We don't know who the prophets were that inquired about us and our time period. Perhaps Daniel was one of them. At any rate, in prophesying about the future of his own people, the Jews, he included our time period as a block of time separate from theirs.
He prophesied about God's scenario for Israel that would begin when Israel's captivity in Babylon was over. It would end with the coming of Christ to set up His millennial kingdom on earth, headquartered in Jerusalem. Daniel specifically identifies it as a time of God's dealing with his own people and holy city, that is, the Jews and Jerusalem. We're not included in its events (Dan 9:24-27).
Daniel dubs this scenario "seventy weeks," which might be confusing to us when we discover that we're not looking at days, but years. But ancient Hebrews applied their word for "weeks" to sevens of years as well as sevens of days (the NIV translates the term "seventy sevens"). From our vantage point we know these were weeks of years. (The NIV calls them Seventy Sevens.) Sixty-nine of those sets of 7 years each have already been fulfilled, leaving one set of 7 years yet to be fulfilled.
When Gabriel was delivering this prophetic scenario he specifically told Daniel: "Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city." Incidentally, the interrupting time between the 69th week of years and the last or 70th week of years is included along with the scenario of 70 weeks but not included in it. Of course, this interrupting time period is the one we're living in.
Two princes are mentioned in the prophecy. There's "the coming of an anointed one, the prince," that is, the Messiah. This "an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing" (vs 25).
There's also "the prince who is to come" who "shall make a strong covenant with many for one week and after half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering" (vs 26).
The second prince is the antichrist who will make a covenant with the Jews for the last 7 years of their seventy weeks, allowing them freedom of worship. However, he will break that covenant at the mid-way point and call a halt to their sacrifice and offering. We read of his ancestors, the Romans, who destroyed the city Jerusalem in 70 AD: "the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary."
"And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing." This "sixty-two weeks" of years came after 7 weeks of years had already been fulfilled. Taken together a total of sixty-nine had been fulfilled Messiah was "cut off." But since the 70th week of years is yet future He must have been crucified in our time period, not in the Jewish time period.
When our age began, as Daniel clearly shows, "the Anointed One" (the Messiah) was "cut off." Christ was crucified in our age not Israel's. As Peter later wrote, "the sufferings of Christ" took place in our age.
In the unfolding of events this time scenario falls into three distinct blocks of fulfillment. First, a block during which the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity, that used up seven sevens, or 49 years; next a block that ended with the first coming of Christ, ending about the time of His crucifixion, that used up sixty-two sevens, or 434 years; and finally, a block of time that got postponed until just before Christ comes to set up His kingdom on earth, that will use up one seven, or seven years.
1. The entire scenario: 70 x 7 yrs, or 490 yrs, starting after the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews and ending with the bringing in of everlasting righteousness (vs 24). Notice that the LORD's people are Daniel's people. This and their holy city distinguish them in the prophecy. The church is not in their scenario.
2. Most of the scenario: 7 + 62 x 7 yrs, or 483 yrs, in two parts, beginning with "the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem" and ending approximately when "the Anointed One will be cut off" (vss 25-26)
A. The first division = 7 x 7 yrs, or 49 yrs (vs 25)
B. The second division = 62 x 7 yrs, or 434 yrs (vs 26)
3. The final segment of the scenario = 1 x 7 yrs, or 7 yrs (vs 27)
[Here I note that the ESV translation of something in vs 25 differs from several other versions of the Bible. Unlike the others it places the words "to the coming of an anointed one, a prince" as the terminus of the first segment instead of placing a more definite expression "the Messiah, the Prince" as the terminus of the second segment.
Indeed, research has caused me to admit there is strong evidence that the former is in keepimg with the original Hebrew Scripture. And, admittedly, the original uses the identical expression, "an anointed one," for the cutting off of the Messiah (vs 26). I assume that the ESV translators have kept this expression with such literal integrity to stick as close as possible to the original. A commendable intention.
They have also supplied a punctuation mark and a part of speech, which I also assume, is to accommodate our English grammar in making the sense of the original clear to us. But a question looms? Why have they opted for a period and "then," beginning a new sentence, instead of "and" that would join the first and second segments together?
I think the answer lies in the sometimes necessity to rely on scriptural context and cross-refrencing to give true meaning. Surely, having our New Testament advantage should cause us to see that the Anointed One Who gets cut off at the beginning of interval period, followed by the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 40, is none other than the Messiah. And surely we can see that the first mention of "an anointed one" anticipates Him at His first coming to be crucified and His second coming when Daniel's people will have their transgressions removed and receive everlasting righteousness, and when the most holy place will be anointed.
In short, placing "the Anointed One," that is "the Messiah, the Prince," (capitalized) after the second segment certainly fits into the Jewish scenario a lot more sensibly than some unknown anointed person whose part in the scenario gets not the slightest mention.]
Now notice where we come into the picture. We see an obvious interruption between the second and final divisions. This interruption is our present age.
