The Seventy Weeks of Daniel

“The Seventy Weeks of Daniel”
(Daniel 9:24-27)
I. Introduction.
A. In our text, Daniel sets his heart to pray.
1. He realizes the 70 years of exile spoken of by Jeremiah were just about over (v. 2).
2. And so he sets his heart to seek the Lord until the Lord reveals to him what is next for His covenant people in exile.
B. In answer to his prayer, the angel Gabriel comes with a message.

1. He not only tells Daniel what is next for Israel, he also tells him about how these events align with the coming of the
Messiah.
2. Now that the seventy years of exile are just about completed, the Lord has 70 weeks that are about to be
accomplished.
3. It is at the end of the sixty-ninth week that Messiah is coming to bring in the hope of Israel – the New Covenant.
4. This evening, I want us to see that the Lord not only told us who the Messiah was, and what He would do, but also
when He would come.
II. Sermon.
A. Gabriel tells Daniel that 70 weeks have been decreed for the Jews and for Jerusalem. In order to better understand
when these weeks occur, it would be helpful to see what is going to happen in them. So the first thing we’ll look at is the
purpose of these weeks.
1. Notice first, that they have to do with “your people and your holy city.” This has to do with the Jews and the holy
city, Jerusalem.
2. Second, the purpose of these weeks are also spelled out:
a. To finish the transgression: or to restrain it, to break its power.
b. To make an end of sin: to destroy it, abolish it, to pardon it, so that it can’t condemn.
c. To make atonement for iniquity: to cover over it.
d. To bring in everlasting righteousness: by removing sin and providing a perfect righteousness.
e. To seal up vision and prophecy: to fulfill it through His work.
f. To anoint the most holy place: some say Christ, others the heavenly temple.
g. Clearly, all of this has to do with the coming of Christ to make atonement for sin and to fulfill OT prophecy.
B. Second, let’s consider the time frames involved. Here’s where things can get tricky. There are many different views on
what the 70 weeks are, where they begin and where they end.
1. What are the seventy weeks?
a. The land had rest for seventy years, which were the Sabbaths the land missed for 490 years (Lev. 25:2-7).
b. Some see the 70 weeks as 70 groups of seven years in which the land Sabbaths would be observed.
c. Others see them as figurative: the time figure is that of ten jubilee years: a jubilee was celebrated after every 7
Sabbath years, or every 49 years.
2. When do they begin and when do they end?

a. Here’s another difficult question: especially when they begin. But here are the facts:
(i) We are told specifically that they begin at the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
(ii) After this, there will be seven weeks until it is rebuilt.
(iii) Then after the 7 weeks, 62 more until the coming of Messiah the Prince.
(iv) After the 62 weeks, Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.
(v) Then the people of the prince who is coming will destroy the city and the sanctuary.
b. Dispensational belief:
(i) They believe the weeks begin in 445, with the decree of Artaxerxes to allow Nehemiah to return and rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 2).
(ii) The city is rebuilt in the following 49 years.
(iii) Messiah comes after another 434 years, but is cut off: crucified.
(iv) The final week of 7 years is postponed during the church age, but is picked up again after the church is
raptured and the Lord turns again to start the clock with Israel during the 7 year tribulation period.
(v) Here the antichrist makes a covenant with the Jews for 7 years, desecrates their temple in the middle of the 7
years, ushering in the great tribulation, then Christ returns at the end of that period.
c. It’s commonly believed in Amil and Postmil circles that the 70 weeks begins with the decree of Cyrus to rebuild
the Temple (536 B.C.), that the years are figurative in nature, but that they end with the coming of Messiah.
d. It’s very difficult to nail down the beginning of the time frame, but not the end or the details.
(i) The emphasis is on getting things ready for Messiah to come.
(ii) God is planning to restore the people to the land.
(iii) They need to rebuild the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem: this was done during times of distress.
(iv) Then Messiah needs to come.
(v) When Jesus began His ministry, He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and
believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).
(vi) His ministry lasted three and a half years, or exactly one-half of a week of years.
(vii) Gabriel says after the 62 weeks, Messiah is cut off.
(viii) He comes to make a firm covenant – the New Covenant – with the Jews for one week, but in the middle of
the week, He puts an end to sacrifice and grain offering, referring to His crucifixion.
(ix) This ends the 70 weeks, the next 3 and a half years just run out; or they are the 3 and a half years mentioned
in Revelation, a book that describes the desolation of Israel.
(x) But the last event here is the people of the Prince – the Messiah – the Romans who come and destroy the city
and the Temple. Its end will come with a flood, to the end there will be war, desolations are determined.
(xi) Jesus warned in the Olivet Discourse of the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel (Matt. 24:15).
He was speaking of the desolation of Jerusalem and the Temple, “Behold, your house is being left to you
desolate” (23:38).
(x) This is the Lord’s faithfulness to punish their covenant breaking, especially in killing His Son: “He will bring
those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the
proceeds at the proper seasons” (21:41).
(xi) But its also the Lord’s faithfulness to bring His Son into the world to fulfill the redemption He had planned for
His people from all eternity.

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“The Seventy Weeks of Daniel”

B. In answer to his prayer, the angel Gabriel comes with a message.

2. When do they begin and when do they end?

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