August 18, 2007

Premillennial Nuggets - Daniel 9:24
God's Covenant Promises to Israel and Jerusalem

[The following is a selection taken from the Parousia #14 newsletter by Charles Cooper.]

"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophesy and to anoint the most holy place.” Daniel 9:24

The 490 Year Delay

In this often-debated passage, Daniel indicates explicitly that Israel is to expect a specific 490-year(2) delay in God’s ultimate fulfillment of His covenant promises.(3) The delay is not for 483 years, or 486 and a half-years, but 490 years. Any promises made to Israel and Judah about their eternal restoration must await the completion of their penalization. A face value hermeneutic requires that Israel’s delay has been extended to cover now more than two thousand five hundred years. The futurity of the last seven years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week prophecy (prophetic pillar number one) is a fact accepted by a majority of premillennialists.(4) Critical to this discussion is Daniel’s inclusion of both Israel (the nation) and Jerusalem (the city) in his prophecy. Both the people and the city are shut up under a specific 490 plus year time of chastisement. That fact alone should dispel any notion that Daniel 9:24 has been fulfilled. For God’s promise “to bring in everlasting righteousness” when the delay ends certainly has not been realized in Israel and Jerusalem.

Daniel lists six purposes(5) for Israel’s 490-year delay. The first three purposes find their fulfillment during the passing of the 490 years: transgression, sin, and iniquity. These are three aspects of sin in general. Of the first three purposes, the phrase to finish the transgression alone contains a definite article. Therefore, it sets the stage for what follows. Daniel is not referring to transgressions in general, but the transgression. This is the transgression that Israel is known for—unfaithfulness to her God. This is the basic sense of the term. Transgression comes from a Hebrew word which means, “to rebel.” Isaiah 48:8b states concerning Israel, “And you have been called a rebel [transgressor] from birth.” Ezekiel echoes Isaiah with stronger language when God states, “Son of Man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day (Ez. 2:3).” (Italics added)

Yet, in Ezekiel 37:21-23, God instructs Ezekiel to inform Israel of a promise. Ezekiel writes,

Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them on nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel… They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God. (Italics added)

The point is this: Israel will finish her rebellion against God with her 490-year-plus delay. The implication is clear that once the 490-year plus delay is finished, Israel will no longer rebel (transgress) against her God.

The second purpose in Daniel’s list is the phrase to make an end of sin. We receive help in understanding the meaning of this phrase from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament). The Septuagint translators understood the sense of the Hebrew to be to make sins scarce. The particular Hebrew word for sins “occurs about 580 times in the Old Testament and is thus its principle word for sin. The basic meaning of the root is to miss a mark or a way.”(6) While man may not be actively rebellious, he, by nature, continually misses the mark of God’s holiness. Daniel promises Israel that her days of missing God’s mark are numbered. The final phrase in this first triad is to make atonement for iniquity. The Hebrew term for iniquity (awon) is a collective noun. It is singular, but refers to the sum of one’s past misdeeds. Notice Genesis 15:16 which states, “The iniquity (past misdeeds) of the Amorite is not yet complete.” All of the misdeeds of the Amorites were bottled up into one. Interestingly, it was 400 years before God judged the Amorites. Similarly, Israel is given a 490-year time allotment to atone for her past misdeeds (perversions) against God.

After the 490-year-plus delay, God will forgive Israel’s rebellious past and implement the benefits of the new covenant. Notice Jeremiah 31:34:

“And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Israel will finally receive total forgiveness and cleansing from her past sins. This is echoed in the final three purposes states in Daniel’s list.

The Benefits After the Delay

Gabriel told Daniel that “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city… to bring in everlasting righteousness.” The Hebrew grammar makes the point with certainty.(7) Only a literal fulfillment of this expectation hermeneutically is permissible: the people and the holy city await “everlasting righteousness.” Jesus Christ made it possible for God to grant personal righteousness to many. However, God will not apply the blood of Jesus to the nation of Israel until the full 490-year period has been completed. Isaiah well captures God’s promise when he writes, “Israel has been saved by the Lord with an everlasting; you will not be put to shame or humiliated to all eternity” (Is. 45:17).

The fifth purpose of the 490-year delay is “to seal up vision and prophecy…” The Hebrew literally says, to seal vision and prophet. Again, the Septuagint is very helpful. It states, “to finish [end] the vision.” The sense is this: with the completion of the 490-year delay (regarding the people of Israel and their city—Jerusalem) revelation through intermediaries will cease. Jesus Christ, Himself, physically present on earth, will personally attend to the needs of Israel starting the day after the completion of the 490-year delay. With the death of the two witnesses (Revelation 11:3 and 7) prophecy to Israel will cease and direct control by Christ will begin.

The final purpose to be realized with the completion of Israel’s punishment for her rebellion will be “to anoint the most holy place.” In the New American Standard Bible, the term place is italicized. This indicates that the term does not appear in the original Hebrew. However, the translators are offering their interpretation of the key Hebrew qodesh qodashim (holy of holies). The choice is either a place or a person.

Interestingly, there are only two occurrences of the Hebrew term anointing in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament. Isaiah 61:1 prophetically declared that Jesus Christ would be God’s anointed messenger to the afflicted.(8) Since Jesus is holy from eternity past, this indicates that that which is already holy can be anointed for service. The other occurrence is in Daniel 9:24. While it is not possible to be dogmatic, it would appear to be more probable that the “anointing of the most holy” has something to do with the Messiah. Since the Lord was anointed in conjunction with His first advent, He will be anointed in conjunction with His Second Advent. In summary, Daniel 9:24-27 offers hope for both Israel (the nation) and Jerusalem (the holy city) for the future.

Endnotes

2. For a defense of the concept of a prophetic week equaling seven years, see Parousia, issue #12.
3. Specifically, Israel awaits the ultimate fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1- 15:17), which consists of the Palestinian (the land grant, Deut. 28-30), the Davidic (eternal kingly lineage, 2 Sam. 7:4-16), and the New Covenant, (future kingdom blessing, Jer. 31:31-33).
4. For a defense of the futurity of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, see the lengthy discussion in Parousia, issue #12.
5. Six infinitives follow the main verb in Daniel 9:24. Each serves as the purpose of the main verb.
6. Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, eds. R.L. Harris, G.L. Archer and B.K. Waltke, 2 vols., by G.H. Livingston, s.v. “afj” 1:277.
7. The Hebrew hifphil stem indicates causative action.
8. See Luke 4:18, 7:22 and Matthew 11:5 for New Testament confirmation.