STUDY OF DANIEL 9:25
STUDY OF DANIEL 9:25
"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times" (Dan 9:25).
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The information in this article is provided solely for your information and hopeful edification. Please understand though, that much of the information provided is "adding up scriptures" and some of it is speculation.
In this study, we will be looking into the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Both books are devoted to events occurring in the land of Israel at the time of the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity. The subsequent years cover a period of approximately one century - beginning in 543 BC. The emphasis in Ezra is on the rebuilding of the Temple and in Nehemiah, on the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. In the Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible, these two books are reckoned as one book. Over half a century elapsed between Chapters 6 and 7 of Ezra's book. Ezra is referred to as a "ready scribe." He is said to have written both Ezra and Nehemiah.
It has been said that the counting of the 70 weeks of Daniel 9, was to begin from the time the decree was sent out to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. But is that true? Let's not just assume - what does scripture really say? "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times" (Dan.9:24-25).
Lets begin with the chronology: According to "The Bible Encyclopedia and Dictionary," the following chronology is provided by Dom Augustin Calmet of Lorraine, France - a celebrated exegetist, monk and Biblical scholar of his day:
543 - Cyrus sets the Jews free and sends them back to Judea to rebuild the temple.
542 - The Jews return from captivity and renew the sacrifices in the house of God.
525 - King Cyrus dies.
Between 517-516 - Darius acknowledged king of Persians.
516 - Haggai begins to prophecy, reproaching the Jews for not building the house of the Lord.
515 - The Jews commence building the temple.
515 - About this time Zechariah begins to prophecy.
511 - The dedication of the temple of Jerusalem, rebuilt by Zerubbabel.
481 - Darius dies and Xerxes succeeds him.
469 - Xerxes dies, Artaxerxes succeeds him
463 - (Halley's Bible Handbook gives 457) - Artaxerxes sends Ezra to Jerusalem, with several priests and Levites in the seventh year of Artaxerxes.
450 - Nehemiah obtains leave of Artaxerxes to visit Jerusalem, and to rebuild its gates and walls.
The wall was rebuilt between the years 450 and 432 and the dedication given.
This is the decree of Cyrus: "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, ‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah'" (Ezra 1:1-2).
The question for us is: Was this the commandment God was telling Daniel to count from in Daniel 9:25? From the quote above, we can readily see that King Cyrus' decree to send Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah and a remnant of the Jews back to Jerusalem, occurred in the first year of his reign - roughly 543 BC. God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to do so, because He specifically wanted Zerubbabel and Joshua to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. If not, then what other commandment could it have been? Notice, the prophecy in Daniel 9:25 does not say from the commandment to "rebuild the temple," but it says: "To restore and build Jerusalem . . . the streets shall be built again, and the wall in troublesome times."
The decree sent out by Cyrus could have included the building of the city and its walls, but is that what scripture relates? We find written in the prophecy of Isaiah 44:28, "Who says of Cyrus, he is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be built,' and to the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.'" Notice: Cyrus says: to Jerusalem, "You will be built." But the question that concerns us is; was it under Cyrus's decree that Jerusalem was rebuilt?
Let's look at Ezra again and see what the actual decree sent out by Cyrus says: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house [margin says temple] at Jerusalem which is in Judah" (Ezra 1:2).
Compare that to 2 Chronicles 36:22-23, "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia . . . And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah." Also notice Ezra 5:13, "However, in the first year of Cyrus King of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to build this house of God."
Anywhere the decree of Cyrus is mentioned in scripture, it says that his decree was not to build anything other than the house of God, the Temple. Now notice a very important scripture, Ezra 5:1-2: "Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. So Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began helping them." The prophets of God, Haggai and Zechariah were prophesying to the children of Israel at the same time and they were helping them build the temple. This brings up a very important question: what were they prophesying about? Was there a spiritual connotation to the building of this temple? Yes, they were building a physical temple, but did it have a spiritual meaning as well as a physical? Was this temple a type of the spiritual temple to come?
Let's look: "Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, ‘Where are you going?' And he said to me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length" (Zechariah 2:1). Who was this man in Zechariah's vision? "For who has despised the day of small things? For these even rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel" (Zechariah 4:10).
