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13.0  Covenant Mandate
A Vision not Explained; A Prophecy not Fulfilled
by Hubert F. Sturges, www.everlastingcovenant.com, March 2009
Topics:
Seventy Weeks
Daniel 9:24
1. To Finish Transgression
2. To Make an End of Sins
3. To Make Reconciliation for Iniquity
4. To Bring In Everlasting Righteousness
5. To Seal Up the Vision and Prophecy
6. To Anoint the Most Holy
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Seventy Weeks

It was 553 bc, the third year of Belshazzar. Daniel, in Babylon, had his heart in Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day with his window opened west, toward Jerusalem. In just a few more years the 70 year captivity should end.... Then Daniel received a disturbing vision. The sanctuary would not be cleansed for 2300 days / years (1). An angel explained to Daniel details about a “little horn.” It was not reassuring. The explanation ended with the statement that “the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days” (Daniel 8:26).

It was too much. Daniel fainted. He was sick for days. He still did not understand. Was their captivity to be for 70 years, or was it to be for 2300 years?

About 15 years later, 538 bc, the seventy years were nearly finished. Daniel earnestly prayed, confessed the sins of Israel as if they were his own. He plead for forgiveness and that the city and the people of God be restored, for they were “called by thy name.” He called upon God to honor His word and restore the nation.

God greatly loved Daniel (Daniel 9:23; 10:11,19). He sent the angel, Gabriel, to give him understanding (Daniel 9:21, 22). He said nothing about the vision of 2300 days/years except to “seal up the vision and prophecy.” Instead he focused on another time prophecy:

    “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Daniel 9:24

Following the day-for-a-year principle of prophetic interpretation (1) “seventy weeks” is 490 years. This was to be “cut off” from a longer period of time. From seventy years?  No! Daniel was concerned about the vision of 2300 days / years. In Gabriel’s partial explanation, Daniel was told again to “seal up the vision.” Later, he was told the third time “the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end”(2).

Gabriel had a very important message for the people AND the holy city, Jerusalem. He explained that the Jews would return to Jerusalem.  The city, the wall and the temple would be rebuilt. This would mark the starting date for both the 2300 year and the 490 year prophecies(Daniel 9:25)(3). With this new beginning, the Jews were given a specific time, 490 years, to accomplish God’s purpose for their existence.1 And what a purpose! God would do marvels (Exodus 34:10).

A brief summary of estimated chronology is as follows (4):
                          Event . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Date: . . . . . Intervening years:
      The Exodus from Egypt begins     1445 bc      
      David begins to reign                     1000 bc       400 years
      Captivity of Judah to Babylon          606 bc       400 years
      Restoration, captivity ended            536 bc         70 years
      Jerusalem and Temple rebuilt         457 bc         21 years
      Final probation for the Jews ends     33 ad       490 years

The 490 year time period has been frequently discussed. It is critical to understand that this prophecy was 490 years! Not more and not less!  And there is no indication that the 70th week is separated and moved far in the future (5)! Much less has been said about the rest of Daniel 9:24.  But let us take a look at that now:
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Daniel 9:24 (11)

God had six purposes that Israel and Jerusalem were to fulfill during this time. The first three goals were concerned with the removal of sin, and the last three with the bringing in of righteousness. These purposes were astounding! Why would God put in the Bible things that can hardly be believed?  It is because He wants us to understand and believe! See Exodus 34:10.
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1. to finish (kala – shut up, restrain) transgression (pesha – rebellion)

There were three restraints:

Satan has always been restrained. First he was cast out of heaven and restricted to tempting Adam and Eve through just one tree. After sin, through the promise of the coming Redeemer (Genesis 3:15), there would be opposition to his rule.  He would not have complete freedom to tempt and annoy mankind (Job chapters one and two; 1 Corinthians 10:13). This had been done.

How else can transgression be restrained? God works through the prayers of righteous people (e.g. Elijah). The very presence of a righteous person (e.g. Lot) or a righteous nation restrains evil within its sphere of influence (6). When a person is filled by the Holy Spirit, Christ cannot be hid (Mark 7:24). As with Noah, Joseph, and Daniel, their influence reaches many. This was a command for God’s people to be active in opposing evil influences. When this influence is gone and the Spirit is withdrawn from the world (Ezekiel 10:4,18,19; 11:23) Satan will be unrestrained and “there shall be a time of trouble such as never was” (Daniel 12:1).

One thing more remained: When on Calvary Jesus cried “It is finished,” Satan lost the last bit of sympathy he had with the heavenly host. Again he was cast out (Revelation 12), further restrained and could no longer address the “sons of God (7).”
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2. to make an end (tamam – consume, make an end, finish; hatam – seal, close up) of sins (hatta’h – offenses, sometimes habitual)

The first and major part of Daniel 9 records Daniel’s prayer. He confessed the sins of Israel and took them on himself, personally.  He prayed for forgiveness. He prayed that their captivity be ended, and that Israel be restored for the honor of God’s name. The “days” were almost finished (Jeremiah 29:10; Daniel 9:2) and He looked forward to the renewed covenant: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). It was 2 years before Cyrus’ decree.

