THE title of this article has particular reference to one of the time prophecies in the book of Daniel. This is stated in our Bibles as "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people" (Dan. 9:24). This seems to be the only place the expression "Seventy weeks" appears in the Scriptures. The words "seventy years" appear frequently —twice concerning the age of some of the men in the patriarchal period;1 three times concerning the period of judgment upon Tyre;2 and about five times in reference to God's judgments on Israel.3 The expression "threescore and ten years" appears also in 2 Chronicles 36:21; Psalm 90:10; and Zechariah 1:12. But the term "seventy weeks" is used but once and stands quite isolated in the Inspired Record.
This one reference—"seventy weeks are determined upon thy people" (Dan. 9:24) —points out the time when the Messiah would appear among men. Is this to emphasize the vital importance of this unique time prophecy? Several foreviews concerning the birthplace and work of the Messiah are found in the old Testament scriptures, but this is the only reference to the actual time of His appearing.
This prophecy that seventy weeks were determined upon the people of Israel is vital for another reason also, and this is in connection with the "two thousand and three hundred days" period of Daniel 8:14. Were it not for the "seventy weeks" prophecy, we would be in the dark concerning the beginning time of this long prophetic period of 2300 days. But in view of the declaration that the "seventy weeks" were to begin "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:25), and in view of the fact that this period of seventy weeks is a part of the 2300-day period, and that these two periods were to begin at the same time, the matter of the beginning and the ending of the longer period of time becomes startlingly clear.
In our study of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, we purpose to approach this investigation in a manner somewhat different from what we have usually done. The various features introduced -will, we believe, give a fuller background of understanding for the use of the expression "seventy weeks" as "seventy weeks of years."
To more fully appreciate the significance of the seventy-week period, we will give thought to three things:
1. The relation of the seventy years of captivity to the 2300-day prophecy.
2. The relation of the seventy years of captivity to the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24.
3. The relation of the seventy weeks to the 2300-day forecast.
I. The Relation of the Seventy Years of Exile to the 2300 Days
The great burden on the heart of Daniel was the deliverance of his people from Babylonian captivity.
After quoting the prophecies of Isaiah 45:1-3; 44:28; and 45:13; and of Jeremiah 25:12 and 29:14, Ellen White recounts:
Often had Daniel and his companions gone over these and similar prophecies outlining God's purpose for His people. And now, as the rapid course of events betokened the mighty hand of God at work among the nations, Daniel gave special thought to the promises made to Israel. His faith in the prophetic word led him to enter into experiences foretold by the sacred writers. "After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon," the Lord had declared, "I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return." 4
Daniel had seen the regrettable condition of his people in captivity, and at times he may even have wondered whether the promise of deliverance at the end of seventy years could be fulfilled. Time and again he must have prayed earnestly in be half of his people. Then continuing her narrative, Mrs. White says:
Shortly before the fall of Babylon, when Daniel was meditating on these prophecies and seeking God for an understanding of the times, a series of visions was given him concerning the rise and fall of kingdoms. With the first vision, as recorded in the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel, an interpretation was given; yet not all was made clear to the prophet.5
The vision in Daniel 7 refers to the prophetic period of three and a half "times" ("a time and times and the dividing of time," verse 25), but mentions nothing about the seventy years of captivity. So we read that at the close of the vision Daniel was "much troubled" (verse 28).
When Daniel received the vision recorded in the eighth chapter of his book, his hopes revived. Especially so when he heard one of the holy ones in heaven query, "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" (verse 13). How intently he must have listened for the answer! But when the answer came from another holy one, announcing 2300 evening-morning days (Dan. 8:14, Septuagint) instead of seventy years, what a shock the prophet must have experienced! It is no wonder that he "sought for the meaning" (verse 15) of the vision after seeing it! And it is not to be wondered at that after hearing Gabriel's partial explanation of the vision and his statement, "And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true" (verse 26), he "fainted, and was sick certain days" (verse 27).
The King James Version says that Daniel was "astonished at the vision" (verse 27). But it was something more than "astonishment" that caused Daniel to faint and to be sick for some time. The Hebrew word used here means something more than "astonishment." Moffatt translates the He brew word as "appalled;" Rotherham, as "confounded;" and Knox, as "dazed."
