Daniel Seventy Weeks of Sevens

The sermon examines the prophecy of the seventy weeks in Daniel chapter nine, demonstrating God's sovereign control over human history through a precise timeline culminating in Jesus Christ. It details how the decree to restore Jerusalem leads to the Messiah's arrival and subsequent crucifixion, fulfilling six specific redemptive purposes outlined in the text. The speaker contrasts covenant fulfillment and futuristic interpretations while affirming that Jesus is the ultimate focus of this prophetic revelation. Listeners are encouraged to trust God's perfect timing, pray using Scripture, and live as those who are greatly beloved in Christ. The message concludes by asserting that history is not random but is orchestrated by God to accomplish His eternal purposes through the work of Jesus.

Bible Insights with  Wayne Conrad
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Psalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

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Welcome to Bible Insights. I'm Wayne Conrad. And God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. Today's topic is the 70 weeks of sevens, or the prophecy of Daniel, chapter nine. In examining this passage of Scripture, we are considering one of the most remarkable and, unfortunately, one of the most debated prophetic passages in all of the Scriptures. Daniel chapter nine, specifically beginning at verse 20 and continuing through verse 27, contains the prophecy of the seven weeks and the 70 weeks of seven. I want to read this passage to you so that you will know exactly what I am referring to.

Remember that Daniel is praying, and he is praying for God to forgive the people for their sins, to restore the people to the land, and to rebuild His temple and reinstitute His worship. In verse 20 of Daniel 9, he says: "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before Yahweh, my God, for the holy hill of my God, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice." Although there is no temple at this time and no sacrifices being offered, Daniel remembers that his life has been regulated by the regular prayers of the day. Therefore, it is around three or four in the afternoon, the time of the evening sacrifice, when he presents his prayer before the Lord.

He continues to say, "He, that is Gabriel, made me understand and spoke with me, saying, 'Oh Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision.'"

Seventy weeks are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.

And for the 62 weeks, it shall be built again with squares and a moat, but in a troubled time. And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war.

Desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.

Now, these are the words. The vision is an auditory vision. Daniel hears what Gabriel has to say, his revelation. So when I say seventy weeks, I need to clarify something right away. The Hebrew phrase means literally "seventy sevens." It is not referring to 70 weeks in the way we understand weeks—Monday through Sunday, seven days. The word means a unit of seven. And depending on the context, it can mean seven days or seven years. In this context, as we will see later, it means 70 units of seven years. That is a total of 490 years.

So stay with me, because underneath this prophecy is one of the most extraordinary demonstrations of God's sovereign control over human history that you will find anywhere in the Bible. I want to remind you that when we read the Bible, it is important that we understand the context.

So let me set the stage. Daniel at this time is an old man. He is probably in his eighties. He has been living in Babylonian exile for nearly seventy years. He came there as a teenager. One day he is reading the prophet Jeremiah, specifically Jeremiah chapter 25, verses 11 and 12, and Jeremiah 29, verse 10, where God declared that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. Now, what does Daniel do when he reads this? Does he say, well, God promised it, so I will just sit back and wait for it to happen? No, not at all.

Daniel set his face toward the Lord God. He sought God by prayer and petition, with fasting and wearing sackcloth and ashes. So if you read Daniel 9, verses 4 through 19, what you find is one of the most beautiful, heart-wrenching prayers of confession of sin in the entire Bible. Daniel identifies himself completely with the sins of his people. He does not say they have sinned; he says we have sinned. And he pleads with God to act, not because Israel deserves it, but for the sake of God’s own name. And here is what I want you to notice.

God did not wait for Daniel to finish praying before He answered. Listen: verse 20 says, “While I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, was caused to fly swiftly and touched me about the time of the evening offering.” So Gabriel, the same angel who had appeared to Daniel in chapter eight, is dispatched from heaven. And while Daniel is still on his knees, Gabriel arrives at the time of the evening offering.