It is not possible for humans, of themselves, to “make an end of sins.” The issue here is that after Adam’s sin, humans are basically selfish. A selfish person cannot truly keep the law. We can be lifted out of our selfishness only by the grace of God. In the covenant given at Sinai, God purposed to make of Israel “an holy nation” and to fulfill the promises of the ten commandments in their lives (Exodus 19:4; 20:2). During the 490 years God’s call was for Israel to learn faith and to seek cleansing from sin in the promised Redeemer.

Sins among God’s people are a special problem (8). It is Satan’s contention that the law is impossible to keep (Romans 7), that sins among God’s people prove this, and that grace is not sufficient to save from sin.  Satan deceives, entices to sin, and makes lying promises (Genesis 3:1-5); then he turns around and accuses God’s people of sinning (Revelation 12:10). The honor of God is wrapped up in the lives of His people. We honor God by accepting grace and living a holy life.
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3. to make reconciliation (kapar – atonement, purge) for iniquity

This statement brings us right to Calvary. How are these things done? Through His sacrifice Jesus died for all men (9). Through Him we are now pardoned, cleansed, and reconciled with God. As we think on these things, beholding Jesus Christ on the cross, we become like Him.

    “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 ASV

At the end of the 490 years, Jesus ascended to heaven and sat on the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 1:3), giving salvation to Jew and Gentile alike through faith (Romans 10:12). As our Heavenly High Priest His ministry began at that time. In the day of atonement He cleanses the Sanctuary and also cleanses the hearts of His people from sin. By the Holy Spirit and by heart searching, we must find unknown sin, confess and ask forgiveness.
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4. to bring in (bo) everlasting righteousness (through the atonement)

Can humans “bring in righteousness?” Can even God’s people become “an holy nation?” We can  look back to Enoch, Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, and Job. Only the sacrifice of Christ, seen through the sacrificial system, could atone for the sin of man and bestow on them the robe of His righteousness (10).  By grace sins are forgiven and men are made holy. But, a whole nation?

The effectiveness of Jesus’ sacrifice was intended to change human history. There are passages in the Old Testament which have always been a puzzle, unless understood that God actually intended to bring in a rule of righteousness that would continue into eternity (17).

   “If Jerusalem had known what it was her privilege to know, and had heeded the light which Heaven had sent her, she might have stood forth in the pride of prosperity, the queen of kingdoms, free in the strength of her God-given power. There would have been no armed soldiers standing at her gates, no Roman banners waving from her walls. The glorious destiny that might have blessed Jerusalem had she accepted her Redeemer rose before the Son of God. He saw that she might through Him have been healed of her grievous malady, liberated from bondage, and established as the might metropolis of the earth. From her walls the dove of peace would have gone forth to all nations. She would have been the world’s diadem of glory.”  White EG: The Desire of Ages, p. 577

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5. to seal up (hatam – close up, stop, make an end) the vision and prophecy

“To seal up the vision” here does not refer to the 490 year prophecy, which was an explanation, not a vision. Rather, it is the vision of Daniel 8, and the 2300 days (Dan 8:26) that  “are closed up and sealed till the time of the end” (Daniel 12:9).

If the 2300 day prophecy ended in 1844, how could a kingdom of righteousness have been established at any time before this?  For this, we do not have a Bible statement. We do know that some prophecies are conditional. The usual condition is that the prophecy is not fulfilled if the people do not fulfill the condition. Could this have been the reverse?  If the people had been faithful, could this earth’s history have ended soon after the time of Christ?

The story of Jonah explains this as a possibility. Jonah preached an unequivocal message that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days. Because Nineveh repented, this prophecy was not fulfilled. (There is historical evidence that the Assyrians forsook all their gods except one following Jonah’s mission.)  Did God seal the 2300 day prophecy to allow room for Israel to repent, and bring righteousness on the earth?
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6. to anoint the most Holy (qodesh – holy place, sanctuary)

The points listed above are concerned with God’s people living a holy life. The reason and climax for this comes in this last phrase:

There are several interpretations for this seemingly straightforward phrase. In most places in scripture this is translated as a part or the whole of the sanctuary. Remember that this was to be done by the nation of Israel by the end of 490 years!  Here are the several views:

a) Was this an anointment of the Heavenly Sanctuary for the high priestly ministration of Jesus after he ascended to heaven? This is unlikely as “thy people” cannot anoint a heavenly sanctuary.

b) Were these mandates, including the anointing, to take place at the end of time and the beginning of the Millenium? This would not fit with the 490 year prophecy. In fact, it supports the futurist heresy that the last week of the 490 years was separated from the rest and moved to the end of time, with all the attendant “theology” that has grown up around it.

c) Was this an anointing of Jesus Christ, Himself?  The context supports this, as Daniel 9:25-27 focuses on Jesus, not the sanctuary. The problem is that the word qodesh is usually translated as a “place” not a “person.”

(For continued discussion please see #18.1 God’s Purpose for Israel.)
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