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We are in process of studying the prophecy of Daniel, and tonight have arrived at Daniel chapter nine. So that we may see the chapter, first of all, in the context of the book as a whole, let's just look once more at the sheet of contents. And here we see the, uh, chapter nine, which is the prophecy that we are to study this evening. And we notice that it stands opposite chapter four. And in chapter four, so we remember, we had the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the great beautifier and restorer of the city of Babylon.
The hanging gardens of which, so-called, became one of the wonders of the world at that time. And how Nebuchadnezzar walked one night on the roof of his palace, and contemplating this superb city that he himself had restored and beautified, he said in the pride of his heart, is this not the great Babylon that I have built? And in that moment, God pronounced a discipline upon Nebuchadnezzar, such that he was turned from being a human to behave like an animal and was driven from his palace and ate grass like an ox.
Yet, in the pronouncement of the discipline that was to fall on him, God likened him to a great and beautiful tree that must be cut down, but the stump of it be left in the ground, because in the mercy of God it was to be restored. So Nebuchadnezzar, beautifier of Babylon, was disciplined but restored in the mercies of God, and confessed his foolishness and pride. Here in chapter nine, the major topic is another city.
It is the city of Jerusalem. And we need to get that well and truly into our hearts if we are going to understand the prophecy that is eventually given us at the end of this chapter. This chapter, it couldn't be said too much, is a chapter about the city of Jerusalem, and the literal city at that. And it's a little ironic that it stands here opposite chapter four, because here God calls our attention to the seventy years of his discipline upon the city of Jerusalem.
And that had involved the city being laid waste by his enemies. And indeed, the man who had laid it waste was the aforesaid Nebuchadnezzar, with his beautiful city of Babylon. Yet Nebuchadnezzar was restored in a comparatively brief time. Here, Jerusalem has been devastated and would last for seventy years, that devastation, before there was any remission. And what would happen next is the subject of chapter nine.
So let's read, shall we, from Daniel chapter nine. not all of it for time's sake, but we'll notice, shall we, its constant repetition of Jerusalem. Daniel chapter nine, therefore. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments. We have sinned and have dealt perversely and have done wickedly and have rebelled, even turning aside from thy precepts and from thy judgments. So let us come down, for the moment, to verse twelve.
And he that is God hath confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our judges that judged us by bringing upon us a great evil. For under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done unto Jerusalem. Verse sixteen. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy fury, I pray thee, be turned away from thy city, Jerusalem, thy holy mountain. Because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.
Verse eighteen: O my God, incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes and behold our desolation and the city which is called by thy name. For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. Verse nineteen: uh O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hearken and do, defer not for thine own sake, O my God, because the city and thy people are called by thy name.
And now Gabriel is sent to talk to Daniel, verse twenty three: At the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore, consider the matter and understand the vision. Seventy weeks, or seventy sevens, are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Verse twenty five: Know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks it shall be built again with street and moat, even in troublous times.
And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And his end shall be with a flood, even unto the end shall be war. Desolations are determined. He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week, and for the half of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. And upon the wing of abominations shall come one that makes desolate, and even unto the consummation and that determined shall wrath be poured out upon the desolator.
Now God give us some good understanding of this prophecy, for by common consent, it is one of the most disputed prophecies in the whole of the book of Daniel. And in particular, when it comes to verses twenty four to the end, what is popularly known as the prophecy of the seventy weeks, then there are almost as many interpretations as there are different schools of thought in Christendom. I cannot possibly, in the time available tonight, discuss, fairly discuss, and one shouldn't discuss them without discussing them fairly, the various views that have been and still are held by believers who are delightful believers and far better than I in their godliness.
All I can do is to outline to you the interpretation that seems nearest to the correct one, the intended one, but I warn you, you should judge very carefully what I say. Hold fast that which is good, but get rid of, without compunction, anything that is astray. I shall not be discussing either the intricacies of chronology of the Old Testament that this prophecy raises, but I recommend to you, if you haven't read it before, the book by Harold Heuner called Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ.
Now, Harold Heuner is a great expert on history in the times of Christ. He wrote the standard book, standard amongst, uh, even theologians as historians, on Herod Antipas. And he is obviously a good mathematician, likewise. I recommend his study. He has a whole chapter devoted to his understanding of the prophecy here in chapter nine of Daniel. Let us ask, however, why is Jerusalem so important? Why does it remain important?