Now think about that detail for a moment. The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed for nearly seventy years. There was no evening offering being made, yet Daniel still ordered his day by the rhythm of temple worship. Even in exile, even when the sanctuary was in ruins, even when the sacrificial system no longer existed, his life was oriented around the worship of Yahweh. This tells you something about the kind of man Daniel was. And Gabriel says to him in verse 23, at the beginning of your petitions, the commandment went out and I have come to tell you, For you are greatly beloved, therefore consider the matter and understand the vision.

Greatly loved, greatly beloved. What a thing for God to say to his servant. And the instruction is to consider the matter, to understand the vision. In other words, pay close attention to what I am about to tell you, because it will require careful thought and perhaps even more prayer. So let us look at the heart of the prophecy. We find it in verse 24. Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city to accomplish six things: to finish disobedience, 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.

Now, I want you to notice something. Gabriel does not simply give Daniel a number—four hundred ninety years—and leave it at that. He tells Daniel what will be accomplished during those years: six purposes. And every single one of them is focused on finality. This is not a temporary fix. This is God bringing his redemptive program to its completion. So let me walk through them with you.

First, to finish disobedience. The Hebrew word means to bring transgression to its completion, to bring it to an end, to close it off. Second, to make an end of sins, that is to contain sin, to shut it in, to mark it as concluded. And third, to make reconciliation for iniquity. The Hebrew word here, kapor, means to cover over, to atone. This is the language of sacrifice. Someone is going to pay for guilt.

Fourth, to bring in everlasting righteousness, not a temporary righteousness, not a righteousness that fades, but a permanent, unshakeable righteousness that lasts forever. Fifth, to seal up vision and prophecy, that is, to bring prophetic revelation to its fulfillment, to complete it so thoroughly that it reaches its intended goal. And sixth, to anoint the most holy, that is, the most holy place. Now consider with me each of these six purposes that finds its fulfillment in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

Sin is dealt with finally at the cross. Reconciliation for iniquity is accomplished through Jesus' atoning sacrifice. Everlasting righteousness is brought in through his perfect life and resurrection. Vision and prophecy are sealed up. That is, they are brought to their intended goal in him, because they are all about him. And the most holy is anointed, because Christ himself is the temple, the dwelling place of God among his people. Even in the early days of his ministry, Jesus gave reference to that. You find this in John chapter two, where he speaks of his body as the temple. This is the prophetic horizon.

Everything that follows in verses 25 through 27 is the timetable for how God would accomplish these six purposes. Now, Gabriel divides the 490 years into three distinct periods. So let me direct your attention to this. The first period is seven weeks. That is, seven weeks of seven years, which is 49 years. 49 years.

Verse 25, know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to the anointed one, the prince, will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It will be built again with street and moat, even in troubled times. So the starting point is the decree to restore and build Jerusalem. Historically, this corresponds to the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus in 445 BC. You can read about it in Nehemiah chapter 1, verses 1 through 8, where Artaxerxes authorized Nehemiah to go and to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The first seven weeks, that is 49 years, covered the period of Jerusalem's restoration under Nehemiah and Ezra.

This period is set apart from the others because it is the initial phase in which the temple is rebuilt and the sacrifice is reinstituted. The phrase "troubled times" is an understatement. If you read the book of Nehemiah, you know there was opposition, there was conspiracy, there were threats, and there was discouragement at every turn, but the work was completed. After the initial seven weeks, there are 62 additional weeks.

If you apply your mathematical reasoning, that is 434 years. This period extends from the completion of Jerusalem's rebuilding to the appearance of the anointed one, the prince. This is a specific statement of when the prince, the Messiah, would come. The Hebrew word there is Mashiach, not Messiah, the prince. The term Mashiach is the word from which we get Messiah. Enagged means prince or ruler.

Okay. Now, here's where it becomes extraordinary. If you add the total of seven weeks and 62 weeks, that equals 69 weeks or 483 years. If you calculate this from the decree of Xerxes in 445 BC, using the prophetic 360-day year, because it is based on a lunar calendar rather than a solar calendar, with 360 days in a year, you arrive at approximately AD 30 to 33. This is the very time of Jesus' public ministry, which began with his baptism in the Jordan and culminated in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, about three years later. This is not coincidence. It is the sovereign hand of God orchestrating history down to the exact year and the exact day when the Messiah would present himself to Israel.

