redd said:
(Daniel 9:24-25)
Here it does not say that the messiah was to come out of Jerusalem, but rather indicates the rebuilding thereof.
Let
me speak with authority. You do not know what you are speaking of when you quote Daniel. This is not a birth prophecy. This prophecy given to Daniel by Gabriel concerns the Messiah. It leads from the time of exile to Christ's first advent and then covers the last seven years at which time, all the prophecy in this short explanation revealed by God through His angel will be complete.
Here is a study I did: (taken out of context from my eschatological pursuits)
The events in Daniel 9:24 constitute a theme for what is to follow. As a rule of the Bible, their order is important and an assumption of linear progression will be applied to this introductory verse. Viewing the events which are to unfold as a chronological map, we can then compare their description to theology in order to interpret the prophecy. This analysis will discern the theme of the seventy sevens by studying the verbs used as they are central in the construction of the verse.
DA 9:24 "Seventy `sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
As the first order is to “finish the transgression” God had decreed as a consequence for not following his ordinances, the captivity the Hebrew people are in and in the near term, this will soon be accomplished as described as recorded in Nehemiah. But in context of the rest of the verse, the transgression being brought to conclusion can refer to aspects of the Messiah. Indeed, the word for finish has “the basic idea of this root is “to bring a process to completion.””—TWOT Vol. I page 439. So in the broader context, this transgression can also refer to original sin, such that sin is put to death on the cross, once and for all and the salvation foretold in Genesis 3:15b will be completed.
To
put an end, comes from the word
tamam, and means to
be complete or
finished. This is wholly different than the previous use of
end as in
qes. As sin can only be atoned for with blood, but never completed or finished by man or the Levite class of priests, only God can be responsible for ending the curse of original sin. With the Messiah on the cross, “to put an end to sin”
tamam gains significance in Jesus’ own words saying, “It is finished.”—John 19:30, meaning paid in full, or completing the account as it was used then in the common cultural first century sense.
“To
atone for wickedness”, or make atonement comes from
kaphar, which is a derivative verb from
kopher and means,
to cover over, pacify, make propitiation.
kopher itself means:
the price of a life, ransom. So when Jesus lay down His life to cover a multitude of sin, He also gave his life as a ransom for many. His shed blood was the redemptive power of the Lord as only blood can make atonement of sin—Lev 17:10
“To
bring in everlasting righteousness” comes from the prim word,
bo and means
to come in,
go in,
go, and reflects the invitation Christ has to each of us to bring Him into our lives as the indwelling Holy Spirit. This aspect of fellowship with God was not known at all during the time before the Pentecost described in Acts. As such it reflects one of the mysteries of the Church not revealed otherwise in Old Testament prophecy. Until the Pentecost, man knew God through his physical manifestation. As Enoch walked with God, Abraham met with Him, Jacob wrestled with Him, Moses spoke with Him, Joshua conferred with Him, and the Prophets listened to Him, the one aspect missing was the indwelling Holy Spirit. As Jesus said;
JN 16:7 “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
The Spirit then moves through the apostles:
AC 2:1 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them,”
This was indeed a new experience and heralds the initial formation of the Church. To view
bo as being accomplished in this manner is inline with a chronological outline of the Messiah’s work within creation.
The next part of Daniel 9:24 marks a break in the chronology we have had up until this time. Up until now, the aspects have all pointed to the past and present; the last two tasks are relegated here to the future. This gap will be covered in detail as Gabriel specifically breaks it off as well in the detail of the ‘sevens.’ The time lengths are covered in detail later, as will be their analysis. However, as with other gaps, the one in Daniel 9:24 is not uncommon in prophecy. The theme here places no emphasis in when the actions will be performed because all six items are important, not their timing.
“To seal up vision and prophecy,” the word
seal has not changed much since Hebrew times. Professor Lewis of Harding Graduate School of Religion denotes that; “Hence sealing designates that which is securely enclosed by lying under a seal…Isaiah was to seal up his teaching in his disciples, that is, to keep it securely (Isa 8:16).”—TWOT p.334.
ISA 8:16 Bind up the testimony
and seal up the law among my disciples.
“Also an unintelligible prophecy is said in a simile to be sealed (Isa 29:11)”—ibid p.334
ISA 29:10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
he has covered your heads (the seers).
ISA 29:11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I can't; it is sealed." 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I don't know how to read."
Likewise to seal up can also be to contain as in to signify “that which is closed up”—ibid p.334, and marries our present day usage in sealing a vessel, making it complete by making it tight. So, one aspect of sealing is the visions and prophecies are then to be securely enclosed in the time described within the verse. Another can be said that this verse was not to be intelligible to those before the coming of Christ. But as God uses His stamp of the miraculous to validate monumental steps in His plan, prophecy continues until His return so the sealing here must continue until Christ’s reign. This then would close up the timeframe when visions and prophecy will be necessary.
Another aspect to sealing up has to do with the principle of prophecy itself. The only place in the Bible that discusses the time after the Day of the Lord is the six references to the Millennial Period in Revelations and the Temple of the Lord described in the last part of Ezekiel starting in verse 43:10 until the end of that book. However, prophecy as conveyed from God will not exist after the Day of the Lord. This will be brought out as the timeline progresses through the end times and into the Millennium, however, at this juncture, it should be noted that this future prophecy marks a significant change between this present age and the Rule of Christ that will come.
The last phrase, “to anoint the most holy” occurs after the seal or the visions of end times contained in Daniel. Holy in the noun form
qodesh connotes the concept of “holiness,” i.e. the essential nature of that which belongs to the sphere of the sacred and which is thus distinct from the common or profane.”—TWOT Vol. II page 787. “The verb
mashah with its derivatives occurs about 140 times…in the prophets it is found as a verb only twice with its religious connotation of sacred anointing (Isa 61:1; Dan 9:24).”—TWOT Vol. I page 530. So we have a religious anointing rather than a physical anointing and the object or subject is the embodiment of holy.
With the last reference having a holy basis, it could be likened to the anointing of the Messiah after the period covered by the prophecy which has been sealed and would come at the conclusion of the seventy sevens. So while (only) the NASB adds the word ‘place’ to “holy,”
qodesh may not refer to a place. This would be in line with the celebration of the Lamb after the defeat of the world and the rule of man described in end time prophecies.
To investigate the actions contained within Daniel 9:24, is to confirm that only Jesus’ accomplishments could satisfy all the requirements. Once the verbs are examined in their meaning, obvious parallels can be drawn to actions by and surrounding the Messiah. These occur as they have in the first four instances. The totality of this opening is the salvation of God’s people and the crowning glory of God culminating with the restoration of Jerusalem as the bride of Christ. It will take seventy ‘sevens’ until all that is accomplished. The overview thus defines the objective point of view upon which his proclamation will hinge: the people, the city and the Messiah.