Well, because it is a unique city amongst all the cities of the earth. It was founded by King David, where he became king over the united tribes of Israel. There the temple was built under the reign of Solomon. And Jerusalem, therefore, as the Psalms proclaim it, is the city that the Lord chose that his eyes should be towards it every day. It was the city to which, in the fullness of time, our blessed Lord came, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah chapter nine and verse nine.
Behold, Zion, your king cometh to you, lowly and riding on a donkey and the foal of a donkey. As he came into Jerusalem city, claiming to be Jerusalem's king and Messiah. That is why Jerusalem is important. That our Lord came not to Athens, nor to Rome, nor even to London. Do you see? Is, of course, no accident.
God had been preparing for long centuries for the coming of his son, and preparing a nation that believed without any doubt in the one true God, in monotheism, in other words. And to that city and to that temple, now cleansed of all idolatry, and therefore distinct among all the temples of the world at that time, it was to that city and through that temple that our blessed Lord came, claiming to be its king.
That's why Jerusalem is important. It wasn't many days later, after his coming on the donkey to Jerusalem, that they took him just outside the wall, and there they crucified him. Why is Jerusalem important? Because outside, just outside the wall of Jerusalem, God incarnate was crucified by his creatures. That is an unforgettable deed.
And though the world either doesn't know of it or has forgotten it, God certainly hasn't forgotten. Earth cannot crucify its maker and think they've heard the last of it. One day, that same blessed Lord shall come again. So we notice that when our Lord, after his resurrection, was commissioning the apostles, we have the record in Luke's Gospel chapter four and from verse, uh, forty six onward, we read thus: He said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
It is an integral part of our gospel that it began in Jerusalem. It wasn't thought up actually by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy in America, you'll see. It is based, it comes from Jerusalem, and any gospel that didn't start from Jerusalem is not the true gospel. And when he had thus commissioned them, he told them to wait in the city until the Holy Spirit came upon them and the risen Christ should baptize them in the Holy Spirit.
It was upon people gathered in Jerusalem that the baptism of the Holy Spirit first took place. And according to the prophets, he will come again to Jerusalem. And meanwhile, let me read you what Zechariah says. Zechariah chapter twelve verse three. Zechariah is always an easy one to find, as I find, because if you aim for the end of the Old Testament, uh, you don't quite hit it, for that's Malachi, but the one before is Zechariah, and it's easily found, and you might need to know where to find it, you see, because this is very important.
This is, uh, you see, chapter twelve of Zechariah, the burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about, and upon Judah also shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples.
All that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it. And if I have rightly understood the prophecy, it is a prophecy now of what shall happen in the times just before our Lord comes again. I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone among the nations. Now, far be it from me to propose dates, uh, for the Lord's coming. That is a perilous thing to do.
But as far as the realism of this prophecy goes, one can easily see why Jerusalem will become a burdensome stone to the nations. It is already, isn't it? A city that is sacred to the Jews, where once the temple stood, city of the great king David, city of Messiah, so they believe when he comes again. City, of course, sacred in the memory of Christians, because our blessed Lord was the Messiah and claimed to be the Messiah as he rode the donkey into Jerusalem.
Jerusalem where the Lord was crucified, from which he ascended to heaven and shall come again. City now sacred to Islam, because centuries later the prophet is supposed to have gone there, and from, uh, the Temple Mount ascended to heaven. In a vision or not, who knows, but some there are who will point out the hoof mark of his horse on the rock in the, uh, mosque of the Dome. Mm. That suggests it must have been so. And therefore, with all the Arab countries, Syria and Iran, if not Iraq, and Saudi, and many more interested in their rights in Jerusalem, and the Jews having no other country but them.
How easily could another war, a world war, break out. Such as if Iran were to send an atomic bomb upon Jerusalem, they could well start another major world war. It will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to the nations. But now let's put the whole thing into its historical context, if we may. Chapter nine, therefore. Jerusalem was the city that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
But according to Jeremiah, the exile was to last for seventy years, and we notice, according to Daniel nine and verse two, that Daniel understood by the books the number of the years that word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishment of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years. So let's, uh, look with our own two eyes on the actual chapter where this is recorded. This is Jeremiah, you'll see, chapter twenty five. And this is God through Jeremiah prophesying that Jerusalem is to be besieged and sacked and eventually destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
Verse eleven of chapter twenty five: and the whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it desolate forever. Jeremiah twenty five, that. Or look, if you will, to Jeremiah chapter twenty nine and verse ten.
