Six Things Determined

Introduction:

1. Today we observe the memorial supper of Jesus, and we should remember events around His death.
2. Today we studied Romans 11:11-12, and we should consider this key prophecy about events in Israel.
3. God’s determinate counsel had a sure 70-week (490 years) plan with Israel for Messiah and salvation.
4. It will be our limited purpose at this time to consider the six things determined by God upon Israel.
5. Much more could be said and has been said about the other aspects of this prophecy, but not today.
6. The ignorance and arrogance surrounding this simple prophecy are very great, as Jewish fables have so infected conservative Christianity since the middle of the 19th century that hardly anyone grasps it.
7. If you want to see the devil at work, read a futurist interpretation of this prophecy against the truth: (a) Christ is replaced with Antichrist; (b) the new covenant is replaced with the devil’s compact; (c) salvation is replaced by Jewish privileges; (d) gaps of thousands of years in a dated prophecy; (e) Jesus ending sacrifices for sin replaced by Antichrist stopping renewed animal sacrifices; (f) one of the largest historical events of destruction within the nation and timeframe totally ignored; etc. How is this anything but blasphemy and heresy! Let God be true, but every man a liar! Take your position!

The Timing

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 (Daniel 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 a gap 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. It was given to Daniel for knowledge and understanding, so it is a defined period of time.
   3. 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 day.
   4. If you believe God, it all happened within 490 years, which limits it to our Lord Jesus.
   5. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to insert any kind of a gap into these words.
   6. The fulfillment in our Lord’s anointing, ministry, death, and apostles is divinely precise.
   7. 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 their city, which ended in 70 A.D.
   1. Readers of Daniel know that the abomination of desolation would occur before the holy people were finally scattered, which the Romans executed following 70 A.D. (Dan 12:7).
   2. 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).
   3. 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 this great event by an arch in Rome.
   4. Six very important events would occur within the 490 years limiting the prophecy.
   5. The fulfillment of these events must be found in Messiah the Prince before A.D. 33.
   6. Many of the Futurist speculators say these will not be fulfilled until the Millennium, claiming that there are no events in the history of the world to fulfill these prophecies!

Event #1: To Finish the Transgression

1. Israel finished her great rebellion and transgression against God and filled up her sins and the full measure of her wicked national fathers by killing God’s Messiah, His only begotten Son!
2. Jesus foretold this event with parables, by describing an irremediable crime by the Jewish nation, which brought total ruin, and the Pharisees were guilty (Matt 21:33-45; 22:1-7).
3. The Jews said they were not like their bloody fathers who had killed the prophets, but they fulfilled all their fathers had ever done and then much more by killing Jesus, resulting in incomparable guilt and the Lord’s curse upon them, their city, and temple (Matt 23:29-36).
4. The Jews only needed Jesus the Son of God to appear to fill up their sinfulness (I Thess 2:14-16), just like the Amorites needing time to fill up and finish their iniquities (Gen 15:16).
5. Israel finished the transgression by sinning to the point God had determined as the most He would allow for maximum guilt when there would be no remedy (Dan 8:12,23; II Chr 36:16).
6. John the Baptist announced God’s wrath and judgment upon that generation (Matt 3:7-12).
7. Peter condemned the Jews for saving a murderer and killing the Prince of Life (Act 3:13-15), and it was on this basis he warned those on Pentecost to avoid that generation (Acts 2:40).
8. Stephen did the same as Peter by accusing that generation of killing Messiah (Acts 7:51-53).
9. We apply the next three events to Christ’s saving death, but this here to Israel’s desolation as shown (Matt 21:33-45; 22:1-7; 23:29-36; I Thes 2:14) and by these contextual reasons also:
   1. Daniel applied Antiochius’s unholy desolations to Israel’s transgression (8:12-13,23-24).
   2. Daniel’s vision here is a response to his prayer about the Babylonian desolation of Jerusalem and dispersion of the Jews as punishment for their transgression (9:2,7,11-12).
10. See chapter three of Philip Mauro’s, “Seventy Weeks” (1921), where he does an outstanding job with this phrase.

