Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Daniel 9:20 - 27

October 6, 2024

Message: “Seventy Weeks of Years!” 

by Pastor George Gnade

Intro.: 1. As most of you know, we have been studying passages in the Book of Daniel that everyone ought to be familiar with.  Today we are considering this prophecy about seventy weeks of years (Dan. 9:24).

a. 7 times 70 equals 490. Most scholars agree that every week is symbolic of 7 years. So 70 weeks times seven years would be equal to 490 years.

b. This prophecy is very important because it accurately predicted the coming of Christ.

2. Daniel had been fasting and praying for the Jewish people. They had been taken into captivity by the Babylonians in 605 B.C. Jeremiah had predicted that they would be allowed to return to their own land after being in captivity for seventy years (Dan. 9:2). 

a. As that year approached, Daniel knew the people didn’t deserve it. But to honor His Word and the city of Jerusalem where the temple had been destroyed, Daniel prayed the people would be allowed to return.

b. God heard Daniel’s prayer, and Cyrus the Great of Persia granted the Jews the right to return. It happened just as God said it would (II Chronicles 36:23).

3. But God did this because of another promise He had made of even greater importance. As most of you should know by now, in almost every prophecy that Daniel interpreted, the coming of Jesus was mentioned.

a. In Dan. 2: 34, Jesus was called “the Rock” that would defeat the kingdoms of this world and establish His own kingdom instead. 

b. In Dan. 3:25, Jesus appeared in the fiery furnace as the “Son of God” who would come to save His people.

c. In Dan. 7:13, we are told how Jesus, “the Son of Man,” would ascend into heaven after His death and resurrection to appear before the throne of heaven and receive all the power and glory that the Father promised to give Him. 

d. And now in Dan. 9:25-26, Jesus is called “the Anointed One,” which means “the Messiah.”

4. How amazing that all of these titles describing Jesus are used in the Book of Daniel! But for any of this to happen, the Jews had to return to their own land where the promised Messiah would be born in the days of the Romans. That is where the prophecy about the 490 years comes into the picture. 

A.  In Dan. 9: 24, it tells us significant things that would happen toward the end of the 490 years.

1. To begin with, it says God would “finish transgression, put an end to sin, and atone for wickedness.”  I believe that happened when Jesus died on the cross and “atoned” for our sins.  From that day on, the sacrifices of the O.T. would no longer be necessary.

2. Vs. 24 also says Jesus would “bring in everlasting righteousness.”  The N.T. calls this “the righteousness that comes by faith” through our faith in Christ (Rom. 10: 6-11).

a. It is called an “everlasting righteousness” because Jesus paid the penalty for sin once and for all. 

b. Therefore, Jesus told us in John 10: 28 that He would give those who love and follow Him “eternal life” and “no one can pluck them out of His hands.”

3. To accomplish all of this, vs. 24 also says God would “anoint the Most Holy One” who would come.

a. That was fulfilled when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. 

b. As He was being baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove and God the Father spoke from heaven saying: “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  

c. Yes, Jesus is the “Most Holy One,” the only one who never sinned, qualifying Him to pay the penalty for our sins and lead His people to victory. 

B. Then God told Daniel exactly how and when this would happen, how the “seventy sevens” would occur.

1. In vs. 25, it says: “Know and understand that from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, (God’s) Ruler, comes, there will be seven sevens plus sixty two sevens.” That would be 7 weeks  + 62 weeks x 7 years which equals 69 x7 or 483 yrs.

a. The starting point would be “the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.”  Most scholars believe that happened in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 457 B.C.

b. Add to that 483 yrs., that would bring us to 26 A.D. (457 yrs. +26 yrs. = 483 yrs.). That is when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. That was God’s chosen way of introducing Jesus to the nation as a whole.

2. That would only leave one week of yrs. left, the 70th week, during which everything mentioned above was fulfilled. Vs. 27 says “in the middle of that week,” half way through the last seven years, after Jesus had ministered to the nation for 3 ½ years, “He would put an end to sacrifice and offerings” by His death on the cross. 

3. Many scholars believe vs. 26 describes the same event. The N.I.V. translation says: “The Anointed One will be cut off, and have nothing.” How true that was. Even His garments were given to the soldiers who crucified Him.

a. But other translators, including the K.J.V., believe a better translation of the text would be: “The Anointed One was cut off, but not for Himself.”

b. That would also be a beautiful way of describing Jesus’ crucifixion.  That is what we are taught in Is. 53:8. It says: “For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people, He was stricken.” 

4. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, but not because of His own sins. After all, He never sinned. No, He died to pay the penalty for our sins. He was “cut off, but not for Himself.”

In Conclusion: 1. Daniel had fasted and prayed for the Jewish people that God would allow them to return to their own land.

2. As he agonized and prayed, it says in Dan. 9: 21 that God sent the angel Gabriel to explain to Daniel exactly what God planned to do.

3. How exciting that God revealed to Daniel, not only how His people would be allowed to return to their own land, but how Jesus would come during the days of the Romans.

a. And in the prophecy about the 70 weeks of years, the passage we studied today, God predicted how Jesus would be anointed with the Holy Spirit at the same time that He was baptized by John the Baptist. 

b. It would happen in 26 A.D., 483 years after Nehemiah came to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

4. How amazing that God chose to use this event, in our passage from Daniel, to represent the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  And then, in the prophecy that Daniel received, to go on to share, how 3 ½ yrs. later, Jesus would die on the cross where He did die for our sins, and not His own. And so Jesus completed the very mission He set out to do. 

5. Considering how Daniel received and predicted all of this over 500 yrs. before Jesus was even born, it is amazing, just amazing. Amen.

Summary of the Historical Facts predicted by Daniel, esp. in Chapter 9.

1. The Jews went into captivity in 605 B.C. In response to Daniel’s prayers, Cyrus the great allowed them to return to their own country 70 years later.

2. God called Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 457 B.C. “Sixty nine times seven years” later, equal to 483 yrs., John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.

3. At the same time, God anointed Jesus, God’s “Most Holy One,” with the Holy Spirit who came down from heaven and sat on Him. That is when God also spoke from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

4. Jesus public ministry lasted 3 ½ years. Exactly 3 and ½ years after Jesus was baptized, half way through the seventieth year predicted by Daniel, Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

 5. That is when Jesus put an end to the sacrificial system. He “atoned for sin” once and for all. That is why our salvation is through faith in Christ, not faith in ourselves.

Jesus gave us an “everlasting righteousness” that no one can take away from us.