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After foretelling ‘“the end of’” Jerusalem and the Temple in desolation ‘“with’” the overflowing ‘“flood’” of Roman military might in 70 A.D. (Daniel 9:26b, NKJV), the angel, Gabriel, sent to help Daniel understand makes the astonishing assertion, ‘“and till the end of the war desolations are determined’” plainly by God (Daniel 9:26c, NKJV). No specific war is named as any next prophetic timeline event prior to or slated for the final seven of the seventy sevens in the vision.1 Indeed, nothing like what is spoken of in Daniel 9:27 for the final seven of the seventy sevens has taken place after Messiah came or could since Israel’s Temple as a required prop lies in ruins to this day!
There is only one biblically sound and historically accurate conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing: there has been a delay or timeout inserted by God into His prophetic timeline vision! After the cutoff of Messiah and the sixty-ninth seven, God paused the ticking clock leaving the remaining seven years of the total four hundred and ninety to be fulfilled suspended until He in sovereignty chose the precise moment to restart it. First among His purposes in the delay, God would allow the ongoing spiritual war between Satan and Himself to continue with desolations in the earth until He brings it to His preordained from eternity end and that include the events of Daniel 9:27!
Meantime, of the many prophecies the Lord Jesus spoke before His death, burial, resurrection and ascension many calculate was in 33 A.D.,2 He foretells two other purposes for God’s delay that has now, lasted nearly two millennia. Second then, the Lord declares this delay before the final seven years of God’s prophetic timeline ‘“are the days of vengeance’” upon the Jewish people for their transgression to include rejecting Him to His face and afterward, the Gospel about Him by His apostles ‘“that all things which are written may be fulfilled,’” (Hosea 3, 5:8-6:3; Luke 13:34-35, 21:20-24a; Acts 3:1-4:22, NKJV).3 Third, the delay is ‘“the times of the Gentiles,’” (Luke 21:24b, NKJV).
God’s gracious purpose for the Gentiles during our times is the salvation of many. To this end, the Lord Jesus instructs His apostles about the scope of their mission and work when meeting with them after His resurrection (Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-16; Luke 24:46-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-8). Thus, though He was cutoff and left with nothing concerning His reign as the King of Israel at that time, with His resurrection predetermined from eternity the Lord immediately took charge to command the preaching of the Gospel about Him for salvation as well as still to come visible reign over the nation and entire earth from it as the priority message of His disciples until He returns!
Paul, the Jewish apostle to us Gentiles affirms the foregoing about God’s purposes for delay in completing the prophetic timeline vision given to Daniel as he carried out the mission and work after being rejected by many of his fellow Jews (Acts 13:26-47). Empowered by the Holy Spirit he was so bold as to preach in the heart of pagan idolatry declaring God’s call “to repent” to the Gentiles as both John the Baptist and the Lord before him did among the Jews (Matthew 3:1-2; Mark 1:14-15; Acts 17:16-34, NKJV). He also pointedly instructs and warns Gentiles about the two purposes the Lord gives for God’s delay in a strategic letter to believers at Rome (Romans 9-11).
This leads to a fourth purpose of God in His delay during these times of the Gentiles. It has been and is that while laboring to save the willing from among the Jews and Gentiles, He also brings warning judgments on the unsaved world. This is so they might have a foretaste of His coming wrath, perhaps, reconsider their wicked ways and repent! Consequently, Jews in unbelief and violent opposition to the Gospel from the first century have suffered greatly (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, NKJV) as have Gentile nations still drinking fully from God’s ‘“cup of fury’” with many calamities, conquerors, wars, conflicts, violence, murders, economic hardships and widespread death from various means to include famine and pestilence as foretold (Jeremiah 25:15-31; Revelation 6:1-8, NKJV).
A final purpose in God’s delay tied to the message of the Gospel, the mission and work to proclaim it is to allow Messiah time to ‘“build’” His Church composed of Jews and Gentiles; God’s glorious “mystery” from eternity unfolded during this, Messiah’s epoch who lives forever (Matthew 16:13-20; Ephesians 2-3, NKJV)! We who make up His Church are equipped by God to “stand” in the ongoing spiritual war Satan presses against us too (Ephesians 6:10-18, NKJV).4 God waits for His redeemed through the generations in gracious longsuffering until the Gospel is ‘“preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations’” and every last soul foreknown to Him is accounted for; ‘“and then,’” to the horror of every scoffer, ‘“the end will come,’” (Matthew 24:14; 2 Peter 3:1-9; NKJV).