Event #2: To Make an End of Sins

1. An end of sins was made 70 weeks of years after Daniel’s prophecy by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for all the sins of His people, freeing them from sin guilt forever!
2. This event put away sins, the next perfected a relationship, and the next guaranteed salvation.
3. The elect would sin in the future and future elect would sin, but an end to sins as an obstacle to redemption and eventual glorification had been fully and finally made by the Messiah.
4. That people in that city had offered countless sacrifices for sins that never paid for even one.
5. All iniquities and sins were put on Christ, who was bruised and died for them (Is 53:4-11).
6. The angel told Joseph Mary’s son Jesus would save His people from their sins (Matt 1:21).
7. When ending His ordeal on the cross, our Lord declared redemption finished (John 19:30).
8. There was no longer anything to lay to the charge of God’s elect (Rom 8:33). Glory! Amen!
9. Jesus purged all our sins away by Himself, and then He sat down (Hebrews 1:3; 9:11-28).
10. Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever: God no longer remembers them (Heb 10:12,17).
11. Jesus instituted and executed the new covenant, God forgets sins (Heb 8:6-13; 10:10-18).
12. Jesus died to take away the sin of the world, so there is no sins left to their account (Jn 1:29).
13. Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the cross, healing us by His stripes (I Peter 2:24).
14. Our Lord’s death took Moses’ ordinances that were against us out of the way (Col 2:13-14).
15. Further references to this event (Da 9:26; Acts 5:31; Rom 3:25; 8:3; I Jn 2:1-2; 3:5; Rev 1:5).

Event #3: To Make Reconciliation for Iniquity

1. God reconciled His elect to Himself by pouring out His wrath on Jesus Christ in their place and satisfying His anger and enmity, for we were made acceptable to Him in the Beloved!
2. This event perfected a relationship, the previous put away sins, the next guaranteed salvation.
3. When we were God’s enemies, Jesus Christ reconciled us to Him by His death (Rom 5:10).
4. God reconciled His elect to Himself, and He sent ambassadors to tell them (II Cor 5:18-20).
5. Jesus was made by incarnation to be like His brethren to make reconciliation (Heb 2:17).
6. Jesus Christ by His bloody death made peace with God and reconciled all the elect to God, who had been and are before regeneration both aliens and enemies of God (Col 1:20-22).
7. The death of Christ reconciled Jews and Gentiles to God by bringing peace (Eph 2:14-18).
8. God put our iniquities on Jesus, and He was satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus (Is 53:4-11).
9. The Desire of all Nations made peace while the second temple was yet standing (Hag 2:6-9).
10. Though a related term, Jesus Christ redeemed us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14; Heb 9:12).
11. Those that are not reconciled remain under their sins and God’s wrath, for God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11; Matt 7:21-23; John 3:36; Rom 9:22; Eph 2:1-3).

Event #4: To Bring In Everlasting Righteousness

1. Jesus Christ the Righteous justified us by His death and resurrection, so that we are viewed by God as free from sins and standing forever before Him in Messiah’s perfect righteousness.
2. This event guaranteed salvation, the earlier perfected a relationship, the earlier put away sins.
3. God made Jesus to be sin for us, and He made us God’s righteousness in Him (II Cor 5:21).
4. God chose us in Jesus Christ, whom God chose for our righteousness (I Corinthians 1:30).
5. God is absolutely righteous in justifying us forever by His substitute Jesus (Rom 3:19-26).
6. The Second Adam came in the fullness of time and justified us as righteous (Rom 5:16-21).
7. God was satisfied with His death for us, perfecting us forever (Heb 10:14; Is 53:11; 51:4-8).
8. There is no condemnation to the elect, who are justified by Jesus forever (Rom 8:1-4,33-34).
9. Further references (Gal 5:5; Eph 4:24; Phil 3:9; II Tim 4:8; II Pet 1:1; 3:13; Rev 19:8; 22:11).