But now look at verse 26. It says, after 62 weeks, the anointed one will be cut off and will have nothing. The phrase "cut off" is a significant term in the Old Testament. It often means to be executed or to die a premature death. Notice the timing. The anointed one is cut off after the 62 weeks are complete—after the 483 years—but before the final 70 weeks begin. This creates a gap in the timeline.

The prophetic timeline pauses, and he will have nothing. Some translations render this as "not for himself." He gains nothing for himself. He is cut off. He receives no kingdom, no throne, and no earthly dominion at that moment. What does this sound like? It sounds like the crucifixion. Jesus, the Messiah, was cut off and crucified. At that moment, he had no earthly power or glory. He died as a rejected king. He had no crown but thorns, no throne but a cross. And yet, this is the mystery of the gospel: it was precisely in that cutting off that reconciliation for iniquity was accomplished.

Just read Isaiah 53 in consideration of this passage. Verse 26 continues: "The people of the prince who comes will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will continue to the end. Desolations are determined." The people of the prince who comes. Now this is a different figure from the anointed one. This is a coming ruler whose people will destroy Jerusalem and the temple. Historically, this was fulfilled in AD 70, when the Roman armies under Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and the second temple.

Jesus himself predicted this in Matthew 24, verses one and two, and in Luke 21, verses 20 through 24. The language of flood and desolations echoes the covenant curses. God had warned through Moses in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus that if you break the covenant, these consequences will come. And they did, devastatingly.

Now verse 27: the seventieth week, and the final week. Let me read these words, because this is a matter where there will be differences of interpretation. "He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week, he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, and even to the decreed full end, wrath will be poured out on the desolate."

Now, I want to be honest with you. This is a verse that has been understood differently by faithful Bible-believing interpreters, both within and outside the Reformed tradition. Let me lay out the two main views clearly, so you will understand what is at stake. These could be sharpened a little more, but this will do for a general view. You have the Covenant Fulfillment view. You will find this in Reformed and Amillennial interpretation.

It says that He who makes a firm covenant is the Messiah, Jesus Christ Himself. Therefore, the final seven-week period, a seven-year period, is inaugurated by Christ's public ministry. In the middle of the week, at His crucifixion, He causes the sacrifice and offering to cease, because He Himself became the final, once-for-all sacrifice. The book of Hebrews makes exactly this argument: that the old covenant sacrificial system has been rendered obsolete by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The abomination of desolation finds its near fulfillment in the destruction of the temple in AD 70. It may also have a further fulfillment in the ongoing spiritual reality that the old covenant system has come to an end. This is the covenant fulfillment view.

It can be broken down into two or three more precise time periods. But the main idea is that it is all about Christ. Everything is focused on Jesus Christ Himself as the fulfillment of this prophecy, and He is the one who brings to pass all that is prophesied. There is the futuristic view, which can be found in some premillennial and dispensational interpretations. This view holds that the figure referred to is a future Antichrist. The way they arrive at this understanding is by separating the seventieth week from the first sixty-nine weeks by a long gap, which they call the current church age. The middle of the week would be three and a half years into a seven-year tribulation, during which the Antichrist would break his covenant with Israel, desecrate a rebuilt temple, and trigger the final events of history before Christ returns. Both views affirm that this prophecy points to the sovereign hand of God over history, and that Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of the messianic hope.

But the question is the precise timing and identity of the figures in verse 27. Let me now address this point directly. We have the first seven weeks separated from the sixty-two weeks, but there is no gap between them. In other words, the first seven weeks, or forty-nine years, are specified for a particular purpose: the return of the people to the land and the building and completion of the second temple. Then follows the regular course of time until the appearance of the Messiah himself. After that, there are seven years.

