The Prophecy of the Seventy seven weeks

The Prophecy of the Seventy seven weeks

Jesus Christ vigorously announced that the Old Testament Scriptures comprised prophecies He would fulfill (Luke 24:27, 44). Biblical scholars have catalogued more than 300 astonishing prophecies that find accurate fulfillment in the life and work of the Son of God. One of these predictive affirmations is discovered in Daniel 9:24-27, routinely mentioned to as the prophecy of “Daniel's 70 weeks.” A correct analysis of Daniel 9:24ff engages some factors. First, one should contemplate upon the historical backdrop out of which the prophetic utterance arose. Second, concern should be granted to the theological facets of the Messiah's work that are set forward in this passage. Third, the chronology of the prophecy should be documented carefully; it comprises a major demonstration of the precision of divine prediction. Finally, one should contemplate the sobering judgment that was to be traveled to upon the Jewish territory in woke of its rejection of Christ. Let us give some vigilance to each of these issues.

Because of Israel's apostasy, the prophet Jeremiah had foretold that the Jews would be consigned as captives to Babylon. In that foreign land they would be confined for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:12; 29: 10). Sure sufficient, the prophet's warnings verified accurate. The general time span of the Babylonian confinement was 70 years (Daniel 9:2; 2 Chronicles 36:21; Zechariah 1:12; 7:5) Why not 60, or 80? There was a cause for this accurate time frame. The regulation of Moses had instructed the Israelites to accept every seventh year as a sabbatical year. The ground was to lie at rest (Leviticus 25:1-7). Apparently, over the centuries Israel had disregarded that divinely enforced regulation. In their pre-captivity annals, there appears to be no demonstration of their ever having respected the sabbath-year law. Thus, as asserted by the testimony of one biblical author, the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity was allotted “until the land had relished its sabbaths” (2 Chronicles 36:21). If each of the 70 captivity-years comprised a violation of the sabbatical-year obligation (i.e., every seventh year) as 2 Chronicles 36:21 seems to propose, this would show that Israel had neglected the - 2 - divine injunction for roughly 490 years. The captivity era thus looked backward upon nearly five centuries of sinful neglect.

At the identical time, Daniel's prophecy telescoped forward to a time—some 490 years into the future—when the “Anointed One” would “make an end of sins” (9:24). Daniel's prophecy appears to assess a sort of “mid-way” issue in the historical design of things. Observe the next design drawing over 70 years of captivity: 70 years of captivity In the first year of Darius, who had been nominated monarch over the realm of the Chaldeans (c. 538 B.C.), Daniel, mirroring upon the time span proposed by Jeremiah's prophecies, calculated that the captivity time span nearly was over (9:1-2). He therefore advanced Jehovah in prayer. The prophet confessed his own sins, as well as those of the ...