Making Sense of Daniel

Introduction:

1. Our Lord Jesus references this prophecy and offers understanding to faithful readers of it (Matthew 24:15).
2. We believe our Bibles to be the more sure word of prophecy (II Pet 1:19), which you can and should believe with absolute confidence and trust, regardless of modern speculators and their unbelieving hallucinations.
3. Our God declares the end from the beginning and brings it to pass without interruption or gap (Is 46:1-13).
4. The prophecy here was not to confuse Daniel or require more work: it is quite plain to humble readers.
5. It is this prophecy with specific timing for Messiah, which was fulfilled by Jesus (Luke 3:15; Mark 1:15).
6. Where do the ideas of a seven-year tribulation, a covenant between the antichrist and the Jews, the antichrist having anything to do with the Jews, a future rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, and the restoration of animal sacrifices come from? They come from unbelievers who promote Israel and their colleagues, but not God.
7. They make the LORD our God a confused liar, Jesus our Messiah the antichrist, the new covenant a contract with the devil, and a rebuilt temple with animal sacrifices by apostate Christ-haters to be a holy place!
8. A study of this chapter will make you angry for the abominable corruptions made by Futurisms liars.
9. The simple argue about pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib. But God says loudly, there is no 7-year tribulation!
10. Your spirit should be provoked considering their perversion of this prophecy, as Phinehas was in Shittim over profane fornication (Num 25:6-8) and Paul was in Athens over widespread idolatry (Acts 17:16).
11. Never have so many who think they know so much been so deluded as with these four simple verses!
12. The Futurists call this chapter’s prophecy the “backbone of Bible prophecy.” We can break it with a straw!
13. Alva McClain said in 1940, in Daniel’s Prophecy of the 70 Weeks, “Probably no single prophetic utterance is more crucial in the fields of Biblical Interpretation, Apologetics, and Eschatology … with reference to its importance, I am convinced that in the predictions of the Seventy Weeks, we have the indispensable chronological key to all New Testament prophecy.”
14. Prior to the last one hundred and fifty years of Bible ignorance, there was no confusion about this short and simple prophecy – it gave a timetable for the anointing and death of Jesus the Messiah.
15. For all who love intrigue and mysteries, there are none here. This prophecy is simple and fulfilled!
16. But it will exalt the God of glory and His Son Jesus Christ very high, and we can rejoice in truth!

The Setting (9:1-2)

1. Dan 9:1 We identify the timing of this chapter as one year later than chapter eight, the first year of the Medes.
   1. Belshazzar reigned three years; then Darius took the kingdom of the Chaldeans (5:30-31; 6:28).
   2. Daniel was introduced to a rebuilt temple in chapter eight (8:11), and he was astonished (8:27).
   3. This was the 68th year of Daniel and Israel’s captivity, with two more coming (Darius 1 + Cyrus 1); at which time Cyrus would command Jerusalem to be rebuilt. Praise ye the Lord!
2. Dan 9:2 In the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel figured out from Jeremiah that Judah’s captivity was ending.
   1. God foretold using Babylon to punish Israel 70 years, then He would punish them (Jer 25:8-14).
   2. His astonishment at learning about a rebuilt temple in chapter eight would drive him to study.
   3. The books could easily have included other prophetic writings and books of recent chronology.

The Prayer (9:3-19)

