Daniel's 70 Weeks Explained — The 490-Year Prophecy Unpacked

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Good to have everybody back, and again, we're going to go right to the book. We're not going to make any announcements. Go back with me to Daniel now, chapter 9, and we're going to pick up our study on prophecy. Now, you remember over the last several weeks, I've been stressing that true prophecy is directed to the nation of Israel, and usually, not always, but usually within a time frame. Now, here is the perfect example of what I'm talking about. Daniel chapter 9, drop in at verse 24, where God speaks to the prophet Daniel, and he said, 70 weeks, that is 70 weeks of years, and some of your newer translation already put it into 490. So 490 years are determined upon who? Thy people. Now, who are Daniel's people? Israel, the Jew. Now, it's interesting, as you come on up through Scripture, from the very onset of the nation coming out of Egypt and becoming the nation of Israel, how many times the pronoun will switch, with God's dealing with Israel, from my people to thy people. Do you ever remember that? Sometimes he would tell Moses, thy people, and other times he'd say, my people. Well, now, here again, he tells Daniel, thy people. Well, what's the difference? Well, you see, when they're in the place of obedience, when they're in the land, and they're in the place of blessing, then God calls them, my people. When they're in a place of rebellion, such as they are here in Babylon, as a result of their going into idolatry, their rejecting Jehovah, what does God say? Thy people. Lo, am I, is the Hebrew. They're not my people. And yet, that doesn't mean that he has left off his covenant promises, but they are out of a place of relationship, and so now the pronoun goes back again to Daniel, thy people. All right? So here we have a prophecy directed to the nation of Israel in a time frame, 490 years. Now, isn't that plain? So 490 years are determined upon thy people, upon thy holy city, city of Jerusalem, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity. Now, of course, that was all accomplished in the work of the cross. When Christ died, that's when reconciliation was made possible, as Paul brings it out then in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, be ye reconciled to God. And we have now the ministry of reconciliation. We can tell a lost world, you've already been reconciled. Now, it's all been accomplished. Believe it, and God will reckon you as reconciled. So here we have the prophecy then, that in this 490 years of prophetic timetable, that there's going to be the end of sins as man's, what shall I say, his overpowering victor, because sin was defeated at the cross. That's where Satan was utterly defeated. Now, he is still alive and well, I know, but nevertheless, for the benefit of the believer, his power has been broken as a result of the work of the cross. And then to make reconciliation for iniquity, and then you'll see after the comma of iniquity, comma, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, that hasn't happened yet. That is the kingdom. And you see, the kingdom, of course, has by no way, stretch of the imagination, come on the scene. But what I'm going to be emphasizing, and I don't think we'll do it this half hour, but maybe again in the next half hour, we're going to show that all these Old Testament prophecies are in a continuous flow from the time of Abraham until the coming of the king and the kingdom. Let me put it on the board. Now, the reason I don't draw these things ahead of time, I know some people think, well, why don't you use charts? It'd be so much easier. Well, I always have to remember my old physics professor back in college days. He could have used charts, but he always wrote as he taught. Then I could follow him. Now, if he'd have had the whole board full of stuff and just taken a pointer and gone through it, I'd have lost him. And so I think the same way with teaching you folks. I'm going to take the time to put it on the board. So number one, it slows me down a little bit. And number two, it helps you follow a little easier than if I would just have the whole thing up here. So if we'll come back again to our timeline, of course, Adam way back here at 4004, and then we'll put the cross about up here in the middle. And halfway between Adam and the cross, remember, we had the call of Abraham, or Abram as he's first known, at 2000 B.C. And beginning then with this call of Abraham, God pulls out a separate race of people. And I've always put it on the board as Jew only. And for those of you who have been with me, I always put what? With exceptions. Jew only, with exceptions. And the main river of Gentile humanity goes on its way. But beginning now with that call of Abraham, God is going to bring out a separated nation of people. And it's to these people that prophecy will be directed within a time frame. In other words, the first thing he told Abraham is that 430 years he would sojourn, and then the nation would be brought back to himself. And that's exactly what it was. 430 years from the time that Abraham came out of Syria down into Canaan until Moses led them out. 430 years. Now we have a prophecy that 490 years from a particular time, which, of course, will be after the Babylonian captivity, which took place—now I'll have to bring this down here so we can see— when Nebuchadnezzar came over in 606 B.C. and he took where we see Daniel and all the Jews captive back to Babylon. And