Ellen White mentions two things which caused Daniel to faint. One was "the terrible persecution" to befall the church" (The Great Controversy, p. 325), and the other was the relation of the seventy years of captivity to the "two thousand and three hundred days" period. She says:
He could not understand the relation sustained by the seventy years' captivity, as foretold through Jeremiah, to the twenty-three hundred years that in vision he heard the heavenly visitant declare should elapse before the cleansing of God's sanctuary. The angel Gabriel gave him a partial interpretation; yet when the prophet heard the words, "The vision . . . shall be for many days," he fainted away.6
Note the wording of this last excerpt from the servant of the Lord. She does not write "twenty-three hundred days," but "twenty-three hundred years"!
To Daniel "two thousand and three hundred days" could not have meant just days, for that would be about six and a half years—a period of time that would have seemed little or nothing to him. But the realization that these twenty-three hundred "days" were "years" was enough evidently to cause the utter disappointment that came to Daniel.
A question might be raised as to whether Daniel understood the year-day principle. He must have known of Numbers 14:34 and also of Ezekiel 4:6, for Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel.
II. The Relation of the Seventy Years of Exile to the Seventy Weeks of Years
Is there any relationship between the seventy years of Israel's captivity in Babylon, announced by Jeremiah (chap. 25:12; 29:10), and the "seventy weeks" of Daniel 9:24?
Daniel as we know and as we have just shown was deeply burdened for his people, and he was looking eagerly for and praying earnestly for an answer to his prayers for his fellow exiled compatriots. This answer did not come, as we have just noted, in the vision recorded in Daniel 7 nor in the vision recorded in Daniel 8 but in the following words of Gabriel: Daniel 9:24: "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" (Dan. 9:24).
However, after reporting these words pronounced by Gabriel on his return visit to him, Daniel does not record any discomfiture or any expressions of anxiety on his own part. Why not? Might it not be that in Gabriel's message there was something that coincided with something Daniel had learned during the interval of time be tween Gabriel's visit recorded in Daniel 8 and the return visit of Gabriel reported in Daniel 9? He certainly had been comforted by what he had found.
In the two opening verses of chapter 9 of his book—the verses that immediately follow the one in which he says, "And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days" (chap. 8:27)—Daniel testifies to this as fol lows: "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."
But this was not the first time that Daniel had studied the writings of the prophet Jeremiah, nor was it the first time that he had understood by them that God "would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem." By the testimony of God's servant, Ellen White, we know that the declaration that there would be "two thou sand and three hundred days" (Dan. 8:14) till the cleansing of the sanctuary had thrown Daniel's mind into perplexity as to the relationship between those seventy years and the "twenty-three hundred years." So what had Daniel learned from his restudy of the writings of Jeremiah that he had missed before? It must be some thing which brought him quite a measure of comfort and satisfaction.
Observe the following statement with which the servant of the Lord begins the story of Daniel's prayer recorded in Daniel 9:
As the time approached for the close of the seventy years' captivity, Daniel's mind became greatly exercised upon the prophecies of Jeremiah. He saw that the time was at hand when God would give His chosen people another trial; and with fasting, humiliation, and prayer, he importuned the God of heaven in behalf of Israel.7
God was about to give His people Israel "another trial," another period of probation! One period of trial—the seventy years of Babylonian captivity — was almost ended, but another one, obviously the seventy weeks of years (and 490 years are meant) of Daniel 9:24, was about to begin! Daniel, of course, did not yet know about these seventy weeks of years, but "he saw that the time was at hand when God would give His chosen people another trial." Might it not be that this is what had cheered Daniel? Might it not be his seeing this that kept him from discomfiture and expressions of anxiety when Gabriel told him about the seventy prophetic weeks determined upon his people? Moreover, this added period of probation granted them would bring them the wonderful opportunity to welcome the Messiah!
