GABRlEL’S SEVENTY WEEKS

By Curtis Pugh (1944-2018)

Before considering the seventy weeks, let us note three things by way of introduction. First of all, l have elected to title this piece “Gabriel’s Seventy Weeks“ because of three things. It was to Gabriel that this revelation was first given. It was Gabriel who was sent with this prophecy, and it was Gabriel who first spoke the words of our text to Daniel.

Second, both as an auditor and a reader I have received help on this passage from various men over the years. l cannot give them all proper credit. However, l call attention to Alva J. McClain’s little book, Daniel's Prophecy of the 70 Weeks from which l shall draw considerably. This book of 73 pages was first published in 1940. l first read it about 1963. As far as l know, in all these years, no one has successfully contradicted its main points. McClain was a protestant and writes as one regarding what he calls “the church,” but otherwise this work is very helpful.

The third thing I would call to your attention is the importance of this passage. l am convinced that no one lacking a proper understanding of these seventy weeks can have a proper understanding of biblical prophecy. One tremendously important thing that a correct understanding of this passage will do is save us from the terrible error of date setting! These seventy weeks are the God-given framework over which the whole fabric of Bible prophecy is draped. lf l may speak in this fashion, l have found that the tent of Bible prophecy thus formed has no leaks. And l have found that Gabriel‘s framework and the whole fabric of Scripture taken together make up a pre-millennial and pre-tribulational tent. I am well aware that there are godly Baptist brethren who hold a different eschatological position than l do. I respect both them and their positions. On occasion I have examined their positions in as honest a way as l know how, but I have not yet been shaken from this eschatological tent - in large measure because of the framework made known to Daniel by the angel Gabriel - our text.

Let us look at Gabriel's prophecy. He said: ‘...O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cutoff, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:22-27). Consider with me very briefly the following nine major things that are taught in this prophecy.

1. THE SUBJECT OF THIS PROPHECY: Gabriel said plainly to Daniel that the entire prophecy has to do with “thy people,” and “thy holy city” (v. 24). These weeks, then, are exclusively Jewish! These weeks are not determined upon gentile world powers, nor are the Lord’s Churches mentioned by Gabriel! This prophecy has nothing to do with them. In our present day Israel has been “broken off" and specific elect Gentiles have been grafted in (Rom. 11:17). During this era in which we live, except for a small remnant of elect Jews, God is not dealing with Israel as far as salvation is concerned (Rom. 11:5; Acts 28:28). Neither is He dealing favorably with them as a nation except in His kind providence. I say again, this prophecy of the seventy weeks has nothing to say about the Lord’s Churches! They are just not there! In fact, the only gentiles mentioned in this prophecy are the “prince that shall come” and his “people” and perhaps the “many” with whom the covenant shall be confirmed may include some gentiles. So we may with certainty say that this prophecy pertains exclusively to the Jews! Don't look for the Churches or details or events pertaining to them in these seventy weeks. We will grievously err if we try to fit the Lord’s program for His Churches in either the first sixty-nine weeks or in the seventieth week of this prophecy for God’s message is: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city... " (9:24).

2. TWO DIFFERENT PRINCES ARE SPOKEN ABOUT IN THIS PROPHECY. Do not confuse these two princes. To confuse them is to confuse the message of this prophecy. The first prince mentioned is “Messiah the Prince" (v. 25). Obviously this is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ in His princely or kingly office. The second prince mentioned is “the prince of the people that shall come.” This man is a prince of those people that Gabriel said would come in the future and destroy both Jerusalem and the temple located there. This makes it clear that this second “prince” cannot be the Lord Jesus Christ. While the event was yet future in the days of Daniel, we can look back and identify these people of whom it was prophesied that they “...shall come (and) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary...” (v.26). This event is past! History is clear! It was the Roman army under Titus that destroyed both the city of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. So this coming prince shall be from the Roman Empire. Some have suggested that he will be a Jew. That presents no difficulty at all. Paul was both a “Hebrew of the Hebrews” and a Roman citizen as well (Phil. 3:5; Acts 22:25, 26). It is possible for a man to be ethnically a Jew (or of certain other ethnic groups) and be a citizen of the Roman Empire, revived or otherwise, at the same time. It seems abundantly clear that these two “princes” are distinct individuals: we must not confuse them.

