(“Must” Part 3)  

          Jeremiah had proven to be a true prophet in his own lifetime when he predicted the fall of Judah and the destruction of the temple and the Babylonian exile.  He was also given a prophecy that the nation would be restored after an appointed time of 70 years, not an indefinite time which could not be determined.  It was therefore a provable prediction, one that could not be avoided by saying that it was for some indefinable future time, even though most or all of his generation may have passed away.

            Daniel had proven to be a true prophet in his own generation when his interpretation of the dreams of the kings of Babylon came to pass, (Daniel 2 through 5).  He, too, was given another prophecy that was not for his generation, but was to be sealed for an appointed time.  (Daniel 7 through 12).  Again, this was for an appointed time, not an indefinite future event.  It was provable, although not in his generation.

            By the time of Christ the “appointed time” of Daniel‘s sealed book of prophecy was nearing its completion.  A view consistent with Scripture is that the “sealed book” of Revelation 5 and the opening of the “seals” in Revelation 6 through 18 portray the fulfillment of the “time of the end” which Daniel foresaw, that is, the end of the fleshly nation of Israel, and their holy city, Jerusalem.  Daniel’s prophecy was to be “sealed until the time of the end,” (Daniel 12:9).  That “end” was to be at an “appointed time,” and the book of Revelation begins by saying that that “(appointed) time is near.” (Revelation 1:3.)

            It was the “end of the age,” for the fleshly nation, not the end of the whole planet.[1]  This “end” established the pattern for the end of the whole world at some future time.  This is consistent with 1 Cor. 10:1-11, that is, that the experiences of the fleshly nation serve as an example to the Church, even to the end.[2]

            The “end” which Daniel foresaw was the end of “your people and your holy city,” (9:24).  At the time of the “end” which Daniel saw, (11:40), there would be the “time of trouble” or the “great tribulation,” (12:1).  Jesus related this “great tribulation” to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, (Matt. 24, see especially verse 21, “since the beginning of the age [world]”, i.e., the “age” of Israel‘s national existence; “nor ever shall be“, i.e., since the nation was ceasing to exist it would never again endure such a time.  Although this is apparent in Jesus’ words, we may also refer to the writings of Josephus regarding the Wars of the Jews:

That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world (Wars 5.10.5).[3]

 

            Daniel shut up the words and sealed the book, “until the time of the end,” (12:4, 9).  That “time of the end” as seen by Daniel was fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed in AD 70.  Thus we find that in the book of Revelation, chapter 5, there is a scroll, (or book), “sealed with seven seals,” the “weeks” or “sevens” of Daniel.[4]  I submit that this is that same book which Daniel sealed “until the time of the end.”  The “end of the age” had come upon the earthly city of Jerusalem and the earthly sanctuary, when John was given the vision.  This destruction is described by John under the symbol of the Great Whore, Babylon the Great, after which the true Holy City appears, coming down from God out of heaven, the New Jerusalem.

            Some dispensationalists and pre-millennialists say that “(Daniel 9:24-27) doesn’t tell us that the seventy weeks were fulfilled, because when the Jews refused their Messiah, God stopped the clock, breached his promise, (as in Numbers 14:34).”[5] 

            To accuse God of “breach of promise” is to accuse Him of lying!  This idea is totally foreign to the concept of the covenant-keeping God of the Bible.  Numbers 23:19 says:

God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Num. 23:19)

 Indeed, the passage in Numbers 14:33-34 shows clearly that when God says “forty years” He means just that, for in Numbers 26:63-65 it is recorded that this promise was literally fulfilled.

            He is a God of faithfulness, (Deut. 32:4).  He does not change, (Mal. 3:6; James 1:17).  He keeps His covenant to “all generations,” (Psalm 33:11; 45:17; 100:5; 119:90, and many other references).  Psalm 105:8:

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word [which] he commanded to a thousand generations.

The word translated “breach of promise” is Hebrew tenuw’ah, from nuw’, meaning “my opposition,” or, as translated in Job 33:10, “occasion for hostility” (BDB ).  The Lord was saying that they should bear their iniquity for forty years that they might know His “opposition” to their rebellion, the “occasion for His hostility”, not that He failed to keep His word!

            He had promised to bring them out of Egypt in 400 years, (Gen. 15:13) but had not promised to bring them in to Canaan in 400 years.  He had indeed brought them out of Egypt after 400 years of oppression as recorded in Exodus 12:40-41.  (The full time of their sojourn in Egypt was 430 years, but the time of their oppression was 400 years of that period.  The first thirty years was no doubt the time that the Pharaoh friendly to Joseph reigned.  See also Acts 7:6)

            Another incident in which the Lord specified a certain number of years is found in Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10.  We know that this prophecy was fulfilled as recorded in Daniel 9:2, 24.  Daniel knew when the time had come for the Babylonian captivity to end because he had read in the book of Jeremiah that it was to be seventy years.  He did not think that God would call a “time out” for an indefinite period before they were brought out of this captivity.

