Daily Devotions

[DesireTruth]

@Berean,

I am going to attempt to break the 70 week prophecy in Daniel down in a way that will hopefully make it easy to understand, as it can be a bit confusing; one needs to understand at what point the 70 week prophecy begins. We must remember this chapter begins in verse 1 and not verse 24 and understand why Daniel is praying so fervently. I am hoping to explain the correlation of what Daniel is studying, what the angel tells him, and how it plays into the 70 week prophecy.

Daniel is studying the prophet Jeremiah at the beginning of the chapter and is where we MUST begin.

Dan 9:2 In the first year of his reign (Darius the Mede), I, Daniel, contemplated the calculations, the number of the years that the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah the prophet, since the destruction of Jerusalem seventy years.

The first question to ask is what is the “word” Daniel is speaking of that came to Jeremiah? For this, we need to go back to Jeremiah 25 to learn about this prophecy and what Daniel is calculating. The number of years (70) has to do with the captivity that began under Nebuchadnezzar. This “word” in Hebrew is “devar”, which refers to a prophetic word. This word is the same word, in Hebrew, that is used in Dan 9:25 when the angel is speaking to Daniel. So the prophetic “word” (devar) in verse 2 that Daniel is contemplating is the same prophetic “word” the angel is referencing in vs 25 that the angel says is the beginning of this 70 weeks of years.

Jer 25:11 reads: 11 This whole land shall be a desolate ruin. And those nations shall serve the king of Babylon sev­enty years. 12 When the seventy years are over, I will pun­ish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their sins-declares the LORD-and I will make it a desolation for all time. Here we read of the 70 years Judah will be under Babylonian rule as punishment for disobeying and not listening to G-d.

Skipping forward to Jer 29:10 For thus said the LORD: When Babylon’s seventy years are over, I will take note of you, and I will fulfill to you My promise of favor-to bring you back to this place. At the end of the 70 years of captivity in Babylon, G-d will bring them back to Jerusalem. Between these two passages, there are two prophecies given: 1) where they are subjugated (chap 25) and 2) they are allowed to return to Jerusalem (chap 29).

Daniel 1:1 tells us Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem in the third year of king Jehoiakim and in Jer 25:1 we read in the fourth year of king Jehoiakim it was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

In Jer 52:12-13 we read of the destruction of the Temple: On the tenth day of the fifth month-that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Bab­ylon, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, came to represent the king of Babylon in Jerusalem. 13 He burned the House of the LORD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person. So 18 years have past since Nebuchadrezzar came to power and laid siege to Jerusalem and in the 19th year he destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem.

After the 70 years of captivity are fulfilled, we read in Ezra 1:1-3 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, when the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah was fulfilled: the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his realm by word of mouth and in writing as follows: 2 “Thus said King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me with building Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Anyone of you of all His people — may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem that is in Judah and build the House of the Lord God of Israel, the God that is in Jerusalem.

Additionally we read in II Chron 36:22-23 In the first year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the promise he delivered through Jeremiah, the LORD moved King Cyrus of Persia to issue a written decree throughout his kingdom. 23 It read: “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: ‘The LORD God of the heavens has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build for him a temple in Jerusalem in Judah. May the LORD your God energize you who belong to his people, so you may be able to go back there!”

Here we read the declaration of Cyrus to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem; the command to rebuild was given by Cyrus by word of mouth AND written word (a law) and was to fulfill what was spoken by Jeremiah. To say it was any other king is false as the original edict came from Cyrus, and he was the one who allowed them to return to start rebuilding. We cannot exclude Isa 44:28-45:1 44:28 who commissions Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd to carry out all my wishes and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’” 45:1 This is what the LORD says to his chosen one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold in order to subdue nations before him, and disarm kings; G-d explicitly states Cyrus is the one who will authorize Jerusalem and the Temple to be rebuilt.

So far in this timeline, we have 70 years of captivity under Babylon.

18 years into the 70 years, the Temple and Jerusalem are destroyed.

The 70 years ends with Babylon being overthrown by Cyrus.

Cyrus is the one who will authorize the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Here is where the fun begins as we connect the dots in the 70 week prophecy in Daniel; we are told there are three time periods (remember the semicolon removed in later translations of king Jimmy), Dan 9:25 And you shall know and understand that from the emergence of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until [the] anointed king [shall be] seven weeks, and [for] sixty-two weeks it will return and be built street and moat, but in troubled times. In this passage we have the first period of 7 weeks and then a second period of 62 weeks, with a total of 69 weeks. Remember, “word” here is the prophetic message from Jeremiah about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and their later return. Before going further let’s read again Dan 9:2 In the first year of his reign (Darius the Mede), I, Daniel, contemplated the calculations, the number of the years that the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah the prophet, since the destruction of Jerusalem seventy years. Daniel is counting from the freeing from Babylon to the destruction of Jerusalem, not to the start of captivity under Nebuchadnezzar. This verse also establishes when the first week begins. He’s praying because his calculations are saying they should be returning to Jerusalem as Jeremiah prophesied, but they aren’t.

During his prayer, he is visited by Gabriel who explains what’s happening and what’s going to happen. The angel references Jeremiah’s prophecy, the “word” to restore and rebuild which begins with the destruction of Jerusalem, the same place Daniel using in his calculations. We know the Temple was destroyed 18 years into Babylonian captivity and they were to be captive for 70 years, which means there were 52 years from the time Jerusalem was destroyed to the end of captivity. This fits perfectly within the first time period of 7 weeks as it is before the 8th week (49-56 years). The angel wasn’t telling Daniel about an event that already happened as part of a prophecy, he was giving Daniel the starting point to begin counting, except Daniel was slightly off with his calculations. He was under the Mede king Darius for one year before Cyrus became king and, as we have read above in Ezra 1, it was Cyrus who fulfilled what was prophesied by Jeremiah.

You say the 70 weeks began with Artaxerxes I is patently false as established by the above passages and doesn’t come close to fitting the two separate timelines; wait, christianity made it into a single timeline by removing a semicolon and claiming the angel didn’t know how to count. Who counts by combining two time periods, why wouldn’t the angel say 69 weeks instead of breaking it up into two periods if there weren’t two periods?

There is still the problem of the last week, Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off, and he will be no more, and the people of the coming monarch will destroy the city and the Sanctuary, and his end will come about by inundation, and until the end of the war, it will be cut off into desolation. This passage begins with “after the 62 weeks”, meaning it’s the last week of this 70 prophecy, and it is here an anointed one is cutoff. It is here the city and temple are destroyed. The Jesus DOESN’T fit the timeline as both the anointed one are cutoff and the city is destroyed in the same time period! The Jesus was crucified about 40 years prior!!

You claim there was a “period of reprieve” between the crucifixion and the city destruction; please provide the passage(s) of where that is stated in this 70 week prophecy or anywhere in the Tanakh. The reality is, you nor anyone has an explanation for this discrepancy, so justifications are created and believed. The sad part is all you need to do is read the Tanakh for your answers. It’s FREEING!!!

Bring your questions and I’ll do my best to answer them!!

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