{These are my talking point notes from the Daniel study I did at Mishkan Katan on lambradio.tv in the summer of 2024. All 15 of those videos are now on my YouTube page @genahood2818 under the Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
Boker Tov! Chodesh Tov Elul! The month of Elul began this past Monday evening, as most of you know. Welcome back to Mishkan Katan. I don't know about you, but I am broken hearted over the recent deaths of the six Israeli hostages this past week. I ran across a song this morning that helped me grieve over the loss of these fine Jewish people. The name of the song is “October Rain”, and the version I was listening to was recorded by Shulem. He has a Facebook page, if you're interested in hearing him sing the song. His voice is beautiful, and the song is so poignant. Check it out if you have an interest.
I have a huge announcement. I will not be broadcasting live on September 18th. Instead, I will be recording an interview a few days earlier with a very respected moreh, Bible scholar and linguist, Andrew Gabriel Roth, of One Faith One People Ministries. That interview will be played on September 18th, in my regular time slot here on LAMB. The topic of our conversation? Andrew has finished his masterwork, The Apostolic Writings. There are two versions currently on Amazon. One version, the one with the white cover, contains the actual Hebrew and Aramaic proper noun names. It is a version for Bible scholars. A more accessible version has a blue cover. The names in this version have been anglicized. Right now, these books are on sale through Amazon. So please go take a look. And, I hope you will join in to hear our conversation on September 18th, here on the Lamb Network.TV.
Several years ago, Andrew did a translation of the Brit Chadashah, the New Testament, from the original Aramaic. However, due to an irretrievably broken relationship with the publisher, that volume is no longer in print or available. The great news is that The Apostolic Writings which Andrew has just completed is even better than the prior translation. This is because Andrew discovered some even more ancient Aramaic manuscripts which he used in the translation called The Apostolic Writings. He'll tell you more about it when you tune in on September 18th. To to say that I am eager to bring this interview to you is a severe understatement. I've already ordered my copies, a white one for myself, and a blue one for my dear husband. My husband is a Bible teacher in his own right. He leads a Bible study of couples in our congregation, and I'm sure that this new fresh translation of the Brit Chadasha will be very useful to him in his preparations each week.
This morning, we are going to finish up chapter 9. When I first began to plan for this teaching, I had thought we would venture into chapter 10. However, that won’t happen today. The more I studied the commentaries on these six verses, the more I realized how diverse are the interpretations of it. Rather than give you several different interpretations, I am going to focus in on one, and that is the one that Andrew Gabriel Roth wrote about in his book called “Wheel of Stars: the Ancient Biblical Calendar of the Future”.
We will begin in verse 21. According to the earlier verses of Daniel’s book, he is demonstrating that he is on a “one day = one year” cycle. That is “70 weeks” (7 X 70 = 490). This is not the first time this same formula has been employed in Scripture. I’m going to share with you two other instances where we see the one day = one year formula, and this is very important....in both these cases, the “clock” began when the judgment was pronounced, or the decree was given. Here’s the first one. Back in the days of Moshe, when the spies went and returned from the land of Canaan, they by and large gave a poor report. Consequently, the Hebrew people were sentenced to one year of wilderness wandering for every day the spies were gone. Their punishment began from the exact moment God gave His decree. See Numbers 13 and 14. Also, Ezekiel used a one day = one year formula in Ezekiel chapter 4. Let’s look at this one, because it is less familiar. Turn with me to Ezekiel 4 and we’ll look at verses 4 through 7. God often asked his prophets to do some weird stuff, and this was no exception. I’m using the Tree of Life version today.
4 “Then you are to lie on your left side, and set on it the punishment of the house of Israel; according to the number of days that you lie on it, you will bear their iniquity. 5 I have appointed the years of their punishment to you as a number of days—390 days. So you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 When you have completed these, you will lie on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah—40 days—a day for each year, I have appointed to you. 7 You will set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.
