The Angel Gabriel tells Daniel that God’s ultimate answer for the Jews (and the Gentiles) is tied to the 70 weeks prophecy, which turns attention to the 1st and 2nd Coming of the promised Messiah. The 1st Coming of the Messiah would happen in 69 weeks of years, or 483 years following the edict to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall and gates of the city. While the Edict of Cyrus for the Jews to return to Jerusalem was given in 538BC, the edict did not include the right to rebuild the walls and gates. Not until Artaxerxes issued an Edict in the 20th year of his reign (445BC) did the Jews have permission to rebuild the walls (given at the time of Nehemiah). Given the Hebrew way of counting years, this would place the 1st Coming of the promised Messiah in the 30-33AD timeframe – clearly highlight Christ in the period of His 3 years of public ministry as the promised Messiah! After being rejected by the Jews, the 70 years has a gap between the 69 weeks and the 70th week, an era called the “times of the Gentiles”. The 70th week begins in the final 7 years of that era, a count-down known as the Great Tribulation Period, which then is followed by the 2nd Coming. This final 7 years will be examined in Part 3.