Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Daniel 9:24-27 | Date: January 11, 2026 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

We’ve been working our way through various prophecies of the coming Messiah that are fulfilled in Jesus, and tonight we come to one of the most famous of them, Daniel 9:24–27. I would like to read the whole chapter. I will instead, for the sake of time, just highlight that in a moment, but we want to concentrate on verses 24–27.

Here we have the angel Gabriel speaking to the prophet Daniel, saying, “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then, for sixty-two weeks, it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood. And to the end, there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for one half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offerings. On the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

This mysterious prophecy, stated in such cryptic kinds of ways, is one of the most important prophecies in some sense in the entire Old Testament. It has a shaping influence on later prophecies; it has strong influence on Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24; it shapes Paul’s thinking in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2; it informs John’s revelation in Revelation chapters 11 and following through to the end. If you read any commentaries on this passage, you will read something like, “This is the backbone of later prophecies. It sets forth the framework of all coming events to the end of the age,” things like that.

But you will also read—and this is interesting, always acknowledging that this is such an important prophecy, setting the framework for future prophecies—you will also read statements like, “Yet this is one of the most difficult, and this is one of the most mysterious prophecies.” And in fact, no real consensus has been gained among the interpreters of the Old Testament as to exactly the details of what is prophesied here. The broad strokes, I think, are fine, but in terms of the specifics, there are some difficulties. Of course, I’m going to give you how I think it works out.

The context here is Israel is in Babylon. You remember the setting of Daniel: the people of Israel have been judged, God has brought the Babylonian armies onto Israel, they’ve destroyed the temple, they’ve sacked the city, they’ve carried people away into exile, and they’re off into Babylon now in exile. Daniel dates this for us in verse 1: this is the first year of Darius. That would be 539 BC. That’s important. Hang on to that: 539 BC. So keep in mind what you read back in Daniel chapter 5. Remember Belshazzar’s Feast? There’s this feast, and they’re celebrating how impregnable their fortress is, and handwriting comes on the wall, and that evening the kingdom falls, and the Babylonian kingdom is overthrown. And we have Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede in Babylon now ruling. So we have Israel off into Babylon in exile. This is the first year of Darius, just after they have taken charge in Babylon, and he says in verse 2, “In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.”

So Daniel here is in exile in Babylon with his people. He’s studying Jeremiah. Now the way this is worded, he says “the books,” plural. It might mean scrolls of Jeremiah. It might mean that there are other books as well. He might be studying Leviticus and the covenant curses and things like that. But at least Jeremiah—and that’s what he specifies here. And he notices that Jeremiah prophesied that the captivity in Babylon would be 70 years.

So Daniel reads that and he starts doing the math. 70 years and God’s going to return his people to their land. And he takes it at face value. Well, what is the 70 years? Well, we have then, this is the first year of Darius, this is about 539. They were brought into, carried off into captivity around 605 BC—of course they didn’t call it 605 BC in that day, but it was 605 BC or so—and he’s doing the math: 70 years, that’s about up. We should be able to go back home soon. This is coming. And so he reads that, he’s encouraged, and then in Daniel 9, verses 3 and following, Daniel turns to prayer.

And in verses 3 to 15, we have an extended confession of sin where Daniel enters into the guilt of his people’s sin that brought them into captivity. He acknowledges God’s justice in carrying them off into exile. It was the right thing for God to do. “He had warned us, you were just in doing it,” and all of that. And then beginning in verse 15, he begins pleading for mercy. “God, turn away your wrath. Be done with the punishment. Jeremiah has said 70 years; that’s about up. Lord, relent and bring us home.”

And then, verses 20 and following, before Daniel even finishes his praying, God responds. And he sends Gabriel, the angel. And verse 22 tells us that Gabriel has come to give insight and understanding of God’s plan that is now being revealed to Daniel. So God has sent his angel: “Daniel, I’m here and I’m going to let you know what God’s plan is for the future for your people.” And so then in verses 24 to 27, we have this famous prophecy of these 70 weeks or 70 sevens. In other words then, yes, 70 years are about up, yes, Israel will be returned to her land, but now let’s talk about 70 more sevens. And that’s the substance of verses 24 to 27.

The Sevenfold Purpose of These 70 Weeks

The subjects of the prophecy he makes very clear, and that is Israel. Verse 24: “upon your people, upon your holy city.” Verse 25: it’s about Jerusalem. Verse 26: it’s about the city and the sanctuary. So God has a plan for Israel that will be unfolded within the framework of these 70 sevens, these 70 weeks. Verse 24 gives us the sevenfold purpose of these 70 weeks. What will be accomplished in these 70 weeks?