For thus saith the Lord, after seventy years be accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, that is the exiles, and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. And you shall call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken to you, and you shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
So there is the prophecy, and Daniel had understood it, that the captivity should last for seventy years. And most of that time, of course, he himself had spent in Babylon. But now, in the first year of Darius, things were moving on. The Babylonian Empire had deceased, and it was overtaken by the Medo-Persian Empire, and Daniel had served in the civil service under the Medo-Persians, and now was getting elderly, like those for whom we prayed.
And in the first year of his reign, that is Darius the son of Ahasuerus, Daniel understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem, even seventy years. So what reaction did, uh, Daniel show when he was reminded of the prophecy of Jeremiah? Notice how it says about books. Even those far off days, Daniel would have had his personal copy of the books and of Jeremiah in particular.
Not all the books of the Old Testament were a- as yet written. Ezra, Nehemiah, and the post-exilic prophets hadn't yet been written. But what had been written, he knew and he understood. In spite of being heavily engaged in the civil service, he knew his Bible. God, give us the grace to maintain that same balance. Whatever else we learn of secular knowledge, God help us to know his word. And he understood, according to this, that the seventy years were nearly over. Wonderful.
So what did he do? Well, he said, you don't have to do anything, do you? I mean, this is the Bible, and it's going to be restored, you'll see, and I better go and tell my fellow Jews and have meetings on prophecy that we're about to have Jerusalem restored in all its glory. Well, perhaps he did, because he certainly believed it. But his first reaction was, as we see it here, his prayer, and in particular his confession. Why was that? That shows us this, that God's prophecies are certain of accomplishment, but they are so framed that for their complete fulfillment, it's not a question simply of the clock or the calendar.
It is governed by moral and spiritual principles. So let us look at the reason why the land had been sacked by Nebuchadnezzar and lay desolate all these years. Let's go back, shall we, to Leviticus chapter twenty six, and we shall read there verses twenty seven to thirty five. Leviticus twenty six, twenty seven to thirty five. And if you will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury.
And I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat. That sounds like cannibalism in what happens in sieges sometimes. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your sun images and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities a waste and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation and your cities be a waste, then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemy's land, even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn't have in your Sabbaths when you dwelt on it.
So says Leviticus twenty six. This question of keeping the Sabbaths lies behind, of course, the curious nature, when you first see it, of the prophecy at the end of Daniel nine. Seventy sevens. For the term seventy weeks is better translated seventy sevens. And in the context, the sevens are showed to be not weeks, but years, a period of seventy units of seven years each.
Yes. Why that curious number? Because the exile had been, among other reasons, and there were plenty of other reasons, because Israel had refused to obey God's word and let the land keep its Sabbath once in seven years. Six years they might plow the land, sow it, and reap the fruit. But the seventh year, they said, they were to leave it fallow, not plow it nor sow it.
What grew of itself they might eat, but they want to plow and work the land. It was to lie s- uh, fallow once in seven years. You say, why did God do that? Well, the agriculturists would say, in those far off days, because this was necessary for the land. If in fact, in those far off days when you didn't have modern methods, you try to sow the land every year without a break and reap its fruit, you will exhaust the land, and its virtue will go out of it, and the crops will get smaller and smaller.
The old boys on the farm where I was a farmer's boy for four years knew all about this, you'll see. The thing that, uh, changed, uh, the cultivation of the land in England was due to a certain Townsend, Turnip Townsend, they called him, who brought the turnip. I don't know where he got it from. America, I suppose, you get most things from that country, and he brought this turnip somewhere he got it, you see, brought it back to England, and it proved a roaring success and very popular. And of course, people found it was different from trying to grow wheat or barley or oats or beans.
You could safely, in the seventh year, so to speak, plant turnips, and you got, therefore, a rotation of the land. But in days when they hadn't those ideas nor understood it, then God's command was firm and intentional. You must let the land lie fallow once in seven years. It would be a great temptation, wouldn't it, when the seventh year came, for people to say, but we're hungry, and what's wrong in sowing it, and should we be listening to these old-fashioned commands, and so forth and so on.
Just like modern agriculturalists, if they carry on using these artificial fertilizers, will ruin the land and clog it up, let alone ruining the rivers. You'll see, like they have near done in the days when they were putting along the potash and stuff on the land to get bumper crops, killing the fish in the rivers. Of course, they were marked by other sins, such as idolatry, crude idolatry that God had strictly forbidden, and social and sexual sins, and so forth.
