come with an ad hominem attack. What you should do is go, Then what does Daniel 9 mean? What does Zechariah 9 mean? What does Zechariah 12 and 14 mean? What does Revelation 4 through 22 mean? What does Matthew 24 and Luke 19 and the parallel passages in John and Mark— what do they mean? If you have a good reason to look at those passages and come up with a different view, Then instead of sneaking out the door and not saying anything, how about let's have coffee? How about having coffee with Pastor Jonny and saying, "Hey, I have a different view of these passages. Let's sit down and work our way through them and see if we can realize what the truth of the passage is." Hey, if I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong and then show me how I'm wrong.

So my big concern is I don't really— I've said this before. I don't care what your view is. My concern is how you came with your view. What's your hermeneutic? What kind of hermeneutic? When I talk about a hermeneutic, I talk about historical, grammatical, literal. That's my hermeneutic. I mean, one of the reasons they say we don't take history into account, because they think, they want to say most of the church fathers wouldn't agree with us. Maybe most of the church fathers weren't dispensational premillennial, but a lot of the early church fathers were historical premillennial, meaning they believed in a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ. They believed in a fulfillment of the Davidic the Davidic promises. They might not have had a full understanding of— like we might think we have a fuller understanding, but we've had a couple of thousand years of scholarship and people looking at the scriptures and debating, and now we can look back and go, wow, this position seems closest to me to what the scripture is actually teaching. And, you know, the early church fathers didn't have a lot of that history.

So But the problem with looking at, trying to look at early church fathers is you can find an early church father who said some really great things, and then you can find an early church father that said some good things and said some really bad things. You know, if you want to be Pentecostal and say that the continuing revelation is going on, then you can hold on to a guy like Tertullian. Because he, at the end of his life, he ended up embracing Montanism, which was like they believed they were receiving new revelation. But Tertullian did some great things in his debates with those who held to the heresy of the Manichees. So he did some really good things. He did some really bad things, in our view. So if you want to look at allegorical scripture, you can be an Origenist. You can hang on to Origen. That's how you should interpret Scripture. And that interpretation, that kind of hermeneutic was with us for centuries after Origen. You could say, you could look at amillennialism and say Augustine's my guy. Well, Catholics say Augustine's their guy. And Reformed guys say Augustine's their guy. You can find almost anything. But guys like Papias and Irenaeus and Justin Martyr had an historical premillennial view. I wouldn't call them dispensationalists, but they had a historical premillennial view.

Anyway, let's get to our passage before I waste all my time in this. So in our passage in Daniel chapter 9, any— Daniel, as we get started, you'll see he's been reading from the book, probably from 2 Chronicles, but definitely from Jeremiah. He's been reading in the books. It's in Daniel 9:2, it says, "In the first year of the reign of his reign," he's talking about Darius' reign, "I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem." And if you look at 2 Chronicles, it says, 2 Chronicles 36:21, Daniel might have been reading there, but it says, "To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate, she kept the Sabbath to fulfill 70 years."

In Jeremiah, there's two passages, one in chapter 25 and another in chapter 29, which talk about after 70 years, God would remember Jerusalem and bring them back from Babylon. So Daniel is reading— Jeremiah is possibly reading 2 Chronicles— and he understands from the books that God has given them 70 years of captivity in Babylon. So if you think about it, Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were taken to Babylon around 606, 605 BC. So Daniel's reading, he's reading the books in about 538 BC. So it's been like 68 years since he was taken captive in the first— you got to remember Babylon besieged Jerusalem 3 times. This was the first siege where they took Daniel and his friends captive. So now Daniel's looking back Wow, it's been almost 70 years since I've been here. And so he's reading and he realizes that the 70 years of captivity in Babylon are almost over. And so with his Bible open— I put a little joke in here— with his Bible, he named it and claimed it. No, he didn't do that. With his Bible open, he starts to pray to the Lord. And he sets his face toward the Lord God. And he says to make requests and prayers and supplications with fasting and ashes.

