What is Daniel 9 all about? The answers lie in the rest of the Bible, especially the book of Isaiah. Daniel presumably would have contemplated Isaiah deeply, for as the first writing prophet in Judah, Isaiah laid out the whole scope of Israels future: doubly exiled but doubly restored. Daniel 9 begins with a meditation on the words of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had been told by the Lord that Israel would return to the land after seventy years. Daniel is musing about how this can be fulfilled, because the time is approaching. This reminds us of Abrams contemplation in Genesis 15. Abram had been brought out of Babelic (Babylon) Ur and wondered how his descendants would come to possess the land. He then received a vision and was told that they would come to possess it after an extended period of time: 430 years. Daniel likewise is contemplating Israels final possession of the land, and he receives a vision telling him that the people would possess the land after Seventy Weeks of Years, of which the Seventy Years of Jeremiah are a type- similar to how Abrams pre-exodus out of Babylon was a type of the exodus out of Egypt. Daniel knows that the exile was on the timetable from the very beginning. Moses said it would happen in Deuteronomy 29. But in Deuteronomy 30, Moses promised that Israel would be restored with circumcised, God-loving hearts, discovering life, never to be exiled again. Daniel alludes to Deuteronomy 30 in 9:13, regretting the fact that the people had not repented as Moses said they would before the final restoration. Gabriels revelation begins with: (Daniel 9:23) At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision. A word has gone out from God. One of the great themes in Isaiah 40-55 is that a word goes out of Gods mouth that accomplishes Israels restoration. It turns the land from a desert into the Garden of Eden, it plucks up thorns and thistles and replaces them with flowering shrubs. It brings in justice and righteousness forevermore. We have a faint echo of this Isaianic theme here in Daniel, an echo that will become stronger as we note more precise resonances. (Daniel 9:24) Seventy weeks are decreed about 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 the most holy. Seventy Weeks until the Sabbath of Sabbaths, the Great Jubilee. And this is described with the following terms: 1. To finish the transgression. This alludes to: (Isaiah 43:27-28) Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling. While the only resonance at this point appears to be transgressed, the resonances are much stronger when one realizes that Daniel 9:26 picks this passage back up when prophesying the destruction of the Temple. God will desolate the sanctuary. There are Seventy Weeks until Israels transgression reaches its fullness and God commits to destroying the Temple. 2. To put an end to sin. I cant place this at the moment, and Id appreciate some help. Obviously, it refers to either atonement or destruction of the wicked, but for every other criterion, there are biblical allusions we can use to ground Daniels words exegetically. 3. To atone for iniquity. This clearly refers to: (Isaiah 27:8-9) Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind. Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing. I highly recommend reading Isaiah 27 in full. The prophet here declares that the Lord will destroy the Dragon-Serpent, cause Israel to sprout forth and bless the nations, bring Israel back from exile, and glean the people one by one so that the righteous remnant of Israel is glorified while the wicked are cast as chaff into the fire. Let us recall that Israels restoration is precisely what Daniel is praying about, so the allusion is profoundly appropriate contextually. 4. To bring in everlasting righteousness. This matches most plainly with Isaiah 51: (Isaiah 51:8) For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be everlasting, and my salvation to all generations. In the immediate context, Isaiah is speaking of the transformation of the Holy Land from a barren Desert into the Paradise of God. This of course is then accomplished by the Suffering of the Righteous Servant in Isaiah 53, which is also echoed in Daniel 9, as we will see. However, this language builds on a theme which had already been developing in Isaiah. It starts in Isaiah 9:6-7: (Isaiah 9:6-7) For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and to everlasting. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. It is the Messianic King who brings in the kingdom with everlasting righteousness. Importantly, the words Mighty God (in English as well as Hebrew) is only elsewhere used in the Old Testament in Isaiah 10:21-22, speaking of the return from exile- and this passage is actually quoted directly in Daniel 9, as we will see below. These allusions therefore tie into each other quite nicely. 