The Seventy Weeks Prophecy of Daniel

An amazing prophecy in Daniel reveals Jesus is indeed the Messiah!

In the book of Daniel there is a startling, eye-opening prophecy that accurately pinpoints the year Jesus Christ began His ministry.

A prophecy that confirms the day of His death on the stake; and, His resurrection 3 days and 3 nights later proving that He was our Promised Messiah!

You will find that prophecy in Daniel chapter 9.

THE SEVENTY WEEKS PROPHECY

Daniel knew about Jeremiah’s letter prophesying that after 70 years God would cause the captive Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem.

So, as Daniel was praying, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a vision with a message from God.
Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24.

24 Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

Seventy weeks of years work out to be 490 days (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:3-6).

And 490 days are reckoned as 490 prophetic years.

What was to happen at the end of the 490 years?

Verse 25.

25 Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one [the Messiah], a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.

Daniel’s prophecy mentions “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks”—69 weeks or 483 years—“from the going forth of the word or the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” unto the arrival of Messiah the Prince.

WHAT was this “commandment to build and restore Jerusalem?”

WHO issued this commandment or decree? And WHEN was this decree or commandment issued?

What does the Bible say?

By letting the Bible interpret the Bible, we find the answers to these questions in the book of Ezra.

THE DECREE OF ARTAXERXES

Ezra the priest departs from Babylon with a letter containing a decree from Artaxerxes, king of Persia, permitting the rebuilding and restoration of Jerusalem (Ezra 7:11-14).

Artaxerxes wrote that decree in the seventh year of his reign (Ezra 7:7-8).

Artaxerxes assumed the throne at the death of his father Xerxes or Ahasuerus in late December 465 BC.

The Persian method of reckoning the time a king began to reign was from spring to spring.

Thus when Xerxes died in December 465 BC, Artaxerxes officially began his reign in April of 464 BC.

The 4-month period from December to April was referred to as his ACCESSION YEAR.

The Jews, however, used a civil calendar which began in the fall to reckon that the first year of Artaxerxes was from September 464 to September 463 BC.

The SEVENTH year of Artaxerxes, being a Jewish record in the book of Ezra, covered the period September 458 to September 457 BC.

THE YEAR CHRIST APPEARED

According to the prophecy in Daniel 9, there would be “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks”—until the arrival of Messiah the Prince, Jesus Christ.

Calculating 69 weeks or 483 years from 457 BC, we get to 26 AD.

Then we add 1 because there is no year 0 when you move from BC to AD.

This brings us to the autumn of 27 AD.

And so, Jesus Christ, “Messiah the Prince” appeared on the scene in 27 AD, exactly 483 years from the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem.

Continuing in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 26.

26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one [Jesus the Messiah] shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed.

So then, 483 years having been completed, the Messiah Jesus Christ was to be cut off or executed to pay the penalty for our sins (Isaiah 53:8-9)!

Notice verse 27.

27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

THE MESSIAH CUT OFF

Here is mentioned the final week—a period of 7 prophetic years— completing the 70-week prophecy or 490 years.

In the middle of the week, Christ died and put an end to the sacrificial system and the ceremonial rituals (Hebrews 10:1, 4, 12)!

This is a dual prophecy, indicating that Christ died in the middle of a literal week.

On a Wednesday!

Not on a Friday, as so many believe.

And then resurrected by His Father on a Saturday—not Sunday—before sunset.

Exactly three days and three nights after He was buried.

The scriptures we’ve gone through today undeniably prove that only Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecies in Daniel chapter 9.

He’s the Messiah.

THE PROPHECY SOON FULFILLED

But the prophecy further reveals that there yet remains another 3 and a half days to complete that 7-day week.

Another 3 and a half years of Christ’s ministry to be completed.

When will Christ fulfill the remainder of His ministry and confirm the covenant?

When He returns with power and glory and majesty!

As King of kings and Lord of Lords!

That day is coming.

That time is fast approaching. It will be here sooner than we think.

Will you be ready?