DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK
As we work our way through Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, we come now to the main point of debate with dispensationalists.
When is the seventieth week, and what is its point?The Messiah now experiences something “after the sixty-two weeks” (Da 9:26), which follow the preceding “seven weeks” (v 25). This will occur, then, sometime after the sixty-ninth week. A natural reading of the text requires that this occurs in the seventieth week, for that is the only time frame remaining for accomplishing the prophecy’s goal listed in verse 24. That which occurs at this time is: “Messiah shall be cut off.” The Hebrew word translated “cut off” here (karath) “is used of the death penalty, Lev. 7:20; and refers to a violent death,” [1] i.e, the death of Christ on the cross.
Given the Hebraic pattern of repetition, we may easily discern a parallel between verses 26 and 27; verse 27 gives an expansion of verse 26. Negatively, Messiah’s cutting off in verse 26 results from Israel’s completing her transgression and bringing it to a culmination (v 24) by crucifying the Messiah. [2] Positively, verse 27 states this same event: “He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.” Considered from its positive effect, this confirming the covenant with many makes reconciliation and brings in everlasting righteousness (v 24). The confirming of a covenant (v 27) refers to the covenantal actions of verse 24, which result from the perfect covenantal Jubilee (Seventy Weeks) and are the consequence of Daniel’s covenantal prayer (cf. v 4). The covenant men-tioned, then, is the divine covenant of God’s redemptive grace. [3] Messiah comes to confirm the covenantal promises (Lk 1:72; Eph 2:12). He confirms the covenant by dying on the cross (Heb 7:22b). [4]
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