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
- Day –
sundown to sundown
- Month –
new moon to new moon
- Year –
first new moon on or after
the Spring Equinox
- Week –
Sunday through Sabbath
- Week of seven
months – synchronized
- Week of seven
years – synchronized
with the year of the Exodus
- 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.
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