1. Dan 9:3 Daniel seeks the Lord, as a result of his discovery, to bring to pass this prophesied mercy toward Israel.
   1. Daniel’s seriousness in this prayer is indicated by supplications, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
   2. He made his great personal ambition and objective to beseech the Lord for mercy for Israel.
2. Dan 9:4 Daniel concludes introducing his prayer and begins praying to the LORD his God on behalf of Israel.
   1. The LORD, Jehovah of Israel, I AM THAT I AM, was Daniel’s God, and He prayed to Him.
   2. He made confession along with the request, for even promises may be understood conditionally.
   3. He addresses the LORD as Lord, the great and dreadful God. When did you last hear that?
   4. From the very opening, He reminds God of his covenant and mercy to those who love Him.
3. Dan 9:5 He began a thorough and humble confession of the nation’s sins and God’s righteousness in judgment.
   1. Sin was no vague concept to Daniel; he knew it was leaving God’s precepts and judgments.
   2. He describes the nation’s conduct very plainly as sin, iniquity, wickedness, and rebellion.
4. Dan 9:6 He acknowledged all the prophets that had been sent to warn them, whom Israel had disregarded.
5. Dan 9:7 He acknowledged that God is righteous in bringing such confusion and desolation to His people for sins.
6. Dan 9:9 He acknowledged that God is merciful and forgiving, in spite of all their flagrant rebellion and sins.
7. Dan 9:11 He acknowledged that the trouble they had experienced was fair, according to the curse of Moses law.
8. Dan 9:14 He acknowledged that the LORD their God was righteous in His judgment for their disobedience.
9. Dan 9:15 He appealed to deliverance from Egypt and God’s renown by it to suggest deliverance from Babylon.
10. Dan 9:16 He beseeched the Lord to turn away His just wrath in light of the heathen reproach upon Jerusalem.
11. Dan 9:17 He beseeched the Lord to hear his prayer and cause His face to shine on Jerusalem for the Lord’s sake.
12. Dan 9:18 He beseeched God to hear by His mercies rather than their righteousnesses for His own city.
13. Dan 9:19 He supplicated with begging entreaties for God to forgive immediately for His own people and city.

The Answer (9:20-23)

1. Dan 9:20 Daniel received answer to his prayer while he was praying, which ought to rejoice and encourage us.
2. Dan 9:21 Gabriel, the same angel who helped him understand the first two visions, came swiftly and touched him.
   1. Daniel met Gabriel in the first vision of four beasts (7:16), where he gave him understanding.
   2. And he further heard his name called in the second vision of the ram and he goat (8:15-18).
   3. He was caused to fly swiftly; God gave him extraordinary speed in answering Daniel’s prayer.
3. Dan 9:22 Gabriel informs Daniel that he is come from God as a servant to give him skill and understanding.
4. Dan 9:23 God’s commandment to give Daniel skill and understanding of the future came when he began praying.
   1. God does not take a while to think about our petitions. He may wait, but He need not wait!
   2. Dear reader, Daniel was greatly beloved. Does this strike a cord in your breast and soul?
   3. Gabriel tells Daniel he will be able to understand the matter and consider the vision given.
   4. The matter and vision is the plain information given in the next four verses and Gabriel’s flying!
   5. If there is a gap, it is not a matter of skill and understanding, but of imagination and confusion.

The Prophecy (9:24-27)

