“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people [Israel] and your holy city [Jerusalem] to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (Daniel 9:24-27).
My Musings – An aspect of Dispensationalism is Israel’s so-called Missing Week that relates to God’s unconditional promises to Israel that many interpreters take from chapter nine of the Book of Daniel.
In this teaching, the basic sense of the word sevens is taken to mean a “period of seven,” or more specifically, a period of seven years. Many believe that after the sixty-nine sevens (“from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens”), and until “the Anointed One” was “cut off” (Christ rejected by Israel and crucified) two things happened. First, the promise was suspended. “I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you,” and second, “given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (Matthew 21:43, NIV 1984). This ushered in the interim period – the Church Age.
If so, Israel is still missing its final seven years, which many believe will correspond to the Tribulation, in God’s unconditional promised program for them. “To finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.“
If the promise is unconditional, and if God is to keep His Word, then God must not be done with Israel yet. They still have some work to do in His plan for the ages. As such, it should come as no surprise why a remnant of a race so dispersed, persecuted and subjected to attempted genocide throughout history was preserved and restored as a sovereign nation after World War II.
My Advice – Don’t count Israel out. God hasn’t.
Sources:
Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 1930). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Chisholm, R. B. (1998). The Major Prophets. In D. S. Dockery (Ed.), Holman concise Bible commentary (p. 337). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Pentecost, J. D. (1985). Daniel. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1362). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
The Brew Is A Musing 