Biblical Time Line
Daniel Prophesies Deliverance for Israel Daniel 12
(Dan 9:3-4 NKJV)
Daniel Prays in Mourning
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans-- 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books [scrolls] the number of the years [specified] by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
After the death of Belshazzar, Daniel served the concurring king, Darius.
(2) The reference in verse two is of (Jeremiah 25: 11, 12, and 29:10). God set a period of 70 years (10 X 7 where seven is the number of completion) of exile and desolation.
The wearing of sackcloth (like burlap) and tossing ashes in the air so they cover the body or rolling in ashes are all accepted signs of a Jew in mourning. Hebrews would also put dirt on their heads during funerals to mourn the dead. (Gen 3:19) see also Neh 9:1; Est 4:1,3,16; Job 2:12; Jonah 3:5-6).
“A mourner cast Ashes (or dust) on his head (II Sam. xiii. 9), or sat (Job ii. 8; Jonah iii. 6) or lay (Esth. iv. 3) or rolled himself (Jer. vi. 26; Ezek. xxvii. 30) in Ashes (or dust). In remembrance that we were created from dust and must return to dust.”[1]
Daniel was offering a prayer of intercession for the exiled people of Israel; because they did not show signs of repentance. Daniel did not see any hope that the new king would release them. Daniel, therefore, prays that the Lord would fulfill the prophecy of Jeremiah. Daniel had been in captivity for about 69 years, which would have made his age about 84 and about one year before Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Israel.
(Dan 9:4-5 NKJV)
4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 "we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.
The significance of seventy years. Seventy years is 7 times ten. Why is this important? The seventh day of the week is the Sabbath (day of rest –no work). The seventh day is holy (Exodus 20:8-10). The Jewish nation was sent into exile because they turned their backs on God and His laws and worshiped false gods. (Read Jeremiah 52) Therefore, God punishes Israel for their wickedness for seventy years.
Daniel repents not only for himself but also for the nation of Israel, which is evidenced by the word “we”. The Jewish people while in Babylonian captivity continued their evil practices of worshiping false gods, worshiping idols and not keeping Gods laws.
There are several instances in Scripture where God shows us the result of cohabitation with unbelievers or people of a different belief. This practice is why God commanded Joshua to kill all the people of Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. God knew that if any were allowed to live they would draw His people to their gods. (Deuteronomy 20:16-18) The apostle Paul warns the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 of the dangers of marrying a person of different faith or no faith at all.
This concept is more important today than ever. Too many marriages are based in lust and not love. Too many marriages are not centered in Jesus but rather in their own understanding. Jesus tells us not to lean on our own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
(Dan 9:6-7 NKJV)
6 "Neither have we heeded your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 "O Lord, righteousness [belongs] to You, but to us shame of face, as [it is] this day--to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
The prophet Jeremiah gave the nation of Israel God’s warnings of punishment for their evil ways. Israel was not persuaded to change its ways and continued to practice evil. “Jeremiah preached from about 628 BC to 586 BC (about 2600 years ago) in Jerusalem. During that time, Babylon took control of Jerusalem. Babylon began taking Jews as captives to Babylon as early as 605 BC and 597 BC. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.
Jeremiah prophesied that the Jews would be scattered from their homeland and persecuted. He also said that God would protect the Jews from total destruction and that they would one day return to their homeland, and that the second Israel would be more impressive than the first. Today, we can see with our own eyes that the Jews have indeed survived widespread persecutions and that they have re-established Israel (in 1948), after 19 centuries of exile and persecutions throughout the world.”[2]
(Dan 9:8-11 NKJV)
8 "O Lord, to us [belongs] shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 "To the Lord our God [belong] mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 "We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 "Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.
What is the curse spoken of in verse 11? Read and discuss Leviticus 26:27-33. What covenant is referred to in Lev 26:15? Physical ailments described in Lev 26:16. Curse against the land Lev 26:16 & 29:27. Defeat in battle Lev 26:17. Read and discuss the curses of Deuteronomy 27:15-26.
There are 12 curses:
1 curse for idols.
1 curse dishonoring one’s father.
3 curses pertaining to the law.
4 curses pertaining to sexual immorality.
1 curse for murder.
1 curse for murder for hire.
1 curse for failure to confirm by action.
(Dan 9:12 NKJV)
12 "And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven, such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
Read Lamentations 1 and draw parallels between Israel/Judah and the United States. Both one nation under God, turned their backs on God, and both have and are suffering because of failure to obey God.
(Dan 9:13 NKJV)
13 "As [it is] written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.
A rebuke against the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel must repent before they will be restored. “Jeremiah's prophetic ministry began in 626 B.C. and ended sometime after 586. [2] Jeremiah was sent by God to Israel to seek repentance. (Jeremiah 5:3) Jeremiah, not finding repentance, tells the nation about God’s wrath. He prophesied the destruction of Israel.
(Dan 9:14-18 NKJV)
14 "Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God [is] righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 "And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as [it is] this day--we have sinned, we have done wickedly! 16 "O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people [are] a reproach to all [those] around us. 17 "Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause your face to shine on your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 "O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.
