One Prophecy, Three Fulfillment’s?
The prophecy in Daniel 9:24 has two distinct and essential fulfillment’s. Remember, Daniel is praying about the lethal problem of sin in his own people. He is concerned about the 70 years to be finished and they go home.
Gabriel brings him a dual answer that provides a complete solution: Their captivity is over and the 70 years are finished but going back to Jerusalem, was not a solution to their permanent sin problem.
Seventy “sevens” – 70 sabbatical cycles – 70 x 7 = 490 years . Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people to atone for wickedness. Jesus was the atonement and sacrifice for our wickedness. He lived a perfect life on earth and then died for our sins making it possible for us to be delivered from sin. The first fulfillment pointed to the coming of the Messiah. The 70 sabbaticals predicted Christ’s first coming and His being cut off in the middle of the week of his ministry.
The term “cut off” implies that Messiah would not die a natural death; He would be murdered! So also had Isaiah prophesied using an equivalent word: “He was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8).
The details about how Messiah was “cut off” are given in the gospels. “To Finish the Transgression”, or literally, “to finish transgression.” As Jesus was dying, he cried: “It is Finished.” At Calvary, Jesus finished transgression by becoming sin for us. No future sacrifice can ever finish transgression; it was finished at Calvary (Heb. 9:15). “He was wounded for our Transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5).
The fulfillment of the 69 sabbaticals began in 444 BC and ended 483 years later in 30 AD. Jesus died in 31 AD in the middle of the 70th sabbatical cycle. The first coming of Christ occurred at the exact time predicted in the prophecy of Daniel 9:24.
The prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 has two fulfillment’s. In a dual prophecy not all of the verses will apply to both fulfillment’s. For example, Matthew 24 is a dual prophecy.
Matthew 24 predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and it also predicts events leading up to the Second coming of Jesus. Some of the verses in Matthew 24 apply to the destruction of Jerusalem, some apply to the second coming of Jesus, and some apply to both. In the same way, Daniel 9:24 and 27 apply to both fulfillment’s.
God means what He says and says what He means.
We will look at some messages directed at our generation. Yeshua will likely return on a Sabbatical because of the following similarities between His prophesied return and the Sabbatical years.
1. Both are announced by the trumpet: Lev. 25:9/Mat. 24:31; 1Cor. 15:51; 1Thes. 4:16
2. Both mean rest from labor: Lev. 25:4, 19/Heb. 4:9
3. Both reunite family: Lev. 25:10/Matt. 24:31;
4. Both give land back to rightful owner: Lev. 25:13; 27:24/Matt. 5:5; Dan. 7:18, 22; Rev. 2:26-27
5. Slaves are freed by both: Lev. 25:10/Isa. 60:12-14; 49:23; Rev. 20:4
6. Debts are canceled: Lev. 25:35/Rev. 21:4; John 8:36
It makes sense for him to appear at a Sabbatical year ….for look at how He announced His ministry and His mission. These are the verses Yeshua read that Yom Kippur when He announced His ministry in Nazareth at age 30.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek… 2. to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.
The Avenger of Blood is to return soon.
