Daniel In Babylon

14. The Seventy Weeks

The Persian conquest of Babylon made very little difference to the normal life of the city. The comparative ease with which the capital had fallen, with little destruction or loss of life, meant that the citizens merely exchanged a Babylonian ruler for a Persian, Cyrus. The commercial life of the city went on as usual; merchant vessels from Africa and India still came up the river to the quays of Babylon; caravans of goods still traversed the high roads from Syria and Egypt. The government was in the hands of the Persians, but the life of the nation went on much as before. It was not at the capture of Babylon by Cyrus that the vivid prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah relating to the doom of the wicked city had their fulfilment, but twenty years later, when Darius Hystaspes the Persian king laid siege again to the city and demolished its walls. In the meantime Daniel was faced with the situation that the power of Babylon was broken, apparently for ever; Cyrus the Persian was quite evidently the coming man, and Cyrus was the name of the man in Isaiah’s prophecy who should let the captives restore the worship of God at Jerusalem. Small wonder that Daniel went to the sacred books to discern what he could of the purposes of God.

"In the first year of his reign (Darius) I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof (whereby) the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem." (Dan.9:2)

An old man of ninety sat reading, as he had read hundreds of times before, words that were penned when he was a lad of sixteen or so. His whole life had been lived in expectation of an event which, even as a boy, he knew could not come until he himself was ninety years of age; whatever may have been the hopes and beliefs of his fellows as to their deliverance, Daniel himself had known all along that he was destined to spend the rest of his life in Babylon. That Return from Exile which he so ardently desired for his people would not come until he himself would be too old to share in it.

Nearly seventy years previously, in the third year of Jehoiakim King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar had besieged Jerusalem, made Jehoiakim tributary, taken the sacred vessels from the Temple and carried them, with Daniel and his fellows, into Babylon. In the following year, the Babylonian king broke the power of Egypt at Carchemish and thenceforth was the undisputed master of Western Asia. In that year Jeremiah uttered the message against Judah recorded in his twenty‑fifth chapter, and it is that message to which Daniel referred. The Divine sentence had gone forth against the guilty people; from that third year of Jehoiakim when they became tributary to Babylon and their Temple treasures went into an idol sanctuary, they were to serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jer.25:11) At the end of the seventy years the power of Babylon was to be broken. Until then all nations were to serve Nebuchadnezzar, and his son, and his grandson, "until the very time of his land come" (Jer.27:7) a prophecy which was fulfilled in a most remarkable way, for his son Evil‑Merodach (Jer.52:31) and his grandson Belshazzar both reigned and then the kingdom came to an end. Daniel, after the death of Belshazzar and the transfer of sovereignty to the Persians, realised that the time had expired.

What were his thoughts as his eyes scanned the familiar words and his mind went back to those days of long ago? Was there a measure of sadness that so few of his own generation remained to share his realisation of hopes fulfilled? Daniel must have been getting a rather lonely man. His old friend and mentor, Jeremiah, was of course long since gone to his rest, buried somewhere in Egypt. Of his three companions in exile, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, nothing is known since the incident of the fiery furnace, nearly forty‑five years in the past. Quite likely they too were dead. Ezekiel the prophet and Jehoiachin the captive king were almost certainly at rest with their fathers. The up‑and‑coming young men who were marked out as leaders of the nation when the Return to Jerusalem could be effected were two generations later than his own. But there was no jealousy and no repining. Daniel knew he could have no part in the stirring days of the Return himself, but he knew that prayer was vitally necessary before that Return could become a reality and so he betook himself to earnest and urgent prayer on behalf of his beloved people. And the consequence of that prayer was the revelation of a time prophecy so obviously and accurately fulfilled that it set the seal upon Daniel’s book and stamped the study of time prophecy with Divine approval.

