Prophecy in the Bible: Daniel 9:24-27

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One of the most compelling attributes about the Bible is that it is full of prophecy. Christ Himself fulfilled three hundred and fifty-one of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. One in particular is the prophecy of the seventy years in Daniel 9:24-27. Here we look not only to the foretelling of events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ and to the future of today, but also into the authority of the authorship of God’s sovereignty. When we examine the prophecy given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel, we start to see the time frame from which God gives redemption to mankind. But where does the hourglass begin to turn? Does it say what will happen in between the times? Let’s begin to systematically dissect the scriptures to find out. Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.” We can first look at the first part of verse 24 and begin to understand what the “Seventy weeks” are referring to. It basically is translated to mean “seventy sevens” or seven periods of seven. The same description is used back in Leviticus 25:8, “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty- nine years.” Here the Lord is speaking to Moses about the timeframe of the Sabbath week of year. This is to be taken with according to the prophetic 70 weeks, or 490 years, in Daniel. Daniel knew this to be appropriate because he understood of the violation of God’s people that had been done to 490 years of unobserved Sabbaths. Next, it is obvious to whom Gab... ... middle of paper ... ... destruction and less of its desecration, for God will bring judgment on it. As we have seen, one of the most compelling attributes about the Bible is that it is full of prophecy. One of which we have looked deeply into is that of the prophecy of the seventy years in Daniel 9:24-27. Here we looked not only to the foretelling of events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ and to the future of today, but also into the authority of the authorship of God’s sovereignty. The task is great when deciding between the many views and interpretations, which is highly involved in asking hard and difficult questions when interpreting any biblical prophecy. But let us not forget that “in all of this it is crucial not to miss Daniel’s message for his audience, namely, that God has allotted the amount of time for these events, and therefore His people should trust and endure.”

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