So I'm going to start reading from Daniel 9:3. And I'm just going to read this passage, this whole passage. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and to those who keep his commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us shame of face, as it is this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to all Israel, those near and those far off, in all the countries to which you have driven them because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you. O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed your law and has departed so as not to obey your voice. Therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against him. And he confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing us a great disaster. For under the whole of heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all the disasters have come upon us, yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God. That we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which he does, though he ha— though, though we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made yourself a name as it is this day. We have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, O Lord, according to all your righteousness, I pray, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. Because for our sins and for our iniquity and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are reproach to those around us. Now therefore, our God, Hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause your face to shine on your sanctuary which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by your name. For we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for your own sake, my God, for your city and your people are called by your name.

Do you notice that Daniel is appealing to the Lord not for forgiveness, but not because the people deserve forgiveness. He's appealing to the Lord for forgiveness because he realizes the time of God's promise is almost upon them. And for the sake of the name of the Lord among everybody who would ever know about this promise, they can't ever say that God doesn't keep his promises. For your name's sake, remember and forgive. Our desolations, your city and your people.

Now Daniel is still praying and he gets interrupted by the angel Gabriel who brings Daniel an answer to his prayer. Verse 20: Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin— Daniel is awesome— He's confessing my sin. He doesn't say, "Oh, you people did it." No, he said, "It's— I'm among you. It's my sin." And the sin of my people Israel in presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God. Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. What evening offering? Where's the temple? It's back in Jerusalem, destroyed. Is there any offerings happening? In Daniel's mind, there still is. This is the time of the evening offering. He's still thinking, this is what we should be doing at home. We should be back in the land. But about the time of the evening offering, he informed me and talked with me and said, "O Daniel," I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter and understand the vision.

Now remember, Daniel's been praying about the city of Jerusalem, God's holy mountain. The people of the Lord, his fellow Jews. That has been the focus of his prayer all through chapter 9. So remember context, context, context. That's what he's praying about. And now Gabriel has come to give an answer to his prayer. And Gabriel begins to speak in verse 24. He says, "70 weeks are determined for your people." and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. That's pretty comprehensive.

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks, The street shall be built, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will be— shall be with a flood. And till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate.

So we see that at the beginning of Gabriel's speech here, he says 70 weeks are determined. When I hear that, I think God has sovereignly determined. God has fixed a set outcome, just like he had the 70 years they were in captivity. He's telling Daniel, 70 weeks are determined. They're determined to accomplish God's goal. They're determined to accomplish God's plan. He has determined— and it's literally 77s— he's determined 77s So, and I'm going to argue that these are 70 sevens of years, 7-year increments. So why years and not days or weeks or months? The phrase is literally 70 sevens, it's sabim shebuim, and it is used It's used for years elsewhere in the Bible. When Jacob, you'll remember when Jacob worked for 7 years to marry Rachel. And then of course on the wedding night, his father-in-law, his sneaky father-in-law, substituted Leah for Rachel. And then Jacob wakes up in the morning and, "Wait a minute, didn't I work?" 7 years for Rachel? Why is Leah here? And he was angry, and he says, it was not for Rachel that I served you. Why then have you deceived me? And Laban said to him, fulfill her week, and we will give this one to you also for the service which you have served me, still another 7 years.

So it isn't unusual that this phrase could be used for 7 years as a— when it just says weeks. And so Jacob did so and fulfilled her week, and he gave his daughter Rachel as wife also. So I can go into a lot of— I'll let Johnny argue— I mean, tell you all the reasons for 70 weeks, but it's 70 weeks of years, and there's a lot of reason to believe that. So 70 weeks of years are determined 7 70s. 7 times 70 equals 490 years are determined. Determined for what? For your people and your holy city. That's what they're determined for. For your people and your holy city. Who are Daniel's people? Israel. The Jews. Where is Daniel's city that he's been praying about? Jerusalem. It's the nation of Israel that Daniel's been praying about. 70 years, or 77s, are determined for them. And it gives you the scope of what is going to be dealt with.

