Cracking the code to the 70 weeks prophecy.
I found it very difficult to get a handle on the Biblical timeline as it applies to End Times without first understanding the Book of Daniel. Specifically, Chapter 9:24-27. There are varying schools of thought on this passage; so, like everything else you will need to be committed to performing your own due diligence in order to understand the text and prophecy it represents. I will be covering my interpretation in the material that follows.
Before proceeding, I found it interesting that the actual chapter sequence in the Book of Daniel based on the time the chapters were written are as follows:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 5
Chapter 9
Chapter 6
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
The approximate writing of Daniel Chapters 5 and 9 was 539 BC. It's also noteworthy to realize that Chapter 9 was written before Daniel was cast into the lions den by King Darius. Unlike chapters 3 thru 7, chapter 9 was written in Hebrew, which was Daniel's native language, rather than Aramaic, which was the language of his captors.
As I go thru these 4 verses, keep in mind that Christ validated Daniel's writing in Matthew 24. (What better letter of reference could one have?) These 4 verses form the timeline to the Book of Revelation, written by the apostle John. They are very complex and will take a deep commitment to finding the answers to the questions that come up as you read thru my thoughts. I am not a theologian or Biblical scholar, by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just a guy looking for answers and trying to understand not just the future, but I want to better understand the God who holds my future.
The critical piece to understanding these verses is to understand the Babylonian calendar. Daniel and his friends were taken captive to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar, so it would make sense that his writing would reflect the calendar of his captors. It was Sir Robert Anderson from Scotland Yard, who eventually cracked the code, that helped to clarify the interpretation of this prophecy.
The key to breaking the code to the 70 Weeks Prophecy given to Daniel by Gabriel is to understand that it means 70 weeks of years. We think in terms of tens. For example, there are 10 years to a decade and a 100 years to a century. The Jews thought in terms of sevens. The Hebrew word Shabuwa is a unit of measure which means 7 or a period of 7. Depending on the context it could mean days, weeks, or years. So, taken in the context of the Book of Daniel, I believe it means that 1 week equals 7 years.
Why 70 years of captivity?
Moses was given instructions about farming the land in Leviticus 25:3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
This is pretty straight forward. God wanted the Jews to allow the poor to have the any crops during the 7th year. If they had fences around their fields, they were to take them down so the poor could have easy access.
Exodus 23:10 Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.
The kicker is that God wanted to bless His people if they were obedient. Leviticus 25:20 You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
As history would have it, the Jews disobeyed God for 490 years. They chose not receive a 3 to 1 return on their investment. As a result, they owed God 70 Sabbath years. When you divide 490 by 7 you get 70. So, the Jews were taken captive for 70 years in Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar because they not only failed to stop worshiping idols, but because they also misused the land they were given.
Jeremiah 25:8 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says the Lord, 'and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