It is impossible to read Daniel’s ninth chapter without realising just how the saintly old man poured out his heart’s longings to God. Here are the hopes and dreams of a lifetime, the faith that knows God is faithful, the insight that perceives the only obstacle to be unbelief, the conviction that God will surely hear, and act, because He is God, and God cannot lie. What He has promised that He will surely perform. Every acknowledgement of God’s constancy and faithfulness is made, and with that a full and frank admission of Israel’s guilt. There is no evasion of the issue; Israel reaped what she had sown; deserved what she had got. But because God is good, and because, with all their faults, Jerusalem and her people are called by God’s name, Daniel besought his liege Lord to return, and relent, and execute his great purpose in delivering Jerusalem. "We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies." (Ch.9:18) Could any of us in these favoured days of spiritual understanding come more closely to the true nature of Divine forgiveness? Could any one of us come any nearer to the heart of the Father? It was to that last heartfelt appeal the Father responded. Once more a heavenly being of high rank and greatly honoured in the courts of heaven was charged with a mission to earth. We know very little about conditions beyond the Veil, the everyday life of the celestial world, but that it is a place and condition of ceaseless activity is evident. Gabriel was no stranger to the world of man and he had visited Daniel before. If one asks the question whether there truly does exist an angelic personality bearing the name Gabriel, entrusted at times with Divine commissions to men, the answer can only be that the Bible gives us no ground for disputing the fact. This "seventy weeks" prophecy could only have been revealed from heaven; Daniel asserts that it was told him by a visitor he knew from former experience to be Gabriel, the messenger of God. Five hundred years later the same personality appeared to Mary the mother of Jesus, again with a message of great import, this time to announce the fulfilment of that which he had predicted to Daniel. Although Gabriel is not mentioned by name anywhere else in Bible history, it is very possible that he is the one concerned in other appearances of an angelic being to men—to the Apostle Peter in prison, perhaps, or to Paul when he was told he would be brought before Caesar.

"Whiles I was speaking," in prayer, (v.20) Gabriel came. "At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came (went) forth, and I am come to show thee" (v.23) is the assurance of the heavenly visitor. So quickly may prayer be answered; so near to us is that celestial world where God’s will is done as one day it will be done on earth. "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" says the Lord through Isaiah. (Isa.65:24) Sin is a separating influence which puts God far away from us; prayer is a magnetism which brings us at once very near to God.

So the story of the seventy weeks was unfolded. "Weeks" is, as is usually well known, a mistranslation. The proper rendering is "seventy sevens" where "seven" is "hepdomad," a unit, especially a unit of time. There is not much doubt that Daniel was to have his understanding of Jeremiah’s seventy years linked up with a greater seventy,—seventy sevens, in fact—leading up to the greater development of God’s Plan, which would, eventually, bring to fruition all Daniel’s hopes.

The seventy years of Jeremiah were literally fulfilled, several times over. The primary decree was that not only Judah, but the nations round about, were to serve the king of Babylon seventy years and then the power of Babylon would be broken. (Jer.25:11‑12) During that period the penalty for resistance to the Divine decree of subjection was conquest, destruction, desolation. True to the promise, from the third year of Jehoiakim when Judah passed under Babylonian domination to the Decree of Cyrus was seventy years. Likewise the period from the destruction of the Temple in the eleventh year of Zedekiah to the completion of Zerubbabel’s Temple in the sixth year of Darius Hystapes was seventy years. Small wonder that Daniel, having lived through the first‑named period, looked now for the restoration of Judah, and hence for Divine enlightenment as to the next development in the outworking of the Divine Plan.

"Seventy weeks (sevens) are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city" (Dan.9:24) to accomplish seven different aspects of our Lord’s work at his First Advent. Gabriel recited them in order; while he recited, Daniel must have listened in growing awe as he realised that greater and still unplumbed depths of the Divine purposes were being revealed.

"To finish the transgression." (v.24) Our Lord’s Advent was timed to come when Israel had filled up the measure of their fathers. (Matt.23:32) The period between Daniel and Jesus brought Israel’s guilt up to the brim and abundantly demonstrated their unworthiness of the promise.

"To make an end of sins." (v.24) Jesus did that by yielding his own life an offering for sin, a Ransom for All, to be testified in due time. (Isa.53:10; 1 Tim.2:5‑6).