1. Dan 9:24 God’s determinate council had a 70-week plan for his people and city to bring Messiah and salvation.
   1. We know this prophecy of 70 weeks is a prophecy of 490 years, 70 weeks of years (70×7).
      1. Such a principle was introduced 1000 years earlier to Moses (Numbers 14:33-35).
      2. We encountered this principle of a year for a day already in chapter seven (7:25).
      3. We assumed it there and rejected it in chapter eight by context, the timeframe of the prophecies: chapter seven covers the last 2000 years and chapter eight only the Greeks.
      4. We are blessed to know this fulfillment, and we know that it took precisely these years.
      5. The coordination with the expiring 70 years of Jeremiah 25 implies 70 weeks of years.
      6. The issue of a year for a day is not debated; but the issue of gaps is certainly debated.
   2. The time was determined! It is not open for modification, extension, suspension, or other lies.
      1. Here is the crux and key of the prophecy: God is true and determined exactly 70 weeks.
      2. Every man that fears God will not have a problem with this prophecy; but the fear of man brings a snare, for you will have to go against the popular opinions of the present.
      3. If you believe God, it all happened within 490 years, which limits it to Jesus Christ.
      4. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to insert any kind of a gap into these words.
      5. The fulfillment in our Lord’s anointing, ministry, death, and apostles is divinely precise.
      6. You need not know any other details for proof – this prophecy must end by A.D. 33.
   3. The 70 weeks of years appertain to Daniel’s people and Daniel’s city, which ended in 70 A.D.
      1. Bible readers know Jesus described the destruction of Daniel’s people and city in His generation (Matt 3:7-12; 21:33-46; 22:1-7; 24:2; Luke 19:41-44; 21:20-33; 23:27-31).
      2. Any student of history knows that the people called Jews and their city were destroyed by Titus Vespasian in A.D. 70, who is yet honored for the event by an arch in Rome.
   4. Six very important events would occur within those 70 weeks of years limiting the prophecy.
      1. The fulfillment of these events must be found in Messiah the Prince before A.D. 33.
      2. Many of the Futurist speculators say these will not be fulfilled until the Millenium, claiming that there are no events in the history of the world to fulfill these prophecies!
      3. Event #1: Israel finished her transgression and filled up her sins and the measure of her fathers by killing the Messiah (Matt 21:33-45; Matt 23:29-36 cp Gen 15:16; I Thes 2:14-16; Matt 3:7-12; Acts 3:13-15; 7:51-53; Dan 8:12,23).
      4. Event #2: Jesus made an end of sins by purging them away (Heb 1:3; 9:26; 10:12,17).
      5. Event #3: Jesus made reconciliation for iniquity (Romans 5:10; II Cor 5:19; Heb 2:17).
      6. Event #4: Jesus brought in everlasting righteousness (II Cor 5:21; I Cor 1:30; Ro 3:26).
      7. Event #5: Jesus sealed up the vision and prophecy by blinding the Jews to understanding of the Scriptures (Is 8:16; 29:11; Daniel 8:26; 12:4; Matt 13:10-16; 22:29; Luke 24:44-47; John 12:37-41; Acts 3:17; 13:27; 28:23-29; Rom 11:7-10,25; I Cor 2:6-8; II Cor 3:14; Revelation 10:4; 22:10).
      8. Event #6: Jesus was anointed as the most Holy at His baptism (Psalm 2:2; 45:7; Isaiah 11:1-5; 42:1; 61:1-3; Matt 3:13-17; 12:28; Mark 1:24; Luke 1:35; 4:16-21,34; John 3:34; 10:36; Acts 4:27; 10:38; Heb 1:9; I John 5:6).
      9. Wise readers will note that the destruction of Jerusalem is not one of these six events, but to follow after the 70 weeks, which were determined precisely for these six events.
   5. If these events occurred within 69 weeks, why in the world was there a need for the 70th week?
   6. The people were in expectation of the fulfillment of this prophecy in 27 A.D. (Luke 3:15).
2. Dan 9:25 Messiah would come after 69-weeks after the command to rebuild Jerusalem, and it would be rebuilt.
   1. Know and understand this prophecy – there is nothing obscure or difficult here at all.
      1. The event starting the clock of this prophecy would be well known and recognized.
      2. And 69 weeks of years would bring us to the Messiah, Who would then appear!
      3. We should expect to find Messiah appearing 483 years later, as did Israel (Luke 3:15).
   2. The command to restore and to build Jerusalem was given by Cyrus the Persian in 456 B.C.
      1. The pagan chronologies of Ptolemy and Usher are wrong by 80+ years of Persian rule, as Martin Anstey and Philip Mauro have proven in their works on Bible chronology.
      2. Scripture exalts Cyrus’s command (II Chr 36:20-23; Ezra 1:1-11; Is 44:21-28; 45:1-13).
      3. God called Cyrus by name before he was born for this very purpose, and He called Cyrus His shepherd (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1,4). He held him by the hand to do this work.