After Ezekiel did as God commanded, and laid on his side one day for each year of Israel’s sins, there was no pause between his doing that and then his turning over (vs. 6 and 7) and doing something similar for 40 years for Judah. AND....wait for it....get this: When you add 390 and 40, what do you get? That’s right! It’s the familiar number of 430, which is the period of time between Abraham’s vision (Genesis 15:13) and the Exodus itself (Exodus 12:40)! There are NO coincidences in Scripture. Have you ever heard of the patriarch named Eber? His name means to “cross over”, and his name is where we get the word “Hebrew” from. AND, this is just too amazing....the number 430 also shows up in connection with Eber! We serve an amazing God!
Allright, let’s read some Scripture, shall we? We’ll start in verse 20.
20 “While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Adonai my God on behalf of the holy mountain of my God— 21 yes, while I was praying, Gabriel, the one I had seen in the earlier vision,[c] came to me swiftly about the time of the evening offering.
What “earlier vision” is Daniel referring to here? The one with the ram and the goat in chapter 8, when Gabriel first appeared to him. The evening offering, called the minchah in 2 Kings 16:15, was offered between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Reading on.
22 “He instructed me and said to me: ‘Daniel, I have come now to give you insight and understanding. 23 At the beginning of your requests, a message went out, and I have come to declare it to you, for you are greatly esteemed. Therefore consider the message and understand the vision:
24 “Seventy weeks[d] are decreed concerning your people and your holy city,
to put an end to transgression
to bring sin to an end,
to atone for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the Holy of Holies.
If you are thinking that the 490 years are talking about rebuilding the Temple, which was not yet rebuilt in Daniel’s “real time”, that is understandable. Because, Gabriel does refer to “anointing the most holy place”. But, here is a key point: the Temple never, ever “put an end to sin”. Similarly, the prophet Zechariah uses similar language and symbolism in chapter 3, verses 8 and 9.
8 Listen well, Joshua (Yehoshua) kohen gadol, both you and your companions seated before you, because they are men who are a sign—behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch.
9 For behold! The stone I have laid before Joshua (Yehoshua) is one stone with seven facets. On it I will engrave an inscription,” declares Adonai-Tzva’ot, “that I will remove the iniquity of this land in one day.”
Did you catch that? “that I will remove the iniquity of this land in one day.”
The entire 3rd chapter of Zechariah is about Yehoshua Ben Yehozadak, the high. Priest who supervised the rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple and who served as the high priest in its services after it was completed. According to these verses, Yehoshua is a type of the Mashiach, the Messiah. Furthermore, Yehoshua and his priests are a sign, a preview of people and places in the future. Their good deeds, according to verse 9, will “bring the Branch”, and according to Jeremiah 23:5-6, “righteous Branch” is a Messianic title. We can also see in. Zechariah 6:12 that Yehoshua bears the name of the Messiah! He is not the Messiah himself, but he is named after Him. And, BOOM! When you shorten. Yehoshua’s name, what to you get? Why, you get Y’shua, the name of the REAL Branch! We’ll have to do a more in-depth study of the high priest Yehoshua at some point. But, that’s a rabbit trail today, one we are going to avoid.
So, while the high priest Yehoshua introduced in Zechariah cannot “put an end to transgression” or “bring an end to sin”, as Gabriel foretells in Daniel 9:24, the true Branch does. In Matthew 12 : 3-6, Yeshua tells the listeners that “one greater than the Temple is here”, referring to Himself. So, we see that this 490 year period refers to the time of Yeshua, doesn’t it? It’s gettin’ good, Y’all. Let’s move on to the next verse, verse 25. Here we begin to see the 70 weeks divided up into three sections.
25 So know and understand:
From the issuing of the decree to restore and to build Jerusalem until the time Mashiach,[e] the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks.
It will be rebuilt, with plaza and moat, but it will be in times of distress.
The first segment of years mentioned here is “seven weeks” (49 years), followed by “sixty-two weeks” (434 years). Add them together and you get “sixty-nine weeks” (483 years).
