Seventy Weeks are Determined Part IV – (Daniel 9:24-27)
Bible Verse(s)
Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.
And after the sixty-two 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 of it 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.
Reading Notes
As we take our final look at the last part of this prophecy, we begin to examine the final week of years and conditions surrounding the beginning of that week. There are two primary events associated with this section of the prophecy. One is the destruction of the city and the sanctuary and the next is a covenant with the many for one week. The first event of this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed the city and the temple. They burned Herod’s temple to the ground, they did not leave one stone of the temple on top of another. This was done in order to get to the gold which had melted between the cracks. This sets up the second half of this prophecy because it identifies the nationality of the people to make the covenant with the many. In this case the Romans, who were the people who came and destroyed the city and the temple. The word “many” here is identified as the Jewish people of the nation of Israel.
The destruction of the temple was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when the Romans under Titus sacked the city, destroying the city and the temple. This effectively stopped the prophetic clock until the second portion of the prophecy can be fulfilled. But in order to fulfill this prophecy two conditions have existed. Those conditions are Israel as a nation and a rebuilt Roman Empire. We know from history that Israel became a nation in 1948. After two thousand years of extinction, God brought the Jewish people back from the nations to which they were scattered. They retained their language, history, culture and national identity and became a nation once again. And today we see in Europe the countries which once made up the Roman Empire reuniting to form a cohesive whole. The Bible tells us that these nations will come together and as a whole they will be ruled by ten ruling bodies.
From what the Bible tells us, we can know that several things will happen. One there will arise some form of a reunited Roman Empire in Europe, which is also confirmed by Daniels earlier prophecies. And secondly from this revived form of the Roman Empire there will emerge a leader who will do the impossible which is number three. He will make a peace treaty with Israel for one week, or seven years. It’s from this prophecy that we get the seven year Tribulation period with the last three and a half years called the Great Tribulation. This portion of scripture from Daniel confirms for us that in the middle of this week he, the Antichrist will break the covenant and bring an end to the sacrifices and offerings. This is startling because in order to bring an end to the sacrifices and offerings, there must be a temple in place in which to have the sacrifices and offerings. So from this the Bible confirms for us that during this treaty period there must be a functional Temple operating in Jerusalem.
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