Number one: to finish transgressions. That is, to stop sin; to bring an end to Israel’s rebellion. Two: to put an end to sin. That is to, again, to stop Israel’s sin, to bring it to a close. Number three in verse 24: to atone for iniquity. Not just the ending of sin, but also to establish forgiveness for their sins. God will make a righteous way to forgive his people. Number four: he says this is to bring in everlasting righteousness. In the framework of these 70 sevens, he will bring in everlasting righteousness. And I think that’s best understood in terms of a removal of guilt through atonement in a comprehensive way—a removal of guilt through atonement and also a complete transformation of the people so that their sin is brought to an end.

Fifth: these 70 sevens within the framework will bring about a seal of both vision and prophecy. I think the idea there is that of fulfillment. He’ll bring all prophecy to fulfillment. It’ll be done. It’ll be sealed up and done. And then the last purpose is to anoint a most holy place. In the context, that has to be the temple in Jerusalem, which is an interesting thing because there is no temple in Jerusalem in Daniel’s day; that’s been destroyed. That will be rebuilt by Haggai and under the leadership of Haggai and Zechariah. But he says to anoint a most holy place.

That was fulfilled a couple of centuries before the time of Jesus in the Maccabean Revolt. You remember Antiochus had come down and brought on all his atrocities that Daniel prophesied in chapter 8 and following. And then there was the Maccabean Revolt against them and they succeeded in it, and now there’s the rededication of the temple and that becomes the Feast of Hanukkah. The feast here commemorating the restoration of the temple under the leadership of the Maccabees.

So, the purposes here of these 70 weeks: in summary, putting an end to sin, putting an end of Israel’s rebellion, making atonement for sin, and fulfilling all prophecy. So this is a happy prospect already before we work through the details, and Daniel is no doubt at this point very encouraged.

The Chronological Framework

Now, the big question: how do we understand, how do we interpret all of this? The particular challenge is how do we do this in the space of about a half an hour quickly? Well, you’ve probably noticed already that this prophecy in some way is pointing to Jesus. Well, you’re accustomed to saying that in Old Testament prophecy, and here in particular: bringing an end to sin, making atonement for iniquity. And even in verse 27, the destruction of the desolator, you’re accustomed to thinking, “Alright, this is talking about the work of Jesus in some way.”

So the question is, how does all of this work out in the chronological framework that’s given? By the way, in the New Testament, this prophecy is picked up again, and I think what’s best to see here is what we see often in Old Testament prophecy, and that is that the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ are telescoped. They collapse together in the long, the broad view of the Old Testament prophet, and we see it in broad view here. When we come to the New Testament, we’ll see that there is the division of the first and second coming of Christ to work it all out.

But he’s dealing here with God’s purpose in history, and it takes us, I think, to the end of the age. And in that way, it parallels Daniel’s prophecy in chapter 2, his prophecy in chapter 7, and also his prophecy in chapters 10 through 12.

All right, the chronological framework: seventy weeks. These are distinct periods of time. It’s translated as weeks here, 70 sevens. Given the details for all of this, it’s pretty clear that this is not weeks of days. This is 70 periods of seven years. 70 weeks, 70 weeks of years. Total, that’s 490. And in my view, what often goes wrong in interpreting this is we try—interpreters try to take those 490 years together and move forward to see how they work out. I don’t think that’s the way it should be taken.

Notice that these—we don’t have just simply 70 sevens. We have verse 25, seven weeks. And then in verse 25, later in the verse, we have 62 weeks. And then verse 26, we have “after 62 weeks.” And then verse 27, we have the 70th week. So I don’t think we should assume that these weeks are continuous, these years are continuous. We have a period of 7. We have a period of 62. And then we have a period after the 62. And then we have a period of 7. Whether they are continuous or not, we have to look at the details to see.

I think maybe a good illustration to help understand this is, let’s say, for example, a politician who’s had a career in Washington writes his memoirs, and he said, “I spent 16 years in Washington.” And then he goes out in his memoirs: “I had four years as Secretary of State. I had eight years serving on the president’s staff. And I had four years as Secretary of Defense.” And then when you go back and read through the memoirs, those 16 years, in fact, covered a period of 25 years. But there are four years here, and there are eight years here, and there are four years there—a period of 16 years.