There is a Hebrew phrase in this verse which is often translated “going forth” - - “from the going forth of the decree”. It may be translated like that in your version of the Scriptures. Anyway, the Hebrew is מן מצא (meen-motzah), which specifically refers to when the command was issued or decreed, NOT when it was enforced or carried out. It is very important that we clearly define when this point in time actually was. It was NOT when Nehemiah arrived with his documentation in the city of Jerusalem in 445 BCE, to facilitate the rebuilding of the city. Decrees of the Persian kings were always dated from the time they were spoken/written down, regardless of how long before they are implemented. You will also remember from our study of the book of Esther that once the king issues a decree, it cannot be overturned. So, the decree was issued several years before Nehemiah left Persia for Jerusalem. He was merely “the enforcer”.
So, how DO we nail down the specific decree referred to in verse 25? Look carefully at the language. “To restore and to build Jerusalem”. This was not a decree to merely rebuild the Temple, but the entire city. In the previous decrees of Cyrus and Darius, the Jews were given permission to only rebuild the Temple. This is why when the Jews exceeded that mandate and began to reinforce their city walls, in Nehemiah 4 and 5, the enemies of the Jews complained to the king about it. Let’s turn in our Bibles to Ezra 7:11-18.
11 Now this is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the kohen, the scribe, a teacher of matters pertaining to the mitzvot of Adonai and His statutes over Israel:
12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings,
“To Ezra the kohen, a scribe of the Law of the God of heaven.
13 “I have now issued a decree that anyone in my kingdom from the people of Israel—even the kohanim and Levites—who wish to go up to Jerusalem with you may go. 14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire about Judah and Jerusalem with regard to the Law of your God, which is in your hand, 15 and to bring the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely given to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 together with all the silver and gold that you find in the whole province of Babylon, as well as the freewill offerings of the people and the kohanim for the House of their God in Jerusalem. 17 Furthermore, with this silver you should be sure to buy bulls, rams and lambs, along with their grain offerings and their drink offerings and offer them on the altar of the House of your God in Jerusalem. 18 You may do whatever seems good to you and your brothers with the remaining silver and gold, according to the will of your God.
This was a remarkable decree. First, it allowed any Jew in Persia to return freely to the land of Judah. And, second, in verse 18, the people were given permission to use the remainder of the money to be used according to the will of their God. Doesn’t it make sense that, in order to protect their Temple, the people would need to reinforce the city walls? Absolutely! And, therefore, that is what some of the money was used for, under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra 9:9 reinforces this point, if you want to briefly glance over to that verse. We won’t read it here.
This decree by King Artaxerxes is the ONLY one that fits the strict criteria laid out in Daniel chapter 9. It was issued in the seventh year of his reign, 457 BCE. So, this is the start of Daniel’s 70 weeks of years clock. Let’s go back to Daniel 9:25 now and look at the second half of this verse, where we are told the Temple will be built AGAIN, with broad place and moat/trench, but in troublesome times. There is a large span of years between Ezra/Nehemiah’s rebuilding and what is prophesied here. “Again” refers to the Herodian expansion of the Temple. The historian Josephus, in his book The Jewish War, verifies that when King Herod the Great expanded the Jerusalem Temple, he “surrounded a piece of land about it with a wall, which land was twice as large as that before enclosed.” And, any student of the time period of Herod the Great knows that those were “troublesome times” for sure!
See, Nehemiah and his re-builders did not re-build the Zerubabel Temple, as it is often called, back to its former dimensions, during the time of King Solomon. It would be Herod the Great who would do that, between 20 BCE and 64 CE. That’s right! The Temple was not completed until six years before it was destroyed by the Romans, in 70 CE.
Furthermore, Nehemiah’s crew did not add walls to the Temple; they merely reinforced some of the existing ones. Herod took the dimensions of the Temple back to King Solomon’s own measurements. And, wait for it, Josephus also mentions that an additional trench or moat was needed to go with that larger wall. But, there’s more.... if the clock started ticking in 457 BCE, what happened “69 weeks” later? 483 years later is the time of Yeshua’s baptism in the Jordan River, by Jochanan the Immerser, in 27 CE. (Yeshua’s earthly ministry, first advent, began Tishri 1, Sept. 27th, 26 CE and ended in late Spring, Aviv 15, April 4th, 30 CE, for a total of 3.5 years.)
Isn’t Scripture beautiful?! I just never cease to be amazed.