      4. Artaxerxes, Ahasuerus, Darius, nor any other king ever issued any comparable command to Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, or any other man. At the very best they simply and only confirmed Cyrus the Persian (Ezra 3:7; 4:3-5; 5:7-17; 6:1-15).
      5. Any man who dates this prophecy from any other event than the decree of Cyrus is a profane unbeliever, a humanistic skeptic, an ignorant Bible reader, and a blinded fool.
      6. To read one additional word of such a man is to subject yourself to drivel and twaddle.
      7. The reason they do this is simple – having bowed their knee to Baal in order to get their degree, they find 538 B.C. beside Cyrus and choose to fear and obey man’s wisdom rather than the word of God. It is that simple. Let God be true, but every man a liar!
   3. There is a 7-week period of time that covers the difficult years of getting the place rebuilt.
      1. God divided this segment, and it covers Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah.
      2. There is no gap here at all, but the 8th week commences when the 7th concludes. Behold!
      3. Chronologers can piece together the dates in the Bible to confirm 49 years of building.
      4. The troublesome times of the rebuilding are well documented by these books.
   4. There is a 62-week period of time from the rebuilt temple and city to Messiah the Prince.
      1. Malachi introduces this segment, showing the serious decay of worship in Jerusalem.
      2. The prophecy of chapter eight of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabees occurred.
      3. Most of the prophecies of chapters ten through twelve, the back and forth struggles of the Seleucids and Ptolemies, are fulfilled during this period.
   5. Therefore, 69 weeks bring us to Messiah. They do not include Him. They bring us to Him.
      1. Messiah is only used four times in the Bible, twice here and twice in John (1:41; 4:25).
      2. The two occurrences in John both tell us that Messias is to be interpreted Christ, which gives us confirmation in both Hebrew and Greek that Jesus was anointed Messiah.
      3. Therefore, Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah the Prince, the Christ, according to Scripture.
      4. Andrew told Peter Jesus was Messiah (John 1:41): Peter told Jesus by divine revelation (Matt 16:16); Jesus told a woman (John 4:25-26,42); Peter told the Jews (Acts 2:36).
      5. Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Prince, Messiah the Prince (Is 9:6; Acts 3:15; 5:31; Rev 1:5).
      6. Jesus was neither announced nor recognized nor revealed as Messiah until His baptism (Luke 3:21-22; 4:14-21; John 1:19-51; 2:1; Acts 10:38).
      7. The time was fulfilled (Mark 1:15; Luk 3:1-3,15). The termination of 69 weeks is clear.
      8. Surely the Jews could figure out the time rather easily (Matt 2:1-6; Luke 2:25-26,38).
      9. The Jews were in expectation for the Messiah, for 69 weeks had expired (Luke 3:15).
      10. John was commissioned by heaven to make Him manifest to Israel (Jn 1:31 cp 1:6-8).
      11. He was anointed with the Holy Ghost at His baptism (Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18).
3. Dan 9:26 Messiah would die in the 70th week, and a prince’s people would destroy the city and temple by war.
   1. Messiah was to be cut off after 69 weeks (7 weeks plus 62 weeks), but not cut off for himself.
      1. If Messiah was cut off after 69 weeks in a prophecy about Him, then he was cut off in the 70th week; and any attempt to cut Him off another time is to be as blind as the Jews!
      2. These words are so simple; they cannot be confused but by intentional corruption.
      3. Jesus was cut off out of the land of the landing for the sins of His people (Isaiah 53).
      4. His death, and therefore this prophecy, has to do with sacrificial substitution, for He was cut off for others, which leads us further to know the he of 27 is Messiah.
      5. It does not tell us when in the 70th week in this verse, but it will tell us in the next verse.
   2. The people of the prince that shall come are the subject of the second independent clause here.
      1. The people shall surely come after the 69 weeks, but they are not tied to the timetable.
      2. The people and the prince are not listed in the six things of the 70 weeks (9:24)!
      3. The language indicates by the future tense a coming after the cutting off of Messiah.
      4. Titus Vespasian Augustus is the prince. He later was Caesar, but he came as prince.
      5. They came as prophesied and destroyed the city and temple, and finished with a flood by overwhelming the city and people and leaving it and them absolutely desolate.
      6. During the war they desolated the city and temple, and also much of Judah around it.
   3. Observe the parallelism between these last two verses of the prophecy, Daniel 9:26-27.
      1. The first half of each verse is describing Messiah, with progressive explanation.
      2. The second half of each verse is describing a coming war, with progressive explanation.
