According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): With the importance of divine authority on prophecy for it to be valid, here's Pastor Damian Kyle.

Damian Kyle: This prophecy means nothing if we do not have the date from which to measure it with some authority. And if we don't have it with the highest authority of all, and that is somewhere within scripture. And so God has to supply that to us.

Guest (Male): The Bible predicts the very day of the Lord's coming. It's remarkable and true. You have God's stamp on it as we'll hear today on According to the Scriptures with Pastor Damian Kyle.

In chapter nine in the book of Daniel, we're given a prophecy of what God will do for his people, including sending the Messiah. It's an expression of love for them and you as well. Here's Damian to explain.

Damian Kyle: The environment that I was raised in, nobody talked about love very much and as a family we just weren't good at it. We just weren't good at that. And then somehow there was this breakthrough, and maybe God will give you that kind of a breakthrough, just this breakthrough of the fact that God loved me and the wonder of that. And it really set me back and it really got me going.

I understood love and was growing into it because of Karen and solely because of Karen. And because of our marriage and how loving and other-centered she was and is. But there was that great breakthrough concerning the love of God. And what a beautiful thing here. I almost wish I could have been inside of Daniel to experience what all of this must have meant.

And then he begins the vision formally in verse 24. And here's the message, the vision that's being given to Daniel. Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah will be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and until the end of the war, desolations are determined.

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate. Speaking of Jesus's second coming, but I'm getting ahead of myself, way ahead of myself in terms of that.

So here Gabriel comes to Daniel to, you notice in verse 24, declare to him the future of the nation of Israel and Jerusalem because he speaks to Daniel. You notice this vision has to do with your people, talking about the Jews, and your holy city, speaking of Jerusalem. In that verse 24, Gabriel declares that all of this is determined. In other words, the vision that he gives to Daniel here, he is affirming even extraordinarily that all of it is going to come to pass. God has determined that it will.

You notice in the latter part of verse 24 that the angel Gabriel declared that righteousness would one day mark the nation of Israel and indeed mark the entire world. And that it will occur at the end of something called seventy weeks. Now you have to clear something up related to this passage to really have any hope of understanding it. That word "weeks."

If I was going to do a new translation of the Bible, it would be awful by the way, so don't be on the edge of your seat. But if I was going to make one change, it would be to change that word "weeks." The translation of the Hebrew word there into the English word and the use of the word weeks because it automatically makes us think in terms of weeks as a block of time.

The Hebrew word that is used there for weeks is the word shabua. And it literally means sevens. It's not referring to weeks at all. It's referring to sevens, and the use of the word weeks just confuses the entire issue. And so when you read through this, seventy sevens are determined in verse 24 for your people and for your holy city. And then all the way through, just substitute out weeks and put sevens in there, and we're about a third of the way on our way from understanding what it is that's happening.

Now, we don't know what the block of time is that's being referred to in the sevens because the word can refer to any block of time. When the word is used in the Bible, the context always determines whether it is seven days or seven weeks or seven years. The word itself is not intended to give any indication of whether it's talking about days or weeks or years. The context establishes that.

Now, notice in verse 24 the latter half of it, what is going to be the righteous condition of the Jewish people, of Jerusalem, and really with them the whole world, what's going to come to pass at the end of these seventy sevens. You notice that at the end of the seventy sevens, there will be the finishing of transgression. Transgression speaks of deliberate disobedience to God's commandments. At the end of the seventy sevens, all of that is going to cease.

All rebellion will cease. Clearly neither of those things has happened yet in human history. There will be an end of all sins. Clearly that hasn't happened yet in human history. At the end of the seventy sevens, there will be the making of reconciliation for iniquity. Iniquity talks about the crookedness of mankind. It talks about the bentness of the human nature. Clearly that hasn't been brought to an end yet in human history.

And then further to bring in everlasting righteousness. That is at the end of the seventy sevens, there will be the establishment of the righteous standard of God's kingdom as the supreme standard of righteousness in the world. That hasn't yet happened in human history. Further, to seal up vision and prophecy. At the end of the seventy sevens, the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament visions and prophecies will occur.

