Commentary - Daniel 9:24-27

Bird's-eye view

Daniel 9:24-27 is one of the most breathtaking and pivotal prophecies in all of Scripture. In response to Daniel's humble prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem, the angel Gabriel delivers a divine timetable that outlines not just the physical rebuilding of the city, but the entire scope of messianic redemption. This is not some esoteric puzzle for end-times speculators to tinker with; it is the central announcement of God's redemptive purpose in history, culminating in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The prophecy lays out a period of "seventy weeks" or seventy sets of seven years, a total of 490 years, appointed for God's people to bring their entire history of sin and rebellion to a final, decisive conclusion.

The prophecy details the coming of the Messiah, His atoning death ("cut off"), and the subsequent judgment on the city and people that rejected Him. It authoritatively declares that the Messiah's work would accomplish six glorious things: finishing transgression, ending sin, making atonement, bringing everlasting righteousness, sealing up prophecy, and anointing the Holy of Holies. This all points directly to the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The final week of the prophecy describes the confirmation of the new covenant and the cessation of the old covenant sacrificial system, followed by the prophesied desolation of Jerusalem, which was historically fulfilled in the cataclysm of A.D. 70. This passage is a cornerstone, demonstrating that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the subsequent establishment of His church, were not historical accidents but the precise fulfillment of God's decreed plan from ages past.

Outline

Context In Daniel

This prophecy is given to Daniel in the first year of Darius the Mede, after Daniel understood from the writings of Jeremiah that the seventy-year captivity was nearing its end. Humbled by this, Daniel launches into a magnificent prayer of confession, identifying himself with the sins of his people and pleading with God to act for the sake of His own name and restore His desolate sanctuary (Dan 9:1-19). The prophecy of the seventy weeks is God's direct answer to that prayer. But as is often the case with God, the answer far exceeds the request. Daniel prayed for the restoration of a physical city and temple from a seventy-year desolation. God answers by revealing the timeline for the spiritual restoration of His people from the desolation of sin itself, a restoration to be accomplished by the Messiah. This revelation is the climax of the book of Daniel, shifting the focus from the struggles of the exiles under pagan empires to the central redemptive event of all history: the coming of Christ to establish an everlasting kingdom.

Key Issues

The Messiah's Timetable

One of the great errors in modern evangelicalism has been to take this stunningly Christ-centered prophecy and make it about a future Antichrist. This is a catastrophic misreading, driven by a dispensational hermeneutic that rips the passage out of its redemptive-historical context. The entire prophecy is about the Messiah. He is the subject from beginning to end. The "he" of verse 27 is the same Messiah who was "cut off" in verse 26. This passage gives us the divine schedule for the arrival of the King, the work He would accomplish, and the consequences for the nation that would reject Him. It is a prophecy that was fulfilled with breathtaking precision in the first century, and we must read it as such.

Verse by Verse Commentary

24 “Seventy weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.

Gabriel lays out the grand purpose of this 490-year period. It is decreed for Daniel's people (the Jews) and his holy city (Jerusalem). This timeframe has a specific, six-fold goal, and every item on this list was definitively accomplished by Jesus Christ in His first coming. First, He would finish the transgression. This refers to Israel's covenant rebellion, which reached its apex when they crucified their own Messiah. This act "filled up the measure" of their fathers' guilt (Matt 23:32). Second, He would make an end of sin. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was the death blow to the power of sin. He dealt with it decisively. Third, He would make atonement for iniquity. This is the language of propitiation, the heart of the gospel. Christ's blood is the covering for our lawlessness. Fourth, He would bring in everlasting righteousness. This is the imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness to believers, a righteousness that stands forever. Fifth, He would seal up vision and prophecy. Christ is the fulfillment of all prophecy. With the completion of His work and the subsequent apostolic testimony about it (the New Testament), the era of special revelation was brought to its appointed close. And sixth, He would anoint the Holy of Holies. This is not about a physical room, but about the anointing of the true temple, the church, by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which was made possible by Christ's ascension.

25 So you are to know and have insight that from the going out of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and rebuilt, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.

Here we get the starting point and the timeline to the Messiah's arrival. The countdown begins with the "going out of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." This most naturally refers to the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. (Ezra 7). From that point until the appearance of Messiah the Prince, there would be a total of 69 "weeks" (7 weeks + 62 weeks), or 483 years. This brings us directly to the time of Christ's public ministry. The first seven weeks (49 years) likely refer to the period of the actual rebuilding of Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, which the text notes would happen in times of distress. The city would be rebuilt, plaza and moat, setting the stage for the King to arrive at the appointed time.

26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are decreed.

After the 69 weeks are complete, two monumental events are prophesied. First, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. This is a clear prophecy of the crucifixion. "Cut off" is covenantal language for execution. He would die a violent death, and "have nothing" in the sense that He was rejected by His own people and possessed no earthly kingdom at that moment. Second, as a direct consequence of this rejection, judgment would fall. The people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Who is this prince? It is the Roman general Titus, whose armies (his "people") destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. The language of a flood signifies an overwhelming, catastrophic military invasion. This judgment was not an accident; it was a divine decree. God had decreed desolations for the covenant-breaking city.

27 And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will make sacrifice and grain offering cease; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

This verse describes the 70th week. The subject, "he," is the Messiah from the previous verse. It is Christ who will make a firm covenant with the many. This is the New Covenant in His blood, which He established during His earthly ministry, the final "week" of years. In the middle of the week, after about three and a half years of ministry, He is "cut off." By His perfect, once-for-all sacrifice on the cross, He made the entire Old Testament system of animal sacrifice and grain offering cease. He rendered them obsolete. The temple veil was torn from top to bottom. The rest of the verse describes the judgment that follows this ultimate rejection. The "abominations" are the idolatrous sins of the apostate Jews, particularly the zealots who desecrated the temple prior to the Roman invasion. Their sin was the "wing" that brought the desolator, the Roman army, upon them. And that desolation would be complete, a complete destruction poured out on the desolate city, exactly as God had decreed.

Application

The first and most important application of this passage is to stand in awe of the sovereignty and faithfulness of God. Our God is not making things up as He goes along. The central event of all human history, the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ, was scheduled down to the year, centuries in advance. This should give us unshakable confidence in the authority and reliability of Scripture. If God was this precise about the timing of the first coming, we can be certain He will be just as faithful to fulfill all His remaining promises.

Second, we must see that redemption is all about Christ. He is the one who finishes transgression, makes an end of sin, and brings in everlasting righteousness. Our efforts contribute nothing to this. The pharisaical impulse is to think we can manage our own sin, but this passage teaches us that sin required a divine intervention of the most dramatic kind. We must abandon all self-righteous projects and flee to the Messiah who was "cut off" for us.

Finally, this passage is a stark reminder that there are consequences for rejecting the Messiah. God's covenant has blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The generation that rejected and crucified Jesus experienced the full force of those covenant curses in the horrors of A.D. 70. The principle remains. To reject Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is to place oneself under a decreed judgment. But to receive Him is to enter into that "firm covenant" He made with "the many," a covenant of grace that brings everlasting righteousness and life. The timeline has been fulfilled. The atonement has been made. The only question that remains for each of us is whether we will stand with the Messiah or with the desolate city.