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That the Hebrew can use the word 'week' or 'sabbath', where we today
would use 'seven', a passage in Leviticus will show, for in the eighth verse
of chapter 25, 'seven sabbaths of years' is defined as a period of 'seven
times seven years'.
The Seven Sevens and the Sixty and Two Sevens
The angel interpreter divides this great period of 490 years into three
parts.
7 x 7 or 49 years, which starts from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.
62 x 7, or 434 years, which starts with the completion of the wall and
runs on until the crucifixion of Christ.
The one 7, the final 'week' (Dan. 9:27), which is the great period
covered by the book of the Revelation.
If these numbers be added together we have 490 years. But, during the
first 49 or 7 x 7 of these years, Israel were still outside of Divine favour.
Nehemiah said of the times:
'The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are
in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken
down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire' (1:3).
This 'lo -ammi' condition did not change until the wall of the city had
been rebuilt. This brings us to the second set of weeks, the 62 x 7, or 434
years, which leads us from the finishing of the wall to the crucifixion of
Christ a.d. 29.
455 b.c.
=
Nehemiah 1:1 to 2:8. 'The going forth of the
commandment'.
454
b.c.
=
The twentieth year of Artaxerxes.
407
b.c.
=
Nehemiah obtains leave of absence (Neh. 13:6).
405
b.c.
=
The dedication of the temple.
405
b.c.
ends the 49 years of Daniel 9, and commences the
62 x 7 of the same prediction.
This means that we have the period of the Acts of the Apostles covered
by the angel's prophecy, and so we do no violence to truth by not cutting
Israel off until Acts 28 is reached. There remain, therefore, three sevens
of years to be fulfilled, the last of which is the subject of so much intense
teaching in the book of the Revelation. It is suggestive that there are
three outstanding sevens in the Apocalypse, the seven seals, the seven
trumpets and the seven vials, which bring the prophecy to its close.
For a fuller exposition of Daniel 9 with Chart, see Seventy Weeks4,9;
and for Daniel 2 see Image of Daniel 2 (p. 317).
David
and
Solomon
Typical kingdoms
David is mentioned nearly sixty times in the New Testament, and of that
number, seven references are of prophetic interest. They are the following: