Sonlight Devotional

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Daniel 9:24-27

Let us look at the mystery of Daniel’s seventy weeks as described in Daniel 9.

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.” Everything will be done to finish the end of the age.

Verse 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.”

If the people in the time of Jesus Christ (the scribes and the Bible men, the Pharisees and the theologians) were really on the ball, they could have pinpointed the time of Jesus’ arrival. God had told them that it would be “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks” and the Prince shall come. That is seven and sixty-two, SIXTY-NINE WEEKS. From the time that the commandment was given to restore and build Jerusalem to the time of Christ’s coming was sixty-nine weeks. See how simple God made it? They could have calculated it.

Verse 26, “And AFTER threescore and two weeks…” meaning to say, “after (THESE) threescore and two weeks (the “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks” which equal sixty-nine weeks) shall Messiah be cut off.” “Messiah” shall “be cut off” in the seventieth week. “…Messiah” shall “be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince (meaning the people of the antichrist, the little horn in Daniel 7) that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

We can identify from this verse who the people of the antichrist are, because it is the people who will destroy the temple and destroy Jerusalem. Now we know who did that. Titus destroyed the temple and destroyed Jerusalem, and remember, the scripture said it was AFTER “THE MESSIAH, THE PRINCE” CAME, after Jesus Christ. Therefore, it was Titus that did it and Titus was the general of a Roman army. We are looking for the antichrist then to be from Rome.

Daniel 9:27a, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” Jesus Christ will “confirm the covenant…for one week,” that is for SEVEN YEARS. That means that God ordained the seventieth week as the week in which God would walk and talk in a people. Remember the great promise that God gave? Jeremiah 31:33b and c, “After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16b, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” Hebrews 8:10b, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” God wants a people in whom He can walk and talk – A LIVING, WALKING, TALKING TEMPLE and dwelling place for God.

“He…confirm(ed) the covenant…for one week.” We understand that the covenant is confirmed for a week and that the covenant-keeper, that is the one man who could keep the covenant with God, DIED. Daniel 9:27b, “And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Jesus Christ was slain in the middle of the week. Three and a half years after He started His ministry, He was slain. That means that the promise had to wait, for there was no son to inherit it. As soon as another son is born, we will inherit this promise.

We understand that the birth of the man child will NOT be one man, but will be a many-membered man. This many-membered man is called THE MAN CHILD. This man child will take up the promise of God. The three and a half years that Jesus Christ left for the church will be taken up because we will come forth in the image of Christ Jesus according to the Word of God. Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.“ It is God’s will, God’s intention, that Christ should have many children exactly like Himself. There will be those who are moving in that fullness at the seventh trumpet of God, when all the mystery of God shall be finished.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pages 9-11)

Thought for today: Remember, God wants a people in whom He can walk and talk …a dwelling place for God.