Segment 6 – Daniel 9 – “God’s Timing Is So Perfect”

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Plan A – Plan B

 

In essence, Gabriel revealed “Plan B.” God had a back-up plan for Israel because Israel irreparably ruined “Plan A” which was God’s original plan for the nation. A new generation of Jews were about to be freed from captivity to do God’s will. It is interesting to note how deliverance from Babylon parallels Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The first generation had to die because of rebellion before God could start with a new generation. According to Gabriel, God had much more planned for Israel than merely returning the Jews to Jerusalem. God wanted to establish His eternal kingdom on Earth within 500 years! This could be accomplished if Israel fulfilled certain terms and conditions. Consider the following paraphrase of Gabriel’s words (Daniel 9:24-27):

 

1. Seventy weeks of probationary time are determined upon Israel to: a) finish the years allotted for sin on Earth, b) to bring in atonement for sin and establishing everlasting righteousness, c) to seal up the vision and its predictions so that its content might not be known, and d) to anoint the Messiah.

2. From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah begins Hi ministry, there will be one Jubilee cycle of 49 years plus 62 weeks (434 years) for a total of 483 years.

3. In the middle of the seventieth week, Messiah will be rejected by His people and be put to death. The execution of Messiah will confirm the unilateral covenant of salvation that God gave to Adam and Eve, and Messiah will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings required since the fall of Adam and Eve.

4. After Jerusalem and the temple are rebuilt, they will be totally destroyed again because of rebellion.

5. Wars and desolations have been decreed upon the Jews and Jerusalem until the end of time.

6. The destroyer, Lucifer, will continue his deadly work until the end of time.

 

Gabriel’s statements are not difficult to understand if a person has a working knowledge of three subjects: 1) God’s use of unilateral and bilateral covenants with Adam and Eve, and Abraham and his descendants; 2) the operation of God’s Jubilee Calendar, and 3) what history reveals about the timing of Christ’s ministry on Earth. When these three matters are properly understood, the events predicted by Gabriel were fulfilled with a precision that is astonishing! Even more, history confirms the alignment of these events within the prophetic matrix that began unfolding in Daniel 2.

 

(Note: A study on unilateral and bilateral covenants is found in the Bible study room of this site. A study on the operation of the Jubilee Calendar is found in the reading room under, Great Clocks from God.)

 

Now that we have some ideas about Gabriel’s comments let us, examine Gabriel’s six statements in detail:

 

Statement 1

 

Gabriel said, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end to sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Daniel 9:24, KJV) Many Christians have heard about Daniel’s seventy weeks, but few have heard the truth about the seventy weeks. Many scholars claim that sixty-nine of the seventy weeks occurred long ago, but the seventieth week is still to come. This theory forces a large gap of many centuries between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth week. It will be demonstrated that this gap is artificial and contrived. Inserting a gap of many centuries is like inserting a gap of many days between Wednesday and Thursday. The continuum of time cannot be broken. The seventy weeks are seventy consecutive weeks. Before we leave this segment, we will see that Jesus Himself confirms the seventy weeks are 490 consecutive years.

 

What Is a Week?

 

What did Gabriel mean when he said, “seventy week?” Why did God choose to measure time in weeks and not in years? God’s choice of words, as in “seventy weeks” is highly important but poorly understood because of a property called synchrony.

 

When God created the world, He established four great “clocks” for measuring time. The first clock was called a “day,” and the synchrony of a day is set at sundown.

A day begins and ends at sundown. The second clock called a “month,” and the synchrony of a month is set by a new moon. A month begins and ends with a new moon. The third clock was called a “year,” and the synchrony of a year is determined by the first new moon on or after the Spring Equinox. The fourth clock was a perpetual cycle of seven days called a “week,” and the synchrony of each week begins with the first day and ends with the seventh day.  The first day of the week is always Sunday and the seventh day of the week is Saturday or God’s Sabbath of rest. In biblical terms, a week is not Wednesday through Tuesday. Wednesday through Tuesday is seven days, but not a week. A week is a perpetual cycle of time that remains aligned (or synchronous) with the seven days of Creation. (See Chart 6.1)

 

About 2,500 years after Creation, God added three more clocks to the four established at Creation. God imposed all seven clocks on Israel at the time of the Exodus so that Israel could accurately track the passage of time and seasons, and observe His feasts at the appointed time. (Exodus 12) The fifth clock was a “week of seven months.” The sixth clock was a “week of seven years,” and the seventh clock was a “week of seven weeks” or forty-nine years. The operation and synchrony of these seven clocks is marvelous. These clocks enabled the ancient Jews to measure the passage of time, and today they allow us to understand something about God’s larger timing and plans for Earth.

