The Messiah

5. The Messiah’s Coming

Dan 9:21-27

In Daniel 9, after Daniel confessed the sins that caused God’s temple to become desolate, an angel told Daniel that Israel was taken into captivity for 70 years because of its sin.

The angel said that 70 sevens would be decreed to put an end to sin and iniquity. In other words, it would take seven times longer to “end sin and iniquity.”^{Dan 9:24}

Know therefore and understand,
that from the going forth of the command
To restore and rebuild Jerusalem
Until the Messiah the Prince
There shall be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.

Daniel 9:25

As recorded in Ezra 4 and 7, the command to restore and rebuild the streets of Jerusalem came from King Artaxerxes, in the “fifth month of the seventh year of the king.”^{Ezra 4:21 Ezra 7:8} Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered the law of gravity, studied this date and determined it to be 457 B.C., which he wrote in the margin of his 1707 King James Bible. Adding 69 sevens to the year 457 B.C. brings us to A.D. 27, when Christ was anointed in His baptism. According to Luke 3:1, this was in the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Tiberius was granted the authority to govern the provinces soon after his military celebration on October 23, A.D. 12.¹

Here, we learn that the days in Daniel’s prophecies are really years. In fact, the Hebrew word for days often has the meaning of years.² In Daniel 10, Daniel said that he fasted for “three weeks of days,”^{Dan 10:2-3} emphasizing that these days were real days.

6. The Crucifixion

Dan 9:21-27

An angel told Daniel that the Messiah, the Prince, would come after 69 sevens, and that He would be cut off after half a seven,^{Dan 9:26-27} after 3 ½ years.

From Luke’s gospel, we understand that Jesus began His ministry in A.D. 27, the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius.^{Luke 3:1}

The apostle John explained four Passovers, which prove that Jesus had a 3 ½-year ministry, ending in A.D. 31.

The first Passover is in John 2:13. It is followed by an unnamed feast in John 5:1. In John 4:35, Jesus said, “You say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest.” The next feast was the Passover, which cannot have been later than the feast of John 5:1. The third Passover is mentioned in John 6:4, and the fourth is the Passover that ended Jesus’ life, in A.D. 31. 

After half a seven, he shall bring an end to sin and offering

Daniel 9:27

We can also prove the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, which can only have occurred in A.D. 31. According to the rules set out in the Old Testament, the Passover is held on the 14th day of Nisan. From the moon record of the U.S. Navy Observatory,³ we can see that the 14th day of Nisan in the year A.D. 31 was on a Wednesday.

However, Luke 24:21 and Matt 28:1 tell us that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. This is because the Jewish festival rules do not allow the Passover to fall on a Wednesday. For example, in 2000, 2002, and 2003, the Passovers were all moved to the 15th day of Nisan.

In the year A.D. 31, the Passover was also moved to the 15th day of Nisan. This fulfilled the Targum of Hos 3:2, which said, “I redeemed them by My Memra (My Word) on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan.”

God prophesied the day, month, and year of Jesus’ crucifixion.

7. The king of the North

Dan 9:26-27; Dan 10:1-21; Dan 11:1-3

In Daniel 9, an angel told Daniel that Satan, “the Ruler of the people to come,” would make a covenant with many.^{Dan 9:27} However, Satan, as the “Ruler of the Covenant,” will make his first appearance as the captain of the armies of Rome.

In Chapter 10, Daniel saw a vision of a Glorious Man, the same vision of Christ that John saw in Revelation 1. Daniel was in great distress, wanting to know the meaning of the vision, and after three weeks of prayer and fasting, an angel came to explain the vision to him.

The angel’s explanation began with King Darius in the year 539 B.C. and ended with the appearance of the angel Michael in the Lord’s Day. It is the longest single prophecy in the Bible.

Before explaining the vision, the angel said he needed to return to fight the captain of Persia, and indeed, the captain of the armies of Greece would then come, “but,” he said, “no one upholds me against these except Michael, your captain.”^{Dan 10:21} These “captains” were all captains of angels, who fight the conflicts of men.

With the force of a flood they will be swept away, and also Ruler of the Covenant

Daniel 11:22

Then, in Chapter 11, the angel said three more kings would stand up in Persia, and then a mighty king would arise whose dominion would be broken up toward the four winds.^{Dan 11:2} We of course know that the mighty king was Alexander the Great and that the four dominions were the four kingdoms of his four generals. From here, the angel prophesied all the conflicts between the Seleucid kings and the kings of Egypt. The angel described this with so much detail that many atheists want to deny that the prophet Daniel even existed! The angel said that Antiochus IV Epiphanes would be a vile person.^{Dan 11:21} His wickedness went up to the four spirits of heaven in Verse 22,^{Dan 11:22}  when Satan, the “Ruler of the Covenant,” was swept away by his attack. In Verse 31, Satan became the king of the north, who set up the abomination of desolation and defiled the sanctuary.^{Dan 11:31} 

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