This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 10: “From Confession to Consolation”
This week we deal with Daniel 9 which consists of two separate parts. First, there is Daniel’s prayer followed by God’s answer which is delivered by Gabriel, God’s angel messenger.
The lesson provides a fairly good summary of the prayer and the different components of that prayer. Daniel knew that the 70-year exile was almost ended, and rather than just sit back and let God do what He said He would do, Daniel confessed the corporate sins of his people and reminded God of His promise to bring them back home.
As he was praying, the angel Gabriel came to him to give him understanding.
Then, as far as the second part of the chapter goes, the prophecy, it has been said that a correct understanding of the prophecy of Daniel 9 is critical to having a correct understanding of end-times prophecy; without it, and without a correct starting point for the 70 weeks of years—then, as they say, “anything goes”.
Much of the problem with this chapter occurs because people sometimes take part of this prophecy literally but pass some of it off as just figurative. This handling of the word is often done so that some pet belief can be inserted and given Biblical support. But that way of dealing with Scripture is directly contrary to the admonition in 2 Timothy 2:15 to “rightly handle” the word of God.
With that background in mind, let’s go through verses 24-27, looking closely at each verse, understanding each one as a literal truth, as it was intended to be understood.
24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city,
This first phrase is where many interpretations get it wrong. This is spoken to Daniel, a Jew, which means that it is a prophecy intended for Jews and their “holy city” which is Jerusalem.
This phrase is where some people start to rearrange things to exclude Israel and to insert the Church, but this language could not be any more clear—it is about “your” (Daniel’s) people and their holy city, Jerusalem.
This is also where the lesson changes Scripture in order to “prove” one of Adventism’s core doctrines. The lesson explains it this way:
According to the biblical text, the 70 weeks are “determined,” or “cut off.” This indicates that the time period of 490 years has been cut from a larger time period…
But is that explanation really what it means by “determined”? As I don’t read Hebrew, I consulted someone who does, on an “Ask A Rabbi” website. The reply was this:
In verse 24 the word in Hebrew is nechtach, which literally means “cut”. In Hebrew, the word “cut” refers to a strong decision that cannot be altered. Covenants are “cut”.
In verse 26, the Hebrew word is nechretzet, which literally means “engraved”. It, too, is a word that symbolizes a decision that is final. In fact, the Metzudas Zion writes specifically that it is synonymous with nechtach.
However, some (Rashi) say that the word nechretzet here should mean “plowed”. So, it is not a reference to a decree or decision, but rather part of the desolation.
So, in the original language, to “determine” doesn’t mean to cut that length of time out of any other period of time. It means simply a decision that cannot be changed. Daniel would understand this meaning as he was thrown into the lions’ den precisely because of a decree that could not be changed.
The lesson also says this:
Thus 483 years after Artaxerxes’s decree, that is, in the year A.D. 27, Jesus the Messiah is baptized and anointed by the Holy Spirit for His Messianic mission.
But that is completely contrary to the real meaning of the text. For one thing, it doesn’t say “baptized”; it says “cut off”; and for another, the information from the Ask A Rabbi site shows a completely different meaning of the word “determined” or “cut” in the original language than the one used by the lesson.
As for the length of time, it also is meant to be literal. The Hebrew word translated weeks (or sevens) refers to a period of 7 years, like the English word “decade” refers to a period of 10 years. It literally means “a week of years.” So 70 weeks is 70 X 7 years, or 490 years. This period is divided into three parts:
7 weeks or 49 years, 62 weeks or 434 years, and 1 week or 7 years for a total of 490 years.
The following list comprises the six things that the Lord had determined to do for Israel during that 490 years:
- to finish the transgression,
Notice the use of the word “the” which makes it a specific transgression which could also be translated as “rebellion”. They were in Babylon precisely because of their corporate rebellion against God. - to make an end of sin,
Some translations say to seal up sin; as if putting them away into a sealed container. - to make atonement for iniquity,
Atonement, or restitution for (their) iniquity. - to bring in everlasting righteousness,
To bring them into a state of everlasting righteousness, or being right with God. - to seal up vision and prophecy and
“Seal up” is the same word as in point b above. Once fulfilled, prophecy is no longer needed. It isn’t invalidated, it just is no longer necessary as it has served its purpose. - to anoint the most holy place.
To anoint, or consecrate, the Most Holy place, the sanctuary.
To quote Jack Kelley in his wonderful study called “The 70 Weeks of Daniel”:
In plain language, God would put an end to their rebellion against Him, put away their sins and pay the penalties they had accrued, bring the people into a state of perpetual righteousness, fulfill the remaining prophecies, and anoint the Temple. This was to be accomplished through their Messiah (Jesus) because no one else could do it.
This is from a wonderful article by Jack Kinsella called “The Wedding Supper”:
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Church is purified by tribulation. The Church is purified and sanctified by the shed Blood of Christ which imputes righteousness, or the Church is not sanctified or purified at all—and never can be.