There are 6 things that must be completed for Daniel's people in his city. "To finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity." You notice all of those are about some kind of sin because sin is told us— the word for sin is kind of translated— it's transgressions, sins, iniquities. "And then to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." So 3 deal with iniquity and transgressions and sins. There's also a definite article in front of transgressions. It's the transgression or the transgressions. What transgressions? Is it transgressions for all of God's people, all of God's elect, both Jew and Gentile? Or is it more specific? Is it the transgressions of his people? You can argue both ways. I mean, it is in context. Daniel's praying about his people and their iniquity, and he's praying for forgiveness for their iniquity, for rebelling against the Lord.

There's a— John Woolvard, who from Dallas Theological Seminary years ago, he wrote, the most obvious meaning is that Israel's course of apostasy and sin and wandering over the face of the earth will be brought to completion within the 70 years. The restoration of Israel, which Daniel sought in his prayer, will ultimately have its fulfillment in this concept. It is definitely localized to that, but it's also— I would say it's broader because we know when we're going to see that this passage talks about the first coming of the Messiah and his death. And we know that that's the atonement for all of us. That's the propitiation for us all. So the first 3 items— to finish transgress, make an end of sin, deal with— means to deal— they're dealing with transgression and sin finally. They're making reconciliation— is to make atonement. For iniquity. All of these were fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, and we're gonna see this really soon as we go down this list.

Then it says to set up the— the next three are really the setup of the kingdom of Christ. It says to bring in everlasting righteousness. Jeremiah 23 said in verse 5 through 6 says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. The king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is his name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness. Christ is the fulfillment To seal up vision and prophecy, to bring it to a conclusion. There won't be any need for more vision, more prophecy. It's going to be concluded. All the prophets foretold of his coming, and it would be fulfilled. To anoint the most holy. That's to mashach kodesh kodeshim, to anoint the most holy place or most holy one. This is pretty much wrapping up history here as far as dealing with sin and anointing Christ at His second coming. It contains— it's contained in the 70 sevens, the 490 years to wrap all of this. This is what Gabriel is telling Daniel.

And now he is going to break down for Daniel even more and also give Daniel a starting point for the 490 years. When does this all— okay, 490 years are determined. Okay, starting out— no, starting, starting now, you know, when is it going to begin? And so Gabriel doesn't leave him without an answer. He gives him an answer. Know therefore and understand, in verse 25, that from the going forth of the command— and this is, this next phrase is very important From the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem— keep that, hold on to that— to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks, The street shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times.

Daniel was commanded, he's commanded to know and to understand. He just wasn't given some prophecy and then, "Yes, you figure it out." He's commanded to know and understand. And we will see that the Jewish nation later, the Jewish nation is held responsible for not knowing and for not understanding. But he was to know and understand that— and now we see the time marker. That from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince. The command is to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. And in verse 25b it says that the street shall be built and the wall even in troublesome times. This is a very specific command.

Now there are 4 decrees that scholars argue about and debate as to which one is the right decree. They're all in your Bible, okay? First, there's the decree of Cyrus the Persian. When Cyrus comes in and he conquers Babylon, you remember the story of Belshazzar, and Cyrus comes in, they dam up the Euphrates and they're able to enter the city and they take over the city. And Cyrus takes over the city and one of the things Cyrus does is he allows the people of Israel to go back to Jerusalem. But he doesn't allow them to build the city or to build a wall. He tells them they can go back and build the temple, the temple of the Lord. Then, of course, they're opposed by everybody. Sanballat, Tobiah, all these people are against them. Well, that's a little bit later. Those guys are just a little bit later. But anyway, they're opposed in the days of Ezra. Ezra goes back. You can read about that in 2 Chronicles 36, Ezra chapter 1. Chapter 6. That happens in the year 538. Cyrus makes that decree. Then they basically start to build and then they stop. And then they're afraid of the people around them. The people around them putting pressure on them. They stop building. And so then they appeal to Darius. And Darius, "Hey, let's check the records. Did Cyrus ever say they could build the temple?" Oh yeah, yeah, he did. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys can start rebuilding and I'm gonna send you, we're gonna give you supplies, we're gonna do all this, keep building, keep going. Oh, okay. So that happened in 519 where Darius confirms the decree of Cyrus and you can read about that in Ezra 6 from about verse 6 on.