There is a problem, though...if you haven’t noticed, the Temple is not finished within that 69-week period. Hmmmm..... I will pose a resolution to that in a moment. First let’s read verse 26 of Daniel 9.
26 Then after the 62 weeks Mashiach will be cut off and have nothing.[f]
Then the people of a prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.[g] But his end will come like a flood. Until the end of the war that is decreed there will be destruction.
Again, we have a verse that is in two parts, with many centuries occurring between parts one and two. But, wait, Gena, you say...I thought you said that there were 69 weeks between the issuing of Artaxerxes’ decree and Yeshua’s baptism. Verse 26a here says “after the 62 weeks” the Mashiach will be cut off. There is no contradiction. Remember that Daniel mentioned the 7 weeks, and then the 62 weeks, two sections of years that add up to 69.
The second part of the verse will be fulfilled in our future, because it refers to a prince to come, another Jewish man, the False Messiah. Again, this did not occur in the 69-week period either! It could refer to the Roman son of the Emperor, his son Titus, who as a “type” of the False Messiah to come burned down the Temple in 70 CE, during his father’s reign. But, the actual fulfillment refers to the False Messiah to come, the so-called AntiChrist.
So, what is Daniel doing here? He is breaking his own rules, pausing his own “weeks” count, to illustrate a dual fulfillment prophecy. We’ve talked about these before. These prophecies have both a near fulfillment and also a future fulfillment. Such prophecies are also called “embedded prophecies”, or “a prophecy within another prophecy.”
Daniel broke his own rules in order to make a prediction about a future prophet, who will make a very similar prediction about the same event Daniel is referring to. Daniel predicted Prince #1 (Yeshua) AND Prince #2 (the False Messiah). And, Yeshua Himself in turn predicted Prince #2, just as Daniel had. Let me show you where this occurs. Turn with me to Matthew 24:15-18.
15 “So when you see ‘the abomination of desolation,’[b] which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place (let the reader understand), 16 then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 The one on the roof must not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and the one in the field must not turn back to get his coat.
I know all of that we just learned can be somewhat deep and potentially confusing, but remember, if you want to go back and study this again, you can refer to my written show notes that I post on my blog. I’ll post these there in a few days.
From this point on, things are more straightforward. Let’s move on to verse 27, the last verse in this chapter.
27 Then he will make a firm covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on a wing of abominations will come one who destroys,[h] until the decreed annihilation is poured out on the one who destroys.’”
I want to begin dissecting this verse by focusing on the aspect of this biblical character putting an end to sacrifice and offering. Who is this referring to? The False Messiah? Yes. But, it is also referring to the true Messiah, Yeshua. The middle of one of Daniel’s weeks, would be at the 3.5 year mark. I mentioned earlier that Yeshua’s ministry lasted 3.5 years. Near the conclusion of His earthly ministry, He did indeed conquer death, but the “end to sacrifice and offering”, in the sense that atonement offerings for the forgiveness of sins were no longer NEEDED, BEGAN with the beginning of His earthly public ministry. In a future sense, from our vantage point of time, the “reign” of the Beast, the False Messiah, will similarly be 3.5 years. It is also sometimes called “time, times and half a time”. In days, this adds up to 1260 days, using a biblical lunar 360-day year, and counting from Tishri 1 to Tishri 1, as Daniel usually did, to mark a year. (Sometimes, Daniel counted from/to major historical events.) In the 360-day year, every month is always 30 days long. In the book of Revelation, you will see this period referred to as “42 months”. If you do the math and multiply 42 x 30, what do you get? 1260 days! This number, 42, whether in the Scriptures it refers to the number of months for the ministry of Yeshua OR for the time the Beast/Dragon is in violation of the covenant he made, is very significant. The number 42 is always the number of “wilderness” or “transition”.
To make things even more challenging to interpret, in Daniel 12:11, Daniel refers to there being 1290 days, from the time that “the continual burnt offering shall be taken away AND the detestable thing that causes appalment set up” (JPS 1917 version).