And speaking of that last week of years, what we call the Tribulation, Jack Kinsella went on to say:
Daniel 9:26-27 says it is determined for the Jewish people. Jeremiah 30:7 says it is the time of “Jacob’s Trouble”. Revelation says one purpose is to judge a Christ rejecting world (Revelation 9:21) and Zechariah 12:10 says its other purpose is to bring about the national redemption of Israel.
As we can clearly see, any attempt to insert the Church into this is contrary to Scripture. Daniel’s seventieth week prophecy specifically refers to the purging of the nation Israel, and not the Church. These were the clear words spoken to Daniel. The church doesn’t need purging from sin. It is already clean.
To continue:
25 So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.
When he conquered Babylon in 535BC Cyrus the Persian immediately freed the Jews. It had been prophesied 150 years earlier in Isaiah 44:24-45:6 and was fulfilled in Ezra 1:1-4.
There were two decrees allowing the rebuilding of the temple, but according to Nehemiah 2:1 the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given in the first month of the 20th year of his reign by King Artaxerxes of Persia (March of 445 BC on our calendar).
Here again, I recommend a wonderful book that covers the discovery of this precise timing. It was written by Sir Robert Anderson and is titled The Coming Prince. It details the step-by-step process that they used to count the very days from the known historical date that the decree was issued, in March 445 BC, until the very day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt—exactly 483 years to the day.
That was the only time Jesus ever allowed the people to publicly proclaim Him the Messiah. Read Luke 19:41-54 where He reminded the people, in His lament over Jerusalem, that if they had known that very day, they would have had peace, reconciliation with God.
If they had accepted Him as Messiah then, all of the 6 points of verse 24 would have been fulfilled at that time. Nevertheless, they rejected their Messiah, and the 490 year prophecy was interrupted as God formed a new entity, the Church. Importantly, however, none of this was a surprise to God. It was always His intention to bring the Gentiles into His plan and to form the church. The details of timing had not been previously revealed, but the fact of His bringing Gentiles to Himself had been prophesied.
But there are still seven years left in that time period, and from Romans 9–11 we know that God is not finished with Israel. He will return to dealing with them to accomplish all of the six things that are laid out in verse 24.
Continuing on with Daniel 9:
26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing,
In fact, He was literally cut off, or punished, for a crime He did not commit. He was the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, but He paid the penalty—death—for our sins.
and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
Thirty-eight years after Jesus was crucified, the Romans burned the city and the Temple, destroying both of them. The Jews that survived were forced to flee.
Before we get to verse 27, however, let’s review a rule of grammar that allows us to correctly identify the ‘he’ in verse 27, the one that makes the covenant. The rule is this: pronouns refer us back to the closest previous noun. “He”, being a personal pronoun, refers to the closest previous personal noun, in this case the “ruler who will come.” This isn’t talking about Jesus, as the lesson claims with this:
(2) The Messiah “shall confirm a covenant with many for one week” (Dan. 9:27, NKJV). This is the special mission of Jesus and the apostles to the Jewish nation. It is undertaken during the last “week,” from a.d. 27 to 34.
There is no way you can stretch Scripture to make “the special mission” of Jesus and the disciples into any kind of a covenant. It is a serious distortion of the Word of God. It is also a distortion to say that Jesus ‘broke’ that covenant by dying.
27 And he (the ruler in verse 26 who will come) will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
This ruler from the people that destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70, the Romans, will come to power and will make, or enforce, a covenant with Israel. This person is the one the Bible calls the antichrist, and under the leading of the devil, he will break that covenant half way through that last seven years. The remaining 3 1/2 years is what Jesus called the Great Tribulation.
So there we have it. As very clear, straight-forward promise of things to come and things that could have been. When we take the Bible literally, unless the specific context suggests otherwise, we can get to the truth; otherwise, we make it say whatever we want it to say.
This is a summary of what has happened and what will happen. Starting in chapter six, Revelation begins to describe that last “week” of years and gives, in horrible detail, the devastation and destruction that will fall on this earth, on those who reject the Messiah, those who persecute God’s Chosen People Israel, and on Israel itself, until they return to the Lord (Matt. 23:39).
To get an idea of how bad it will be, Revelation says that by the end of that seven years, somewhere between 1/2 to 2/3 of the people living on the earth at the beginning will be dead by the end.
In the last question at the end of the lesson we read:
“Where could he have gotten this hope other than from the Bible and God’s promises written in it? What should this tell us about the hope we can have, as well, from the promises in the Word?“
Our hope is sure and certain, not just a wishful longing:
- We have (present tense) salvation. John 3:16
- We are sealed by the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing our salvation. Ephesians 1:13, 14
- Jesus promised to not lose any of us. John 6:39-40
- We are promised that Jesus delivered us from the wrath to come as described in Revelation. 1 Thes. 1:10
- Nothing can separate us from God, even our own sin. Romans 8:38, 39
Yes we have many wonderful promises that we can fully believe.
And the precision with which some prophecies have already been fulfilled gives us certain hope that the rest of them will also be fulfilled in exact detail. †
- October 9–15 - October 7, 2021
- October 2–9 - September 30, 2021
- September 25–October 1 - September 23, 2021