3. CONSIDER THE ENTIRETY OF THE TIME PERIOD WITH WHICH THIS PROPHECY DEALS. This time period is exactly “seventy weeks” (v. 24). This time period is divided into three smaller periods (vs. 25 -27). First there is a period of seven weeks. Then there is a period of “threescore and two weeks” or sixty-two weeks. This is followed by a period of one week. Thus we have a total of seventy weeks. Some have tried to make the “weeks” mean weeks of days, making each day stand for a year. This has resulted in only confusion. If we remember two things we can understand the meaning of the word “week.” First, the word used here for “weeks” is literally “sevens.” The Hebrew language uses the word “sevens” to mean two things relative to time. The word can mean a week of days such as we commonly speak of today. Second, it is also used of a week of years: i.e. a period of seven years. When Jacob‘s uncle Laban had given him his older daughter to marriage instead of her younger sister whom Jacob wanted, Laban said about Rachel, the desired daughter, “Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years” (Gen. 9:27). Here Laban makes it perfectly clear that “her week” was “yet seven other years." Afterwards we read, “And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also" (Gen. 9:28). Remember also that Israel had by Divine law not only a week of days but also a week of years (Ex. 16:26; 31:15; 23:11). Every seventh year was a Sabbath Year just as every seventh day was a Sabbath Day! So Daniel and the Jews would have understood that Gabriel was not necessarily talking about a week of days, but rather may have meant a week of years. Since the events of this prophecy obviously cannot be made to fit into seventy weeks of days and actually do fit into seventy weeks of years, we conclude that each “week” was actually a week of seven years.

4. WE KNOW WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY WHEN THE WHOLE PERIOD OF SEVENTY WEEKS BEGAN. We are clearly told in verse 25 that, “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks...” or sixty-nine weeks. This sixty-nine week period is obviously to be followed by the seventieth week, but not necessarily immediately. By locating the precise date in history when a decree was given to rebuild the city of Jerusalem we can know when the seventy weeks began. There were several royal decrees issued, but the earlier ones related to reconstruction of the temple. According to the words of Gabriel, we are to look for the decree that authorized the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah records such a decree and says that this decree was given “...in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king...” (Nehemiah 2:1). This date is one of the best-known dates in history. Alva J. McClain writes: “Even the Encyclopedia Britannica, certainly not biased in favor of prophecy, sets the date of Artaxerxes’ accession as 465 B.C.; and therefore his twentieth year would be 445 B.C.‘ (Alva J. McClain, op cit) p. 24. So we know when the seventy weeks began - right down to the very day, the first day of Nisan, for according to the custom of the time if no specific day was mentioned, the first day of the month was meant.

5. WE KNOW ALSO WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY THE EVENT THAT MARKS THE END OF THE SIXTY-NINE WEEKS. Gabriel said, “...from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks...” (v. 25). If we add the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks we have sixty-nine weeks. This total of sixty-nine weeks shall be “unto the Messiah the Prince.” The event that marks the end of the sixty-nine weeks is the appearance of “Messiah the Prince.” We have not the space to prove it here, but it can be demonstrated, and has been so demonstrated, that this sixty-nine week period ended with the Lord Jesus being received as “prince” or “King” on the day of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On that momentous day the Jewish people recognized the “Messiah” as their “King.” John writes that the people “...cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord” (John 12:13). They called Him “the King of Israel.” Matthew 21:9,15 in dealing with this event calls Him “the Son of David” and as the son of a king is a prince, so Christ, the Messiah of Israel, was recognized as the royal “prince.” This part of the prophecy has been fulfilled. The sixty-nine weeks are past!

6. TWO THINGS WERE PROPHESIED TO TAKE PLACE AFTER THE SIXTY-NINE WEEKS. Gabriel said, “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined” (v. 25). The two events that are to take place “after” the sixty-nine weeks (7 weeks plus 62 weeks) are not said to be included in the last or seventieth week. Nowhere does Gabriel even hint that the two events mentioned here occur in the seventieth week! They follow the sixty-ninth week, but it is clear that they do not take place in the seventieth. Thus we have clearly introduced to us the idea that there is a time gap between the sixty- ninth and the seventieth week. The duration of this time gap is not stated. Any serious study of prophecy will show that Old Testament prophets were not concerned with events foreign to their subject, nor to the time that might intervene between prophesied events. They often prophesied future mountain-peak events without any mention or regard for events that would occur in the valleys between the mountain-peaks. Thus Gabriel, speaking regarding Israel, does not speak fully about the time gap between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth one. Most of the events in this time gap do not concern Israel, but rather the gentiles and so are rightly ignored in this prophecy. Paul speaks of this time - a time when Israel has been set aside. That period of time began between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week with Israel's rejection of their Messiah (Romans 11:20). This time period will last, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25). Gabriel does speak of two notable events that take place during the time gap that has been introduced to us here. He speaks of them because they are events directly related to Daniel’s people, Israel. First he says, Messiah shall be cut off or killed, but not for Himself, i.e. He shall die on behalf of others. Second the people (“of the prince that shall come”) shall destroy both Jerusalem and the temple (v. 25). There are other events during this time-gap that we call the Church age or the “acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19), but they are not pertinent to our present discussion. Gabriel said the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem take place after the sixty-ninth week. Because we know that the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem are past, we know that the sixty-ninth week is past.