And then finally to anoint the Most Holy. Talking about the Holy of Holies in a rebuilt temple, a temple that will be built during the thousand year reign of Christ, the kingdom age of Christ, that temple that we studied when we were in the book of Ezekiel and studying that in chapters 40 to 44. That temple will be anointed and it will be consecrated in Jerusalem. But you don't see a temple there yet.

All of these things are going to have a future fulfillment because clearly the fulfillment, by virtue of those things not being present yet in human history, the fulfillment of the seventy sevens has not yet occurred. Now notice Gabriel's specific revelation concerning the coming Messiah there in verse 25, where the Messiah is referred to as Messiah the Prince.

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. The idea is a total of sixty-nine sevens. And the street shall be built again, and the wall. You see those two words, the wall? That's worth circling in your Bible. And all of this is going to occur even in troublesome times.

And here's what Gabriel is communicating to Daniel specifically. Daniel, one day there's going to be a decree that's going to be given to restore and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. And the city of Jerusalem at the time that Gabriel is saying this to Daniel is in a comparative ruin. It has been destroyed by Babylon. And that the rebuilding of this city would also include the rebuilding of the street.

And then as I mentioned, very significantly as Gabriel brings forth, it will also include the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. And the Hebrew word that is used there for the wall speaks to an outer defense of a city. It could also be translated moat. But if you ever go to Israel and you see the various castles in Caesarea and all, they don't have moats. Water's a little scarce.

In Florida you have moats. In the Middle East you have walls as an outer defense. And they are usually, there's an outer defensible wall and then you've got, as is the case at Caesarea for those of you have been to Israel, then the dry moat before you hit another series of walls within the city. And so Gabriel reveals to Daniel that this rebuilding of the city, its town square, the wall, its outer defense, would not be easy.

But it's going to be done in troublesome times. There's going to be fierce opposition against these things being accomplished. And then notice further that Gabriel revealed that from the day that that command that is given to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem, including its wall, its outer defense, until the coming of Messiah the Prince to Israel, that it will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. Again, a total of sixty-nine sevens.

And the sixty-nine sevens that are spoken of in verse 25 are considered by virtually all scholars to refer to years. And the reason that they do that, there's more than one reason, but the single great reason is because years is the context of the chapter. At the time this prophecy was given to Daniel, he is contemplating the prophecy of Jeremiah who prophesied that the Jews would be in Babylonian captivity for seventy years.

So he has got years on the brain in terms of where his mind is. Gabriel comes in and he begins to talk about seventy sevens and he doesn't have to explain that it's years to Daniel. Daniel is already there. And when we understand that the sixty-nine sevens refer to years, then we have this block of years that totals 483 years.

And if you then multiply those 483 years times 360, the number of days within a calendar year, not for us, our calendar year is 365 days a year and then we correct it every once in a while in February. But this prophecy has been given to Daniel during the period of the Babylonian empire, and the Babylonian empire had a 360 day year calendar.

And so you take the 483 years times the 360 of the Babylonian calendar and you end up with 173,880 days. And wondrously really, the Lord is revealing to Daniel that from the day a decree is given to rebuild and to restore Jerusalem and a decree that includes the rebuilding of its outer defenses, the wall, then you can pull out a calendar and start marking days.

And 173,880 days from the day that that decree is given, Messiah the Prince will be revealed to Israel. And so the critical question becomes where in the Old Testament did a king make a decree to the Jewish people to go forth and to restore and build Jerusalem including its street and including its outer defenses?

Because this prophecy means nothing if we do not have the date from which to measure it with some authority. And if we don't have it with the highest authority of all, and that is somewhere within scripture. And so God has to supply that to us. And the answer is found in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah in chapter two.

Where as you would read there in the first eight verses another time on your own, there is a king by the name of Artaxerxes. And he gives a decree to Nehemiah to not only restore and rebuild Jerusalem but to also rebuild its wall. Allow me to read a couple of verses from Nehemiah chapter two. And it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.