And then there's another decree by Artaxerxes in 458. But that decree is only to offer sacrifices in the house of God at Jerusalem. You can read about that in Ezra chapter 7. So all those are confirmed in the book of Ezra. And then there's one more decree that happens by Artaxerxes Longimanus to Nehemiah in Nehemiah chapter 2. And it was— and we know exactly when that happened, on the first of Nisan, March 14th, 445 BC. And I want you to notice what that decree is about. So if you look at Nehemiah chapter 2, it says, "It came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of King Artaxerxes, when the wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid and said to the king, May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies in waste and its gates are burned with fire? Then the king said to me, What is your request? So I prayed to the God of heaven— must have been a quick shotgun prayer— I prayed to the God of heaven and said to the king, If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it, rebuild the city of Jerusalem. Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time. Therefore I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river, that they may permit me to pass through till I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates. Where do gates go? Is it gates to his house? No, these are gates for the wall. Make timber for the gates of the citadel to, uh, which pertain to the temple for the city wall. And for the house which I will occupy. And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of God upon me.

So that was the only decree of the four that dealt with the city and the wall. And we know that happened in 445 BC, on March 14th, 445 BC. While all the other decrees dealt with the temple, that one dealt with the wall. And you remember Nehemiah did build the wall. He got— he rallied the people, and they were opposed by everybody around them, so much so that you remember they were building with one hand, trowel in one hand and a sword in the other hand. What did the— how did that verse end in Daniel? Even in troublesome times, they're going to build the wall. Even in troublesome times.

So our starting point for the 490 years is March 14th, 445 BC. But then look at how the 77 is also broken down into 3 groups. It's 7 and 62, and then there's a final 7 to make— to— so, but here it says 7 and 62. So 69 weeks until Messiah the Prince. There shall be 7 weeks— this verse 25, second half of the verse— 7 weeks and 62 weeks. The street shall be built and the wall, even in troublesome times. So Messiah the Prince will come around the end of 7 plus 62, or 69 weeks of years. So after 483 years from the decree, Messiah the Prince will come.

# The 360-Day Prophetic Year

Now there's one more thing to think about before we get too crazy. Is these are prophetic years. Meaning, like when I tell, when I ask you, how many days are in a year? What do you say? 365. Is a biblical year 365 days? A biblical prophetic year is 360 days. Now why? Why is it different? Well, don't get too hung up on it because it wasn't just Jews, it wasn't just Israel that used 360 years. The Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Persians, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Chinese, the Mayans, the Hindus, The Carthaginians, the Etruscans, they all used 360-year calendars, 360-day year calendars. Now that ends up changing at some point. I don't know the full reason why, but it ends up changing at some point in history, much, much later. But with that in mind, but God is still using a 360-day calendar. Let me prove it to you.

How many years is the tribulation period? 7. And is it divided into 3.5 years and 3.5 years? You hear, "In the middle of the week, in the middle of the 3.5 years, something happens," right? And then the book of Revelation uses 3.5 years, 7 years, 3.5 years, 42 months, 1,260 days. Right? Well, if it takes 1,260, you'll realize that 1,260 divided by 360 days is 360— or 360 day— I said that wrong, but it's 360-day years. 360-day years. So even in the Book of Revelation, they're still using a 360-day year calendar.

And I really lost my place now, but So with that in mind, we know that after 483 of those— 490 altogether, but 483 of those 360-day years— Messiah the Prince will come. So 483 times 360 days equals 1,173,880 days from the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus until Messiah. Okay, here's another question. Till Messiah— what, what day? I mean, if Messiah lived 33 years, maybe right around that time, what day was it? The manger? Was it the cross? Was it some other day? I'll tell you what I think it is. Obviously, I'll give you my opinion, but The word there is "Mashiach Nagid," "until Messiah the Prince." Actually, Nagid was used— the first time it's used, it's used for Saul, the first king of Israel. He was called Nagid. Until Messiah the King, really. And I would argue that it's when Jesus presents himself as King. There are numerous occasions where the disciples and the crowds, they want to make Jesus King. He feeds the 5,000. They were going to take him, "He's our king," because they wanted to keep getting fed. "I don't have to work anymore. This is great. We're going to make him king." And he always either slips away or dismisses the crowd somehow or rebukes his disciples, says, "My time has not yet come. My hour is not yet come." In John chapter 6, it says, "Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he departed again to the mountain." by himself alone.