7. WE KNOW WHEN THE LAST OR SEVENTIETH WEEK WILL BEGIN. We are told that sometime “after” this time period “he” shall confirm a treaty having to do with Israel (and perhaps other nations) for “one week” (v. 27). Thus we have introduced another “week.” Since only seventy weeks are prophesied regarding Israel and we have seen that the first sixty-nine are finished and past, this “week” must be the final or seventieth week. Thus the making of this seven-year treaty with Israel marks the beginning of the seventieth and final week of this prophecy. Since no “prince” has yet made a seven-year treaty with Israel, the last or seventieth of these weeks has not yet begun. However, this question remains, just whom shall we identify as the “he” in verse 27? Some have tried to say that this pronoun refers to “Messiah” in the preceding verse with the result that this week is understood to be past already. Here is the question: does the "he" refer to Christ or another “prince?” Regarding this “he” in the phrase “he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week,” Alva J. McClain writes, “Grammatically, it might refer to either, although presumption favors the latter because he is mentioned last before the pronoun.” He continues: “However, there are certain other considerations which are decisive. First we are told that “he” will make a firm covenant with the Jewish nation for a period of one week, or seven years. Now, there is absolutely nothing recorded in the earthly ministry of our Lord which even remotely resembles such a covenant. Those who hold that Messiah is the maker of this seven-year covenant have never been able to produce the evidence to show the existence of such a covenant between our Lord and the Jews. They cannot point to the place in history where it began nor where it has ended. Second, the theory that this covenant was made by our Lord when He began His earthly ministry and that by His death he caused the Jewish sacrifice to cease, breaks down because there is no reference to such a covenant in the Gospel records and also because the death of Christ did not cause the Jewish sacrifices to cease. They continued, in fact, until the destruction of Jerusalem nearly forty years later. And, since according to this theory Christ died "in the midst of the week,” the sacrifices should have ceased immediately. But they did not. In the third place, to insist that Messiah was the maker of this seven-year covenant necessarily puts the entire Seventieth Week in the past, immediately following the Sixty-ninth Week. But this is impossible... The Seventieth Week is still in the future, not in the past, according to the Word of our Lord Himself in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew.” (Alva J. McClain, op cit) pp. 51, 52. For the record, Christ did indeed indicate that the seventieth week of this prophecy was future when He said, “When ye therefore shall see...” (Matt. 24:15). Surely no one will suggest that Christ told His Jewish hearers to be looking for an event (“the abomination of desolation”) that is already past! Such an idea is foolish and so it is erroneous to think that either part or all of the final week is past. This seventieth week, which is yet future, gives us the chronological framework for all those prophetic events recorded in Revelation chapters 6 to 19. Upon this Divinely-given framework the whole fabric of biblical prophecy can be fitted with precision and completeness. Thus this prophecy is indeed one of two keys to understanding the Book of Revelation — the other key being the God-given outline of that Book found in Rev. 1:19. So we see that the last or seventieth week will begin with a definite event: a Roman prince making a seven-year treaty with Israel.

8. WE KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEVENTIETH WEEK. Verse 27 says: “...in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate...” This is the very thing the Lord warned His Jewish hearers about in Matthew 24:15, i.e. "the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet” which shall occur in the reconstructed Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Such horrific pollution of the temple shall take place halfway through this final seven-year period that the sacrifices shall cease. Note that because the Lord Jesus said that this event is future, the middle of the seventieth week must be future.

9. WE KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THIS FINAL OR SEVENTIETH WEEK IS COMPLETED. There will be a time of unparalleled prosperity and blessing for Israel. We may not understand all that is included in this prophecy, but we surely can see that sin will be done away with and all will be well with Israel. A part of verse 24 says these seventy weeks will accomplish six specific things: i.e. “...to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” These things have not happened - clear proof that the seventieth week is not past. What glory it will be when Christ has brought in “everlasting righteousness!” When prophecy has been sealed up because of its fulfillment and when the “most Holy” shall be anointed will be nothing short of the restoration of Israel to God's favor. It will be the time when the prophecy made to Mary shall come to pass: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32. 33).

The first sixty-nine weeks are past. In these weeks God dealt graciously only with His elect nation, Israel, except for a few individual gentiles. In the future seventieth and final week of God’s prophetic framework He shall again be dealing with Israel and because of this, there is no cause to think that the Lord's Churches will be present during this time. Jesus said, “The law and the prophets were until John...” (Luke 16:16). What had previously been God-ordained worship became merely “the Jews religion” (Gal. 1:13, 14). The Jews were judicially blinded and shall remain so “until the fulness of the gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25). When that “fulness” has come about, God will again turn to the Jews. While God has a present day Church-age program, He has not permanently cast Israel away. Romans 11:23 is clear on this point. Speaking of Israel, Paul wrote, “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.” And again Paul writes, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Romans 11:25-27). There is yet a “seventieth week” ahead for Israel! God has a covenant with them! When God is finished dealing with the gentiles in this Church age, He shall, after they experience great tribulation (Jer. 30:7), graft Israel back in and do for her all those things prophesied. When “the fulness of the Gentiles be come in," then and only then, “all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” What a glorious time is ahead when God “shall tum away ungodliness from Jacob.”