Event #5: To Seal Up the Vision and Prophecy

1. God sealed up the vision and prophecy by closing Jewish understanding of scripture, so they in divine blindness missed this prophecy and the teaching of all prophets, Jesus, and apostles!
2. Sealing up vision and prophecy is closing and hiding it from most; such language is not at all about fulfilling visions and prophecies (Isaiah 8:16; 29:11; Dan 8:26; 12:4; Rev 10:4; 22:10).
3. There are many prophecies of this blinding (Ps 69:22-23; Isaiah 6:9-13; 28:9-16; 29:9-14).
4. Scripture confirmed and proved this blindness (Mat 13:10-16; 22:29; Jn 12:37-41; Acts 3:17-18; 13:27; 28:23-29; Rom 9:32-33; 11:7-10,25; I Cor 1:22-24; II Cor 3:14-15; I Pet 2:7-8).
5. They could forecast weather, but they had no clue about Jesus their Messiah (Matt 16:1-4).
6. How long would this blindness last? Until the desolation stated here (Is 6:11-12; Lu 21:24)!
7. See chapter three of Philip Mauro’s, “Seventy Weeks” (1921), where he does an outstanding job with this phrase.

Event #6: To Anoint the Most Holy

1. God anointed Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost at His baptism, when John declared Him to be the Son of God, before entering upon His public ministry as the King and Priest of Israel!
2. We see the words the most Holy pointing easily to the next object, Messiah the Prince (9:25).
3. God did not anoint any place in earth or heaven by such language, but He did anoint the Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and repeat the matter many times (Psalm 2:2; 45:7; Isaiah 11:1-5; 42:1-4; 61:1-3; Matt 12:28; Luke 4:16-21; John 3:34; 10:36; Acts 10:38; Heb 1:9).
4. This formal anointing of Jesus Christ took place at His baptism (Matt 3:13-17; John 1:29-34).
5. Jesus is the Holy One of God (Ps 16:10; Mark 1:24; Luke 1:35; 4:34; Acts 2:27; 3:14; 4:27).
6. Jesus is the anointed one of the God, the Messiah, the Christ (Jn 1:41; 4:25). Why ignore it?
7. There is no holy place on earth; heaven was holy before Jesus; the Holy Spirit makes the church holy; why the confusion? There is a devilish effort to get Jesus out of this prophecy.
8. Nothing fulfills this prophecy like Jesus: He did it in the time determined (Heb 7:26; Re 3:7).
9. Jesus was declared to be the Son of God at two events – baptism and crucifixion (I John 5:6).
10. The list here is not chronological, just as a similar list in I Timothy 3:16 is not chronological.
    1. “Ascended up into glory” preceded “preached unto the Gentiles,” so order is not a rule.
    2. Putting the anointing of Jesus last points directly to what follows – the Messiah (9:25).
    3. Since Messiah is the most important, why not put Him last as the crown jewel of the list?
    4. This list has several that overlap others, so the importance of order or time is sacrificed.
    5. The focus of the prophecy is that these six things would happen – not in what order.
11. See Ralph Woodrow’s, “Great Prophecies of the Bible,” (1971), page 103, for a short and simple explanation as here … https://letgodbetrue.com/bible-topics/index/prophecy/best-prophecy-book/.

 

Conclusion:

1. Jesus confirmed the new covenant with many for one week with His apostles (9:27); He died in the midst of it, ending Moses’ sacrificial system and instituting His Supper (Heb 9:11-15; I Cor 11:25)!
2. Along with many other scriptures, this prophecy is perfect for the Lord’s Supper and Romans 11!

For Further Study:

1. Sermon Outline: Making Sense of Daniel”
2. Sermon Outline: The Great Mystery of Godliness.
3. The best 70 Weeks: Philip Mauro.
4. Good 70 Weeks: Ralph Woodrow.