 

Seven Clocks from God

 

1. Day – sundown to sundown

2. Month – new moon to new moon

3. Year – first new moon on or after the Spring Equinox

4. Week – Sunday through Sabbath

5. Week of seven months – synchronized

6. Week of seven years – synchronized with the year of the Exodus

7. Week of seven weeks – synchronized with the year of the Exodus

 

When properly understood, these seven clocks produce a self-correcting calendar that remains properly coordinated with the Sun, moon and the four seasons. A self-correcting calendar is not a small feat when considering the complexity of measuring time via planetary motion. When Israel used God’s clocks, their measurement of time was never off by more than one day in any given month. If they happen to miscalculate the arrival of a new month, the error was easily corrected at the beginning of the following month.

 

 

You may have noticed that the three clocks God gave to Israel were based on a template of Creation’s weekly cycle. Because the weekly cycle was a template, the weekly cycle can be used to represent different periods of time by changing the scale of time. For example, a week of days and a week of years follow the same template, but the scale of time changes from days to years. Each clock has a special synchrony, that is, a specific alignment. For example, the weekly cycle is reset every Sunday because the Creation of the world began on Sunday. Similarly, “a week of seven years” aligns with “A week of seven weeks,” which amounts to forty-nine years, aligns with the Sunday year of the Exodus. (Leviticus 25:8) (See Charts 6.1-4.) We will discover that an understanding of these clocks and their synchrony is critical to understanding why God said, “seventy weeks.”

 

The Importance of Synchrony

 

Because each week starts and stops in perpetual alignment with Creation’s week, the weekly cycle has “synchrony” or alignment. God has placed great significance on the synchrony of the weekly cycles because the observance of His seventh-day Sabbath is tied to Creation. For example, God withheld manna on the seventh day of the week for forty years in the wilderness to ensure that everyone in Israel knew which day of the week aligned with His Sabbath rest at Creation. (Exodus 16)

 

Humanity cannot survive without knowing the synchrony of time. The alignment of the Sun with Earth determines the timing of our seasons. Certain crops are planted in the spring because they require a specific number of days of sunlight without frost, while other crops are planted in fall and winter because these plants need the rain and weather conditions necessary for survival during that time. If the human race did not know about the synchrony of the seasons, we would soon starve! If synchrony did not exist, one person could say that it was 4:35 p.m. on January 5, and at the same time, another person could say it was 2:21 a.m. on September 3 and no one could reasonably dispute either claim. For a person to know the time as well as the seasons, he must know about the rotation of Earth, the orbit of the moon around Earth, and the orbit of Earth around the Sun. For a clock to have practical value, it has to synchronize (and stay synchronized) with planetary motion. Otherwise, the information provided by a mechanical clock would mean nothing. Without synchrony, time cannot be measured. When we say this is year A.D. 2005, what do we mean? We mean it has been 2005 years since the birth of Christ (although this is not actually the case, but that’s another story). In other words, the Julian/ Gregorian calendar is theoretically synchronized with the birth of Christ. When everyone uses the same synchrony of time, everyone knows that a 1954 Corvette is an antique car! With the importance of synchrony in mind, let us examine the three clocks that God created and gave to Israel at the time of the Exodus.

 

A Week of Seven Months

 

When God mandated that Israel observe six festivals during the course of a year, He gave them a religious calendar indicating when these feasts were to take place. This religious calendar consisted of a week of seven months (Nisan through Tishri). This religious year should not be confused with a full year of twelve months. (Exodus 23:16) Rather, Israel’s religious year is similar to a “school year,” which lasts for nine or ten months.

During the religious year, God required Israel to observe six festivals. For example, Passover was observed on the fifteenth day of the first month and the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month. (See Chart 6.2.) Understand that a religious year began did not consist of any seven months. The religious year began on New Year’s Day (Nissan 1), and New Year’s Day was determined by the first new moon on or after the Spring Equinox. The religious year ended (depending on the position of the moon) six or seven days after the Feast of Tabernacles ended. At the time of the Exodus, the Jews often referred to months by number, although they sometimes used Canaanite names for the months. (Exodus 13:4) Centuries later, the Jews adopted Babylonian names for the months of the year. Therefore, Bible writers sometimes call the first month of the year Nissan that is taken from the Babylonian name Nisanu. (Nehemiah 2:1) The synchrony of Nissan 1 with the first new moon on or after the Spring Equinox forces the Passover to occur in the spring and the Day of Atonement to occur in the fall of the year.

 

A Week of Seven Years

 

The week of seven years was based on the weekly template, too. Remember, synchrony does not allow a week to start and stop at random times. Likewise, a week of seven years cannot start with just any given year. The Sabbath year (the seventh year) was just as holy to the Lord (Leviticus 25:4) as was the seventh-day Sabbath. (Exodus 20:8-11; Jeremiah 34:13-17) Sabbath years were determined by counting from the year of the Exodus. Because the Jews were required to observe the feasts, they managed to keep track of time. (I Kings 6:1) The Old and New Testaments demonstrate a perfect synchrony of Sabbatical years. (Isaiah 37:30; Jeremiah 34:14; Nehemiah 8:2,3; Deuteronomy 31:10,11; Daniel 9:24-27; Luke 3:1) At the beginning of the Sabbath year, God required all slaves to be set free and the land was to lay fallow and rest. (See Chart 6.3.)