* First division of the 70 7s (past)
* Second division of the 70 7s (past)
* Third division of the 70 7s (future)
And notice where we fit in:
* First division (past)
* Second division (past)
*THIS PRESENT AGE
* Third division or last (Future)
|
Looking forward to our time period Jesus anticipated that a believer in Him would have rivers of living water flowing out of him. John, who quoted Jesus on this commented: "Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (Jn 7:37-39). Accordingly, we might call our time period the age of the Spirit, and the time period before ours the time when "as yet the Spirit had not been given."
This anticipation of the decent of the Spirit at Pentecost ties in with Peter's identification of the time that the prophets inquired about. "It was revealed to them [the prophets] that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven" (1 Pet 1:12)
Just before Jesus ascended His disciples asked Him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He answered, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority." Then He stated the mandate: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:6-8).
When Jesus was here on earth He looked forward to our age and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in it. Said He, "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me" (Jn 15:26).
He specifically spoke of the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. He promised: "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John, the Scripture writer, explained Christ's words thus: "By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified" (Jn 7:38-39).
And there was the foresight of John the Baptist who said of Jesus: "he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit" (Jn 1:33). That too was an expectation of this present age. Paul interprets this work of Christ for us. It is the operation of the Holy Spirit in placing us into the church, the body of Christ, thus joining us to Christ and to every other believer in Him during this present age (1 Cor 12:12-13).
Another expectation Jesus had and promised was "I will build my church" (Matt 16:18). Thus He spoke of a new and specific entity of His people of in this present age. We call it the age of grace and the age of the Holy Spirit, and we also call it the age of the church.
Anticipating a two-fold relationship with His church by the Holy Spirit in this present age, Jesus said: "On that day you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you" (Jn 14:20). Thus it is in this age of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has placed us into the church and He has also taken up residence in our hearts.
Each of these great expectations looked ahead from the age of the law to the age of grace. We alone can appreciate the details. Nevertheless these bare facts of expectation set our age apart by the operations of the Holy Spirit unique to our age.
Jesus also foretold the end of this present age. Meeting in an upstairs room with His disciples the night before His crucifixion, Jesus promised them: "I will come back and take you to be with me" (vs 3). He thus introduced them to the way our time period will end. It was absolutely new and strange to them. They knew only of the way the Jewish age will end: the coming of Messiah and His earthly kingdom (Acts 1:6-7). But now Jesus was telling them of another coming of His to take His people of this present age to heaven.
FOUR-DIRECTIONAL APPLICATION
Think about the good news that has been preached to us. We know "what person" the gospel is all about. We look back to the "the sufferings of Christ."
When Paul defined the gospel for the Corinthians he included the cross, burial and resurrection of Christ. Yet earlier in the same letter he captured it all in saying, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor 15:1-4; 2:2). Paul's concept of the Person and His crucifixion meant the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
The good news had to be preached, for how else would we have heard the gospel and believed and called on the Lord to save us? True, some of us came to Christ through someone's witnessing or something we read, but somewhere in the process of the gospel being passed along preaching played a vital role (Rom 10:13-15).
And, praise the Lord, when the gospel came to us it was effectual. The Word of Christ came to us, not just a call to us to hear, but with power that caused us to hear. Not just a call to us to believe but with a power that caused us to believe (vs 17).
When "the word of Christ" became "the word of faith" in our hearts we were able to believe with our hearts and be saved (vss 8-10). Then the "gospel came to [us] not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." When we "received the word of God" we "accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God" (2 Thess 1:5; 2:13).
That's when God was granting us repentance, leading us to a knowledge of the truth, and regenerated by the renewing of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 2:25; Tit 3:5).
Now that the gospel or good news has done so much for us, as Peter teaches us, the onus is on us to be "preparing [our] minds for action, and being sober-minded, set [our] hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Here we have the inward look at our thoughts and actions that stem from them, joined to our forward look of intense anticipation of the coming of the Lord Jesus with consummating grace. There is also an upward look that comes into play in what we thing and what we do, right? We must set our minds on things above (Col 3:2).
One morning my wife called out, "Honey come here to the front window, and bring the binoculars." When I responded I saw on our front lawn a bird about the size of a huddle of four portly robins. After noting its markings through our binoculars we looked it up in our bird book. It turned out to be a blue grouse.
It crossed the street in front of our house over into a neighbor's garden and disappeared from our view. Not long after that I went out for my morning walk and saw the neighbor's cat apparently fixing its gaze on the garden where the blue grouse had left our view. While I can't say for certain if the cat was watching that bird, I can say that when a cat fixes its gaze on something there is nothing casual about it. It's preoccupied and looking for action.
Perhaps such fixation illustrates the biblical injunctions that we: "fix our thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess" and "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." When we do our preoccupation with Him will be our preoccupation with things above and the ensuing action will be Christ alive in our hearts today
(Heb 3:1; 12:2).