These seven years follow directly. There is no mention of a gap. Nothing separates them from the preceding period. They follow immediately after the sixty-two weeks. Therefore, I believe this is a continuous sequence without interruption. There is no gap because the scripture itself does not mention one. We are adding that idea to the text. I believe this is unwarranted. However, there is one thing we can affirm with certainty, regardless of which view one holds. The seventy-week prophecy demonstrates that God is not improvising. He is not making things up as He goes along. He declared through Jeremiah, in the passages that Daniel was studying, that the exile would last seventy years. Although the Bible often uses rounded figures, seventy years is the designated time.

He also declared through Gabriel that a program of four hundred ninety years would culminate in the Messiah’s work of atonement, the establishment of everlasting righteousness, and the completion of all prophetic revelation. And in Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in Bethlehem, crucified outside Jerusalem approximately three and a half years after His baptism, He was raised on the third day from the dead and, forty days later, He ascended into heaven where He reigns at the right hand of God the Father. Thus, in Jesus of Nazareth, this program, this declared plan of God, was set in motion, and its decisive work was accomplished.

So what is the significance of all of this for us? First, let me give you four things to keep in mind. First, trust God’s timetable, not your own. Daniel expected the exile to end soon, and it did, but God’s answer revealed a plan far greater than Daniel had imagined.

We live in an age of instant everything. We want answers now, results now, resolutions now, but God works on a scale and a timeline that surpasses our understanding. He is never late. He is never early. He is always right on time. His time is better than ours. So what do we do? We pray. We commit ourselves to God. We wait for His timing, and we do whatever He has commanded us to do in the meantime, which is to be faithful until He comes.

Second, pray Scripture back to God. Daniel’s prayer in verses four through nineteen was filled with the language of the Torah, the prophets, and the covenant, the law. He did not create new arguments. He appealed to God’s own revealed character and God’s own promises written in the law. This is how we should pray—not with empty repetition, but with the words and truths that God has given us in the holy Scriptures. Let the Scriptures shape your prayers. Pray back to God His words—His words of promise, His words of character, His words of hope.

Third, look to Christ as the fulfillment of all prophecy. The seventy weeks are not merely an intellectual puzzle to solve. In fact, they are not an intellectual puzzle to solve. They are a path that leads to Jesus. Every purpose named in verse twenty-four—the end of sin, the covering of iniquity, the bringing in of everlasting righteousness—is accomplished in Jesus Christ Himself. If you want to understand Daniel 9, you must look at the cross. The cross is where sin was finished. The cross is where reconciliation was made. The cross is where everlasting righteousness was purchased.

Fourth, live as those who belong to the body of those who are greatly loved. Daniel was called greatly beloved, but Daniel was not perfect. He was a sinner who needed to confess, and he did so with tears. Yet he was a man who walked with God, and God called him treasured. If you are in Christ, you are greatly beloved. Not because of your righteousness, but because of His. Not because you have earned it, but because He purchased it. This is your identity.

You are greatly beloved because you are in the beloved Son of the Father, Jesus Christ Himself. So Daniel's prayer began with confession and ended with a plea for God to act for His own name's sake. God answered, not only with the return from exile, or only with the rebuilding of the temple and the re-institution of the sacrificial system, but with a revelation that extends all the way to the coming of the Messiah and the inauguration of the end of the age, which occurs in Jesus Himself. This is found in Hebrews chapter one, verses one through four. Christ Himself brings in, and begins, the consummation of the ages.

The seventy weeks of Daniel nine show that history is not random. Empires, nations, kings, and presidents rise and fall. Kings and prime ministers come and go. At times the world seems chaotic, but God is sovereign over every year, every decree, every empire, every nation, and every moment. He is working in all things toward the fulfillment of His purposes in Jesus Christ, and we will see these purposes fully realized when Christ returns in glory.

So as you go about your life this week, this day, and the days ahead, remember that you serve a God who makes and keeps His promises, every single one of them. He is always on schedule, never early, never late. He is accomplishing great good because of His name. He is the sovereign Yahweh we worship—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stay in His word. Trust His timing. Live as one who is greatly beloved, and speak to Him. Turn to Him every day, speak your words of love to Him, and hear His words of love to you. All of this is found in the precious name of Jesus. Thank you for listening. Until next time, this is Wayne Conrad reminding us that God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.