A matter of when

Here is the remarkable Old Testament promise I mentioned in a previous blog post:

"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.

"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.

"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."
Daniel 9:24 - 26.

There are three things particularly to notice.

First, both rabbinic and Christian sources are agreed that the "weeks" are sevens - sevens of years. The Scripture speaks of seven weeks, 62 weeks and one week - equivalent then to 49 years, 434 years and seven years.  

There are said to be seven weeks and 62 weeks - a total of 483 years - from the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah. Then Messiah will be cut off and the city and sanctuary destroyed, and then there will be war until the one-week period arrives.

According to the book of Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 1, the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem was made in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, which was about 444 BC. Sir Robert Anderson, in his book The Coming Prince, says the commandment was made on the first of Nisan, 445 BC, or March 14. 

A year in Jewish calculations at the time of Daniel was 360 days, so 483 years becomes 173,880 days. Assuming that Jesus began his ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, as the Scripture records, and continued for three years, and as Passover is always observed on 14 Nisan, then Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was on April 6, AD 32.

Allowing for differences in the Jewish and Roman calendars, March 14, 445 BC to April 6, AD 32 is - 173, 880 days. However critical you may be of the exactness of Anderson's calculations, the period is right.

Second, notice that Messiah was to come before the destruction of the Temple. The Temple was destroyed in AD 70. (The Messiah, as the Scripture prophesies in Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 5, was to be of the House of David. I understand the genealogies were kept in the Temple, and the genealogies were destroyed when the Temple was destroyed. After they were lost, it would have been impossible for the Messiah to have proved his lineage. Notice, incidentally, that the Messiah's mission was "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.")

Third, Jesus was cut off - by Roman executioners, using one of the most barbaric forms of execution known at the time. But not for Himself. Many imagine that all they have to do is to do their best to get to heaven. It isn't so. We are all sinners. God's standard is perfection, and we have all fallen short. He died to pay the price, that we might be forgiven.