But then there's a day that Jesus not only accepts worship, he not only presents himself as king, he arranges the whole thing. Matthew 21. Now when they drew near Jerusalem— he's coming in for basically the final week— when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them." All this— I have this highlighted in my notes here— all this was done that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, lowly, lowly, sitting on a donkey, the colt, the foal of a donkey. So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set him on them. And a very great crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

All four Gospels give us a version of the same episode. You can read about it in Mark chapter 11, Luke chapter 19. It's in John chapter 12. And they're quoting not only Psalm 18, but they're quoting from Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9. It says, Rejoice, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. Jesus arranges that whole event. He's been telling them, no, no, no, no, no, no, No, don't make me king. No, no, stop, stop. Not this day. So much so that the Pharisees get really upset. Hey, hey, you don't want your disciples— they're declaring you to be the Messiah. You want to stop them. I'm sure you don't want them declaring you to be Messiah. He's like, no, if they don't hold— if they don't— if they don't speak, even the rocks will speak.

So the day that Jesus presented himself as King to the nation of Israel was the day that falls exactly 173,880 days after the decree of Artaxerxes to Nehemiah. Now, this isn't easy to figure out because you have the Hebrew calendar, 365 days, then— but now do we— we don't have the month of Nisan, do we? We have January, February, March, April, May, right? What's that calendar? That's the Julian calendar. It takes some work because, OK, 360— OK, I know Nehemiah ended up adding a month every so many years because of leap years. And then you have the Julian calendar. We have 116 leap days between those— in that 483 years. So it takes work to figure that out.

There's a book that really went into great detail about all this. It was by a guy named Sir Robert Anderson. He was the former head of Scotland Yard, and he published a book called The Coming Prince. It was first published in 1894, and in it he said this: And the date of it can be ascertained in accordance with the Jewish custom. The Lord went up to Jerusalem upon the 8th of Nisan, 6 days before the Passover. But as the 14th, uh, but as the 14th on which the Paschal supper was eaten fell that year upon a Thursday, the 8th was the preceding Friday. He must have spent Sabbath therefore at Bethany, and on the evening of the 9th, after the Sabbath had ended, the supper took place in Martha's house. Upon the following day, the 10th of Nisan, he entered Jerusalem as recorded in the Gospels. The Julian date for the 10th of Nisan was Sunday, the 6th of April, AD 32.

What then was the length of period intervening between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the public advent of Messiah the Prince? Between April 4th— between March 14th, BC 445 and April 6th, AD 32, the interval contained exactly and to the very day 173,880 days, or 7 times 69 prophetic years of 360 days, the first 69 weeks of Gabriel's prophecy. That, that's pretty incredible. I remember where I was the first time I actually heard somebody preach this passage. It was here in town. And I'd been a believer for maybe 3 or 4 years, maybe 3 years already. And I heard and I was blown away by the 70 weeks of Daniel. Why is it so important? Now we can't do this with the Second Coming. Okay, no one knows the day or the hour. God hasn't given us a timeline. He didn't say, oh, you know, on January 10th of, you know, 2036, you know, he didn't give us a date. He says, you don't know the day or the hour, so just be ready all the time. You know, because if he did give us a day or the hour, we'd be doing our own thing until, you know, oh, what's coming in about a week? I better get, I better get on it, you know. And that's just the nature of fallen man. No, he didn't give us a day or the hour, but he did give them a day and an hour for his first coming. And he held them responsible for not knowing it.

Because while all this is happening, Luke 19 is the parallel passage to what we've been reading in Matthew. Same story, but Luke gives us a little bit more detail, right? Starting around verse 41 of Luke 19: And as Jesus is coming into Jerusalem riding on the donkey, Says, now, as he drew near, he saw the city and he wept over it, saying, ah, 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, 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— get this last phrase— because you did not know the time of your visitation. He had told them ahead of time when he was coming. And then he comes. They don't believe him. They reject him. Even though he had a crowd saying, Hosanna, Hosanna, the leaders, nobody— they didn't believe in him. And that's Sunday, and on Friday he's going to be crucified.