"To make reconciliation for iniquity." This is the atonement which Christ made, pictured in the Tabernacle ceremonies by offering the blood of the sin‑offering on the "mercy seat" or propitiatory in the inner sanctuary, a "covering" for human sin.

"To bring in everlasting righteousness." The Apostle Paul explained this when he spoke of justification by faith, the gift of God to all who accept Jesus as Saviour and trust in him alone for salvation and reconciliation with God.

"To seal up the vision and prophecy." The more correct rendering is "vision and prophet" and the sealing is in the sense of ratifying. The Father himself ratified both the vision and the prophet who brought the vision, when He declared from Heaven at the time of Jesus baptism "This is my beloved Son...hear ye him." (Matt.17:5)

"To anoint the Most Holy." This refers to the consecrated things of the temple, especially the altar of burnt‑offerings, and can well apply to the final work of the First Advent when Jesus, glorified, anointed his disciples with the Holy Spirit of Power, sending them forth after Pentecost to commence their great work of witness.

Gabriel told Daniel (vv.25‑27) that this great period of seventy sevens was to be divided into three sections of seven sevens, sixty‑two sevens and one final seven. In that last seven great happenings were to transpire. Most momentous of all, Messiah would be cut off "but not for himself." No, He died for others, for men, that they might live. In the middle of that "seven" Messiah would bring to an end the "sacrifice and oblation," those literal offerings and sacrifices demanded by the law to give Israel a ritualistic righteousness. He made an end of that Law, nailing it to his cross. (Col.2:14) Never again could those offerings have any validity in God’s sight, for the reality had come. Then Messiah was also to "confirm the covenant with many for one week (seven)." True to that word, the covenant of favour to Israel which precluded Gentiles from entering the "High Calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil.3:14) was continued throughout three and a half years more until it came to an end with the acceptance of Cornelius, the first Gentile fellow‑heir. Because of "the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate" even as Jesus declared, weeping over the city but declaring nevertheless "your house is left unto you desolate." (Matt.23:38) Then, finally, "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (v.26) and that word was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

Here is a clear outline of the light and shade, the glory, and the tragedy, of the First Advent. Daniel must have perceived that all this meant great distress for his people even though it also included the fulfilment at last of the Divine promise. Naturally enough, therefore, the question must have come to his lips as it did to the disciples of Jesus half a millennium later, "How long?"; "When shall these things be?"

Daniel realised at once that the seventy sevens were sevens of years. He was already aware of Jeremiah’s period of seventy years, now fulfilled, but this was a greater period, seventy sevens. Four hundred and ninety years; that was the vista which now appeared before the prophet’s wondering mind.

The starting point is given in terms of an easily recognisable political event. "From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince.... " (v.25) were the angel’s words. Daniel did not live to see that event. He did come to know of the decree issued by Cyrus king of Persia in the first year of his reign authorising whosoever would of the Jews in Babylon to return to Judea and rebuild the ruined Temple. Some forty‑nine thousand returned under Zerubbabel but their initial enthusiasm soon waned and the work languished. The royal edict was reiterated sixteen years later in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, third successor of Cyrus. In consequence of the missionary zeal of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah at that time the work was resumed and in another four years the Temple was completed and dedicated. But the city around it was still desolate, its walls broken down and its gates just as they were left when Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers burned them with fire nearly a century previously. No authority or permission had as yet been given "to restore and build Jerusalem." Next came the reign of Xerxes, and then his son and successor Artaxerxes I, who in the seventh year of his reign, some seventy years after the decree of Cyrus, sent Ezra the priest to take offerings and treasure for the rebuilt Temple and to govern the little Jewish colony, but even then no word or command or intimation regarding the rebuilding of the city and its walls.