   4. The desolation of Jerusalem was determined, but it is not connected directly to the timetable.
   5. One of the three most important events of the New Testament is the destruction of Jerusalem, which was announced forcefully and often by John, Jesus, and the apostles. Grasp Acts 2:40!
   6. Matthew 24; Mark 13; and Luke 19,21,23 in conjunction with The Wars of the Jews by Josephus give us the details of this destruction of the city and sanctuary and desolating war.
   7. There was not, nor is there now, any Israel or Jews with whom God is dealing, after that desolating event; both Jews and Gentiles have been united in one body, the church (Luke 21:24; Acts 15:13-18; Rom 2:28-29; 9:6; Eph 2:11-22; Gal 3:16,27-29; etc.). Israel today is Khazaria!
4. Dan 9:27 Messiah would confirm the covenant for the 70th week, end sacrifices, and later destroy Jerusalem.
   1. The 70th week follows the 69th week as certainly as the 62 weeks follow the 7 weeks. Behold!
   2. For the seven years A.D. 27-34, the apostles went only to Jews (Matt 10:6; 15:24; Acts 1:8; 11:19), which fulfilled Gabriel’s words – the prophecy was for Daniel’s people and city (9:24).
   3. The pronoun he opening the verse has a clear antecedent, and it is the subject of the first clause.
      1. The prince of the second clause is not a proper subject and is not a clear antecedent.
      2. The people of the second clause are the subject, with the prince merely modifying them.
      3. The timetable Gabriel gave at the beginning makes any fussing with this pronoun an absolute travesty of Bible study and interpretation. It is the Messiah without any doubt!
      4. There is not one shred of evidence anywhere in the Bible to make these opening words a contract between devil worshippers and the devil occurring in the indefinite future!
   4. He, Messiah the Prince, confirmed the covenant with many during the last and 70th week.
      1. The covenant confirmed in the Bible is the new covenant (Isaiah 42:6; 55:3; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Malachi 3:1; Matthew 26:28; Luke 1:72; Acts 3:25-26; Rom 15:8; I Cor 11:25; Hebrews 7:22; 8:6; 9:15; 10:29; 12:24; 13:20).
      2. He confirmed it by His personal ministry and the ministry of His apostles.
      3. He confirmed it in fact (His death) and in revelation (the preaching of the gospel).
      4. The last 27 books of the Bible, which are about Messiah, salvation, and a change from the Levitical system of Moses, are called the New Testament (covenant)!
   5. Messiah’s death caused the entire sacrificial system to be put away (Hebrews 7:12-19; 10:1-14).
      1. Jesus ended the sacrificial system of religion by tearing the veil in two from top to bottom, when He cried out, “It is finished” (Matthew 27:51; John 19:30).
      2. The whole book of Hebrews was written to prove and explain this end of the sacrifices and oblations detailed in the book of Leviticus.
      3. The presence of God was now open by a new and living way in Jesus (Heb 10:19-22).
      4. The seventy weeks were to provide an end of sins and righteousness, reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness (9:24). These are the benefits of the new covenant, which is based on the blood and atonement of Messiah the Prince.
   6. The sacrifices and oblations were to come to an end in the midst of the 70th week by His death.
      1. We know this is Jesus by the rest of the prophecy; He died 3.5 years after His baptism.
      2. This verse tells us plainly He died 3.5 years after His anointing. We are Bible believers!
      3. John records four Passovers Jesus attended, which requires at least three years John.
   7. Jerusalem would be desolated until it was consummated, which intends a perpetual destruction.
      1. Jesus told His disciples they would see the abomination of desolation, and they could read Daniel 9:26-27 to understand what they would see (Matthew 24:15; Luke 21:20).
      2. The abomination of desolation is the result of the destructive war (9:26 cp 9:27 cp 9:2).
      3. The abomination of desolation was a Roman army of Titus the prince in A.D. 70, which came and stood in the holy place – the land of Israel (Mat 24:15,34 cp Luk 21:20).
   8. How in the world can we have such a prophecy of Daniel’s people and city and ignore the stupendous events of 70 A.D.? What in the world could happen in the future that would even come close? Jesus said there would never be similar tribulation to the destruction of 70 A.D.
   9. The desolation of Jerusalem was determined, but it is not connected directly to the timetable.
   10. The 70th week is fully accounted for, though a specific endpoint is not named for the 490th year.
       1. He explained the 70th week in its entirely; Jesus would confirm the covenant with many.
       2. For the immediate time after our Lord’s death, His covenant was confirmed with many.
       3. The prophecy is not one of years, but one of weeks; and all weeks are accounted for, with the important events occurring in the 70th week just as prophesied.

