Prophecy Fulfilled

When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son Gal. 4:4

13 March

Dear Phyllis,

Next week is Palm Sunday. This is one of the most significant days in human history. I have never heard a message or read anything on this subject, but I believe this is the beginning event of the coronation of the King of Israel. One third of the four gospels are devoted to the Last Week and resurrection. I believe the Last Week was the one week celebration for the coronation of Israel's King. It began with what is universally known as the Triumphant Entry. And what an entry that was. Lord wiling I might be able to discuss that next week, but today I want to focus on the biblical prophecy of this event. I believe this is one of the most astounding prophecies in the Bible and one of the incontestable proofs of the authenticity of the Scripture. This is recorded in Daniel 9.

We see in Daniel 9 that this all started when Daniel was looking at the prophecy of Jeremiah and noticed that the Babylonian captivity would be a period of 70 years (Jer. 29:10; 2 Ch. 36:21). He looked at the calendar and saw that that time was almost fulfilled. Rather than going out and buying balloons and ribbons for a celebration he devoted himself to fasting and prayer. Very few people have noticed that the reason Daniel got thrown into the lions den in Daniel 6 was because he was fasting and praying for Jerusalem. Daniel 6 and 9 are the same time. It was because of his praying in Dan. 9 that the devil wanted to stop that prayer in Dan. 6.

It was in response to his prayer for Israel that the Lord sent Gabriel to Daniel to explain to him His plan for Jerusalem (Dan. 9:20-27). This is one of the most important prophecies in the Bible. Gabriel said that this is exclusively devoted to “thy PEOPLE and thy HOLY CITY (Jerusalem)”. He said that there would be a period of 70 WEEKS determined upon them (Dan. 9:24) and the end of that would be when Jesus is established as King of the world – “anoint the Most Holy” (Dan. 2:44). But the first 69 weeks are highly significant. Here we have two of the most specific dates listed in scripture. It is generally accepted that Israel is God's clock. We measure time by Israel. And the clock starts to run with the oder to return to Jerusalem and rebuild that city. We have that date in Neh. 2:1. And the date for the end of the 69 weeks would be the presentation of the Messiah (Dan. 9:25).

There are several events in the life of Christ we could point to as His introduction. One would be His birth, one would be His baptism and introduction by John the Baptist. Another might be His resurrection. But the correct one seems to be His Triumphant Entry. This is the one prophesied by Zechariah in Zech. 9:9 – “Rejoice o daughter of Zion... behold thy King cometh unto thee...”; and Matthew confirms that “this was done that it might be fulfill which was spoken of the prophet...” (Mt. 21:4,5). It is significant that most of the major messianic prophecies in the OT do not appear as banner headlines but buried as obscure footnotes. They are there alright but God has hidden them from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto humble seekers by the Holy Spirit.

We know the dates of these two events in Daniels 70 weeks. The order to rebuild Jerusalem was March 14, 445 BC. And the Triumphant Entry was April 6, 32 AD. In Hebrew the word “week” is literally “seven”. Which means that the prophesy of 69 weeks is actually 69 sevens or 69x7. This gives us a figure of 483 (69x7=483) from the command for Jerusalem to Christ. But if we look at the dates on our calendar we see that it was only 476 years [from 445 BC to 32 AD]. (I know the math does not look right but it is correct. That is because of the loss of a year when AD started. Sir Robert Anderson did the calculation for this in his book, The Coming Prince, 110 years ago.) If we multiply 476 years by 365 days we get 173,740 days (476x365=173,740). But then we add 24 days for 14 March to 6 April plus another 116 days for leap year we get 173,880 days (173,740+24+116 = 173,880) from the command to build Jerusalem until the Triumphant Entry of Christ.

The key to this apparent error is in Genesis. We see that the Flood began on 2/17 and ended on 7/17 (Gen. 7:11 and 8:4). This says that the Flood was exactly 5 months long. But in Gen. 7:24 we read that the Flood was 150 days long. That means that a biblical month is 30 days, not our 30 or 31 (150 – 5 = 30). If we accept that a biblical month is 30 days that means a biblical year is actually 360 days (12x30=360), not our 365. This is also confirmed in Rev. 11:2,3. If we do the biblical math and multiply the prophesied 483 years by 360 days we see that it comes out exactly 173,880 days(483x360=173,880). This is one of the most amazing calculations in the Bible. That means that Christ's presentation as Messiah comes out exactly on the day prophesied 500 years before. I believe we will see in heaven that it came out to the minute.

But the prophecy doesn't end there. It says that the Messiah will be cut off – “but not for Himself” (Dan. 9:26). We know today why the Messiah was cut off. It was for us. Jesus came right on schedule and gave His life so we might live. In the rest of verse 26 we see the destruction of Jerusalem. God's clock is Israel and Jerusalem. Israel's King came as promised and the leaders of Israel said “away with Him”. When they said that God's clock stopped again and another clock started ticking. This is called the time of the Gentiles (Lk. 21:24). When Israel rejected her King the clock stopped and their city was demolished. For 2000 years the time of the Gentiles clock has been ticking. And when that is fulfilled the original clock of Daniels 70 weeks (490 years) will start up again. We know that 69 of those weeks (483 years) have been fulfilled to the day. That means there are just 7 years left. In Dan. 9:27 Gabriel told Daniel that the last 7 years will be horrific. We know a great deal about that. This is the Seven Year Great Tribulation. How close are we? We don't know but with the re-establishment of Israel and Jerusalem back in the hands of the Jews there is every indication that we are seconds away from the last click on our clock and God's original clock of 70 weeks start ticking away. We have every reason to believe it will be hold-your-hat-Hanna very soon. With Obama removing America as the major player on the international field and the breath-taking rise of militant Islam, it is inconceivable that something extremely major will not break out any day. I won't join the flood of predictions of all the disasters supposed to happen to America and the Middle East in 2016 but there are a smörgåsbord of them out there if anyone is interested. Leaving all that aside it is hard to imagine we have much time left.

It looks to me like we are pretty much in the same spot Daniel was in. By reading Jeremiah and looking at the calendar he saw they were right at the end of Jeremiah's 70 years. His response was to give himself to prayer for his people. By looking at the obvious figures the Lord has given us in Daniel and seeing the situation in the world today, perhaps we should follow his example and give ourselves to prayer for the fulfillment of world evangelism.

Next week will be Palm Sunday. It was on that day that Jesus fulfilled the first 69 weeks of Daniels prophecy. How many more Palm Sunday's do we have left before we see Israel's King on a different horse riding into Jerusalem? It's a great time to be alive and serve Jesus.

Amen, bill