This being so, ‘“the end’” the Lord speaks of is also the end of God’s delay to proceed with the last seven of His seventy sevens prophetic timeline vision and its events given to Daniel (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15). We are not there yet, but necessary props for this final dramatic period are being put into place by God. Israel back in the land as a nation since 1948 is the single most prophetically vital prop He has put into place to date since this will be followed by the building of a third Temple. In fact, Temple construction will come about due to never before seen severe judgments by God that convince the world He is and to leave Israel alone in their quest (Revelation 8-9).5 After this, Christ’s apostle, John, hears an angel say ‘“that there should be delay no longer,’” Revelation 10:1-7, NKJV).
1 This does not mean that until the end there would be no wars and desolations on earth as Bible prophecy even cited later in this post foretells and history easily shows has been the case. However, read the January 9, 2022 post, Easier To Read Bibles, under the categories, Bible Prophecy and Instruction where the Lord leads me to write about "the overarching spiritual war" in back of all human wars as well as The Right Side Of History, posted January 30, 2022, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview discussing the “seventy weeks” prophecy.
2 Bible students have long wrestled with the correct way to reconcile up to eight years being off in the dating of Christ’s birth and death based on God’s prophetic timeline. The issue turns on whose calendar dating method is used: the Jewish 360 day year or the Catholic Gregorian 365 day year that replaced Julius Caesar’s calendar in the the 16th century. Accepting He was born sometime between 6-4 B.C. during Herod’s reign as Scripture indicates (Matthew 2:1; Luke 1:5) and after making adjustments for the transition year from B.C. to A.D., using the Jewish calendar one comes to A.D. 33 for the chronology of events attending to Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of which I find no biblical reason to contest.
3 In stating, ‘“that all things which are written may be fulfilled,’” the Lord continues the thematic thread of hope by the prophets who after declaring God’s judgment, also spoke of His future blessing of Israel. Thus, note how the passages of Hosea and Luke 13:34-35 I cite end. Hosea 6:1-3 in context even gives the general time frame of two thousand years for how long Israel’s punishment and God’s delay presented in this post would be starting from when He began to “tear them” in A.D. 70. Obvious- ly, more than two literal days have passed since then. This span is calculated as uniquely used in the eternal perspective of God elsewhere in Scripture (Scripture inter- prets Scripture) based on one day being the equivalent of one thousand years (Hosea 5:14-15; Psalm 90:1-4; 2 Peter 3:8, NKJV).
4 The Lord’s charge through the apostle Paul “to be strong” in Ephesians 6:10, NKJV is made throughout the Bible to men. He led me to write the book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to instruct Christian men about the absolutely essential need we have to know all of what God has in mind for us commanded by Him to be strong in the image of His Son, Jesus Christ! Read the sample chapter on our Web Site. Then, get the book in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 See the September 29, 2019 post, God Almighty In A 21st Century World, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
As noted by not a few conservative Christian commentators, one of the buzz phrases of the secular culture today is “the right side of history.” When secularists or even professed Christians say this in tragic support of pressing their social agendas that transgress God’s Word in the Bible, they are most certainly failing to grasp the stark testimony of history. For the physical ruins of every ancient kingdom and empire of men are with us to this very hour as a reminder mortals cannot finally prevail in having their way against the living God!1 Consequently, those who oppose God are on the wrong side of history as His fulfilled prophetic Word to date through Daniel among others certifies.
Having reached the end of his prayer of confession, repentance and intercession seeking God’s mercy for Israel through forgiveness and restoration, Daniel receives a prophetic reply from God by way of an angel that is staggeringly far beyond the immediate historical situation. Praying as he was near the end of Israel’s seventy years of dispersion from the land and captivity to Babylon, God gives Daniel a prophetic timeline with key events in it that not only affect his people, but originating from them, the whole world and reaching into eternity! Daniel was instructed by God’s messenger, Gabriel, to ‘“consider the matter, and understand the vision,’” (Daniel 9:23, NKJV).
First, God set ‘“seventy weeks’” as the time length for all of His purposes and the events of His prophetic timeline to be fulfilled (Daniel 9:24-27, NKJV). While Israel was in the midst of finishing seventy literal years of captivity, the seventy weeks are not intended to be understood as literal seven day weeks which would yield four hundred and ninety days. No, here is where the author of the study notes in my New King James Bible and other reputable contemporary translations agree that “weeks” in the Hebrew should literally be understood “sevens” as in seven year spans. Consequently, it is seventy sevens or seven year spans totaling four hundred and ninety years. There is a plan and end!