But why God turned them out of the land, as distinct from just chastising them, was in part for this, they hadn't kept their Sabbath. How would they come back? Look now, if you will, to verse 41 of this same chapter. Leviticus twenty six forty one. And halfway through the verse, if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accepted the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember their land.
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths while she lieth desolate without them, and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity, even because they rejected my judgments, and their soul abhorred my statues. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them in utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God.
I am the Lord. So Israel would be restored when they became aware of the way they had disobeyed God's commandments, aware why the desolation came, and to use the phrase of our translation, accepted their punishment. Jews say, and accept of the punishment of their iniquity. Instead of trying to brazen it out and say it doesn't matter, and we can endure it, and the Lord has promised it won't last more than seventy years, and we're going back anyway, so why should we bother?
Oh no. God was waiting to see whether the discipline, the punishment he had brought upon them was accepted as chastening from the Lord, leading to repentance and confession. That's why. For the fulfillment of God's promises, that it is sure from God's side, but the promises are often so phrased that their fulfillment does depend in part upon our confession of sin and humbling before God, and in that spirit waiting on him that he may graciously fulfill his promises.
And so it was that Daniel, when he understood by the books and by the calendar that the time was now drawing near, that the seventy years set down by God through Jeremiah the prophet were coming to their end. What did he do? He prayed, and he confessed his sin, and confessed the nation's sin as though it were his sin, not distinguishing himself from the others, but confessing we have sinned and done foolishly, and pleading with God that in his righteousness, the righteousness belongeth to thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day, waiting on God in his mercy, now graciously to fulfill the promise he had made through Jeremiah the prophet.
That is an important thing, isn't it, to remember when we're studying prophecy. Prophecy is important, is to be believed, and when God marks it on a calendar, we are to believe it and study the calendar. But there's more to prophecy than that. Prophecy should make our hearts leap with the wonderful faithfulness of God, and that God's plans will yet be carried out. And he will vindicate his son, and Jesus shall reign from shore to shore. But prophecy ought to have us on our knees likewise, doesn't it? That we as Christians, as Christendom, have in many things come short, haven't we?
And compromised with the world, and compromised with worldliness, and with unbelief. Prophecy then ought to have us like Daniel from time to time on our knees confessing our sins, that God may graciously now remember and fulfill his promises. And it is this matter that decides what at first sight must seem a very curious prophecy that comes at the end of the chapter. Gabriel came to tell Daniel, for Daniel was a man greatly beloved, and therefore he was sent by God to make him understand.
Verse twenty three of chapter nine: At the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment went forth, that is from God. And I am come to tell thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore, consider the matter and understand the vision. So first in verse twenty four, uh a general prophecy comprising the whole of what God is to do for that nation, and in particular for that city. Let's notice once more, tiresome though it may be, that verse twenty four is about what God is going to do for thy holy city.
That is Jerusalem, literal Jerusalem. Uh, to sum it up, as Gabriel does in verse twenty four, seventy sevens, sevens, each group of seven is a group of seven years. seventy sevens, therefore, four hundred and ninety years, are decreed upon thy people, upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, that is, to put an end to Israel's transgression. Notice that. Because when we read Romans chapter nine, ten, and eleven, we shall become aware of God's discipline of Israel, not only for their sins, but for the rejection of their Messiah.
And they are under the discipline of God, says Paul. Not that that should make us high-minded as though we were superior. Because if God didn't spare the natural branches when they sinned, do remember that you're an unnatural branch. You've been grafted into the olive tree. You're a wild, wild old Gentile, do you see? And, uh, you have been grafted in, uh, to the tree that was Israel. Don't you be high-minded. For Christendom won't stand if it continues in unbelief. And Christendom has gone a long way down that road of unbelief, isn't it?
So there are those who profess to be ministers of the Christian religion that deny the virgin birth and deny the deity of Christ and deny the inspiration of scripture, and thus they teach successive years of undergraduate theologian students. But there's coming a day when Israel's transgression shall be put an end to. Glorious it is, an account thereof is given in Romans chapter eleven. To finish transgressions, therefore, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision prophecy, and to anoint the holy of holies.
And if the putting of them away has been the enrichment of the Gentile world, how much more shall their recovery? It will be a veritable life from the dead, says Paul in Romans eleven. So that is the general prophecy of what is going to happen. And all the perversities of the centuries and the goings astray and the idolatry and the syncretism and all the rest of it shall one day come to an end, and all the discipline that Israel has had to endure because of its sins and perversions shall come to an end.