Well, I think that’s what we have going on here. We have seven weeks in the beginning and end we’ll look at. We have 62 weeks in the beginning and end of those 62 weeks we’ll talk about. And then you have a period after the 62 weeks, and that precedes the 70th week. So it is a bit complex, and that’s what makes this so notoriously difficult to accomplish.

And this is why the translation of the ESV, I think, is better than the NIV at this point. The NIV tends to take the 7 and the 62 together as a unit. The easy reading of the Hebrew text is to take them as separate.

All right, so we have then in these verses—notice, let’s look through it again quickly. Verse 25: we have the first seven weeks, and that is from the going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince. That’s seven weeks. And then verse 25b: “then for sixty-two weeks, it shall be built again with squares and moat in a troubled time.” And then in verse 26, we have a period after the 62 weeks. “After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. The people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.” And then finally in verse 27, we come to the 70th week: “he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. For half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering,” and so on.

All right, so those are the categories we have to work in to understand this prophecy. So let’s take first of all the first seven weeks. Verse 25a begins with the going of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Now many people, probably most, take this as the decree of Artaxerxes to the people to go back and rebuild their city. I think it is better to take our cue from verse 1, and that is it’s not the decree of Artaxerxes to the people to go back and rebuild their city. The beginning point is the word of God to Jeremiah to restore and rebuild the city. So in the context, I think that’s the best that we see. Now, in Jeremiah 32, he promises the end to Israel’s captivity and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 32 and verse 1, he dates that as the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar’s reign began 605 BC; 18 years later is 587 BC—that’s the year of the captivity. So it begins with the word of the Lord to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, the word of the Lord to Jeremiah. And then the end point of these first seven weeks: to an anointed one, a prince. So that’s the culminating point of these first seven sevens, these 49 years. So we have to know now who is an anointed one, a prince, who comes 49 years later.

Well, there’s an anointed one—by the way, we read that and we might think, “Well, that’s Messiah; he’s the anointed one.” It lacks the article here; it doesn’t make a necessary difference at all, but it is an anointed one, but it specifies an anointed one who’s a prince. It might surprise you to know that the expression “the anointed one” in the Old Testament most often does not refer to the Messiah. And there is one anointed one in the Old Testament who is a prince who stands out very prominently, and that’s Cyrus—an unbelieving man, a pagan. And he comes in; he’s a Persian king. He’s named ahead of time. You remember in Isaiah’s prophecy, Isaiah 40, Isaiah 44, he speaks of Cyrus coming, and in fact in Isaiah 45 and verse 1, Cyrus is named “my anointed,” and he is a prince. And the time frame, believe it or not, fits exactly. From 587 BC, add your first seven sevens, that’s 49 years, you come to 538 BC, and that’s the coming of Cyrus, the anointed one, a prince. And he’s the one then, and at that time he releases the captives to go home in their return. So it’s an exact fulfillment of these first seven sevens.

Verse 25b, we have 62 weeks. So we have some period now of 434 years. That’s 62 times 7. 62 weeks, 434 years. Some period of 434 years. And the beginning point of this period is identified for us: “For sixty-two weeks it, that is the city, shall be built again with square and moat, but in a troubled time.” Now, notice it does not say that these 62 weeks follow on the heels of the first seven. The beginning point is not the end of the first seven. The beginning point is the rebuilding of the city. “Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again.” Now the precise beginning point of these 62 weeks then is the rebuilding of Jerusalem. And it’ll be rebuilt with street and trench—that’s the interior complex of the city. The moat will be rebuilt, a complete restoration of the city. And it will be done, he says, in troubled times.

Well, I know this part of Old Testament history is not the most familiar to you, but I expect most all of you will remember that this describes exactly the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and rebuilding of the city. It was in a troubled time. They’re doing it with having to fight on either side. You remember the trowel in one hand and a sword in the other and all of that.

Well, when did that begin? Fortunately, we have a date for the beginning of that. Israel was allowed to go back in 444 BC, but Josephus tells us it took a few years for the gathering of supplies, gathering of the people, making their way all the way back and everything. It was 440 BC that this finally began to happen.

Now then, we have 440 BC plus 62 weeks, that’s 434 years. 440 BC minus 434 years, that brings us to 6 BC. Anybody know what happened in 6 BC? That’s the date of the birth of Jesus.