Thirteen years later, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, a royal commission was awarded Nehemiah, the Jewish patriot, to proceed to Jerusalem for the express purpose of rebuilding the city, its houses, walls and gates. At this time Jerusalem was still in ruins; the impulse of Nehemiah to go there sprang from a report on its condition brought to him in this same year. Its walls were still broken down, its gates burned with fire and the houses not built. Here, it would seem, is the starting point of the prophetic period. Sixty‑nine sevens from this point, four hundred and eighty‑three years, to the appearance of Messiah, and one more seven for the completion of all that his Advent was to mean to Israel; this was the gist of Gabriel’s intimation and Daniel knew then that the consummation of Israel’s hopes was still very far away.

Looking back in history we ought to perceive very clearly the fulfilment of this time prophecy, for Messiah has come and we know when He came. It was in the autumn of A.D.29 that Jesus of Nazareth stood by the waters of Jordan to be baptised by John as a prelude to his ministry on earth. There, at that time, He became the Messiah the Prince. Three and a half years later "in the midst of the seven"—the last seven—He caused "the sacrifice and the oblation to cease" by his death on the cross. By the end of that seven the special standing before God which Israel had enjoyed since Sinai was abrogated, and the Gospel was extended to all nations. The seventy weeks had ended.

Unfortunately the starting‑point cannot be located in history so precisely. The Persians did not produce any reliable historians of their own; the Greek historians of the time are confused and contradictory when it comes to Persian happenings. In consequence there is dispute as to the precise date of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes with a possible variation of sixteen years.454‑438 BC. Herodotus, Ctesias, Thucydides, Ptolemy and Josephus between them have set later historians, chronologists and commentators alike a problem which has occupied the thoughts and pens of many a writer during the latter part of the Age. But for the present purpose accuracy to a year is quite unnecessary. The important thing is that this "seventy weeks" back from the ministry of Jesus must in any case have commenced within ten years or so of whatever date eventually turns out to be that of Artaxerxes twentieth year. Ten years in five hundred is a quite close margin of error and as we look back upon this fulfilled prophecy, we can only marvel at its exactitude. Small wonder that modern critics decry the whole thing and endeavour to suggest other and earlier starting points for the prophecy so as to bring its termination in the days of the Maccabean revolt, assigning all these eloquent phrases to the petty doings of a lot of apostate High Priests and princes in Israel. We can only say "This is the LORD’s doing: it is marvellous in our eyes." (Psa.118:23)

The division, in verse 25, of the sixty‑nine sevens into two periods of seven and sixty‑two is not further elaborated on by the revealing angel. Seven sevens, forty‑nine years, from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes must end at some time between 406‑390 BC. This point of time is notable for a number of events momentous to Israel.

Darius II, son of Artaxerxes, died 405 BC. With his death the favour shown by successive Persian kings to Israel since the days of Cyrus came to an end. Upon the accession of Darius’ successor, Judea lost its status as a province and was added to the province of Syria; thus commenced the Syrian oppression of Israel which became so terrible an affliction a century or so later.

Nehemiah, the last governor of Judea, died probably between 413 and 405 BC, Ezra a little earlier.

Malachi, the Hebrew prophet, flourished during the last seven years of Nehemiah and died, it is estimated, very soon after the patriot’s death.

The canon of the Old Testament was completed.

Thus, at the end of the first "seven sevens," the period of the Restoration, all the favour shown by the Persians to the Jews, all the rebuilding and re‑establishment of the nation, all the fervency of the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and the reforming zeal of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, all that had been accomplished during that stirring time, came to an end. The nation entered upon a new and bitter experience which progressively worsened, with only occasional periods of intermission, until the conquest of Judea by Titus in A.D.70, and the greater Dispersion among all nations began. Even that was foreseen by the heavenly visitant; "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" he said (Dan.9:26). That prediction was fulfilled to the letter.

Daniel must have had much to think about when his visitor had gone. The city of his fathers and the Temple, the glory of the city, were to be rebuilt only to be destroyed again. Would the Lord never fulfil his promise to plant Israel and not pluck them up again? Long and earnestly must the aged prophet have cogitated over the problem; the ways of God are often dark and mysterious, and men comprehend them not. But for Daniel there was more to come; he was yet to be given the final vision, which assured him that despite all these disasters all would be well at the last.

(To be continued
AOH