Daniel 9:25 says, “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.” The seven weeks in this verse denote forty-nine years. If you study the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, you will see that from the time that the king of Persia gave the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem unto the completion of this rebuilding was forty-nine years. Verse 25 also speaks of a period of threescore and two weeks, or sixty-two weeks. This is equal to four hundred thirty-four years. The first seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks yield a total of four hundred eighty-three years. This leaves the last week, a period of seven years, for the future. The first forty-nine years go from the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem to the completion of the rebuilding. The four hundred thirty-four years extend from the building of Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince. The last part of verse 25 says that the “street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” This refers to the building that took place during the first seven weeks, that is, during the first period composed of forty-nine years.
Verse 26 says, “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.” The words “cut off” refer to the crucifixion of Christ, the Messiah. Christ was cut off not for Himself but for us. He was crucified for us.
The “people of the prince that shall come” is a reference to the people of Titus, a prince of the Roman Empire. In A. D. 70 the Roman army under the leadership of Titus thoroughly destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, the sanctuary. The history written by Josephus describes this terrible destruction.
Verse 27 says, “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.” In this verse the pronoun “he” refers to “prince” in verse 26. However, this “he” will actually be the coming Antichrist. In typology, Titus was a prefigure of Antichrist. What he did in A. D. 70, Antichrist will repeat in the future. Hence, the prophecy here in Daniel 9 regards the two as one: the first, Titus, is the prefigure; the second, Antichrist, is the fulfillment.
The Antichrist, the one typified or prefigured by Titus, will according to verse 27 “confirm the covenant with many for one week.” This covenant will be an agreement that is intended to last for a period of seven years. This seven years is the last of the seventy weeks mentioned in Daniel 9:24. In the midst of the last week, the last seven years, Antichrist will “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” This means that he will stop the Jews from offering sacrifices on the altar in the temple and will begin to persecute every kind of religion.
From the time the commandment was given to rebuild the city of Jerusalem until the completion of this rebuilding was forty-nine years, or seven weeks. Then the time from this completion to the crucifixion of Christ was sixty-two weeks, or four hundred thirty-four years. After the crucifixion of Christ, the seventy weeks were suspended. This suspension will continue until the beginning of the last seven years of this age.
In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus said that because of His crucifixion God would give up the children of Israel. Therefore, their history was suspended at the cross, and from that time onward they have been forsaken by God. God has temporarily set them aside, put them away. The divine history then comes to the church. This means that the history of the church occupies the period of time between the end of the sixty-ninth week and the beginning of the seventieth week. In other words, the church age is equal to the time during which the seventy weeks are suspended. We may also say that the age of the church, the entire history of the church, is an insertion wedged in between two parts of the history of the children of Israel.
This understanding corresponds fully to what is revealed in certain of the parables uttered by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. For instance, the parable in Matthew 21:33-46 speaks of the transfer of the kingdom of God. In this parable the vineyard is the city of Jerusalem, and the husbandmen are the leaders of the Israelites. Matthew 21:41 says, “They say to Him, He will miserably destroy those evil men, and will lease the vineyard to other husbandmen, who will render the fruits to him in their seasons.” This was fulfilled when the Roman prince, Titus, and his army destroyed Jerusalem in A. D. 70.
In the parable of the marriage feast the Lord Jesus says, “And the king was angry; and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city” (Matt. 22:7). These were the Roman troops under Titus which destroyed Jerusalem. Matthew 22:9 indicates that the preaching of the New Testament has turned to the Gentiles: “Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and as many as you find, call to the marriage feast.”
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