There is hope. It is a wonderful thing to remember, isn't it? Even when talking to our Jewish friends, you see. As our Jewish friends, the more Orthodox they are, the more they will think that the Holocaust was caused by Sunday school teachers. I have told you before, I think, I had, uh, in this city an elderly Jewish friend. He had been a businessman and very successful, was a marvelous musician. Uh, he was a Jew. He came from Vienna. He had just managed to escape from Hitler. Now he was in his old age, and he had a bit of a stroke, but friends brought him along to some lectures I gave at Queen's on the Old and New Testament, and you see, he got excited.
He told me once, hmm, this book of the Revelation, he says, it's a Jewish book, isn't it? Yeah, well, I said, yes, quite probably it was, you see, written by a Jew. That's news to him, do you see? And he would come to dinner, and he would thereafter sit and say about the Holocaust, and it's your fault, you Christians. You taught the Sunday school children, didn't you, that it was the wicked Jews that crucified Jesus, and you planted in their hearts hatred of the Jews. Yes. And had he known enough about theology, formal theology, he could have quoted those theologians that say the church has taken the place of Judaism, and there's no future for the Jew at all.
That likewise wrong, but it was the predominant view of Christendom for many centuries in Europe, at any rate. The Jew was finished. Not here. There is hope. What a lovely thing it is to be able to open the Old Testament to a Jewish person and preach to them the hope for the Jew, and to quote the New Testament to that same effect. There is hope. Mm. I used to say to my friend, you know, to lighten up the proceedings. I would say, now, now then, uh, do you pray for the dead, Otto?
Well, I knew they did. It's in the books. Yes, he said, we do pray for the dead. Mm-hmm. He said, what do you pray for, Otto? Oh, he said, it's a nice way to remember folks, isn't it? I said, come off it, Otto. You do pray for more than that, don't you? Well, he said, to be honest, yes, we do. We want God have mercy and take them out of the bad place and take them to the good place, you know. I said, you're a mystery to me, Otto. I just do not understand you. I said, I'm an old gentile, pagan old gentile, and yet through you Jews, I have come to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not any old God, but the God of Israel, that that's the one I believe in.
And I said, I think I take my Old Testament more seriously than you do. I said, you think of that lovely psalm of yours, the Lord is my shepherd, and how it ends up, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I said, I believe that, Otto, do you? Well, of course he didn't. Marvelous to be able to preach the Old Testament to Jews, isn't it? And the glorious hope there is for them of Israel's restoration. But now to come to details. Know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.
Some Bibles read shall be seven weeks, semicolon, and then and threescore and two weeks it shall be built again. That is not quite true, and Hojna, if you care to read him, will explain why that punctuation is false. Know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Anointed One, that is to the Messiah, there shall be, do you see, Seven groups of seven and threescore and two groups of seven.
Sixty nine groups of seven years in total. We have to be careful to decide aright which decree this was. Know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. Different expositors and commentators disagree about it, because there are one or two possibilities if you read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. I am convinced by Hoyner's argument that the one referred to as here is a command given by Artaxerxes to Nehemiah.
Nehemiah 2, verses 1 to 8. If that to be true, that was given in the year four BC. I don't know if you are in any state of mind at this late hour of night to work out the time. seven forty nine. William, you're a good at computer man. No idea, Four hundred and ninety. Four hundred and ninety, he says. So you believe him as a computer man. Sixty nine times seven. Hmm? Uh, seven less, four eighty three.
Four eighty three. And if you take four eighty three from four four BC, extraordinary, isn't it? Comes down to the time of our blessed Lord, doesn't it? At what point in his life is for the moment beside the point, but it comes down to his life. You see. The city then shall be built again with street and moat, even in troublous times. And we know from Ezra and Nehemiah all the trouble they were at. And then the trouble they were at in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and the persecution of the Jews in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.
But now it is from that original decree, four four BC, unto Messiah, the anointed one. It shall be built again, you'll see, and he will come to it. Now notice verse 26. And after the threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off. You don't suppose God was going to restore Jerusalem completely, do you? And we can begin to penetrate and see what concerned Daniel. He read his Leviticus.