And then you go down a little bit further and Nehemiah said to the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your eyes, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it." And then you go down a little bit further and he requests further a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertain to the temple and for the city wall and for the house that I will occupy.

And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. And so the street of Jerusalem was ordered to be rebuilt on that date by King Artaxerxes and the wall. Significantly not the temple. No mention of the temple at all being rebuilt. And then further as Gabriel declares to us that all of this rebuilding is going to occur in troublesome times.

And for a glimpse at how troublesome and how hard it was to rebuild that wall and the streets of Jerusalem, those of you who are familiar with the book of Nehemiah, you recognize how difficult a project that was. And all of the opposition that they encountered in endeavoring to accomplish this decree of Artaxerxes and all of it described in detail in Nehemiah.

King Artaxerxes, and there will be a test after all of this by the way, King Artaxerxes, he started his reign in 465 BC, so his 20th year was 445 BC. And Nehemiah as we're told there in chapter two, says that it refers there to this decree being given in the month of Nisan. And it doesn't give us a day.

But whenever a month is given to us in a particular year referring to some kind of Jewish dating, if the day isn't mentioned, it's always referring to the first day of the month. And so the day that the decree was made by King Artaxerxes was the first day of Nisan in 445 BC, which we can translate into our calendar as March 14, 445 BC.

And now, knowing that, you add your 173,880 days to the March 14, 445 BC, taking into account leap years and then the changes from BC to AD and all of these other things, and it all comes to April 6, 32 AD. The very day that Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday prior to his crucifixion later that same week, followed by his burial and his resurrection.

And on Palm Sunday, that Sunday prior to his crucifixion, the day when Jesus formally presented himself to the nation of Israel, to the Jewish people, you might remember as their Messiah. And here you have in the book of Daniel one of the most astonishing prophecies in the entire Bible.

Where God gave the nation of Israel and the Jewish people the very day of the coming of their Messiah. And it is for that reason when Jesus made his triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday that he began to weep over the city. And as he wept over the city he cried out, "If you had only known even you, especially this your day."

And he was referring to the prophecy of Daniel chapter nine. And yet despite God giving them the very day of the coming of their Messiah, as you might remember on his triumphal entry, over or all, the Jewish people were completely ignorant of it. They did not know the day of their visitation.

And that's why Jesus said, "If you had known even you, especially on this your day, the things that make for your peace." Remember how it was when Jesus during the course of his three and a half years of his public ministry, I mean the miracles that he did, the teaching that he did. And he is cleansing lepers, he is healing people of every kind of disease or deformity that there might be and he is raising people from the dead.

And there was that repeated attempt by people to make him king as a result of what they were seeing. Imagine going to see Jesus teach face to face. You have heard about him, you travel from some distant part of Israel to come and hear him teach. He's a miracle worker and then all of a sudden he raises someone from the dead.

He cleanses a leper. He touches somebody in their illness and you see it there with your own eyes. And you would immediately want to make him king. You immediately recognize him to be the Messiah and want to make him publicly king and Messiah in that very moment. And though Jesus was opposed very significantly by the Jewish religious leaders of his time, the common people heard him gladly and the common people loved him.

And each time the common people would attempt to take Jesus by force and make him king, he refused to allow it to happen. And he refused to allow it to happen with what words? "My time has not yet come." He was waiting for a particular time. He was waiting for a particular day to be formally presented to the nation of Israel and the Jewish people as their Messiah in fulfillment of Daniel chapter nine.

And yet on this day, the day of his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, now he allows the people to sing to him, "Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," and to acknowledge him as the Messiah because this, his day, had finally come.

Guest (Male): Well indeed, Jesus has come and is coming again. Remember, God keeps his word. Oh, and what a day that will be. More on this remarkable prophecy given so long ago next time here on According to the Scriptures. Pastor Damian Kyle will present more on this fascinating and perhaps one of the most significant prophecies in all of scripture.

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