And that brings us to verse 26, 9:26. And after the 62 weeks— notice it's not within the 62 weeks, it's after. If he came in on Sunday, Friday is after. After the 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off. Karat. He shall be cut off. But not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end shall come with a flood, until the end of the war desolations are determined.

So at the end of the 7 plus 62, or at the end of 69 weeks of years, Jesus would be cut off, cut down, completely cut off. He entered Jerusalem on that Sunday to the praise of the crowd, but on Friday they were yelling, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" And he was cut off. Again, but not for himself. He didn't die for his own sins. He didn't die because of anything wrong that he had done. He died as the atonement, the propitiation for our sins.

# The Destruction of the Temple

And now there is a change in characters. As we continue reading, we're almost done. Then the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. So if Jesus died in 32 AD, the temple was still standing, wasn't it? The temp— the, the veil got torn from top to bottom, but was the temple still there? Yes. Did the Levitical priests still sacrifice lambs the next day. Yes, and they continued to do that until they rebelled against Rome, but they continued to do that. And but then there was a literal prince that came and destroyed the city and the sanctuary. Remember Vespasian? Became emperor and his son Titus was sent, because there was, was it 69? I think it was 69 AD. There was 4 emperors on the throne. Everybody's fighting and Vespasian takes over and then he sends Titus back. I think it was 69. I didn't write that down. 80. But he sends Titus back. Go back to Jerusalem, finish it off. So he sends Titus back and Titus They've been besieged for, I think they started in '67, so they've been besieged for a couple years already. Titus goes back, destroys the city, burns the temple to the ground, and of course the gold that's lining the temple goes down between all the stones. And the soldiers, Titus's soldiers, then start prying all these stones apart because they want to get to the gold, and not one stone of those buildings is left upon another. So all you have today is the retaining wall, which is— we call the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall. But the buildings that used to be on top, they were destroyed. So now what do you have up there? The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. They were built much later.

So a literal prince, Vespasian's son, The son of a king, that's the definition of a prince. He comes and besieges Jerusalem in 70 AD, destroys the temple, fulfilling Jesus's words that no stone will remain upon another of the building of the temple. So we have come to the end of the 69th week. Messiah was cut off, but not for himself. Jesus' first coming had taken care of sin, the sin problem, by sacrificing himself in accordance with the scriptures.

And now the 69th week— the 69 weeks are complete. What about the 70th week? There's one left, right? So 32 AD, add 7 more. What happened in 3980? I mean, I'm sure a lot of things happened, but nothing significant happens in 3980. Verse 9 says— verse 27 says, then he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. Hopefully we're doing okay on time. I don't even know where I'm at here.

When shall he confirm a covenant? Who is he? I mean, some argue that this is Jesus, that Jesus will confirm a covenant, but I don't see it that way. Who is the last person spoken of in verse 26? So the closest antecedent It's the prince of the people who shall come. And that was Titus. We know that was Titus because we can look back at history. For them, it was still future, but we can look back and we know that was Titus. Who came with Titus? Yeah, the 5th, the 10th, the 12th, and the 15th legions came with Titus. So there will be a prince who confirms a covenant for one week, our 70th week.

Why is there almost 2,000-year— why is there a 2,000-year gap if it hasn't happened yet? Can we justify a gap like this? Are there other instances in Scripture where there's a gap like this? Well, there's lots of them because there's always in prophecy, there's always like a near and far fulfillment going on a lot of places. But I mean, it And I've preached on this before. I'm probably sounding redundant. But you can look at one place when Jesus is preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth. And he opens the scroll. The scroll to the prophet Isaiah is given to him. And he finds the place. You know, there weren't any chapter divisions on his scroll. But he finds Isaiah 61. And he begins to read. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. He closes the scroll, hands it back to the attendant, sits down, and all the eyes of the synagogue are on him. And he says, today these words are fulfilled in your hearing.

