20 While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and that of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before the LORD my God concerning His holy mountain— 21 while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and spoke with me, saying: “O Daniel, I have come now to give you insight and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your petitions, an answer went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly precious. So consider the message and understand the vision:

24 Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

25 Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.

26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing.

Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed. 27 And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

There’s a difference between being fascinated by something and being excited by it. I’m fascinated by how planes can stay up in the air. I’m excited when I fly on an overseas trip.

I’ve always found this passage fascinating. Here’s the short version of how I understand it. The “weeks” represent periods of seven years – so “seven weeks” is 49 years, and so on. The basic message was to prepare Daniel and his people for a much longer time of waiting and suffering ahead. At the start of the chapter, Daniel learned that the physical exile of the Jews in Babylon was nearing an end. But now God reveals that they will suffer a kind of spiritual exile that will last much longer. It will be centuries before God’s greatest plans for them are fulfilled.

On the surface, the timing of the “weeks” points to the same traumatic event that the previous visions have pointed toward: the arrival of a cruel Greek king who, in 167 BC, desecrated the temple in Jerusalem. But as we saw in our sermon on Mark 13, there were other, deeper fulfilments to come – and the deepest fulfilment of the “abomination that causes desolation” (v 27) was the cross itself.

That leads to the part which I find not just fascinating, but exciting. God’s ultimate purpose for his people, after the centuries of waiting, would be: “to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place” (v 24). As I read this again, I realised that God has done all these things, gloriously and completely, through the death and resurrection of Jesus for us – not just for the Jewish people, but for everyone who turns to Jesus in thankful trust.

The message about being prepared to suffer and wait patiently is still relevant to us today. But we get to hear that message knowing that all the best bits have already happened in Jesus. We can look in the rear vision mirror and see the event that gives us complete assurance and peace, so we can look forward with eager anticipation for the day when Jesus will return and raise us to life in his kingdom of peace and joy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our Senior Minister.