            It must therefore be understood that when the Lord gave Daniel the prophecy of the “end” which would come in 490 years plus a time, times and half a time,  those who believed in God and knew the covenant were expecting both the Messiah and the “end” as foretold by Daniel’s prophecy.  Simeon and Anna knew it was time for the Messiah, (Luke 2:25-26).  The Samaritans knew that it was time for the Messiah, (John 4:25, 29-30).  Andrew knew it was time for the Messiah, (John 1:40) and Philip also knew, (John 1:45).  Indeed, Christ Himself plainly taught that the “end” foreseen by Daniel was to come within the life span of the generation to whom He was speaking, (Matt. 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32).  The early Church expected this “end,” (for example: Hebrews 9:26; 1 Pet. 4:7; 1 Cor. 7:29)

            The passage in Daniel chapter 9 is about an “end,” (vv. 24, “end of sin,” v. 26 “end of sanctuary,” v. 27 “the decreed end is poured out.”)  Daniel chapters 10 and 11 are about events leading up to this “end,” and refer to the history between Daniel’s time and the time of John the Revelator.[6]

Daniel 12:7d: And when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be accomplished.

            This passage in Daniel is referred to in Revelation 10:5-7.  Indeed, the Angel appears to be the same in both passages:

5  And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, 6  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: 7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. (Revelation 10)

            The phrase in 10:6: “…that there should be time no longer,” literally means: “The time is up” or “There shall be no more delay.”  This refers to the “time” spoken of by Daniel; the “time was up”.

            “All of these things” came to pass when Jerusalem was destroyed along with the Temple in AD 70: There was an “end of sin” and transgression for fleshly Israel, because from this point on there was no other Israel than Christ, the only living legitimate heir.[7]  Christ’s death “atoned for iniquity and brought in everlasting righteousness“; in Christ’s Body, “a most holy (place) was anointed“, the Church; there was an “end of the sanctuary,” because the physical Temple was destroyed.

            The “end” which Daniel foresaw was also “to seal up the vision and prophecy.”  In this passage the words “seal up” is the Hebrew chatham, defined as:  “…to seal, affix one’s seal, in attestation… as for example in Nehemiah 10:1-2, where the men attested to or ratified the covenant by setting their seal to it (BDB 367).  In other words, Daniel’s prophecy would be proven by its fulfillment.  This sense of attesting or ratifying is also used in the New Testament in John 3:33; 1 Cor. 9:2; 2 Timothy 2:19.  It indicates the stamp of authenticity.

            “The vision and prophecy” were attested to, or proven, by the coming of Christ, His finished work of redemption, the preaching of the Gospel at that time to the whole Jewish world as well as to some of the Gentiles, the formation of the New Israel of God in Christ’s Body the Church, the subsequent destruction of the fleshly nation and the earthly city of Jerusalem.  God’s prophets had foretold all of these things.  Now they were attested to, and ratified by the fulfillment of that which had been foretold.  Therefore, Daniel‘s “appointed times” were fulfilled, “accomplished” – both the blessedness of the righteous who believed and the tribulation of those who refused to believe.

            Jesus Himself, in answer to the question concerning the “end of the age,” (Matt. 24:1-28), interpreted Daniel‘s prophecy as coming to pass when Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed.  Therefore, God’s “unfinished business with Israel” spoken of by Daniel became “finished business” in AD 70 as described in the book of Revelation.

            Dispensationalists and pre-millennialists say that Joel 2:1-2 and Zephaniah 1:17-18 have never yet been fulfilled but speak of the yet future time of great tribulation.[8]

            Joel 2:28-32a, (which is to occur “after” the events of the preceding verses), are quoted in Acts 2:16-21 as having been fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost.  Since Acts 2:16-21 interprets Joel 2:28-32 as having been fulfilled, there should be no further question as to the fact of its fulfillment.  The blessings are to “the remnant whom the Lord shall call”; i.e., the Church, (Joel 2:32.  See also Romans 10:13).  The great tribulation for the unbelievers, the wicked, which came to pass in the destruction of the Jewish nation, was an example to the whole world.  All of these things were written for our learning, (Rom. 15:4).

            The immediate reference of Zephaniah 1:17-18 is to the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar which followed soon after the original prophecy was given, as described by the book of Lamentations 2:21; 4:13-14.  As a general reference, it can be applied to the later destruction under Titus, as described by Josephus in his Wars of the Jews, as well as to any nation who forgets God, (Psalm 9:17).  As an eschatological reference, it can be applied to the end of the world in the future.

            Since the word that is translated “earth” may also be translated as “land”, the prophecy can therefore be accurately applied to the destruction of “all the land”, as when the land of Israel was destroyed, or “all the earth”, as in the future. Likewise the term “all the inhabitants of the land” can equally be translated “all the inhabitants of the earth”.  (The twelve tribes are sometimes called ‘nations’ Genesis 35:11; Exodus 19:6; Acts 2:5.  The Roman Empire is called “all the world” in Luke 2:1.)