Daniel 9:24 Commentary and Bible Study

The message of this wonderful vision is that Messiah is the chief purpose of everything that is going to happen. The assumption behind Daniel's prayer has been that the testimony to the Lord is harmed and spoiled by the ongoing state of Jerusalem. ‘The period of punishment is now at an end, according to thy word O Lord’, he seems to say, ‘but what about the restoration of the city? So much is at stake and the honour and the very name of God.’ But God will say to him, in effect, ‘It isn't just Jerusalem, where the focus of my testimony and my witness is. I am going to tell you about something much more than that. It isn't just about the renewal of the city and the re-establishment of Judah. It's about the coming of Messiah. He is everything. The existence of Jerusalem is only temporary as the focus of my name and my witness. That will be superseded by the coming of Messiah. The rites and the ceremonies that are carried on in the temple: they only speak of him. I am now going to tell you about something much more significant than the restoration of Jerusalem. I'm going to tell you about the purpose of Jerusalem and the temple, and what they prophesy and the coming of Messiah’‘Seventy weeks are determined’, by God, that is. Daniel has referred to the seventy literal years of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and now he is going to be told about seventy sevens. The Hebrew here refers to seven, seventy heptads or sevens. Our translators have called it weeks, but the word does not literally mean weeks. Nobody believes this is about seventy literal weeks, four hundred and ninety days. Whatever would be accomplished in four hundred and ninety days? This is a mysterious number: seventy sevens. It is made up of sevens and tens. Both of them in the language of prophecy and in the Old Testament, are complete and perfect numbers. So numbers that are special numbers, perfect numbers, indicating perfection, are combined together: seventy sevens. It is most likely of course to be a symbolic period of time. That wouldn't surprise us. This is the Book of Daniel. So much in the Book of Daniel is symbolic. The dreams that Daniel interpreted were full of symbolism. There is, first of all, that great image in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar: the image of a man that was vast and huge, and there are different levels of the body of the man in the image, which represented the four great world empires, and different metals that composed the portion of the body that represented each successive empire in the prophecy. They depicted something of the character of that empire. Symbolism, all the way. A little later in the vision the empires come again but this time they are portrayed as beasts: more symbolism. Some of the most significant things that come out of these beasts, or empires, are described in terms of horns. So the book is full of symbolism. Almost everything that God tells Daniel is in terms of symbols – though on the whole they are easy symbols to interpret, and they are plain and have a historic context, so it's fairly easy to understand, especially with hindsight. ‘You have spoken’, God seems to say, ‘of seventy years. Now I am going to tell you about seventy sevens.’ What was to happen was longer than the seventy years in Babylon; even if he had thought it was literal he would not have been far out. Probably he took it symbolically.So what are the seventy sevens? What do they represent? A great deal of time and energy has gone into trying to figure out how these can match historical periods. But they do go this far: we can see, with hindsight, that they do show proportions between these periods. Verse 24 is the unfolding future from Daniel's time. ‘Seventy sevens’ are set by God for the what will turn out ‘for thy people.’ Who are ‘thy people’? The answer will depend on how what follows is interpreted. Many people will say, ‘Obviously, the Jews, because Daniel was of Judah, and indeed he was of royal lineage, in Judah. So this must therefore be about the Jews.’ But this is a Messianic passage; this is going to be all about Messiah. Not all the Jews believed in Messiah, and not all were earnest. That is why they were being punished so severely. Only a remnant, a minority, would return to Jerusalem when the signal came by the edict of Cyrus. So we should interpret ‘thy people’ sensibly as being the faithful among the Jews. Yes, for the time being the nation as a whole would be dealt with by God, and Jeremiah’s prophecy concerned the restoration of the nation, but the list of wonderful things that Messiah would achieve which follow in this verse, are about what he would do for the believing remnant, including even believing Gentiles. Then there is the list of things that are going to take place before the expiry of this period of seventy weeks. This list is a wonderful list – there are six items. First of all on the list – ‘to finish the transgression.’ What does that mean? Some people say it means, to finish the period of punishment, the captivity in Babylon, to end the constant rebelliousness of the Jews, to complete their sin. Others describe it differently. But the most likely meaning is the traditional interpretation among Bible believers going right back, so beautifully outlined and written up by Augustine during his lifetime, and taken up by most of the Reformers, the standard interpretation right up until the early part of the 19th century. We will take this old view, the Augustinian view, the Calvin view and so on. It is very a straightforward interpretation. Seventy weeks: it seems largely a figurative term, but it does show the proportions. ‘Seventy sevens are determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city to finish the transgression.’ Now ‘to finish the transgression’ we interpret as meaning, to bring to an end the dominion and the mastery of all transgression. Not to a final end, but to end its rule and its reign. When did that happen? Well it happened when Christ went to Calvary. The dominion and the reign of sin was effectively ended. Of course it didn't altogether end. The world has gone on and people have continued to be sinners. But from Calvary sin could be forgiven; people could go to heaven, and people who trusted in the mercy of God, even before Calvary, who have already gone to heaven: it was through Calvary that that was possible. Through Calvary sin and its dominion was defeated, and the reign of terror and the reign of hell were defeated, and the door of heaven was opened and forgiveness was possible. So we interpret ‘finish the transgression’ as being an aspect of Calvary: the end of the absolute rule of sin and of hell.Then consider the second: ‘and to make an end of sins.’ That also happened on Calvary. To make an end of sins for all who repent, for all who are in Christ Jesus: it was accomplished on Calvary. ‘And to make reconciliation for iniquity’, to make a cover for iniquity. That is the language of atonement; that happened on Calvary. These are all aspects of Calvary. Three things – this is the traditional evangelical interpretation. Three negatives, first of all, that Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. He finished the transgression; made an end of sins; he made reconciliation for iniquity. Then three other things which sound more positive. ‘To bring in everlasting righteousness.’ It wasn't altogether brought in, of course, because the world went on and there was still evil in the world. But everlasting righteousness was brought in on Calvary, when, by the obedience, the life and the sacrificial death of Christ, his perfect righteousness could be imputed to all his people, and they would be safe and rewarded as though it were theirs. He brought in heaven and everlasting righteousness. ‘And to seal up the vision and prophecy.’ Christ accomplished that on Calvary too, because now all the prophets and all their prophecies – the Old Testament prophets, that is – have been fulfilled in Christ. Everything that they said about redemption: it meets in Christ. So he has fulfilled and sealed up, brought to a close, the era of Old Testament prophecy. Now again it's true that there are prophecies in the Old Testament that go beyond the time of Christ. There are prophecies that speak of the end – although they don't make it clear that it is the end – and the final judgment, and things of that order. But the bulk of prophecy which is about Christ, including this 24th verse, were fulfilled with the coming of Christ. So he sealed up the vision and prophecy. Christ will fulfil prophecy in this sense also: he will complete the Scriptures. The New Testament will be finished and writings of the apostles as his Spirit leads them into all truth.‘And to anoint the most holy.’ Anointing is something that the Holy Spirit does – we see it in the Book of Isaiah – and Christ is going to be the one who is anointed by the Spirit, the Messiah, and he is the Redeemer who will come. We see it in Isaiah so clearly: the prophecies of Isaiah, both in chapter 61 and 65, speak of him as the Anointed one, and the one who will do these very things. Christ is the temple. He is the fulfilment of the temple. The temple is a picture and a prophecy of him with all its rites and ceremonies. When he comes, he will does all the temple work in his person. So, ‘to anoint the most holy’, means to bring in Christ for his work of redemption. All those six things – the three negatives, the three positives – are all aspects of what Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross before the end of the seventy weeks. It is a completely Messianic verse.