70 Weeks by Larry Perry

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.

If we multiply 70 times 7 we end up with 490 days. This is a difficult time frame to recognize anything of significance. Perhaps our understanding of seventy weeks is wrong. A search in the ESV resulted in this passage.

Leviticus 25:8 (ESV)You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years.

If seven times seven weeks equals forty-nine years then seventy times seven weeks equals four hundred and ninety years. What of significance happened prophetically during those 490 years? Nothing! The prophets were quiet from a point in time within this prophetic utterance for 490 years. So who was the first prophet of God to break the silence?

Matthew 17:12-13 But I say unto you, That Elias (Elijah) is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

Isaiah 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

The prophetic ministries were ended as proclaimed by Daniel and restored in the prophetic proclamations of John the Baptist who prepared the way of the Lord by preaching repentance.

God put an end to Israel’s displeasure with God’s prophets by not delivering prophetic words to complain about.

So what did Israel do during those leaderless 490 years?

Ezekiel 12:25 For I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God.

God sends a word to Israel via Ezekiel informing them that He will say it and He will do it. Sadly for Israel He does not tell them exactly what He will say and do. Lucky us, we get to peak into the bible, fast forward a little bit and see what God said and did. What we should be looking for in this search is both timing and some prophetic message. Will it be that easy? Will it be worth it? Only by searching God’s word will we discover the answer to those questions.

What will aid us in our search? Since Israel was struggling with the words of God’s prophets should we look to what His prophets had to say? A chronological look at the prophets that came after Ezekiel renders a short list of prophets. A very short list. With our modern bible search tools we should be able to discover how God put an end to Israel’s displeasure with prophetic results.

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.

Key words for my search were found here in the book of Daniel. Those words were finish and seal up. Could this be God’s word as to how He intended to put an end to Israel’s private proverb? There is only one way to know for sure and that will be found in the history of what happened next. What happened during those seventy weeks?