Yes, God had promised that the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar would last seventy years, and it was getting near, and therefore he might plead with God to restore. And God did restore under Ezra and Jerubbaal and Ezra, and then under Nehemiah, and the city was rebuilt after a fashion in troublous times. Oh, but it wasn't the final restoration, was it? Because, says Gabriel to Daniel, after the sixty nine weeks, the sixty nine sevens, Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing. And therefore we must wait, mustn't we?
What's going to happen to Jerusalem now? With Messiah cut off. Shall it be restored? And we can remember those very moving passages in the Gospel of Luke, when our Lord stood and talked about Jerusalem. All Jerusalem, says he, how often would I have gathered your children under my wings as a hen gathers her chickens, and you would not. Behold, your house is left to you, desolate. And when for the last time he drew near to Jerusalem, according to Luke chapter nineteen verse forty one, When he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.
For the day shall come upon thee when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not have in thee one stone, they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. This is Christ's own interpretation of the prophecy. He was about to be cut off, and his cutting off would eventually involve the sack of Jerusalem. Not at once, of course.
God gave them time to repent, did he not? And the gospel was there preached, and the Holy Spirit came, and God gave the city up till AD sixty to seventy to repent. But when they refused to repent, God let the Romans come and seize the city. Twenty one twenty, therefore, but when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that a desolation is at hand. Then let them that are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them that are in the midst of her depart out, and let them that are in the country not enter therein.
For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. For there shall be great distress upon the land and wrath unto the people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be downtrodden of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. This is our Lord on the future of Jerusalem. So, it's the Romans destroyed the temple in AD seventy, but they didn't destroy the city, and they allowed the Jews to carry on.
But eventually, when the Jews revolted under Bar Kochba in the hundred and thirties AD, then the Romans came and conquered the city, turned it into a Gentile city, Elia capitalina, they called it. And the Jews eventually were dispersed throughout the whole of the world, as our Lord said it would be. And Jerusalem downtrodden of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. You say we must be getting near the coming of Christ then because, mm-hmm, in the nineteen hundreds, for the first time in those many centuries, Jews came back and got control of Jerusalem.
Yes, they have. But be careful what you deduce from it, won't you? Because many of them are sheer atheists still, and they deny Jesus Christ. According to Galatians, the Jews have no right to the land without Christ, for the land was promised to Abraham and to his seed, and the seed, says Galatians, is Christ. There's no one has any right to the land apart from Christ. Back in their land, but possession of the city is disputed, isn't it?
Still disputed. The Islam, the Muslims are not going to give way to the Jews, and the Jews to the Islamics, and then there's the dear Pope who wants to control Jerusalem anyway. A burdensome stone it shall be. And then this very passage in Daniel nine says there'll be a coming nation that will destroy the city. That was the Romans, of course. And then, stepping right across to the future, even unto the end shall be war, desolations are determined, and towards the end, he that is this evil king, Antichrist, we now call him, shall make a firm covenant with the many for one week, and for the half of the week he shall cause the sacrifice, and halfway through the week, that is, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that makes desolate even unto the constama- consummation, and that determined shall wrath be poured out upon the desolator.
You say that's a very pessimistic note on which to end. We shan't come to any more of your lectures on Daniel if you're going to end up that way and send us to bed with that in ringing in our ears, surely. But we have to face the facts, don't we? Israel back in the land. Oh, but there's coming the Antichrist. They won't have Christ. They will suffer under Antichrist. There's a great tribulation ahead for them. Courage up. For the end chapters of Zechariah tell us how it shall all be changed.
The blessed Lord shall come. And Israel shall look on him whom they pierced, and there shall be profound mourning throughout the nation and confession of sin. And the nations will be raged against Jerusalem. They shall take half of it or a third of it, and then the Lord will come. So we need to pray, don't we? Certain that God's prophecy will eventually be fulfilled, but how we ought to pray for the Jews in particular, with what is coming upon them in the coming days, that many of them may already seek the Lord and be prepared for his coming, when they shall look on him whom they pierced.
Shall we pray? Now, Lord, we thank thee for thy word once more. We thank thee thou dost not treat us as slaves, because slaves don't know what their Lord does. Thou hast treated us as friends and told us things that are to come. Help us, Lord, to take thy word seriously as regards the future, these things to come. But with it all, not to be clever in our own conceits, but rather may the glorious hope of the Lord's coming and the trouble that shall be on this world may move us to prayer and more diligent in our spreading of the gospel message and the hope to Jew and Gentile.
Give us wisdom in our own day, we pray, and opportunity for thine own name's sake. Amen.