This is what Zechariah was prophesying about when Zerubbabel and Joshua were building the physical temple! Notice Zechariah 2:4, "Who said to him, Run, speak to this young man, [Zerubbabel] saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls,. . .' ‘For I,' says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her [Jerusalem], and I will be the glory in her midst'" (verse 5). "Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?'" (Zech.3:1-2). Joshua was plucked from the fire the same way God's people, the nation of Israel, was plucked from the fire in Amos 4:11: "I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me." Let's continue in verse 3 of Zechariah 3, "Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel." What do these filthy garments represent and who does Joshua represent? "Take away the filthy garments from him.' And to him He said ‘See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you, with rich robes.' And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by" (Zechariah 3:3-5).
This was the vision that Zechariah was given by God. This was also the prophecy Zechariah is proclaiming to the Jewish remnant of the children of Israel while they were building the temple. Joshua, the high priest, being spoken of here in this vision, is a representation of Israel - God's people who are the "apple of His eye," as it says in Zechariah 2:8. They are going to be made clean - no longer having filthy garments. But when will this be and how will it be accomplished? Joshua the high priest portrayed here is symbolism, but during the actual building of the physical temple, Joshua is literally made high priest!
Zechariah is being given these prophetic visions from God, while he is still living with the Jewish remnant; physically building the second temple. Let's continue with Zechariah's prophecy, "Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Receive the gift from the captives, from Heldai, Tobifah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon, and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown. And set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Then speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts. Saying: ‘Behold, the Man whose name is the Branch! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the Lord [here speaking of Christ]. Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne, so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both [or in margin it says: between both offices]'" (Zech. 6:9-13).
Verse 11 tells us, "The man Joshua was crowned as high priest in this ceremony." This elaborate crown was placed in the temple as a memorial. Here, Joshua is depicted as a type of Jesus Christ the true "Branch." God said the "peace shall be between them both" - in other words, both offices - the physical high priest and the spiritual High Priest, Jesus Christ.
Look again at the prophecy in Daniel 9:25, "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks; the streets shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times."
We need to establish the original Hebrew word that is used in Daniel 9:25 as "commandment." The word is "debar," Strong's #1697, and means: A). Speech; B). Saying, utterance; C). Word or words. There are many Hebrew words that are translated "commandment" and some have one of their meanings as "decree," such as the word "dath." But God did not use the word "dath" in Daniel 9:25. The word that He did use in Daniel 9:25 for "commandment," is the Hebrew word "debar" and it is never used as a "decree." When looking at all the different places "debar" is used in the scriptures, it's most commonly used for, "words spoken, sometimes by God." This sheds more light on Daniel 9:25. "The going forth of the commandment" was not the decree of Cyrus or the decree of Artaxerxes, but the starting point was when the command or the word spoken or given by God for Jerusalem to be rebuild and the wall rebuilt and secured was given.
The book of Nehemiah adds this insight: "And they said to me, ‘The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are broken down, and it's gates are burned with fire'" (Neh.1:3). Nehemiah received the order to rebuild the city and the wall. This was a parallel prophecy for the then present time and for a future time. Nehemiah oversaw the building of a physical wall to protect Jerusalem, but God will be the spiritual wall for their protection in the future!
We have seen that even though the temple had been completed, the city still was in disarray and in need of repair - the walls and the gates broken and burned. "And I said to the King, ‘If it please the King . . . I ask that you send me to Judah, the city of my fathers' tomb, that I may rebuild it.' Then I rose in the night, I and a few men with me, I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. Then I said to them, ‘You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.' And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me. So they said ‘let us rise and build'" (Neh. 2:5, 12, 17-18).
God put His word or command in Nehemiah's heart to go and build the "streets" of the city and to repair the wall and gates - just as He put it in Cyrus' heart to allow Zerubbabel, Joshua and the other Jews to return and build the temple.
Chapter 6 of Nehemiah tells us the walls and gates were completed. The streets were made secure again. "Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed" (Neh.7:1). Did Nehemiah complete the task that God put in his heart? Was this the "word" or command that Daniel was supposed to count the 69 weeks from - to "restore and build Jerusalem, the streets and the wall?"
If Daniel counted from the time God put His word in the heart of Nehemiah, then according to Calmet's chronology, this was 450 years before Christ. Of course, we know this date could have been a few years before or after. As it says in Daniel 9:25, ". . . There shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks." 7+62=69 weeks, 69 weeks x 7 being 483 years, [a day equaling a year in scripture].
If we add 483 years to 450BC, we come out at 33AD. We believe this was the year Christ was crucified and He gave his life for all mankind. The time when the sins of all Israel will be wiped away and the filthy garments removed upon repentance. According to the true new moon, in 33AD the Passover and crucifixion was on a Wednesday.
Researched by Carlos and Louise McGuire
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