Now you’re going to say, “How in the world could Jesus be born in 6 BC?” Trust me, there’s long discussions on that. Our calendar is off. We’ve had a long discussion on that. I’d be glad to talk to you about it another time, but it’s recognized everywhere. Our calendar is off several years, and there’s discussion: was Jesus born in 5 BC, 4 BC, 6 BC? I think the best evidence points to 6 BC, and what’s interesting is that falls exactly then in line with this prophecy.

So then, the first seven weeks takes us from the word of the Lord to Jeremiah to the arrival of Cyrus. 62 weeks then takes us from 440 BC to the birth of Jesus.

Now, verse 26: there we have a period of time after the 62 weeks. We’re not yet to the 70th week, but in this period of time after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. Again, we’re not yet to verse 27. It’s not yet the 70th week, but it’s a time after the 62. Sometime after the 62 weeks expire, sometime after 6 BC, an anointed one will be cut off.

Well, who’s the anointed one here? Well, it’s pretty safe to say this one’s Jesus, the anointed one. And he will be cut off. And it says he’ll be cut off and shall have nothing. And the Hebrew here is very difficult. There’s a lot of discussion as to exactly how to translate it. The King James Version famously paraphrases it here: “he shall be cut off but not for himself,” making it a statement of the substitutionary death of Messiah. I think they’re on the right track there. There are other Hebrew scholars who have looked at this and they’ve translated it in other ways to the same effect.

The idea then is that this then is the fulfillment of the purpose stated in verse 24, that is to make atonement for iniquity. And in that sense it resembles the New Covenant prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 31. So sometime after the 62 weeks, after 6 BC, the anointed one will be cut off.

So verse 26a brings us to the time of Messiah, and then after the 62 weeks have expired, he’ll be cut off in sacrificial death for sinners. Now, if the first part of verse 26 brings us to Christ and then his cross, then the rest of verse 26 is pretty obvious. It takes us to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Now several things we have to pick apart in this verse. First of all: the people of the prince who is to come. The prince, the coming one. Who is the prince? The coming one. In verse 27 it’s called a “he.” That’s all we have. But my guess is this fits best in the context of Daniel as the little horn of chapter 7. We find it again a couple of times in chapter 7—that fourth kingdom of Rome out of which arises this little horn who wreaks havoc—and it is prospective of the Antichrist who will come. That’s the prince, the prince who will come. Here it’s not the prince, but the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

Jesus confirms in Matthew chapter 24 that this is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. This is the most horrible period of Jewish history. The Holocaust had more people killed, but in terms of the intensity of suffering, this is the worst period of Israel’s history ever in AD 70. There had been a Jewish rebellion against Rome. They had burned the palace of the Roman governor. They’d seized control of the government for themselves, and the response of Rome was fierce and it was swift, and it exterminated Israel from the area, drove them out and destroyed everything in AD 70. It was a horrible period of merciless persecution against the Jews during that time.

And so they shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. But we notice now in this prophecy that Jewish persecution doesn’t end there. The rest of verse 26 reads, “even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined.” So there’s a prolonged period of desolation. Perpetual trouble on the city of Jerusalem. Well, Jerusalem has been marked by this perpetual subjugation all through this age, and in fact that is what Jesus himself said. I think echoing this prophecy in Luke 21 where he says, “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

So then, the 62 weeks bring us from the building of Jerusalem during hard times to the birth of Messiah. After the 62 weeks, we have the cross, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the continued desolation and trouble and war. Once again, this prophecy has been fulfilled with precision. And all of this is centuries before the fact.

The 70th Week

That then brings us to verse 27, the 70th week. This is the third segment of the prophecy that receives really special attention, and it is divided into two halves. One week, but half and half. Verse 27: “he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of the abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

Now in brief here then we have a prominent figure, “he,” whom I take as the little horn of Daniel chapter 7. He imposes a covenant on the people, but then, midway through the covenant, he breaks that treaty, and he disallows sacrifices. He commits some kind of sacrilege. He perpetuates all kinds of persecution on the people of Israel. He puts an end to sacrifice and offering—opposition against the people of God. This is an abomination of some kind, some kind of awful sacrilege. And that continues for half the week, that is for three and a half years, until he’s finally destroyed. Until the end, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. So finally at the end, the desolator will be desolated. The desolator will be destroyed. So we have this awful period of tribulation finally put to an end, and the man making the trouble, Antichrist, destroyed himself.