Well, Jesus didn't actually read the whole verse. He stopped at a comma. He didn't read the whole thing. But if you look at Isaiah, you see that what Jesus didn't say— he said, "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," in English, comma, and the day of vengeance of our God. So he came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, closes the scroll, this is fulfilled. What about the year of vengeance of our God? Not fulfilled yet. It's been 2,000 years almost. The year of vengeance of our God hasn't come. What's our job today? What's your job? As the church, what's our job? Go and make disciples. Teaching them everything that I have taught you, right? You, don't worry about, don't worry about the kingdom. Don't worry about— you, church, go and preach the gospel. Go and make disciples. That's our job. That wasn't Israel's job, that's our job. When that period is over, God will again turn his attention to the nation of Israel.

When we're reading through the book of Revelation, you get to chapter 4, it says to John, 'Come up here.' From 4, I would argue, till 19, where's the church? You see the angels, you see them proclaim, you see the tribes of Israel, and 12,000 from this tribe, 12,000 from that tribe, 12,000 from this tribe. Well, that's definitely not the church. Not if you have a historical, grammatical, literal hermeneutic. If you have an allegorical hermeneutic, it could be whatever you want it to be. So it's, it's very literal.

This prince who is to come, I would argue, is the Antichrist. He will make a covenant, a treaty with many. I would say that's the majority. That could be between the world and Israel, possibly. Why do I say with Israel? Well, look at the context. It says, in the middle of the week, 3.5 years, 1,260 days, 42 months, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. On the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate. What does that mean? Well, Jesus warned his followers about it. He said in Matthew 24, Verse 15 to 21, he says, therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet— oh wait, wait, wait, so I thought the abomination of desolation is history. No, Jesus says it's still coming.

When you see it standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. Then let those who are in Judea— where? Judea, Israel— flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down and take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. Sabbath? For there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor shall— no, nor ever shall be. So it's something— there's something— what the abomination of— it's someone or something standing in the holy place, the temple. Well, there is no temple now. Where's the temple? Good luck putting one there now. I shouldn't say luck, it's not luck, but you know what I mean. Don't— because the Dome of the Rock is there. Want to see World War III break out? Try to put the, the temple there right now. But by this— by the middle of the, the covenant, there will be one there. So the Jews are going to be— they're actually going to like this Antichrist. Just because Israel right now likes our president doesn't make me real happy, because they're actually going to like the Antichrist. He's going to be like a messiah to the nation of Israel. They're going to think that he is the one.

But Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the gathering togeth— and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by word or letter, as if from us, as though the day of the Lord had come. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God and that is worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Give you a good picture of what the abomination of desolation is. Someone standing in the temple, the Antichrist, declaring himself to be God. The 70th week is still coming, folks.

How about you? Have you submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you given your life to him? I don't mean that you said a prayer when you were 5 years old. That's great. Or when you were 12, and then you went on for the next 30, 40, 50 years never giving the Lord another thought. Johnny talked about that this morning with easy-believism. What was the other word? Gospel-centric or hyper— hyper-grace. That's what that was, right? That was it. Hyper-grace. You know, that, that's not what I mean. Are you living for him? What did Jesus say to Peter at Tagba? I think that was where they were when he was on the shore and he was restoring Peter. What did he say to him? What was his job? Feed my sheep. Tend my lambs. Are you serving your fellow believers, or are we tearing each other down basically in violation of what Johnny preached this morning, hating one another, backbiting one another. I hope we're not doing that. Well, we're still here, so even if that's what we've done, you still have time to make it right. I still have time. We still have time. Let's love one another. Let's serve one another. Let's pray for one another. If we have needs, let's help each other and fulfill, fulfill what John the Apostle was telling us, commanding us to love one another. And let's not ignore eschatology. I know it's not everybody's thing, but God did hold the Jews responsible for not knowing. So let's not just ignore it either. 1/3 of your Bible is prophecy. Let's not ignore it.

Father God, thank you for your word, Lord. Thank you for these passages, Father. Pray, Lord, that I didn't really mess these up. But I pray, Lord, that you would encourage your people. Help us to walk with you. Help us to love you. Help us not to attack each other. But Lord, if we have disagreements, Let's not call each other names, Father, but let's open your word and try to figure out what you really said so that we can obey you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.