Was there an abomination at the end of 1290 days, that Yeshua’s ministry fulfilled? Yes, there was. Counting the days of Yeshua’s ministry using solar time, essentially a 365/366 day year, the 1290th day was the day after Yeshua’s resurrection. What happened on that day? To answer that question, let’s look at Matthew 28:9-15.
9 And behold, Yeshua met them. “Shalom!” He said. They drew near, grasped his feet, and worshiped Him. 10 “Don’t be afraid,” Yeshua said to them. “Go tell My brothers to head for the Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
11 Now while they were going, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the ruling kohanim all that had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of silver to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we were sleeping.’ 14 And if this is heard by the governor, we’ll appease him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story was spread among the Judeans to this day.
Presented with the incontrovertible evidence of Yeshua’s resurrection, the ruling body of Judaism had a choice. They could either admit they were wrong about Yeshua and change course, OR they could engage in a cover-up to maintain their power and control over the faith. With a physical, bodily resurrection, the ministry of Yeshua was completely validated. Without it, as Paul the apostle reiterated in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, the ministry of Yeshua, His message, the gospel would have been “dead” and useless.... desolate.
What did the ruling kohanim do? They discussed it, and then they bribed the eyewitnesses to lie, and then they perpetuated the lie among the Jews. Abominable behavior. Did this abomination cause desolation? I would say it most certainly did. Although the message of Yeshua’s salvation “first to the Jew and then to the Greek” was spread among the Jewish people, it was largely rejected. The gospel eventually began to be shared with “Greeks”, that is, non-Jews. This decision by the ruling priests in charge at the time of Yeshua’s resurrection, began the schism that still exists to this day among Jews and believers in Yeshua. Because, to add insult to injury, the Romans co-opted the message of Yeshua, perverted it, Romanized it with pagan elements, and thereby dispersed it across the world in this diminished state.
What about the second half of verse 27? Does it have both a near and a future fulfillment? Let’s read it one more time.
And on a wing of abominations will come one who destroys,[h] until the decreed annihilation is poured out on the one who destroys.’”
The events of Yeshua’s ministry occurred during the 69th week of Daniel. There is a break in time of nearly 2000 years between the 69th and the 70th week. The 70th week will take place in the future. It will be the time known commonly in Christianity as “the Tribulation Period”, or in Judaism as “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble”. So, yes, in a future fulfillment (future for us in our “real time”) this part of the verse refers to that period. The signal that this 70th week has begun will be the event referred to in Daniel 9:27a. “He will make a firm covenant with many.” It will seem as though peace between this world ruler and the Jews has been achieved! But, it will be short-lived. It will last only for 3.5 years, to be exact.
However, in a nearer fulfillment, immediately after Yeshua’s day, the tensions and rancor between the Jews and the Romans continued to escalate. This boiled over, as already mentioned, when the son of the Emperor, Titus, who later became the Roman Emperor himself, destroyed the Jewish Temple during his father’s reign, in 70 CE. At the same time, many of the Jews were thrown out of Jerusalem and dispersed across that entire area of the world. This occurred 40 years after the Jewish priests on the ruling council decided to falsify the truth about Yeshua’s resurrection. Hmmmm....
Well, I know all this is a lot to consider. We have one more number that we’ll add to our prophetic line-up, and that is the number 1335. We’ll delve into that when we reach Daniel chapter 12.
Some of you may not enjoy the subject of Bible prophecy. It is subject to various interpretations after all, and some of you watching this video may not even agree with the interpretation presented by me today. Others shy away from the study of what the Scriptures have to say about the future because our Savior told us that only His Father truly knows the timing of the End. No doubt that is 100% true. We must keep in mind, though, that Yeshua chided the Pharisees when He said that they knew the seasons but not the signs of the times. In other words, they had not generally known when to expect Him. Anna the prophetess and Simeon, in the Temple at Yeshua’s 8th day circumcision were not surprised, however. Both of them had been waiting and looking for Yeshua to appear, as we see Simeon saying that he could now die in peace because he had seen the Lord’s salvation. So, at least two people were paying attention. Anna and Simeon were well-versed in Messianic prophecies of the Tanakh. I want to be like Anna and Simeon, don’t you?
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