This same thought of "another trial," another period of probation for Israel, is expressed in other words by the same author in the following exclamation: "With what unwearied love did Christ minister to Israel during the period of added probation." 8
Other Christian commentators also have seen in the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24 a supplementary period of probation for the children of Israel, as shown by the following statements:
John Calvin, in a passage quoted by T. Robinson in his comments on the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, says:
Sorrowful darkness had brooded over you for seventy years; but God will now follow up this period by one of favor of sevenfold direction.9
T. Robinson writes:
Seven times 70 years [namely 490 years] were to be the main term of their new probation.10
J. P. Lange comments:
Such a prophetic and mystical transformation of the seventy years into as many periods of seven years is not unparalleled in the usage of the ancients. ... It was, however, peculiarly adapted to the prophet's purpose and was especially intelligible to his readers, inasmuch as the Mosaic Law (Lev. 25:2, 3, 8; 2 Chron. 36:21) had designed every seventh year as a Sabbath of the land." 11
Did Daniel see this parallelism between the expiring seventy years of Babylonian captivity foretold by Jeremiah (chaps. 25: 12; 29:10) and the seventy weeks declared by Gabriel to him as determined upon his people (Dan. 9:24)? On this we have no direct information.
An important thing to emphasize and to appreciate here is that Daniel received this revelation of a period of another trial for Israel before Gabriel came back to explain the part of the vision that had been left unexplained when Daniel "fainted, and was sick certain days" (chap. 8:27). A careful reading of chapter 6 of Ellen G. White's book The Sanctified Life makes it clear and plain that before Daniel ever knew anything about the seventy weeks determined upon his people "he saw that the time was at hand when God would give His chosen people another trial." 12 Notice carefully the sequence of events as they are unfolded in this excellent little work:
On page 46 of the above-mentioned book, the first words of chapter 6, "Daniel's Prayers," are those quoted on the previous page of this article—the words that refer to the extra period of probation which had been revealed to Daniel. The rest of the page and the two pages that follow are taken up with Daniel's earnest prayer and his pouring out of his heart to God. On the latter half of page 48 Gabriel returns "to give him [Daniel] skill and understanding —to open before him the mysteries of future ages," and then, "in answer to his petition, Daniel received not only the light and truth which he and his people most needed, but a view of the great events of the future, even to the advent of the world's Redeemer." It was at the time of this visit of Gabriel to Daniel that the announcement of the seventy weeks deter mined upon Daniel's people was made for the first time.
It may be surprising to some that when Daniel "saw that the time was at hand when God would give His chosen people another trial"13 w he prayed, for himself and his beloved people, the ardent prayer of confession and supplication that is re corded in chapter 9 of his book. At least two partial explanations for this are given in the writings of Ellen G. White. These are as follows:
Daniel knew that the appointed time for Israel's captivity was nearly ended; but he did not feel that because God had promised to deliver them, they themselves had no part to act. With fasting and contrition he sought the Lord, confessing his own sins and the sins of the people.14
After quoting the part of Daniel's plea in which he cries out, "Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate" (Dan. 9:17), she says:
Daniel's heart turns with intense longing to the desolate sanctuary of God. He knows that its prosperity can be restored only as Israel shall repent of their transgressions of God's law, and become humble, faithful, and obedient.15
Thus it was that Daniel entreated the Lord with such fervor for His captive people and His desolate sanctuary. And in answer to that prayer the Lord sent Gabriel down from heaven to His faithful servant, Daniel, and from him "Daniel received not only the light . . . which he and his people most needed, but a view of the great events of the future, even to the advent of the world's Redeemer." 16 And all that was then revealed to Daniel was contained in the "seventy weeks" that Gabriel declared were determined upon Daniel's people and upon Daniel's holy city.
(To be continued)
REFERENCES
1. Gen. 5:15; 11:26.
2. Isa. 23:15, 16, 17.
3. Jer. 25:11. 12; 29:10; Dan. 9:2; Zech. 7:5.
4. Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 553.
5. Ibid.
6.Ibid., p. 554.
7. Ellen G. White, The Sanctified Life, p. 46. (Emphasis supplied.)
8. ————, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 218. (Emphasis supplied.)
9. John Calvin, quoted by T. Robinson in Homiletical Commentary (Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1892), p. 198.
10. T. Robinson, in Homiletical Commentary, p. 198.
11. J. P. Lange, Critical Commentary on Daniel (Scribner, Armstrong & Company. New York. 1876). See also C. J. Ellicott's Commentary (Cassel and Company, London, 1897), on Daniel 9:23.
12. The Sanctified Life, p. 46.
13. Ibid. (Emphasis supplied.)
14. The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, on Dan. 9:3-19, p. 1172.
15. The Sanctified Life, p. 48.
16. Ibid., p. 48.