Daniel’s faith was unwavering, and he was favored by God. God had exiled Israel for their idolatry and profaning the Sabbath year. (Leviticus 25: 1-8) Daniel’s prayer was an intercessory prayer. Daniel was not a priest and was not ordained to offer atonement sacrifices. However, he prayed in lieu of the sacrifice at the time of the sacrifice for his nation. It is imperative that Christians ask God for mercy on our nation, as Daniel did. We must ask God to guide our elected leaders in decisions both in their personal and public lives.
(Dan 9:20-21 NKJV)
19 "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.“ 20 Now while I [was] speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I [was] speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.
(20) Gabriel entered before Daniel had finished praying. God knew what Daniel had in his heart and knew what Daniel was asking. Sometimes Christians get impatient after praying, not realizing perhaps that God could answer. YES! NO! or NOT RIGHT NOW. Like Daniel, we must always pray with the expectation of God’s answer and be prepared to abide by it. (21) I had seen in the vision at the beginning--namely, in the former vision by the river Ulai
(Daniel 8:1 Daniel 8:16 )
The evening offering/sacrifice was not authorized because the Temple was not in Babylon and lay defiled in Jerusalem.
(Dan 9:22-23 NKJV)
22 And he informed [me], and talked with me, and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 "At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell [you], for you [are] greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:
(22) This time God’s messenger, Gabriel, gives Daniel “the rest of the story.” (23) There was no delay in God’s response to Daniel’s prayer because He knew what was in Daniel’s heart. Why did God sentence Israel to seventy years of exile and not seventy-seven years? See verse 24 .
(Dan 9:24 NKJV)
24 "Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
Seventy weeks, a week having seven days, the symbolic day is one year. (Numbers 14:34) Seventy times seven would equal 490 years were given to Israel to realize their sin, repent and to seek God’s forgiveness. Here is where the conventional interpretation of seventy weeks is difficult to reconcile. We are dealing with the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian calendar. The explanation of the Julian calendar versus the Gregorian calendar is covered in the next paragraph.
Is the use of "weeks" as "years" here to confuse us? On the contrary, the biblical (Hebrew) calendar uses 360 days to equal one year. However, in the Gregorian calendar, we use 365 days in a year, adjusting the calendar every four years (a leap year). The Hebrew calendar uses a much more complicated means to adjust its calendar. “The calendar is adjusted because a solar year is 365 days long while a lunar year of 12 months is usually 354 days, 11 days shorter. In order to remain aligned with the solar year an extra month is added in certain years, this is a Hebrew leap year.” (Michaels)
God marked time in Genesis one as being governed by the sun and the moon, making a 24 hour day and a 7 day week. Having said this it makes sense that God would give a prophecy to Daniel showing a week equaling a year. A time calculation beyond a week has relevance to only us. Peter tells us to the Lord “one day is as a thousand years.” (2Peter 3:8 ESV) Read Leviticus 25 for the source.
“That is, seventy weeks of years, or 490 years, which reckoned from the seventh year of Artaxerxes, coinciding with the 4,256th year of the Julian period, and in the month Nisan, in which Ezra was commissioned to restore the Jewish state and polity [a form or process of civil government or constitution.], (Ezr 7:9-26) will bring us to the month of Nisan of the 4,746th year of the same period, or A.D. 33, the very month and year in which our Lord suffered, and completed the work of our salvation. Lev 25:8; Num 14:34; Eze 4:6”. [4]
God has been dealing with the Jews from the time of the Abrahamic covenant to the time of Paul's commissioning by Jesus, estimated to be between 33 and 36 AD. Paul is commissioned to bring the gospel of Christ to the Gentile nations, thus beginning the church age. The church age will end when the church is completed or full.
(Dan 9:24-25 NKJV)
25 "Know therefore and understand, [That] from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, [There shall be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.
A break in time periods usually means a break in the events. Therefore, after 7 weeks or 49 years, there is a break of length in the timeline. A week still equals 7 years, so the conversion would be 7 X 7 or 49 years, plus 62 x 7 or 434 years. The rebuilding of Jerusalem began in Cyrus’s first year, who reigned 539—530 BC. Read Ezra one.
The first remnants of Israel tried to rebuild the city and lay the foundation of the temple. (Isaiah 44:28) Why is there a division in time? Read Ezra 7:1-21. It was not until Nehemiah’s return to Israel that the building of the wall resumed. (Neh 2:4-6) “The return of the exiles to Judah, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem was accomplished in three main stages. The first and main party returns with Zerubbabel 538 BC. They were to rebuild the temple. A second party returns with Ezra about 80 years later. They make spiritual and religious restoration and reform.
A third wave returns with Nehemiah in 445 BC. They rebuild the city walls and gates, but not many houses. Notice that this quote does not mention the remnant allowed to leave Babylon by Cyrus. This remnant was small in numbers because many younger Jews did not have firsthand knowledge of Jerusalem. Their success was limited because of resistance from the Arabs.
