John's Revelation can be divided into several sections that describe periods of past, present, and future:
The past is described in the first chapter and here we have a description of the glorified Christ, the present is described from the second to the fifth and it is the period of the Church and in this part it is a part that is for us the future because it has not happened yet. heaven and the events described from the sixth chapter onwards are the future.
For a better understanding of God's plan and program, we will study Daniel's prophecy until the end of time, which will make it easier for us to understand the events that were revealed to John.
,, 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. 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. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince 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. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: 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.”
Daniel 9: 24-27
Daniel was a prophet, a Jew and with the rest of the people he was a slave in Babylon, but in addition to the torments he had in slavery, he was also interested in the fate of his people Israel and the holy city of Jerusalem. So Daniel read Jeremiah's prophecy about his people.
"And all this land shall be desolate and marvelous, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
,, And this whole land shall be a desolation, [and] an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, [that] I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations”
Jeremiah 25: 11-12
and he saw that God ordained Judas to be in captivity for seventy years, and then he counted the time spent in Babylonian captivity and concluded that the end of this time was near.
,, 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. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:”
Daniel 9: 1-3
And God sends an angel to the prophet Daniel with a revelation
,, And whiles I [was] speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I [was] speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed [me], and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew [thee]; for thou [art] greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.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.”
Daniel 9: 20-24
At the end of this quote we see that it says "determined to your people" which means that what God says (in this case determined) no one can change. So this refers to Daniel's people and the holy city and these are the people of Israel and the city Jerusalem and this is not determined for the pagans or the Church of Christ.
,,,, Seventy weeks are assigned to your people and your holy city "and in the new translation it says," Seventy weeks are assigned to your people and your holy city "
Since this is about the Jews, let's see how they divided the time. The Jews divided the time into seven intervals, so they had a week (a week)
,, Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the Lord thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates:”
Exodus.20: 9-10
The next thing they used was the week of the year and they also called it the Saturday year or the week (week).
,, Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.”
Levit, 25: 3-4
and in the end they were a week and seven years old
,, And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.”
Levit. 25: 8
We saw how the Jews used time intervals and now let's see what happened to Daniel
"Seventy weeks are allotted to your people and to your holy city ..." God announces to Daniel that there are seventy more allotted weeks to fulfill God's plan with Israel and Jerusalem and the promises God has given since Abraham.
This is certainly not a week, because it would be four hundred and ninety days, but seventy-seven years, or four hundred and ninety years.
The next thing Danilo needed to understand were the details that would be executed in these seventy specific weeks and also what would be in the end when these seventy weeks passed.
We read in Danilo:
"Seventy weeks are allotted to your people and to your holy city to commit a transgression and to eliminate sin and to cleanse lawlessness and to bring eternal justice, and to seal the apparition and prophecy, and to help the Holy of Holies."
"Seventy weeks are allotted to your people and to your holy city to commit a transgression."
We have seen that the prophecy refers to Israel and the greatest transgression that Israel has ever committed is the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. This transgression was committed by the Israelites at the end of the "sixty-nine weeks" anointed "
The anointed is the Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek. From this transgression the Jews who believe in Christ will be saved in the last week which lasts seven years and that is seven years of great tribulation. forty-four thousand Jewish missionaries preach the word of God (Revelation chapter seven). In Romans we read about it:
,, And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:”
Romans 11:26
and only at the end of the great tribulation will the remnant be converted, and only when Christ comes will the transgression of Israel and
other details that Danilo needed to understand, he writes, "and to make sin disappear"
Only when Israel receives Christ by faith in Christ will their sins be cleansed and we can read about it:
,, For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
Romans 11:27
and the third detail is, "and to cleanse the lawlessness," and this will happen when Christ comes, and we read about it in the Gospel of Matthew:
,, The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;”
Mt.13: 41
And when these negative things are removed, we read in the text about the positive changes and relations that will be established.
"and to bring eternal justice," this is what the whole world longs for, but it will not be until Christ comes. And when Christ comes, the problem of transgression, sin, unbelief, lawlessness and temptation will be solved, and only then will it be eternal justice is established in the kingdom of Christ. In Luke's Gospel it is written that God revealed the following to Mary;
,, He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Luke 1: 32-33
"and to seal the apparition and the prophecy," from the Bible we know that many visions and prophecies are related to Israel and many of these prophecies have been fulfilled but not all and will finally be fulfilled when Christ comes because it says, "and to be sealed "So it will be completely fulfilled and there will be no more need for prophets and prophecies.
And the last detail that Daniel needed to understand in a positive context is, "to help the Holy of Holies." to the saints "(it is written about in the book of the prophet Ezekiel from 40 to 48 chapters.) and when seventy weeks are over and Christ comes to earth there will be the consecration of this temple (anointing means consecration)
"Seventy weeks are allotted to your people and your holy city" we could write this differently, "four hundred and ninety years allotted to your people and your holy city" and since when are these four hundred and ninety years counted, it says:
"Therefore know and understand: It will be seven weeks after the word comes that Jerusalem will be rebuilt by the anointed of the duke, and sixty-two weeks for the streets and walls to be rebuilt, in difficult times," but a better and clearer translation is in the edition. Reality, Zagreb:
"Know and understand: From the hour when the word" Let them return and rebuild Jerusalem "to the Prince of the Anointed One: seven weeks, and then sixty-two weeks, and the square and the moat will be built again, in difficult times. . "and the English translation reads
"It will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks from the coming out of the command to rebuild Jerusalem to the Anointed Duke: the streets will be rebuilt, and the walls, in difficult times."
therefore, this forgiveness is divided into three parts: seven weeks, sixty-two weeks and one week, so a total of seventy.
The counting begins, "Since the word came that Jerusalem should be rebuilt." he builds the walls of Jerusalem. We read about this in the book of Nehemiah.
,, And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had not been [beforetime] sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why [is] thy countenance sad, seeing thou [art] not sick? this [is] nothing [else] but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, [lieth] waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which [appertained] to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard [of it], it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I [any] man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither [was there any] beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but [there was] no place for the beast [that was] under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and [so] returned.”
Nehemiah 2: 1-15
and in the sixth chapter we read:
,, So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth [day] of [the month] Elul, in fifty and two days.”
Nehemiah 6:15
Artaxerxes gave this permission, which means that "Danilo's weeks" have been counted since then.
The first part of this prophecy is "seven weeks" or forty-nine years and during this time the Jews have completed the construction of the Jerusalem wall and the second part is "sixty-two weeks" and that is four hundred and thirty-four years, a total of four hundred and eighty-three This period in Jewish history is also called "difficult time" because God did not appear from Malachi to John the Baptist and in the time of John the Baptist the Jews were under Roman occupation,
"And after that sixty-two weeks, the Anointed One will be executed," so God foretold the crucifixion of Christ on the cross to Daniel in this way.
John the Baptist, the apostles and Christ spoke
,, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 3: 2
,, From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 4:17
,, Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Acts 2:38
,, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”
Acts 3:19
Had the Jews listened to what they were saying, another seven more years would have passed and eternal justice would have come as prophesied.
,, Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”
Acts 3:21