The Bible tells us there must be a seven-year period when God again turns His attention to the Jewish people and Jerusalem. The length of this still future time comes the prophet Daniel who specified seventy weeks of years during which time the Lord will complete His redemptive purposes for choosing Israel (Daniel 9:24-27).
Why am I so confident that the last week of Daniel’s prophecy awaits a future fulfillment? It’s because the events that mark its beginning and midpoint have never happened in human history.
And 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 abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. (Daniel 9:27)
This last seven-year period will begin with a “prince” (9:26) establishing a seven-year peace agreement with Israel. Perhaps the most notable aspect of Daniel’s prophecy regarding the seventieth week is the ending of temple sacrifices, which the prophet later refers to as the “abomination that makes desolate” (Daniel 12:11).
Does it make sense that there’s a long gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy? Yes, the text itself tells us that that last week would not immediately follow the cutting off of the Messiah.
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. (Daniel 9:25-26)
Bible scholars have calculated that the sixty-ninth week ends exactly on the very day Jesus rode into Jerusalem just days before His crucifixion. This fulfilled the prophet’s words that after the next to last “week,” the Messiah would “cut off and shall have nothing.” Please note that Daniel placed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple during the interlude between the final weeks. This necessitates a gap of at least forty years before the start of the seventieth week, which we read about in Daniel 9:27.
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