When was Nehemiah given permission to return to Judah? Nehemiah pleaded with King Artaxerxes “…in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes…”(Neh 2:1 ESV). Artaxerxes, king of Persia, reigned from 465 to 425 B.C. The 20th year would have put the date at 445 B.C. However, it was about one year later that Nehemiah began construction.
“The starting point of the prophecy would have begun on Nisan 1 (March 5), 444 B.C., followed by 69 weeks of 360-day biblical/prophetic years or 173,880 days, and culminated on Nisan 10 (March 30), A.D. 33, the date of Jesus the Messiah's triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Lk 19:28-40).”[3]
Keep in mind the Sabbath is the seventh day of the Jewish week a day set aside by God for man as a day of rest with the stipulation that this day was to be kept holy because God rested on the seventh day. Considering this it is not a stretch to understand why God’s timetable is in sevens.
Why is this important for us to know?
When prophetic time is broken up into two or more segments, we should research scripture to understand how long and why it was separated in order to better understand whether the prophecy is for the Jew, the Gentile, or both.
A cross reference for 70 weeks in Blue Letter Bible is: “The seventy weeks are here divided into three periods.
1. Seven weeks, or 49 years, for the restoration of Jerusalem.
2. Sixty-two weeks, or 434 years, from that time to the announcement of the Messiah by John the Baptist.
3. One week, or seven years, for the ministry of John and of Christ himself to the crucifixion.” No matter which interpretation you choose, both encompass the rebuilding of the Temple and Jesus’s ministry.[4]
(Dan 9:26 NKJV)
26 "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah 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. The end of it [shall be] with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.
The Messiah would be rejected after 62 weeks. A prediction that Jesus would be crucified (cut off), not for anything He had done but rather for what mankind had done. The people of the prince (Cesar) will come and destroy the city and the Temple.
The metaphorical use of the word flood here, like that used in Nehemiah 1:8, but with an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. (Nah 1:8 ESV)
(Dan 9:27 NKJV)
27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week [7], and for half of the week [3.5] 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."
Where in the timeline is the covenant made? Who will bring about the desolation? What is meant by the world consummation? Read Jeremiah 31: 27-40. For more information on this subject, read the commentary by Pastor Larry W. Cockerham. A new covenant between God and Israel. It is God’s will that Israel would become a nation of priests. Read Isaiah 42:1-6. The intent of this prophecy was to give Israel hope during the reign of Antiochus (an early antichrist). Jeremiah 31:31-34
Read Jeremiah fifty-three. This part of the prophecy not only speaks of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 BC) but also “The Antichrist” yet to come. “Both involve two end-time periods. When it comes to the larger picture, these two periods of persecution leading up to the first and second coming of Christ are portrayed in both the exploits of Antiochus IV as well as those of the coming Antichrist.”[5]
“After being humiliated and forced to leave Egypt, Antiochus’s vengeance was quickly turned upon Jerusalem. He killed over eighty thousand men, women, and children and sold forty thousand into slavery (2 Macc. v. 5-14). The holy place was robbed of its treasures and the temple was dedicated to Jupiter Olympus. The temple was defiled by offering a sow upon the altar and scattering its juice over all the sanctuary and vessels. He substituted the Jewish feasts with the drunken revelry of Bacchanalia, forcing the Jews to worship Bacchus, the god of pleasure and wine. The licentious festival of Saturnalia, the worship of Saturn, was also enforced upon the inhabitants. He forbade the reading of the Holy Scriptures and the tradition of circumcision. Throwing them … [remaining words to grouse to pint Maccabees 1:20-28 and 2 Maccabees 5:11-17.”[6]
[1] Morris Jastrow, Jr., Crawford Howell Troy, Marcus Jastow, Lewis Ginzberg, and Kaufmann Kohler. "Ashes." JewishEncyclopedia.com. 2011. Accessed September 27, 2018. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1944-ashes.
[2] Robert Jamerson, Aaron R. Fausset, and David Brown. "Bible Commentary Critical and Explanatory; Jamieson, Fausset, Brown." Bible Study Tools. 2018. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/jamieson-fausset-brown/.First published 1871
[3] Staff. "Jeremiah's Prophecies." Samaria, Places in the Bible. Accessed September 28, 2018. http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/jeremiah.htm.
[4] "Daniel 9:1 (ESV) - In the first year of." Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 25 Oct, 2018. https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/dan/9/1/t_corr_859024
[5] Cockerham, Larry W. "Antiochus IV Epiphanes: The Antichrist of the Old Testament." Antiochus IV Epiphanes: The Antichrist of the Old Testament. 2011. Accessed October 26, 2018. http://www.prophecyforum.com/antiochus.html.
[6] Larry W Cockerham. "Antiochus IV Epiphanes: The Antichrist of the Old Testament." Antiochus IV Epiphanes: The Antichrist of the Old Testament. 2011. Accessed October 26, 2018. http://www.prophecyforum.com/antiochus.html.
