Daniel - Part 5

The start of the 70 weeks is identified as “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” Gabriel explains that after 69 weeks, Messiah will be killed. Point is made that His death will not be justified. Sir Robert Anderson, in his book The Coming Prince, is credited with first identifying that Jesus rode into Jerusalem presenting Himself as the Messiah exactly 483 years (using the 360-day year) after the decree from Artaxerxes. Others have disputed the specific dates he used, but confirm the timing between the two events.

After (without specific time reference) Messiah’s public declaration, He would be killed and Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed by the people of the prince that is to come, which history identifies as the Romans since Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by Titus and his legions in 70 AD.

Gabriel’s message then focuses his message on the “prince that shall come,” a reference to the Antichrist and a time yet future to us. He tells Daniel that this prince will strengthen an existing covenant between Israel and the nations he represents for a seven-year period. This is obviously a reference to the last of the 70 weeks being explained by Gabriel. The covenant evidently establishes terms of peace that allow temple sacrifices to once again be practiced in Israel, because he breaks that covenant after 3.5 years and stops the sacrifices and desecrates the temple (v27). This means that there will be a functioning temple in Israel in the future.

Now we move forward to Daniel’s last vision (beginning in chapter 10), a vision that really troubled him. I think it is important to note the struggle that is depicted as being waged between spiritual forces regarding events that were occurring on earth. The messenger that is sent to speak with Daniel was held up by a 21-day struggle with the “prince of the kingdom of Persia,” and had to have help from Michael, “one of the chief princes,” before he could get to Daniel. This is an obvious reference to spiritual beings that are part of opposing groups. Michael is identified later in Daniel as “the great prince that stands for the children of thy people” [Israel] (12:1). Jude identifies him as an archangel.

Jude 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

I wanted to emphasize the reference to these spiritual entities since they will again come into play in reference to events that will be discussed from the writings of Ezekiel in future posts.