All right, since the early centuries of the church, interpreters by and large have referred this prophecy in its fullness to the end of the age, and there are some good reasons for that. Verse 24: the stated purposes of this prophecy seem comprehensive, that take in the full course of God’s purpose for the ages. In verse 26, the “he” is the coming prince. That seems to be the little horn of Daniel’s chapter 7. In Daniel chapters 8 and 11, it’s typified by Antiochus, who is prospective of the Antichrist to come. It fits with Daniel’s prophecies elsewhere in chapter 2, chapter 7, and chapters 10 through 12 as well, taking us to the end of the age.

And in fact, this abomination of desolations that’s in the 70th week and the half and half of the 70th week—that picks up in prophecies in the New Testament as well, in the Olivet Discourse and in the book of Revelation in particular. The long and short of it is: verse 25, we have seven weeks to the coming of Cyrus. We have, in verse 25, 62 weeks to the coming of Jesus. Verse 26, after the 62 weeks, we have the cross, the destruction of Jerusalem, and continued persecution. And then verse 27, we have the 70th week, where we have the career, the destruction of Antichrist, and the return of Christ.

Now there are questions about the 70th week among interpreters. Do we interpret that 70th week to be a period of literal years? Or is this prospective of a larger period of time? I’m not going to get into all of that. It is picturing a time of coming tribulation. It fits well with Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 with his outbreak of evil at the end under the man of sin.

All right, that’s the long and short of it. It’s probably too much to do all at once. If it is, I’m sorry. But it’s interesting here, and I want to leave with this.

According to historians—and we see this reflected in the New Testament as well—the Jewish expectations of the Messiah were very high around the first century. We find that in the Gospels themselves; we find it with Anna, Simeon; we find it in John the Baptist’s experience where he was questioned, “Are you the one who is to come?” We find it in the life of Jesus during his ministry. People see the miracles that he performs. “Is he the one? Surely if the Messiah is to come, he won’t do greater works than these. He’s the one.” And we see reflections of that in the New Testament. The anticipation of the coming of Messiah was high at this time. Josephus records that as well, that there was a high expectation of the coming of Jesus. And he was writing within 10 years of the fall of Jerusalem.

The Jews are excited about these ancient prophecies that there’s this ruler who’s coming who will rule over the entire earth. Move forward a couple hundred years—mid third century AD—and the Jews now have generally resigned themselves to the fact that Messiah hasn’t come. The promise has fallen; it won’t be fulfilled. And you find statements in the Jewish writings: “All the predestined dates have passed. Messiah hasn’t come.” And so if they are going to maintain a belief in Messiah after that time, it all changes. It’s not really a prophecy as it was given, but it all depends now on Israel’s good works and her repentance and things like that.

With that in the background—Israel’s high anticipation of the coming of Messiah around the time of Jesus, and their devastation afterwards that, in their view, it never happened—the question then becomes, what Old Testament prophecy made them expect the Messiah around that period of time? Daniel 9 is the only candidate. There are other prophecies that tell us of the place of Messiah’s birth, his lineage, his work, and things like that. But Daniel 9 is the only prophecy that gives us a time frame. And in fact, the Jewish understanding of this prophecy that we’ve run through this evening was that it was to be filled by Messiah. So Daniel alone provides the time frame. It will be while that second temple is still standing. It would be before the events of AD 70. It has to happen within that time frame.

In other words then, for all that is uncertain about this prophecy and the details and how interpreters differ about it, this passage really remains a strong apologetic for the Messiahship of Jesus. If Jesus is not the Messiah, then who is? If Jesus didn’t fulfill this prophecy, if he’s not the one who was cut off, but not for himself, then who was? Has this prophecy just fallen to the ground? There are no more candidates. Either Jesus is the one spoken of, and it happened in the time frame stated, or the prophecy fails altogether. And so we have a prophecy then that does speak then of the coming of Messiah fulfilled in the time frame given in the person in the ministry of Jesus, the final week still to come in his second coming.

Well again, that is a lot to throw in in a half hour or so, whatever it is. But now you have an overview of that prophecy, a very important prophecy in the Old Testament, giving us a timeframe for the coming of Messiah. All right, let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us please?

…drawn into the redemptive privileges of the Kingdom of God and we pray that we would be faithful as we serve you and worship you to advance that wonderful Kingdom in the earth and to point back to fulfilled prophecies such as the one that has been explained and expounded tonight as the ongoing proof