Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Oct 1956

In the study of prophecy, the prophecy of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9.24-27, is of vital importance. This period is divided into seven weeks, three score and two weeks and one week. Quite evidently the seventy sevens or weeks are not seventy sevens of days, but of years, that is, 490 years. The first period is divided into seven sevens, 49, and the second sixty-two sevens, 484, making 483 years. This period covers the time from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah (Anointed One) the Prince - the word Prince means a Commander because He is in the front. We are not told from whence the command meat was to go forth, but it is generally understood to be the command if Artaxerxes to Nehemiah; "I said unto the king If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it . And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me (Nehemiah 2. 1-9) The command of Cyrus was to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem (Ezra 1. 2,3) though God had evidently envisaged in Cyrus both the building of the house and city in the prophecy of Isaiah: That saith of Cyrus He is My shepherd and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying of Jerusalem She shall be built and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid (Isaiah 44 28) It is clear enough that the house was completed in the reign of Darius that is Darius Hyitaspes, but how Artaxerxes comes in the picture it is very difficult to understand . We are told, "And the elders of the Jews builded and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. Aid they builded and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia And this house as finished on the third day of the month Adar which as in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king" (Ezra 6.14, 15).

Then Ezra and his company came to Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of king Artaxerxes. The journey from Babylon to Jerusalem took them four months (Ezra?. 6-9).

It was in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes that Nehemiah obtained leave to go to Jerusalem to build its walls and set up its gates (Nehemiah 2.1).

It should be carefully noted that the prophecy of the seventy weeks has to do with the Jewish people (Daniel 9.24). This period has to do with the Jews, not with the Gentiles. At the close, certain things happen which relate to

Israel: (1) to finish or complete transgression; a repentant and restored Israel shall never again go back from the LORD (Psalm 80.17, 18); for "Thy people also shall be all righteous" (Isaiah 60.21). "All thy children shall be taught of the LORD" (disciples) (Isaiah 54.13). (2) "And to make an end of sins" ; end means to close, seal or stop. Sinning will not be allowed free flow as in times past in Israel, often encouraged by the lives of kings and rulers. That condition of things will end. (3) "And to make reconciliation for iniquity" ; it is not reconciliation here, but atonement (Kaphar); see R.V. reading in Ezekiel 45.15, 17 where the same word is used. The day of atonement will come for Israel. Nationally they rejected the Lord, the Lamb of God whom John preached, but the time of soul affliction (Leviticus 16. 81) will come for them, when they shall look upon Him whom they pierced and shall mourn for Him in bitterness (Zechariah 12.10). Then shall a fountain be opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Caiaphas "prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation" (John 11.51). (4) "And to bring in everlasting righteousness "; here is that of which Jeremiah 23.5, 6 speaks, when the Branch shall reign as King (see also Zechariah 6.12, 18). "In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, The Loan is our righteousness." This is the same as the imputed righteousness of God (Romans 3.21, 22) to believers, whereby believers in Christ are reckoned righte6us by God apart from works. Of this the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians speak fully and forcibly. (5) "And to seal up vision and prophecy" ; the Lord Himself being present on earth to speak, the prophet will be no longer required. "Seal" here is the same word as " end" in " to make an end of sins. (6) "And to anoint the most holy" ; this does not mean to anoint Christ, as the marginal references of the R.V. to Psalm 45.7, and Isaiah 61.1 would lead one to think, but means the most holy place, even the Holy of Holies.

The seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy (Daniel 9.28-27) has ever been one of intense interest to all students of prophecy and also to the casual reader of Daniel and Revelation. The city of Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, which took place in the early part of the seven week and threescore and two week period (488 years), at the end of which the Messiah was to be cut off having nothing, which statement envisages the Cross. Then the people of the prince that shall come were to destroy the city and the sanctuary, which turned out to be the Romans under Titus. This destruction of Jerusalem took place in A.D. 70. "The end thereof (R.V. marg.) shall be with a flood." "Flood" here means, I judge, the gush or deluge of military forces (see Daniel 11. 10, 22, 26, 40; the same deluging or flooding of martial forces is indicated, it seems to me, in Revelation 12. 15, 16, where the river to sweep away the woman descends into the earth, and so the woman is saved from the dragon). The end is to be with a flood, the greatest flood of military forces the world has ever seen, when Palestine will be flooded with the soldiery of all nations, not the least of which will be the vast forces of the kings of the east (Revelation 16.12-16), for the battle of Har-Magedon. Here will be deployed the vast forces of antichrist with all manner of engines of destruction to fight against the LORD and His Anointed (Psalm 2) and to annihilate, if it were possible, the Jewish people (Zechariah 14.1-4). Then shall the LORD go forth and fight as He fought in the day of battle. Perhaps ft is better rendered, as some have done, "as He fighteth in the day of battle," ever triumphant, ever victorious; He neither can nor will be defeated. The voice and flaming fire of a wrathful Messiah shall crumple up the forces of antichrist like a piece of waste paper, leaving the carcases of men and beasts to the eagles and vultures in the great supper of God (Revelation 19.17, 18, 21). In poetic majesty David the great warrior sang of the doings of a Greater than he in the words of Psalm 110.5, 6.

The sons of Korah sang,

"Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things" (Psalm 45.4).

In Daniel 9.27 we are told, "And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week." Here is the seventieth week. The previous sixty nine ended with the cutting off of Messiah at the Cross (verse 26). Who is the "he" who shall make this firm covenant? What is the antecedent of "he" ? It seems to go back to "the prince" of verse 26, where we are told that Jerusalem and the sanctuary or temple shall be destroyed by the people of the prince that shall come, not by the prince. So it seems to be the prince indicated here who shall make this firm covenant, but it goes on to tell us that "for the half of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." Thus this week of years is divided into two halves of three and a half years each. The "many" are many, we judge, of the Jewish people, and though we are not told specifically what the terms of the covenant are, we may nevertheless safely conclude that it has to do with sacrifice and oblation (gift), and that leads us on in thought to the Jewish service of the temple. When the Jewish sacrifices and gift offerings are stopped by this covenant-breaking prince, upon the wing of abominations or detestable things shall come " one" or " that which" or " he," so different translators render this I think it is best rendered "he," "he that maketh desolate." This seems to indicate a different person from the prince who made the covenant, and probably indicates the rise of the second beast of Revelation 13, who commands " that they should make an image to the beast, who hath received the stroke of the sword ("smitten to death "-slain R.V.M., verse 8), and lived." Who are the " they" ? not himself, possibly the men of high technical knowledge who shall make a robot as like a human being as it is possible to make a thing, not a person. Life is not given to it, only breath, so that it speaks and causes as many as shall not worship it to be put to death. Here is the acme of Satanic and human deception. Here is the idolatry of the last three and a half years of Daniel's seventieth week. Here is that which is most abominable to God the Creator, when to the beast and his image shall be paid that reverence which is due to God alone. The worshippers of the beast shall all be marked with 660, marked for earthly privileges, marked for eternal fire.

J. Miller | Oct 1956
Jottings