then as that 70 years that they were to be in captivity— so that brings us back to about 526 B.C. 526 B.C. Ezra goes back, you'll remember, by the decree of Cyrus, to rebuild the temple, which Nebuchadnezzar's forces, of course, had utterly destroyed. Now always get the time frame. Jeremiah had prophesied that the nation of Israel would go into a captivity for 70 years. And you remember I pointed out a week or two why it was 70 years? Because every seventh year, while they were in the land of promise, they were supposed to have left it fallow. They were supposed to have let the land rest. But what did they do? Well, they kept right on farming it. And after 490 years of neglecting that sabbatical year, God says, I'm going to get my 70 years of sabbaticals. And so they were sent into the captivity out in Babylon for 70 years, and the land laid rest. Now, of course, it wasn't just because of their neglecting the sabbatical. It was also because they had gone into idolatry, and they had rejected Jehovah, and so forth. But primarily, the 70 years was to make up for the one out of every seven out of 490 years of time. So now in this prophecy, we are going to see that from that decree, and we'll be looking at it, if not this program, in the next one, which is about 90 years after Ezra goes back, and that is when Nehemiah, that's another point in time, Nehemiah, and we're going to look at it after a bit, chapter 2, there's a decree by another king that now the Jews can go back to Jerusalem and not rebuild the temple, because that had already been done by Ezra and those, but now they were to go back and rebuild the city wall and the gates, because in antiquities, you know, that was their main line of defense, of safety. And from that decree, and we're going to be looking at it more in detail, I'm going to take this slowly, I'm not going to hurry through it. From that decree then, until the crucifixion, was within again this 490-year time frame, but it was 483 years instead of 490. So from that decree of Daniel chapter 9 then, until Christ was cut off, was 483 years, and that left 7 in order to make the 490. So now what most of you have heard with regard to any kind of prophetic teaching is Daniel's 70th week, and it's that 7 -year period of time that we now know is still future. We think we're getting close to it, and that, of course, is the final 7 years of the tribulation. But the point I want to make, and that's why I want to put it on the board, that all the Old Testament prophecies merely speak of this timeline concerning Israel as going right on through to the completion of the 490 years when Christ could have— I said could have, now this is hypothetical because it didn't happen— but Christ could have come and set up His kingdom, and He would have been the King, and Israel, the nation of Israel, could have been the priests that they were promised that they could be clear back in Exodus 19. You remember that? Now this is why I like to take people all the way from Genesis, right on up through, because as soon as God brought Israel out of Egypt, they were now His covenanted people, and He told them that if they would be obedient, if they would be what He wanted them to be, they would be a nation of priests. Now, what's a priest? Well, he's a go between man and God. So every Jew was intended at some future day to become a priest of God to bring all these pagan Gentiles to a knowledge of their God. Now, I wish I had two, three hours instead of 30 minutes, because this is so hard to get through in such a short period of time. But what I want to show at this time is that all these prophecies run continuously. Now, read back again so that you'll know what I'm talking about here in this verse in Daniel chapter 9, that the 70 weeks, 490 years, are determined to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity. In other words, that was all satisfied at the first advent, His crucifixion, His burial, His resurrection, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. See, that's the kingdom. That was all to flow right in that 490-year period of time. Go back with me, if you will, to Psalms chapter 2. Psalms chapter 2, where we have again a graphic illustration that this is exactly how the Old Testament writers saw it. They didn't see, at least they certainly didn't understand, that there would be a 1,900 -year gap between the 483 years and the fulfilling of the last seven. All the Old Testament writers speak of it as a continuous flow of events until Christ would return and set up His kingdom, and Israel then could have been the vehicle to evangelize the nations. Now, always remember, as you study these things, that when Paul comes on the scene with the gospel of grace, the first thing the Holy Spirit has him reveal is that all these things that Paul teaches were kept secret, hid in the mind of God. Do you remember all that? All these grace-age truths that we now just are so aware of, they were kept secret in the mind of God. So as these Old Testament writers wrote concerning this flow of history, they did not see the church age. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a secret kept in the mind of God. All right, now look at Psalms chapter 2, and this is another perfect example. Verse 1, And why do the heathen, or the Gentiles, rage, and the people, Israel, imagine a vain thing, that they could get along without God? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers, that is, of Israel, and they take counsel together. Now, of course, that was foretold and fulfilled then when the high priest and Pilate consorted together to put Christ to death, see? And so the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, that is, against the Christ, and they say in plain English, We'll not let this man rule over us. And so they break their bands asunder, cast away their cords from us. Then verse 4, The reaction of a holy God the Father, I think we can put it, in heaven when they reject His Son, He laughs a laugh of derision. Verse 5, Then, see, now there's no indication of a break in here. It just goes from His rejection, His crucifixion, and, of course, we know from Psalms 110, verse 1, what did God the Father say to God the Son in Psalms 110, verse 1? Come sit at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool. All right, that was the invitation for the ascension, and He did. But, you see, according to the Old Testament, He wouldn't have stayed there long until He'd come right back and yet set up His kingdom, if. Now, there's the big if. And that's why I say this becomes hypothetical, because it was all based upon the obedience of the nation of Israel and the belief of Israel that Jesus was the Christ. Now, when you get into the book of Acts, this is the whole concept of Peter and the eleven preaching to the nation of Israel. The one you crucified was the Christ. He was our King. He is our King. He's alive, and He can yet come and be our King. Now, I'm not going to have time in this program, I know, but we're going to get it in the next program or two where we can show how all these things were prophesied to fall right in place to the coming of the King and the kingdom, and then Israel could have evangelized the Gentiles. But, and that's a big but, in reality, Israel rejected it in unbelief, and God instead turned to the Gentiles with the age of grace. See the difference? But we have to take it through the Old Testament as it unfolds and not put the cart before the horse, as we say. All right? So now then, as the people of Israel, and as the Gentiles, the Romans in this case, rejected and crucified the Messiah, God sits in heaven and laughs and invites the Son back to His right hand. And then verse 5, Then shall He speak to them in His... What's the next word? Wrath. See, that's not love. That's not mercy. That's not grace. He will speak to them in His wrath. He will vex them in His sore displeasure. What is that? That's the tribulation. See? That's the tribulation. It could have followed right on the heels of the ascension so that Christ could have yet returned and set up His kingdom. Because now look what the next verse says, verse 6. Immediately after the tribulation of the vexation and the sore displeasure, verse 6 says what? Yet have I set my king on the holy hill of Zion. Drop down to verse 8. Ask of me, God says, and I shall give thee... Now He's speaking to the Messiah. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen or the Gentiles for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. What is that? That's the kingdom. See? That's the kingdom. That's not talking about the church. That's not talking about the age of grace. That's the kingdom that could have immediately followed all these things. Well, now let me go to another one, the one we looked at a couple weeks ago. Now, I'm a stickler for a lot of review, and I always remind my classes it's not because I'm getting old and senile, and I forget what I've said before. I do it purposely, because repetition is the only way you learn. Now come back with me again to Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2. And here we go through that image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, this huge likeness of a human being, of a man, but made of the various metals, if you'll remember, the head of gold and the chest of silver and the belly of brass and the legs of iron and the toes and feet of iron mixed with clay. But all right, now as you come into Daniel chapter 2, come all the way down for sake of time. Verse 34. You saw in that dream this huge image, and remember it depicted all the great Gentile empires that would come on the scene beginning with Babylon and then the Medes and the Persians and then the Greeks and then the Romans. All right, he says, you saw that until. Those of you who've been with me now for 10, 12 years, you know what that word until depicts. Time, a point in time. You saw all these empires come and go until you saw a stone cut out without hands. And we pointed out that's the coming of Christ on His second event, cut out without hands, which smote the image upon His feet. In other words, the empire that was on the scene at that time, which remember we showed was the revived Roman Empire as we see it coming on the scene in Western Europe even tonight. And so it strikes it upon that empire that is on the scene, upon the feet, and He broke them to pieces. And then verse 35. Now watch the flow within this one verse. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, the gold broken to pieces together. In other words, all the residues of those great Gentile empires become like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. They're ground to powder and blown away. Now that's all going to happen, of course, during the tribulation. No place is found for them. And now look how it ends. And the stone that smote the image, in other words, the returning Christ, became a great mountain or a great kingdom that filled what? The whole earth, see? Doesn't say heaven. This isn't talking about a kingdom in heaven. This is a kingdom on earth. But do you see the flow as these empires came and went? Of course, it lays out the crucifixion in here as Psalms puts it in, but nevertheless, everything is moving from start to finish with no hint of a 1900-and-some-year intervention of the church age. It just all prophesied straight down the line. Now just turn over a few pages beyond Daniel. Go through Hosea and go into Joel, a little book of Joel. And again, a prophecy concerning the whole flow of events. Joel 2, drop down to verse 28. Now the prophet writes, And it shall come to pass afterward. Well, you have to know what went ahead of all this. After what? Well, after his coming and being rejected, crucified, risen from the dead, ascended back to glory, and all these things are part and parcel now of this Old Testament program. So it shall come to pass afterward. And now we know from our point in time this is when it happened. He's talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. This happened at Pentecost. And your sons, Israel's sons, and your daughters shall prophesy. Your, Israel's, old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days, I will pour out of my Spirit. Now, you see, there's no break in your Bible there. There is just a continuation right into the next verse. And it says, And I will show wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood, fire, pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. Now stop and ask yourself, did that happen right after Pentecost? Has it happened yet? No. Why not? Because it's been interrupted. But the Old Testament prophet didn't see an interruption. He saw it all as coming one thing right after another. And that's why I left the line this way, that the Jewish nation was being used of God in a Jew-only situation, with the exceptions, and I'll give you a couple of them somewhere down the road. And then they would reject Him. They would crucify Him. He would ascend the tribulation. Hypothetically, now, I've got to emphasize this. Hypothetically, the tribulation could have come right on in, and Christ could have returned, set up His kingdom, and then Israel, Israel could have gone and evangelized the Gentiles. Well, let me give you another verse before we run out of time. Just come on through, if you will, to Zechariah, a verse that we look at quite often, and we'll look at more often as we go along in the teaching of prophecy, at least. Zechariah chapter 8. Now, Zechariah's easiest way to find is go to Matthew and then come back. Go to Matthew, New Testament, whatever, and then come back through Malachi, and then the next one is Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 8. Now, of course, we're leaping some of the program, but we're coming right down to how it was to have happened with the onset of the king and the kingdom, so far as Israel is concerned. Now, in chapter 8 of Zechariah, beginning of verse 20, Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Now, this is God speaking. This isn't the figment of some man's imagination. This is the eternal, sovereign God who knows the end from the beginning. And He says, Thus saith the Lord, It shall come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, and they'll say, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, or before Jehovah, to seek the Lord of hosts. I'll go along. I'll go also. Verse 22. Yea, many people, strong. What's the next word? Nations, plural. See, we're not talking about Israel now. We're talking about Gentiles. Strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in heaven. No, where? Jerusalem. Jerusalem, on the earth. And to pray before the Lord. Now, verse 23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. In those days, in other words, when Jehovah God is ruling in Jerusalem, He is the King of Israel, He is King over all the earth, as Daniel has just said, and His knowledge shall cover the earth as the water covers the sea, when that has come to pass, as Psalm says, when the tribulation has passed, and the King is sitting on the holy hill of Zion. Now, here was Israel's prospective role. In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, out of all languages of the nations. They'll take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, and they'll say, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. That was their prospect. They could have been priests. They could have been a holy nation to have had the opportunity of bringing all these Gentile nations to a knowledge of their God. Now, back up again, if you will. I've got a half a minute or so. Go back to Isaiah. Go back to Isaiah, and we may have to just continue this whole thought when we go into the next program, but start back at Isaiah chapter 2 for just a moment. Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah 2. Just drop down to verse 2. Isaiah 2, verse 2. And it shall come to pass. Now, again, this is God speaking through the prophet. You can rest on it. It shall come to pass in the last days of this prophetic program that the mountain or the kingdom of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains. It'll be the eminent kingdom above all kingdoms, shall be exalted above the hills, that is, the smaller kingdoms. And what does that last line say? And all nations, Gentile nations, and all nations shall, oh, I love those last three words, they'll flow unto it. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. A weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.