 

A Week of Seven Weeks

 

A week of seven weeks equals forty-nine years. Study Chart 6.4 and notice how a week of weeks represents forty-nine years. (Leviticus 25:8) This calendar is called the Jubilee Calendar because the “year of Jubilee” was a special Sabbatical year that occurred after each forty-nine year cycle ended. The year of Jubilee was counted as the fiftieth year of the outgoing Jubilee cycle, but it was also counted as the first year of the incoming Jubilee cycle.  (See Chart 6.4) Thus, the year of Jubilee always fell on a “Sunday” year. It may seem strange that the fiftieth year of the old Jubilee cycle and the first year of the new Jubilee cycle were the same year. This problem vanishes when one realizes this method of counting time parallels the count of days for the feast of Pentecost. The fiftieth day always fell on the first day of the week. (Leviticus 23:15,16) In other words, the only difference is that the count for Pentecost is in days and the count for the year of Jubilee is in years. The weekly template remains the same.

 

The Bible mentions one year of Jubilee. It took place during the fifteenth year (702 B.C.) of Hezekiah. (Isaiah 36:1; 37:30, see also 2 Kings 19:29) The year of Jubilee was consecrated on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement (near the end of the religious year). Consecration was delayed until the Day of Atonement because this gave the Israelites six full months into the year of Jubilee to make sure all property was returned to its rightful owner before the Day of Atonement took place.

 

The beauty of understanding the synchrony of these clocks begins to appear when one realizes that all Sabbath years and Jubilee years – forward and backward – can be easily calculated once a known year is located. For the sake of comparison, one could say that it is easy to calculate paydays – both past and future – when one knows what day of the week payday occurs and how often payday occurs! Synchrony makes this type of calculation possible.

 

Look at Chart 6.4 and count off nine years beginning with the Exodus year. You should see a Tuesday year, 1428 B.C. Now count off ten weeks of years from the Exodus year. What year falls in the middle of the tenth week? (1371 B.C.) Bear in mind, the ten weeks shown on Chart 6.4 are not part of the seventy weeks that Gabriel spoke about. Rather, these weeks mark the beginning of the “weekly clock” which God initiated at the Exodus.

 

 

As we continue to examine the synchrony of time, it will become apparent that inserting a gap of time between days, weeks and years is impossible! When one year ends, another year begins. When one week of seven years end, another week of seven years begin! When one Jubilee cycle of forty-nine years ends, a new Jubilee cycle begins! If these cycles are broken, the synchrony of the weekly cycle is destroyed and, without synchrony, time cannot be measured.

 

Why Seventy Weeks?

 

Gabriel said, “Seventy weeks are determined….” Why did God deliberately choose the number “seventy weeks” as a measure of time in Daniel 9:24? We know that God is deliberate and purposeful in everything He does. He could have said, “Four hundred ninety years are determined upon your people….” Instead, God chose to use the term “weeks” as the measurement of time in Daniel 9 instead of “years,” because weeks have a synchrony that years do not have! We know that God initiated weeks of years at the Exodus because He required the land to lay fallow during the Sabbath year! This fact produces a key point: The seventy weeks of Daniel 9 cannot begin with just any year. God used the word “weeks” because the seventy weeks began with a Sunday year that aligns with the year of the Exodus. Remember, a week of days always begins with Sunday and a week of seven years always begins with a Sunday year and ends with a Sabbatical year. When God determined “seventy weeks” of years on Israel, He gave Israel a tremendous hint to identify the specific decree that would start the seventy weeks! Gabriel’s words were not intended to be mysterious or secret! Review Chart 6.4 again and notice that a week of years always begins with a Sunday year and that “weeks of years” are always synchronous with the year of the Exodus.

 

When God sentenced Israel into captivity in Babylon, He did it for a specific period of time. “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:11) It is interesting that God said seventy years in Jeremiah’s prophecy instead of saying ten weeks. (Ten weeks of seven years equals seventy years.) God’s use of “years” instead of “weeks” in Jeremiah’s prophecy reflects the fact that the Babylonian captivity began in 605 B.C., which is a Sabbath year! Therefore, the seventy years in Babylon cannot be called ten weeks of years. This feature, incidentally, unlocks a mystery about the 2,300 days in Daniel 8:14. The 2,300 days (or evenings and mornings) amount to 328 weeks plus five days (counting inclusively). Even though the 2,300 evenings and mornings began at the same time as the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 (the decree of Artaxerxes in the Sunday year of 457 B.C.), the 2,300 days are expressed in units of days instead of units of weeks because it takes 2,303 days to make 329 weeks! Since 2,300 days do not equal 329 weeks, God described this time-period using days.

 

 

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