While I was pouring out my heart, baring my sins and the sins of my
people Israel, praying my life out before my God, interceding for the holy mountain
of my God—while I was absorbed in this praying, the humanlike Gabriel, the one
I had seen in an earlier vision, approached me, flying in like a bird about the
time of evening worship. He stood before me and said, Daniel, I have come to
make things plain to you. You had no sooner started your prayer when the answer
was given. And now I'm here to deliver the answer to you. You are much loved!
So listen carefully to the answer, the plain meaning of what is revealed: Seventy
sevens are set for your people and for your holy city to throttle rebellion,
stop sin, wipe out crime, set things right forever, confirm what the prophet
saw, and anoint The Holy of Holies. Here is what you must understand: From the
time the word goes out to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of the Anointed
Leader, there will be seven sevens. The rebuilding will take sixty-two sevens,
including building streets and digging a moat. Those will be rough times. After
the sixty-two sevens, the Anointed Leader will be killed—the end of him. The
city and Sanctuary will be laid in ruins by the army of the newly arriving
leader. The end will come in a rush, like a flood. War will rage right up to
the end, desolation the order of the day. Then for one seven, he will forge
many and strong alliances, but halfway through the seven he will banish worship
and prayers. At the place of worship, a desecrating obscenity will be set up
and remain until finally the desecrator himself is decisively destroyed.
Seven sevens equals 49—basic math. Seventy sevens—that is
490. Sixty-two seven…434. The numbers are beginning to swim before my head!
What does this prophesy mean? The time periods are in years, not weeks or days. Cyrus had authorized the
rebuilding of the Temple, 2 Chronicles 36:22-23. The public square and moat
were rebuilt in the first 49 years. Jesus Christ was crucified to atone for our
sins—including the sins of the Jewish people—as specified in verses 24 and 26.
The Temple, which was rebuilt, was then destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans who
were the people of the prince to come, as predicted in verse 26. This was foretold
and written well before it happened. That prince who is to come is explained
(in the notes of my Ryrie Study Bible) as the Antichrist. He will make a
covenant with many, including Jewish people, at the beginning of the
Tribulation period. In the middle of that seven year period, he will break that
pact and insist that people worship him in the Temple, desecrating it. This
will be a horrible time of persecution, as described in Matthew 24:15-22. That hasn’t happened yet—but God has promised
that it will happen. When God promises—it will
happen! This prophesy should help us to understand prophesies in Matthew 24 and
25, as well as in Revelation.
It is amazing that Daniel is so dedicated to his people, the
Jews, and so devout after all these years of living in Babylon. He still
maintained his ritual of praying three times a day. That is what he was doing
specifically at three in the afternoon—the time of the evening sacrifice at the
Temple—when the angel Gabriel came to him. Gabriel came from Heaven to earth in
just the three minutes that Daniel was speaking, praying, confessing, and
pleading before the Lord—and that was fast!
Daniel had prayed righteously and God answered not only his prayer asking about
the seventy years of Babylonian captivity—but provided an abundance of
information for all mankind to the end of time. Amazing! One of my favorite
portions of this scripture is where Gabriel tells Daniel that he is highly
esteemed. Gabriel came to give Daniel insight with understanding—but first he
tells him that he is loved! This message was from God Himself—God loves Daniel.
God loves us. He also loves the Jewish people and although they had to be
punished for their disobedience in not observing the Sabbath rest of the land,
God still loves them and He promised He would restore them to their land and
restore His Temple. When the Jews were in captivity they didn’t give up their
God. That captivity drew them closer to God; they gave up their idol worship
and began learning more about God from rabbis in house churches. This became
the basis—the style of worship for New Testament house churches. The canon of
the Old Testament under the leadership of Ezra was completed during the 70 years
of captivity. Good things happened out of an oppressive situation.
Do you know how much God loves you? Can you see God working
in your life even when you are going through oppressive or difficult times?
Usually it is at those times that we reach out to God the most. He is always
there for us—we just don’t seek Him as often or as fervently when times are
good. We should be more like Daniel and seek God daily no matter what is
happening in our lives at that moment.
Dear God, Thank you
for your unending and undeserving love. Give us wisdom, like you gave Daniel,
to understand your prophesies.
© 2012 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.
Scripture from The Message, except where noted.
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