Second, Daniel was told this period of time was ‘“determined’” by God ‘“for your people and for your holy city’” that had so concerned him in his prayer ‘“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,’” (Daniel 9:24, NKJV). God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer for Israel is in complete concert with His purposes of salvation for them and us Gentiles! During the time allotted, Israel is to finish their specific transgression against God bound up in their unique historical covenant relationship with Him as descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:15, 19:1-6).2
Too, in God’s prophetic timeline an end of sins that hopelessly separated all men from and reconciliation back to Him would occur. Truly, God is telling Daniel of things only He could accomplish! How, is powerfully signaled by the specific mention of Israel’s long before Daniel foretold ‘“Messiah the Prince’” and His intercessory agency (Genesis 22:15-18, 49:10; Isaiah 49:5-6, 61:1-3) in Daniel 9:25-26, NKJV. Messiah would also cause eternally enduring righteousness to come to redeemed mankind and under His up close royal administration, end the prophetic ministry as well as gloriously restore the Temple of God in Jerusalem (Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:1-10, 60:13; Jeremiah 23:5-8).3
Last, God’s vision to Daniel is very specific about the events and their timing in His timeline which history recorded in and out of the Bible proves to be perfectly accurate. Indeed, they follow in order after the official end of the Babylonian captivity with the decree of Persian King Cyrus who was himself divinely foretold (2 Chronicles 36:15-23; Isaiah 44:24-45:5). Interestingly, while it is not stated in Daniel 9:25, as Ezra and the post-exilic prophets Haggai and Zechariah record, building the second Jewish Temple is a priority of God when the people returned from captivity. Almost one hundred years pass before ‘“the command to restore and build Jerusalem’” in 445 B.C. and the attending troubles Nehemiah writes about launch God’s seventy sevens timeline (Daniel 9:25, NKJV).
Clearly, God’s timeline vision uniquely given to Daniel foretells when Israel could expect to see their Messiah since after the command concerning Jerusalem, seven sevens (49 years) and then sixty-two sevens (434 years) for a total of sixty-nine sevens (483 years) are set for as it turns out, His first coming.4 Nothing could or did stop His coming as Jesus of Nazareth who was conceived (Matthew 1:18-25), born where (Matthew 2:1-12), lived and ‘“cutoff, but not for Himself (declaring at His death, ‘“It is finished!’”)’” as foretold (Isaiah 53; Daniel 9:26a; John 19:14-42, NKJV). While not included in this vision to Daniel is the triumphant resurrection of Messiah after three days He foretold (Luke 18:31-34) or His ascension (Acts 1:9-11), in one earlier he saw His coronation (Daniel 7:13-14)!
Meanwhile, as the Lord Jesus Christ also foretold in complete agreement with the vision given to Daniel and history, nearly forty years later the Roman Empire--‘“the people of the prince who is to come’”--destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple yet again leaving them desolate in 70 A.D. (Daniel 9:26b; Matthew 23:37-24:2; Luke 19:41-44, 21:20-24, NKJV). An attempt by the Jews still living in the land to retake it and Jerusalem in 135 A.D. was also crushed by the Romans. From that point on as warned and foretold, they were scattered to the nations (Leviticus 26:27-35; Deuteronomy 28:64-66; Matthew 21:33-46). In under four hundred years after this, the Roman Empire joined its named predecessor Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Greek Empires among the ruins of history or did it?
1 This is the reason I hardly blink when critics among professed Christians insinuate this Ministry’s faithful instruction on the strong man and great woman of God is not in step with current popular Christian themes. God’s Word will never fail to stand right and true whatever the times or popular acceptance of people. If you want a life changing, enduring biblical word from the Lord on what you are supposed to be about as a Christian man or woman, get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics along with its companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study available at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
2 Read the two-part post that begins January 16, 2022, Arriving At These Times, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent.
3 Daniel 9:24 is another place in Scripture that asserts God’s intent to end the prophetic ministry during the Kingdom reign of Christ on earth at His return and not before as the erroneous, contrary presupposition held by many especially conservative religious educated elites maintains. See the two-part post that begins August 2, 2020, Flavor- less Salt Is Worthless, under the category, Call To Repent taking special note of the fourth footnote in part one.
4 See the August 22, 2021 post, The King Of Israel, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
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