Conclusion:

1. Saints should be angry and thankful – angry against Bible perversion and thankful to the Lord for truth.
2. Scofield taught and many believe the same doctrine the Jews did who crucified Jesus (SRB, p.914-15).
   1. He and his followers err in interpretation by valuing Ptolemy’s chronology over Scripture, which they do by ignoring Cyrus’s command to rebuild Jerusalem to fit their false chronology. This act of unbelief condemns them to blindness, for God will not allow men to mock him.
   2. The date of the crucifixion is not dated, as it simply is some indefinite time after the 69 weeks, for they must create room after 69 weeks for the last 2000 years and maybe 2000 more to come.
   3. “Unto the end” (26) is an indeterminate period of time; it is already 2000 years long. Therefore, we must buy into a war lasting 1930 years in which there was no fighting for 1900 years!
   4. The he of 9:27 is the antichrist making and breaking a covenant for animal sacrifices with apostate Jews; which requires us to believe God calls such a devilish compact His holy place!
   5. His hallucination makes God a liar, obscures Jesus, misses redemption, promotes Jewish fables, misses Jerusalem’s final end, confuses the antichrist, etc., etc.
   6. They are so in love with a carnal kingdom and anti-Christ Jews that they cannot see nor hear our Lord’s condemnation of a visible kingdom (Luke 17:21), Paul’s condemnation of their Jewish fables (Titus 1:14), and Christ’s condemnation of their synagogues of Satan (Rev 2:9; 3:9).
3. Who came up with all this mumbo-jumbo? It is hard to tell, for there is no evidence before 1894, when Sir Robert Anderson published The Coming Prince in England.
4. Futurism’s scheme for this passage may easily be overthrown by any or all of these obvious proofs:
   1. They make the God of heaven a liar; for He determined 70 weeks, not 69 weeks + 2000 years + another week. Let God be true, but every man a liar! This prophecy is limited to 490 years!
   2. They reject the commandment of Cyrus the Persian to rebuild Jerusalem, which the Bible makes manifestly clear as the only commandment in the view of the Giver of the prophecy.
   3. They make Gabriel and Daniel idiots, for skill and understanding cannot apply to such an indefinite prophecy based only on speculation and imagination.
   4. There is no corroborating evidence in the Bible for any of the events of their 7-year tribulation; all their prideful mumblings about pre-trib, mid-trib, and post-trib are all so much drivel.
   5. They either ignore Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 A.D. or have a 2000-year war without fighting, for they want “unto the end of the war” to refer to some future conflict with Khazaria Israel!
   6. If Messiah is not the he of 9:27, then Titus must be; but he didn’t do anything in the midst of any week like they describe, and he never sat in God’s temple or made a covenant with Jews.
   7. They ignore the six main features of the prophecy (24), which were to occur in the 70 weeks; but they are not shy to shove them way out in the future, when forced to deal with them.
   8. Since Messiah is cut off in the 70th week (9:26), he clearly fulfills the covenant and sacrifices of the final week. If not, what did Messiah do in the 70th week, and how?

For further reading:

Martin Anstey’s Chronology
Geneva Bible Notes (1599) on Daniel 9

Next Chapter:

Daniel 10: Israel’s Fate in the Latter Days