5. To seal both vision and prophet. This phrase is extremely opaque unless one recognizes that it is an allusion to Isaiah 29, where its meaning is rather clear: (Isaiah 29:9-11) Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, Read this, he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. This theme goes back to Isaiah 6 and continues throughout the book of Isaiah. Israel has worshiped idols that have eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, therefore Israel becomes like those idols. This is the same passage where the prophet says that Israel teaches as doctrines the commandments of men a favorite phrase of our Lord, speaking of the Pharisees. Idolatry is any form of self-exaltation, and the Pharisees, though they no longer worshiped gods of stone, had turned inwards and exalted themselves, just as Adam in the beginning. In Isaiah 29, the idolatry of Israel reaches a fullness, and as in Isaiah 27, the righteous are sorted out from the wicked. In other words, this refers to the day of reckoning for Israel. When Israels sin reaches its fullness, God will pull the remnant out and destroy the rest. This is likewise the subject of Daniel 9: hence the destruction of the Temple in 9:27. 6. To anoint the Most Holy. This is not particularly difficult, and the phrase comes from Exodus 40: (Exodus 40:9-10) Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and consecrate it and all its furniture, so that it may become holy. You shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar, so that the altar may become most holy. The anointing prepares the Sanctuary for the filling with the Divine Presence, which happens in Exodus 40. Throughout the prophets, the return of the Lord to Zion is consistently associated with the return from exile. Isaiah says that all Jerusalem will be soaked with the Presence. Zechariah says the city will be walled by the fire of the divine glory. Jeremiah says that ark of the covenant will be nothing next to the intensity of the Presence at the new exodus. This is what is going on here: the return of the Lord to Zion, the intensification of the Presence, which we know in hindsight as the Incarnation. (Daniel 9:25) Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. Peter Gentry notes that the series of decrees by Cyrus up to Artaxerxes is treated in Ezra-Nehemiah as a progressive enactment of a single decree. The Weeks therefore start at the final decree, in 483 BC, which means that the 69 weeks are up in 27 AD, when the Lord is baptized and publicly revealed as Messiah. Some suggest that there are actually two anointed ones in Daniel 9, justifying their suggestion with the seeming pointlessness of having seven and sixty-two weeks instead of sixty-nine weeks. The reason that they are divided is because after the seven weeks, the streets of Jerusalem are built up again, but it is a troublous time, i.e. the restoration has not yet occurred. (Daniel 9:26) And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, but not for himself. 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. There are several biblical allusions set forth here. First, and perhaps most significantly of all, we have an allusion to Isaiah 53. The anointed one is cut off, but not for himself. (Isaiah 53:8) By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? The Servant is cut off, not for Himself, but for the transgression of my people. Second, we have an allusion to Nahum 1:8, which was describing the judgment to fall on Assyria: (Nahum 1:8) But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. Similarly, Christ alludes to prophecies referring to the destruction of Babylon and applies them to apostate Israel. Daniels message is Christs message: those in the covenant who have turned inwards and exalted themselves are not exiles awaiting restoration, they are as the Gentiles who perpetrated the exile itself. Third, as mentioned above, there is a quotation of Isaiah 10: (Isaiah 10:21-22) A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Desolations are decreed, overflowing with righteousness. As with many of the above allusions, the context is the return from exile and the sorting of the righteous from the wicked. A remnant of Israel returns from exile to the mighty God (i.e. the Messiah of Isaiah 9:6-7) while the rest are desolated. The prince who is to come can only be Christ Himself. The people of the Prince is the apostate Israelite nation who rejected Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. Gentry further notes that this event is not strictly within the Seventy Weeks. Instead, the passage moves rhythmically, describing the Seventy Weeks, then naming the consequence of what occurs within the Weeks, then returning to the Weeks. He explains this in more detail in the actual article, linked below. (Daniel 9:27) And he shall confirm a strong covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. The confirmation of the covenant refers to the week of covenantal fulfillment. The Seventieth Week begins, as noted, with the Baptism of Christ. Its midpoint, in 30 AD, is the crucifixion of the Lord, when sacrifice and oblation ends. The final day of the week is when the gospel goes to the Gentiles, thus fulfilling the original covenantal promise to Israel: in you shall all the families of the Earth be blessed. Credit for Isaiah 53 allusions goes to Dr. Gentry, as well as data on Ezra-Nehemiah and exposition of the Temples destruction vis-a-vis the Seventy Weeks. For clarification on these points, please see: sbts.edu/resources/files/2010/05/sbjt_v14_n1_gentry.pdf
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:46:36 +0000
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